Monday Open Thread
Welcome to your Monday open thread. Once again you’ll have to be entertaining yourselves since my brother is still visiting today. I hope you had a good weekend. I did! We went to Philly yesterday and visited the Mutter Museum plus ate some really good food.
Is the Kagan confirmation fight almost over but for the Republican showboating?
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Senate’s Republican whip, said Sunday that he doesn’t see the GOP employing a filibuster against Kagan, who was nominated for the high court by President Barack Obama.
“The filibuster should be relegated to the extreme circumstances, and I don’t think Elena Kagan represents that,” said Kyl, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
GOP senators will put great weight on Kagan’s testimony because of her lack of a judicial paper trail. She is now solicitor general, the top government lawyer who argues the administration’s cases before the Supreme Court, and was dean of Harvard Law School. But she has never been a judge.
Don’t worry though. I’m sure they’ll drag it out as long as possible and ask silly questions about her sexual orientation. She plays softball.
The stupidification of the Republican party continues unabated. Newt Gingrich shares his wisdom with Fox News:
It was the latest in a series of reminders that this is nothing — literally, nothing — that a far-right media personality can say to be driven from polite American society.
Disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), inexplicably one of the nation’s most ubiquitous Sunday-show guests, sat down with Chris Wallace yesterday on “Fox News Sunday.” The host confronted Gingrich with one of his recent quotes: “The secular-socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.”
Wallace said, “Mr. Speaker, respectfully, isn’t that wildly over the top?” “No,” Gingrich replied, insisting that he believes President Obama intends to “decide who earns how much.”
Remember, Gingrich is supposed to be one of their intellectual leaders. Really, the rightwing has convinced themselves that Obama is a wild-eyed leftist. You should hear my brother – “the left of the left.” Of course, we know he’s a centrist at best, and a cautious one. How do we keep up if some people live in an alternate reality?
Tags: Open Thread
Gingrich is beyond the pale, seemingly gone off his rocker.
Aside from Newt, there is another politician off his rocker, in my view, and he represents DE in the Senate! According to Robert Kuttner:
We must replace Carper in 2012!
Amen Perry!
Eric Holder: A Liar or Incompetent?
Human Events ^ | May 17, 2010 | Robert M. Engstrom
Atty. Gen. Eric Holder’s recent comment about Arizona’s illegal immigration law demonstrates that he is either blatantly disingenuous, or that the most powerful attorney in the country is incompetent.
Holder admitted under questioning last Thursday that he has not read the Arizona statute, nor been briefed on the 16-page document by his staff. Nevertheless, our nation’s top law enforcement official has repeatedly said that the law is unconstitutional, misguided, and will be challenged. It turns out his expert legal opinion is nothing more than hysterical, and mostly erroneous, hyperbole—the kind that flies in the face of the vast majority of this nation’s citizens who support Arizona’s refusal to abide continued federal inaction.
When a lawyer with the power and authority of the attorney general’s office offers public legal opinions based on “what I’ve heard about the law,” I suspect that he is looking at a loser case, one he does not want to argue in court.
America, the attorney general’s “client,” deserves better legal advice than we got on this one. In less than ten minutes, Arizona’s law can found on the Internet, read, and most importantly, understood. It challenges credibility that Holder, or someone from his staff, has not read the law. President Obama should demand a public apology to the nation from Holder for judicial incompetence, or replace him with an attorney capable of offering informed legal opinions—after reading the law. …
The Answer is BOTH.
What a snarky, shitty, juvenile little aside in Cris Barrish’s story on the AG’s report on the Bradley case today:
“The report was released today even though Biden remains hospitalized with what his doctors called a mild stroke he suffered last week.”
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100517/NEWS01/100517023/AG+Biden++Many+broke+law+in+Bradley+case
“With what his doctors called” – Whadda jerk! Why not just say the guy suffered a stroke? Does Barrish not believe that Beau is really sick? Or does he think it’s some plot to keep the AG out of the spotlight on such a controversial case? Or that Beau suffered something more serious and that’s being hidden from the public?
Give me a break, Cris. You’re better than this. Or are you taking marching orders from Greg “Everything’s A Conspiracy And Every Public Official Is Incompetent!” Burton now?
Just go write your next book now and leave the state in peace. Maybe it’ll sell more than a half-dozen copies this time. Best of luck!
The fact — don’t let it interrupt your shitty, juvenile litte rant — is that “mild stroke” is an inspecific label his doctors gave whatever happened to Beau. There is no such medical diagnosis.
