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...
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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...
Continue reading...Aw, Americans think they're so smart
This is pretty hilarious: The survey also revealed some serious gaps in the knowledge base of Americans following foreign policy. For example, although 78 percent of respondents claimed to “closely” follow international affairs, an equal 78 percent said they had “never heard” of Ban Ki-moon when asked about him. When those surveyed were told that Ban was the secretary-general of the United Nations, 41 percent of respondents still had no idea who he was. It’s actually an interesting survey, done by the Public Opinion Strategies and Hart Research Associates on behalf of the United Nations Foundation. It...
Continue reading...Watch: The Gulf coast oil spill explained
Al Jazeera with a pretty solid explanation of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Guess the other news channels were busy or something.
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day – 5 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. Maureen “Refrigerator” Dowd is off today, so today’s has to be from Tawmy Frieds, who in his column “No...
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