Indefinite Detention? But I Have Soccer Practice at 4: U.S. Politics 2012

in order to cut the deficit

Washington Monthly blogger (and Obama cheerleader) Steve Benen is leaving that site to become a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show” and an MSNBC contributor.

just what MSNBC needs to blunt their skeptical edge

I liked the SOTU, and thought there was a lot of good substance in it, beyond the Buffett rule thing that the media focused on. For instance, reform of Senate rules to allow certain types of business to be conducted by majority vote, a shift in emphasis from deficit cutting to infrastructure investment, education reform ideas, immigration reform, and lots of other things.

Those ideas were nice and the speech was carefully crafted though to start off with the gung-ho America's military is the greatest stuff. Everything seemed carefully selected to respond to Republican candidates attacks.

If this moves us one step closer to beatdowns on the floor of the House and Senate, I am all over it:

In a heated hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill, Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman called upon the billionaire Koch brothers to be subpoenaed over their alleged monetary interests in the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Republican Congressman Ed Whitfield angrily cut off Waxman. “We’re not going to be subpoenaing the Koch brothers … because the Koch brothers have nothing to do with this project,” Whitfield snapped.

“Point of order!” Waxman exclaimed. “You cut me out in the middle of a sentence!”

“Your time was up, Mr. Waxman!” Whitfield shot back. “We are going to recess this hearing for ten minutes and then we’re going to come back.”

“Are you calling the Koch brothers during the recess?” Waxman sniped.

“If you want to talk about that, let’s talk about the millions of dollars the Obama administration gave companies like Solyndra and people like George Kaiser and other campaign bundlers,” Whitfield fumed.

“Why are you interrupting members and then you take unlimited time for yourself?” Waxman responded.

“I’m the chairman! And I’m telling you right now we’re going to recess for ten minutes!” Whitfield boomed, before storming out of the hearing.

Waxman is the shit

Some grade-A trolling by Waxman there.

solyndra thing was ok but whitfield shoulda gone "no i'm gonna call your mom"

“Are you calling the Koch brothers during the recess?” Waxman sniped.

boom, tough actin' tinactin.

the Koch brothers certainly DO have a financial interest in Keystone XL, of course, and i'm sure Whitfield knows that.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/01/25/blogs/obama-brewer/obama-brewer-blog480.jpg

sorry, here's some context:

PHOENIX — President Obama’s visit to Phoenix got off to a rough start on Wednesday afternoon when Air Force One was met by Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona — she of the book “Scorpions for Breakfast,” in which she accuses the Obama administration of turning a blind eye to illegal immigration because migrants will help Mr. Obama register more Democratic votes.

Mr. Obama stepped off the plane and was greeted by Ms. Brewer, who handed him a handwritten letter in an envelope that she later said was an invitation to discuss the “Arizona comeback.” The two had an intense exchange for several minutes; at one point Ms. Brewer pointed her finger at Mr. Obama.

...At one point, the two seemed to be talking at the same time, seemingly over each other. Mr. Obama appeared to walk away from Ms. Brewer while she was still talking.

are they... about to kiss

The rightwing take:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/thou-shalt-not-write-bad-things-about-obama_618603.html

Two Republican govs say Obama was mean to them in person (for things they wrote about him)

about to hurl
xp

Disappointed to find out Scorpions for Breakfast isn't a cookbook ;_;

I think you're looking for To Serve Scorpions.

One of my friends just posted the following on Facebook. RIP America:

I avoid politics on social media but I wanted to relate something to you. My son had an eighth grade history assignment in which they're studying how our government works. They were instructed to watch the State of The Union speech and write about two topics brought up in it.

He told me that some of the students brought letters from home saying they did not like Obama in their household and would not allow their child to participate in this homework assignment.

that's easy to fix: F's for non-participation

I mean, no one said they had to ENDORSE Obama, just write about what he talked about!

those kids should get Fs

lol xp

Those PARENTS should get Fs.

and so should their kids

valuable lessons will be learned all the way around

i wonder if that's the same kind of facebook nugget as someone posting that their friend's kid went into show & tell with an apple & was told they had to give a recital of verses from the quran! or whatever instead

are these the same parents I quoted in the Corner thread who thought FDR was a Republican

Reminds of when I was a junior in HS (1986) and one of my classmates left half of a biology test blank, because he refused to answer questions about evolution. This guy, who was otherwise a nearly straight-A student, took a big ol' F.

He told me that some of the students brought letters from home saying they did not like Obama trigonometry in their household and would not allow their child to participate in this homework assignment.

i was more amazed someone was charing $250 for one of those 'presidents playing poker' prints

xp 2 alfred

hmmm i wonder if those parents would be able to whip up enough frenzy to get Bill O'Reilly to publicly call for the teacher to lose his/her job xxxxp

their friend's kid went into show & tell with an apple & was told they had to give a recital of verses from the quran!

