A.M. Links: Obama Dares GOP to 'Sue' Him, Belgium Beats U.S. in World Cup, Sarkozy Arrested

• 

  Credit: White House / Flickr.com

  President Barack Obama has a message for Republicans who oppose his agenda: "So sue me."

• "Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel."

• U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton has demanded that I.R.S. officials appear before the bench and explain how the agency lost untold numbers of Lois Lerner's emails.

• Belgium defeated the United States 2-1 in extra time in Wednesday's World Cup Round of 16 match. Belgium now advances to face Argentina in the quarterfinals.

• Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been arrested on corruption charges.

• The Iraqi parliament remains dysfunctional.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Barack Obama has a message for Republicans who oppose his agenda: “So sue me.”

He’s rubber, you’re glue…

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

[gaijin]

He’s rubber, you’re glue…

Barack Obama is a boy named Sue.

[Slammer]

You figure that would have toughened him up.

[Ska]

Notice that he wouldn’t use the ex-childhood mantra “It’s a free country.”

[Snark Plissken]

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been arrested on corruption charges.

Isn’t that like a rite of passage in France and Italy?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Ya ain’t authentic without at least charges/investigations. An arrest shows you straight up killa!

[invisible furry hand]

Oh please God no, don’t let this inspire a Carla Bruni concept album

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Grah! Where did you get that terrible nightmare from? Been reading H.P. Lovecraft late at night?

[SugarFree]

Squamous and rugose.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Or…Czech Republic?

My buddy’s parents are Czech and every time I see them the father talks of Czech corruption and ‘thievery.’

[Fist of Etiquette]

“Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel.”

So it’s all uphill from here, right?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Shriek hardest hit.

[Ted S.]

Obama will always have at least 8% popularity.

[Idle Hands]

The president is the smartest guy in the room he’s just holding back because he doesn’t want us mere mortals to worship him as the demi-god he is due to his impeccable humbleness.

[wareagle]

you would think the smartest guy in the room would be sharp enough to convince the idiots among him to do his bidding.

[waffles]

Obama’s presidency is completely Bush’s fault so it makes perfect sense that he’s finally made it to this point.

[db]

Exactly. Obama and his acolytes have spent so much time comparing themselves to Bush and blaming their predicaments on Bush, what else would you expect?

You must choose your benchmarks wisely.

[Scarecrow Repair]

McCain bears some responsibility too.

But Not Obama, Never.

[Live Free Or Diet]

Obama gets negative grades for his handling of most key issues:
Negative 40 – 55 percent for handling the economy;
Negative 37 – 57 percent for foreign policy;
Negative 40 – 58 percent for health care;
50 – 40 percent for the environment;
Negative 44 – 51 percent for terrorism;

Oof. That’s got to be a gut hit.

[Slammer]

“So sue me”

[Lord Humungus]

Land of the free? Not so much. Americans’ sense of freedom drops, poll finds.

Seventy-nine percent of US residents are satisfied with their level of freedom, down from 91 percent in 2006, according to the Gallup survey, released Tuesday.

That 12 point drop pushes the US from among the highest in the world in terms of perceived freedom to 36th place, outside the top quartile of the 120 countries sampled, trailing Paraguay, Rwanda, and the autonomous region of Nagarno-Karabakh.

[Matrix]

79% are actually satisfied? 91% were satisfied 8 years ago?

Oy vey

[Rich]

NO!! Not behind the autonomous region of *Nagarno-Karabakh*!!

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Of course they are happy – they have autonomy!

[gaijin]

autonomy…that’s an economy that runs on its own, right? Or does it have something to do with cars?

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

Autarky Autos would like to present…. the Juche 200!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Encouraging that they’re paying attention, though.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah. That’s not good.

Why, you’re all becoming…Canadian in your apathy towards liberty.

[BakedPenguin]

The centre does not hold.

[Fist of Etiquette]

U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton has demanded that I.R.S. officials appear before the bench and explain how the agency lost untold numbers of Lois Lerner’s emails.

I find this judge guilty of fake scandalizing.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Shriek hardest hit.

[sarcasmic]

Hans up! One-armed German pulled over by police because he was riding his bicycle one-handed
Bogdan Ionescu was accused of riding dangerously through city of Cologne
Officer pulled him over for not having two hands on the bicycle’s handlebars
After realising he was missing an arm, officer turned attention to bike itself
Wrongly claimed the modified brake system was illegal and issued ?25 fine
Also incorrectly claimed the bicycle’s lights were not working properly
Mr Ionescu proved both claims were untrue and has now received apology

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..anded.html
Cops apologized? That would never happen in the land of the free.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The old “I’ve pulled you over, now I have to find you guilty of something or I just look like an asshole.”

[Overt]

That happened to me. I was pulled over once while driving in the carpool lane. The cop came up to the car and saw my two kids in the back, and suddenly I was driving “way too fast”. The ticket read “Approx 85”. Which is BS.

[gaijin]

Child Endangerment!

[Slammer]

Philly food truck explosion

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Somewhere Tulpa just “exploded” too.

[Matrix]

Well, that’s enough evidence right there for me to justify banning food trucks!

/progtard

[Slammer]

Truly awful reporting. WHAT KIND OF FOOD WERE THEY SERVING?

[MegaloMonocle]

Well, it is a Mexican food truck.

[sloopyinva (previously -inca)]

Never, EVER paint MOVE on the side or roof of your food truck.

This was poor marketing from the beginning.

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

So the Philly cops firebombed it?

[sarcasmic]

Welcome to the family restaurant where diners are encouraged to bring their guns … and even all the waitresses are packing heat
Shooters Grill opened in Rifle, Colorado, in May 2013
Customers are encourage to carry weapons at the restaurant, as allowed by Colorado law
Owner Lauren Boebert said: ‘We don’t worship guns – we worship Jesus.’
They do not serve alcohol, which pleases local police

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..-heat.html
Whole lot of British derp in the comments.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The Jesus and guns bit is pretty stupid.

Now if they were Jewish…

[db]

There used to be a combination coffee shop/gun shop/computer gaming center housed in a deconsecrated synagogue in Pittsburgh. Don’t know if they’re still in business or not.

[Suthenboy]

I remember seeing a photo once of a cafe in Israel and half the people in there were visibly packing…even a few ARs slung over their shoulders.

[Ted S.]

America-bashing is the one form of xenophobia that’s still permissible in so-called polite society.

[sarcasmic]

It’s tolerance. You see, Americans are intolerant. Especially those in the “gun culture.” It is the duty of good tolerant people to heap disdain on those they view as intolerant, because being intolerant of intolerance is the height of tolerance.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Come on Ted S. You deserve it!

