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. 6, 2013

Mark Felsenthal & Margaret Chadbourn of Reuters: "President Barack Obama will propose overhauling the U.S. mortgage finance system in a speech on Tuesday, weighing in on a tangled and polarizing problem that was central to the devastating financial crisis in 2007-2009 and that continues to slow the economic recovery, the White House said. Obama will propose eliminating mortgage finance entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over time, replacing them with a system in which the private market buys home loans from lenders and repackages them as securities for investors, senior administration officials said." ...

... Justin Sink of the Hill: "Obama is trying to gain momentum for his economic plan ahead of the tough negotiations on the debt ceiling and federal budget that will dominate the autumn agenda. This week's multimedia push will involve the latest speech in the president's series on the middle class, his sixth appearance on 'The Tonight Show' with Jay Leno, a web chat with prospective home buyers, and a pair of events with soldiers and veterans."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: Sen. Barbara "Mikulski [D-Md.], who legislates with two parts accommodation and one part coercion, now finds herself at the center of a spending brawl on Capitol Hill. At 77, she is the longest serving woman in Congress, the first female leader of its most august committee [the Senate Appropriations Committee] and the fulcrum in a fiscal fight that will dominate Washington this fall."

Michelle Norris of NPR interviews Jack Hanson, who as a young white man living in Cincinnati, Ohio, participated in the 1963 March on Washington, & his wife Ethel Hanson, who stayed home with their four sons. With audio. Thanks to contributor Diane for the link.

Eric Schmitt & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Time: "The Obama administration's decision last week to close nearly two dozen diplomatic missions and issue a worldwide travel alert resulted from intercepted electronic communications in which the head of Al Qaeda in Pakistan ordered the leader of its affiliate in Yemen, the terrorist organization's most lethal branch, to carry out an attack as early as this past Sunday, according to American officials. The intercepted conversations last week between Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the head of the global terrorist group, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, revealed one of the most serious plots against American and other Western interests since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, American intelligence officials and lawmakers have said." ... CW: evidently al-Zawahri & al-Wuhayshi don't read the Guardian. so were unaware that the NSA was following their chit-chats. ...

... Gene Robinson: "... U.S. foreign policy helped to create the decentralized al-Qaeda, a branch of which is believed to be trying to launch some kind of strike. The most fateful choice, and the biggest strategic error, was the decision to invade Iraq. George W. Bush's epic misadventure diverted resources and attention from the war in Afghanistan, giving a reprieve to the Taliban.... First Bush and then Obama discovered the expediency of remotely piloted drone aircraft as instruments of war. Obama has waged what amounts to a campaign of targeted assassination, decimating the ranks of the various al-Qaeda branches.... The inevitable collateral damage -- deaths of civilians, destruction of infrastructure -- helps recruit new al-Qaeda conscripts." ...

... Charles Pierce: "Almost all of the extra-constitutional atrocities attributed to the 'war' on terror have their philosophical -- and, in many cases, their literal -- roots in the equally futile 'war' on drugs.... Consider how unremarkable drug-testing without probable cause -- which is essentially both an unwarranted search and forcible testimony that might be incriminating -- has become.... Which is why the latest revelations of government spying come as no surprise.... Again, I don't recall any 'national debate' about whether or not this program, and the crimes in office on which it apparently depends, was a good idea in a self-governing democracy." (See yesterday's Commentariat for link to the underlying Reuters story.) ...

... bmaz of emptywheel says much of the Reuters reporting is not new -- some of the "revelations" appear on the DEA's Website. "The takeaway that is important from the Reuters piece is that all the frothing about, 'golly, what if those NSA capabilities bleed out of terrorism and into traditional criminal cases' is nuts. It already is, and has been for a long time." ...

CW: Yeah, I know it's "extraneous" bullshit, but Driftglass disposes of Glenn Greenwald for this tweet: "How irrational to choose Russia over the luxurious, super-max hellhole of life-long solitary confinement the US generously provides people" Driftglass counters with example before concluding: "I understand how Mr. Greenwald's incessant and often hilariously apocalyptic conflations, exaggerations and character assassinations feed his gargantuan ego and titillate the ganglia of the Spleenwald horde. What I do not understand is how it in any way advances his stated goal of ignoring all extraneous issues and maintaining a laser-like focus on stimulating open, rancor-free public debate on the important and consequential subjects of NSA surveillance and the FISA court."

** Greg Dworkin, in Daily Kos, tries to explain "libertarian populism." CW: If you're still confused, it could be because libertarian populism is internally inconsistent & often short on specifics.

