The Nightowl Newswrap

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 13 August 2012 11:32:41 PM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

By @BGinKC

Welcome to the national stage, @PaulRyanVP. Get used to the sort of treatment that Sister Sarah and the tea-folok who followed pioneered.

You don't get to call whine about incivility when we have video of you and Glenn Beck blowing one another and asserting that progressivism is a cancer on our society.

Now you can say you've seen everything -- and mean it. Trent Franks is running for the Senate in Arizona, and saying on the campaign trail that he wishes the Seventeenth Amendment would be repealed. That is the one that provides for the direct election of Senators by popular vote.

If you don't have affairs, you don't have to create fake identities and then kill them off to get out of them. A Naval Officer learned that lesson the hard way and it cost him his command just a week after getting it and probably his entire career.

You've come a long way, baby! Tammy Smith, 49, became the first openly gay woman to ascend to flag rank in the US Army in a promotion ceremony on Sunday. Just to show how far we've come, her first star was pinned to her uniform by her wife, Tracey Hepner.

Rep. Joe Walsh owes the entire Muslim-American community an apology. The deranged and hysterical Illinois congressman and deadbead dad clutched his pearls and fell on the fainting couch last week, telling an audicence that radical Muslims are in the U-S-of-A and they are plotting and scheming and trying every day to kill us all --and they're probably twirling their moustaches, too, just for the villain effect. He made his intemperate remarks after a Mosque in Joplin Missouri was burned to the ground, and a few days before a 51-year-old man was arrested for firing two shots from a pellet gun at a Mosque in his district. I don't think I need to point out to the people who read this blog that you never hear about Muslim radicals shooting up Christian congregations or burning down Baptist churches.

Nor are Muslims targeting Christian schools with IEDs. That happened Sunday night in a Chicago suburb, too. I'm not blaming Joe Walsh, but I am blaming the hatred that he and his ilk have whipped up among the ignorant masses, and I am saying that every last one of them has blood on his or her hands.

Another day, another shooting. Three people are dead after a shooting in College Station, TX just near the campus of Texas A&M. The shooting occurred as a county constable attempted to serve an eviction notice. The constable, the resident and an innocent bystander all died and a woman was wounded and in serious condition.

Apparently the shooting just blocks from his Alma Mater was enough to rattle Governor Gun Nut Rick Perry -- who famously shot a coyote on his morning jog a while back -- when interviewed by the local news to get his comments on the tragedy broke with the NRA and said that states should have the right to reguate guns as they see fit, up to and including wholesale bans.

CBS calls Romney's lies what they are -- lies. Too bad the folks at 60 Minutes didn't check with the fact-checkers before that sickening love fest Sunday night. Liberal media my firm white ass.

How the hell does he figure? Weeper Boehner said on Monday -- and I swear on my grandother's eyes I am not making this up -- that President Obama is personallly responsible for the worst drought in over 50 years that is affecting over half the country.

Obviously the franchise should be limited, because there are almost 0.7 cases of in-person voter fraud every year in every state.

The good news is that half of the debates will be moderated by women -- the last time a woman moderated a presidential debate was 20 years ago -- the bad news is, one of them is Candy Crowley and neither one of them is Amy Goodman.

...and finally, a little midnight-music. You know what makes me feel really, really old? Madness played for the Freakin' Queen.

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ightowl-newswrap

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Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 13 August 2012 11:30:41 PM. © Crooks and Liars

In honor of Ayn Rand fanboy Paul Ryan, a look back as Maggie Simpson does Maggie Roark.

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Late Night: Bin Ladens Death Has a Pro-Obama Bias

post from Firedoglake on 13 August 2012 11:00:40 PM. © Firedoglake

How dare you use the killing of Bin Laden to point out that Bin Laden was killed? DON'T YOU KNOW IT MAKES OBAMA LOOK GOOD??1![...]

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C&L's Late Night Music Club With Jan & Dean

post from Crooks and Liars on 13 August 2012 11:00:31 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Title: Like A Summer RainArtist: Jan & Dean

This Jan & Dean single from 1966 suprisingly never went anywhere on the charts. What songs do you think should have been hits but never got there?

Save for a Rainy Day

Artist: Jan & Dean Price: $11.47 (As of 08/13/12 01:28 pm details)

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http://crooksandliars.com/jared-shade-reynolds/cls-late-night-music-club-111

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Aug. 13: Polls Have Middling Reviews for Ryan

post from FiveThirtyEight on 13 August 2012 10:33:58 PM. © FiveThirtyEight

A few polls were released that were specifically dedicated to Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, and they offered mediocre numbers for the Republican ticket.

