Great Trip Report coming
...but there's a small problem
Wed-Sunday May 27-31, 2009 Vol
2341 - The Cleveland Steamer
.
Quote of
the Day
"That's the test, will they be an activist
or not? And I would hope that there wouldn't
be any circumstances that would be so extreme
with any of the president's nominees that
I might feel the need to filibuster..."
-- Ben Nelson (D-Traitor) so f-ing eager for
any excuse to stab Obama in the back Link
Like I've been saying,
80 Demo senators
wouldn't really make a difference because
40
of them would still stab Obama in the back
Has a Rethug ever stabbed their president in the back?
No, that's a Democratic exclusive.
How did I get in a party of traitors and weasels?.
"The appointment of Maria Sotomayor is the
clearest indication yet that Obama's promise to be a centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric.
Sotomayor comes from the far left and will likely leave us with something akin to the "Extreme Court"
that could mark a major shift. If she is confirmed, then we need to take the blindfold off Lady Justice." -- that asshole Huckabee,
Link
I love it!
I want the GOP screaming and kicking over this nomination.
I want their top 2012 prospects leading the charge to destroy
this Hispanic lady judge.
I want them hysterical and blue in the face from anger.
Since I never heard of her, I was afraid she might be a centrist,
but as long as the right-wing bastards are screaming, I'm happy.
Excerpt: This is a shrewd nomination politically, and
not only because of the obvious payoff with Hispanic voters.
The choice of Sotomayor also puts Republicans
and moderate Democrats who may be deeply unhappy
with her jurisprudence in a lose-lose position,
and Obama in a win-win position.
If Republicans attack Judge Sotomayor's more controversial
actions, they risk provoking a backlash among
Hispanic voters, who have already been moving
into the Democratic column in droves. On the other hand,
if Republicans hold their fire to avoid offending
Hispanic voters, the president gets the benefit of installing a
justice who seems deep into Democratic identity
politics without the cost of a contentious confirmation battle.
The Republican dilemma is underscored by the fact
that the Sotomayor actions they might be eager to attack
are themselves especially likely to engage the
sympathies of Hispanic voters. In a 2001 speech, Sotomayor
suggested that "a wise Latina woman with the
richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than
a white male who hasn't lived that life."
This will strike many Republicans as the essence
of the ethnic and gender stereotyping that liberals once
properly abhorred. But with Republicans already
in danger of being seen as the white-male party,
rushing to the defense of white males may not
be a winning argument politically.
But why should we assume an old white guy would make better decisions
than a Hispanic lady?
Someone familiar with discrimination mihgt make wiser decisons than
someone who isn't.
I get the human nature thing - that's it's easier to identify with "someone
like us,"
but America is changing and we don't have to be afraid of that change.
"The nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor is
troubling. Her public statements make it clear she has an expansive view of the role of the judiciary.
Historically, the Court is where judges interpret the Constitution and apply the law. It should never be the
place "where policy is made," as Judge Sotomayor has said. Like any nominee, she deserves a fair and
thorough hearing. What the American public deserves is a judge who will put the law above her own personal
political philosophy." -- that shit Ronmey,
Link
Squeal, Mitt, squeal!!!
Actually, he doesn't seem very upset.
I guess he's not running in 2012...
Excerpt: There may have been a time when America was a
land of at least some brave people. although arguably a nation that celebrates
a history that features lots of people with modern
guns and cannons conquering and destroying another people who were living
in
the stone age and fighting back with bows and
arrows, and that built its economy on the backs of men and women held in
chains
certainly has a tough case to make. What is clear
though is that there is nothing brave about modern-day America.
Whatever we were, we have degenerated into a nation
that finds glory in deploying the most advanced high-tech, high-explosive
weaponry against some of the world's poorest
people, that justifies killing women and children, even by the dozens,
even if by
doing so it manages to kill one alleged "enemy"
fighter. A nation that exalts remote-controlled robot drone aircraft that
can attack
targets in order to avoid risking soldiers' lives,
even though by doing so, it is predictable that many, many innocent people
will be killed.
