REMINDER
Republicans refuse to confirm Obama's nominee for surgeon general because he pointed out that BULLETS HURT PEOPLE
— Jesse Berney (@jesseberney) October 17, 2014
Yeah, let’s shame the ammosexual enablers in public… if there’s any good to come out of the current Ebola Panic, this may be it. From Politico:
More than two dozen House Democrats are calling on the Senate to swiftly approve Vivek Murthy’s nomination to serve as surgeon general to help combat the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the U.S.
Murthy’s nomination got sidelined after Republicans and vulnerable Senate Democrats voiced reservations about the Harvard Medical School physician’s outspoken views on gun violence and public health. But the House Democrats, in a letter set to be released next week, argue that the Obama administration needs a top official in place to help with the Ebola response.
“The American public would benefit from having a Surgeon General to disseminate information that is desperately needed,” the Democrats wrote. “The Surgeon General can also work to amplify the Center for Disease Control’s actions, reassure the American people, and combat misinformation here at home.”…
Obama announced on Friday that Ron Klain, a former senior staffer to Vice President Joe Biden, would serve as the administration’s chief coordinator for the Ebola crisis. A surgeon general would be a senior official in any White House response under Klain’s management.
The 29 House Democrats, led by California Reps. Barbara Lee, Judy Chu and Ami Bera, voice support for Murthy’s nomination in the letter.
“Given the public’s increasing fears regarding the spread of the disease, it is imperative that we confirm a Surgeon General who will play a significant role in educating the American public about the disease and how to best protect their health,” states the letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Even with growing pressure on politicians to show progress in the fight against Ebola, there is little time on the calendar to approve a surgeon general after senators return from their recess in November. Lawmakers have to approve a budget and have other high-profile posts like the attorney general and Secret Service director to potentially fill. There is also a chance that party control of the Senate isn’t decided until January because of run-off elections — a likely complication in scheduling a vote on Murthy.
shelley
‘Progress against Ebola?’ Somebody on NPR quipped that in the US, there’s been more people married to Larry King than have died from Ebola.
FlipYrWhig
Good idea by the House Dems. Bound to go nowhere because of the lay-low “centrism” of red-state Dems in the Senate, but a nice piece of agitprop and support-rallying.
scav
Constantly Bringing in Temps with Fancy Titles (oooOOoo, Czar!) but no long-term knowledge of the intrastructure, long-term personnel, tacit realities as well as the on-paper ones etc is no way to run a system for the long haul. MBA JIT thinking strikes again. Run everything to the bone and into the ground until something really important breaks and then bring in a pricey-flashy outside consultant!
FlipYrWhig
@shelley: I think there have been more people married to Ronald Reagan than have died from Ebola. You don’t need to have been married many times to pass that benchmark.
FlipYrWhig
@scav: but they’re not trying to run a system for the long haul. They’re just trying to do interagency coordination during the crisis, then taper back into business as usual.
Violet
Howard Dean on MSNBC when asked about the Democratic ad that blames Republicans for cuts to the CDC (and has them all saying “cut” over and over): “Well, there’s a lot of politics. I don’t particularly like seeing Democrats playing politics.” Oh, sure. Democrats should be all about taking the high road and never saying a mean word. Hardball politics? That’s for Republicans.
No wonder Democrats don’t stand up for themselves and their policies. They don’t want to have to do that. They think their policies should speak for themselves.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I saw the title and thought “I miss soonergrunt myself.” Not having a Surgeon General confirmed is a shandah, and it’s especially galling now that there is, um, a public health issue.
Violet
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Yeah, where is soonergrunt? Hope he’s okay.
Gin & Tonic
REMINDER, it’s Democrats that are blocking the nomination. Even if every Republican were opposed (and I think they are) there’d be enough D votes to get it through.
FlipYrWhig
@Violet: “Politicians should be above politics” is an odd creed to profess.
Davis X. Machina
@Gin & Tonic:
Guns, hostages — it’s a natural.
Davis X. Machina
@FlipYrWhig: Doesn’t surprise me.
