Reason Morning Links: Pope in London, Warren to Head New Consumer Bureau, Obama Targets Immigration Reform

• Obama will avoid Senate confirmation, name Elizabeth Warren as assistant to head Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• U.S. Civil Rights Commission meets this week amid controversy over its move to the right during the Bush administration and recent focus on reverse discrimination.
• Boing Boing interviews Blog Del Narco, the anonymous blogger who is chronicling Mexico's bloody drug war.
• Obama promises Hispanic audience that he'll take on immigration reform.
• The Pope visits the U.K.
• Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban outdoor smoking in New York, too.
• Craigslist says it will shutter its "Adult Services" section for good.

Comments

[Solanum]

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Season 6 Premiere Tonight

Mac Fights Gay Marriage

"Mac defends traditional marriage, while the rest of the gang reap the rewards of wedded bliss."

[Colonel_Angus]

Fuck you Craig's List, for bending over for paternalists.

[Brett L]

RTFA. That committee is still looking for a way to shut down Craigslist, whether the adult ads stay off or come back on. How dare they choose staying in business over dying on a hill that is less than 1% of their business.

[prolefeed]

You RTFA. They said that now that they shut down (some) of the sex for money ads on CL, they will go after other companies like backpage dot com. They didn't say they would continue to seek to shut down CL.

[Brett L]

My bad. I thought it was the same as this one. Which included the following quotation:
"If there is no law on the books, is there any law we could put on the books that would pass constitutional muster," asked Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia), who as chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security presided over the meeting."

[John]

"Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban outdoor smoking in New York, too."

Can we please end the myth that Democrats are socially liberal. There is nothing less socially liberal than telling people where they can and cannot smoke and what they can and cannot eat.

[Max]

But we'll never tell you you can't take a toke on Ron Paul's dick.

[Max]

ARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARF!!!!!!!!!!

[TrickyVic]

Bloomberg isn't a Democract. He's an independent.

Is it evidence that independents are not socially liberal?

[TrickyVic]

I don't ever want to hear Bloomberg complaining about government regulations on his business.

[MNG]

Bloomberg is a Democrat? This is worse than when John said the House was not part of Congress...

[John]

Bloomburg is a lifetime Democrat. He only ran as a Republican because it is NYC and there are no Republicans so it was easier to get the nomination.

"In 2001, the incumbent mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, was ineligible for re-election, as the city limited the mayoralty to two consecutive terms. Several well-known New York City politicians aspired to succeed him. Bloomberg, a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for mayor as a member of the Republican Party ticket."

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

You and everyone else knows that. I can't figure out if you are stupid are just that big of a jackass. I think it is both.

[MNG]

I guess that was some clone I saw as a principal speaker at the RNC 2004 convention...

[John]

Maybe it was a clone who left the party in 2007.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....AIHKCWhMSg

I hear they are working on cures and work arounds for those with low IQs. There is hope MNG.

[MNG]

And did he change to Democrat?

[TrickyVic]

John, your link says he was a life long Democrat BEFORE RUNNING FOR OFFICE.

""A lifelong Democrat before seeking elective office, Bloomberg switched his registration in 2001 and ran for mayor as a Republican, winning the election that year and a second term in 2005. He was frequently mentioned as a possible independent candidate for the 2008 presidential election and fueled that speculation when he left the Republican Party in June 2007 to become an independent.[6] ""

[MNG]

Minor details no matter to Conservative Hulk John! John smash liberals!

[Robert]

Actually he must have switched before fall 2000, because it takes at least a year for a party enrollment change to become effective in NY.

[TrickyVic]

Is that for candidates? I think all anyone else has to do is fill out a new voter registration form and they will send you the new card. No?

[Virginia]

That's what Fenty should do but he won't, and DC schools will halt their ascent and probably shitcan all the charters. Oh well, those idiots get what they vote for.

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

Bloomberg is a Democrat?

He certainly quacks like one . . .

Or maybe he's Californian . . .

