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Thanksgiving Eve Open

Thanksgiving Eve Open

Happy Thanksgiving Eve.  Here are some things I’ve noticed but have not been able to do separate posts about:

What else?

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[…] Think of how interested Congressional Democrats, extending all the way to the Oval Office, have been in listening to the occupiers on Wall Street and around the country, yet not a single Democrat showed up to hear the ideas of Tea Partiers. Unbelievable! Thanks to Gateway Pundit. Linked at Legal Insurrection – Thank You. with some headlines you may have missed! […]

Excuse me, Perfessor, but why do you have an ad from that loony toons, hate mongering bigot, Alan Grayson(D), on your website?

    William A. Jacobson in reply to locomotivebreath1901. | November 23, 2011 at 10:21 pm

    Where have you been? 🙂 That has been a hot topic here in the comments. I have no control over Google Ads, and if Grayson wants to waste his money here, particularly when people click on it, so be it.

Regarding the TX redistricting, just like in 2000, the Republican legislature redrew the lines in a way that was clearly gerrymandering. I remember telling a fellow conservative Republican that this would never pass a court test and I was right.

In this case, I have not closely examined the new lines but am suspicious that one of the targeted, Lloyd Doggett’s district was redrawn to extend from Austin to San Antonio. This is a stretch to say the least and… and well the court decided another case of gerrymandering.

Republicans should be smarter than that. AFAIC, Doggett needs to go but do it in a fair fight. I’ve never voted for him and yet he’s still around.

Regarding the social conservatives in Iowa, dropping Cain from their core support and yet supporting Gingrich just defies common sense. Cain who has little in the way of excess baggage as opposed to Gingrich who has copious amounts won the support of the Family Leaders organization.

Is there such a thing as the Christian taliban? I’m beginning to think so…

    Midwest Rhino (not RINO) in reply to GrumpyOne. | November 24, 2011 at 9:13 am

    It just depends on the judge … in that case it was a Democrat, so he trumped the Repub’s. Illinois’s 17 was set up by the Dem’s … maybe the most gerrymandered in the country, snaked two thirds of the way across the state to grab just parts of two larger cities. The Democrat judges thought that was just fine. Democrats redid them this year to break up some strong Repub’s … doesn’t snake quite as bad, Repub’s complained to no avail … Dem judges.

      The three-judge panel that denied pre-clearance to the Texas Legislature-drawn maps was comprised of two George W. Bush appointees and one Barack Obama appointee. (2-1, R; You can read their judgement and summary order here: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2011cv1303-106 )

      The three-judge panel that was given the task of redrawing the temporary maps was comprised of one Ronald Reagan appointee, one Bill Clinton appointee and one George W. Bush appointee. (2-1, R.)

        Milhouse in reply to Admonkey. | November 24, 2011 at 11:01 am

        Who appointed a judge is a very poor proxy for the judge’s politics.

          Admonkey in reply to Milhouse. | November 24, 2011 at 11:13 am

          But it’s the best we have and much better than just blindly stating that Texas is a case of a Democrat judge trumping a Republican, based on even less information, don’t you agree?

          Milhouse in reply to Milhouse. | November 24, 2011 at 4:04 pm

          How about judging them by what they do? In this case, these judges are either partisan Democrats, or else race-mongers. Remember that in all the decades that the Ds controlled the TX legislature, and blatantly gerrymandered the map in their favor, they were never checked. But when the Rs finally get their hands on the reins, suddenly the map must be “fair”?!

        Midwest Rhino (not RINO) in reply to Admonkey. | November 24, 2011 at 11:47 am

        OK, I heard wrong .. shoulda checked. But my Illinois story is true, and Gerrymandering still happens blatantly, it seems. Politicians like to choose their voters, it seems.

        Midwest Rhino (not RINO) in reply to Admonkey. | November 24, 2011 at 12:21 pm

        from your link, it seems they decided the legislature didn’t properly consider the racial makeup.

        … the court finds and concludes that the State of Texas used an improper standard or methodology to determine which districts afford minority voters the ability to elect their preferred candidates of choice ….

        Doesn’t this indicate “gerrymandering” based on race is now law? So in this case the court said the lines were not gerrymandered ENOUGH, to favor minorities’ choice. They do not say they were gerrymandered to favor Republicans.

          It depends on what you mean by “now.” It’s been the law of the land since 1965, and for pretty good reason.

          States and counties are able to “bail out” (actual term) of the VRA and its pre-clearance requirement, and all it takes is for a covered jurisdiction to demonstrate nondiscriminatory behavior during the 10 years prior to filing for relief.

          While several jurisdictions throughout the South– including several in Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia– have successfully “bailed out” of the VRA, not a single jurisdiction inside of Texas has been able to show the track record necessary to find relief.

          This latest round of redistricting by the Texas Lege probably won’t help that along much.

          Unfortunately mandated gerrymandering has been the purported “law of the land” since 1965, when the blatantly unconstitutional “Voting Rights Act” was passed. And no, “bailing out” of the system is not easy; “all it takes” is “to demonstrate nondiscriminatory behavior” in the opinion of a blatantly racist DOJ or a panel of racist judges. Those places that managed it probably did so by being taken over by majorities of the “correct” race.

          {{yawn}} @ Milhouse

Keystone pipeline – perfect example of a misguided energy plan. Don’t let us drill here (Macondo), and now the State Department (excuse me???) has taken it to the next level don’t let any pipelines bring in the fuel.

We are NEVER going to free ourselves from OPEC, not with this mentality.

And before any lobotomized Green brainiacs say electricity is what we need, or we need to protect against pollution. Let me say this

1) Every rig I’ve worked or managed has complete zero-discharge systems. There is more oil on the pavement of the Walmart parking lot than what comes off a drilling rig.

