Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) told colleagues on the House floor on Tuesday that young boys and girls should take classes on traditional gender roles in a marriage because there are some things fathers do “maybe a little bit better” than mothers. > more ... (1 comments)
From the monthly archives: January 2012
Chris Cillizza is generally an insufferable douchebiscuit (remember the gem of a video below). But this latest post is truly beyond hurlworthy:
Headline: Obama: The most polarizing president. Ever.
President Obama ran — and won — in 2008 on the idea of uniting the country. But each of his first three years in office has marked historic highs in political polarization, with Democrats largely approving of him and Republicans deeply disapproving.
For 2011, Obama’s third year in office, an average of 80 percent of Democrats approved of the job he was doing in Gallup tracking polls, as compared to 12 percent of Republicans who felt the same way. That’s a 68-point partisan gap, the highest for any president’s third year in office — ever. (The previous high was George W. Bush in 2007, when he had a 59 percent difference in job approval ratings.) [...]
What do those numbers tell us? Put simply: that the country is hardening along more and more strict partisan lines.
While it’s easy to look at the numbers cited above and conclude that Obama has failed at his mission of bringing the country together, a deeper dig into the numbers in the Gallup poll suggests that the idea of erasing the partisan gap is simply impossible, as political polarization is rising rapidly. [...]
For believers in bipartisanship, the next nine months are going to be tough sledding, as the already-gaping partisan divide between the two parties will only grow as the 2012 election draws nearer. And, if the last decade of Gallup numbers are any indication, there’s little turnaround in sight.
[Also, too: a lovely poll called: "Vote: Is Obama the Nation's Most Polarizing President of All Time?"]
Yes, the body of the article does a fine tapdance but we’re left with the link-whoring evoked by the headline and poll question.
Do we get much in the way of an analysis of what is behind the disparity in poll numbers? Not really.
Are we treated to all kinds of insinuation that Obama is out there being all partisan and making people hate him. Yep, quite a bit.
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Mary Baker Eddy, Mass Murderer
I was watching a Family Guy episode yesterday where a Christian Scientist family was letting their kid die of cancer because they rejected modern medicine in favor of the power of prayer.
The show made a good point that I often wonder about:
Isn’t it the height of human pride and arrogance to reject knowledge in the modern world (e.g., evolution, medicine, etc.) because you think you know God’s mind best?
If you believe so fervently in the power of prayer to cure your sick child (based on the teachings of some loon from the days of bloodletting and miracle tonics), what if God is trying to answer your freaking prayers by bringing forth unto the world medicine and science!?
Mitt Romney’s favorability has been severely damaged by the GOP primary contest, but it sure seems like a lot of people who dislike the guy want to vote for him anyway. In fact, things haven’t really changed that much in terms of the big picture over the past few months:
Perhaps the theory that the Republican primary race is destroying Romney’s chances has been a bit overstated? I do think that there are reasons to think Romney will underperform this year. His endorsement of the Ryan Plan will give Obama an easy club to beat him with, one that will really hurt among indy voter types. He’s been incredibly hamfisted and inept when it comes to talking about his tax arrangements and how he made his money, plus chestnuts like “I won’t apologize for being successful!” and “Don’t put free enterprise on trial!” are just not going to be that powerful outside of Republican audiences. And his hardline immigration stance reduced Newt Gingrich to a pile of goo last week will insure he’ll only get a token amount of Hispanic support in November. This is all true. But it’s important to remember that Romney is (correctly) perceived as a credible possible president by the media and the public. This is not the case with, say, Newt Gingrich, who has similar favorability but does far worse in head-to-head polls. It really does seem clear that the “Not Obama” candidate is going to do pretty well, so long as he meets a certain plausibility threshold. As all the models say, I suppose.
Not that anything is set in stone–I’m sure that if the economy improves a bit, some of those “Not Obama” voters will drop off, and Romney’s electoral support will be closer to the public’s views of the candidate himself. But it’s important to note that Romney’s strength at this point isn’t being Mr. Popularity. In fact, if the economy doesn’t improve, he doesn’t really have much of an incentive not to be a complete prick this year.
