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Wednesday Night Open Thread

I'm just getting back from work and there's a lot of TV about to start...from the Big Brother and Top Chef D.C. finales, to America's Next Top Model and the new Jimmy Smit law show "Outlaw" which got totally panned by USA today.

My prediction for Big Brother: It will be Hayden and Lane in the F2 and Hayden will win. Too bad for Brittany, her house in Arkansas burned down last night (in real life) and they aren't telling her until after the finale. I hope she at least wins the $50k viewer's favorite player award.

The 9th Circuit today reversed the arson related convictions of ELF activist Briana Waters. Waters was sentenced to 6 years. The case involved the firebombing of the offices of a Univ. of Washington researcher who ELF allegedly "mistakenly believed was genetically engineering poplar trees." Reason for reversal: The rulings of the judge and evidence introduced by the prosecutors rendered the trial unfair. The opinion is here.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

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    Slimiest prosecutor of the year? (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by Cream City on Wed Sep 15, 2010 at 09:06:43 PM EST
    Of the decade?  Of this young century?!  This guy, this guy gives even slimy prosecutors a bad name -- and the good guys among prosecutors have got to take over the board that gave him a bye.

    Not very bright, either (none / 0) (#5)
    by Yman on Wed Sep 15, 2010 at 09:18:06 PM EST
    Above and beyond the slimy, arrogant nature of his comments, he was stupid enough to put them in a series of text messages?

    Wow.

    Parent

    Object to "even slimy (none / 0) (#12)
    by oculus on Wed Sep 15, 2010 at 11:45:42 PM EST
    prosecutors."  Let's stick to a case by case basis, shall we?

    Parent
    Overruled...n/t :) (none / 0) (#16)
    by kdog on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 08:56:53 AM EST
    You are a "slimy" pretend judge! (none / 0) (#20)
    by oculus on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 10:59:55 AM EST
    Is there a great one... (none / 0) (#2)
    by kdog on Wed Sep 15, 2010 at 09:01:51 PM EST
    who doesn't have his/her arse up at this point Don?

    At least the 9th restored a little faith...some serious one-sidedness goin' on in that trial.  

    Though I am amazed at how quickly ELF members flip on each other, what kinda eco-vigilante arsonists are you?  Buncha whackaloons.

    Survivor fans, remember it moved to (none / 0) (#3)
    by ruffian on Wed Sep 15, 2010 at 09:02:16 PM EST
    Wednesdays! Starts tonight. And Russell's year long reign of terror is over. Nice to see all new contestants.

    Elizabeth Warren Appointment (none / 0) (#6)
    by squeaky on Wed Sep 15, 2010 at 09:35:26 PM EST
    Elizabeth Warren is going to be appointed as a special advisor to the White House and Treasury Department for the purpose of setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. This appointment is sure to raise all sorts of whining from Republicans, who will certainly bemoan their lost opportunity to stall yet another confirmation.

    C&L

    Do you think the Pres. is avoiding the (none / 0) (#13)
    by oculus on Wed Sep 15, 2010 at 11:46:36 PM EST
    pressure to appoint Ms. Warren to chair this?  Kind of like Lawrence Tribe's admins. job?

    Parent
    She Will Be Director (none / 0) (#14)
    by squeaky on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 12:01:12 AM EST
    "I'm concerned about all Senate confirmations these days" including if he were to "nominate somebody for dog catcher," the president said Friday when asked if he was concerned about Warren's ability to be confirmed. "I've got people who have been waiting for six months to get confirmed who nobody has an official objection to and who were voted out of committee unanimously, and I can't get a vote on them."

    Since nominees facing the confirmation process also enter a period of public silence, avoiding the confirmation process would also allow Warren to publicly discuss the agency and its benefits, which the president is eager for her to do.

    ABC

    By appointing Warren to a post within the administration - much as the White House did with the "car czar" Steven Rattner and "compensation czar" Kenneth Feinberg - Obama would free her to act as the bureau's director almost immediately while avoiding a confirmation battle.

    WaPo

    According to the bill's language, the Treasury Secretary has sole authority to build the new agency before it's ultimately transferred to the Federal Reserve. That includes anointing a person to head the effort on his behalf, and under his authority. The interim head would serve until the President's nominee is confirmed by the Senate.

    That person could be Elizabeth Warren.

    And the legislation doesn't appear to contain a deadline for a Presidential nomination, experts say, which means Warren could start the agency from scratch, put her people in, begin cracking down on predatory and abusive lenders, and initiate a culture that would put consumers' interests above those of the nation's most powerful financial institutions.

    In short, she could set a tone the agency will follow for the next several years without the administration needing to fight a potentially drawn-out confirmation battle that could stall Obama's pro-consumer agenda.

    HuffPo via emptywheel

    Parent

    Bait and switch - she is not being nominated (none / 0) (#15)
    by BTAL on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 08:45:45 AM EST
    as the director but as an adviser - read consultant - only for the set up.  It is a bone being tossed to the left hoping that they won't see through the charade.  

    Parent
    I agree that Professor Warren's (none / 0) (#18)
    by KeysDan on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 10:30:36 AM EST
    appointment as adviser was made in response to electoral pressure, but the outcome may be as good as it gets.  Elizabeth Warren surely knows the circumstances and would not take the position if she felt that she could not be at least reasonably effective--and a big part of that effectiveness will be her media savviness (an unwelcome attribute in some Democratic quarters).

    Even if a Wall Street/Bankster milquetoast was confirmed in the position, and in the unlikely event showed a little bit of gumption, there would be calls for resignation, which if not granted would impair effectiveness.  And, the advisor role has the added advantage of drafting Geithner to serve on Warren's spear-catching team.

