RSmitty, Dave Burris and Michael Stafford have teamed up and launched Delaware Tomorrow – a new perspective on policy and politics.
Hmmm… the rebirth of moderate Republicans… or the last hurrah? We shall see.
(Psst… notice how I gave you top billing, Smitty.)
Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to title this post since the subject matter doesn’t exactly flow. But it seems that the immigration debate has taken a turn…
William Gheen, head of the conservative, anti-“amnesty,” anti-illegal immigration group Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), spoke at a Greenville, S.C. Tea Party rally this weekend and called for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to “come out of that log cabin closet.”
According to Gheen, being gay is “a secret that Lindsey Graham has.”
Gheen told the crowd: “I hope this secret isn’t being used as leverage over Senator Graham, so today I think Senator Graham, you need to come forward and tell people about your alternative lifestyle and your homosexuality.”
Oh my. But Gheen is only concerned about his country, not about Graham’s sexual orientation. (I crack myself up!)
“US Senator Lindsey Graham is gay and while many people in South Carolina and Washington DC know that, the general public and Graham’s constituents do not,” Gheen said in the statement. Though Gheen claimed, both in the statement and at the Tea Party rally, that he does “not care about Graham’s private life,” he again said that Graham must declare his supposed homsexuality “so the public can rest assured he is not being manipulated with his secret.”
“I need to figure out why you’re trying to sell out your own countrymen and I need to make sure you being gay isn’t it,” Gheen said over the weekend.
You know when I know people are gay? When they tell me they are gay.
It’s all about paper in Arizona – Immigration documentation and Birth Certificates.
PHOENIX — The Arizona House on Monday voted for a provision that would require President Barack Obama to show his birth certificate if he hopes to be on the state’s ballot when he runs for reelection. The House voted 31-22 to add the provision to a separate bill. The measure still faces a formal vote.
It would require U.S. presidential candidates who want to appear on the ballot in Arizona to submit documents proving they meet the constitutional requirements to be president.
Phoenix Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema said the bill is one of several measures that are making Arizona “the laughing stock of the nation.” Mesa Republican Rep. Cecil Ash said he has no reason to doubt Obama’s citizenship but supports the measure because it could help end doubt.
Arizona has gone birther. Georgia heard testimony from a woman who claims the Department of Defense put a microchip into her vaginal-rectum area. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the new Republican Party. And I’m really not sure how you combat crazy at this level.
Via TPM:
The Georgia House Judiciary Committee took up a bill last week that would “prohibit requiring a person to be implanted with a microchip,” and would make violating the ban a misdemeanor. According to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, one exchange from the hearing could have been ripped right from Dr. Strangelove.
[…]
“Ma’am, did you say you have a microchip?” state Rep. Tom Weldon (R) asked the woman.
“Yes, I do. This microchip was put in my vaginal-rectum area,” she replied.
No one laughed. State Rep. Wendell Willard (R), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, asked her who had implanted the chip.
“The Department of Defense,” she said.
Willard thanked the woman for her input, and the committee later approved the bill.
Oh my.
When this story first broke (background here) the School District was adamant about the number of times they activated the web cam. Once would have been one time too many for me, but they kept repeating the number 42.
District spokesman Doug Young acknowledged yesterday that officials had remotely activated computer webcams 42 times, but only in an attempt to recover missing or stolen laptops, and never to spy on students. He said families had not been notified about the possibility that the cameras on the 2,300 laptops could be activated in their homes without their permission.
Looks like that number was on the low end.
The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district.
More than once, the motion asserts, a laptop camera took photos of Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins as he slept in his bed.
And according to the emails published in the article it appears certain adults were enjoying this show more than the Real Housewives of New Jersey.
Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into “a little LMSD soap opera,” a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.
“I know, I love it,” she is quoted as having replied.
Cafiero has taken the fifth.
The Lower Merion School District today acknowledged that investigators reviewing its controversial laptop tracking program have recovered “a substantial number of webcam photos” and that they expect to soon start notifying parents whose children were photographed.
start notifying parents whose children were photographed
I’m guessing this story is about to get bigger, and heads are going to roll… as they should.
First, let me say that what happened to a fundraiser for Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and her boyfriend at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last weekend was horrible. These people were brutally attacked and sustained serious injuries. Plain wrong and inexcusable.
What’s also inexcusable…
Since then the story has been making the rounds of the right-wing interwebs. The claim was that the assailants were anti-Palin, anti-Jindal liberals attacking conservatives. A conservative blogger even published what purported to be a quote from the NOPD saying the attack appeared to be “of a political nature.” And that quote was picked up by a few other news organizations.
Alas, then things started going down hill. The New Orleans police denied ever saying anything like that. And now the actual police report has come out which not only contains no evidence of any partisan political intent but actually says that the assailants yelled misogynistic and homophobic epithets at the victims while the attack was taking place.
