March 10

Check out these hilarious Manti City Council meeting notes. 

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Karma's a bitch.

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Several republicans out there are claiming they voted for the VAWA (violence against women's act). Here's what Boehner did. They wrote up their own bill. Had the congress vote on it. Democrats didn't vote on the house bill b/c it didn't protect all women. The senate writes their own bill that protected ALL women. i.e Native Americans and immigrants. Boehner did not like that Senate bill. So he has HIS members vote on HIS bill...so when they go home they can claim they voted on VAWA. But that version of the VAWA bill is not the one that went to the president's desk to make it law. The senate version went to the president's desk which then became law. 

Aren't republicans sneaky little bic^%es?

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South Dakota Now Permits Teachers To Carry Guns In Classroom

And the solution to shark attacks is more sharks. Sounds like an excellent time to look into homeschooling, if you ask me.

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Bombshell: Recent Warming Is 'Amazing And Atypical' And Poised To Destroy Stable Climate That Enabled Civilization

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Fox And Friends: Polar Bears Prove Climate Change Is 'Not Really Real'

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The Party of Reagan - Someone left an open mic near Grandpa Walnut's room at the Shady Rest, and asks him about his record. Oh, boy! (TPM)

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Idle Hands Are The Devil's Tools - The man who thinks about sweaty man-on-man action more than Lucky Pierre, the towel boy at the L.A. Mineshaft, Peter LaBarbera is thinking about gay sex again. He's gonna go blind! (Raw Story)

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When exactly is Senator menendez filing suit against Fucker Carlson? Because it looks like he's got a pretty good case to me.

The Daily Caller on Thursday published a report that said the conservative news organization stands by its reporting on prostitution allegations against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), but added that "several troubling elements in the story remain."

The Daily Caller reported it has not been able to contact Nexis de los Santos Santana, the Dominican escort who has said she was paid to say she had sex with Menendez for money. The Daily Caller also said it has not been able to reach Miguel Galvan, a Dominical lawyer allegedly involved in the scheme.

Sigh. In the olden days of journamalism, if you couldn't corroborate your story, you didn't run it. I know, I know. We live in the age of O'Keeffian reportage. Y'know - just making shit up.

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In a reversal too long in coming, Bill Clinton -- the man who signed it into law -- is urging the Supreme Court to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. "When I signed the bill, I included a statement with the admonition that 'enactment of this legislation should not, despite the fierce and at times divisive rhetoric surrounding it, be understood to provide an excuse for discrimination,'" the former president writes in an op-ed. "Reading those words today, I know now that, even worse than providing an excuse for discrimination, the law is itself discriminatory. It should be overturned."

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If it's not Senators grandstanding on the administration's national security policy with regards to drones which has allowed us to brings troops home sooner rather than later, it's Senators grandstanding on the administration's desire to reverse Bush-era detention policy which, by all accounts, has served as an excellent recruiting tool for extremists.

via MotherJones

On Thursday, Suleiman Abu Gaith, identified by US officials as Osama bin Laden's son-in-law and a spokesperson for Al Qaeda, was indicted in federal court in New York City on charges of conspiracy after reportedly being handed over to the US by Jordanian authorities. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) promptly went ballistic, saying military detention was imperative. "By processing terrorists like Sulaiman Abu Ghayth through civilian courts, the Administration risks missing important opportunities to gather intelligence to prevent future attacks and save lives." They added that Obama's "lack of a war-time detention policy for foreign members of Al Qaeda, as well as its refusal to detain and interrogate these individuals at Guantanamo, makes our nation less safe."

I effectively read the latter part of this statement as 'because the president won't torture them, we're less safe.' Because why else would interrogating them in Cuba be any different than interrogating them in the New England?

This has inspired a moment of schadenfreude in me because one of the oldest talking points used by the president's critics on the left is that he has refused to reverse Bush-era detention policy or close Guantanamo Bay, but you know as well as I do that congress has repeatedly voted to bar the president from closing Guantanamo, from transferring detainees to the United States, and in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, barred the administration from prosecuting him in New York City.

Now that the administration has apprehended a high-profile suspect outside of the old system, Senators want to send him straight to Guantanamo. The difference this time is that they can't force the Department of Justice to alter course while in previous instances they could.

I would hasten to remind you that obstruction of the administration's desired national security policy has been, for the most part, bipartisan. The only self-identified socialist in congress even voted against closing Guantanamo.

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Idiot QOTD

Why has the homeless population of New York City surged over the past year, leaving the city's shelters buckling under the pressure? Mayor Bloomberg has a theory.

"You can arrive in your private jet at Kennedy Airport, take a private limousine and go straight to the shelter system, walk in the door, and we've got to give you shelter. That's what the law is. I didn't write the law." -NYC Mayor Bloomberg

If it's actually true that privileged Wall Streeters are slumming it in homeless shelters just to save a few bucks rather than, you know, ditching the private jet or limousine, and thus crowding out people who actually need to stay in a shelter, my head may explode as a result of the unparalleled douchebaggery.

Something tells me my head will remain intact.

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Worst Person in the World

Adam Corolla for marketing in what could be one of the most racist conversations I've heard in quite some time. Here he is implying that African Americans and Hispanics have some sort of short-circuit in their genes that prevents them from having close families, becoming educated and advancing in society.

Yeah. Did I mention how racist it was?

"What's wrong with them?" asked Carolla. "I want to know why those two groups don't have access. Are they flawed?"

Newsom quickly attempted to steer the conversation elsewhere. "I don't want to have a sociological debate," he said.

"I want to know why [Blacks and Latinos] are struggling," Carolla continued. "Do Asians have this problem? Why do so many [Blacks and Latinos]? Blacks have been here longer than we have. What about Asians—they were put in internment camps. Are they at the check cashing places?"

"Why are [these problems] concentrated in the African American community?" Newsom responded. "Look at the history. It's naïve to suggest that those things don't matter."

"How about the Jews?" asked Carolla. "No problems in the past? Whose had it worse? Why are the Jews doing well? [...] Why do some groups do so much better? I'll tell you why: They have a family who puts an emphasis on education."

And don't try to tell me he was joking. It was a serious conversation with Gavin Newsom and not a stand-up routine or a comedy sketch.

Now, I could write volumes on this and perhaps I will. But suffice to say, there are more whites on welfare than African Americans. And there are millions of quite successful African Americans, including and especially the president and First Lady. That said, there's 300+ years of American societal oppression, slavery, demonization, segregation, neo-slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, terrorism, Southern Strategy politics and continuing racism that will take a considerable amount of time to overcome. Hell, and it's dinks like Corolla who continue to perpetuate racial resentment and anger because they're not smart enough to understand the historical struggle and the hurdles African Americans have had to clear. No other demographic group has endured such ongoing oppression in America. None.

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Representative Gabrielle Giffords will be presented with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award on May 5th. I can't think of anyone more deserving.