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- Congressional Republicans had a plan for the 111th Congress: Block everything, blame Democrats for the deteriorating economic conditions, and ride anti-incumbent sentiment to a new congressional majority in the 2010 midterms. It was cynical, callous, and probably the only good electoral strategy for a party more interested in wielding power than governing. Of course, a critical component of this plan is the continuing effects of the recession, and now that jobs are coming back and the economy is slowly growing again, Republicans will need to tweak their plan, right? It turns out that old habits die hard.
- Historian Joseph Ellis takes on Founding Fathers fetishization: "The doctrine of original intent rests on a set of implicit assumptions about the framers as a breed apart, momentarily allowed access to a set of timeless and transcendent truths. ... [T]he doctrine requires you to believe that the "miracle at Philadelphia" was a uniquely omniscient occasion when 55 mere mortals were permitted a glimpse of the eternal verities and then embalmed their insights in the document." Silly warnings aside, the point is that context is key when discussing our "Immaculate Conception."
- This tale of a decision by DuPont decades ago to use one chemical over another in the manufacturing of chlorofluorocarbons for economic reasons -- and how it led to slower ozone depletion -- is a reminder that human beings are quite capable of damaging the environment on a global scale. I realize this is a banal point. But this banal observation gets lost the minute anyone tries to curtail the damage being wrought by global warming. The difference appears to be that with ozone depletion there was a specific, immediate problem that could be addressed, whereas global warming is a decades-long process that manifests itself in a sporadic fashion and who's biggest impact will occur in a future shrouded in uncertainty. But this is why liberals make a big deal about this: At some point the damage will simply be irreversible.
- Remainders: The line-item veto makes a comeback; "The Internet has changed forever, and no one seems to have noticed"; Ezra Klein suggests flailing newsweeklies could fill a need for political analysis; a Kansas lawmaker proposes subjecting abortion to a sin tax; and I just don't understand the Tea Partiers.
--Mori Dinauer
