The newly repositioned feeder out front is paying dividends:
Tunch has not noticed yet, but he has noticed the action at the back feeder. In fairness, it has been raining all day so he has not been in the window sunning himself.
John Cole started Balloon Juice early in 2002. Those who have followed along know that this has been quite the journey.
by John Cole| 59 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
The newly repositioned feeder out front is paying dividends:
Tunch has not noticed yet, but he has noticed the action at the back feeder. In fairness, it has been raining all day so he has not been in the window sunning himself.
This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Democratic Stupidity
Here we go again:
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has voted no on the cloture motion to start debate on Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform bill — meaning the motion will likely fail, 58 to 42, short of the 60 votes needed. Republicans will tout this as an extraordinary victory demonstrating bipartisan opposition to moving forward on financial regulation until the bill is tried, tested and sorted. But my guess is that Nelson knew the motion would not pass, having failed to garner Sen. Olympia Snowe’s (R-Maine) vote earlier today, and decided not to vote for it at that point.
I don’t have the energy to be appropriately pissed off. Think I’m going to have some dinner and then play a game.
If the Democrats can’t figure out a way to make the GOP pay for blocking financial reform, we should just give up hope now.
And do we need to make a tag just for that asshole Ben Nelson?
by John Cole| 28 Comments
This post is in: Republican Stupidity, Clown Shoes, Our Failed Media Experiment
The Weekly Standard’s Matt Continetti takes some time off from his full-time job of propping up Palin to demonstrate he’s no one-hit wonder and that he has the capacity to be willfully ignorant about any number of things:
The great mystery to me is why Republicans are passing up the chance to argue that this bill doesn’t go far enough. Why not embrace the Brown-Kaufman amendment to break up the banks, in order to show that the GOP stands against all massive agglomerations of power, whether in Washington or on Wall Street? The Republicans could raise Cain about the ratings agencies, who gave good scores to bad mortgages but whose oligopoly is not addressed in the Dodd bill. And they might ask why the Democrats want to end Too Big to Fail for the banks, but not for Fannie, Freddie, and GM.
It’s a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma:
As a financial reform bill starts to take shape in Washington, two key lawmakers came to New York City last week to explain what it means for Wall Street, and how financial executives might help prevent some of its least market-friendly aspects from becoming law by electing more Republicans, FOX Business Network has learned.
About 25 Wall Street executives, many of them hedge fund managers, sat down for a private meeting Thursday afternoon with two of the most powerful Republican lawmakers in Congress: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and John Cornyn, the senior senator from Texas who runs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, one of the primary fundraising arms of the Republican Party.
I just can’t figure it out myself, either. Why aren’t the Republicans “one-upping” the Democrats?
by John Cole| 27 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.
I generally agree with these pieces by Ezra Klein and Jon Chait that Lyndsey Graham has a reason to be pissed off if immigration is moved forward before the climate legislation. Money quote from Chait:
As for bad faith, Graham is a Republican Senator from South Carolina. His highest risk of losing his seat, by far, comes from the prospect of a conservative primary challenger. Indeed, I’d say that prospect is far from remote, and Graham is displaying an unusual willingness to risk his political future. He has little incentive to negotiate on these issues except that he believes it’s the right thing to do. So when Democrats put climate change on the backburner to take up immigration, and so so for obviously political reasons, Graham has every right to be angry. He’s risking his political life to address a vital issue, and Harry Reid is looking to save his seat.
Fair enough. And then I remember things like this:
In Sept. 2002, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) asked President Bush to delay the vote on the Iraq war:
“I asked directly if we could delay this so we could depoliticize it. I said: ‘Mr. President, I know this is urgent, but why the rush? Why do we have to do this now?’ He looked at Cheney and he looked at me, and there was a half-smile on his face. And he said: ‘We just have to do this now.’”
I’m sure someone on the Morning Joe will explain to me how these are the same thing.
Politicizing Legislation is Bad, Mmmkay!Post + Comments (27)
by John Cole| 82 Comments
This post is in: OBAMA IS WORSE THAN BUSH HE SOLD US OUT!!, Our Failed Media Experiment
I’m loathe to say this, but there is a generally decent piece by Halperin on the Obama administration in Time. I say generally, because it does contain some of the awful both sides nonsense:
Before the jabberers on the right (What about the huge debt, the broken tax pledge, the paucity of overseas accomplishments?), the yammerers on the left (Guantánamo hasn’t been closed, gays aren’t serving openly in the military, and too many policies cater to business interests) and the chides in the media (POTUS and party poll numbers are down, and Washington is more partisan than ever), look at the two key metrics that underscore Obama’s accomplishments.
And then there is this jawdropper:
Unlike Bill Clinton, especially early in his presidency, Obama has largely maintained control of his public image, preserved the majesty of the office (a job that has become harder than ever because of the toxic freak-show nature of our politico-media culture) and maintained good relations, in public and private, with the armed services brass, the intelligence community and law enforcement.
Halperin just spent the better part of the last year cashing in on a book that was nothing but unsourced rumors, gossip, and anonymous insider accusations, dressed up as “deep background reporting.” In fact, when I think of the “toxic freak show nature of our politico-media culture,” Morton Halperin’s son is the first person I think of- right in front of Howard Kurtz and almost all of the Washington Post op-ed contributors.
And for the record, the Lewinsky scandal, the thing that tarnished Clinton’s “public image,” didn’t happen early on, it happened halfway through his second term. And with his tarnished public image, Clinton left office with a 66% approval rating. Halperin just has to get that one last dig in at the Clenis, and can’t be bothered to get the basic facts right. “Toxic freak show nature,” indeed.
Lacking the Basic Self-Awareness of a SlugPost + Comments (82)
by John Cole| 74 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics
This is a major disaster:
Officials worked Sunday to try to stop oil leaks coming from the deepwater well drilled by a rig that sank last week near Louisiana, but they acknowledged that it could be months before they are able to stem the flow of what is now about 42,000 gallons of oil a day pouring into the Gulf of Mexico.
The response team is trying three tacks: one that could stop the leaks within two days, one that would take months and one that would not stop the leaks but would capture the oil and deliver it to the surface while permanent measures are pursued.
Officials determined through weather patterns that the sheen of oil and water, now covering 600 square miles, would remain at least 30 miles from shore for the next three days. But states along the Gulf Coast have been warned to be on alert.
I’ve actually been following this off and on the past couple of days and forgot to write about it, and while it is a disaster, I will say that the BP folks either have a very good PR team or are actually very sincere about cleaning up the mess and mitigating the damage. Or both. I remembered reading some quotes and thinking there was no attempt at blameshifting or shirking responsibility, just point by point outlines of what they were doing to try to contain the mess.
Not that that makes this less of a disaster, but that was the impression I got from the BP folks.
by John Cole| 79 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Don’t forget the Pacific and Treme.
As a side note, this write-up from a Palin rally in Oregon made me laugh and then cry:
Dawn Attleberger of Vancouver said she got a bit rattled as she endured jeers on her way into the event. But it was worth it, she said.
“I’m 51, and I wasn’t interested in politics until she came into the picture,” Attleberger said. “Now I am.”
Palin- the darling of people who neither understand nor care about issues, but want to have a team to root for! We might as well get rid of elections and just decide the winner through the annual House softball game.