GOP Still Getting Blame

Polls: GOP takes more blame for shutdown impasse:

Americans blame Republicans for the partial government shutdown, two new polls find as the budget standoff veers closer to the deadline for raising the nation's $16.7 trillion debt limit.

Seven in 10 adults disapprove of the way Republicans are handling themselves in the wrangling over funding the government, according to the ABC News/Washington Post poll released Monday. That's a 7-point jump since last week and includes 59% of Americans who identify themselves as conservatives...

The ACA For Dummies

This one is excellent. The comments, however, are infested, naturally, with trolls. ObamaCare In Plain English: What It Means For You -

GOPer Terror

The intransigence of Democrats, from Obama on down to red-state senators, has surprised the GOP.:

...Dealing with terrorists has taught us some things,” said Washington Rep. Jim McDermott after voting no on one of Thursday’s GOP bills. “You can’t deal with ’em. This mess was created by the Republicans for one purpose, and they lost. People in my district are calling in for Obamacare—affordable health care—in large numbers. These guys have lost, and they can’t figure out how to admit it.” Why would House Democrats give away what the Supreme Court and the 2012 electorate didn’t?

Boner Holds To Extortion Plans

U.S. Republicans will not pass 'clean' debt-limit increase: Boehner | Reuters:

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Sunday that there is "no way" Republican lawmakers will agree to a measure to raise the nation's debt ceiling unless it includes conditions to rein in deficit spending...

Warren Talks Anarchy

Elizabeth Warren slams House GOP’s “anarchy gang” - Salon.com:

In a speech given on Thursday from the Senate floor, Elizabeth Warren laid into what she called the House’s “anarchy gang” and defended a vision of government as what “we as Americans have chosen to do together.”

“The anarchy gang is quick to malign government,” Warren said, “but when was the last time anyone called for regulators to go easier on companies that put lead in children’s toys, or for food inspectors to stop checking whether the meat in our grocery store is crawling with deadly bacteria, or for the FDA to ignore whether morning sickness drugs will cause horrible deformities in little babies? We never hear that...”

She Was Out Of Her Car

... and no longer in command of a "deadly weapon."

Rampaging driver shot dead on Capitol Hill: Did cops do the right thing? - CSMonitor.com:

...The deadly shot came after Ms. Carey, with her one-year-old daughter in the back of her black Infinity coupe, crashed into White House barricades, sideswiped at least two police cars, crashed into gates at the Capitol, and then stepped out of her car...

The Evil GOPer List

32 Republicans Who Caused the Government Shutdown - Svati Kirsten Narula, Ryan Jacobs, and Judith Ohikuare - The Atlantic:

Friday was the fourth day of the government shutdown, and there’s still no sign of an exit. What’s surprising about the ongoing fight is how a small group of members of Congress have managed to bring Washington to a halt. Just months ago, Speaker John Boehner was warning that forcing the government to shut down over Obamacare or anything else was politically hazardous. Yet Boehner remains stuck, his strategy dictated by a small rump of members in the Republican caucus who refuse to budge. On Monday night, as government funding ran out, a group of around 40 hardline conservatives refused to support any resolution to fund the government that didn't defund Obamacare. Since Monday night, their goals may have become less clear, but their resolve has not weakened. While it’s widely believed that a “clean” resolution would pass the House handily, it would also likely lead to a right-wing rebellion in the caucus that would spell the end of Boehner’s speakership...

The Evil Of The Tea

The tea party created an existential threat to America, not Obamacare - CSMonitor.com:

... By pretending that the Affordable Care Act poses such an existential risk to the republic that it merits dragging our national character through the mud of shutdown and the threat of default, tea party Republicans are belittling the very real crises America soon may face.

Crazy In NC: Truth-Telling Edition

To spite your face | PoliticsNC:

...So McCrory and North Carolina’s legislative leaders joined the national GOP’s obsession with killing Obamacare. The optics are terrible. They don’t have a single message about why they oppose the program other than it’s “Big Government.” What the public is starting to hear, though, is, “We don’t want people to have health insurance.”

The North Carolina Republicans were just the party that cut education, limited women’s health options and raised taxes on the working poor. Now, they are the party that raised insurance premiums, too.

The Media Blame

How the Broken Media Helped Break the Government - David Rohde - The Atlantic:

...I'm not suggesting a false equivalence between Fox and MSNBC, or the far right and left — which James Fallows has rightly criticized in The Atlantic. Hard-line Republicans egged on by Fox are responsible for the government shutdown. They have taken the government hostage in their obsession to end Obamacare. Yet if one watches only Fox, radical steps are needed to prevent the cataclysm that conservatives believe Obamacare represents.

There are some reasons for hope. The emergence of non-profit news outlets and the web’s breadth of information and instant accountability are promising. But simplistic, reassuring narratives are more profitable than dispassionate descriptions of complex public policy problems. For a collapsing, digital-age news industry desperate for income, partisanship is an economic lifeline...

Backlash Building

Throw the bums out? Budget deadlock portends 2014 backlash | Fox News:

While the House and Senate point fingers at each other over the budget impasse, new polling suggests the only thing they might accomplish is getting thrown out of office.

Despite a robust campaign by Democrats to pin the blame exclusively on their GOP colleagues, the American public appears fed up with just about every elected member from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to the Capitol dome...

What Is O Thinking?

Republicans finally confronting reality: They’re trapped! - Salon.com:

...If they got the same explanation from the president that I and several other writers got from senior officials at a White House briefing today, they know that for Obama this is more than just about preventing his own personal embarrassment (at having caved) and more than about his individual legacy (which will be harmed even if Republicans bear the brunt of the blame for a default). He sees “right sizing” the executive branch, and leaving it in better shape than when he inherited it, as a core responsibility of his presidency. Reducing the scope of executive powers in the foreign policy realm is one piece of it. But it would be a complete abdication, in his mind, to leave the next president vulnerable to the nullification of his or her election...

Mitt Opposes Shutdown

Romney opposes GOP strategy that led to government shutdown | Deseret News:

Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said before giving a speech at the University of Utah Wednesday that shutting down the government is the wrong way to oppose the nation's new health care law...

Forbidden Planet Plays Out In D.C.

