Patterico's Pontifications

1/6/2014

Random Links and Topics

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 2:02 pm



Brr. It is still cold in the Midwest. Everybody must now argue about global warming again.

Liz Cheney has withdrawn.

The Supreme Court has issued a stay of the Utah gay marriage ruling.

I’m not talking about Jay Carney’s facial hair. The man is worthless.

113 Responses to “Random Links and Topics”

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (39da75)

  2. Just out and about, car thermometer reading -11.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  3. Taking down Christmas decorations today — Epiphany was yesterday and all.

    JVW (709bc7)

  4. Sure wish I could keep poinsettias year-round, though. I love those flowers.

    JVW (709bc7)

  5. I used to like Liz Cheney til she had that weirdo slap fight with her sister in front of lord god and everyone

    tacky tacky tacky

    happyfeet (c60db2)

  6. Liz Cheney’s rollout seemed a bit rushed and making-it-up as she went along, however, with the circumstances in a more right place, I think she would be a great asset in public office as well as representing conservatives. I hope the health issues are not too serious or long lasting.

    The Right better get their house in order and soon. How that happens is beyond me. The more time passes, the more polarized it becomes.

    Dana (d0789a)

  7. I don’t see that Liz initiated that, hf. As I recall she made a political statement and it was her sister-in-law who made the public commotion. And, how could Liz’s stand been a surprise to her or her sister?

    Dana (d0789a)

  8. Liz would have been another neocon elite. People that live in Wyoming call her a carpetbagger and want het to go back to Virginia and run.

    mg (31009b)

  9. Liz Cheney’s rollout seemed a bit rushed and making-it-up as she went along, however, with the circumstances in a more right place, I think she would be a great asset in public office as well as representing conservatives.

    Yeah, but challenging someone like Enzi, who has a solidly conservative record, seemed presumptuous, especially since her family connections are her prime asset. I am not big on Senators going for fourth terms (as Enzi is doing), but maybe they could have figured out a way for Enzi to serve a few years of his term and retire, and have Liz Cheney appointed to his seat (this being written without any idea of what Wyoming’s replacement rules are). In any case, I hope she stays engaged and finds an office to run for in 2016.

    JVW (709bc7)

  10. I agree, JVW. And for godsake, I meant to say “in a better place” and have no idea why I wrote “in a more right place”… Ugh.

    Dana (d0789a)

  11. Mg, what have you read or heard from her that leads you to believe she would be a “neocon elite”?

    Dana (d0789a)

  12. narciso, Alan Greyson is the Vito Marcantonio of the 21st Century.

    Steny Hoyer may turn out to be the Samuel Dickstine of the 21st Century.

    JVW (709bc7)

  13. They’re talking about big “storms” in the east and northeast and I keep looking for the guy or gal in the media standing in the floodwaters/seashore/levee with the rain and wind and floodwates rising but I don’t see them….

    Why?….what is a “storm” without 130-MPH winds and 20+inches of rain???

    reff (4dcda2)

  14. Dana- all her campaign money came from the beltway brethren of her father. The neocons.

    mg (31009b)

  15. Her work with Burlingame would suggest otherwise,

    narciso (3fec35)

  16. I didn’t recall that about Dickstein,

    narciso (3fec35)

  17. I liked her work with Burlingame, too, and remember Burlingame was pretty fearless when confronting Obama re Gitmo. Of course he just shrugged…

    mg, are there issues and stands she holds that are untenable to you? Or is it just that she’s going to be a beltway player? Which leads me to, how do you see the right making any headway if we’re going to hold standards like this? Does it threaten more polarization at the end of the day?

    Dana (9a8f57)

  18. Tony Lee at Breitbart had written almost all of Cheney’s contributions have come from the elite gop. And since 1 million wasn’t going to cut it they quit. The wyoming cow girls weren’t buying that beltway smile.

    mg (31009b)

  19. One federal judge tells Utahns they can cohabit with multiple women as long as they don’t marry them. Another federal judge tells them that men can marry men and women can marry women. No word on how many at a time, and there is no provision for same-sex polygamy in the state’s laws. I think the Supreme Court moved to stave off another war between the Mormons and the United States. Good move, the United States lost the last one.

    nk (dbc370)

  20. Dana, Matt Purple at the American Spectator has more on her neocon dealings.

    mg (31009b)

  21. Karl Rove and the gop socialists by Jeffery Lord is another good read at the American Spectator.

    mg (31009b)

  22. mg,

    Would you answer the questions (are there issues and stands Cheney holds that are untenable to you? Or is it just that she’s going to be a beltway player? Which leads me to, how do you see the right making any headway if we’re going to hold standards like this? Does it threaten more polarization at the end of the day?). I would really like to hear your thoughts.

