Midday Open Thread

Lieberman Pledges To Filibuster House Bill: The Public Option Is ‘Unnecessary’. But please, please, please, Senator Reid, don't strip Joe of his chairmanship and shut him out of the Democratic caucus. Because then we would lose any leverage we have in getting him to vote our way. When he finally does switch parties, will that be enough to get you to act?

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From Charlie's Diary via Andrew Sullivan:

So here's the upshot: of the 4.6 Gy of Earth's known history, there's only been enough oxygen in the atmosphere for us to survive for about 0.5 Gy. For roughly 90% of the Earth's history we couldn't even breathe the air. And about 10-25% of the time, there have been ice ages so savagely fierce that the glaciers reached the tropics: odds are good that any meat probe landing on solid ground during these periods would rapidly die of exposure. So historically, Earth has only been inhabitable about 8% of the time — assuming you are lucky enough to find some solid ground. Once you factor in the random surface distribution, we're down to about 2% survivability.

Nick Baumann at Mother Jones reports on Igor Panarin's Doomsday Tea Party: One ex-KGB analyst has been warning for years that the US will collapse in 2010. Conservative activists think he may be on to something.

From emptywheel - Bart Stupak’s C-Street Sepsis:

As you read Bart Stupak boasting of taking reproductive choice away from women, remember that he’s not just an otherwise good Democrat (he’s not, in fact, a Blue Dog) who consistently lets the agenda of the Catholic Church override the well-being of his constituents, he’s also one of C-Street’s top Democratic members. This man, crowing over his legislative success is speaking as a representative of a group that preaches moral purity for others, but excuses itself from such moral guidelines with a back-slapping prayer lunch with the buddies. And then turns around and uses that moralizing to accrue political power.

While it looks increasingly likely that President Obama will approve the addition of 30,000 or more U.S. troops in Afghanistan, McChrystal seeks to keep UK troops 'out of harm's way': General aims to foil Taliban plan to make Afghanistan a British election issue.

The Gospel of the Golden Parachute:

The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, which has attracted widespread media attention over the size of its staff bonuses, believes banks serve a social purpose and are doing "God's work."

Thanks to the Swing State Project, here's a handy sortable calendar of 2010 filing deadlines and primary dates in all 50 states.

Over at the Wonk Room, Daniel J. Weiss, Jaren Love and Michael McGovern take note that The ‘Party Of No’ Becomes The ‘Party Of Slow’: Senate Republicans are demanding lengthy economic analyses of progressive clean energy policy, despite having spent careers voting for and against major energy legislation without such delay.