The Lonely War Of Marlin Stutzman - Esquire:

...A largely unremarked element of the etiology of the prion disease currently afflicting the Republican party -- and therefore, alas, the country -- is the carefully cultivated, and by now deeply inculcated, sense of conservative victimhood that has been a prime element of

conservatism's emotional appeal since long before Richard Nixon rose to power on it. They are always beset. They are always besieged. They are always surrounded -- by intellectuals, by scientists, by the all-powerful Left that exists primarily in their imaginations, because it certainly doesn't exist in American politics, and hasn't since the days of Joe McCarthy. Culturally, this always has been expressed partly by the endless conservative bleating that somebody, somewhere is getting laid. The Gospels tell us that the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ's church. The Republicans find their faith imperiled by Barney Frank's marriage. There is always a shadow on the wall, a monster in the closet, a mysterious rustling in the teeming underbrush of the conservative Id....

Pressure Mounts On GOPer Moderates

Government shutdown: GOP moderates huddle as conservatives set agenda - CNN.com:

A small but growing group of House Republicans is increasingly worried about the fallout from the government shutdown and say it's time for Speaker John Boehner to allow a simple vote on a spending bill...

Comment Of The Day: Death Camp Edition

What History Will Say About Obamacare and the Government Shutdown - The Daily Beast: Velociryx 42 minutes ago

I too, think history will see this for what it is. I just got off the phone with my sister's third cousin's (twice removed) middle daughter.


She just told me that her ex boyfriend's aunt's grandmother has a hunchback living next door who tried to sign up for his "free insurance" and was told to report to a given address.


Well...he took a cab (in addition to being a hunchback, he's also a dwarf, and being vertically challenged, is too short to drive). WHEN HE GOT THERE, he found a mobile FEMA camp on a railroad box car with a Death Panel waiting inside. He barely escaped with his life, and plans to post full details on his Facebook page soon.

Future History Past

What History Will Say About Obamacare and the Government Shutdown - The Daily Beast:

...The Democratic Party was opening up its historic program to bring health care to all citizens, and the Republican Party was closing down the federal government, a fanatical minority manipulating the rules of our democracy and holding a gun to the country’s head, all because it wants to deny all citizens health care and is furious that it failed three times in that effort...

Media Putzs

With good cause, Charles Pierce calls them  Tiger Beat On The Potomac. 

How Politico invents/generates “news”! - Salon.com:

...And there was their frankly amazing September-October 2012 coverage, and meta-coverage, of the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, which I attempted to summarize here. Briefly: In the world of Politico, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, in the space of about a month, was the victim of a deluge of wildly contradictory “narratives.” It was in disarray, then rescued, then in disarray again, and finally rescued once more. Mitt Romney was sometimes a “lousy candidate” and sometimes the campaign’s underutilized secret weapon. Stuart Stevens was righting the ship and then Tagg Romney re-righted the ship away from him. On Sept. 19, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei wrote a story explicitly saying that a story they’d written three days earlier “doesn’t matter.” It was a master class in useless campaign pseudo-analysis.

But creating the “Obamacare exemption” myth, and then reporting on the ensuing chaos, is impressive even for Politico. Good work, guys.

Foxes Visit Hen House

Wall Street comes to Washington. Will it matter? — Get ready for 14th amendment talk - POLITICO Morning Money - POLITICO.com:

WALL STREET COMES TO WASHINGTON. WILL IT MATTER? — All of the big bank CEOs are in DC today for a meeting of the Financial Services Forum. The timing of the meeting just happens to coincide with the government shutdown and approach of the debt ceiling deadline. But both will be central topics when the CEOs visit the White House to meet with President Obama. CEOs expected at the meeting include JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs’s Lloyd Blankfein, Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman and Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, among others. According to a White House official, the president plans to make it clear to the CEOs why he is unwilling to engage in any negotiations on the debt limit and why he believes doing so would be harmful to the economy...

Bad Poll For GOPers

The Morning Plum: Republicans enter the danger zone:

... It finds that 58 percent of Americans, including 58 percent of independents, oppose Congress defunding Obamacare. Seventy two percent, and 74 percent of independents, oppose shutting down major activities of the government to stop the health law. On the debt limit, 64 percent oppose not raising it to block the law. All of this is in spite of plurality disapproval of Obamacare. Dems have opened a nine point lead in the generic House matchup, 43-34. Underlying structural factors mean even a wide lead probably won’t dislodge the GOP majority. But as Steven Shepard rightly notes, a shutdown could make things “volatile...”

Fox ACA Anxiety

An anxious Fox News blames the shutdown on Obama - Salon.com:

...Mind you, one could feel the channel’s producers trying to pivot away from the shutdown and distract the viewership with something else, almost anything else – Iran’s alleged nukes, random New York City crime stories, the new trial of sex-slaying suspect Amanda Knox – only to come creeping back every few minutes, like a child picking at an especially itchy scab. Several commentators, including Jamie Weinstein of the Daily Caller and Goldberg — who unites the roles of right-wing intellectual and rodeo clown like no one else — protested that the day’s real story ought to be the “glitches” involved in today’s rollout of the 50 different Obamacare insurance-exchange websites. They argued that the shutdown was overshadowing those burning issues. (Because most of the time the Internet is so free of problems, I guess.) Everyone carefully avoided the obvious point – made by Obama later in the day – which was that the overloaded Web servers and 404 pages on the insurance sites reflected enormous demand for what they were offering...

Boner Bummer

John Boehner’s Shutdown - NYTimes.com:
... But Mr. Boehner refused. He stood in the well of the House and repeated the tired falsehood that the Affordable Care Act was killing jobs. He came up with a series of increasingly ridiculous demands: defund the health law, delay it for a year, stop its requirement that employers pay for contraception, block the medical device tax, delay the individual mandate for a year, strip Congressional employees of their health subsidies. All were instantly rejected by the Senate. “They’ve lost their minds,” Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, said of the House Republicans. “They keep trying to do the same thing over and over again...”

Comment Of The Day: Evil Con Edition

Facebook: Geary Yelton

And another thing, since I'm on a rant: There's nothing "conservative" about public extortion, letting a minority of radical Congressmen seize control, promoting ignorance through misinformation, deliberately weakening the middle class, passing laws to subvert the democratic process, trying the convince people that government is bad by sabotaging it, changing the direction of American education in ways that make it both inferior and less accessible, openly encouraging sedition or treason, embracing Ayn Rand (an aetheist) while preaching religious extremism, or denying what the New Testament says about taking care of the poor. If you support any of the modern-day GOP's current ideas, you have a lot of nerve if you call yourself a conservative, and you have even more nerve if you call yourself a ChristianPublish Post.