The hard core of the Dean pheonomenon — I did some small-time. local work with/for them — was a bunch of people who don’t actually believe in politics, and wish all the politicians would go away.
What began as an attempt to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party quicky devolved into a search for a third way…
scav
@FlipYrWhig: I’d agree IF we had the full system up and running, with an SG at the helm and they were running out of bandwidth to handle the increased load due to Ebola. Nothing wrong with bringing in a specialized consultant for specific problems as they arise. But, smashing / ignoring the basic infrastructure and leadership by neglect at best or with active intent and then flouncing in with a specialist accompanied by a ticker-tape parade while continuing to ignore the SOP options and positions . . .
Alison
Since it’s an OT and since this is such a pet-loving community – my local shelter (in Petaluma CA, in the northern Bay Area) is kicking off the Empty Cat Cage Project today! https://www.facebook.com/211690755543601/photos/a.211932642186079.50352.211690755543601/771221289590542/?type=1
Recently, the shelter was on the local news for having adopted out all of the dogs they had, which is very unusual and totally awesome (I do think they have one or two now, but dogs don;t usually stay in the shelter for very long here). But they have a lot of kitties who need homes, some of whom have been there for quite some time…so the shelter staff and the community are banding together to see if we can repeat the miracle ten-fold with the felines :D
If you live in the area or know anyone who does and has been thinking about getting a kitty, now is the time – ALL of the cats are sponsored, meaning no adoption fees, plus you get a free vet visit, a bag of supplies, and free movie tickets thanks to a local theater.
You can see the kitties here, although I’m not sure if the page is perfectly up to date http://www.petalumaanimalshelter.org/adopt-a-cat/ – or just make a trip to visit the babies in person. And please spread the word if you have friends or family around here! Yay for forever homes!
Baud
@Violet:
Why would a political party engage in politics? That’s just wrong.
Mike J
@Gin & Tonic:
It’s 100% of the Republicans and 10% of the Democrats.
Howard Beale IV
Hell, more people have been killed by tip-over accidents from their TV’s in the last nine months than from ebola. So lets keep importing bigger flat-screen TVs!
And of course, it goes without saying that more people will be probably be killed in Chicagoland this weekend that will be killed by ebola….
Baud
@Davis X. Machina:
Was Dean’s only issue the Iraq war? (Not that that’s nothing, but I can’t recall what else he ran on.)
WereBear
@Alison: I’m so glad!
Just wanted to let everyone know that adult cats from the shelter make WONDERFUL pets. They settle in pretty quickly, they know the ropes, and they are so good for newbies.
Alison
@WereBear: YES. And are usually fully box trained :) Even when they’re upset by being moved.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
Shaming people into action only works if you assume that the people you’re targeting have shame.
This isn’t going to work when the other side has discarded shame as a liability, and the American electorate keeps rewarding them for said lack of shame.
Amir Khalid
If I’ve got this right, part of the Republican plan is to demand that Obama appoint an Ebola czar, so that they can denounce him for appointing yet another unaccountable White House bureaucrat.
@FlipYrWhig:
If you’ll pardon a minor correction:
Per Wikpedia, the total of deaths from the current outbreak was 4,555 as of October 13.
Amir Khalid
@FlipYrWhig:
You know how the society a selfish person yearns for is one where “Thou shalt not steal” applies to everyone but him, right? Well, the Republican creed is that Democratic politicians should be above politics.
JimmyCrackedCorn
There is always “little time” to do things because they busy not doing anything. They have to pass a budget and appoint a handful of people. One of those things takes time but not all day everyday.
If congress actually wants something done they always make time.
JimmyCrackedCorn
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: It has potential outside of shame.
“Senator X refuses to appoint a new Attourney General despite Ebola entering the US.” It could backfire though as every serious person lambasts the ad for stirring up fear while doing it themselves.
JPL
I was disappointed that the President didn’t mention the Surgeon General the other night. I was hoping that he’d just appoint Murthy for the ebola czar position. I understand though that they need one person to gather information and that person need not be a doctor.
@Amir Khalid: Thanks for the correction. It’s a devastating disease and we should not forget about the loss of life in the areas that have been struck hard.
