I have just been informed that Boghan now has a sister, and that Seth will be keeping Ellie. Must run in the family. But really, once a dog chooses you, what are you supposed to do?
Oh. So That Is Where They Draw the Line
Reason’s Mike Moynihan:
At Sunday’s Tea Party rally in Washington, I overheard a few effusive endorsements of Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, the longshot conservative running against the very moderate Republican Congressman Mike Castle for Vice President Joe Biden’s old Senate seat. The race was once considered an easy layup for Delaware Republicans, but with the rise of O’Donnell, a crackpot of the first order, it looks increasingly likely that Democrat Chris Coons will be packing the U-Haul for D.C. in November. As stats wizard Nate Silver points out, if O’Donnell wins today’s primary, the Republicans lose the seat in November: “Whereas Mr. Castle is nearly a 95 percent favorite against the Democratic nominee, Chris Coons, according to last week’s FiveThirtyEight forecasting model, Ms. O’Donnell would have just a 17 percent chance of winning a race against Mr. Coons.”
And the intellectual case against O’Donnell is overwhelming. A précis for those who have avoided the Delaware drama: O’Donnell lied about attending a Master’s degree program at Princeton University; claimed that her political enemies are creeping in the bushes outside her house; is opposed to the sinister habit of masturbation; is a supporter of the “ex-gay” movement, despite the inconvenient revelation that her former staffer Wade Richards “returned” to homosexuality and denounced those peddling “cures” for his sexuality; filed a $6 million lawsuit against the conservative group ISI for “gender discrimination”; was denounced by her former campaign manager as a “fraud” who uses campaign donations to pay rent and utility bills; and has implied that her Republican opponent is gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
As the former head of the clumsily named Savior’s Alliance for Lifting the Truth (SALT), O’Donnell was the Tipper Gore of the 1990s, attending lewd and lascivious rock concerts just to tell stoned, Satanist teenagers that they were going to hell. “Walking through the crowd I also noticed more pentagrams than crosses around the teenage necks,” she gasped. At a 1997 music festival in Washington, D.C., the Catholic killjoy “distributed thousands of brochures with information on the failure rate of condoms, on AIDS, on sexually transmitted diseases, abortion, pornography and the movement of former homosexuals.”
Can anyone explain to me how this description of O’Donnell’s views is substantively different from pretty main stream views within the current GOP? They are certainly no different from the insane gibberish you hear and see on t-shirts and signs at tea party events or C-PAC or anywhere on a Focus on the Family flier.
Hell, over half that stuff could be attributed to the Queen Bee herself, Sarah Palin, but you would have to throw in exorcisms and witch doctors and membership in a separatist movement. Paranoia? Palin openly worries about “moles in the crowd,” let alone outside in the bushes, but if you ask Graeme Frost, you can find wingnuts in the bushes, too. Did Moynihan miss the McConnell primary, where they openly whispered that he was gay? Ask Lindsey Graham about that. Making a buck or two and living rent free- has he not heard of the C-Street house where lots of folks lived rent free and used interns as servants? Is he unaware that the last Republican administation spent hundreds of millions fighting porn and funding abstinence only education?
None of the things listed in here that make O’Donnell “crazy” are any different from commonly held beliefs in the current Republican party. Is Moynihan just now realizing that the “limited government advocates” that make up the tea party are the same batshit insane people running the GOP? And that these are the crazies they have been fluffing the last year? There is a “reason” I am exceptionally volatile with the smirking retardation that passes as thought at Reason magazine these days- these are the people you are empowering. O’Donell isn’t an outlier.
Or is it just because O’Donnell is going to lose?
And Yet Another Entry From the “No Shit” Department
This is the least surprising thing you will read all month:
We now have clear evidence that there’s a direct link between public anti-Islam sentiment and public opposition to the construction of Cordoba House, a.k.a. the “Ground Zero mosque.”
The evidence can be found in the internals of the new Washington Post poll on Islam and the planned center, and it was provided to me by Post polling director Jon Cohen. The numbers directly contradict the claim by opponents that public opposition to the project is not linked to broader anti-Islam sentiment, and is only rooted in a desire to be sensitive to 9/11 families or to respect Ground Zero as hallowed ground.
