The Ledes

Sunday, October 6, 2024

New York Times: “Two boys have been arrested and charged in a street attack on David A. Paterson, a former governor of New York, and his stepson, the police said. One boy, who is 12, was charged with second-degree gang assault, and the other, a 13-year-old, was charged with third-degree gang assault, the police said on Saturday night. Both boys, accompanied by their parents, turned themselves in to the police, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson. A third person, also a minor, went to the police but was not charged in the Friday night attack in Manhattan, according to an internal police report.... Two other people, both adults, were involved in the attack, according to the police. They fled on foot and have not been caught, the police said. The former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault....”

Weather Channel: “Tropical Storm Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday or early Monday. The storm is expected to pose a major hurricane threat to Florida by midweek, just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. The National Hurricane Center says that 'there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday.'”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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The Commentariat -- Aug. 14, 2013

** Maureen Dowd does an excellent job of trashing Larry Summers. Sometimes MoDo gets it so right.

Ewen MacAskill of the Guardian: "The White House has moved to dampen controversy over the role of the director of national intelligence James Clapper in a panel reviewing NSA surveillance, insisting that he would neither lead it nor choose the members."

Robert Reich, in a New York Times op-ed, on the consequences of an impotent, do-nothing Congress: "Political decision making has moved to peripheral public entities, where power is exercised less transparently and accountability to voters is less direct. What we're losing in the process isn't government -- it's democracy.... It's bizarre that a self-styled populist insurrection, [the Tea Party,] would end up making our government less accountable to the people. But that's exactly what it's done."

** Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: John "Lewis is a congressman from Georgia and the sole surviving speaker from the March on Washington in August 1963. His history makes him the closest thing to a moral voice in the divided Congress. At 73, he is still battling a half-century later. With the Voting Rights Act in jeopardy now that the Supreme Court has invalidated one of its central provisions, Mr. Lewis, a Democrat, is fighting an uphill battle to reauthorize it. He is using his stature as a civil rights icon to prod colleagues like the Republican leader, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, to get on board.... Mr. Lewis has an answer for those who say the election of a black president was a fulfillment of Dr. King's dream: It was only 'a down payment,' he said in an interview." ...

... Charles Pierce: In her speech on voter suppression, "What [Hillary Clinton] did was throw some serious chin music at the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.... Say what you will about her, she punches in her own weight class." Thanks to James S. for the link. ...

... ** Jamelle Bouie, in the Daily Beast, details the provisions of the anti-Democrat North Carolina voter suppression act, which "would have never passed federal muster" under Section 4 of the federal Voting Rights Act, struck down by the Supremes. "In the meantime, North Carolinians will have to live in a state that doesn't respect their right to participate. And worse, we should expect similar behavior from other states that were under federal preclearance before the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County." ...

... Election law expert Rick Hasen is skeptical that the lawsuits filed against North Carolina's voter suppression law will be successful. Via Jonathan Bernstein. ...

... AND Chris Fitzsimon of North Carolina Policy Watch: Gov. Pat McCrory still doesn't know what's in the law he signed. Also via Bernstein.

Steve Benen on why GOP members of Congress appears to have lost their enthusiasm for townhall meetings: "The first [reason] is that the Republican Party base is starting to push for things Republican Party lawmakers don't want to deliver -- a government shutdown, national default, impeachment, hearings into the president's birth certificate, a special committee to investigate Benghazi conspiracy theories -- and town-hall forums put GOP officials in an awkward position of disappointing the far-right activists the party has worked so hard to rile up. The second is the flip-side: the Republican Party base is pushing for extremism, many Republican officials are going along, and invariably someone catches this on video. In other words, we're looking at a dynamic in which Republicans (a) will be pressed to say something stupid; or (b) will go ahead and say something stupid."

Fernando Espuelas of Univision, in the Huffington Post: "In the immigration reform morass that has gripped our government like quicksand, we see [John] Boehner's manifest weakness. It's no secret that the Tea Party radicals in his own caucus have terrorized the Speaker into immobility and sometimes outright incoherence."

