Shaping up to be a beautiful day here, and I’ve got grass to cut and errands to run, so you are on your own.
Open Thread
by John Cole| 55 Comments
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Open Thread
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.
I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.
Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?
Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.
You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.
There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.
We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.
Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.
I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.
Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.
Tick tock motherfuckers!
One way or another, he’s a liar.
Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.
We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.
This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.
Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.
Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.
Optimism opens the door to great things.
Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.
Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.
The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.
Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?
You cannot love your country only when you win.
We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.
Bill E Pilgrim
Like some of the new tag lines.
This blog will be welcomed as a liberator.
JK
How has Obama failed you today?
Obama has failed the country by not standing up for his nominees.
“Obama’s choice for Office of Legal Counsel Dawn Johnsen withdraws her nomination. Obama could have appointed Johnsen during a recent slate of recess appointments, but declined to do so”
h/t http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/09/dawn-johnson/
SiubhanDuinne
One of my faves is “This blog will pay for itself.” I don’t know why, but every time it comes up in the rotation I burst out laughing.
Michael D.
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Me, too.
But I want to note this: If you actually want to reach out to conservatives and win their support, you have to talk their talk. Having a category like “Science and Technology” is probably not going to help.
Hearts and minds, John! Hearts and minds…
The Truffle
I feel an urge to post ridiculous black metal videos:
Bob K
The President of Poland and 95 others were killed in a plane crash. I’m glad that Air Force 1 is not twenty six years old (I’m assuming.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/10/polish-president-plane-cr_n_532768.html
Comrade Mary
I just had some gently warmed dhal puri and some leftover pork vindaloo. Breakfast of champions, bitches!
Next: scrubbing my bike throughly, bringing the drivetrain back to life, replacing the balloon tires with slicks, and getting ready for a nice ride tomorrow.
jeffreyw
I have me under surveillance.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Michael D.: That took me a “huh? moment: I actually meant the little rotating sub-titles in the blog title.
Not tags, tag lines. For lack of whatever else to call them.
The one I was laughing at was “This blog will pay for itself”, and I was thus extrapolating it to other Cheney/Kristol promises.
arguingwithsignposts
Lady Smudge senses that someone is wrong on the Internet.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Comrade Mary:
I assume those are tires you bought at the Balloon Juice store?
With pictures of Tunch on them, and you can watch as you massively overinflate them to almost life-size.
Brian J
@JK:
Like you, I was pissed to read that. Perhaps there’s something that happened that nobody but insiders are aware of, but she’s been waiting for a long, long time. I can understand how she might have had enough, but why couldn’t the administration make a goddamn recess appointment and then just defend her? There might be a week worth of “controversy,” but considering she’s actually qualified and the Republicans are actual obstructionists, they’d have a legitimate defense of such a move.
That said, why hasn’t there been more talk of her being named for the Supreme Court? Maybe it’s unlikely now since she hasn’t had any success getting into the OLC, but she is, from what I can tell, a well respected scholar. She’s also 49, so she’s a lot younger than someone like Merrick Garland or Diane Wood, and she’d likely stay on the Court longer. Did she withdraw because Obama is going to nominate her to the Supreme Court?
Would it irresponsible to speculate? It would irresponsible not to.
Carrie
@jeffreyw:
That is just awesome, jeffreyw. Is this going to be a regular feature or is it just a one off? I love your backyard.
I’m just wasting time, drinking my last coffee before i fix a fence panel that fell yesterday.
jeffreyw
@Carrie: It could be! I have another one here, no night action tho.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Ah, Jaysus… just got back to the hotel from a marathon business meeting/dinner. Gods, I thought they’d never stop bringing food! Fortunately, they (the potential Chinese business partner company managers) thought they could get me drunk… but I mass over 120kg; and well, they’re Chinese. So after “Kanbei!” over and over and over and over… they gave up. The silly little sweet wine we were drinking (in tiny little sake cups) just wasn’t gonna work.
But I’m still friggin stuffed; and I’m beat, but since I’m so full I can’t even lay down and sleep.
Kanbei!!
A Mom Anon
I have (more than) a couple of questions I’m hoping someone can answer,since there seem to be alot of people smarter than me here:
1)How much of the stimulus money has been used so far? I ask because alot of school districts are about to lose teachers,classroom sizes are going up,bus routes being cut out,etc. What’s the holdup on getting funding to school districts? I know the money is supposed to be dealt out over time,but,is part of the problem agency positions that haven’t been filled because of holds the GOP has put on them? Or is it just that there’s no stimulus money left for education?
