The Republican (ahem!) “Quandary”

Toss a coin; is the problem the political reporting or the politics? Consider a lede from Jonathan Weisman and Jennifer Steinhauer for the New York Times:

Senate Republicans bolted for a two-week spring recess with the confirmation of Loretta E. Lynch as attorney general in jeopardy, and themselves in a quandary: Accept a qualified nominee they oppose because she backs President Obama’s policies or reject her and live with an attorney general they despise, Eric H. Holder Jr.

See, that’s pabulum. But, to the other, whence comes it? After all, U.S Attorney Loretta Lynch has seen her nomination to succeed Eric Holder as Attorney General languish, though Senate Republicans are hard pressed to come up with a reason.

But, still, really? This is like a children’s book―And then the poor Senator had to choose …―except, come on, it wouldn’t make any sense even to children.

The Scott Walker Show (Impressive Heap)

One of the interesting things about news and commentary in the internet age is that bloggers have every reason to recycle their own material.

No, really, just think about it for a moment. Read a paragraph, and count the links:

If that is the game plan, it’s a flawed strategy. Walker couldn’t have been pleased with his recent missteps – on evolution, on the Boy Scouts, on air-traffic controllers, on ISIS, on Rudy Giuliani, on President Obama – which left him looking unprepared for national office.

Because that’s the other interesting thing about Steve Benen’s latest attempt to figure out what is going on with the Wisconsin Republican. It isn’t so much self-promotion as the fact that Walker just keeps serving it up. And it’s quite an impressive heap when you get right down to it.

Remember, Gov. Walker wants to be president.

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Benen, Steve. “Scott Walker starts steering clear of reporters”. msnbc. 30 March 2015.

Inevitable (¡Phleorg! Mix)

“It has nothing to do with God; I don’t have the balls to describe a god to anybody.”

―Bill Levin

File under … um … you know … er … ah … dude, where’s the filing cabinet, again?

Indiana’s new “religious freedom” law has been widely criticized and condemned by many, but an innovative marijuana activist in the state is using the bill’s legal protections as a means to set up a new religious sect — the First Church of Cannabis, where members would aim to use marijuana freely as a sacrament in a state where the substance remains banned.

“It’s a new religion for people who happen to live in our day and age,” Bill Levin, the church’s founder, told The Huffington Post in an interview Monday. “All these old religions, guys walking across the desert without Dr. Scholls inserts, drinking wine out of goat bladders, no compass, speaking Latin and Hebrew — I cannot relate to that shit. I drive by Burger Kings, bars and corn fields. I cannot relate to an antique magic book.”

It’s, uh … you know, like somebody would have thought of it already, you know, like, in yo’ mama’s piehole! … I mean, er, right.

Sorry.

Couldn’t fuckin’ see that one comin’, eh?

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Ferner, Matt. “Church Of Marijuana Gets Boost From Indiana’s Anti-Gay ‘Religious Freedom’ Bill”. The Huffington Post. 30 March 2015.

More Missouri Madness

It … it happened … again.

For the second time in a month, Missourians struggled Monday to understand the unfathomable — why a leading political figure in the state would take his own life.

Robert “Spence” Jackson, a prominent Republican spokesman and media liaison for more than a decade, was found dead Sunday night in the bedroom of his Jefferson City apartment.

He died from a single gunshot from a .357 Magnum revolver, police said. He left a note. Authorities consider the death a suicide.

They were unwilling Monday to officially tie Jackson’s death to that of his boss, former Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich, who shot himself Feb. 26. But politicians and consultants easily connected the two events.

(Helling and Hancock)

Rachel Maddow hosted Kansas City Star reporter Dave Helling on Monday, in hopes of trying to put at least some of the pieces together.

The Missouri GOP verges on coming apart; Mr. Helling describes in his interview with Maddow calls for the proximal players in this awful chapter to simply step away in order for the party to save itself. One might also wonder if that would have any real effect; will a handful of closely associated Republicans choosing to depart change enough about the Grand Old Party in the Show-Me State? After all, the looming question here is what, exactly, is going on with Missouri Republicans?

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Image note: Top―Rachel Maddow interviews Dave Helling regarding the apparent suicide of Robert “Spence” Jackson, 30 March 2015, on The Rachel Maddow Show for msnbc. Right―Robert “Spence” Jackson. (Photo via Kansas City Star)

Helling, Dave and Jason Hancock. “Tom Schweich spokesman Spence Jackson found dead of apparent suicide”. The Kansas City Star. 30 March 2015.

Maddow, Rachel. “Second suicide shocks Missouri Republicans”. The Rachel Maddow Show. msnbc. 30 March 2015.

The Ted Cruz Show (Interpretive Dance Edition)

The fun thing we already know about getting to know 2016 GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz is what we already know. This will be an amazing show. The only real question is what makes him think he can pull this off. We might grasp after a second, and wonder if the answer to the first actually matters.

And, yes, he really did say that.

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Image note: Detail of “Ted Cruz is Running for President!” by Matt Lubchansky, 24 March 2015, via The Nib.

A note on the title: I am aware it makes no sense. Neither does Sen. Cruz.

News from the Colonies

So … almost … there.

