Morning Constitutional – Monday, 17 May 2010

open book beside white ceramic teacup on saucer

Good morning, folks. After 20 years, NBC cancels Law & Order, but orders Law & Order: Los Angeles. Now, your morning constitutional: General Motors on Monday reported it earned $865M in the first quarter of 2010, its first profit since 2007. BP announced that they are successfully capturing around 1,000 barrels a day from a pipe they connected to the leaking oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists have discovered massive oil plumes in the Gulf, further evidence that the oil spill is massively worse than BP predicts. Iran on Monday announced an agreement to ship...

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Doctor Who, "Flesh and Stone"

Doctor: “I’ll be back for you as soon as I can, I promise.” Amy: “You always say that.” Doctor: “I always come back.” We’re five episodes into this season, and I feel like I need some sort of flow chart to keep track of what’s going on. This was a great conclusion to the new chapter of the Weeping Angels story, but many other questions were brought up in this hour that we likely won’t get an answer to until the season finale. I mentioned briefly last week that the climax of “The Time of Angels” involved...

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Poem of the Week

sunflowers under blue sky

Another long week almost over, and for those of us in DC, a forecast of warm sunny weather all weekend long. I’m excited to check out Yoga on the Mall tomorrow for the first time (kicking off DC’s annual Week of Yoga, wherein yoga studios all over the city offer free and $5 classes. Pretty sweet). In honor of the apparent turn to summer, here’s a poem about one of the summeriest things I know of. I hope you all have a great, relaxing weekend. Sunflower by Frank Steele You’re expected to see only the top, where...

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New York Times Columnist Line of the Day – 14 May 2010

yellow new york taxi in front of new york times building

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 Paul “The Little Professor” Krugman, who in his column “We’re Not Greece,” notes: This tells...

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Jobs

Ronald Brownstein at the National Journal: If the economy produces jobs over the next eight months at the same pace as it did over the past four months, the nation will have created more jobs in 2010 alone than it did over the entire eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency. That comparison comes with many footnotes and asterisks. But it shows how the economic debate between the parties could look very different over time — perhaps by November, more likely by 2012. More important, the comparison underscores the urgency of repairing an American job-creation machine that...

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New York Times Columnist Line of the Day – 13 May 2010

yellow new york taxi in front of new york times building

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 Gail “The Colander” Collins, who in her column “The Annals of Arlen,” writes: (Martha Coakley,...

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Let them kiss, for chrissakes?

The Daily Wh.at: Worthy Cause of the Day: Not a single episode of ABC’s uproarious new sitcom Modern Family goes by that I don’t find myself ranting and raving over the pseudo-progressivism of having an openly gay couple on a primetime TV show, and going out of your way to avoid having them show real-world physical affection toward one another. Happily, I am not alone in my diatribe: A Facebook campaign was recently launched to convince ABC to let the adorable duo smooch to their hearts’ content on national television. It may not seem like a big...

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"HAHA U ARE IN A LOT OF TROUBLE YOU CAN DELETE BUT THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS WAT YOU SED BITCH"

facebook application screengrab

Oops? The Republican vying for Rep. Jerry McNerney’s seat in California’s 11th district, Brad Goehring, posted the following to his Facebook account yesterday: If I could issue hunting permits, I would officially declare today opening day for liberals. The season would extend through November 2 and have no limits on how many taken as we desperately need to ‘thin’ the herd. Of course, he claims it was a joke. And, maybe he didn’t hear about the last few times conservatives made “shooting at liberals” jokes. The post has been deleted, so maybe figured it out. But, as...

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New York Times Columnist Line of the Day – 12 May 2010

yellow new york taxi in front of new york times building

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 was a little difficult: both columns were a little dry, and neither said anything ridiculous. So, I’ve...

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Morning Constitutional – Wednesday, 12 May 2010

white ceramic mug beside book on gray textile

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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