2)If Obama decided to replace Geitner,could the GOP drag their feet and eventually scuttle that nomination in the Senate? We obviously need a Sec of Treasury,could this some of why there’s been no shake up there?
Bob K
I thought it was weird when I heard they were going to make a movie based on “Pirates of the Carribbean” but that worked out okay more or less. But based on board games? I mean “Monopoly?” “Candy Land?” “Battleship?” Is the world ready for a movie base on the “E-Trade Babies?”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/09/the-most-ridiculous-movie_n_531875.html#s79775
Brian J
@A Mom Anon:
1. A good place to start looking would probably be here.
2. That’s one speculated reason why he hasn’t tried. The other, probably more likely reason, is that he thinks Geithner has gotten a bad rap and doesn’t deserve to leave just yet.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Bob K: Hollywood is going to eventually only produce 3D movies of brightly-colored objects spinning around on the screen resembling those mobiles they place above cribs to keep infants mesmerized.
Or maybe they’ll take the lowest common denominator age focus even lower, and find a way to make soap operas with fetuses starring in them.
It’s not a choice, it’s an actor.
debit
@Comrade Mary: Go you! I’m looking at my bike and wondering if I can sneak in a quick 20 miles and still get my pie baked before the BBQ this afternoon.
Quackosaur
I learned something new from the Wall Street Journal today. Apparently, with Stevens’ retirement, the SCOTUS could be without a Protestant justice for the first time, ever (6 Catholics and 2 Jews).
What I find fascinating about this is that the makeup of the court in this respect has changed drastically since the 1970s. I’d like to say that the religions of the justices shouldn’t matter, as long as they’re competent jurists, but it’s naive to think that these sorts of affiliations don’t ingrain personal biases toward specific outcomes. Nor do I think the court has to necessarily be a perfect reflection of the American population, but when you couple the court’s current over-representation of older white men with its religious skew, I can’t help but wonder about its decisions (and the potential harm the court could cause given certain cases).
At the same time, I’m surprised that the evangelicals haven’t raised a bigger stink about this. While the evangelicals and the Catholics have a tenuous alliance of sorts over social issues, you’d think they’d want (at least) one of their own on the court so that they could legislate school prayer and bans on indecency from the bench. I suppose there might be a lack of evangelicals who could be considered “qualified” for the position.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@Comrade Mary:
For you
And I have no cereal this morn. Where did it go? Why didn’t Obama fight for my breakfast?
edit – Oh, and I’m not flirting Mary, that song just popped in my head after reading your comment. Time Tripping with music.
Phyllis
@A Mom Anon:
My district budgeted our Title I ARRA funds for two years, so those positions are covered through July of 2011. The IDEA (Special Ed) ARRA funds run out in September of this year. There is also another round of state stabilization money to come through (the infamous funding that Sanford, R-Argentina, wanted to reject on ‘principle’), but that is split between education, law enforcement & some other state services that I can’t recall right now.
Most districts are laying off teachers, considering furloughs, increasing class sizes, etc due to ongoing state budget shortfalls. It’s a vicious cycle-folks are out of work, fewer state income tax dollars being collected, decreased state revenues, cuts in services yada yada yada.
Bob K
WATB Bobby Jindal – why Republicans should never try doing standup.
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/09/jindal-party-of-confusion/#comments
debit
@Bob K: Seriously? That explains why I just don’t go to movies very often. While watching the trailers before Shutter Island, I saw they were remaking Clash of the Titans. My reaction was, “Why? Because there was so much unexplored in the first one?” And forget videogames (like I hope they forgot about the proposed Sims movie) I don’t get movie remakes. They did Bewitched; flop. Supposedly they just tried the Addams Family on Broadway; flop. Are there really no new story ideas out there, or are we doomed to perpetual remakes of late 60s and early 70s sitcoms and bad 80s movies?
Brian J
@Quackosaur:
At the risk of seeming crude or glib, that’s pretty much why I want a liberal lesbian like Kathleen Sullivan or Pamela Karlan as Obama’s next nominee. (It’d be better if she were Asian or black or Muslim, too, but we can’t always get what we want, can we?) Maybe one day we will be at the point where there won’t be that much of a difference between the life experiences of someone like Sonia Sotomayor and John Roberts, but we aren’t there yet. As long as the basic qualifications are there, and they are in every name that has come up, ethnic background definitely is something that should be considered.
