Midday open thread

Posted by admin on December 17th, 2011

This thread will launch a salvo on the war on Christmas by wishing you an early Happy Chanukah. First night is two days away, y’all. So happy holidays!

Nag, nag, nag …
A hundred reasons to join the freeway bloggers.
Dave Dayen has an excellent synopsis of the otherwise baffling Republican moves on forcing Keystone XL to be part of the payroll tax cut package:

The provision would force the Administration to decide on a permit for the pipeline within 60 days, and that the permit would automatically be granted otherwise. The President could decide that the pipeline production “would not serve the national interest,” and deny the permit. Politico goes on to claim that this decision would be “fraught with political risks in the thick of an election year.”

No it wouldn’t. The State Department has already come out and said that they would not have enough time within 60 days to assess the environmental risks from the pipeline project. So they would have to deny the permit if forced into a 60-day decision-making process. And that serves as the excuse. It becomes a political discussion, like any other, and calling it a “risk” is really overblown.

I think we all need to stand back, breathe, get some distance from the situation, and realize that the Republican Party is holding a tax cut hostage. Bet you didn’t see that one coming a few years ago.
President Obama gets a standing “O” from the Union of Reform Judaism.
In Memoriam: the final essay of Christopher Hitchens.
What? This never happens!
The Salon hack list 2011! Can you guess who’s #1?
The wife of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, Vanessa Bryant, has filed for divorce. Apparently, there was no prenup.
The Atlantic takes a look at what happens when the middle class in a city suddenly starts shrinking. Case in point? Milwaukee, WI.
Newt Gingrich feels that attack ads against him violate the spirit of Christmas:

“I think it’s counterintuitive,” Gingrich said. “We have an ad that will come up next week where Callista and I are wishing people a Merry Christmas, and we’re talking in a totally positive way. I think if these guys keep up this kind of negative junk, it’s so discordant with the spirit of Christmas.”

Personally, it sure was seeming for a while that Newt “work the children harder” Gingrich was a walking violation of the spirit of Christmas, but what the hell do I know.