Here's the latest Christine O'Donnell brain burp!
Maher put this togother with a cast of stars...
O'Donnell on legislating sex...
Monday, September 27, 2010
Delegitimizing the Supreme Court, the third branch of government, for Politics.
Is conservative judicial activism okay if conservative Americans don't complain or mind the outcomes? Should conservatives stop complaining about liberal activism is they're going to allow that privilege for themselves? I know, it would be liberal projection to assume conservatives would even consider the possibility of a little self introspection.
But two Supreme Court decisions recently resolved for conservatives the fight over buying elections and fulfilling the gun lobbies centuries old push to interpret the Second Amendment as a personal right to bear arms. One Justice recently came out with a warning:
NY Times: During interviews about his new book, Justice Stephen Breyer has spoken … about the court’s legitimacy, or the respect it relies on. In his dissent from a decision striking down the District of Columbia’s gun-control law, he showed why. “In my view,” he said, “there simply is no untouchable constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment to keep loaded handguns in the house in crime-ridden urban areas.” So would his view of how the court should decide cases.
As he puts it in the book, “Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge’s View,” the court “must thoughtfully employ a set of traditional legal tools in service of a pragmatic approach to interpreting the law.” Pragmatic means reckoning with a law’s words and history and the precedents interpreting it, but also its “purposes and related consequences, to help make the law effective.” The goal, he says, is “to apply the Constitution’s enduring values to changing circumstances.”
In academic circles, conservatives and liberals alike have called for term limits for justices, because life tenure and long service could lead them to do the job less well than they should.
The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin points to the judicial activism of Chief Justice John Roberts and the conservative majority as a major source of apprehension for Justice Breyer … Toobin describes Justice Breyer as “unskilled in the art of the poker face” and says that he used last January’s Citizens United decision “to take a shot at Roberts” in the book. Justice Breyer said they disregarded “a traditional legal view that stretched back as far as 1907,” and had recently been affirmed.
The message of Justice Breyer’s book is that the court jeopardizes its legitimacy when it makes such radical rulings and that, in doing so, it threatens our democracy. That message is powerful, ominous…
Tough on Crime Republicans Continue to Help Criminals Terrorize Public. Then Push Open Carry Gun Laws.
The funny thing about being tough on crime, where Republicans always put on a good show, is that it doesn't take care of the root cause of the problem. It's always after the fact. Republicans and the NRA continue to advance the very reason crime is flourishes, thus creating a need for their solutions like concealed and open carry laws to protect ourselves.
Conservative ideololgy avoids the easy answers, creating a phony public need for Republican leaders to be our overlords. They create a public dependency on conservative government. If a solution is thought to be liberal, it's not an answer. Take guns for instance.
Conservative ideololgy avoids the easy answers, creating a phony public need for Republican leaders to be our overlords. They create a public dependency on conservative government. If a solution is thought to be liberal, it's not an answer. Take guns for instance.
Here's where the NRA steps in with a bizarre excuse that could easily apply to themselves:NY Times: A study due to be released this week by a coalition called Mayors Against Illegal Guns uses previously unavailable federal gun data to identify what it says are the states that most often export guns used in crimes across state lines. It concludes that the 10 worst offenders per capita, led by Mississippi, West Virginia and Kentucky, supplied nearly half the 43,000 guns traced to crime scenes in other states last year.
The study also seeks to draw a link between gun trafficking and gun control laws by analyzing gun restrictions in all 50 states in areas like background checks for gun purchases, policies on concealed weapons permits and state inspections of gun dealers. It finds that, across the board, those states with less restrictive gun laws exported guns used in crimes at significantly higher rates than states with more stringent laws.“There are 12,000 gun murders a year in our country, and this report makes it perfectly clear how common-sense trafficking laws can prevent many of them,” said Mr. Bloomberg, who is the co-chairman of the coalition. “For mayors around the country, this isn’t about gun control. It’s about crime control.” Among the targets will be closing the so-called gun show loophole.
Chris W. Cox, the National Rifle Association’s chief lobbyist in Washington, dismissed the upcoming report as “a cute little P.R. stunt.” “It’s completely bogus for a group with a clear political agenda to release some study based on selective statistics,” he said.Not really a fact based comeback, is it? Of course the NRA doesn't have a political agenda "based on selective statistics" (for conservatives, this is a true statement).
