Tuesday Open Thread
Welcome to the Tuesday edition of your open thread. Share your thought, links and snark below.
I don’t think this is any surprise but perhaps the timing is a bit sudden. Rahm Emmanuel will leave as White House Chief of Staff on Friday.
Although no final decision has been made because of family considerations, ABC News has learned that White House officials are preparing for Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to announce on Friday — as Congress adjourns for recess — that he is leaving his post to explore a run for mayor of Chicago.
White House officials expect that President Obama will also name an interim chief of staff, perhaps senior adviser Pete Rouse, at the announcement.
Sources close to Emanuel cautioned that he has yet to pull that last trigger on the decision.
Will a different chief advisor make a difference. There does seem to be a big turnover recently, with most of Obama’s economic team leaving. Will it change the course of Obama’s presidency?
One thing we’ll have to look forward to if Republicans retake the House is silly investigations. Some of them won’t be so silly, like partisan war on climate science. Rep. Darrell Issa is rubbing his hands in glee at the havoc he can cause as head of the Environmental Committee:
The House’s top Republican watchdog is planning to launch an investigation into international climate data if he takes the helm of the chamber’s oversight panel next year.
Go to Blog Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said a probe of the “Climategate” scandal will top his environmental agenda if the Republicans take over the House next year and he gets the chairmanship.
“I do have a backburner investigation that I’m going to want to have completed, and that is, we paid a lot of money to have international evaluation, most of it done in Britain, that turns out to have been less than truthful in some of the figures,” he said. “We’re going to want to not investigate to get our money back, but we’re going to want to have a do-over of good numbers so that everyone can have confidence.”
In 20 years everyone will look back at how stupid this was. However, the time to address climate issues is yesterday and more ignorant buffoonery from Republicans will delay any response.
Tags: Open Thread
Uh oh, looks like O’Donnell has more ‘splaining to do.
Next, Christine O’Donnell claims she was elected and has been serving as a United States Senator from Delaware since 2006. Her absence on the Senate roster is “a misunderstanding.”
Yum-yum. Fish on Fridays and human flesh and blood on Sundays:
“Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn’t know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100928/ap_on_re/us_rel_religious_literacy_poll
Trust me – nobody really believes that.
Even atheists can respect Communion as a remembrance of Jesus’s ministry. I think that is pretty much how most Catholics see it too.
The priests believe it though, or else they’d be pretty much out of a job. The magic is in their fingertips.
Respect the practice of imagined cannibalism? Why?
You don’t have to play pretend cannibal unless you want to, and I think most Catholics don’t.
It’s breaking bread and drinking wine, which is just about the most basic human interaction there is. What’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding?
Because it isn’t “breaking bread and drinking wine;” it is ritual fantasized cannibalism. The Priest doesn’t say, “Here’s some crackers and wine.” HE says “body of Christ” and “blood of Christ” because that is what they believe it becomes. Yum yum.
You can take a 10-question version of the religion quiz here.
Take the quiz and report back how you did. I got 9/10 and I shouldn’t have missed the one I missed. I was careless.
Damnit A1, I was going to post about that.
President Carter rushed to hospital after falling ill on a flight to Cleveland.
Took the quiz. 10 for 10, and I’m agnostic.
It is true, to be a Catholic you have to be a master at compartmentalization.
Sorry, U.I. Don’t let my comments stop you! My take on it is different than yours, probably. 🙂
8/10 on the test.
8/10
10/10
I don’t know if that 10 question quiz was the entire thing but I got 10/10 and I’m a Vatican Two Catholic. I did know that the bread and wine are *supposed* to become the actual body and blood of Christ but that’s a bit archaic to me and I don’t believe that.
What’s worse than a malaise speech?
A malaise speech that talks down to you:
10/10 As the article says, we atheist have thought a lot about this stuff in order to get where we are.
8/10, Ok I s’ppose for a recovering catholic
10/10. Come on, this is just Western Civ, not “religion.”
To Brian: I’d get sick too if I was going to Cleveland, (unless it was to be on the Drew Carey Show):) . . That could be why the Browns have a fighting chance, every time they play at home.
“Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn’t know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.”