They allow this:
Two readers have sent us confirmation that Edward Davies, Mitt Romney’s militantly atheist father-in-law, was indeed posthumously converted to Mormonism by his family, despite the fact that when he was alive he regarded all religions as ‘hogwash.’
When it’s hard to ignore this:
Ezekiel 18:20 – The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
As far as Christians go, I’m generally on the inclusive side of things. I try to find similarities instead of differences, generally putting a strong emphasis on the whole judge not concept. But one of the key ideas of Christianity is that it’s belief that saves a person, not some ex post facto mysticism. I’m not judging here (though I admit I find the whole thing creepy), but let’s just drop the pretense is all I’m saying. Just because there’s a Jesus in your religion doesn’t make you a Christian.
Observing California politics at any distance leaves only the question, “Who’s worse?” The state’s Democrats tend to show the signs of any entrenched power that doesn’t need to face accountability very often, showing deep, systemic corruption, and in general just tend to be insufferable in many ways. But the state’s Republicans, despite a 17-year stretch in the wilderness, just aren’t very interested in being helpful or trying to rebuild themselves in the state. They’ve seemingly gotten over the fact that the Reagan Era in the state is gone for good, which one might think is a positive sign. However, they’ve moved straight from that to bitterness, and instead of just shifting toward where the rest of the state is, they’ve moved to game the system and use partisan standoffs to force their way on taxes. The California Republican Party is essentially a single-issue party at this point: they’re against tax hikes for the wealthy. They can’t have any impact on any other area of policy except taxes because of the 2/3 rule, not that they much care to. It’s been an extremely frustrating decade or so that this has been going on for us liberal Democrats, though Republicans have relished gumming up the works.
Hope they enjoyed it, ’cause it’s ending soon:
State Senate district lines drawn by a citizens’ commission must be used in this year’s elections, the California Supreme Court ruled today, rejecting a Republican group’s request to put the new boundaries on hold until voters can decide whether to repeal them in November. [...]
It’s such a desperation play. Using an unequal map wouldn’t last five seconds in Federal Court. It seems as though Republicans have basically given up on keeping 2/3 in the lower house (Assembly), and a Republican Senate map just isn’t going to be approved by referendum in this state. This whole thing is just a delaying tactic to buy maybe another two more years of no tax hikes, but the legal case was so weak they gave a Republican Court literally nothing to work with on the Senate lines. As of now, Democrats are certain to get 2/3 in both houses and pick up a couple Congressional seats (conventional wisdom says three, my guess is five or more), and the collapse of the GOP in California will finally be complete. The irony is that their power (such as it is) is already over anyway, as these assholes have managed to make tax hikes insanely popular through their rigidity, and Moonbeam’s going to get them through the back door if the front is closed.
So, Republicans here will be forced to reboot come this time next year. That’s going to be interesting to watch.
I don’t know where people get the ideas for this stuff, but this is worth a viewing:
Happy Friday!
Hors D’oeuvres
Small Government GOP Proposal To Teach Kids That Bitches Belong In The Kitchen
Get those damn jack-booted government thugs out of our schools — sex education should be done by parents.Seriously, Just Shoot Me In The Head And Get It Over With
I really don’t understand why I even bother anymore:NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly: “I think the American public can accept the fact if you tell them that every time you pick up the phone it’s going to be recorded and it goes to the government. I think the public can understand that.”
> more ... (2 comments)Lawd! Ah Thunk Up A Gud Thawt!
Bear witness to the bright young minds at Liberty University who are trying to make conservatism hep and happnin’ for the YouTube generation. They got real good idears, they do:Travis Korson… suggested framing marriage as an economic issue. “Gay marriage undermines that basic family unit,” he said, and that, in turn, hurts the economy.
Um, what? (4 comments)And Just How Do We Feel About Cory Booker?
