Thurs Open Thread

As expected, I’m swamped again today. Will check in later when I can.

The Hot Headlines section has just been updated with a few fresh links. Memeorandum, as always, has links to the hot stories of the day and links to the blogger commentary on them. Also, for your morning entertainment, here are a couple of loves notes left for me in the comment moderation queue last night over the post I wrote defending Rep. Virginia Foxx (language warning):

:-w. I think you a basically a bag of shit. Hopefully you will be and Virginia will be a victim of a hate crime so you will truly understand. Once people start hate criming ignorant pigs, look out!

Tanja – 4/30/09

—————-

I hope you get raped and left in a ditch to die so your family can see someone make callous remarks about your death!

And no this isn’t a threat. I don’t have sex with morons.

“Bob” – 4/30/09

The “Fanmail” section has been updated 🙂 Sane comments disagreeing with my position have been posted in the Foxx thread. Thanks to the (few) opponents of my argument who have taken the high road.

TGIAF (Almost Friday)!

11 Responses to "Thurs Open Thread"

Anthony (Los Angeles) says:

April 30, 2009 at 10:40 am

Y’know, Rahm Emanuel really shouldn’t post under false names. 😉
Lorica says:

April 30, 2009 at 10:51 am

Ahhhh can’t you feel the love?!?!?!? You know under the new Hate Crimes bill, these 2 comments could be prosecutable. Won’t that be fun. =)) Maybe then the left will look boldly into themselves and see the seething monster they expose to people of differing opinions everyday. – Lorica
NC Cop says:

April 30, 2009 at 11:26 am

I think you a basically a bag of shit. Hopefully you will be and Virginia will be a victim of a hate crime so you will truly understand. Once people start hate criming ignorant pigs, look out!

Seriously, what language is this? Anyone? Anyone?
I can’t believe that they let elementary school kids type these kinds of things on school computers. Shocking!!

I hope you get raped and left in a ditch to die so your family can see someone make callous remarks about your death!

And no this isn’t a threat. I don’t have sex with morons.

“Bob” – 4/30/09

Ahh, don’t you just love the tolerant left!

I don’t have sex with morons.

You must be a very lonely man, Bob.
MissJean says:

April 30, 2009 at 11:48 am

I find it pathetic that they base their “hate crime” on the testimony of drug-adddict witnesses for the DEFENSE who were trying to imply that the victim was sexually assaulting one or both of the murderers. Yes, THOSE are believable witnesses and anyone who says otherwise is a hater.
Great White Rat says:

April 30, 2009 at 5:20 pm

Ah, typical liberals. The very personification of tolerance, unless you happen to disagree with them. Then there’s no end to their viciousness and no limit to what they’ll do or wish upon you.

Notice – these libs want to see ST become a crime victim, but I’ll bet they’re all up in arms about a CIA agent splashing water on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Which tells you a lot about who they’re closer to, politically.

The aspect of hate crimes legislation that’s most alarming is that it criminalizes thought. It’s a short step from there to make saying what’s on your mind a crime. Think that can’t happen? Look across the border to Canada, where Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant faced government tribunals not for anything they did, but for what they said. And with intolerant liberals running the show here – including more than a few like “Bob” and “Tanja” – I’d not be surprised to see a move in that direction here.

Another problem: hate crimes legislation means there is no equal protection under the law. If you harm a black, or a homosexual, or some other group granted special privileges, your penalty is worse than if your victim doesn’t fall into a politically favored group. Laws should be enacted for the benefit of people, not groups. If you murder someone, you deserve the electric chair regardless of the victim’s race, gender, or sexual proclivities.

By the way, Lorica’s wrong on one count: these two comments would not violate any new hate crimes law. Liberals find it perfectly acceptable, even trendy, to hate many groups (Christians and veterans come to mind), so unless ST converts to Islam, gets a serious, ahem, “girlfriend”, or finds some other way to qualify as a member of a certified leftist pressure group, they’ll still be free to spew any kind of hate they want toward her.
forest hunter says:

April 30, 2009 at 8:11 pm

Liberals will not EVER get the part where in the definition of crime, there’s hate…..in their case, it appears to be a self hatred deeper than the Mariana Trench, so maybe they could do the world a favor and fall on their own split tongued narrative…or turn themselves in.
Mwalimu Daudi says:

May 1, 2009 at 1:39 am

The McCain Presidency at One Hundred Days

By Mwalimu Daudi (AP)

His jaw set in a seemingly permanant grimace, the ex-POW John McCain looks older than his 73 years. A mixture of crisis and incompetence have already shaken his nascent Presidency to its foundations.

First, there was the failed nomination of Timothy Geitner to be Secretary of the Treasury when it was discovered that he had failed to pay thousands of dollars in back taxes.

Next, it was the diplomatic failure to obtain more combat troops from Europe to implement McCain’s planned surge in Afghanistan.

After Mr. McCain promised in his Inauguration speech to close Guantanamo, Secretary of State John Danforth was stymied in his efforts to convince Europe to take detainees from the prison that has become a worldwide symbol of American foreign policy gone astray. The G8 summit failed to produce a coherent plan to fight the deepening global depression as European leaders privately worried about the growing sense of drift in the McCain administration.

In Iran, the march towards building atomic weapons continues uninterrupted despite militaristic rhetoric from the McCain administration. North Korea withdrew from multilateral talks and restarted it nuclear weapons program.

In Iraq, violence is sharply escalating once again, more than erasing all of the gains of the past two years and threatening to plunge the country into civil war. Continuing US drone attacks in Pakistan that mostly kill civilians have further damaged the reputation of America and now threaten to destabilize the already shaky Pakistan government.

