Sunday, April 1, 2012

Headlines - Sunday April 1

 
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Borowitz: Republicans Reveal that Entire Presidential Race was a Prank
 
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Zimmerman will walk in the Trayvon shooting case—"Sanford is the new Selma"
 
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I try not to nutpick too much, but this (via Gex) is just too fucking funny:

The game is to see how many comments in a foxnews.com article that has nothing to do with President Obama do you need to read before somebody says something bad about President Obama. I call it "how many comments in a foxnews.com article that has nothing to do with President Obama do you need to read before somebody says something bad about President Obama".

Not one article goes past 22 comments before they start bashing Obama. The best part is the names they make for Obama, such as "Oinkbama".

This, from WND via reader C is pretty awesome too:

After Hawaii, Obama spent 13 not-so-swinging single years on the mainland before he married Michelle in 1992. In "Dreams," Obama mentions only one girlfriend from that period, a woman who looks and lived suspiciously like Bill Ayers' old flame, Diana Oughton.

Obama biographer Christopher Andersen tried to confirm this woman's identity but made little headway. "No one," he writes, "including his roommate and closest friend at the time, Siddiqi, knew of this mysterious lover's existence."

Word to the AP: If you want to write a story about a sexually confused individual, you don't have to go to Indonesia to find one.


The hatred the 27 percenters have for Obama is unreal. But, hey, onetime an anonymous commenter at Daily Kos compared Bush to Hitler, so it's all the same.

 
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Misogyny and slavery are equally ancient, equally pervasive, so this should be as unsurprising as it is illuminating. JoAnn Wypijewski at The Nation:

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Such bullshit

The Hill reports that, in return for a promise that President Obama will not make any recess appointments in the upcoming Senate break, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) agreed to stop obstructing several of the president's nominees:

"As the result of a successful discussion among the minority leader, the White House and myself there will be no recess appointments during the coming adjournment," said [Majority Leader Harry] Reid, speaking from the Senate floor.

In return, Republicans allowed passage by unanimous consent of several of President Obama's noncontroversial nominees and allowed Reid to set up a vote on the confirmation of Stephanie Thacker to be a circuit judge for the Fourth Circuit for April 16, the day the Senate returns from its break.

It is, of course, unfortunate that Reid needs to strike a deal at all before the caucus that controls less than half the seats in the Senate will deign to allow completely noncontroversial nominees to move forward. Nevertheless, this incident proves the wisdom of Obama's decision to make several recess appointments earlier this year despite McConnell's objections. Prior to Obama's actions, he and Reid had few bargaining chips they could use to prevent McConnell's obstructionism in a Senate ruled by the filibuster. Now, Obama and Reid can use the threat of future recess appointments to ensure that the party that voters did not want to control the Senate does not have a total veto power over the president's nominees.

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Maggie Gallagher, the notorious homophobe and founder of the failed social engineering organization NOM that would deny marriage equality to gay Americans, says that she doesn't apologize for any of the projects listed in the incriminating memo that surfaced this week. But here's the kicker:

We didn't cause or create this [Ed. - Keep f***ing that chicken, Maggie], and frankly if we could get together with the gay community, and take the idea that it's bigoted or discriminatory to stand up for marriage off the table for black people or for white people, we'd be happy to do it.[...]

Nice race-baiting wedge of homophobia of an offer there, Maggie. (Think Progress)

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In an article describing how–in the guise of "flexibility"–the White House has continued the seeming relentless grab for unchecked executive power, White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler offers a terribly cynical explanation for the Administration's asinine levels of secrecy regarding its drone strikes.

But in an interview, White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler acknowledged Mr. Obama has developed a broader view of executive power since he was a senator. In explaining the shift, she cited the nature of the office.

"Many issues that he deals with are just on him, where the Congress doesn't bear the burden in the same way," she said. "Until one experiences that first hand, it is difficult to appreciate fully how you need flexibility in a lot of circumstances."

[snip]

Ms. Ruemmler said Mr. Obama tries to publicly explain his use of executive power, but says certain counterterrorism programs like the drone campaign are exceptions. Opening them to public scrutiny would be "self-defeating," she said.

The WSJ doesn't explain what she meant when invoking "self-defeat." But her stance was described in a Daniel Klaidman article on the Administration's decision, at a meeting in the Situation Room last November, to release more information about the targeted killing of Anwar al-Awlaki.

Another senior official expressing caution about the plan was Kathryn Ruemmler, the White House counsel. She cautioned that the disclosures could weaken the government's stance in pending litigation. The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration under the Freedom of Information Act seeking the release of the Justice Department legal opinion in the Awlaki case. (The department has declined to provide the documents requested.)

That is, Ruemmler's not making an argument about the efficacy of the drone strikes themselves; al Qaeda already knows who's responsible for the arms raining down on their heads.

Rather, Ruemmler doesn't want to be "defeated" by journalists, civil liberties organizations, and ordinary citizens seeking to at least understand, if not limit, executive power.

Kathy Ruemmler's not waging her counterterrorism war against al Qaeda when she warns of self-defeat. She's waging her counterterrorism war against us.

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Americans United for Separation of Church and State are protesting the plan to provide $11M in Kentucky state road improvements to support the Christian theme park where the centerpiece attraction is an alleged replica of Noah's Ark.

"The Highway-36 appropriation is intended to promote and support a religious, evangelical enterprise, violating the separation of church and state and the Kentucky Constitution's prohibitions on government support of religion," said Luchenitser. "The KY-36 road project has only one purpose: to support the construction of the Ark Encounter Theme Park – a proposed biblical theme park that would be in the shape of a full-size replica of Noah's Ark, using the dimensions set forth in the Bible." Chuck Wolfe of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet told CP that the project was necessary given the expected traffic increase courtesy of the Ark Park. "The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is designing a project to accommodate a significant increase in traffic projected for KY 36 in Grant County, northern Kentucky," said Wolfe.

I demand millions of road improvement for MY equally historically true life-size replica of the starship Enterprise. Stop repressing my religious liberty! America was based on the Prime Directive! It's in the BIBLE, people!

RELATED: Last year the state of Kentucky
granted over $40M in sales tax rebates to the theme park's developers. The town where the park is located also gave them a 75% discount on property taxes for the next 30 years.

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It turns out the worst case of wasteful spending of the campaign season so far can be attributed to Ron Paul who has spent $496,461 per delegate.

Ironic, isn't it?

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Among the four Democratic senators who voted with the GOP to extend Big Oil subsidies and against a renewal of clean energy subsidies, which may result in as many as 37,000 job losses, was Senator Jim Webb (D-VA).

According to Webb, the government should not be picking winners and losers, which is exactly why he voted to pick Big Oil as a winner. Or something.

Webb explained that he voted to increase Big Oil's record profits on rising gasoline costs because he opposes government investment in clean energy technology. "My vote today was based largely on concerns over extending tax credits for a number of renewable technologies," Webb said. "Government should avoid picking winners and losers, and should allow the marketplace to work."

If you truly believe in and adhere to the "free market," it makes sense to vote against all subsidies, but what doesn't make sense is voting to subsidize one industry and not the other.

Jim Webb picked a winner, and then declared we shouldn't pick a winner.

 

 

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