Sunday Open Thread [12.15.13]

Third Way stalwarts Tom Carper and Chris Coons sniff at the ongoing tug-of-war between Progressive groups and the Third Way. While Senator Warren pushes back on the Third Way bamboozlement, we have Carper and Coons responding thusly:
Carper and Coons dismissed the flap, with Coons calling it a “tempest in a teapot.” “This does not strike me as the kind of thing that deserves the sort of attention I understand it’s getting,” Coons said. Carper agreed. “There’s a lot going on that I am focused on,” he said. “This is not one of them.”

Saturday Open Thread [12.14.13]

One year ago today, 26 children and their teachers were gunned down in their school in Newton, CT. There are quiet memorials going on all over the country -- the most important one probably being remembering to hug your kids tight today. Especially since there have been 20 school shootings in the US since Newtown and it is apparent that we (not sure if that includes the shooting in Colorado yesterday -- two kids wounded and the shooter killed himself), as a nation, are just fine with the fact that our kids may not return after a school day because of more gun violence. I hope everyone is thinking about all of the families whose children did not get a chance to grow up today.
Friday Open Thread [12.13.13]

Friday Open Thread [12.13.13]

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), says the health insurance exchanges will work, and will work well. Well, if that is case, that means Coburn believes that the exchanges will both lower the costs of health insurance so that it is affordable, while at the same time insuring the uninsured. So why he is against it? How can you be against something that both lowers the cost of health insurance and covers the uninsured? Could it be that you oppose it because you think health insurance is a privilege for only those who can afford it?
John Carney, dumb or merely cynical?

John Carney, dumb or merely cynical?

Here is Carney's statement on the recently passed budget. I can't figure out if mentioning deficit reduction as a top priority TWICE in such a short statement is done out of stupidity or cynicism.
This Pope simply will not shut up about economic justice

This Pope simply will not shut up about economic justice

Francis' oppressive tolerance and totalitarian love for humanity - and the way it delivers roundhouse kick after roundhouse kick to the hypocrisy of American "Christians" is endlessly entertaining to me. I daresay, if he had been the Pope when George Bush concocted a pretext to bomb the shit out of Iraq simply because he had a hard on to bomb Iraq - this Pope might have had a few words to say about it.

Thursday Open Thread [12.12.13]

Jon Stewart on .. The Handshake. First Read: "But here's probably the best way to view it: Would you greet (or shake hands with) an estranged family member at a memorial service for a loved one? Or do you go out of your way to snub that person? In other words, is that day about you and your conflict? Or about that loved one who's being memorialized lying in a casket? We know the answer from the GOP, who are all narcissistic mental cases deserving of institutionalization.