The news from the colonies:

The Puerto Rican government on Friday announced it will no longer defend the U.S. commonwealth’s same-sex marriage ban.

“Because of sexual orientation, Puerto Rico has denied rights that others enjoy,” said Justice Minister César Miranda during a press conference in San Juan. “This is not correct.”

The announcement coincides with a brief Gov. Alejandro García Padilla’s administration filed with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which is hearing a lawsuit against the island’s same-sex marriage ban.

“To the extent that commonwealth law does not afford homosexual couples the same rights and entitlements that heterosexual couples enjoy, the commonwealth recognizes that equal protection and substantive due process guarantees mandate application of heightened scrutiny in this case,” reads the brief. “Under said heightened standard, the commonwealth cannot responsibly advance before this court any interest sufficiently important or compelling to justify the differentiated treatment afforded so far to plaintiffs.”

(Lavers)

Three brief notes:

• Many thanks to Gov. Alejandro García Padilla, whose outlook has apparently evolved greatly over the last year.

• We … are … winning.

• This is not over, yet.

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Lavers, Michael K. “Puerto Rican government to no longer defend marriage ban”. The Washington Blade. 20 March 2015.

Comic Relief

Aaaaaahhhhhh ....

Every frame is striking. Every line a punch. And every once in a while, genius scores a hit.

Which, in turn, seems strange enough given the puerile subject matter.

That’s just how humor works.

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Huber, Adam. “A Bun in the Microwave”. Bug Martini. 25 March 2015.

Your Quote of the Day (Mix for the ACA)

“I mean, we have been promised a lot of things these past five years that didn’t turn out to be the case: death panels, doom. A serious alternative from Republicans in Congress.”

―President Barack Obama

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Obama, Barack. “Remarks by the President Marking the Fifth Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act”. White House Office of the Press Secretary. 25 March 2015.

The Gap in the Line

Sometimes it is hard to know just how to respond. React. Perceive. Feel.

Author Peter Monn appears to be retiring from the fight:

I don’t claim to know or understand God. I know there is one and I’m not it. I don’t need to reinvent the wheel but I also believe in religious freedom. But this isn’t about religious freedom. What knowing LGBT person would want to spend their money or hire someone who so opposed who they are at their core? Not me.

But I’m tired of fighting. I’ve been fighting since I was 5 years old to have other people accept me for something I never understood in the first place. And if I couldn’t understand it then I know they certainly can’t understand. And I’m done trying. I’m tired of explaining to people who would never be affected by such a bill how it haunts me and once again makes me feel different; less than.

My life is probably more than half over anyway. This is for our children. I refuse to fight so that when I’m 80 I can have my picture taken for the local paper because it’s such an honor that they finally passed some ridiculous bill of rights that I should have had all along. Nope. I’m done fighting. And to me, that is freedom. It is obvious that my word is not important anyway. It is obvious that my life does not matter to those voting in fear, hiding behind religious freedoms that do not specifically affect their personal lives. The best that I can do is step away.

There must be something I’m missing, because the first thought to mind is bitter: “Go tell it to the headstones.”

To the other, many of us hid while others stood the line for us; it is hard to protest the desire to stop fighting and simply live.

There are others who will fill the gap in the line. This isn’t over yet.

Thank you for your service, Mr. Monn; we are all, truly, grateful.

Be well. You helped with the heavy lifting; we’ll take it from here.

And we will stand. We will speak. We will fight. And we will win. And then we can all get on with the business of living.

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Monn, Peter. “How I Will Express My Religious Freedom in Indiana”. The Huffington Post. 24 March 2015.

Patriotism

Figure this one out, if you can:

A man who described himself as a “patriot” confessed to placing homemade bombs in a Georgia park to help people realize “that this type of activity could happen anywhere,” according to court documents obtained by TPM on Tuesday.

Michael Conrade Sibley, a resident of Marietta, Ga. was charged last week in a federal court in Atlanta with attempting to damage federal property ....

.... He said he purchased a backpack at a garage sale and, according to the documents, wrote the name “Mina Khodari” inside the backpack because he said “it looked foreign.”

Along with the bombs, Sibley put print-outs of the Atlanta Falcons’ schedule as well as public transportation timetables and the locations of Marcus Jewish Centers into the backpack because he thought officials would see those as “soft targets,” the documents said.

Sibley told the agents he also placed a copy of the Quran and a book titled “The Rape of Kuwait” in the bag.

Sibley said he placed the bombs in the park because he’s a “patriot.” He said he regretted that people weren’t “paying attention to what was going on (sic) the world” and he wanted to remind people “that this type of activity could happen anywhere,” according to the documents.

(Garcia)

While “patriot” may well be the wrong word to describe Mr. Sibley, the term apparently still has certain benefits. That is to say, Why isn’t this person charged with attempted terrorism?

We might speculate that apparently he’s just not Muslim enough to be a terrorist.

Or, you know, hell, too patriotic an agent provocateur.

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Image note: Police and federal agents investigate a suspicious package at Vickery Creek Park, 4-5 November 2014. (Photo: Duffie Dixon/11 Alive)

Garcia, Ahiza. “‘Patriot’ Allegedly Confesses To Leaving Two Homemade Bombs In Georgia Park”. Talking Points Memo. 24 March 2015.