On The Internets 07.20.2010
- Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-MN) has created a new "Tea Party Caucus" inside the House of Representatives. She claims the caucus is open to everybody, and she even invited House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Question for Mrs. Bachman: what would Nancy Pelosi do in the tea party caucus? Participate in scream-fests about how she is actually Satan? Spit on herself? Call for her own removal as Speaker? I think the new caucus should remain the exclusive domain for whackjobs like Bachmann. Crazy people need their own caucus, too. But what about GOP leadership? House Minority leader John "tanning is my life" Boehner has said he will not join, and the rest of the leadership says they are "undecided." What's to decide, guys? Are you a teabagger or not? It's a simple question.
- What a lot of Americans (especially those on the right) miss or ignore in discussions about Israel is exactly how much the extremely religious dominate the Israeli government. Though Israel is a Jewish state, it's society, government, and laws mirror the secular West of the United States and Great Britain. But over the last decade or so, the extreme Orthodox Jews have begun to assert a large influence on the Israeli political process. This has led to much harsher treatment of Palestinians, a refusal to negotiate any two-state solution, and a general coarsening of the dialogue between Israel, its neighbors and the United States. But now the Israeli religious right is threatening to divide the international Jewish community in a very dangerous way. The Othodox are attempting to alter the "right of return," a law passed in 1950 that gave automatic citizenship to any Jew who wished to live in Israel. This included conversions, marriages, and Reform and Conservative Jews (the two most "liberal" for lack of a better word sects in Judaism). But maybe not anymore, "Last week, a committee in the Israeli Knesset passed a measure that would effectively undermine all branches of Judaism other than the most militantly Orthodox. If the bill, proposed by the ultra-right wing party Yisrael Beitanu (Israel Our House) becomes law, conversion, marriages, identities will all be tightly controlled by a tiny, ultra-Orthodox group of rabbis who don't even recognize other Orthodox branches of Judaism. Jeff Goldberg, at the Atlantic, blogged that the bill, 'if passed, [would] disenfranchise Reform and Conservative Jews, and help Israel transform itself into Ayatollahstan.' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come out forcefully against the proposal, saying it would 'tear apart the Jewish people.'" It would tear apart the Jewish people and, literally, destroy the state. But the folks who propose laws like these don't appear to care, and their influence is growing. Israel will become unrecognizable to most people if it continues down this dark path.
- So much for the end of racism within the tea party. Since the NAACP passed a resolution last week calling on tea party leaders to repudiate (not refudiate, Ms. Palin) any racism within the tea party, the NAACP has reported a rash of death threats being called in to its offices nationwide. Naturally, the angry right blames the NAACP for the threats instead of those among their ranks who made them. If you want someone to "refudiate" anything former half-term Governor Palin, how about asking the sub-moronic fools that follow you on Twitter to "refudiate" this.
- Another right-wing, race based fake scandal bites the dust. If you don't watch Fox you might not have heard about all the fake, race-based scandals the network has been promoting to try and rile up the angry white vote in advance of the midterms. One of them involves an African-American USDA official who supposedly refused to help a white farmer simply because he was white. Habitual liar and race-baiter Andrew Breitbart released a video of the woman saying she did this. Except Breitbart edited out the parts that showed the woman was not actually a USDA employee at the time, the incident was 24 years ago, and, in fact, she did help the white farmer save his land and they have been good friends ever since. The entire speech was designed to show the audience that being hung-up on race was destructive, and that getting beyond the past is what is important. "And I went on to work with many more white farmers," she said. "The story helped me realize that race is not the issue, it's about the people who have and the people who don't. When I speak to groups, I try to speak about getting beyond the issue of race." So, Breitbart, Fox News, and the right wing blogosphere take a story about people moving beyond the racism of the past and becoming friends, and turns it into some sinister tale of black government workers trying to punish white people. It is beyond pathetic what Breitbart does. He is, without a doubt, the most dishonest person in the media. That man has no soul.
- It is beginning to look like Elena Kagan will become the next justice on the Supreme Court. Her nomination has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee with a vote of 13-6. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) was the only Republican to vote for her. "What's in Elena Kagan's heart is that of a good person who adopts a philosophy I disagree with," Graham said. "She will serve this nation honorably, and it would not have been someone I would have chosen, but the person who did choose, President Obama, I think chose wisely." Graham, in this instance, is showing a magnanimity not displayed by any Republicans since they lost the presidential election in 2008. Too bad the rest of the lot can't learn from him.
- Andy Hummel, the original bassist for 1970s power-pop legends, Big Star, has died at age 59. Hummel died due to complications from cancer. This comes only a few months after Big Star leader, Alex Chilton, died. Now, only drummer Jody Stephens remains. Sad.
