Tuesday Open Thread

Filed in National by on December 21, 2010

Welcome to your Tuesday open thread. Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Yes, that means that the days will start to get longer! The bad news – it will still be winter for a while. How many of you stayed up to watch the eclipse? I tried but it was completely cloudy here. I couldn’t even see the full moon.

It is now looking like there are enough votes in the Senate to approve the new START Treaty with Russia. If you remember, several Senators threatened to kill the treaty because they were mad about the DADT repeal. Yes, they are that immature.

The Senate moved closer on Monday to approving a new arms control treaty with Russia over the opposition of Republican leaders as lawmakers worked on a side deal to assure skeptics that the arms pact would not inhibit American plans to build missile defense systems.

A Republican senator announced that he would vote for the treaty and two others said they were leaning toward it after a closed-door session on classified aspects of the pact. At the same time, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, produced separate legislation that could reassure fellow Republicans worried about the treaty’s impact on missile defense.

By the end of another tumultuous day, treaty backers said they could count more than the two-thirds majority required for approval in votes that could begin as early as Tuesday.

We won’t really know until all the votes are in but this looks like another win for Obama and the mighty duck Congress.

60 Minutes ran a one-sided fluff piece about Chris Christie on Sunday, representing him as a principled budget hawk and state workers as the bad guys.

In 2,600 words about state deficits, you won’t find the phrase “tax cuts.” Instead, CBS adopts the Republican framing that deficits are all about spending — frequently with loaded phrasing like “gold-plated retirement and health care packages.” And throughout the report, CBS allows Christie, New Jersey’s Republican governor, to launch attacks on unions and make unsupported claims about budget problems, all without ever challenging his assertions and without including substantive disagreement from Christie critics.

CBS quotes Christie declaring: “We have a benefit problem. … It’s not an income problem from the state. It’s a benefit problem. And so we gotta change those benefits.” No contrary view is included.

You’d never know from CBS’ report that a big part of the reason that “Christie and his predecessors” failed to make required contributions to the pension fund is that they decided to use the money for tax cuts instead. (Like I said, the CBS report takes the GOP-friendly stance that deficits are all about spending, not revenue.)

Christie has stopped a tunnel project that would have provided jobs to New Jerseyans as well as helped with massive traffic backups. He’s just like previous governors, stealing from pensions to pay for tax cuts for his buddies. I really don’t get the Chris Christie love at all. He puts up You Tube clips of himself bullying constituents and Republicans love it. I guess they love it when the powerful stick it to the powerless.

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Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

Comments (43)

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  1. nemski says:

    McCain is going to have another sissy fit. Apologies to all sissies reading this comment.

  2. delacrat says:

    Comment by delacrat at 12:48 pm:

    Comment by nembskull at 12:45 pm:

    “Off topic.”

    Why is Zionist on Palestinian violence always “off-topic” on DL ?

    Comment by nembskull at 12:50 pm:

    Off-topic for that thread. Don’t be a numbskull. This is what open threads are for.

    N,

    Apart from the thread placement differences we share regarding zionist-on-palestinian violence, have you nothing to say regarding the latest kristallnacht, perpetrated by “our closest ally in the region” to which I referred?

    I mean, really, to cite just one (of many) examples, do ya think they were justified in shooting the 13-year old’s puppy? You think the puppy was some kind of terrorist or anti-semite?

  3. delacrat says:

    Comment by delacrat at 12:48 pm:

    Comment by nembskull at 12:45 pm:

    “Off topic.”

    Why is Zionist on Palestinian violence always “off-topic” on DL ?

    Comment by nembskull at 12:50 pm:

    Off-topic for that thread. Don’t be a numbskull. This is what open threads are for.

    N,

    Apart from the thread placement differences we share regarding zionist-on-palestinian violence, have you nothing to say regarding the latest kristallnacht, perpetrated by “our closest ally in the region” to which I referred?

    I mean, really, to cite just one (of many) examples, do ya think they were justified in shooting the 13-year old’s puppy? You think the puppy was some kind of terrorist or anti-semite?