A nation that is proud to have developed weapons
of mass slaughter, from shells laden with phosphorus that burns to death,
indiscriminately, those who are contacted by
the splattered chemical to elaborately baroque anti-personnel fragmentation
bombs
that spread cute little colored objects designed
to look like everything from toys to food packages, but which upon contact
explode,
releasing whirling metal or plastic fleschettes
which shred human flesh on contact.
Hubby and I have been buying Fords for years and
have never had a single problem with any of them.
My daughter's friend's all tell her how horrible
they've heard the Ford Focus is, but we've got three of them
(2003, 2005 & 2007) and never so much as
a paint peel. Just the usual breaks, oil changes and other fluids.
I think we've only replaced a fuel filter on
the 2003. Hubby's 2005 is a 5-speed manual that has 130,000
highway miles on it, and is running perfectly.
On the other hand, we won't talk about the Saturn
we bought that required a new engine after 45,000 miles.....
Since Saturn is closing in 2012, we won't have
to worry about ever buying a Saturn again (and wouldn't to begin with
- someone told us how great they were - we should
have stuck with our Fords - the Saturn debacle which was
supposed to be a $13000 car ended up costing
us $22,000 with the new engine and other parts - once the engine went,
the O2 sensors failed - first the front one,
then the back, then the alternator died and after that the check engine
light
never went out - when we hit the $22,000 mark
we just traded it in because we'd had enough. It was either that
or drive it into a tree).
Dee from NJ
Dee, can I put you in touch with Danny Detroit?
I'm sure he'd enjoy talking to the other person who likes 'Merican
cars :)
Excerpt: Adam Nagourney reports on the thinking of Harry
Reid, suggesting that Reid dramatically broke with Obama’s
Gitmo policy because he’s worried that Republicans
trying to snatch his Senate seat next year will paint him as too liberal:
With an eye back home, Mr. Reid has taken increasing
care not to be identified with liberals in his party. Republicans say
that whomever they run against him, they'll link
him with Nancy Pelosi just to make him look bad.
Reid lead his caucus against providing the money
that Obama sought to close the torture center.
Reid’s mantra that “we will never allow terrorists
to be released in the United States,” seems to be exactly the calculation
Reid has made. It would be really interesting
to see Nevada residents feel about him stabbing Obama in the back.
Republicans don’t even have a candidate to run
against him yet, but they’ve already gotten Reid to adopt a defensive crouch.
That's Harry Reid, surrendering even before the fight breaks out.
"Why can’t Obama give Bush credit for keeping
us safe for seven years? It would buy him a lot of credit or a lot of good will on the
other side of the aisle and with centrist Democrats if he gave this -- he gave the Bush administration
some credit."
-- Nina Easton, on Fox Whore News, Link
Nina, we'll give Bush credit for keeping us
safe in the last seven years (forget about Katrina) IF you and your entire FoxNews bobblehead
crew admit that they quite stubbornly and fatally did NOT keep us safe for that first year despite
warnings that Bin Laden was determined to strike and that we lost 3,100 Americans
because of that blindness. Deal?"
-- Nicole Belle, Link
Damn, I like this Nicole
Belle. Who is she?
And where did she learn to fight Fascist
dogs so well?
Erik has been advertising on bartcom.com since 2002.
Subject: Monkey Mail: A non lefty
characterizes a lefty approach to judge evaluation
To get the monkey mail stuff out of the way: im
a neokkkon fascist torture fag-bashing darkie-hating warmongering thug
and you're a commie pinko leninist gungrabbing
america hater. Now onto legitimate stuff.
For the record, I own 3 Glocks, a S&W 357,
a Colt 38 Det Special and a derringer for poker games :)
Sotomayor has the chops to be a USSC judge. She's
done federal trial level stuff and sat on a major circuit,
so she knows the issues and has handled appellate
level cases. Her comment though, boiled down to hispanic females
are better judges than white males, baffles me.
I'm a lawyer and I try to draw analogies that help me figure things out.