CW: It's impossible to read the essays & news reports linked above without realizing that Republicans are fundamentally opposed to democracy. John Boehner won't allow a vote on issues like immigration that a majority of representatives (and of the public) would favor. Senate Republicans won't let a popularly-elected Democratic president appoint his own judges or even his Cabinet members. They won't allow the passage of any bill the Democratic majority of the Senate favors. Republicans try to defund lawfully-enacted programs they don't like. Republicans legislatures & governors throughout the country are knocking themselves out to suppress the vote of "those people," even when "those people" may be their own college-going children or poor grandmas. Republican-appointed justices rubber-stamped the efforts to suppress the vote. They apparently don't even want to talk to constituents because a few voters might pose awkward questions. There are occasions, of course, when minority views should prevail; for instance, when laws & practices discriminate against a group or when a presidential nominee is particularly unfit. I don't think Congress should take a public poll every time a bill comes up for consideration. But, with some exceptions, Congress generally should act in ways that reflect the "will of the people," & not just the people of their own districts. Maybe "all politics is local," but members of Congress have to rise above parochial interests & consider the general welfare of all Americans. They may hail from Mississippi or Idaho, but their title is United States Congressman or United States Senator & their oaths are to the United States Constitution. They should act as if they know that.


Nicholas Confessore & Amy Chozick of the New York Times delve into Bill Clinton's shady foundation, which is now the Bill, Hillary & Chelsey Shady Foundation. Nice graphic here.

Senate Races

Matt Friedman & David Giambusso of the [New Jersey] Star-Ledger: Newark Mayor Cory Booker has easily prevailed in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, the Associated Press projects. Booker will now face Steve Lonegan, the Republican primary winner, in the Oct. 16 special election to succeed the late Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). Results show Booker well ahead of his three rivals tonight: U.S. Reps. Rush Holt (D-6th Dist.) and Frank Pallone (D-12th Dist.), and state Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex). The difference is so large -- with Booker leading his closest opponent, Pallone, by a two-to-one margin -- that the Associated Press called the race with just 7 percent of the vote in."

Josh Israel of Think Progress: "Believing it to be 'God's will,' South Carolina State Sen. Lee Bright (R) announced Tuesday that he will [run] a 2014 primary challenge to U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R). Over four years in the State Senate, Bright has taken a number of out-of-the-mainstream positions on a wide array of issues, aligned himself with the anti-government William Wallace Caucus, and served as state campaign chair for the presidential campaign of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Bright also is on the board of a right-wing seminary that believes women should be subservient to men, both in the church and in the home." Read the whole post to learn more Bright Ideas. CW: I don't see how Graham can lose to this crazy bastard (a "fiscal conservative" who can't seem to pay his own bills & taxes), even in South Carolina. Via Charles Pierce, who is amused. As for me, I'm seeing Graham & Bright decked out in Confederate uniforms, fighting a duel to the death, with swords.

Gubernatorial Race

Washington Post Editors on Terry McAuliffe's venture GreenTech, in which he remains the company's largest shareholder: "GreenTech relies heavily on financing from wealthy foreigners, many of them Chinese, who pony up at least $500,000 each through a federal program designed to attract overseas investors. In return for their investments, they receive U.S. visas and may become eligible for permanent residency green cards.... According to former GreenTech employees..., the plant is a Potemkin manufacturing facility, where managers stage a semblance of production for the benefit of visitors. Company officials deny that. If it's untrue, they should allow journalists to see for themselves," which they won't....

... CW: so Virginians have to decide whether they want a shady character or a right-wing nutjob as governor. In view of McAuliffe's ethical challenges, I think it's likely that current Gov. Bob McDonnell's sleazy cash-grabbing will rub off as much on McAuliffe as on Ken Cuccinelli. (Kenny has grabbed a little cash from McDonnell's friend, too, making him both a nutjob and a shady character, but McAuliffe's deals are getting more attention now than are Kenny's.) I suspect voters prefer ideologues to crooks.

Local News

Katherine Skiba & Marina Villeneuve of the Chicago Tribune: "Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who pleaded guilty to misspending about $750,000 in campaign funds, will learn today how much his crime will cost him. A federal judge will sentence Jackson on a felony conspiracy count and also will sentence his wife, Sandi, on a related charge of failing to report about $600,000 in taxable income." ...

       ... UPDATE: "Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was sentenced today to 30 months behind bars and his wife, Sandi, got a year in prison for separate felonies involving the misspending of about $750,000 in campaign funds. The Jacksons will be allowed to serve their sentences one at a time, with Jackson Jr. going first, based on the wishes of the family as expressed by Dan Webb, an attorney for Sandi Jackson. Jackson Jr. will report to prison on or after Nov. 1, the judge said."