    Dana (9a8f57)

  23. i’m anti beltway. Read the piece by Jeffery Lord at the American Spectator. I don’t see a lot of conservatives showing up to vote for beltway frauds who want to continue to compromise. I am fine with polarization when my choice is scum like karl rove.

    mg (31009b)

  24. Enzi is way more Beltway than Liz. Call her a Bushie if you want. Her support is from loyal, long-time, Bush supporters. Enzi’s support is from the usual suspects on K Street and Senate colleagues. The reason to tell Liz to go do her nails is that she cannot possibly more conservative than Enzi, and she should not waste her supporters’ or Enzi’s supporters’ political cash on a pointless primary. Enzi was going to whup her two to one, anyway.

    nk (dbc370)

  25. The worst RINO as President would have been measurably and significantly better as President than our current First Occupant …

    Alastor (e7cb73)

  26. The people of Wyoming had a choice between a life long career candidate and a carpetbagger from Virginia, The people of Wyoming have spoken.

    mg (31009b)

  27. I like Liz Cheney and if I lived in Wyoming, she’d have my vote. Out with the old, in with the new.

    Colonel Haiku (6430f0)

  28. Meghan’s coward daddy would’ve had us at war in something like 7 different countries by now plus hip-deep in a ruinous war on carbon dioxide emissions while fighting a bloody rear-guard action against nutritional supplements generally and against performance enhancing drugs in professional sports specifically.

    happyfeet (c60db2)

  29. And Debra Burlingame – the sister of my old classmate and roundball teammate Brad – is a gamer… she rocks old school.

    Colonel Haiku (6430f0)

  30. mg, I’ve scrolled through 10 pages of J. Lord articles and can’t find one regarding Cheney’s money backers. Link, please?

    Dana (9a8f57)

  31. Do you believe in Ariana, Dana? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/04/liz-cheney-mike-enzi_n_4195740.html

    Some $ numbers on Liz’s and Enzi’s funding.

    nk (dbc370)

  32. Matt Purple has a piece about cheney at the American Spectator. Lord’s article is about rove pollution.

    mg (31009b)

  33. It may be as you say, happyfeet, but Cindy inherited the beer distributorship. I’ve said this before — more men have walked on the moon than men who have married a gorgeous, blonde, beer heiress.

    nk (dbc370)

  34. Well I’m not that crazy about Berman, but the others seem solid, Blumenthal, this one, has been a pretty good pollster, even at Zsa Zsa’s shop.

    narciso (3fec35)

  35. Comment by JVW (709bc7) — 1/6/2014 @ 3:13 pm

    narciso, Alan Greyson is the Vito Marcantonio of the 21st Century.

    If that were the case, then he’d be close not only to the Communist Party – actual Communist Party, or some foreign power – but to the Mafia.

    He was also close to Fiorelli La Guardia, who let him have control of all the patronage in Harlem.

    As a result street crime rose (if heroin addicts were to go to jail, or stop stealing, they wouldn’t be able to buy heroin!) and things got so bad that LaGuardia had to move out himself, it having become maybe the first “bad neighborhood” in New York in the Twentieth Century.

    He disguised it by having the city buy Gracie Mansion as a residence for the mayor.

    Even murders were not classified as murders.
    To prevent the effects from spilling over into other places, police would question Negroes in places like Times Square.

    Sammy Finkelman (7bdfbf)

  36. Vito Marcantonio was helped in his elections to the House of represenatives by the Mafia and the Communist Party.

    But there was probably only one Senator in 1950 who owed his election to the Communist Party: Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.)

    Sammy Finkelman (7bdfbf)

  37. Even murders were not classified as murders.

    Speaking of which, Sammy, how does New York get its homicide statistics? From the death certificates or from the police reports? If from the police reports, is it reported as a homicide if the victim is not DOA? I.e., is it battery on the police report, even if the victim does not survive his wounds at the hospital? Just curious. Twenty years ago, Chicago cops were told, publicly, to “improve their statistics”. They did. 😉

    nk (dbc370)

  38. The Utah stay was as predictable as it was unanimous. The Court expressly said that it was NOT saying what the Utah district court asserted; that the 14th Amendment required “marriage equality.” It only said that IF a state decided that for itself, then any marriage recognized by the state had to be recognized by the Feds. IIRC, it did not even say that the marriage had to be recognized by other states.

    So, when the district court chose to put words in the Supreme’s mouths and the circuit court (amazingly) did not stay the decision, it was pretty obvious the Court would issue a stay itself.

    It is also clear they cannot punt too much longer or their decision will be made for them.

    Kevin M (536c5d)

  39. the Chicago decision, is more significant,

    narciso (3fec35)

  40. 41. Comment by nk (dbc370) — 1/6/2014 @ 6:01 pm

    Speaking of which, Sammy, how does New York get its homicide statistics? From the death certificates or from the police reports?

    I’m not sure. I do know that the year a murder belongs to is from when a murder case is opened, not when it happens, and certainly not when an assault happens…

    Newsday March 28, 2013 9:51 PM

    Through Wednesday, the NYPD recorded 63 homicides so far this year, compared with 92 in the same period for 2012, a difference of 32 percent, according to police statistics disclosed Thursday.

    The latest results included two reclassified cases involving assault that occurred between 23 and 34 years ago and only recently led to the deaths of the victims from medical complications, according to police. Excluding the two reclassified cases, the homicide decline would be 33.6 percent.

    In the 1940s there were murders not calssified as accidents or suicides or something like that. There was a big scandal in 1948.

