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Wednesday Night Open Thread

I've been offline today. Here's an open thread while I get caught up with the news. All topics welcome.

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    RE: McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Apr 02, 2014 at 09:58:45 PM EST
    Why is it always those persons ...

    "The civil service gang is always howling about candidates and officeholders putting up money for campaigns and about corporations chipping in. They might as well howl about giving contributions to churches. A political organization has to have money for its business as well as a church, and who has more right to put up than the men who get the good things that are going? Take, for instance, a great political concern like Tammany Hall It does missionary work like a church, it's got big expenses and it's got to be supported by the faithful. If a corporation sends in a check to help the good work of the Tammany Society, why shouldn't we take it like other missionary societies? Of course, the day may come when we'll reject the money of the rich as tainted, but it hadn't come when I left Tammany Hall at 11:25 A.M. today."
    -- George W. Plunkitt (1842-1924), NY State Senator (D-Brooklyn), and Chairman of the Democratic Party of New York City (aka Tammany Hall). Plunkitt once quipped to a reporter that he'd like the epitaph on his tombstone to read, "I Seen My Opportunities and I Took 'Em."

    ... who like to consider themselves the smartest people in the room ...

    "One question, among many raised in recent weeks, had to do with whether my financial support in any way influenced several political figures to take up my cause. I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so."
    -- Charles Keating (1924-2014), Chairman of Lincoln Savings & Loan, which was seized by federal regulators and at the time, constituted the biggest bank failure in U.S. history. Coincidentally, Keating died yesterday in Phoenix at age 90. (December 1989)

    ... who also have absolutely no phuquin' sense of history whatsoever?

    "[T]he principles of stare decisis look at a number of factors. Settled expectations is one of them. ... Whether or not particular precedents have proved to be unworkable is another consideration on the other side[.] ... I do think it is a jolt to the legal system when you overrule a precedent. Precedent plays an important role in promoting stability and evenhandedness."
    -- Federal Judge John Roberts, at his Senate Confirmation hearings on his nomination by President George W. Bush as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. (September 2005)

    Shame on Chief Justice John Roberts, and his four cronies Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, David Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Again, from Roberts' Sept. 2005 confirmation hearings:

    SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, Senate Judiciary Chairman: "One final citation from the joint opinion in Roe, quote: 'After nearly 20 years of litigation in Roe's wake, we are satisfied that the immediate question is not the soundness of Roe's resolution of the issue, but the precedential force that must be accorded to its holding.' Do you think the court -- the joint opinion is correct in elevating precedential force even above the specific holding of the case?"

    JOHN ROBERTS: "That is the general approach when you're considering stare decisis. It's the notion that it's not enough that you might think that the precedent is flawed, that there are other considerations that enter into the calculus that have to be taken into account: the values of respect for precedent, evenhandedness, predictability, stability; the considerations on the other side, whether a precedent you think may be flawed is workable or not workable, whether it's been eroded. So to the extent that the statement is making the basic point -- that it's not enough that you might think the precedent is flawed to justify revisiting it -- I do agree with that."

    Personally, I think Roberts is a world-class bull$H!+ artist.

    "The power of the Government to protect the integrity of the elections of its own officials is inherent and has been recognized and affirmed by repeated declarations of the Supreme Court. There is no enemy of free government more dangerous and none so insidious as the corruption of the electorate. No one defends or excuses corruption, and it would seem to follow that none would oppose vigorous measures to eradicate it. I recommend the enactment of a law directed against bribery and corruption in Federal elections. The details of such a law may be safely left to the wise discretion of the Congress, but it should go as far as under the Constitution it is possible to go, and should include severe penalties against him who gives or receives a bribe intended to influence his act or opinion as an elector; and provisions for the publication not only of the expenditures for nominations and elections of all candidates, but also of all contributions received and expenditures made by political committees."
    -- President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 1905 State of the Union Address (December 5, 1905)

    Aloha.

    great material, Donald (none / 0) (#2)
    by Peter G on Wed Apr 02, 2014 at 10:07:41 PM EST
    but it's Anthony M. Kennedy who sits on the Supreme Court, not David.

    Parent
    D'oh! )Palmslap to forehead.) I knew that! (none / 0) (#4)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 03:32:50 AM EST
    Thank you for the correction. I'm my own worst proofreader.

