(Matt Davies via GoComics.com — click link for full-sized image)
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Molly Ball at the Atlantic finds a retiring Republican whose defense of Boehner sounds suspiciously like certain arguments about… well, you decide:
Q: How about that insurrection — doesn’t that prove that Boehner is a weak leader who can’t control his caucus?
LaTourette: I think it’s ridiculous. They should kick them all out of the Republican conference. The picture in Politico of a sitting Republican member of Congress on the floor with an iPad showing a screen with a whip count to deny the Republicans the speakership of the House is asinine. This is what I’m talking about: These guys are OK when it comes to ideology and dogma, but they don’t have a clue how to participate in the legislative process.
I don’t know what their objective is. If it was to deny the speakership to Boehner and hand it to Mrs. Pelosi, I don’t know how their cause would have been furthered. If it’s to force the vote to a second ballot to make some demands, well, who the hell do these people think they are? Twelve out of 233, and they’re making demands? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
Q: Is there any way for Boehner to assert some leadership now that he’s been reelected and bring the insurgents into line?
LaTourette: He resisted, the entire last Congress, until the very end, the temptation to punish anybody. I sat on the steering committee, and there were cries from all parts of the conference: ‘These guys are ruining everything!’ He wouldn’t chastise them or do anything until the recent mini-purge.
I don’t think his inclination is to punish people. But I have to tell you, I don’t know how he does it. You look at the very beginning of the last Congress, H.R. 1, the omnibus, there were hundreds of amendments from the stupid to the sublime. One was offered to defund the president’s teleprompter… But Boehner’s deal was, OK, go for it, let people participate. There was an expectation that, given the opportunity to improve the bill, they would then vote for the bill. But beginning with that bill there have been 20 to 50 members who will make adjustments to the bill that guarantee you’re not going to get one Democrat to vote for it, and then they still vote against the bill themselves and deny Boehner the 218 votes he needs to bargain with…
That poor Mr Boehner, surrounded by crazy zealots he’s just too nice a man to smack down! Apart from snickering about reaping what one has sown, what’s on the agenda for the start of another week?
Bobby Thomson
How strange it must be to be John Boehner.
amk
These idjits truly believe that the kenyan muslin is dumb, don’t they ? And this is the ‘democracy’ that us of a pushing on other countries?
Punchy
Wait….so the teleprompter is on layaway? Otherwise, how does one “defund” something it already owns?
Frankensteinbeck
From top to bottom, congressmen and pundits and rich financiers and voters, conservatives have been convinced that if they blow up the world only The Black Guy will suffer. Despite holding the dynamite, they themselves are too beautiful and special to get hit by the blast. In the tiny, closed system of Capitol Hill Boehner is just smart enough to figure out once the fuse is burning that he’s made a mistake – but he’ll pick up the next stick of dynamite sure that this time it will be different.
Shalimar
I have no sympathy for Boehner, but that is some nucular-grade stupidity he’s dealing with.
Raven
Back to the gig after nearly three weeks off!
Debbie(Aussie)
We are either experiencing or about to have heat wave conditions in eastern Aus. Poor Tassie had record high of 44C on Friday and terrible bush fires. So far no deaths. We here in SE Qld will be having 40+ later this week. Not sure where mighty trowel is, might already be happening in her neck of the woods. I like to dream about snow (no experience of tho) at times like this.
Raven
@Debbie(Aussie): Looked hot in Safety Bay too!
Patricia Kayden
It’s a wonder Boehner hasn’t had another public crying fit given all the suffering he’s going through. Sigh.
Raven
Pete Elliot died. Won’t mean much to most but he coached the Illini to a Rose Bowl win with the Dick Butkus team.
Debbie(Aussie)
Raven, saw a map (can’t find it) that showed almost entire continent under extreme heat conditions, only excepting parts of the north Qld tropics. So not surprised. Hope they are holding up ok :)
Schlemizel
@Debbie(Aussie):
We’ll be about 40 degrees cooler here this week. You take care.
