Thursday, January 31, 2013

More Gov Overthrowing By GOP

Recess Appointment Ruling Prompts Bill To Defund Actions Of CFPB, NLRB Leaders
Republican senators are moving to target the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as the National Labor Relations Board in the wake of a court ruling that found President Barack Obama's appointments to the NLRB were unconstitutional.

A bill offered Thursday by Sens. Mike Johanns (R-Idaho), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) would withhold any funding for actions taken by the leaders whom Obama named to their posts more than a year ago...

Abortion Facts

On Gun Mythology

10 Pro-Gun Myths, Shot Down | Mother Jones
By cutting off federal funding for research and stymieing data collection and sharing, the National Rifle Association has tried to do to the study of gun violence what climate deniers have done to the science of global warming. No wonder: When it comes to hard numbers, some of the gun lobby's favorite arguments are full of holes...

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

On Hagel

A reality check for Chuck Hagel bashers - CNN.com
...Good people can disagree on policy and personnel; my wife and I disagree on the Hagel nomination. A confirmation hearing can usefully clear up any sincere questions. But a look at the facts, armed with a sense of perspective, suggests that it might be Hagel's most vociferous critics who are outside the historic mainstream, not Hagel himself...

Lord Protect Us

Right Wing Heads Near Detonation

Poll: Obama favorability ratings highest since first year in office - UPI.com
As President Obama begins his second term, his favorability ratings are the highest since his first year in office, a Washington Post-ABC News poll has found...

Right Wing Heads Near Detonation

Poll: Obama favorability ratings highest since first year in office - UPI.com
As President Obama begins his second term, his favorability ratings are the highest since his first year in office, a Washington Post-ABC News poll has found...

Iran Nukes Hit?

Sabotage! Key Iranian nuclear facility hit?
An explosion deep within Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility has destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground, according to a former intelligence officer of the Islamic regime...

The Heckling Controversy

The Newtown Heckling Controversy - The Daily Beast
...Yet it remains most fundamentally true: people in that room interpreted their gun advocacy as license to shout at a grieving father. Whether you call it "heckling" or something else, it's just wrong. And the impulse to parse, excuse, condone that we saw in blogs and on Twitter afterward was very nearly equally wrong: a substitution of ideology for basic human sympathy...

Military Sense

General McChrysal Tells CBS He's Not Worried About A Nuclear Iran | Crooks and Liars
You can't have a discussion on Villager TV with any politician or beltway pundit about Israel or Iran unless there's sufficient fearmongering over the impending doom if the Ayatollah gets his hands on some nukes. I've had this post in the back of my mind for weeks, but I almost forgot about it since Schieffer didn't even do a follow up to these remarkable words. And I never imagined that I'd hear Gen. McChrystal, the man who was tasked to lead our forces in Afghanistan, say this on my teevee.

It's quite remarkable.

SCHIEFFER: What do you think is the greatest threat to our national security at this point?

MCCHRYSTAL: In the near term, it's clearly our economic challenges. Our inability to make tough decisions to move our economy forward, that worries me in the near term. In the long term it's our education because that is the future.

SCHIEFFER: Not terrorism, education.

MCCHRYSTAL: We can handle terrorism. We can handle a nuclear-armed Iran. We can't handle a future where young Americans are not educated enough to take our country forward.

SCHIEFFER: General, I want to be one of many to thank you for your service. Thanks for being with us today. We'll be back in one minute with the mayor of Los Angeles...


Tuesday, January 29, 2013

UnGunBelievable

NRA Heckles Father of Sandy Hook Shooting Victim | Crooks and Liars
...As lawmakers were taking testimony at the Connecticut capitol yesterday, the gun manufacturers were ready to fight for their right to continue the mayhem, even if it meant heckling the father of a victim of the Sandy Hook massacre:...

The Daily Flashback: Lying Bush Edition

Ten years ago yesterday--

President Delivers "State of the Union"
...The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin -- enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure. He hadn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed it.

Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold thousands. He's not accounted for these materials. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them -- despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them...

The Only Bigots Live In The South

The Boy Scouts and the South - The Daily Beast
...There is a long and appalling history in this country of the rest of us having to act like bigots and enforce bigoted because of the South. It has existed in legislation--the GI Bill had to be written in such a way that it wouldn't benefit blacks too much, or the legislators of the South said they would kill it. Before that, much of the New Deal legislation had to be written in the same way (sic)...

Phony Academia

Unfortunately, there is some truth here. My fake college syllabus - Salon.com

Pistols Kill

Monday, January 28, 2013

In Case Of Zombies...

Clinton Could Turn Texas Blue

Hillary turns Texas blue | The Smirking Chimp
The Lone Star State is headed blue — the only question is WHEN Texas becomes a Democratic state. If Hillary Clinton runs for president, she will have a fighting chance of carrying Texas, which shares revolutionary demographic trends rewriting the rules of politics, and of creating opportunities for Democrats to regain control of the House and achieve a national realignment of Rooseveltian magnitude...

Ryan In The Bubble

Economics and Politics by Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal - NYTimes.com
I didn’t see Meet the Press, and there doesn’t seem to be a transcript available yes, but I hear that Paul Ryan declared it a proven fact that Keynesian economics has failed — and was, of course, not challenged on that assertion.

Consider it, if you like, more evidence of the right-wing bubble. Outside that bubble, a fair number of people have noticed that Keynesian economics has performed spectacularly in the crisis — it successfully predicted that deficits wouldn’t drive up interest rates, that monetary expansion wouldn’t be inflationary, that austerity policies in Britain and elsewhere would hit economic growth. And no, don’t tell me that Keynesians predicted that the Obama stimulus would produce full employment; serious Keynesians, like me, were more or less frantically warning back in early 2009 that the stimulus was too small...

Wishful Thinking About Tea

Sarah Palin & Tea Party – Dead Movement Walking – The Tea Party Is Dead
The Tea Party movement is dead. When an ant mound is poisoned and the queen dies there are still worker ants running around. However for all practical purposes, the mound is dead. That is the current state of the Tea Party.

The con artists that used the fear and ignorance of the Tea Party following minions to make millions of dollars on books, shows, conventions, and rallies are scrambling for the next issues ripe for exploitation. The immigration issue is losing traction. The fear of Obamacare is losing traction as more and more middle class Americans see the actual benefits. They have attempted to jump on the gun control issue. This may now be falling apart as the share violence America saw inflicted on its most innocent overtake the absolutist position of absolutely no gun regulations...

