Monday, March 31, 2014

Compare and contrast

Political "dynasties" suck.

And let us look at the alleged dynasties.

George Washington...no kids.

For a democracy great strategy.

John Adams and John Quincy Adams...sort of the original Bushs only with some real accomplishments outside of the office.

Thomas Jefferson...well, let us just say...ineligible then.

The Roosevelts...do not count, they were actually distant cousins, which is why Eleanor (who was TR's niece) could marry Franklin (fifth or sixth cousins).

The Kennedys well, let's face it, they've been rendered ineligible via Second Amendment and it's exercise (abuse).

So why do we keep getting Bushs...it's not like the first two have been awesome?

And dodos made the best wings

Imagine if in the entire world there were maybe 150,000 of something...how "scientific" would it be to spend the last three decades permanently eliminating a twelfth of it? Somebody wants you to think that's great preservation strategy.
Japan insists its programme is scientific, while admitting that the resulting meat ends up on plates back at home. Japan has killed more than 10,000 whales under the programme since 1988, according to Canberra, allegedly putting it in breach of international conventions and its obligation to preserve marine mammals and their environment.
"We killed them in the name of science...and they were DELICIOUS!"

This pathetic joke of putting a whole class of species (which just happens to contain the largest animals in the world) on the road to extinction has been challenged in the world court.
The leading court at the UN will rule on Monday on whether Japan has the right to hunt whales in the Antarctic, an emotive case that activists say is make-or-break for the mammals' future.

Australia took Japan to the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague in 2010, accusing Tokyo of exploiting a loophole by hunting whales as scientific research to get around a 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

Australia has asked the ICJ to order Japan to stop its Jarpa II research programme and "revoke any authorisations, permits or licences" to hunt whales in the Southern Ocean.
Don't worry Japan, you can still lead the world...according to American corporate lackeys...of leading the world in safe nuclear energy.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Friday, March 28, 2014

Dancin' over the ratings graveyard

Hard as it is to believe, apparently Americans have made a choice...and that choice is David Gregory sucks.
'Meet The Press' continued its ratings slide last week, finishing a distant third to CBS' "Face The Nation" and ABC's "This Week." "Meet the Press" drew 2.804 million viewers for its March 23 show, while "This Week" had 3.400 million, and "Face The Nation" 3.938 million. It's the fourth time in five weeks that the venerable program lost to its two main competitors.
Of course there's only one solution that they'll try.

More John McCain. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, March 27, 2014

It is fitting however

Madison Rising is a rock band so bad, Nickelback makes fun of them.

So it is appropriate that they -- the band which gave the worst National Album performance ever -- performed the theme song for Sarah Palin's new show.

Behold a portion of the lyrics:

"From the snowy passes to the desert sun 
 With the dogs and the horses and the trucks and the guns."

Yeah, I think Woody Guthrie's legacy is pretty secure.

Simply biased towards stupidity

Well the three major cable news networks all have to have their biases. CNN's apparently has a bias towards having faces cast into palms.
Two CNN journalists were arrested for trying to sneak past security at the World Trade Center in New York City on Tuesday in an attempt to report on recent security lapses at the site, police said.
Whoops. In their defense, they may have been looking for either Malaysian Airlines Flight 370...or their souls. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Dick move

No matter how one slices it.
Gov. Rick Snyder says Michigan won't recognize more than 300 same-sex marriages performed last weekend. The marriages were performed Saturday before a federal appeals court suspended a decision that overturned the state's ban on gay marriage. Snyder's announcement Wednesday closes the door to certain benefits granted to Michigan married couples. The move comes after a day after an appeals court indefinitely stopped any additional same-sex marriages. Snyder says the marriages were legal at the time but the stay means the ban now is back in effect.
"Legal at the time" is the theme of many of Newt Gingrich's marriages.

You can only claim somebody is full of it...

If you are not in need of emptying your own bucket of bullshit.

If "reality" is your guide, then this week Harry Reid said a whopper.

“Since a few Republicans blocked these important sanctions last work period, Russian lawmakers voted to annex Crimea and Russian forces have taken over Ukrainian military bases,” Reid said. “It’s impossible to know whether events would have unfolded differently if the United States had responded to Russian aggression with a strong, unified voice.”
Yeah...it is 'impossible' to know...but it probably didn't now did it?

