Post deleted because I’m a moron. And you’d think after ten years of blogging, I’d check the date on things.
Republican Stupidity
So Will Joe Lieberman Strip This Guy of His Citizenship?
These reads like someone who should be forced to go before Lieberman’s new citizenship board:
In the 1980s, King frequently traveled to Northern Ireland to meet with IRA members.[5] In 1982, speaking at a pro-IRA rally in Nassau County, New York, King said: “We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry.”[5][6] A Northern Irish judge ordered King ejected from the former’s courtroom, describing him as “an obvious collaborator with the IRA”.[5] He became involved with NORAID, an organization that the British, Irish and US governments accuse of financing IRA activities and providing them with weapons.[5][7][8][9] He was banned from appearing on British TV for his pro IRA views and refusing to condemn IRA activity in the UK.[5]
In 2000, he called then-presidential candidate George W. Bush a tool of “anti-Catholic bigoted forces.”[5]
He stopped supporting the IRA after being offended by Irish public opposition to the invasion of Iraq,[5] labelling it as begrudgery rather than suspicion of and opposition to the war.
In 2008, King spoke in defense of bail for a fugitive IRA member, Pól Brennan, who had escaped from prison in the UK and been detained in Texas 15 years later. The IRA member, who had broken out of prison during the Maze Prison escape and entered America illegally,[10] was being held without bail after his work permit expired; King said: “My experience dealing with (Irish) republicans is that they don’t jump bail in this country. They honor their commitments.”
That’s a lot of documented associations with bad guys! I know he’s an American Congressmen, but still.
So Will Joe Lieberman Strip This Guy of His Citizenship?Post + Comments (39)
He’s Not Dumb Like Us
Via the Washington Monthly, this piece of humor from the hot 2012 prospect John Thune:
“I think he’s a guy who’s willing to get down into the weeds,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who is No. 4 in GOP leadership. “Because [Corker] immerses himself in that and understands it so well — the positions he adopts may not always be the ones that everyone else in our conference comes to.” [emphasis added]
I’ll note that if the Republicans are simply voting “no” against things they don’t understand, it could really explain why they have chosen to vote no on everything the last two years.
And this is, of course, excellent news for John McCain.
Not All Americans Are Equal
Last week, they wanted to deport American citizens. This week, they want to pick and choose which Americans deserve rights under the law:
Congressional Republicans want to know whether the Pakistani-born American arrested in the Times Square car bombing plot was read his Miranda rights, with Sen. John McCain saying it would be a “serious mistake” if the suspect was reminded of his right to remain silent.
“Obviously that would be a serious mistake until all the information is gathered,” McCain (R-Ariz.) said on “Imus in the Morning” when asked whether the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, should have been Mirandized.
Rep. Peter King (N.Y.), the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, wants to know whether the Justice Department consulted with the intelligence community.
“I hope that [Attorney General Eric] Holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen but still,” King told POLITICO.
“I know he’s and American citizen, but still” really says it all, doesn’t it?
Half our political leadership wants a banana Republic, and our media is just treating it like it is another opinion. At what point do we start calling these people what they are?
And I just don’ know what to say about the obviously insane John McCain. You would think that someone who spent half a decade in a cage with no rights whatsoever in the defense of this nation and our laws and legal tradition and way of life, would have the slightest bit of respect for the rule of law. You would, of course, be wrong.
Also, too.
Ninety Days of Hell from Decades of Neglect
Federal officials speaking about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill Sunday morning appeared to be steeling the Louisiana coast – and the nation – for consequences that could be “catastrophic.”
The officials, who run the agencies charged with mitigating the impact of the spill on America’s Gulf coast, used unusually stark words to describe the situation and the difficulties of the remedy.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said it was the federal government’s job to “keep the boot on the neck of BP,” which is running the cleanup effort.
Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen called the bid to shut down a wellhead spewing at least 210,000 gallons of oil a day from nearly a mile beneath the ocean surface “one of the most complex things we’ve every done.”
He went on to say that, in a worst-case scenario, the well could vent 4.2 million gallons of oil into the Gulf daily. Currently, a crumpled “riser” pipe is preventing the full flow of oil – like a kinked garden hose – though reports suggest it is gradually deteriorating.
Four million gallons a day for ninety days would be equal to roughly 45 Exxon Valdez spills. I fail to see how BP continues to exist as a corporation. And they should be destroyed:
BP, the company that owned the Louisiana oil rig that exploded last week, spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards would be needed to prevent a deepwater well from this type of accident.
***But according to aides to Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has followed offshore drilling issues for years, the industry aggressively lobbied against an additional layer of protection known as an “acoustic system,” saying it was too costly. In a March 2003 report, the agency reversed course, and said that layer of protection was no longer needed.
“There was a big debate under the Bush administration whether or not to require additional oil drilling safeguards but [federal regulators] decided not to require any additional mandatory safeguards, believing the industry would be motivated to do it themselves,” Carl Pope, Chairman of the Sierra Club told ABC News.
Is anyone else noticing a trend here? Decades of onlsaught by Republicans (and many Democrats, as well) and business friendly interests have led to the complete inability or unwillingness of government to regulate our food safety, our water, our financial markets, our mines, and now, tragically, our offshore drilling programs. And in every case, defanging the regulators has led to expensive disasters. All so a select few can make more and more money.
Ninety Days of Hell from Decades of NeglectPost + Comments (121)
Serious Conservative, Ed Morrisey
Ed pimps a new book about Obama (The Manhcurian something or other), then drops this load:
I just received my copy of the book and will try to complete reading it before Aaron appears on The Ed Morrissey Show this week to discuss the book. The book follows the efforts of David Freddoso’s The Case Against Barack Obama (reviewed here) and Jerome Corsi’s Obama Nation. Both of those books shed light on Obama’s past political associations and efforts, but didn’t get as much traction as they deserved, thanks to a wave of popular support for Obama.
Yes. That Jerome Corsi. The birther. The 9/11 truther. Obama Nation was the book that was so riddled with falsehoods and outright lies that virtually everyone in the press mocked it, including Pete Wehner AND the National Review. Here is a 41 page dissection of Corsi’s lies (.pdf). Here is Ross Douthat. Here is Jon Henke.
There are few people with less credibility on any subject than Jerome Corsi. I guess Captain Ed is angling to be one of them.
In for a penny, in for a pound, eh, Ed? I knew I shouldn’t have taken a break from doing yard work.
You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out
The amount of thought going into this idea is self-evident:
Van Cleave said one proposed bill would allow no one but an on-duty officer doing undercover work to drink alcohol while carrying a concealed weapon. The other bill will say that anyone can carry a concealed gun and drink if they wish, “as long as they are not drunk.”
“Whatever the General Assembly assumes will apply to everyone,” he said. “Police officers and permit holders are all in the same tent; so I say: General Assembly, you choose. But whatever it is, we’re equal.”
If there was any way to make sure that these guys would be segregated and there would be no collateral damage inflicted on innocent citizens, I’d completely support the idea of gun nuts being allowed to drink while packing heat. Thinning the herd, if you will.