... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... it would seem the conservative members of the court, making a calculation that their chances of winning would not improve with time, were behind the decision to take up the [marriage equality issue]. The aha moment came on Tuesday. After Justice Anthony M. Kennedy suggested that the court should dismiss the case, Justice Antonin Scalia tipped his hand. 'It's too late for that now, isn’t it?' he said, a note of glee in his voice. 'We have crossed that river,' he said. That was a signal that it was a conservative grant." CW: you may have crossed that river, Nino, but it's your River Trebia; i.e., you lose.
Charlotte & Harriet Childress, in a Washington Post op-ed, on white men as mass murderers & enablers of mass murderers. "If life were equitable, white male gun-rights advocates would face some serious questions to assess their degree of credibility and objectivity. We would expect them to explain: What facets of white male culture create so many mass shootings? Why are so many white men and boys producing and entertaining themselves with violent video games and other media? Why do white men buy, sell and manufacture guns for profit; attend gun shows; and demonstrate for unrestricted gun access disproportionately more than people of other ethnicities or races? Why are white male congressmen leading the fight against gun control?" ...
... Dana Milbank: "Obama on guns -- too little, too late."
"GOP's Post-Election Outreach Hits Some Speed-Bumps"
Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn't matter what they are. They don't get to change the definition. -- Dr. Ben Carson, the right's favorite black person ever since he verbally attacked President Obama at a prayer breakfast ...
... Benjy Sarlin of TPM: "Students at Johns Hopkins University's medical school are circulating a petition to replace Dr. Benjamin Carson as their commencement speaker after the famed neurosurgeon linked gay marriage to pedophilia and bestiality in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity." Read the students' entire letter. ...
... Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "The co-director of Johns Hopkins University's sexuality studies program is speaking out against his colleague Dr. Ben Carson's recent comments comparing supporters of marriage equality to members of NAMBLA and practitioners of bestiality. 'I don't think most people at Hopkins think what he says on this subject matters,' Professor Todd Shepard, co-director of the university's Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, said in a statement to Media Matters. 'They make him look nasty, petty, and ill-informed. It doesn't tell us anything about his amazing abilities as a surgeon. It does remind us, however, that those abilities do not mean we should listen to what he says in any other domain.'"
... Heather of Crooks & Liars: Dr. Carson "made an appearance on Andrea Mitchell's show on MSNBC and did a really lousy job of defending them, claiming that he was 'taken out of context' and wasn't actually trying to equate all of those things." CW: Yo, Dr. Carson -- "taking words out of context" is what Andrew Breitbart did to Shirley Sherrod; it is not replaying what you said, which was what you meant.
... David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun: "Carson told the Sun, 'I've caught wind of [the students' petition] and I've sent back a message that this is their graduation, their big day, and if they think me being there is going to be a problem, I am happy to withdraw.'" He also said, "Now perhaps the examples were not the best choice of words, and I certainly apologize if I offended anyone." And stuff about the Bible.
Meredith Shiner of Roll Call: "Top Republicans, including Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, are beginning to condemn fellow GOP Rep. Don Young of Alaska for his use of a racial slur to describe Latino workers. Boehner on Friday morning demanded Young apologize for the remarks he made to a local radio station, in which he said that his father 'used to have 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes' on their family ranch. 'Congressman Young's remarks were offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he holds,' Boehner said in a statement Friday. 'I don't care why he said it -- there's no excuse and it warrants an immediate apology.' Young has not apologized for his remarks. He only clarified to say that he knows 'this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect,' according to KTUU in Alaska." ...
... So then Young said he was sorrier for his "poor choice of words." CW: I'm pretty sure all this will make his a leader of the effort to find a path to citizenship for "whatever you want to call those people." You know, I finally get why certain people refer to minorities & others as "those people." It's because -- unlike Don Young -- they know better than to use the slurs they use in ordinary conversation. ...
