Sarah Barracuda? More like Sarah Bait n' Switch

SarahPAC -- Great at raising funds; distributing them, not so much:

 

Sarah Palin's House Hit List: No Money to Favored Candidates So Far

 

Sarah Palin put the bull's-eye on 20 U.S. House races on her Facebook page last month, but didn't donate to favored candidates in those districts during the first quarter of the year.

 

Although her SarahPAC took in $400,000 in the first quarter and had more than $900,000 in the bank, it gave only $7,500 to candidates between January and the end of March, plus an additional $2,000 to two other PACs. None went to Republicans in the races she targeted.

 

A fairly classic move.  Ring the alarm, ratchet up the hysteria, then forget all about it--not to mention whoever responded.  Sounds exactly like what the GOP does to the reigious right every other November and, in this case, there's probably a healthy amount of overlap in the people getting punked for their dollars.

 

None of which is to say that the Quitta from Wasilla is averse to parting with that cash, oh heavens, no:

 

"According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, SarahPAC spent $402,460 in the first quarter of 2010.

 

Almost $243,000 went to consultants...

 

More than $42,000 went to travel, including more than $7,300 to de-ice private planes...

 

The PAC spent more than $31,780 on postage and more than $25,000 on Internet fundraising.

 

Even photographer Shaelah Craighead (Laura Bush's White House photographer) took in more money than Sarah PAC gave to candidates, earning $11,596 for photography."

 

Looks like Bailin' Palin's PAC is all about "political acion," all right.

 

Her own. 

 

 

G.I. Jokes on parade

Oy.

Almond plans to have his pistol loaded and openly carried, his rifle unloaded and slung to the rear, a bandoleer of magazines containing ammunition draped over his polo-shirted shoulder. The Atlanta area real estate agent organized the rally because he is upset about health-care reform, climate control, bank bailouts, drug laws and what he sees as President Obama's insistence on and the Democratic Congress's capitulation to a "totalitarian socialism" that tramples individual rights.

Because health, environmental, and financial policy reasonably require a demonstration of armed force, right? These Barcalounger Bravehearts wear their cluelessness like a badge:

Those coming to the "Restore the Constitution" rally give Obama no quarter for signing the law that permits them to bring their guns to Fort Hunt, run by the National Park Service, and to Gravelly Point on the banks of the Potomac River. Nor are they comforted by a broad expansion of gun rights in several states since his election.

Yup, rights so thoroughly trampled that their present extent didn't even exist before the current "totalitarian" administration.

It's laughable that people who claim to be such patriotic Americans can look at their government functioning, as intended: a majority of majority-elected officials passing legislative priorities of a majority-elected president; and seeing despotism that must be confronted with a display of guns, not seven months prior to their next opportunity to elect those officials.

The brandishing of weapons is "not just an important symbol" but "a reminder of who we are," said Almond.

Indeed, it is: Morons.

Saturday Shuffle

Lonesome Highway - Shane MacGowan and the Popes
Burn (Matt's Demo) - Alkaline Trio
Back Off Bitch - Guns N' Roses
Rumble in Brighton - The Stray Cats
Latin Soul Square Dance - Joe Bataan
How Does It Feel To Feel - Ride
Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones
Revolution - The Cult
Shoot You Down - The Stone Roses
Adagio (from Alien 3) - Eliot Goldenthal

Black No. 1

Peter Steele (1962-2010)

Quote of the Day -- Tax Day Edition

I fully recognize that I've totally pillaged this NYT report of their Teabagger poll, but it really is the gift that keeps on giving as far as exposing the thoughts and motivations of the Teabagger masses. The "mind-numbing inconsistencies" part was too good to leave out:

(I)n follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security — the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on “waste.”

Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits.

Others could not explain the contradiction.

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

Prison-bound Pontiff?

Can't say I'd be too upset:

Richard Dawkins calls for arrest of Pope Benedict XVI

Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.

The Pope was embroiled in new controversy this weekend over a letter he signed arguing that the “good of the universal church” should be considered against the defrocking of an American priest who committed sex offences against two boys. It was dated 1985, when he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with sex abuse cases.

One would think that someone so concerned with the "good of the universal church" that he would punt on the defrocking of a convicted child molester would see the current value in his own resignation.

(For further reading, see "The Great Happy Vatican Death Spiral")

The Teabaggers are...pretty much who we all thought they were

The New York Times releases the most unsurprising poll, ever. The highlights please, Carnac:

The 18 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45.

They hold more conservative views on a range of issues than Republicans generally. They are also more likely to describe themselves as “very conservative” and President Obama as “very liberal.”

And while most Republicans say they are “dissatisfied” with Washington, Tea Party supporters are more likely to classify themselves as “angry.”

Must be tough going, for these folks...

Most describe the amount they paid in taxes this year as “fair.”

Tea Party supporters over all are more likely than the general public to say their personal financial situation is fairly good or very good.

Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, and are no more or less afraid of falling into a lower socioeconomic class

Or not. Not a bad spot to be in, I guess. Wonder what happened to all that "Taxed Enough Already" business?

Anger is a pretty strong emotion, though. Wonder what it could be...

Tea Party supporters’ fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich.

More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public.

They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people.

Older, wealthier white men are incensed over the belief that policies may be overly beneficial to the poor and favor blacks, whose problems have been exaggerated (can't forget that part) all despite having no inordinate concern about losing their own economic status.

But remember, it's all about taxes and spending. Don't you dare suggest that there's anything else at work...

“I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says."

Oops.

Precisely what direction would that be, Kathy? I wish she could enlighten us as to what tax bracket situation she's referring to.

Bachmann jumps on the Failure train

Noted Minnesotan hysteric, Rep. Michele Bachmann, joins the pill-popper in explicitly hoping the Obama administration fails:

 

BACHMANN: We're, we're, we're hoping that President Obama's policies don't succeed, exactly as you said. And of course, David Axelrod unfortunately seems to be wanting to smear people who disagree with the president.

 

At least Limbaugh the Hutt made the (weak) attempt to spin his statement as supporting personal failure for the President.  The Teabagger Queen specifically wants to see his policies, themselves, fail.  Her bizarre attempt to claim this is about "disagreement" shows that she doesn't even understand the words coming out of her own mouth.

 

In her hurry to pander to the derangement of the far-right Bachmann, like Limbaugh before her, ignores the fact that policies are implemented with, y'know, "goals" in mind...goals that are intended to help American families. 

 

Economic recovery, finance reform, health care reform.

 

Contrary to Bachmann's ignorance, these aren't points in a game that Obama, alone, will win or lose.

 

What she wants to see--explicitly--is American families bankrupted by continued economic decline, 30,000,000+ unable to get health care, and banks and insurance companies making money on the backs of all of them.

 

That's not spin and that's not smear.

 

It's just stupid.

Oklahoma Teabaggers, GOP spoiling to fight the Feds

The Recliner Revolutionaries are getting crazier by the day:

The Associated Press reports that Oklahoma tea party leaders, “frustrated by recent political setbacks,” are working with right-wing Republicans in the Oklahoma legislature to create a new “volunteer militia to help defend against what they believe are improper federal infringements on state sovereignty.”

The founding fathers “were not referring to a turkey shoot or a quail hunt. They really weren’t even talking about us having the ability to protect ourselves against each other,” (Okla. State Senator Randy) Brogdon said. “The Second Amendment deals directly with the right of an individual to keep and bear arms to protect themselves from an overreaching federal government.”

