General politics thread (was: General U.S. politics thread)

glennmagusharvey

The Tea Party demographic has, historically, not had a huge amount of success without funding, though.  Some, but not that much.  I think.  That said, once it has funding, it is quite a big deal in Republican primaries.

Crimson

^^I don't know any solid numbers, but it has been dropping off quite rapidly for the past few years.

ClockworkUniverse

Felt the need to post this somewhere other than the videos thread, and I figured this would work.

lrdgck

(You reptile, I already had problems cutting down on blasphemous humour just before Easter! And now I'm lolling. )

glennmagusharvey

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/03/dale_peterson_gun-toting_ag_co.html

I'm not sure there is a good news headline pun for this.  "Gone nuts" may be the best we can do here.

ClockworkUniverse

Oh, hey, I work in Hoover. Huh.

Naas_Human

So hey, a few lawmakers in North Carolina are literally going against the first amendment

First Amendment doesn't apply here: N.C. lawmakers push bill for state religion

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have introduced a bill declaring that the state has the power to establish an official religion — a direct challenge to the First Amendment.

(...)

The bill was introduced Monday by two Republican representatives from Rowan County, north of Charlotte, and sponsored by seven other Republicans. The party controls both chambers of the North Carolina Legislature.

The bill says that federal courts do not have the power to decide what is constitutional, and says the state does not recognize federal court rulings that prohibit North Carolina and its schools from favoring a religion.

(...)

The North Carolina ACLU chapter said in a statement Tuesday that the sponsors of the bill “fundamentally misunderstand constitutional law and the principle of the separation of powers that dates back to the founding of this country.”

(...)

Another professor at the college, Michael Bitzer, told the newspaper that the bill is based on discredited legal theory that the states can declare themselves exempt from federal law.

No way this is gonna be approved. How the hell are these people lawmakers if they can't even get the first amendment right?

Octo

They don't get the First Amendment wrong, they say that federal courts have no rights to judge about them. Of course, any proper state court should strike such a law down, too, on constitutional grounds. But still, it goes to show what kinda people are in the Republican Party.

Naas_Human

Yeah, it's not the first amendment they got wrong so much as the entire concept of "being part of a country". The article also described it as "neo-seccessionist", and I imagine this will have about as much success as those seccession petitions.

Also, forgot to put the source:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/03/17584491-first-amendment-doesnt-apply-here-nc-lawmakers-push-bill-for-state-religion

glennmagusharvey

http://www.washingtonblade.com/2013/04/03/cuccinelli-challenges-virginia-gay-sex-law-ruling/

Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli has filed a petition with the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond asking the full 15-judge court to reconsider a decision by a three-judge panel last month that overturned the state’s sodomy law.

The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 on March 12 that a section of Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” statute that outlaws sodomy between consenting adults, gay or straight, is unconstitutional based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2003 known as Lawrence v. Texas.

In other words, AG Cooch of Virginia (who's running for governor right now!) is not satisfied with a decision saying that,...um, sillier-than-normal forms of sexual activity should be legal.

I love this quote from the comments:

These evangelical men think more about butt sex then gay people do.

lrdgck

Heh, concerning that quote, I second your opinion. I've been getting to that conclusion myself recently. Attorney General is some important position, right?

glennmagusharvey

The Attorney General of a state is the person who's supposed to be the state's primary legal advocate in disputes, such as disputes with the federal government, or with local governments.

lrdgck

Sounds like that office's not powerful enough to cause some big problems here, save for bad taste... 'course, I can be wrong. This affair creates a bit of a question concerning his qualifications for the job.

glennmagusharvey

And to make that question a larger question, consider that he found it necessary to cover up the exposed titty on the state's official seal.

lrdgck

I guess, then, his case is pretty much sealed.

glennmagusharvey

A rather interesting observation.  Biology is involved.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/04/07/the_senate_as_a_social_network.html

lrdgck

Now, what is a low form of life credited with bringing misery to humankind...

glennmagusharvey

Facebook page for a campus political party organization has recently been invaded by a libertarian-minded issue-pusher.

 

Funny how he doesn't seem to realize he's violating OUR liberties by spamming us.

InsanityAddict

>mfw no libtardarians to troll in my social circle

glennmagusharvey

Former U.S. Senator Scott Brown, Republican from Massachusetts, not ruling out possible run in New Hampshire.

The best part of this: you get to join in on the birther fun.

‘‘New Hampshire’s like a second home,’’ Brown said. ‘‘I was born at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard."

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is actually located in Maine, across the river from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

...which, coincidentially, was once part of Massachusetts, just to bring things full circle.

glennmagusharvey

From today's Daily Kos Elections Live Digest:

10:53 AM PT: NYC Mayor: Oy vey. So ex-Rep. Anthony "Can't say with certitude" Weiner is actually, really, truly exploring a bid for mayor. Weiner ran for mayor once before back in 2005 and acquitted himself pretty well despite losing the Democratic primary, but obviously, a few things have transpired in his life since then that make a comeback rather, uh, challenging. As for how an actual Weiner entry would play, Colin Campbell thinks it would hurt Public Advocate Bill de Blasio the most, since he and Weiner would likely be making a play for the same sort of progressives while cultivating their "sorta ethnic outer-borough white guy" images, an assessment I think makes sense.

There's a slight problem.

I started reading "Weiner" as "weiner".

And then I read "actual Weiner entry" as "actual weiner entry".

 

Edit: I'm so sorry.

saladofstones

A bit late, but a big problem with attorney generals, at least in California, is that they measure their success rate by win percentage without factoring how many cases they actually see. This leads to them only taking cases they have a 99 percent chance of winning. So few cases get seen so they get broken win ratios of 97 percent.

Bee

Japan has the same problem.

glennmagusharvey

Does this apply to a lot of attorney working in government?  I remember conviction rates being talked about in Law & Order, as a measure of ADAs' performance.

Bee

Yes.  Prosecution is so bad about diving headfirst into that conflict of interest that even other lawyers give them funny looks.

glennmagusharvey

http://www.13wmaz.com/news/article/227611/175/Spokesman-Gov-Deal-Wont-Comment-on-Wilcox-Prom

The situation:

Wilcox County High School has no official prom, but for years, some parents and students have organized a private whites-only segregated prom. School officials say they have no control over that and have issued a statement in support of the integrated prom.

The response:

[Georgia] Gov. Nathan Deal won't take sides in the controversy over some Wilcox County teens' efforts to integrate their prom.

By email, his spokesman, Brian Robinson, said Deal would have no response to a liberal group's call for state officials, including the governor to speak out.

He wrote, "This is a leftist front group for the state Democratic party and we're not going to lend a hand to their silly publicity stunt."

Alkthash

On paper they don't have any say over what parents do outside of the school. On the otherhand, continuing to have no official prom is pretty much a tacit endorsement for this sort of thing. 

saladofstones

I wonder what circumstances are involved with them not having a prom.

"They say school officials will discuss whether to hold an official prom, open to all, in 2014."

Good to know that the wheels of social justice turn quickly

JHM

Wow. Good to know that old Southern traditions are alive and well.

glennmagusharvey

Tennessee State Senator Jon Lundberg (R) passes a resolution to honor himself.

Ain't the first time he's done something like this either.

Lundberg passed another resolution back in 2009 honoring his daughter for graduating high school. When asked about that resolution Wednesday, Lundberg said he stands by that one, too.