| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Rape-Nuts | ||||
| ||||
Judge Callahan denies this will open the flood gates to same-sex marriage in Texas because, "gay divorce is different than gay marriage." The AG is appealing the case, so only time will tell.State District Judge Tena Callahan said the state’s bans on same-sex marriage violates the constitutional guarantee to equal protection under the law.
While the Texas attorney general had stepped into the case to say that because a gay marriage isn’t recognized in Texas, a Texas court can’t dissolve one through divorce, Tena denied the intervention.
"Here's the fact, we did cover the event. What we didn't do was promote the event. Just like when thousands marched on Washington to protest the war in Iraq, we covered it as well, probably less than we covered this event, but we didn't promote it.
Bottom line is we do cover the news, and we did extensively cover this event. We didn't promote the event. That's not what real news organizations are supposed to do.
We covered the event. I would invite you to look into that distinction between those two words - promote - and - cover. Cover is kinda like a fair and balanced way of doing things, you get it? You might want to look into that. It's about letting Americans make up their own minds.
Let me cut to the chase, when thousands of Americans showed up at the nation's capital to protest big government we covered it with four correspondents, two satellite trucks, and multiple live interviews, lawmakers on the record, and conversations with attendees. By the way, we put a call into Fox News for a comment and we expect an apology, but we're still waiting.
Let me address the Fox News network now, in perhaps the most current way that I can, by quoting someone who recently used a very pithy phrase. Two words, it's all I need: You Lie."
SACRAMENTO--Freshmen legislators arriving in Sacramento receive advice from veteran politicians about the intricacies of working in California's capital. One of those tips is to remember that microphones broadcasting legislative debates can also capture embarrassing, career-ending personal admissions if a politician isn't careful. Michael D. Duvall, Orange County's 72nd Assembly District representative, must have forgotten the warning.
In July--two days after Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Republican leader Sam Blakeslee put Duvall on the Rules Committee that oversees member ethics--the second-term, conservative, Republican assemblyman sat in a public hearing and vividly described lewd details about his trysts with a female lobbyist whose clients had business before another committee on which Duvall sits.
Duvall, speaking to a relatively mum Republican colleague seated to his left, apparently had no idea his dais microphone became live beginning about a minute before the start of a cable-televised committee hearing. He was captured in the middle of recounting portions of an affair.
...Duvall--who was twice a president of the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce, served two terms as mayor of Yorba Linda before entering the assembly in 2006, and is the owner of an insurance agency--continues his tale: "So, I am getting into spanking her. Yeah, I like it. I like spanking her. She goes, 'I know you like spanking me.' I said, 'Yeah! Because you're such a bad girl!'"
He then laughed.
The assemblyman representing Anaheim, Fullerton, Placentia, Orange, Brea, La Habra and Yorba Linda then offered clues to the identity of his sex partner.
"And so her birthday was Monday," he said at the Wednesday, July 8 committee hearing. "I was 54 on June 14, so for a month, she was 19 years younger than me. I said, 'Now, you're getting old. I am going to have to trade you in.' And she goes, '[I'm] 36.' She is 18 years younger than me. And so I keep teasing her, and she goes, 'I know you French men. You divide your age by two and add seven, and if you're older than that, you dump us.'"
According to voter-registration records reviewed by the Weekly, veteran Sacramento-based lobbyist Heidi DeJong Barsuglia turned 36 years old on Monday, July 6.
Legislative sources say they have witnessed Duvall, who is vice chairman of the Assembly's powerful Committee on Utilities & Commerce, socializing after-hours with Barsuglia. Sources--who asked for anonymity because of Duvall's power in the capital--say Susan Duvall usually stays in Orange County during the week, when her husband flies to Sacramento. They also say they have seen Duvall with Barsuglia in restaurants, "arm-in-arm" at political fund-raising events and even shopping together for groceries just blocks from the capitol building.
"Their relationship is the worst-kept secret in Sacramento," a capitol staffer recently told me. "He's old and fat. She's hot, blonde and about 20 years younger. He could have never gotten a woman like that before he got this job.'"