[John]

Seriously MNG, why are you such an asshole. You are not even a funny or an interesting asshole. You are just a dick. You know Bloomburg is a Democrat.

[MNG]

It's just a fact that he ran as the Republican candidate for mayor several times. He was a highlighted speaker at the 2004 GOP national convention. He has never held office as a Democrat.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

He ran as a Repub candidate as a matter of strategic convenience - it suited his needs and desired end at the time.

He now is no longer Repub - in fact he was at best a RINO. Not that I care, because most of the current crop of Repubs suck anyhow.

Do you believe Arlen Spectre is a Democrat?

What are your thoughts on Joe Lieberman?

Do you honestly believe that when a politician joins a particular party after decades with another, he is doing so out of a sincere change in his principles or world view?

If so, your are astoundingly naive.

[TrickyVic]

""He now is no longer Repub - ""

He's no longer a democrat either.

[MNG]

"He ran as a Repub candidate as a matter of strategic convenience - it suited his needs and desired end at the time."

All pols choose their party based on this kind of criteria, it just often doesn't involve switching. He was a Republican, he declared it publicly. The Party embraced him. You can't pin this one on the Dems.

[TrickyVic]

The fallacy is thinking political parties are about philosophy. That's why RINO is a bullshit term. It's just a way to say you are not with me. Republican doesn't not belong to any particular philosophy.

Huckabee signed into law fines for smoking in a car with children.

If what you were is what you is, Arlen Spector is still a republican.

[TrickyVic]

""Do you believe Arlen Spectre is a Democrat?""

Yes. When he votes, it goes in the D column.

[cynical]

Republican and Democrat are organizations, not ideologies.

[Mosquevite Sandwich]

Goddamnit, MNG, you know Arlen Specter is a Republican.

[Rhywun]

Really, it doesn't matter what party he says he belongs to. He has governed precisely like any of the Democrats who would have held the office if he weren't around - only slightly more business-friendly. The creepy, controlling, nanny stuff that has characterized all social legislation during his term is all Democrat - whether proposed by him or by the 46-to-5 Democratic majority council and eagerly signed by him.

[Rhywun]

Case in point: "When you read about the City saying we can't afford a workforce this size - this is one of the reasons we can't afford it," he says today, in reference to an Indian reservation "illegally" selling cigarettes to "non-Indians", which is a right they always had until a recent money-grab.

[Old Mexican]

Actually, the legislation comes from (surprise!) a Democrat:

"New York is the national leader in creating healthy cities, and promoting a healthy life style," said Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan), who introduced the legislation.

So what she's saying is that she and her brethen want to make New Yorkers an example for the rest of us.

Creepy.

[TrickyVic]

She's taking liberties with the definition of promote. NYC is not promoting, but enforcing healthy life style. I have no problem with promotion, as long as I have the abilty to ignore.

[Rhywun]

I have a problem with the promotion adding six bucks or so to every pack of smokes I buy.

[TrickyVic]

I doubt that much goes to promotion but it would be intersting to see where the money goes. My guess would be funding programs like eQuits and other DOH anti-smoking initives.

[PicassoIII]

You would think .. or that's what the 'public healthists' promise. But if it's like MSA to the states then 95%+ of the time it's just 'general funds'. WI for instance used it as a lump sum to balance a budget one year.

[TrickyVic]

Some probably does go to the general fund, but NY and NYC have many anti-smoking programs. Probably more so than most other states. Some of it probably goes to Medicaid since NY has a robust Medicaid system.

[PicassoIII]

Good grief Rhy ... start rolling yer own.

[Robert]

There is nothing less socially liberal than telling people where they can and cannot smoke and what they can and cannot eat.

That's if you go by an obvious meaning of "liberal", so that "[adverb] liberal" means liberating w.r.t. the subject described by the adverb. However, "liberal" has come to mean something such that smoking bans are "liberal", if they relate to tobacco. It's not Democratic per se, it's "liberal" as it stands now that would want greater liberation (though certainly not laissez faire) for cannabis (which distinguishes "liberals" from Democrats), but greater restriction (maybe even prohibition, though they always say they're against that) of tobacco. It's culture war, it's not about freedom per se. Freedom to do something is just a way station, a compromise, on the way to making it mandatory.

