Good morning, everybody. A woman in Miami Beach, Florida, has reported that Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola, from “Jersey Shore” fame, attacked her in a nightclub on Saturday. Now, your morning constitutional: Following Gordon Brown’s resignation yesterday, David Cameron gets to work today as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and has formed a coalition government with Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. Cameron is the 13th Prime Minister since Elizabeth II took the throne in 1952 and the youngest (43) to take the job in over two centuries. The BBC has a run-down of his cabinet...
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New York Times Columnist Line of the Day – 11 May 2010
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman Fries” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today’s is from Roger “Life of the Party” Cohen’s column, “Europa! Europa!” There is something irresistibly comical about...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Good morning, folks. Bristol celebrated National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy by going to a hot New York club. Here’s your morning constitutional: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai arrives in D.C. today for a visit hoped to warm the cold relationship between Afghanistan and the U.S. Yesterday, RNC Chair Michael Steele slamed Solicitor General Elena Kagan for “her support for statements suggesting that the Constitution “as originally drafted and conceived, was ‘defective.’” Except the statement Kagan supported was from Justice Thurgood Marshall, and he was talking about slavery. In the U.K., the Liberal Democrats and the Tories have...
Continue reading...Another unelected Prime Minister for the U.K.?
A bit ago, I made a (likely inebriated) prediction to Estes that I suspected that David Miliband, who had served as Foreign Secretary in the last Labour government, would be Prime Minister before 2011. And, gosh darn it, it looks as though it might be closer to reality. Gordon Brown today announced that he will resign as soon as a new government is formed, an action that had been predicted would be a necessary preerequisite to any deal with the Liberal Democrats to form a government. The Lib Dems had first approached the Tories because the Tories...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day – 10 May 2010
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today’s is from Paul “The Little Professor” Krugman, who in today’s...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Monday, 10 May 2010
Good morning, folks. Betty White smashed it on Saturday Night, didn’t she? Now, here’s your morning constitutional: Probably the worst-kept secret ever: President Obama is expected to announce that he will nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Stevens. The Washington Post has a timeline of Kagan’s career, and SCOTUSBlog has a primer on Kagan. German Chancellor Angela Merckel suffered a major blow Sunday as her coalition lost a key local election in North Rhine-Westphalia, one of Germany’s most populous regions and often thought to be a bellwether of German politics. The loss,...
Continue reading...Tracking the oil spill
The New York Times has a pretty incredible animation showing the spread of the oil spill from 22 April to 9 May. Also, in crazy-time news, engineers are trying to determine if they can plug the leak with…garbage. Last week, we posted a video from Al Jazeera explaining how the spill happened.
Continue reading...With Apologies to Howard Dean: What Happened Yesterday
(Some quick thoughts while Estes collects his) Well, the U.K. voted yesterday. The results were not terribly surprising: The Tories won a plurality of seats, but not enough to form a majority government. This much was expected. However, what was not expected was the relative strength of Labour or the precipitous downfall of the Liberal Democrats. I’ll start where the story is now, and move on to what I suspect happened. The onus is on Gordon Brown to form a government, and if he cannot, to step down and allow somebody else to do so. I don’t...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Friday, 7 May 2010
Good morning, folks. If you’re in Pennsylvania, make sure you booze it up with moms on Sunday. Now, your morning constitutional: Tories made large gains in the U.K. election yesterday, ending over a decade of Labour majority, although not gaining enough seats to form a majority themselves. BP began the process Friday morning of lowering the containment dome over the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. The work is expected to continue over the weekend. U.S. stocks dropped nearly a thousand points yesterday before leveling off at a 346-point drop yesterday, but stocks are expected to...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day – 6 May 2010
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: David “Yawny-Pants” Brooks, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today’s is from Gail “The Colander” Collins, who in her column “Congress, Up in Arms,” eviscerates the double-speak in...
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