Atrios: Lindsey's Game
Rather predictably, our idiotic beltway conventional wisdom peddlers have decided that Huckleberry Graham is now the Johnny Mac/Joe Lieberman Mavericky Last Honest Man. The fact that he hasn't actually achieved anything (by design, most likely) won't impact this narrative whatsoever.Marshall (TPM): Bring on da' Crazy!
Ah, Washington, where Lindsey Graham is a hero and Dana Milbank is funny.
When Jillian Rayfield and Evan McMorris-Santoro took a good look it turned out that the Arizona legislature had passed a lot of other pretty crazy laws of late beside the much-discussed immigration bill. And we got some emails over the course of the day from readers telling us about more pieces of crackpot legislation in their states. But we want to know more.
If you know of a particularly ridiculous, outrageous or just plain silly law your state legislature has passed or which is currently under serious consideration, let us know about it. Send us word at the comments email address at the upper right of the site.
Johnson (Little Green Footballs): Science According to Fox News
Oh, for Pete’s sake.
In the “Science and Technology” section of Fox News today, a ridiculous hoax lifted from British tabloid The Sun, reported as straight news: Has Noah’s Ark Been Found on Turkish Mountaintop?
A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say wooden remains they have discovered on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey are the remains of Noah’s Ark.
The group claims that carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old, meaning they date to around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Mt. Ararat has long been suspected as the final resting place of the craft by evangelicals and literalists hoping to validate biblical stories.
Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah’s Ark Ministries International research team that made the discovery, said: “It’s not 100 percent that it is Noah’s Ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it.”
And if you want to completely despair about the intelligence of the average American Fox News consumer, just take a look at the comments for this ludicrous article.
firedawg1982
I love the big bang theory…hahaha. How about you blow up a fire cracker and see if it makes a clock. Big bangs make a mess! And also, it takes more faith to believe in evolution than God. My Great Great Grand Daddy was an ape swinging in a tree, and now we’ve evolved, and I have a PHD. Whatever, knuckleheads.
[…]
jrvega1
Liberal agnostics or atheists wouldn’t believe in the Bible even they received a personal visit from God Himself. It is really sad that they have such a hard time accepting such a good, merciful and loving God. You guys need to reconsider where you stand.
[…]
777sutter
THANK YOU FOX NEWS WE KNOW THAT THE MAINSTREAM STATE RUN MEDIA ISN’T GOING TO SAY ANYTHING. YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH OF THE POPULATION APPRECIATES THE NEWS AND COMMENTARIES THAT IS GIVEN,KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK NO MATTER WHAT OBAMA AND HIS COHORTS SAY. GOD AS A WAY OF REVEALING HIS TRUTH, BUT TO BELIEVE WITHOUT SEEING IS TO HAVE THAT GOD WANTS TO GIVE EVERYONE. ISRAEL BECAME A NATION IN 1948, IN GOD’S WORD HE SAYS THE GENERATION THAT SEES THIS IS THE LAST GENERATION. SOME PEOPLE SAY THEY ARE OPENED MINDED BUT REALLY ARE NOT. IN THE LAST DAYS MANY WILL COME AGAINST ISRAEL JUST WHAT OBAMA AND OTHERS ARE DOING. THE LITTLE god OF THIS AGE HAS BLINDED THOSE WHO DO NOT TO BELIEVE.
Marshall (TPM): Chip'em, Danno
Under the radar in this country there's been a rising tide of fear on the right that the government is going to force people to be implanted with microchips. It was actually a B-list conspiracy theory tied to the Health Care Reform bill. But at least some conservatives seem to be warming to these oft-maligned little nuggets of silicon.
One of them is Dr. Pat Bertroche, who's running to challenge Democrat Leonard Boswell in Iowa's 3rd Congressional district. He believes we should microchip illegal immigrants to make sure we can keep track of them.
Speaking today at a candidate forum in Tama County, Dr. Bertroche said: "I think we should catch 'em, we should document 'em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going. I actually support micro-chipping them. I can micro-chip my dog so I can find it. Why can't I micro-chip an illegal?"
I mean, who can argue with that, right?
More seriously, I'm not completely sure this is even how the microchips we put in dogs and cats even works, is it? My dog Simon actually has one of these microchips implanted in the scruff behind his neck. But as far as I can remember the reason you put one of these in is so if your pet gets lost and someone finds him or her, they can be scanned and identified and brought back to you. I don't think it's like a dog LoJack or something. It's not like a transponder that you can track someone with. But maybe there's a vet out there who can set me straight on how all this works.
And if you think that's chilling, try this one out for size. Dr. Bertroche ain't no foot doctor. He's a psychiatrist.
digby: Watering Pots
Here's a shocking development ...
Senate Republicans offered counter-proposals on financial regulation reform on Tuesday that seek to water down portions of a massive Democratic bill that has been under development for months.The Democrats should stand tough and walk away from this one if they have to. I'll be very interested to see if they have the nerve.
There is precedent for letting the Republicans roll around in their own manure while the Democrats come out smelling like roses. They ought to give it a try.
Update: I'm hearing that smart people think forcing the Republicans to continuously vote no on financial reform and refusing to accept their "shitty deal" makes the Democrats look weak.