Linda Featheringill
The Teaparty is less than it seems.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/09/AR2010040902091.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Interesting article. Uses actual numbers and stuff. You guys will enjoy it.
Brachiator
The recent air crash that killed the president of Poland also killed a number of key goverment officials. The impact on that country, for a time, will be devastating.
Some heartbreaking photos as that country reacts to its loss can be seen here.
Montysano
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Brilliant. Aldous Huxley smiles/grimaces. Orgy porgy, bitchez!1
Svensker
@Brian J:
Yeah, good luck on that one. I wish.
Comrade Mary
@General Egali Tarian Stuck: Ha! I loved that song on the top 40 when I was a kid.
I ride my bike, I roller skate, don’t drive no car
Don’t go too fast, but I go pretty far …
… sounds about right, although the one and only time I’ve had roller skates on my feet was on a blind date at a disco roller rink in suburban Toronto #cough# years ago.
debit, go out and ride! And those of you who may be considering a spring tune-up should know that this site can teach you a hell of a lot about bike maintenance via videos with full text transcripts.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with a stroppy jockey wheel …
Brian J
@Svensker:
You know, one of these days, I’m going to be right with one of these outside-the-box predictions. Just you wait and see. I mean, doesn’t the law of large numbers say I have I have to get one right at least once?
I can understand why she probably won’t be nominated, but I’ll never understand why there hasn’t been more talk of her. She’s a young, well regarded legal scholar who is married with two kids and teaches Sunday school. And while I don’t know all of her views, she’s not regarded as a centrist, to say the least. Aside from the entire press corp assuming that her struggles with going to the OLC mean there’s no way she’d ever be nominated, I don’t see what’s preventing the speculation.
YellowJournalism
@debit:
IMDB says it has a 2012 release date. In all the things I’ve read for it, there has never been a discussion of plot. As much as I enjoyed the first two games (haven’t heard good things about the third), I’m pretty sure I don’t want a movie version that would essentially end up being some lame story revolving around people being controlled by an unseen force, at best.
I wonder if they’ll blur out the nude scenes.
jurassicpork
Here’s a new nickname for Sarah Palin: Joan of Orc.
Bob K
@ Bill E Pilgrim
Yep – bright, shiny, pretty I think you’re onto something there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDXUXYO–g0
WereBear
@debit: It’s a cycle.
When caution and money are the top considerations, they make stuff they think is “safe” and the audience thinks is boring.
This is because when studio executives are unimaginative, they lose money on stupid ideas, which Corporate finds preferable to studio executives who are slightly creative, and lose money on good ideas.
That’s because Corporate understands dull and boring far better than they understand creative and good.
Brachiator
@Brian J:
Two words. Clarence Thomas.
I hear what you’re saying, but mere “life experience” or membership in some group (often an arbitrary assignment) doesn’t guarantee much of anything with respect to judicial outlook. But here I suppose we are just substituting a new faulty logic for the old faulty logic in Supreme Court selections.
Justice William Brennan (Court tenure 1956 – 1990) “was named to the U.S. Supreme Court through a recess appointment by Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, shortly before the 1956 presidential election. Presidential advisers thought the appointment of a Catholic Democrat from the Northeast would woo critical voters in the upcoming election for Eisenhower, a Republican.”
But Brennan was one hell of a progressive, and one of my favorite Supremes (after Diana Ross), leaving an impressive record of achievement:
It ain’t just about ethnicity, life experience or insisting upon some ideological purist, or some liberal analog to Antonin “Mad Dog” Scalia.
But you know, I kinda think Obama realizes this, and I rest comfortably knowing that he, and not McCain or (heaven help us, Palin) making the decision.
Brachiator
Oh, yeah, another nugget or two about Justice Brennan:
My kind of law dog.
Brian J
@Brachiator:
My point was that ethnic diversity is a good thing as long as the person deserves to be there. That said, how does the Clarence Thomas analogy work? I’m too young to have known what it was like during the time he was nominated, but wasn’t he viewed as a not particularly great pick? I’m not trying to suggest he was like Harriet Miers–although if he was, please let me know–just that he was regarded as, well, sub-standard compared to a lot of others. If that’s the case, then he fails to fulfill the part of my statement where he meets the necessary qualifications–as in, he does not have the intellectual chops to sit on the Court.
