"A black sheriff?!": The Official Topic of Obama and New Era American Politics

[TVC15]

I have not seen his show, but, uh, that twitter is fake, right?  He can't possibly say those things.  They're like, Coulter-esque.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

dude, did you not check the feed's name?  Its the REAL Glenn Beck, real is even spelt capitalized, of course its him.

[Mandark]

I have not seen his show, but, uh, that twitter is fake, right?  He can't possibly say those things.  They're like, Coulter-esque.

Oh yeah.  The writer's using it to tweak Republicans for being hypocrites by using the identity of a purist.  Razzing Texas' governor for requesting emergency flu vaccinations from the federal government after threatening to secede, etc.

[Van Cruncheon]

http://tableofwisdom.com/www.GOP_Enema.html

The GOP Enema has Now Begun
by MrArbitrage

So Arlen Specter saw the writing on the wall and defected to save face.  As a Republican, I think this is GREAT news. Good riddance. This would be a good time to have Olympia Snowe & Susan Collins do the same.

People like these should be welcomed under our tent with ASYLUM – if they want to support conservative candidates. They should never again be allowed positions of leadership. It is unacceptable to have leftists undermining our platform. No individual seat is worth preserving at the expense of our conscience. Allowing their nonsense to endure has cost us many more seats than the few we gained in tolerating them as they have disillusioned so many, causing them to defect to other parties with no chance to win.

While we are at it, we should also put John McCain and Lindsey Graham near the top of that list for being capricious in many ways including the protection of our borders.  It is time for  some solid candidates to challenge John McCain and Lindsey Graham.  The presidential election is over and it is time to get back to reality. 

I would suspect that credible challengers to McCain and Graham will be receiving small checks - from the grassroots - amounting to tens of millions WITHOUT SOLICITATION.  I would like to propose  that we “draft” Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio as the primary challenger to Senator John McCain.  Senator McCain has run his entire political career on his admiral military record.  Yet after all his years in Congress, he has a political record he must hide from as a Republican.  Sheriff Arpaio is a veteran of the US Army but most relevant is his -remarkable political record. 

Arpaio knows what the public wants, “The public is my boss,” he says, “so I serve the public.” - http://www.mcso.org/index.php?a=GetModule&mn=Sheriff_Bio

Sheriff Arpaio would be the much needed new blood in the United States Senate.  Think Arpaio has enough credibility on the issue of border protection?  Think Arpaio might rally the troops and generate some grassroots support? 

Everyone has been asking the question of WHAT all of the “tea party” participants can actually DO besides showing up to protest?  THAT would be one outstanding grassroots effort. 

It's difficult to call the present minority situation in which we find ourselves a “positive” as we see the damage being done to our country by our Hussein, Pelosi & Reed but we can look at this as an OPPORTUNITY.  Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you truly recover.  We need to totally expunge these people while we're down. We do not want to revisit this problem down the road. Get rid of the disease - not just the symptoms.

Once we purge the GOP bowels of the remaining RINO’s - then conservatives can and will coalesce.

[Mandark]

Aside from the rest of the craziness in that post, shouldn't it be liberals pushing the GOP-as-asshole metaphor?

[Phoenix Dark]

" Buchanan: GOP A "Heavily White Party" " Thats how we like it! Get the immigrants out, they brought the swine flu aint they?

no way that's real 

[siamesedreamer]

Q1 GDP -6.1%

Some weird numbers. Amazingly, consumer spending was up 2.2%, but government spending was down (I think because defense spending was down like 6%). Some of the other numbers are horrific though.

EDIT: Supposedly the concensus was for -4.7%.

[Eric P]

so for reborn fiscal conservatives, that's great news right?  gov't spending down?  hallelujah?

[Cheebs]

Govt. spending was down? 

[ToxicAdam]

Less economic activity means less revenue. Less revenue means smaller budgets. Not a big surprise.

[Mr. Gundam]

Republican congresswoman says Matthew Shepard's murder was "a hoax"
http://www.americablog.com/2009/04/republican-congresswoman-says-matthew.html

[Human Snorenado]

Michelle Bachman crazy watch:

[youtube=560,345]OdjRFJQuoiI[/youtube]



Saying she thinks it's "interesting" that the last swine flu outbreak happened under a "Democrat" president in the 70's.  I for one was unaware that Gerald Ford was a "Democrat" president... although given the state of today's GOP, he likely would have been.