If this is true then the Democrats should just abdicate their 59 seat majority and let the Republicans write all the legislation from the beginning. This is all just a supreme waste of time.
The good news is that both parties would be able to say they voted for a Republican financial reform bill, so that's good. We wouldn't want the Democrats to have any advantage in what may be shaping up to be a mid-term slaughter. That wouldn't be fair.
DougJ: Whistling Dixie
This picture was taken in Portland, Maine.
I like the conclusion to the article accompanying the picture:
Jeremy Haskell was out walking his black Labrador retriever, Jeter, when he encountered the rally.
He said he is a lifelong Mainer and hunter but doesn’t have a need to flaunt a gun in public.
“I just don’t get it,” said Haskell.
It’s not about the right to bear arms, is it?
Update. Another article about this:
The flying of a large Confederate flag at a gun rights rally at Back Cove startled onlookers Sunday, even causing an African-American teenager to refuse to leave his vehicle out of fear, witnesses said.Thank God we now live in a post-racial world.
Think Progress: Florida councilman mocks Muslim commission nominee, tells him to publicly ‘say a prayer to your God.’
Last week, ThinkProgress reported on a Jacksonville, FL council member’s controversial questioning of city Human Rights Commission nominee Parvez Ahmed. Council member Clay Yarborough (R) grilled Ahmed on same-sex marriage, God, Islam, and public prayer, even though the topics had nothing to do with the position he was being considered for. Yesterday, ending three weeks of debate, the council voted 13-6 to approve Ahmed. However, even on this last day, a member of the council mocked Ahmed for being Muslim:
As discussion on the nomination began, [Councilman Don] Redman called Ahmed, who is Muslim, to the podium and asked him to “say a prayer to your God.”
The comment elicited an audible, negative reaction from the audience and Ahmed refused to comply, saying it had no relevance to his nomination to the commission. At the same time, Chief Deputy General Counsel Cindy Laquidara rushed to the podium to reign in Redman, asking to speak with him privately before he continued.
Instead, Redman changed his approach, asking Ahmed if he was offended by Redman’s opening prayer, in which he referenced Jesus. Ahmed again questioned the relevance of the question, but he said Christian prayers did not bother him. “People do have the right to pray according to their faith and according to their beliefs,” he said.
Redman wasn’t convinced. He insisted that Ahmed, despite his answer, would be offended by prayers to Jesus and that is why he shouldn’t serve on Human Rights Commission.
Redman joined Yarborough and voted against Ahmed.
John Cole: They Open Their Mouths and the Lies Fall Out
It just never stops:
I just love me some “self-correcting blogosphere”:
Did HHS sweep score under the rug? NoAnd Ben Smith finishes the nonsense off for good:
The Chief Medicare Actuary, Richard Foster, called “completely inaccurate” a report that the Department of Health and Human Services buried a report on health care in the days before a crucial vote.I’m sure the wingnuts will all have corrections on their blogs in no time.
- from the comments:
I’m sure the wingnuts will all have corrections on their blogs in no time.
True. At no time will they post a correction.
Reply3Comrade Luke
Did you read the comments at the end of these articles? They don’t believe the reporting.
Everything is a fake moon landing to these people.
Benen: OKLA. MANDATES INVASIVE MEDICAL PROCEDURES
It's fairly common for policymakers who want to ban all abortions, but can't get away with that legally, to make it as difficult as possible for women to exercise their reproductive rights. But Oklahoma is taking this approach to truly outrageous levels.The Oklahoma Legislature voted Tuesday to override the governor's vetoes of two abortion measures, one of which requires women to undergo an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before getting an abortion.
Though other states have passed similar measures requiring women to have ultrasounds, Oklahoma's law goes further, mandating that a doctor or technician set up the monitor so the woman can see it and describe the heart, limbs and organs of the fetus. No exceptions are made for rape and incest victims.
This really is remarkable. For all the overheated talk from the right of late about government interfering with medicine, patients' decisions, and doctors' treatments, conservatives in Oklahoma have now made this the law in their state.
The thinking among these conservatives is that the image of a regular ultrasound may not be clear enough. Women seeking to terminate their pregnancy -- still a legal right in this country, by the way -- will, in Oklahoma, be required to get a vaginal probe to get a "clearer" picture. Medical professionals conducting the procedure will, whether they want to or not, be legally required to describe fetus characteristics.
"You're going to force someone to undergo an invasive medical procedure," state Sen. Andrew Rice (D) noted. "You have to invasively put an instrument inside the woman. This could be your 15-year-old daughter who was raped."
Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry (D) agreed and vetoed the bill, saying "it would be unconscionable to subject rape and incest victims to such treatment" because it would victimize a victim a second time. "State policymakers should never mandate that a citizen be forced to undergo any medical procedure against his or her will."
This basic concept was rejected by Republican majorities in both chambers of Oklahoma's legislature, which overrode the veto yesterday.
Nothing says "limited government" like state-mandated, involuntary, invasive procedures, right?
The Center for Reproductive Rights has filed suit, arguing that the new state law violates physicians' freedom of speech and women's right to privacy. Stay tuned.
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