  4. nemski says:

    This is exactly what Open Threads are for. Good luck with this conversation.

  5. delacrat says:

    Comment by nemski on 21 December 2010 at 2:21 pm:

    This is exactly what Open Threads are for. Good luck with this conversation.

    Why does a “liberal” blog consider her more thread-worthy than a kid who just had his puppy shot and home demolished at US taxpayer expense?

  6. MJ says:

    Delacrap, or as I shall now call you, Shit for Brains, Kristallnacht? Really? That’s even a stretch for you. Thanks for trampling on the graves of my relatives.

    Hey, I heard that they’re going to try to resusitate Ho Chi Minh. Better go buy your ticket to the show.

  7. nemski says:

    delacrat, feel free to start your own liberal blog. Maybe donviti is hiring.

  8. a.price says:

    mj, he is just trying to offend jews into agreeing with him.

  9. nemski says:

    Oh dear, it looks like we’re going to get walloped on Sunday night into Monday.

  10. MJ says:

    Cloture was just invoked on the START Treaty by a vote of 67-28

  11. pandora says:

    Well, since I’ll be cooking enough food for an army… let it snow!

  12. socialistic ben says:

    another win for the MIghty Duck session of congress… they should take a stab at a stand alone public option, just for shits and giggles.

  13. anon says:

    Delacrat you dont get it. Most on here are zionist or zionist protectors. The others dont give a damn and no nothing. Your wasting your time here. Watch you will be demonized and called anti semitic. You see this isnt a “progressive or liberal blog”. The moment you “offend” by speaking out with some truth, your labeled. So just end the conversation right here or go to real progressive blogs where the topic is discussed openly and freely. You know that ole free speech first amendment thing. You wont find it here.

  14. anonone says:

    TSA has now started random searches of passengers on the DC transit system. But don’t call Obomba’s America a police state. It isn’t polite.

    TSA = Total Sexual Assault

  15. nemski says:

    And they’ve been doing random searches in the NY Subway system since 2005. Also, it’s the DC Metro Transit Police doing the searches not the TSA. But don’t let facts get in the way of your slogans.

  16. anonone says:

    “Pavlik says a Metro transit police officer kept count of the number of bags entering the College Park station and pulled passengers aside at regular intervals. The bags were inspected by two Transportation Security Administration screeners who swabbed the outside of the bags, but did not look inside.”

    Sheesh. Drip, drip, drip…one freedom after another down the drain.

    TSA = Total Sexual Assault

    http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20101221/NEWS/101221038/Random+passenger-bag+searches+begin+on+DC+transit+system

  17. nemski says:

    A1 as mentioned in 10 Truths, your doom and gloom precedes anything you have to write here.

    It’s a sad fact that a large number of people – probably a majority, but I don’t want to go that far without hard numbers – think liberals are assholes.

    And why wouldn’t they?

    We are always on about how horrible things are. The right sucks. Fox News sucks. The environment sucks. The rich suck. “The Democrats” suck. Cars suck. Anyone who doesn’t think exactly as we do sucks.

    Now, we all have at least one relative or person we have to deal with on a regular basis who’s like this. No matter what happens, they are always negative. Here’s the question; do you tend to avoid them, or do you invite them to dinner as often as possible?

    Your Chicken Little mentality is boring and tiresome. You might as well change your alias to Henny Penny. You aren’t taken seriously and laughed at repeatedly by many the writers, commenters and readers of this blog.

  18. anonone says:

    nemski, I couldn’t write anything as funny as your post wishing for the revival of the Delaware Republican party.

    But, as usual, when you don’t have the facts on your side, you attack the commentator.

  19. nemski says:

    Open your eyes, man. Your sloganism and sky is falling mentality discount you in 99% of the readers here. You are unwelcome here. I don’t know if I could be more plainer.

    anonone = the weird uncle who you see every Christmas but who, for some reason, never left

  20. anon says:

    moved by anon

    Re: net neutrality – has anyone actually seen the FCC proposal? All I have seen so far is poutrage from iBabies, but not the actual proposal. As far as I can tell, providers are prohibited from interfering with legal web content, except for wireless. This is a good thing.