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The Crackdown on Chalk (#Chalkupy Austin)

post from Firedoglake on 13 August 2012 10:30:39 PM. © Firedoglake

Sometimes occupiers take risks, but none of us expected to be arrested that evening for chalking on a sidewalk.[...]

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Monday Stuff

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 13 August 2012 10:25:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

Once more unto the breach, dear friends...

#7, Louie Gohmert
#8, Allen West
#9, Joe Pitts
#10, Jack Kingston
#11, Patrick McHenry
#12, Spencer Bachus
#13, Jim Gerlach
#14, Cliff Stearns
#15, Jean Schmidt
#16, Phil Gingrey
#17, David Schweikert
#18, Virginia Foxx
#19, Pete Sessions
#20, Charlie Dent
#21, Cathy McMorris Rodgers
#22, Chris Smith
#23, Todd Akin
#24, Buck McKeon
#25, Kristi Noem
#26, Hal Rogers
#27, Lou Barletta (Two bonus selections: Boren and Ross)
#28, Paul Broun
#29, Mary Bono Mack
#30, David Dreier
#31, Marsha Blackburn (including backgrounder)

?and that brings us to #6 on our list of U.S. House Repugs opposed to health care reform, and that would be none other than the man of the hour, Willard Mitt Romney?s VP nominee himself, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

As I work my way down this list, I feel my level of disgust rising more and more with each of these fools and frauds, and though it may rise higher still before I?m all done with this, I must tell you that it?s pretty damn elevated at this moment. And that?s because, like no other politician with the possible exception of John McCain, Puppy-Dog-Eyes Ryan has the Beltway media-political establishment utterly cowed.

It doesn?t matter how many times Ryan?s supposedly bold and visionary economic proposals are blown up by actual economists performing actual math showing the actual, real-world misery that would result if Ryan?s horrendous scheme were ever signed into law, under the guise of supposed deficit reduction (which, as is just about always the case with this bunch, would in fact make the deficit worse). And it just doesn?t matter how many times Ryan, among others, spouts the utterly craven lie that he, in fact, is the supposed protector of Medicare, as opposed to that mean, nasty President Obama who supposedly wants to destroy it.

And it also just doesn?t matter how many times it is pointed out that what Ryan proposes goes so completely against what he is supposed to represent as a Roman Catholic (his alleged religious affiliation) that it makes a sick mockery of that faith. Short of a charge of criminal activity resulting in prosecution in a court of law (and I don?t believe that will ever happen, if for no other reason because Ryan wouldn?t be where he is unless he were a smart and cagey individual, and I don?t see him doing anything like that), we are going to keep hearing the same mythology from our corporate media that we?ve been hearing from Ryan from now into the distant future.

So, with all of this in mind, I give you the following:

Here is a primer, more or less, on Ryan, courtesy of Think Progress.

When the Repugs are busy trying to spin Number 44 as the person supposedly trying to gut welfare through granting waivers to states, more or less (hilarious to hear a Repug pretend to care about welfare), I would ask that you keep this in mind.

He believes ending a pregnancy should be illegal, even if the pregnancy is the product of rape or incest or endangers the woman?s health (here).

Oh, and as noted here, Ryan trashed ?Romney-Care? in 2010 (ruh-row).

And Ryan was so productive on the job too, as noted here.

But don?t you know that Ryan had ?a dozen? Democratic supporters for his budget, who Ryan won?t reveal (just like he won?t reveal his tax returns further than two years back ? and stop me if you?ve heard this before).

Finally, choice items here include his endorsement from the Log Cabin Republicans, a truly laughable group of human beings at this point for their relentless capitulation to the GOP even when it is in opposition to their professed positions; also, Ryan financially benefits from the health insurance industry; Think Progress also tells us how Romney-Ryan would protect ?too big to fail? banks; and of course, now that the Repug presidential ticket has zero foreign policy experience, that?s OK (as opposed to that baaad Kenyan Muslim socialist in ?08, who had not much also and was vilified relentlessly for it).

The selection of Paul Ryan for Willard Mitt Romney?s VP candidate is the perhaps inevitable result of the ?magical? thinking of that party in collusion with our Beltway media political complex, where facts are impervious to the bubble of pseudo-reality in which they surround themselves. And as far as I?m concerned, that makes it the sworn duty of every American voter to rupture that bubble beyond any possible repair in November...