Yes, as recent picks, like Souter, have shown us, there’s no guarantee that they will decide cases one way or the other. But unless there’s some really big part of the process that I, as someone who is not yet a lawyer, does not know about, it seems far more likely that you’ll get progressive outcomes if you pick a progressive judge. That would be good to satisfy my political leanings, sure, but perhaps it’d improve the intellectual climate on the Court itself. After all, it seems like the right is trying to turn the Court into a combined editorial meeting of Reason and the National Review, so perhaps the nomination of someone who isn’t a centrist but a genuine liberal could put a stop to that. I don’t think anyone is going to argue against intellectual diversity.
KDP
I am saddened by Dawn Johnsen’s withdrawal of her name from consideration just as I am frustrated by the inability of elected Republicans to act with integrity.
On a lighter and personally gratifying note, the supervising professor for my senior project wrote of my proposal that “You have the mind of a researcher…” she had minor suggestions about the structure of my survey questions but not much else. Hoorah!
My study will look at the role that a community-based organization, Youth Uprising, plays in the decision its female members make about participating in post-secondary education (vocational, academic, military service, other). The community in which Youth Uprising operates, East Oakland, has a long-standing reputation for high rates of gang violence, drug trafficking and murder, so any success Youth Uprising can have in stemming the tide of youth participation in risky behaviors and the cycle of violence and poverty can only benefit the community as a whole.
Come June, I graduate summa cum laude with my bachelor’s in Human Development after five years of full-time work and school. Thank goodness for an increasing focus on online degree programs as I was able to complete all of my upper division work online. This meant neither personal nor work-related travel was an issue in completing schoolwork. I did, though, spend time at a couple of the SF conventions I attend sitting in public places studying and socializing concurrently. I am hoping to be selected for one of the 25 Fall 2010 openings (down from ~100 last year) in the masters program in Public Administration.
Linda Featheringill
@arguingwithsignposts: Well, if anyone can fix it, I sure that Lady Smudge can. Good morning, Pretty Girl.
Brachiator
@Brian J:
My point was that ethnic diversity is a good thing as long as the person deserves to be there.
In the case of Clarence Thomas, his ultra-conservative judicial outlook is far more important than his ethnicity, although I could make a case that his “life experience” does influence his views. The larger issue is that ethnicity, like religion in the case of Justice Brennan, allows for some group cheerleading, but is totally irrelevant to anything that makes a good Supreme Court justice. It doesn’t even add sauce to other qualifications.
Just not true. One of the great things about the Court is to watch someone reconsider their opinions and leanings because they realize the tremendous reach that their opinions may have. And my bias admires those who turned towards a progressive vision, but to suggest that they need to start out that way is a nice dream, but goes against history and reality.
By the way, you imply that you are studying to be a lawyer. In addition to studying cases, etc., I hope that you take a little time to look at the careers of great lawyers. Here, without regard to gender or ethnicity, one of the greats was Civil Rights era attorney Constance Baker Motley, who sat at the right hand of God, Thurgood Marshall, during key Civil Rights cases, and who “was lead counsel for James Meredith in his successful battle to gain admission to University of Mississippi. She argued ten cases to the United States Supreme Court, winning nine of them”.
theylivebynight
Are members of the Village finally starting to catch on? From an article on Yahoo:
(Palin, who was unreachable by Yahoo! News, has recently opted to make public statements through her controlled social media presence rather than speak to reporters.)
She’s been doing this for quite some time but this is the first time I’ve seen mention of it.
Brian J
@Brachiator:
Maybe it does, and maybe it doesn’t. I’m not saying that fulfilling certain characteristics guarantees a person thinks one way or the other. Since I’m not a woman, I can’t understand exactly how one thinks about their own body, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all to imagine that Sandra Day O’Connor or Sonia Sotomayor thinks about abortion from a different perspective than John Roberts or John Paul Stevens.
Take the life of JPS, for instance:
Life experiences do impact the way people think. It doesn’t mean they are going to rule one way or the other. Again, I don’t think people fit one mold. I don’t imagine all Hispanic women have had the same experiences as Sotomayor, for instance. But do you really think that if every single Justice had the same life as John Roberts, the opinions issued in a case about social issues involving race or gender would be the same as they’d be with Sotomayor sitting on the Court?