Of course many Republicans have been asserting for weeks that if Obama were willing to annihilate civilization then this wouldn't have happened either. 

And, of course, there's this.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) on Tuesday defended Russia's annexation of Crimea, arguing that the people of the region had a right to secede from Ukraine, Buzzfeed reported. "From what I understand, what happened in Crimea, not one person was killed. Maybe one — maybe there was one".
Dana's always been one to pick 'em.

"[Rohrabacher] says the Taliban are devout traditionalists—not terrorists or revolutionaries. He believes a Taliban takeover [of Afghanistan] would be a positive development."

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Blown lines

Well, this certainly is some progress from the Church.
The Vatican's new No. 3 has accused Holy See officials of downplaying the clerical sex abuse scandal in the 1990s, saying they were generally skeptical of victims and often considered them "enemies of the church."
Hey, who was leading the Church at that time? Oh yeah, a future Saint. Like this guy.

Still, it's some progress that Church officials are admitting error now, twenty or so years later...it took them three-hundred-fifty years to apologize to Galileo.

On the other hand, maybe they are moving too fast.

 
German customs officials have intercepted a package addressed to the Vatican containing 14 condoms filled with cocaine.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, March 24, 2014

Don Lemon wonders if that's where the black hole is?

How could this not have been announced days ago?
Malaysia’s prime minister said Monday that further analysis of satellite data confirmed that the missing Malaysian airliner went down in the southern Indian Ocean with its passengers and crew. The announcement narrowed the search area but left many questions unanswered about why it flew to such a remote part of the world.

Missed opportunity

It is hard to believe that for once we may have missed the opportunity for some needless violence and death from a tragic mistake.
A replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier spotted near the coast of Iran is nothing more sinister than a movie set, Iranian media said on Sunday. The New York Times, quoting U.S. intelligence, said last week that the Iranians were building a mock-up of a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, possibly so they could then blow it up for propaganda purposes.
If they didn't blow it up, you know every American would-be war lord from John McCain to John Bolton would be for bombing it. But whenever they lack the opportunity, there is only one possible response.
“I wish that there were. … I do not see a military option and it’s tragic.”
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Well, that will be an interesting challenge

To prove there was no merit in this discharge.

A high school science teacher in Parkersburg, WV got suspended for four days after he published a badly-spelled rant against the school’s gay-straight alliance on Facebook.

I'm sure he could really misspelled evolutionary theory.

Indubitably






How could this not happen?

Friday, March 21, 2014

Yeah, that makes sense

Because many people know, among the most patriotic Americans are non-Americans who loved America before there was one.
 History of the Planet?

That means they are as patriotic an American as ... Jesus!

Also, sorry New England Patriots fan in Papua New Guinea.

Double-Brain lock Fundy logic.

New ad for Lee Jeans

Or Levi's or whatever. It's the restraining order violators clothing option of choice.

Last Friday night, a woman allegedly tried to cut off her husband's penis with a box-cutter, only to be thwarted by his denim pants.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

As I was saying...well, someone else actually

You are not going to get a more concentrated dose of accurate commentary than what Charles Pierce dealt to Bill Kristol's latest crusade to have other folks die in the name of his shitty ideas.
Blow me, you monstrous, bloodthirsty fraud, you silly, stupid chickenhawk motherfker who plays army man with the children of people who are so much better than you are, and who would feed innocent civilians in lands you will never visit into your own personal meatgrinder to service your semi-annual martial erection. You and the rest of your cowardly cohort helped prepare the ground for the worst geopolitical mistake the country has made in 30 years. You fought the battle of the Green Rooms and the think tanks while other people's sons and daughters died for your fantasy of how the world would work if you really were the pimply, adolescent Zeus you see when you look in the mirror every morning.

The Department of Good Timing

I imagine there are more appropriate times to emphasize just how capable of wretched behavior you can be...but when has good taste and rationality ever been a problem for Franklin Graham?

Evangelist Franklin Graham is praising Russian President Vladimir Putin for his aggressive crackdown on homosexuality, saying his record on protecting children from gay “propaganda” is better than President Barack Obama’s “shameful” embrace of gay rights...

“In my opinion, Putin is right on these issues,” Graham wrote. “Obviously, he may be wrong about many things, but he has taken a stand to protect his nation’s children from the damaging effects of any gay and lesbian agenda.

