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Open Thread

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This is the Open Thread for the Bird’s Eye View Contest below. Please don’t leave any non-contest comments in that post. They WILL be deleted.

Bird’s Eye View Contest – 2013 Year End

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Last week’s contest was won by milwhcky. It was the store in San Jose where one of the winning Mega Millions tickets was sold.

This week is the 5th week in December and last weekend of the year. As followers of this contest know, when I do the monthly news events, I try not to select news events that are particularly depressing. Sometimes I can’t avoid it because that’s what a lot of the news is, but for the most part, I’ve avoided selecting one of the many deadly shootings that occur in this country every damn day. So last year at this time, in order to highlight just how common these occur, I did a roundup of views that were related to mass shootings.

This year, I’m highlighting another horrible aspect of our nation’s ridiculous obsession with guns. All six locations below are related to a shooting where a child under the age of 5 was accidentally killed by a gun in 2013. As someone who has two kids under the age of 5, I can’t even fathom how stupid you have to be to allow something like this to happen to your own child, but it happens almost weekly. So again, forgive the morbidity of this week’s contest, but this is something that shouldn’t be so damn common.

Notes:
1 – All views are default orientation (up is north)
2 – The “no political comments” rule will be strictly enforced in this thread, there will be an Open Thread posted at 12:01pm that you may weigh in on the larger subject of gun control (or whatever else you want)

A

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HA Bible Study

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2 Kings 2:23-24

Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!”

So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the LORD. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.

Discuss.

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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Young Turks: Edward Snowden declares, “Mission Accomplished”.

White House: Favorite GIFs of 2013.

Top ten things FAUX decided will lead to the “Wussification of America” in 2013 (via Media Matters).

Newsy: Poll finds 113th is the worst Congress ever.

Maddow: The Koch brothers now funding & “polluting” Florida State University:

Michael Brooks and Michelle Goldberg: The Right’s war on “White trash” the the poor.

Holiday Residual:

David Pakman: Obamacare signups soar.

The GOP’s most terrible Christmas gift.

Sam Seder: Why don’t we have universal health care?

Young Turks: Alan Turing is pardoned.

How the conservative media treated women in 2013 (via Media Matters).

Newsy: NSA phone metadata collection ruled unconstitutional and then ruled constitutional.

Women to watch for 2014.

Sharpton: Cartoon combatant Sarah Palin defends racist ‘Duck Dynasty’ star.

The Jibjab 2013 Year in Review.

Pontificating on the Pope:

Sam Seder: The Tea Party is just the Republican base.

Why a “do nothing” congress? Republican nutjobbers blame Obama.

Photos found from photographer killed in Mt. St. Helens blast.

Lawrence O’Donnell: The “teaching moment” in Duck-Dynasty racism and homophobia.

Matt Binder: After children die in tornado, GOP still blocks tornado shelters by cutting taxes.

David Pakman: Congress ends least productive year in recent history.

Sharpton: The “bully bridge politics” of N.J. Gov. Chris Christie.

Climate Change Chump Change:

Lawrence O’Donnell: Debate about opting out of health insurance:

Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: A trip to the Creation Museum.

Young Turks: Tea Party happily uses poster mocking them in popular video game.

Newsy: Obama looks ahead for 2014.

David Pakman: 13 states raising minimum wage in 2014.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Open Thread 12/27

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I haven’t done an Open Thread in like a week. Rather than collecting links, I’ve been not doing that, but here goes:

– Too big to jail sounds like a facile little slogan but it appears to be completely accurate

– Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) Signups/Applications (h/t to my friend R)

– Cascadian politics and how we vote in a primary around here

– In a few years when gay marriage is just “marriage”, there’s going to be a reckoning.

– The White Center food bank needs volunteers.

– The Life’s Not Fair doctrine

Today In Bullshit Links

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Give Senator Don Benton this: He is an asshole. No, give him this: He was able to get a non-story into the news. Anyway start with his Christmas Eve press release

Senator Don Benton of Vancouver said he wants an audit of Planned Parenthood following accusations of fraudulent Medicaid billing.