Reneging Republican Romps

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Gun Free Zonerism

GC Positions

Lies About GC Rally

Rattlin' Ryan

Paul Ryan & The Big Lie That Is Killing The Middle Class
Republican Congressman Paul Ryan was rattled today on NBC Meet The Press when David Gregory showed the snippet from the President’s Inauguration speech, rebuking those that believe America is divided between makers and takers. David then showed a snippet where Ryan actually made the statement. Ryan visibly turned red and was immediately defensive implying the snippet was taken out of context...

Engage Tractor, Scotty

More On Vote Rigging

“If you can’t win by playing fair, cheat!” | Jewish Journal
...Despite this blatant assault on the most basic of democratic freedoms (i.e. the right to vote in free elections), voters in those targeted districts defiantly either voted early by mail or stood for hours in rain and cold to vote. Such long lines, of course, did not exist in districts where Republicans were in the majority.

After trying to unsuccessfully suppress the Democratic vote in 2012, the Republicans have devised a new strategy to win future presidential elections. Though both the Democratic and Republican parties have gerrymandered their state districts to give their respective party advantages, the 2010 gerrymander effort by Republicans has effectively enabled them to retain their majority in the House of Representatives despite the fact that Democrats nationally won more than one million more votes than their Republican colleagues.

Now the Republicans (as described by Charles Blow - click on link below) are trying something new, to rig the election by changing the way states allocate electoral votes in presidential elections...

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Wingnut Justice

Judge Who Ruled Against Recess Appointments Is A Wingnut | Crooks and Liars
Just thought I'd point out the long-time wingnuttery and judicial activism of D.C. District Judge David Sentelle, the Reagan-appointee circuit judge and Jesse Helms protegee -- the man who appointed Kenneth Starr -- who just invalidated Obama's NLRB appointments, thus kicking off a whole potential mess o'legal chaos!

The D.C. district is second only to the Supreme Court in its importance, and of course it has three (soon to be four) vacancies, which Republicans refuse to allow Obama to fill. Gee, real filibuster reform would have been nice, wouldn't it?...

Another "Brilliant" GOP Idea

Defending Clinton

Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi Testimony and the Men Who Fear Her « Uppity Woman
...When you have even former Heads of State Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice and former Head of Security Tom Ridge, who have some understanding of the type of job Clinton does, come out to defend her, noting her “guts and class” — these others are unlikely to get their way.

Here is a hot flash to those who would grandstand or try to take Hillary Clinton down with these hearings or use the deaths of these four men to blame or ruin her. As Clinton’s testimony makes clear, we are juggling so many difficult situations around the world and walking a tightrope with many countries in violent transition. The idea that a woman running an organization of 70,000 cannot even count on Senior Staff and has to make every decision and have her fingers in every single pie all by herself is preposterous. Is some of the fault with her? Yes. And she was the first (and basically only) person to take responsibility. President Obama did so at a presidential debate only retroactively once he was accused of “hiding behind her pantsuit” – and that was after his other “men,” VP Biden and Senior Advisor David Axelrod, had already gone on TV to throw her and the State Department under the bus...

Marchers For Control

Thousands march for gun control in Washington - Houston Chronicle
Thousands of people, many holding signs with names of gun violence victims and messages such as "Ban Assault Weapons Now," gathered in front of the Capitol on Saturday for a March on Washington for Gun Control...

Friday, January 25, 2013

VA Trending Honest

Virginia bill on electoral college change appears headed for defeat - The Washington Post
A Republican-backed bill to change the way Virginia awards its electoral college votes, and perhaps boost the GOP’s prospects in a state that has gone for Barack Obama two elections in a row, appears to be headed for defeat.

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) came out against the measure Friday, as did two GOP senators who sit on the committee that will decide the bill’s fate next week...

American Horror Story: Asylum -- A Review


Non-Political Post (spoiler avoidance system engaged)

The second season of American Horror Story was quite simply a triumph. Featuring unique characters, careful plotting, and often stunning visual imagery, American Horror Story : Asylum  was never predictable, never boring, and never featured the kind of villainy often found in today's media. The characters were carefully developed so when someone did something, either awful or humane, the action was in service to the character, not in service to the plot, which meant the story flowed easily back and forth through time and space and character.

The first season of American Horror Story  was not as satisfying. By the end of the season I cared not one whit what happened to the characters, nor did I care much what happened with the, mostly, predictable story. Right now, I only have vague recollections of it; I think Asylum will stay me a good long time for many reasons.

R Women v. D Women

Political party--that's really the differentiation these idiots are making.

Christian radio hosts: Feminists are ‘selfish, narcissistic, family-destroying whores’ | The Raw Story
Conservative Christian radio hosts Kevin Swanson and Dave Buehner explained on a Tuesday segment of their “Generations with a Vision” show that there are “two kinds of feminism,” the “Sarah Palin kind of feminism that wants to have a husband” kind and the “selfish, narcissistic, family-destroying whores” kind....

A GOPer Endorses The Right Thing!

BREAKING: Florida Republicans Don’t Want To Steal The White House
...But in Florida, the state House Speaker Will Weatherford (R) is saying no.

“To me, that’s like saying in a football game, ‘We should have only three quarters, because we were winning after three quarters and they beat us in the fourth,” Weatherford told the Miami Herald on Thursday.

“I don’t think we need to change the rules of the game, I think we need to get better.”

We will pause here to let you wipe your brains off your monitor...

SOS Clinton Has Idiot Lunch

Great cartonn at the link.

Hillary Clinton exits Benghazi probe looking stronger than ever - latimes.com
When Hillary Clinton went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Republicans opened their bags of overly ripe conspiracy theories and moldering fruitcake ideas and tossed everything at her. Every shot missed...

Spook Sentenced

Ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou sentenced for leaking name on agency's use of torture - CBS News
A former CIA officer was sentenced Friday to more than two years in prison by a federal judge who rejected arguments that he was acting as a whistleblower on the agency's use of torture when he leaked a covert officer's name to a reporter.

A plea deal required the judge to impose a sentence of 2 1/2 years. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said she would have given John Kiriakou much more time if she could...

Yet actual traitors like Scooter Libby and Dick Cheney walk free. Justice, you suck.

Latest GOPer Scam Going National

The GOP Plan to Take the Electoral-Vote-Rigging Scheme National - Molly Ball - The Atlantic
Republican legislators in several states have begun pushing to apportion electoral-college votes by congressional district, a move that has Democrats up in arms. Had a similar scheme been in effect in 2012, nationally or in a handful of key states, Mitt Romney could have won the presidency despite losing the popular vote. (David Graham explains the idea, and why it's so controversial, here.)