Think about the NRA’s clearly stated position that mayors have no legitimate role in crime control. Ask yourself if that makes any sense.Authors of the study, however, said they had conducted a careful analysis of reams of gun “trace” data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — showing the path of guns confiscated at crime scenes — in reaching their conclusions. They said the study provided the deepest look to date at how states export guns used in crimes and how that relates to gun restrictions in those states. The findings suggested that gun traffickers had sought out states with less restrictive gun-purchase laws.
“What this really shows is that bad laws really do equal more gun trafficking,” said John Feinblatt, Mr. Bloomberg’s chief policy adviser, “and that gaps in the law
really do make a difference.”“Do I think Mayor Bloomberg and his group are desperate for relevancy in a debate where they have no legitimate role? Sure,” Mr. Cox said. “Do I think their approach will continue to be rejected by the American people and Congress? I do.”
Sunday, September 26, 2010
To the Conservative Hypocrite Bully: We are listening...and we think your self serving radical intimidating whiners, trying to strong arm America.
This video features Gov. Chris Christie browbeating a voter in California of all places, exemplifying the two faced lying bully tactics of conservative hypocrites, having it their way or no way. Watch Democrat Rep. Tim Bishop deal with blustering tea party protesters as they shouted him down and laughed at climate change, supported keeping up with Chinese coal plants, want to leave health care gouging and rationing the way it is and weren't demanding bipartisanship like phony party leaders.
Christie, to a town hall attendee: "You know what, it's people who raise their voices and yell and scream like you, that are dividing this country. We're here to bring this country together not divide it."
Family Safety takes back seat in Open-Carry debate: Yet 45% want stricter gun laws/26% fewer, split on open-carry & 55% against concealed carry.
The conservative leaning Wisconsin State Journal (no link yet) suggested it had a pro-carry bias, and that guns were “safe” in its recent series, “Open carry: Safe v discomfort.” Another words, carrying guns in public is safe, and a separate issue from feeling “discomfort” around strangers with loaded guns? But there was this moment of honesty in the piece:
You can either buy into Schesch's family values logic or believe this:But it’s also created a backlash against the open-carry advocates from some unlikely sources: other gun owners.
“I don’t think (open-carry advocates) represent ordinary family-oriented fun owners,” said Adam Schesch of Madison, a 68 year-old target shooter and deer hunter…Schesch said he and his wife frequently eat out with their teenage grandchildren at places like Culver’s.
“If we came into a restaurant and saw people with guns, we’d turn around and walk out,” he said. “I would feel really unsafe.”
But open-carry advocates say they feel unsafe without their guns, and other should, too. “At the moment you’re getting your head beat in, you probably wouldn’t mind someone being on scene with a gun.” Auric Gold said.That’s just third world scary, and why this letter to the editor takes the issue to its final conclusion:
When the Madison Police responded to the call at Culver's restaurant with eight officers, they were looking for trouble, and one of the men stated the police officers had an attitude problem.Law enforcement, those guys on the front line ensuring our public safety, are the real danger!
As Ammoland’s Executive Director Shaun Kranish writes: Latest on Madison Police Chief Noble Wray’s Open Carry Debaucle.
That’s…debacle! But beside the spelling mistake, Kranish continue to ignore the plight of parents and their kids:
Rather than educating the public that open carry is legal and there’s no need to call the police unless something suspicious or threatening is happening…WE need to be educated, so WE aren’t afraid of people carrying guns in public? WE need to change basic human behavior and our natural sense of detecting danger for a small contingent of immature, insecure paranoid adults? For open carry bullies, they feel victimized by the concerns of fathers and mothers everywhere:
Open Carry can be considered disorderly conduct, because someone may not like it…No, actually, someone may feel fearful around STRANGERS with loaded guns. But gun goons feel we need to be reeducated, and reprogrammed, to ignore our sense of self preservation? Kranish mocks that instinct:
Disorderly conduct doesn’t require a disturbance to take place, just a “perception” that one’s actions could possibly cause a disturbance.…or death? Instead of understanding the general public’s fear of guns, they resort to calling us names because we disagree:
You give power to imbeciles incapable of critical thinking … They open their mouth, or write their name and their foolhardy ideas on paper, and freedom goes out the window.The graphic above tells us something completely different. Check out the reactions of a few citizens asked by the Capital Times about open carry: HERE
Friday, September 24, 2010
Humorless Pundit Class on Colbert: Offended, Damages Democrats, Why did they (politicians) sit there?