David Lieb of the AP: " The president of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association has resigned after getting flak about a State Fair event in which a rodeo clown riled up the crowd as a bull chased a masked man imitating President Barack Obama. An attorney for rodeo announcer Mark Ficken said Tuesday that his resignation from the group is not an acknowledgment of wrongdoing on his part but rather a protest that the association has not banned the rodeo clown from its membership. Ficken's resignation from the rodeo group comes as he tries to hold on to his job as superintendent of the Boonville School District. The school system announced Monday that it is hiring an investigator to look into whether Ficken was involved in any 'inappropriate conduct' during Saturday's bull riding event at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia." CW: Yo, Mark. Bet you didn't think your 15 minutes of fame would be all about what a total asshole you are. But, you know, that's what happens sometimes when you're a total asshole.

News Ledes

Baltimore Sun: "Jack W. Germond, the irascible, portly columnist and commentator who was a fixture on the American political scene for nearly 50 years, including nearly 20 of them in The Baltimore Sun's Washington bureau, died Wednesday morning of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his home in Charles Town, W.Va. He was 85."

Washington Post: " Violent clashes spread across Egypt on Wednesday after security forces stormed two sprawling protest camps in an early morning assault that killed scores of supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. With at least 281 people killed, it was the deadliest day in Egypt since the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and the fallout dealt a further blow to the prospect that the country might resume its path toward democracy. At least 37 died in clashes in the conservative oasis town of Fayoum." New York Times story here. The Times' The Lede has updates here. Al Jazeera's liveblog is here. ...

... Washington Post: "A 15-year veteran of Sky, Mick Deane was one of three journalists reported killed in Egypt on Wednesday. Also killed Wednesday was Habiba Ahmed Abd Elaziz, a 26-year-old reporter for Xpress, a sister publication of Dubai's Gulf News. She was fatally shot near Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque, the scene of a major crackdown by the Egyptian military and police on a pro-Morsi encampment. Abd Elaziz was on leave from the newspaper and was visiting Egypt.... Social media users in Egypt reported the death of a local news photographer, but those reports could not be confirmed. At least a dozen other journalists were detained, injured or threatened Wednesday as the violence raged, suggesting increasing danger for journalists in an already hostile working environment."

... Guardian: "The United States has led a chorus of international concern about Egypt's crackdown on demonstrators, publicly condemning the violence that resulted in the worst loss of life on a single day since the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi last month. The White House said 'the world is watching' after a day on which at least 278 people were killed. But there was still no sign that the US was prepared to characterise Morsi's removal by the army as a coup -- which would trigger an automatic congressional ban on $1.3bn in annual aid to the powerful Egyptian military."

New York Times: "While just two former London traders for JPMorgan [Chase] were criminally charged on Wednesday, the cases intensify the scrutiny of the bank's executives in New York, where lax controls and the pressure for profits aggravated the problem. Federal authorities outlined the breakdown in the bank's oversight in the two criminal complaints against the employees: Javier Martin-Artajo, a manager who oversaw the trading strategy, and Julien Grout, a low-level trader in London. The employees, accused of manipulating the books to disguise hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, operated for months with scant supervision and the impression that higher-ups of the bank supported them."

AP: "Defense attorney David Coombs says [Bradley] Manning will take the stand during the sentencing phase of his court-martial Wednesday at Fort Meade near Baltimore." ...

     ... Guardian Update: "Bradley Manning, the soldier convicted last month of leaking an enormous collection of classified documents to WikiLeaks, has said he now regrets his actions and that he was 'sorry that they hurt the United States.' 'I am sorry for unintended consequence of my actions. When I made these decisions, I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people,' Manning told his sentencing hearing, in an attempt to receive a reduced sentence." ...

     ... The Hill: "WikiLeaks late Wednesday described Bradley Manning's apology as 'forced' but, nonetheless, called on a court to take 'compassion' and 'understanding' into account during his sentencing."

Al Jazeera: "Security forces have moved in on two Cairo protest camps set up by supporters of Egypt's ousted President Mohamed Morsi, launching a crackdown that quickly turned into a bloodbath with dozens dead. Conflicting reports have emerged over the number of people killed. However, Al Jazeera's correspondent counted 94 bodies in Rabaa al-Adawiya's makeshift hospital, while some members of the Muslim Brotherhood have put the figure up to 2,200, with about 10,000 injured. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the Brotherhood's figure."