[cynical]

Really, it's a mislabeling. It's "progressive", in the same manner that the temperance movement and any number of other forms of for-your-own-good tyranny were.

[MWG]

"Can we please end the myth that Democrats are socially liberal."

As soon as we end the myth that conservatives are for limited government.

[Puff-pass]

This.

[Puff-pass]

That was a reply to John's comment.

[P Brooks]

Ms. Warren, 61, an authority on bankruptcy law, has developed a following among liberals for her writings and advocacy on behalf of working-class and middle-class families. She has described their financial strains in two books, one of them written with her daughter.

But she has drawn fire from financial institutions for her persistent attacks on abusive, deceptive and unfair lending practices; some banking executives believe she has been overly broad in criticizing those practices.

That's some damn fine journalism, there.

[MP]

I enjoyed this bit from an obit for Jerry Flint, the auto industry columnist for Forbes:

One of his notions was that journalists, at least the sort that ruled the newsrooms of big newspapers a few decades ago, were too full of themselves. They wrapped themselves in a mantle of objectivity by attributing views to "industry observers" or other murky sources. If you've got the story wrong, that kind of attribution isn't going to make it right.

The rules of newspaper journalism had writers beating around the bush with such declarations as "In automobile circles, it is whispered that ... " Jerry once satirized this kind of mealy mouthed reporting by drawing chalk circles on the floor of a car company men's room, standing on them and whispering some observation about where the industry was headed. "Now I can say that this is being whispered in automobile circles," he explained.

Jerry, RIP, those journalists are still full of themselves.

[John]

+1. I also like the old "critics say" trick.

[SugarFree]

"What liberal MSM? HUH? WHAT LIBERAL MSM?!?"

[Virginia]

It's going to be really funny hearing about how Warren went on Daily Show in a year to piss & moan about how her boss (Geithner) won't implement her ideas.

[Isaac]

"The science is clear: Prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke ? whether you're indoors or out -- hurts your health," Mayor Bloomberg said in announcing the widespread ban. "Today, we're doing something about it."

He's banning automobiles? Wow, that guy is strict!

[Brett L]

WTF? So the science has determined that deleterious effects of smoking are homeopathic? Concentration is not part of the equation?

[Mayor Bloomberg]

No. Are you a denialist?

Oh, and it's for the children.

[TrickyVic]

""He's banning automobiles? Wow, that guy is strict!""

It only applies to things they don't like.

[SugarFree]

A Lament On The Lack Of Plus-Size Lingerie

[Nipplemancer]

Warty beat you to the punch last night Sug. You're gonna have to do better.

[Warty]

I just came in here to repost that. By the way, the article is even more horrifying at its original site. There are pictures.

[SugarFree]

Sorry, dude. Didn't read the overnights.

[Warty]

I see all the traffic that you've sent to Feminisiting from here has crashed their site, dude. How oppressive of you.

[SugarFree]

Maybe the site would work if they hired some guys to work IT.

[John]

The picture at Jezebell is quite pleasant. What a rack on that woman. But thanks for the warning about the original.

[Rich]

Ask Garnet ... anything. (NSFW)

[zoltan]

"The problem is, and I'm sure all you big ladies can back me up on this, that there isn't exactly a big selection of clothes to accentuate and flatter our bodies."

Man or woman, if you are overweight, there is not much clothing out there that's going to flatter your. Most clothing will accentuate your body--your excessive amount of body fat, that is.

Just love how the title pertains to how lacking lingerie affects sex. Lingerie is just a fucking ridiculous fashion trend to get men and women to spend $50 on a piece of lace that only covers your genitals for five minutes until summarily removed for, you know, actual sex.