/Pippi Longstocking’s retarded cousin Proggy Smallbrain.

[Lord Humungus]

Jonah Goldberg: Labels & Liberals

We talk a lot about fusionism on the right, but the real fusion has been on the left. Barack Obama’s intellectual lineage comes directly from the 1960s left (Ayers, Wright, Allinsky, Derrick Bell, SANE Freeze etc). But he is an altogether mainstream liberal today. To the extent mainstream liberals complain about Obama it is almost entirely about tactics and competence. When was the last time you heard a really serious ideological complaint about Obama from, say, EJ Dionne or the editorial board of the New York Times? I’ll go further. When was the last time you heard liberals have a really good, public, ideological fight about anything? I’m sure there have been some interesting arguments between bloggers and the like. But I can’t think of anything ? on domestic policy at least ? that has spilled out onto the airwaves and op-ed pages in a sustained way.

[waffles]

Why are liberals so good at agreeing with each other? I’m glad I don’t belong to a group of pod people compelled to agree or be ostracized.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Then you’re a natural libertarian. Everytime more than 2 people agree on this board, it gets uncomfortable.

[Lord Humungus]

I agree with this.

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

I DON’T!!!!!!!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

No you don’t.

*panics*

[hamilton]

Fuck you, cosmo!

[gaijin]

be cool or be cast out!

[waffles]

Cocktail parties have nothing on tractor pulls anyway.

[hamilton]

OK, to be fair I like cocktails. A lot.

But No True Libertarian ™ agrees with Libertarians!

[Auric Demonocles]

Just drink the cocktails at the tractor pulls.

Disclaimer: I have actually been to a tractor pull. It was pretty boring.

[Restoras]

We are our own little Subdivision…

[Auric Demonocles]

Speaking of which, we need to set up our next cocktail party.

[hamilton]

Yes. I am busy for the next couple weeks. Late July for a Boston-area meet? Or maybe be bold and venture up to the almost-border and tempt the Porcupines?

[Auric Demonocles]

I could drive up a bit further north. Late July during the week should work, though my weekends are booked. Summer is always so busy.

[waffles]

I’m just a contrarian more than anything.

[Lord Humungus]

^this^ – though I use the term Fuck-You-tarian”

[hamilton]

I used the term “small-l libertarian” for a while, but then shortened it to “asshole” based on what my friends were calling me.

And what is up with the damn comments again?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I’ve read and heard progs/liberal call conservatives cranky and whiny.

Pot. Kettle. Black. I say.

[wareagle]

what is it that another poster says about progs and projection?

[Ted S.]

In one of yesterday evening’s threads (or maybe it was over at Tim Worstall’s blog, since I was reading that last night, too), there were a couple of people saying the militant lesbian v. transgendered fighting was going to be a blast to watch.

[sarcasmic]

Former Man Versus Food host’s new show pulled after he told critics to ‘eat a bag of s***’ when he was criticized for using term ‘thinspiraton’ to describe his weight loss
Travel Channel has pulled Richman’s new show Man Finds Food after he made controversial comments online
It was slated to debut July 2
Richman got into trouble last month when he posted a picture of his dramatic weight loss to Instagram, and used the hashtag ‘thinspiration’ in the caption
He appeared unaware that the term is used to describe online posts that promote eating disorders
When critics condemned him for using the negative term, he shot back calling one person a ‘c***’ and telling another to ‘eat a bag of s***’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..nline.html
Zimmerman says “Bag of shit? Where? I’ll eat it!”

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

You mean Zimmern? This sucks and just makes me hate anti-thinspo people even more, as if that were even possible.

THINSPO 4EVA

[sarcasmic]

You mean Zimmern?

Yeah. That shit-eater.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You. Leave. Andrew. Alone.

[sarcasmic]

He’s a vile, foul, nasty, unpleasant, horrid, dreadful, abominable, offensive, unsavory, repulsive, disgusting, distasteful, loathsome, nauseating, sickening, disgraceful, appalling, shocking, shameful, execrable, abhorrent, deplorable, depraved, debased pig.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I believe you’re confusing him with Anthony Bourdain.

[sarcasmic]

While Bourdain eats many things that would never cross my lips, at least he doesn’t eat rancid meat. Zimmern is *shudder* gross.

[boomslang4]

The one food that Zimmern says truly disgusts him is Spam. Personally, I love Spam. While it may not be to everyone’s taste, it’s got to be way less disgusting than a bowl of monkey assholes braised in pus.

[Juice]

I thought it was walnuts.

[CatoTheElder]

I don’t know about Spam and walnuts, but he really, really couldn’t handle durian fruit.

There’s a very good reason why Singapore has something like a S$500 for bringing a durian in a subway station.

[CatoTheElder]

S$500 fine

[RBS]

Zimmerman Zimmern says “Bag of shit buffalo penis? Where? I’ll eat it!”

[sarcasmic]

Report finds principal who suspended a seven-year-old for making a ‘Pop Tart gun’ acted PROPERLY as the boys parents move to take the case further
Second-grader Josh Welch, 7, tried to bite his breakfast tart into a mountain shape but his teacher thought it resembled a gun
The school claimed he said it was a gun but the boy denies this
Park Elementary School principal Sandra Blondell suspended Josh for two days in March 2013
New investigation found she acted properly
Boy’s family say they are taking the case further to have the suspension rescinded

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..rther.html
Respect mah authoritah!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Screw the rescission. I’d want the principal fired.

[Rich]

Second-grader Josh Welch, 7, tried to bite his breakfast tart into a mountain shape

“A mountain shape.” *** snort *** That’s what they *all* say.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Is it fair or logical to blame this sort of thinking squarely on the evolution of progressive thought going back decades?

[Ted S.]

It’s the academic equivalent of Internal Affairs.

[Lord Humungus]

85 percent of ObamaCare ‘inconsistencies’ can’t be fixed

Most of the problems involve certifying citizenship and income, key components of the national health plan.

But some of the problems are downright nutty.

One unidentified state-run marketplace cited situations in which infants and young children were “erroneously identified as incarcerated, according to federal data,” the inspector general for the Health and Human Services Department revealed Tuesday.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Shriek hardest hit.

[Ted S.]

If those kids are in public schools, then they are incarcerated.

[Snark Plissken]

Belgium defeated the United States 2-1 in extra time in Wednesday’s World Cup Round of 16 match. Belgium now advances to face Argentina in the quarterfinals.

I actually turned it off after the second Belgian goal, then saw the US had scored on Twitter so I turned it back on, just to have my heart broke anyway.

[Timon 19]

I actually started laughing (in pain) because they were pushing, pushing, pushing for the equalizer, then conceded. They looked defeated, then Bradley played that magical ball to Green.

