Archive for March, 2010
QOD: Celibacy
Given the latest Catholic Church scandal… is it time to rethink the vow of celibacy?
Senior Church figures in Germany meanwhile called for priestly celibacy to be reviewed, a tradition Benedict defended on Friday as a “the sign of full devotion” and of an “entire commitment to the Lord”.
The Church “should reflect on whether there are [...]
Demon Sheep Part Deux
Back in February, we introduced you to Carly Fiorina’s Demon Sheep ad. Today, we give you the her Hot Air ad.
16Mar2010 | nemski | 2 comments | Continued
The Senate Releases Its Financial Reform Plan
The Senate’s financial reform plan was released yesterday by Sen. Chris Dodd:
The plan would create a nine-member council, led by the Treasury secretary, to watch for systemic risks, and direct the Federal Reserve to supervise the nation’s largest and most interconnected financial institutions, not just banks.
But the bill, which would amount to the most sweeping [...]
FCC Rolls Out Its National Broadband Plan Today
As noted on Sunday (did you send in a question to the FCC Chair?), FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will deliver the National Broadband Plan to Congress today and then I imagine he’ll be everywhere talking about this plan. They released an Executive Summary today (pdf), which looks more like a To Do List than [...]
16Mar2010 | cassandra_m | 7 comments | Continued
Glenn Beck Is After…YOU!
OK, maybe I’m weird (that was rhetorical), but this from MoveOn cracked me up. Just type your name in … it’s worth it. I especially like the French Glenn Beck poster. I know that His Beckness will never have reason to go after me, but this video made me feel special — even if only for [...]
15Mar2010 | Scott P | 1 comment | Continued
Monday Evening’s Read
As I mentioned yesterday, the Obama Administration was sending over its blueprint for the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. (pdf)
The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg on the future of nuclear energy in the United States, Some Nukes.
Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria on President Obama’s successful strategy in Pakistan, A Victory for Obama.
Glenn Beck vs. Fox
I’ve always thought that Glenn Beck would flame out sooner rather than later. You can’t make your living as a prophet of doom & gloom if the doom & gloom doesn’t come to pass. However, the end for Glenn Beck may be more related to money than from burn-out, according to Howard Kurtz:
With [...]
Monday Open Thread
Beware the Ides of March! Today is the Ides of March and also the Breitbartocalypse. At this time tomorrow the “institutional left” will have ceased to exist. I suppose you’ll only see a blank page here tomorrow. We will all have been raptured or something. It’s pretty unclear what Breitbart meant. [...]
15Mar2010 | Unstable Isotope | 12 comments | Continued
Happy 25th, Dot Com
They grow up so fast, don’t they? To some of us, at least, it seems like only yesterday that this whole “internets” thing got started. I remember how excited I got when I first started seeing web addresses referenced in tv commercials back in the mid to late ’90s. Little did I know, really until [...]
15Mar2010 | Scott P | 27 comments | Continued
States Delaying Refunds
This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but states have had a particularly tough time during the recent economic downturn. Since almost all are prohibited by their own laws from running deficits, they’ve looked everywhere they can to grab as many extra dollars as they can. The latest idea (and I found out [...]
15Mar2010 | Scott P | 13 comments | Continued
Health Care Reform: The Endgame
Robert Gibbs was on the Sunday shows yesterday and said that by next week health care reform will be the law of the land:
“We’ll have the votes when the House votes, I think, within the next week,” Gibbs said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Gibbs added that those on next week’s Sunday talk shows “will be talking [...]
No Quarter
This post is an odd one to write because all it is is a rather long answer to one trivia question: Who wrote the bill which created the most successful commemorative coin series in the history of the United States? This post has nothing to do with my dislike of Mike Castle as he has only proved himself to be an eager lapdog of the Republican Party leadership over the last decade. This is trivia only.