JPL
@JimmyCrackedCorn: The republicans are blaming the President for the ebola crisis.
Violet
@Amir Khalid: I think the context was deaths in the US from Ebola.
scav
@Amir Khalid:
As JPL said, necessary and important correction. Please forgive me my immediate vision of Ronald Reagan’s carefully hidden other marriages to 4,554 scary furriners.
PurpleGirl
@Alison: I hope they are able to adopt out all the cats and kittens. All cats deserve furever homes, lots of love and care.
Two weeks ago I helped the shelter whose cam I watch at a pet expo and 5 cats were adopted of the 13 we brought to the expo. Cassie is doing a special deal to get some older cats adopted — $31 (all cats have been fixed, tested for disease, vaccinated, etc.) for a cat older than 1 year old if adopted by Oct. 31st.
Michael Bersin
Representative Vicky Hartzler (r – the Chinese are spying on us through our toasters) met the grandson of Randy Huggins this morning before the start of the University of Central Missouri homecoming parade. Apparently she didn’t make the connection at first:
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): the human face on the consequences of your rigid ideology
Cervantes
@Michael Bersin:
She’s a buffoon with power.
Not my favorite combination.
Tree With Water
HOWARD DEAN: I think it’s fine. He’s a manager. He’s not a doctor. Look, the Republicans just slay me. They are just so ridiculous. So they had an Ebola czar. His name is Vivek Murthy. He’s President Obama’s nominee for Surgeon General which the Republicans have been stalling at the request of the National Rifle Association since February. So, the Republican’s idea of how to practice medicine is to listen to the National Rifle Association. I discount everything they say, they know nothing. They’re not interested in health; they’re interested in politics. We’ve got to manage this thing. I think Klaine is a good manager…
The travel ban doesn’t at add a whole lot. However, when we know — Rick Perry, of course, is his usual ignoramus self. He knows nothing. The travel ban, first of all, there’s no direct flights from West Africa from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea to the United States… As we say in New York, this stuff is all bupkis, this is nonsense. He’s clearly into this for the politics and the press. Which is going to be a little tough for him when people find out he doesn’t know anything, although they may know that already”.
Howard Dean said that on national TV yesterday. The same Howard Dean that Obama kicked to the curb, even before he took his oath of office.
If there is a glimmer of hope for the democratic party it is found in people like Dean, people unwilling to pull their punches while speaking plain english to the rank and file and, beyond them, to all the people.
The republican party is as good as a domestic enemy, and has forfeited the respect due an honorable opposition. It’s about time democratic politicians began to act and speak accordingly.
Another Holocene Human
I wanted Betty Cracker to see this, but I guess she’s watching football.
Real campaign flier I got in my mailbox this week. Obvs I added the memetext.
https://imgflip.com/i/d7qkt
Michael Bersin
@Cervantes:
I had been in the lineup area before the parade started, looked for her, and didn’t see her. I then walked to near the end of the parade route and stood in the crowd. I didn’t get to witness the exchange. Later, as she walked by in the parade she didn’t appear too happy to see me (she knows who I am). her Congressional Office Communications Director (who also knows me) saw me, said hello, and then said, “Hey, Mike’s gonna vote for Vicky. Let’s give him a sticker.”
Cervantes
@Michael Bersin: To which you replied … ?
Svensker
@Michael Bersin:
Too bad the grandfather had to be so dang political.
Cervantes
@Tree With Water:
After the two paragraphs you quoted (thanks, by the way), Dean went on to say:
(Added for completeness.)
Another Holocene Human
@Tree With Water: Any Democrat would say those things, and Howard Dean has a cushy private sector job and isn’t running for office any more.
How did Obama kick HD to the curb? Did HD come and say, “hey, I’ll run a 50 state strategy for ya” and BO was all, “f*ck you, I have my own volunteers, come back when you’ve learned to be cool, grandpa?” Cause I sure as hell don’t remember that shit.
Barack Obama won the election and, oh 50 state strategy whatever that actually meant on the ground didn’t. Can we can it with the betrayal porn? Wank wank wank if only wank wank 2004 wank wank stolen election wank wank Dean scream.