What kind of loser kid goes to show and tell with nothing more than an apple?

Well they don't like evolution or sex ed, either, so there's probably an angle from which this is just another thing about the world they don't want their kid/s exposed to and wish to pretend doesn't exist. School a la carte.

The possibility that a public educational system might have a responsibility to educate kids equally w/r/t reality no matter what their parents think doesn't seem to have registered with the lunatic middle.

i am not american, i figured you guys just picked something off the table on yr way out
xp

English homework?! You heathens! It's Ancient Greek and Hebrew or Aramaic or nothing - he can learn to speak in tongues.

Indeed:

Members of Tennessee tea parties presented state legislators with five priorities for action Wednesday, including “rejecting” the federal health reform act, establishing an elected “chief litigator” for the state and “educating students the truth about America.”

. . .

Regarding education, the material they distributed said, “Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.”

That would include, the documents say, that “the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy.”

The material calls for lawmakers to amend state laws governing school curriculums, and for textbook selection criteria to say that “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”

Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds, the group’s lead spokesman during the news conference, said the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.

“The thing we need to focus on about the founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn’t existed, to everybody — not all equally instantly — and it was their progress that we need to look at,” said Rounds, whose website identifies him as a Vietnam War veteran of the Air Force and FedEx retiree who became a lawyer in 1995.

It's nearly impossible to describe how much this garbage pisses me off.

"made-up criticism"?????????????????????????????????

it was just a little slavery

"not all equally instantly." I mean the fucking zen koan beauty of that is just . . .

"Look, the Indians weren't even USING that land, so how much of an intrusion was it, really?"

how does he reconcile equally instant equality with slavery

And as if on cue:

Veto override gives parents more control over what their kids are taught

CONCORD - The Legislature has passed a controversial bill that would give parents greater control over course materials taught in schools.

Both the House and Senate voted to override the governor's veto of HB 542, which requires school districts to adopt policies to allow "an exception to specific course material based on a parent's or legal guardian's determination that the material is objectionable."

The House failed in an attempt in to override the veto in its last session in November. But after voting to reconsider the measure, the House passed the override on Wednesday 255 to 122, meeting the two-thirds requirement.

The Senate then voted 17-5 to override the governor.

The bill was inspired by a controversy at Bedford High School, where parents of a student objected to the book, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America.”

That's a great fucking book and should be required reading in every HS social science curriculum btw.

I frankly think of that as not only anti-social but it could lead to something akin to child-endangerment.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xJWa77A8OSw/S-Cu-hNCliI/AAAAAAAAFnU/gPKnqDRjazA/s1600/calvinmath2.jpg

does this jan brewer finger pointing at elitist thin skinned petulant kenyan president work on anyone other than lizard brain gop folk?

no

I love that he's the divider.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/01/obamas-strategic-tarmac-attack.html

President Obama’s people have portrayed his tarmac confrontation with Arizona's Jan Brewer as a kind of accidental blowup stemming from his pique that her book allegedly misrepresented a private conversation they had. If it’s an accident, though, it’s a pretty fortuitous one.

Arizona is one of the few states Obama lost in 2008 where his campaign thinks it can compete in 2012. He’s no longer running against a favorite son, and the fast-growing Latino population might give him a shot. But in Arizona, and elsewhere, Obama need to energize Latinos, who tend to vote at low rates.

The Republican strategy is sort of a miniature version of their broader legislative strategy. Republicans, along with a handful of conservative Democrats, blocked comprehensive immigration reform and then blocked even the modest DREAM Act, and their message is that Latinos should vote for them because Obama failed to carry out his campaign promise to pass those bills. It’s actually quite clever.

Since Obama can’t get anything passed through Congress, one option is to simply clarify that he opposes the GOP’s most draconian elements. So: A public shouting match with a governor who’s unpopular with Arizonans in general and despised by Latinos. (Her job approval with Arizona Latinos is minus 40.)

An accident? I doubt it.

(Her job approval with Arizona Latinos is minus 40.)

lolizona

stupid people tend to be conservative lol

altho I don't trust IQ tests as a measure of anything whatsoever and iirc not too many people here do

i was just about to post that, with a similar caution

3,710 comments

o_O

enh, afaik IQ tests are vastly different than the (funnily, in this case) racist/classist/etc tests of old

i had one recently as part of a neuropsych evaluation and it was a lot more about mensa-style problem solving and less about cultural literacy and the like

point being: i am quite happy to accept the relevance of IQ tests if it means i get to call conservatives stupid