[John]

http://www.thesartorialist.com.....681Web.jpg

I don't want this guy near my garbage.

[John]

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2.....from-view/

This is depressing. But remember it is the Tea Partiers and Christianists who are a threat to our way of life.

[Big Tent]

There's room for everybody.

[Warty]

See what her cowardice got her? If you're going to piss off Muslims, you might as well go all in.

[Salman Rushdie]

He's right, you know.

[Virginia]

Salmonella and food safety...

Study of EU's farms had a subset (from Britain) focusing on salmonella risk factors. It shows large flocks (greater than 30,000) have odds ratio of 4.79.

Does this give weight to the argument that smaller producers are cleaner than large egg production facilities?

The vaccine OR was 0.28 which seems low to me... but what do I know.

[wackyjack]

The HuffPo comment section has been especially irrational on this issue.

Americans demand cheap food, we want ever cheaper everything and we want more of it. Factory farming is a response to that demand.

[Virginia]

Yep, caught that. Not sure how they're digesting the study out of the EU/Britain.

Glad to hear the Tester Amendment to the new Food Safety Act will exempt farms with adjusted gross income less than $500,000. Pretty much the entire state of Montana.

[MNG]

"Americans demand cheap food, we want ever cheaper everything and we want more of it."

Well, HuffPo has always been hard on Gov. Christie...

[Old Mexican]

Obama will avoid Senate confirmation, name Elizabeth Warren as assistant to head Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In Mexico we have something similar, and it ended up making credit cards even LESS affordable than ever, and harder to obtain than ever...

...Which may end up being a good thing for Americans, even if the intention from the One-That-Walks-On-Water was different.

[Warty]

Maybe you can explain something that's bothered me for years about Mexico: Doesn't the Institutional Revolutionary Party realize its name is a contradiction?

[Isaac Bartram]

My favorite provision in the new credit card law is the one that says if you use the "no payments, no interest for ___" deals in your credit card agreement (Home Depot, among others) you now have to make the minimum monthly payment for each month of the term. Failing to do so will negate the deal.

This helps...how???

[Brett L]

Some of my best friends are Italian-Americans. We may have to make CUNY an offer it can't refuse.

[SugarFree]

The 5 Strangest Theories About Steve Smith

[Fatwa Issuer]

cloaking an idea in religion or tradition doesn't make it any less ridiculous.

Blasphemy!

[Solanum]

"Creepy bankruptcy attorney from L.A. who stalks Matt Welch" curiously absent from list.

[Abdul]

It doesn't mention the rape--becuase that cleary isn't a myth.

[jtuf]

Who in would be foolish enough to believe that the Dems will make any significant improvement on immigration? There are hundreds on Dems on Capital Hill, and only one endorsed a bill to raise the number of diversity visas. She wants to raise it from about 50k to about 100k. Last year, there were about 13 Mil applicants for diversity visas who got turned down.

[TrickyVic]

""Who in would be foolish enough to believe that the Dems politicians will make any significant improvement.

But I guess it depends on how you define significant and improvment. They do seem to improve the scope of their power in a significant way.

[Isaac Bartram]

Raising the number of diversity visas may be a good idea but it doesn't deal with the major issue in immigration policy.

Mexico and Central America are excluded from eligibility in the diversity visa program. Diversity visas are limited to those countries with low numbers of former nationals living here.

What is needed is increasing the number of general visas for low-skilled workers and/or a temporary work program for those who want to come to the US and work for a few years and the return to their home country with the money they've saved.

[J sub D]

^Bingo!^

[TrickyVic]

""Who in would be foolish enough to believe that the Dems will make any significant improvement on immigration?""

I don't know, but if you need Amnesty, Reagan was your man.

[jtuf]

There problem is that most Liberals don't have the juevos to complain about the DINOs.

[SugarFree]

No, they just have greater party cohesion.

[Rich]

Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban outdoor smoking

Enjoy outdoor grilling while you still can. That barbecue smoke causes cancer.