"Frustrated by political setbacks," their reaction is, not to vote, but to grab guns.

And, precisely, how does an armed militia "defend" or "protect" anything? Picket signs? Letter writing campaigns?

These lunatics are doing nothing less than threatening federal employees with violence if they attempt to enforce laws with which they disagree. And GOP officials are on the record, meeting with and supporting these efforts.

Having failed at the ballot box, they want to try their hand at being the bloodthirsty heroes they pretend to be in their chatrooms and letters to the editor. That's who's steering the GOP ship: Overgrown children with artillery.

Saturday Shuffle

Spy in the Cab - Bauhaus
Reason to Believe - Bruce Springsteen
Back to the House That Love Built - Tito & Tarantula
Fuel - Lo Pro
Maniac - Michael Sembello
It Must Look Pretty Appealing - Bad Religion
Anthem - Leonard Cohen
Girls, Girls, Girls (Unplugged, w/ The Roots) - Jay-Z
Hand in My Pocket - Alanis Morissette
Cool Jerk (live) - Bootsy Collins

Who would Jesus ban and deport?

For an organization whose pride in their Christian and biblical bona fides makes a Billy Mays infomercial seem understated, the American Family Association has developed a rather interesting take on core Christ-professed concepts like compassion:

The most compassionate thing we can do for Americans is to bring a halt to the immigration of Muslims into the U.S. This will protect our national security and preserve our national identity, culture, ideals and values. Muslims, by custom and religion, are simply unwilling to integrate into cultures with Western values and it is folly to pretend otherwise.

The most compassionate thing we can do for Muslims who have already immigrated here is to help repatriate them back to Muslim countries.

In other words, simple Judeo-Christian compassion dictates a restriction and repatriation policy with regard to Muslim immigration into the U.S.

"Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." -- Mohandas Gandhi

Profiles in Turdage

Plum Line's Greg Sargent elicits George Stephanopoulos' response to criticism over his questioning the President about comments made by Sarah Palin that compared his nuclear policy to a child asking to be beaten up:

"Whatever you think of Sarah Palin, she’s a former VP candidate — and a potential challenger to President Obama — with a strong following in the GOP. She made a pointed critique of a new Presidential policy. By getting the President’s response, I was doing my job."

First of all, here's the "pointed critique" in question:

"It's kinda like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, 'Go ahead, punch me in the face and I'm not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me.'"

That is what Stephonopoulos, when finding himself in a one-on-one interview with the most powerful man in the world, decided to put on the short list of matters to be addressed.

Think about that:

It is Stephanopoulos' stated understanding that it is his job (as a "journalist," presumably) to solicit the President of the United States' response to what can be charitably described as an ignorant, juvenile attack from an individual with no background, whatsoever, on the policy issues at hand.

And the worst part is, he's probably right.

It is no longer the journalist's job to take a public figure's statements, see how they comport with objective facts, and follow up for an explanation if they fail to do so. The "journalist's" job is simply to pass claims along, uncritically, and, when given the opportunity (as Stephanopoulos was here) to effectively become one of the kids on Palin's imaginary playground, breathlessly sharing overheard insults in the hopes of instigating a fight.

Stephanopoulos--and Sargent, alike--justify this decision in the same, profoundly cowardly way: Palin is popular, therefore her views matter. No effort, whatsoever, is made to claim that this line of questioning was acceptable because she has relevant policy experience or even that her observation is correct, and for good reason: she doesn't and it's not.

While their "popular = newsworthy" argument might explain repeating Palin's childish attacks, it's the unspoken--but clearly evident--way that rule actually works in practice that's far more damaging: Popularity isn't just a standard, it's the only standard, utterly supplanting things like "accuracy." In the field of stenographic journalism, as practiced by Stephanopoulos and defended by Sargent, no matter how asinine or factually bereft the claim, it's presented as if it merits equal weight to the opposing view.

It's this shoulder-shrugging "What can you do? Some say this, some say that?" mentality and the resultant abdication of journalistic responsibility that keeps the decayed corpses of discredited zombie memes (Death Panels, Socialist takeovers, etc.) shambling their way through our public discourse.

Quote of the Day

"I really have no response. Because last I checked, Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues."

"If the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin." -- President Barack Obama, when asked to respond to Sarah Palin's comparison of U.S. nuclear policy to a child asking to be punched in the face on the playground.

State-sanctioned murder we can believe in

No hypotheticals, no reserving rights for possible scenarios, it's now official:

U.S. Approves Targeted Killing of American Cleric

The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.

The headlines are nothing short of breathtaking.

Obama Administration Approves Killing Of Muslim American Cleric‎

Barack Obama orders killing of US cleric Anwar al-Awlaki

US Authorizes Killing of American Cleric

US approves killing US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki

Reports: US OKs radical US-born cleric for death

Muslim cleric Aulaqi is 1st U.S. citizen on list of those CIA is allowed to kill

Words like "Muslim cleric" tend to muddy peoples' thinking, but there being no way to describing this individual without eliciting knee-jerk reactions from a certain segment of the populace, I prefer the final headline, taken from the Washington Post. It's about as unambiguous as it gets:

The government can now kill a United States citizen, born right here in New Mexico, without arrest, charge, or trial, based on nothing more than what unaccountable government sources suspect him of having done.

Story after story calls it "unusual," "unprecedented," "extraordinary," etc., but no one seems to ask the crucial question:

"How?"

By what authority is the President of the United States allowed to essentially cite secret evidence and unilaterally declare that a U.S. citizen is to be killed? What statute supersedes not just some, but every, last protection this man has under the law? What legal basis exists for stripping the basic rights that this government affords to murderers, spies, assassins, and, yes, terrorists?

Consider this quote, dutifully regurgitated without the slightest analysis or question by the WaPo:

"He's recently become an operational figure for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," said a second U.S. official. "He's working actively to kill Americans, so it's both lawful and sensible to try to stop him." The official stressed that there are "careful procedures our government follows in these kinds of cases, but U.S. citizenship hardly gives you blanket protection overseas to plot the murder of your fellow citizens."

"Lawful?"

According to which one?

"Careful procedures?

What are they? Who decides?

"U.S. citizenship hardly gives you blanket protection?"

Not even against being summarily executed by your own government?

The questions are so obvious that their absence should be as shocking as this revelation, itself. And yet they will remain absent and unspoken, both by Obama's reversal-embracing apologists, as well as his deranged group of detractors who see the conscious destruction of this nation's values in his every decision...until confronted with this choice that does just that.

This assassination doctrine means that we, as a nation, have not only not changed course from the last eight years, but we've followed it right off the map.

And where that leaves us is anyone's guess.

Healthcare reform brings out the domestic terrorists

(Updated and bumped)

The public frenzy that's been carefully cultivated over the last year by the opponents of the health care reform bill is continuing its--completely predictable--arc into increasingly frightening derangement following the bill's passage this week.

What began with angry confrontations and shouting down elected officials at public appearances has degenerated into open threats of violence against lawmakers and even their families:

Bart Stupak (D-MI) receives threatening phone calls and letters: “You’re dead; we know where you live; we’ll get you.”