I used baseball as an analogy and I think it
has helped me see things from the left's perspective. Feel free to critique
me
since thats what your website is about.
There are two types of judges: trial and appellate.
I compare them to umpires in baseball.
A trial judge is like a second base umpire. They
call tags at second base based on what they see.
Making a split second decision whether a runner
is safe or out. There are no hard rules that can be objectively applied,
and sometimes they are wrong. (lets ignore the
fact that trial judges can be appealed for the time being)
Appellate judges are like the home plate umpire
calling balls and strikes. There is a set strikezone. Its determined by
the
constitution first and statutes second and stare
decisis. From my perspectives, the strike zone is the strike zone and there's
strikes and balls and that's it. From the perspective
of the left, race and gender widen or narrow the strike zone to favor
the batter or pitcher. This widening and narrowing
can be dependent upon the identity of the litigants/batter/pitcher.
So Sotomayor's strike zone is determined in part
by her ethnic and gender identity and another part by the parties involved.
To me that doesn't seem to be the function of
a umpire or appellate judge.
But in interpreting Judge Sotomayor's comment,
I draw this analogy. Where am I wrong?
Chris in Florida
I'm not sure you're wrong, but think how strange it would be
to become super-famous overnight
and then have thousands of people researching every sentence that ever
came out of your mouth.
Plus, if you know your baseball every umpire has a different strike
zone. It's a pet peeve of mine
when the slow motion replay shows the ball five inches outside the
strike zone and the whore announcers say,
"That was close." No,
it was NOT close, it was five inches outside the strike zone.
If Sotomayor has a wider strike zone, who cares?
The super-narrow strike zones of Scalia and Slappy Thomas more than
make up for it.
BTW, you can disagree and not be a Monkey mailer.
But people who start off with, "You bed-wetting drunken commie loser..."
are the Monkey mailers.
Excerpt: I just finished an article about "Rolling Thunder",
a patriotic group of ex-vets who ride their motorcycles to Washington DC
every year to honor the men who died in Vietnam.
The article tells how the group "lost their way" in recent years and turned
into a pro-war group. The article repeats the
myth that vets were spit when they got back from Nam. This is total CRAP!
As a Vietnam veteran, I never had any such experience,
nor did ANY veteran I've ever talked to. It's a lie, plain and simple.
Another myth is that all Vietnam vets are drugged
out criminals who lost all sense of morality.
That's just more BS. We were not all criminals.
The same crap is being spread about Arabic people
today. Why? Because, like the "deranged Vietnam vet" of the 70's
they're an easy target to blame and abuse. It's
just another way of reinforcing stereotypes and building support for the
war.
We don't see that every person we kill in a foreign
country creates more radicals who hate us.
It's like Vietnam all over again, only worse.
America is just too bloody stupid to figure it out.
Excerpt: Obama is having some issues with the Senate --
Ben Nelson in particular. Here's an abbreviated list of hurdles:
Dawn Johnsen can't be confirmed to head the Office
of Legal Counsel; health care reform may have to do without
a public option--if it happens at all; and Obama's
goal of shuttering the torture center at Gitmo is suddenly imperiled
by the common cousins of conservative demagoguery
and Democratic sheepishness...That's not entirely surprising.
Ben Nelson is conservative and pro-life and has
always been something of a spoiler for liberals. But since he took
the lead in watering down the stimulus bill in
the early days of the 111th Congress, he's been, if anything,
more invested in the idea of blocking the progressive
agenda than ever--and Senate math is on his side.
I've said for years - the Democrats need to find a way to kick people
out of the party.
If nothing else, can't Obama tell Nelson that he'll fly Air Force One
to Nebraska
and campaign for his primary challenger if he doesn't stop blocking
him?
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Quotes
"Bill Maher's become an angry, bitter guy." -- that piece of crap Hannity,
Link
"No, he's an angry, bitter guy. That's called
projecting. That's called taking what you feel and giving it to somebody else. I'm a happy, single guy.
