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- Obviously, "centrist" Democratic senators like Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh provided crucial filibuster-breaking votes last year on progressive legislation, but their support came at the cost of hefty compromises to appease conservative constituencies. With this in mind I'm pretty indifferent to the fate of Bayh, Lincoln, or any of the usual Democratic bed-wetters in November. Their contribution to the halcyon days of the supermajority was ultimately to make good legislation worse and exacerbate the collapse of our already broken political institutions.
- It certainly seems like a Lucy-and-the-football ploy, but Lindsey Graham's consistent apostasy on climate change -- even in the face of threats from his own party -- has convinced me that he's serious about implementing carbon pricing, and his dismissal of an "energy only" bill today only reinforces that. But I suspect the compromise -- if such a thing is even possible -- will inevitably lead to a push for more nuclear energy. I'm open to nuclear as a short-term solution for reducing output of and dependency on carbon sources, but it can't just be a no-strings-attached deal -- you have to negotiate with the nuclear industry.
- A group of Internet luminaries has put up a petition that would seek to regularly replicate Obama's recent Q&A with members of Congress. I'm as optimistic as the next progressive about the public's capacity to engage more with the political process via honest and lively debates freely available online. But one name on the list stood out: Andrew Keen, author of such thought-provoking diatribes as "The Cult of the Amateur: How blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of today's user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture, and our values." What on Earth is he doing on a list with a bunch of pioneering bloggers and the founder of Wikipedia?
- Something to keep in mind, from John Sides: "So while it’s true that opposition to health care reform is positively related to the length of the process, that doesn’t imply any causal relationship. The rapid increase in opposition and the partisan polarization in opinion suggests that the lengthy process matters not by opening people’s eyes to the cruel realities of legislating, but by giving opponents of reform additional time to attack it."
- If I have this right, the basic libertarian take on employment is that a) government jobs aren't actually jobs, and b) unemployment would disappear overnight if we removed every bit of leverage (the minimum wage, unions, OSHA, etc.) workers have over employers. It's ironic, but the anarchy this free-market paradise would unleash would probably lead to an even more authoritarian state, forged in a Hobbesian fear of unemployed and desperate masses tearing society apart.
- Remainders: The spectacle of rich Republican executives vainly believing that they alone can solve California's problems is always amusing; I thought this was from The Onion but it turns out it's just another piece of serious journalism from a right-wing publication; John Bolton is concerned that the United States' ability to contribute to a global nuclear holocaust is being dangerously imperiled; I'm George Will, syndicated columnist, and I'm here to tell you I know jack about health care policy; a Republican Senate candidate enlists the help of time-traveling Ronald Reagan to help him knock off Harry Reid; the Republican strategy to attract women to the party relies on treating them as flighty, helpless; and look, I get -- and disagree with -- the argument that corporations have free-speech rights, but its nuts to ignore the consequences for campaign financing.
--Mori Dinauer
