Weekend Open Thread

Filed in National by on June 26, 2010

Welcome to your weekend open thread! It’s going to be a hot weekend this weekend so be sure to drink plenty of fluids. I’m preparing to watch the USA-Ghana World Cup match. Who else is watching?

Mark Kleiman explains, it’s not possible to work with Republicans. They play Calvinball.

Why, I’m so old that I remember when market-simulating pollution-control regulations – polluter charges or cap-and-trade – were the official conservative alternative to command-and-control regulation. I was sympathetic to that critique, and frustrated about the environmental movement’s unwillingness to see reason.

But now that the enviros have embraced a GHG tax or its cap-and-trade equivalent as the way to deal with global warming, conservative support is nowhere in sight. They’re all too afraid of Grover Norquist.

Remember this the next time a conservative explains how we ought to voucherize public education. The minute that happens, the conservatives will come back and decide that we need to means-test the vouchers. That done, they’ll attack the remaining program as “welfare.”

Steve Benen points out that the official policy of the McCain-Palin presidential ticket was support of cap-and-trade. Seriously I don’t understand why Democrats don’t just offer real liberal ideas at this point. They really have nothing to lose. Perhaps in the negotiations with the Democratic Asshole Caucus they can actually sneak in some good policy.

A must-read post at Campaign For America’s Future: “The Reagan Revolution Home To Roost — In Charts”

It seems that you can look at a chart of almost anything and right around 1981 or soon after you’ll see the chart make a sharp change in direction, and probably not in a good way. And I really do mean almost anything, from economics to trade to infrastructure to … well almost anything. I spent some time looking for charts of things, and here are just a few examples. In each of the charts below look for the year 1981, when Reagan took office.

Here’s one – it documents the change in concentration of wealth:

There’s plenty more charts to study at the link.

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

Comments (20)

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  1. anonone says:

    “Closing Guantánamo Fades as a Priority”

    Another Obomba fail.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/us/politics/26gitmo.html?hp

  2. jason330 says:

    Can a soccer person tell me how “extra time” works?

  3. jason330 says:

    Well. US Soccer has come a long way, but we still can’t beat a country with the population of Ohio and Pennsylvania and the GDP of Maryland.

    Tell me about extra time in four years when I care about soccer for 15 minutes again.

  4. Brooke says:

    My husband was in the Peace Corps in Ghana, and points out that they start playing soccer when they start walking.

    Good run. 🙂

  5. jason330 says:

    Hey. Today in 1945 the charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco. How gay.

  6. Rand Paul is really a nutter. He wants to build some kind of electrified border fence. No word on how he’s going to get people to wear those collars.

  7. anonone says:

    Let me be the first to predict that when Cheney dies, Obama is going to say what a great American he was.

  8. John Kowalko says:

    Extra time is just an overtime period. Instead of one 30 minute OT period it consists of two 15 minute periods. In addition a tally of all injury delays is kept which is added to the end of the extra time. In this case today it added 3 minutes at the end of the extra time 30 minutes (2 periods @ 15min. ea.) Total time of reg. game = 90 min. + 30 min. extra time for 120 min. It would have been even cooler if U.S. had tied then there would have been a shoot-out (I believe 5 attempts ea. of one man on the goaltender). If that tied then it would go to a sudden death. Got it?

    John Kowalko
    John

  9. jason330 says:

    Thanks John. A1, you might as well predict the color of milk or that the next Nicholas Cage movie is going to suck.

  10. delacrat says:

    The Toronto police demonstrate their “no probable cause” approach to “security” at the G20.

  11. fightingbluehen says:

    Come on you England !

  12. jason330 says:

    Interesting tactics that the Toronto police have come up with. G20 protests have become a kind of kabuki dance haven’t they?

  13. delacrat says:

    Kabuki dance? Kabuki dance??? That’s a f@(#n’ dragnet. … and don’t think the police aren’t out of control where we live.

    http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100627/NEWS01/6270332

    “A 50-year-old disabled Elsmere resident has filed suit against the town government and police force charging officers improperly used a Taser on him — twice” – NewsJournal 6/27/10

  14. Ishmael says:

    A Kabuki dance with burning police cars, smashed shop windows and teargas.

    It’s always a lovefest when the left comes out to protest… not like those crazed tea party extremests.

  15. jason330 says:

    True. The teabaggers are all talk when it comes to insurrection.

  16. anon says:

    What is so “leftist” about anti-globalization? I thought it was Republicans who had their panties in a knot about the UN and world government. Have they changed their tune?

  17. jason330 says:

    Multi-national corporations are inherently good. This is pretty obvious because 1) dirty hippies don’t like them and 2) they have lots of money and money flows to the virtuous.

    I wish I was kidding, but that is the real bottom line wingnut thinking on this.

  18. Someone please show me where Democratic lawmakers are encouraging protestors of the G20 or calling themselves G20 protestors?