Have you ever seen the Twilight Zone episode where two women are struggling as the earth is over heating (think it is out of orbit & getting closer to the sun)?
Turns out at the end they were fantasizing the whole thing because the earth was freezing.
Raven
@Debbie(Aussie): I think they are fine, rugged sorts!
Debbie(Aussie)
@Schlemizel:
Haven’t sen that one. Might be safer to just suffer thru it then, maybe :)
Raven
@Debbie(Aussie): The posted this on their FB
Goodnight Captain Possum
gene108
@Debbie(Aussie):
I wouldn’t mind the long sunny summer days though. Getting dark before 5 pm, with grey skies above…eh…I could probably use a day basking in 40C degree sunshine…
TheMightyTrowel
@Debbie(Aussie): i am in the ACT where it’s hovering around 40, but we got a 4 hour rain storm on Sat and more rain Sun so low fire risk. Off to SA on Sat so dif story then. Dreaming of snow.
Raven
@TheMightyTrowel: Had a good friend from Wollongong.
kay
@amk:
You have absolutely no idea how much the GOP base resent that Obama receives ANY of the perks of the presidency. It wasn’t an accident that Romney talked about the plane constantly. Republicans here were in a near- constant state of rage that Obama had the use of Air Force One. They’re bonkers about it. Once I realized it I got a huge kick out of it, because he was landing in Ohio almost weekly during the campaign. Liberals here loathed Bush in 2004 but they understood the freaking plane (and helicopter, Bush liked the drama of arriving in the helicopter) comes with the JOB. Not conservatives. They deeply resent that Obama gets that plane.
TheMightyTrowel
@Raven: i was there in early Dec. It was 17 and really overcast. grim.
re Tassie, it’s worth checkingthe Facebook feed of the Port Arthur historic site. They’re a former prison and open air museum, got cut off by the fires and have been sheltering and feeding volunteers and stranded tourists. a number got evacuated by a small boat and yacht flotilla.
Debbie(Aussie)
@gene108:
40c is a bit too hot to enjoy. We have had some lovely days; sunup 4:30about 30 with a breeze, sunset about 7ish. No twilight here, to close to the equator. Not all bad
South Aus can be very hot. Just a hot time at the mo I think. Storms and rain much needed all over. Of course we are never happy/satisfied, human condition
jeffreyw
@Debbie(Aussie): You have our sympathy.
TheMightyTrowel
@Debbie(Aussie): the grass is stay always greener…
TheMightyTrowel
@TheMightyTrowel: FYWP! truly i meant truly! why won’t you let me edit!?
The Ancient Randonneur
I recall during the summer of 2009 when Reid was trying to get a few Republican votes so he let Grassley and Snowe hem and haw around, make demands then ultimately … well we know what happened. Must be something in the GOP DNA.
A good counterpoint to all of this is Senator Bernie Sanders who is a real live progressive. He’s voted for quite a few bills that he considered less than optimal, including ACA, (remember the single payer pledge all the “real progressives” wanted Dems to sign?) after he was able to get some things he wanted. Bernie really is a man of the people. I’ve seen and spoke with him a few times in his travels around Vermont and he actually gives a damn about people who have to get up and go to work every day. He gives a damn about people who struggle to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head, and get their kids educated. He’s a great example of how to govern effectively and make a difference in people’s lives. But, hey, he’s a crazy socia1ist!
MattF
Definitely reaping what they have sown. Too bad the rest of us have to deal with it now.
kay
@amk:
Obama did an event in Cleveland towards the end of the campaign and they set it up so Air Force One was behind him. It was a great photo, that giant plane right behind him, and all the Ohio newspapers picked it up.
I was thinking “oh now they’re just fucking with them”.
James E. Powell
If it wasn’t for the barnburners and the morons, and their campaign of bigotry and rage in 2010, Boehner wouldn’t be the speaker.