The poll’s toplines show that 66 percent of Americans oppose the Islamic center. Separately, a plurality, 49 percent, has generally unfavorable views of Islam.
But it’s the intersection of these numbers revealed in the internals that proves the point.
In other words, bigotry is the motivating force behind the anti-mosque sentiment. I’m shocked to learn this.
And Yet Another Entry From the “No Shit” DepartmentPost + Comments (41)
Late Night Open Thread
Back to streaming some BBC shows, but here is a Tunch action shot for you:
I just cleaned the couch, so I guess I should have seen this coming. That region is normally covered by a blanket, but I guess he deemed it unworthy.
Also, just a side note, but I am now labeling the salsa I can “Fat Cat Salsa.” Because.
Good News for People Who Love Bad News
Break out the champagne, spending on healthcare is down:
The economic crisis in the United States has reduced the use of routine medical care, and the cutbacks here are much deeper than in countries with universal health care systems, researchers say in a new report.
Wishing WILL Make It So, Or Else
Via commentor El Cid, the latest incarnation of our great Real American(tm) tradition of insisting that what we want to be true must be true… and death to anyone who disagrees. “Sovereign citizens spin history, reject government”:
As many as 300,000 people identify as sovereign citizens, the Southern Poverty Law Center found in a study to be published Thursday that was obtained by The Associated Press. Hate group monitors say their numbers have increased thanks to the recession, the foreclosure crisis, the growth of the Internet and the election of Barack Obama in 2008…
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At the heart of their belief system: The government creates a secret identity for each citizen at birth, a “straw man,” that controls an account at the U.S. Treasury used as collateral for foreign debt. File enough documents at the right offices and the money in those accounts can be used to pay off debt or make purchases worth thousands of dollars.
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The movement is based on a form of “legal fundamentalism,” said Michael Barkun, a retired Syracuse University political science professor who researches anti-government and hate groups.
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“These people really seem to feel that filing certain kinds of legal papers that are connected to their theories will somehow also magically have the power to alter relationships and grant things that otherwise would be unobtainable,” he said.
[…]
No One Could Have Predicted
No one could have predicted that the outcome of Gibbs’ stupid remarks would be a multi-month poutrage in which the media would rush to highlight Obama’s mythical problems with the left:
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: With White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs lashing out at President Obama’s liberal critics, a card-carrying member of Gibbs’ “professional left” joined us on ABC/Washington Post’s “Top Line” today. (Yes, she actually brought a card – a digital version.)
Jane Hamsher, the founder of the liberal blog Firedoglake.com, told us that Gibbs’ swipe reflects a White House that’s taken the left for granted – inattention that she said could hurt Democratic candidates in 2010 and beyond.
“It went over like a lead balloon — particularly in August when all the members of Congress are back in their home states, campaigning, trying to whip up enthusiasm,” Hamsher told us. “We’re seeing tremendous demoralization amongst the sort of Democratic base….
Oh, wait. I predicted this would happen… I will simply restate what I wrote in the comments a few hours ago:
It really is odd. The more I move to the left the more I hate the people I agree with. Guess it is like family. I love them, but really need a break after a few hours with them. Because they make me so GOD DAMNED MAD.
Gibbs said something stupid and counter-productive. Now we can spend the next few months going on tv and tweeting about how offended we are and how much the White House sucks. This will no doubt be helpful for all involved.
At some point I wish people would realize that Rick Klein and those fanning the flames don’t give two hoots in hell about progressive issues. All evidence points to the fact that they are actively working against us.
*** Update ***
And by the way, in case anyone is wondering, the next step in the “I AM RELEVANT” charade we go through every couple of months is that Warren will be nominated to the new agency. Rather than acknowledging that the Obama team has sent signals all along that she would be nominated, we will all be required to pretend that it was a gift to progressives who rose up and showed how mighty we are in the wake of the Gibbs remarks. See! We are important! And then, when the blue dogs and Republicans cockblock her nomination, we can spend weeks writing that the White House secretly hates progressives and Obama didn’t do enough and all he needed to do was use the bully pulpit and this was just 11 dimensional chess to slap liberals in the face. Just like Dawn Johnsen. And Ben Nelson and Lieberdouche and the others will get off without their perfidy in blocking the nomination even mentioned.
Anyone want to bet?