Thursday Open Thread

Filed in National by on August 19, 2010

Welcome to your Thursday open thread. The week’s close to coming to a close but our threads are always open.

OMFG…John McCain

I think an easy memory trick for Republican rhetoric: all good things come from Republicans, all bad things are Obama’s (or Clinton’s) fault.

The response of the world community to the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan has been less than other recent disasters.

During the last few weeks, monsoon rains have caused the worst flooding in Pakistan’s history. About 1,500 people are dead, and 20 million have been affected.

Sixteen days after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, aid commitments totaled $1.4 billion. Sixteen days after Pakistan’s floods began, promises added up to just $200 million.

Yet relief agencies say the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Pakistan is even greater than this year’s earthquake in Haiti.

I think it’s one of these disasters that’s fairly abstract in most people’s minds. We’re not seeing many pictures of the devastation and suffering caused by the flooding yet.

Here’s so resources if you want to help:
Oxfam
Pictures of Oxfam’s flood response
Doctors Without Borders
International Red Cross

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About the Author ()

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

Comments (16)

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  1. nemski says:

    I don’t know how I missed this story. Apparently the internet is all a flutter that they are planning on building a library next door to Sarah Palin’s house.

    Campaigners have described the project as insensitive and a deliberate act of provocation by people with brains.

    The issue is forming a dividing line in advance of November’s mid-term congressional elections with candidates being forced to declare whether they have ever been to a library or spoken to someone who has books in their home.

  2. MJ says:

    Roger Clemens is going to be indicted for lying to Congress.

  3. wanna see a monkey? how about a midget monkey?
    http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wdel-live

  4. anonone says:

    Welcome to the Obomba Justice Department:

    Baseball player lies about steroids: Indictment.

    High Government officials lie about torture, war crimes, spying on Americans, etc.: Nothing.

  5. anonone says:

    A War criminal and a Democratic hero will be speaking together at University of Delaware:

    “Political pundits Howard Dean and Karl Rove will give a joint public lecture on the University of Delaware campus in Newark on Monday, Oct. 25.”

    http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2011/aug/udspeaks081610.html

  6. delacrat says:

    You have to wonder about institutions that offer a platform to someone who is in contempt of Congress.

  7. mediawatch says:

    Trick or treat?
    Dean and Rove together at the start of Halloween Week.

  8. MJ says:

    Hey Don Quixote, when are you going to stop jousting with that windmill?

  9. anon says:

    Interesting note from the Democratic family bloodbath that is the NCCo Sheriff primary. Navarro has raised $33K and has $11K on hand. That would seem to be a lot of support for a primary challenge to an incumbent who’s been in office since before the Flood.

    Alas, I can’t compare those numbers to Walsh, because 22 hours after the reports were due to be filed, our utterly incompetent Department of Elections still hasn’t posted all of them online. What the F is going on in Dover today, Elaine Manlove?

    Navarro donors include the FOP Lodge 5, the FOP state PAC fund and one John Jankowski, whom I believe is a contributing photographer for the News Journal. (Don’t they have prohibitions on political activity, especially for a guy who shoots a lot of crime stuff donating to a candidate who is the press officer for the county police force?)

    In other sheriff news, Kent Sheriff/DUI driver James Higdon (who’s not in a primary and doesn’t have to file now but did anyway) took in a whopping $100.

    NCCo GOP candidate O’Leary netted $500 in donations and was loaned $3,400 by a couple people and a patent law firm (?).

    Fellow GOP candidate Hart took in $2,185, plus a $3,400 loan from himself (looks like it covered filing fees).

  10. mediawatch says:

    Jankowski has been an ambulance-chasing freelance photographer, with close ties to fire companies, since he left the NJ, where he had a clerical-level job in the newsroom, in the ’70s. NJ cannot restrict political activities/donations of freelancers but it tries (not always successfully) not to use freelancers in situations where there might be a conflict of interest.
    However, when you’re talking about fire pix, freelancers are often on the scene when staff photogs are not.

  11. anon says:

    Ken Matlusky does not deserve to be state auditor.

    I have never met the man, never spoken with him, and know almost nothing about him. I also know almost nothing about his opponent, Richard Korn.

    I base that opinion on one thing and one thing alone: His campaign finance report was filled out by hand.

    If your own campaign treasurer, or yourself, can’t use a computer, how can you be trusted to be a watchdog for a highly complicated state financial system?

    The entries are filled out in an at-times illegible scrawl, and aren’t even complete, lacking anything in the “aggregate amount” column that is supposed to show total donations from a single donor over a period of time.

    This guy is clearly a joke.

  12. MJ says:

    I met Matlusky a few months ago and was not impressed. He seemed to be in way over his head. I then got a “thank you” note (don’t know why, I didn’t do anything) from him handwritten on notebook paper.

    He is the Alvin Greene of the Dems Auditor race. Let’s hope that the primary voters are not that stupid.

  13. delacrat says:

    Barney Frank, Ron Paul and Adam Kokesh of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) say “Cut $1 Trillion from the “defense” budget.”

    Easily doable because Military spending = Waste, Fraud and Abuse

  14. anon says:

    Obama is caught in a Rovian tarpit on the mosque thing. Why did he ever open his mouth on the subject?

    A third of Republicans already think Obama is a Muslim, and FOX and RNC would be happy to call him a Muslim nonstop, except that it is too much even for them to get away with.

    But Obama’s mosque comments allow them to bang on it 24/7.

    Dumb, dumb, dumb.

    If Obama thought he was going to make a statement to match his speech on race during the campaign, then he should have put more effort into it.

  15. its all a comedy says:

    Anonone: perfect!

  16. a.price says:

    HOWARD DEAN is against the community center!