Up to now, these efforts appear to have sprouted independently as the work of individual lawmakers in Virginia, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The Virginia plan has passed the state House of Delegates and could become law as soon as next week.

But now a Republican operative has a plan to take the idea national...

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Mark Hymen Rises From The Dead

He's baaack-- not in "The Point" but as a town hall moderator, which of course turned the gun control meeting into tea bag central and allowed shouting and screaming from the Patriotic Gun Owners.  Town Hall Forum: Guns In America - WLOS ABC13 - Top Stories

The Dollar Is Louder Than A Fetus

Fetuses not people, Catholic hospital says in court
A Catholic hospital in Colorado has argued in court documents that it is not liable for the deaths of two 7-month-old fetuses because those fetuses are not people...

Linguistic Lying

Clinton Agonistes: Benghazi Edition

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Women Embattled
...If there is ANYONE, and I mean, anyone, who had a right to blow up into a complete emotional collapse yesterday, it was Hillary Clinton. For twenty years now, she has been pilloried, excoriated, demonized, belittled, cursed at and spat upon, and yet, in front of the most hostile questioning I've seen coming from Capitol Hill since Anita Hill tried to warn America about Clarence Thomas (Another woman. Interesting.) she maintained her composure, breaking her equanimity only when talking about standing beside the President as the caskets of four brave Americans -- Americans dishonored in life by the very men now verbally abusing their boss and now dishonored in death by these same men who ghoulishly use them as political props -- and comforting their families.

She got angry, too. She got angry because these morons would rather score political points against her than get to the bottom of what happened in Benghazi and accept a heaping dole of responsibility as they and there party defunded embassy security, all in the name of...what, exactly? Tax cuts for the rich, is what...

New Political Time Unit

...that measures the time between when someone says something and someone can create a crap conspiracy to explain it. Cannonfire--"Hillary, Benghazi and the Johnson Unit"

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Clinton Hearing: A Perspective

Natterin' Nugent Round-up

Ryan Still Lyin'

Rules Of Distraction - Esquire
..."What they call a gimmick, I call doing your job," he said. "When I grew up, and I worked a lot of jobs, and I had to work to get paid. When I flipped burgers or when I mowed the lawn, I had to do the work to get paid."

Good god, what a fake. Let us recall the greatest hits of Paul Ryan's life, shall we? There were the Social Security survivor benefits that got him through high school. The local Wisconsin sugar daddy who greased the skids at the beginning of his political career, getting him a job on the staff of Senator Bob Kasten and guaranteeing that young Paul would be insulated from the Dreaded Private Sector. The wingnut welfare checks at the think-tanks. And now, going on 15 years as a member of Congress, with a guaranteed pension and single-payer health care, and three-quarters of the hedge-fund zillionnaires in America on speed-dial. This hash of a provision is going to pass the House and, likely, die in the Senate and, even if it doesn't, it's going to amuse some federal judge to cut it into origami before lighting it on fire. But it has served its primary purpose — which was to burnish Paul Ryan's image of himself. I've missed the guy. Truly, I have.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Comment Of The Day: Rich Whiner Edition

Rich Golfer Phil Mickelson Is Going To Take "Drastic" Action To Escape His Imaginary Tax Burden
larryherkimer 28 minutes ago

Let's see, some professional athletes like Roger Staubach, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Pat Tillman (among many others) have risked their lives for this country. Meanwhile Mickelson is ready to bug out because the loyalty to his country has a price tag.

What was the late Everett Dirkson (R) said? Something like I wouldn't mind pay a million if I had million left over.

America Loses At Box Office

Monday, January 21, 2013

Past Violence Summary

In case you've forgotten, here's a refresher on some of the ugly events in Obama's first term:

Obama II: Older, wiser, stronger - Salon.com
...Only two months after that, the Tea Party turned the Congressional “town halls” traditionally held during August recess into “town hells,” in the proud words of Missouri Rep. Todd Akin, who will go down in history as Mr. Legitimate Rape, but who should also be remembered for the way he applauded right-wing forces of intimidation that sometimes veered into violence. Across the country Akin’s Democratic House colleagues faced angry mobs and even death threats. In Tucson, Arizona, a Tea Party protester dropped a gun at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ “meet and greet” at a local Safeway...

Media Flogging

A sample...

What Are The Gobshites Saying These Days? - Esquire
...Is that more disgusting because Tom Brokaw is reputed to be a respected newsman and clearly doesn't have any idea how the economy works or the fact that, in Social Security and Medicare, what we have been "giving people...for a long time" is their own goddamned money that they paid into the system over their working lives, which he would like to extend? Or is it because Tom Brokaw has a hair-curling contempt for his fellow citizens and is a smug, entitled foof who will not feel a thing from the pain he is recommending be brought down on other people? Is he someone who should be ignored, or is he someone who should be smeared with honey and left among the fire ants?...

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Violence And The Far Right

West Point study on ‘violent far right’ shows ‘dramatic rise’ in attacks | The Raw Story
A report published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Military Academy on Jan. 15 discusses the potential dangers of “violent far-right” organizations, which has angered some conservatives that believe the military should focus on international threats.

The executive summary of the paper, “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right,” claims that “since 2007, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of attacks and violent plots originating from individuals and groups who self- identify with the far-right of American politics...”

God Help The Vets

A Veteran Commits Suicide Every 80 Minutes | Veterans Today
A veteran commits suicide every 80 minutes, according to a study published Monday.

Military suicides have increased since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a Center for a New American Security Suicide report. In the fiscal year 2009 alone, 1,868 veterans of these wars have made suicide attempts, according to armytimes.com...

Loving The Other Amendments

Preaching to the choir here but everyone who hasn't been "aware" needs to wake (insert your own profanity here)-up. Billy Maher makes the case at the link.

Cannonfire "The Second Amendment isn't in danger -- it's all the other ones"
...Unless you are provably on record as an opponent of all of that -- unless you can demonstrate that you opposed both Bush and Obama for encroaching on your liberties -- you have no right now to talk about how much you love the Constitution. The majority of Americans advocate background checks for gun owners because they know that the Second Amendment will survive just fine even if we keep schizophrenics disarmed. Your First and Fourth Amendment rights are the real issue.

Cons Late To O Roast

I really don't understand why Fox hasn't come up with a way to blame Obama and Clinton for this debacle. Have the right-wingers no creativity? Where's the faux-rage? The hysterical chest thumping?  I wait breathless. Under the Mali militants’ reign of terror: refugees tell of life under Islamist rule - Telegraph

The Origin Of The Second

The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery
The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says "State" instead of "Country" (the Framers knew the difference - see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia's vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that . . . and we all should be too...