Were you not LIVING in the United States in 2004? Did it not escape your notice that millions of your fellow citizens voted for the Fortunate Son and were proud of the fact? They didn’t get voter’s remorse until 2005 at earliest.
So stop rewriting history and making out Dean to be the Angel Gabriel which he certainly is not, mr I’m gonna outreach to rural people by doing photo ops with the Hate Flag. Funny how Obama can do rural outreach without that and without kissing NRA ass, as Dean did as well back when he was still a politician, now he disavows them.
Uh huh.
cckids
Way OT, but since this is an open thread – I’m helping run a rummage sale for fundraising for local Girl Scouts. An acquaintance just dropped off a bunch of stuff, including a fairly large box of . . .
8-track tapes. Who knew they even still existed?
And it’s got some good stuff; Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key”, John Lennon, Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, etc. They seem to be in good condition. I’m torn between calling this lady and saying “seriously, WTF??” or just letting it drop. I don’t think I’ve seen one since junior high.
Cacti
@Gin & Tonic:
Yep.
Harry Reid’s fingerprints are all over the Surgeon General vacancy.
Another Holocene Human
@Michael Bersin: She is vile. Btw, believing in weird things, paranormal kind of stuff, special powers (esp for themselves but also others), is a symptom of a personality disorder esp. NPD, which would also be consistent with the attempt to look good (“let’s do something for the family”) and also not actually caring because they are little people who can’t do anything for her.
NPD and SPD they walk among us, and when we reward greed and viciousness, they become our leaders.
Cervantes
@Svensker:
Does she realize her actions are political actions with real consequences for real people? Can anyone be so stupid as to not understand this?
Or when she says that people should be good sports, accept a hot meal with gratitude, and not see any connection between her “work” and their lives, is she just trying desperately to cover her tracks? If so, does she feel any guilt for any of it?
I’d say people who voted for her should be asked these questions — but I’m not sure how much it would achieve.
Another Holocene Human
@Cacti:
Fuck that. You know he needs 51 votes to change that. Who is actually holding this stuff up? People like
PATRICK LEAHY, VT. Name and shame.
Diane Feinstein, CA.
und so weiter
Another Holocene Human
@cckids: Ebay?
Mnemosyne
I actually think it was smart that Obama appointed a manager to the Ebola Czar position, not a doctor. Because it quietly points out that we still need a goddamned Surgeon General, who would be a doctor that could oversee the medical issues.
Another Holocene Human
@scav: so THAT explains why he amnestied all the messicans!
///
Another Holocene Human
@Amir Khalid: It’s called projection. Ever noticed how thieves are always paranoid that somebody stole from them?
Tree With Water
@cckids: You can bet that someone, somewhere collects 8 tracks. I was in high school when it was cutting edge technology, forever associated with cruising around in cars with friends (too often while flying at the same time).
Cacti
@Mnemosyne:
This.
Doctors are trained in medicine, very few are trained in running or coordinating things between large, bureaucratic organizations. You want the MDs giving their full attention to the healthcare-related matters. Let non-MDs coordinate the logistics with MD input.
Michael Bersin
@Cervantes: I shook my head “no.”
I wear my blog photo ID at these kinds of events, either on a lanyard or clipped to my shirt. They can’t complain that I didn’t identify myself. I also wear a digital audio recorder on a lanyard. It recorded the conversation. It’s funny, you can hear my camera shutter (it’s set on burst) throughout the recording.
Her Congressional Communications Director, Steve Walsh, said (verbatum): “Mike’s gonna vote for you, look. Let’s get a sticker on him.”
Michael Bersin
@Svensker: Actually, the gist of the conversation was that the grandson was getting enmeshed in the political. Think about that for a second.
Another Holocene Human
@Davis X. Machina:
Here’s my problem. What’s the alternative? I respect anyone who is working on devolving power down to the people, community ballot that kind of stuff. That stuff is hard and requires a lot of faith in people (not misplaced faith, but you also have to realize that what you think is a great idea may not be a sentiment shared by 10,251 of your closest neighbors).