Rep. Tom Perriello’s (D-VA) brother has a gas line tampered with after a blogger mistakenly posted his home address as the Congressman's, inviting other Teabaggers to "drop by" and confront him over his health care vote.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) received a message threatening to shoot the children of lawmakers who voted "yes" on health care reform.

Updated 3.27.10

Since there's simply no indication that these lunatics are going to abandon their embrace of threats and vandalism, I'm just adding and bumping the post as the incidents continue to pile up.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) is forced to shut down his office after receiving a written threat and an unknown white powder.

Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-AZ) received multiple death threats and warnings to "watch his back" as anonymous callers advocated bombing his office.

Updated 4.6.10

A Washington man is arrested for threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) for voting for the healthcare reform bill.

Updated 4.7.10

A man in California is arrested by the FBI after making dozens of threatening calls to Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), including listing her home address and exhorting her to withdraw her support if she wanted to ever see it again.

Easter comes and goes, but the Vatican is still on its cross

Utterly shameless:

Vatican: There's anti-Catholic 'hate' campaign

Senior cardinals in Rome are decrying what they depict as an anti-Catholic "hate" campaign that they say is related to the fact that Benedict is leading church opposition to same-sex marriage.

Vatican Radio on today quoted Italian Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, a Holy See official, as saying the church must pardon its attackers for what he called "hatred against the Catholic church."

People: There's an anti-molester 'accountability' campaign

There, fixed it for you.

The Catholic Church's martyr pose is getting more nauseating by the day. Not content with their already outrageous indulgence of their persecution complex, now they're laying the blame for their problems, not with the child rapists they concealed and shuffled from parish to parish for several decades, but at the feet of bitter gays and their friends.

Who, as good Catholics, they are obligated to forgive for their "hatred."

Unbelievable. Such preening self-righteousness I have never seen.

The fact that these people can permit the systematic abuse of thousands of children and, not only play the victim when criticized for their horrific actions, but make a show of moral superiority in calling attention to their forgiveness of their hateful "attackers" is beyond the pale.

Monsters.

Surging right down the drain

Ugh:

In a stark assessment of shootings of locals by US troops at checkpoints in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal said in little-noticed comments last month that during his time as commander there, "We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."

The comments came during a virtual town hall with troops in Afghanistan after one asked McChrystal to comment on the "escalation of force" problem. The general responded that, in the nine months he had been in charge, none of the cases in which "we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it."

So.

Wonder if this is filed away under the winning of hearts, or minds?

It speaks volumes that it's "little noticed" when a theatre commander can admit that (through whatever sort of scenario) U.S. forces have a bad habit of shooting and killing people who were were not hostile in an area where we're desperate to keep the citizenry from siding with the enemy.

Given that the aim of this surge is to put a check on the Taliban's momentum, this sort of situation has to be considered, not just unfortunate, but an absolute failure.

Considering the type of enemy we're fighting, this isn't collateral damage or any other bloodless status report euphemism; it's nothing less than a Taliban membership drive.

Saturday Shuffle

Metal Time - This Frequency Five
Sad But True - Metallica
In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
Bang and Blame - R.E.M.
Wilma's Rainbow - Helmet
Bad Medicine - Bon Jovi
Badd - Richard Cheese
Down Here - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Seamless - Grade
She's Crafty - Beastie Boys

Anna Paquin: Sookie Stackhouse a Bisexual Bombshell!

All rightey: show me your hits.

Ok. Here's my experiment for the week.

The other day, after publishing a post that characterized WH press secretary Robert Gibbs' handing of John McCain's "no cooperation" temper tantrum as "a spanking," I got bizarre hits from Norway, Germany, and even China thanks to people searching "spanking."

Given that "True Blood" starlet, Sookie Stacked-house has managed to crash websites with her bisexual revelation, I'm frankly curious about exploring the power of keywords.

Maybe this way I can lure a few folks into reading about events of actual consequence.

Will keep you posted, Dear readers...

A simple "no" wouldn't suffice?

Red State's resident ranting rectum, Erick Erickson, continues to show why he's such an incredible addition to CNN's "Best Political Team." 

 

"I'm not filling out this form. I dare them to try and come throw me in jail. I dare them to. Pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door."  -- on being asked to participate in the Census' supplemental American Community Survey

 

But we're not advocating violence, heavens no.  We just like talking about it.

 

Constantly.

 

And for the slightest provocation.

 

These are the things I think back on when people try to excuse the current torrent of violent rhetoric spewing forth from the right wing with dismissive talk of being able to find "extreme statements" on both sides.

 

It's a questionnaire for god's sake.  Who thinks it's A.) reasonable, or B.) funny to fantasize about pulling a shotgun on someone over such a thing?  I know CNN is hurting for ratings, but is it worth pandering to the beady-eyed, gun-clutching masses who think crap like this is sensible?

 

What's next, a designated Hutaree correspondent?

April Fools

Unfortunately, not a joke:



No shotgun wedding, here. Full auto or bust, baby. Which brings us to my favorite shot from the album:



Precious, isn't it? Notice they removed the magazine from the assault weapon before handing it over to the toddler.

Safety first, after all...

Lucy's holding the football...

And President Charlie Brown is--again--running full-tilt for the kickoff:

 

Reversing a ban on oil drilling off most U.S. shores, President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced an expansive new policy that could put oil and natural gas platforms in waters along the southern Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and part of Alaska.

 

...Obama made no secret of the fact that one factor in his decision was securing Republican support for a sweeping climate change bill that has languished in Congress. But Obama has long stated his support in favor of the "tough decision" to expand offshore drilling.

 

Seriously?

 

How can anyone who's been paying the slightest bit of attention to the events of the past 14 months--much less the guy who's found himself lying flat on his back, staring up at the sky, time and time again--think that that part of the calculus has any chance of working out?

 

You're, once again, backing off a position you campaigned upon.  Chalk it up to new information, the alleged year of study, whatever you want.  After all, we complained for the last eight years about a President who was too stubborn to change course in response to evolving circumstances.  But, for the love of God, even if pandering to the GOP is, inexplicably, still part of your strategy, why publicize it?  All you're doing is positioning things so that your constituents (You remember them, right?  They're the ones who actually will support you.) not only think you took them for their votes and then threw them under the bus, but did so in the starry-eyed pursuit of bipartisanship that your opponents have commited themselves to denying?

Johnnie Mac goes full Pander Bear

What part of "2,000 miles long" do these people not understand?

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), under fire from the right for not being tough enough on immigration in his Senate primary race, has called on Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to dispatch National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a letter sent to Napolitano's office yesterday, McCain says that rising drug violence across the border in Mexico endangers the lives of American citizens. He says the situation now calls for troops to be sent to the "southern border region."

Can't get much more "America, fuck yeah!" than trying to militarize a line spanning four states and surrounded by 12 million people.

To our servicepeople's misfortune, we've found that it's impossible to completely secure something as small as a military base with full-time soldiers who are expecting to get attacked.

Which is worse: a politician who knows better cynically offering such an obviously ineffective solution to border security or being one of the willing dupes looking for such "feels good, does little" garbage?

Quote of the Day

Militia edition:

"It started out as a Christian thing." -- Donna Stone, ex-wife of David Stone, the ringleader of the "Hutaree" militia group arrested by the FBI in a conspiracy to murder law enforcement

Based in Lenawee County, Mich., the Hutaree are described by officials as an extremist group. Their Web site says the name means "Christian warrior" and claims it is preparing to defend itself for the impending arrival of the anti-Christ.

