Tuesday Open Thread

Filed in National by on April 6, 2010

Welcome to Tuesday, the day after the Duke-pocalypse. Everyone’s least favorite college basketball team won the NCAA championship tonight. So, is anything else on your mind? Tell us in today’s open thread.

The loneliest KKK member:

This Saturday, the Church of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan — a once-powerful organization that in 1960 coordinated more than 1,000 simultaneous cross burnings in a frightening display of Southern resistance to desegregation — held a rally in Gloverdale, S.C. It was attended by a single Klansman: state leader Tim Bradley.

Not making an appearance were the 1,000 people from four states that a confederate of Bradley’s had predicted. A promised speech never materialized, only endless rounds of Bradley giving interviews to local reporters while some 100 curiosity-seekers looked on. And the 30 or so Klansmen who Bradley said were headed to the rally that day? Well, they got lost on the way from North Carolina. Bradley kept telling reporters his comrades were about to arrive. But they never did.

Go read at the link to see why this particular KKK group is referred to as the Keystone Kops of the white supremacist movement.

Republicans hate both abortion and contraception. From John Boehner’s website:

Remember when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said last month “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it?” Tucked away inside President Obama’s new health care law is a controversial provision dramatically expanding taxpayer funding of contraceptives and the abortion industry. Washington Democrats actually tried to insert this legislative language in the original trillion-dollar ‘stimulus,’ but were forced to remove it under pressure from Republicans and the American people. No matter: Democrats just hid it in their government takeover of health care instead. After all, no liberal special interest giveaway could be spared in order to force this job-killing monstrosity through Congress over the objection of the American people.

Specifically, all states are now free to offer Medicaid “family planning” services – even for those who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid – without receiving approval from the federal government. This will pave the way for more taxpayer dollars to go to clinics that undercut parents and promote abortions. Inside Health Policy has the details:

“Tucked into the health reform legislation is a controversial provision allowing states to expand coverage for family planning services under Medicaid without a waiver from the federal government. Democrats had tried to insert the language into the Recovery Act in January 2009, but pulled back after it became a lightning rod for GOP attacks … Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) championed the provision in the Senate, adding it to the Senate Finance Committee version of the legislation during mark-up, sources said, and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) pushed for it in the House. … ‘How can you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives? How does that stimulate the economy?’ House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said of the provision, according to Reuters.”

Most normal-thinking people know that contraception is a normal part of women’s health care and that increased access to contraception leads to lower abortion rates.

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Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

Comments (26)

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  1. a.price says:

    all the klansmen were at a tea party.

  2. John Manifold says:

    Net neutrality just became a big issue in the Senate race:

    http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0622428720100406

    The decision:

    http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/comcastfcc.pdf

  3. How crazy do you have to be when John Ensign’s personal gynecologist Tom Coburn is the voice of reason?

    So what is Fox News going to do with Tom Coburn, that upstanding conservative poster-senator from Oklahoma. Capitol News Connection has acquired an audio of a recent Town Hall Coburn held in Oklahoma, in which the Senator, who is well-respected on both sides of the aisle, did not hide his disdain for the conservative info-tainment industry. After a woman said she did not want to go to jail for refusing health care, Coburn told her she was misinformed. “The intention is not to put any one in jail. That makes for good TV news on FOX but that isn’t the intention,” Coburn responded.

    “What we have to have is make sure we have a debate in this country so that you can see what’s going on and make a determination yourself,” Coburn added and then again warned the crowd against the myths perpetrated on FOX News.

    “So don’t catch yourself being biased by FOX News that somebody is no good. The people in Washington are good. They just don’t know what they don’t know,” Coburn said.

    Has Coburn been reading David Frum?

  4. Welfare queens:

    Last week, Forbes magazine published what the top U.S. corporations paid in taxes last year. “Most egregious,” Forbes notes, is General Electric, which “generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.” Big Oil giant Exxon Mobil, which last year reported a record $45.2 billion profit, paid the most taxes of any corporation, but none of it went to the IRS:

    Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. No wonder that of $15 billion in income taxes last year, Exxon paid none of it to Uncle Sam, and has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas.

  5. MJ says:

    Election season comes to the UK

    Will we have a hung Parliament?

  6. Delaware Dem says:

    That is the best case scenario for Labor. Otherwise I think we are looking at a Tory win. Of course, if you transplanted David Cameron to the US Politics, he would be a wide eyed Marxist according to today’s GOP.

  7. Of course, if you transplanted David Cameron to the US Politics, he would be a wide eyed Marxist according to today’s GOP.

    Of course he would, he supports socialized medicine.

