Wednesday Open Thread
The Wednesday edition of your open thread. I’m still in Canada (no I’m not moving here) so pardon the lazy posting this week.
Yesterday a federal judge in Louisiana struck down Obama’s offshore drilling moratorium. I’m sure you’re not surprised to find out that this judge has accepted a lot of money from the oil industry.
A federal judge in New Orleans on Tuesday sided with the oil industry, striking down the temporary moratorium on new offshore exploration and deepwater drilling the Obama administration imposed last month. That judge, it turns out, has in recent years had interests in Transocean—the world’s largest offshore drilling company and the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig—as well as other energy companies engaged in offshore oil extraction.
According to the most recently available financial disclosure form for US District Court Judge Martin Feldman, he had holdings of up to $15,000 in Transocean in 2008. He has also recently owned stock in offshore drilling or oilfield service providers Halliburton, Prospect Energy, Hercules Offshore, Parker Drilling Co., and ATP Oil & Gas. Feldman was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.
This will certainly be appealed. Stay tuned on this case.
The Texas governor’s race may be one race to watch this year. The latest polling shows the race is tied.
The poll has Perry and White at 43% each. The survey of registered voters has a ±4.4% margin of error. A key indicator of Perry’s vulnerability is that his approval rating is only 36%, with 49% disapproval, while White has a favorable rating of 37%-25%. In the horserace cross-tabs, Perry leads among Republicans by 74%-15%, White leads among Democrats by 76%-10%, and White leads with independents by 42%-36%.
The TPM Poll Average has Perry ahead of White by 46.1%-40.8%.
Another important number, which should concern Perry in light of his growing national profile as a leader among Tea Party-style Republicans, is this question: “Do you think that Rick Perry should run for President in 2012?” The answer is only Yes 10%, No 69%.
I think this is another example of a Republican moving far to the right to appeal to the Republican electorate but hurts their chances with more moderate general election voters.
In yesterday’s run-off elections, Nikki Haley won the Republican nomination for SC governor. Elaine Marshall defeated Cal Cunningham in the NC Democratic Senate run-off (Marshall will face Richard Burr). Incumbent Rep. Bob Inglis (R-NC) lost his run-off to a teabagger and Strom Thurmond’s son lost to an African-American teabagger.
Tags: Open Thread
There are tears in my eyes as the US wins!
Don’t take it so hard Nemski. Algeria will be back.
In other news, soccer killed Twitter today.
Twitter had it coming.
Via Kos:
Thrusday morning on WILM 1450am. at 10:00 Ray McGovern Ex CIA Analyst will appear on John Watsons show. Ray wrote an article for Consortium News regarding McChystal. Ray resigned from the CIA when Bush/Cheney appeared there demanding these seasoned CIA agents FIND information that would back up the US going to war in Iraq. Rather than lie and deceive Ray and other seasoned officers resigned. Ray was a guest a few years ago at Pacem en Terris to a standing room only crowd. Serving under 4 or 5 presidents Ray has a long history of how this government operates and his viewpoints as an insider should be enlightening. Hope you will tune in and/or call in.
I love Biden. We have armed cartel members, as well as mexican military crossing over into the united states and biden is calling file sharing a breach of national security
I was just going to say something about Jimmy Rollins looking really bad since returning…then he hits the walk-off. Well, shut me up and give me a Starbucks “gift card” (that last part is for Jason).
Congratulations to Rose Izzo for bootstrapping together the $3,000 to file. However, I’m sure the bulk of the DEGOP will agree with me that not having the presence of mind to marry a millionaire speaks to her poor planning and low character.
Beth Miller’s TNJ article on Rizzo illustrates exactly what sort of quality person the Tea Parties have brought out of the woodwork.
Like I said, not marrying a millionaire was her first mistake.