Oh but wait!  It gets better:

[youtube=560,345]Jc1kvcf4w-M[/youtube]



Here she is blaming the "Hoot-Smalley" tariff act, as enacted by FDR as the cause of the depression.  Of course, there is no such thing as the "Hoot Smalley" tariff act.  There *IS* a Smoot-Hawley tariff act... of 1930.  It was sponsored by Sen. Reed Smoot and Rep. Willis Hawley and signed into law by Herbert Hoover... all three of whom were Republicans.  The act was repealed by noted socialist, baby smotherer and all around asshole Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1934.

Remind me again why this woman gets to vote on things?

[Brehvolution]

Facts just aren't as interesting especially if the truth actually implicates your cause. It's easy to damn something if your viewers are to lazy to check for the truth.

[Cheebs]

Saying she thinks it's "interesting" that the last swine flu outbreak happened under a "Democrat" president in the 70's.  I for one was unaware that Gerald Ford was a "Democrat" president... although given the state of today's GOP, he likely would have been.

Well Gerald Ford did say Jimmy Carter was a better President than he is given credit for and hopes history will redeem Carter. That pretty much makes him a leftist commie socialist.

[AdmiralViscen]

Republican congresswoman says Matthew Shepard's murder was "a hoax"
http://www.americablog.com/2009/04/republican-congresswoman-says-matthew.html

Holy fuck, where do these people come from?

[The Fake Shemp]

I want to run a train on Michelle Bachmann 'till she calls Obama her daddy.

[Mandark]

Republican congresswoman says Matthew Shepard's murder was "a hoax"
http://www.americablog.com/2009/04/republican-congresswoman-says-matthew.html

Holy fuck, where do these people come from?

This isn't even new.  The Shepard-murder-as-hoax meme has been kicking around for a little while now, with the inevitable amateur "experts" coming from the usual places.  I read a debunking at one of the medium-sized liberal blogs a couple years back.

I'm a little surprised that it bubbled up as far as the US Congress, but only because it's not Michelle Bachmann.

[Phoenix Dark]

nah he was a gay drug dealer/hit man

[Mandark]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03Obama-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2


Long form interview with Obama about economic issues in the NYT.  Really good stuff.

[siamesedreamer]

"Bankruptcy is not a sign of weakness." 

- Barack Obama 4/30/09

[Eric P]

that goddamn darkie

how the fuck could he possibly say that?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

[Phoenix Dark]

http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001266/

errr wat

[Phoenix Dark]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/steele-i-wear-my-gop-hat-backwards-thats-how-we-roll-in-the-northeast.php?ref=fp4

smh

[Herr Mafflard]

"Bankruptcy is not a sign of weakness." 

- Barack Obama 4/30/09

Whitehouse's updated newsroom, live webcam:

[Phoenix Dark]

Rev Wright on far left, front row

[Cheebs]

Thats the white house movie screening room. What 3d movie were they watching? 

[Brehvolution]

(Image removed from quote.)

 

[Herr Mafflard]

Thats the white house movie screening room. What 3d movie were they watching? 

Super Bowl 43. In 3-D! 

[Oblivion]

Heir Obama's first 100 days as reported by the TRUE patriots:

http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001248/

[Brehvolution]

I could go for some socialism right now.

By the way, why the fuck is Jimmy Norton on fox? Fuck that hobbit.

No shit! If he is a conservative, he had me fooled for a long time. I've heard him talk about his girlfriend in his shows but I'm pretty sure the dude is hard gay.

[siamesedreamer]

Chrysler goes bankrupt and the UAW benefits
I can hear the steam coming out of SD's ears from here

Doesn't bother me that much. More poetic justice than anything else. Not like the American auto industry is ever coming back. At least they'll now be responsible for al their own costs. Should be fun to watch that play out.

[siamesedreamer]

What does concern me though is this:



Up to 3.16 today.

[Eric P]

http://www.order-order.com/

apparently the uk has its own drudge

[Cheebs]

The right-wing in the UK is far more scary than ours to be honest, at least right now. Because unlike the mess conservatives are in in America the ones in the UK are well organized and have a clear leader in David Cameron, one who is charismatic and very politically wise. Which is scary because he is a right-wing wacko.