Apparently that "agenda" is conveniently located in the heart of Sevastopol.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/03/18/3713063/franklin-graham-putin-is-better.html#storylink=cpy




Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/03/18/3713063/franklin-graham-putin-is-better.html#storylink=cpy

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Thank goodness...I guess

America is not the only country comprised of 12-year olds.

The jury in the trial of a British publicist accused of sexual assault had to be dismissed from the courtroom today after they couldn't stop laughing about testimony concerning the defendant's two-and-a-half inch penis.

Ha, ha!

So funny, the guy only committed at least seven sexual assaults...

Not so funny now, is it?

Long-term planning

Somebody at GM in the early part of this century had the kind of idea their corporate forebears had perfected in the generations before.

Pretending no one would ever find out about bad stuff.

And that always works well.
General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra said on Tuesday that she did not learn details about defective GM cars linked to 12 deaths until January 31, just two weeks after she took over as CEO and nearly 13 years after GM engineers first documented problems.

The automaker last month recalled more than 1.6 million cars from 2003 to 2007 to replace faulty ignition switches that could cause the engine to shut down and turn off the airbags. The first death linked to the defect occurred in Maryland in July 2005.
I'm sure the always successful legal defense of "whoops" will play out really well with those future juries.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Shorter Republicans unchallenged on Cable News Talkshows

"THIS OUTRAGEOUS OUTRAGE SHOULD BE MET ONLY WITH THE THERMONUCLEAR ANNIHILATION OF THE HUMAN RACE --

BUT BARACK OBAMA DOESN'T HAVE THE BALLS TO END CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT BY KILLING BILLIONS OF PEOPLE!!!!

WHAT 

A


WIMP!!!!!!" 

Speaking of which...nice that they imported a couple of dudes from "War & Peace, on Ice" to stand witness.

(l to r: Bond Villain, Henchman, Bond Villain, Bambi, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Thumper, Most Interesting Bond Villain in the World)

"Dance, Sugarplum Faeries, Dance!"

(Photograph: Maxim Shematov/Reuters)
 

Ruh roh!

Shocked, SHOCKED! To hear that Christie lies about a bridge closing like he lies to himself about the number of calories in a nine-egg omelet.
Newly released emails involving a political payback plot orchestrated by Gov. Chris Christie's aides show the governor's campaign manager was kept informed of complaints over the closures even while lanes remained blocked.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of footnotes

While Russia's determination to make the Ukrainian borders into the political equivalent of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, there is some good news on ill-conceived political movements.
Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party has been thrown into crisis after one of its MPs broke ranks before a crucial vote by the parliament in Athens that is likely to pave the way for criminal charges to be brought against the party's 18 MPs. As the legislature prepared to cancel politicians' immunity from prosecution in the coming days – following charges that the MPs ran the neofascist force as a criminal organisation – Chrysovalantis Alexopoulos abandoned the party, citing ignorance of its activities. The extremists, whose emblem bears a resemblance to the swastika and whose leadership is prone to giving Nazi salutes, are seen as Europe's most violent political force.
And what are these activities which could lead to criminal charges?
Since the extremists were catapulted into parliament with 7% of the vote on the back of widespread fury with the political establishment almost two years ago, immigrants, leftists and gay people have been attacked, often brutally, by black-clad Golden Dawn supporters. An in-depth investigation of the group by magistrates was triggered by the fatal stabbing of a popular leftwing musician at the hands of a party operative last September.
Looks like a new kind of dawn is on the horizon. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, March 17, 2014

...and take your effing green beer with you!

I'm not Irish, but I have an additional tendency to ignore St. Patrick's Day. First, I generally dislike any holiday that becomes a adopted day to drink, and drink to excess. I'm talkin' to you too Cinco De Mayo and New Year's Eve. This isn't to criticize the ethnic bases of these holidays, just what they have become. But St. Patrick's Day also has the additional detriment of being "gay exclusion day", so good for the Mayor of Boston (and Sam Adams Brewery).

