A Throwback to the Future

Patience is one of the most challenging virtues. As marriage equality finds its home in state after state after various federal courts strike down exclusion laws passed amid political panic in the wake of Lawrence v. Texas, what seems a straightforward issue has observers on the edges of their seats.

Meanwhile, how about a throwback, just for nostalgia’s sake? You know, all of ten days.

That is to say, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear heterosupremacist appeals earlier this month, Steve Delchin, writing for the Sixth Circuit Appellate Blog maintained by the D.C. law firm Squire Patton Boggs, looked ahead to what is supposed to be a bated-breath decision coming from the Sixth Circuit sometime before winter arrives:

Some media outlets are calling today’s cert denials a surprise given the high-profile issue involved. But the denials are not really unexpected when you consider there has been little disagreement among lower courts over whether same-sex marriage bans are constitutional. Perhaps the Court is waiting for a split to emerge (as we predicted in prior posts and media comments). All eyes are therefore on the Sixth Circuit’s forthcoming decisions to see whether they will be in line with other courts or whether the Sixth Circuit will blaze a different path. We will continue to keep close watch.

Seattle’s “Finest”

The idea that one must embarrass a police department into doing its job might seem … what, shocking? Distressing? Ridiculous? (gulp!) Normal?

Welcome to Seattle.

Christine Clarridge of The Seattle Times reports:

Marquand decided to file a police report since she had the man’s photo and thought the incident should be on the record.

But when she went to the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct and asked to make a report, the female officer at the front desk seemed uninterested and told Marquand it was unlikely the man could be charged.

The officer, however, took down the basic details.

“Then she asked me to describe his appearance and I’m like, ‘But I have the photo right here, do you want to see it at least?’ and she didn’t even want to see it,” Marquand said.

She finally persuaded the officer to look at the photo.

Marquand came away from the encounter completely dissatisfied. That’s when she decided to turn to social media.

On Monday, she posted the man’s photo on her Twitter and Facebook accounts, saying, “This dude groped me in Seattle yesterday. Cops didn’t want the pic.”

In her tweet, she mentioned SPD’s Twitter handle and that of a few media outlets.

Within a few hours, Seattle police contacted Marquand and said her case, along with the alleged groper’s photo, had been assigned to a detective.

Police spokesman Drew Fowler said Tuesday it wasn’t the tweet itself that caused police to re-evaluate her case, but rather it alerted the department to a “deficiency” in the way her case was handled.

The litany of shame surrounding the Seattle Police Department is obscene.

The Obvious Question

It’s a simple enough question: What the hell is wrong with Rick Scott?

JUST IN tracking vid, Scott AGAIN says not sure if Crist would show. He. Was. On. The. Stage. ow.ly/CRl4M

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  (@evale72) October 16, 2014

Very Possibly the Defining Stupidity of the 2014 Electoral Cycle

Maybe monumental stupidity in reckless lying is more of a Republican thing in general, instead of merely a foible of a small-time Republican calling for an American coup. The current stupidity comes out of Florida, where, as many of us have already heard and watched, incumbent Gov. Rick Scott (R) refused to take the stage for nearly seven minutes at the beginning of the debate, apparently complaining that former Gov. Charlie Crist (D, fmr. I, fmr. R) had an electric fan under his podium.

Yes, really.

Reporter Marc Caputo tweeted last night:

Privately, Republicans/Rick Scott loyalists are telling me the moment he didn’t go onstage over fangate was the moment he lost the election

Maybe so, but Gov. Scott and even surrogate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) decided to drive a couple more nails just to make sure.

Consider, please, the answer from Gov. Scott:

Well I waited to see if he—’til we figured out if we figured out if he was going to show up. He said he was going to come to the, uh—uh, he said he was going to come to the debate. So why come out until he’s ready?

And then there was Sen. Rubio to back him up:

Well, as you saw Governor Scott say, it wasn’t clear he was even going to show up. When I got here today for this debate, I was told that Charlie Crist was going to cancel the debate. Because unless there was a fan on that stage he would not come out. So I think that Governor Scott was waiting to see if Charlie would actually pull it off or not.

And, of course, there is a punch line: While Gov. Scott was apparently waiting to see if Crist showed up, Mr. Crist was standing onstage waiting for the incumbent to emerge.