"Christian" has sure changed a lot since I was in Sunday School.

Number of wild wolverines in The Wolverine State: 0

Number of militia groups: 47

**Put in perspective, Texas leads the nation in militia groups with 57 for its nearly 25,000,000 people. Michigan's population? 10,000,000.

This week in unexpected allies - Recess Appointment Edition

Yesterday, President Obama used the Congressional recess to install fifteen of the roughly six dozen appointments languishing, voteless, in the Senate as obstruction tactics have ground the approval process to a halt. As expected, Republican heads began exploding over a noncontroversial procedure they had no problem with from 2000 to 2008.

What was unexpected was how the President was seemingly reminded that he doesn't have to deal with the tantrum caucus if he doesn't want to.

With the National Labor Relations Board looking down the barrel of having 600 already-decided cases thrown out because the decisions were made while three of the five seats on the panel were vacant due to lack of Senate confirmation, noted far-left radical, Chief Justice John Roberts asked one simple question:

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: And the recess appointment power doesn’t work why?

Why, indeed.

Speak the truth, get the gate

Not exactly a new or unique experience, but conservative commentator David Frum found out first hand, this week after penning a column that dared to suggest that the GOP's "all in on 'no'" strategy on the healthcare debate may not have been the best of ideas.

Within days, Frum found himself ousted by the American Enterprise Institute, his paid--and benefit-providing--think tank gig making him a case study along the way:

What many people don’t realize about the think tank world is that the policy types who serve as modestly paid fellows do so in large part for the health coverage. In our antiquated employer-based system, middle-aged wonks simply have to be attached to a group to be insurable.

...In one stroke, David Frum has become not only the poster boy for the Republican party’s incoherent tantrums, but for the need for Obamacare itself! It doesn’t get more delicious than this.

Not sure about "delicious,"--a man with a family is still out of a paid job--but it is interesting coming from the end of the political spectrum that, just a few years ago, accused Democrats of being intolerant of dissent and initiating an ideological "purge" for not supporting Joe Lieberman's 2006 Senate run.

Now, Lieberman is an actual official; a long-tenured Senator with substantial influence capable of affecting policy, who had taken multiple positions with which Democratic voters strongly disagreed.

Frum is, essentially, a columnist who wrote one column they didn't like.

Who has the smaller tent?

Saturday Shuffle

Healthy Body - Operation Ivy
And When Was Better - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Delirium of Disorder - Bad Religion
Pink Lemonade - Kittie
Eden - Hooverphonic
I'm Dancing In The Show Tonight - Ween
Unicorn Theme - Tangerine Dream
The Brazilian - Genesis
I Remember You - The Ataris
Democracy - Leonard Cohen

Your Weasel of the Week: Eric Cantor

Shorter Eric Cantor (R-VA): "We only shouted 'fire;' we never said 'trample people while trying to run out of the theatre."

"I've received threats since I assumed elected office, not only because of my positions, but because I am Jewish," Cantor said. "I've never blamed anyone in this body for that. Period."

Wonder how many of Mr. Cantor's colleagues publicly characterized his position or his faith as socialism or an assault on our freedom, resulting in "armageddon" that will "ruin the country, and put seniors to death?

"It is reckless to use these incidents as media vehicles for political gain," he said. He called out DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen and DNC Chair Tim Kaine by name as those who are "dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting that these incidents be used as a political weapon."

Seems to me if these incidents death threats are coming over the passage of legislation, they are already a political weapon.

Cantor has some nerve daring to lecture anyone about what is or isn't "reckless" following the unhinged rhetoric of the past year. As if it would've taken a crystal ball to foresee that abandoning policy-based criticism for months of relentless demonization, painting your opponents as being the second coming of StalinMaoHitler who will literally kill peoples' grandparents, could have adverse effects.

Cantor's disingenuous whining about "political gain" is nothing but a dodge, a lame attempt to distract people from the underlying fact that one group's political gains are often the result of another group being held accountable for their words and actions.

Circle of life, my friends, circle of life...

Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase!

Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze!

It means no worries for the rest of your days...

 

Unless, of course, you run into angry hippos and lions while trying to poach animals in a nature preserve:

 

Poaching seems quite a bit less appealing today after an incident that occurred in South Africa. All that remains of one man, who entered Kruger National Park with the intent of illegally hunting animals, is his skull and a few scraps of clothing. After he and two companions snuck into the nature reserve under cover of night to check some illegal traps they had assembled, they were apparently ambushed by a group of angry hippos. The three men all ran in different directions, but only two made it out of the park with their lives. The third, park officials say, was devoured by lions.

"Ambushed?"

What, were the hippos waiting in the preserve's parking lot, hiding behind a dumpster with a couple pieces of pipe and a bike chain?

If you sneak into a wildlife preserve...an African wildlife preserve...after dark...and end up get FUBARed by the inhabitants, it was most definitely not an ambush; it was, if anything, exactly what you should've expected. If you want to talk about ambushes, let me know as soon as these hippos roll some drunk stumbling out after last call at a Bennigan's.

McTantrum gets a spanking

Heh-indeedy:

 

The dust up started Monday when McCain said the healthcare reform had so angered Republicans that they would not cooperate with Democrats anymore.

 

"There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year," McCain said. "They have poisoned the well in what they've done and how they've done it."

 

Gibbs responded today, comparing McCain to a six-year-old.

 

"I find it curious that not getting your way on one thing means you've decided to take your toys and go home," Gibbs said. "It doesn't work well for my six-year-old. I doubt it works well in the United States Senate, because we have issues that are important for his constituents and for all of America."

 

Good on Gibbs for not legitimizing McCain's act by pretending that stomping one's feet and holding one's breath is acceptable behavior from a grown adult. There will assuredly be all manner of feigned outrage over the "lack of respect" shown by Gibbs.  These pearl-clutchers need to be made to answer whether or not a U.S. Senator folding his arms and pouting is a position worthy of respect.

Think he misses the angry progressives, yet?

This time last week, Bart Stupak (D-MI), was lamenting the "living hell" his life had become after trying to roadblock healthcare reform legislation over nonexistent taxpayer-funded abortions. The hell in question? Out-of-district calls and emails objecting to his antics, national fundraising for a fall primary challenger, not to mention:

“People saying they’re going to spit on you and all this. That’s just not fun.”

What a difference a week makes...

"Congressman Stupak, you baby-killing mother f***er... I hope you bleed out your a**, got cancer and die, you mother f***er," one man says in a message to Stupak.

"There are millions of people across the country who wish you ill," a woman says in a voicemail, "and all of those thoughts that are projected on you will materialize into something that's not very good for you."

CBS News also obtained copies of faxes sent to Stupak, which include racial epithets used in reference to President Obama and show pictures of nooses with Stupak's name.

Stupak, the Michigan Democrat whose last-minute compromise on abortion guaranteed passage of the bill Sunday, said callers have left messages for him saying, “You’re dead; we know where you live; we’ll get you.”

Real comparable, huh?

Anyone who tries to play the "there are extremists on both sides" card can kindly have a tall, frosty mug of STFU.

