By GottaLaff By a vote of 31-22, the birther extremists proved once again that they waste everyone's time with frivolous efforts like this one:
The Arizona House on Monday voted for a provision that would require President Barack Obama to show his birth certificate if he hopes to be on the state's ballot when he runs for reelection.
That would be laughable if it weren't so pathetic:
Phoenix Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema said the bill is one of several measures that are making Arizona "the laughing stock of the nation."
Between this birther revival meeting and Arizona's latest endorsement of racial profiling, the state may very well require its own laugh track... because nobody else is so much as smiling.
"For the record, I am not using any teleprompters today because I loaned them to President Obama," he said to laughter.
Okay, once and for all: This is one of the stupidest memes since the genesis of memeology. How it persists in light of HandNotes McAlsoToo is beyond comprehension.
Let's review: When you give a big important speech that will be watched by the entire world, "winging it", or even attempting to memorize it, would be reckless and not too wise.
Every word, every syllable is parsed. Experts in any given field use notes for speeches. Who wouldn't?
HandNotes McAlsoToo herself should, and does, use notes when she gives a prepared talk. Memorizing that much is cumbersome and time-consuming, especially for someone who must repeatedly address crowd after crowd on any number of topics.
Nor would I want the president of the United States to spend his valuable time and energy studying words instead of the urgent issues at hand.
And guess what? Teleprompters allow the speaker to keep his nose out of a pile of papers, so that said speaker can address his/her audience directly. We teach that in basic acting/speech/cold reading/you name it. It's common knowledge and common sense. It's not exactly an audience pleaser to continually show nothing but the top of your head to your viewers.
However, question and answer sessions are quite another matter. Thorough knowledge of multiple subjects is mandatory. Answering questions off the cuff, being well-prepared, engaging your questioners all require a head full of facts and information.
A few notes might be helpful for occasional reference, although it's preferable not to use one's palm when there is so much paper available.
Paper: Acceptable. Palm scribble: Unsuitable and unprofessional, even for a 14-year-old in a ninth grade Public Speaking class.
Got that Teen Genius? You gave a 2 minute quippy intro. Political leaders give substantive, full-length, informative speeches. If you have to pat yourself on the back for getting through 120 seconds without a teleprompter, then maybe you should brush up on your memorization skills... and your stand-up routines.
Attorney General Eric Holder is retreating on his commitment to pursue a controversial gun-control measure.
Holder’s statements, recently delivered to senators in writing, clearly indicate the Obama administration is in no rush to reinstate the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. [...]
Regarding the administration’s next step, Holder stated, "The department is currently reviewing existing gun laws to determine how best to combat gun violence and keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others prohibited from possessing them."
Holder's response to Coburn is the latest in a series of mixed messages from Obama and his team after the president vowed during his campaign that he would seek to reinstate the ban.
As OhioDaily writes, “This type of message is offensive coming from anyone, but coming from someone in the position of dispatching police and prioritizing calls, it’s downright horrifying. The North Canton police have a hard enough job as it is without rogue dispatchers trying to incite a race riot or stirring tensions during the hot months of summer.”
Incite a race riot, then dispatch your own officers to the scene. In her mind, that probably makes some kind of sick sense.
Paddy and I are steaming mad and don't wanna take it any more. So are so many on Twitter who have just about had it with all the vitriol, idiotic decisions, compromises, general wussiness from our side, and of course, the hostility and irrationality from the TeaDeathers.
Former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean fired one of the clearest warning shots at hesitant Democratic lawmakers on Thursday, insisting that if the party was unable to produce a health care bill with a public plan, there would be electoral consequences.
Sometimes it feels like Howard Dean is the only sane Democrat out there.
"I do think there will be primaries as the result of all this, if the bill doesn't pass with a public option," Dean said, in a phone interview with the Huffington Post.
The former Vermont governor added the caveat that he thought "cooler heads" would ultimately prevail and that a government run option for insurance coverage would be passed. [...]
Good. Now say it louder. And repeatedly. And louder.
Dean, who is a keynote speaker at the Netroots Nation conference at Pittsburgh this week, said he was "in favor" of holding recalcitrant senators and congressman accountable on health care related issues.
[...] Dean criticized talk of substituting a government run program with co-operative insurance plans, calling the latter a "fig leaf."
"This talk about co-ops is a political compromise it is not a policy compromise," he said, of the discussions currently underway in the Senate Finance Committee. "And I think most people, on both sides of the aisle know that co-ops won't work."
