OK, so we’ve got the GOP pissing off women voters by being against contraception coverage and for unnecessary transvaginal ultrasounds…
…we’ve got Rick Santorum’s relentless culture warring dropping him like a stone in the polls. And now someone wants to put Clarence Thomas’s extremist record before the voters?
Man, as a liberal, I’ve got to say that this is the best idea ever in the history of best ideas ever. I used to be “Go Rick, go!” Now I’m all, “Draft Clarence!”
News Roundup for 2/9/11
House GOP’s work ethic
-Headline of the day-
“Will the 112th Congress work hard — or hardly work?”
I know what you’re thinking; congress hardly worked before. But this is different. As is fitting for a new House Speaker with a fun in the sun, Tom Collins by noon work ethic, there’s a new schedule for all those congress critters eager to earn the tax payer’s money. And boy, are they ever not going to earn it.
Asks the editorial board of the Christian Science Monitor, “Would you like to earn a week’s vacation for every two weeks you work? If so, you should run for Congress. According to the restructured legislative calendar that new House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R) of Virginia has set, House lawmakers in Washington will generally stay in session for two consecutive weeks, then get a week off.”
Slick deal, huh? And, if you think about it, it’s sort of a backdoor pay raise, since those Reps get paid the same amount regardless of how long they work. On a per hour basis, congressional pay just increased 33%. Yay!
And what are they going to do with all this extra time? Imagine a compound word incorporating “fund” and “raising” and you get the idea. (Christian Science Monitor)
-Not exactly blinded by love-
The new healthcare reform law is almost certain to wind up before the Supreme Court. At this point, the only way I can think of that it wouldn’t would be if the court refused to hear the case — or cases, as those case may be.
So the fact that Ginni Thomas, wife of SCOTUS guy Clarence Thomas, is opening a lobbying shop to give “voice to… the tea party movement in the halls of Congress” has people wondering if Clarence can be all that fair a judge here. In fact, the conflict of interest would be so clear that 74 members of congress are asking him to recuse himself from the case before there even is a case, just to be on the safe side.
“As Members of Congress, we were surprised by recent revelations of your financial ties to leading organizations dedicated to lobbying against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” they wrote to Clarence in a letter. “We write today to respectfully ask that you maintain the integrity of this court and recuse yourself from any deliberations on the constitutionality of this act.”
They go on to say that “there is a strong conflict between the Thomas household’s financial gain through your spouse’s activities and your role as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. We urge you to recuse yourself from this case.” In fact, hearing the case would stand a damned good chance of violating federal law.
But don’t worry, Thomas would probably take any charges against him all the way to the Supreme Court, where we all know he’d dispassionately dispense justice upon himself. (ThinkProgress)
-Bonus HotD-
“Rep. Chris Lee Sending Half-Naked Pics To Ladies On Craigslist.”
Care to take a stab at which party he belongs to and how he says he feels about the “sanctity of marriage?”
Got it in one, didn’t you? (Wonkette)
Stories to Watch: 2/4/11
After blogger’s post editor ate two consecutive blog posts, I decided it was maybe time to find some sort of HTML editor. I liked Scribefire for Firefox a lot, but the version for Chrome was just awful. I tried a Chrome extension and uninstalled it again after one post — it added a whole bunch of pointless, useless code to everything. I finally went with Kompozer. We’ll see how that holds up. I actually had to go online to see how to get it to spellcheck. Can’t believe that’s not the default. Otherwise, good so far. Now here’s the news…
Gallup finds that Barack Obama is more polarizing in year two than in year one. The most polarizing president in history? Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush.
In a move that’s going to really tick off a lot of the neocons who’d convinced themselves he was the greatest, Sen. Rand Paul calls aid to Israel “welfare” and says we ought to cut it out.
After Mubarak’s staged “counter-protest” turned violent, Egyptians go right back to calling for him to leave office. Hundreds of thousands say they won’t leave Tahir Square until he’s gone.
The right is trying the same bullshit they pulled on ACORN with Planned Parenthood.
She-who-shall-not-be-named-in-February fails to get that unmentioned name trademarked. Expect a poorly thought-out Facebook post attacking the US Patent Office.
Finally, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ conflicts of interest deepen every day.
Stories to Watch: 1/23/11
Record a cop, go to prison.
Obama to stress centrism in State of the Union address, because wandering down the middle of the road’s been working so great for him. Mitch McConnell preemptively refuses to follow suit.
Clarence Thomas has himself a little ethical — and legal — problem. But c’mon, can we really expect a Supreme Court Justice to know ever jot and tittle of the law?
In related news, Thomas and Scalia share another ethical problem.
Vermont may eliminate “corporate personhood.”
WikiLeaks has released only 1% of the diplomatic cables they have. So much for the idea that they’re just publishing stuff willy-nilly.
Finally, it’s an ego explosion: Michelle Bachmann to deliver her own State of the Union response, regardless of who her party has chosen to do it.