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Fox "If Only"

Fox News to Shut Down for Routine Maintenance Monday Morning at 11:30 : The New Yorker
Fox News Channel announced today that it would shut down for what it called “routine maintenance” Monday morning at 11:30 E.T.

Fox News president Roger Ailes explained the timing of the shutdown, which will be the first in the history of the network: “We wanted to pick a time when we were positive nothing would be happening that our viewers would want to see...”

If only, if only...

Sounds Like A Plan

Barack Obama’s second inaugural address: The president should declare war on the Republicans. - Slate Magazine
...This theory of political transformation rests on the weaponization (and slight bastardization) of the work by Yale political scientist Stephen Skowronek. Skowronek has written extensively about what distinguishes transformational presidents from caretaker presidents. In order for a president to be transformational, the old order has to fall as the orthodoxies that kept it in power exhaust themselves. Obama's gambit in 2009 was to build a new post-partisan consensus. That didn't work, but by exploiting the weaknesses of today’s Republican Party, Obama has an opportunity to hasten the demise of the old order by increasing the political cost of having the GOP coalition defined by Second Amendment absolutists, climate science deniers, supporters of “self-deportation” and the pure no-tax wing...

Friday, January 18, 2013

Maybe Good News

Obama loyalists are now Organizing for Action - latimes.com
Underscoring its potential to become a political heavyweight, a new advocacy group launched Friday to push President Obama's second-term agenda will be guided by his most-trusted strategists and have access to his reelection campaign's most-prized assets, including its intricately detailed voter databases.

In an email to supporters with the subject line "Say you're in," Obama vowed that the group, Organizing for Action, would be "an unparalleled force in American politics..."

Debt Accepting Double-Dealers

Finally, Conservatives Are Telling The GOP The Hard Truth About The Debt Ceiling That They've Needed To Hear All Along | The Middle Ground | Scoop.it
Hopefully, this is a good sign.

Two influential conservative columnists are giving the GOP some good advice on the debt ceiling.


And that advice is this: Give it up, stop risking disaster, stop trying to change the US fiscal situation with just one house of Congress, and try to actually pass positive legislation and win some elections...

The GOP needs to admit that they are responsible for this debt and go from there.

GOPers Plan To Cheat

If you can't win elections, rig them - The Maddow Blog
Rachel and MaddowBlog reported this week on the Republican State Leadership Committee and its Redistricting Majority Project, or REDMAP. To briefly recap, the Republican group freely admits -- boasts, even -- that if American voters had their way, there would be a Democratic majority in the U.S. House, but thanks to Republican gerrymandering, the party has successfully rigged the game.

The next step for the party is identifying key states -- including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio -- and changing the way they allocate electoral votes. In effect, after having "fixed" congressional district lines to guarantee success regardless of popular will, Republicans also intend to rig presidential elections, starting in 2016...

GOP Sensitivity Questioned

Republicans gather at former plantation to discuss minority outreach | The Raw Story
After its general election battering, the Republican party has retreated to lick its wounds and ponder what went wrong – on the leafy grounds of a luxury golf resort in Virginia.

And what better place for today’s GOP to hold strategy sessions titled “Successful communication with minorities and women” than on the grounds of a former plantation in the south?...

NRA Ad Basically A Lie

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Hagel, The Non-War SOD

Doug Bandow: Chuck Hagel: Finally, a Pentagon Chief Who Despises War
Politics is blood sport, and so it is with the nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense. Washington's bipartisan War Party is horrified that a warrior who despises war might end up running the Pentagon.

For more than a decade the nation's capital has been overrun by the Sofa Samurai and Think Tank Warriors who believe in starting wars for others to fight. Vice President Richard Cheney, who used five deferments to avoid combat in Vietnam -- "I had other priorities," he explained years later -- epitomized the breed. For them there is no war too bloody or foolish to avoid.

In contrast, Chuck Hagel served, an enlisted infantryman in the Army. He received two Purple Hearts and rescued his unconscious brother in combat. For him war was up close and personal...

Koch Fighting

Christie Flogs NRA

Christie Slaps NRA Over ‘Reprehensible’ Obama Girls Spot - Bloomberg
...“To try and make a political point out of that is reprehensible,” Christie, 50, said today at a press briefing in Trenton, where he announced a new task force to study violence. “I think it’s awful to bring public figures’ children into the political debate -- they don’t deserve to be there.”

The governor said his own children receive state police protection and that public officials’ family members must accept such security details. The governor, who has a wife and four children, said the NRA should stick to the policy debate over gun control...

New, Better Imaging

How a New Imaging System Could Boost Self-Driving Cars - Popular Mechanics
With a new imaging technique, Duke University researchers may have brought us one step closer to affordable self-driving cars, cheaper and more accurate airport scanners, and improved medical imaging...

Where We Are

Middle Class Americans Broke Because Of Government Policy Dictated By Plutocracy
...The elite talking class on the major networks, whether from the center or the right have misled Americans. The wealth of most Americans has been in a state of stagnation since the institution of Ronald Reagan’s supply side economics (termed voodoo economics by George HW Bush) that America is still living under. Until this form of economics is disbanded and corrective action taken via the tax system, the middle class will continue to falter and the Plutocracy will continue its unfettered reign.

There are many Washington based organizations that claim to be making an attempt to un-corrupt our politics. Sadly many of these suffer from the same corruption indirectly because of their funding. Coffee Party USA and Move Amend are two grassroots organizations, based outside of Washington DC that are working to both educate the body politic as well as effect change by directly engaging politicians.

AK-47s Hit Homes

Recreational assault weapons fire riddles Ohio home, narrowly misses officer | The Raw Story
Two men were arrested in Ohio on Wednesday after their target practice with an AK-47 assault rifle accidentally shot up a woman’s home and nearly hit a officer who was responding to reports of gunfire...
Ah yes, "a well regulated militia."

From the comment thread at Raw Story:


David Emghee 27 minutes ago

We keep doing the same things over and over again!
In June 1987: at Carowinds Theme park in Charlotte, NC, 2 girls were shot while swimming in a wave pool by a man target shooting a half mile away. One girl, 16 years old was killed, the other, 6 years old was struck in the abdomen and survived. The alleged shooter was using an AK-47 and firing at wooden home-made targets, He only fired his weapon 15 times, yet two of the rounds went wild and traveled in an arc over half a mile and hit the victims, causing a panic at the amusement park. The police passed ordinances barring discharging firearms within a 3 mile radius of any home or business within city limits.