Dean:
"The public option is incrementalism.... But there is no incrementalism without the public option." He explained: "If you don't have a public option this bill is not even incremental, in terms of adequate health care reform... Paul is not entirely wrong. It is just that the last shred of reform is the public option."
The aging song stylist uses the latest edition of his Newsmax.com column to demand the president’s birth certificate (it’s here, by the way) [...]
[A] widely known and experienced investigator, Dr. Jerome Corsi, flew to Kenya in search of a certificate of birth he had reason to believe existed there. But he was detained and stonewalled by Kenyan officials. He couldn’t obtain confirmation but received no denial. He was just ordered to leave the country.
During that same time, some reported seeing a videotaped proclamation by his paternal step-grandmother that she was in the delivery room and saw Barack H. Obama born in Mombasa, in what is now Kenya!
Boone, unlike most people who repeat this myth, gets Sarah Obama’s relationship to the president correct, but the video in question doesn’t say anything like this. Also, this is somewhat new to me:
Many, who know more than I do about what actually happened, notably the United States Justice Foundation, have surmised that baby Obama’s mother, about to have her child in Kenya, had booked a flight to Hawaii but was prohibited from flying because delivery was so imminent. But soon after baby Barack was born, USJF theorizes she flew with him to Oahu and obtained some kind of “record of birth” as if he’d been born there.
There is no record or anecdote of Ann Dunham ever traveling to Kenya with her soon-to-be-estranged husband Barack Obama Sr., but the idea of a very pregnant 18-year-old woman taking a transatlantic flight makes perfect sense to Boone et al.
While [Army Secretary] McHugh still intends to refrain from publicizing his own personal view on the issue until his confirmation hearings, yesterday in an interview with Roll Call, he hinted that he believes it’s time to repeal the ban:
“I have no interest as either a Member of Congress or as … secretary of the Army to exclude by some categorization a group of people otherwise qualified to serve,” McHugh told Roll Call.
He noted that the Armed Services Committee has not considered the policy “in any formal way” since 1993. In the meantime, “certainly, the recruiting-age population’s views have changed on that whole matter,” he said.
Abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has worsened sharply since President Barack Obama took office as prison guards "get their kicks in" before the camp is closed, according to a lawyer who represents detainees.
Abuses began to pick up in December after Obama was elected, human rights lawyer Ahmed Ghappour told Reuters. He cited beatings, the dislocation of limbs, spraying of pepper spray into closed cells, applying pepper spray to toilet paper and over-forcefeeding detainees who are on hunger strike.
The Pentagon said on Monday that it had received renewed reports of prisoner abuse during a recent review of conditions at Guantanamo, but had concluded that all prisoners were being kept in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
"If one was to use one's imagination, (one) could say that these traumatized, and for lack of a better word barbaric, guards were just basically trying to get their kicks in right now for fear that they won't be able to later," he said.
See how "in accordance" everything is?
He stressed the mistreatment did not appear to be directed from above, but was an initiative undertaken by frustrated U.S. army and navy jailers on the ground. It did not seem to be a reaction against the election of Obama, a Democrat who has pledged to close the prison camp within a year, but rather a realization that there was little time remaining before the last 241 detainees, all Muslim, are released.
"It's 'hey, let's have our fun while we can,'" said Ghappour, who helped secure the release this week of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident freed from Guantanamo Bay after more than four years in detention without trial or charge. [...]
Ghappour said he had spoken to army guards who, unsolicited, had described the pleasure they took in abusing prisoners, whether interrupting prayer or physical mistreatment. He said they appeared unconcerned about potential repercussions.
He also saw evidence of guards pulling identity numbers off their uniforms or switching them once they were on duty in order to make it more difficult for them to be identified.
Ghappour said he had filed two complaints of serious detainee abuse since December 22 but received no response from U.S. authorities. In one case his client had his knee, shoulder and thumb dislocated by a group of guards, Ghappour said. [...]
Another area of concern was evidence that detainees were being abused on the way to meetings with their lawyers -- sometimes so badly that they no longer wanted to meet with counsel for fear of the beatings they would receive, he said.
Does anyone else have the urge to scream? Someone get in there and stop this madness. These are human beings. And of course, at this point, I'm referring to the prisoners, not the guards.
[D]oes Coleman have a realistic chance of winning an election contest? Probably not. [...]