Winning the battle, losing the war

After her Mississippi high school canceled prom rather than let Constance McMillan attend with her girlfriend, the ACLU filed suit to compel the school to restore the prom for all the students. Today, the when the federal judge hearing the case declined to force the school to hold the prom, the response from bigotville was as swift as it was expected:

GOOD! The little dy'ke did NOT deserve to win! SUCK ON IT gay supporters! You should know how to do That!

Just look at that poor girl. What boy in his right mind would want to have her?

It's sad the school had to cancel prom just because of one brat. She will figure out that her forcing everyone else to give her special attention has backfired when no one from her town will have anything to do with her. I am glad her school and town is snubbing her. She has it coming.

So she and her "girlfriend" have experimented licking split and liked it and now they want to turn their conservative little town upside down. Ten years from now she will realize she was an ash, she will be no where and she will wonder why all her old school chums distance themselves from her. She will always be known as the lesbian that destroyed prom - of course by then she will be married to Ray Bob and have four dirty little kids.

Good for the judge and the school board...but, once again, a frickin' selfish individual who doesn't understand biology spoils a once-in-a-lifetime event for the rest of her classmates.

the worst aspect of this story is that this confused young lady was in fact being used by the radical homo army to promote their agenda..

You're right-gays are dirty, dirty scum.

Then Fa'gs like YOU are Dead IF you show up!
Stay in the closet where you belong QU'EER! LOL

All I can say is, what a dirtbag. Ruining the prom for everyone else. That's pretty selfish.

Interestingly enough, this comes not from Free Republic or RedState, but from Yahoo's "Buzz" social news sharing feature which has, in short order, become a veritable cesspool of conspiracy theories, gaybashing and--in particular--virulent (and violent) anti-Muslim hysteria.

Unfortunately for them, Yahoo!'s barely literate hatemongers were so gleeful at the notion that the school wouldn't be forced to provide "special treatment" (read: "not discriminate") that they missed the much bigger picture: that this ruling is effectively a deathblow to the same intolerance they hold so dear.

The prom's still off at a Mississippi high school that canceled it instead of letting a lesbian student bring her girlfriend, but a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the district's actions did violate the teen's constitutional rights.

U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson refused the American Civil Liberties Union's demand to force the Itawamba County school district to put on the April 2 prom. However, he said canceling it did violate 18-year-old Constance McMillen's rights and that he would hold a trial on the issue.

...The judge noted that McMillen has been openly gay since she was in the eighth grade and that she intended to communicate a message by wearing a tuxedo and escorting a same-sex date.

"The court finds this expression and communication falls squarely within the purview of the First Amendment," Davidson said."

Case law is a beautiful thing, isn't it?

It's now established precedent that banning same-sex couples from school functions is a violation of gay teenagers' rights of expression. Any school--from coast to coast--that tries will find themselves in an legally actionable position and likely liable for financial damages. The bigots' illusory "victory" in Itawamba County is overshadowed by the fact that the same fight is over before it starts everywhere else in the future. Suffice it to say, the knuckledraggers were less than enthused to have their couldn't-be-more-off-base misreading of the significance of these events pointed out:

Suck it

You're just mad because you couldn't take your boyfriend to the prom.

Better watch out for that AIDS thing...

if you want to play hide the salami in another man's poop chute, that's up to you - I really don't care. The problems seem to come when gays continually want to shove their lifestyle in everyone else's face...Maybe if you tried to act less like a flamer and more like a productive member of society you'd face less discrimination.

Such a classy lot.

I always did love the sound of rending garments and gnashing teeth in the evening...

Quote of the Day

Live mic hijinks ensue at :09



Gibbs likes it.

Update 3.24.10

CBS picks up on what deserves to be meme of the week:

Another Twitter user decided to preserve the moment with a new feed called BigFnDealer. The first message left on the feed reads, "FDR had the New Deal. Truman had the Fair Deal. J-Biden's gives us the Big F***ing Deal."

Indeedy.

Quote of the Day

The grumpy old man is at it again:

"There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year," McCain said during an interview Monday on an Arizona radio affiliate. "They have poisoned the well in what they've done and how they've done it."

Really, John?

In contrast to all the cooperating you've done so far?

What happens when you hitch your wagon to the crazy horse

G-Dubs' former speechwriter David Frum penned a piece about the Republicans' failure to block the health care reform bill currently getting the final once over in the House. Methinks it'll be quoted quite extensively over the next few days. Definitely worth reading the whole thing, but there are ample goodies:

Barack Obama badly wanted Republican votes for his plan. Could we have leveraged his desire to align the plan more closely with conservative views? ...Too late now. They are all the law.

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?

I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead.

Bipartisan Barry would have done anything for the HCR bill to be a crossing-the-aisle feather in his cap. He deep-sixed drug reimportation and the public option out-of-hand. Who knows what else he would've traded. But, with visions of rabid (and I mean TRULY rabid) turnout in Novemeber, the congressional R's fell in behind the Hannitys, Limbaughs, and Becks and followed their sanctimonious, pill-popping, sobbing selves straight off the cliff.

Bon voyage.

Health Care Bill Passes 219-216; the already unhinged go mad...

The circus continues at this hour with a couple more votes left to go, but, as one might expect, heads are already exploding. The filth already coming from Freeper-Land is as vile as it was expected. Before I turn in from the night, I waded into the swamp for a (very) few minutes. Here's the leader in the clubhouse from what I could stomach looking at:

"Our brave souls before us took up arms and defended what they thought was right. Many died for what they thought was right. We don't have enough of those type in this country now to organize and win a battle for the good of man. Therefore the only thing I can do now until a rebellion is organized is stop paying taxes...." -- In God I Trust

To: In God I Trust

"Careful, I’ve already had two replies pulled by mod. Nothing inflammatory, just a link to long distance shooting resource." -- optiguy

"Nothing inflammatory," indeed.

With people already explicitly calling for assassination, I guess it's to their credit that the Freeper moderators don't want to go down that path. (Or, at the very least, don't want to be able to be held accountable for the utterly unsurprising escalation in the rage-aholics whose attentions they've been cultivating all this time...)

Defending the indefensible

As the sexual abuse scandal surrounding the Catholic Church and the Vatican, itself, continues to expand, Bill Donohue and the Catholic League have leapt into the fray and, unbelievably, managed to land on the wrong side:

Criticism of Catholic Church is unfair

Employers from every walk of life, in both the U.S. and Europe, have long handled cases of alleged sex abuse by employees as an internal matter.

...Indeed, the zeitgeist of the day was that rehabilitation not only works, it is virtuous...Had the Catholic Church simply tossed the offenders out, it would have been branded as heartless.

...the focus on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is far out of proportion to the attention given by the media to the sexual molestation of minors when committed by non-Catholic clergymen. According to a report by the New York Times in October, the Brooklyn district attorney's office had filed charges in 26 cases of sexual abuse involving members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

Breathtaking, isn't it?

You *do* realize this column is nothing less than a suicide note for your credibility, don't you, Billy?

The attempt to defend the Catholic Church's decision to play "three-card molester monte" with their offending priests as being "how everyone did it" is the height of brain-dead apologism. And then to compound it with the simply audacious claim that the church would've been seen as "heartless" for ousting the guilty? I don't know about you, but I'm very curious to know at what point in the last several decades the people were such staunch supporters of giving child molesters the benefit of the doubt.