Then they were in it. It was absurd how this team responded to adversity. They were a tired touch and a Belgian keeper away from the fucking equalizer.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Howard kept USA in the game. As we noted yesterday, Belgium directed a wickedly incredible and astonishing 38 shots at the net hitting the target an impressive 27 times.

They’re a legit dark horse a notch above the USA in terms of technical skills. America was all heart from 45 minutes on. I still find it disappointing they could find Bradley support for his passing game.

[Timon 19]

I’m wondering about these shots on target calculations. I don’t recall them ever counting blocked shots as on target.

It’s almost always been (total shots) – (goals + saves) = shots on target

Or rather, if the goalkeeper has to do something with it or it goes in, it’s on target + shots hitting the woodwork (but back 15 years ago, we didn’t even count woodwork).

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Did they do that?

Then that’s bound to inflate the number.

They don’t do that in hockey.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Three sentences, three that’s. Nice.

[Libertarian Book Club]

Hat trick.

[Timon 19]

Based on what I’ve seen elsewhere, I’m no longer so sure.

[Rich]

“I’m not going to apologize for trying to do something.”

You know who else tried to do something ….

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan?

[Rich]

Well, I was thinking of Judge Judy, but that’ll work.

[Restoras]

Not Mourning Lynx worthy?

The White House has not narrowed the gap between the average pay of male and female employees since President Obama’s first year in office, according to a Washington Post analysis of new salary data.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..ml?hpid=z4

[Overt]

The White House has not narrowed the gap between the average pay of male and female employees since President Obama’s first year in office

You just KNOW there was a swat team pulled together a year or two back to fix this. They analyzed the data, set policies, reported to management. And they “Narrowed” the gap…probably by giving raises to people who marginally deserved it. And yet they only narrowed the gap. While the country went to shit while they were distracted

[Lord Humungus]

What’s Going With This Photo In Valerie Jarrett’s Office?

Strangely, inside her office is this photo with figures bowing before a picture of Jarrett.

[Slammer]

GAG GIFT!!11!!!

[Rich]

“Girls just want to have fun.”

[Fist of Etiquette]

She says it was a gag gift, which I don’t doubt. The question I have is whether it was a poke at how others treat her or how she likes to be treated there.

[BakedPenguin]

That’s really a question for you?

I have to believe anyone in the Obama administration treats people below them like rented mules.

[Snark Plissken]

Don’t worry friends, it was a gag gift. Us strong women don’t need worship — just an economy for the 21st century. #WomenSucceed

Ha ha, I don’t *need* to be worshiped, just given sinecures where I have my cluelass hands on the levers of power.

[db]

“cluelass” …niiice.

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

If that was on purpose, I will be bowing and scraping toward SP.

[Snark Plissken]

No, unfortunately I was just channeling John.

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

You should have beaten your chest, strutted around and proclaimed it certainly was your intent!

[Snark Plissken]

I know, my honesty has been a lifelong career impediment.

[sasob]

Us strong women don’t need worship

Us?

[thom]

That’s all I could see too. She doesn’t just need an economy for the 21st century, she also needs a 2nd grade grammar lesson.

[Drake]

A good sign of a pompous officer or executive is a “love me” wall. Lots of selfies, awards and trophies is a leading indicator of an egotistical prick.

[sloopyinva (previously -inca)]

Think he’s got room for one more?

[Lord Humungus]

Last Jew in Afghanistan faces ruin as kebabs fail to sell

Mindful of Afghanistan’s extremely conservative Muslim culture, Simintov tries not to advertise his identity to protect the Balkh Bastan or Ancient Balkh kebab cafe he opened four years ago, naming it after a northern Afghan province.

“All food here is prepared by Muslims,” he said.

Now the cafe, neat and shiny, faces closure because kebabs are not selling well – largely because of deteriorating security in Kabul that has made people frightened to eat out or visit the city.

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

1 lbs lamb cubes, Salt to taste, 1/2 tsp onion powder, Pepper to taste, 2 cloves fresh garlic, 1 green pepper chunked, 1 tsp yoghurt, 1 onion chunked, 1-2 tsp olive oil, 1 tomato in wedges (I substituted large Mushrooms) 1-2 tsp fresh cilantro, chopped. 1-2 tsp chopped parsley, 1 lemon in wedges.
Directions: Rinse lamb in cold water and pat dry. In a blender or food processor combine the onion powder, garlic, yoghurt, olive oil, cilantro, parsley, salt and pepper. Blend well. Spread on lamb and let marinate at least 2 hours, overnight is better. Thread meat onto four skewers. Thread vegetables onto four different skewers, alternating the pepper, onion and tomato. Cook over a medium hot grill, supporting the ends of the meat skewers so the meat does not touch the grill. Cook skewers about 10 minutes, turning two to three times. Serve with rice and wedges of lemon. Serves four. Doubles easily.

[sloopyinva (previously -inca)]

He should open a restaurant where everybody gets what they want. He can call it ” The Dream Cafe”.

[Lord Humungus]

Green groups keep Aboriginal people in poverty

Too bad Aboriginal people are amongst the poorest people on the planet; a people whose main assets are rights over land and sea. After years of dispossession and being forced off our land, we’re slowly getting some of those rights back ? only to be told by Green groups that the music has stopped.

Aboriginal people are not museum pieces. It’s our land and we can deal with it as we see fit, subject to the same extensive environmental protections that apply to everybody else. Traditional owners in Cape York treasure their rivers more than anyone. They also treasure their culture and languages. Most want to remain on their country. But the greatest threat to their languages and culture, their way of life and their desire to live on country, is the inability to build a real economy.

The only way for Indigenous people to rise out of poverty is through commercial and economic development.

[Matrix]

This can’t be. It has to be crapitalism! That’s the only explanation. These people are victims of a patriarchal imperial capitalist system.

/progtard

[VG Zaytsev]

They are,
In that green groups are a feature of advanced capitalism.

[Ted S.]

Much like the Fa Irt Rade people think imposing their particular idea of trade on the third worlders is a priori fair.

[Overt]

That’s totes Capitalistic Hegemon thinking.

These people should be able to continue being one with nature while we provide them the free clinics, food assistance and free healthcare they need to meet thresholds of security.

What, do you think the world would be better off if they opened casinos like those poor exploited native americans?

What is that you say? An aboriginal might not want to spend his entire life in a loin cloth playing the didgeridoo? Well that’s the capitalistic hegemony talking. We need more money for his schools so he can be taught right. Then maybe he can go to an Ivy League school and regail us at dinner parties with his stories of the great sky spirit that protects his people. (Of course that’s us!)

/end Liberal

[Rufus J. Firefly]

When my sister came back from South Africa know what she said?

