Open thread: Happy birthday, Romneycare!

post from Daily Kos on 12 April 2012 06:00:04 PM. © Daily Kos

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"Their ideology is reprehensible to Kentuckians"

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 12 April 2012 06:00:00 PM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

By @KYYellowDog

I hate it when Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear does something admirable.

From the Herald:

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear on Wednesday decried plans by the National Socialist Movement, a Michigan-based white pride group, to rally outside the state Capitol later this month.
"The Constitution affords the right to free speech and free assembly to all, and we will respect those rights, even for this Michigan-based hate-filled group," Beshear said in a statement. "This group should know that their ideology is reprehensible to Kentuckians, and that Kentucky is a tolerant, progressive and welcoming state for all people."
According to a flier, the National Socialist Movement said the April 21 event will address "illegal immigration, crime, the recession, White Civil Rights, and other critical issues facing our Nation." It is scheduled to last from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
A phone call to the group's Detroit-based headquarters and an email to Kentucky-based chapters were not returned Wednesday.

It is, of course, not true that neo-Nazi ideology is reprehensible to all Kentuckians, but good on Beshear for shaming those who don't find it reprehensible.

And let's avoid any counter-demonstrations. That's what these publicity-seekers want. Ignore them.

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-ideology-is-reprehensible-to-kentuckians

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Today on The Stars Hollow Gazette

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 12 April 2012 05:55:14 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Our regular featured content-On This Day In History April 12 by TheMomCatPunting the Pundits by TheMomCatThese featured articles-The Beginning of Justice Served by TheMomCatDifferent from a Republican how? Part 1 by ek hornbeckDifferent from a[...]

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http://www.docudharma.com/diary/29601/today-on-the-stars-hollow-gazette

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Scott Brown shores up 'regular guy' cred with
some good, old fashioned sexism

post from Daily Kos on 12 April 2012 05:38:31 PM. © Daily Kos

Scott Brown, back in his "regular guy" pickup again.Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is back to trying to do the "common man" thing again, but is actually mostly just succeeding at skeezy.

The road yesterday took Brown to the Blue Hills Brewery in Canton, where the buttoned-down Wrentham Republican invited this Herald reporter to loosen up and sip brews from small sample cups.
?You can pound those pretty good,? Brown said as he tasted one of the lighter brews. His favorite was a hoppy beer called Red I.P.A.
?Sit down. Try this one. I?ve seen you in the bars before, don?t act like you?ve never been to a bar,? he said, sliding over a stool. ?We?re gonna have her dancing in the back of the truck.?
Brown then got behind the wheel of his dark green pickup and cruised to his next campaign stop.

How charming. "Get the lady reporter drunk and dancing in the back of the pickup. Now give me another beer and then the keys!" That's nearly as endearing as his learning nothing from the strong women around him other than "how to cook."

Somehow I don't think Scott Brown is going to be leading the GOP out of its morass with women voters.

Please, contribute $5 to Elizabeth Warren on Orange to Blue.

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-regular-guy-cred-with-some-good-old-fashioned-sexism-

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Turkish PM Could Invoke NATO Right to Collective
Self-Defense Against Syria

post from Firedoglake on 12 April 2012 05:30:41 PM. © Firedoglake

This is pretty much what I expected when violence from Syria moved across the border to Turkey. I mentioned that Turkey was a NATO member. And now the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is hints at NATO member obligations.[...]

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A Funny, Yet All-Too-Dire Omen

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 12 April 2012 05:26:14 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

The Onion has a funny video up about Democrat Party voters screwing with Barry Obama's mind as the 2012 election kicks into gear.Democrats: Obama Has Dicked Us Around For Four Years, Now It's Our TurnBack in February, The Huffing[...]

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http://www.docudharma.com/diary/29600/a-funny-yet-alltoodire-omen

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MPAA: Embedding a video can be direct
copyright infringement

post from Daily Kos on 12 April 2012 05:05:28 PM. © Daily Kos

What a disappointment you've turned
out to be, MPAA President Chris Dodd
(Embajada de EEUU/Wikicommons)At Ars Technica, Tim Lee has the report on a disturbing lawsuit, now joined by the Motion Picture Association of America, which would make simply embedding videos?not hosting them?a copyright infringement. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is considering appeals by Google, Facebook, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge of a decision made by a federal judge last year that it is "possible to directly infringe copyright by embedding an image or video hosted by a third party."