Montana Heading Nutward?

Ex-Montana GOP leaders react to emails | Great Falls Tribune | greatfallstribune.com
...The documents obtained by Tribune Capitol Bureau outline a long-term strategy that includes “changing the face of the Montana Supreme Court” and remapping legislative districts to favor Republicans, according to an email Senate President Jeff Essmann of Billings sent in September. Senate Majority Leader Art Wittich of Bozeman wrote in the emails that he wanted to “purge” the caucus of “moderate” Republicans...

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Mornin' Joe Flogs NRA

Scarborough: NRA is its own worst enemy — MSNBC
The National Rifle Association released its most controversial ad yet on Tuesday, targeting the president’s children, and Joe Scarborough says the group’s leaders are dragging Second Amendment supporters over the cliff and into fringe extremism.

“What’s wrong with these people? You have children that had no say in the decision on whether their father was going to step forward to be president of the United States,” Scarborough asked....

NRA Shows Stripes

...and they're polecat. 

NRA gets personal with Obama in new anti-gun control ad | Reuters
"...Are the president's kids more important than yours?" a narrator says in the 35-second television and Internet spot. "Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their schools? Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he's just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security..."

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Newtown Truthers Harass Senior

Grandfather who comforted Sandy Hook Elementary kids says 'truthers' are targeting him - U.S. News
“I comforted them because I’m a grandfather,” Rosen, 69, who lives across the street from the school, said in an appearance on TODAY after the tragedy. “They were mortified.”

Now, Rosen and his wife are scared. He says he is being harassed by so-called Sandy Hook "truthers," conspiracy theorists who believe that facts about Newtown are being covered up by the media or other forces as part of a government or anti-gun plot.

Since the government appears powerless to stop these crackpots, perhaps we could appeal to the Lone Rangers (Anonymous) for help. They seem to be the only people around with both a sense of justice and power.

Saudi America

America, the Saudi Arabia of tomorrow - CNN.com
...America still needs imported oil. But growing production and shrinking consumption have created a most promising trend. According to the International Energy Agency, the United States will become the world's leading oil producer in just a few years. Imagine that. The United States could produce more oil than Saudi Arabia as early as 2017 and become a net oil exporter by 2030...

GOPer's Sandy Hypocrisy

Tim Huelskamp Sandy Relief Rejection Comes As Relatives Receive Millions In Federal Farm Aid
WASHINGTON -- Superstorm Sandy ravaged huge swaths of the U.S. East Coast, killing more than 130 people, causing at least $62 billion in damage and turning neighborhoods into rubble. More than 72,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in New Jersey alone. But the devastation was not enough to convince Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) to vote for a slim Sandy relief bill in early January...

NRA Releases Boring Game

NRA, after bashing violent media, releases 'Practice Range' app | DVICE
Last year, tragic shooting events in Colorado and Connecticut reignited the debate regarding the issue of gun rights in the U.S. The National Rifle Association, after saying that violent media is to blame, has a new app release that may ruffle some feathers by mixing information about gun rights with a virtual shooting game...

Monday, January 14, 2013

More Engineered Doom

Republican hubris on spending cuts: a character flaw that will ruin America | Heidi Moore | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
President Obama scheduled a press conference Monday morning to warn Republicans that America is "not a deadbeat nation". That's more of a hopeful statement than a definitive one.

Obama may hope that the US is not a deadbeat nation; the truth is, though, that we won't really know that until a few weeks from now, when the US treasury is set to run out of money. At that point, as Obama pointed out, government checks will dry up: there will be no social security payments, paychecks for troops, or tax refunds...

If the GOP thinks they will escape the blame, they are sadly mistaken.

Supreme "No" To GOP

Supreme Court declines to hear Republican voting challenge | Reuters
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a legal challenge by the Republican National Committee to dissolve a 1982 decree designed to stop the improper suppression of voting by particular groups.

Feds Won't Pursue Dead Man

US District Court drops charges against Aaron Swartz - MIT - Your Campus - Boston.com
The US District Court in Boston has dropped the charges against Aaron Swartz, a web entrepreneur and political activist who committed suicide Friday, according to a court document filed this morning...

Sunday, January 13, 2013

GOPers Holding US Hostage

Paul Krugman: GOP Debt Ceiling Strategy Is 'Hostage Taking'
Paul Krugman on Sunday accused the Republican leadership of holding the country hostage.

The Nobel-Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist argued that congressional Republicans are “threatening to blow up the world economy” if they don’t get their way in the debt-ceiling debate. After a difficult fiscal cliff battle, President Barack Obama said he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling, but Republicans have said they won't authorize an increase in the country’s spending limit without major spending cuts.

"We should not allow this to become thought of as a legitimate or normal budget strategy," Krugman said on ABC's "This Week." “This is hostage taking...”

Youths Love Selves

Fox warns about social media, video games, twitter, and other pesky First Amendment thingies. The irony of Fox issuing this warning was lost on Fox.

We are raising a generation of deluded narcissists | Fox News
...We had better get a plan together to combat this greatest epidemic as it takes shape. Because it will dwarf the toll of any epidemic we have ever known. And it will be the hardest to defeat. Because, by the time we see the scope and destructiveness of this enemy clearly, we will also realize, as the saying goes, that it is us.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

The Daily Wingnut: Pledge Edition

Guns Blazing Since The 80's

Joe Biden and the Gun-Control Debate : The New Yorker
,,,Still, it was a reminder of the reality looming over these task-force meetings, and whatever comes after them. Given recent history, if the coming legislative debate over gun control takes more than a few months, it would be a minor miracle if it were not at some point colored by yet another mass shooting. Since 1982, there have been sixty-two mass murders in the United States. During that thirty-year period, there have been only three times—1983, 1985, and 2002—when the country made it from January 1st to December 31st without seeing such an incident. Last year, there were seven...

Friday, January 11, 2013

Attacking Video Games

The notion that video games cause kids to kill is stoooopid beyond belief, especially when you look at gaming behavior in other countries (you know how to work Teh Goodgle, right?). As a kid, I was constantly told that monster movies and comic books were gonna turn me all deranged like. I've been doing it all for over 50 years (and I'm a dedicated player of first person shooters) and I ain't killed nobody lately. So smoke that in your corncob pipe, NRA. Joe Biden Talks Violent Video Games With Industry Reps In Wake Of Newtown Shooting

What You Thought You Knew: Gun Nut Edition

I've always been suspicious of the Hitler nonsense but I had never bothered to research it. Mr. Rude does the heavy lifting for us.

