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[mckmas8808]

What issues do you suppose were solved?

Most issues will never be fully solved because we live in a always changing universe. But it looks like to amount of CO2 has fallen over the last 5 years and that's a good thing. And policy and technology looks to have gotten us there.

 

[Aaron Strife]

Great news from the state of Marryland:

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Maryland finds a significant increase in support for same-sex marriage among African American voters following President Obama’s historic announcement two weeks ago. The referendum to keep the state’s new law legalizing same-sex marriage now appears likely to pass by a healthy margin. Here are some key findings:

-57% of Maryland voters say they’re likely to vote for the new marriage law this fall, compared to only 37% who are opposed. That 20 point margin of passage represents a 12 point shift from an identical PPP survey in early March, which found it ahead by a closer 52/44 margin.

They point to this, specifically:

-The movement over the last two months can be explained almost entirely by a major shift in opinion about same-sex marriage among black voters. Previously 56% said they would vote against the new law with only 39% planning to uphold it. Those numbers have now almost completely flipped, with 55% of African Americans planning to vote for the law and only 36% now opposed.

While I still think Walker's the favorite in WI, hopeful turnout news from Madison:

In Madison, lines have extended out the door of the city clerk's office.
In Milwaukee, says Milwaukee Election Commission executive director Sue Edman: “It’s very high for the first day of early voting for any election. Generally it’s 10, 15, 20 people.”

Edman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that 457 voters filed absentee ballots with the commission Monday, quadrupling the early turnout for May’s recall primary and far exceeding the typical general election.

Hopefully students casting their votes before they head home.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Most issues will never be fully solved because we live in a always changing universe. But it looks like to amount of CO2 has fallen over the last 5 years and that's a good thing. And policy and technology looks to have gotten us there.

So you are saying that CO2 emissions have fallen since 2007?

Hmmmm, I wonder what major event took place since then..

 

[empty vessel]

Most issues will never be fully solved because we live in a always changing universe. But it looks like to amount of CO2 has fallen over the last 5 years and that's a good thing. And policy and technology looks to have gotten us there.

Sorry, I thought your previous post was in reference to opening up drilling in Arctic waters.

 

[AlteredBeast]

So you are saying that CO2 emissions have fallen since 2007?

Hmmmm, I wonder what major event took place since then..

I bet it was the Prius sales.

 

[SouthernDragon]

It's the noses of hyperventilating Republicans scrubbing the air of carbon.

 

[mckmas8808]

So you are saying that CO2 emissions have fallen since 2007?

Hmmmm, I wonder what major event took place since then..

Yeah damn you're right too. You're thinking about the recession right? Ugh....so if the economy picks up the CO2 levels will too. Didn't think of that.

 

[Wilsongt]

I came across this nugget of lulz today.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2561...tion_would_ban_anonymous_online_comments.html

Online anonymity is once again under attack. This time, it comes from the New York state Senate floor, where is bill is aiming to cut down on cyberbullying, protect small businesses, and -naturally - protect politicians from anonymous attacks during campaign season.

This amendment would, were it approved (which it won't be, so don't worry), require New York-based websites to remove comments posted by anonymous users, unless said users agree to attach their names to said comments.

And this isn't some wishy-washy Google+ "real name" nonsense, either -- you can't just offer up a real-sounding name to attach to your comment and be done with it. According to the text of the bill, the anonymous poster must agree to attach his or her name to the post and "confirm that his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate." Technically, that even makes my byline sketchy, since my legal name is just Sarah Purewal.

Websites would be required to place a contact number or email address "clearly visible" in any place where comments can be posted. And no, in case you're wondering -- the person who requests that an anonymous comment be taken down does not have to disclose their IP address, legal name, or home address.

 

[UraMallas]

Question about the current student loan interest rate hike that could be going into effect in July. Does the current break in interest rate that we've been enjoying apply to all the subsidized federal student loans or just to the loans that were taken out in the specific period from 2007-present? Has it been applied to student loan debt before 2007? Thanks in advance, I just want to educate myself on the subject and figured Poli-GAF might have some insight.