2) Pollution – Macondo was an accident – a breakdown of the safety culture on one rig. To judge an entire industry by one accident, wow….that would be the same as condemning your entire neighborhood because somebody in the neighborhood has cancer.

3) Electricity – ever seen an electric airplane? count how many UPS/Fed-Ex packages you receive in one year. Their not delivered on horseback anymore…. airplanes.

4) We don’t need oil? I still haven’t seen a plastic producing tree. From the plastic keyboard you are typing on, to the plastic card you used to pay for the plastic phone, … what was that line in Hoffman’s movie…The future is in plastic?

DocWahala
Today’s Fortune Cookie:
“Purple is for royalty, yellow is for cowards, red reminds you us of love…green…should be the color of idiots”

I’m from the Philadelphia suburbs and as an Eagles fan, I would view a comparison to Michael Vick as a compliment. What he did was bad, yes, but he had his day in court and accepted his punishment. He has expressed remorse for his actions and has devoted himself to proving that he is worthy of the second chance he has been given.

Thanks, SE Cupp, for suggesting that Newt deserves the same consideration.

While I’m here…

I want to wish Professor Jacobson, his readers, and his commenter, a Happy Thanksgiving.

Much to be thankful for…given the right attitude.

Mark Steyn on Gingrich immigration nugget:

In all the Newt immigration stuff, this seems to have gone overlooked:

“Newt is for a local, community review board where local citizens can decide whether or not their neighbors that have come here illegally should find a path to legality, not citizenship,” [Gingrich spokesperson R C Hammond] said. “Two distinctly different things.”

He said it would operate like a World War II draft board. But I asked him whether it would be a problem for local communities to determine legality given that this issue would concern federal law.

“None of this matters until you secure the border,” he said.

I asked him again, though, about how local communities could determine federal law.

“That’s why it’s called reform,” he said.

So the North Podunk Town Meeting could vote to deny you your Green Card but ten miles down the road the burghers of South Podunk could vote to give one to your cousin? That sure sounds like a plan.

It’s a tribute to Mitt Romney’s soporific caution and Herman Cain’s blithe indifference to the bit on the map marked Rest of the World that Newt is now what passes for the GOP’s deep thinker.

— Ouch! —

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/284069/village-green-card-mark-steyn

    William A. Jacobson in reply to mdw9661. | November 24, 2011 at 8:20 am

    I don’t like the local board concept either, but it is not as foolish as people like Steyn present. Just like with draft boards, there would be a set of standards and criteria they would have to follow. Draft boards could not simply draft someone because they didn’t like the person, or at least they should not have. This is the equivalent of leaving some aspects of immigration enforcement to the states — something conservatives seem to like — with federal law setting the guidelines. It reflects badly on Steyn and others making fun of the concept that they are so shallow that they prefer to disregard the concept rather than try to understand it.

The Death Panels cometh:

A Neurosurgeon Calls In To The Mark Levin Show About Death Panels From Obamacare and HHS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKRsBSTgprU

Patients (especially age 70 and older) are referred to as “units” – not people.

To modify my previous comment, the actual YouTube title is

Mark Levin, a Neurosurgeon Calls In About Death Panels Fron Obamacare and HHS

I changed the title a bit to clarify what the video is about.

StephenMonteith | November 24, 2011 at 2:24 am

S.E. Cupp is one of the brightest young thinkers in the conservative movement, and I’m not saying that because she applauded Romney’s performance in the debate. She’s appeared on any number of news programs, both conservative and “mainstream”, and her writing has appeared in many conservative newspapers and publications. Even though she’s an atheist, she penned a defense of Christianity called “Losing Our Religion”, which everyone should read, as well as her book “Why You’re Wrong About the Right”. She’s an excellent writer, and brought up a number of fair and important points in the link you provided.

    William A. Jacobson in reply to StephenMonteith. | November 24, 2011 at 7:19 am

    I knew who she was, I was being facetious. Her name calling revealed her to be nothing more than petty, much like Rubin. She didn’t make any substantive points, she just expressed her hatred of Newt. The notion that he has not been aopologetic for his past personal issues or that he has no substance whatsoever and just likes to hear himself talk is a joke on her credibitility. What is it with the Romney supporters in the media, more and more of them seem to substitute name calling for meaningful criticism.

      That is because Romney has devolved into a perpetual campaigner for the White House. I can discern no central premise to his efforts other than to capture the prize. He allows strategy to usurp principles – that’s the “Don’t like my principles? Wait, I have others!” aspect to Romney.

      Which is a shame because we know him to be a good man: a good business man, a good family man, a devout man, an extremely intelligent and well educated man. But he seems to have lost sight of the forest for the trees.

      I do not find myself wanting to passionately take up his cause, however, I will vote for him if he is the nominee. There is no possibility that he (or any other American now living) could be worse for the health and well being of this nation than Obama.

      He may just surprise us once he gets into office should he win. To bring an entrepreneur’s spirit to bear upon our seemingly insurmountable problems would be refreshing. It would be a blessing not to have to hear about the efforts of our president every single day in the news, and in the case of the current president, groan in pain at the thrusts of his dagger.

workingclass artist | November 24, 2011 at 7:07 am

Happy Thanksgiving

There is now a ten thousand dollar fine for doctors who do not place orders for hospice care in their cancer patients charts. That care noticeably shortens cancer patients survival rates. Not a death panel? Yeah keep believing that.
Also imagine if any repubs’ court nominees were held by the ABA to be unqualified in these numbers? There would be calls for impeachment echoing in democrat precincts and the pres would be viciouly lampooned by the news and entertainment shows. But tis story will be buried by the libmedia eager to protect their affirmative action pres from criticism.