Baud
@The Ancient Randonneur:
I like Bernie for that reason: He’s a good advocate but doesn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
@kay:
Too funny. We need to get some more “Obama and the Plane” photos out there on the tubes.
SFAW
@Schlemizel:
And, of course, the fantasies were triggered because they had just watched “To Serve Man.”
SFAW
@kay:
They’re probably trying to get a law passed to make him sit in the back of the plane.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
One wonders how much of a punishment losing a committee seat is to these morons. They obviously have no interest in governing, so why would they want the extra work of crafting legislation? They still get to vote no when bills come up, and this gives them more free time to demonstrate their stupidity, which seems to be what they like best.
Thanks to gerrymandering, their seats are safe. I grew up in the district Justin Amash “represents” and he won handily despite having little money and barely campaigning. If they don’t need the committee seats to fundraise or get re-elected why bother? It’s just a big hassle they don’t need.
Debbie(Aussie)
@jeffreyw:
Many thanks. We probably don’t get as cold tho, but I promise I will empathise;)
WereBear
I suspect conservatives have rage as their dominant emotion because that is the response to constant frustration. They have decided the explanatory script of their life is that of “great man undercut by his inferiors.”
This has inherent contradictions, of course, but that never stops them!
amk
@kay: LOL. That’s the ‘in your face’ optics that lindsey is whining about. Fucking racist party.
Napoleon
@kay:
I obviously travel in much differant circles then you. What halfwits.
PurpleGirl
@Punchy: Well, by defunding they think they prevent someone from preparing the script that the President reads off the teleprompter and keep from paying for the electricity it uses. Keep it blank and dark and it’s the same as not having it.
Debbie(Aussie)
Night all have a great Monday
Napoleon
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Didn’t Demint actually advise at least Senators (or maybe it was any Republican in Congress) not to waste their time with committees?
amk
Obama taps Brennan for cia. Cue gg’s & firebaggers’ poutrage ? dronez.
PurpleGirl
@Schlemizel: Yes, the fantasy story was that the earth was out of its orbit and getting closer to the sun when actually the earth was out of its orbit and getting farther out from the sun and freezing.
Southern Beale
More on the arrest of Rand Paul’s 19-year-old son at the Charlotte, NC airport. Kid was drunk and disorderly at 9 am.
I know kids will be kids, but can you imagine if Obama’s eldest daughter was caught underage drinking at 9 am? It would be all “those people” and “what do you expect.” But Sarah Palin’s daughter can get knocked up, Rand Paul’s son can be drunk, hey we’re just normal American families struggling with the same issues as everyone else.
Feh.
Punchy
@SFAW: Probably trying to get laws passed making it illegal to fly and land that plane in their state….
SFAW
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
It gives them a more prominent and (theoretically) effective way to express their rage at government, i.e. by trying to destroy it.
At some level, it’s not unlike Cleavon Little holding a gun to his head, but without the irony or comedic intent.
SFAW
@Southern Beale:
How vulgar of you! The proper phrase, I think, is “The blessing she is carrying inside her, an expression of the purity of the love between her and the guy who knocked her up.”
And if the tyrannical US Government weren’t to intrusive into the affairs of certain white persons and their families, this would never have become an item in the first place. (And by “certain white persons,” I mean “Anyone who’s not black, brown, gay, Mooslim, liberal, center-right, female, Jewish, and a few other groups/categories,” of course.)
dr. bloor
@SFAW: They don’t want him sitting anywhere. They want him in a white jacket serving drinks to his betters.
SFAW
@Punchy:
We should probably be grateful they’re not trying to enact something to have fighters from Wright-Patt shoot down AF One because of all the Mooslim terrists on board.
SFAW
@dr. bloor:
Now who can argue with that?
Ron
The sad truth is that Boehner is the most sane republican likely to be Speaker of the House. Can you imagine a Speaker Cantor? Makes me shudder to even think about it.
mir13
The last line of defense against the Obama agenda, indeed. The Turtle and Weepy, the Orange aren’t leading the mob of idiots, they are merely part of the mob. No split here. Nothing to see. Move along. Move along.