Huntsman Makes Sense Again

This Republican Wants Obamacare To Go Forward, Mandate GOP Idea(VIDEO):

Back in 2012 Jon Huntsman was likely the only Republican Democrats feared as being able to beat President Obama. The reason is that he is a pragmatic moral Conservative that does care about the working middle class.

During the 2012 election he simply did not fit in with the irresponsible candidates running for the Republican nomination. They were all running for President as if they were in an alternate state of reality. Remember these were the characters whose audience booed a gay soldier defending the country and cheered when Rick Perry was acknowledged as the governor of the state that executes the most. Most importantly were the intrinsic beliefs of Republicans towards those unable to purchase insurance. They cheered when asked if they should be allowed to die...

Beaver's Boehner

Jim Beaver

I cannot think of a better put-down nickname I've ever heard than the one I just heard for John Boehner: The Weeping Cheeto.

GOPers Will Get The Blame

From The Can't Fool Everybody Every Time Department:
CNN Poll: Republicans would bear the brunt of shutdown blame - CNN.com:

...A CNN/ORC International poll released Monday morning, hours before funding for the government is scheduled to run out, also indicates that most Americans think Republicans in Congress are acting like spoiled children in this fiscal fight, with the public divided on whether the president is acting like a spoiled child or a responsible adult...

Feds Vs. NC ID

Feds challenge N.C.'s new voter ID law:
The Obama administration is going to court Monday to challenge what it described as "highly restrictive" voting laws in North Carolina that limit early balloting and require voters to present photo identification.

The move is an extension of the Justice Department campaign to rein in new statutes in wake of a Supreme Court's decision earlier this year to strike down a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act...

Truth From Bob

Wisdom From Bill

B. Clinton: Hillary's next campaign would be different:

...The former president added: "The main thing you can't do, the great trick in any human endeavor, including politics, is you must learn the lessons of your mistakes and your failures without becoming a general who fights the last war, because every new encounter will be shaped by different forces..."

The Daily Flashback: Lunacy Raygun Edition

Ronald Reagan’s shameful legacy: Violence, the homeless, mental illness - Salon.com:

...President Reagan never understood mental illness. Like Richard Nixon, he was a product of the Southern California culture that associated psychiatry with Communism. Two months after taking office, Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, a young man with untreated schizophrenia. Two years later, Reagan called Dr. Roger Peele, then director of St. Elizabeths Hospital, where Hinckley was being treated, and tried to arrange to meet with Hinckley, so that Reagan could forgive him. Peele tactfully told the president that this was not a good idea. Reagan was also exposed to the consequences of untreated mental illness through the two sons of Roy Miller, his personal tax advisor. Both sons developed schizophrenia; one committed suicide in 1981, and the other killed his mother in 1983. Despite such personal exposure, Reagan never exhibited any interest in the need for research or better treatment for serious mental illness...

The Democratic Error

Government Shutdown Not A Good Idea - A Stupid Argument Made By Smart People - Esquire:

...Moreover, have the Democrats ever shown any inclination to make a meal of the simple, self-evident fact that the other party has gone completely out of its mind? It's not enough to decry the ongoing vandalism. The nihilism behind it has to be brought out and hammered home, day after day, election after election. Letting the crazy people work their crazy will while the rest of us suffer in the vain hope that voters will figure out on their own what happened to them, and why, is a fool's errand.

Blitzer Has A Backbone?

For the first time in ages, a major media figure has challenged a GOPer over facts, or rather the lack thereof. Could this signal a media turn back toward actual journalism?
 
Must Watch: Wolf Blitzer and Michele Bachmann Brawl Over the Benefits of Obamacare | Mediaite:

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer engaged in a tense and heated exchange with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on Friday over a House GOP effort to defund the Affordable Care Act or force the government into a shutdown. The argument became animated over a variety of assertions Bachmann made, at one point prompting Blitzer to insist that what she asserted was flatly “not true...”

 

Shutting Off Comments

Why We're Shutting Off Our Comments | Popular Science:

Comments can be bad for science. That's why, here at PopularScience.com, we're shutting them off...

And I don't blame them.

O Pitches ACA

Modern Slave Labor

Will Work for Free: How Unpaid Internships Cheapen Workers of All Ages | The Business Desk with Paul Solman | PBS NewsHour | PBS:

...But increasingly, what interns face now is that there are no jobs, and no prospects of a job waiting at the end, no matter how well they do. Indeed, they're going to have to do multiple internships, become serial interns, and even at the end of that, they may be in a very precarious position. So it's really something that sounds good for a lot of people but increasingly is not working out. Since 2008, rising college tuition, record levels of student debt and high levels of youth unemployment have exacerbated the dismal prospects for unpaid internships. Unpaid internships have become a straw that breaks the camel's back for many people....

One of the reasons I got out of the degree-earning business and one of the reasons I discourage undergraduate students from seeking advanced degrees. Several good undergraduate programs have ruined their recruitment prospects via internships and "clinical" hours.

Ph.Ds In Public Schools

Why Aren’t More Ph.D.s Teaching in Public Schools? - Laura McKenna - The Atlantic:

...American universities award more than 60,000 doctoral degrees every year. However, there are not enough academic jobs for all those graduates. One study asserts that only 41 percent of Ph.D.s will find tenure-track positions. Some studies are slightly more optimistic. In a report for the academic journal PS, Jennifer Seagal Diascro reported that 49 percent of the 816 Ph.D.s who graduated from political science programs between 2009 and 2010 found permanent academic positions.

I'll offer a reason not mentioned in the article: lack of respect. People who earn terminal degrees typically are highly motivated and very intelligent, thus they are less likely to develop the patience and philosophical inclination that teachers need to thrive in K-12 and far less likely to suffer fools kindly-- they expect people to listen to them.

A Reporting Celebrity Visit

I wonder if he heard the banjos...

The Joys of North Carolina - Dan Rather's Official Website:

Finished a reporting and interviewing trip to Charlotte, Asheville, Franklin and a few other places in North Carolina. Is there a friendlier place in the country than the Smoky Mountain area? Doubt it. Texas is the only place I can think of that might--just might--edge it. But if so, only by a tad. The Smoky Mountain region is well known for its beauty, and rightly so. But anyone who goes there and doesn't recognize the just plain decency and exceptionally warm friendliness of the folks has to be either not paying attention or brain-dead...