    If from the police reports, is it reported as a homicide if the victim is not DOA? I.e., is it battery on the police report, even if the victim does not survive his wounds at the hospital?

    As that article indicates, it can become a murder even 34 years later, but it goes into the homicide totals of the later year.

    Even 49 years later:

    http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/citys-oldest-reclassified-homicide/?_r=0

    After Mr. Jenkins died on March 13 at age 66, the city medical examiner’s office ruled his death a homicide due to infectious complications caused by the gunshot wounds, making it the oldest reclassified homicide in New York Police Department history, a police official said. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/nyregion/02homicide.html

    The district attorney’s office said it would not prosecute because the brothers had already served time (Mr. Lemus said he was imprisoned for a year and half and his brother for five years) for the shooting and because witnesses and medical records would be hard to come by, the police official said.

    Exodus 21:18-19 would not classify this as a murder – he spends some time alive – but then again, he was paralyzed, so he never walked, so maybe it was. But he got around by himself.

    And if men contend, and one smite the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keep his bed; 21,19 if he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

    Sammy Finkelman (7bdfbf)

  41. It looks like there might be a possible mistake here in the works: (it probably is not really necessary to pick one side. You could be against both of them – and what if they sign a 10-year nonagression pact?)

    Tomorrow’s news today:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/world/middleeast/iran-offers-military-aid-but-not-troops-to-iraq.html?hp&pagewanted=all

    That’s the URL. The headline is:

    U.S. and Iran Face Common Enemies in Mideast Strife

    By THOMAS ERDBRINK
    Published: January 6, 2014 1 Comment

    TEHRAN — Even as the United States and Iran pursue negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program, they find themselves on the same side of a range of regional issues surrounding an insurgency raging across the Middle East….On Monday, Iran offered to join the United States in sending military aid to the Shiite government in Baghdad, which is embroiled in street-to-street fighting with radical Sunni militants in Anbar Province, a Sunni stronghold. On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry said he could envision an Iranian role in the coming peace conference on Syria, even though the meeting is supposed to plan for a Syria after the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, an important Iranian ally…. Well, actually, previously in fact Iran was on the same side in 2001 in Afghanistan. But that didn’t really last.

    Sammy Finkelman (7bdfbf)

  42. How low will the N.F.L. sink?
    Hiring Alec Baldwin to host the awards show.
    Commissioner Fidel continuing to bow to the collectivist.

    mg (31009b)

  43. the NFL is a bunch of illiterate prison thugs what got bopped on the goozle too many times

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  44. The NBA as well, happy feet.

    mg (31009b)

  45. How low will the N.F.L. sink?
    Hiring Alec Baldwin to host the awards show.

    I love sports as much as anybody alive, but you will likely never catch me wasting time watching a sports awards show. To me, the ESPY Awards are the most stupid and worthless thing on television, other than the Oscars, the Grammys, the Tonys, and the Emmys.

    So hell, let them hire Alec Baldwin as far as I am concerned. I hope they pair him up with Jason Collins and Chris Kluwe.

    JVW (709bc7)

  46. Second lead in the New York Times, of Wednesday, January 1, 2014:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/us/politics/millions-gaining-health-coverage-under-law.html?src=recg&pagewanted=all

    By Robert Pear naturally (with someone ekse, but he’s one of the two bylines)

    Even so, he reports some bad news.

    Sammy Finkelman (7bdfbf)

  47. baldwin, collins and kluwe
    lmao

    mg (31009b)

  48. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/sports/ncaafootball/oj-who-rogues-vanish-from-annals-of-sport.html

    With surprising regularity and ease, once-popular figures who have run afoul of the rules or the law have been erased like disgraced leaders from an old Soviet photo album, whitewashed from history to preserve an institution’s image or to abide by a governing body’s sanctions.

    Sammy Finkelman (7bdfbf)

  49. The gop leadership will not appoint a select committee to investigate the Benghazi murders. Vote establishment gop, no thanks, I’d rather poke my eyes out so I don’t have to watch the republican party die.

    mg (31009b)

  50. Now that AQ is well on its way to taking Fallujah and Ramadi, and Hillary! is apparently about to make it official…

    http://drudgereport.com/flash3b.htm

    From: General Wes Clark [info@hillaryclinton.com]
    Date: January 5, 2014, 3:06:45 PM EST
    Subject: Free Hillary Clinton Bumper Sticker
    Reply-To: info@hillaryclinton.com

    …I’ve got a question.

    What the hell has Hillary! ever accomplished?

    All I see is one screw up after another. Apparently like the WH travel office she fired all the professional protocol people and hired cronies who went on to misspell “reset” in Russian, hang the flag of the Philippines upside down as a symbol of distress at an official ceremony, and commit various other atrocities against the practice of diplomacy. She supervised our humiliation at the UN when the NORKs sank the Cheonan, demonstrating to the South Koreans and the Japanese that we can’t be relied upon (one of many such occasions during her tenure as SecState). Symbolizing the diminution of American influence in the M.E., she had to go hat in hand and beg Morsi to intervene with Hamas and get it to stop rocketing and shelling Israel.