Comrade Jake
Just caught Cokie Roberts on NPR talking about Hagel. Somehow she managed to speak fo several minutes on the topic, and still convey absolutely nothing.
kay
@Napoleon:
I read the newspaper account of the last birther lawsuit and the judge made me laugh. He had given the lunatics 20 minutes to make an oral argument and the dentist- lawyer said in the course of her rant “when Mitt Romney came in second…” The judge said “came in SECOND. What part of ‘came in second’ don’t you understand?”
Schlemizel
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
They like those chairmanships not because of the governing required (you can bet they left that to the monkeys from their offices) but there are perks involved. You better believe the lobbyists make sure that nests get feathered. Also as chair you have much more discretion in aiming federal funds to your district.
Nina
Of course Paul III is drunk and disorderly at 9 AM. He is merely exercising his American Freedum to put whatever substances he wants into his body, in order to deal with the incredible depression that comes over True Patriots when they think about how the gummint is oppressing everyone. The question is not ‘why is he drunk?’ but rather ‘why are you sober?’
Why AM I sober? Oh, yeah, I work for a living.
Schlemizel
@Debbie(Aussie):
Found the wiki on it. Its called “Midnight Sun”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Midnight_Sun
danielx
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Yup. They’re not interested in governing, all they really want to do, and all their constituents expect them to do, is to say No to That Usurper In The White House. Why make things any more complicated by doing hard stuff like writing and sponsoring legislation?
Now, if they shut down government and their constituents stop getting their Social Security checks, they might actually have to, you know, do some actual work.
Note: having a cat fulfilling its role as a small portable heating unit when you get in bed is a good thing. Also. Too.
Amir Khalid
@kay:
Me, I’m wondering why the real-estate lady/dentist/lawyer/Queen of The Birthers person is still a lawyer. Isn’t a habit of frivolous litigation supposed to get you in trouble with your bar association?
Paul
@The Ancient Randonneur:
Which is why he voted to keep Gitmo open?
amk
@Amir Khalid: Forget the bar assocs. What about the judges who keep hearing these redenculous lawsuits despite they being ruled as redenculous? How come not even of them had the cajones to put her sorry ass in the slammer and milk her for all the grifting money she has?
Paul
@Comrade Jake:
At least she didn’t accuse Hagel of vacationing in the wrong place…
PurpleGirl
@Amir Khalid: IIRC she is only allowed to practice in California for some technical reason involved with how she got her law degree. She is not admitted to any other state bar and usually has to find another lawyer to stand in for her.
mai naem
The Rand Paul’s son being drunk story gave me the distinct feeling that he had pulled a “Don’t you know who I am? I am the grandson of Ron Paul and the son of Senator Rand Paul” deal.
I had forgotten Don Siegeman until MHP and Chris Hayes brought it up a couple of weeks ago. I actually thought the sentence had been suspended etc. I don’t understand why Eric Holder has not done anything about it. This guys prosecution was so obviously political. If Holder could get Ted Stevens’ conviction reversed(I know the backstory) surely he could do something about Siegelman.
gene108
Latourette doesn’t watch Republicans, when they go on the TeeVee and say how “Obama’s budget got voted down 435-0 in the House”.
Why bother to govern, when you miss up the chance to have a great talking point, when you go on the TeeVee?
I mean no reporters or hosts ever challenge them as to why the bills get voted down 435-0, so there’s no down side to being disingenuous.
ET
It will be interesting to see how much I get done today. Totally excited about the Bama v Notre Dame game tonight.
ROLL TIDE!
gene108
@Debbie(Aussie):
I’m assuming Australia would be mostly a dry desert heat, like Las Vegas, Nevada (USA) and not a muggy heat like Chennai, India or Singapore.
I can deal with a dry desert 40C for a bit. Baking in the hot sun would do wonders for my vitamin D deficiency.
