Friday Open Thread

Filed in National by on February 26, 2010

Welcome to Friday. If you’ve noticed that I haven’t been around so much, it’s because I’m absolutely swamped at work. It looks like you kept yourself entertained without me. So let’s open this thread.

Why?

The Charleston Post and Courier reports the final divorce hearing for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) will be televised tomorrow with Jenny Sanford taking the witness stand to explain why her marriage is over.

As many as three television outlets have showed an interest in being in the courtroom Friday, some looking to broadcast live.

I wonder if the IOC thinks excessive celebration hurts women’s delicate ladyparts?

After Canada’s women’s hockey team defeated the U.S., 2-0, to win the gold medal Thursday at Canada Hockey Place, they decided to do some celebrating.

More than half an hour after they clinched their third consecutive Olympic title, they came back onto the ice. Beer was involved in their festivities.

The International Olympic Committee plans to investigate the matter and whether the players’ celebration outside the locker room is harmful to their image and the game’s.

The celebration involved beer, cigars and at least one woman sat on the zamboni. It certainly looks like poor sportsmanship but an investigation? Good grief! Thank God that the IOC is around to protect us from the horror of seeing women drinking beer and smoking cigars in the future!

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

Comments (35)

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  1. anonone says:

    Obummah is getting ready to sign an extension of the PATRIOT act with all the Bush invasion of privacy stuff still intact. Why?

    “Democratic leadership bowed to the wishes of Republicans and conducted a voice vote on Wednesday, upon which the one-year extension was passed. The House voted 315-97 in favor on Thursday.

    “Thrown away were restrictions and greater scrutiny on the government’s authority to spy on Americans and seize their records,” AP added.”

    “The Associated Press called the votes a “political victory for Republicans.””

    Lovely. Tell me why you all are supporting this guy again?

    http://rawstory.com/2010/02/modification-debate-democrats-send-patriot-act-extension-obama/

  2. V says:

    I actually kind of see the IOC’s side to being irritated at this. And as far as the investigation is concerned the version I read said the IOC had no idea it even happened until the AP asked them about it, and then they said they’d look into it. And they were saying they didn’t care about the locker room party, just that it was on the ice.

    It goes on both sides. Remember all the flack Bode Miller got for saying he as “partying at an olympic level”?

  3. romeo says:

    Three cheers for the hockey babes!

    tell the IOC to go scratch!

  4. a.price says:

    how do you erase the plus form pitching a perfect game for the philies?

    you do this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/26/jim-bunning-repeatedly-bl_n_477910.html is it anymore obvious what the Conservative movement is really about?

  5. just kiddin says:

    Jack Markell on Contessa Brewers Show on MSNBC! The topic health care! Hey Jack, why don’t you attend to some business here at home. Why don’t you get Senator Cook to get SB 120 the Del. Health Security Act out of her desk drawer. Get the Budget people to determine the cost savings for all our Delaware citizens. The Markell administration about to cut 2.9% from providers of the Disabled, while not taking any more students exiting education into adult services. These providers have been underfunded for decades, an no cost of living increase in 8 years! No money for dental care, kids having their teeth pulled instead of real dental care. Not only would SB 120, cover every Delaware citizen for medical, but dental, vision, long term you name it and still save the State $4million in the first year.

    Come on Jack use your position as Chairman of the Governors Association to make real change for the people of Delaware and the nation. Its about leadership Jack, you have a unique opportunity to be a real leader.

  6. romeo says:

    “Bunning says he doesn’t oppose extending benefits — he just doesn’t want the money that’s required added to the deficit. He proposes paying for the 30-day extension with stimulus funds.”

  7. Yeah, that’s why Bunning said “tough sh*t” when asked to stop obstructing. He cares deeply for the unemployed.

  8. a.price says:

    he was also annoyed all us a-hole unemployed people cut in to his basketball watching time. he’s not only a thoughtful legislator, he is also one hellofa good person.

  9. anon says:

    The International Olympic Committee plans to investigate the matter…

    Dick Pound is on it.

  10. anon says:

    Beer was involved in their festivities.

    They were playing in the Molson Canadian Hockey House… just saying.

  11. a.price says:

    OH NO!!! we CANT introduce BEER to HOCKEY! what if people start associating the 2?