    And when you go back and look at how badly the Obama administration eff’d up Iraq it would be funny if it wasn’t for real. Look at these articles, the first from one year ago this month.

    Biden reveals why the Obama administration abandoned Iraq

    …In December 2011, President Obama withdrew all U.S. troops from Iraq after failing to negotiate a new Status of Forces Agreement with the fledgling democracy. Many military advisers, government officials, and Iraqi leaders opposed Obama’s decision, fearing it would diminish America’s influence in Iraq, destabilize the country, and damage America’s interests in the region. In the past year, many of these fears have come to fruition.

    President Obama’s decision was irresponsible, and motivated largely by politics. Obama opposed the Iraq war from day one, and wanted a political victory to bandy about on the campaign trail…

    Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/24/biden-reveals-why-the-obama-administration-abandoned-iraq/#ixzz2pgHc5EWd

    This one from October 2011 is even more damning.

    The Cable
    How the Obama administration bungled the Iraq withdrawal negotiations

    The Obama administration is claiming it always intended to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of this year, in line with the president’s announcement today, but in fact several parts of the administration appeared to try hard to negotiate a deal for thousands of troops to remain — and failed.

    “I can report that as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over,” President Barack Obama said today, after speaking with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “The last American soldier will cross the border out of Iraq with their held — heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops. That is how America’s military efforts in Iraq will end.”

    Yes, the military succeeded in Iraq. Then Obama and his administration betrayed them. All the blood they shed in Ramadi and Fallujah was completely wasted because of this administration’s ideology.

    Deputy National Security Advisors Denis McDonough and Tony Blinken said in a White House briefing that this was always the plan.

    “What we were looking for was an Iraq that was secure, stable, and self reliant, and that’s what we got here, so there’s no question that was a success,” said McDonough, who traveled to Iraq last week.

    – See more at: http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/10/21/how_the_obama_administration_bungled_the_iraq_withdrawal_negotiations#sthash.Fl5rL7wC.dpuf

    Leaving aside Obama’s stupidity and historical illiteracy (Remember when he lectured us from the lectern at the National Defense University that “history teaches us all wars must end?” No, idjit, history teaches us that wars don’t end until one side wins and the other side loses. Who lost in Iraq? We did, because of Prom Queen.)

    Would you know from any of these discussions that we even had a Secretary of State?

    Can anyone name one thing of import that Hillary! did on purpose? I know she traveled a lot. Since she couldn’t actually demonstrate achievement, she spent a lot of time and logging a lot of miles not achieving jack. And the other mediocrities whose main accomplishment is warming some seat inside the beltway and know they can’t actually achieve anything in foreign relations, like John McCain, praise her up and down because they know if they were in the same position they’d spend a lot of time spinning their wheels going nowhere when they weren’t making the situation worse, too.

    Do we really need another no load who got a social promotion to a position way beyond their competence level in the WH? Like the historic first black editor of the Harvard Law review who never actually showed up to edit an article and perhaps most historically was the first editor of the Harvard Law Review to write absolutely nothing for the review?

    Steve57 (d35759)

  51. Nk, that was indeed an interesting read.

    Dana (9a8f57)

  52. You have it all wrong Steve;

    http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-06/obama-s-inaction-isn-t-destroying-the-middle-east.html

    so the theory is we couldn’t do anything about Iraq, because we had some success, but we could about Syria, because we’re using Islamic militants.

    narciso (3fec35)

  53. Just because an idea originates with some left-wing Democrats doesn’t mean that it isn’t worthy of strong consideration and potential support from conservatives. Witness this article about some ideas being floated by Sens. Warren, Durbin, and Reed which would require schools to share some of the financial burden when their graduates are unable to pay back their loans. Sure this is designed to be an attack upon for-profit institutions, the bane of liberal academia, but there is a lot of merit to this plan. I would like to see some Republicans sign-on, while insisting upon the following changes:

    1. Do not exempt HBCUs from this legislation. That’s nothing more than racial pandering, and some HBCUs have dismal rates of graduating students and quite frankly ought to be closed down.

    2. Similarly, do not completely absolve community colleges. Too many of them enable students to waste time rather than pursue a degree or certification.

    What I love about this proposal is that it will force colleges to address the proliferation of worthless graduate degrees (largely in the humanities and social sciences, but also in business and law) that do not help procure employment but saddle students with massive debt. I don’t think these liberal Senators realize this, but it will be a wonderful unintended consequence of this legislation.

    Go Fauxcahontas! (Probably the only time I’ll ever say that.)

    JVW (709bc7)

  54. Did you read further;

    Those thresholds are likely to most affect for-profit colleges, which have the country’s highest default rates (PDF). For-profit colleges already face a proposal from the U.S. Department of Education that would force schools to pay back some of the debt if their students don’t earn enough to cover the loans.

    narciso (3fec35)

  55. Yep, I mentioned that this is almost certainly aimed at for-profit colleges. But I have dealt with for-profit colleges, and while they aren’t entirely useless they do have a degree of sleaze about them. Imagine combining the worst impulses of business with the worth impulses of academia, and you will have an idea of what they are like.