    Parent
    See what I mean? (5.00 / 2) (#28)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 09:54:01 PM EST
    ;-D

    Parent
    NYT excerpt: (none / 0) (#3)
    by oculus on Wed Apr 02, 2014 at 11:22:44 PM EST
    The decision is also likely to increase pressure on donors: No longer can they fend off elected officials seeking checks by claiming that they have already “maxed out for the cycle.
         We hate it, said Manuel Ortiz, a lobbyist at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. “We were joking around with the partners today: Guess my kids are going to community college. There is going to be no end in sight. Campaigns now will take as much as you will give.
     


    Parent
    McCutcheon is a horrible ruling. (none / 0) (#5)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 03:53:23 AM EST
    But what was really said is that it got all but completely bumped off the news cycle today by yet another mass shooting, an sad event in this country that's become as inevitable as the return of Halley's Comet every 76 years, thanks to the NRA and its toadies in Congress.

    If the wholesale slaughter of 20 first graders and five teachers and administrators in Sandy Hook Elementary School wasn't enough to move people to enact a full-court press for the overdue reform of our ridiculously inadequate gun laws, lightning striking twice at Ft. Hood sure isn't going to do it. The damned cable news media is wasting its time and everyone else's going on and on for hours on end about it, without reporting anything earthshaking or new.

    That's enough ranting for one day. Aloha.

    Parent

    The hypocrisy of the left on this issue is (none / 0) (#33)
    by Slado on Fri Apr 04, 2014 at 11:11:46 AM EST
    Astounding

    The Koch brothers are 59th on the linked list of political donators.

    Most corporations play it down the middle for obvious reasons.

    The big partisan donators are unions and a lot of them are government unions.

    What we on the right find mind boggling is no complaints from the that tax dollars are used to fund  campaigns coffers.  

    How is this fair or right?

    Sorry Donald.  You get no sympathy from me.   The left simply wants a monopoly on big money in politics and even with this decision they will continue to have it.

    This is such a phony issue because of the obvious hypocrisy.  

    Parent

    Do you even understand how ... (5.00 / 2) (#35)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Fri Apr 04, 2014 at 12:26:05 PM EST
    the campaign spending laws prior to Citizens United and McCutcheon actually worked? Given what you've written, I really don't think so.

    Jusr for some perspective, please note that according to FEC filings for 2012, 1,219 wealthy individual donors spent over $155 million on behalf of Republican candidates, just by themselves.

    Now, contrast that with the approximately $313 million given by the little over four million small donors to all candidates and candidate committees, not just the Democrats.

    Had Chief Justice Roberts' McCutcheon ruling been in effect last election cycle and the caps on aggregate spending removed, those same 1,219 wealthy donors could've legally given $459 million to the GOP for the 2012 election cycle.

    It's a helluva thing, ain't it, when 1,219 wealthy people can legally outspend everyone else by nearly 50% -- or even more -- simply because they can afford it and the rest of us can't.

    But let's look at what's happening right now. For the 2014 election cycle, the Koch Brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity have already spent more than $30 million running ads against Democratic Senate incumbents or candidates in just eight states alone.

    The Koch Brothers have further funded over $3 million in TV ads in the Nashville, TN area, hoping to derail a rapid transit plan being promoted by the city at the ballot box. They're outspending proponents, 15-1.

    In North Carolina, their AFP has thus far paid for 5,534 TV ads against Sen. Kay Hagan, which is just a tad under three times the number of TV ads (1,845) which the Hagan campaign and the Democrats' Senate Majority PAC have been able to run combined.

    Koch Industries have been providing over 70% of the funding raised by the campaign committee of Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS). Ever so grateful, Moran dutifully took to the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday to read the entire text of Tuesday's Wall Street Journal op-ed written by Charles Koch into the Senate record verbatim.

    There's a really good but crude vernacular that best describes just such an arrangement, but this being a family-friendly site, Jeralyn would no doubt discourage me from employing it.

    Thanks to Chief Justice Roberts' 5-4 majority opinion in McCutcheon, the Koch Brothers can now probably dispense with any need to funnel political funds through the 527-class Americans for Prosperity, because they are no longer legally constrained by the former $123,200 aggregate limit which individuals could donate directly to political campaigns and campaign committees.

    As of this week, because Roberts and his cronies decided to rip the nipple off the baby bottle, that cap on individual campaign donations and spending is now history and it's anything goes.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    What?!? (none / 0) (#38)
    by Yman on Fri Apr 04, 2014 at 05:35:13 PM EST
    The big partisan donators are unions and a lot of them are government unions.

