Day: August 12, 2010
Ennumerati
60 percent
— The share of Americans who say that the Congress is either below average or one of the worst ever — the highest percentage in the history of the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Verbatim
I kind of think she might be too good looking to go to jail.
— Sen. John McCain, defending Jersey Shore’s Snooki Polizzi on KMLE radio in Phoenix regarding recent her arrest for disorderly conduct, even though Snooki is unlikely to face any jail time for her drunken tirade against the cops.
Judge Whiffs Ruling on Gay Marriage Stay – Will Be Lifted on Aug. 18, But That Gives Haters Time to Reinstate Stay
Update 3: 12:39 MSNBC is reporting that Judge Vaughn Walker has whiffed his stay. It will be lifted on Aug. 18, but that gives opponents plenty of time to find a court that will re-impose the stay. However, since the state is not opposing the judge’s ruling, there is a question about whether the private hate groups who support Prop 8 have legal standing to seek an appeal.
Update 3: 12:38 Source: Gay Marriage Ruled Legal in California.
Update 2: 12:31 Sites reporting that stay has been lifted and marriages can resume.
Update: 12:26 p.m. Twitter feeds say crowds are cheering outside the courthouse in San Francisco where the ruling will be announced.
Maddow Returns Gibbs’ Friendly Fire, Devotes Show to Military Careers Destroyed by DADT
It’s the hubris, stupid.
Ennumerati
10 Female, 18 Male
— The number of Republican primary candidate endorsements by Sarah Palin, by gender. Despite her “Mama Grizzlies” tour, Palin has endorsed more men and has publicly declined to endorse two Republican women — Lisa Murkowski and Jane Norton.
Slide On, Steve
We can sympathize with Stephen Slater.
Air travel will get to you, sooner or later.
It takes chutzpah and aplomb
To shout out the F-bomb
And still come off as a hero, not a hater.
GOP ‘Party of No’ Gambit Backfires — Voter Approval of Republicans at an All-Time Low
From the moment Pres. Obama took office, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the rest of the GOP leadership in Congress have engaged in a high-risk, gridlock-on-steroids strategy — a level of obstructionism that is unparalleled in U.S. history, particularly including a record-breaking number of filibusters in the Senate.
How bad is it for congressional Republicans? They’re even lagging behind Sarah Palin, whose approval rate is just 29 percent.
Their “party of no” strategy has been effective in two ways. First, they have used obstructionism to weaken legislation to protect the profits of their corporate donors. They have done this by sucker-punching the president and the Democrats on every major bill — first by threatening to vote no unless the particulars of the legislation were changed to benefit corporations and then by voting resoundingly against the bill anyway, despite getting everything they demanded.
That second part — the lockstep voting, gridlock-on-steroids tactic — was intended to slow things down unnecessarily as a way to frustrate voters who, more than anything, wanted to see progress in solving the multiple crises the country is facing. This was an especially neat trick because attentive voters were surely aware that the crises were caused by these same Republican senators and House members rubberstamping the Bush anti-regulatory, anti middle-class agenda when they controlled Congress the last time.
Frustrating voters with gridlock is a tried-and-true tactic the party out of power can use to drive up the negatives of the party in power. It has always worked as a zero-sum game in our calcified two-party system. When voters’ approval of one party goes down, approval of the other party goes up.
But it hasn’t worked out that way this time. While the Republicans’ “party of no” strategy has been effective in poisoning the well — the Democrats’ negatives are way up — according to the new NBC/Wall St. Journal poll, the GOP’s uber-obstructionism appears to have backfired. Big time:
