What I am reading
After a minor hiatus, the list continues:
- First some process-y stuff that has caught my eye over @ congressmatters.com. The health insurance/ care reform food fight (HICRFF? How many letters is too many in an acronym?) has been jammed up by the likes of "moderates." The Senate, being the place where any Senator with a bone to pick about... anything can hold up business, got its the HCR bill thru first major procedural hurdle: opening debate. Next there will be a few more hurdles in the floor debate, amendments and finally the cloture vote to CLOSE debate so the bill or whats left of it can get to the floor for a vote (51 votes win). There are still hold outs in the Dem camp, notably the Senators from Arkansas, Nebraska, Louisiana, Connecticutt (Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Joe Lieberman). They need to vote for cloture for the bill to come up for a vote. Are they reliable? Doubtful. So what choice is there? Reconcilliation. How good of a choice is that? Well it depends on how some issues are resolved. What issues? Check out the article here
- Alright, so enough health care, how about them deficits? Paul Krugman has some interesting analysis here here and here. Speaking of deficits, some people have gotten it into their heads that democracy is a scary scary thing, and can't be trusted with important issues. Their idea? Make a comission that is unanswerable to anyone; stock it with people that probably aren't as objective as they'd like to think they are, and make their recommendations pretty much law.
- How do deficits happen? Probably when people start spouting off like Evan Bayh about how fiscal constraint only applies to things that help Americans. Wars are great, other things are unimportant. Glenn Greenwald lays down some harsh words for Senator Bayh.
- Check out Digby if you don't already.
- As for some news closer to home, Alan Khazei scored some endorsements of late that may be important, may be pointless. The first was the Boston Globe on sunday. The second was Ret. General Wesley Clark. Why is their influence questionable? Because endorsements often don't do much, especially this late. The only reason I can see this mattering, and I've seen this echoed around the blogosphere, is that Khazei has been struggling because he has a low name id or is considered a strong 2nd pick for a lot of voters. If these endorsements push voters to take another look, or persuade them to go with someone they thought liked but thought couldn't win, it could be a big deal. On top of that, the latest polling shows that Khazei might have moved from 5% to 14%. In that same poll, it shows that 22% of voters don't know Khazei enough to have an opinion (at time of polling, neither of these endorsements had been made).
- In that same poll by rasmussen, Martha Coakley was still in the lead with 36%, Mike Capuano had second with 21%, and Steven Pagliuca with 14% (down from the mid 20's). Capuano scored a coup with an endorsement recently by Fmr Gov. and Fmr Democratic Presidential Candidate Mike Dukakis . That adds to the long list of endorsements Congressman Capuano has gotten this campaign, which includes Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and many of his colleagues from the MA congressional delegation.
- There will be back to back debates for the democratic candidates tomorrow (tuesday the 1st) and wednesday (12/2/09). The election is on the 8th, so its really coming down to the wire.
disclaimer: I am a volunteer with the Khazei campaign. I am not being paid by the campaign, and am not posting this in any capacity for the campaign. - For races nationwide, check out the swing state project.
- I am just going to quote TMP about the recently released "Statement of Disbursements" which details all the spending of the House of Representatives.
- "If you have the time and stomach to look through a 3,404 page document that contains items like "Electronics Technician (Overtime): $186.79," it's here"
- I thought the whole "ginger" thing on facebook was a joke. No one could seriously think people with red hair are anything but normal . Apparently some people aren't that smart. So I guess my solution is this: if you can't deal with "gingers," send 'em my way. Don't hurt them because well, they're people and you're an idiot.
- It makes me sick to think that people still try to obfuscate the truth about global warming/climate change. I can dig up a bunch of people to say its false. But can I dig up real scientific evidence to say its false? No. Just because someone says something, and maybe has a white coat, doesn't make them an authority. Science isn't based on people, its based on empirical evidence. Its been that way for... centuries. Any while nations "dither" on what do to things are dying.
- Basically the Supreme Court is just following precedent: Congress acted to change a law and thus made a suit moot. The SC ruled it moot. What would have happened if Congress didn't act? Well thats... moot. All the same, I would have rather had those photos released. Every time we stand to our values, it helps us in the end.
- I hate celebrities, always trying to get in the spot light with... wait what?
- Those Europeans and their... hatred? What caused this could be anti-religious trends, anti-islamic trends, or maybe anti-Minaret? Weird, and probably not helpful combating the whole "West vs Islam" narrative.
- Speaking of West vs (fill in the blank), some news from Iran concerning nuclear enrichment, and the protests after the elections and the UK is sending more troops to Afghanistan