Monday Open Thread [5.12.14]

I hope all of you enjoyed the weekend and the mothers among us enjoyed their special day. This is exactly the point I keep making about scientific fact. I don't give a shit if you don't BELIEVE in a fact. A fact is a fact is a fact no matter if your feeble mind cannot comprehend it. And a fact does not need your validation or approval to exist. Creationists and Bible Literalists say the Earth is only 6,000 years old. That is a falsehood, disproven by scientific fact. The Earth is in fact 4.54 billion years. Our climate has changed due to global warming. That is a fact. Our weather (i.e. climate) has already been affected. More brutal winters, more brutal summers, historic flooding, deadlier hurricanes and tornadoes, more severe and long lasting droughts, landslides, you name it. The media needs to start ignoring all of those who deny facts. You are not allowed to have an opinion on whether a fact exists. Well, you are allowed, but it is required that you be treated as a nutcase if you offer your opinion that snakes are flurry animals that love to cuddle with you. No, they are not. The sun is not blue. Water does not boil at -18 degrees C, and it does not freeze at 100 degrees F. Two plus two does not equal 20. The universe does not revolve around the Earth.

Late Night Video — A Nun on the Bus Raps Dinesh D’Souza on the Knuckles

Sister Simone is the leader of Nuns on the Bus, and she was on Bill Maher recently when Maher brought up the topic of Mitt Romney's newfound support for a higher minimum wage. D'Souza tried trotting out the BS talking points and Sister Simone shows him that his talking points on poverty wages were a masked support for corporate welfare. I was on my feet and applauding at the end of this:

Mother’s Day Open Thread [5.11.14]

Happy Mother's Day! I've been following this lastest round of Benghazi bullshit from the wingnuts (apparently their All Obamacare, All of the Time strategy is bombing), and was intrigued by this story from Major Garrett (former Fox Noise WH reporter) on CBS. Apparently the Republicans changed the quotes from the email that they point to as a smoking gun -- meaning that they lied to re-ignite this thing and get the attention of the media. Of course, the media will bypass the fact that they were lied to in order to get their front seats to all of the falsified spectacle (It doesn't appear to me that CBS even tweeted out their own story on this.) Take a look:

We deserve answers from Beau Biden

Beau Biden Tornoe cartoon Governor sickBy now, everyone's heard the news that Beau Biden, our intrepid attorney general and holder of the royal Biden coattails, has decided not to run for re-election and will instead focus on becoming Delaware's next governor. But there's a lot being left unsaid.

Friday Open Thread [5.9.14]

"A comprehensive, single piece of legislation on any topic, but especially on immigration, is going to be very difficult to achieve ... We keep talking about the same issue now for 15 years, and everybody is doing this all-or-nothing approach. And all-or-nothing is going to leave you with nothing."
-- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), quoted by Politico, on the prospects for immigration reform. This quote reveals what is fundamentally wrong with the understanding of the legislative process among Republicans. The reason you have comprehensive big bills on subjects like immigration is BECAUSE there is a divide of opinion on the issue. So a bill becomes comprehensive in order to accommodate compromise.
Delaware Political Weekly: May 3-9, 2014

Delaware Political Weekly: May 3-9, 2014

<strong>Whoa</strong>. Now <strong>this</strong> is interesting. <strong>R Judy Travis </strong>has filed to run in the Brandywine Hundred district currently held by <strong>D Rep. Dennis E. Williams</strong>. Williams is facing a D primary challenge from <strong>Sean Matthews</strong>. It had been expected that two-time loser <strong>Robert Rhodunda</strong> would challenge for the seat again. Instead, Travis, who previously challenged, and lost to, Rep. Bryon Short in 2010, has jumped in. No she didn't move. She was redistricted in 2012, when I think all of the 7th district west of Foulk Road was moved to the 10th. Although Short defeated her by a 57%-41% margin (there were two other candidates) in 2010, she would likely be at least as formidable as Rhodunda. Short is more firmly entrenched than Dennis Williams. So, does this mean that Rhodunda is out, or that there will be an R primary? Somebody, anybody? I mean, <a href="http://www.bobrhodunda.com/">based on </a><strong><a href="http://www.bobrhodunda.com/">this</a>, </strong>it looks like he's running. And Don Ayotte is back....

Thursday Open Thread [5.8.14]

"The sound you may hear in the background is that of the goalposts of American punditry being moved up and down the field. Not so long ago the common wisdom held that Bush 43 was shredding our alliances with a swaggering unilateralism, refusing to acknowledge the complexities of the early 21st century world. Now, in the blink of the historical eye, Obama is being routinely maligned as professorial, an ineffective multilateralist (a damning combination, that) who is acting like a latter-day Lord Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary who was willing to entertain the possibility of talks with the Axis in 1940." Ah, the Washington Talking Head. Perennially Schizophrenic.