I Blame The Do-Nothing Congress. Or Bush.

Having deployed the nuclear option to avoid a filibuster, nervous Senate Democrats deploy an IED on one of Barack's own:

The Senate rejected President Obama’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s civil rights division on Wednesday in a stunning 47-52 vote in which seven Democrats abandoned their leadership.

The vote was all the more remarkable for the five Democrats in tough reelection races this year who voted in vain to move Debo Adegbile’s nomination forward.

So five vulnerable Senators were left hung out to dry? Geez, the rats couldn't even coordinate their abandonment of the sinking ship.

Their votes now become ammunition for Senate Republicans, who argued Adegbile was unfit to serve because of his legal work in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.

The vote was a stinging defeat for the White House that showed President Obama is politically out of step with some centrist Democrats heading into the midterm elections. 

He still can't figure out those centrist Dems and now Obama is having trouble with some of the Senators bitterly clinging to their seats.

Comments

[Jim Eagle]

Oxymoron of the Day: Centrist Democrats

The navy has an expression that fits - reverse the rat guards.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

A re-post from the prior thread: For those of you who are interested in climate/weather, the go to place is WUWT by Anthony Watts and his contributors. But if you want to see raw data, Dr. Roy Spencers blog about his UAH satellited temperature data is worth checking every month. Here is the February global temp (and hemisphere subzones)-- 1.7Centigrade anomoly. The satelite readings are at temps seen during the 1988 el nino, that was when Goddard's Hansen gave that staged testimony in the Senate to kick off the Skydragon scam in the USA. We are at those same temps this month-- 26 years later. The anomoly will continue to fall fo a few more months, then will probably rise if we have an el nino july-November. Bottom line, since the 1998 'super el nino' no warming trend. Galileo would say about Skydragon temps "And yet, they do not rise"). http://www.drroyspencer.com/

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

The 5 vulnerables include Landrieu, hagan, Pryor, Begich... and they got screwed. Reid/Obummer clearly told them they had at least 50 votes, plus Slo Joe in the Senate Chamber to break a tie. Did Reid/Obummer lie to them, or did a couple of the 6 Nay Dems stab them all in the back? This is fabulous. The rats as streaming off of SS Obummer. As JiB said-- REVERSE the rat guards.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

BTW-- this is what a civil discussion between an honest WARMIST and LUKEwarmist should look like. I am a LUKEwarmist myself: http://www.drroyspencer.com/2014/03/christy-emanuel-have-a-conversation-on-climate-change/

[Captain Hate]

Listening tho the whining of the donks defending that cop killer defender was music to my ears: the wheezing of the Searchlight Pederast and that Vermont turd who sounds like he has TB, plus little Dick Durbin. Their complaints are the sound of freedom.

[narciso]

Malor's trying for socratic or is it sophorific,

[Jim Eagle]

Of course he did. Obama is trying to take some credit for the Israeli seizure of the KLOS-C carrying Iranian rockets to Hamas.

[Ignatz]

Slate;
Drugs are really funny.

[narciso]

So it seems it's Sandy Burglar part two

http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2014/03/06/senate-staffers-slipped-secret-cia-documents-from-agencys-headquarters/

it would be interesting to know which staffers were responsible

[sbwaters]

Tee! And. Hee!

Uff da, Dr. Roy! Exactly how does global warming cause 50 deg. below zero in Minnesota? – Lars

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

Yes narciso.
repost from the last thread -

Interesting bit in the Senate/CIA brouha...

it looks like the whole thing got started when a Senate staffer stole classified documents.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/05/220273/senate-staffers-slipped-secret.html

So the Senate is saying...you wouldn't have known we stole them if you weren't monitoring our computer.
Anyway...that's how it looks to me.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

and another -

http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-strategy/200038-senators-alarmed-by-alleged-cia-spying

"Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), an ex officio member of the Intelligence panel, said the charge of spying is “extremely serious.”"

What's an ex officio member? It was probably a Levin staffer that stole the documents.
Levin's a known sneak that funnels info to the MFM.
http://archive.redstate.com/stories/liberals/correction_dubious_intelligence_at_the_washington_post

[narciso]

Udall seems to be fronting this exercise, this time around,

[Ranger]

I posted this in the previous thread as well:

If the CIA was chasing stolen classified documents, they can probably legally justify the snooping. Looks like the Dem Senators on the committee decided to team up with DOJ to launch a pre-emptive strike rather than explain why they were stealing classified documents.

[daddy]

Fargo is the new Dixie!

[Old Lurker]

And I posted this on the other thread too since I think it explains why the CIA would go after congressional staffers and the rest of us.

