Tuesday Open Thread
Welcome to the Tuesday edition of your open thread. The floor is yours.
The Washington Post still does some journalism (even if their op ed section is pitiful). Dana Priest and William Arkin have a multi-part series on the government intelligence operations created since 9/11. It’s a must-read and really too long to excerpt to give it justice. Go read it! Here’s a preview:
The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.
…
The investigation’s other findings include:
* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.
* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.
* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings – about 17 million square feet of space.
Are we getting anything for all this money? I certainly don’t feel any safer. I think we’ve been lucky that most of the wannabe terrorists recently have been bumbling and inept.
It appears that in the last few weeks, Democrats have started regaining their feet a bit in their arguments. Democrats are poised to pass the unemployment insurance extension today once Robert Byrd’s replacement is sworn in today. Republicans are starting to get hammered for their deficit hypocrisy – tax cuts are free but unemployment must be offset. Perhaps this is the reason for the change in Gallup’s generic Congressional ballot?
In the same week the U.S. Senate passed a major financial reform bill touted as reining in Wall Street, Democrats pulled ahead of Republicans, 49% to 43%, in voters’ generic ballot preferences for the 2010 congressional elections.
Polls keep showing that people are worried about the economy and they’re fed up with Democrats (and their endless handwringing) but people still blame Bush and the Republicans for the poor economy. The best things that Democrats could do is pass more stimulus, so of course it won’t happen. November will be a real knockdown dragout fight I think.
Tags: Open Thread
So for a while I’ve been calling Global Warming deniers “tenth dentists”, ie the one out of ten dentists who doesn’t think brushing your teeth every day is important. Turns out they’re actually fiftieth dentists, because only 2% of climatologists reject the overwhelming evidence of global human-caused climate change and ocean acidification. In the article above, conservative columnist Jonathan Kay discovers this fact and points out that the deniers have as much “evidence” (based on pure junk) as the kooks who think Neil Armstrong never set foot on the moon, and that they are in danger of discrediting the entire conservative movement.
Of course, this is what I say about every conservative positition, but hey, baby steps, right?
Kagan’s nomination just cleared the Judiciary Committee. Woot? Maybe?
Show of hands…Who is surprised that BP is using faked photos to show how great their fake clean up operation is?
I’ve had a good laugh all day about the pissing contest over at WGMD regarding the “great conservative cookout” last Friday. Enjoy – http://www.wgmd.com/?p=6953&cpage=1#comment-5885
Different era, same silly game, in 1990 their where acid rain deniers, but millions of dead smelly fish floating on top of lakes and ponds kinda made the deniers look stupid, now the same group, led by a corporate group called the business round table are spending money once again to convince the same empty headed hillbillies, that this is also just a progressive/communist/socialist plot to steal thier tax money, we would be so much better off if we had just let the south secede when they wanted too.
MJ – LOL thanks for that link. I love this from Bill Colley
“…she (Rollins) was an impolite gate crasher…” then another commenter:
Rollins was a gate crasher in that she made a scene trying to get up on stage to steal the microphone. I saw the whole thing. Most of the people in the audience were chuckling or muttering under their breath when she made the attempt. It was pathetic.
The event was open to the public, not the microphone. Nobody else felt inclined to try to jump up on stage and steal the mic away from a speaker… only Rollins.
But then again, she was the only spoiled little rich girl turned politician.
Obama should fire Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack tonight. Ot tomorrow, at the latest.
Picking a nit here, but Michelle Rollins wasn’t a rich girl. She got rich when she got married.
“…she (Rollins) was an impolite gate crasher…”
And when she was unable to commandeer the microphone, she then had her literature placed on the table from a Sussex Co. Representative – prompting him to complain because HE paid for his table – SHE did not. Following these episodes, she and her team stormed out of the hall.
Amazing how the privileged rich (particularly those who married into riches – Rollins and Kerry come to mind) think they are so above everyone else, how dare we expect them to pay $100 to participate like the other peons. No thanks – we’ve seen enough of this.
Too bad nothing will come of this anti-Rollins sentiment among wingnuts. Perhaps she’ll lose to Carney by even more than she would have otherwise. That’s it.
What does this case have to do with John Kerry? What did he do in terms of not paying for a table?
It’s just wingnut salad, Geezer – they just toss the names of things they don’t like in when there is some kind of vague emotional dressing tying it together in their own mind. Here’s my attempt at one:
“Shirley Sherrod is ACORN spreading the wealth to the New York Times and San Francisco – but without a birth certificate!”
“Nancy Pelosi and the gotcha media are like Cap & Tax death panels for real America and I’m tired of their Rev. Wright meets Saul Alinsky Chicago-style politics!”
Any of these phrases will get you past Glen Beck’s call screener (or Bill Colley’s).
LOL! That is awesome. Let me try.
Bill Clinton’s weather underground interns attempted to refudiate the 11th Amendment, state sovereignty and the liberal media global warming lies.