As it is, winter again in my end of the USA is very mild compared to what it was 16 years ago, when I moved here. As bad as Global Warming will be, I can come to enjoy these mild winters.
magurakurin
@Comrade Jake:
Fuck Cookie Roberts. I can’t believe she still has a job. I haven’t given her any serious consideration since the VP debate in 2008. She falsely accused Biden of making a gaffe when he used the word “Bosniak,” which was exactly correct. She didn’t know that and when on about he had made a terrible gaffe and if Palin had said it people would have been going on about it. What an ass. She was so sure of herself that she never bothered to check. Christ, we had the Intertubes way, way back in ’08. It would have been a simple matter to just Google it. But no, she was so sure Biden was just an old fool and not the foreign policy wonk with decades of experience that he is.
To my knowledge she never apologized. Fuck her. And fuck NPR, too.
Cookie’s gaffe
Amir Khalid
@PurpleGirl:
My understanding is that in America, if you have a law degree and pass a state bar exam, you can get a law licence in that state. What sort of degree did Taitz get that’s only good in California?
balconesfault
@Ron: Somehow Speaker McCarthy scares me more.
Sargeant Pepper's Spray
Orange is the new black
Amir Khalid
@gene108:
I think it depends on where you are in Australia. You’d get a desert climate in the heart of the Outback, I guess. But most Aussies live relatively close to the coast, which mitigates that. I haven’t been down under in a while, but I hear that Darwin is quite tropical, while the major urban areas in the south-east have more of a Mediterranean-like climate.
BlueDWarrior
What is up with this talking point that Scarborough constantly bleats about the Democrats are abrogating their responsibility in not passing a budget out of the Senate?
Anya
@Southern Beale: @mai naem: I hope he gets the help he needs.
RobertDSC-iMac G5
Fixed for what’s really going on.
jp7505a
Monday’s can be hard but once in awhile a bit of humor helps. Seems the Hillary tweeting is still alive and well. Over on Kos we have
Sarah tweeting Hillary asking how she feels
and Hillary responding – even with a clot my brain works better than yours
Napoleon
@Amir Khalid:
Some states (West V comes to mind) have a deal where if you graduate from a law school in the state you are licensed (of course you could still loose it).
Napoleon
@BlueDWarrior:
Especially since the Constitution requires that the budget initially come out of the House.
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
I don’t know why the California bar hasn’t acted.
I don’t think birthers are funny, so I’m not in that group. I think it’s mean-spirited and bigoted and the fact that there were elected officials promoting it makes me cringe.
Still, I’ve come around to thinking that the Birther Queen is providing a real historical-record service. She has left a paper trail. I want the country to look at birthers 20 years from now. I think it will then be recognized as evidence of the complete insane nervous breakdown that occurred with the election of the first AA President. I think those photos and writings should make birthers infamous for a good long time. I hope someone great writes the birther book or makes the birther documentary. I’m looking forward to it. The GOP elected officials will be in there, along with the media personalities and of course Donald Trump. Jesus. What a legacy.
Jebediah
@magurakurin:
I don’t know about going on about it, but had Palin said that I would certainly have been very surprised that she knew anything about anything outside the US border.
And I would certainly not mind if Cokie would just go away.
Jebediah
@Kay:
That asshat still hasn’t revealed what his crack investigators found out in Hawaii. Wonder what he’s waiting for…
Mandalay
@magurakurin:
I haven’t given her any serious consideration since 1997, when she wrote such a vile article that nobody has come up with anything worse in the past 15 years:
http://listserv.unl.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9704&L=afeemail&D=0&P=12480&F=P
Forget about Cokie’s gaffes. If it was within her power she would ban BJ and every other blog in a heartbeat, and leave us to respect our betters. It’s what our Founding Fathers would have wanted.
There is nobody in Washington more despicable than Cokie Roberts. Nobody.
Suffern ACE
@magurakurin: ah. Since Joe was right, Cokie’s next move will be to have Dowd declare him an effete Democrat know it all.
redshirt
@gene108: The North/Northeast of Australia is tropical as all get out. Rain Forests, monsoons, etc. Cairns is paradise.