Talk about jumping the gun. What is it about these Republican “me too” moments? Gives new meaning to the phrase fake it, ’til you make it. And yeah, I’m looking at you, Eric Cantor – aka bullet boy.
I really don’t see how anyone can have a problem with this – yes, I know some will.
President Obama on Thursday signed a memorandum requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.
The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning, according to an administration official and another source familiar with the White House decision.
An official said the new rule will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.
During a time of vulnerability and fear, it’s only right (and humane) that a person have those they love by their bedside.
What could possibly go wrong with this?
A new Tea Party group, Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots, has grown quickly since being launched last month by an active duty Marine Corps sergeant. The group, which vows to “stand up on the very soil we defended to preserve common sense conservatism and defend our Constitution that is threatened by a tyrannical government,” currently has over 400 members, who have signed up through its Facebook page, though many are not active duty military. And it has close ties to the broader Tea Party movement.
One of the things I’ve always admired about the Military was their ability to serve in a generally un-partisan fashion. I’ve known liberal and conservative Military men and women, and when it came to politics duty always came first. Pretty impressive. Until now…
My oath was to the Constitution, not to the politicians, and that oath will be kept. I wont’ “Just follow” orders. There is at this time a debate within the ranks of the military regarding their oath. Some mistakenly believe they must follow any order the President issues. But many others do understand that their loyalty is to the Constitution and to the people…
Scary stuff. Not because I completely disagree with the statement, but because this Military Tea Party is using these words politically. This group isn’t concerned about the Constitution – or else they would have come into being during the Bush Administration. This group is just more Republicans having a temper tantrum over losing an election.
To me, another impressive trait among soldiers is their unity. They stick together, which is vital in combat. So how does this Military Tea Party add to the camaraderie? In my opinion, it doesn’t. It takes a fundamentally cohesive group and divides it. And I have to wonder how much an Obama-voting soldier can count on a Tea Party soldier in a foxhole?
What sort of monster does this?
Russia threatened to suspend all child adoptions by U.S. families Friday after a 7-year-old boy adopted by a woman from Tennessee was sent alone on a one-way flight back to Moscow with a note saying he was violent and had severe psychological problems.
Attaching the note was priceless. I bet Amazon.com has received warmer, more detailed, Return Forms. And I don’t care what problems the boy had, the adopted mother’s action crossed every line imaginable. If this woman has other children I’d suggest removing them from her home immediately. And isn’t Granny a wonderful person – my, what big teeth you have!
Via Bloomberg:
Swine flu is refusing to give up its hold on U.S. states with low vaccination rates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Only Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina — states where the share of immunized population was among the country’s lowest — reported outbreaks last week that spread beyond a single locality, according to reports today from the CDC. Eight states reporting local outbreaks were in U.S. regions that had fewer vaccinations than the national average.
Ya think?
In Georgia, where less than 17 percent of the population was vaccinated, hospitalizations unexpectedly rose to the highest level since October, prompting the state to request a CDC investigation.
Georgia’s Surge
Georgia’s low vaccination rate may have contributed to the late surge in cases, a pattern that may be repeated elsewhere, said Anne Schuchat, head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC. Georgia had 40 hospitalizations with laboratory-confirmed swine flu last week.
The median state vaccination rate through January was 24 percent, with 33 percent of people in the riskiest groups getting vaccinated, according to the CDC. New England states had the highest vaccination rate — a third of the population — and New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are among eight states reporting no flu cases. [emphasis mine]
Please tell me when being stupid became a badge of honor?
Swine flu, the first pandemic in 40 years, disproportionately targets younger adults and children, with ninety percent of deaths in people younger than age 65, the reverse of a typical flu season.
“It’s too early to say that we’re not going to see outbreaks in other areas,” the CDC’s Schuchat said. “We do know that the virus is still around, and the vaccine is very safe.” [emphasis mine again]
Now I don’t expect facts to sway stupid, but you’d think – given the target group – that parents wouldn’t roll the dice when it comes to their children’s well-being. Looks like quite a few are ready to chance it.
Via Think Progress:
ERICKSON: This is crazy. What gives the Commerce Department the right to ask me how often I flush my toilet? Or about going to work? I’m not filling out this form. I dare them to try and come throw me in jail. I dare them to. Pull out my wife’s shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door. They’re not going on my property. They can’t do that. They don’t have the legal right, and yet they’re trying.
Notice how he dances along the fault line: …and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door. He just wants to scare the little twerps. With a shotgun.
What could possibly go wrong with this scenario? It’s not as if anyone out there is cheering at being called a Tim McVeigh wannabe.
Catholic League President William Donohue:
As I said in the ad, which I wrote, most gay priests are not molesters, but most of the molesters have been gay. And I also said, that there’s no such thing as a — that homosexuality does not cause predatory behavior.