    But, narcisco, I think the Senators are overlooking the Law of Unintended Consequences, which is going to really smack some of the more risible graduate programs (which, not coincidentally, mostly produce leftists). That’s why the GOP should sign on: to make sure the Dems don’t water this down to try to protect the Masters in Peace Studies degree.

    JVW (709bc7)

  56. I can’t figure out Liz Cheney either. She goes on Fox Sunday and growls like Godzilla at the left, then she gets a Fox Babe hair and lip gloss makeover. Then she runs against an established guy and attacks gay marriage!

    Tone deaf. Not a good pol so far.

    Patricia (be0117)

  57. Interesting analysis, Patricia. In the old days, guys like Nixon, Reagan, and Carter would go on the chicken dinner circuit and speak to chambers of commerce, Rotary clubs, union banquets, and other groups. They put together, refined, and delivered the same speech pretty much everywhere which was a generic outline of their beliefs. If they were attractive candidates, the local party regulars would begin building support groups for them.

    Nowadays, it seems like the way to winning elective office is to get yourself on Fox or MSNBC or CNN as some sort of commentator or analyst. Instead of having your standard stump speech which can be nuanced and somewhat vague, you are called upon to make definitive pronouncements on every topic under the sun. Maybe that way is better, but I kind of wish politics were a little more local and a little less national these days.

    JVW (709bc7)

  58. the whole Liz thing was just weird

    I guess at heart it was just good old fashioned shameless opportunism

    but now girlfriend is gonna have to get a real job and she better hope daddy’s ticker holds out til he gets her one

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  59. Lizzy will become a kit in the fox den.

    mg (31009b)

  60. I just do not respect people who do the revolving door politics/cable propaganda slut thing

    I don’t care if your name is sarah palin or snuffleupagus

    you need to repent and get right with the God who gave you your one God-given life you so busy dishonoring

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  61. can I get an amen

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  62. her view on Syria, doesn’t seem that much of a change, recall Assad allowed many of these same jihadists to stream toward Iraq, and attack coalition forces, the Arab Spring, ironically boomeranged on him,

    narciso (3fec35)

  63. “I just do not respect people who do the revolving door politics/cable propaganda slut thing”

    Mr. Feets – Was Liz a political appointment at the State Department or a career employee?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  64. don’t matter

    you wanna cash in on your government service go spread your legs in private

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  65. She was the point person on economic development and middle east policy, you know when the Dems were rooting for the terrorists, as they are now,

    narciso (3fec35)

  66. Another random link.

    http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-vatican-pope-francis-gay-couples-20140105,7378739,7379967.story#axzz2pgXYm9sn

    The LA Slimes is an endless source of unintended comedy.

    Vatican says pope’s comments on gay couples don’t mark policy change

    http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-vatican-pope-francis-gay-couples-20140105,0,1567038.story#ixzz2pgbhYB00

    Steve57 (d35759)

  67. ‘Friends don’t let friends’ take the LA Dogtrainer serously,

    narciso (3fec35)

  68. Awesome national championship game.

    JD (5c1832)

  69. “But there was probably only one Senator in 1950 who owed his election to the Communist Party: Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.)”

    Sammy – How do you know all the Commies in Wisconsin voted for McCarthy in 1950?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  70. Auto-published that one.

    I love how people who don’t have a clue as to how religion works thinks that the Church’s position on homosexuality and gay marriage is a “policy” set by the Pope.

    His latest remarks were interpreted by some Italian commentators as an opening to homosexual unions, in a week when Matteo Renzi, the new leader of Italy’s center-left Democratic Party, has relaunched the idea of legislation allowing civil unions, including same-sex unions, in Italy.

    Plans for civil unions in Italy have repeatedly been shot down by Catholic politicians.

    On Sunday, the Vatican indicated that Francis’ comments were more about reaching out to a changing society than giving it a stamp of approval.

    “Speaking of an ‘opening to gay couples’ is paradoxical because the pope’s speech was totally general and because even the small concrete example given by the Pope (a girl who is sad because her mother’s girlfriend doesn’t love her) alludes directly to the suffering of the children,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio.

    http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-vatican-pope-francis-gay-couples-20140105,0,1567038.story#ixzz2pgca3NQp

    As if tomorrow the Pope could issue an encyclical and tell Catholics, “You know all that stuff in in the Bible being the divine word of God? You know how theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas have analyzed and interpreted the plain text of what the Bible says about homosexuality being a sin? Screw it. We’re s***canning the whole thing, reversing course, and giving our blessing to gay marriage. Because our pollsters tell us church enrollment and consequently revenues will go up 23% if we jettison some of the sins concerning sex and the sanctity of life.”

    And Catholics worldwide would say, “Whatever you say is cool with us, Francis. You’re the Pope.”

    The comments are equally amusing.

    Steve57 (d35759)

  71. Smathers in Florida, Nixon in California, those are at least two that come to mind,

    Well they think the DaVinci Code was a documentary,
    so why would they know any better,

    narciso (3fec35)

  72. Narciso @ 73,

    I see Sally is huffy puffy manipulatively indignant about Cheney.

    I wonder if Liz Cheney thinks that her losing campaign was worth hurting her sister, causing pain and humiliation to the rest of her family?