 

[reilo]

I still don't understand how an interest rate increase in student loans was justified.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Gas prices could go down if the Keystone Pipeline is opened completly. But it wouldn't be much at all! It'll be so small that nobody would even notice.

No, gas prices will go up in the middle of the country. Probably every location within the boundaries of the Mississippi drainage base will see gas prices increase.

 

[mckmas8808]

No, gas prices will go up in the middle of the country. Probably every location within the boundaries of the Mississippi drainage base will see gas prices increase.

Is it because the natural resources in that area will then be shipped out the country due to the pipeline being built? And then imported back at a higher cost?

If so how can we be so sure that this will happen?

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Yeah damn you're right too. You're thinking about the recession right? Ugh....so if the economy picks up the CO2 levels will too. Didn't think of that.

Yep, I was and yeah, they will. Depressing, really.

 

[Invisible_Insane]

Question about the current student loan interest rate hike that could be going into effect in July. Does the current break in interest rate that we've been enjoying apply to all the subsidized federal student loans or just to the loans that were taken out in the specific period from 2007-present? Has it been applied to student loan debt before 2007? Thanks in advance, I just want to educate myself on the subject and figured Poli-GAF might have some insight.

As I understand it, the expiration of the lower rate will apply to all subsidized federal loans issued after July 1, 2012. If you have a loan at the lower rate, it will stay there; only new loans will be subject to the new rate. And I don't think the lowering of rates applied retroactively--whatever rate you took the loans at before 2007 is likely still the rate you're paying.

Fun side note: I'm pretty sure that if you, like some of us, are planning to use the money to attend graduate school, you're ineligible for the 3.4% rate anyway. hooray deficit reduction.

 

[eznark]

Is it because the natural resources in that area will then be shipped out the country due to the pipeline being built? And then imported back at a higher cost?

If so how can we be so sure that this will happen?

If he's going based on the earlier report from the NRDC it's based on the assumption that given the pipeline, all else will remain constant. That's highly unlikely.

 

[sc0la]

As I understand it, the expiration of the lower rate will apply to all subsidized federal loans issued after July 1, 2012. If you have a loan at the lower rate, it will stay there; only new loans will be subject to the new rate. And I don't think the lowering of rates applied retroactively--whatever rate you took the loans at before 2007 is likely still the rate you're paying.

Fun side note: I'm pretty sure that if you, like some of us, are planning to use the money to attend graduate school, you're ineligible for the 3.4% rate anyway. hooray deficit reduction.

Yeah 6.8 fixed for graduate school. And most don't defer interest while you are studying lol

so expensive

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Hispanic SuperPAC launches Arizona ad against Romney

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/hispanic-super-pac-launches-anti-romney-ad-in

Both English and Spanish versions of the ad will run for several weeks in Arizona’s largest media markets of Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma.

Senate also rejected GOP Student Bill 62-34 meaning Republicans voted against it too

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/senate-rejects-house-gop-student-loan-bill

 

[eznark]

Hm....this makes me think that maybe the Dems weren't completely full of shit when they said they had internal polls that showed a much closer race in WI.

https://twitter.com/NewsMacIver/status/205766735457042432/photo/1/large

National Democratic association pumping $1.5m into the race? I'd say that screams "this is closer than it appears."

 

[Clevinger]

But if that was true, why would it only show up on internal polls?

 

[mckmas8808]

Hm....this makes me think that maybe the Dems weren't completely full of shit when they said they had internal polls that showed a much closer race in WI.

https://twitter.com/NewsMacIver/status/205766735457042432/photo/1/large

National Democratic association pumping $1.5m into the race? I'd say that screams "this is closer than it appears."

Sarcasm?

 

[eznark]

No, seems like a weird spend if the race is over. They must feel like they have a "hit" with one of their ads and went looking for buyers.

But if that was true, why would it only show up on internal polls?

Pollsters have different methodologies.