‘Fucking liberals and their environmental bull shit is killing Africans.’

And she’s no libertarian or conservative.

[Tex]

Tom Palmer:

“Last year a Mayan friend who teaches anthropology in Guatemala took me to the Mayan highlands. He told me that anthropologists from Europe and the United States who want to “study” the Indians complain that many Mayan women don’t wear their beautiful and laboriously handmade indigenous clothing every day. That garb is increasingly reserved for special occasions, such as christenings and weddings. The reaction of the visitors is almost uniformly one of horror. The Mayans are being robbed of their culture, they say. They are the frontline victims of globalization and cultural imperialism.

“The visitors don’t bother to ask the Mayan women why many of them don’t wear traditional clothing, but my friend does. The women tell him that they don’t wear their handmade clothes because they have become too expensive. Now, what does it mean for handmade clothes to become too expensive? It means that the labor of a Mayan woman has become more valuable. Instead of spending hours and hours at a hand loom making a shirt to wear, she can spend that time making the same shirt to sell to a lady in France and use the proceeds to buy three outfits?and eyeglasses, or a radio, or medicine against dengue fever. Or women can make something else and still be able to buy more of the things they value. They’re not being robbed. They’re becoming wealthier. And from their perspective, that’s not a bad thing.”

http://www.cato.org/pubs/catos…..erv1n2.pdf

[waffles]

Stop screwing with the narrative.

[sarcasmic]

One small keg for man… Amateur rocketeers to launch beer into ‘space’ – and drink it when it returns to Earth

Team Numb from Portland, Oregon will launch a keg of beer this September
The group of amateur rocket enthusiasts has done two launches before
Their small rocket will launch to a height of 20,000 feet above the ground
Admittedly that’s quite a long way from ‘space’, which is 330,000 feet high
The cargo the rocket will carry will be two kegs of beer totally 20 gallons
After returning from the trip the team will tap the kegs and drink the beer

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci…..Earth.html

[Fist of Etiquette]

They’re going to turn into space lizards.

[Rich]

Cool!

[Auric Demonocles]

Their small rocket will launch to a height of 20,000 feet

Good. Space beer is my racket.

[Ted S.]

The heat of re?ntry will skunk the beer.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Don’t they need a permit for that?

/prog.

[Slammer]

Christian Bale as Moses in Ridley Scott’s Exodus

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I hope he does the Batman voice with the Moses stutter. That would be awesome.

[Overt]

What is with all these Old Testament movies coming out? Are the JEWZ of Hollywood trying to remake their history into some badass action flick?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Maybe it will be Kabbalah Moses

Follow that link if you find Gnostic ramblings intriguing, but be warned, it’s some weird shit.

[Lord Humungus]

Pentagon sends attack helicopters to Iraq

The United States has sent Apache attack helicopters to Iraq as part of the buildup in U.S. military personnel, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Officials would not say how many of the armed helicopters have been sent to the country, stating only that they will be based in Baghdad and could assist with evacuations of American personnel.

The Pentagon also sent over additional surveillance drones.

Did we say attack? We meant Peace helicopters.

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

Advisory helicopters.

[Slammer]

Well done.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 Undeserved Nobel Peace Prize

[Snark Plissken]

Nice.

[antisocial-ist]

I’m sure ISIS will find them very useful.

[SugarFree]

Don’t say build-up, either.

The United States has wafted First Nations non-specified whirly-gigs to Iraqilandia as a smidgen of the gentle swelling in U.S. totes advisory personnel, the Nurtuagon softly whispered Tuesday.

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Ministry of Peace

[ant1sthenes]

What, they’re worried that ISIS needs an air force in addition to its Humvees?

[Juice]

Happycopters

[Lord Humungus]

Obama’s Anti-Media Tantrums

Consider this. From June 1 to 25, ABC, CBS and NBC offered about 198 hours of morning and evening news coverage. In all of that, there were 20 minutes of focus on the IRS scandal, and just 17 minutes and 48 seconds on the failures of the Veterans Affairs health care system on his watch. Each one of those scandals has drawn about two-tenths of 1 percent of the news attention … and Obama is livid that journalists are scandal-obsessed.

He’s trying to intimidate the press — especially those who are now elbowing their colleagues to hold him accountable for his growing list of fiascoes. How far the spoiled child has fallen.

[Rich]

Krauthammer: “If Fences Don’t Work, Why Is There One Around The White House?”

Lighten up, Charles. They’re trying to do something.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I think that’s a false equivalence put up by Krauthammer.

[Rasilio]

Yeah, fences work just fine for small enclosed areas that are easy to keep under constant observation. A border fence that is a thousand miles long however is pretty much guaranteed to fail.

[Stormy Dragon]

Also, there’s stories of someone jumping over the white house fence every month or so, so the White House fence doesn’t actually work.

[Zeb]

Yeah, I think there is a bit of difference between a fence surrounding a building in a city and a fence along a very long and sparsely populated border.

[Restoras]

Hadrian agrees!

[The Late P Brooks]

This morning, the Bloombergers were chattering breathlessly about how “unseemly” it is for those crazy Frog coppers to haul their former President in for questioning.

“I mean, can you IMAGINE a former United States President being interrogated by the police in a corruption probe?”

Yes. Yes, I can.

A man can dream.

[SugarFree]

Turnabout is so unfair, you guis!

Writer Doesn’t Understand Why Show About Women’s Prison Has So Few Men

Orange Is the New Black… When you consider its focus on women ?particularly those who are trans or non-white or have been made voiceless by the punitive system ? you might even call it groundbreaking. But in spite of all that, one male fan (who happens to be a writer at the Atlantic) is unhappy with the underrepresentation of a very specific group. Why, he asks, can’t a show about an all-women correctional facility do more to represent the inmates who are men?

Black Girl Student President Resigns After Hurting White Boy Feelings

One day last March, Lawrenceville School Student Body President Maya Peterson donned L.L. Bean boots and a Yale University sweater to pose for an Instagram photo depicting what she described as a typical “Lawrenceville boi”: white, Republican, and cockily holding a hockey stick.

Peterson, who graduated in June, added hashtags like “#romney2016,” “#confederate,” and “#peakedinhighschool” before posting.

Cultural appropriation and mocking people by race and class is OK now?. (Read the comment for bonus “Black people can’t be racist/Women can’t be sexist” action.)

[Brian D]

A major issue here seems to be that many members of the Lawrenceville community are confused about what racism actually is. Mocking a group of privileged white men isn’t racist. Racism requires power?like the type of power that allows you to force the removal of a person from an elected position simply because they hurt your feelings.

The lack of self-awareness is just astonishing.