    So 85 million broadband users get some protection, while 6.4 million iPhone users get reminded they own a luxury product that only works on a tightly controlled proprietary service.

    The iPhone total cost of ownership is $3600 for two years, and it is an optional convenience product, so no tears shed for the owners.

    85 million broadband users protected! By Obama standards this is a clean win.

  21. MJ says:

    A1 – why can’t one be a progressive and also be a Zionist? The two are not mutually exclusive. But you wouldn’t know that, would you. Do you even know what the true meaning of Zionism is, or do you just repeat slogans you find on the back of your cereal box?

  22. anonone says:

    Wasn’t my comment, MJ.

  23. MJ says:

    Sorry, A1. I get all you anons confused.

  24. delacrat says:

    Comment by anon on 21 December 2010 at 4:34 pm:

    Delacrat you dont get it.

    I can live with “not getting” insouciance, moral cowardice and outrage fatigue.
    .
    .
    Most on here are zionist or zionist protectors.

    Then I’ve come to the right place !
    .
    .

    The others dont give a damn and no nothing.

    Present company excepted of course.
    .
    .
    Your wasting your time here.

    Perhaps. but hope springs eternal
    .
    .
    Watch you will be demonized and called anti semitic.

    So have better people than me, so I’m in good company.
    .
    .
    You see this isnt a “progressive or liberal blog”.

    Never would have guessed it.
    .
    .
    The moment you “offend” by speaking out with some truth, your labeled.

    Whether those labels are taken seriously by the readership in general is an open question.
    .
    .
    So just end the conversation right here or go to real progressive blogs where the topic is discussed openly and freely.

    But, but.. preaching to the choir just ain’t nearly as satisfying.
    .
    .
    You know that ole free speech first amendment thing. You wont find it here.

    True, but not new.

    “I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind or real freedom of discussion as in America” – Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

  25. Belinsky says:

    James Fallows says it best:

    “Unless a comment stream is actively moderated, it inevitably is ruined by bullies, hotheads, and trolls.”

    http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/12/on-comments-and-community-a-new-plan/68392/

  26. MJ says:

    delacrap – I hear that NBC is holding auditions for Last Comic Standing. Or in your case, Last Colonic Standing.

  27. anon says:

    “Unless a comment stream is actively moderated, it inevitably is ruined by bullies, hotheads, and trolls.”

    The top-level posts, taken in the aggregate, are a comment stream. And DL has explained there is no editor/moderator for those, other than the author. So I see how Fallows’s point could come to pass.

    The problem is with the shallow and vindictive morons who judge a comment based who wrote it rather than what the comment actually says. And then follow that commenter around from thread to thread with the sole intent of harassing them with ad homimens.

  28. Geezer says:

    “Why does a “liberal” blog consider her more thread-worthy than a kid who just had his puppy shot and home demolished at US taxpayer expense?”

    Maybe because “she” has $1 million in the bank and is poised to make mischief in Delaware elections for at least two years to come.

    Perhaps you hadn’t noticed, but the other word in the title is “politics.”

  29. Geezer says:

    “The problem is with the shallow and vindictive morons who judge a comment based who wrote it rather than what the comment actually says.”

    I would respectfully suggest that the problem is, instead, with people who want those running this blog to post about subjects other than the ones they do. Anything about Israel-Palestinian conflict, for example. It’s tragic of course, but it’s pretty far down the priority list for a lot of people.

    It’s really, really easy to start a blog. If you don’t like what a particular blog chooses to write about, starting your own seems like a simple answer.

  30. jpconnorjr says:

    For a Christmas laugh or perhaps a scare here is Curley WGMD’s Chrirstmas missive:
    http://www.wgmd.com/?p=14582

  31. pandora says:

    Consider me terrified after reading that, JP. OMG, that man is delusional.