Who's Where On ACA

The Morning Plum: Ted Cruz’s stance on Obamacare is the GOP’s stance on Obamacare:

...* Eighty percent of Americans, including 82 percent of independents and 75 percent of Republicans, say threatening a government shutdown is not an acceptable way to negotiate.

* Americans say overwhelmingly that Republicans are not trying to work with Obama by 70-23. By contrast, 51 percent say Obama is trying to work with Republicans...

GOPers Continue Extortion

House Republicans open two-front war on ObamaCare | Fox News:

House Republicans are poised to open a two-front war on ObamaCare, pushing for a vote this weekend on a bill that would delay the health care law in exchange for raising the debt ceiling -- a week after handing the Senate a separate bill that would defund the law...

The Daily Flashback: Iran Hostage Edition

October Surprise News Coverage(House of Representatives - February 05, 1992):

Suspicions about a deal between the Reagan campaign and Iran over the hostages have circulated since the day of President Reagan's inaugural, when Iran agreed to release the 52 American hostages exactly five minutes after Mr. Reagan took the oath of office. Later, as it became known that arms started to flow to Iran via Israel only a few days after the inauguration, suspicions deepened that a secret arms-for-hostages deal had been concluded.

Five years later, when the Iran-contra affair revealed what seemed to be a similar swap of hostages for arms delivered through Israel, questions were revived about the 1980 election. In a nice, ironic twist, the phrase `October surprise,' which Vice Presidential candidate George Bush had coined to warn of possible political manipulation of the hostages by Jimmy Carter, began to be applied to the suspected secret activities of the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign...

The Double Fake Secession

It's a Great Media Stunt to Try to Secede from Colorado | Jason Salzman:
...But don't take it seriously, except as a novel way right-wingers are manipulating the media to promote their unpopular attacks on common-sense gun-safety, clean-energy laws, and other progressive legislation at the state level.

Murderers Targets Non-Muslims

Al-Shabab: Foreigners in Kenya were a 'legitimate target':

Al-Shabab, the armed Somali Islamic extremist group that attacked a shopping mall in Kenya, said Wednesday that foreigners were a "legitimate target" and confirmed witness accounts that gunmen tried to let Muslims go free while killing or taking the others captive.

In an email exchange Wednesday with The Associated Press, al-Shabab said the jihadis "carried out a meticulous vetting process" so the Muslims would not be harmed. According to published accounts, witnesses have said the gunmen rounded up people, asked questions about Islam that a Muslim would know and told the Muslims to leave the mall...

The Management Underbelly

Some people will make much of this as a failing in education, but these two nabods were not in education, though that's what their paycheck says. They were in management. I have observed that when you hire a teacher you are going to get one of two kinds of people: those who will have their markers pried from their cold, dead fingers, and those who discover that teaching is work and immediately start scheming to escape the classroom by getting into management. Don't by surprised when these frustrated 1%ers turnout to be bullies, liars, and hypocrites

.
A school official’s unbelievably racist texts - Salon.com:

...There is so much that’s contemptible about the exchanges between Como and Donato – the simmering, near constant anger they display, the grotesque, dehumanizing way they view pretty much anybody who isn’t a white man (to their credit, though, I didn’t notice any gay slurs in the lot) and the jaw-dropping amount of arrogance and privilege it takes to speak that hatefully, that freely. But what stinks most is the betrayal it represents, the lie that their jobs were. The disgust they had for their own kids. “They were friendly to our faces,” Zhaqweyza Armstrong, a 16 year-old Coatesville High junior, told the Inquirer Monday, “and then they talked about us behind our backs.”

Right on cue to back me up, Salon posts another essay on teaching:

GOPers Groping Toward Budget

U.S. Senate Republicans start closing ranks on spending bill | Reuters:

U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday appeared to fall in line with their leaders who want to pass an emergency spending bill by September 30 and avoid government shutdowns, even if it means failing in a drive to destroy "Obamacare..."

The Great Flushing Sound

American Bile - NYTimes.com:

...Put simply, most people are on a downward escalator. Although jobs are slowly returning, pay is not. Most jobs created since the start of the recovery, in 2009, pay less than the jobs that were lost during the Great Recession. This means many people are working harder than ever, but still getting nowhere. They’re increasingly pessimistic about their chances of ever doing better.

As their wages and benefits shrink, though, they see corporate executives and Wall Street bankers doing far better than ever before. And they are keenly aware of bailouts and special subsidies for agribusinesses, pharma, oil and gas, military contractors, finance and every other well-connected industry...

"Freedom's Just Another Word For Not Enough To Eat"

Krugman rages.Free to Be Hungry - NYTimes.com:

...Hence the war on food stamps, which House Republicans have just voted to cut sharply even while voting to increase farm subsidies...

Comment Of The Day: Skippy Flashback Edition

Qassem Suleimani New Yorker Piece - The Limitless Bungling Of George W. Bush And Company - Esquire
Sean Mitts · Top Commenter

Honestly, I could never figure out WTF we were doing back then. Iraq was run by the Baathists, the most secular of them all. Iran by the Shiites. The Taliban was fundamentalist Muslim. None of them could stand each other. The idea that Saddam was in cahoots with al Qaeda never made any sense. The same was true for Iran. And Iran and Iraq had fought a bloody war for 8 years where a million people died (and yes, we were helping both sides). Suddenly 4 years later they're an "Axis" and responsible for 9-11??

The lengths to which these people went to deceive the American people were astonishing. No doubt the American people bear some of the blame for being so easily snookered (although it's kind of understandable after 9-11). But the depths of the deceit these guys sank to whip up the country into a war frenzy is simply unforgivable.

This Was Not The South

Police: NYC mob attacks Sikh professor, thinking he's Muslim:

In what police are investigating as a hate crime, a Columbia University professor was badly beaten on a New York City street Saturday by a mob that apparently believed he was a Muslim...