I don't know how much the DGA has though, so this may be token support?

 

[codhand]

No, seems like a weird spend if the race is over.

I want to believe.

 

[Oblivion]

Joe the Plumber says founders would want plumbers and black people running for higher office, not the college educated "elites"

 

[fenners]

Joe the Plumber says founders would want plumbers and black people running for higher office, not the college educated "elites"

I haven't clicked the link, and I'm a pesky immigrant without a US history background, but weren't most of the founders of the US pesky "elites" in the modern sense?

 

[empty vessel]

I haven't clicked the link, and I'm a pesky immigrant without a US history background, but weren't most of the founders of the US pesky "elites" in the modern sense?

If by most you mean all, then yes.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Is it because the natural resources in that area will then be shipped out the country due to the pipeline being built? And then imported back at a higher cost?

If so how can we be so sure that this will happen?

If he's going based on the earlier report from the NRDC it's based on the assumption that given the pipeline, all else will remain constant. That's highly unlikely.

Most of the Midwestern US refineries are currently oversupplied with cheap canadian crude oil.

The keystone pipeline creates a distribution channel that centers around crude refinery at a center in Oklahoma, and then delivering this crude oil to the gulf of mexico to be exported onto the global market.

In other words, the keystone pipeline will enable Midwestern oil refiners to deplete their supplies at higher rates, which will push the price of the Canadian crude oil up. Supply goes down, price goes up. It's a supply-side project focused on depleting Midwestern crude reserves, which are currently imported from canada on the cheap.

 

[fenners]

If by most you mean all, then yes.

I was trying to give some wiggle room

 

[Amir0x]

If by most you mean all, then yes.

I don't know, Benjamin Franklin at least had to reasonably work for it. Then of course he became an elite, but I guess it depends on where we're using the cut off.

 

[Oblivion]

I don't know, Benjamin Franklin at least had to reasonably work for it. Then of course he became an elite, but I guess it depends on where we're using the cut off.

It actually blew my mind to find out Old Ben, one of the most intelligent, arguably THE most intelligent of the FFs never went to college.

Guess Joe was right. :smug

 

[GaimeGuy]

If he's going based on the earlier report from the NRDC it's based on the assumption that given the pipeline, all else will remain constant. That's highly unlikely.

I haven't clicked the link, and I'm a pesky immigrant without a US history background, but weren't most of the founders of the US pesky "elites" in the modern sense?

George Washington was like an order of magnitude wealthier than Mitt Romney is. He owned tens of thousands of acres of land and had a few hundred people working on his main plantation, which was 6500 acres itself.

The founding fathers of america were mostly a bunch of wealthy, well-connected elites who couldn't have much standing in the British government or parliament because of the distance that separated them. They had the status, but not the prestige or power of their colleagues (within the area of governance).

That's grossly overgeneralizing things, and everyone had his or her own reasons, but the idea of a bunch of humble men leading a noble fight against an oppressive empire that gets shoved down our throats is a whole load of BS. A lot of them were just sick of feeling like "2nd class elites," if such a label even makes sense.

 

[Sirpopopop]

One affects a handful of industries and was easily mitigated, the other affects every person and every industry and has proven to be almost impossible to mitigate. One had almost universal support, the other was not universally supported.

ODS = 638500 metric tonnes (1980)
CO2 = 36.6 billion metric tons. (2010)

Yet, that doesn't change the fact they are both international treaties designed to combat an environmental problem that primarily results from air pollutants. Both treaties also combat a pollutant that would have an effect on everyone in the world. One could say their scope in terms of purpose is similar.

There isn't even much difference in terms of effect. It's not as if the use of CFCs was limited to a few industries.

(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n15_v133/ai_6623215/)

These compounds are used to make the foam cushions upon which this country sits and sleeps. Air conditioners and refrigerators rely on their special thermal properties. They fill the energy-saving foam panels that insulate buildings and almost half the new houses built in the United States each year. And they clean the printed circuit boards that run television sets, computers and the space shuttle's complex electronics.

Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs as they are more generally known, have permeated almost all aspects of modern life. Nontoxic, nonflammable, noncorrosive and extremely stable, they have become the chemical of choice for a myriad of industrial purposes. But while CFCs once seemed perfectly harmless, experts now regard them as a serious threat to the environment and human health. Indeed, the perceived threat is so great that chemical companies around the globe are investing tens of millions of dollars in the search for safer substitutes, and the world's largest manufacturer of CFCs two weeks ago reversed its corporate stand by announcing it would eventually end CFC production.

The major difference is in the amount. Yes, that's a huge difference in pollutant. However, it's not a distinction which forbids a comparison made along the lines that I made. That, in one instance the world decided to regulate the pollutant, and in the other instance, the world decided to ignore it. Heck, one could say the arguments against the Montreal Protocol are similar to the arguments against the Kyoto Protocol.

http://www.wunderground.com/resources/climate/ozone_skeptics.asp


As to your quote from the link - The effectiveness of the treaties isn't up for debate here. Of course, one treaty is going to be more effective than the other. As you pointed out, one treaty was fully ratified by almost every nation state in the world, and the other was not. In one instance a full effort was made to nip a problem in the bud, in the other instance, no such attempt was made.

 

[zargle]

George Washington was like an order of magnitude wealthier than Mitt Romney is. He owned tens of thousands of acres of land and had a few hundred people working on his main plantation, which was 6500 acres itself.

Didn't most of that come from Martha Washington's family? I seem to recall being told that at one point.

 

[Amir0x]

It actually blew my mind to find out Old Ben, one of the most intelligent, arguably THE most intelligent of the FFs never went to college.

Guess Joe was right. :smug

Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson will always be my favorite founding fathers, but I have a special place in my heart for Ben due to his sense of humour

 

[GaimeGuy]

Didn't most of that come from Martha Washington's family? I seem to recall being told that at one point.

I believe the 6500 acre plantation was his own, but the rest of his land was mostly through marsha's family. But I could be wrong.

 

[Oblivion]

Who was richer, Washington or Jefferson? One of them was supposed to be the richest president in our history iirc.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Who was richer, Washington or Jefferson? One of them was supposed to be the richest president in our history iirc.

Washington by far. $600+ Million in modern dollars. No president comes close. Though Kennedy would have had he lived to inherit his father's estate

 

[Aaron Strife]

Well, Barrett was just out with an internal poll showing a tie, 49-49. DNC must be seeing potential there.

It's probably a combination of

a) Walker surviving the recall would bolster his national profile and endear him to conservatives, making him a good bet for 2016
b) By contrast, beating Walker would invigorate Democrats in Wisconsin, giving candidates like Baldwin a boost in November
c) Beltway talking points will go something like "Democrats couldn't even beat unpopular governor Walker, how can Obama expect to win" bla bla bla losing the news cycle

Barrett's actually leading among independents in polls, so like always, it just comes out to turnout.

 

[el retorno]

Well, Barrett was just out with an internal poll showing a tie, 49-49. DNC must be seeing potential there.

It's probably a combination of

a) Walker surviving the recall would bolster his national profile and endear him to conservatives, making him a good bet for 2016
b) By contrast, beating Walker would invigorate Democrats in Wisconsin, giving candidates like Baldwin a boost in November
c) Beltway talking points will go something like "Democrats couldn't even beat unpopular governor Walker, how can Obama expect to win" bla bla bla losing the news cycle

Barrett's actually leading among independents in polls, so like always, it just comes out to turnout.

why do you trust these?

 

[GhaleonEB]

why do you trust these?

Campaigns selectively release internal polls all the time. I read them with a grain of salt, - a bit more than other polls since we don't have internals. But there's no reason to assume they're junk unless they're clearly far out of lockstep with other polling. Several polls have had the two close, and the national party is dropping cash in now. That might be part of why.

