I’ll just quote this wonderful woman’s post up to a point. It’s hard to know when to stop, because Juanita Jean is so wonderful…
April 30, 2012
Breaking News. Good news. Texas cannot exclude Planned Parenthood from the Women’s Health Program. It’s un-freekin-constitutional.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge on Monday stopped Texas from preventing Planned Parenthood from getting state funds through the Women’s Health Program.
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin ruled there is sufficient evidence that a law banning Planned Parenthood from the program is unconstitutional. He imposed an injunction against enforcing it until he can hear full arguments.
This surprises exactly no one, outside of the fundamentalist-evangelical-plus-Catholic right wing of the GOP. Then again, those folks are surprised when they wake up in the morning and find that the rest of us have not been transported bodily to Hell overnight for our wicked ways…
Paul Krugman follows Timothy Noah in noting that Citizens United has made America not so much a corporatocracy as a “crankocracy” … a government by oddball billionaires who form super PACs of their own. Krugman points out that the crankocracy has been going on “for decades,” not with formerly illegal campaign contributions but with think tanks, comfy positions between jobs for politicians and their families, etc. Krugman summarizes it this way:
For what the money of rich cranks does is ensure that bad ideas never go away — indeed, they can gain strength even as they fail in practice again and again. The notion that wonderful things happen if you cut taxes on the rich and terrible things happen if you raise them has a stronger hold than ever on the GOP, despite the experience of the Clinton tax hike and the Bush tax cut. Climate denialism gains force even as the planet warms. And so on.
And now a hand-picked Supreme Court (to which Obama’s contributions have made no difference in the balance of power) has handed the keys to the Ferrari to the senescent “teenagers” of the American family. Buckle up; here comes the crash…
… and I’d say that calling for Frank’s (and Chris Dodd’s) imprisonment is pretty offensive.
Newt really, really needs new hair, and I’d think he could afford it. Maybe he could trade some of his trophy wife’s Tiffany jewelry for a better toupée.
Seattle has its own superhero, who goes around in an appropriate costume and tries to prevent crimes or stop them in progress. Or maybe, depending on who you ask, he just pepper-sprays people to stir up excitement. Or maybe both.
Either way, the guy is nuttier than a bowl of snack mix at a Halloween party. And I’ll wager that if he keeps it up, somebody’s going to get hurt, and sadly enough, it may not be the superhero. I loved superheroes when I was a small child, reading comic books during recess at school on rainy days because I was not allowed to have them at home. But most adults manage to distinguish fantasy and reality. Law enforcement, the real thing, not citizen persecution by NYPD’s white-shirts, is not for amateurs… and superheroes are best left in the pages of comic books and in occasional movies.
UPDATE: Allegedly Stupidman is more stupid even than anticipated: he has been arrested for allegedly pepper-spraying four people outside a nightclub.
TPM:
Michele Bachmann: Earthquake, Irene Were A Wake Up Call From God For Politicians
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Speaking to a crowd in Florida over the weekend, Bachmann said the historic earthquake and massive hurricane that rocked the East Coast last week was a message that God is upset with the way politicians in Washington have been doing things. The interview with the St. Petersburg Times grabbed the quote:
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“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”
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OK, Michele, we get the idea. Let’s all sing, to the tune of “The Bear Went Over the Mountain” …
The nut came outta the wood-work;
The nut came outta the wood-work;
The nut came outta the wood-work…
To say what she could say.
To say what she could say;
To say what she could say;
The nut came outta the wood-work…
To say what she could say.
“It’s God that’s shreddin’ the wood-work;
It’s God that’s shreddin’ the wood-work;
It’s God that’s shreddin’ the wood-work…”
That’s all the nut could say.
That’s all the nut could say.
That’s all the nut could say.
“It’s God that’s shreddin’ the wood-work…”
That’s all the nut could say.
If God speaks to Michele Bachmann, not in that still, small voice but in earthquakes and hurricanes, the last thing we need is for her to become President of the United States. For one thing, we haven’t got the budget for the cleanup!
