Monday, December 5, 2011

Weekly Roundup, November 28-December 4, 2011

by Blueberry T

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Cain Denies He Had 13-Year Affair

As Patrick so eloquently put it, “Herman Cain is as guilty as a puppy sitting next to a pile of poo. His fifteen minutes are over.” [H/T “Blackadder”] Cain certainly is getting a lot of practice lying through his smiling teeth, though. As several readers commented, isn’t it remarkable that, when it comes to allegations of affairs, all those “family values” Republicans say that what happens behind their own closed doors is private and nobody’s else’s business?

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Corporate Personhood, Part 3

This is the final part of Nomad’s outstanding series on how corporate personhood came into being; the earlier posts are here and here. He recounts the history of how the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of rights to all “persons” was extended to corporations, not through a decision of the Supreme Court but through a headnote appended to a decision in which the justices “avoided meeting the Constitutional question” about corporate personhood. While the Fourteenth Amendment explicitly refers to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” it makes no mention whatsoever of corporations. Nomad has put together a remarkable history, which has risen to huge importance due to the Citizens United decision, which expands corporate power exponentially. That the judicial interpretations are built upon such a shaky legal foundation needs to be better known, so thanks to Nomad for helping to educate us and others about this. I find it especially ironic that the same justices who have expanded corporate rights claim to be “strict constructionists,” yet these decisions are not based on the Constitution and go far beyond anything framed or intended by the Founders.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Calls to Drop “Aiding the Enemy” Charge Against Bradley Manning

Kathleen brings us up-to-date on the story of Bradley Manning, whose leak of information to Wikileaks led to his imprisonment and inhumane treatment, which went on for months until public pressure finally resulted in improved conditions for his incarceration. Now, his lawyer is seeking to have the most serious charge against him dropped. He is charged with “aiding the enemy,” although several agencies have now concluded that the information he passed on did not pose any threat to national security. The post includes links to Ennealogic’s earlier posts on this topic, as well as to a petition calling for the most serious charges to be dropped.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Amateur Hour at Cain Campaign

This was Herman Cain’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. Amid the swirling accusations from more and more women of sexual harassment and infidelity, his campaign dreamt up the brilliant idea of having a website called Women for Cain, highlighted with a photo of four cute young women signaling “thumbs up.” Only problem was that the four young women were German models and the photo was from a stock photo agency. When you can’t even get four real supporters to use for a testimonial, that kind of says it all… Patrick kept updating the post throughout the day, as things devolved into pure comedy including “Weasels for Cain” and Azure Ghost’s great poster of Sarah as Elmo. Good times!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Live-Streaming and Live-Blogging Herman Cain’s Quitting Speech

Saturday afternoon turned out to be very entertaining, with Kathleen setting up a live stream of Herman “Herb” Cain’s pomp and circumstances announcement, complete with hand-holding and cheering by his standing-by-his-side wife. After much hoopla, he made the anti-climactic announcement that he is aborting his campaign in favor of Plan B. (Great inside joke, Hermie, hahahahahaha…) He came to this decision because “politics is a dirty business” but of course the allegations are “false and unproven” – repeated at least 3 or 4 times, IMO a sure sign that they are in fact true. He claimed that he’ll still be influential through the Plan B website, and apparently closed with a poem from Pokemon (WTF? Rachel Maddow was right about the performance art, it seems). The parallels with Palin’s ignorance and incompetence and her Quitter Speech were not lost on any of our readers, of course.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Palin’s “Red Bathrobe”/Elmo Impersonator Interview

H/T Annes_123

It’s hard to imagine that Sarah Palin could one-up her own previous fashion disasters, but indeed she has outdone even the purple velvet boots and hooker jacket. She appeared on national TV wearing what appeared to be either a red bathrobe or an Elmo costume! As if that wasn’t bad enough, her wig was sliding backwards again so her own hair was visible under it, her eyebrows were so high that looked like they were trying to climb up under the wig, and all this was happening in front of a pitiful little Christmas tree that conveyed gloom rather than cheer. Wow! Combine this absurd appearance with the content of the interview, including more rambling word salad, and it seems that Palin is slipping farther into mental illness. Whoever was on the other side of that camera (presumably Todd) seems to want her to look like a fool on national TV – how else is it possible that anyone would let her go on looking so ridiculous? We’ve said it many times before, but it is truer than ever – she needs an intervention to get treatment for her mental illness.