 

[Amir0x]

if barret won it'd be the greatest thing ever, so I hope he wins

 

[Oblivion]

Apparently Obama just can't help himself when it comes to bowing to other people:

 

[PhoenixDark]

He won't win, conservatives are far too fired up. It's very easy to get college kids to sign shit, trust me I'm on campus all the time. Many are heading home for summer break right now and aren't even thinking about the recall, or what they signed back in November.

 

[Amir0x]

yeah I don't think he will win, else Barret would have got significant support way earlier

it just would be awesome if he did win

 

[Aaron Strife]

why do you trust these?

Internals tend to overstate their candidate's standing, though I've heard both campaigns are showing the race is more or less tied.

One thing is that the public polls may be significantly oversampling Republican voters. Barrett's support with Democrats is the same as Walker's support with Republicans, and he's winning Indies, which would normally be a winning formula - except Walker still posts 4-5 point leads in most of them. In fact most partisan makeups are actually more conservative than the 2010 electorate, which would be pretty absurd if true.

If you look at the 2010 polls, they overstated Walker's margin of victory by about 5 points. Same for Feingold vs. Johnson. Those races ended up being a lot closer than pollsters had them, even if it didn't make up the difference.

Walker probably still has the edge, but not a big enough one that Barrett can't overcome. In fact, I'd think whoever wins it does so by a hair.

 

[Jackson50]

So sad. Hopefully some of our 'foreign aid' can be used to remedy that.

Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed the Foreign Operations Subcommittee's recommendation to reduce aid to Pakistan for FY 2013. Of course, even with the reduction they would still receive $1 billion. And they could receive additional aid conditional upon the opening of the supply routes into Afghanistan. For a bit of positive news, they also voted to eliminate funding for the Iraqi Police Developmental Program which wasted hundreds of millions of dollars.

Joe the Plumber says founders would want plumbers and black people running for higher office, not the college educated "elites"

The Founding Fathers were products of the Enlightenment. They esteem reason and erudition. No offense, Joe. But your notions about them are rubbish.

 

[eznark]

why do you trust these?

The only reason I think this one is marginally legit is the big governors buy. That said, I don't buy for a second that he is leading among independents. None of the related questions in every other poll has shown anything close to that. It's also a bit difficult to believe that every single other poll from five different organizations has Walker up 5-8 points over the past month yet Barrett (who has made no significant splash) has a tied poll? It doesn't really add up. It's the equivalent of Walker releasing an internal poll that says he is up 12.

That said this rekindles my hope that it is close. I really, really, really want there to be a recount!

 

[gcubed]

The only reason I think this one is marginally legit is the big governors buy. That said, I don't buy for a second that he is leading among independents. None of the related questions in every other poll has shown anything close to that. It's also a bit difficult to believe that every single other poll from five different organizations has Walker up 5-8 points over the past month yet Barrett (who has made no significant splash) has a tied poll? It doesn't really add up. It's the equivalent of Walker releasing an internal poll that says he is up 12.

That said this rekindles my hope that it is close. I really, really, really want there to be a recount!

if they are using mid term internals it could be an overstatement of republican voters... although if anything i would think it would skew even more to the GOP

i'm trying to justify the drama you deserve!

 

[eznark]

if they are using mid term internals it could be an overstatement of republican voters... although if anything i would think it would skew even more to the GOP

i'm trying to justify the drama you deserve!

Well the Marquette poll and the PPP poll showed a shift among independents (identification, not in terms of Walker) toward GOP identification in the past year. That may have caused a sampling change, I'm not sure. That said, two of the polls that show Walker up 5+ are Democratic agencies, PPP and Kos.

I think there could be some serious John Doe drama next week. Barrett has been hammering it hard this week and has put out a few ads essentially saying Walker will be going to prison soon. Maybe they're working? Though, the poll just released today has the same 5 point margin so who knows.

 

[PhoenixDark]

How have we not talked about this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHN0ZeS5c-4

 

[codhand]

How have we not talked about this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHN0ZeS5c-4

that top comment, haha so defensive