Okay, this made me laugh. The NYT needs to take Gail Collins off her Bobo-Brooks-WATBabysitting detail, so she can do more like this:
[…] Both Arizona and Oklahoma passed bills exempting state residents from gun registration rules and background checks. Governor Henry vetoed his state’s version. Jan Brewer, the governor of Arizona, seems to sign everything that’s put in front of her. But she was overheard calling the State Capitol “that hell hole,” so we might presume she doesn’t always enjoy it.
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Arizona, of course, recently passed an immigration bill so draconian that even Jeb Bush hates it. The State House approved a bill requiring presidential candidates to prove that they were born in the United States. However, the Senate may not follow suit, since the Legislature is scheduled to go home this week…
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Here in New York, the legislators have not been passing outrageous new laws lately. In fact, they seem determined not to pass anything at all, including the budget which was due on April 1. The state is literally running out of money, construction projects are at a standstill and school districts are in chaos.
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Meanwhile, a group of lawmakers have announced plans to go to Arizona and protest the new immigration law by chaining themselves to the border. Given the extremely small chance that they will be needed for anything constructive in Albany, this seems like a good plan. Maybe some state senators from Arizona would like to come to New York and throw themselves over Niagara Falls to protest our lack of a budget…
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Yutsano
It’s probably too early to be pedantic but:
C’mon Gail. Really? You’re the fucking paper of record and this is what firing your copyrighters has resulted in? Sheesh.
Napoleon
In a similar vein I am sitting hear listening to my local NPR station and they had a locally produced story in the news about how some Ohio state legislators want to pass an immigration law and they had one of them on. In support he says the state needs the law because “Obama is siding with the drug dealers”.
NobodySpecial
@Yutsano:
I don’t wanna say it, but it’s too funny to resist.
‘Copyrighters’? 8)
Yutsano
@NobodySpecial: I don’t suppose saying I’m drugged up on Vicodin gets me out of that huh? Copy editors. I haz a fail.
The Grand Panjandrum
Arizona is always a fun place, what, with Kingman, filled with survivalists and militia types, and Colorado City, a town founded by polygamists who thinks its OK for grown men to have sex with 14 year old girls, being within its state lines. How could anything even remotely crazy come out of the home state of former POW McCain?
de stijl
I’ve always been a big believer in the concept that new eyes see most clearly.
Therefore, I propose that state legislators should be randomly assigned to a state legislature that does not border their own state.
Rep. John Bigboote from St. George, Utah could get assigned to representing Fishkill in the New York Senate in place of Rep. Reno Nevada.
Sen. John Smallberries from Providence, RI could be slated to fill in for US Surgeon General Dr. Emilio Lizardo and so on.
WereBear (itouch)
@de stijl: I think we already have President Buckaroo Banzai.
de stijl
@WereBear (itouch):
Hey, hey, hey, hey-now. Don’t be mean; we don’t have to be mean, cuz, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
Tommy
CNN is now reporting that the Deepwater Horizon leak is spewing oil at a rate of up to 5000 barrels ( 210,000 US gallons ) a day, a five-fold increase over previous estimates.
jurassicpork
Just got back online for the first time since early yesterday morning and I was hoping to catch any of the several people who’d helped me through my difficulties today. I thank you one and all if you’re reading this.
dr. bloor
STATES RIGHTS, DOOD!
asiangrrlMN
Apparently, MN Republicans are jumping on this particular bandwagon (papers, please, I mean), so if we elect yet another Republican governor, I may have to leave the damn state.
de stijl
@WereBear (itouch):
Real life true story – a friend was dating someone whose name was Heidi (not her real first name) Bartay. I don’t actually know if her last name was spelled “Bartay”, but that was what it sounded like.
Obviously, I & others referred to her as Heidi Big Booty per the 8th Dimension protocol.
She was nonplussed with this development even after we informed that she had a perfectly perky tushy and the only reason we called her Heidi Big Booty was because of this awesome / stupid movie. She remained nonplussed.
The same guy also later dated someone we referred to as Meka’leka’hi’meka’heiny’ho for some reason – hey, it made sense at the time. I think her first name was Mika or somesuch.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Jeez it’s gonna be like one huge game of Whack-A-Mole. Of course one well-written appeals decision and they all go down in flames. Not even the Roberts court can ignore the Constitution where it explicitly says the feds have jurisdiction over immigration.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: See, this makes you the optimist. I think there are four SCOTUS perfectly willing to go down that road (including Roberts), which is why I prefer that we not reach that point, thank you very much.
@de stijl: I want to thank you for the substantive discussion on the latest CHM thread. You are really forcing me to think about my positions on violence.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: It does bring up an interesting question: can a supreme Court justice give a ruling that is clearly against the Constitution? I’m not talking interpretation, I’m saying totally against the actual original text. It’d be nice if this was just a random thought experiment instead of a potentially impending reality, nevertheless it seems impossible to me.
Keith G
Well, as a lib, I often get to hear from my brother about the “crazy nanny state” notions proffered by some on my side of the island. With glee, I often join battle, but I can not defend this:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1857288/california_county_bans_toys_in_fast_food_meals/
Silliness.
de stijl
@Tommy:
You should really change your handle to Perfect Tommy.
chopper
@Tommy:
great. Lake Palin is expanding even faster than we thought.
WereBear
Here’s what the Adirondacks looked like yesterday.
But by the weekend, it will be in the ’70’s.
However, for April, this is actually normal.
LuciaMia
Since when is the NY state budget not overdue? Every year the same damn thing.
Brachiator
WellPoint, Inc., which will kick a woman with breast cancer off her health insurance faster than you can say “Death Panel,” evidently made a few dollars in the last quarter:
Good times.
Colin Laney
Jeb Bush has Hispanic children.
Kyle
Oops, this would have disqualified Grampa McWalnutCheeks, who was indisputably born in Panama.
sacman701
If we passed a federal law to merge Arizona, Oklahoma, and New York into a single state called Motorhead, would the different types of stupidity emanating from these states cancel each other out, or would they just mutate into a new and even worse form of stupidity?
PhoenixRising
Gail has a great idea, and the AZ Legislative Barrel Racing Team should bring their own PFDs.
However, I’d like to request an exemption/modification to the legislator swap for NM. There are individuals in our state lege who are not in fact so dumb their heads hurt, and the last thing we can afford (we’re a poor state, y’know) is to hand these people off to a smart rich state like MA. So can we pick our top 10% to keep home and trade the rest? That would be 11 people.
Alternatively, we’d be open to selecting our bottom 20% and trading those 22 people with an ice floe in the Yukon. We’ll save their seats for the first 22 Nunavits who get here and award them a pueblo…bring your own water.
Just throwing some ideas out there…
mikefromtexas
As Kyle noted McSame was born in Panama, but his parents were US citizens. The qualifications clause of the Consitution is not clear on the issue, making reference at one part to ‘Native born’ and in another to ‘Natural born’. What AZ just passed makes McSame unqualified to serve as president. But a bunch of knuckle dragging morons don’t understand things like that.
de stijl
@PhoenixRising:
Are you designating some legislators as franchise player exemptions?