Hey, here's a way to apologize

Libertarian fantasist Paul Ryan got himself in some trouble (not with his base mind you) by seeming to imply that poor people, especially African-American males, are lazy. The shock of this lay in the fact that the race and class-baiting was implied, rather than explicit. Nevertheless, Ryan, with Presidential aspirations, spent the next few days pretending to care. If Paul Ryan actually cares...or at least wants to pretend he cares, maybe he can support this.
Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday urged the U.S. Sentencing Commission to reduce the recommended prison time for certain low-level drug offenses. Citing prison overcrowding, and the fact that nearly half of the nation’s 216,000 federal prisoners are incarcerated on drug charges, Holder said sentencing reform is desperately needed.
And it absolutely is. And, of course, the vast majority of these low-level offenses with maximum penalties affect the poor and disproportionately affect African-American men. If Paul Ryan is actually a libertarian, and actually wants to reach out to those groups he systematically offends, here is a place to start. Obviously, this will not actually happen.
AnRead more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/13/221114/justice-department-backs-reduced.html#storylink=cpy
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Friday, March 14, 2014

From the "Holy Roman Empire" Files

Perhaps another line of work?


Bobonanism

Shorter David Brooks.

I'm so tired, I cannot even masturbate. 

He gets well into the six-figures...in a dying industry for this shit...and somehow unions are at fault, I'm sure.

"Why yes, I was born yesterday...and in this very State!"

One of the truly great universal hypocrisies of politics, cutting across Party lines is the convenient carpetbagging of the ambitious politician...and those who call it out. But it takes a truly flexible spine to pull off what two prominent Republicans are doing...a double-jocklock of baggery of one kind, or another. First, Pat Roberts, ostensibly of Kansas...not that he even bothers being there. And, Scott Brown, just two-and-a-half years from proclaiming Elizabeth Warren a "carpetbagger" for the crime of having been born in another state (plus, her mother and father were totally "doin' it", that's probably a crime in Oklahoma). To moving to New Hampshire and...
Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has begun seeking campaign staff while aggressively courting New Hampshire’s political elite
Well, could be worse, I guess. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Not really all that interesting a question but...

What does Reagan/Eddie Munster impersonator Paul Ryan have less knowledge about...

African-Americans or Poverty?

Bizarre

The explanation may end up being mundane (and, of course, tragic) but this Malaysian Airlines mystery is suddenly something out of a Bond movie.
U.S. investigators suspect that Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -2.04% Flight 370 stayed in the air for about four hours past the time it reached its last confirmed location, according to two people familiar with the details, raising the possibility that the plane could have flown on for hundreds of additional miles under conditions that remain murky.

Well, that all worked out

Boy that short-lived dose of "Shock and Awe" sure continues to work its magic eleven years later.
Since the US military left Iraq in December 2011, and within two months of the first national election since then, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq has quietly emerged as one of the most powerful players in the country's political and public life. Through a mix of strategic diplomacy, aggressive military operations and intimidation – signature methods of its main patron, the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani – the group is increasingly calling the shots in two countries.
Those countries are Iraq and Syria. Making, as predicted by us effing hippies so long ago, Iran as the real-winner of the Iraqi invasion and occupation. Now, if we hadn't had that plan all along, this would not have happened. But of course, there is only one real plan for us now in regard to dunghills of our own making.
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says al-Qaida is in "survival mode," but that if all international forces left this year, the terrorist network would regroup and use the region to plan and conduct operations against the West.
We must stay...forever. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

"Sock it, to me?"

Apparently, Obama is just like Hitler again.



If Hitler did a few improvs and open mic nights. 

Granted, the latter did have the perfect facial hair for the modern hipster.

DiFi draws a line "now it affects me!"

For years there have been few more reliable excuse makers for the intelligence agencies snooping into your life than Dianne Feinstein. For example, two weeks ago.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) offered a full-throated defense of the government's collection of data on billions of American phone calls, saying Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s practices have safeguarded the nation without trampling on civil liberties.
Boo who Mr. and Ms. Non-Dianne Feinstein, your privacy concerns matter not when it comes to amorphous undocumented threats to our security...in perpetuity. But when spying gets too close to DiFi, well things are somehow different yesterday.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA on Tuesday of illegally searching her committee’s computers to find an internal CIA review of Bush-era interrogation policies... Feinstein also said the search may have “violated the Fourth Amendment,” which prohibits unreasonable government searches.
Here's a thought, maybe both acts violate the Fourth Amendment?