... Jamelle Bouie: "Rep. Young’s remarks may have been unintentionally insensitive, but the fact he didn't even know the remark was insensitive itself underscores the problem. If the party were serious about making Latinos feel at home -- and didn't see outreach as mere 'tokenism' -- such outbursts would be far less likely."
More "GOP Minority Outreach." Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "Republicans are continuing their minority outreach efforts this month by introducing a bill outlawing Spanish and other non-English languages from being used in federal documents. Steve King (R-IA), most recently in the headlines after attacking President Obama's young daughters for going on vacation, introduced the English Language Unity Act in the House earlier this month, along with Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) in the Senate. As King notes on his website, the bill would require 'all official functions of the United States to be conducted in English.' Federal and state governments print thousands of documents every year, many of which are translated into other languages besides English. One major impact King's bill could have is to stop the decades-long practice of printing non-English ballots in areas where there's a significant non-English language group."
Gail Collins: "It's not often we stop to ask ourselves: 'What's going on with North Dakota?' But I believe this is the moment." ...
... New York Times Editors: "The clear message is the need for a stepped-up effort to hold state officials electorally accountable for policies that harm women in states where right-wing Republicans control the machinery of government."
Right Wing World
** Freeeeedom! Alex Pareene on what "freedom" means to Koch brothers-funded "intellectuals." Because this "study" quantifies what these supposed brainiacs think are the elements of freedom, the results constitute an eye-opener. Their bottom line: North Dakota -- see Gail Collins, NYT editors above -- is the tippy-top most free state, while some blue states like California & New York are virtual prisons. Which I guess means millions of people are masochists for preferring to live in CA & NY over ND -- the choice of about 2.2 percent of Americans.
Local News
Timothy Pratt of the New York Times: "... on Thursday evening, not long after the [Nevada State Legislature voted to expel him, Assemblyman Steven] Brooks was arrested near Barstow, Calif., after throwing metal objects out the window of his car during a high-speed chase, according to the Barstow police. He was being held Friday on $100,000 bail and facing four charges, including resisting an officer with force."
Sex, Sex and Videotape. Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: the clients a prostitution ring in Kennebunkport, Maine, near the Bush family summer home, included a former mayor, a high school hockey coach & a minister. All caught on tape.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Yvonne Brill, who died on Wednesday at 88 in Princeton, N.J., was also a brilliant rocket scientist, who in the early 1970s invented a propulsion system to help keep communications satellites from slipping out of their orbits. The system became the industry standard, and it was the achievement President Obama mentioned in 2011 in presenting her with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.... Mrs. Brill ... is believed to have been the only woman in the United States who was actually doing rocket science in the mid-1940s, when she worked on the first designs for an American satellite."
New York Times: "Phil Ramone, a prolific record producer and engineer who worked with some of the biggest stars of the last 50 years, including Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Barbra Streisand, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 79."
Washington Post: "The latest round of threats exchanged by North Korea and the United States is dragging on longer and taking on a more virulent tone than in the past, provoking deep concerns among American officials and their allies." ...
... Reuters Update: "North Korea said on Saturday it was entering a 'state of war' with South Korea, but Seoul and its ally the United States played down the statement as tough talk."
AP: "U.S. special operations forces handed over their base in a strategic district of eastern Afghanistan to local Afghan special forces on Saturday, a senior U.S. commander said. The withdrawal satisfies a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that U.S. forces leave the area after allegations that the Americans' Afghan counterparts committed human rights abuses there on U.S. orders." ...
... Reuters: "A NATO helicopter supporting Afghan security forces killed two children and nine suspected Taliban fighters on Saturday, officials said, a month after President Hamid Karzai forbade troops to call for foreign air support."
The AP has more on the Atlanta school test cheating scandal, linked in yesterday's Ledes.
Reuters: "Former South African President Nelson Mandela is comfortable and able to breathe without problems as he continues to respond to treatment after spending a third night in hospital for a lung infection, President Jacob Zuma's office said on Saturday."