[Zeb]

Yeah, I’m pretty sure that particular kind of power is not one that privileged white men tend to have. Certainly not more than supposedly dis-empowered groups.

[Sy]

Because words can mean whatever we want them to mean:

No, racism does not work both ways. Prejudice works both ways. But not racism. We’re going to do math again, okay?

Racism = Prejudice + Power

You can harbor ALLLL the prejudice you want against someone, but unless you, as a race, have power over them, as a race, then it isn’t racism.

Is this why so many liberal white women can be seen taking late night strolls through bad neighborhoods in Memphis, Chicago, etc? Racial empowerment?

[Auric Demonocles]

The correct math would be more like a Venn diagram, where racism just a subset of prejudice (since racism is simply prejudice based on race).

[Zeb]

I can quite understand why people think of white racism against blacks and other historically marginalized groups as worse than racism against white people (in the US, anyway) given the history of that sort of thing. But to claim that the latter is not racism is just dumb.

[Ted S.]

And now that we have a black president, blacks have the power to be racist.

[sasob]

No, racism does not work both ways

Yes, because some people’s shit doesn’t stink.

[Injun, as in from India]

So posing in blackface is racist, but posing the way this woman did is not. This makes perfect sense when viewed through the lens of double standards.

[The Late P Brooks]

Belgium defeated the United States 2-1 in extra time in Wednesday’s World Cup Round of 16 match.

THIS IS WHY WE NEED A SUICIDE NET ON THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE.

[Restoras]

would this “suicide net” be made of razor ribbon?

[Slammer]

We’ll see how many fans there are in this country when the World Cup is in Russia. Time Zones and all.

[invisible furry hand]

Getting up at 2am for games is a doddle

[Ted S.]

Russia is only eight hours ahead of us. I believe the games would be something like 7AM, 10AM, and 1PM.

Then again, you’re in a fucked-up time zone like UTC+10.

[Timon 19]

Unless they toss a couple of games out to Kamchatka or whatever.

[Drake]

I suggest a carbon nanotube mesh.

[Ted S.]

The anti-suicide net is a series of tubes!

[Restoras]

Are you suggesting the Internet was built to lower suicide rates?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

MORE ON THE IRS’S ILLEGAL DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE
…True the Vote’s brief points out that the first lawsuit alleging discriminatory targeting of conservative groups was filed by a pro-Israel group called Z Street, Inc., on August 25, 2010. On that date, at the very latest, the IRS had a legal duty to take measures to ensure that no emails, correspondence, memoranda, notes, or other evidence of any sort that could be relevant to the case was lost or destroyed. (Congressional investigations, or other information known to the IRS, may have triggered the duty at an earlier date.) Lois Lerner’s communications would have been at the very top of the list of materials that the IRS had a legal duty to go out of its way to preserve.

But, according to IRS representatives who have testified before Congressional committees, the IRS ignored the law. ….

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

FAKE SKANDULL!!!!1!!ELEVENTY!!

[John]

Having worked in government I have first hand knowledge of this subject. I can tell you that every agency has lawyers and staff who do nothing but preserve and produce materials for lawsuits, GAO investigations and Congress. The government gets sued all of the time. They have a very effective system of preserving records needed for law suits. There is no way those emails were “lost”. They were intentionally destroyed to cover up whatever damning facts were contained in them.

[MegaloMonocle]

Confident prediction:

The IRS and the Obama administration are going to get away with it, aside perhaps from a few light slaps on the wrist from a federal judge or two.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Poor Diane Ravitch Do Teachers’ Unions Have Any Friends in the Obama Administration?

We are living in an era when the very idea of public education is under attack, as are teachers’ unions and the teaching profession…

The Obama administration strongly supports privatization via charters; one condition of Race to the Top was that states had to increase the number of charters. The administration is no friend of teachers or of teacher unions. Secretary Duncan applauded the lamentable Vergara decision, as he has applauded privatization and evaluating teachers by the test scores of their students. There are never too many tests for this administration. Although the president recently talked about the importance of unions, he has done nothing to support them when they are under attack. Former members of his administration are leading the war against teachers and their unions.

Fuck her and public schools, but I am enjoying the turn on Obama.

[Lady Bertrum]

We are living in an era when the very idea of public education is under attack,

Yes, and isn’t it grand?

[Injun, as in from India]

Too bad it is only under attack. I look forward to the day it is replaced with private schooling.

[Rhywun]

Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

[John]

I have a neighbor who works for the Millennium Challenge Corporation doing aid to education overseas. He is not a full retard prog but is definitely on the left of the political scale. Even he admits that central planning like common core and no child left behind fails and teachers’ unions are a huge part of the problem with education in this country. I don’t follow these things so I don’t know, but he tells me that even the education “experts” are quietly starting to admit that local control and teacher accountability are the only proven ways to improve education. I think reality is starting seem into the hive a bit.

[Overt]

This is why Charter Schools and other programs are starting to make headway at the grass-roots level.

The Unions fucked over younger teachers (tenure, layoff preferences, etc), and their release valve was the charter schools. Having worked with a couple charters, I can tell you those teachers get paid less but they love it- because they have the autonomy to really build a school that meets their expectations; to produce a product that has their personal image.

This is why, despite all its flaws, No Child Left Behind was a Godsend to the US Education system.
1) It created transparent school ratings that parents can read when deciding on housing. Before this, you had to rely on word of mouth or realtor references. Now there are objective test scores (yes these have their problems).

2) It federally mandated a “School Choice” system where parents and kids had more flexibility to choose their school.

3) It federally cleared a bunch of local hurdles to opening charter schools. Parents and teachers learned that charters could be a boon.

4) Most importantly, it showed liberals what REALLY fucking happens when you get the Federal Government to kick in money towards local schools- bureaucracy, strings attached to every dollar, and massive requirements for compliance. They had been asking for this for YEARS, and they finally got it good and hard.

[John]

The funny thing about the liberal hate for NCLB is that Ted Kennedy was the primary drafter of the law. NCLB was a no kidding bi-partisan effort and primarily the result of Bush working with Ted Kennedy. And Kennedy, being a good liberal, gave liberals exactly what they wanted good and hard.

[Rich]

Woman poisons her children with Visine

The use of Visine as poison is an isolated incident and is not considered a trend.

Yet. 8-(

[Certified Public Asskicker]

BAN IT!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Wedding Crashers made me do it!

[SugarFree]

TolkienNegro Aleksander Chan
Yesterday 6:54pm

This one is on us. Which one of you had sex with that? #notallmen?

[Ted S.]

Why do they want short men?