The Rude Pundit: "Sorry, Gun Nuts: Hitler Actually Relaxed Most Gun Laws"
Here's the deal, oh, sweet, stupid gun nuts: Have a history lesson. Gun control laws had nothing to do with the rise of the Nazis or the Holocaust. In fact, they were initially part of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I, punishing Germany by eliminating private ownership of guns. In the Weimar Republic, new laws liberalized gun ownership, allowing hunting rifles and more. The other gun control laws in Germany post-WWI were specifically put in to prevent armed takeover of the government by groups like the Nazi Party, which did not, in fact, stage a coup, but used electoral power to solidify its hold on the government (along with the Gestapo and the repression of demonized Communist groups). In fact, Hitler and the Third Reich opened up gun ownership even more, even if they did ban all Jews from owning guns. Yeah, the 1938 law said "a hunting license entitles the holder to carry firearms and handguns." That was new. It also lowered the age of gun ownership from 20 to 18 and changed one-year permits to three-year...

Congress And Lice

Thursday, January 10, 2013

A Measure Of Justice AT UCD

Judge approves $1 million settlement in pepper spray lawsuit : Indybay
A federal judge on January 9 approved and finalized the $1 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by UC Davis students and recent alumni who were pepper sprayed during a protest at the University in November 2011...

Duh, Fox. Coins? What? How?

Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theories

Or "Fools Abound." Cannon has a round-up, not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, which will flush the last vestiges of "Oh, they've just got a different opinion" from your weak-ass liberal soul. Cannonfire--"BAM! I cannot believe how idiot these people are!"

Evil NRA: Florida Edition

How the NRA wields its influence - CNN.com
...Last year, the NRA used its influence in Florida to push through legislation that would punish doctors if they asked patients whether they owned a gun...

GOPers For (Some Of) Constitution

Teachers Passing Through

Obama pal Bill Ayers calls Teach for America 'a fraud' | Fox News
...Teachers unions have long criticized Teach for America, which they believe provides cash-strapped districts with a crop of short-timers who earn entry-level pay and don't rack up the health and retirement costs of regular teachers...

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Brooks Blows On Hagel

One of the great 1% enablers pontificates on a potential SecDef nominee.
Why Hagel Was Picked - NYTimes.com
...Chuck Hagel has been nominated to supervise the beginning of this generation-long process of defense cutbacks. If a Democratic president is going to slash defense, he probably wants a Republican at the Pentagon to give him political cover, and he probably wants a decorated war hero to boot.

All the charges about Hagel’s views on Israel or Iran are secondary. The real question is, how will he begin this long cutting process? How will he balance modernizing the military and paying current personnel? How will he recalibrate American defense strategy with, say, 455,000 fewer service members?

How, in short, will Hagel supervise the beginning of America’s military decline? If members of Congress don’t want America to decline militarily, well, they have no one to blame but the voters and themselves.

You're Feeling Poorer...

...because you are.

The Recession's Toll: How Middle Class Wealth Collapsed to a 40-Year Low - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic
Ready? Here goes: Between 2007 and 2010, the median net worth of U.S. households fell by 47 percent, reaching its lowest level in more than forty years, adjusted for inflation. In other words, middle class wealth virtually evaporated in this country. A good chunk of the population got sucked through a financial wormhole back to the sixties.

The Daily Flashback: Hagel Edition

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Teacher Evaluations And The Matrix




I taught my first college class in 1975; my first set of evaluations came at the end of that term. I've been teaching and evaluating every class since then. Calls to fire lousy teachers hit home with me because --who knows-- I may be one. I don't think I am and my students don't think I am, but I'm sure someone could devise an evaluation system that "proved" I'm a terrible teacher. Therein, friends, lies the rub.

For some reason, everyone expects every teacher to be either outstanding or competent. Really? In what other field from plumbing to management to brain surgery is every practitioner outstanding or even competent? The sheer number of teachers required means, statistically, there must be a certain level of incompetence. (If there were as many physicians as teachers, we would see a) lower prices and b) far more malpractice suits.) The competence problem is exacerbated by the demands for teachers to be subject matter experts and teaching experts, two factors not necessarily mutually exclusive but not often naturally found. Add in low pay and working conditions ranging from tolerable to god-awful and the number of lousy teachers increases exponentially, since few of us choose to remain in the fire or the frying pan when the trough is much comfortable. Expect the number of lousy teachers to increase as calls to turn us all into crack shots, kung fu fighters, sword masters, and Delta Force clones increase.
 (cross-posted at Alexandria)

The Daily Uh-Oh: India/Pakistan Edition

Pak crosses LoC, beheads one jawan, slits another’s throat - Hindustan Times
Pakistani troops crossed the Line of Control (LoC) on Tuesday to murder two Indian soldiers, cutting off the head of one and slitting the throat of the other in an incident condemned as a “grave provocation” by India...

Hagel Talks War

Hagel: what I learned in Vietnam — MSNBC
“...And probably most fundamental for me as a United States senator, when we talk of going to war again Iraq or against anyone, we need to think it through carefully, not just for the political and the geopolitical and the diplomatic and the economic consequences–and those are important. But at least for me, this old infantry sergeant thinks about when I was in Vietnam in 1968, United States senators making decisions that affected my life and a lot of people who lost their lives, that they didn’t have–I didn’t have anything to say about. Someone needs to represent that perspective in our government as well. The people in Washington make the policy, but it’s the little guys who come back in the body bags.”

Amen, brother.

Self Ambushing?

One of the commenters here pointed out that Alex Jones ambushed himself. I agree. John Lott: Piers Morgan ambushes guests - POLITICO.com

More On AIG

Hullabaloo
...Most of AIG's executives, particularly Joe Cassano and everyone in his division, are extremely fortunate not to be languishing in prison right now. That AIG's creditors are receiving even a dime is also fortuitous.

What's most appalling about all of this is the fact that everyone is behaving as modern capitalism demands. AIG "innovated" financial products to meet shareholder expectations of quarterly products as the market demanded. When those products went belly up, the government couldn't let AIG go bankrupt without destroying the entire economy. With AIG back on its feet due entirely to government largesse, the faceless, soulless corporation is once again doing its job in attempting to maximize value to its shareholders.

Everything is working exactly as the system is designed to, actually. And it will keep working this way until we overthrow it in favor of a new system that doesn't prioritize short-term profit over long-term stability, corporate persons over real persons, and shareholder return over wage growth.