    Parent

    Other reports/analysis is that the position (none / 0) (#26)
    by BTAL on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 12:11:00 PM EST
    will not allow for regulation/rules writing.  In other words, she gets to choose the color of the drapes and carpet.

    Pure smoke and mirrors to quiet the base before Nov.

    Parent

    LOL (none / 0) (#19)
    by squeaky on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 10:32:47 AM EST
    Thanks for the posting the latest GOP talking point.

    Parent
    It is cute, isn't it (none / 0) (#32)
    by christinep on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 07:27:34 PM EST
    The attempt by BTAL (and a few others) to keep trying the (in)famous wedge issue approach.  Woo Woo...lets get those Dems to worry, and all that.  Perhaps, they should pay attention to their own incrasingly obvious rifts. (Do I hear O'Donnell, etc.???)

    Parent
    The other explanation is I have heard is (none / 0) (#30)
    by DFLer on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 06:39:50 PM EST
    that doing it this way avoids a long GOP drawn out confirmation delay.

    Parent
    After increased daddy daycare duties... (none / 0) (#7)
    by Dadler on Wed Sep 15, 2010 at 09:46:05 PM EST
    IMO (none / 0) (#9)
    by andgarden on Wed Sep 15, 2010 at 10:15:05 PM EST
    Anything less than domestic first is inhumane for a flight longer than three hours. But people will put up with a little inhumanity if the price is right.

    I wouldn't even sit in it (none / 0) (#10)
    by nycstray on Wed Sep 15, 2010 at 10:16:16 PM EST
    SFO to LAX. I'd go bonkers and my lanky legs would rebel. Perhaps they'll just put us in hanging straight jackets next?

    Let's hear it for high speed rail!!!  :)

    Biden on Maddow (none / 0) (#11)
    by Lil on Wed Sep 15, 2010 at 10:31:28 PM EST
    He's just rolling.

    Has anyone seen the (none / 0) (#17)
    by Anne on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 09:07:28 AM EST
    anti-Pelosi (Wicked Witch of the West) ad being run by John Dennis?

    Have to say, it's clever and well-done - even if it's short on facts - but we all know that no one cares about those...

    Nancy Pelosi (none / 0) (#22)
    by brodie on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 11:20:57 AM EST
    as a wicked witch -- about as clever as some of the right-wing depictions of Obama in African native garb with a bone through the nose.

    It's a crude misogynist depiction of the Speaker which will probably appeal to the hard-right anti-female 14% of voters in her district, but won't likely move the numbers in the direction of the well-scrubbed generic-looking white male opponent.  More likely ugly passive-aggressive cartoons like this will cause a backlash of sympathy for Pelosi, or one hopes that happens.

    I did like the cute dog.  However the heavy wig on Dorothy looked ridiculous.

    Parent

    Well done? (none / 0) (#31)
    by DFLer on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 06:41:36 PM EST
    I strongly disagree. To me, the production values are so extremely CHEESY that I don't see how it could have any impact, except as silly, and easy to ignore.

    Parent
    indeed (none / 0) (#21)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 11:01:21 AM EST

        Dorm life has evolved into a blending of the sexes, from coed buildings to coed floors, coed bathrooms and now even coed rooms.

        "What's next? Orgy rooms? Menage a trois rooms?" asked Christine O'Donnell, spokeswoman for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Wilmington, Del., which publishes a college guide.

        All this coedness is outside normal life, said Miss O'Donnell. "Most average American adults don't use coed bathrooms - if they had the option of a coed bathroom at a public restaurant, they wouldn't choose it." Coedness "is like a radical agenda forced on college students," she said.



    Good stuff... (5.00 / 1) (#23)
    by kdog on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 11:25:15 AM EST
    sh*t O'Donnell...if they had those kinda rooms on campus I mighta finished school!

    Isn't every bathroom in every private residence coed?  Most Americans use coed bathrooms. The earth is coed.

    I'm not keen on all the girly sh*t clogging the shower shelf at the crib but segregated bathrooms would be ridiculous.  And I've never objected to the ladies using the men's room at the club to dodge a line...mi bano es su bano.

    Parent

    No (none / 0) (#24)
    by squeaky on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 11:37:48 AM EST
    Isn't every bathroom in every private residence coed?  Most Americans use coed bathrooms. The earth is coed.

    Not in right wing christian extremist world.

    If you as a man sat on a toilet that a woman sat on, let's say your sister, you would be gripped with sexual fantasies, which is adultery or sin if you are not married. Next thing you would be fighting off the urge to masturbate, which is a sin too...  

    The extremist christians are so sexed up that even looking at a toothbrush of someone of the opposite sex sends them into a cold sweat....  eternal damnation burning in hell is no joke.

    That is why there is so much emphasis on fixing gay people. They go crazy in the same sex bathrooms. It is only out of fairness that the good christians set up clinics for gays to get straight.

    Parent

    I guess that would explain (none / 0) (#28)
    by Capt Howdy on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 04:27:59 PM EST
    the makeup applied with a trowel and the body jobs and bad facelifts that tend to make them look perennially suprised.  and the stripper hair.

    Parent
    so much good stuff (none / 0) (#25)
    by lilburro on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 11:42:26 AM EST
    So funny (none / 0) (#27)
    by ruffian on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 02:03:19 PM EST
    We had most of those things when I was in college in the late 70's in the middle of Illinois, hardly a hotbed of liberalism. I think most of us turned out OK.

    Parent
    I suppose all that (none / 0) (#29)
    by jondee on Thu Sep 16, 2010 at 04:55:54 PM EST
    horniness God imbued humanity with is just part of God's larger radical/liberal agenda..

    Btw, do these folks love that "agenda" word, or what? Give it a rest for a while.

    Parent