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Leadfoot’s Wake-Up Call to America

The graphics in Leadfoot’s post tell an AMAZING story of staggering income inequity that makes most of us “tiny dots” compared to the huge balloon representing the salary of a Fortune 500 CEO – a mere 269X the income of the average worker in America. And where does the federal budget go? Very small amounts of the discretionary spending budget go to HHS; at the same time, the Republicans have [IMO deliberately] built an enormous debt due to the unfunded costs of two wars, tax cuts and the Medicare prescription drug program. BBT editorializing: this level of inequity is what leads to social revolutions, because the discrepancy between rich and everyone else is just too huge and the pathways to build a comfortable life through honest work are shut down or, to choose a more apt word, “foreclosed.”

Some Comments and Links:

Notafaux: You are not alone, zane1. Bill Clinton is simply unable to keep his mouth shut (I think he believes he IS "the Big Dog," the smartest person in the room--a trait he shares with Newt Gingrich, btw). This is probably the best evidence that Hillary Clinton could not have been an effective president. He would be interfering in every policy decision and spouting off constantly. HRC would spend most of her time doing damage control.

Sunnyjane: Bill Clinton has a huge ego and is often a big blowhard. However, he's not stupid. Just think about it: he made these statements to a RIGHT WING media outlet and he may be trying to subliminally suggest that Gingrich should be the GOP candidate for 2012. President Obama would slaughter Newt -- he has too many skeletons and is too far right for most people in this country. He loves to come off as the elder statesman, but he's nothing but a liar, a crook, and a less than stellar family values man.

Peacepax: I actually agree with something Cain said. "I have a feeling this is going to hurt my family more than my campaign." Herb, your campaign only exists in your head.

Linda1961: Dear gop, please stop whining about family values.

Cheeriogirl: Do we give the Cain marriage nine months, nine weeks, or nine days?

Older_Wiser: LA worries about people camping on the lawn, when so much more damage has been done by the 1% to our natural resources and to us, to our health, the environment, the integrity of the planet. Grass grows back; those resources are gone forever, into the belly of the beast. We are a country more concerned about appearances--our rate of consumption proves that--than the rights and welfare of all of us, in spite of fancy rhetoric and feigned concern.

Toccaro: When my daughter found out Cain had Secret Service detail, she pondered aloud, "shouldn't the Secret Service be guarding the women instead of Cain?"

JCos: How do government agencies assess aiding the enemy?
By how much it helped Bush and Cheney bankrupt the country?
By how many factories were built in China?
By how many foreign armies were armed and trained by the Pentagon?
Or, do they assess aiding the enemy by how many diplomats were embarrassed?

MadamDeal: Has anyone seen Elmo lately? I'm a little worried she borrowed that varmint gun and took five shots.

Peacpax: Oh, Sarah, Do you know what happens when you kiss a canary? You get a canarial disease called chirpies, And it's untweetable.

ProChoiceGrandma: The GOPers and Teabaggers keep saying they want to take our country back, but what they mean is backwards to the good ol' days of the 1930's Great Depression.

Gaters send many ((())) to NYCgirl and CaliGirl22.

Marionetta pointed out this excellent video on OWS by Miley Cyrus. Who knew?

Found on Twitter: Matt Taibbi’s excellent article on Judge Rakoff’s decision holding the SEC to account for its sweetheart deals with Wall Street criminals.

Zane1 linked to this wonderful interview with Scott Olsen, the US Marine veteran who was shot in the head with a tear gas canister by Oakland PD.

MadamDeal pointed out this article in Politico on “Newt, Inc.”

Cheeriogirl and mmboucher posted this link to Forbes on the Bomb in Obamacare.

Patrick and others found this great article in Der Spiegel on the Republican ignoramuses (ignorami?).

Older_Wiser made an excellent comment on gender-bias in language and linked to this.

The Last Word: Scott Olsen, US Marine injured at Occupy Oakland: “Stay peaceful, because that’s what this is about. It’s about working with one another and it’s about being open with each other, and that’s how we can solve our problems.”

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