I don't mind people who have a different perspective than myself, and welcome a healthy debate of the issues, but Chuck Todd? What an asswipe.
The GOP's Lemon Pledge Sound Familiar? When Old Idea's Fail, Repackage them!!
The Pledge. What's old is new again.
Great video: Johnny Cash-God's Gonna Cut you Down
Great film work and a surreal appearance by Brian Wilson.
Walker Blocks probe into Mental Health complex Mismanagement to sidestep his complete incompetence in office.
The ad below sums up an issue that is little known statewide, but could affect Scott Walker’s run for governor in a very bad way.
Political ad's like the one above are notorious for stretching the truth, but in this case, the truth required no drama and no exaggeration. Here’s the how Walker is blocking the public’s right to know, and the horrific details of County Executive incompetence.
Political ad's like the one above are notorious for stretching the truth, but in this case, the truth required no drama and no exaggeration. Here’s the how Walker is blocking the public’s right to know, and the horrific details of County Executive incompetence.
jsonline: Lawyers for Milwaukee County have refused to turn over a 2008 consultant's report on safety issues at the Mental Health Complex - the first time in 30 years that county officials have stonewalled a county auditor investigation, the current auditor said Thursday. Jerry Heer said he was seeking the report as part of his probe of safety issues at the complex … following Journal Sentinel coverage of a federal inspection of the complex that found multiple instances of patient sexual assault and the pregnancy of a patient.
Supervisor Lynne De Bruin was critical of the county lawyers' refusal to turn over records to Heer. "What this tells me is they have something to hide that is so egregious that they don't even want to show an auditor," De Bruin said. She called it an expansion of a disturbing trend of secrecy in county government.
A Journal Sentinel series, "Patients in Peril," found a predatory patient was housed in an acute care ward with vulnerable patients, was allowed to roam at will and is the presumed father of a baby born to another patient in April. Omowale Atkins faces sexual assault charges involving a second female patient.
The paper also reported that a county psychiatrist who treated Anczak had also supervised the care of the patient who became pregnant last year. The pregnant patient's guardian was not informed of the pregnancy until weeks after it was confirmed, the woman was not given birth control injections contrary to the guardian's wishes and the patient was continued on medication that was potentially harmful to her baby, the paper found.
County lawyers told him the report was subject to attorney-client confidentiality and that as auditor he wasn't the client, Heer said. De Bruin called that a legal dodge. Heer represents the county, she said, and county taxpayers paid for the report.
Colbert’s immigrant labor message soars over the heads of bored Republicans
What promised to be an interesting appearance, Stephen Colbert did not disappoint the crowd, offering a comedy laced perspective of immigrant labor.
Maybe King should watch more of the Daily Show and Colbert so that he might have a better understanding of the issues. Through humorous criticism, King might actually learn something.CNN: Colbert appeared before Congress the day after "The Colbert Report" showed video of him packing corn and picking beans on a farm as part of a challenge from a pro-immigrant-labor group.
"I'll admit I started my work day with preconceived notions of migrant labor," Colbert said. "But after working with these men and women ... side by side in the unforgiving sun I have to say -- and I do mean this sincerely -- please don't make me do this again. It is really, really hard."
United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez, whose group over the summer launched "Take Our Jobs," a campaign that challenged U.S. citizens to replace immigrants in farm work … says only seven citizens or legal residents have taken it up on the offer, argues that immigrant workers aren't taking citizens' jobs, and is pushing for a bill that would give undocumented farm workers currently in the United States the right to earn legal status.
Colbert: "My great-grandfather did not travel across four thousand miles of the Atlantic Ocean to see this nation overrun by immigrants," he declared. "He did it because he killed a man back in Ireland. That's the rumor."Republicans on the subcommittee were not impressed or swayed by Colbert's appearance. "Maybe we should be spending less time watching Comedy Central and more time considering all the real jobs that are out there -- ones that require real hard labor and ones that don't involve sitting behind a desk," said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.
Are Schools failing Kids who hate School?
No one wants to talk about the "non-learners."
Onion News probes deeper into the question of whether bad students can ever really be helped. Maybe they're just bad uninterested students. (offensive language alert)
In The Know: Are Tests Biased Against Students Who Don't Give A Shit?
Onion News probes deeper into the question of whether bad students can ever really be helped. Maybe they're just bad uninterested students. (offensive language alert)
In The Know: Are Tests Biased Against Students Who Don't Give A Shit?