Bigots, Liars & Nihilists

Steve Benen: "Can a President be a radical socialist & a Wall Street shill? ... For good or ill, Obama has gone to extraordinary lengths to try to reach compromises with congressional Republicans, frequently offering to accept GOP policy goals that congressional Democrats find abhorrent. But because so many congressional Republicans have become post-policy nihilists, GOP officials not only reject attempts at compromise, they often announce their opposition to whatever it was they urged Obama to do in the first place."

And all the while [we are] keeping our eye focused on trying to deal with the ultimate problem, which is this growing deficit. -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Sunday on Fox "News"

Someone tell [that prevaricating dickhead] Cantor. The deficit is shrinking. -- Juliet Lapidos of the New York Times

The Life-Threatening Lies of Koch-Paid Retainers. A few days old, but worth the read: Christopher Flavelle of Bloomberg News on the realities of the "Burn Your [Nonexistent] ObamaCare Card" movement: "Opponents of Obamacare are trying to persuade people who are eligible for subsidized health insurance not to sign up. Let's consider what makes that campaign so offensive. [These right-wing groups are making their political point] on the backs of Americans with no health insurance, and no other options to obtain it." Flavelle called one of the winger-promoters of the movement, & she first claimed that getting coverage under ObamaCare doesn't guarantee access to health care. "That claim is absurd on its face." She then claimed that people could just sign up for insurance when they got sick. "But it isn't that simple. While you can't be denied coverage because you're sick, you still need to buy that coverage during the annual open enrollment period, as with employer-sponsored insurance." CW: Flavelle doesn't specifically say so, but the Koch brother's FreedomWorks is the driving force behind the scheme. Via Jonathan Cohn.

All I'm saying is that you cannot say you are against Obamacare if you are willing to vote for a law that funds it. If you're willing to fund this thing, you can't possibly say you&'re against it. -- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Via Greg Sargent

The Party of Nobody But Rushbo. Alex Roarty of the National Journal: Increasingly, white voters won't vote for the Party of Bigots even if they might think Republican have the right economic ideas. (CW: Roarty makes his point much more nicely.)

AP: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke out publicly for the first time Monday in favor of immigration reform, an issue he's been working on behind the scenes for several months. The 29-year-old billionaire made his remarks in San Francisco at the debut screening of 'Documented,' an autobiographical documentary by activist and journalist Jose Antonio Vargas. Wearing his trademark hoodie* and sneakers, Zuckerberg disputed the notion that he and other Silicon Valley leaders are just trying to secure more H1B visas for high-tech workers."

* Zuckerberg was not followed or shot dead for "looking suspicious."

Senatorial Races

Alex Roarty: "When [Rep.] Tom Cotton [R-Ark.] declares his candidacy for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, the decorated infantry veteran will be a rare consensus choice for a party with a history of destructive infighting. He has no primary opponent, no doubts about his conservative bona fides, and Republicans have little doubt he has the chops to knock off Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor."

Kevin Liptak of CNN: "All four Democrats vying for a spot on the ballot in New Jersey's special U.S. Senate election debated for the first time Monday, revealing similar stances on foreign policy but disputing Newark Mayor Cory Booker's record on education."

Gubernatorial Race, or Something

Shefali Luthra & Adam Wollner of the Texas Tribune: Texas "State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, said Monday that she will either run for re-election or for Texas governor, and that she's working hard to make her decision. Speaking at a National Press Club luncheon [in Washington, D.C.], Davis said those were the only two options, and that she's not considering joining the lieutenant governor's race.... Since the filibuster, Davis has appeared at fundraisers in Washington and spoken on national television. She has been the subject of speculation over a potential statewide run in 2014. In the final two weeks of June, Davis' campaign raised almost $1 million in donations."

Presidential Race 2016

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Monday called on CNN and NBC to rethink their decisions to shoot films about Hillary Clinton, calling each a 'thinly veiled attempt at putting a thumb on the scales of the 2016 presidential election.' Priebus also threatened, if the networks push forward with their plans, to avoid partnerships with them for any 2016 presidential debates." ...

... Zeke Miller of Time: "Republican Party officials believe the 20 GOP primary debates during the 2012 cycle hurt their party and Mitt Romney. CNN's John King, in particular, drew attacks when he questioned former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich about his prior marital infidelities in a debate before the South Carolina primary, while Republicans have long been weary of working with NBC given the liberal-leanings of its cable network MSNBC. Priebus has previously proposed a more modest 10 to 12 debates, in part to protect better-funded candidates from insurgents who capitalize on their time before the cameras." Priebus is using the Hillary movie excuse as a pretext to discourage state parties from hosting debates. ...