In April--two months after Duvall became vice chairman of the Utilities & Commerce committee--privately owned California utility giant Sempra Energy hired Barsuglia as one of its top lobbyists, according to Secretary of State records. Barsuglia, who has a law degree and once worked as a speechwriter for Governor Pete Wilson, had previously worked at the California Retailers Association (CRA). During 25 months of work at CRA, she reported that she incurred no reportable lobbying expenses. She joined Sempra after the departure of another lobbyist: David Hayes, who was named deputy director of the Interior Department by President Barack Obama. The San Diego-based utility conglomerate (created in 1998 by Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric) isn't shy about lobbying lawmakers for favorable treatment. This session, they gave Duvall $1,500 in campaign contributions. In May, the assemblyman officially adopted the company's negative view on Assembly Bill 64, which proposes increasing the percentage of electricity the utilities must procure from environmentally sensitive sources.
Repeatedly asked to explain his recorded sexual boasting, a red-faced Duvall fled me and another reporter, Dave Lopez of KCBS in Los Angeles, three times this afternoon in capitol hallways. He also ignored three handwritten interview requests that were delivered to him on the floor of the assembly. Said one assembly employee who witnessed the scene, "It definitely looks like he is afraid of you guys."
Barsuglia did not responded to a request for an interview made at Sempra's offices located across the street from the capitol building.
Sempra's 2008-2009 "Code of Business Conduct" states, "We've built [the company's] rich tradition because of the emphasis we place on ethical business conduct and compliance with the laws and regulations that govern our business. We don't compromise on either for the sake of success"
But Duvall wasn't content to just share one adulterous tale at the July 8 committee hearing. He referenced a second, simultaneous affair with another woman. He seemed amused that he was cheating on both his wife and a mistress.
"Oh, yeah, Sher, Shar, Shar," Duvall said. "Oh, she is hot! I talked to her yesterday. She goes, 'So are we finished?' I go, 'No, we're not finished.' I go, 'You know about the other one [Barsuglia], but she doesn't know about you!'"
The assemblyman punctuated his observation with laughter.
During his political career, Duvall has unabashedly espoused conservative principles and is known as a partisan Republican with a knack for theatrics: He has noisily driven his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to functions. In 2008, Duvall blasted efforts to condone gay marriage. Legislatively, he has proposed bills to aid the insurance industry and government contractors feeding off the state's massive transportation kitty. ...
Such thinking impressed certain constituencies. .. [He] received "100 percent" approval scores by the California Republican Assembly, the state's leading conservative outfit, and the Capitol Resource Institute (CRI), a fierce guardian of traditional family values.
"Assemblyman Duvall has been a consistent trooper for the conservative causes," CRI president Karen England announced in March. "For the last two years, he has voted time and time again to protect and preserve family values in California. We are grateful for his support of California families.'"
Acknowledging the CRI award, Duvall observed in a press release that as long as he is in office, he would work to protect "California families" from "constant assault in Sacramento." (Emphasis Added)
Private immorality may be overemphasized in today's political climate, but it is sad that a lobbyist engaging in raunchy sex with an Assemblyman has more political influence than average constituents writing letters.
So who exactly qualifies as a czar? As best we can tell, it's whenever someone in the media says so. You can identify a guy as "Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology," but it's a lot easier on everyone to just say "Science Czar." And "Special Master" sounds like Richie Rich's best friend.Even FOX News debunked some of the Republican grandstanding against "czars."So the title of czar is largely arbitrary media shorthand for "It's this person's job to make sure (blank) goes right." And we think everyone can agree that "Terrorism Czar" sounds way cooler than "Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security."
Below, we have compiled a wildly unscientific list of Obama administration "czars." But we're not the first. Talking Points Memo has a slideshow of Obama's "czars." They count 23 . And ForeignPolicy.com came up with at least 18. We've got 28.
Some of these "czars" are carryover positions from previous administrations. And "czars" go way back in presidential history. Roosevelt had a slew of so-called czars. But to the extent that Obama has created a number of new positions to oversee various issues and to cut through bureaucratic red tape, he seems to have a lot more czars than his predecessors. Or you could argue that the media has just seized on a new buzzword it likes. We're not going to wade into the debate about whether having more czars is a good idea, but Fox ran a story about concerns some lawmakers have with it.