Amir Khalid
@Jebediah:
I think those crack investigators discovered that the surfing’s pretty good in Hawaii. Seriously, one could also ask your question about Sheriff Arpaio’s guys. Because any enquiry has got to come to an end when, for the ten millionth time, the State of Hawaii affirms that yes, the President was indeed born there.
jayboat
The ONLY reason cokie baby still has a job is that she was moderately hot in her younger days and managed to go down on all the right people on her way up the msm ladder.
She’d last about as long as mcarglebargle if she had to start now, because Mika has the job.
liberal
@BlueDWarrior:
They’re responsible for not only cutting Social Security and Medicare, but doing so in a way that the Republicans can then blame them for it.
Kay
@Jebediah:
It’s such a massive failure of, well, everyone involved.
There’s nothing complicated about state birth records. Millions of people use them and rely on them every single day. It’s just so crazy to pretend it’s controversial. The whole country would grind to a halt if ordinary people had to meet the “valid birth record” standard that was invented for Obama.
It’s this insane notion that any allegation must be rebutted and disproved by the accused. That’s backwards, but supposedly smart people like Andrew Sullivan repeat it as if demanding proof to rebut anything is this time-honored tradition in the US. It’s not. The US custom and practice is actually opposite of that.
The general rule is if you may make a wild allegation you have to back it up. It makes sense, too. If we didn’t have that custom and practice anyone could accuse anyone of anything and the accused would spend years disproving things.
Obama doesn’t have any duty to prove anything at all. His accusers do.
Conservatives and media somehow got away with shifting the burden, and dopes who blather about “transparency” fell for it. It’s nonsense.
feebog
@ Purple Girl:
There are no “technical reasons” for anyone to practice law in California, you either pass the test for the state bar or you don’t. I know several very competent attorneys who didn’t pass on the first try. I also have a young woman interning with me this spring who went to BYU law school and has already passed the Utah bar, now studying for the California bar, as California has no recipricol agreements with other states.
Orly T. may be crazy as a loon, but that does not mean she is stupid, two different things.
Kay
@Jebediah:
I think the low point for me was when Jerry Seinfeld was the single (famous) person to object to Donald Trump’s disgusting PR campaign for his reality tv show. Jerry Seinfeld. Everyone else was apparently cowed into silence by the mighty Donald Trump. Good Lord. Nation of cowards.
amk
@Kay: The day a duly elected popular president was forced to show his birth certificate to the whole world just to shut the media mofos must rank as the blackest day in american history. Pun not intended.
Kay
@amk:
Right. That cringe-worthy episode should get prominent placement in the documentary.
I imagine how it’s going to look to people 20 years out, people who are five or ten years old now. “Jesus. What was THAT all about?” they’ll say. We’ll say “half the country and the entire political media had a psychotic break. It was horrible to watch. We couldn’t believe it at the time” :)
Judas Escargot, Bringer of Loaves and Fish Sandwiches
@Frankensteinbeck:
Soak a psyche in too much unaccountable wealth and power, and this is exactly what happens to it.
Maude
0 C is 104 F. 41 C is 105.8 C. They have very serious heat in Oz.
They are looking for the missing in Tasmania.
Edit, oops put in a dollar sign.
SFAW
@Kay:
What scares me is the possibility that they’ll look back on this as “The Good Old Days.” Without the irony.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Paul: Hey, it’s what the people wanted.
By an overwhelming majority, in fact.
Wasn’t the right thing to do, but “doing the right thing” isn’t in a Congresscritter’s job description. Doing what his constituents want is.
Paul
@Kay:
And why did this start at the same time we had an African-American President. Why didn’t the media go bonkers when Romney only released a “certificate of live birth”? Why didn’t they demand the long form for Romney as they did for the black guy? And why did they assume it wasn’t a fake as they gladly did for the black guy?
