Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Headlines - Wednesday October 20

Today is "Purple Day"
 
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"As the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, I'm always amused to get a lecture on constitutional law from a self-certified ophthalmologist." - Kentucky U.S. Senate candidate Jack Conway (D), quoted by the Cincinnati Enquirer, in a debate with rival Rand Paul (R).
 
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"Rush Limbaugh says that I am "certifiably insane." Now, Rush Limbaugh saying that I am certifiably insane is like George Clooney saying that I'm good-looking. It's like Shaquille O'Neal saying that I'm big-boned. It's like Michael Jackson saying that I can sing and dance. It's like Bill Gates saying that I'm rich. Rush, tell me this: which one of us was hooked on drugs for years and years? Not me. Which one of us was arrested for criminal fraud? Not me. Which one of us made fun of Michael J. Fox because he has Parkinson's disease? Not me. Which one of us called Chelsea Clinton 'the White House dog'? Not me." - Alan Grayson (D-Hero) slamming the Pigboy the way he should be slammed, Link 

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It's been over a week since the injunction started. There's been no DADT law for over seven days and the military is still functioning. Yesterday was a significant day in the arc of the DADT repeal effort. Judge Phillips denied the Obama administration's motion to stay the injunction. Also, the Pentagon told its recruiters that they must accept gay applicants. Dan Choi re-enlisted. Last night, Mike Signorile tweeted:
Dan Choi's reenlistment seems like the Berlin wall of #DADT. They can try to stop it but it's coming down.
It feels like that. The Obama administration has lost control of this issue. Expect the Department of Justice to seek a stay in the Ninth Circuit, probably today.

The President is holding a meeting with his full national security team on Afghanistan and Pakistan today. All the big players are there including Secretaries Gates and Clinton, Admiral Mullen and General Petraeus.

Later today, Obama is heading out on the campaign trail. He'll be in Oregon and Washington. He's spending the night in Seattle. Biden is starting his day in Reno, Nevada where he's doing an event for Harry Reid.

Only 13 days
 
 
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Conflict of interest much? Somehow I don't see the Republicans doing much about this shameful situation.
 
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Clarence Thomas' Wife Leaves Creepy Voicemail For Anita Hill
 
Three-day weekends are awesome, am I right? But sometimes you get back to the office on Tuesday and there's a voicemail from 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, and you're like, "Jesus, who does that? Why couldn't they just send an email? Or wait until they knew I'd be back in?" But then you listen to the voicemail and it's from the disgruntled wife of the guy who you accused of sexual harassment, twenty years ago, on national television. OK, now we're getting a little far afield from your personal experience, but the point is that on October 9 Virginia Thomas left a delightfully passive-aggressive message on Anita Hill's work voicemail, asking nicely if she maybe felt like apologizing for being so darn sexy that Virginia's hubby Clarence had no choice but to talk to her about porn and pubic hair and whatever other distasteful things happened, in the '80s. http://wonkette.com/427064/clarence-thomas-wife-leaves-creepy-voicemail-for-anita-hill#more-427064
 
 
 
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Grip and reality-free zone
 
WaPo: WILMINGTON, Del. -- Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to disagree or not know that the First Amendment bars the government from establishing religion.
 
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On this day of all days, when we wear purple to encourage gay teens to persevere and not give in to suicide, Kentuckians woke to this encouraging news in the Herald:

When the leader of a Winchester Masonic lodge recently told members he was gay, he said one man called him "a flaming faggot," insisted that he resign, and led several members in a walkout.

But John Wright refused to resign. Later, he stood firm when a Frankfort lodge proposed a change to the group's state constitution that would have prohibited openly gay men from being Masons in Kentucky.

At an annual statewide meeting in Louisville Monday, attendees turned down the proposal.

Wright said he believes this is a critical moment in the history of the Masons, which is said to be the world's oldest and largest fraternity.

"They said with a strong voice that they are not going to discriminate," said Wright, 26, master of the 151-member Right Angle Lodge in Clark County.


Wear purple with extra pride today, Kentuckians.
 
I wish my town could do the same.
 
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One more thing on the Ginny Thomas drunk-dialing episode:

In her 1998 book "Speaking Truth to Power," Ms. Hill noted that she had been accused of harboring a romantic interest in Justice Thomas by his wife. "Virginia Thomas and I have never met," Ms. Hill wrote. "And one can imagine that she is guided by her own romantic interest in her husband when she assumes that other women find him attractive as well."

And THAT, my friends, is how you smack someone down.

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Wisco: Republicans in search of new scapegoat to hate.

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Please please do this!

Sarah Palin's greatest plan like ever ZOMG LSM also:

In an interview on Fox News, Sarah Palin suggested a third party could form out of the Tea Party movement.

Said Palin: "Some in the GOP -- it's their last shot. It's their last chance. We will lose faith, and we will be disappointed and disenchanted from them if they start straying from the bedrock principles... if they start straying, then why not a 3rd party?"

Yes. Why not a third party? It's the perfect way to turn GOP victories into GOP losses by splitting the wingnut vote. Great idea, Sarah. Please run on the Tea Party ticket. And spend a crapload of money. Really do it up right.

Meanwhile, we'll be over here counting all of the 2012 congressional pickups and landslide-sized Obama electoral votes.

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Rush Limbaugh as Constitutional scholar

First Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…"

Christine O'Donnell / Chris Coons debate:

"Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O'Donnell asked him.

When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?"

Rush Limbaugh:

"Are you telling me separation of church and state's in the First Amendment? It's not. Christine O'Donnell was absolutely correct — the First Amendment says absolutely nothing about the separation of church and state."

"This is a modern and incorrect description of the prohibition of the establishment of a national religion."

"And the left has taken this to say that religious people can not be in government. And that you can't teach something like creation in the schools while you can teach evolution because evolution isn't religion but creationism is. Intelligent design can't be taught because that's a religion, evolution is. Yet both require faith because neither can be proved."

"Separation of church and state is not in the Constitution, and the fact that people laughed about this is what's really scary."

No, what's really scary is that Limbaugh has 20 million listeners who hang on to his every lie.

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McCain looking for some tea party love

He unleashes the dimwit onto an unsuspecting world where she helps take down any possibility he might have had of winning the presidency, but somehow has no problem sucking up to and praising her still.  If there was ever a politician deserving to be kicked out of office on his butt, it's this creep.

"I couldn't be more proud of her and the campaign she waged," McCain told ABC News of Palin Monday night. "We went up in the polls after her magnificent speech at the convention. I couldn't be more proud of her and of her performance and her continued performance. So, I think, you begin to think about legacy and I think that Sarah Palin will play a very big role in the American political scene for a long time."

I had a little diatribe ready to go here but then came across the following from a HuffPo reader.  It says it so much better and in much fewer words.

McCain has a disorder that is not unknown among politicians- he cannot cringe. Even when millions of people all round him are cringing and wishing the earth would swallow them whole, McCain remains completely cringe-free. Palin has the same condition, but hers is caused by the total absence of any brain activity. McCain's is hormonal.

It would not be a mistake to unequivocally state that if you're cringe prone, politics should not be high on your list of career choices.