We are one week out and still no word on what actually happened to him. I will be reminding people of that for every day we are left in the dark.
I know Beau Biden is a public figure, but I fail to see where he owes us an explanation about private health issues.
You fail to see why public officials (not just “figures”) owe the public an explanation about their health issues. It does not therefore logically follow that no reason for it exists.
They are public officials. They have no “private” health issues. If they don’t like it, they can go back to “private” life. If you prefer being kept in the dark, I know some nice mushroom houses you could camp out in until the election.
Agreed, primary challenge time for Carper in 2012, he has joined the enemy.
Wow Geezer! You disagree with me so it logically follows that I should camp out in a mushroom house? Get over yourself!
Sorry geezer, the term “mild stroke” is often given. A quick search of Wikipedia find this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=mild+stroke&go=Go
Generally, when one has a stroke, the term (from mild to severe) is often used in conjunction with the effect the stroke has on the particular person
AQC: Quite a strong argument you’ve offered for your belief. Oh, wait…
Sorry Mark, the term isn’t any more specific for its frequent use. As I noted, it is not a medical diagnosis. If you want to not know what’s wrong with him, fine, but I don’t see why nobody else should know.
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that C’mon Delaware with Jason and Donviti ( the podcast. Not the Porno movie) will be here again on Wednesday. The bad news is that C’mon Delaware is a bigger threat to America than Nazism and Gingrich combined.
Who thnks Sestak is going to win?
I think Sestak will win.
I hope Sestak will win.
I think that Sestak will win. The polls are close, and late undecideds could well swing to Sestak, as it’s hard to rally behind the ‘changed my party to save my job’ Specter.
The country sees clearly (if they look) that parties matter in DC (party of progress versus party of NO), and an opportunistic party-changer is hard to support in these times.
I think Sestak has a good chance. No money bet, either way.
And I’d sure feel better if we were getting even posed still photos of Beau reading getwell cards his kids drew. SOMETHING.
However, every time I think about it, I think, “This family has money, connections, AND insurance, and I’ll bet they’re still scared. Our healthcare system isn’t good enough, yet.”
I am for Specter over Sestack because I generally support the Republican over the Democrat even in a Democratic Primary. 🙂
I agree that the AG has no obligation to satisfy our curiousity about his private health. Just get well soon, my friend.
MORE HYPOCRISY AT THE U.N.: Via secret ballot, the United Nations General Assembly elected Libya’s dictatorship to one of the 47 seats on the U.N. Human Rights Council. FDD Journalist-in-Residence and Longtime UN watcher Claudia Rosett laments:
At a U.N. so lacking in moral compass that all this counts for business as usual, the U.S. made no fuss…
In the calculus of the Obama administration all this may rate as mere diplomatic horse-trading. Apparently in the latest round of U.N. seat-filling, the State Department quietly succeeded in derailing Iran’s bid for a seat on the Human Rights Council. As a consolation prize Iran got smooth sailing into a berth as an authority on women’s rights. Meanwhile the gaggle of despotisms already on the Human Rights Council (including China, Russia, Cuba and Saudi Arabia) lost the chance to consort there with Iran, but can comfort themselves by collaborating with Libya.
For America to swim along with this is not smart diplomacy. It is at best naïve. It emboldens the worst violators of civilized norms, and further compounds the already alarming failings of the U.N., a sprawling and opaque collective which lends itself to exploitation by the most ruthless and corrupt of its 192 member states.
More here.
Richard Grenell, former spokesperson for four U.S. ambassadors to the U.N. writes:
Now comes word that United States ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice wasn’t even at the U.N., let alone in the committee room, when U.N. members voted Iran onto the Commission on the Status of Women committee. Not only was our ambassador not in the room for the vote, she wasn’t even in the building. Wouldn’t you think that a female American ambassador would understand the importance of standing up against a country that has some of the world’s most hostile laws toward women? Shouldn’t Rice want to use the opportunity to highlight the regime’s record on women’s rights?
First P. Schwartz rails against the US for supporting the UN, then he rails against Ambassador Rice for not supporting the UN. Therefore, it is obvious that P. Schwartz wishes to make statements against both the UN and Obama, so much so that he/she does not recognize when his rant topics are inconsistent, thus, no credibility shown here.
I’ve said it before, and will try to make the point again: We progressive minded Delawareans have a duty to the country to see to it that Senator Kaufman runs again and is elected to a term as our Senator.
Just check out this article that lays out the importance of this man in the service of our country.