The Hurting "Small" Businesses Lie
What will be the one piece of ammo the Democrats can point too when accused of hurting small businesses with a repeal of the Bush tax cut for the wealthy. Keith Olbermann did the research and report.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Renee Ellmers GOP candidate at bottom of barrel.
Renee Ellmers for Congress is running on the promise she will stop the mosque near ground zero.
Years from now, we may still laugh at this stuff.
Years from now, we may still laugh at this stuff.
California Beer Drinkers betray Pot Smokers, Embarrass themselves nationally.
Insane fearful thoughts of being replaced in social circles by pot heads has driven beer guys and distributors to act irrationally. Is it possible they don't know how thirsty smoking marijuana can make people. This is so sad...Proposition 19 would allow adult to grow and own cannabis, and probably have a beer. Is this the sign of the apocalypse?
What are the independents thinking? Taking it out on Democrat Feingold.
CNN takes this look at the Feingold/Johnson matchup.
Missile defense in GOP Lemon Pledge?
The Republican Lemon Pledge for America includes restarting the "cold war." That's just one of the startling promises the Republican Party is offering angry anti-government voters. It seems the folks responsible for the Great Recession chose to forget that they and their policies of borrowing and spending caused the great wave of unemployment and rise in poverty. Proof?
"The land of opportunity has become the land of shrinking prosperity ... Our government has failed us," Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California declared. "We will take back our country. We will restore for a better future. This is our pledge to you."But fully funding the outrageously expensive Star Wars missile defense system is...nuts. Chris Matthews is rightly amazed.
Angle: "We want to get rid of" coverage for autism and maternity leave.
Here's a message on a sign we should have seen at the tea party events; "It's all about me."
Sharron Angle exemplifies the movement more than anyone running for office. Here she asks an audience to reject health care coverage for autism and maternity leave. Sharron believes that maternity leave is somehow a part of her health care insurance policy. Ed Schultz reports:
Sharron Angle exemplifies the movement more than anyone running for office. Here she asks an audience to reject health care coverage for autism and maternity leave. Sharron believes that maternity leave is somehow a part of her health care insurance policy. Ed Schultz reports:
ANGLE: "I'm not going to have anymore babies, but I sure get to pay for it on my insurance. Those are the kinds of things we want to get rid of."
Rep. Paul Ryan was only kidding about hating reconciliation. Really!
Republicans came down hard on the Democrats for using reconciliation to pass health care reform. Rep. Paul Ryan was one of its biggest critics. Guess who's promising to use reconciliation to pass the GOP agenda? Keith Olbermann has Wisconsin's next worst person (what, not Scott Walker again?):
Health Care Reform Changes would Be tough for Americans to Repeal, if their smart.
I’m posting this because it’s important to remind everyone what could be repealed in the next congress if tea party mania catches on. Email:
Health Care for America Now: The Republican "plan" along with the 60 Plus Association ads are a reminder that there are two clear sides in this fight, insurance companies versus consumers. The Republicans are hoping that voters won't figure out which side the GOP is really on. The new health care law has many benefits, including:
• Requiring that insurance companies cover people with pre-existing conditions.
• Making it illegal for insurance companies to drop coverage for people who get sick.
• Cracking down on unjustified premium hikes.
• Placing a cap on out-of-pocket health care costs.
• Providing free preventive care.When the Republicans say they want to repeal the health care law, they're talking about giving health care back to the insurance companies so they can deny our care, drop us when we get sick and jack up our rates whenever they please.
Their repeal proposal is as coldhearted as it is unworkable3 and would add $143 billion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Barrett opponent Walker sings his way “out” of the hearts of Women Voters…
I do like love these revealing conservative musical interludes.
(Here’s) Planned Parenthood's new online video highlighting Scott Walker's extreme stance on women's health. As noted in the video, while in the state Legislature:
Scott Walker voted to allow pharmacists to deny birth control prescriptions.
Scott Walker voted to eliminate prevention-based family planning health care.
Scott Walker voted to deny insurance coverage of birth control.
Scott Walker has pledged to advance policies restricting access to birth control, sex education and abortion access for Wisconsinites. He supports outlawing abortion across the board—even in cases of rape and incest, or if a pregnant woman’s life is in danger. He supports Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth and other extreme politicians who work to keep lifesaving information about preventing teen pregnancy and STDs out of Wisconsin public schools.
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