US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

last time I checked it was less than 20%, and that number has been shrinking ever since Obama's first day

xp

Because you guys act like we haven't had this discussion hundreds of time, here's other areas in which the Dems have recoiled from embracing their liberal roots: keeping Bush-era tax cuts, making abortion rights negotiable, and failing to attack Wall Street in any meaningful way.

love how the the statesman says it's 100 degrees fahrenheit down there in lonestar . . . on june 2. but there is no scientific evidence for global warming

uh I hate to break it to you but this isn't really how global warming should be judged/evaluated

xp

keeping Bush-era tax cuts, making abortion rights negotiable, and failing to attack Wall Street in any meaningful way.

agree 1 and 3 are no-brainers supported by solid majorities, not so sure about the 2nd one

I have a lot of respect for the suicidal tendencies of the modern GOP. Even when they're voted out of office, they still succeed in framing the issues their way and destroying social programs anyway.

how should global warming be evaluated shakey mo collier?

not so sure about the 2nd one

aerosmith to thread plz

wth that article doesn't talk about the weather

just noting how hot it is down there, as displayed on the paper's banner

how should global warming be evaluated shakey mo collier?

weather isn't climate. it should be evaluated across a significant area ("global" warming) and across a significant period of time.

Democrats acting weak once in office is not the same thing as threatening to shut down the government or refuse to raise the debt ceiling or pass a budget once in office. Apples and oranges IMO.

that's why on super hot days, it's not a good idea to point to it as evidence of climate change. because if you do, then on an exceptionally cold day, you would have to accept the arguments of those who point to it as evidence that global warming doesn't exist.

The difference between manner and consequences.

xpost

I'm sure it'll be back to 90º soon. Texas weather is diverse that way.

oh i've got javascript off, i don't see that stuff

anyway, that's not really the point. june 2 in texas is going to be hot regardless.

xps

weather isn't climate.

my offhand comment was alluding to how each summer in the us of a is hotter than the summer before it, and sooner. it was 90 degrees in brooklyn, too, yesterday, and that is not in texas, last time i checked

While doing research a couple of days ago, I saw a clip from one of the network news shows recorded during the '84 election cycle. An Ohio resident, unemployed since 1982, said he was going to vote for Reagan. When asked why, he said, quite reasonably, "I don't have a job yet but listening to Reagan I feel like things are gonna get better." Obama hasn't yet articulated why things will get better or how his ameliorative measures differ from the GOP's.

look i don't want to argue the point too much, but if you want something to hang a global warming argument on, a day in june in texas is not going to work.

now, can we talk about gerrymandering?

Even my mother has accepted that 'global warming' does not mean the weather where you are will get hotter all the time, thanks to the concept of 'climate change' being a perfectly serviceable summation of what's going on. Intellectually she knows that 'global warming' means the overall temp does go up, but using the term still makes her go LOLalgore in 2011.

interesting

id really rather not talk about gerrymandering but i am enjoying this conversation about weather

gonna be a long hot summer

it's quite a pile on

weather is srsly beautiful right now

not so sure about the 2nd one

aerosmith to thread plz

I was just alluding to the fact that at least half the country is a-okay with outlawing abortion outright.

x-post

When asked why, he said, quite reasonably, "I don't have a job yet but listening to Reagan I feel like things are gonna get better

I hated reading then and still dislike one-off anecedotes revolving around people wanting corny pep talks from their president. Obviously it worked to get Reagan elected, but substantively it was nonsense.

Obama hasn't yet articulated why things will get better or how his ameliorative measures differ from the GOP's.

Obama's watered down stimulus bill, support of DADT, financial regulation package, and lip-service to pro-choice policies, may not be liberal enough but they do differ from Republican anti-abortion measures, anti-regulation policies, the Ryan Medicare plan, etc.

support of repealing DADT

I hated reading then and still dislike one-off anecedotes revolving around people wanting corny pep talks from their president.

Well, that's part of the description since FDR, ain't it?