Here are the concluding remarks in the cited article:
“the AG has no obligation to satisfy our curiousity about his private health.”
Yes, he does, because health is not a private concern for a public official. I can assert this without support just as often as you can. I can also point out that if you’re concerned about freedom of information, I’d like you to explain why this information should be hidden.
What’s wrong with Beau? What are they hiding?
Yes, he does, because health is not a private concern for a public official.
Funny, Jason330 and I were just discussing this over on DelawareTomorrow to pretty much the same argument Geezer makes (the discussion starts at that link, with our normal pitty-pat bantering in between). Saying that, as a public official, he/they owe us a true status in no way means it’s political fodder. He’s a head of a very important office that impacts the state, why should we shrug our shoulders in response? I do reiterate, though, that it’s not political fodder and shouldn’t be used as a political weapon, but as consitutents, we do have a right to know.
Why is health not a private concern for a public official?
perhaps progressive friends of Senator Kaufman can ask him what he would like to do after January. Perhaps he would be interested in serving as a regulator (SEC for instance).
He has been crystal clear that he has no interest in running for office (Senate), but greatly enjoys the opportunity to serve Delaware and the nation for this two year period.
Note that Kaufman has served in DC for decades. Perhaps he would like to wind down his life a bit. He has certainly earned it.
Perhaps he doesn’t want to have a zillion bloggers speculating about his medical conditions in the future …
Geezer – What more information do you want? What do you think is being hidden? The doctors said he had a stroke. Do you think that’s not true, and why?
Seems to me they’ve been pretty open about his condition, treatment and recovery. But I guess you and Barrish are smarter than the rest of us and know in your gut that there’s something more to the story.
“Why is health not a private concern for a public official?”
Because of Woodrow Wilson. You might be able to argue that while we deserve to know about the health of the president, that doesn’t mean we should know about the health of the governor — or if not him the AG, and so on down to dog catcher.
I’m not interested in knowing if an official has genital warts, but if the health condition affects the ability to do the job, then I think we should know. Any brain injury by definition comes under that umbrella.
On the other hand, I’m wondering why so many of you are so lacking in curiousity, or so protective of “privacy” for public officials.
I’m interested in knowing exactly what kind of stroke he had. Why is that such a problem for you?
I am curious about his stroke primarily because he is so young. They have said he had a mild stroke, that he retains normal neurological functioning and that his speech and physical abilities are not impaired. What else do we need to know? If somebody says it’s a TIA vs. a blood clot, is that going to make any difference? I am protective of “privacy” for all people when it comes to health issues.
Sorry, but without specifics I am being told to take this on faith, so as far as “What else do I need to know?” my counter-question would be, “What do I actually know at this point?”
Furthermore, I notice that people close to Beau are falling over themselves to assure us that he’s OK, but they tell us nothing else.
“If somebody says it’s a TIA vs. a blood clot, is that going to make any difference?”
It is to me. If a blood clot was found (a TIA is basically a clot they assume cleared on its own because they can’t find it anymore), we might know what kind of deficits, if any, he faces.
In short, we are being told nothing except, “Move along. Nothing to see here.” Is lack of curiosity a Delaware trademark?
Why are you protective of privacy for public officials when it comes to health issues? Do you really see no difference between your health status and Beau Biden’s?
Perry is easily confused.
The UN is riddled with corruption and contradiction. IF we are to continue to be the bigest donor to this organization then we should appoint competent personel and work to prevent it from being a travesty, where the worst human rights abusers are seated on the Human Rights Commission.
I think you were confused, P.Schwartz, as you appeared to be speaking out of both sides of your mouth, as I have already pointed out.
The UN is meant to be an organization where everyone globally is represented, therefore everyone should have the opportunity to participate, enemies and friends alike.
You may be overlooking our own violations of human rights, both historically toward blacks, women, and immigrants of diverse origins. More recently, our record in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gitmo contain incidents of human rights violations that all proud Americans ought to condemn.
I don’t buy your argument!
Moreover, you said earlier: “Atty. Gen. Eric Holder’s recent comment about Arizona’s illegal immigration law demonstrates that he is either blatantly disingenuous, or that the most powerful attorney in the country is incompetent.”
Do you think that AZ’s new law might promote human rights violations? It definitely does have racial connotations which focus on one group. And now teaching our children about various ethnic cultures has been banned in AZ. Should we support this too?
Let us not only lecture others about human rights violations, or exclude others for positions in the UN. Instead, let us continue to focus first on ourselves to carry out the required cleansings, while encouraging other nations to do the same, as at the UN.