And why didn’t they demand similar things for McCain, Bush, Reagan?
It drives me nuts anytime Donald “racist” Trump is on CNBC (which is a lot) and they fail to ask him when his “investigators” are going to release the evidence he claims they have. For anybody to deny that this is pure and utter racism is a joke. The US media should at best be embarrassed for having participated in this. This is what happens when the MSM becomes glorified stenographers for FoxNews.
Kay
@SFAW:
There’s almost too much material. Remember the early Tea Party? The lady at the town hall meeting with her original birth certificate in a baggie? Apparently she doesn’t know she can get another one for 15 dollars, anytime she wants.
I can’t imagine what they think if they have to replace the document, which happens all the time. They were never born? They’re no longer citizens? I think it’s such a perfect symbol of the craziness of the last 4 years.
Paul
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
Yes, I understand that most of his constituents are in favor of holding people imprisoned without a trial. But there are times when an elected person has to be leader and do the right thing (as Obama certainly did). Certainly you can agree that either Sanders is a poor leader or he is in favor of holding people imprisoned without a trial. Not a good judgement on Sanders.
And by your logic, the House GOP are just doing what their constituents want. By an overwhelming majority in fact.
So I take it you think pretty highly of the house GOP. As you said yourself:
“Wasn’t the right thing to do, but “doing the right thing” isn’t in a Congresscritter’s job description. Doing what his constituents want is.” And that’s what the House GOP is doing. Just like Sanders.
Kay
@Paul:
They are, but they’re like addicts. They cycle thru shame and benders w/Obama. I could plot it on a graph. Bender, shame, retaliation. After they go on an insanity bender I picture them all bleary-eyed, hungover. They require intervention.
I don’t think it’s smart politics for Obama to piss them off or humiliate them, because they seek revenge, but I honestly can’t blame him. He’s human, and it’s so obviously bigoted and disgusting that he is probably thinking it’s just apparent to everyone. Nope! We’re going to explore this issue for 5 years!
Origuy
People have commented that the California Bar Association usually won’t act unless a lawyer has ripped off a client. Since Taitz is always her own client, she’s not ripping off anyone, except for the public who have to pay for the court costs of her antics. She had a $10,000 fine slapped on her a few years ago, I don’t know about anything since.
Paul
@Kay:
I don’t know how Obama does it or controls his anger (if he has any). But for anybody to claim that 2008 cured racism in this country is just nuts. I think the 2008 election simply opened up a big can of worms. We see racism much more blatantly now and the media with its asinine “both sides do it” garbage just don’t know how to properly cover it.
handsmile
@Kay: , @Jebediah:
Re Donald Trump
From this morning’s TPM Livewire: “NBC Exec: We would figure out what to do if Trump were to cross a line”
“A top executive for NBC dismissed the notion that reality television star Donald Trump’s often incendiary political rhetoric has inflicted damage on the network’s reputation…NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt told Entertainment Weekly. “That said, if he becomes somehow hurtful or says or does things that cross a line, we would figure out what to do about that.”
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/nbc-exec-we-would-figure-out-what-to
Evidently being the defacto leader of the birther movement doesn’t cross the line. Evidently tweets like these following Obama’s reelection doesn’t cross the line:
“We should have a revolution in this country.”/”This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy.”/”Let’s fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice.”/et al
Do keep in mind that NBC is the host network of this country’s leading Sunday morning political opinion/analysis program, “Meet the Press.” its preeminence was recently evidenced by Obama’s granting it his first post-election exclusive interview.
What line would Trump have to cross for NBC to imagine he could inflict damage on that network’s “reputation”?
Kay
@Paul:
I loved how they glossed over the meat of the allegation, which is, of course, that Obama is lying about his birthplace and/or parentage. I don’t know why it was so hard for them to reach that. That’s the charge. Obviously.
They had to cloak it in this bogus “document” cover. Come on. It’s insulting. The very least the accused deserves is the actual allegation. They were too scared to say it.