The Guardian has a brutal, though not really all that unfair, take on the soon-to-be-senator. I must admit that Booker inspires a lot of ambivalence in me. He’s an impressive person in many ways, and obviously we know all about the minuses. I doubt he’d be a Lieberman-esque embarrassment, and his voting record would most likely not > more ... (2 comments)Republicans now making with the man-brains, for crying out loud. From Lawmaker Says Man’s Brain More Concerned About Costs on PoliticalWire:Maine State Rep. Ken Fredette (R) declared that he and most of his Republican colleagues oppose accepting federal funds to expand health care coverage because the genders think differently. > more ... (1 comments)
Certain quarters keep spoutin’ the same ol’ song. From GOP congressman: Rate of pregnancies from rape is ‘very low’:“Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” [Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.)] said. > more ... (0 comments)
Quote of the Day: All We Have To Do Is Convince Our Customers They're Wrong
Here’s an Xbox rep addressing the controversy over Microsoft’s decision to require an internet connection for its new Xbox One console and hobble used game sales:“This is a big change, consumers don’t always love change, and there’s a lot of education we have to provide to make sure that people understand.” > more ... (5 comments)
I Know You Are, But What Am I?
From ‘Proud wacko bird’ Ted Cruz calls Obama biggest obstacle to immigration reform on Yahoo News:
As the immigration debate begins before the full Senate for the first time, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has become one of the most vocal opponents to the current bill. But Cruz says the true obstacle to immigration reform is not him, but President Obama. > more ... (2 comments)
From I Am So Fucking Over This Already by John Cole onna BJ, in re: the citizenry of these United States acting all surprised at getting what they voted for, state-surveillance-regime-wise:And for the record, Obama is not the villain here, he’s just dealing with the laws as they were passed, and it looks like they did everything correctly and followed the letter of the law. > more ... (0 comments)
“Republicans care just as deeply about the environment as Democrats but we also care about jobs,” he added. “We want common sense regulations to be balanced with economic growth and jobs.” — Rand Paul
Um, yeah, how’s that working out? I guess not so well. 5 out of the 10 most polluted states are deep-red > more ... (1 comments)Quote of the Week: Darkies Ain't Gonna Vote Right Anyways
“I’m going to be real honest with you, the Republican Party doesn’t want black people to vote if they’re going to vote 9-to-1 for Democrats.” – Texas Tea Party Jackwad
Also too, remember the past:At the close of the Civil War … some three-quarters of a million of Negroes, the mass of them densely ignorant > more ... (4 comments)
Lost Bottles From The Post Cellar
I was rooting around in the dusty Post Cellar and wanted to offer up some delicious vintages of years past.
From 2-Year-Old Boy In Texas Dead After Shooting Himself In The Face on TPM:Correction: This post originally gave the wrong caliber for the the weapon involved. It was a 9 mm handgun.
But everything else in the story was accurate, I guess. > more ... (0 comments)If I Had Some Ham, I'd Make a Ham and Cheese Sandwich...
…if I had some cheese. Via AB, the Slog quotes WA State Representative (R-Kalama) and apparently Zen Master Ed Orcutt‘s latest email-koan:The bridge would indeed be standing today had the truck’s load NOT rammed the super structure of the [I-5/Skagit River] bridge. In fact, 11 of the 12 sections of the bridge are still standing.
> more ... (0 comments)I'm Thinking There's Something Symbolic About That Volcano What Is Erupting There
So the Michelle Bachmann lustbuch has already been making the rounds — Jezebel, Wonkette, Balloon-Juice — but I couldn’t resist quoting the blurb on the e-book’s own cover graphic:He touched the void inside her, pollinating her pink flower like a master bee.
> more ... (3 comments)Saw this headline in the RSS reader, with no additional information:
And my immediate thought was Louie Gohmert, then I second-guessed myself and said it was Steve Stockman. Shoulda trusted my instincts! Also acceptable guesses: Steve “Esteban” King, Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul. (2 comments)Lawmaker Says Woman Should Carry Brain Dead Fetus to Term
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), makin’ with the insightful diagnosis of current events y’all, via TPM:“The President’s speech today will be viewed by terrorists as a victory,” said Chambliss, who recently golfed with the president, in a statement. > more ... (1 comments)
THE GRAPEVINE