Bottom line: This was decades of sexual assault on defenseless children in parish after parish in country after country. The fact that he's now whining about what is and isn't fair and trying to respond to people's justifiable outrage with any kind of "but..." is reprehensible on its face.

Equally without merit is his grossly mendacious claim that the focus on the Catholic Church is "out of proportion. The evidence? A mere handful of cases involving the Jewish community.

As ol' Billy apparently needs reminding, there have been *thousands* of substantiated allegations against Catholic priests, not a few dozen. Given the extent of the abuses that were perpetrated upon so many, the attempt to portray the Catholic Church as any kind of victim, here, is as repugnant as it is unsupportable.

Donohue would do well to learn when silence is the best course of action before he embarrasses himself--and those who allow him to represent them--further. In fact, after this disgusting little screed, the next thing that the powers that be at the Catholic League should have him write is a letter of resignation.

If not, shame on them all.

"Patriotism" in America...

The Teabaggers sure saved the best for last in their ongoing objections to the health care reform bill:

Rep. John Lewis was called "the N-word" when he was on the floor of the House earlier today by "a heckler from the Tea Party, a protester," Kristie Grecho, a press secretary for House Majority Whip James Clyburn, said this afternoon. Another protester spat upon Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, another black Democrat, as he was walking from the Longsworth House building to attend Obama's speech. In a separate incident, Rep. Barney Frank, who is openly gay, was called "faggot," also as he was leaving the Longsworth building.

ThinkProgress attended today’s rally and spotted a sign threatening violence if health care passes. The sign reads: “Warning: If Brown can’t stop it, a Browning can,” referring to Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and a Browning firearm.

Because nothing says "mom and apple pie" like making sure the ni**ers and fa**ots know that bullets can solve any problems they start, right?

"I am grateful for the thousands of patriots who are storming the Capitol today protesting government healthcare and defending freedom." -- Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Setting aside the ridiculous premise that "healthcare reform" and "freedom" are opposites or otherwise mutually exclusive, back when a single entrant--not organizer, not winner--to a moveon.org contest likened then-President Bush to Hitler, every democratic politician who had even heard of the organization had to condemn and repudiate the entry as if it had been offered on his/her own behalf.

I wonder when Mr. DeMint will be disavowing these "patriots?"

Saturday Shuffle

Angry Johnny - Poe
Nigga What, Nigga Who - Jay-Z
Loom/Pulse (live) - Ani DiFranco
Bye For Now - Lagwagon
I Can't Wait - The White Stripes
The World Is Full of Crashing Bores (live) - Morrissey
Hand In Glove - The Smiths
A Little Bit of Soap - De La Soul
Happy Birthday - The Birthday Party
Slippin' & Slidin' - Tito & Tarantula

Way to take a stand, Nan.

Offered without comment:

She said members may be talking about various things and dismissively mentioned Stupak’s name, adding, “But right now we are just getting votes to pass a bill.”

“This bill is about health care and not about abortion," Pelosi said. “There will be no further changes in the bill.” -- 3.19.10, 11:45am

According to a member of Congress who was briefed on the matter, Pelosi has agreed to let Stupak have a vote on his amendment either before or after the House votes to pass the Senate bill. It instructs the Senate to substitute the language in his amendment for the Senate language on abortion. -- 3.19.10, 7:30pm

Update: No deal.

Good.

Time to call the WAAAAAAmbulance

Someone hand Bart a tissue:

Leading a revolt against President Barack Obama’s healthcare legislation over abortion has been a “living hell” for Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).

The telephone lines in his Washington and district offices have been “jammed” and he’s gotten more than 1,500 faxes and countless e-mails — most of which he says don’t come from his constituents.

“All the phones are unplugged at our house — tired of the obscene calls and threats. She won’t watch TV,” Stupak said during an hourlong interview with The Hill in his Rayburn office. “People saying they’re going to spit on you and all this. That’s just not fun.”

The worst part has been the pressure from groups and individuals from outside his district on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

“How’s it been? Like a living hell,” Stupak said.

Someone needs to remind Bart that he's a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, not the Michigan house. If the calls and emails are too "hellish," maybe he should step aside for someone a little less delicate.

And forget the calls. You know what else is going to be coming from outside your district, Congressman? The funding for your challenger in your primary this fall, Connie Saltonstall. I hope you enjoy that as much as you did your little turn on the national stage. Should be fun having to repeatedly and publicly explain why you threatened to deep-six health care for tens of millions over fictional funding for abortions.

The ideal outcome, Stupak said, might be for the House Democratic leadership to get the votes they need without him and for the bill to pass.

“You know, maybe for me that’s the best: I stay true to my principles and beliefs,” he said, and “vote no on this bill and then it passes anyways. Maybe for me is the best thing to do.”

I guess it is pretty ideal when your principles and beliefs don't involve any consequences for which you can be held accountable, isn't it?

A very heroic stand, there, Congressman. You're truly a credit to Michigan's 1st District.

Lessons in capitulation

Glenn Greenwald had an interesting column earlier today regarding Rahm Emmanuel's prediction that, ultimately, Progressives in the caucus would come in line behind whatever health care reform package gets put forward...thus giving Democratic leadership and the administration the freedom to simply ignore whatever concerns those progressives raised along the way.

And, of course, that appears to be precisely what is happening. In any way that matters, its the exact same game the GOP has been playing with the religious right, for years: "We'll take your votes, ignore your opinions on actual policy matters and you won't do a thing because, who else are you going to go with? The other guys?"

Greenwald called out the bill's supporters in the liberal wing of the DC chattering class as enabling the whole situation by undercutting whatever sniveleing objections they dared voice with the ultimate promise of support:

"People who signal in advance that they will accept a deal even if all of their demands are rejected will always be completely impotent, for reasons too obvious to explain."

Interestingly enough, when it comes to this White House, the exact opposite is also true:

People (Chuck Grassley, I'm looking at you) who signal in advance that they will reject a deal even if all of their demands are granted will be allowed to completely control the process.

If the progressives in Congress let themselves get rolled, it's because they're learning from the best: the guy in the Oval Office.

Try'n to play me out like as if my name was Sega...

St. Patrick's waning...

A Tuesday toast to Daddy Dobson

Don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you:

Did Focus On The Family Board Force Dobson Out?

In February 2009, Dobson stepped down as chairman of the Colorado Springs-based group's board of directors, after relinquishing his longtime role as president in 2003. But he kept his role of host of the popular Focus radio show...Then, this past November, Dobson said on the show that the Focus board had asked him to give up the radio program in a few months time.

...In a Feb. 6 Wall Street Journal story on the changes at Focus--for which Dobson also declined to comment)--(Current Focus President, Jim) Daly said that "he has no use for the sharp personal attacks on politicians employed by Mr. Dobson. 'I don't see evil behind everything.'"

A few days late, but I did have to take a moment to raise a glass to the ousting of good ol' Daddy D. Apparently even his own people tired of his deranged tirades and attacks. Between his claim that gays will "destroy the earth" and Barack Obama posing a dire threat to family life who will protect pedophiles and prosecute pastors with the 2009 Hate Crimes Act, one wonders what took them so long.

Clearly, FOF tired of being pandered to at election time, only to have the GOP treat them like the crazy aunt in the attic when it came time for actual governance and legislation. It looks like they finally figured out that their problem was not allowing themselves to be exploited for their votes by politicians, but the fact that they were allowing themselves to be spoken for by the crazy aunt from the attic.