I keep thinking about that Thucydides quote that Frau posted the other day:

"Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can. And it is not as if we were the first to make this law, or to act upon it when made: we found it existing before us, and shall leave it to exist forever after us; all we do is to make use of it, knowing that you and everybody else, having the same power as we have, would do the same as we do"

And the more I think about that declaration of basic, timeless, human nature, I think it applies perfectly to our present struggle with our own "tribe" of public servants who relentlessly strive to gain control over us citizens, and also it explains the efforts of the "tribe" of leftists and environmentalists who similarly attempt to control our lives.

So if we are not strong enough to preserve our own freedoms and liberties using the tools given us in our Constitution, the gods (I am still into my Viking books) will arrange to give them to others who are will take them from us.

I know. Duh.

[Captain Hate]

Trainwreck update:

http://www.redstate.com/2014/03/06/wendy-davis-will-cause-the-democrats-to-divert-resources-to-georgia/

[daddy]

OL,

I think the quote from Harry Truman was "Every man I ever met I met first in Plutarch."

I don't think there's anyone amongst our current Solons in leadership who has clue 1 who Plutarch was, much less Thucydides.

[Captain Hate]

Don't worry, daddy; my local educrates have assured me that Common Core will take care of that.

[Old Lurker]

You beat me to it, Cap'n. I too thought every high schooler reads Thucydides.

[Captain Hate]

Here's another slice of wonderfulness:

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/030514-692236-gottemoeller-surrenders-americas-nuclear-deterrent-to-increasingly-aggressive-russia.htm

[Victor Davis Hansen wrote an introduction to an edition of Thucydides which has lovely explanatory maps from Clark University.]

NK, I consider myself a 'lukewarming cooler', a term which drives lucia @ the Blackboard to haiku. I happily concede a small, beneficial, warming effect to AnthroCO2, but worry that natural forces are cooling us for the near, the medium, and the long term. 'Lukewarming cooler', thus, is a term including two completely different concepts. No wonder she's irritated.

[Threadkiller]

Chipotle says there isn't a guacamole crisis, despite alerting investors to climate change concerns

Despite a report in which Chipotle warns investors that climate change could impact the supply of avocados --resulting in guacamole being dropped from its menus -- the Mexican food chain on Wednesday said that the popular topping won't be going anywhere anytime soon...

The report is "much ado about nothing," said Arnold. "The story was prompted by ThinkProgress – a very left-leaning blog – that saw the words “climate change” and ran with it."

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/03/05/chipotle-says-guacamole-could-be-taken-off-menus-if-climate-change-gets-worse/

To look at the wording of the Fox link, they don't seem much better than the left wing site.

[daddy]

OT,

Reading an interesting new book on the origins of US trade with China, starting just after the Revolution: When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail

Quite fascinating, but today I read a small bit on the 2 Siamese twins, Cheng and Eng, who came over to the States in the 1830's.

I did not realize that they became American citizens, wound up buying a farm near Wilkesboro North Carolina, changed their last name to Bunker, then married 2 sisters and had a total of 23 children between the 2 of them. As surprising, I see that one of their great grandkids is Alex Sink, the gal who was the Democratic nominee in the 2010 Florida gubernatorial election.

Who'd a thunk it?

[Ignatz]

Hey kim, I posed a question at CA @ 9:45AM this morning on Steve's latest post.
If you have the answer for me I would appreciate it. Graphs and I, like math, have a rocky relationship.

[daddy]

Kim,

It was great to see you so prominent in the comments over at Judith Curry's recent post on all the excuses for where the Heat is.

I had my co-worker read her post this morning at breakfast and that was an eye-opener for him.

[Hitch-hiking by fields of storms.]

I recently reread Puddin' Head Wilson' and 'Those Extraordinary Twins'.

[Neo]

WASHINGTON—Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the statement below following the Senate filibuster of Debo Adegbile to be Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice:

...

This filibuster shows a hypocritical double standard. During the course of their long careers, both John Roberts and Debo Adegbile each performed a vital constitutional service by representing an unpopular client on death row.

You really have to wonder how some folks manage to put on their pants in the morning.

[When pressed long after the press ran with the newest hockey stick.]

Yup, Iggy, and Rosenthal even conceded the flaw. The smoothing conceals all the variability in the past.

[daddy]

It's hard to top Puddin' Head's observation that "Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education."

[And I swore I'd avoid schadenfreude.]

daddy, we are starting to have a lot of fun with the alarmists.

