HorsesAss.Org

Another married Republican politician is caught trolling for sex on the intertubes (via Gawker):

Rep. Christopher Lee is a married Republican congressman serving the 26th District of New York. But when he trolls Craigslist’s “Women Seeking Men” forum, he’s Christopher Lee, “divorced” “lobbyist” and “fit fun classy guy.” One object of his flirtation told us her story.
[…]

By modern day standards, the conversation was relatively banal: No prostitutes, escorts, or madams were involved. Just good old fashioned lying and an apparent willingness to cheat on one’s wife.

The woman says she cut off contact when she searched for Lee online and concluded he’d lied about his age and occupation. Then she forwarded us the correspondence.

Lying, willingness to break his marriage vows…and sheer stupidity! Seriously…the dude didn’t even change his name and then sends the woman a topless photo of himself. Was he trying to create a public scandal?

Perhaps there is something about diaper fetishes that gives unfaithful Republicans the courage to not resign in the humiliation of a public scandal. But Rep. Lee is no Sen. Vitter. Rather, he’s now former Rep. Christopher John Lee.

Update: Hellooooo Carl Paladino! (Via Swing State Project.)

So, last weekend I called up Goldy to ask how the new job was going. I was, shall I say, a bit underwhelmed by the volume of Goldy bylines on Slog.

“Look…”, I said, “Paul Constant, the freaking book editor, is kicking your ass in number of posts.”

“Yeah…well there was a lot of paperwork on Wednesday…”

Then Goldy intimated that he hardly had time to post because he was working on some “longer pieces.” It sounded plausible, but I had some lingering doubts.

Perhaps getting up in the morning, getting dressed up for work (you know, putting on a pinstripe navy blue blazer and chaps), and heading to the office was really hard for Goldy—it messed up his head for writing. Or maybe he was rendered dysfunctional all afternoon because he couldn’t take his mid-day nap. Who knows.

Well my doubts have been allayed for the time being. Today’s edition of The Stranger contain a news piece by Goldy entitled “The Welfare State”:

When our state’s rural Republicans toss around pejoratives like “socialism,” “redistribution of wealth,” and “welfare state,” they’re usually hurling them at the People’s Republic of Seattle and the Democratic legislators we send to Olympia. As a commenter on the Spokane Spokesman-Review’s website recently carped: “Eastern Washington… has always been shorted/slighted where state expenditures are concerned! Nearly to the point that we don’t exist!”
[…]

However, the money is not exactly moving in the direction most Eastern Washingtonians suspect.

Goldy pulls together some pieces he has blogged on over the past weeks to nail an important and under-appreciated point:

The irony here is not that those who benefit most from state spending are paying the least; that’s kinda the way these things are supposed to work. No, the irony is that those rural communities that are most dependent on the state—whose roads and schools and other essential public services couldn’t possibly be maintained without generous state subsidies—are also those least likely to vote for the tax dollars necessary to sustain these services.

So…with a 1 kiloword news piece in the print edition, I guess Goldy has done alright for week one. I’ll be generous and give him a B+.

But, geez, Goldy, for week two? At least try to keep up with the book guy.

Via TPM:

Failed GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell is back, and she’s telling supporters she wants her newly formed political action committee ChristinePAC to “investigate and counter attack leftwing groups.”

O’Donnell, who wrote that her losing campaign sent “shockwaves” throughout the nation, said in an e-mail to supporters Tuesday that her group will look into the groups “funded with one million dollars or more from billionaire leftist George Soros.”

Ya know, it sounds to me like Ms. O’Donnell is on some kind of witch hunt.

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E.. We start at 8:00 pm, and sometimes even earlier for dinner.

And now we learn the Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the new head of the House energy committee, denies a role for man in climate change. For tonight’s DL roundtable chat, we will ponder the question, “just how many of these stoopid fucking anti-science shit-fer-brains Wingdings are there out there, anyway?”

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 211 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

This morning was the hearing on House Bill 1550, the bill that would remove penalties for adult marijuana use and set up a distribution system similar to hard liquor. I was able to watch part of the hearing on TVW this morning and also heard this part that Eli Sanders recounts:

The question that’s always asked about this idea—How can a state legalize pot when the feds have declared it illegal?—was articulated this morning by Rep. Christopher Hurst (D-Enumclaw), who warned that if Washington starts selling cannabis through the state liquor store system, as the bill proposes, “Our state employees will be going to federal prison and the federal government will seize every penny we bring in.”

It’s a very inventive scenario, but not a realistic one. What’s much more likely to happen is that if Washington passes this bill, the federal government would immediately try to block the implementation of the regulatory aspects through the courts. And if they failed to block it that way, I find it incredibly unrealistic that they’d respond by sending DEA agents into a state liquor store, arresting the cashier and sending him to jail. As I’ve written before about this, there’s a point where interfering with a state’s laws is far too politically radioactive.

Hurst pointed out that people are still getting arrested and jailed, almost certainly referring to this case, but the defendant in that case was believed to be in violation of Colorado’s laws as well. The closest we’ve come to Hurst’s nightmare scenario is probably the case of Charlie Lynch. That case was so egregious that even the judge spoke out about how unjust it was that Lynch would have to serve jail time. But that arrest took place during the Bush Administration. The Obama Administration has since decreed that folks like Lynch – who was following state law – would no longer be prosecuted.

We’re certainly dealing with a lot of unknowns here. It’s not clear what happens to successful legislation that removes the state penalties for marijuana possession and sale but whose regulatory aspects are successfully blocked by the federal government. What you’d end up with is legalized marijuana but no ability to regulate its production and sale. Does the federal government really want to be responsible for that outcome? I doubt it, and that might make the state immune from any attempt by the feds to block the regulatory aspects of this legislation. But that’s a logical analysis, and if there’s anything I’ve learned about the war on marijuana, it’s that you shouldn’t expect drug warriors to act logically.

It’s a tough lesson when you attach a knife to your cock and end up getting stabbed in the calf and dying.

That’s exactly what happened to a man in California, who armed his cock…that is, his rooster, with a fighting knife.

The man had a prior conviction for “owning or training an animal for fighting.” Apparently, he didn’t learn his lesson. The rooster gave him another.

I think the more general lesson is that, in a world where karma can be a bitch, sometimes karma’s a cock.

There is something ideological amiss in this (via Seattlepi.com):

Ruling against a suit brought by the Building Industry Association of Washington, a federal judge on Monday upheld the state of Washington’s 2009 energy efficiency building code.

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan rejected the BIAW’s claim that the code conflicted with federal law. The code sets energy efficiency requirements for new homes, and is designed to reduce energy use and the energy bills of Washington households.

The BIAW sued Washington over energy standards that, they claim, exceeded the Federal regulations. But shouldn’t the BIAW be suing the Feds, claiming that energy efficiency is a States’ Rights issue?

Huh…these Wingnuts are hard to figger-out sometimes.

Several school and fire districts across the state are having levy and bond elections Tuesday. If you live somewhere holding an election, your ballot should have come in the mail a while ago. You can check what districts are holding elections for King County here. I couldn’t fine a statewide list, but will happily add one if someone knows about it.

I think Mason Crosby will win this one for the Packers with a late field goal. Throw out your wild predictions here.

Last week’s contest was won by wes.in.wa. It was Providence, RI.

This week’s location is also random. Good luck!

Matthew 5:31-32
“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Discuss.

The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has had the force of international law since mid-1987. The U.S. joined the club by signing it in 1988. The treaty received ratification in 1994. This treaty is, under Article VI paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the “supreme Law of the Land.”

Convention (Article 1) prohibits torture, defined as:

…any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.

The treaty grants NO exceptions to the prohibition on Torture…not even under the “Ticking Time Bomb” scenario (from Article II):

(2) No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.

One of my disappointments with the Obama administration has been a lack of prosecution for those who justified, authorized, and undertook torture. The lack of action wasn’t unexpected…just disappointing.

So we have alleged criminals living free: the “deciders” George W. Bush (who has, remarkably, confessed to authorizing waterboarding in his autobiography) and Dick Cheney, the “justifiers” like Professor John Yoo and Judge Jay Bybee, and those who actually administered torture.

There may never be domestic prosecutions of these alleged criminals, but at least for the highest profile of the alleged criminals, there is now more to fear while traveling outside the U.S. than being hit in the face with a shoe (via Reuters):

Former President George W. Bush has canceled a visit to Switzerland, where he was to address a Jewish charity gala, due to the risk of legal action against him for alleged torture, rights groups said on Saturday.

Bush was to be the keynote speaker at Keren Hayesod’s annual dinner on February 12 in Geneva. But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the Alpine country.

Criminal complaints against Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials say.

The fact is Switzerland has no choice but to consider prosecution. As a signatory to the Convention, Switzerland is bound by Article 5:

Each State Party shall likewise take such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over such offences in cases where the alleged offender is present in any territory under its jurisdiction and it does not extradite him pursuant to article 8 to any of the States mentioned in Paragraph 1 of this article.

So George Bush cannot travel much outside of the U.S., except, apparently, to Canada…seems like a pretty trivial punishment for committing crimes against humanity.

The punishment could be much worse. As John McCain pointed out in 2007:

…some Japanese were tried and hanged for torturing American prisoners during World War II with techniques that included waterboarding.

“There should be little doubt from American history that we consider [waterboarding] as torture otherwise we wouldn’t have tried and convicted Japanese for doing that same thing to Americans….”

I’ve been posting these things on Hominid Views every Friday night since late May of 2006, but now that Goldy has gone Big Time, I guess they can go here. Enjoy!

Newsy: Mandatory gun bill in South Dakota.

The Full Ginsburg: Eric Cantor balances the budget:

Egypt:

• Ann Telnaes: Time for President Obama to let go.
• Newsy: Anderson Cooper and crew attacked in Egypt
• Ann Telnaes: Muburak’s body language.
• Mark Fiore: Autocrat action figures.
• Stephen: Egyptian people ask Anderson Cooper to step down… (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Ann Telnaes: Mubrack won’t seek reelection, but won’t resign.
• Maddow: The whole world is still watching.
• John Bolton Tells Greta ‘El Baradei Is A Dilettante’ (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Cenk: Conservatives bringing Sharia law to America!!!
• Newsy: Is wider Arab revolt a media creation?
• Rove: Egyptians are more Western then the rest of them Arab heretics. (via TalkingPointsMemo)
• Cenk and Will Bunchponder the right’s increasingly nutty attacks on President Obama (via Crooks and Liars).
• Obama speaks on Egypt.

Jon does Bill Gates (via TalkingPointsMemo).

ONN: al Qaeda populating U.S. with peaceful decoy Muslims.

Bush for Gay Marriage:

• Newsy: Barbara Bush for marriage equality.
• Young Turks: Barbara Bush for marriage equality.
• Tina Dupuy: Watch that grammar!

Greenman: What the ice cores tell us:

Cenk: Sarah Palin on “Mr. Caribou” and guns.

Jon does Michael Steele and Michael Steele (via Political Wire).

Glenn Beck…Cracking Up:

• Young Turks: Glenn Beck’s insane ‘Marxist–Communist’ theory.
• Young Turks: Glenn Beck’s crazy Muslim Caliphate conspiracy.
• Glenn Beck doubles down on crazy (via Crooks and Liars).
• Sam Seder explains Glenn Beck.
• Cenk: Who writes Glenn’s checks?
• Even some Neocons think Beck is a “panic monger” (via Crooks and Liars).

Newsy: “Top Gun” footage in Chinese military drill video.

Sam Seder: Move over John Edwards…National Enquirer fingers John Boehner for extramarital affair:

ONN: Congressman caught “horsing around”.

Stephen does Dr. Paul Offit (vaccine book author) (via OneGoodMove).

Sarah on rumors that Todd hangs out with hookers (via Mediaite).

Cenk: The very crazy week in Republican “Ideas”.

Rape to Republicans:

• Jon and Kristen Schaal on new definitions of rape (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Cenk: Republicans try to redefine “rape”.

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

Via The Wall Street Journal:

Like father, like son. Libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) is known in the House as a frequenter lone dissenter on bills. Today, his son, freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), voiced the only “nay” vote on a measure that outlaws aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft.

The vote shows a stunning lack of vision…coming from a opthamologist (albeit one who is self-certified).