[Phoenix Dark]

NPR.org, April 30, 2009 ·  NPR has learned that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term.

The vacancy will give President Obama his first chance to name a member of the high court and begin to shape its future direction.

At 69, Souter is nowhere near the oldest member of the court. In fact, he is in the younger half of the court's age range, with five justices older and just three younger. So far as anyone knows, he is in good health. But he has made clear to friends for some time that he wanted to leave Washington, a city he has never liked, and return to his native New Hampshire. Now, according to reliable sources, he has decided to take the plunge and has informed the White House of his decision.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103694193

[Cheebs]

If he hated DC so much why did he want to become SC justice? lol

[Human Snorenado]

Obama should threaten to appoint torture hatin' Dawn Johnsen to the seat if they don't quit blocking her appointment to the OLC.

[Mandark]

The right-wing in the UK is far more scary than ours to be honest, at least right now. Because unlike the mess conservatives are in in America the ones in the UK are well organized and have a clear leader in David Cameron, one who is charismatic and very politically wise. Which is scary because he is a right-wing wacko.

Oh no.

You are not (repeat: ARE NOT) going to start playing the expert on British politics.  Now just back away slowly and we'll all act like this never happened.

[Human Snorenado]

The right-wing in the UK is far more scary than ours to be honest, at least right now. Because unlike the mess conservatives are in in America the ones in the UK are well organized and have a clear leader in David Cameron, one who is charismatic and very politically wise. Which is scary because he is a right-wing wacko.

Oh no.

You are not (repeat: ARE NOT) going to start playing the expert on British politics.  Now just back away slowly and we'll all act like this never happened.

But but but he read an article on the guardian uk's website.  AN ARTICLE!

[TVC15]

Forgive me with not knowing the ins and outs of appointing a justice, but now that we are (almost) at 60, does this mean we can basically make Karl Marx himself a justice with little issue?  Because I would cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum.

[Fragamemnon]

Forgive me with not knowing the ins and outs of appointing a justice, but now that we are (almost) at 60, does this mean we can basically make Karl Marx himself a justice with little issue?  Because I would cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum.

no, because A) obama isn't the marx type and B) there are enough conservative dems to make problems if they don't get someone, at most, who is left-moderate.

[Mandark]

Obama should appoint the lefty equivalent of Roberts.  Someone who's soft spoken and projects nonpartisan competence, but who is reliably liberal in their sympathies.

I don't think he should ask Republicans for a list or even worry about finding a candidate they won't oppose.  The Congressional GOP has decided to dig in and any qualified candidate is going to have something that can be distorted and demagogued (see Johnsen, David Hamilton, Harold Koh).

Just make sure that they haven't done anything objectively kooky and line up a bunch of moderate and conservative legal wonks to give them cover.



PS Scalia is now at the top of my "Right-wingers whose intellect people tell me I should respect, but screw that noise" list.

We doubt, to begin with, that small-town broadcasters run a heightened risk of liability for indecent utterances. In programming that they originate, their down-home local guests probably employ vulgarity less than big-city folks; and small-town stations generally cannot afford or cannot attract foul-mouthed glitteratae from Hollywood.

Yes, small stations don't run the risk of big FCC fines for inadvertent live swear words, because down-home small-town people don't cuss.  Sheeeeeeeeeeeeyit.

[Cheebs]

I wonder if he'd appoint one of his old law school buddies. I've read that he may do that.

[siamesedreamer]

I'd be shocked if his pick wasn't a woman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Ward_Sears

She is stepping down from that position in June.

FWIW, I really could care less about who he picks. It will be interesting to see how Obama handles this since he voted against both of Bush's nominees. Alito was a partisan pick for an unpopular president coming off another pick just 6 months prior, so I can give him the benefit of the doubt there. But, Roberts was about as good of a pick as there has been in the last 50 years. Obama's vote against him is pretty indefensible.