Maybe if Dianne Feinstein cared more about the Fourth Amendment's protections for ordinary citizens, she wouldn't be in a position to complain about being treated like one of them?

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Truthers United!!!

Damn the facts, it is how I feel.
Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group backed by the Koch brothers, is running Obamacare attack ads featuring a cancer patient who claimed her treatments were "unaffordable" under the new health law.

On Monday, The Detroit News reported that the patient will actually save more than $1,000 a year. Julie Boonstra says in the anti-Obamacare ad that she was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago, and her health care plan was canceled when Obamacare went into effect. "Now, the out-of-pocket costs are so high, it's unaffordable," she said.

Before her plan was canceled, Boonstra was paying a $1,100 monthly premium. That's $13,200 a year, without adding out-of-pocket expenses like co-pays and prescription drugs. But under her new plan, the Blue Cross Premier Gold, Boonstra's premiums are down to $571 a month, and out-of-pocket costs are capped at $5,100. That's a maximum annual expense of $11,952 a year.

According to The Detroit News, Boonstra said it “can’t be true” that her new coverage is cheaper than her old. “I personally do not believe that,” Boonstra said.
Your modern GOP, ladies and gentlemen.

One picture to summarize FoxNews

Tells a thousand words, 307 of them undoubtedly misspelled.

Nothing like first-hand experience to affect one's perception

I can see a future FoxNews or FoxBusiness "pundit" now..."What does Japan know about affects of the atom anyway?"
Just a day before the 3rd anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident, national broadcaster NHK released the results of a survey about nuclear power in Japan. The results show that 80% of the respondents are in favor of scrapping some or all of the existing nuclear reactors in the country.
But then again, why should 80% of the public get what they want, Tokyo Electric & Power says it's universally awesome, like some other nearby guy. Why should a minority of 4/5ths get any say in the matter, they are just people! [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, March 10, 2014

Your public twitter-farts are making it hard for me to stay classy

fuckhead.
Minnesota State Representative Pat Garofalo sent out a tweet today stating that no one would notice a decrease in NBA teams except for the possible exception of an ‘increase in streetcrime.’ Garofalo (R-Framington) tweeted: “Let’s be honest, 70% of teams in NBA could fold tomorrow + nobody would notice a difference w/ possible exception of increase in streetcrime.”

All the craziness is down to science

Another day another bit of bad news that the manufacturers of their own reality can ignore.
...researchers from the University of East Anglia have discovered evidence of four new gases that can destroy ozone and are getting into the atmosphere from as yet unidentified sources. Three of the gases are CFCs and one is a hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), which can also damage ozone. "Our research has shown four gases that were not around in the atmosphere at all until the 1960s which suggests they are man-made," said lead researcher Dr Johannes Laube.
Naturally, few if any of the participants at this weekends annual Clown Show that David Gregory treats like a seminar, CPAC, but they still manage to convolute something into an outrageous and offensive slur.
Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter and the Daily Caller's Mickey Kaus held a one-sided debate on Saturday that mostly served as a 50-minute screed from Coulter on the "browning of America" due to immigration.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Light blogging

During CPAC.

Because how can I be more ridiculous than that?

Cannot stop kicking a poor person and succumb to good policy

Good luck with dodging that virus.
A new analysis from the Institute for Women's Policy Research, a nonprofit that advocates for pro-family policies, found that in 2012 it was primarily poor, Hispanic workers who were most likely to go without paid sick days. Overall, the organization found that 39 percent of private-sector workers over the age of 18 must choose between getting paid or staying home when they fall ill.
Which means you show up for work if you are sick...and poor.

And if you are poor, you much more likely work at a restaurant.

And if you work at a restaurant, why would you ever be near other people?

So it would make perfect sense to require businesses, especially restaurants, to allow a few paid sick days every year. Well, we cannot have sound policy like that now, can we
Meanwhile, 10 states have passed laws prohibiting local governments from establishing sick-leave laws.
Why it is almost as if poor people don't have anyone representing their interests.

Almost?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

I'll be believe it when I see it...

And it still isn't all that revolutionary...but also I so want to see Bill Donahue and Cardinal Dolan's reaction.
Pope Francis has signalled that he could see the Catholic church tolerating some forms of same-sex civil unions -- though not marriage -- when it comes to situations such as medical care and property for gay couples. In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the pope said that "matrimony is between a man and a woman," but moves to "regulate diverse situations of cohabitation (are) driven by the need to regulate economic aspects among persons, as for instance to assure medical care," according to a translation by Catholic News Service. "It is necessary to look at the diverse cases and evaluate them in their variety," Francis said.