... Hiding Out in the Fox Hole. Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "... it's not a good idea for the GOP to threaten not to deal with the unaffiliated press. After all, that risks sending them deeper into their closed information feedback loop, in which Republicans only hear the partisan version of the news supplied by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.... This is a problem for campaigning -- or, as David Plouffe says: 'Better RNC debate plan. Held in hermetically sealed Fox studio.'"

Local News

Nick Carey & Joseph Lichterman of Reuters: "In a high-stakes hearing on Friday in Detroit's bankruptcy filing, a judge approved a city plan to form a creditors' committee of retired workers, but gave unions and pension funds that opposed the plan a measure of satisfaction by declaring an independent trustee -- and not the city -- will select committee members. Federal bankruptcy Judge Steve Rhodes' ruling on the city's effort to create a new negotiating partner independent of unions and pension funds was a key moment in a three-hour session that packed the largest courtroom in Detroit's downtown federal building."

Beauty & the Bomb. Christine McCarthy of KUTV Salt Lake City: "Miss Riverton, crowned in June and set to compete in the Miss Utah pageant, was arrested early Saturday morning along with her three friends after allegedly throwing homemade bombs at people and homes. A probable cause statement released by the Salt Lake County Jail states that Miss Riverton, Kendra Gill, as well as [others]..., admitted to buying plastic bottles, aluminum foil and household chemicals at a local store before building the bombs and throwing them from their car.... One home that was allegedly targeted was that of Stone's ex-girlfriend.... None of the bombs hurt anyone but they could have easily maimed or killed anyone they exploded near, [Fire Capt. Clint] Mecham said." CW: makes you wonder why she had planned for the talent competition.

News Ledes

AP: "The U.S. government has accused Bank of America Corp. of civil fraud, saying the company failed to disclose risks and misled investors in its sale of $850 million of mortgage bonds during 2008. The Justice Department filed a civil suit Tuesday against the bank and several subsidiaries in federal court in Charlotte, N.C. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a related suit against Bank of America there, too."

New York Times: "Nearly four years after going on a deadly shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base here in 2009, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan told a jury of senior Army officers on Tuesday that 'the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter.'"

ABC News: "A gunman with a property dispute showed up at a Ross Township, Pa., supervisors' meeting and opened fire [Monday] night, shooting apparently at random before he was subdued by two attendees, a witness and Monroe County officials said. Three people were killed in the shooting rampage, and three others were wounded, including the shooter, county officials said. The suspect, who was under arrest tonight, was wounded when he was tackled by one of the township officials at the meeting."

New York Times: "After days of alarms and embassy lockdowns, the United States and Britain on Tuesday stepped up security precautions in Yemen, with Washington ordering 'nonemergency' government personnel to leave and the Foreign Office in London saying it has withdrawn its diplomatic staff in the capital Sana 'due to increased security concerns.'"

Comments Off

Reader Comments (10)

I heard a story on NPR this morning that riveted me. It was a segment of Michel Norris' 6-word "Race Card Project." She interviewed Jack Hanson, P.H.D. and his wife, Ethel. He traveled in group of businessmen from Cincinnati to Washington DC to participate in the King march. His wife Ethel stayed back with their 4 children. Hanson also has a website (link in the NPR story) "the Social Welfare Project", which has mementos from the march. The "instruction sheet" issued by the organizers for the Cincinnati participants is priceless. The Hansons are lovely people. They are smart, compassionate, older white people who are still on the right side of history. Go ahead, make your day.

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/05/207913707/to-join-63-march-on-washington-like-climbing-a-mountain

August 5, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

@Diane. Thanks for the link. I remember when Hillary Clinton said during the 2008 primary campaign, "Some people compare one of the other candidates to John F. Kennedy. But he was assassinated. And Lyndon Baines Johnson was the one who actually" passed the civil rights legislation. Of course Clinton couldn't have been more tone-deaf, especially given the threats to Obama, but she was partially right.

The civil rights movement would not have happened without the decades of efforts by black activists, but it wouldn't have happened without white men's (and almost all legislators were white men) cooperation. I hate, hate, hate the term "greatest generation," but it was men of Johnson's generation (& activists like Jack Hanson of mine) who decided, as their forefathers had not, that, okay, now we're going to share.

I don't think enough people of color and women appreciate what American white men have ceded -- millions of them willingly -- over the past 50 years. Of course race & gender equality are just, but seldom in history have the "more equal" made such concessions to the rest of us.

Thank you, Gentlemen.

Marie

P.S. As for you racist, sexist SOBs, go fuck yourselves. She said sweetly.

August 5, 2013 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

I've been out of Reality for a while, so if you've already seen this, my apologies. But I think it's appropriate during a discussion about the advances of the African American population since the Civil Rights movement.

