They Really Hate You in Ohio

Republicans take out ads to encourage uninsured people not to sign up for Obamacare.

Well, y'see, it seems that it works.  And they can't have that.

(Via Zandar Versus The Stupid.)

In Memoriam

• The blogger known as Doghouse Riley, né Douglas Case.  News via skippy this morning.  Doghouse Riley was the proprietor of Bats Left/Throws Right, which had a particular emphasis on Midwestern political shenanigans and not very much baseball, so I would only pop over there when I remembered his way with a phrase.  He could be quite scathing and pungent.  I linked to his articles a few times and I might have commented once or twice (Blogger does not aggregate comments or I would know).  May he rest in peace.  ETA:  Roy Edroso at alicublog remembers Doghouse Riley well (also via skippy).
• Eileen Brennan, actress
• Emile Griffith, boxer (I remember hearing about the death of Benny "Kid" Paret in my preadolescent years)
• Virginia Johnson, researcher (other half of Masters & Johnson)
• George Scott, on the '67 Red Sox team
• Page Morton Black, "Chock Full o' Nuts is that heavenly coffee, Better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy" jingle singer
• Carline Ray, jazz instrumentalist
• J. J. Cale, musician/songwriter
• Lindy Boggs, Congresswoman and champion of women's rights
• William Scranton, former governor (and well-known in the '60s)
• ETA, via a comment by wild-rises at dreamwidth:  Willie Reed (aka Willie Louis; see obit), person of courage.

And I've exceeded the limit of the New York Times.

Hey, Hey, My, My

Project S.H.A.M.E. profiles Radley Balko.  I suspect that some of what he's quoted as saying is sarcasm, but there's enough conservative/libertarian dogma to give one pause.  Supplemental:  An excerpted piece from NSFWCORP (original is temporarily unlocked until ~10 am PDT tomorrow) on Mr. Balko's odd stance about the Trayvon Martin case.  A little bit of the NSFWCORP story giving history:

After Balko graduated from Indiana University in 1997 with degrees in journalism and political science, he found work with Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute as its “Campus Journalism Coordinator.”

The Leadership Institute is a Republican Party recruitment organization that describes itself as “the premier training ground for tomorrow’s conservative leaders,” whose goal is “to increase the number and effectiveness of conservative public policy leaders” through its numerous “journalism seminars.” The Leadership Institute’s alumni include Karl Rove, Rove’s fake White House press pool “reporter” Jeff Gannon, convicted criminal James O’Keefe, and major GOP figures including Grover Norquist, Christian Right leader Ralph Reed, and Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Anyway, putting out the salt shaker in case I run across an article by him.

Verdict in Manning Case

Bradley Manning found not guilty of aiding or giving intelligence to the enemy, but convicted on 5 counts of espionage and other charges.

It Must Be Monday--There Are Seagulls and Flying Monkeys Up There

Or alternately, A Farrago of Foolishness.

• giandujakiss on Dreamwidth linked to an article on American economic security and followed up with a brief paragraph on policy choices.  Yes, those folks making these policies are really out to get you.
• At last!  Scorekeeping for sex scandals!  For when you've run out of sports statistics but the bar is still open!  (Katie Halper article originally at Salon, reprinted by AlterNet.)
• How marijuana got to be illegal.
• Noam Chomsky (AlterNet) video on the security state.
• Scholar has to explain to Fox Newsie how scholarship works (he's Muslim and wrote a book about Jesus Christ with, y'know, research and footnotes.  That's the same video at both links, in case one is inaccessible).  Maybe the anchors at Fox aren't required to take college courses outside of the communications curriculum in order to get jobs there, but I would have thought that a broader selection of courses, some of which involve research, was needed to graduate.
• Conservatives and unenforceable "sodomy" laws, and why they want to bring those laws back.

  Reinstating and enforcing old, unconstitutional sodomy laws won’t turn back time to the 1950s or beyond. But that’s essentially why conservatives think they need them — to hold back the tide of history.

  Terrance Heath also throws in a little history lesson.

I should probably go to the ballgame on Wednesday

Update

Further legal activity related to this story:  a federal judge in Ohio has ruled that the marriage must be recognized in Ohio.  (Thanks to Zandar Versus The Stupid.)  It's mostly for the dying spouse's death certificate.  Nevertheless.

(Apparently I forgot to crosspost last time.  Rectified.)

*sigh*

Skippy links to a 3 year old report on NPR pussyfooting by Barry Eisler at firedoglake.  In case you were wondering.  You might also want to peruse Jay Rosen's PressThink for other evidence and the Daily Howler for what gets missed.

It's One of Those Days

I've had several tabs open for several days.  I just haven't felt like doing anything about them.

• It is charming that Queen Elizabeth now has a great-grandchild, but the breathlessness of the coverage is more than a bit silly.
• The Rude Pundit last week ran a series of posts about Texas women and reproductive health care; I particularly like the one that begins

  There's a reason the average Texas woman is meaner than a goddamn snake: She lives with Texas men.

  but you should also read this one (and part 2), and this one, and this one; this one is by a Wisconsin woman, this one by a woman who had been raped, this one remembers Dr. Tiller, and this one brings the example of her mother.  More posts listed here.
  
