Turning victims into perpetrators: Right-wingers
defend Prosser's chokehold by claiming assaulted colleague was the aggressor

post from Crooks and Liars on 29 June 2011 11:00:00 AM. © Crooks and Liars

Greta Van Susteren slags female Wisconsin justices who were allegedly attacked by Justice Prosser

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Greta Van Susteren already has a record of favoritism when it comes to Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, so it probably wasn't any surprise when she devoted a segment of her show the other night to suggesting loudly that Prosser was being set up by the woman he allegedly tried to throttle, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, as well as the court's Chief Justice, Shirley Abrahamson, whom he has previously attacked verbally as a "total bitch".

Indeed, that's largely a continuation of Van Susteren's previous narrative around Prosser -- namely, that Prosser is the innocent victim of a campaign cooked up against him by conniving feminist justices in Wisconsin. And the heated denials and countercharges coming from Prosser and his many ardent defenders (including the Planet Bizarro that is the Althouseosphere) have certainly played into that narrative.

It's almost as if they're colluding. Van Susteren is promising "more to this story". What's next? Some Breitbartesque e-mail thefts, perhaps? Well, it's their only possible narrative short of abject humiliation, so of course they're sticking to it.

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http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/turning-victims-perpetrators-right-w

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MBIA

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 29 June 2011 10:57:56 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Crossposted from The Stars Hollow GazetteMBIA is the Municipal Bond Insurance Association. It is a monoline insurer that expanded into the Collateralized Debt Obligation market in the 90s and naughty aughties.As it became undeniable that they'd[...]

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Indiana Dunes A Great Place To Visit

post from Texas Liberal on 29 June 2011 10:54:21 AM. © Texas Liberal

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is a wonderful place to go. This park, on Lake Michigan, is not far from Chicago. Go there this summer, or maybe even in the winter, with people you love. Or at least can tolerate. Or go by yourself and enjoy the peace. It is often good to go places by yourself. Being by [...]

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/

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Greek Parliament Passes Austerity Package

post from Firedoglake on 29 June 2011 10:51:59 AM. © Firedoglake

In addition to the austerity measures, Greece is ?selling the family silver,? putting airports, ports, railways, motorways, sewage works, national energy companies, banks, and the national lottery up for sale in a privatization push they hope will net 50[...]

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Why Obamas Desperate Move Could Send Oil Prices
Soaring!

post from Jutia Group on 29 June 2011 10:47:34 AM. © Jutia Group

The sudden announcement last week that the International Energy Agency (IEA) would release strategic oil supplies onto the world markets caused a significant selloff. And crude oil prices dropped around $9 in about two days.

Mission accomplished? Hardly!

The 60 million barrel release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is merely a drop in the bucket of global usage, and will likely have the opposite effect on prices longer term. The move is simply more psychological window dressing for the comic theater that is happening in Washington right now. It would be funny, if it wasn’t so sad.

In fact, it’s really a sign of …

Desperate Measures

By releasing supplies from the SPR with crude at around . . . → Read More: Why Obama?s Desperate Move Could Send Oil Prices Soaring!

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http://jutiagroup.com/20110629-why-obamas-desperate-move-could-send-oil-prices-so
aring/

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Wisconsin: Democrats Lead Republican Incumbents
in Two of Three Recalls

post from Firedoglake on 29 June 2011 10:41:33 AM. © Firedoglake

Daily Kos did some polling of three of the recall elections in Wisconsin, and the numbers look fairly good for Democrats.[...]

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The Future of Same-Sex Marriage Ballot Measures

post from FiveThirtyEight on 29 June 2011 10:35:40 AM. © FiveThirtyEight

Last week's passage of a bill to make New York's marriage law gender-neutral may accelerate efforts to put the issue before voters in other states.

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"Kids Could Drink That Water & Get Wind In Their
Brains!"

post from TheGreenMiles.com on 29 June 2011 10:31:00 AM. © TheGreenMiles.com

Unfortunately this is a pretty accurate representation of the quality of Sunday talk show energy discussions:

In The Know: Coal Lobby Warns Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit

Update: Post title changed by popular demand

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-argument-from.html

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I Expect to Hear This Argument from Michele
Bachmann Any Day Now

Unfortunately this is a pretty accurate representation of the quality of Sunday talk show energy discussions:

In The Know: Coal Lobby Warns Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheGreenMiles/~3/0hqmUQlhw2w/i-expect-to-hear-this
-argument-from.html

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Senators question constitutionality of debt
ceiling

U.S. Constitution Ryan Grim and Samuel Haas:

Growing increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for a deal that would raise the debt ceiling, Democratic senators are revisiting a solution to the crisis that rests on a simple proposition: The debt ceiling itself is unconstitutional.
"The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law... shall not be questioned," reads the 14th Amendment.
"This is an issue that's been raised in some private debate between senators as to whether in fact we can default, or whether that provision of the Constitution can be held up as preventing default," Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), an attorney, told The Huffington Post Tuesday. "I don't think, as of a couple weeks ago, when this was first raised, it was seen as a pressing option. But I'll tell you that it's going to get a pretty strong second look as a way of saying, 'Is there some way to save us from ourselves?'"

It's always been clear that at a policy level, the debt ceiling makes absolutely no sense. If Congress wants to restrain debt, then it shouldn't pass the laws that create the debt, but it's completely schizophrenic for Congress to simultaneously pass legislation that limits the federal debt while passing other legislation that would add to the federal debt.

What hasn't been clear is how to resolve the conflict between the statutory debt limit and statutory fiscal policy, and with the debt limit rapidly approaching, it's become clear that it's an issue that must be resolved.

I'm not a lawyer, but given that the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment is that public debts must be honored, it would seem that if there were conflict between making good on those debts and staying within the debt ceiling, the Constitution would require the government to make good on its debts, trumping the debt ceiling. Given that the financing of a program like Social Security is structured as a public debt, it seems that at a minimum, the debt ceiling doesn't apply to much of the federal budget.

Again, I'm not a Constitutional law expert here, but the key point is that there is an open question about what legal obligations the Obama administration would face if Congress fails to raise the debt limit. Not only has Congress passed legislation that would come into conflict, but the Constitution itself appears to conflict with that legislation as well. Because these are unsettled issues, the White House has a significant degree of latitude in choosing a path forward if Congress fails to raise the debt limit. It certainly shouldn't limit its options by automatically assuming that the debt limit itself is the controlling legal mandate.