[invisible furry hand]

Tall men on their hands and knees make lousy footstools. Short men are not only more comfortable, but are better at picking up dropped items

[Raven Nation]

I got two words for you:

Rolf Harris

[Lord Humungus]

Can the G.O.P. Be a Party of Ideas?

There was Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, fresh from his easy primary win in Kentucky, who said in his keynote remarks that the time had come for the G.O.P. to stop being the handmaiden to Wall Street and instead attend to the anxieties of the middle class. “Our average voter is not John Galt,” McConnell said, referring to the visionary hero of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” that sacred text of the libertarian right. “Hymns to entrepreneurialism are, as a practical matter, largely irrelevant.” Senator Mike Lee of Utah, a Tea Party hero elected in the wave of 2010, was there promoting a child-tax-credit proposal. South Carolina’s Tim Scott, one of the Senate’s two sitting African-Americans, scolded his party for not having “spent enough time figuring out how to unleash the American dream in some of our strongest and poorest areas of the country.”

[Restoras]

We’re doomed.

[John]

You don’t need to be the party of “ideas”. You need to be the party of one idea; freedom.

[Rich]

“Hymns to entrepreneurialism are, as a practical matter, largely irrelevant.”

Then why does everypoliticalbody and its sibling sing them at every opportunity?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Avoid these evil companies!

14 More Companies That Likely Will Deny Employees Birth Control

I haven’t heard of any of these.

[hamilton]

What with all these firms denying birth control there is gonna be a royal metric assload of babies in a year. I hope we’re planning for that. Luckily employment will go up since we’ll need a bunch of folks to go around knocking birth control pills out of employees’ hands.

[Jordan]

“Deny”

Derp. According to these people, my employer is denying me access to food.

[sarcasmic]

My employer never bought me a hooker. They’re denying me access to sex.

[John]

Mine wouldn’t pay for a boondoggle trip to India last year. I am being denied my life long dream of visiting India. They are just monsters.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Now we’re talking. I’m being denied blow as well.

[John]

I am still amazed that Hobby Lobby only sought to not pay for the morning after pill. As God is my witness, I thought they refused to pay for all birth control until yesterday, even though I am a degenerate news junkie. The media flat out lied and didn’t report that little fact.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Yeah I didn’t realize it until Monday.

Yet progressives are still falling to the floor, convulsing, foaming at the mouth, over their false idea that Hobby Lobby is not covering anything.

[Restoras]

Facts are inconvenient to the narrative.

[Matrix]

The comments on that article are proof positive.

[sarcasmic]

Never let the facts get in the way of the narrative.

[kinnath]

This has been discussed at length here in H&R many times in the past. How did you miss all those discussions as well?

[John]

I must have or if I didn’t, I forgot them. I don’t recall it ever being referred to as anything but “birth control”. And Reason is hardly the mainstream media.

[Auric Demonocles]

I missed that fact until Monday as well.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah John. I’m all the way up here in America jr. and knew that.

[Auric Demonocles]

I actually saw someone claim that that fact just makes them hypocrites.

[Rasilio]

Yeah, I would be hard pressed to actively support those companies if I were of a mind to. I mean singling out individual car dealerships with employee counts under 200? Really? Yeah they wield massive power over any local job market don’t they.

[Slammer]

Have some Swedish thrash metal: WARFECT-Drone Wars

[Ted S.]

Swedish non-thrash music

[Aloysious]

*headbangs vigorously*

+1 crazy Swedes

[Juice]

Sounds A LOT like Sodom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR_Fq9MYaXI

[invisible furry hand]

Should professional sportsmen be sacked just because they piss in their own mouths?

[Rich]

Yes. They doing it all wrong.

(May be NSFW.)

[John]

For reference, Zach Carter is the senior economy and political writer for Huffpo.

HH: Well, Zach, again, when you read his memoir, come back and we’ll talk about that. But what I’m curious to ask you is why do you think Bill Clinton bombed Iraq in 1998?

ZC: I’m not really familiar with Bill Clinton bombing Iraq in 1998.

HH: Did you know that he did that?

ZC: No.

http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/…..urnalists/

This is why I hate Washington journalists so much. It is not that they are liberals. It is that they are uninformed morons who act like they are experts.

[waffles]

Wow. That’s amazing ignorance. I was young at the time but I can easily remember Bubba’s campaign against Saddam. It’s appalling how easily “experts” rewrite history to fit the narrative in their heads.

[Restoras]

I’d call it ‘conveniently forgetful’ to support the narrative.

[John]

NO Restoras, I think they are really that stupid. If he was conveniently forgetful, he would have said something like “well yes that is true, but…” Instead, he flat out admits he didn’t know that. I think he was being honest. He just doesn’t know anything.

[Restoras]

It probably is just that they don’t know nearly as much as they think they do, and they are far to lazy to expand their meager mastery of recent history, much less bother to learn anything that happened pre-1960. Doing so would detract from staying in power and forcing their worldview down the throat of everyone else. It’s actually quite frightening.

[VG Zaytsev]

much less bother to learn anything that happened pre-1960 2005

FIFY.

[MegaloMonocle]

They are simply uninterested in anything that doesn’t support the TEAM and the Narrative.

[VG Zaytsev]

I heard that interview. My general opinion of Hewitt is that he’s a war mongering douchebag. But he did a great job demonstrating how completely ignorant that ‘kid’ is.

[John]

I can handle someone with whom I disagree but is at least smart and informed. What I can’t handle is someone who is just fucking stupid. And Carter is just stupid. You can disagree with Hewitt, but he clearly knows a few things and is worth listening to even if you don’t like what he says. But what does Carter bring to the table?

[Overt]

Worse than that, Hewitt is just a GOP hack. I mean, he must be paid money from the GOP advertising fund. He is a smart guy, but he regularly just brings GOP candidates on to do spots. And I have heard him flip flop worse than any person in the GOP.

I liked him back in the early 2000’s when he had Lileks on and he was trying the whole “Blogosphere” thing. But he has gone way downhill.

[ant1sthenes]

I’m not sure at what point looking to the future meant being completely oblivious to the past.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

TRIGGER WARNING, Marcotte ahead.

She posts a bunch of tweets people have sent her. Evil, stupid people of course. Then she ends with this:

The thing I found interesting was how many of them screamed “buy your own!” at me. This is stupid for two extremely obvious reasons. One, using insurance to buy contraception is, in fact, buying your own. That insurance belongs to you, and is neither your boss’s nor, as some conservatives seemed to believe, a public entitlement program. Second, there is no reason to believe any of the feminists they’re screaming at work for Hobby Lobby or any of the other companies that want to opt out. Which suggests “buy your own” is just a new form of conservative gibberish to give voice to their fear and loathing of female sexuality and should not be taken literally.