We're just fact-checking McCain's claim that Obama has more czars than the Romanovs. According to the World Book Encyclopedia , there were, as McCain said, 18 Romanov czars, starting with Michael Romanov in 1613 and ending with Nicholas II, who was killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
As for Obama's czars, we've got 28 who have been referred to as a czar ... somewhere.
"The one complaint from critics is that they can’t compel some of the czars to come to Capitol Hill and testify. That’s a relatively small number. In fact, it would include people like the national security adviser. When she was national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice declined a Senate invitation, a Senate subpoena to come and testify about the evidence of Iraq’s nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. But frankly, few czars would decline an invitation. And others are actually, like the drug czar, are confirmed by the Senate, and would have to testify if they were invited, Jane."As Think Progress points out:
In fact, the “czars” displayed by Fox News include at least eight Senate-confirmed positions, like “intelligence czar” Dennis Blair. “Regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein is yet to begin working, victim of a Republican hold on his confirmation. John Holdren, depicted falsely by the right wing as a “science czar” who favors “forced abortions,” is the Senate-confirmed presidential science advisor. One “czar” — Elizabeth Warren — is actually chair of a Congressional oversight panel. The debate over the role of unconfirmed Presidential advisers reaches back to 1832, with critics accusing President Andrew Jackson of running a “Kitchen Cabinet” in place of the official one.By the way, the forced abortion claim by Glenn Beck was debunked by politifact.com earning it's "Pants on Fire" rating. Checking out the "Pants on Fire" file is fairly amusing.
[H/T] Joe Scarborough at JoeNBCState GOP chief Jim Greer rips Obama -- but pushes Republican views at schools
Scott Maxwell
TAKING NAMES
September 5, 2009
There once was a political operative who loved to tell crowds he had a simple way of explaining to children the difference between Republicans and Democrats.
"Republicans get up and go to work," he would tell his son. "Democrats get up and go down to the mailbox to get their checks."
This man not only talked to his son about Republican values, he went into public-school classrooms and talked about them as well.
That man is Jim Greer — the same Jim Greer who, as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, just threw a nationwide hissy fit, claiming that the classroom is no place for politics and Barack Obama's "indoctrination."
One Seminole County mother, Barbara Wells, remembers the day Greer spoke to her son's sixth-grade class. "My son said he made some sort of Hillary Clinton joke," she recalled.
But you know what? Wells didn't pitch a fit.
She didn't call up the local TV station to scream about Republican indoctrination.
Instead, she advised her son: "Whatever you are told in life, remember there are two sides to every story."
In fact, Wells didn't even think much about Greer's foray into her son's classroom until she saw him on TV complaining about Obama.
There's no longer any question: Greer is a hypocrite.
What remains to be seen, however, is whether mainstream Republicans in Florida will allow him to drag them deeper into the divisive and irrational fringes of their party.
Mainstream conservatives, after all, are being left behind.
While they want to talk about real issues, like out-of-control spending, they are forced to watch their state "leader" make a buffoon out of himself in the national spotlight. This just two weeks after a former House speaker was allowed to rack up $170,000 in GOP credit-card bills on Greer's watch.
This country needs a healthy two-party system with smart debate.
But there's nothing healthy or smart about Greer's claim that the president's pep talk about succeeding in school was really an attempt to "indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda."
Presidents have been talking to schoolchildren ever since we've had schools.
And not just presidents. Politicians of all stripes — from Govs. Jeb Bush and Lawton Chiles to Mayors Buddy Dyer and Rich Crotty.
In fact, as I sit here, rereading the previous two paragraphs, I find myself amazed that I even had to kill trees to print such obvious statements.
Are we really so far removed from reality that we don't understand the value of a president encouraging children to work hard?
One of the last times Obama spoke to schoolchildren, he said the following: "No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands. You cannot forget that."
Heavens to Betsy! The indoctrinator in chief must be stopped!
Late Friday, I caught up with Greer, who said he has no regrets about accusing the president of spreading "liberal lies" before Greer even knew what Obama was going to say.
In fact, Greer actually believes that, had he not called Obama out, the indoctrination would have taken place.