    What we on the right find mind boggling is no complaints from the that tax dollars are used to fund  campaigns coffers.  

    How is this fair or right?

    It's a little hard to decipher, but are you actually claiming that union contributions are "tax dollars"?

    Parent

    Sure sounds like it to me. (5.00 / 2) (#39)
    by Zorba on Fri Apr 04, 2014 at 07:58:31 PM EST
    And, by that logic, if I buy gas at the local gas station, and the owner of that station chooses to contribute to certain candidates, then he is doing so with "my" money.
    Same is true for the electrician I hire to rewire my house, or the owner of the diner that I patronize.  Or if I purchase goods or services or whatever from the company that Slado works for.
    That's "my" money!
    Not.  Once these people, including government workers, are paid for their work, it is "their" money, that they have earned, and they can do with it as they see fit.

    Parent
    Zimmerman jury names released (5.00 / 1) (#23)
    by Mikado Cat on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 09:13:22 PM EST
    now we find out if the cooling off period did its job.

    Oh, spare us. (5.00 / 2) (#29)
    by oculus on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 10:56:11 PM EST
    You find out for us. (5.00 / 4) (#30)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 11:01:40 PM EST
    I can think of far better things to do with my time, like cut my toenails and mail a letter.

    Parent
    I was thinking of (5.00 / 1) (#34)
    by Zorba on Fri Apr 04, 2014 at 12:21:10 PM EST
    watching paint dry.     ;-)

    Parent
    That's a good thing, Mme. Zorba, ... (none / 0) (#36)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Fri Apr 04, 2014 at 12:29:30 PM EST
    ... given that the extended winter weather in your region of the country precludes you from being able to watch the grass grow in your yard quite just yet.

    Parent
    Well, the crocuses at long last (5.00 / 1) (#37)
    by Zorba on Fri Apr 04, 2014 at 12:35:38 PM EST
    are up and just about to bloom.  And the jonquils and daffodils are poking up, about an inch or two.
    But yes, late compared to last year.
    Still haven't been able to plant our seed potatoes.  Also late, compared to last year.

    Parent
    Saw a hex sign on a barn ... (5.00 / 3) (#31)
    by Yman on Fri Apr 04, 2014 at 06:49:49 AM EST
    ... last week ... not a ghost in sight.

    Guess it "did its job".

    Parent

    And you thought your town had problems! (none / 0) (#6)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 04:23:41 AM EST
    Well, thank heavens you don't live in the hellhole that's Carmel, CA:

    Monterey Herald | April 2, 2014
    Carmel calls a time-out on wine tasting rooms - "The city of Carmel is keeping any new wine tasting rooms in the bottle. The City Council voted 5-0 on Tuesday to place a 45-day moratorium on new wine tasting room permits. The city likely will extend the moratorium for a longer period "to give the staff and the Planning Commission some breathing room" to develop new rules for the wine outlets that have mushroomed in Carmel."

    It's probably a good thing for those city councilmembers that Clint Eastwood isn't mayor of Carmel any more.

    Aloha.

    Seriously (none / 0) (#10)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 06:19:24 PM EST
    All that spitting.  We have the same problem here in AR except they are spitting tobacco

    Parent
    True story: (5.00 / 1) (#26)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 09:52:14 PM EST
    Back when I was a youngster of 25 and working as a bartender at a restaurant in Pasadena, my manager (who was also my age) invited me to go to a wine tasting with her.

    Now, neither one of us had never been to a wine tasting before, and so when they were opening all these bottles and pouring us a glass of each, we both dutifully downed each one. It's a good thing neither of us were working that evening, because by the time we left the tasting later that afternoon, we were both completely blitzed out of our gourds.

    Fortunately, neither of us was driving that day, and when her husband picked us up, he just laughed after asking us if we didn't know that you're not supposed to actually drink the wine at a tasting, just sample it. So did my mother after I got home and stumbled in the door, when she asked me the exact same thing.

    Well, I sure know that now, thanks to that dubious experience. Because man, was I ever hung out to dry the next morning, and it felt like somebody had duct-taped my tongue to the roof of my mouth.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    Was the site (none / 0) (#7)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 06:09:37 PM EST
    Down today or was it just me

    I had trouble loading it... (none / 0) (#8)
    by unitron on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 06:17:49 PM EST
    ..about 10 or 20 minutes ago.

