Friday Open Thread [6.27.14]

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Even Fox News is now laughing at Michelle Bachmann. For those who cannot bear to watch Fox News or hear Bachmann's voice (I am with you... nails on a chalkboard), here is some quotes from Think Progress:
During an interview with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Cavuto belittled the effort as "an enormous waste of effort" and "a political football," suggesting that President George W. Bush used similar executive authority. The segment devolved into a shouting match, with Cavuto laughing off Bachmann's indignation about Obama's use of executive powers. "It just seems to me like an enormous waste of effort," Cavuto said, at first gently, trying to chide Bachmann and her Tea Party Republican colleagues in Congress to do something, you know, governance-related for the American people. "It just seems to me there's so much wrong here, this finger-pointing—'We're gonna drag your ass to court, we're gonna do this'— just do something, you hear what I'm saying?" Bachmann: This is what we should do now. What we should do now is defund the executive branch when we have the option—I just ran across the street because we're voting on funding for the executive branch all summer long. Cut it. Make it hurt. Because if they don't have money, they don't have power... Cavuto: Think about what you're saying. Defund the executive branch? Congresswoman! If Democrats had said to you, 'We're going to defund President Bush,' you would laugh them out, and so you should have… I think the Democrats are in their right mind to laugh you out now. Defund them?! [shakes head] ...Oh man oh man oh man oh man. Rome's burning and you're filing!
Defunding? Is Michelle Bachmann aware that the President of the United States has to sign anything that the unified Congress (the House and the Senate) passes before it takes affect as law?
Supreme Court Strikes Down Massachusetts Buffer Zone From Inside Their Own Buffer Zone

Supreme Court Strikes Down Massachusetts Buffer Zone From Inside Their Own Buffer Zone

43 Comments
Can we start making Supreme Court Justices go on field trips?  Because it's obvious they have never witnessed what goes on outside of an abortion clinic.  Perhaps we can simply demand that they look in a mirror, since the buffer zone around the Supreme Court (one of the most publicly owned areas in the country) is massive.  Why does that buffer zone exist?  Why do they afford themselves and the people who work in that building protection from sidewalk counselors?  Why shouldn't they be counseled when they arrive at work?  For that matter, why can't we have sidewalk counselors at polling sites?  At military funerals?  Why are these petitioners/sidewalk counselors considered harassers and a threat when "pro-lifers" - who have a history of harassment and violence are not?  Consistency, please.
Wednesday Open Thread [6.25.14]

Wednesday Open Thread [6.25.14]

13 Comments
So the teabaggers were all whiny last night because their favorite Nazi candidate, Chris McDaniel, lost to Sen. Thad Cochran (R) in their Republican runoff in Mississippi. The outcome was something of a surprise, as polling of Republican likely voters, which I have posted here over the past weeks, showed McDaniel leading anywhere from 2 to 10 points. But that was the key: Republican likely voters. The conventional wisdom for the runoff was that if Cochran could somehow woo African American Democrats to vote for him in the runoff, he could win. It was a daunting proposition, since Cochran spent the last three decades doing everything he could to make life as difficult as possible on his African American constituents. And yet, that is precisely what happened.
Delaware casinos bailout

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 25, 2014

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We also know that the General Assembly will find some way to waste money on the casinos. Casinos that are in the shape they're in due to disastrous business decisions by its oligarch owners. Didja see the latest?   Read the article carefully and see if I come to the same conclusion you do.  Those supporting the latest casino bailout, including Jack Markell, are now proposing to use 'one-time' funds that were not used for their original purpose:
The casino aid proposal now offers $9.9 million to casinos by using $5 million left over from an $8 million bailout approved by the General Assembly last year (?). The proposal also uses $3.2 million set aside for the Kent County Sports Complex in the the Delaware Economic Development Office's job infrastructure fund and the remainder would come from other money available from that fund.
Got that? The "Delaware Economic Development Office's job infrastructure fund". And just what are these funds supposed to, um, fund?:
The infrastructure fund for economic development, established in 2012, provides assistance for renovation, construction, or other improvements to roads, utilities and infrastructure to attract new businesses to the state. It also can be used for the expansion of existing state businesses to create jobs, according to the fund's guidelines.
In other words, that Fund could (and I think should) help fund road and infrastructure improvements. Instead it's going to bail out the casinos. As to the 'expansion of existing state businesses to create jobs', we're not getting job expansion at the casinos.  In fact, I think Cassandra's right. The ink won't be dry on the Governor's signature before the alarm bells are once again sounded by the casinos. They are now essentially extorting money from the State. Our public officials are paying.

Tuesday Open Thread [6.24.14]

41 Comments
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) warned Monday of a deadly 'trail of tears' in the unforgiving Rio Grande Valley if the federal government doesn't act.
"More than 52,000 unaccompanied youths have been caught along the Southwest border this fiscal year, almost double last year's total. The influx is fueled by danger at home, experts say, and by false rumors that minors and women with young children will be welcomed."
I agree Governor. Unfortunately, your party has made any other option impossible. We have to send them back. It is your party that wanted stricter immigration controls and more border security. Well, this is the result. You must embrace it because it is what you wanted. If you do not want to embrace it, then come out loud and proud for immigration reform and convince your party to pass it now.

Monday Open Thread [6.23.14]

1 Comment
Hat tip to Kavips for this video. It speaks for itself. It shows that, at one point in his adult political career, when he was Secretary of Defense, he did ask the question that the Los Angeles Times says has kept President Obama out of Syria .... "and then what?"
"Last fall, as President Obama weighed airstrikes against Syria, deliberations followed a clear pattern: The president solicited scores of options, planners returned with possibilities, and, according to people involved, Obama would reply with the same question: And then what?" "Over the last several days, with Obama mulling involvement in another Middle East conflict, this time in Iraq, that dynamic has held."
Thank God this nation chose wisely in 2008. Had John McCain won that election, it is quite clear now that his presidency would have been a disastrous repeat, if not multiplication of Bush II.