Sleeping With The 'Baggery

The latest person to open a tent in the Teabagger sideshow?  Ginni Thomas, "an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb."...who just happens to be the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.  So sayeth Mrs. Coke Can:

 

"I adore all the new citizen patriots who are rising up across this country. I have felt called to the front lines with you, with my fellow citizens, to preserve what made America great."

 

Interesting timing to feel so "called," don't you think? 

 

I'm sure it's just an amazing coincidence that Bagger-ella, here, hitched up her coach-and-four to come rushing to the ball(s) just as soon as her husband made it possible for such outfits to raise--not to mention cover "operating expenses" with--unlimited amounts of unattributed corporate cash for promoting or attacking candidates for office.

 

Now, Mrs. Thomas clearly doesn't decide cases.  But the appearance of possible conflicts is certainly there.  While this is a rather unique situation, surely there are standards and practices in place to ensure the integrity of the judicial process...

 

Law professor Gillers said that Justice Thomas, too, should be on alert for possible conflicts, particularly those involving donors to his wife's nonprofit.

"There is opportunity for mischief  (Ya think? -- Ed.) if a company with a case before the court, or which it wants the court to accept, makes a substantial contribution to Liberty Central in the interim," he said.

Justice Thomas would be required to be aware of such contributions, Gillers said, adding that he believes Thomas should then disclose those facts and allow parties in the case to argue for recusal.

But it would be up to Justice Thomas to decide whether to recuse himself. He could not be reached for comment.

As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, Liberty Central can raise unlimited amounts of corporate money and largely avoid disclosing its donors.

Well, I certainly feel better, don't you?

 

Anyway, we can rest assured that Thomas' Liberty Central, Inc., is a non-partisan group.  How non-partisan you ask?

 

Although Liberty Central is a nonpartisan group, its website shows an affinity for conservative principles. Her biography notes that Thomas is a fan of Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, author of "Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America."

"She is intrigued by Glenn Beck and listening carefully," the bio says.

 

Nothing to see, here, move along.... 

Teach...your children well--yes, you, and yes, YOUR children

Bill Maher is frequently hit or miss, for me. He can be pretty amusing but, particularly with matters of faith, I think he takes it too far. There isn't an institution in existence that doesn't deserve some skewering, and organized religion is no exception. However, too often it seems, he veers from addressing the abuses and failings of the institution to ridiculing the believers. That doesn't open their eyes to the flaws, it just makes them think you're an asshole.

All that said, he really hit it on the head with this week's "New Rules" segment where he takes on the Rhode Island school district decision to fire all faculty and administrators at an under-performing high school:

"...We all remember high school - canning the entire faculty is a nationwide revenge fantasy.

But isn't it convenient that once again it turns out that the problem isn't us, and the fix is something that doesn't require us to change our behavior or spend any money. It's so simple: Fire the bad teachers, hire good ones from some undisclosed location, and hey, while we're at it let's cut taxes more. It's the kind of comprehensive educational solution that could only come from a completely ignorant people."

We love accountability, don't we? As long as it's someone else's, anyway. Whenever people wax apoplectic about what their children are--or aren't--hearing in school, they make it sound as if their children are isolated, empty vessels. Listening to them, you'd think their kids exist in a vacuum, and the only time anything gets poured into their waiting, vacant heads is 8:00am to 3:00pm, Monday to Friday, September through June.

What are you doing with your kids during the other 17 hours a day, not to mention the 186 or so days there's no school, at all? Do you talk to them? Do you read with them?

Or do you tell them to cut the grass and (maybe) let them know when you'll be home?

"What matters is what parents do. The number one predictor of a child's academic success is parental involvement. It doesn't even matter if your kid goes to private or public school."

That's one thing he's not joking about.

So let's stop applauding obvious stunts like this mass firing and start applying all the talk of "bootstraps" and "not getting something for nothing" to more than attacks on the unemployed. Kids spend far more time away from their teachers than with them. Parents expecting education to be limited to those few school hours are guilty of looking for the freest of free rides. You're partners in their education; you leave it entirely up to the other side, don't complain when your lack of support has consequences.

The Heavy - How You Like Me Now?

And you thought they just sold Kias...



The studio version from The House That Dirt Built is excellent, but for the full effect, you really need to see the cracking live version they did on David Letterman, where they most definitely "blew the roof off the dump."

Rome, we have a problem...

Uh-oh.

Pope knew priest was paedophile but allowed him to continue with ministry

"...The priest was sent from Essen to Munich for therapy in 1980 when he was accused of forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform oral sex. The archdiocese confirmed that the Pope, who was then a cardinal, had approved a decision to accommodate the priest in a rectory while the therapy took place.

The priest, identified only as H, was subsequently convicted of sexually abusing minors after he was moved to pastoral work in nearby Grafing."

"Identified only as H," huh? The fact that that Father Bad Touch's privacy is worth more protection now, than the children's well-being was, then, speaks volumes.

The Archdiocese of Munich...said that the decision to let him continue working in Grafing was taken by Gerhard Gruber, now 81, who was vicar general of the archdiocese.

The Vatican said that Mgr Gruber had taken “full responsibility” for the priest’s move back into pastoral work but did not comment further.

Mgr Gruber said that the Pope, who was made a cardinal in 1977, had not been not aware of his decision because there were 1,000 priests in the diocese at the time and he had left many decisions to lower-level officials. “The cardinal could not deal with everything,” he said.

Given the repercussions, I'm sure the Vatican is more than willing to let the good Monsignor take the bullet for this one, but come on:

"The cardinal could not deal with everything?"

We're not talking about some seminarian getting caught filching cash out of the poor box; this is the reassignment of a known sexual predator. (For the record, the enforced therapy stint certainly removes any "allegeds" out of that one). Even in a diocese of 1,000, we're to believe that that was the sort of decision that was left up to "lower level officials?"

Best case scenario, we have a situation where the sitting Pope was an absentee landlord for much of his career, less aware about what was happening on his watch than Mr. Furley from Three's Company. Worst case, ol' Benedict is yet another member of the Church hierarchy to be guilty of kicking the can down the road when confronted with an abusive priest.

Great choice, eh?

I was raised Catholic and am, by no means, a knee-jerk Vatican basher, which is part of my biggest problem with all of this. By perpetuating the secrecy, and compounding it with claims of ignorance and fall guy-ism, all Rome is doing is further damaging the reputations and public perception of the innocent majority of rank-and-file clergy and parochial educators who are stained by the hierarchy's decades of malfeasance.

Like the children, those individuals deserve better.

3.14.10 -- Update (courtesy Americablog):

Pope being set up over Munich sex abuse case, says Vatican

Father Federico Lombardi appeared to suggest in an interview on Vatican Radio that the pope, who also has strong links to the city of Regensburg, was the victim of a plot.

"It's rather clear that in recent days there have been people who have searched – with notable tenacity – in Regensburg and Munich for elements to personally involve the holy father in the question of the abuses," Lombardi said. "To any objective observer it's clear that these attempts have failed."

The Marion Barry defense? That's really how you want to go?

Given the egregious outcome, whether the "Holy Father" was involved at the time or whether he was not--in what can only be seen a a gross abdication of responsibility--either way, it's to his eternal shame.

No outsourcing necessary to connect those dots...