    Dana (9a8f57)

  73. there’s just a touch of irony, in that statement;

    narciso (3fec35)

  74. narciso 67.

    recall Assad allowed many of these same jihadists to stream toward Iraq, and attack coalition forces,

    That was a couple of years ago.

    the Arab Spring, ironically boomeranged on him,

    He was not quote so all-powerful in Syrua anymore.

    I read something some time ago to the effect that Assad may have bene supporting Al Nusra or Al Qaeda now because he prefers them as the enemy.

    znyway now, the Free Syrian Army is almost out of the picture, and there are Saudi backed Islamists whom ISIS – the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq is fighting.

    The Emir of ISIS, if this is the same Emir as Al Qaeda in Iraq had, is a FICTIONAL PERSON, voiced by somebody in recorded messages. We don’t even know who is in charge!

    Sammy Finkelman (7bdfbf)

  75. znyway now, the Free Syrian Army is almost out of the picture, and there are Saudi backed Islamists whom ISIS – the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq is fighting.

    Cool. Now the ancient Epgyptian goddesses are involved in the fighting.

    http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/Egyptian_goddess_Isis.htm

    Isis was called the Mother of Life, but she was also known as the Crone of Death.

    Fitting, really.

    Steve57 (d35759)

  76. there’s just a touch of irony, in that statement;

    No kidding, coming from a woman who worked her way up through the ranks of the WaPost on her knees and back. Her lack of self-awareness is so perfectly Establishment liberal.

    JVW (709bc7)

  77. Just saw on Twitter that LA County Sheriff Lee Baca is resigning tomorrow.

    crosspatch (6adcc9)

  78. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/world/middleeast/rebel-infighting-expands-to-eastern-Syrian-city.html?hpw&rref=world

    The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is affiliated with Al Qaeda’s branch in Iraq, but split from the Nusra Front, another Qaeda-linked insurgent group in Syria, and the Nusra Front has now joined the fight against ISIS in many areas.

    That clarifies things a little bit. The article starts:

    An internal war between Syrian insurgents and their onetime allies, members of a transnational jihadist group that even some fighters affiliated with Al Qaeda reject as too extreme, widened on Monday from parts of northern Syria into Raqqa, the largest city in eastern Syria that had been under the group’s control, antigovernment activists and fighters said.

    Some activists said the group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, had been largely evicted from Raqqa, which it had ruled for months. The group was known to have closed churches, arrested hundreds of Syrians who disagreed with its goals and even executed some perceived offenders of strictly interpreted Shariah law, the code of Islamic behavior it had sought to impose.

    If confirmed, its expulsion from Raqqa would be a setback for the group, known by the initials ISIS, in its effort to assert supremacy over the nearly three-year-old insurgency in Syria, which has devolved into a splintering of militias with no universally recognized authority…

    Sammy Finkelman (7bdfbf)

  79. For you, Steve57, a blast from the past.

    JVW (709bc7)

  80. Al Jazeera (owned by Qatar, which is suspected f financing the most radical extremists) calls it ISIL.

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/01/rebel-infighting-spreads-across-syria-20141613159423125.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

    Sammy Finkelman (7bdfbf)

  81. Also Wikipedia:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant

    The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Arabic: الدولة الاسلامية في العراق والشام‎ ad-Dawla al-Islāmiyya fi al-‘Irāq wa-sh-Shām) abbreviated as ISIS or ISIL (acronym in Arabic: داعش‎, Dā’ish), is an insurgent group active in Iraq and Syria. It was established in the early years of the Iraq War, and pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2004, becoming known as al-Qaeda in Iraq.

    If that;s correct, why is anybody saying Syria when they meant Syria PLUS Lebanon.

    Actually, a liitle bit more;

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levant

    The Levant today consists of Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Israel, and part of southern Turkey (the former Aleppo Vilayet).

    Sammy Finkelman (7bdfbf)

  82. Thanks, JVW! Loved the schlocky ’70s production values.

    The only thing that disappointed me was that I suffered all the way through part 1 of 3 and I still don’t know what kind of car the goddess Isis would have driven if she taught high school back then and didn’t want to blow her cover.

    I believe I saw a VW Thing in the parking lot when fatherly-type teacher started leading the kids back to school “caravan style” from the picnic.

    Not sure if it was Isis’, though. The Nazi staff car could have belonged to one of the students.

    I’m still dying to know if Isis would have chosen an AMC Gremlin, a Mercury Bobcat, or a Chevy Vega. Maybe a stylish ’70s import like a Datsun B210 Honeybe or a Renault LeCar.

    As an aside, anybody else think, “Man, where’s John Belushi when you need him” when fatherly-type teacher was strumming his guitar and singing Home on the Range?

    Steve57 (d35759)

  83. Another blast from the past. Although not nearly as far back into the past as the ’70s, let alone ancient Egypt.

    John Hinderaker at Powerline reminds us that when candidate Obama was outlining his plan to pull US troops out of Iraq, he promised as President Obama he’d keep sufficient troops in the region to deal with AQ in Iraq. Included is a remarkable video…

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/01/as-iraq-slides-downhill-what-happened-to-obamas-plan.php

    …in which candidate Obama tells us what Iraq looks like in that alternate universe he lives in, and while viewing it we realize with horror that not one scintilla of reality has intruded on that alternate universe in the intervening 7 years.