  12. I heard Liz Allen on the John Watson show this morning saying pretty much what just kidding is saying above… jk must have been listening too…

    Markell is getting heat from every direction these days. A Milford School Board member just reported that Markell told him and other officials to ‘quit whining’ and start to get together with other districts to figure out how to help the state’s budget crisis.

    And I just got a report from people who met with Markell recently telling him that developers school impact fees need to be increased to cover their share of adequate infrastructure for education costs –as the county law provides (the formula is inadequate). And I was told that Markell said no. That he is not going to lift a finger that might negatively impact the housing industry.

    The obvious recourse for these people –who will be paying property taxes to make up the difference in education costs when the housing is built– was to decide to write a post about Jack Markell’s long list of campaign supporters from the development community.

    It is true enough that the formula the state uses to determine the impact costs of development is woefully inadequate. That was established in a hearing Coons led on workforce housing. The formula is approximately a third of the actual costs to school districts.

    So, the record stands: when this group of legislators and residents approached Markell for relief, he apparently declined to listen to them. Jack completely stepped away from his responsibility to repair the inequity in the DDOE funding formula. He is turning his back on negotiations between sub-division contractors and citizen’s right to adherence to the adequate facility ordinance’s provisions as it pertains to the impact of increased housing on school district capacity. And he allegedly told these people that it was because he was going to be protecting the housing industry instead.

    Passing costs of private profiteers onto the public is an age-old trick but Jack, it isn’t bold and it isn’t brave.

    Look for the report on Jack Markell and his campaign money and the developers connection in the StayOutOfMyPocket web site. Ask the Appoquinimink School District and their legislators if they think that the state can afford to keep allowing population growth without making the developers pay their share. (And ask them how they feel about the proposal to have locals shoulder additional costs for energy and transportation). OUCH indeed.

  13. Jason330 says:

    Great Coons/ Castle front paged at kos now. Adam B gets the DE stuff right. The netroots wants to love Coons. I hope his campaign is not as stupid as Its stupidest member, Paul Clark.

  14. MJ says:

    Don’t want to rub it in, but the sun is out down here in Rehoboth. 🙂

  15. cassandra_m says:

    Hey MJ — the sun is coming out (or trying to) here in PA too!

  16. MJ says:

    Cassandra – but are your roads dry? Most of ours are. G-D’s country.

  17. cassandra_m says:

    Define dry 😉

    I was out on Rt 1 at lunch and it was wet from snow melt — it wasn’t raining or snowing anymore. The winds are still pretty strong and the snow is blowing from place to place….

  18. Jason330 says:

    Patriot act renewed today with no civil liberties protections. I’m sure this means Libertarians will be all upset that the Kenyan Usurper is creating a police state.

  19. just kiddin says:

    It is a fact that the State has not funded adult services in decades if ever. There are 80 yr old parents taking care of 60yr mentally challenged adults who have been on “waiting lists for years”. The State and its DHSS departments often controlled by hacks care less about the disbled. They repeatedly go before the Joint Finance Committee asking for l/3 of what is truly needed, so they look good to the State legislators and the Governor. Ruth Ann, and Vince Merconi were the worst of the worst. They could care less about the disabled as they continuously cut and cut until there was nothing but bares bones. The State then wonders why there is abuse and neglect, why the clients arent properly cared for, knowing THEY should be held responsible and accountable. Providers can only operate with the money are given. If you don’t give up any, but expect them to perform, pay staff minimum wage you get the staff you paid for. In order for staff to make a living, they work 2 and 3 jobs, for different providers and many go to school as well.

    The staff are burned out! So tired and stressed they only do basics and are not inclined to do anything extra. I have a big problem with these so called “disability groups”. I call them the paid, hired guns. They never meet with parents, or send information. They never ask “what we need or want”. They are more concerned with keeping their jobs than protecting or advocating for the clients they are supposed to serve. Many came out of the State government and they know better than to complain. Rita Landgraf is trying to do the right thing. She was an advocate she knows the problems and the solutions. In order to clean it all up, it requires proper funding. So the State should stop blaming under funded providers for their woes, but fund them so they can carry out their work. It is a fact that private providers are paid less, staff paid less than those who work in State facilities doing the same job. Parents are fed up with this crap, fed up with going before the Joint Finance Committee every year with our “palms up”. Our sons/daughters are disabled however they give back to the community every day. They deliver meals on wheels, they clean the garbage in the parks to give back. The problem is “parents dont have a union” to back them up, they don’t have a voice in the decision making. These children through no fault of their own are at the states mercy. Some legislators believe they should be “reinstitionalized”, not knowing they are federally protected from insitutions. Lawsuits have been filed and won and we will not go back decades to the barbaric, horrific insitutions so this wealthy state can balance its budget.