A Vampire Rises

AIG may sue US over $182bn bailout that saved them
As if we needed another example of how poorly executed the bailout was. AIG reportedly recognizes that they needed the $182 billion taxpayer bailout, but they’re now complaining that the terms of the bailout were too harsh for shareholders. To thank the American taxpayer for their sacrifice, AIG’s board is reviewing the possibility of filing a lawsuit for $25 billion against the US government, aka against YOU, the taxpayers, who got no bailout at all, but paid for theirs...

Monday, January 07, 2013

No Flu Shot Firing

Nurses Fired for Refusing Flu Shot - Yahoo! News
An Indiana hospital has fired eight employees, including at least three veteran nurses, after they refused mandatory flu shots, stirring up controversy over which should come first: employee rights or patient safety. The hospital imposed mandatory vaccines, responding to rising concerns about the spread of influenza...

Normally, I'd be railing about unfair termination, but in this case, I'm having trouble revving up much sympathy.

The Daily Flashback: Screwed Vets Edition

This one paragraph sent me reeling, unpleasantly, back in time to a place and time I'd rather forget. Like America has.

Daily Politics Blog - Charles P. Pierce - Political Blogging - Esquire-- Chuck Hagel Already Knows How To Be Defense Secretary
...(And thus doth fall one of the great wingnut myths of all time — that draft-dodging hippies trashed the Vietnam veterans when they got home. It was the antiwar Left and its remnants that ran the GI coffeehouses, and that listened to the terrible stories and took them seriously. It was those remnants — and, if I can brag a little, the alternative press of the day — that helped force the issue of PTSD, and the complications from Agent Orange, and the other ancillary horrors into the spotlight. By contrast, the conventional veterans groups were next to useless; I still remember Vietnam vet sources of mine cursing what they called "the class of '45." And the Reagan people told them what a noble cause it was in which they had fought, and then cut the funding that was helping them back here.)...

O Talks Tuff

GOP scoffs at Obama’s pledge not to negotiate spending cuts for a national debt ceiling hike - The Washington Post
“...I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they have already racked up through the laws that they passed,” the president said last week. “If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic...”

Sunday, January 06, 2013

Nuts On The Right, Nuts On The Left

Magical thinking is not limited to Fundamentalist Christians:apostates on the left « The Confluence
...As someone who grew up in one of the least rational religious cults out there, I can see a lot of similarities between the anti-GMO, anti-nuke, anti-vacc crew and the glassy eyed, Watchtower bearing door knockers. I can’t take either set seriously. It’s hard to reason with people who are committed to a point of view regardless of the evidence or the damage they are doing to their own cause. It would be great if more people on the left would follow Lynas’ example because right now, it’s easy to ignore the lefty activists. They’re not doing environmentalism any good. To some of us on the left, such as myself, the anti-GMO, anti-nuclear energy crowd is as embarrassing, nutty and non-productive as the Tea Partiers are to the right. It’s one of the reasons I will never vote Green...

Insane Justice

Without a Card to Play, Texas Grandma Sentenced to Life Without Parole for First-Time Drug Offense
Texans can sleep more soundly at night knowing that Elisa Castillo, a grandmother and nonviolent first-time drug offender, is serving a life without parole sentence in Fort Worth. Yes, you read that right — the latest casualty of our War on Drugs is a grandmother who never even touched the drugs that sent her to prison. Though she may not look like public enemy No. 1, our persistently illogical criminal justice system has determined that this harsh punishment fits her crime. The truth, though, is that her fate was sealed, in large part because she didn't have a card to play when negotiating her sentence...

How Congress Actually "Works"

Absolute Zero Not-- Again

Quantum Gas Temperature Drops Below Absolute Zero | Wired Science | Wired.com
Physicists have created a quantum gas capable of reaching temperatures below absolute zero, paving the way for future quantum inventions...
Here's the latest--

So it gets hotter as it gets colder but stays colder, and a perpetual motion machine capable of at least 100% combustion efficiency is possible. Oh, and the comments here are also quite, er, cool. Update: here.

Crazier Strikes

Bachmann introduces first bill in 113th Congress…to repeal Obamacare — MSNBC
The 113th Congress is officially up and running, and many people are hoping it’s out with the old and on with the new. Unfortunately, things kicked off with a dose of old news. As it turns out, the first bill introduced into the new session is yet another attempt to repeal Obamacare. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann led the charge and took to Twitter to spread the word:

“At noon today, I introduced the first bill of the 113th Congress to repeal Obamacare in its entirety,” said Bachmann’s Twitter feed...

More Taxes Coming?

Pelosi: "Not enough" revenue in "fiscal cliff" deal - CBS News
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., argued that additional revenue must be included in upcoming deficit reduction deals, calling the revenue secured by the "fiscal cliff" deal "significant" but "not enough..."

Saturday, January 05, 2013

Getting Even?

Remember the 67 Republicans in House of Representatives who turned their backs on Hurricane Sandy victims - NY Daily News
There are 67 Republicans from the House of Representatives who voted against the first round of federal money to pay for flood insurance claims from Hurricane Sandy. You ought to remember every one of them, all these elected officials who seem to have all the qualities of dogs except loyalty...

Well, unless you plan to move into their district, how do you get rid of these evil GOPers? I have a suggestion for all of the NE GOPers-- quit giving money and support of any kind to the Republican Party. You might then stand a chance of actually ridding all of us from these despicable people.

Anti-Woman Gun Bill Response?

My bold in the following.
Joshua Boston, Former Marine, Pens Response To Dianne Feinstein Gun Control Bill: 'I Am Not Your Servant'
I will not register my weapons should this bill be passed, as I do not believe it is the government's right to know what I own. Nor do I think it prudent to tell you what I own so that it may be taken from me by a group of people who enjoy armed protection yet decry me having the same a crime. You ma'am have overstepped a line that is not your domain. I am a Marine Corps Veteran of 8 years, and I will not have some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object, yet carries one, tell me I may not have one.
Feinstein's bill would ban the sale of semi-automatic weapons, strengthen the 1994 "Assault Weapons Ban" and tighten regulations for grandfathered weapons. “When you have someone walking in and slaying, in the most brutal way, 6-year-olds, something is really wrong,” she told Fox News Sunday last month. “This is one effort and other things we should do to try to put weapons under some kind of appropriate authority."

I am pretty sure Finestein is not packing an Uzi, but who knows?

Friday, January 04, 2013

GI For SecDef

Chuck Hagel’s Experience as a Soldier Uniquely Qualifies Him to Head Defense - The Daily Beast
If nominated and confirmed, Chuck Hagel would become the first secretary of defense in decades—perhaps in U.S. history—to have served in combat as an enlisted soldier.

