I’m getting ready for my trip to the physical therapist. Getting there involves walking up a steep hill. That usually sets off my COPD, so I am likely to be too pooped to do much when I return. If I cannot catch up on replies today, I shall tomorrow, which appears to be a routine day.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:16 (average 5:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: If You Don’t Think What This Black Man Went Through Is Bullsh_t, Then You’re Part Of The Problem
Bloomberg’s version of papers please? He’s showing his Republican roots.
From NY Times: The National Rifle Association has joined a Republican push to make Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. the first sitting cabinet member to be held in contempt of Congress, turning a once obscure fight over a gun-smuggling investigation into a proxy war over gun control.
Both the N.R.A. and the smaller but more strident Gun Owners of America have made Thursday’s House contempt vote crucial to their ratings of House lawmakers. The N.R.A. is pressing to win Democratic votes, said Wayne LaPierre, the group’s chief executive, and White House officials and House Democratic leaders concede that a handful of Democrats are likely to vote for the contempt resolution.
This issue should have nothing to do with how the NRA rates lawmakers, because it has no bearing on lawmakers’ support for the right to bear arms. But since the NRA pushing the ridiculous Republican "Obama did it to take away your guns" conspiracy theory, they are using definite loss of A rating to blackmail Blue Dogs into voting for contempt or having voters misled regarding their positions on 2nd Amendment rights. Many will cave-in, because Republicans will win anyway, but Republicans will use their votes under duress to claim that the contempt vote is bipartisan.
From Washington Post: Republicans are in a trap of our own making. We can’t acknowledge the obvious, that we will not deport 12 million people, lest we aggravate a vocal part of the GOP base eager to call anything less amnesty. Romney can’t suddenly appear to be measured or in an Obama-like state of evolution, or he would enhance his negative, pandering stereotype. We can’t outrun the growing Hispanic American voting bloc by running up the score with white voters. We would reach a point of diminishing return because of all the bad press. So the Republican campaign doesn’t start from an honest place.
This is by Ed Rogers, a conservative Republican commentator. It’s rare to see such honest evaluation from the right. Kudos!
Cartoon:
How different he was from the monster who replaced him.
12 Responses to “Open Thread–6/27/2012”
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OOH! Bad one 4:30. It's up to Gerry.
With Bloomberg's Jewish background, it surprises me that he is so bigoted.
The NRA is really reaching with this one.
"So the Republican campaign doesn’t start from an honest place." Really now???
I miss Thurgood Marshall.
Dang! I'm ahead?
Good point, but even when I lived in NYC 35 years ago, tensions between Blacks and Jews were often high.
Does a bear sh*t in the woods?
What a revelation!
Me too!
4:03 I just squeezed in below you. Of course, I had an extra day of rest so maybe it shouldn't count.
Times ALWAYS count! 🙂
How ironic on the day that marks Justice Thurgood Marshall's resignation that E. j. Dionne calls for Antonin Scalia to RESIGN in his WaPo Op-Ed:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-jr-justice-scalia-should-resign/2012/06/27/gJQApkO06V_story.html
And this just two days after Scalia actually cited a Pro-Slavery laws that excluded blacks from many Southern states in order to justify his bigoted political – NOT jurisprudence – beliefs that Arizona should be allowed to target undocumented immigrants.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/06/26/506191/justice-scalia-cites-pro-slavery-laws-excluding-freed-blacks-to-justify-his-anti-immigrant-opinion/
You got to wonder when was the last time a sitting Justice cited Pro-Slavery laws to buttress their opinion.
Good catch. I didn't make that association?
Jim Crow days?
This should brighten your day – a fun time-lapse video of Portland:
http://vimeo.com/pagefilms/weatheringspring
Thanks Nameless. I enjoyed it and saw many familiar places. The spots with the snow were on Mt Hood, though.
I'm thinking Little Benito has more problems than the known one of being a corporate tool/right wing hack.
Having dealt with dementia sufferers in my family, I'm guessing Antonin's more and more strident episodes of lashing out are actually symptoms.
Are you sure it isn't just that he needs a rectal craniectomy?
MoveOn — Papers please indeed! Living in an ethnically diverse neighbourhood, which should not matter, and going about his daily routine to get ready for work the next day, he is stopped and harassed by NYPD — treated like a criminal! No discussion just illegal search of person and property as per the 4th amendment of the Bill of Rights.
I wonder if this fellow thought of taking the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg to court for violating his civil rights? Certainly seems like racial profiling to me.
New York Times — It seems that the NRA (Non Rational Assholes) is continuing to push the Republican/Teabagger conspiracy theory that Mr Obama is out to abrogate their 2nd amendment rights, and they are going to try and use the stupidity of blue dogs to make it appear like a bipartisan decision. I think it is time that the Democrat Congressional leadership explain the facts of life to all sitting Democrats so that everybody knows what is happening. I am not saying 'tell them how to vote' but a simple 'this is what is happening'. To be forewarned, is to be prepared.
Washington Post — "…So the Republican campaign doesn’t start from an honest place." — Good, even refreshing, that there is still some honesty in Republican/Teabagger land. But to be truthful, based on what I have seen, the Republican/Teabagger campaign has not been in an honest place since the first public salvoes.
Cartoon — I had previously heard the name but didn't know who he was. I do now. Seems he would be right up there with MLK Jr, , although a little older. A cute fact from Wikipedia — His real name was Thoroughgood Marshall but he did not like it and decided in grade 2 to change it to Thurgood Marshall. Seems like a good plan to me! A quote from him on the bicentennial of the Constitution —
And you're right about his successor — the Injustice Clarence Thomas! I'll bet he's rolling in his grave on that one!
Exactly! I don't know. He should have!
Well said!
I bet that fellow has a sore butt from his fellow Republicans.
You understand!