  32. jpconnorjr says:

    he definately needs to stay away from sharp objects:)

  33. LOL, thanks Joe.

    Then I find some grace in some old memories of people long lost in my wanderings.  There was a thick haired and stubborn brunette I encountered while living in Vermont nearly a decade ago.  She insisted she was more Christian and more conservative because I was from New York and had spent several years in television news.  Never mind she was from, as I say, Vermont and had worked for a newspaper.  Never mind she had a daughter who appeared to have been born out of wedlock.  Never mind when we were out for dinner every other man we encountered appeared to know her quite well.  None of these things bothered me when first meeting her.  It was “Year One” and on a night after dining in an Italian restaurant we walked along a river in Montpelier.  It was cold but the night was bathed in light from the moon and stars and I loaned her my sport coat and beneath the lunar glow I shared a long, slow kiss and thought perhaps finally I’d met a match.  Then she suddenly announced she was moving and I helped her load furniture and then she was gone somewhere south.  For a time we spoke by telephone and shared emails and she suggested I would like the Western Shore of the Chesapeake.  At least seven years have passed since our last conversation and long ago I lost her email address.  And I don’t miss her.

  34. pandora says:

    Does this man currently have a woman in his life? I’m guessing No.

  35. I think he believes he’s irresistible.

    I don’t miss the tall blond I met just before the brunette.  It was while I was working in television in Binghamton, New York and I had spent much time working on a plan to merge news gathering with our neighboring public TV affiliate.  Our goal was to pool resources and provide some serious investigative journalism and in long form for public TV consumption and shorter for commercial TV news.  Upper management liked the cross promotional possibilities and I opened negotiations with the Program Director at the other station.  These were done over lunch at a restaurant and where shortly I discovered people in public broadcasting like the sensation of touch.  She liked to touch me a great deal.  This was beginning to make me nervous because I worked with her husband at my TV station.  It must have been just after our third meeting when I was back at my desk one afternoon doing some paperwork when her husband walked into my office and closed the door behind him.  “If you want to start seeing my wife I won’t have a problem with that,” he explained.  When his words finally stopped bouncing around the room I realized it could be a problem from my perspective about life.  “We’re getting divorced,” he calmly told me, “but we’re still good friends”.  I was surprised he didn’t give me a house key. 

    A week later I was at lunch with his soon to be long legged ex-wife when she decided to explain.  “He’s discovered he’s a woman living in a man’s body and is saving for a sex change operation,” she deadpanned.  “I don’t have an interest in staying in the relationship”.  Out on the street as I said goodbye she clutched me and gave me a kiss practically causing my hair to stand on end.  Shortly thereafter I thought accepting a job offer in Vermont would be a good idea.  Shortly after I moved I got an email explaining she had met a fellow who owned a motorcycle and they were touring West Virginia and decided they were moving there.  Today I don’t even remember her name.

  36. nemski says:

    That Christmas story was creepy.

  37. Yes, nemski. He writes that he doesn’t remember the women’s names but then gives a lot of details.

  38. Capt.Willard says:

    My story is summed up in three short sentences.

    He was born when he met her.He died when she left him.He lived a little when she loved him.

  39. Dirty Girl says:

    that man IS seriously delusional – the last woman was a red-head…

    this is why WGMD makes my ears bleed so I do not listen to it
    the can not hold a job and has neither a pot to PI** in nor a window to throw is out of
    now wonder he cannot hold on to a woman – Im sure they have all forgotten his name first but in his fantasy land he is king.

    he is as frustrated in life as an armless man watching porn

  40. jpconnorjr says:

    .

    The responses of WGMD’s own listeners. The question becomes how does he keep his job?! Merry XMAS Curley!

    11 Responses
    areyouserious says:
    December 21, 2010 at 10:16 pm
    I would love to hear the impression you left on all these women. Maybe there is a reason you only knew any of them briefly…maybe its because they found out so quickly how absolutely insane and negative and judgemental you are. Just a thought.