And he didn't see any fair comparison between his own school visits and the president's. The main difference, Greer said, is that he didn't have the Department of Education organizing lesson plans meant to idolize him the way he's convinced they would have for Obama, had Greer not stopped him.
But Jim, Thursday night on Hardball you said: "Before anybody talks to my children from a political perspective, I want to know what they have to say." And yet you didn't run your opinions by any of the parents before you started molding young minds, did you?
"That was different," he said. "I wasn't using lesson plans."
I'm honestly not sure whether Greer really believes what he's shoveling. But I know I'm not alone in thinking his divisive rhetoric is beyond the pale. Conservative talk-show host Joe Scarborough labeled Greer's comments "insane talk."
But Scarborough didn't stop there. He wondered why Florida's leading Republicans weren't taking on Greer, "standing up and saying: 'Guys, calm down. This is no way to conduct a debate.'"
It's a good question.
So I ran Greer's extremist statement by four high-profile Republicans: Gov. Charlie Crist, U.S. Rep. John Mica, State House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon and Orange County GOP leader Lew Oliver.
I chose conservative leaders whose positions I respect. And Crist, too.
I just wanted to see whether a single one had the guts to call Greer out and take a stand for mainstream values and rational debate.
Not a one of them did.
And that is even scarier.
Scott Maxwell can be reached at smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6141.
"Pawlenty said that showing the address, slated to be telecast at 11 a.m. Central Time on Tuesday, could be disruptive and raises concerns "about the content and the motive." The Republican governor also said that the speech is "uninvited."
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Sam Tanenhaus, author of The Death of Conservatism, talked about the history of the right-wing lunatic fringe of the Republican Party on MSNBC. He went on to say that during the great rise of Conservatism, after flirting with the John Birch Society the GOP realized they had to successfully muffle them and keep the paranoid delusions out of the mainstream. Unfortunately modern conservatives seem more inclined to fan the flames of lunacy coming out of right-wing blogs such as World Net Daily, rather than denouncing them for completely paranoid conspiracy theorizing."Oh, get over it," countered Pat Waite, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for San Jose City Council. "I may not agree with a lot of what he's doing, but come on, he's the president of the United States, and his words ought to carry some import."
Waite said he would never have yanked his two children — now grown — out of school. "It's kind of ironic that the president wants to talk to the schoolchildren about the importance of staying in school," he said, "and people are going to protest by pulling their kids out of school."
In the San Jose Unified School District, showing the president's speech in classrooms will be "absolutely optional," according to spokeswoman Karen Fuqua. By Thursday, administrators had received only one call from a concerned parent about the plan to pipe the address into classrooms on closed C-SPAN. "And that caller said they hoped we were doing it," said Fuqua.
Obama's address won't be the first presidential speech beamed into the nation's classrooms. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush spoke in conjunction with the National Space Science Symposium in an effort to encourage kids to take math and science courses. Democrats attacked him for turning the event into a campaign commercial.
Of course, the Internet was only in its infancy then, and there were no bloggers, or the commentary created by far-right blogs such as Traction Control, a pro-gun site. On Wednesday, "TexasFred" used the site's forum to decry this presidential address to children. "Hitler came after the YOUTH too," Fred said. "Coincidence?? Maybe not."
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Joe Scarborough is starting to get tired of the nonsense that keeps coming out of Republicans' mouths which makes the rest of the party, himself included, look bad.
He even went so far as to call out individual leaders of the Republican Party to denounce this sort of rhetoric as a frivolous distraction.
Thankfully, some Congressional Republicans, like Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) have rebuked some of the more extreme "Obama=Hitler" rhetoric. However, thus far no one has tried to distance themselves from the "Obama = Mussolini, Kim Jong-Il, Stalin" rhetoric.
Perhaps party leaders should take note that while President Obama's poll numbers are inevitably falling, the ratings for the Congressional Republicans have been decreasing as well and they don't have much further down to go before reaching rock bottom. As rational and/or moderate conservatives are turned off by these antics and either become registered independents or defect to the Democratic Party, only the lunatic fringe will be left in the Republican Party.
Perhaps this could give way to a viable third party? One that truly believes in limited government economically, socially, and internationally?
Posts
All Comments
