Creatures of the Nahm……Shut Up!

From the Washington Post:

A three-judge state panel convened to review an election contest brought by former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in his race against entertainer Al Franken (D) has dealt the Republican a serious setback in its ruling this afternoon.

The panel will allow the consideration of only 400 wrongly rejected absentee ballots to be reviewed and possibly counted — making it very difficult for Coleman to make up the 225-vote deficit he currently carries. (Here’s the full ruling.)

As noted at C&L:

Norm Coleman is doing everything he can to screw the Minnesota population by not throwing in the towel and giving the good voters of Minnesota a representative in the Senate and that man is Al Franken. But in all this legal rigamarole and hocus pocus they are using, why are the media ignoring this story? It’s unfathomable. It’s as if there was no election and one is not needed. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that they uninterested because it’s a Republican obstructing the issue.

Ya think?  Hopefully Olbermann and/or Maddow will say something tonite.

Maryland Doesn’t Allow Trans People to Sue for Employment Discrimination But Will Allow a ‘Resurrection Clause’ in a Plea Bargain

From CNN:

A Maryland woman involved with a group described as a religious cult pleaded guilty in the starvation death of her son, but insisted that the charges be dropped when he is resurrected.

I’m sorry.  I can’t quote any more of it.

I guess it is a good thing that this didn’t happen in Louisiana.  The governor probably would have included time off for good exorcisms.

An Open Letter to Joe Solmonese, Barney Frank, Eric Cantor, John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell and Michelle Bachmann

And Supporting This Guy is Our ‘Good War’

From The Independent:

Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, has signed a law which “legalises” rape, women’s groups and the United Nations warn. Critics claim the president helped rush the bill through parliament in a bid to appease Islamic fundamentalists ahead of elections in August.

In a massive blow for women’s rights, the new Shia Family Law negates the need for sexual consent between married couples, tacitly approves child marriage and restricts a woman’s right to leave the home, according to UN papers seen by The Independent.

“It is one of the worst bills passed by the parliament this century,” fumed Shinkai Karokhail, a woman MP who campaigned against the legislation. “It is totally against women’s rights. This law makes women more vulnerable.”

…

Article 132 requires women to obey their husband’s sexual demands and stipulates that a man can expect to have sex with his wife at least “once every four nights” when travelling, unless they are ill. The law also gives men preferential inheritance rights, easier access to divorce, and priority in court.

A report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women, Unifem, warned: “Article 132 legalises the rape of a wife by her husband”.

And, of course, Rush Viagarabaugh will decry the women who speak out against this as Femi-Nazis and Coultergeist will say its the women’s fault for not fighting the men (you know…the job that we were supposed to have done several years ago; oh wait…the men who are doing this are the ones we were supporting…never mind.)  And both will say that its an Islamic problem not a problem with religion in general – ignoring that the general purpose of the law (making sure that no act be a husband can legally constitute rape) is not necessarily a step back into the 12th Century but, in most of the United States, only a step back into the 1950s.

OK…When I’m Wrong, I’m Wrong

Not college students, but…

WOMEN!

I shit you not.  Here are choice excerpts from the original piece in question:

The damage caused by the 19th amendment was slow in its destruction, but after almost 100 years we can now see how complete the destruction really was.

The result of the 19th amendment has been the ascension to power by the same kind of Marxists Ronald Reagen defeated from the Soviet Union. The weapon of destruction was not a nuclear warhead though, it was an emotional outburst that melted the brains of logic.

Of course, once the Freepers get hold of something like that, it only gets better – like lead-tainted back-yard-still-alcohol from diseased corn.

• Neither the treasonous, impeached, bent-crank, violent rapist nor the MARXIST MUSLIM KENYAN would have been given the keys to the White House were it not for the Womyn vote
• I agree about the 19th Amendment. Because women have the vote, we get idiots like Bill Clinton who “feels your pain” and Stuttering Barack Oteleprompter the pretty-boy descendant of slaveowners and muslim slavetraders.That said, I believe women should be allowed to run for office. A woman who can make it in a man’s world (ie, Golda Meir, Maggie Thatcher, Sarah Palin, etc.) is worthy of getting a man’s vote. Sounds hypocritical, but it’s no worse than Albore jetting around the world preaching to us about our carbon footprint.
• My wife has always asked who she should vote for and I am always happy to give such advice and the reasons why. She is now reading Mark Levin’s new book. She rarely misses Rush or “The Great one” on radio. So, I am glad women have the vote because now I get to vote twice.