    Bill Colley WGMD Host says:
    December 21, 2010 at 10:24 pm
    Judgment? The liberal Christian writer, Gary Wills (you wouldn’t know who that is) says Jesus came into the world for judgment. They were actually upset because they couldn’t write as well as I can. Same with you. I suspect a great many of the morally bankrupt are going to get a nasty surprise at the end. Maybe we’ll see you there, Bud?

    areyouserious says:
    December 21, 2010 at 10:33 pm
    Well I believe Jesus came into the world for salvation, but I won’t really know for sure until I meet him will I? Though even if he did come for judgement, its his, not yours. I am most definitely not morally bankrupt, not to say that I have not made mistakes, but I am a good human being who does not believe that putting people down helps anything. I welcome the end when its my time, knowing that I haven’t spent my entire life telling everyone else why they are all wrong in everything they think and do and I am right. I’m not that arrogant.

    Bill Colley WGMD Host says:
    December 21, 2010 at 10:42 pm
    You know, the problem for a great many of us is we read the words and then ignore them. We pick and choose. Pastors Presbyterian, Baptist and Catholic tell me we expect an easy ride by asking for leniency at the end. Maybe it will be granted but we certainly can’t presume. I don’t begrudge the women of my past but a closer reading reveals they are quick to judge, or in some cases they aren’t sure… Andi, from Vermont, she was struggling to find the truth. I like to think she found it. Anonymous from Binghamton was hit by a load few would expect to encounter. I didn’t take advantage of the confusion and I hope she is living the good life in Morgantown.

    Giddy voter says:
    December

  41. jpconnorjr says:

    Some responses of WGMD listeners screwed it up before:). You audience knows you, Curley:) Merry XMAS

    Giddy voter says:
    December 22, 2010 at 6:54 am
    jeez…. my wife often says you creep her out, but now she’s really creeped out. Bill, you’re just creepy.

    Why on earth would you post this stuff in a public forum for others to read? Do you picture yourself as a lady’s man? Best thing these women did is get clear of you Bill.

    Morally bankrupt, how about character handicapped?

    You are not only judgmental, but mental. And they’re upset because they can’t write as we’ll as you? Please…….

    Why do I picture you hanging outside of an AA meeting with a bottle of gin and a hotel key?

    777Driver says:
    December 22, 2010 at 8:06 am
    Wow…I think Giddy hit it on the head; Bill is trying to convince himself he is attractive to women while he is alone (again) on Christmas (Shocker!). This ranks as one of his most creepy posts ever!

    Fred says:
    December 22, 2010 at 10:26 am
    now we know he has been thru a burnette, a blond and the most recent a red-head

    Bill – Did the caprets match the curtains??

    we have already entered the world of TMI about your personal life – no one cares

    you really are a mental case with some serious boarderline personality issues on top of it

    at your age and station, its time to look in the mirror and take stock in what you have, and mostly what you don;t have and question why.

    No one is perfect but you sure rail and condem others and stir up hatred to your benefit for ratings

    do you think that maybe all that vitrol has come at a personal cost – Karmic justice somehow?

    as an attractive female you physically creep me out – and that’s before you even open your mouth.
    UGH Giddy voter has it right

    a bottle of gin outside an AA meeting – lurking…

    SusGuy says:
    December 22, 2010 at 11:15 am
    How can anyone read that and think he is not crazy

    Giddy voter says:
    December 22, 2010 at 11:31 am
    When Bill says in Paragraph 3:

    “Never mind she was from, as I say, Vermont and had worked for a newspaper. ”

    Is this an example of your good writing that people are upset that they can’t match? Why does being from Vermont need to be clarified as “as I say”?

    And the part where he doesn’t remember her name….. please Bill. Your sexual exploits are most likely somewhat limited, so for you to not even remember the name of a lady that you had a chance….. save it for Penthouse Forum.

    John B. says:
    December 22, 2010 at 11:55 am
    Disconnected sentences and TMI, as well as all the other stuff. It left me confused and wishing I hadn’t wasted five minutes reading it twice to try to understand the point.

    SusGuy says:
    December 22, 2010 at 12:09 pm
    He had to be drunk or drugs….the women as well

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  42. Jason330 says:

    Is anyone getting aroused while reading the sex exploits of a wingnut radio personality? I mean.. I’m not or anything. I was just… Uh.. Never mind. .

  43. Jason, pass the brain bleach.