Most of the time? Just turns into the kind of we-know-better vanguardism (or fantasizing) cum Stalinist impulse that is the lefty mirror image of how the fucking Chamber and local GOP club are running local politics and government in actuality. And you know that model sucks so why is it going to be better when YOU are in charge? Oh, because YOU are in charge and Ronnie Republican has been poisoned by too much hairspray? You know what?
You suck too.
Another Holocene Human
@Michael Bersin: I guess 2nd wave feminists were dead right. The personal is political.
Tree With Water
@Another Holocene Human: That was an outstanding if incomprehensible rant. El Deano really gets under your skin, doesn’t he?
Amir Khalid
@cckids:
Maybe you can get someone to donate an 8-track player, which you can then bundle with the tapes.
Another Holocene Human
@Michael Bersin: Thanks for the work you do. What does it say about a congresscrittur that their comm director is a complete clueless noodle? Aren’t they paid to know who everybody is? Wow.
ETA: unless in this anecdote he was being a dick rather than a dickhead
Michael Bersin
@Cervantes:
She was greeted warmly by a significant number of people in the crowd. The same people who are being royally screwed by her ideology. They believe, and so powerful is their belief that it overwhelms their reality. We understand cognitive dissonance quite well here in west central Missouri because we observe it all of the time.
Another Holocene Human
@Tree With Water: Dean doesn’t get under my skin but doom porn purveyors pretending to be Democrats do.
Mnemosyne
@Another Holocene Human:
I think the communications director was making a joke.
Another Holocene Human
@Violet: Vermont is deeply uncomfortable with the Democratic Party and especially that coalition having power, although they’ve thrown in the towel with the GOP.
Jim Jeffords, R — switched parties to deny them [ETA: 21st century GOP] a majority
Howard Dean, D — talks up the Confederate flag, talks down Dems fighting
Bernie Sanders, I — which gives him a national rep of being super lefty even though several congressional D’s are more liberal and/or lefty than he is, just look at his voting record
Patrick Leahy, D — but allows racist Southern GOP Senators to block African Americans who aren’t confirmed ClownHall™ wingnuts being appointed to the federal bench because “comity”
Vermont is a very pretty state and the accent is just the right lilt but their noses are up their own asses because they love the smell of their farts and that distant sound you hear is Vermonters shouting “fuck youuuuuuuuuuu” to the rest of the country because It’s Vermont! Who gives a shit what’s going on in lower dumbfuckistan, amirite? Now hand me some more maple syrup to pour over my ice cream.
Citizen_X
@shelley:
In the US, just as many people have died from Ebola as have died in Joe Scarborough’s office.
Another Holocene Human
Cue Sanders fans complaining that he IS the great white liberal hope, perhaps unaware that he, for example, voted to keep Gitmo open, notable amongst many hypocritical actions….
I understand he’s quite popular with low-info lefties who heart Rand Paul, however.
Blinded by whiteness.
Michael Bersin
@Another Holocene Human:
Her Communications Director knows enough about the business to not make it difficult for me to do my job. I ain’t in the club (not that I want to be) and they’re not going to go out of their way to include me in anything. He has a a very interesting back story.
Michael Bersin
@Mnemosyne: He was.
Another Holocene Human
@FlipYrWhig:
But it’s not odd at all for a would-be influence peddler in the private sector working for 1%ers.
1%ers don’t like ideologues. They like their toadies more … malleable.
Another Holocene Human
@Michael Bersin: Ah, my bad.
fleeting expletive
I have the cutest old 8-track rewinder machine that looks like a sports car. You lift the “hood” and pop in the tape, it goes fast. I think I’ve got a largish box of 8 tracks in the garage, but no player.
Cervantes
@Another Holocene Human:
Not to stop you in mid-stream-of-consciousness or anything but do you recall his explanation of that vote?
Such as … ?