“Two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate.” Tom Lehrer, “The Vatican Rag”
Anon @1:21- I think the administration is a a tipping point. They need to radically change what they are doing or just pull an LBJ and say “fuck it”.
All they have to do is call a vote on middle-class tax cuts, and watch the lethargy fall away.
Who at delaware LIBERAL is going to write up on Joe Biden’s (former DE Senator) recent comment for telling the base to quit whining?
Buck up, Everybody!
Why don’t you write it and email it o me? If it is good enough for me to risk being kicked out of here, I’ll post and give myself co-writer credits.
When Obama or Biden asks for money, we should send them a “buck.”
Can I be the umpteenth millionth person to say that the -gate suffex is lame, and all I hear after that is Charlie Brown’s teacher. Woaa waa wooaaaa…
Obama: “It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines,”
Tell it to Baucus, Nelson, Tester, Warner, Lieberman.
Every Republican plus 4 Dems and Lieberman voted against this bill, and in the middle of a campaign, what does Obama choose to talk about? How his base is lethargic and needs to buck up.
10/10. Vatican II Roman Catholic with a canonical impediment.
Whaaa whaa whaaa whaa! Did the big mean president tell us to get a grip and not throw the entire nation on to the trash heap? Oh, got our little feelings hurt? Gag. What a bunch of whiners. Joe’s right.
No, the big mean president told us to get a grip so he can throw the entire nation on to the trash heap.
This is an example of exactly what Biden’s talking about. We heard for a year from many lefties – “just vote on the bills, we want to see the count.” So now Democrats are voting on the bills and people still complain. Obama can’t ever win with this crowd.
The whole idea that if liberals sit on their hands and let Republicans win it’ll somehow make the Democrats more responsive is insane. What it will teach the Democrats is the progressives aren’t partners and Democrats don’t get rewarded for taking risks.
so he can throw the entire nation on to the trash heap.
Such drama.
And that’s really my beef. There is no discussion with you. Everything is the end of the world. Let me give you a dose of my reality. My best friend has cancer, and the prognosis ain’t good. Her biggest fear is being dropped by her insurance company – which they have tried to do. She’s sleeping easier at night because of the HCR.
One more thing… HCR may not have been perfect, and we all agree it wasn’t. That said, how many Americans are now willing to go back to being denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions? How many are willing to accept rescission? And while it’s not perfect, it is progress.
Other than that… what Auntie Dem said.
That said, how many Americans are now willing to go back to being denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions? How many are willing to accept rescission?
About 57%, according to Rasmussen.
Mr. President – put on your man pants.
You take care of your lethargy, and ours will take care of itself.
pandora, living in a police state isn’t good, now matter how “good” you might perceive the benefits to be. Obomba is a incompetent leader, a liar, a whiner who is assuming dictatorial powers. Just being slightly better than republickins isn’t good enough for me.
When a president decides that he can imprison and kill American citizens on his whim and in secret, then there is nothing that can redeem him. So, yes, there is no discussion with me because there is no middle ground there. And if you think that destroying the civil liberties and the system of justice that have been the foundation of this country, however imperfect, isn’t throwing the entire nation onto the trash heap, then perhaps you should think again.
Someone talked about this after the primary, but looky, looky. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/another-school-says-christine-odonnell-did-not-attend.php
Christine, Christine.
Yeah, that Claremont Graduate University claim was an outright lie. I hope this serial lying penetrates the consciousness of moderate Republican voters, but the truth is most Republicans know she is a liar but don’t care.
It is all going to come down to GOTV, and I hope Coons has a plan.
Obama: “Buck up…”
Mr. President – are you TRYING to make me write a limerick?
UI: As I’ve said repeatedly, I’ve been reading state-centered blogs this election cycle because they ‘get it.’ The national blogs seem to be locked in a “New Village” bubble, caught up in the ‘generic ballot’ count whil not noticing that the Republicans aren’t running ‘generic Republicans’ (like Castle) this year but examples of the worst and ugliest of far-right Republicans. In fact, Delaware Republicans and my own state (NY) Republicans have done a lot towards helping the Democrats by nominating epitomes of the breed and showing not just their own states but the country what Republicanism really is. O’Donnell is the extreme example of the recent spate of crazy ladies — Bachman, Palin, Foxx, Angle, etc. — that the Republlicans have chosen, totally unqualified and ignorant.