I don't have to like it though. And maybe President malaise Carter was right about the things he was negative about (environmental issues etc)

xpost -- Fireside Tweets.

The stimulus and repeal of DADT are substantive achievements. Hiring Timothy Geithner and playing kissy with Wall Street is not.

I don't have to like it though. And maybe President malaise Carter was right about the things he was negative about (environmental issues etc)

I don't like it either, but enough reading and contact with people who don't read enough history as you and I do has convinced me that we're in the minority, and perhaps deservedly.

Not sure why anyone thinks ANY president during a downturn like '08 - present wouldn't play at least alittle kissy w/Wall Street.

Keep the PDA behind the scene, away from cameras.

I saw Robert Reich on tv last night asserting that Obama needs to do another stimulus bill and somehow must persuade Congress to do so. David Gergen hemmed and hawed in response and reluctantly said that Obama must simultanously decrease the deficit and do something to grow the economy (but he never said what he thought he should do to grow the economy).

Typical Gergen!

bit of a digression, but i just launched into a facebook fight with a relative who is pissed that another piece of the dream act passed in california. how is there even opposition to this?

I fucking hate David Gergen

how is there even opposition to this?

racist scapegoating, one of america's favorite pasttimes

http://blogs.artinfo.com/modernartnotes/files/2011/01/Gergen.jpg

"Shakey, Shakey...let me explain. You need to dial down the rhetoric if you want any hope of wooing independent voters."

Even my mother has accepted that 'global warming' does not mean the weather where you are will get hotter all the time, thanks to the concept of 'climate change' being a perfectly serviceable summation of what's going on. Intellectually she knows that 'global warming' means the overall temp does go up, but using the term still makes her go LOLalgore in 2011.

― chavatar (suzy), Thursday, June 2, 2011 2:39 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark

the phrase "global climate change" seems to irritate my [beloved family member], like he sees it as trick, some rhetorical sleight-of-hand. "what about global warming," he'll say, as his favorite arguments are lined up against dubious IPCC reports that purport document warming trends. if i shift the debate to the idea of man's responsibility for and ability to mitigate potentially dangerous climate change in general, he's less well-prepared and retreats to, "remember global cooling?"

actually no I don't remember global cooling

when did that happen

when so-called independents read about ... backing away from closing Guatanamo, they rightly wonder, "What's the difference?"

I don't think so. the percentage of the population that actually wants to see Gitmo closed, civilian trials, etc. is REALLY pathetically small.

― metally ill (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, June 2, 2011 5:25 PM (52 minutes ago)

people don't know what they want, or what's good for them. the average voter doesn't know shit about shit. democrats were elected as alternatives to republicans in those wave elections of 2006/2008, and instead of enacting actual liberal policy in several areas - with the too-weak stimulus being the major fuckup (not to say that there weren't/aren't institutional barriers to these kinds of policies - how strong those are is subject to another debate we've had here a million times as well), they governed down the center. i'm convinced the avg american could stomach these cries of socialism if it meant he had a job; we won't know. ideally, peabrains that vote on things that matter in america need to be led rather than followed

k3vin, the Hamiltonian!

"remember global cooling?"

s'like, remember phlogiston?! hah, smarty pants, explain THAT!

Like a metronome pulled to one pole, George Will never fails to remind his audience that global cooling was all the rage in the seventies; he even holds up the TIME cover advertising it.

I do remember phlogiston! or rather, I remember what it was *supposed* to be. I've never even heard of global cooling before.

there's a great video out there debunking the 'global cooling' business.

basically there was like one issue of time or newsweek in the late 70s that talked about 'scientists are afraid of global cooling!!' but none of the scientists quoted in the piece say they really are, or are equally afraid of warming trends at that point. and a search of scientific literature from that era reveals plenty of early research into warming and no research on cooling trends at all.

basically if someone says, 'what about global cooling, they were afraid of that in the 70s!!' they're either lying or believe someone who has lied to them.

xps lolllll

i thought it was in the early 00s when ppl thought the growth of the hipster population would make the entire globe cooler than in the past