This particular article centers on the devastating effects that the bank foreclosure forays have had on the African American communities throughout the US, highlighting not just the economic losses but especially the social costs inflicted by the amoral Lords of Finance and their predatory lending practices. It's got some good statistics that clarify the social gaps between colors in this country. If only those fucks who claim equality has been achieved would read something like this, but I seriously doubt it'll get picked up by Faux News.

"Between 2009 and 2012 African Americans lost just under $200 billion in wealth, bringing the gap between white and black wealth to a staggering 20:1 ratio."

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175731/tomgram%3A_laura_gottesdiener%2C_the_backyard_shock_doctrine/#more

August 6, 2013 | Unregistered Commentersafari

So the RNC is all a-twitter about a potential movie and miniseries about Hillary Clinton and how unfair it will be to whichever member of the 2016 GOP presidential clown car falls out last.

Well boo-fucking-hoo.

I don't recall Republicans complaining about all the free publicity afforded Dubya (Ignoramus Presidentium) prior to the 2004 election, about the 9/11 attacks (allowed by his criminal negligence in ignoring the famous "Bin Laden to Attack Memo" which, by the way, was delivered to the decider's desk 12 years ago on this very day) which spawned scores of television specials and films, most of which overlooked his administration's treasonous indolence and portrayed him and other GOPers, like Giuliani, as heroes on a Homeric scale (I still want to see a movie that covers Bush scampering onto Air Force One like his tighty-whities were on fire as it got out of Dodge as quickly as possible and shows Dickhead (other priorities) Cheney scurrying into his hidey-hole and pulling the sheets up over his head).

Plenty of free publicity. That plus friends on the high court, and presto. Term Two for the Twit.

At least any publicity Hillary may receive won't be shamefully scraped off the graves of victims of an attack that could have been prevented.

But not to worry. Stalwart operatives on the right, ever ones to take the high ground in a political fight, whether real or imagined, have come up with a really neat-o plan to thwart the presidential ambitions of Ms. Clinton:

Slap Hillary Game

Yes, the boys on the GOP bus have come up with yet another super cool, very genuisy, wicked clever, but always respectful, way to rile up the base and show that mean ol' Hills who's boss.

What's next? Popping pimple juice on a picture of Hillary? Lighting farts with a DNC cigarette lighter?

August 6, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@AK: What's next? I'd vote for sitting in her public meetings and making armpit farts.

August 6, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

James,

....armpit farts accompanied by uncontrollable 6th grade giggling.

August 6, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

...and speaking of uncontrollable, or barely controllable, a spat concerning the use of a public building in New Rochelle has got Teabaggers and wingnuts up in arms (I know, I know, it doesn't take much...).

The problem this time is the hoisting of the Gadsen Flag (the Don't Tread on Me flag appropriated by Teabaggers) over a public building, an armory owned by the city. City officials, recognizing this as a symbol used to celebrate teabaggery, and denounce government, ordered the flag taken down, touching off the usual outcries against governmental curtailment of teabagger/right-wing first amendment rights.

Okay, this isn't a huge thing but it does point out a chronic problem on the right, that constitutional protections only go one way: their way. They refuse to acknowledge that the government has a right (actually a duty) not to allow city, state, or federal property to become a platform for a particular party, group, or religion. The same sort of battle is played out every year during the holidays causing Fox-bots to recycle the same ol', same ol' about the War on Christmas.

The Constitution protects all Americans. Not just teabaggers. Unfortunately, as usual, they don't see it that way.

Don't Tread On Us!

August 6, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I am having a difficult time with the idea that the Dan Balz book has any revelations that aren't covered in dinosaur turds. Romney will never come to terms with losing the election and who really cares. Repeated confirmation is unnecessary to determine that he is a monumental asswipe? Lets crack on with something that matters.

On a similar note, I think that the Republicans' refusal to budge from regressive, racist, misogynistic, ignorant verbal diarrhea, coupled with their breathtaking dismissal of any facts they don't like, will work in the favor of Democrats. The alternate reality of Republicans reminds me of the knight in Monthy Python who has his arms and legs lopped off and hops around yelling "come back here, I'll bite you."

August 6, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

Diane,

He also says, as he teeters on the ground, a limbless torso, "Alright. We'll call it a draw", a perfect example of Republicans' exaggerated sense of their own importance wedded to a ludicrous disconnect from reality. Fortunately for them they have a spider web of cracked media connections that abet their most farcical fantasies.

Otherwise, they'd be left, like Monty Python's Blackbleeding bleeding and raving mass on the forest floor.

August 6, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Correction:

I meant to type "Black Knight bleeding and raving on the forest floor."

Wouldn't want typos to distort my meaning of GOP mutilations, both physical and intellectual.

August 6, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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