Guardian: "A Russian-built submarine of the Indian navy has exploded in Mumbai harbour, with 18 sailors believed to be trapped inside. Several other crew members were reported to have escaped by jumping off the submarine when it blew up on Tuesday night, sparking a huge fire. Several injured navy personnel were being treated in a naval hospital."

AP: "Canada's transportation agency is suspending the operating license of the U.S.-based rail company whose runaway oil train derailed and exploded in a Quebec town, killing 47 people. The agency said Tuesday it is taking away the certificate of fitness for the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway and its Canadian subsidiary, effective Aug. 20."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (9)

Just could not resist reprinting a few lines of Heather's article (on Video Cafe) about John Oliver's skewering of Chris Matthews' prediction that 'Lil Ran would be the Republican presidential candidate in 2016:

...." Following Chris Matthews' big bold predication that the GOP is going to go "hard right" and nominate Sen. Rand Paul as their presidential nominee in 2016, The Daily Show's John Oliver started off his final week filling in for John Stewart reminding the viewers of some of Matthews' previous painfully wrong predictions.

If Matthews truly knew what he was talking about, we'd have been treated to Rudy Giuliani as the Republican candidate in 2008 and Michele Bachmann in 2012. And sadly as Oliver noted, someone does actually pay Chris Matthews to do this for a living.

OLIVER: It's what he does for a living. He's paid to do that... money... human money. Is he a psychic or a time traveler? Either way, we must burn him as a witch.

Chris Matthews doesn't just routinely have egg on his face, he has a chicken copping a squat onto his face, laying an egg between his eyes, **ing on that egg, punching that egg and then rubbing it all over his face....."

Too funny! Chris Matthews is a true-blue arrogant, clueless corporate newsie!

August 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

Kate: I know it's sacrilege to say so, but John Oliver has been a breath of fresh air on that show, and I wish he could stay. Much as I love Jon Stewart, Oliver has been better, asking much more pointed questions of the politicians he has on the show.

Oliver did let Rand Paul off the hook, though. Oliver started with a great question, making the point that the state of medical insurance in this country represents a massive failure of the free market to provide an essential service. Paul responded by saying that 85% of the American public had health care, and the market had failed only that remaining 15%. What both Oliver and Paul failed to mention is that half that 85% are getting their health care through the government (Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, VA) and not through the free market. Medicare and Medicais exist precisely because the free market wouldn't provide those people with insurance.

But I digress. Oliver has been great. Wish he coud stay. Last night's story on "stop and frisk" was great, too.

August 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterNoodge

Idiots will out. Racists too.

Mark Fucken, oh...sorry, Ficken, the announcer at an event designed to make it look like the president was being run down by a bull, is now claiming that he had nothing to do with it. Funny how bad publicity and the prospect of losing one's job activates the cowardice gene.

Okay. Maybe someone else did the honors of whipping up the bigots. I'd give him a pass if he really had nothing to do with it. But then, like most idiots--and assholes--he adds a little coda in which he proclaims that people got it all wrong, they misunderstood the whole thing. Hey, it was just a joke. Get it?

Really, dickhead? A clown pretends to be the president, pulling on the thick lips of his mask and scampering away from a bull as the crowd cheers for him (the president) to be killed. Oh yeah. A real knee slapper.

And the kicker is that this guy is a fucking superintendent of schools!!

Well, if he loses that job, I hear the rodeo people are looking for a new clown.

Douchebag.

August 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Elections DO matter.

That’s why Republicans, as Marie points out, are in all out attack mode against the electoral process, the essence of democracy.

Their combined efforts on many fronts include vote stealing, especially through election machine rigging. Analysis of elections over the last decade or more points to vote swings that in statistical terms are astronomically unlikely.

And this is not in just one or two elections here and there. The brazenness of election rigging in Ohio in 2004 during which three private companies, all owned by far-right, fundamentalist Christian supporters of the GOP, were allowed to shuttle votes to a server in a locked room in Tennessee where, after consultation with Ken Blackwell, Ohio’s chief vote stealer, results were fixed. Interestingly, during an investigation into this theft, the chief architect of the plan, Karl Rove’s IT guru, Mike Connell, who was ready to be deposed by lawyers representing pro-democracy groups in Ohio, was killed in a mysterious plane crash. Connell was also implicated in the disappearance of thousands of White House e-mails connected with the 2004 election.

And this was just one election.

