Visual Source: Newseum
Matt Bai:
The G.O.P. debate on Thursday was marked by the kind of dogmatic posturing that has led to political gridlock.
A classic in the annals of tiresome media. Since the Republican debate was marked by dogmatic posturing, obviously both parties are the same.
If this were merely a Republican phenomenon, the party would be alone in suffering the wrath of the average American voter. But it isn’t. You could have put a lot of Washington Democrats up on that stage, and asked them if they would have accepted $10 in new taxes or new stimulus in exchange for $1 in cuts to Social Security, and you probably would have gotten much the same response: hell, no.
Bullshit. In fact, in the very next segment, Bai notes Obama would have taken the deal, but that doesn't stop him from churning out this crap as if it's meaningful ("a lot of Washington Democrats", whoever they are, are not running for President.) Hey, Matt, if the Republican candidates sucked, or are simply liars, or both, just say so. You're doing your readers a tremendous disservice by insisting both parties must be the same when you've given concrete examples of how they aren't.
Nate Silver:
What we haven’t had, however, are polls comparing Democrats against Republicans in a direct way. That’s why the poll that Gallup published Friday ought to concern Republicans. It shows a 7-point Democratic advantage on the generic Congressional ballot — meaning simply that more Americans told Gallup they plan to vote for a Democrat for Congress next year. Although the generic ballot is a crude measure, it is probably the best macro-level indicator of the direction that the House is headed in.
Last year, Republicans won the popular vote for the U.S. House — essentially what the generic ballot is trying to measure — by 7 percentage points. So a poll showing Democrats 7 points ahead instead is a pretty significant swing.
But does it mean that Democrats are now favorites to take over the Congress next year?
No, not exactly. Instead, it points toward control of the House being more or less a toss-up. There are three structural issues that Democrats will have to contend with that take a little bit of the sheen off this poll.
For more on that poll, see
Gallup: Dems take slight lead on generic congressional ballot. And for more from
GQR/Democracy Corps:
Gallup is registered voters, GQR is likely voters.
AP:
The economy might not be on the brink of another recession after all.
onsumers, who drive most economic growth, spent more on cars, furniture, electronics, and other goods in July - and more in May and June than previously thought. That burst of activity is encouraging because it shows many Americans were willing to spend despite high unemployment, scant pay raises, steep gas prices, and diminished wealth.
If it keeps up, the economy might rebound after growing at an annual rate of just 0.8 percent in the first half of 2011.
That’s a big if.
EJ Dionne:
In the latest episode of rampant conservative judicial activism, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned the health care law’s mandate requiring individuals to buy insurance. It is yet another case of judges, at the behest of conservatives, doing the very thing conservatives claim to abominate: making their own law and ignoring the judgments of branches of government elected democratically by the voters.
Fortunately, this is not the last word -- this issue is definitely going to the Supreme Court -- and in June, the 6th Circuit ruled in favor of the mandate.
Read the whole column... if conservatives don't want to be judicial activists, they'll stay away form this ruling and read the dissent very carefully.
Stephen Dworkin writing in E Magazine:
This summer’s heat may also be direct evidence of changing climate trends scientists have long been expecting. A 2004 study in the journal Nature showed that, while there is no specific weather event that can be attributed to climate change with absolute certainty, greenhouse gas emissions doubled the likelihood of the infamous 2003 heat wave that killed tens of thousands in Europe. If this pollution continues, that kind of summer may be occurring every other year by 2040. Deadly heat waves and other heat-related events, such as droughts and more extreme weather, will very likely plague North America as well. This spring, in fact, was “the most extreme…on record,” as Dr. Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground, told ABC News during their coverage of tornadoes and droughts that brought destruction to many American communities and caused hysteria in the media.
Studies released this year support these conclusions, with one conducted by scientists at Stanford University published in the July issue of the journal Climate Change predicting summer temperatures in the U.S. will increase irreversibly within the next 20 to 60 years. The same study finds that, as the globe warms, the coolest summers of the coming decades will be hotter than the warmest of the last half century.
He's my new favorite environmental writer (aka my son.)