Jebediah
@Kay:
yeah, that is incredibly puzzling. What is he going to do? Not let you be his “apprentice?” To whom is he a legitimate threat? I mean, if you have to have an enemy, isn’t it better that that enemy be an obvious fool?
JoyfulA
@PurpleGirl: My understanding is that she didn’t go to law school; in CA, all you need to do is pass the bar.
The Other Chuck
@Amir Khalid:
You have to pass the bar individually in any state in which you have a license, it’s just that it’s up to the discretion of a judge to admit pro hac vice (“for the occasion”) an attorney that isn’t licensed in that state. This courtesy is usually extended automatically to someone licensed in another state, but not so much when the attorney in question is a known nutjob.
Paul
@handsmile:
It is a good question considering that Hank Williams was fired from ESPN for having done something less outrageous about Obama. I guess ESPN cares more about its reputation than NBC does.
Kilkee
@ET: I can’t believe it took 60+ comments before The Game was mentioned! Go Irish!
Kilkee
@JoyfulA: No, I believe you need to go to law school in CA, although they have many that are not accredited by the ABA. In most states you can’t sit for the bar exam if you went to an unaccredited school. In CA you can. Wild guess, I’m gonna say Orly went to one of those.
Origuy
She went to Taft Law School, a “distance learning” school in California. They actually list her on their “Attorney Alumni” page. Looks like they graduate about a dozen or so
suckersexcellent practitioners of jurisprudence every year.Spaghetti Lee
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
I’m sorry, but this is bullshit. I like Sanders, and I’m not a Gitmo dead-ender, but cripes, everyone here knows that this country would be in the dark ages if it weren’t for the occasional leader going beyond what people wanted and doing what was right-the Civil Rights movement, for instance.
Go ahead and argue that a given issue can’t be resolved right now and it’s stupid to try and waste ammo on it-in this case I’d probably agree. But let’s not play dumb and pretend that politicians in America can do nothing but answer to their constituents.
onlymike
this thread is dead i believe but I had to let everyone know what’s going on – I have waited too long as I awlays do. I put off doing something for the cats thinking I could postpone this furhter. I’mn out of the apt now – I’m in the front office posting this. I had to leave the cats in the apt – there is plenty of food for tonight and I can come back tomorrow to pack up stuff (mostly throw away) anyway i’m heading over to the VA (the job idea was a pipe dream – can’t even begin to explain – I’m aways from being employable right now)
Anyway I have a couple of numbers to call re the cats but if anyone is in the phoenix area and could take either ? It’s on near the corner of Indian School rd and 7th avenue – I’m not sure what else to say right now – I’ll repost on something fresher I think
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Origuy: That’s it. A school unaccredited by the ABA will not get you seated in most state’s bar exams. Including in states where they are located. I met a guy who went to Ave Maria when it was still in Michigan, and before it got ABA accreditation. He had to file suit against the Michigan bar examiners to sit for that bar. What kind of dope goes to that kind of school- especially without investigating whether the state will let you sit for the bar with that JD? (RWNJ, of the RC variety, in the case of Ave Maria)
Paul
@Spaghetti Lee:
Amen!
centerfielddj
“There was an expectation that, given the opportunity to improve the bill, they would then vote for the bill. But beginning with that bill there have been 20 to 50 members who will make adjustments to the bill that guarantee you’re not going to get one Democrat to vote for it, and then they still vote against the bill themselves and deny Boehner the 218 votes he needs to bargain with…”
No tellin’!! Has that actually been happening? Was the last Congress one excruciatingly long F*** YOU!!111@#!! to Obama and the Democratic Caucuses?
Gosh, I’m glad LaTourette pointed out somthing that was painfully, glaringly obvious each and every day of the last two years. So happy he joined his Speaker in doing or saying nothing in 2011 or 2012 which might have changed his Insane Clown Caucus’ behavior. Thanks!
xian
@Comrade Jake: that’s her “thing”
xian
@jayboat: sexism is lame regardless of the political target