Exalting The Danes

“Countrymen”: How Denmark saved its Jews - Salon.com:

...Lidegaard attributes this miracle to “politics” — not just the politics of international and wartime diplomacy but the ideology of nationalism. Specifically, it was the ability of Denmark’s Social Democratic leaders “to link ‘the Danish’ with ‘the democratic’ — using the two synonymously. Hence, to be a good, patriotic Dane was tantamount to resisting totalitarian ideas and defending representative government, democracy and humanism.” This is the sort of wholesome, right-thinking mentality that often leads outsiders to call Scandinavians boring, but in 1943 it achieved a transcendent beauty, as ordinary Danes in great numbers responded to the German action against their fellow citizens with indignation and reflexive efforts to help. Lidegaard offers countless examples of farmers, white-collar workers, laborers — people from every walk of life, including the Danish police — opening their homes, offering rides, misdirecting German soldiers, carrying messages, protecting personal property, concealing fugitives in hospitals and so on, to help the Danish Jews escape to Sweden, where they were welcomed without reserve...

Selling Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera America Review: Why Fox and MSNBC Should Worry | New Republic:

...Of course, Al Jazeera had for months been pitching itself as an antidote to the media landscape at large. The channel’s chief executive, Ehab Al Shihabi, described his goal as “fact-based, unbiased and in-depth news,” with “less opinion, less yelling and fewer celebrity sightings.” The network made a show of luring anchors away from other networks—some even out of TV news retirement—with promises of a new frontier in balanced, thorough reporting. And as the station kicked off its first day of broadcasts, it mostly delivered on these promises. The evening’s programming featured hours of Egypt coverage that included a report on church burnings and another about how the protests are morphing from massive town-square demonstrations to small, spontaneous ones. The push to contextualize was apparent in every segment: one anchor offered a breakdown of the history of the Muslim Brotherhood that was unprecedented in its straightforwardness and clarity. The coverage is calm, comprehensive, and far-reaching. But somehow, the overall effect is not quite as different from the rest of cable news as Al Jazeera imagines it...

Floating Clintons

Hillary Clinton’s Two Decades in the Political Spotlight -- New York Magazine:

...There’s a weightlessness about Hillary Clinton these days. She’s in midair, launched from the State Department toward … what? For the first time since 1992, unencumbered by the demands of a national political campaign or public office, she is saddled only with expectations about what she’s going to do next. And she is clearly enjoying it...

Nuking NC

Report: Nuke that fell on N.C. in 1961 almost exploded:

One of two hydrogen bombs that a doomed B-52 accidentally dropped on North Carolina in 1961 came perilously close to exploding, according to a recently declassified report...

One wonders how large the crowd of revelers would have been in the North.

Bigfooting Bigfoot (And Rodents)

Looking for Bigfoot? Follow this map�—�others have seen 'em there - NBC News.com:

...All alleged samples of Bigfoot hair, for example, have turned out to be from elk, bears or cows. Photos, audio and film footage have been determined to be inconclusive or hoaxes, and no bodily remains have ever been found — despite the fact that there would have to be hundreds or thousands of the creatures in existence in order to maintain the "species."

But Bigfoot enthusiasts will no doubt continue their search undaunted — and now, thanks to Stevens' map, they know where to look.

There are several billion people on this planet. How many bodies have you found? So are there thousands of Bigfootses hiding out there? Seems impossible as long as you operate under the assumption that humans are the smartest kids on the block. What if we're not? Say our IQ compares to Bigfoot like humans to, say, squirrels. Could you successfully hid from a squirrel?

Here We Go Again

13 Wounded in Barrage of Gunfire at Chicago Park - NYTimes.com:

A gunman who shot and wounded 13 people at a South Side park on Thursday night was armed with an assault-style rifle equipped with a high-capacity magazine, the police said on Friday...

Home School Horrors

The Sinister Side of Homeschooling - The Daily Beast:

...Indeed, when kids are homeschooled, it’s easy for the world to forget that they exist. In August, Erica Lynn Parsons, a 15-year-old girl ostensibly being homeschooled in North Carolina by her adoptive parents, was reported missing by her stepbrother; it soon emerged that she hadn’t been seen since 2011. Her birth mother is now calling for an “Erica’s law” that would provide greater oversight of homeschooling...

Beware The Open Hand Of The Forked Tongued

Congress Seeing Dollar Signs When Tribal Leaders Visit DC

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/09/18/congress-seeing-dollar-signs-when-tribal-leaders-visit-dc-151339?fb_action_ids=654913087866249&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%22654913087866249%22%3A273097332815352%7D&action_type_map=%7B%22654913087866249%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

 

This site makes it extremely difficult to copy & paste for some reason.

Bengahzi Will Never Die!

Darrell Issa’s pathetic, error-laden obsession continues - Salon.com:

...So far, the hearing seems to be answering one question I’ve had about Issa’s crusade: Why did he wait so long to interview Pickering and Mullen in public? Back in May, both men volunteered to give public testimony to the committee about the ARB process. But Issa declined; he insisted they testify privately. From their private testimony, the GOP majority produced the myth- and error-ridden report they leaked earlier this week. Now, so far in public testimony, Issa has been embarrassed twice – and it’s still early. No wonder he hoped to take his first crack at Pickering and Mullen out of camera range.

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Elijah Cummings, produced a counterreport that documented the distortion of Mullen’s testimony about Cheryl Mills and other such factual errors and leaps of illogic in Issa’s IRB review. (It’s here.) Among Cummings’ findings: There was no “stand down” order to the military; Clinton did not personally sign a cable authorizing security reductions to the temporary facility; in fact, officials have been removed from their posts for bad judgment on Benghazi security...

CO Flooding And Secession

Private businesses flew no rescue missions even though they had choppers available. So do the gun nut secessionist Koch stooges want to swap some extra mags for a helicopter ride?

In the Midst of Historic Flooding Colorado Secessionists Deny Climate Change:

...The secession-minded Coloradan’s are angry over new renewable energy standards one county commissioner said were “an attack on oil and gas,” and another claimed “The whole purpose of doing this (secession) is to protect the energy sector that we feel is very much under assault.” The energy sector they are protecting is under the control of the Koch brothers who have spent hundreds-of-millions of dollars to promote climate change denial, and according to the National Weather Service (NWS) and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); Colorado’s ‘biblical‘ flooding is in line with climate trends projected to occur due to the effects of manmade global warming...

Bug Man Squirms Loose

DeLay appellate lawyer: ‘We won the Super Bowl’ | www.statesman.com:

A 3rd Court of Appeals panel, split 2-to-1 along partisan lines, on Thursday reversed the money-laundering and conspiracy convictions that ended the political career of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay seven years ago.

