Midday open thread

• So when did wingnuts start cheering against America? Their unbridled joy at losing out to Brazil is a bit unseemly, isn't it? "America, fuck yeah!" has become "Fuck America, Yeah!"
• While Chicago likely lost mostly because the country has hosted plenty of Olympics and South America never has, and because of lingering anti-American sentiment, this certainly didn't help:

  However,  the triumphant Chicago presentation--the culmination of a $48 million package--had cold water thrown onto it when Pakistani IOC member Syed Shahid Ali correctly noted the significant difficulties facing foreigners seeking entry into the United States. Obama failed to address Ali's concerns, saying only that hosting the Games in Chicago would be "a reminder that America at its best is open to the world."

  America's visa processing issues have been well-publicized throughout much of the world, with some tourists waiting six months or more to have a 10 minute appointment with a visa examiner in an embassy or consulate to visit America on a vacation. Business visas or those for cultural ambassadors, like artists and athletes, are similarly problematic. Many applicants complain that the system is opaque at best and a crap shoot at worst, with few guidelines provided for applicants and rejections issued pro forma.

  The Wall Street Journal speculates that Chicago's loss stems has more to do with the heavy European membership at the IOC and Latin American IOC members lining up behind Rio; however, the visa issue has been an growing problem since new requirements were issued after 9/11. Perhaps the Chicago loss will provide some much-needed political impetus to finally spur legitimate discussions of political reform.

  You create a fortress America to keep people out, they won't go out of their way fighting to bring international events inside your fortifications.

• I hear wingnuts are agitating against America hosting the next Super Bowl.
• Remember when liberals celebrated New York City losing out on the 2012 Olympics? You don't?
• From that same link above, guess who said:

  They say that the Olympics will come to Chicago if we're fortunate enough to be selected, but really it's coming to America, and I can't think of a better city to represent the United States than Chicago.

  Give up? It was George W. Bush, who as stupid as he was, at least seemed to realize that Chicago was actually in America. The wingnuts hate Obama so much, that the hate has been transferred to not just Chicago, but the whole country. Fuck America, Yeah!

• I'm no Pete Seeger fan, but if you are, or if you're merely a health care supporter in the Nyack, NY area, this sounds like fun:

  Health Care For All Rally
  Oct. 4
  4:30 pm-7:30 pm.
  Memorial Park, 53 Piermont Ave (at Depew Ave.)
  Nyack, NY
  Public information line: [phone]
  (Pete Seeger should be playing a bit after dusk)

• Neocons have fantasized for years about shaking Jewish support for the Democratic Party by backing the hardliners in Israel. That strategy is an abject disaster.

  Daily [Gallup] tracking for the month of September found 64% of U.S. Jews approving of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, significantly higher than the 52% average among national adults in September, and also higher than was seen among Catholics, Protestants, and Mormons. Only nonreligious Americans equal Jews in their support for the president.

• Reaganite conservative at the American Enterprise Institute (conservative think tank):

  During the glory days of the conservative movement, from its ascent in the 1960s and '70s to its success in Ronald Reagan's era, there was a balance between the intellectuals, such as Buckley and Milton Friedman, and the activists, such as Phyllis Schlafly and Paul Weyrich, the leader of the New Right. The conservative political movement, for all its infighting, has always drawn deeply from the conservative intellectual movement, and this mix of populism and elitism troubled neither side.

  Today, however, the conservative movement has been thrown off balance, with the populists dominating and the intellectuals retreating and struggling to come up with new ideas. The leading conservative figures of our time are now drawn from mass media, from talk radio and cable news. We've traded in Buckley for Beck, Kristol for Coulter, and conservatism has been reduced to sound bites.

• Texas judge has declared the state's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. The State of Texas will appeal. Don't get too excited. If this makes it to the state Supreme Court, it's likely dead. Texas elects its Supreme Court justices, and they are all Republican.
• I'd never heard of food phobias before.

  Dave Nunley is a food phobic in the UK who has primarily subsisted on grated cheddar cheese since birth. Although he's eating up to three times the amount of fat recommended for the average diet, he seems to be in fairly good health, save for a vitamin B deficiency.

  This isn't as uncommon as you might think.

  So wait, my kids can actually survive exclusively on macaroni and cheese? Heavens knows they'd love to.