He's a repressed, typical Republican. I'm sure just terribly sexually repressed and it comes out in all
their sorts of hatred and vile and bile -- why would I be bitter? First of all, our side won. You know, their
side is in a wilderness like they've never been before." -- Bill Maher,
Link
The Premier Site for Tequila Lovers We're here to repair all the damage Cuervo
Gold did to your idea of Tequila because one bad night
in college shouldn't make you miss out on the fruit (juice)
of the gods.
It's like I have a twin...
Subject: How much money
did the Bush bastards spend?
"The appointment of Maria Sotomayor is the
clearest indication yet that Obama's promise to be a centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric.
Sotomayor comes from the far left and will likely leave us with something akin to the "Extreme Court"
that could mark a major shift. If she is confirmed, then we need to take the blindfold off Lady Justice." -- that asshole Huckabee,
Link
I love it!
I want the GOP screaming and kicking over this nomination.
I want their top 2012 prospects leading the charge to destroy
this Hispanic lady judge.
I want them hysterical and blue in the face from anger.
Since I never heard of her, I was afraid she might be a centrist,
but as long as the right-wing bastards are screaming, I'm happy.
Excerpt: A transcript of a secretly recorded phone call
was released in federal court today, a call in which Burris,
then seeking the Senate seat, was recorded offering
the Blagojevich campaign a campaign check.
"I know I could give him a check," Burris said.
"Myself."
"And if I do get appointed that means I bought
it," Burris said.
Yes, we need a way to kick people out of the party.
Excerpt: I caught the Bristol Palin magazine cover and
was blown away. What does it take to get discredited as a moralizing right-wing
"family values" merchant these days? It was one
thing when we found out that super-religious governor Palin was letting
Levi
nail her daughter more or less regularly under
the family roof. It was another when we found out that the governor's sister-in-law
got popped for a B&E while her little daughter
was waiting outside in the car. And it was still another thing when we
found out
that Levi's Mom was going to eat a bust for dealing
Oxycontin (and there's apparently a lot behind Palin's interest in that
story).
For the most part, none of this stuff is any
of our business -- we all have family members with issues, although mine
tend to leave
their kids at home when they go out to commit
burglaries to support their drug habits.
But this abstinence thing with Bristol, to me,
is just too much. This sort of thing always grosses me out: this country
has way too many
people who do stuff like this, dragging their
helpless minor kids with them on national media tours or publishing lengthy
parenting memoirs
in which their unwitting babies play starring
roles as props in Mom's narcissistic fantasies. But this goes even beyond
that. This poor little kid
is going to grow up someday and find out she's
been brand-marketed to the human species by Madison Avenue as The Great
Mistake.
Bristol's quote about how girls need to close
their eyes and imagine spending the rest of their lives with a screaming
baby before they
have sex -- her daughter is someday going to
cough that line up, through sobs, in her fourth or fifth year of very expensive
therapy.
If this little kid isn't hooked on black baggy
clothes and cutting by age 11 I'll be shocked.
"I doubt that Sotomayor can be stopped, but
she should be. She is a horrible pick. She is the antithesis of a judge, by her own admission and in her own words.
She has been overturned 80% of the time by the Supreme Court. She may as well be on the Ninth Circus Court
of Appeals!" -- the vulgar Pigboy,
C'mon, Rush, you can get angrier than that.
Are you getting softer in your old age?
"For the first Catholic to serve on the Court
you've got to go all the way back to Chief Justice Roger Taney (appointed by
Andrew Jackson)."
Interesting judge, that one. Taney (rhymes
w/ "brawny") was the Justice who handed down the infamous Dred Scott decision
in 1857,
with its pro-slavery message that put us on a
collision course w/ the Civil War. Incidentally, the only county
in America that honors him
as its namesake is Taney County, Missouri, in
the heart of John Ashcroft country. http://www.co.taney.mo.us
So the next time some dog-whistling anti-choicer
brings up the Dred Scott decision, we ought to ask why its issuer
is honored in supposedly pro-life Taney County,
home of Branson and Silver Dollar City.
