2016 archive
The (Last) Appeal of the Regent 0
Writing in The Roanoke Times, Dale Eisman skewers George “Defending the Indefensible” Will’s attempt to defend the Regent’s appeal of having been found guilty of being on the take. A snippet (emphasis added):
This everybody-does-it argument has been the heart of McDonnell’s defense since his indictment two years ago. It didn’t work on the jury that listened to five weeks worth of evidence against McDonnell or on judges of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, who twice refused to overturn his convictions.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Just another day in Gun Nut Paradise:
Police say the boys were in the care of a family friend who works at the nearby Sparks Natural Gas station. James Howard, 63, was looking after the boys while their parents went to a medical appointment. Howard was working on a pump when the shooting happened.
Chartering a Course for Disaster 0
Today’s assignment, class, is to write a three-page essay on the topic, “What else can they do to make the scam more obvious?”
Facebook Frolics 0
“I don’t understand how Facebook works” is not an excuse for stupid. It’s an admission of stupid.
Really, now, if you don’t know what you’re doing, that’s sort of an indication that maybe you shouldn’t do it.
Pledging to Gut out the Vote 0
The Virginia Republican Party recently persuaded the State Board of Elections to allow it to require voters in the Republican primary to sign an affirmation that they are Republicans. It’s not quite a loyalty oath, as it does not commit the signer to vote a particular way in a future election.
My signature below indicates that I am a Republican.
The ostensible reason is to prevent “crossover voting,” in which voters from one party vote in the other party’s primary so as to skew the results. Crossover voting, though, is a myth, a crock, and a lie.
Most local analysts suspect it’s a ploy to dissuade dupes, symps, and fellow travelers of Donald Trump from voting in the primary.
Several local pastors have now filed suit to void the ruling. They see sinister implications. The three main allegations in their suit, according to my local rag, are
- The state board did not comply with a legal requirement that rules for a party’s primary be established 90 days before an election, because the board certified the loyalty statement 76 days before the election.
- Black voters who must publicly proclaim they’re a Republican could face backlash from their communities.
- The statement amounts to an illegal literacy test for voting because those who don’t speak English, including a disproportionate number of Hispanics, won’t understand the form, “leading many to forego voting at all.”
The last two are highly theoretical, but quite interesting. The second one is, I suspect, a crock. Given that the Republican Party has become, for all practical purposes, the Party of the New Secesh, I would not be surprised if a black voter who voted Republican might face disapproval (assuming the fact got out), but “disapproval” and “backlash” are two different things.
The last point carries more weight with me. I remember literacy tests (though they were gone by the time I first registered to vote); literacy tests nothing more than a tool for disenfranchising black folks under Jim Crow.
The first point, if it holds up, is pretty solid, as it’s quantifiable.
Regardless of whether or not the suit prevails, the underlying reasoning is correct. It’s yet another Republican effort to gut out the vote.
A Desperate Cry for Attention? 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr, asks, “What if you throw a tantrum and no one seems to care?“
Have Cake, Eat It Too 2
E. J. Dionne skewers the hysterical rhetoric of the ammosexual lobby:
On the one hand, President Barack Obama’s modest initiatives to keep guns out of the wrong hands are denounced as an outlandish abuse of his executive powers. . . .
Yet there was the National Rifle Association itself making fun of Obama’s actions for being puny. “This is it, really?” said the NRA’s Jennifer Baker. “They’re not really doing anything.” The same NRA put up a frightening online video declaring that Obama is “our biggest threat to national security.”
These folks are willing to say anything–everything–so as to be able to continue fondling their ammosex toys.
“In the Good Old Mummertime . . . .” 0
I lived in the Greater Philadelphia Co-Prosperity Sphere for over two decades.
Philadelphia is one of the nation’s great cities and I do miss it, for all that it has faults; having lived there, I know that my current location of residence, for all that it is legally a city, is no city; it is a resort town surrounded by endless suburbs with delusions of city, Rehobeth Beach with dreams of grandeur, if you will.
During the time I lived in the Philly area, I was never moved to watch the Mummers parade. I didn’t have a position on it, one way or the other; I just couldn’t be bothered to get up at five and shiver my way through the day on Broad Street.
The Mummers are very much a Philly thing, for good or ill. In the most recent parade, though, the ill seems to have triumphed in a series of incidents of hate-full and bigoted actions on the part of the paraders.
Philly is moving, however fitfully, into the 21st Century.
The Mummers look back wistfully to the 19th.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Marginally better.
(snip)
The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly claims numbers, decreased to 275,750 last week from 277,000.
Continuing ClaimsThe number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 25,000 to 2.23 million in the week ended Dec. 26. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.6 percent. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
“The Smart One,” Great Moments in Flailure Dept. 0
Jeb! is reported to be soliciting President George the Worst to campaign for him.
This painfully protracted campaign season seems to promise one benefit: the end of the Bush League.