    Apparently in candidate Tiger Beat’s alternate universe making a speech about having a plan = having a plan.

    When Tiger Beat took on the powers of the presidency, things got easier. Issuing a press release about having a plan = having a plan. Cuz as CJCS Dempsey reveals, not doing any actual planning prior to the 11th anniversary of 9/11 let alone positioning forces to respond to KNOWN threats in North Africa didn’t stop the WH from issuing…

    http://freebeacon.com/joint-chiefs-chairman-testifies-he-was-not-directly-involved-in-failure-to-prepare-for-benghazi-terror-attack/

    …a cozy lil’ press release about their tip top planning, the temporary diversion of their laser-like focus from jobs and the economy to focus like laser on security threats at home and abroad, and readiness to spring into action like a coiled spring:

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/10/readout-president-s-meeting-senior-administration-officials-our-prepared

    The White House

    Office of the Press Secretary

    For Immediate Release
    September 10, 2012

    Readout of the President’s Meeting with Senior Administration Officials on Our Preparedness and Security Posture on the Eleventh Anniversary of September 11th

    Earlier today the President heard from key national security principals on our preparedness and security posture on the eve of the eleventh anniversary of September 11th. Over the past month, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan has convened numerous meetings to review security measures in place. During the briefing today, the President and the Principals discussed specific measures we are taking in the Homeland to prevent 9/11 related attacks as well as the steps taken to protect U.S. persons and facilities abroad, as well as force protection. The President reiterated that Departments and agencies must do everything possible to protect the American people, both at home and abroad.

    I guess it’s a good thing we don’t have a department or agency that was responsible for whatever that facility was in Benghazi. Or at the very least, if we do have a department or agency responsible for that facility in Benghazi, there was no cabinet level secretary who could be held responsible for disobeying King Putt’s directive to do “everything possible to protect” those American people who died there. Because it can’t be said anybody lifted a finger to prep for that foreseeable eventuality, let alone did everything humanly possible to prevent it. Even by the low bar we set for government workers.

    I hear to prevent that from ever happening again, in response to the September 2012 attack President Mean Girl established something called a “Department of State” to organize security for our ad hoc and disorganized collection of diplomatic facilities worldwide. And created the cabinet-level position of “Secretary of State” in 2013 so somebody could be held accountable for those previously leaderless roving bands of American diplomats.

    If only there was somebody who could have actually taken charge of these sorts of things prior to John Kerry, the Benghazi thing might never have happened.

    Steve57 (d35759)

  84. meanwhile, schadenfreude strikes an Oregon mother unexpectedly…

    http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2014/01/02/oregon-mother-i-cant-afford-obamacare-for-myself-1-year-old-son/

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  85. “If only there was somebody who could have actually taken charge of these sorts of things prior to John Kerry,…”

    you mean, say maybe a chief executive officer or something?

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  86. I was thinking a cabinet-level official. But I think you’re on to something, red. If only there was a chief executive, at whose desk the buck stopped, in September 2012. Somebody, anybody, who could have been held accountable.

    Steve57 (d35759)

  87. Liz Cheney would be an addition to the Senate. It’s unfortunate so many think first of challenging a sitting Senator instead of Democrats. She should run in Virginia instead, but this abortive run makes that more difficult.

    Jay Carney is now Fozzie Bear!

    The ideal and only solution to problems with student loans is to get the government out of the student loan business and let those who stay in it worry about defaults. While we’re at it, get out of education at all levels, the federal influence has been uniformly negative.

    Estragon (19fa04)

  88. Elliot Spitzer loves him some Jamaican toe jam.

    mg (31009b)

  89. Typical mittens response, nice and classy.
    Now go eff yourself you chicken poop republican.
    This bleeding heart should have verbally abused miss harris and pmsnbc. The racist, homophobic, bigoted imbeciles like myself would love to have someone stand up and b-slap the media. And all of Rovarian nation. One Mr. Cruz is not enough. Nor is one Mr. Lee.
    Bite me gop.

    mg (31009b)

  90. The good thing about Carney is that now when he talks out of his ass the visuals match.

    Icy (f18ca9)

  91. Jay is happy that people are discussing his facial hair rather than his evasions, the lack of content of his answers, or the general veracity of his administration’s policies and programs. Squirrel!!!

    elissa (3c2f35)

  92. Bite me gop.

    mg, I fully sympathize with your POV, but you have to blame human nature — certainly in the 21st century — as much as anything else, including the bigwigs running the GOP. What I mean is we live in the age of feelings, when wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve — and having the gut biases of a bleeding heart (which tends to favor the left and liberals) — is deemed such a wonderful and appropriate response by large percentages of Americans.

    For example, look at all the non-liberals (including growing numbers of people on the right) who increasingly feel teary eyed about the idea of same-sex marriage. Or all the non-liberals who still blame George W Bush even in 2014 for current economic problems instead of the debacle now occupying the White House.

