2011 archive
Fudging the Costs of Endless War 0
No account accountants.
Republican Economic Theory 0
Robyn Blummer wraps it up in once sentence.
Shorter version: Make the rich richer, the poor poorer.
It’s what they do.
A Newt Is a Small Lizard 0
A roundup of commentary about Newt the Gingrinch’s Humpty-Dumpty view of the law (that is, laws mean what he wants them to mean).
Dick Polman:
(snip)
Ah yes, this is the real Newt – the reckless Newt in touch with his inner thug – that veteran Newt-watchers saw so often during his brief mid-’90s heyday. The real Newt’s hatred of so-called “activist” judges (i.e., judges whose rulings he doesn’t like) is so unhinged that two recent attorney generals, Michael Mukasey and Alberto Gonzales, have stood up to voice their revulsion.
Mike Littwin:
In tossing away about 200 years of American jurisprudence — and, by the way, for a historian/not-lobbyist, Newt made a complete hash of Jefferson’s attack on court appointments, which had nothing whatever to do with court rulings — he said he might abolish certain courts while ignoring others. He called for a best-of-three constitutional test, which, let us say, you can’t actually find in the Constitution.
(snip)
Under the Gingrich Rule, consider that Obama and Congress could ignore the Supreme Court if it overturns Obamacare. In the ’50s, the president and Congress could have ignored Brown vs. the Board of Education. The whole idea is crazier even than anything Ron Paul has ever said.
Jay Bookman:
That is a 180-degree reversal of Hamilton’s actual position. He saw the courts as vulnerable guarantors of freedom whose independence must be preserved at all costs against the likes of Gingrich.
In Federalist Papers #78, for example, Hamilton writes that the judiciary “is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power; that it can never attack with success either of the other two; and that all possible care is requisite to enable it to defend itself against their attacks.”
The Republican War on Women 1
Hadley Freeman predicts the next campaign:
The Republicans ban women from having sex (except with them)
In 2011 America’s right wing, and especially the Christian right wing, at last let slip what their problem is with contraception and abortion: it’s not squeamishness, morality or a fondness for hanging outside Planned Parenthood clinics toting misspelt placards – they just don’t like women having sex. At all. . . . This was borne out in their frankly unhinged attacks on Planned Parenthood, the HPV vaccine, insurance coverage of contraception and, as I discussed last week, the puritanical mood they created that encouraged President Obama to restrict access to Plan B, or the morning-after pill, none of which have much to do with abortion and everything to do with women’s temerity to have sex.
Thus, in 2012 the Republicans propose the female anti-sex bill, in which women are expressly forbidden from having sex with anyone other than the occasional lecherous politician who happens to hurl himself, bodily, sweatily, in her lucky, lucky path.
Follow the link for the rest of her predictions.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Still slight improvements.
We’ll see what happens when retailers lay off their Christmas help.
Also again too once more, they still need a new set of experts.
Oh! that reminds me–the classic definition of an expert:
-
X = Unknown quantity.
Spurt = Drip under pressure.
Expert = Unknown drip under pressure.
QOTD 0
George Carlin, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Electricity is really just organized lightning.
Facebook Frolics 0
You can’t make this stuff up.
(snip)
Cops say she posted a photo of the stolen statue to her Facebook page (which was spotted by a witness who contacted police).
The Entitlement Society 0
Thom Hartmann compares the bonus babies with the homeless babies.
Twits on Twitter 0
Galluping twits:
A copy of the report is available at the link.
A. P. Ticker Remembers Dear Leader 0
Warning: Some language.
Droning On 1
The government has found more brown people to point drones at, now on this side of the big pond.
The winding down of the ground operation over the next two months stems from growing concerns over the cost and effectiveness of the $10 million-a-month National Guard effort that has provided reassurance along the border and political cover for politicians in Washington but has had limited impact on arrests and drug seizures.
It won’t be long before drones are pointed at everyone everywhere, sort of like Google Earth in real time. With bombs.
Meanwhile, in the Guardian, Gary Younge quotes a statement that sums up the anti-immigration movement: it’s about hatin’ on The Other:
Follow the link for the rest of Mr. Younge’s column.
Comment Rescue 0
It’s my comment and I like it. It’s my blog. I’m allowed.
Libertarianism is an elegant and simple theory which explains political behavior in much the same way as phlogiston explains combustion.
QOTD 0
Charlie Chaplin, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.
A Picture Is Worth . . . 0
Check out this proposed Pennsylvania congressional district.
Candidate Gift Ideas 0
See the suggestions here.