Let me give you a quick example. I’m Irish. Everybody who has half a brain knows that the Irish have a bigger problem with alcoholism than the Italians or the Chinese, for example. Does that mean because you’re an Irishman, therefore, you are driven to become an alcoholic? Of course, not.
What it means, though, if your group is overrepresented in a particular problem area, you ought to explore it. Yes, there’s a connection between Irish and alcoholism, and, yes, there’s a connection between homosexuality and sexual abuse of minors.
Absolutely disgusting. Hmm… using that “logic” I guess all heterosexual men should be viewed as potential rapists of women, since it’s heterosexual men who rape women. Why doesn’t this idiot, pedophile excuser, get that rape and child molestation aren’t about sex.
Seriously, if the Catholic Church intends to use this bigot as a defense and a spokesperson… they are so screwed.
Don’t believe me? Read on…
“The Times continues to editorialize about the ‘pedophilia crisis,’ when all along it’s been a homosexual crisis. Eighty percent of the victims of priestly sexual abuse are male and most of them are post-pubescent. While homosexuality does not cause predatory behavior, and most gay priests are not molesters, most of the molesters have been gay.”
Donohue is still talking about the problem as an indiscretion rather than a crime. If it mostly involves men and boys, that’s partly because priests for many years had unquestioned access to boys.
Oh, since 80% of the victims are post-pubescent (in my book that’s anywhere between 13 and 17) that’s a-okay. Nice to know. I put pedophiles in a category of their own. Silly me.
Yes, we have ordered the iPad. Actually, my almost 16 year old son has ordered – using his money from his summer job. I can’t wait to get my hands on this! Luckily, I taught my children how to share.
Based on the reviews, I’m considering buying another one for my parents.
USA Today’s Edward C. Baig says the “stunning” iPad is “rewriting the rulebook”:
The iPad is not so much about what you can do — browse, do e-mail, play games, read e-books and more — but how you can do it. That’s where Apple is rewriting the rulebook for mainstream computing. There is no mouse or physical keyboard. Everything is based on touch. All programs arrive directly through Apple’s App Store. Apple’s tablet is fun, simple, stunning to look at and blazingly fast. Inside is a new Apple chip, the A4. The machine is the antithesis of the cheap underpowered netbook computers that Jobs easily dismisses.
That is not strictly true, but giving up the iPad felt a little like that. I had been prepared for a smooth feel, for a bright screen and the “immersive” experience everyone had promised. I was not prepared, though, for how instant the relationship I formed with the device would be. I left Cupertino without an iPad, but I have since gotten my own, and it goes with me everywhere.
It is possible that the public will not fall on the iPad, as I did, like lions on an antelope. Perhaps they will find the apps and the iBooks too expensive. Maybe they will wait for more fully featured later models. But for me, my iPad is like a gun lobbyist’s rifle: the only way you will take it from me is to prise it from my cold, dead hands.
The New York Times’ David Pogue deemed the iPad “polarizing” and wrote two reviews for groups at either end of the spectrum. One for “techies” and one review for “anyone else.”
Pogue’s review for “techies”:
The Apple iPad is basically a gigantic iPod Touch.
It’s a half-inch-thick slab, all glass on top, aluminum on the back. Hardly any buttons at all — just a big Home button below the screen. It takes you to the Home screen full of apps, just as on an iPhone.
Pogue’s review for “anyone else”:
The iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget. Some have suggested that it might make a good goof-proof computer for technophobes, the aged and the young; they’re absolutely right.
The Chicago Sun-Times’ Andy Ihnatko described the tablet as “pure innovation”:
The iPad user experience is instantly compelling and elegant. It’s not every computer and every function. It’s a computer that’s designed for speed, mobility, and tactile interaction above all other considerations.
The most compelling sign that Apple got this right is the fact that despite the novelty of the iPad, the excitement slips away after about ten seconds and you’re completely focused on the task at hand … whether it’s reading a book, writing a report, or working on clearing your Inbox. Second most compelling: in situation after situation, I find that the iPad is the best computer in my household and office menagerie. It’s not a replacement for my notebook, mind you. It feels more as if the iPad is filling a gap that’s existed for quite some time.
Stephen Fry writes in TIME that he felt an almost instant connection with his iPad:
That is not strictly true, but giving up the iPad felt a little like that. I had been prepared for a smooth feel, for a bright screen and the “immersive” experience everyone had promised. I was not prepared, though, for how instant the relationship I formed with the device would be. I left Cupertino without an iPad, but I have since gotten my own, and it goes with me everywhere.
It is possible that the public will not fall on the iPad, as I did, like lions on an antelope. Perhaps they will find the apps and the iBooks too expensive. Maybe they will wait for more fully featured later models. But for me, my iPad is like a gun lobbyist’s rifle: the only way you will take it from me is to prise it from my cold, dead hands.
Ours is scheduled to be delivered mid-April. I’ll report back on our experience.
PS: I’m so excited!