    Feelings, nothing more than feelings,
    trying to forget my feelings of love.
    Teardrops rolling down on my face,
    trying to forget my feelings of love.

    …Feelings, wo-o-o feelings,
    wo-o-o, feelings again in my arms.
    Feelings…(repeat & fade)

    Mark (58ea35)

  93. Jay is happy that people are discussing his facial hair rather than his evasions, the lack of content of his answers, or the general veracity of his administration’s policies and programs. Squirrel!!!
    Comment by elissa (3c2f35) — 1/7/2014 @ 7:11 am

    — Now he can just point to his face and say “Squirrel!!!”

    Icy (f18ca9)

  94. Greetings:

    Back in the early ’80s, I wintered over about 30 miles north of Chicago. Back there and then, part of the folk wisdom was “You’re not really cold until your eyeballs are cold.”

    11B40 (a4706c)

  95. The only thing that disappointed me was that I suffered all the way through part 1 of 3 and I still don’t know what kind of car the goddess Isis would have driven if she taught high school back then and didn’t want to blow her cover.

    Steve57, I won’t spoil the surprise for you, so just click here to find out. If my time-capture URL doesn’t work, move forward to the 3:54 mark of this video.

    JVW (709bc7)

  96. Sheriff Lee Baca (Los Angeles County Sheriff) to retire end of this month.
    Somebody must have loosed the dogs on him.

    It would be nice if the Supes would seek out an “outsider” to run the department (at least on an interim basis),
    and not appoint someone who cut their teeth there and wants to come back and run the place
    (that means you Sheriff Hutchins of Orange County – as much as many in the O.C. would like to see you return to L.A.Co.),
    the LASD would be better served by bringing in someone who has no cultural connection to what has been going on here in L.A.Co. for far too long.

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  97. Ahh, a Firebird. I suppose that’s fitting because hawks, swallows, doves, and vultures were sacred to Isis. So a bird-themed car. Still if what’s her name had been given the power to run with the speed of a gazelle and fly like a falcon I didn’t think she’d go with what was the last of the muscle cars. I was guessing something more low key.

    Is anybody else impressed that I can just look at a close-up a fender and know I’m looking at a VW Thing?

    Yeah, me neither.

    Steve57 (d35759)

  98. How cold is it?

    It’s so cold the Democrats have their hands in their own pockets!
    -Rush

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  99. Apparently not when Palestinians do it;

    http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/01/07/when-is-incitement-incitement/

    narciso (3fec35)

  100. ISIS (or is it ISIL?) agrees to a (partial?) truce with opposition groups, and withdraws somewwhat in Aleppo and Idlib, syria, and avoids sharing a border with Turkey (in certain locations anyway)

    http://www.aawsat.net/2014/01/article55326685

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  101. I love and support my sister and her family … except that they aren’t a real family. LOL. I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the Cheney holiday get-togethers.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  102. 19. “Headway”? “HEADWAY”!?! WTF is with this talk about “headway”?

    Are you talking to sicko because you’re too racist to talk to Al Sharpton? What the hell do you have in common with sicko? I wanna see some Venn diagrams.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  103. 94. “Liz Cheney..more difficult”.

    Good take. You’ve got promise. Stay outta the line of fire.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  104. I figured it was going to be tough for Tea Party people to support Liz Cheney over Mike Enzi after it turned out to be Enzi that was so perfectly prescient about ObamaCare’s minimum coverage requirements resulting in massive, widespread cancellation of existing health insurance plans. Because of the legislation that Enzi proposed to prevent those cancellations, which Senate Dems voted down while parroting Obama’s “If you like your plan, you can keep it” whopper, the GOP has “See, I told you so” rights over the Dems and their media lapdogs. It would be difficult, on one hand, to say that Enzi exposed the biggest Presidential lie in decades, and then on the other hand, say “We’ve gotta vote him out.”

    L.N. Smithee (2ae40d)

  105. We needed Vito to help stall the PPACA – except he prolly would have helped to pass it.
    -From JVW’s link — 1/6/2014 @ 3:13 pm (emphasis is mine):

    “Marcantonio’s greatest contribution in the fight against the bill was tactical. Convinced that public opinion could sway the Congress, he tried to hold up a vote to give citizens time to write, wire, or phone their Representatives. Employing a rarely-used procedural rule, Marc demanded a reading of all sixty-nine pages of the act, plus the lengthy report on it from the House Labor Committee.”

    Now imagine reading the entire PPACA.

    felipe (6100bc)

  106. My room mate commented on your site the other day and I decided to read because she left the page open.
    I just wanted to say to you Patterico,
    I think it is nice that you as prosecutor were always upfront about your line of work and take the time to interact and write for complete strangers. Not to mention everything you have been through and you are still here. I mention about your line of work because I admire your courage considering what the blogosphere (made up word by me) has been like the past couple of years.
    I am an Independent, not a Republican nor a Democrat. Some say I can’t make up my mind or don’t have a mind of my own. I do have a mind of my own, obviously. Anyhow, I like to read left wing and right wing blogs. I will just say the right wing has been more my go to.
    Keep up the good work and know people like you are appreciated.

    Sara (69f0b6)


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