Violet
@Another Holocene Human: What does Vermont have to do with anything Howard Dean, a former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, says about Democrats playing politics? When he’s talking about “Democrats playing politics” he’s not talking about Democrats in Vermont.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mnemosyne: also, too, the task of coordinating several government agencies requires, I suspect, a very particular set of skills. Whether Klain or someone like him was called a “czar”– one of the political buzzwords that make me crazy– or was working as a special advisor to a Surgeon General, I think you want an old bureaucratic hand in this situation.
I was always pretty meh on Dean, but the Dean-worship bewilders me. The fifty state strategy is a fine idea and a good rallying cry, but there were a lot of other factors involved in ’06. It wasn’t St Howard’s one man show.
Baud
@Another Holocene Human:
I’m neither a lover nor a hater of Howard Dean, but Vermont strikes me as one of the better of our states.
Violet
@cckids: Pretty sure I’ve seen some 8-track tapes in some resale stores. Maybe even in some of those fancy vinyl record stores that seem to be happening in trendy areas these days. If you can find an 8-track player somewhere you could bundle them. Might be a fun throwback gift for someone. Or a gag gift for a gift exchange.
Another Holocene Human
Anybody else think Bryan Stevenson, Daily Show guest on Thursday, kind of resembles Senator Cory ******?
mai naem mobile
I like Dean but hes not any left wing liberal. Hes just a Rockefeller Republican with a technocratic pragmatic bent topped off with a big fat dollop of noblesse oblige. I remember reading about his background when he started running. Apparently there were Dean and Sanders wings of the Vt Dem party battling all the time.
El Caganer
@Another Holocene Human: Well, I’m sure no blinded-by-whiteness guy. Carson-West in ’16!
Cervantes
@mai naem mobile:
But for the background of murder and mayhem, it was fascinating to watch John Kerry during the primaries in 2004 criticizing Dean for advocating a more balanced policy towards Israel and Palestine.
I wonder these days if Kerry ever thinks about that episode. It would do him a world of good.
Applejinx
I’m a Vermonter.
I much prefer when people around here are able to go ‘yay’ over things Vermont politicians have done. Makes me happy.
For the times that they are still fucking up… show me how your state’s people are doing way better, and I’ll move there. Also, I don’t necessarily trust that random internet bloggers know how to politics better than my Vermont pols.
We are after all the ones who let NH have the entire Connecticut River, bank to bank, and then the very next subject on the agenda was who will build all the bridges. And we said we’ll build the bits on our land, and you build the bits on YOUR property… when stuff seems wrong about what they do, I wonder whether there’s horse-trading going on, or whether I don’t really know everything. We do know that everything is twisty and corrupt in Washington, right? Can’t go by whether our guy vetoed the ‘Kittens and Puppies Act’ that is seemingly the most obvious thing in the world.
I’d have thought closing Gitmo was super obvious. If Bernie didn’t think so, he knows something about that situation that I don’t. I’m not even going to get mad at him for it before hearing his side.
After a bit of googling: Elizabeth Warren joined Bernie and Pat Leahy in voting against the closing of Gitmo, and it seems like part of it is because the specific plan in question just moved the same practice of indefinite detention to the United States itself. I’m not down with that, so I guess I agree with Bernie Sanders and won’t be angrily phoning him about the matter.
Mnemosyne
@mai naem mobile:
I remember the story that Dean told in 2004 about having to take his father out for a three-martini lunch in order to break the news to him that he was leaving the family’s finance business to go to medical school. Because, yes, when you’re in the upper class, saying that you’re going to become a doctor is like saying you’re going to work at McDonald’s — why would you want to work in the service industry?
The Other Chuck
@Amir Khalid:
Liz Taylor then.
Violet
@Mnemosyne: Well, there’s the whole “leaving the family business” part too. It might be that Dean’s dad really wanted his son to take over the business. That’s a fairly common thing and can be a lot of pressure on the son or daughter when they want to do something different. But yeah, in this case, upper class problems.
Svensker
@cckids:
All depends on what they are
mclaren
Based on Eric Holder’s disgraceful and grotesquely derelict underperformance as Attorney General, we don’t need an Attorney General of the United States — just give the post to a rubber stamp that obsequiously and obediently confirms as legal any atrocity the President requests.
Want to murder some innocent teenage girls with drones in a country America’s not at war with?