[Phoenix Dark]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/1/726792/-Goposaurs-start-framing-SCOTUS-debate-(ROFLMAO)

here we gooo

[Human Snorenado]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/1/726792/-Goposaurs-start-framing-SCOTUS-debate-(ROFLMAO)

here we gooo

rofl @ the "new" gop logo:

[Phoenix Dark]

someone photoshop it into an arc sailing towards a glacier

[Brehvolution]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/1/726792/-Goposaurs-start-framing-SCOTUS-debate-(ROFLMAO)

here we gooo

rofl @ the "new" gop logo:

(Image removed from quote.)

[siamesedreamer]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/1/726792/-Goposaurs-start-framing-SCOTUS-debate-(ROFLMAO)

here we gooo

rofl @ the "new" gop logo:

(Image removed from quote.)

LMAO

One of the few times you'll see me agree with something on Kos. So, you may want to bookmark this post. The dude is absolutely correct. SC nominees are one of the few things in American politics where I think "to the victors go the spoils" is perfectly OK. Obama can nominate anyone he wants and the GOP should just STFU about it. Especially when they are so completely powerless to do anything.

[Mandark]

FWIW, I really could care less about who he picks. It will be interesting to see how Obama handles this since he voted against both of Bush's nominees. Alito was a partisan pick for an unpopular president coming off another pick just 6 months prior, so I can give him the benefit of the doubt there. But, Roberts was about as good of a pick as there has been in the last 50 years. Obama's vote against him is pretty indefensible.

Yeah, Alito sucks but Roberts is awesome.

Hey, who wants to guess which jurist Roberts votes with the most?  Anyone?  Wanna throw some guesses out there?

[Phoenix Dark]

Alito?!

[siamesedreamer]

And what does that have to do with their qualifications when they were nominated?

[Mandark]

I dunno, cause "qualifications" are only qualifications in as much as they are predictors of future job performance?  Hurrrrrrr.

It's not like nobody could have predicted this either.  He was a big wheel in the Federalist Society and ruled for the government in the Hamdan case.  All the signs said "very conservative, but doesn't project an asshole personality like Scalia".

But then, why am I bothering to argue this?  Do you know any more about constitutional law and judicial resumes than Cheebs does about British politics?  Smart money says you're just puffing yourself up with outrage over something you haven't bothered to understand.  Again.

[Dickie Dee]

While I don't subscribe to the "this must be good for Republicans" framing that is all too pervasive, I also realize that wiping themselves into a frenzy these past couple months over weird bullshit was good training for a battle like this. This shit is gonna get messy.

[Phoenix Dark]

Does Arlen Specter's defection from R to D strengthen the President's hand in Congress? Perhaps overall but not on judicial appointments because breaking (the equivalent of) a filibuster in the Senate Judiciary Committee requires the consent of at least one member of the minority. Before today, Specter was likely to be that one Republican. Now what?

http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2009/04/specter-defection-will-haunt-dems-on.html
(more at link)

interesting

[Human Snorenado]

Ugh, further proof that the Senate should just be nuked from orbit.

[Mandark]

Jack Kemp died.

I'll always wonder if Dole picked him for the VP slot because he knew the ship was going down and wanted to take Kemp with it.

[Phoenix Dark]

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge (R) is considering running for the U.S. Senate nomination in his home state, reports Roll Call.

National Republicans "have been publicly and privately urging Ridge to consider a Senate bid since Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) announced earlier this week that he was switching parties and would run for re-election as a Democrat in 2010."

Ridge's "moderate politics and national profile would make him a more viable candidate" in the general election than former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-PA).

http://politicalwire.com/

That could work, I mean it makes far more sense than Toomey. Specter losing would be kinda funny

[Human Snorenado]

Jack Kemp died.

I'll always wonder if Dole picked him for the VP slot because he knew the ship was going down and wanted to take Kemp with it.

I'm about 95% sure that's what happened.

Pee Dee- there's a very low chance that the nutbar GOP rump that will comprise the PA primary electorate is gonna vote for a pro-choice candidate.  Although it would be hilarious if somehow it ended up being Sestak vs. Ridge, I foresee Specter getting his wish of cleaning Toomey's clock in the general.

Personally, I'm more annoyed with Ben Nelson than anyone else these days.  Now he's bragging about how he'll throw a monkeywrench into any health care bill that has a public option because he's so in the pocket of the insurance companies.