[John]

I would say she is just angry over Cathy Young’s brutal take down of her arguments about rape but I honestly don’t think Amanda is smart enough to understand how bad Young made her look.

Which suggests “buy your own” is just a new form of conservative gibberish to give voice to their fear and loathing of female sexuality and should not be taken literally.

So says the woman who thinks nearly all sex with men is rape. If there is any fear and loathing going on it is her fear and loathing of male sexuality. Ultimately, Amanda just can’t handle powerful men.

[Injun, as in from India]

What the heck is this trigger warning supposed to mean? That we pull the trigger if we see Amanda Marcotte?

[John]

Some campus idiot demanded “trigger warnings” be placed on classes warning students that the class required them to read books like Huckleberry Fin or Pride and Prejudice that might be painful for victims of racism and abuse. They called them “trigger warnings” telling professional victims that this class might trigger a special victim reaction.

So that has now become a Reason meme warning you of something infuriating, as in Trigger Warning for Cop Killing a Dog or Trigger Warning for Marcotte writing something amazingly stupid.

[invisible furry hand]

Since Guardian journos can’t pick a decent list of the ten best metal bands, they give up and ask the readers to do their job instead

[Slammer]

The readers don’t know their metal anymore than their reporters.

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

Why stop with a list of metal bands? Can they do much of anything at the Grauniad?

[John]

Of all time? Here would be mine in no particular order

Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Motorhead
Black Sabbath
Motley Cru (I don’t like them but they pretty much invented American Hair metal, which love it or hate it was a pretty big deal)
Deep Purple
Metalica (It pains me to put them there but their popularity and influence can’t be denied)
ACDC (thought I am not sure they are strictly heavy metal)
Ronnie James Dio
Steppenwolf (A bit of a reach but they invented the term)

Yeah, mostly I like British metal and at best tolerate the American version. And I don’t consider Led Zeppelin to be a heavy metal band, so they didn’t make the list.

[kinnath]

Deep Purple?

[John]

Deep Purple was fantastic. They are a tremendously underrated band, though you could almost classify them as 70s Prog rock.

[kinnath]

I wore out my 45 of Smoke on the Water.

I would never have labelled them as “metal” though.

[Restoras]

The definition of metal has certainly shifted dramatically since the 70s.

[kinnath]

This thread caused me to visit wikipedia’s list of heavy metal bands. I am shocked to find a ton of bands from my youth that we would have just called “hard rock”.

To me, “metal” was something that happened after I graduated from high school in ’75.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes. Zeppelin is often referred to the ‘beginning’ of metal.

[kinnath]

So now I am wasting time at work looking up the histories of Hard Rock versus Heavy Metal. The line looks pretty thin.

[John]

I think I would. What are they? I think songs like Highway Star and My Woman From Tokyo count as heavy metal. It is not blues. And it is too heavy to be 70s arena rock. Is it really the same genre as bands like Boston and Styxx? I don’t think so.

[tarran]

I would insert Slayer above Metallica.

[John]

Now that you say that, I agree. Metalica sucks. But I knew I needed more than just one American band and couldn’t think of another as significant. But you are right, Slayer is the better choice.

[Restoras]

I think Metallica has a lot of technical skill and a good vocalist, but fall far short in composition.

[RBS]

Not my thing really but you could have also gone with megadeath and anthrax. But really, Slayer is better than them all.

[Zeb]

Pantera. Come on.

[Flatulent Monkey]

What he said.

[Rasilio]

And where is Alice Cooper on your list?

Alice was the one who brought Metal to Mainstream acceptability and made it possible for Metal acts to get airplay.

Also not sure how you could leave off some combination of Sabbath/Ozzy

[John]

I didn’t leave off Sabbath. And I think Ozzy as a solo act is a bit overrated. But yes, Cooper needs to be on the list. Such are the wages of pulling a list out of your ass.

[Rasilio]

That’s ok, I totally missed that you had Sabbath on the list. I need more sleep.

[Overt]

You forgot Jethro Tull!! 🙂

[John]

Aren’t they Prog Rock?

[Overt]

There is a story about this.

Jethro Tull’s album, Aqualung beat out Metalica for best Hard Rock/Metal album in the Grammies. Everyone screamed bloody murder over it.

Evidently, shortly after, Jethro Tull took out full sheet ads in numerous papers with a picture of a flute and the words “Heavy Metal” on it.

I love the controversy for so many reasons, the least of which that I am a big fan of Ian Anderson. I find it ironic that so many metal heads found themselves so put out that the establishment didn’t acknowledge their chosen rebels.

[John]

I am pretty sure Anderson has more musical ability in his sleep than all of Metalica put together. He is a no kidding world class flutist.

[jmomls]

Huh? Aqualung came out in like, 1971 or somesuch. About a decade and a half before “…And Justice For All”.

Sheesh.

[thom]

This list is seriously lacking of Scandinavian death and black metal. That’s unfortunate.

[The Late P Brooks]

“Hymns to entrepreneurialism are, as a practical matter, largely irrelevant.”

Fuck you, Mitch.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F…..is_Pereira

Boston…Strong?

[Jordan]

“The Park Maniac” is a pretty cool nickname.

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

ELAINE: Wait a minute, wait a minute. Who is the Lopper?

KRAMER: Oh, it’s no big deal. It’s just some guy who’s been running around Riverside park-pffff. You know, cutting people’s heads off.

JERRY: How come I haven’t read about this?

KRAMER: Well, you know, the police, they’ve been having some internal dissension about the name.

ELAINE: Really? What’re the other titles?

KRAMER: Uh, Headso…uh…The Denogginizer…Son of dad.

JERRY: Son of dad?

KRAMER: Yeah. That was my suggestion. It’s sort of a catchall.

[Jordan]

Why the hell isn’t Seinfeld on Netflix yet?!

[sloopyinva (previously -inca)]

It’s on crackle.

So is Sanford and Son and All In The Family, btw.

[Swiss Servator, CH verlort :(]

$$$$

[Auric Demonocles]

That’s a weird connection. It looks like he stayed in Brazil the whole time too?

[Mokers]

May have missed this yesterday. Is anybody going to meet the jacket in SF in a few weeks?

[The Late P Brooks]

Although the president recently talked about the importance of unions, he has done nothing to support them when they are under attack. Former members of his administration are leading the war against teachers and their unions.

Boo fucking hoo.

[Injun, as in from India]

President Stinkburger is also putting the green whackjobs over unions by obstructing Keystone XL.