Then you have Paladino — and I am not sure if the news outlets in Delaware have really shown how much of an example of Republican ugliness he is. They may have mentioned his ‘e-mail problems’ but can’t really show some of them. (I do not consider pornography a ‘bad thing’ even made a little money writing it in the 80s, but bestiality — and particularly horse-on-woman bestiality is always sadistically misogynistic.) And the racist ones are also a little too crude for general distribution.
But the key line and maybe the most important line you ever wrote and one that should be copied to every national blog is:
The first needs to be repeated again and again — and I am old enough (64) to remember not merely the ‘great results’ we got from Teddy’s challenge to Carter. (“Not progressive enough — let’s try a round of that fool Reagan and the country will turn more progressive”) but even cast my first vote for Humphrey when people were arguing that a “little Nixon will disgust the country enough to bring a revolution.” (And then the left battled against him in 1972 and gave him a gigantic win — and it was conservative Democrats and ‘moderate Republicans’ that brought him down — with help from a security guard that did his job, an aide that didn’t know when to shut up, and one aide so disgusted he led the fight — and, btw, is still — while calling himself a ‘Goldwater Conservative’ leading the same fight.
But it is the last part that was even more important. Why the HELL should ‘establishment Democrats’ support or trust us if we continually ‘fold our hands and shake our heads’ when Obama steps back from our ideals to get ‘first steps’ in areas no one had achieved before.
We think about FDR — and forget how totally pragmatic he was. We celebrate SocSec and fight against the Republicans’ attempt to gut it — and forget that to get it passed FDR had to make the concession of not including agricultural workers for only one reason. They were black and he needed the support of the “Progressives — for whites only” members of his party. (Oh, how we would scream if Obama made a similar concession — but we wouldn’t have had any SocSec if FDR had acted the way we wanted Obama to do.)
Okay, I have problems witrh some Obama actions and inactions, I wince at some of the weak Democrats we have to support. But i look at the Republicans we may intrench if we don’t fight as hard this year as we did last election. O’Donnell, Angle, Paul, Miller, Paladino, Rubio, Ron Johnson, Urquel etc.
And every time I hear ‘let’s sit back this time to show our disapproval’ I wonder “Why are progressives acting like the worst TPers and cutting our own throats out of ‘ideological purity’?”
Catch up: 9/10 because I’m lousy at geography (yup Indonesia tripped me up), and not religions.
And pandora i agree w/ you to a point–I was against HCR as a package, LOVE some of the new features, but really want to EXPEDITIOUSLY clean up some of this stuff in it that is unwise,and/or overreaching. But, I would never want the laborious task of repeal, and then rework—cause then we have nothing but spinning wheels. I’d prefer to renovate.
My personal favorite–dependent kids covered till age 26–it sure is a sigh of relief thru grad/professional schooling, especially if they do/did have “pre-existing” conditions. But I have to chuckle–one of the kids professors came in and announced–it’s official–you guys can keep living in your parents’ basement and playing video games…….
Whether you vote or not is public record. You can get the information from the Dept. of Elections. If you stay home on November 2nd and we end up with COD as our Senator, I am going to come to your house and pee on your flowers. If you don’t want to see an old lady squatting in your flowerbed get out there and vote!
Is that enough reason for you? Because all this whinging and whining is about to get on my last nerve
What’s more, the woman who oversaw Phoenix Institute’s summer program at Oxford tells me O’Donnell’s claim about studying at Oxford is “misleading.”
hmmm and why does Phoenix rent space at Oxford and not in a stripmall???
Don’t worry Jason, Chris “Hairy Palms” Coons has a plan.
He is going to yell “Look, she’s crazy” and hope nobody notices he is a corrupt, deficit spending, tax raising yes-man for Harry Reid.
I love his “The county was corrupt, but when I became county exec I changed all that”… exept he leaves out the party about being county council president throught the height of the corrupts and being a go-along get-along guy.