- According to a posting on his Facebook page, Cursive mastermind Tim Kasher will be releasing a new solo album on October 5. The album will be titled, The Game Of Monogamy. Cursive will be performing at the Concert For Equality in Omaha on July 31.
- Lindsay Lohan was remanded to jail this morning. The troubled starlet left the sober living house she had been staying at which violated the terms of her parole. She is expected to serve only 14 days of her 90 day sentence.
- Attack of the Show's Olivia Munn must never sleep. In addition to her popular show on G4, Munn is now a correspondent on The Daily Show, a New York Times bestselling author, a Playboy model, and the star of the new NBC show Perfect Couples. She will also be starring in the season premiere of NBC's Chuck as an "impossibly cool, smart, and pretty CIA agent who intimidates and schools Chuck and Morgan in the season 4 premiere."
4 comments:
I do not understand the progressive's hate for the Tea Party. The Tea Party goal is to hold both major parties accountable to the people. They wish for fiscal responsibility and prudence, and a limited government based on Constitutional law. The fact that this is controversial with the left speaks volumes as to how anti-American they have become.
Kagan is dangerous and I hope the GOP fillibusters her nomination hearing in the full senate. She has shown a willingness to ignore federal law, she shows every inclination of wanting to legislate from the bench, and she is demonstrably hostile to life and other rights enumerated in the Constitution. Graham is a fool and should just go ahead and switch parties now.
The Tea Party is of the extreme right, and the only people who don't seem to know this are you and the mainstream media. This "movement" is little more than Republican sour grapes for losing two consecutive election cycles, and a pathological refusal to accept any blame for their role in causing the problems they claim to be so upset by. Tea Party = blame Obama. Pure and simple.
If you want to see anti-Americanism, just look to Andrew Breitbart, Pajamas Media, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of the intentionally dishonest, conspiracy-theory obsessed right wing media, who have turned every policy difference into a reason to secede from the country, start a revolution, or use "2nd amendment remedies" to deal with people who have a different opinion.
How, exactly, is Kagan dangerous? Where has she ever shown a "willingness to ignore federal law" as you claim. Just because Hannity says something, doesn't make it true.
The right in the country have decided that only it knows what is constitutional and what is not, what is legal and what is not, and what is American and what is not. And no one is allowed to disagree, lest they be called anti-American, out to destroy America, or some type of Nazi. Aren't we supposed to be allowed to think for ourselves? Do I have to agree with Rush fucking Limabugh in order to be a real American?
Dave, if what you say about the Tea Party simply being Republicans was true, wouldn't that make their founding and existence not only redundant but unnecessary?
If you haven't noticed, the Tea Party has been criticizing and running candidates against the GOP establishment too. Ask soon-to-be GOP Senator Bennett from my state of Utah about that.
Further, I have heard Hannity, Beck et al on MANY occasions saying that the way to deal with disagreements is by getting involved. They have all explicitly said that using violence is not the answer and only undermines the conservative cause. Your rants to the contrary seem to be fever dreams from KOS talking points, sir.
AS for Kagan, she violated federal law badly in two specific instances that immediately come to mind. First, she ignored the law saying that military recruiters must be allowed on campus for colleges that accept federal funding. When she was at Harvard, she disallowed this from happening.
Second, she re-wrote opinion during the Clinton administration to weaken the abortion stance of law being debated. She CHANGED the expert testimony of those that had contributed to the framing of the legislative debate. That should dismiss her from consideration right there!
She is a progressive ideologue that has no intention of NOT making law from the bench, just like her hero Thurgood Marshall did.
Tea Party has been criticizing and running candidates against the GOP establishment too
They are running in GOP primaries, which says to me and everyone else that these folks are exactly as I say: disgruntled Republicans.
They have all explicitly said that using violence is not the answer and only undermines the conservative cause
Yet none of them have challenged the numerous tea party candidates and rank and file members who do threaten violence on those who disagree. Sharron Angle, for example, only appears on Fox. She has never been asked what she means when she said Americans should resort to "2nd amendment remedies" to get the policies they want from Congress. If you don't agree that is a threat of violence toward political opponents, then I would submit that you are not familiar with the terminology.
You are wrong on the Harvard thing, as it was a policy put in place by her predecessor. When Kagan came in, she was the one who settled the issue with the federal government, and created an accommodation acceptable to the Bush government. Furthermore, military recruiting on Harvard increased during her tenure, so that would seem to disprove the allegation anyway.
On the abortion thing, I have no idea what you're talking about, though I highly doubt it is as you say. This woman was just confirmed as Solicitor General 18 months ago, and this was never mentioned. Sounds to me like it may be a misrepresentation of fact.
Considering that the current activist Roberts Court has done more legislating from the bench than any Court in history, your last comment seems a bit disingenuous.
Post a Comment