May 022014
 

I’m writing for tomorrow.  It’s 82° at my desk.  That’s too hot, but it’s 20° less that what it would have been at the old place.  I’ll be ordering my AC on Monday.  That will guarantee cold weather until July.  I spent the entire morning gathering the data for today’s Monthly Report, so the Poll Results will be delayed until Saturday.  Day 11.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:02 (average 4:46).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: After being banned by the N.B.A. Tuesday afternoon, the Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling told reporters that he would miss being around people he hates.

“Sure, I’m saddened by this,” Sterling said. “Sitting in the stands night after night, a boiling cauldron of hatred bubbling inside me—it doesn’t get better than that. Those were good times.”

“Knowing that I’ll never be able to sit in that arena again and look down on the people I despise—that hurts the most,” he said.

Andy describes just how unhappy that typically racist Republican will be, IF the ban sticks.

From Upworthy: When it comes down to it, these kids get it — love is love, and family is family. And the way they talk about their families is absolutely adorable. Prepare to be charmed and delighted.

 

Isn’t this wonderfully different from the hatred Republicans teach their children to spew.

From Daily Kos: Buh bye Republican dreams of voter suppression by onerous Voter ID requirements.

The shiny new law has been on hold and now its dead.  .pdf is here.

In Tuesday’s decision, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee determined the law requiring voters to show one of a narrow set of photo IDs at the polls violated the federal Voting Rights Act and established an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. He issued an injunction barring the law from being enforced.

State Attorney General (Republican) J.B. Van Hollen, who had defended the law, immediately pledged to take the case to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

This is a big win for the people of Fitzwalkerstan and a big loss for Fartfuhrer Walker and Republican election theft.

Cartoon:

0502Cartoon

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  23 Responses to “Open Thread–5/2/2014”

  1. 3:07  That furry puddy tat stuck to that furry flower and wouldn't let me pass!

  2. Upworthy – I think it matters a million times more that parents are loving, caring, consistent and reliable, who enable children to grow into confident loving adults who care for others as well as themselves, rather than obsessing about the sexual orientation of the parents.  Have the Repuglicons not realised that every gay person so far has been brought up in heterosexual households – yet they aren't heterosexual, so how would being brought up by gay people make you gay?  I know a lot of adults who were abused as children in (technically ordinary to the outward gaze) heterosexual households who would have preferred a million times more to have been brought up in a loving caring household no matter the sexual orientation of the parents rather than their own.

    Sandi Toksvig (actress and broadcaster in UK) repeated one of her son's remarks to another child who asked what it was like having two mums – and he said "It's wonderful – even if one is ill, there's always another to do for you…"(!) – children are soooo practical!

    God bless U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee – may the judgement not be over-ruled!

    Cartoon – you are right TC, they probably worship Hitler in private!

     

     

     

     

  3. 4:23  (Average up to 5:01)

    New Yorker – LOL!  Mother Jones has a "Which Donald Said It" quiz http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/04/donald-sterling-donald-trump-quiz  I got 70%. only slightly better than chance.  I admit I can tell Republicans from Democrats most of the time, but I can't tell Republicans apart.

    Upworthy – Yes. delightful kids indeed.  They are so happy, and so comfortable in their own skins.  Not something one can say about GOP kids with protest signs.  I hope that one kid doesn't really grow up to be a mad scientist, though.  I wouldn't put it past him to bring back dinosaurs!

    Daily Kos – "(Judge Adelman) added that anyone committing voter impersonation would be "insane" because the penalties for such an act (a large fine and up to 3 years in prison) would pale in comparison to the casting of a single ballot."  Well, that settles that.  Insane is what Republicans do.

    Cartoon – Yes, and no doubt Hans Sachs, and all the other medieval German craftsman who built trade guilds which protected the craftsmen, but also worked to protect the consumer by requiring competence from the craftsman, was spinning like a top in his grave.

  4. I can relate to your ordering your AC guaranteeing cold weather until July.

    Just like being guaranteed that whatever line you're in at the grocery store (particularly if it's the shortest) – it will move the slowest … and the person just in front of you will remember they forgot a jar of pickles and "Would you mind if I run back and get it REAL quick?" … and then they'll want to pay their bill in pennies … and then they'll need to change the register tape … and then the credit card swiper gizmo will go on the blink … and then …

    • … your grocery bag splits and the contents are strewn all over the parking lot!

      You're in rough shape Nameless!

    • …your recept says, "Thank you for donating $1,000 ro the Republican Party." 🙁

  5. New Yorker ~ Do you think they'll lift the ban out of pity because of his prostate cancer?

    Upworthy ~ Out of the mouths of babes…

    Daily Kos ~ What will SCROTUS do if it gets to them? The state AG is enough of a TeapublucanT that he will fight it all the way.

    Cartoon ~ Who are the Nazis in this country?

    • The danger is that a fascist court will uphold a legal challenge.

      They are the ones who pursue the same policies here that the Nazis did there.

  6. Time – 3: 45

    Our temperatures here have been unseasonably erratic, from a few hours of 90 to unexpectedly very cold mornings. Maybe we are finally looking around seeing not our shadow but the reality of a climatic change we have spent 40 years ignoring.

    Andy is of course excellent. Gee, what's an honest racist to do?

    Families have never all the same, I wonder where the idea of all families being alike first originated? Right now many are openly talking about the "gay family". That family has been around for years, as Lynn said she was able to watch the boys grow up. Families like humans come in all colors, religions and sexual orientation. The result for the children is totally determined by stability and love within each family.

    Ding-ding the witches are being knocked off their brooms as more courts are asked to review state policies that attempt to block certain voters. Wisconsin and Arkansas both are being sent back to drawing board to come up with new voter requirements that do not attempt to block poor people, immigrants and senior citizens from voting.