U.S. senators considering whether to support Hagel would do well to reflect on this qualification, whose benefits—both practical and symbolic—easily outweigh the arguments now being marshaled against his nomination. At a time when fewer politicians in Washington have served in the armed forces than at any point since the 40s—a disturbing trend, given the gravity of sending people and taxpayer’s dollars to war--Hagel’s realistic and seasoned perspective on the utility and limitations of military force would be an asset to policymakers hunting for a sustainable defense strategy...

Lying Liars, Vampires, And The Bail-out

The Democratic Mandate

The Final 2012 Presidential Election Results Aren’t Close - Robert Schlesinger (usnews.com)
...Obama won. Republicans lost. And, again, it wasn't especially close.

So it is not only tiresome but more than a little undemocratic for conservatives to suggest that, having lost at the ballot box, they should be able to dictate the direction and vision of the country at the negotiating table.

Sandy Aid Ok'd

House approves $9.7 billion in Sandy disaster aid - latimes.com
Responding to the political storm over delays in disaster aid to the Northeast, the House on Friday approved a $9.7-billion flood insurance bill, the first segment of a possible $60-billion Superstorm Sandy recovery package...

Hmmm. Good? Bad?

SOS Clinton Ready To Work

Hillary Clinton to return to work next week - The Washington Post
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is “raring to go” and plans to return to work next week after medical setbacks that kept her out of public view for more than three weeks, a spokeswoman said Thursday...

Thursday, January 03, 2013

Filibuster Reform Finally?

The Morning Plum: Media shouldn’t get rolled by GOP debt ceiling spin
...Pressure on Harry Reid on filibuster reform: As David Firestone points out, it is on Reid to do the right thing and to avoid agreeing on any filibuster reform bargain that continues enabling unprecedented GOP obstructionism. Reid understands the stakes here as well as anyone, having negotiated an informal truce with McConnell that proved a failure.

Also: If current GOP behavior is not enough to prompt real reform, what would be? For more on this, see Steve Benen, who has a chart demonstrating the unprecedented scope of filibuster abuse in recent years....

More GOP Obstruction Coming

Obama judicial nominees likely to reignite controversy - CNN.com
In a move likely to reignite the political battle over judges, President Barack Obama on Thursday renominated 33 people to the federal courts, including a New York lawyer twice blocked by Republicans worried she would be an "activist" on the bench...

Odds Are Boner Stays

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Daily Anti-CDS

Hillary Clinton Haters Hammered for Mocking Her Illness - The Daily Beast
Hey, Fox News, guess it’s not the “Benghazi flu” after all. Turns out that Hillary—you know, the woman many of you love to hate—has a blood clot near her brain.

What we heard from some on the right after Hillary Clinton said she suffered a concussion last month—following a bout with the stomach flu—was that she could be faking it, since it happened just days before she was scheduled to testify about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. (That’s you, John Bolton, the former State Department official who accused her of contracting a “diplomatic illness.”)...

Fox Falls

Bad news at Fox News? Hannity’s ratings plummet | Strange Bedfellows — Politics News - seattlepi.com
...In the days after, according to Nielsen ratings, Hannity’s nightly audience plummeted to 1.95 million. He lost nearly 50 percent of his viewers, more than 50 percent in the coveted 25-54 age group.

“The O’Reilly Factor” also saw a drop, but not as severe. BillO dropped from 4.135 million nightly viewers to 3.049 million after the election. He’s restarted an old war — the “war on Christmas” — presumably in the hopes of getting them back...

It Ain't No Soul

What O Sez

GOPers Screw Sandy Victims

On Not Compromising With Satan

Compromise For Idiots - Esquire
...Compromise is not a conjuring word. It is not a magic spell. Most specifically, it is not an end in and of itself. It is not "the way democracy is supposed to work." Democracy contains compromise. It is both a vehicle for achieving it and an arena within which to demonstrate the value of compromise and, at its best, which it certainly is not at the moment, it is a marvelous environment within which compromise can flourish. But it does not necessarily require it, not on every issue and not in every circumstance, and certainly not at the moment, when the feral children in the Republican caucus of the House Of Representatives appear to have every intention of blowing up the national economy, and their own legislative leadership, and (arguably) their own political party, rather than accede to a bipartisan compromise economic plan produced by the vice-president and the United States Senate.

It is time -- indeed, it is past time -- for the "concerns" of maniacs to be ignored, and the maniacs themselves to be marginalized. It is time for some federal money to certain congressional districts to start drying up. It's time for some legislative courtesies to be denied. It is time for some serious application of Article II to the melons of certain members of Congress. It is time for the vandals to be rolled. The first step in that process is for Democrats, including the president, to start calling things for what they are, and calling people for who they are...

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

More CDS Reportage

Kathleen Parker: Hillary Clinton and our rush to judgment - The Washington Post
...This is not blind faith in a favored politician but respect for a process that relies on accepted rules of order. We owe our representative to the world — which is to say, ourselves — at least this much.

One of Clinton's critics pretends to hop the fence but reveals herself with "accepted rules of order," which, of course, only exist for Democrats not named Obama.

Letting Go Of Law

Let’s Give Up on the Constitution - NYTimes.com
...If even this change is impossible, perhaps the dream of a country ruled by “We the people” is impossibly utopian. If so, we have to give up on the claim that we are a self-governing people who can settle our disagreements through mature and tolerant debate. But before abandoning our heritage of self-government, we ought to try extricating ourselves from constitutional bondage so that we can give real freedom a chance.

CDS Sampler

The conscience of a conservative
In conservative fantasy land, a.k.a. the New York Post:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was set to face a grilling from Congress this week over the terrorist attacks in Benghazi when she started channeling the late poet Shel Silverstein.

“I have the measles and the mumps / A gash, a rash and purple bumps,” said Clinton, in effect, informing the House and Senate (with regrets!) that she was suffering too many maladies to testify as expected about the Sept. 11 attack in Libya...

There's more if you can stand it.

Scumplanation

Why Marco Rubio voted against the fiscal cliff deal - The Week
...If there is a common Achilles Heel for senators aspiring to become president, it is their voting record. Democratic and Republican primaries can be purist affairs, and compromises on core ideological beliefs do not play well with base voters. Hillary Clinton's vote to authorize the Iraq War, for example, doomed her campaign against Barack Obama. Indeed, Rubio, who like Obama was a celebrity before setting foot on Capitol Hill, may be wise to follow Obama's example, making his tenure in the Senate as short, sweet, and fingerprint-free as possible...

About that country you're supposed to love...