Incidentally, I would note that Jack Kennedy would probably feel a lot more political affinity to the Republican than the Democrat in that race. I doubt if he’d even recognize his party today.
[Update a few minutes later]
Even in Massachusetts, support is weak for health-care deform.
…just 43 percent of Massachusetts voters support the Democratic national health care plan now making its way through Congress, versus 36 percent who oppose. In one of the bluest states in the country — and one with up-close experience with a state health care regime that resembles the plan under consideration for the nation as a whole — that is strikingly weak support. And that support is pretty much limited to Democrats; independents and Republicans are opposed.
And there are a lot of independents in MA.
If Brown pulls this off, it will be the sweetest political victory for the American people in a long time. It might break the back of the so-called “progressives.”
I don’t want Harry Reid to resign. I want the corrupt moron to continue, in partnership with the Speaker, to drive his party over a cliff for the next ten months, right up until his sorry patoot is tossed back to Searchlight by the good people of Nevada. What strikes me about this is not the archaic racist (or at least uncomfortable-with-race) language, but the admission that the man is a fraud, who is capable (both linguistically and ethically) of using whatever dialect he needs to woo audience.
It’s not just that Obama lied, it’s the obviousness of the mendacity. There’s no wriggle room on this one; anyone who’s been paying any attention for the last two years knows it’s a bald-faced lie. And in addition, there’s been no explanation for it, and no excuses. The administration is simply ignoring the lie as though it doesn’t matter, and insulting the press in the bargain. This makes pundits who liked and supported Obama look foolish, and they don’t like to look that way. Thus, the anger—it’s personal now.
Maybe they’ll attack him in his sleep with a golf club. Good thing he has Secret Service.
Did Climaquiddick set one off? If so, it’s not just a new, but a real (as opposed to politically ideologically driven) science, returning it to free inquiry.:
Remember these names: Steven Mosher, Steve McIntyre, Ross McKitrick, Jeff “Id” Condon, Lucia Liljegren, and Anthony Watts. These, and their community of blog commenters, are the global warming contrarians that formed the peer-to-peer review network and helped bring chaos to Copenhagen – critically wounding the prospects of cap-and-trade legislation in the process. One may have even played the instrumental role of first placing the leaked files on the Internet.
This group can be thought of as the first cousins to Andrew Breitbart’s collective of BIG websites – obsessively curious, grassroots investigators that provide vision to the establishment’s blind eye. Peer-to-peer review is the scientific version of the undernews.
Call it Big Science.
[Update a few minutes later]
I liked this comment, which puts it all in perspective for those who remain willfully blind to the implications of the data dump:
Imagine for a moment that a high school student submitted a project for competition in which he offered up the hypothesis that tree rings gave a historical blueprint of climate change.
Competition Judge: “Ok, Johnny, this is a very interesting theory. May I see your data?”
Johnny McFibber: “I lost it.”
Competition Judge: “Hmmm. That will make it nearly impossible to win, Johnny. Can you duplicate it or give us a detailed description of what it showed”
Johnny M “Actually, I hid the parts that didn’t comport with my theory., in fact, showed the exact opposite of my theory,..and I emailed all my friends to do the same”
Competition Judge” “Johnny, that’s not the way we conduct ourselves in the sciences, you must be confused with your humanities classes. Over here, we strictly scrutinize the facts.
Johnny M: There’s a reporter here I would like to introduce you to…he wants to ask some questions about your first marriage.
Competition Judge: Great work on this project, Johnny. The science is settled. You win.
Moral? Research softly and carry a big hockey stick.
Fortunately, the hockey stick is broken, probably for good.
The engineers, the people who actually make this stuff work (not to denigrate the financiers, marketers, etc. whose efforts are also necessary to fund the engineers) are underappreciated in society. As is technology in general. As he points out, people are complaining about having twenty-minute delays on a trip that would have taken their ancestors (and not distant ancestors — great-great-grandparents) months.