"Although there is nothing inherently insidious about embedded links, this technique is very commonly used to operate infringing internet video sites," the organization writes. "Pirate sites can offer extensive libraries of popular copyrighted content without any hosting costs to store content, bandwidth costs to deliver the content, and of course licensing costs to legitimately acquire the content." The MPAA also notes that embedding can enable sites to monetize infringing content by surrounding it with ads. [...]
Numerous websites embed content from third parties they have not personally inspected. Under the theory articulated by [Judge] Grady, and supported by the MPAA, these websites would be responsible for this content, exactly as if they had stored it on their own servers. This could create a serious disincentive for sites to allow users to post embedded content, hampering the convenience and user-friendliness of the Web

This would put innumerable Web sites, including this one, in the position of having to vet any video we wanted to embed to determine if it's legal. It could also mean that we would have to shut down the ability for diarists and commenters to embed videos, since it would be nearly impossible to moderate every diary and every comment for potentially illicit video embedding. Media sites of all stripes would be in a similar postion.

That's not just a problem for us, it's a problem for artists, filmmakers, anyone who wants to get their stuff out there to as large an audience as possible. The difficulties of determining the provenance of any given video would like just mean videos would largely disappear from most social media. Which is apparently just how the MPAA wants it.

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Charter schools bill not brought up in House;
signal that Republican leadership does not have the votes

post from Cottonmouth on 12 April 2012 05:00:46 PM. © Cottonmouth

The new charter schools language inserted into HB 1152 by Sen. Gray Tollison (R - Oxford) sits on the House calendar for a vote on concurrence. It was not brought up today, which means the House Republican leadership doesn't have the votes to pass it. While today is a deadline day, this bill will not die until April 26, as it is a general bill on for concurrence. (See timetable for processing legislation.)

Now here's the interesting part: the new redistricting maps have to be announced 15 days prior to sine die, which is before the deadline to vote on concurrence. That means it may be difficult to continue to twist arms on the charter schools bill via redistricting.

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Wonder Why Corrupt Blue Dog Tim Holden Is Afraid
To Debate Matt Cartwright

Polls show corrupt Blue Dog Tim Holden losing the Democratic primary in two weeks to progressive Matt Cartwright. Holden is running a series of negative slash and burn ads against Cartwright that seem to be backfiring. And he's getting the money for these ads from the Koch brothers, who appreciate the key role he played in passing the Halliburton Loophole that allows for fracking all over Pennsylvania. Local papers are reporting that Holden, who has never represented over 70% of the newly redrawn 17th CD, is still refusing to face Cartwright man to man and debate him in front of voters.

U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, in the midst of a competitive primary battle against fellow Democrat Matt Cartwright, said Tuesday there will be no formal debates against his challenger before the April 24 primary.

Citing his job duties as a 10-term congressman plus the rigors of campaigning against a rare primary election opponent, Holden said he doesn?t have the time to debate. He also said he believes the public has a pretty good idea thanks to news media and campaign efforts where both candidates stand on the issues.

The decision is a digression from the Holden campaign?s comments made on March 15. At that time, Eric Nagy, a campaign spokesman, said while Cartwright?s request for a debate in all six counties in the 17th Congressional District was not feasible, one debate was likely.

...When asked why no debate could be held on a weekend or at night in the next two weeks, Holden said it was a scheduling issue.

?I don?t know what his schedule looks like, but I?m booked right through this election,? Holden said.

...?I don?t know what to say about a man who will circulate vicious falsehoods on television about me and my family and then refuse to face me in person,? Cartwright said. ?He can?t defend his record of voting to create the Halliburton loophole and against health care reform even though he has access to the best health care in the world. He?s hiding from his own record and it?s a disservice to the people of the 17th District. Period.?

Shane Seaver, a spokesman for the Cartwright campaign, said he reached out to Eric Nagy, his counterpart at the Holden camp, two weeks ago on setting up debates and never got a response.

He said Cartwright is willing and able to shuffle his schedule any time leading up to the primary to debate Holden.

Holden, one of the very few Democrats caught accepting bribes from Jack Abramoff, is now one of the very few Democrats accepting bribes from the Koch brothers. In a press release, the Cartwright camp urged him to return the Koch blood money and to try behaving like a real Democrat for once in his miserable career:

Five minutes on Google, and any American who doesn?t want our environment destroyed, all labor laws eliminated, no limits on Wall Street traders, our judicial system in chains, and the federal government out of business so the age of robber barons can return would tell Tim Holden, ?Give that money back.?

"Tim Holden has said he will begin voting more like a Democrat,? Matt Cartwright recounts from statements Mr. Holden has made since beginning his 2012 campaign. ?Well, this is his first chance to prove it. Give the money back. It?s that simple. These guys want nothing less than to destroy the Democratic Party, so they can help turn the USA into their own China with no regulations, no labor laws and no legal system. Give the money back. And then stand before the people you seek to represent and debate the issues.?