Not surprisingly, the GOP when called on their fraud and vote theft, went on the offensive declaring that Democratic voter fraud was rampant throughout the country (the "I Know You Are, but What am I?" defense), spearheaded by creeps like Bush lawyer and Heritage foundation thug Hans von Spakovsky (is that a name out of a John Le Carre novel, or what?), thus triggering the manufactured "need" for more and more draconian vote suppression.

This campaign has had help at the highest levels, with Supreme Court wingers signing on to the scheme to deny Democratic citizens the vote. In fact, although actual voter fraud connected to Democratic voters has been infinitesimal, the opposite is true for the Republican Party where voting fraud has been documented and prosecuted in a string of high publicity cases in Florida, Indiana, Michigan and elsewhere. Actual cases, not made up ones.

But, you might ask, how is it that Obama was successful in his bid for re-election if there’s so much vote stealing on the part of the GOP?

Easy.

American voters decided they weren’t going to stand for it. So they sucked it up and waited in line for hours in many locations, thwarting Republican state and local officials who figured they would give up and go home thus ensuring victory for the Rat.

Although Obama won by about 5 million votes, some estimates, accounting for vote stealing based on previous election results where Republican candidates mysteriously vaulted ahead of Democrats who had racked up big leads, indicate that the margin of victory should have been more like 7 or 8 million votes. A result that has reinforced for the GOP the necessity of expanding their War on Democracy to other fronts.

Now, with the help of the Supreme Court, they can legally suppress the vote and sidestep any inconvenient legal challenges after their guys walk off with unearned electoral victories.

Plus, the decade long GOP gerrymandering project in states controlled by Republican apparatchiks has been paying off nicely. Even though Democratic candidates for the House received a million votes more than Republicans, it was the GOP who sent a flurry of new faces to Washington.

And now the latest, greatest, sleaziest attack on democracy: rigging the electoral college. In this newest scheme being put in place in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, state GOP crooks are set to change the rules to ensure that Republican presidential candidates get many more votes even if they lose the popular vote.

Based on the rule changes being implemented by Republicans, Romney would now be president even if he lost by those 5 (or 7 or 8) million votes.

If you can’t win fair, cheat, lie, steal, and change the rules. But never, ever, ever let the people choose.

Because elections DO matter.

Your Modern GOP. Anti-democratic to their withered cores.

August 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

About this rancid bat guano that Noonan is spreading about a "gracious" and "classy" statement that Obama should give in re: the free speech of the dickhead rodeo clown. Being free to say what you want a la the 1st amendment, doesn't preclude the 1st amendment rights of others to point out you are a racist dickhead pig, with a generous side of asswipe.

I Wiki-looked up Peggy Noonan because I was curious to know just how old a drunk she is. Dissipation can take its toll. Witness Blanch DuBois. But Holy Bejoly, I was astonished to find she only has a couple years on me. I'm not sure its her appearance so much as the affected 19th century manner in which floats around. I know I'm not pointing out new information, but she isn't to tightly tethered to the here and now.

I wonder at her response if a rodeo clown had appeared dressed in a diaper and a Reagan mask with a sign around his neck " I knew my name this morning" shouting "Nancy where are my pills." I wager she would have downed a 5th of vodka and with a halting but classy stumble, made it to her bed to pass out.

August 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

For the lack of relevance, I apologize but politics is so depressing that occasionally we need a break.

http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/dtake/i-dont-normally-do-this-kind-of-thing-45-small-fates/

August 14, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercowichan's opinion

So, the William Wallace Caucus, eh?

Do wingers never tire of modeling themselves after fictional characters? Oh, there was a real William Wallace alright, but does anyone believe that these baggers know anything but the hagiographic fictional portrayal by noted bigot Mel Gibson? And in order to become a member of this elite group, one must raise the banner for a conservative cause and suffer, in their own words "disembowlement" at the hands of the "guvmint", ie the South Carolina state senate leadership.

In other words, give a speech in support of some whacko winger pipe dream so it can be smacked down by other senators who decide not to waste their time with loons. And you know it has to be mighty whacky in order for South Carolina politicians to reject it.

Braveheart, John Galt, Bozo the Clown....who'll be next in line for wingnut worship? G.I. Joe action figures?

August 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

RIP Jack Germond.

August 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

Great local news here.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/14/1231227/-Hooters-bans-San-Diego-Mayor?detail=facebook

August 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer
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