Late Afternoon/Early Evening Open Thread

Coming up on Sunday Kos ...

• Next week, Presidents Obama and Medvedev will meet in Moscow to negotiate a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Plutonium Page will discuss the treaty and the role it plays in the complicated path to Global Zero.
• Just in time for the holiday weekend, DarkSyde will review some of the amazing spin-offs from gunpowder in a Brief History of Fireworks.
• The Republican Party will try to start some July 4th fireworks this weekend with an ad (of questionable accuracy) targeting vulnerable Dems for their vote on the American Clean Energy Act. Steve Singiser looks at the factual issues with the ad, and some of the more curious targets of the NRCC's attacks.
• SusanG will take a look at two first-hand accounts of dealing with the housing market: the controversial and ethically challenged book by New York Times finance reporter Edmund Andrews, Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown, and Gimme Shelter by Mary Beth Williams, a rollicking account from a freelance journalist of a three-year journey trying to buy a home in New York City.
• DarkSyde and DevilsTower team up for a foray into the convoluted world of financial markets and unregulated derivatives in "Bids and Bubbles."