Last week, a documentary on the Koch brothers was released a few hours after a Wisconsin newspaper exposed an FBI investigation involving the two billionaires. The video can be seen here: http://www.kochbrothersexposed.com/ Some facts:

·        Koch Industries began in the Soviet Union with engineering contracts under Joseph Stalin, and today they are worth more than $50 billion, a fortune exceeded only in America by Bill Gates.

·        Their business is among the top ten polluters in the United States. One product they produce that has received little attention is formaldehyde. They produced 2.2 billion pounds last year while working to keep it from being classified as a carcinogen. (Sounds like the Halliburton loophole. No need to wonder where they came down on that. The same as Tim Holden.)

·        They have pledged $60 million to defeat Obama, after they began the American Energy Alliance, which is already spending millions on the same cause and after spending tens of millions trying to defeat health care reform. (Can anyone recall which Democrat from Pennsylvania opposed this core Democratic initiative?)

Blue America is running billboards in key areas all over the district, highlighting Holden's pivotal role in the fracking catastrophe. If you're interested in helping replace Holden with Matt Cartwright, you can do so on this ActBlue page. Here's one of the billboards:

Read The Full Article:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2012/04/wonder-why-corrupt-blue-dog-tim-holde
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Two ways of looking at Hilary Rosen's remarksAnn
Romney "has never worked a day in her life"

By now everyone with too little to do has heard about Hilary Rosen's comments about Ann Romney (see below), and many electrons have been killed in tweets, posts, and otherwise weighing in.

In among the mush, I found these two posts ? at the extremes of the spectrum and fully mush-free ? enlightening. I agree with both, actually.

? First, what Rosen said:

?What you have is, Mitt Romney running around the country saying, ?Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues. And when I listen to my wife, that?s what I?m hearing.? Guess what: his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She?s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and why do we worry about their future.?

Click here to see the CNN video.

? Now comments from tbogg, my favorite blogging prose stylist. The whole post is worth reading ? it's a brief, well-structured piece with classic beginning-middle-end in a tight bundle. A taste (asterisks and paragraphing mine):

The Umbrage Game

Conservatives are working themselves up into another one of their poutrage lathers because Hilary Rosen said something truthful, and hence, mean about Ann Romney whom Mitt Romney has recently tried to pass off as I?m Every Woman because Mitt has lady problems outside the home and they?re not the buy-your-mistress-a-bauble-to-make-it-go-away kind.

By the time you read this in the morning, conservative moms and the usual cast of professional conservative aggrievement mongers will be in high dudgeon proclaiming how stay-at-homedness has been slandered and impugned and maligned and how Hilary Rosen (and therefore all Democrats) might just as well have s**t all over little Austin and Madisyn?s after-school Rice Krispie Treats.

Because there is no greater calling than to stay at home and raise your children, providing of course that you don?t have to make ends meet by taking a minimum wage job, maybe two if you?re a single mom, and also there are those times when you skip a meal so that your kids can eat because there isn?t enough food in the house for everyone, and also you hope that none of the kids gets sick because you can?t afford health insurance and, oh yes, the car has been making a funny noise lately and ? well, you get the idea.

Which was Hilary Rosen?s point.

Ann Romney is a nice lady. I know lots of nice ladies like Ann Romney who, as it so happens, live in the same neighborhood as Ann and Mitt Romney because my daughter went to the same private schools and played soccer with their sons and daughters. ...

Again, read the whole thing. The part that follows this is very well thought through, and there's a nice surprise ending.

? At the other end of the Rosen spectrum, here's Zaid Jilani at the amazing Republic Report. He says, yes, Rosen is a Democratic strategist, but she's also very much more (h/t nignog63, one of my favorite Twitter tipsters):

Hilary Rosen Thinks Moms Don?t Have Real Jobs, But She?s The Corporate Mouthpiece Who Killed Napster

... [H]er real job ? the way she has made money for a long time ? has been advocating for the positions of wealthy corporations, sometimes to the detriment of consumers, including those hard-working stay-at-home parents.

As head of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Rosen engaged in hyper-aggressive lawsuits and other tactics to force the closure of the popular file-sharing service Napster. She also pushed for draconian laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that helped stifle free expression and fair use of files.

Rosen currently works at SDKnickerbocker, a ?strategic communications and public relations? firm that fronts for powerful corporations like the controversial Washington Post-owned Kaplan subprime for-profit colleges and food companies looking to weaken the administration?s nutrition goals. ...

As if that's not enough (subprime for-profit colleges? eww) Jilani has more; for example, the phrase "BP" comes up.

It's a sterling career, lobbying. The business of doing anything for money is a fine little business indeed.

Offered for your amusement.

GP

(To follow on Twitter or send links: @Gaius_Publius)