    Thanks TC – get that A/C unit and be ready for the summer.

  7. Scalia's conflict of interest

    A case challenging the constitutionality of a buffer zone designed to protect women's health clinic workers and patients from harassment by anti-choice activists is being considered by the Supreme Court, and Justice Antonin Scalia has a supreme conflict of interest.

    Justice Scalia’s wife, Maureen, has a long history of working closely with crisis pregnancy centers — as a “crisis counselor” and associate director of a center in Virginia, and as a board member of a national crisis pregnancy organization which tries to persuade women in “crisis pregnancies” to forego abortions.1

    With such a tight connection between his wife’s work and this case, it’s clear that Justice Scalia can’t be impartial and should recuse himself.

    Many crisis pregnancy centers post “sidewalk counselors” outside abortion providers to confront women seeking reproductive healthcare including abortion. While no one has accused Justice Scalia's wife of individual misconduct, it is well documented that crisis pregnancy centers contribute to an atmosphere outside clinics that infringes on patients’ ability to freely and safely access medical care. These organizations have a well-documented history of using lies and misinformation to manipulate women who are trying to access abortions or simply trying to make well-informed decisions about their pregnancies. In fact, just this week, Google announced it was taking down the deceptive ads that crisis pregnancy centers use online to trick women seeking abortion care into contacting them instead of legitimate abortion providers.2

    McCullen v. Coakley, which was argued before the court in January, challenges a Massachusetts law that imposes a 35-foot buffer zone at all abortion clinics in the state. During oral arguments, Justice Scalia echoed the critiques of anti-choice protesters, saying that anti-choicers just “want to speak quietly in a friendly manner.”

    The idea that buffer zones are targeting anti-choice activists who simply want to speak quietly to patients is clearly false. There is ample documentation of patients, clinic workers, and clinic escorts being forced to endure screaming, physical harassment, invasive videotaping and even physical injuries just for trying to access constitutionally protected health care. Buffer zones are working well in many communities, striking a constitutional balance between the rights of patients to access medical care and the free speech rights of anti-abortion protesters. If the Massachusetts law is struck down, it makes it that much harder for communities to protect women who are exercising their constitutional right to access abortion from harassment by, and potential violence from, anti-woman and anti-choice extremists.

    Supreme Court Justices are entrusted with the responsibility to exercise the highest degree of discretion and impartiality when deciding a case. And while they have avoided adopting a code of ethics like other federal judges, they are obligated, according to the Federal Judicial Disqualification statute, 28 USC 455(a), which applies to all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, to disqualify themselves in any proceeding in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

    It’s completely reasonable that Justice Scalia’s impartiality might be questioned in this case, which relates directly to a major part of his wife’s work for the last two decades. He should recuse himself.

    “Scalia’s recusal dilemma: Is he conflicted on antiabortion “sidewalk counselors”?,” Lauren Rankin, Salon, 4/21/14.
    “NARAL successfully lobbies Google to take down ‘deceptive’ pregnancy center ads ,” Hayley Tsukayama, Washington Post, 4/28/14.

     

    Sign the petition

    Tell Justice Antonin Scalia:

    “You have an obligation to recuse yourself from any case where your impartiality might be questioned. Given your wife’s long history of work with crisis pregnancy centers, which contribute to an atmosphere of intimidation and harassment outside abortion providers, there are major questions about your impartiality in McCullen v. Coakley, the Massachusetts buffer zone case. You should recuse yourself.”

     

    Please sign the petition at  http://act.credoaction.com/sign/Scalia_buffer

     

  8. Those kids said it all, if only adults were listening to them.

    Sterling probably wishes he had never discussed the issue on the phone with his mistress.  I have no pity for the man.

    Cartoon:  Aptly describes the current Repub. party.

  9. Puzzle — 3:07  That furry puddy tat stuck to that furry flower and wouldn't let me pass!

    The New Yorker — All day I kept hearing how Sterling has prostate cancer like that is big news and we should forgive him his racist outbursts.  Well, lots of men have prostate cancer, unfortunately, but most don't have the media trying to engender sympathy for them.  Is this supposed to make us feel sorry for him?  Not me!  I hope the ban sticks!  I wonder if he'll try to buy a MSL team or MLB team or NFL team?  He'd better stay clear of the CFL . . . we don't want any more racists north of the 49th.

    Upworthy — If you tend kids the way you tend a garden giving adequate nutrients (mind and body), proper amounts of water, proper shelter, and tons of love, kids will grow straight and tall.  Where the love comes from — 2 dads, 2 mums, a single dad, a single mum or a dad and mum — does not matter.

    Daily Kos — Take that Scott Walker!  A left jab to the face!

    "U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman wrote. "But no matter how imprecise my estimate may be, it is absolutely clear that Act 23 will prevent more legitimate votes from being cast than fraudulent votes.""

    If this ends up at SCOTUS, I suppose those activist SCROTUS Injustices will support Walker. Ummmm!

    Cartoon — Hitler banned unions and Republicanus/Teabaggers are following his lead. Progressives should ban most billionaires and millionaires!  Let them follow their money off shore.

    "Offshore" brings to mind something that happened to me back in 1990.  I was a bank manager in North Vancouver and a fellow came into the office for some investment advice.  Sitting infront of me, he proceeded to tell me that he wanted to move some money off shore where it would get a better rate of return and not be subject to taxes.  I asked him where he wanted to bank it and enquired as to the amount of money.  His reply `Vancouver`and $100.00.  I politely told him I couldn`t help him and he left, only to return 2 more times.  The police came the 3rd time and took him to mental health.  You see, Vancouver was across Burrard Inlet and therefore offshore in his mind.

     

  10. Thanks all.  For those who worry about SCROTUS overturning the decision, I do too.

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