  8. MJ says:

    According to the poltical experts and watchdogs in the UK, the Tories need to pick up 150 seats to win, which is not impossible, but looks improbable. So the Liberal-Democrats might hold the balance of power.

  9. Scott P says:

    Will we have a hung Parliament?

    “They said Parliament was hung.”
    “They was right.”

    Sorry, I think I’m still sad for the poor little racist. You’re telling me he couldn’t even get a Cleavon Little look-alike to show up and ask, “Where the white women at?” Incidentally, this is what I think tea parties will look like in a few years, besides going back to being for little girls.

  10. P.Schwartz says:

    General Motors President Barack Obama will fine his competitor Toyota a whopping $16 Million dollars. It’s good to be the king! The announcement was made by loyal Liberal Democrat and Grand High Lord Minister of The People’s Roads and Transport, Ray LaHood.

  11. Delaware Dem says:

    Thanks for proving my point, P.Schwartz. LaHood is a Republican, yet according to a conservative idiot, he is a wide eyed Marxist.

  12. Von Cracker says:

    Let us not forget that the Gov of VA just declared it Confederacy Month in the state.

    Yey Treason!

    I celebrated by taking a smash on the Stars and Bars then burning it.

  13. rhubard says:

    Try Stars and Bars bathroom tissue. More satisfying, and enviro-friendly, too!

  14. MJ says:

    Would we expect anything different from these goatfuc**rs?

    And they talk about kids being mean. Can’t we just give MS back to the French? Reminds me of the “white flight” from public schools that were ordered to desegregate.

  15. Von Cracker says:

    Stars and Bars tp?, hummm….that’s about the only appropriate application for that symbol!

    wipes you clean like Sherman to the coast!

  16. Brooke says:

    No, MJ, we would not. So I ask, was this a reasonable use of gay-friendly funds? Trying to get ONE couple to a dance that the whole town went in on keeping her out of?

    They’re horrible, prejudiced people. Stipulated. But I can’t believe what a sorry excuse for a cause celeb it is, in a world full of absolute MISERY, ABUSE, and death for gay teens.

    *shakes head* The uproar over this reinforces every stereotype, on both sides.

  17. rhubard says:

    “…these goatfuc**rs…”

    You wouldn’t say something so mean if you knew the goats.

  18. Who represents you better? Obama 44% Tea Party 48% That is all that matters. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/april_2010/tea_party_48_obama_44

    Okay so now we can go back to disagreeing. Counseling is available to liberals distressed by the results.

  19. MJ says:

    Delusional David – it’s a rASSmussen poll; not worth the toilet paper it’s written on.

    Brooke – I can see going ahead with the lawsuit (ACLU sued), but HRC was just looking for another poster child, and now they have one. They’ll be parading her in front of the $350/plate dinners around the country and we still have DADT, DOMA, and no Federal Equal Rights legislation.

    I advise people that instead of giving their money to HRC, give it to local gay and lesbian (real ones, not the simulated ones Mike Steele prefers) rights organizations.

  20. anonone says:

    More creeping corporatism – Mattel is changing the rules of Scrabble to allow proper nouns, including “place names, people’s names and company names or brands.” Modern civilization is ending.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8604625.stm

  21. Brooke says:

    Thank you, MJ, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one.

    I was a Field Associate for the Gay Rights National Lobby, and I was SO proud to be one. No door was open to me, but I pounded and waited, and caught people in hallways, and, a bit at a time we made progress. It was a win every time no one had to die before we had an interview. Now I’m still on all the mailing lists, but very seldom do I feel a reason to respond. At 20, I could concede getting AIDS research funded might be a bigger emergency than a lesbian mother with a custody problem. But I’m damned if, at this age, I get the big panic because one kid in a graduating class of 200 can’t get to a stupid dance.

    This girl will be a problem for the movement heavies that are so happy to have her little white face on the teevee. Trouble is coming, with her name on it. Everyone will be embarrassed, mark my words. What a waste.

    We have important things to do, folks. Try to concentrate.

  22. nemski says:

    a1 the Scrabble story has already been debunked. They.re coming out with a new game for kids.

  23. anonone says:

    Whew! Thanks, Nemski.

  24. MJ says:

    HRC didn’t waste any time

    After you sign the “petition,” you are taken to a page that asks for a donation. HRC pads its membership list – once you’re a member and make a minimum $35 donation, you’re always considered a member, even if you never make another donation in your life. As I said, the money that HRC has wasted over the years would have been better spent on the state level gaining equal rights.

  25. Joanne Christian says:

    Can we get a new poll going please? The one posted is as old as a NJ editorial. How about starting an RSVP poll for KWS? Since it wasn’t quick enough for Lee Williams.