  (Note:  The Texas women I have known have been quite nice.  As have the Texas men.  But none of the ones I know are either Republican or in the legislature.)
• Really, Mr. Weiner, didn't you learn anything the first time?
1. Keep it in your pants
2. Keep it off the Web.
Maybe that should be part of the Political Science curriculum now: How to Conduct a Clandestine Affair Without Getting Spread All Over The Media Including Internationally.
• Three from naked capitalism [see what I did there?]:
• David Dayen on mortgage databases:

  According to Section 331 of the bill, the utility would “organize and operate” the National Mortgage Data Repository. The repository would be a standardized catalog into which any qualified depositor (qualified by the utility, it appears) could stash all their mortgage-related documents – including notes, mortgages, and any related information. The repository would set the standards for the required information in the documents, as well as standards for recording a “creation, assignment, or transfer of interest.” You’ll notice the lack of any regulatory oversight of these procedures. Basically, this private entity, the National Mortgage Market Utility, which could be owned by banks, sets the rules for a brand new private mortgage transfer and document database, not dissimilar to MERS. Theoretically, the data in the repository would be publicly available, with privacy safeguards.
  
  Now here’s the kicker. The repository’s defined purpose is to “address problems that can arise when paper notes cannot be produced, due to loss or destruction as a result of natural disaster or other causes; and to provide a uniform procedure for demonstrating the right to act with regard to such notes or other registered data for all actions in any State or Federal proceeding, judicial or nonjudicial, involving such notes or other data.” Emphasis mine.

• Yves Smith on possible appointment of Larry Summers to Chair of the Fed.

  The big problem with Summers is not his record on deregulation (although that’s bad enough) or his foot-in-mouth remarks about women in math, or for suggesting that African countries would make for good toxic waste dumps. No, it’s his appalling record the one time he was in a leadership position, as president of Harvard. Summers was unquestionably the worst leader in Harvard’s history.

• Guest post by Bill Black on why conservatives and libertarians should favor a restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act.
Doggie bags at the cash register.

Posy from AlterNet

• Detroit.  (Juan Cole, Informed Comment)
• Smearing Mr. Martin.  (Eric Boehlert, Media Matters)
• Your government on drugs power.  (Paul Craig Roberts, Institute for Political Economy)  
• Laos, Kissinger, and journalists being cowed by Presidents.  (Fred Branfman for AlterNet)

I need some serious scream time, and then a lot of sleep.

Meanwhile, have some "Dear Prudence" separated into its constituent tracks, via Avedon Carol (who linked to the "Sgt. Pepper" with graphics).

*Wipes Tear*

Via an Open Thread at Shakesville, two men go through some hoops to marry.

Also, Cincinnati radical dies.

Post 2201.  The horror.

More Education

I've neglected Mr. Riley lately, so here's Doghouse on Mitch Daniels pontificating about the teaching of history.

Anybody ever read a standard K-12 history book in this country? Dear God, they’ve been watered-down Chamber of Commerce pamphlets since Mitch Daniels was knee high to…I mean, since he was a lad. The introduction of Howard Zinn to Indiana classrooms (Daniels’ hench-emailers found nary a copy) would improve the teaching of history no matter what you think of what he says. Hell, Howard Stern would improve our secondary History curriculum.

This isn’t about free speech, or Daniels’ Randian dedication to it, though that’s plenty enough for starters. It’s about the Nixonian dishonesty at the heart of education “reform”. It’s about the wingnut echo chamber where even “reasonable” Republicans reside. It’s about the fact that you can somehow get an Ivy League education and not understand the concept of research.

And Happy Moon Landing Day!

In Memoriam

Helen Thomas, long time White House correspondent.

(Women journalists have particular reasons to be grateful to her.)

To The Bone

Willful ignorance and willed misapprehenson, that is, go all the way to the bone.

1. Seen at Southern Beale via Talking Points Memo, a Utah "lawmaker" speaks on education:  He's against it.  Specifically,he's opposed to compulsory education:

   Osmond said he is not advocating that students stop attending school, but instead that the culture be changed from an obligation to a choice. He gave the example of kindergarten, which nearly all children attend despite no requirement to do so.

   All I'm going to say here is that they seem to be pro-choice as long as women's bodies are not involved.
2. Next round:  Suit filed in the name of a county clerk to try to stop same-sex marriages in California.  

Who Would Have Thought?

Obamacare works!

Zandar cites the New York Times and makes some points.

And let's remember that competition in the free market has long, long been a Republican screaming point. When President Obama actually put that into effect, they went bonkers.

Odd how that works.

Other Voices

• Brilliant at Breakfast.
• Zandar Versus the Stupid.
• Walk On.  And poem.
• Ta-Nehisi Coates.
• Making Light.
• Daisy's Dead Air.
• ETA:  Welcome Back to Pottersville.