The H1N1 flu pandemic rages unabated as the US government is coming under mounting criticism for its tardy response.

And on Main Street, where foreign affairs take a back seat to lunch bucket issues, unemployment is soaring and shows no sign of abating. McCain’s stimulus package – which was rammed through the Congress with little debate – has left future generations of Americans holding the bag for the growing ocean of debt.

A Plunge in Popularity, The Departure of a Friend.

In what was widely seen as a fitting symbol of the floundering McCain administration, his close political ally and personal friend Arlen Specter announced that he has left the Republican Party. Citing McCain’s sharp turn to the right since winning the GOP nomination last fall, the ex-GOP Senator said, “My conscience is a voice that I cannot ignore. For the sake of the people of Pennsylvania, the citizens of our nation, and for the world, I did what I had to do.”

Specter added, “I no longer recognize the man who once so ably served his nation as the Senator from Arizona. Dark ambition has consumed him.”

Mr. McCain’s poll numbers have turned dark as well. The most recent Gallup survey puts him at just 56% – the second-lowest approval rating ever after 100 days in office. Democrats lead Republicans by 3% in the latest generic Congressional ballot.

Dr. Mya Buttreaks, a respected political analyst at Columbia University, said, “The McCain approval numbers are ominous. They also put the country in danger, since a weak leader is never respected. At some point the question will be asked: can he continue in office?”

An Unfortunate Series of Events.

If nothing else, McCain’s plunging popularity has been a group effort. In addition to the embarrassing Geitner nomination, which was caused by the failure of the vetting process, some of his worst enemies have been those closest to him.

When Cindy McCain told a reporter that she was proud of her shapely upper arms, it provided the late-night comics with endless jokes at her husband’s expense. In a speech to a group of veterans, Vice-President Sarah Palin continued her unfortunate tradition of major public gaffes by announcing that the McCain administration “remains committed to the great set of laws that made this nation unique in history – the Constitution.” Her statement about the Constitution was seen by civil rights groups as code words for white power, and the McCain administration was forced into days of damage control. “Fighting racism has been and always will be this administration’s top priority,” said one Attorney General Lindsey Graham. “Nothing, not even the Constitution, will stand in that way of that.”

Repairing the Damage.

In recent weeks the McCain administration has attempted to repair its damaged reputation. Last week the Attorney General announced that the McCain administration would begin prosecuting former Bush administration officials for authorizing the use of torture. No names have been released, but sources close to the McCain administration say that former Vice-President Cheney is among those “likely to be indicted.” The McCain administration also announced that it would not wait for Congress to restore the Fairness Doctrine, but would begin to actively investigate allegations that AM radio is dominated by right-wing talk radio rather than presenting a variety of viewpoints. And in an effort to mend damaged relations with Latino voters, McCain announced at his latest press conference that he would cease construction of the so-called border fence and unilaterally suspend enforcement of immigration laws for ninety days. “We need a cooling off period,” said Mr. McCain. “The forced separation of families is un-American. It must stop, and it will stop.”

McCain’s efforts to move to the center have drawn mixed reviews at best. “Why didn’t Mr. McCain announce on January 20 that he would prosecute those who authorized torture,” said Senator Joe Biden, the former Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate. “This has more to do with his dropping poll ratings. This is the mark of a failed Presidency.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was equally dubious of McCain’s proffered olive branch. “Mr. McCain selected a white woman as his running mate. He did this so that he could play the race card and portray Senator Barack Obama as some kind of black stalker threatening white women everywhere. And now he thinks that a tiny gesture or two will make people forget?”

Senator Chris Dodd was even more blunt. “The attempt to place a tax cheat like Timothy Geitner at the head of Treasury shows the complete lack of ethics this administration has. We already knew that they had no sense. But do they also have they no shame to go along with it?”

But the most cutting remarks may have come from Mr. McCain’s vanquished Democratic opponent, Senator Obama. “Mr. McCain’s budget deficit for this year alone is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be nearly $900 billion dollars,” he remarked wistfully to a group in Illinois during a recent speech. “In the middle of a serious economic recession. Imagine if I had proposed a budget deficit like that. Everyone would be calling for my impeachment – and they would be right.”
Sister Toldjah says:

May 1, 2009 at 9:25 am

ROTFL! Your write-up deserves a post of its own, MD! Which I am getting ready to do right now 🙂

Bravo!
Sister Toldjah says:

May 1, 2009 at 9:29 am

Ok –here’s the link to your very own thread, MD 😀
Carlos says:

May 2, 2009 at 9:02 pm

Lorica, the left will never look to what we consider “inside themselves” because when we say that we mean looking at ourselves through the prism of reality. When they “look inward” all they can consider is the construct of the universe as they’ve created it, which has become reality to them, and any anomaly to that universe is the doings of backwards and evil people, something to be corrected by their omniscience and benevolence.

For instance, the average academic scores for blacks had been rising for at least two decades and were not that far from average contemporary academic scores for whites before the massive civil rights legislations of the ’60s, but dropped precipitously in the following decade. Same with criminal records. But somehow those are only inconveniences to the “Truth” that our society was again on the verge of virtual slavery, hence the looming disaster that had to be corrected by such legislation.

Don’t ever count on a liberal to be aware of the house of mirrors he has constructed in his own mind.
Lorica says:

May 4, 2009 at 3:07 pm

Gentlemen, I take both of your points, but let us just say that there are a number of us here on the right, who have looked inward and have realized that we had become the monster we hate most. And now we are conservatives. :o)

Secondly, When the wheels of time crank around to the point where conservatives are back in favor, then this law will be applied equally, and then the whole world will be see the monster that is the modern liberal group think. – Lorica

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