The Sugar Land Republican was facing a three-year prison sentence before the court’s majority opinion ruled that there was “legally insufficient evidence” at DeLay’s 2010 trial before a Travis County jury...

Update: Bug Man's Greatest Hits! Here, here.

The NRA Coup

Response To 12 Killed Americans An NRA Coup And Media Disgrace (VIDEO):

...There is a hidden danger here. Many have seen news reports in places like Iraq and Afghanistan where a reported is interviewing one of the locals when shots and bombs are going off. The reported would be flinching and to the locals, it is like nothing is happening. They are desensitized. America has already become desensitized to the gang killings in our urban areas. They see it as something that won’t happen in their neighborhoods. The danger now is that inaction from Congress and a derelict media is widening that desensitization. This is a coup for the NRA.

Killing The Poor

Republicans ramp up war on poor people - Salon.com:

...Now it’s not clear what the impact of all this will be on the size of the uninsured population. The Associated Press sees a sizable coverage gap forming. By contrast, a Health Affairs analysis earlier this year estimated that about a million people will actually go uninsured as a result of states opting out of Medicaid. And, as we’ve already seen in a several states, the pressure on GOP governors and legislatures to relent will be intense. Over time, this problem will shrink.

But next year millions of poor people’s lives will be made worse than they have to be because of this particular tactic. By no coincidence, poor voters are hard to mobilize. And since this benefit will only exist in the abstract (it’s being withheld, not rescinded) turning it into a liability for Republicans will be a huge challenge. But 9 million people is a lot of people. There’s no reason not to give it a try.

Comment Of The Day: Rube Edition

Great Historical Figures Of The Moment - Esquire
Kurt Weldon · Top Commenter · Los Angeles, California

Atrios summed it up beautifully: The Republican Party used to be run by people who were good at conning the rubes. Now it's being run by the rubes.

Pass it on...

Iran Says No To Nukes

Nightly News: Iran’s president vows to never develop nuclear weapons:

In an exclusive interview with NBC’s Ann Curry, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country is asking for peace, stability and the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction...

More UnAmerican Activities

House Bill Cuts Health Funds, Raising Odds of U.S. Shutdown - NYTimes.com:

House Republican leaders — bowing to the demands of their conservative wing — will put to a vote on Friday a stopgap spending measure that would strip all funding from President Obama’s signature health care law, increasing the likelihood that the government will shut down in two weeks...

Crazy In NC: UNC-TV Edition

Progressive group aims to oust Orson Scott Card from new position at UNC - Salon.com:

A “silly thought experiment” has made “Ender’s Game” author and homophobe Orson Scott Card very unpopular in his new position as a board member of the University of North Carolina public television, reports The Huffington Post.

Responding to a column Card wrote in May, in which he compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler, Progress North Carolina Action has launched an online petition for Card’s removal from the two-year term advisory role:...

Clinton Has Solid Lead

Opinion: For 2016, Hillary Clinton's big lead; GOP's big zero - CNN.com:

...Tough and experienced, Clinton is now positioned as a candidate who rivals Obama's 2007 surge. She will also be positioned as the candidate of the 51%, compelling to women of all ages and even possibly competitive among Republican women in this incarnation...

No Science For The Right

Fearing Witchcraft, House Republicans Pull Proposal For National Science Laureate:

Thanks to the efforts of global warming deniers, House leadership has quietly pulled a bill that would have created an honorary, unpaid position of “American Science Laureate,” saving the nation’s schoolchildren from the specter of encountering dangerous pro-science messages. Science magazine explains that the bill was expected to pass easily until Larry Hart of the American Conservative Union complained that an official Science Laureate would allow President Obama to appoint some wild-eyed freak in a lab coat...

Irish Bank Thieves

Ireland Bank Tapes Leaked - The Snowden Effect: Ireland Edition - Esquire:

...I think "Forget about reality because it's not working" should be tattooed on the forehead of every major banker from Jamie Dimon to these thieves over here. The tapes also are fairly clear evidence that complete amorality among the financial services industry remains far from an American phenomenon. It's important to remember that, not long ago, as the bubble was building, Ireland was Exhibit A for the case being made by the master thieves that a combination of deregulation and cowboy banking was the golden staircase. The Celtic Tiger, remember? In point of fact, the Irish bubble was even bigger and more fragile than ours was, and when it popped, it did so with a far louder bang. In the aftermath, however, there was even less transparency as to the causes of the crash than there was in the United States...

Shooter Had Troubles In Navy

Live updates: Navy Yard shooter 'had a pattern of misconduct' - latimes.com:

The 34-year-old former Navy electrician’s mate identified as the gunman who killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard had been discharged from the service in 2011 after multiple disciplinary infractions, a Navy officer said Monday.

Aaron Alexis “had a pattern of misconduct,” the official said...

Clinton's Knee

How Obama is Setting the Stage for Hillary in 2016 - The Daily Beast:

...Five years ago, Hillary Clinton sparked controversy by remarking that Martin Luther King's dream only became a reality when Lyndon Johnson forced the Civil Rights bill of 1964 through Congress. "It took a president to get it done." Obama supporters seized on Clinton's words as a slight against Martin Luther King. A political cycle later, progressive Democrats may feel new respect for LBJ's ability to get things done.

Peter Beinart's analysis of the cultural moment is astute. But be careful about over-predicting big sweeping new political changes. Democrats tried that in 2008. And what they'll be looking for in their next leader will be much less the ability to touch the nation's heart, and much more the ability to apply the knee to her Republican opponents' groins.

The Privatization Scam

Diane Ravitch: School privatization is a hoax, “reformers” aim to destroy public schools - Salon.com:

...The central premise of this movement is that our public schools are in decline. But this is not true. The public schools are working very well for most students. Contrary to popular myth, the scores on the no-stakes federal tests— the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — are at an all-time high for students who are white, black, Hispanic, and Asian. Graduation rates are also at an all-time high...

Wishful Thinking

Obama May Have Played Us All And Won - That Is Leadership:

...Here is the reality; the only ones that weren’t played in this whole scheme were the President and his administration. This President is so self-assured that unlike many he is capable of taking a barrage of incoming missiles without responding. He keeps his eye on the ball. That is real leadership. One hopes that as he approaches the twilight months of his presidency, he will use this same technique for middle class centric issues, immigration issues, and other Plutocrat busting issues.