[jtuf]

Hmm, If I light up a cig while holding a sign to support the right to build the Islamic Center at Ground Zero, will the police arrest me? That would make a great YouTube video.

[Rich]

I *double dog* dare you!

[Robert]

Technically most barbecues in NY are in violation of the fire code anyway -- too close to a dwelling.

[TrickyVic]

""Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban outdoor smoking""

He probably does, but that not the current issue. He wants to ban smoking in parks and beaches where NYC parks dept. has jurisdiction.

[P Brooks]

Without proper labels, how will I know whom to hate? It's a travesty.

Some government agency should be in charge of assigning labels to politicians and public figures, so the peasantry will know what to think.

[The Gobbler]

Texas Chef Successfully Deep-Fries -- Beer

http://www.fieldandstream.com/.....-friesbeer

[Virginia]

The beer is placed inside a pocket of salty, pretzel-like dough and then dunked in oil at 375 degrees for about 20 seconds, a short enough time for the confection to remain alcoholic. When diners take a bite the hot beer mixes with the dough in what is claimed to be a delicious taste sensation.

droooooooooooooooolllllllllinnnnnnnngggggggg

[Pip]

Flying a kite could land you in jail.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_16086442?source=most_viewed

[Virginia]

File under: 'DIY Cars' aka 'FUCKING BADASS'

One way around safety regs is to have the car buyer wrench on the car themselves during production.

Gentlemen, I present the Rally Fighter from Local Motors where you spend two weekends building your car (no real fabrication unfortunately). Reminds me of raw milk sellers skirting federal regs by having the buyer "own" part of the cow.

[J sub D]

"I know that many of you campaigned hard for me, and understandably you're frustrated we haven't been able to move this over the finish line," the president said at the Hispanic Caucus Institute's annual awards dinner in Washington. "But let me be clear: I will not walk away from this fight."

He's already removed all the "combat" troops from Iraq and stopped DEA raids on MM dispensaries. Immigration "reform" is going to be similar.

Ask Mexican truckers and the Teamsters who Obama will support when push comes to shove.

[TrickyVic]

"""Ask Mexican truckers and the Teamsters who Obama will support when push comes to shove.""

The NAFTA Highway, the NAFTA Highway!!!!

[P Brooks]

The "Rally Fighter" might be interesting, but I'll never know, because their website sucks.

And I build my own cars, anyway.

[PicassoIII]

Do tell....

[Virginia]

Some more...

Although the Rally Fighter meets certain federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS), owners will still be required to register it as a custom-built vehicle. This is easier in some states than others. California, for instance, only grants 500 custom vehicle registrations a year, and they're typically snapped up in a matter of days.

Even if owners manage to get their Rally Fighters registered, the vehicles will have none of the safety equipment found in your typical new car. No airbags, no energy-absorbing bumpers and no crash testing.

We asked a Local Motors spokesperson if this will change as the business ramps up. The answer was no. The company plans to build vehicles for niche segments only, so the volumes will never justify getting full federal certification. In other words, the company will avoid having to spend money on building all the things that make real cars expensive.

[prolefeed]

Obama promises Hispanic audience that he'll take on immigration reform.

"Yeah, I really mean it this time. As soon as you turn out in droves and vote for Democrats, I promise to fulfill the promise that we've studiously ignored the past 4 years ... this time I promise I won't beat you baby, it'll be different this time."

[mad libertarian guy]

For fuck's sake, can we STOP with the "reverse discrimination" bullshit?

Either it is fucking discrimination or it isn't. Reverse discrimination actually means giving blowjobs to members of every other race, not not white people acting out against the only people capable of TRUE discrimination.

Fuck.

[Nike Dunk Low]

thanks

[cheap corsets]

Although it is not brand name,wholesale lingerie can be very sexy. Most companies offer a variety of lingerie including bridal lingerie, chemise, thongs, bras, garters, corsets, panties, and others. Wholesale lingerie companies generally provide products for resale businesses. Some companies will not sell to you unless you give them proof that you have a business.