This should go over well

"Hey Jews, be less and yet more Jewy as I, an insane person, define it!!!!"
Bachmann also skewered the Jewish community in the US for its wide support for Obama. She said that Obama “was helped enormously by the Jewish community,” who she says care more about supporting Obama than Israel
This was after the more predictable yet crazy-on-top-of-crazy logic earlier that had her saying she's an evangelical waiting for the "end times" and that Obama is awful because he's bringing the "end times" about.

Jokes somebody else has probably already made, part infinity

How do they know it was LeBron James that scored 61 points the other night? It could have been any 6'9" guy -- wearing a mask?
The thing about twitter jokes, I can always ignore them, so I do not know I'm the 59,083rd person to make that lame joke.

Because every day is "Opposite Day"

Another stellar day for logic in 'Murica and the world yesterday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Tuesday sought to link the Russian invasion of Ukraine to ... Benghazi.
So why not just add some more of that?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Barack Obama on Monday that “Israel has been doing its part” to forge peace, but that it’s been met with “incessant Palestinian incitement.”
Netanyahu's part?
Out of diplomatic courtesy, and because the Americans specifically asked it to, the Israeli government postponed announcing plans to build new housing in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — at least while Secretary of State John F. Kerry was in town last week trying to broker a peace deal. On Friday, it went ahead, announcing that 1,400 more new houses and apartments will be constructed in the contested areas that Palestinians claim as part of their future state.
Nothing to get incited about I guess. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

And at the moment

We are the most intelligent species (here's the pertinent and ironic kicker)...that we know of.
Teen Explains Why He Had Sex With A Hot Pocket
Oh surely, NO EXPLANATION NECESSARY!!!

Please alert Jim Gaffigan.

Nice career move

The Michigan Attorney General's office, continuing to serve the people of the state by reflecting the true tolerance of a far-right political position have been struck by incompetence yet again.
A judge barred an Ivy League law student Monday from testifying at Michigan’s gay marriage trial, saying he might become an expert witness someday but his opinions wouldn’t help sway this case.
It was a blow for the Michigan attorney general’s office, which had offered Sherif Girgis as its first witness in defense of a 2004 constitutional amendment that bars same-sex marriage.

Girgis has written and talked about a historical defense of marriage between a man and a woman going back to ancient philosophers such as Cicero and Plato.
First of all, could have saved some money by calling some high schoolers in the Gross Point AP History class.

Second, unless you are aiming for the FoxNews gravy train becoming the "expert" on old-timey marriage is a bit like becoming an expert on modern Austria-Hungary.

Third, you know what goes back further than Cicero and Plato? Slavery. After all, those two didn't start the institution, they just participated in it. You going to testify about how awesomely sacred that institution is bub?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, March 03, 2014

Oh boy...

It's not like they've got tanker trucks full of WMD or anything! You tell 'em John Kerry!
”You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext,” he said. He went on to repeat the assertion on Meet the Press, keeping a straight face as he told host David Gregory: ”You just don’t invade another country on phony pretext in order to assert your interests.”
Next thing you know Jonah Goldberg will be outraged because Putin just wants to throw a little country against the wall once in a while.

Seventy years of 'the classics'

The irony of post-Second World War America is how consistently immature our politics has been about foreign policy...the arguments never change, we just cut and paste the locations.

In the late 1940s the Republicans blamed the Truman Administration for not adequately pouring in enough tax dollars into the last cause of the hopeless corrupt Chang government.  The fact that there was little to practically do about it was never really considered, or the point.

Seventy years later, a whole litany of wasted lives and wasted dollars that under the best case scenario led to stalemates have come and sadly often not gone.

Naturally, this leads to the only possible reaction to events in the Ukraine.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) accused President Obama on Sunday of being too soft in his dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who just received the Russian parliament's permission to move troops into Ukraine.
Yes, because clearly if only Obama had been willing to drop bombs, things would have gone differently. Besides how can last week's Hitler have any chance against this week's Hitler?

Or maybe he should have done this?
"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]