As far as I am concerned, the murderer Zimmerman is a murderer on whom I wish no good.  May the appellation "Murderer" always be adjacent to his name.  May his dreams fill with that word.  May--

OK, that's probably cursing.

Trayvon Martin

I don't think I need to explain this, right?  Billie Holiday?  "Strange Fruit."

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=h4ZyuULy9zs#at=13)

There's also Dylan's "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," but that guy got 6 months.

Stew

• In memoriam:
• Elaine Morgan, writer and feminist
• Amar Bose, audio expert
• Evil:  Nigerian extremists targeting schools.
• TV station apologizes for stupid gaffe.  Someone needs to be found and fired, though.
• Margaret and Helen on the Texas legislative session.

  Perry is about as pro-life as any governor who has presided over hundreds of executions. Which is to say Perry is about 250 executions short of being pro-life. And for the record, pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion. Being pro-choice means you trust women to make the right decisions for themselves and their families when it comes to healthcare.

  As we know, "pro-life" only applies until you're born.

Insert Appropriate Monty Python and the Holy Grail Scene Here

Prop 8's proponents trying another technicality to stop same-sex marriages in California.

But in Friday's lawsuit in the state Supreme Court, lawyers for Prop. 8's proponents argued that Walker's ruling applied only to the individuals who filed the suit, a lesbian couple from Berkeley and a gay couple from Burbank. The lawyers said Brown exceeded his authority when he ordered all 58 county clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Y'know, if traditional marriage is that fragile, perhaps we should go to a contractual system, with term limits and group child-care, because it would be more organized, more family-friendly, and less amenable to people not involved.

ETA:  SCOTUSblog article (Lyle Denniston) with more detail, via Shakesville.

EFTA: Sorry, Charlie.  Same-sex marriages continue.

The Beat Beat Beat of the Tom Toms

• Via Mercury Rising, the United States Lost Output Clock.  Tracking production and income lost since the financial mess of 2008 and comparing it to wealth gained by the 1%.  Austerity is a lie.  Nobody's going to put this information on billboards outside of airports, either.  So share it with your friends!
• Florida lawmakers strike again.  As usual.  Via Just an Earth-Bound Misfit, I, with added ridicule.

  Good old Florida, even the legislature in Texas is looking at them and saying: "Guys, really?"

• Speaking of bad law, Zandar Versus The Stupid cites Indiana's criminalization of applying for or officiating at a same-sex marriage.
• Terrance at Republic of T calls for a constitutional right to vote.

  That the Voting Rights Act needs fixing, and was even necessary in the first place underscores a glaring lack of any explicit right to vote in the constitution. The constitution never explicitly spells out or ensures a right to vote, but merely describes the ways people cannot be denied the right to vote. (It was less a right than a privilege bestowed upon white, male property owners.) The qualifications for voters are left to the states. As long as those qualifications don’t conflict with the constitution, the right to vote can be denied.

We Wish

GOP moves toward irrelevance.

What's Out There

• Three from Zandar Versus The Stupid:
• Wyoming Senate seat in 2014?
• "Subtle" undermining of Affordable Care (I've seen concern-troll ads for the last year on sites I read which have ads) 
• Austerity pressures (fraudulent)
• Remote control of automobiles?  Mills River Progressive questions fatal crash of reporter.
• Jelena Adzic at the CBC on privacy and social media.
• I am not a Jedi yet.

"Family Values"

Minuteman co-founder charged with child molestation.  (Orcinus.)

Creepy dude.

In Other News

Bartolo Colon named to All-Star team.

It's a terrific comeback.

Sidewinders of the Right

Stealth enactments:

They don't want to hear the truth. They don't want to acknowledge the voices, or the humanity, of the people over whose bodies they are trying to legislate governance. They want to protect the little bubble of bullshit fantasies about abortion and who gets abortion and who performs abortions in which they exist. And when we refuse to be silent, they try to forcibly silence us. Because they don't want to hear the truth about what this legislation actually means for real people.

Melissa McEwan, Shakesville, on the legislators of Texas and North Carolina and their cowardice.

Via By Neddie Jingo!, a video about how snakes slither (features snakes, so if snakes squick you, don't click that) in case you need to know how these lawmakers really move.

This is, again, reminding me that women got included in the civil rights act in the '60s as a joke.

5 Years--The Paper Anniversary

I managed to miss my fifth blogiversary (it fell Saturday), so:  A Happy Five to Me!

This is still a blog about politics, baseball, and anything else I damn please.  As you may have noticed, I have grown less patient with the political "right," especially as they veer toward suggesting the restoration of the Bourbon and Hapsburg dynasties and reintroducing the idea of a flat earth as fundamental science.  (You think I'm kidding.)  My team is *knocks wood* doing OK this year, and it is now possible to read about the Mets with just a twinge of nostalgia (the Mets have not been my team since 1992).  I have 2100+ posts (a drop in the bucket compared to Echidne of the Snakes, but respectable in that I have no cat), some of which take the form of rant essay.  I do not have, and do not intend to acquire, a "mission statement."

Think of this blog as a pack rat's version of Eärendil.