  20. V says:

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35607824/ns/world_news-asiapacific/?GT1=43001

    7.0 off the coast of Japan. They’ve issued a tsunami warning.

  21. romeo says:

    “Patriot act renewed today with no civil liberties protections. I’m sure this means Libertarians will be all upset that the Kenyan Usurper is creating a police state.”

    But progressives won’t mind, cause while the Bush Patriot Act was BAD BAD BAD, the Obama Patriot Act is mmm mmm Goood!

  22. V says:

    Team USA going for the hockey olympic gold medal on Sunday!! C’mon Canada, lets make it a North American rematch….

  23. V says:

    (in addition to our ladies getting the silver hockey medal, obviously)

  24. Jason330 says:

    Is this a sign of life in the Christine O’Donnell campaign……or a sign that CPAC wingnuts are such morans that they will believe anything?

    http://patriotroom.com/article/cpac-exclusive-interview-christine-o-donnell-rino-hunter-in-delaware

  25. Canadian hockey players passed out on the ice. Not my idea of a good image — but not something that I think needs to be investigated.

  26. anonone says:

    The earth is covered with pieces of crust of frozen rock floating on a ball of molten magma. As global warming melts the polar ice caps, the redistribution of weight on the planet will cause more and more earthquakes on a scale that we have not witnessed in generations, including Tsunamis larger than skyscrapers capable of wiping out whole islands such as Hawaii or even Japan. A Tsunamis over Tokyo would kill millions and cripple, if not destroy, the world’s financial system as we currently know it.

    It isn’t a matter of “if” it is a matter of “when.”

    Unfortunately, even with Haiti and now Chilé, we ain’t seen nothing yet…

    Have a good day.

  27. Jason330 says:

    Either that or Sky Dad is angry that Chile got rid of that paragon of Christian virtue, Augusto Pinochet.

  28. Pat Robertson explained to us that God holds a grudge for a long time.

  29. I heard last night that at least one of the women was underage to drink in Vancouver. The drinking age varies from province to province but I think it’s 19 in B.C. and one player is 18.

  30. The earthquake was magnitude 8.8, and was 21.7 miles deep. I’ve already read that they’ve had a massive 7.0 aftershock. There’s tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific. Here is a picture of the seismograph in Nevada:

  31. So, anonone, did we have more earthquakes during the Medieval Warming Period? Did the Earth shatter like the planet Krypton during that time period? Time for you to quit with the global warming alarmism.

  32. anon says:

    And right on schedule, just as Dems start gaining some momentum on HCR, right on schedule comes Carper with some bullshit. Carper still want the House to suck it up and vote for the Senate bill.

    Full audio is up; I haven’t listened to it all yet.
    http://wdel.com/features/0226carper.mp3

  33. anonone says:

    Regardless of whether or not you think global warming is man-made, the earth’s temperature is rising and the polar ice caps are melting. The rate of temperature change is much more rapid then during the Medieval Warming period and is expected to be higher. Furthermore, the earth was much less populated then, and the global history of earthquakes during that period, including those under the oceans, is not well known. Finally, huge earthquakes and tsunamis haven’t ceased for eternity on this planet. They will happen again, and the redistribution of weight as the polar ice caps melt will put pressure on the tectonic plates and faults, causing them to shift which causes earthquakes.

    Physics happen.

  34. Jason330 says:

    Conservatives = Dumb slaves to lizard brain Impulses want Sky Dad to solve their problems. Liberal= Smart masters of their domain, don’t wait around for magic unicorns to solve their problems.

    Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly…
    The reasoning is that sexual exclusivity in men, liberalism and atheism all go against what would be expected given humans’ evolutionary past. In other words, none of these traits would have benefited our early human ancestors, but higher intelligence may be associated with them.

    “The adoption of some evolutionarily novel ideas makes some sense in terms of moving the species forward,” said George Washington University leadership professor James Bailey, who was not involved in the study. “It also makes perfect sense that more intelligent people — people with, sort of, more intellectual firepower — are likely to be the ones to do that.”

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/26/liberals.atheists.sex.intelligence/