Running Will Get You Shot In NC

Man seeking help after North Carolina car crash shot by police | Reuters:

An unarmed man who was shot dead after running toward police officers in Charlotte, North Caroline, may have been just trying to get help after crashing his car, police said...

Update: here.

Pointing Will Get You Shot

NYPD Officers Shoot Bystanders in Midtown - WSJ.com:

...The man was able to get away from the officers, and as additional officers arrived, allegedly put his hand into his pocket and then took it out, making a motion as if he was shooting in the direction of the police officers, police said...

Noonan Flogs Putin

Peggy Noonan Does Not Care For This Impertinent Cossack Vladimir Putin:

...Our Lady is very big on grace and patience, and has been known to excoriate President Obama for his supposed lack of such. To be fair, she would excoriate Obama for doing anything besides putting on a dinner jacket and white gloves and refilling her drink glass every time she daintily rings the little silver bell she keeps nearby at all times.

Mr. Putin’s challenge to the idea to American exceptionalism was ignorant and tone-deaf. The president had thrown in a reference to it at the end of his speech. Mr. Putin, in his essay, responded: “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.” After all, he said, God made us all equal.

My goodness, that argument won’t get you very far in America, and it’s a little worrying that Mr. Putin either wouldn’t know this or wouldn’t care...

Boner, Ahem, Beat-Down

John Boehner's Cry For Help - Esquire:

There are brief, fleeting moments in which I feel something akin to sadness regarding John Boehner, the orange-hued political castrato currently engaged as The Maitre d' In Bedlam. It is not his fault that he is so terrible at the job of wrangling the insane. Not everyone has that peciuliar gift. He was handed the gavel in 2010 as leader of the worst Congress elected in the history of the Republic. In return, he placed his balls snugly in a Mason jar that is buried somewhere on the grounds of the Heritage Foundation, and then a substantial portion of his Congress threw a hooley and burned the map that showed where the jar was...

Randism

11 questions to see if libertarians are hypocrites - Salon.com:

...There was a good reason for that. Randian libertarianism is an illogical, impractical, inhumane, unpopular set of Utopian ravings which lacks internal coherence and has never predicted real-world behavior anywhere. That’s why, reasonably enough, the libertarian movement evaporated in the late 20th century, its followers scattered like the wind...

Right When He Says "Outrageous"

Biden hits GOP 'Neanderthal crowd':

...Biden described some House Republicans as a "Neanderthal crowd" on Thursday night for seeking to oppose re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act earlier this year...

Killers Kill Their Own

American jihadi rapper Omar Hammami reportedly killed in Somalia - World News:

A jihadi rapper from Alabama who had a $5 million bounty put on his head by the FBI after he climbed the ranks of an al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group has reportedly been killed by members of his own organization....

The American Decline

10 ways America has come to resemble a banana republic - Salon.com:

...Saying that the U.S. had a robust middle-class in the 1950s and ’60s is not to say it was devoid of poverty, which was one of the things Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was vehemently outspoken about. King realized that the economic gains of the post-World War II era need to be expanded to those who were still on the outside of the American Dream looking in. But 50 years after King’s “I Have a Dream” speech of 1963, poverty has become much more widespread in the U.S.—and the country has seriously declined not only economically, but also in terms of civil liberties and constitutional rights.

Here are 10 ways in which the United States has gone from bad to worse, and is looking more and more like a banana republic in 2013...

Beware Of Idiots With Guns

Watch Daughter Of John Birchers Explain Why Tea Party Idiocy Is No Laughing Matter - Occupy Democrats:

While it’s easy to laughingly dismiss Tea Party fools with their silly hats and misspelled signs, this knowledgeable daughter of some of the founding members of the John Birch Society knows that their mega astro-turf movement is dangerous, growing, well-funded, powerful, and to blame for Washington’s corporatist gridlock...

Enraging The Xians

When the going gets tough, the PR manipulators stir up the Christians | The Confluence:

It’s all over the nytimes front page. A *Christian* village in Syria was attacked. Three *Christian* women are dead, as if that makes it more outrageous. They must be desperate if they’re willing to get the American Christian sector all in a tizzy.

Moslem children dead for two years? Not a peep. But once they worship the right god, well, then they’re worth saving.

Disgusting...

Rush Down To His Standards

Limbaugh names Obama’s Syria plan “Operation: Shuck & Jive” - Salon.com:

Despite a well-intentioned attempt to keep Rush Limbaugh out of the headlines for more than 48 hours, the conservative talk show host managed to outdo his general level of offensiveness on Monday’s program, in which he used racist term “shuck & jive” to describe President Obama’s plan for Syria:...

Was The Right Right?

This year in WNC. we have tracked 1953 almost exactly. Couple 1953 and its terrible winter with the Arctic ice expansion and we could see the beginning of Little Ice Age II. I hope I am completely wrong but it looks to be a nasty winter. Many in climate change denialist camp will jump on this as an excuse to continue deregulating industrial pollution (i.e. making more money by poisoning and killing the planet and its people), but I wouldn't get too smug. If you look at geologic time and the four billion year history of Terra, we are still in an ice age. Pay close attention to the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age and you'll see that we need to be concerned about climate change, irregardless of which way it is trending.

Global cooling: Arctic ice caps grows by 60% against global warming predictions | Mail Online:

A chilly Arctic summer has left nearly a million more square miles of ocean covered with ice than at the same time last year – an increase of 60 per cent...

What's Really Happening With The ACA

The Wonk Gap - NYTimes.com:

...For the truth is that the good news on costs just keeps coming in. There has been a striking slowdown in overall health costs since the Affordable Care Act was enacted, with many experts giving the law at least partial credit. And we now have a good idea what insurance premiums will be once the law goes fully into effect; a comprehensive survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that on average premiums will be significantly lower than those predicted by the Congressional Budget Office when the law was passed...

Dems Helping GOPers

How to save the Republican Party, courtesy of two Democrats - The Washington Post:

...But we also believe that our democracy is better off with two healthy political parties willing to debate fiercely — and then reach honorable compromises. A Republican Party dominated by a new generation of reform-minded conservatives who care more about solving problems than scoring points would be a huge step toward restoring a federal government that can govern. So we’d like to pass on to Republicans now some of the advice we offered Democrats then.

The first step is to dispense with the evasion. Our manifesto explored three myths that were prevalent among Democrats in 1989— and that can be seen among Republicans today...