Leave it to the Freepers to sound even crazier when one of them technically defends the right to vote.

Next Up For Republicans: Stopping College Students From Voting

OK – they didn’t actually say that, but I suggest reading between the lines in this item about voting demographics in the Gainesville, Florida, election which rejected the christofasist-led, anti-trans referendum:

In the central University of Florida voting precinct, almost seven times more voters turned out for Tuesday’s city election than in the last stand-alone election – a majority of whom opposed the controversial amendment to Gainesville’s anti-discrimination ordinance.

…

“This was kind of something that we expected,” said Stafford Jones, head of the Alachua County Republican Party. “One of the things that people who were against Amendment 1 were able to do, was very quickly and easily draw on the student population, just as they did with the Wild Places Public Spaces sales tax.”

In November, a half-cent sales tax that will fund land conservation and recreation projects in Alachua County was approved in large part due to the high student turnout for the presidential election.

“The point is that probably a lot of students went and voted (against Amendment 1) that aren’t going to be around in four years to have to deal with it,” Jones said, referring to his public safety concern. “There is a sentiment in the community that, like the sales tax, local citizens are going to pay for this.”

The unstated solution: make sure that yet another class of people is disenfranchised.  Its generally worked quite well in Waller County, Texas, where the otherwise white county has made a tradition of erecting barriers to the ballot for students at predominately-African American Prairie View A&M University.

21st Century Republicans know that they can’t win on any of their christofascist issues via honest discussion of them.  Sometimes – as they tried to do in Gainesville (but have successfully done elsewhere) – they do manage to get over by lying about what the issue is.

When all else fails?  Just make sure that Democrats can’t vote.

‘Gay Marriage’ Does NOT Equal ‘GLBT’

Edge has a puff piece pimping the gay marriage industry. In and of itself, I really don’t have a problem with the article’s substance.  Its title:

New England states lead the charge for gay marriage

However, over at Pam’s, there’s a posting highlighting the Edge piece.  Its title?

New England: Leading The Way On LGBT Rights

The Edge piece seems to count New Jersey as part of New England.  I’m more used to seeing New England as consiting of MA, CT, RI,  VT, NH and ME – not exactly a stellar list when it comes to trans rights.  Maine?  No complaint.  Rhode Island and Vermont?  Eventually removed the special right of gays and lesbians to discriminate against trans people.  The rest?  The might as well all be the Janice Raymond Empire.

Rhymes With Pat?

Check out the posting at Pam’s to find out why the pictured person is an asshole (I think there should be little debate.)

My question, though: Male? Or female?

I’m just askin’.

Rhymes With Scum (or Scam…Take Your Pick)

More on that paragon of Republican virtue: Nahm Coleman:

The former finance chief of a Texas company controlled by Nasser Kazeminy, a close friend of former Sen. Norm Coleman, said in a deposition last week that Kazeminy ordered $100,000 in fees be paid to a Minneapolis insurance agency where Coleman’s wife was employed.

…

Doug Kelley, Norm Coleman’s attorney, said Wednesday that no matter how much money Deep Marine paid to Hays, “I can assure you that not a penny found its way to Laurie Coleman or Senator Norm Coleman. Period. End of story.”

Uh huh…

And I suppose that’s a Minnesota accent that Nahm speaks with too, eh Dougie?

Use the Parse, Luke

A comment by Zoe Brain over at the Bilerico thread about the Rhode Island Avenue Cesspool’s latest pronouncement:

It’s the policy of HRC that the organization will only support an inclusive ENDA.

…. but won’t oppose an exclusive one. Message received and understood. No change in policy, that’s what was said initially in 2007 too, just before they went even further.

When Jabba the HRC speaks, we must not simply parse every paragraph and every sentence, but every word – and not simply every word that is there, but every word that isn’t there.