Eddy in OKC
"The other day Bush gave a speech at a graduating
high school class. H told them he finds not being president liberating. Agreed. He told
the kids he now finds himself walking the dog and picking up poop. Finally, something he can actually find. He
couldn't find Osama, he couldn't find the WMDs. If only we were attacked by dog shit on 9-11, we would've
been OK."
-- Bill Maher
> How many decades will it take for our
troops to go cave-to-cave > searching for people that we can't
tell are with us or against us?
We wouldn't have to have those troops in Afghanistan
if the moron, Reagan, and his partner in crime, Bush the Elder,
hadn't seen fit to arm all those religio-crazies
who were fighting, and being contained by the Russians. The Russians were
doing a pretty good job of bombing their Muslim
asses, until the arms merchants in this country got a hardon for selling
them
a bunch of guns and bombs and stinger missles.
They've shown their appreciation by turning those same weapons on our troops.
Chickenhawks have always been good at sending
other people's kids to fight their wars for them.
Bill in Versailles, KY
In a mythical small town, everyone is heavily
in debt.
Luckily, a rich tourist arrives at the local hotel.
He asks for a room and puts down $100 on the reception counter,
takes a key and goes to inspect the room located
up the stairs on the third floor.
The hotel owner takes the banknote in a hurry
and rushes to his meat supplier to whom he owes $100.
The butcher takes the money and races to his supplier
to pay his debt.
The wholesaler rushes to the farmer to pay $100
for pigs he purchased some time ago.
The farmer triumphantly gives the $100 to a local
prostitute who gave him her services on credit.
The prostitute goes quickly to the hotel,where
she owed them for her hourly room use to entertain clients.
At that moment, the rich tourist informs the hotel
owner that the room smells and he takes his $100 back and departs.
There was no profit or income for anybody, but
everyone no longer has any debt
and the townspeople look optimistically towards
their future.
Could this be the solution to the Bush financial
crisis?
"Honolulu just conducted our nation's first
all-digital election. This is so cool. No voting booths, people cast their votes online or by phone.
Everyone here at 'Late Night' would like to congratulate Honolulu's new mayor, a piano playing cat."
-- Jimmy Fallon
I was just wondering out of curiousity if you
think
Randi Rhodes is the Rush Limbaugh for Democrats?
David N
If you mean that in a good way - that she has the most listeners, gets
the biggest paycheck
and is perhaps the most influential Lefty talk radio person, then yes.
But if you're asking if she's a disgusting pig and a shameless, disgusting
gutter whore, then I'd say no.
I've had my problems with Randi over the years but she's no vulgar Pig-girl.
Excerpt: Obama decided to pay a visit to Vegas the same
day most of the pros were arriving in.
As a result, flights were delayed and we know
this by reviewing the Twitters of players stuck on airplanes.
Tiffany Michelle: "It's not everyday
you get 2 watch Air Force One & Mr. President
land at the Vegas airport. Guess it makes my
delayed flight 2 LA suck less."
Maria Ho: "Obama just landed in Air Force
One in Las Vegas delaying our flight for an hour!
Rescue Me is back - and once again it's
the
best show on TV.
Tommy's drinking again (which makes for great
TV) and the demons are lining up to taunt him.
While closing the bar his firehouse owns, his
dead
Dad showed up.
"You were the best son a dad could have."
Shaking, Tommy says, "Thanks, Dad."
"And if you believe that, I have some Florida
swampland to sell you."
From there, things got out of hand and it was
as tense as the first Devil encounter in The Exorcist. It was as good and as intense as any episode
of The Sopranos. It's TV at its best.
For this episode, Denis Leary should
win the Best Actor Emmy. Shit, he should win Best Producer and Best Writer
honors, too.
For this episode, John Scurti (Lou)should
win the Best Supporting Actor Emmy.
Oh, and this all tension happens in the first 15 minutes so you
don't have to invest an hour to see how right I am.
I think FX will rerun this show Sunday night.
Catch it if you want to see a great episode of
the
best show on TV.
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