This feeling… a mixture of celebration and sadness… I felt it in 2009…

This feeling… a mixture of celebration and sadness… I felt it in 2009…

11 Comments
when a certain failed vice presidential candidate decided that she craved money and fame more than she craved political office and you know... doing the job she was elected to do. When she quit, I felt happy enought to dance in the streets for she was not in government anymore and could no longer hurt her constituents and damage the country with her Christofascist theocratic politics. But I also felt sadness for two reasons: 1) she was no longer going to be in office which meant it was likely she was not going to be a presidential candidate and thus a very easy opponent to destroy in a 45 state landslide, and 2) it meant that she was going to be more present in our culture than less (i.e. Dancing with the Stars, reality shows, constant appearances, her role in the 2010 elections). Former failed presidential candidate and radical right Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is retiring. She will not seek reelection.

Tuesday Open Thread [5.28.13]

1 Comment
As we get closer to the 2014 midterm elections, you are going to start hearing more and more about the generic ballot. It is a poll question where polling organizations ask their respondents whether they are voting for the Democratic candidate or the Republican candidate as their Representative in Congress. Now, generally, this question only tells so much if the results are relatively close together, for example, Dems 42, GOP 40. Because in that instance, local politics, gerrymandering, and the incumbency advantage all play a part in deciding the race no matter the national preference for one party over the other. However, when the disparity between the two parties on this question becomes wider, it often indicates that a wave election is coming where one political party gets their candidates elected over the other. For example, in 2006, the ABC/Washington Post poll right before the election showed the Dems enjoying a 6 point lead over the GOP on the generic ballot question. The Dems won 30 plus seats and the House. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that the Democrats lead Republicans on the generic ballot by 8 points, 48% to 40%. Meanwhile, the Republicans are really going to regret naming the Affordable Care Act... "Obamacare."

Yuck — A 4th Grader’s Short Documentary About School Lunch

This all started when young Zachary Maxwell wanted to start packing and taking his lunch to school. His parents, however, thought that the school lunches as described and pictured on line looked like they would be just fine. So young Zachary smuggled in a camera to school in order to show his parents the reality of those school meals. He kept filming (even got busted once) and made a short documentary called Yuck -- A 4th Grader's Short Documentary About School Lunch. Love this kid. Anyway, this doc has won some awards and has been playing the festival circuit. I'm posting the trailer and another piece with clips below. It sounds as if this entire film will be online shortly, but I don't know when:
Late Night Video — Know Your Food

Late Night Video — Know Your Food

2 Comments
This is a xTed Talk (approx. 8.5 mins long) featuring an 11-year old who has figured out how conglomerate-produced food isn't exactly the healthiest choice. Since we're close to the point where locally grown food will be getting plentiful, this guy has good advice:

President Obama and the Guantanamo Heckler

4 Comments
Hecklers of speeches -- especially major ones -- aren't new. A public disruption of a speaker is meant as an attempt to embarrass the speaker and get attention for the heckler and the heckler's cause. Yesterday, Medea Benjamin of Code Pink attended the President's speech at the National Defense University at Ft. McNair yesterday and proceeded to heckle him 3 times during the speech. The video below (approx 8 minutes long and I apologize for the commercial) shows that segment of the President's speech. I couldn't hear everything she said, but it seems clear to me that she was calling for the immediate release of some number of the Gitmo prisoners. While the President was proposing a new plan to close Gitmo. What is fascinating to me about this clip is the President's reaction to Ms. Benjamin's interruptions. Not only did he appear to be listening to her, but he validated her concerns (or some of them) as important and worth listening to. I can't imagine GWB managing this kind of respect towards someone yelling at him, and whoever was yelling at him would have been immediately hustled away from the event -- not given two more times to disrupt. I haven't had a chance to see the entire speech to know what exactly the President said, so I'm not here agreeing or disagreeing with what he proposed yesterday. But I am pretty proud of the way he handled this:

Thursday Open Thread [5.23.13]

5 Comments
This is both hysterical funny and hysterical crazy (not to mention headache inducing):
That's why you saw the House of Representatives pass my [Michelle Bachmann's] bill, the full repeal of Obamacare last week, and that's why I have renewed confidence that we can see this bill pass in the Senate and I think the President will ultimately be forced to repudiate his own signature piece of legislation because the American people will demand it. And I think before his second term is over, we're going to see a miracle before our eyes, I believe God is going to answer our prayers and we'll be freed from the yoke of Obamacare. I believe that's going to happen and we saw step one last week with the repeal of Obamacare in the House. We have two more steps. We serve a mighty God and I believe it can happen.
Yah, Michelle, you keep telling yourself that. Methinks you will be disappointed in your God quite soon, as the repeal bill will never be heard in the Senate and even if it did, it will be defeated.
Upcoming Events: Happy Birthday, Mr. President….

Upcoming Events: Happy Birthday, Mr. President….

17 Comments
This sounds like a cool panel to check out. The Delaware Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare (NCPSSM) are co-hosting an event on the former President's birthday as a tribute to President John F. Kennedy, who strengthened Social Security, fought for the establishment of Medicare, and advocated for closing the same corporate tax loopholes that corporations still abuse to this day. The speakers will be Wilmington Mayor Dennis P. Williams, retired Delaware Social Security executive Tom Tobin, NCPSSM Grassroots National Director Ernie Powell, and businessman Andrew Groff, and Jon “Bowzer” Bauman, former lead singer of the famous Sha Na Na, will sing Happy Birthday to the President, hopefully not in the Marilyn Monroe style.

I like this new Pope.

2 Comments
“This ‘closing off’ that imagines that those outside, everyone, cannot do good is a wall that leads to war and also to what some people throughout history have conceived of: killing in the name of God. That we can kill in the name of God. And that, simply, is blasphemy. To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy … The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! … We all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there,” – Pope Francis, in the weekly Wednesday homily (sermon) today at the Vatican.
Finally got my hands on the Phillips complaint.

Finally got my hands on the Phillips complaint.

18 Comments
It's pretty disgusting, the allegations contained therein. Read at your own peril. It is a public filing, so it is ok for you to read it. And while the Plaintiff/alleged victim is over 18 now, and while her name is plastered all over that complaint, I will not tolerate any mention of her name here in the comments. If the complaint is to be believed (and I do believe it), this young woman was a sexual assault victim, and I will not have her attacked by name or even mentioned by name on this thread. Consider it the Rape Shield Law extended.