[I]n order to win Coleman would need to sweep every last argument, denying Franken a favorable resolution on any single thing. That is highly unlikely to happen. But it sure could take a while to sort everything out.
Al Franken (D) now holds a 50 vote lead over US Senator Norm Coleman (R). Close to 1350 previously rejected absentee ballots are currently being reviewed, but both sides expect those to widen Franken's current lead. US Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) suggested on Tuesday that the Senate should provisionally seat Franken in January, subject to the outcome of any litigation expected to be filed by Coleman.
The US Senate Republicans issued a sharply worded response: "Al Franken is falsely declaring victory based on an artificial lead created on the back of the double counting of ballots. His campaign's actions in the last several days on the issues of rejected absentee ballots are creating additional chaos and disorder in the Minnesota recount. Those actions, coupled with the recent comments by Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who suggests seating someone even if there is an election contest, are unprecedented. Minnesotans will not accept a recount in which some votes are counted twice, and I expect the Senate would have a problem seating a candidate who has not duly won an election." Stay tuned to see who -- if anyone -- is seated on January 5. Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) has previously said he would consider appointing an interim caretaker to fill the seat until the election outcome is resolved.
For the time being, however, they seem inclined to play it cool and maintain the moral highground, perhaps believing that they'll have a strong argument on Equal Protection grounds if they need to contest the election later on.
From my vantage point, Franken could possibly have played his hand more strongly on Monday, once it became clear that the Coleman campaign was making no pretense whatsoever of attempting to establish an objective, statewide standard for the counting of absentees, essentially just cherry-picking ballots and daring the Franken campaign to call them on it. The result of that process was that no statewide standards were agreed upon, enabling either campaign to apply different standards across different counties.
The upshot of all of this is that Franken probably now has grounds to contest the election if at any point he falls behind, either after the vote is certified or, as is somewhat more likely, following a successful Coleman challenge on the question of duplicate ballots.
“We’ve known all along, and it’s become increasingly clear to all, that there are those individuals who cast lawful ballots and yet failed to have those ballots counted,” Franken campaign attorney Marc Elias said on a conference call. “That type of arbitrary treatment of ballots is simply not permitted under the law.” [...]
While refusing to say what would happen if the board sided against Franken, Elias insisted that the campaign will fight in any number of venues to have those ballots counted in the contested race against Sen. Norm Coleman (R). [...]
The Coleman campaign issued a sharp response.
“The Franken campaign has made it abundantly clear that they could care less about the outcome of the recount and are instead focusing their energies on fighting the results of the election through the court system or by taking the issue to the floor of the United States Senate,” Coleman campaign spokesman Luke Friedrich said. “We are standing behind the law on how recounts should be conducted and against efforts to change the rules when they don't suit your needs.”
The board had previously decided it lacked the authority to order the inclusion of the ballots, which could sway the razor-thin margin in the race.
In an unusual move, Hillary Clinton's staff is creating a "whip team" at the Denver Democratic convention to ensure that her supporters don't engage in embarrassing anti-Obama demonstrations during the floor vote on her nomination, according to people familiar with the planning.
The team, which is being organized by longtime Clinton staffer Craig Smith, is working in conjunction with Obama's floor team to help foster the image of a unified front during a roll-call process Clinton herself has described as an emotional "catharsis" for her disappointed supporters.
I don't mean to offend, but I'm tired of being understanding. How long is this resentment going to last? It feels like it's been years since the primaries, and if these Democrats are interested in winning the election, isn't it about time they demonstrate their support instead of anger? Why must they be continually soothed and coddled and babysat?
"If people get down there on the floor and want to strart blowing kazoos and making a scene we want to make sure we've got people who stand in front of them with Obama signs," said person involved in the planning.
"Is it typical for a losing candidate to have their own whip team? No. But it's also not usual for a losing candidate t get 18 million votes," said the person.
It was an election. Hillary lost, no matter how many voted for her. Yes, it is hard for some to accept, but enough time has passed and we have a challenge ahead of us... all of us.
Clinton spokesperson Kathleen Strand emphasized the team would not seek to convince delegates to vote for the former first lady, but would hand out Clinton signs to supporters who requested them.
How reassuring! They won't seek to convince the delegates to create chaos. Guess what: McCain got a bump from his Fake Forum stump speech. We need to play a little catch-up, and it would be swell if Hillary's team members played along... unless they're into getting whipped.
But that's another post altogether.
UPDATE: Sorry to report that Stephanie Tubbs Jone did finally pass away.
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