Friday Stuff

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 06 July 2012 11:56:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

(I promise to stop hating on Blogger for a little while ? even though I checked out the template HTML and realized that I can?t do a goddamn thing with it, I have to admit that it?s pretty badass to see the site on my smartphone now...now all I have to do is create intelligent content :-).

However, turning about 180 degrees in the direction of stupidity, I give you the following instead (sooo, it looks like Thad McCotter, after witnessing his presidential primary candidacy going up in flames...and how sad is it to lose to Former Senator Man-On-Dog, Baby Newton Leroy and that misogynist pizza guy anyway...decided to make a borderline porn/white trash video in response?).
A fitting way to end the public life of the numbskull who brought us the following (I used to call him ?Mad Thad? and I was only joking ? guess I was serious after all, huh?)...

...and please be careful with the heat over the next few days, OK?

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Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 06 July 2012 11:30:50 PM. © Crooks and Liars

video details and more

The late great Andy Griffith does Romeo and Juliet. Open thread below.

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http://crooksandliars.com/bluegal-aka-fran/open-thread-346

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Open thread for night owls: Battle over defunding
food stamps should be argued on moral grounds

post from Daily Kos on 06 July 2012 11:30:07 PM. © Daily Kos

David Dayen writes:

That this fight on food stamps is happening in parallel with a fight among conservative states on Medicaid should not be seen as an anomaly. Ed Kilgore points out that the resistance to expanding Medicaid cannot be explained by charts and graphs, something wonks on the left have yet to figure out:
But more importantly, we have to remember that this is an ideological and even a moral issue to conservatives, who view dependence on any form of public assistance as eroding the ?moral fiber? of the poor (as Paul Ryan likes to put it), and as corrupting the country through empowerment of big government as a redistributor of wealth from virtuous taxpayers to parasites who will perpetually vote themselves more of other people?s money. This line of ?reasoning,? of course, would justify the abolition of Medicaid, not just a failure to expand it, but conservatives are careful (and smart) to disguise that ultimate goal and simply suggest we have reached some sort of welfare-state tipping point beyond which we become Greece.
And this is the exact motivation for scaling back the food stamp program. You see it when Newt Gingrich calls Barack Obama ?the food stamp President,? or when Allen West says that a nation of slaves is being created. Republicans really believe, or want to believe, that spending money on a safety net for the poor generates a dependency on government, which stifles entrepreneurship and creativity and leads to this parasitical relationship. I would go with ?want to believe,? since this analysis allows them to argue without moral compunction for defunding the poor and saving the rich from having to pay.
The only way to fight this moral argument (perhaps morally twisted argument) is with a moral argument from the other side, showing the pain that will be created from locking the poor in a limbo state without health insurance, or unable to provide for their families without assistance. Unless Democrats call out the cruelty of leaving the poor without help or hope, that explains the responsibility we have toward one another, that argues for why we have to treat this community as we would our family and friends, they?re going to run into the brick wall of this carefully constructed conservative ideology.

Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2006:

How many "30 second rebuttals" does Lieberman get for each question? Interesting how he always demands and gets the last word.
Why has Lieberman been so rude in the debate? Lamont has looked more nervous and less polished than the old pro Lieberman. But it's Lieberman who has been rudely interrupting Lamont's answers, going over his time allotment, and demanding the last word on each question.
Update: Digby writes:
I'm listening to the Lieberman-Lamont debate and if I were just tuning in with no knowledge of the players I would just assume that Lieberman was a conservative Republican, if not an actual member of the Bush administration. He's behaving like an arrogant, bullying thug.
No wonder the Republicans love him so much --- the only time he gets nasty is when he's debating a Democrat. When he debated Dick Cheney he practically gave him a blow job on national TV. But then, that makes sense. He and Dick Cheney both agree that Ned Lamont "and his supporters" are a threat to the nation.

Tweet of the Day:

From a loving reader: "ALL YOU LIBERALS NEED TO GO TO CUBA AND LIVE UNDER COMMUNION FOR A WHILE AND YOU WOULD APPRECIATE FREE AMERICA."
? @ByronTau via TweetDeck

Daily Kos Radio went on, despite the terrible news from the Netroots Radio studios yesterday. First hour: IDIOT LEGISLATOR ALERT, from which DemFromCT talked David Waldman down. Second hour: Steve Singiser makes his first appearance on the show. In between: Romney's unpatriotic money, and the evils of the privatization of everything the state was ever built for. Just your basic Friday. Stay tuned to the Daily Kos Radio page for show highlights. Here's today's podcast:

High Impact Posts. Top Comments.

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-owls-Battle-over-defunding-food-stamps-should-be-argued-on-moral-grounds

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Late Night: Crybaby Conservatism on the Supreme
Court

post from Firedoglake on 06 July 2012 11:10:55 PM. © Firedoglake

I know you may feel it's been discussed to death already, but can I just drag us back one more time to the Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act?[...]

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C&L's Late Night Music Club With The Gestures

post from Crooks and Liars on 06 July 2012 11:00:00 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Title: Run Run RunArtist: The Gestures

Here's a good one that I first heard on the supremely exceptional Nuggets box set. Know any songs with the word "run" in the titles.

Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968

Artist: Various Artists Price: $39.93 (As of 07/06/12 06:48 pm details)

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Border Patrol Detains Former AZ Gov. on his 96th
Birthday

post from Crooks and Liars on 06 July 2012 10:00:46 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Former Arizona Gov. Raul Castro, who in the 1970s served as the state's first and only Hispanic governor, and U.S. ambassador to Argentina,was detained at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint for 30 minutes in the triple-digit desert heat just a day after he underwent heart treatment. Castro was removed from his car and taken to a sweltering tent for inspection after his pacemaker apparently set off a radiation sensor on the highway, about 24 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.* "I don?t condemn them for doing a job,? said Castro, ?but once I was identified and I was 96 years of age and told them I had medical treatment the day before, I expected a little more."