No problemo! That rubber stamp will say “YES, IT’S LEGAL!” just like Eric Holder did.
Feel like hoovering up all the email and cellphone records and bank records and phone conservations of every citizen of America without a warrant?
Sure thing! That rubber stamp will say “GO RIGHT AHEAD, IT’S PERFECTLY LEGAL!” just like Eric Holder did.
Want to continue the Bush-era torture, just without drawing any blood?
Hey, go for it! That rubber stamp will dutifully announce “IF THE PRESIDENT DOES IT, THAT MEANS IT’S LEGAL!” just like Eric Holder did.
Want to let giant corporations get away scot free with committing massive criminal fraud on a gargantuan scale, stealing 3 billion dollars in wage theft from employees?
You betcha! That rubber stamp will decline to prosecute the wealthy corporate crime lords and announce “WE’LL JUST HAVE A SETTLEMENT IN WHICH THE CORPORATE CRIMINALS MUST PAY NO MONEY NOR SERVE ANY JAIL TIME!” just like Eric Holder did.
El Caganer
@mclaren: So what? At least he’s not from Vermont.
PIGL
@Tree With Water: all the money in the world couldn’t buy back those days.
PhilbertDesanex
@Mnemosyne: After said three-martini lunch his father went back to manage pension funds or something.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PIGL: You pull back the curtains
and the sun burns in to your eyes….
PIGL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sadly, even those much more recent days are long past the buying back. Sure like that album, though.
Cervantes
@efgoldman:
So when Elliot Richardson, Nixon’s AG, resigned rather than carry out presidential orders he felt were illegitimate, you were disappointed and disoriented? You felt he was not living up to the ideals of his office?
And how did you feel about Alberto Gonzales?
I’m sure you don’t like what he or she said, but the insult could not be more irrelevant.
Tree With Water
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hero worship has absolutely nothing to do with my applauding Dean’s remarks to Chris Hayes. What I did was simply salute the fact he called Perry the ignoramus that Perry undeniably is, in plain english, and on a national broadcast. It was refreshing to hear. Such honesty reflects well on the democratic party, serving as both a defense of common sense (always a good thing), and in this case in defense of the democratic president that exiled him to a political wilderness– along, of course, with the political wing Dean represented, circa 2003-2008.
The Other Chuck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This sounds way more badass when you say it in Liam Neeson’s voice.
gwangung
@efgoldman: She’s also a racist ashhole. Holder has objectively done well on voting right, which is a major concern to the minority community.And she has NEVER shown much concern or sympathy to minority concerns, except when she could lecture us on how to do things.
sparrow
@WereBear: One of my current cats, which is the best cat I ever had, came as a 1-year old from a shelter. She had been fostered in a couple homes, and had a litter of kittens + adopted 3 more whose mother had died. Did I mention she is the BEST CAT EVER? She comes when you call her, always, talks to you in really funny kitty-words, and is our house muse of “cozification” (the art of being cozy), often found in hilarious only-a-cat-would-be-comfortable sleeping positions.
TriassicSands
Bullets don’t hurt people; harsh words about guns and gun owners hurt people.
Another Holocene Human
@Applejinx: Hm, I can smell the smug from here in Florida. It’s cool that Vermonters are so happy and pleased with themselves that they pay no attention to the outside world, that’s cool, and I’m happy for you.
Look, don’t feel bad about the NH thing. I grew up in MA, believe me everyone in MA (and ME) knows that NH is full of special snowflake whiney cheap bastards. Don’t take it personally. They’re just that way. VT has the best schools in NE and NH has if not the worst (RI?) at least the most problems funding them because of their really dumb tax system. Their dumb setup has actually encouraged libertarian ideologues to come there to the state to settle and ostensibly make shit even worse, but they’ve lost elections lately. You can tell by the way Scott Brown fans talk at his rallies that they’re not at all happy about that, either.
But, ya know, when VT is most famous for helping white supremacists continue to terrorize Blacks in the South through the injustice system maybe it’s time for good VTers to make calls to their senators and gently suggest that they dislodge their hoary heads from their asses?