[John]

Wile Obama’s slide in the polls is nothing new, the latest data from the Quinnipiac University Poll is about as bad as it gets for the president: in fact, perhaps the only thing more shocking than Obama “surpassing” George W. Bush as the worst president since World War II is the onset of revisionism, with some 45% saying the US would have been better with Romney as president, compared to just 38% who say Obama remains the better choice. Which incidentally confirms what we reported yesterday: while the Republican view of Obama has certainly never been lower, what is worse is that even the core democrat faithful are now giving up on the hope and change bringer, confirmed by the latest Gallup poll which saw democrat confidence in the economy tumbling to the lowest level for 2014.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/…..y-latest-p

How badly will Democrats view Obama if they get killed in November? If there is one thing people hate, its a loser.

[Restoras]

They are going to beat the War on Women drum as hard as possible.

[Rich]

Yeah, beat that drum!

[John]

It is literally the only thing they have left. I am not even sure they have much left on the racism card.

[Auric Demonocles]

It worked well for them in the past. Until it stops being effective, I don’t see why they would change.

[John]

I don’t see how they could change if they wanted to. What else are they going to run on? They have gotten nearly everything they want and they run every institution in the country and it has proven to be a complete disaster.

[Auric Demonocles]

They could try the same thing they did after the stimulus failed to do anything:

“The mess was even worse than we thought. Imagine how much worse things would be now if we hadn’t been in charge. There really should have been an apocalypse, but we are so great that we managed to bring that all the way up to just complete disaster!”

[John]

That doesn’t work. They win by selling promises of ponies. You can’t win by telling people “it could have been worse”. They tried that after Carter. They try that every time they get in office and disgrace themselves. The excuse is always “things were so bad and the country so ungovernable this is the best anyone can expect”. That might work if they didn’t oversell themselves so badly to get elected. But since they promise the moon every election, it never works.

The entire Obama coalition is based on bullshit and smugness. The only thing they have to sell is “vote for us to show how cool you are and how you aren’t a racist or sexist”. That is a tough sell when the country realizes the President you sold them is an incompetent idiot.

[VG Zaytsev]

If there is one thing people hate, its a loser.

Which makes Obama’s loser shtick a losing strategy.

[RBS]

Mouth breather take Manziel to task.

Is there anything lower on the sports writing ladder than yahoo?

[John]

Cops called to party with Justin Bieber, Johnny Manziel and Floyd Mayweather

I have to admit, I would go to that party if i was invited. That sounds like a hell of a time.

[Auric Demonocles]

Root will be joining Bush and Obama soon if he doesn’t push out an alt-text stimulus plan.

[Lord Humungus]

Clinton: Hobby Lobby Ruling a Step Toward What You See in ‘Undemocratic,’ Extremist Countries

“It is a disturbing trend that you see in a lot of societies that are very unstable, antidemocratic, and frankly prone to extremism,” she said at the Aspen Institute on Monday.

In such societies, the former secretary of state explained, “women and women’s bodies are used as the defining and unifying issue” to bring men together. These men “behave in ways that are disadvantageous to women but which prop up them because of their religion, their sect, their tribe, whatever.”

wut?

[John]

So did anyone ask her if she has informed Bill, you know the guy who signed the law upon which the Hobby Lobby decision was based, of this opinion?

The RFRA was passed 97-3 in a Democratically controlled Senate and signed by Bill Clinton in October of 1993. So is Bill now an extremist?

[VG Zaytsev]

And it was passed to counter a Scalia written SCOTUS decision in ED v Smith.

Not to mention that Nanny Pelosi’s Congress could have exempted ACA from RFRA and chose not to do so.

[Auric Demonocles]

Apparently she hasn’t paid any attention to which side is the one who is focusing on this being about women or their bodies.

[John]

Women have total control of their bodies, so long as they get a doctor’s permission and don’t try to use medical marijuana.

[Restoras]

War on women. It’s all they have.

[Juice]

Like Canada?

[DEG]

Obama donates $20K to the Treasury.

http://www.money.cnn.com/2014/…..d=HP_River

[Lord Humungus]

Charles Blahous: I Was Right About the ACA

Around and after the time that the Affordable Care Act was enacted, many analysts identified problems with claims being made about the law, and we offered explanations of its likely actual effects. Too often these were brushed aside amid efforts to promote the ACA in the face of growing public opposition. But four years into the ACA, it is remarkable how well our predictions have been borne out.

Below I will resurrect but five of my own specific predictions about the ACA, contrast them with what many advocates had said, and review what subsequent events have shown.

#1: States will make a variety of decisions with respect to expanding Medicaid.

#2: Expanding Medicaid will cost the states money, in part because of the “woodwork effect.”

#3: The ACA will significantly worsen the federal budget deficit.

#4: Expanding health insurance coverage will increase health service consumption and costs.

#5: There was a substantial risk that cost savings projected for several ACA provisions would not fully materialize.

[John]

You don’t have to have a PHD in economics to understand that was exactly what was going to happen. You just have to have a basic understanding of supply and demand and how markets work and the second order effects produced from them.

It was blindly obvious to anyone with any sense how everything said in support of that act was complete bullshit.

[Lord Humungus]

but yet – Klein & Co. – continue on

[Auric Demonocles]

I could have made those predictions when I was 14.

[Lord Humungus]

Nigel Farage gives his first speech at the opening Euro Parliament

I wish I could speech-ify like Nigel.

[The Late P Brooks]

[Clinton] said at the Aspen Institute

Does anybody give a fuck what gets said at the Aspen Institute?

And how did an impoverished “I sacrificed my best earning potentials to selflessly serve the public” type like Hillary sneak through the gate?

[The Late P Brooks]

There was a substantial risk that cost savings projected for several ACA provisions would not fully materialize.

No shit?

[John]

There is no sugar coating it, the ACA might cost more than we thought and there is substantial risk Malaysian Airlines flight 370 won’t be arriving on time.

[Sevo]

Not all CA residents are idjits, according to a new poll:

“Wealth gap solutions put Californians at odds”
[…]
…”only 34 percent think government should be doing a lot to solve that problem, and fewer than half of California adults believe the minimum wage should rise higher than the $10 per hour it’s scheduled to reach in January 2016.”
http://www.sfgate.com/default/…..594756.php

[Sevo]

Sorkin haz a sad if Walgreens obeys the law:

“At Walgreen, Renouncing Corporate Citizenship”
[…]
…”dozens of large United States companies are contemplating the increasingly popular tax-skirting tactic known as an inversion.”
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/20…..blogs&_r=0

Panic! Some gov’t vig is escaping.

[John]

And they will literally build a wall to stop them and shoot anyone who tries to leave paradise.

[110 Lean]

5 ways you can use the human body to generate electricity

[Flatulent Monkey]

+1 Matrix

[MegaloMonocle]

At least we’re on the same side in Iraq.

I think. I’m having a hard time keeping up.