He's on a Roll

President Obama is on fire this week.
CNN and Fox haven't covered it yet. Fox doesn't surprise me, but I don't think it's settled in how big a deal this is.
While reducing nuclear arms isn't the kind of sexy thing that starts conversations — or press coverage — it's the kind of important, world-changing stuff that earns presidents historical significance.
The timing could absolutely not be more spectacular. Slashing nuclear arms the day after you sign the most sweeping domestic policy legislation in decades is a colossal achievement. Spectacular.
For an administration that's been muddled in bloody policy battles with no foreseeable conclusion or positive headway, this is proof that these efforts haven't been wasted.
Obama's approval rating should skyrocket. If they don't, the Faith in Humanity Bar is going to plummet.

Preventative Health Care?

I wonder how effective this will be.
For the burger regulations, I guess it really depends on how clear the FDA makes restaurants make the labels. Your average joe (myself included) hardly knows what constitutes a good or bad calorie count. I mean, if a Big Mac's 540, I guess that's bad, but I only know that because I already know Big Macs are not healthy.
Most people for whom calorie counts matter are people who probably aren't going to be eating these things anyway.
That is, of course, unless the regulations force you to put the % daily value stuff up there.

As for tanning, there's a big issue everybody's overlooking — yes, this will conceivably discourage people from tanning bed use. But that doesn't mean white people won't want to look tan — the bill does nothing to discourage spray tan use.
So we'll have less cancer, but we'll have more people running around in that distinctive Jersey Shore, TV reporter orange glow.
And I dunno about you, but that seems like a huge risk factor for the general mental welfare.

Today in the Lulz.

Really?

This seems like a staggeringly bad idea to me. The potential for awkwardness is barely fathomable.

Jury-Rigged Reform

For those of you who haven't figured it out, the Democratic Party's leadership sucks at this game.
I understand the temptation to sneak the college funding reform bill into the health care reconcilliation bill. The Republicans are good at keeping legislation locked down, and the opportunity to milk as big a policy gain out of this.
But when you're trying to corral moderate Democrats, and Democrats that are only in their position because the last election was so skewed, the last thing you want to do is tack on more legislation that plays right into the "Big Guv'mint" frame.
Besides -- even if they can pass the bill with this legislation included, it's only more ammunition for Republicans to use in 2010. The Republicans will use the argument -- indeed have already used the argument -- that the Dems crammed this down the nation's throat via reconcilliation. And, the more they pass by those means, the more potent that argument will be.

Really helping the stereotype

This is pretty disgusting.
Whatever your opinions on the morality of homosexuality, it's pretty hard to support this.
Also -- of course it's in Mississippi.

Tea Parties — not that big a deal.

Lee Harris tries to analyze the Tea Parties' impending historical significance.

"Today many intelligent observers grope to discover what the Tea Party is all about and where it belongs on the Richter Scale of historical events. Does it signal the approach of a catastrophic upheaval, like the 9.0 earthquake of 2004 which sent devastating tsunamis across the Indian Ocean? Or will the Tea Party movement register only as a light quake in the 4.0 to 4.9 range, entailing “noticeable shaking of indoor items, rattling noises,” with “significant damage unlikely”?"

I tend to think the latter. The Tea Party movement does not have any new ideas, and it has few — or no — practical policy suggestions. It is merely a rag-tag conglomeration of the most rabid of conservatives pitching a fit because the Democrats are in power.

Tea Partiers say they dislike the Republican Party as much as they dislike the Democratic Party. This is a load of hogwash. Sure, they don't agree with the GOP on everything, but it seems likely this movement will collapse once the Republicans seize power (whenever that is).

This is just an unconventional grass-roots campaign against the Democratic Party. If the movement makes it into the history books at all, it will be as an interesting example of how to protest.

This isn't a Chilean earthquake, although if it were the consequences would be no less tragic. It's more a tremor that makes people stop, look, shake their head, and move right on with business as usual.

This is News?

Why the hell is this news?
Who gives a damn if Republicans think Harry Reid is Scooby Doo? Why is he responding the accusations? Why is that news?
It isn't. Unless, of course, you're Fox News. How a "journalistic" organization that puts crap like this on their front page is so well-known is scary.