Oh gosh. That sounds serious. “Accusations” must be a government office. What it couldn’t be — because it would be embarrassing even to the credibility challenged GOP — is a random group with the fake grassrootsiest name in the history of organizations.

He called for the investigation after a group called The Alliance Defending Freedom accused Planned Parenthood of over-billing Medicaid and the state of Washington at least 50,000 times, costing the state $337 million.

Oh. I’m not including Benton’s link to it here, but he links to the group, who are doing some year end fundraising. He doesn’t link to the “accusation” just to their front page fundraising page.* I just looked around the page, but this ostensible millions of dollars in fraud, this supposed bombshell, this major revelation of fraud, wasn’t easy to find. I’m sure it’s on their website, somewhere, but it wasn’t obvious to me. There is a lot of complaining about the war on Christmas, so there’s that.

So a group nobody has ever heard of makes inflammatory accusations, and they’re repeated by Senator Benton who demands an audit. This is a Senator who is so concerned with the public money that he took a make work job for his off time (Columbian link), so you know he’s serious.

Anyway, the press release ends with a link to what looks like a real news org picking it up. Jesus, your liberal media.

[Read more…]

Troubled bridge over waters

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In recent Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganzas, I’ve posted a couple of videos discussing the growing scandal for G.O.P. “pretty boy”, Gov. Chris Christie. The scandal is about alleged political retribution that resulted in delays for, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of drivers by jamming up the George Washington Bridge.

The scandal that started out looking like “meh” (to me) seems to be getting worse by the day, and recently took another serious turn.

The question is whether this is Gov. Christie’s Katrina or merely Christie’s Benghazi. Either way, popcorn stocks should be trending upward for the foreseeable future.

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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Cillizza: Who do Americans blame for the economy?

Jon: Then…who is conservative enough?

Sharpton: The Wingnutosphere’s new punching bag—pajamaboy.

2013 Remembered:

Jon on John Boehner.

Thom: Here’s the Jim Jones Kool-Aid the GOP is Serving:

Stephen reads Sen. Ted Cruz’s coloring book.

Michael Brooks: Chris Christie is the biggest political gimmick in America.

Thom: Boeing vs. Machinists.

David Pakman: Marco Rubio signs up!

Steve Kornacki : Which U.S. President had the worst 5 years ever?

Stephen on Duck Dynasty stuff (via Crooks and Liars).

Spyin’

Why divest from fossil fuels?

Mark Fiore: Jesus rebranded.

Obama holds a presser.

Jon says goodbye to John.

Thom: Are Obama haters worse than Bush haters?

Maddow: FLASHBACK to when ‘Hoosier-Daddy’ Rep. Dan Burton claimed Clinton murdered WH aid.

Top 10 Races of 2014 (continued):

Pap and Ed: Republican voter fraud witch hunt continues.

Daily Show: Hunger USA.

American Minute: Selfies and handshakes.

David Pakman: Colin Powell calls for universal health care.

White House: West Wing Week.

Immigration advocates warn of political fallout.

Winter Holiday Themes:

Sam Seder and Digby: How blogging changed progressive politics.

Pap and Ed: Republicans fear the teachings of Jesus.

Young Turks: FAUX’s Duck Dynasty Hypocrisy.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Open Thread 12/20

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– The (Catholic High School) kids are all right.

– Linda Thomas’ goodbye to KIRO and Cienna Madrid’s goodbye to Stranger readers.

– I’m glad the city is looking into ways to not discourage marijuana tourism, but I find it a bit odd that it’s coming from the City Attorney’s office.

– Phil Robertson’s America

– Civilization doesn’t have to be a casino.

– At least it doesn’t have fucking video ads.

– I wold totally play about 8 of these, if given the chance.

– Holy shit were bus drivers awesomesauce this morning.

– I imagine my posting will be lighter than usual in the next few weeks, but really, your reading will be lighter, so it all balances out.

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