15Mar2010 | nemski | 10 comments | Continued
BREAKING: House Democrats Release HCR Bill
Late last night the House Budge Committee released the legislation that will serve as the basis for debate this week. Note this is the same legislation that made it through the Education and Labor Committee and Ways and Means Committee last year.
Download and read the pdf.
Late Night Video: Mr. Trololo
The Mr. Trololo video is sweeping the inter tubes and should be watched if you haven’t already seen it. According to Pravda, yes that newspaper, this is a video of the Soviet era performer Eduard Khil singing “I Am So Happy to Finally Be Back Home” . Khil, interviewed in the Christian Science Monitor, said:
On [...]
Evening Read
Education historian Diane Ravitch on educational reform, The Big Idea — it’s bad educational policy.
NY Times columnist Frank Rich on why revisionists like Liz Cheney and Karl Rove must be refuted, The New Rove-Cheney Assault on Reality.
Jaclyn Friedman, writer and activist, writes To combat rape on campus, schools should stop keeping it quiet.
Impeach Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas was in the court majority in the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which overturned a century’s worth of regulations barring unlimited spending by corporations in political campaigns. Virginia Thomas, Clarence Thomas’s wife, is preparing to take advantage of this SCOTUS ruling to start her own Tea Party group, which will take corporate [...]
14Mar2010 | Unstable Isotope | 22 comments | Continued
Delaware Makes $2M on Cap and Trade and the World Still Has Not Come to an End
Sacré bleu! Cap and trade, you say??
Yes — as we’ve previously reported (here and here), Delaware has been part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Imitative since September 2008.
14Mar2010 | cassandra_m | 4 comments | Continued
Grade the Earmarks
Following up on Scott P’s interesting thinking on earmarks (yes I know), here is an interesting approach to the earmark question — Congressman Tim Walz (MN-1) has asked his constituents to vote and comment on the earmark applications submitted to his office. You can see them all (plus the feedback form) here. And if you click over to look, as you review the list of earmark requests (99 requests?? Yikes!), you have the opportunity to review the documents on each request.
14Mar2010 | cassandra_m | Comments Off | Continued
US To Get Its Learnin’ On
On Monday, the Obama Administration will be sending Congress its blueprint for education reform. A couple of points from Obama’s video address Saturday are: 1) much of America’s success in the 20th Century was due to a great educational system that focused on science; 2) other nations around the world are investing in education because they know how important it is, 3) states will compete for funding in as way to improve standards and the quality of teaching, 4) schools that achieve excellence will be rewarded, 5) teachers will be better trained, better supported and be treated as professionals; and 6) all students should graduate from high school and be prepared for college and a career.
14Mar2010 | nemski | 3 comments | Continued
Ask the FCC Chair a Question
This coming Tuesday, the FCC is announcing its National Broadband Plan, outlining the path to get all of us connected to fast and affordable internet service. Once the plan is announced, the FCC Chair, Julius Genachowski, will sit for a You Tube interview — answering questions submitted by citizens and chosen (via ratings) by us.
14Mar2010 | cassandra_m | 1 comment | Continued
Example 8397
We all know that the Republican Party doesn’t want to govern, doesn’t know how to govern and does everything possible to make sure no one can govern. Given all of that there should be no surprise that House Minority Leader Jim Boehner or The Orange One as he is affectionately known as at Hollywood Tans [...]
14Mar2010 | nemski | 4 comments | Continued
The Hillary Clinton Vibe
The Castle campaign is starting to take on what I call the Hillary Clinton Vibe. The vibe happens when a campaign that is pursuing an “inevitable” strategy starts believing it is really inevitable, and that leads to sloppy work.
14Mar2010 | Delaware Dem | 13 comments | Continued
International Women’s Day at the White House
The White House commemorated International Women’s Day earlier this week with a reception at the White House that included accomplished women of varying professions meeting accomplished young women from area high schools. The WH put up vide of this event — this is about 40 mins long, but the first 7 or so are [...]
13Mar2010 | cassandra_m | Comments Off | ContinuedSocial Media