...and when I think of Ryan (which I try not to do, actually), this song somehow comes to mind.

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Fast and Furious Returns

The House Oversight Committee, lead by California Republican Darrell Issa, has decided to bring suit against Attorney General Eric Holder. The underlying charges are a pseudo-scandal being overblown by Republicans who have been lacking in real Obama administration scandals to promote. And yet the suit does illustrate real and important issues with respect to the potential abuse of executive privilege, and for this reason may not be a bad thing. The contempt suit is an extension of an earlier citation of contempt by the Oversight Committee against Holder, which represented "the first time in American history that Congress has imposed the sanction on a sitting member of a president?s cabinet."

The contempt citation came from an interbranch conflict surrounding the Fast and Furious "scandal," allegedly a failed sting operation by the Justice Department that was part of the larger "Project Gunrunner" project started under the Bush administration in 2006. After Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed with a rifle that had been purchased in Arizona by a suspect being tracked under Fast and Furious, a fellow ATF agent claimed to CBS News that weapons like the one that killed had been obtained with the knowledge of the ATF. House Republicans amplified these charges, asserting that Fast and Furious had allowed a significant number of firearms to be illegally sold to Mexican criminal suspects. An investigation by Katherine Eban of Forbes, however, found that the ATF did not willfully permit criminals to obtain weapons, and that charges made about Fast and Furious were "replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies." While criminals under surveillance by the ATF did acquire weapons, there was no policy of permitting them to acquire them as part of a sting.

The House Oversight Committee's decision to cite Holder in contempt, and then to sue him, was based on Holder's refusal?based on a claim of executive privilege?to turn over some documents related to the pseudo-scandal to the committee. Executive privilege is the idea the that the White House can prevent information from being released to Congress because certain internal communications and documents have to be kept secret for the executive branch to function properly. In this case, the Oversight Committee is charging that the invocation of privilege is unjustified, which is why Holder was held in contempt by the June vote. The lawsuit filed yesterday is seeking to get this invocation of executive privilege overturned and all of the records requested by the House subpoena turned over and the witnesses requested by the House required to testify. Whether this tactic will succeed in the courts is unclear.

As Cornell Law School's Josh Chavetz points out, the use of lawsuits against the executive branch to enforce contempt charges by the legislative branch is a very recent development?used for the first time in 1974 and for the second time in 2008?and the Supreme Court has yet to weigh in. The earlier lawsuit against the Nixon administration was rejected by the D.C. Circuit on narrow factual grounds. The House won in district court in its 2008 suit against the Bush administration, but the administration reached an agreement with the House before the suit could proceed up the appellate chain.

In short, using lawsuits to enforce findings of contempt is unproven legal ground, which when combined with the lack of clarity in executive privilege doctrine makes it hard to evaluate the claims made by both Congress and the White House. Given the extent to which Fast and Furious has been distorted, it's hard to be particularly sympathetic to the House lawsuit. And the Obama administration has not abused executive privilege?the Fast and Furious marked the first time it had invoked it. Still, the notion of executive privilege has always been a dubious and potentially dangerous concept.

When the Supreme Court ordered Richard Nixon to hand over White House tapes as part of the Watergate scandal, a typically confusing opinion by Chief Justice Warren Burger suggested that, while it was not applicable in the case at hand, invocations of executive privilege may well protect the White House from having to divulge information to Congress in the future. The contours of what justifies executive privilege have always been vague, and it's hard to say if Holder's decision to refuse to hand over documents is a reasonable application of the doctrine. The Fast and Furious scandal is, at best, small potatoes. But that doesn't mean that the contempt suit filed by the House is entirely without merit. At a minimum, it's reasonable that the Obama administration justify its invocation of executive privilege in the courts. And the judiciary should be clear that executive privilege can be invoked only in unusually and very strictly defined circumstances. Transparency should be the default rule. Obama has been restrained in invoking the privilege, but should the courts refuse to restrict this executive power, the next administration may very well deny Congress information that the public has an interest in seeing.

Executive privilege Presidency of the United States United States Congress President of the United States Eric Holder Watergate scandal Presidency of Barack Obama Law Politics

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Team Gay Finishes 31st; 10 of 23 Out Gay Athletes
Medal, 7 Gold

If it were a country, Team Gay would have tied Jamaica for 31st in the XXXth Olympiad that closed with a magnificent ceremony many in America did not see (thanks #NBCfail!).[...]

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