Saturday Shuffle

7 - Prince
Where Did You Sleep Last Night? - Nirvana
Danny Boy, Danny Boy - House of Pain
Ninjaman - RZA
She's Electric - Oasis
Boredom (live) - The Buzzcocks
No Earthly Good - Johnny Cash
Good (live) - Morphine
I Do Not Want This - Nine Inch Nails
Tippi-Toes - Primus

Go away, go away, go away, Dixieland.

It would be lovely if stupid were surprising instead of expected:

Mississippi Prom Canceled After Lesbian Date Request

JACKSON, Miss. — A northern Mississippi school district decided Wednesday not to host a high school prom after a lesbian student demanded she be able to attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.

The Itawamba County school district's policy requires that senior prom dates be of the opposite sex. The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi had given the district until Wednesday to change that policy...

Instead, the school board met and issued a statement announcing it wouldn't host the event at Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Fulton, "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events."

I'm sure it won't be any sort of "distraction" for this kid now that the school board has seen fit to make her a target by axing the prom for all her classmates rather than let her show up with a girlfriend. Certainly, with the calm reasoning and level heads that high school students are known for, no one will end up blaming Constance for the loss of the prom.

It really is a hatemongering two-fer: not only does the district take a position that defines "cutting off one's nose to spite one's face" in order to ensure the institutionalization of their bigotry, but they set up a teenager to face the consequences and reprisals.

"However, at this time, we feel that it (the decision) is in the best interest of the Itawamba County School District, after taking into consideration the education, safety and well being of our students."

How about "the education, safety and well being of almost all of our students?"

There, fixed that for you, Itawamba County...

My other car is a 2010 Toyota Cashgrab

The latest "Possessed Prius" story made for some dramatic video, but is starting to smell decidedly fishy:

 

EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) — Before he called 911, James Sikes says he reached down with his hand to loosen the "stuck" accelerator on his 2008 Toyota Prius, his other hand on the steering wheel. The pedal didn't move.

 

...Sikes, a real estate agent, said he was passing another car when the accelerator stuck and eventually reached 94 mph.

 

...Neibert told Sikes after the CHP caught up with him to shift to neutral but the driver shook his head no. Sikes told reporters he didn't go into neutral because he worried the car would flip.

 

So this gentleman--who's been driving for possibly more than 40 years--didn't forget to shift into neutral in a panic, but decided against it because he was "worried" that going into neutral would case his vehicle to overturn.

 

Interesting that he wasn't so worried as to drive one-handed while bent under the dash groping around for the gas pedal at 80 or 90mph.

 

I'm all for corporate responsibility, but it seems to me these claims are ripe for abuse and scams.  What corroboration can there really be?  And, more importantly, how much is the American public really going to want to see?  Take this nugget for example:

 

The driver rolled down the window and Neibert told him to apply both brakes. Sikes said he lifted his buttocks from the seat to press the floor brake, an account backed by the officer.

 

There you have it.  This account is officially backed by the police.  Only one problem: what, exactly could the officer see, beyond this guy arching upward in his seat?  Seems to me one could assume the same posture with one foot on the gas and one on the floorboards.  Judging by some of the comments on this article, not too many people will care:

 

Look like the death of the magical queen is on the horizon... It reminds me of a very famous song..."Ding dong the witch is dead the Witch is dead...." FInally the public is exposed to the truth about TOyota something they have said they are the best at for years!!! "

 

The arrogance of this Company and their complete disdain for Americans is a debt that has come due.

 

" "Toyota for years was a leader in quality." -- Laughable! That should say, "For years Toyota was the leader in hiding their quality issues." "

 

UNPATRIOTIC JERKS! JAPANESE WOULD BAN OUR PRODUCT FROM THEIR COMPANY, opps they already pretty much do that. "

 

From zero to Japan-Bashing in 4.2 seconds.  Be very surprised, indeed, if we don't see more and more of these...

Heretic to the Church of No

Anyone else smell TeaBags burning?

Brown took to the Senate floor Tuesday to announce he would vote for cloture, or to end a Republican filibuster, on a bill extending unemployment benefits and tax credits. This, despite the fact he opposes the bill and technically the filibuster helped his cause.

"I have very serious concerns about the overall cost of the bill," Brown told the chamber, "but my vote for cloture signals that I believe we need to keep the process moving." He also said, "there has been a week of debate and allowing this bill to receive an up-and-down vote, would be a step, I feel, in the right direction."

With Brown’s help, the nearly $140 billion bill cleared the procedural hurdle on a vote of 66-34, setting it up for passage.

After kneecapping the GOP filibuster of the jobs bill last month, the point-and-click patriots out there wasted no time in making sure the apostate Brown knew their righteous rage...on the nearest social network they could reach without having to leave their La-Z-Boys.

Clearly, Brown will now have to think twice about checking his MySpace, this evening.

Best. HCR. Selling Point. Evar.

Don't let the door hit you:

 

Limbaugh vows to leave country if health care passes

 

LIMBAUGH: ...I'll just tell you this, if  this passes and it's five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented--I'm leaving the country.  I'll go to Costa Rica.

 

Now, I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm sold.  Barry, Harry, and Nan need to add this one to the arsenal.

Saturday Shuffle

The First Taste - Fiona Apple
You Wreck Me - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Darling Baby - The Elgins
Mania - Murder, Inc.
Metal Time - This Frequency Five
Main Theme (The Fly II) - Christopher Young
The Battle of Evermore - Led Zeppelin
Shaking the Tree - Peter Gabriel
Sloppy Drunk - Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes
So Easy - Eagles of Death Metal

I didn't vote for a Card Table-in-Chief

November 2009 - Rule of law good:

"I think we have to break is this fearful notion that somehow our Justice system can’t handle these guys…

I think that it is important for the American people to have confidence in ourselves and to recognize that when people carry out venal acts like this that we are able to handle it." -- Barack Obama

March 2010 - Rule of law optional, but we're still good:

President Obama's advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, beprosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a
step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

The president's advisers feel increasingly hemmed in by bipartisan opposition to a federal trial in New York and demands, mainly from Republicans, that Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators remain under military jurisdiction, officials said. While Obama has favored trying some terrorism suspects in civilian courts as a symbol of U.S. commitment to the rule of law, critics have said military tribunals are the appropriate venue for those accused of attacking the United States.

I am beginning to wonder why all the spittle-flecked Teabaggers out there continue to rave about impeaching Obama at every opportunity. At this point, there's a compelling argument to be made that leaving him in office will permit the success of every right-wing goal while still paving the way to attack Democrats for whatever happens, regardless.

When you look at what's at stake, "reversal" doesn't begin to go far enough to describe this situation. We're not talking about changing a timetable, reducing previously projected appropriation amounts, or reprioritizing one agenda item ahead of another. This is the abandonment of a process that was professed to be required--demanded, even--if we were to adhere to bedrock principles of justice and a commitment to our law. By extension, it's nothing less than an abandonment of those principles and commitments, themselves.

And it's happening due to popularity polls and political attacks from individuals committed to attacking this President, no matter what he does.

If this comes to fruition--and there's simply no real reason to doubt that it will--Obama will transcend mere weakness and reveal himself to be a man, not only bereft of spine, but of any integrity or fundamental values.

(Glenn Greenwald over at Salon did a must-read breakdown earlier today...)