Celebrating Cronkite while ignoring what he did

Add comment July 19th, 2009

Glenn Greenwald’s ESSAY on the neglected legacy of Walter Cronkite is a must-read, from beginning to end.

Them gringo Repubs got some splainin’ to do

21 comments July 19th, 2009

Frank Rich acidly REVIEWS the performances of certain Republican senators at the Sotomayor hearings, where even the dialect of the fictional Ricky Ricardo (above) was offensively invoked.

Climate-change skeptics challenged to put their money where their mouths are

1 comment July 19th, 2009

 

 Nate Silver over at FiveThirtyEight.com argues that it hasn’t been as cool this summer as some people think.

 Silver notes, for example, that a certain right-wing blogger is mistaken in his notion that temperatures in Minneapolis have been below normal: “The average high temperature there since summer began this year has been 82.4 degrees. The average historic high temperature over the same period is … 82.4 degrees. It’s been a completely typical summer in Minneapolis.”

 Silver ALSO SAYS he’s willing to put up actual coin of the realm in challenging climate-change skeptics with regard to temperatures in their respective hometowns.

Six months into his presidency, Obama’s poll numbers dip to levels for Reagan, Dubya

2 comments July 19th, 2009

 

 CNN has compiled an average of five national polls which SHOWS that President Obama’s approval rating after six months in office approximates those enjoyed by Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush at the same junctures in their presidencies.

 Notes Keating Holland, director of polling for CNN: “Reagan, like Obama, got approval ratings in the high 50s and low 60s during most of his first summer in office. But as unemployment remained high, Reagan’s approval rating dropped below 50 percent for the first time in November of 1981, and it stayed under 50 percent for the next two years.”