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Reader Comments (11)
Been enjoying Don Young's latest squirm, and wonder why he overlooked the pickaninnys in pappy's workforce.
@James Singer: because, as he has no doubt said, there were more huskies and injuns working for pappy.
Marie
Re: Teddy Cruz: He may pride himself on being of the Tea Party, but he's not. He's already sold out to the NRA (no restrictions on buying guns) and Big Oil (can't mention climate change in an innocuous resolution).
As for the NRA, I think they're looking ou for their handlers, the gun and ammunition manufacturers. Why oppose increasing penalties for straw purchasing? Simple, straw purchasing keeps a steady supply of weaponry into areas that have strict gun control; e.g., Mexico, New York, Chicago, or into the hands of people who can't legally have guns.. Same goes for mentally disturbed people. They tend to buy lots of guns. And every time there's a mass shooting, some people panic and stock up.
After all, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down, military contracts will dry up. Gotta keep the production lines going somehow.
Capitalism at its best--if you have no conscience or morals.
Ah so, Marie. But according to my Alabammy mammy, there were also scibbies (that is Japanese, but I can find no reference to this term of endearment other than dear old mama's mutterings) and, god knows, there were chinks, kikes, and wops. I've often wondered how my father, the marxist, tolerated her all those years.
I went on the Johns Hopkins' med school Facebook page and was horrified to read that the majority of comments defended what Dr. Carson had to say about gay marriage, bestiality, etc. If these (I assume young people) from a supposedly first-rate medical school are training to be our future doctors, I am appalled. The emotional intelligence of the commenters was zero, nada--completely missing.
I hope the Facebook commenters were simply wingnuts and malcontents, and that the saner, more mature students just signed the petition and went about their business.
I don't care if Dr. Carson IS a superior neurosurgeon. He is a deficient human being. End of story.
Re: Endless war; Read Alan Zarembo's article in yesterdays LA Times. Show it to your favorite deficit screamer. The neocons and the Bush family used credit to fund the Islamic Wars. Now the tab is coming due.
"The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will ultimately cost between $4 trillion and $6 trillion, with medical care and disability benefits weighing heavily for decades to come, according to a new analysis."
I think the corporations of war should pay; they won't, we will.
Re: That 6 trillion war debt coming due. That works out to about
$20,000.00 from every man, woman and child in the USA. Now
if every man, woman and child in the USA will kindly send me
$20,000.00 in cash or travelers checks I will load it on my truck
and personally drive it to Washington. I promise. (Address to
follow).
http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=351
Please join Bernie in opposing Chained CPI.
@CW Ayoob, a deal has been made heah re the: "Sex, Sex and Videotape scandal in Kennebunk (Kennebunkport is next door, and some folks are mighty touchy about their town's good name being included in the mentions). An observation: of the 140 plus names of johns, the ones released for publication were obviously expendable... as the article put it, people lost interest because most named were FROM AWAY. Makes one wonder, now that a plea deal has supposedly ENDED this...who was among the 80 or so unnamed johns that escaped getting their names splashed in the papers! Watch for the movie coming to your neighborhood theatre soon.
Some other musings. When SCOTUS finally comes to a decision on Prop 8 and should it turns out as most think or hope...do you suppose each judge might appear that day wearing a robe in one of the colors of the rainbow? I'm thinking YELLOW for Alito, VIOLET for Scalia, BLUE for Thomas.
As a companion piece to the King/Inhofe bill to eliminate the use of anything but English in Federal documents, the "no ignorant cracker talk" bill is in order. The astounding perversity with which these useless shitslugs approach humanity is criminal. I suspect sex with a chicken is the height of sexual fantasy for this duo. (I'm sorry my father was a Marine and never censored himself on my account - thanks dad.)
I just wanted to thank Diane for the text of my upcoming forehead tattoo: "No ignorant cracker talk."