107 Year Old Shot

It's an AP article, so you get no words. Here: SWAT officers kill man, 107, in standoff | The News Star | thenewsstar.com.Potentially relevant: here.

Trouble In The Federation

As someone who loathed, despised, hated, and just generally vomited at the Star Trek reboot, being mightly offended by bad science, character illogic, and numerous plot holes, I suspected Abrams et.al. were an arrogant lot, since they made an incredibly arrogant movie; the tirade referenced in the article seems to bear out my suspicions. I will never see another Trek movie if Abrams has anything to do with it.

“Star Trek” writer unleashes Khan-like wrath on Trekkies - Salon.com:

...Star Trek is not a democracy. While the franchise may, in the spiritual sense, “belong to the fans,” the people in control are JJ Abrams, Bob Orci, and his co-writers. However, it’s not unfair for fans to criticize or complain when the franchise seems to be dumbing down or moving away from the original ethos of the series. Orci’s repeated assertions that he “listens” to fans seem meaningless when the end result is a movie that inspired widespread disappointment among its intended audience. Particularly when “listening” also seems to be accompanied by cursing, insults, and taunts like “This is why I get to write the movies, and you don’t...”

England Rules (And Swings)

It’s love, actually: patriotic PM puts Britain back on top of the world | The Times:

 David Cameron launched an impassioned and poetic defence of Britain’s achievements yesterday after claims that a Russian official belittled the UK as a “small island” with no influence.

In a recitation of British achievements that drew praise even from his most rebellious backbenchers, the Prime Minister said that the world had Britain to thank for the abolition of slavery, many of its best inventions and almost every sport worth playing...

The Nightly Nut List

10 weirdest right-wing Christian conspiracy theories - Salon.com:

For the Christian right, having a “faith-based” worldview extends far beyond claims about demons and angels. Unsurprisingly, the world of fundamentalist Christians is absolutely crawling with conspiracy theories, urban legends, and just plain bizarre beliefs about how the world works. Here’s a list of 10 of the weirder ones are currently in circulation...

Bustin' Tax Evaders

Secret Swiss Bank Accounts Have Cover Blown - MainStreet:

The Internal Revenue Service gave the largest whistleblower reward ever to UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld in September 2012. He received $104 million for tipping off the federal government to UBS's secret Swiss bank accounts. UBS paid a fine of $780 million and provided the names of more than 4,900 American taxpayers who held offshore accounts...

A Sad List Of Economic Victims

8 biggest victims of America’s predatory capitalism - Salon.com:

We live in a society that allows one man to make $15 million a day while a low-income mother gets $4.50 a day for food, and much of Congress wants to cut the $4.50.

Are political and corporate leaders even remotely aware of the conditions of society beneath the wealthiest 10% or so?

The following are some of the victims of an economic system that has forgotten the majority of its people...

Bill Calls On GOP To Help With ACA

Good luck, Mr. President.

Bill Clinton calls for GOP to improve - not repeal — Obamacare - Jason Millman - POLITICO.com:

Former President Bill Clinton, recruited by the White House to explain the misunderstood health law, is looking to play Obamacare peacemaker.

In a highly-anticipated speech from his presidential library, Clinton challenged Republicans to finally work with Democrats to improve on President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement instead of constantly trying to undermine it...

Crazy In NC: It's Not What You Think Edition

Don't jump to conclusions. Read the whole story.

North Carolina Pastor Wants Only White People At Front Door (VIDEO):

North Carolina has been the center of political turmoil all summer. The Right Wing takeover of their state houses has passed draconian voter ID laws, and draconian laws against women’s rights have been at the forefront. Their citizens have organically risen up with the effecting of Moral Mondays.

Sadly, it seems like all the damage to citizens is not inflicted by politicians taking away their freedom and humanity. Some of it is from within communities least expected. No one in their right mind would believe this story. It baffles the mind...

Another Taser Misuse

Ontario woman, 80, suffers fractured hip after being struck with police Taser | News1130:

Ontario’s police watchdog is investigating an incident in which they say an 80-year-old woman suffered a fractured hip after she was struck by police with a Taser.

Special Investigations Unit spokeswoman Monica Hudon said three Peel region police officers approached the woman around 3:30 a.m. last Wednesday as she was walking along a road in Mississauga...

The Stupid Summary

The 8 dumbest things Republicans said — in the past week alone - Salon.com:

O Returns To Constitution

Going to Congress: Obama's Best Syria Decision : The New Yorker:

President Barack Obama announced two decisions today—one his own resolution, the other potentially far more historic. It might not be immediately obvious which was which. He began by saying that, ten days after what very much appears to have been a chemical-weapons attack outside of Damascus, “I have decided that the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets.” He spoke of the emotional reasons why (the children who died in their sleep) and what he hoped the national-security benefits would be (that part is still muddled). But note the verb: “should take military action”—not will—which set up Obama’s second, more important, and quite correct decision: “I will seek authorization for the use of force from the American people’s representatives in Congress...”

How Minimum Is The Minimum?

How America's Minimum Wage Really Stacks Up Globally - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic:

By the standards of other rich nations, the U.S. minimum wage, at $7.25 an hour, can look pretty measly. Australia's minimum for full-time adult employees works out to almost $15, these days. France's is around $12. For almost a year now, American fast food workers have been going on strike to demand that kind of pay...

The Texas GOPer Plan

Why America's Political Destiny Hinges On What Happens Next In Texas - Forbes:

...The Texas GOP’s formula, if nationalized, could destroy the progressives’ dreams of permanent political hegemony over America. How sad for the left, so close to victory, to have it snatched away. For those of us, however, who stand in opposition to the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: the Munisteri Model demonstrates how to win the battle … and the war.

Defending Rape

As a teacher in higher ed, I can tell that sexual contact with students will get you fired in most places, regardless of the ages involved. As a human being, I find this reasoning just plain wrong, if not evil.

Washington Post column uses a Louis C.K. joke to defend statutory rape - Salon.com:

...Karasik may say that her position on statutory rape shouldn’t be interpreted as a defense of Judge Todd Baugh’s comment that Rambold’s victim was “as much in control of the situation” as her rapist, but by erasing these crucial power dynamics from her read on the case (and sex between adults and minors more broadly), she effectively argues the same thing. Rambold didn’t rape his 14-year-old student because it wasn’t a “forcible beat-up rape,” Baugh recently remarked. Karasik seems to share this opinion...