He spoke further to Arizona's The Republic:

"The sun was blazing on me," he said. "Once I identified myself, who I was, and that I had been to the doctor, I was under medical care, I have a pacemaker on my heart, (I would have thought) that they would have been more considerate and said, 'Keep on going.' But that didn't happen."

Castro's wife said of the incident, "It's traumatic, to say the least, for an old man," and that the Border Patrol officials need to use "more common sense."

The checkpoint incident happened on June 12, as Castro was headed from his home in the border town of Nogales to a luncheon in Tucson to celebrate his 96th birthday. The car was driven by Anne Doan, daughter of former Nogales, Ariz., Mayor Arthur Doan and a family friend of the Castros.

Doan, who is also a professor at the University of Arizona, was a bit more critical in a column she wrote for Nogales International:

"I was embarrassed as I watched the governor being needlessly treated like a nuclear threat, especially because they knew he had just had a treatment at Tucson Heart Hospital the day before. I felt he was being disrespected as a senior citizen, much less the amazing statesman that he is."

Alessandra Soler, executive director of the American Civil Liberties of Arizona, said Castro's experience with agents was not unique.

"This happens all the time in terms of these types of indiscriminate stops of individuals not suspected of any wrongdoing," Soler said, "Agents should have used discretion instead of relying solely on technology," in deciding to detain the former Governor.

* The ACLU notes that the US Border Control does "not need a warrant or probable cause to conduct a 'routine search'" on areas within 100 miles of the "external boundary" of the US, an area which the ACLU estimates includes two thirds of the US population, or 197.4 million people.

UPDATE: Salon interviewed former AZ Gov. Castro, and apparently this was not his first run-in with the border patrol...or even the second! Full story here.

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Fatsters Roundup for July 6, 2012

post from Firedoglake on 06 July 2012 10:00:40 PM. © Firedoglake

Good news! You have the entire weekend to recover from your mid-week holiday.[...]

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GOP Congressman when asked if he will support
minimum wage increase: "Get a job"

Asking for a bottom of the barrel living wage is asking for too much for GOP Rep. Bill Young. He can't even understand the conversation when his constituent explains that yes, he does have a job. The Congressman who loves shoveling over pork to the businesses that hire his family as well as the defense contractors that donate heavily to his business may not appreciate how little $10 per hour is...

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The Chronicles of Mitt: July 6, 2012

Hello, Human Diary. It is I again, Mitt Romney, your better.

The holiday was quite satisfactory, Mr. Diary. I had something called lemon aid, which is yet another demonstration that the private sector can provide people with medical aid, financial aid, and other kinds of aid without government interference. My initial opinion is that it was lemon, and wet, and good.

In campaign news, my staff has begun planning a new strategy to best elucidate my foreign policy opinions to the general public. Since I was not aware I had any foreign policy opinions, this is both a very simple task and a rather difficult one. The current plan is for me to simply visit some countries that I am expected to have foreign policy opinions on, then state that I have some unspecified opinions about them. Our initial choices for foreign places to visit:

London, for the Olympics. This was an easy decision, because I know many people who do sport, and have had past experience supervising people who do sport. I will no doubt be in my element. As a plus, I will also be able to visit with my horse, who is in sport, and charge the whole thing as a campaign expense.

Israel. It is a requirement that all conservative politicians visit Israel, whether they are in a position to influence Israel-related policy or not. I am not entirely sure how this came to be, but is now a requirement. I believe at this point more Republican candidates have visited Israel than have visited California.

Germany, because I like money, and Germany seems to be the only remaining place in Europe that has any.

Poland. During one of the few instances in which I met the previous Republican presidential unit, he gave me one bit of advice that I have always remembered. "Don't forget Poland," he said?then my exceedingly nervous staff forcibly grabbed me and led me away. Not forgetting Poland will be, in some small way, my tribute to that fellow. I also recall a previous national candidate making quite a bit of news when they noted that they could see Russia from their house; I hear you can see Russia from Poland, so that counts as at least double the foreign policy experience when compared to the other places. It will also provide a satisfactory location for announcing that I do not like Russia, which is another requirement imposed upon all conservative campaigns. In some ways, it is a shame. We in America have been striving to build a large, forbidding wall on our southern border, and Russia is the country with the most practical recent experiences in building large, forbidding border walls. There is no doubt many things we could have learned from them.

That should be sufficient foreign policy experience, I think. When I was in charge of the Olympics in Utah, I visited the Olympic Village there, so that already ought to count for quite a bit of foreign policy knowledge, but it is always safe to add a little more. As it turns out, most foreign nations are unsuitable for political visitation purposes. We have tentatively eliminated France, because France is no longer as popular with conservatives as it was during the time of my youth, and we have nixed Afghanistan because it has come to my attention that Afghanistan has very few if any luxury hotels.

Sadly, my suggestions of perhaps visiting some of my own money in Switzerland or the Caymans during the trip were met only with a conspicuous silence, even after I pointed out that visiting those locations would no doubt count as boosting my economic policy credentials. Perhaps in the future there will be an offshore bank account Olympics, in which the portfolios of the world's most wealthy tycoon units all compete together, and I shall be able to visit my holdings there. If I become president I think I shall suggest that.

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Thoughts on the jobs market

80,ooo jobs were created in June. I'm not sure what everyone expected. This is about what I thought. There is nothing that I can see that would cause employers to start hiring massive amounts of Americans. There is nothing out there. We are stuck in the mud. Republicans are pushing on the front of the

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