    Parent
    it was down for 9 hours (none / 0) (#9)
    by Jeralyn on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 06:18:04 PM EST
    Outage at the hosting facility. No explanation yet, but at least we're back up.

    Parent
    May be having some (none / 0) (#11)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 06:21:17 PM EST
    Outages here over the next few hours.  Bad weather coming thru

    Parent
    Capt., we had that bad weather last night and (none / 0) (#13)
    by caseyOR on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 07:22:30 PM EST
    this morning here in central Illinois. Thunder and lightening and lots and lots of rain. 4 1/2 inches of rain. We skipped the tornadoes, but I understand other areas a bit further south had some, fortunately not big ones.

    According to the weather report Arkansas will be taking a real hit from this, worse than what we had here. So, good luck. The cat spent most of the night under the bed. Lightening is such a rare occurrence in western Oregon, I've seen it maybe 10 times in the 4 decades I have lived there, that I was a little edgy. I had forgotten that lightening can sometimes look and feel like it is in your very bedroom with you.

    If I didn't have the arthritis in my spine and knees I'd have crawled under the bed with the cat.

    Parent

    Yup (5.00 / 1) (#14)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 07:36:36 PM EST
    Probably going to get interesting later.  Every time I pick up the iPad there is a new watch or warning.

    I usually like storms. My family always calls and wants me to come and hide in the basement but I never do.  My house has been here a hundred years so if a funnel cloud is coming for me I will be here to curse it.  

    One bad thing. Ghost.  The night before he became mine - the night after the day he was run over and left for dead with a broken hip - there was a terrible storm.  Lightening wind driving rain.  I imagine him laying ing the woods some place terrified and in terrible pain.  Since then he gets very unsettled in bad weather.  The iPad is at this moment laying on his head which is in my lap.

    If you have good vibes, send them to Ghost.  


    Parent

    Weather man just said (none / 0) (#15)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 08:06:28 PM EST
    North central AR and south central MO will get hammered the most.  That would be me.  
    The thing I am most worried about is there is an episode of Game of Thrones on tonight that I have not seen and it looks like losing the satellite signal will be right on schedule to pi$$ me off.

    Parent
    Are you confident in your prioritization? (none / 0) (#16)
    by oculus on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 08:10:07 PM EST
    Well (5.00 / 1) (#17)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 08:16:05 PM EST
    If I am going to die horribly I want to see the last two episodes first.

    Parent
    Sorry did that sound course (none / 0) (#18)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 08:19:44 PM EST
    I hope everyone is ok but I am pretty sure some won't be.  I just don't think you can hide from it ya know.  A tornado is like winning the lottery in reverse.  It's fate.  Karma.  Whatever.  If it's coming it's coming.

    Parent
    Do you have a storm cellar? (none / 0) (#19)
    by oculus on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 08:21:07 PM EST
    Much prefer a wine cellar (5.00 / 2) (#27)
    by CoralGables on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 09:52:50 PM EST
    No (none / 0) (#20)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 08:27:42 PM EST
    My sisters house has a basement that they like to think would protect them but it would not.  

    Parent
    Wow Casey (none / 0) (#21)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 08:35:34 PM EST
    Must be something about the air. I have never seen lightening like this.  It's non stop

    Parent
    Unplugged the tv (none / 0) (#22)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 08:42:38 PM EST
    Lost the signal anyway.  For some reason I still have internet.  Which is also a dish.  But a different one.  Last year in a storm my tv got fried.

    Parent
    Yes, the site was down today (none / 0) (#12)
    by Zorba on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 06:30:45 PM EST
    n/t

    Parent
    That was quite a ride (none / 0) (#24)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 09:39:08 PM EST
    I'm really sorry I couldn't figure out how to work the damn video function on the iPad in time to catch the sound of marble size hail on a metal roof.   I got some video but not of the best part.

    I gave ghost a doggie downer. He is passed out on my bed.

    But I may yet (none / 0) (#25)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Apr 03, 2014 at 09:40:44 PM EST
    That was round one.  At least two more are coming

    Parent
    OK (none / 0) (#32)
    by CaptHowdy on Fri Apr 04, 2014 at 08:02:46 AM EST
    this is sort of a joke

    George W. Bush to celebrate Vladimir Putin with portrait, President reveals in daddy-daughter interview

    But there are way worse things he could be doing.