I’m not suggesting that it should be the primary motivation to nominate someone. I’m just saying that it could be something to consider, as long as other basic qualifications are met. I’m pretty sure Obama said something to this effect when introducing Sotomayor last spring or summer.
I am not going to pretend that nominating any one particular person is a guarantee of anything. It’s very much not. People certainly do change over time, or their views, which weren’t well known at the time, become clearer as they produce opinions. But to suggest that it’s not particularly important about where a person starts out is just nuts. For one thing, there wouldn’t be such passion devoted towards which person gets the seat.
If there’s really no difference, then why should I care if there’s little difference between Roberts and Scalia and the person Obama nominates? Perhaps we should take a chance and nominate someone the Republicans really wanted–Priscilla Owens or Miguel Estrada or someone like that–so they are happy and work with us on financial reform.
By the way, if that’s not what you are suggesting, please forgive me, but I am not sure what else to think based on what you wrote.
scav
OT happy point. Obama ditched the Press!
Brian J
@scav:
He claims he went to see his daughter’s soccer game, but isn’t it pretty obvious that’s code for meeting with Bill Ayers/Rev. Wright/George Soros/other conservative boogeyman?
anna missed
Wreck on the Highway
srv
Bacevich on Bill Moyers yesterday.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html
srv
Actually, better link:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04092010/watch.html
JCT
While I still do not understand why *anyone* should give a rat’s ass what old Newty Gingrich has to say, did anyone see some of his quotes regarding the former half-term governor/grifter from the meeting in New Orleans?
“”Sarah Palin is tremendously important right now, I mean for maybe 40 percent of the country, she personifies courage, clarity,”
CLARITY? WTF– the only thing that is clear is that if you looked in her right ear you could see out the left one….
“”She’s attractive, she’s articulate, she has energy,” Gingrich continued in the interview set to air Sunday on CNN’s State of The Union.
ARTICULATE? There must be an alternate definition of that word that I am not aware of.
Boy, I need a drink.
A Mom Anon
@JCT: IMHO,this is all about who wants to fuck her. I hate saying it like that,but that’s the deal with alot of these nitwit conservative men. If she was just your average run of the mill Momster no one would have EVER noticed her or bothered with her. It’s the beauty queen thing that hooked them,not her blazing intellect.
Brachiator
@Brian J:
But to suggest that it’s not particularly important about where a person starts out is just nuts.
This is not what I am saying at all. I laid out some of my views about justices in the April 9 thread, Stevens Waves Goodbye.
I favor moderate to liberal candidates. I favor a candidate who has had to defend a person for murder. Yeah, I guess that life experience and all kinds of other fun things should be looked at, I’m just saying that they are a lot less reliable than people want to believe. And I certainly don’t believe that just because someone cloaks himself with the label of liberal that he or she is automatically on the side on the angels.
Funny thing here. When David Souter came up for approval, a lot of good liberals assumed that he was a John Roberts.
But you can’t easily predict, locate, find or decipher the humane senitment that was a part of Souter, and which caused him to steer away from dogmatic conservatism.
Ultimately, where ever they come from, whatever their background or experience, I want a justice who deeply believes what Souter said in his opening statement to the Judiciary Committee:
This view, by the way, is light years away from Scalia’s belief that as long as the formalities are observed, the result is largely irrelevant.
JCT
@A Mom Anon:
I’m with you on that…. I basically said the same to my college age daughter when that idiot McCain picked her. It was a depressing conversation, that’s for sure. Until my daughter said, “Oh, she’s just a MILF” , and I had to ask her what that meant. Sigh.
JT
scav
@Brian J: we can but only hope that’s true.
Brian J
@Brachiator:
I don’t think they are going to be on the right side simply because of where they stand now. But I know that coming into a situation with certain values means that you look a situation differently from someone with different values, even if there is a common set of principles between each person. That doesn’t mean they will rule a certain way, as you and I both agree, but I don’t think it makes sense to assume it doesn’t matter at all. If that was the case, why would each side fight so much over the nominee?
As you said, a lot of people thought Souter would be like Roberts. He wasn’t, but look at what happened with Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts. How many times have they disappointed the right?
You probably know more about this than I do, but can you tell me whom the one really, really liberal member of the Court is? I’m not saying whom the most liberal member is, relatively speaking. I’m asking, who is revered on the left the same way Scalia is on the right? I think we need someone like that for the left.