[Ignatz]

Thanks kim, or whoever you are. ;)

[Ignatz]

The People's Cube is a bit of agitprop genius as one can see here;

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

CAGW Mongers-- they have discredited themselves. When they changed the "C" in 'Catastrophic' AGW, and flipped it to 'Climate Change', that was the tell that they knew their models were BS and actual temps wouldn't trend anywhere near what their grant driven models claimed. So if there wasn't going to be catastrophic warming, what to do about the next grant application?-- voila 'climate change' which means everything-- and nothing. almost 16 years now of no warming, and no warming in 30 years, save the step warming from the 1998 super el nino. Galileo would say to the warmista 'consensus': "and yet, it doesn't warm."

[daddy]

Kim,

Speaking of fun German words like Schadenfreude, I loved Insty's use of the German word backpfeifengesicht the other day to describe Rowen Farrow. Apparently it means something like "a face badly in need of a fist in it."

[Account Deleted]

Steyn continues with his contempt of the legal farce.

He brings in the Pelletier gag order to complement the berobed clowns and jugglers presiding over his own cases.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

The NPR clip has been edited now. It says 'Senate Democrats' instead of 'Southern Democrats'. THey had also referred to Debo as 'her'...but that has been corrected too. They now say 'his nomination'.

[MarkO]

Did the NPR clip have ambient sounds of natives happily working in the forest?

[Dave (in MA)]

daddy, so what you're saying is it's a synonym for 'Democrat'?

[Thomas Collins]

Forget Recovery Summer, this is Secession Spring. Crimea is seceding from Ukraine, and Senate Dems are beginning to secede from the 404 Administration.

[Old Lurker]

and Western MD would like to split from Eastern MD.

and most of CA would be happy without its coast.

and Texas wonders why is has to put up with any of us.

[Thomas Collins]

OL, wasn't there some talk at some point about Nantucket seceding from The Commonwealth of Massachusetts? Not that it was seriously considered, but I recall that some Martha's Vineyarders and Nantucketeers at one point didn't think being part of The Bay State was so great.

[Old Lurker]

Then there is this:

"Massachusetts' highest court ruled Wednesday that a man who took cellphone photos up the skirts of women riding the Boston subway did not violate state law"

Perhaps Nantucket could spin off its entire state?

[Thomas Collins]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19770322&id=iDFHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hfgMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1112,3271123

See above link for an article on Vineyard/Nantucket secession talk. I guess it didn't quite cause the uproar in world politics circles as the Crimean move is causing.

[Old Lurker]

TC there used to be talk about rejoining RI, but that does have a frying pan - fire connotation. I myself would like it to join the Cook Island Archipelago and thus adopt the trust laws of that country.

[narciso]

they have no qualms about defending a cop killer, Christie seems to have the same view about an attorney for Hamas, to the New Jersey superior ct.

[Jane]

"Massachusetts' highest court ruled Wednesday that a man who took cellphone photos up the skirts of women riding the Boston subway did not violate state law"

I was actually quite pleased with the ruling (from what I've heard}. The reasoning was there was no law that prohibited this. I'm very much in favor of the SC not making up laws. (You know they were the first court to make up the law regarding gay marriage?)

[Old Lurker]

Nice to know the perv can film away as long as the lady is wearing underpants?

[Ignatz]

I would think somebody from the dirty limerick capital of the world, which just happens to be under that court's jurisdiction, wouldn't have a problem with upskirt pervs.

[Ignatz]

It's a funny world when the right to privacy covers going to a doctor and ending the life of an innocent third party but doesn't cover some guy putting a camera on his shoe and sliding it under your dress.

I am with Jane, though the law I would pass is probably different than what some might prefer. Any gal catching a guy shooting pics up her skirt is entitled to, either on her own or by enlisting a mob, commit grievous bodily harm on the creep. Such right to extend to a later date upon discovery the act had been committed unbeknownst to her and broadcast.

[narciso]

As with the Commerce clause, it has become about everything except interstate commerce, one shouldn't need to make a law, but sadly one does,

[Danube on iPad]

"who argued Adegbile was unfit to serve because of his legal work in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal"

Not so fast. He's not unfit because of his legal work. He's unfit because he went to demonstrations and rallies to assert the killer was innocent.

[sbwaters]

Don't worry, daddy; my local educrates have assured me that Common Core will take care of that.

My Teaching Company course on the Greeks and Romans just pointed out that Euripides' tragedies were required in school because in each of the seven extant plays one actor would argue one position while another argued another -- an exercise in Rhetoric. It was intellectual practice for future lawyers, officials, and citizens who would elect them.

Now that the SAT is eliminating writing as a requirement and is instead having students validate claims based on what a reading says and not on evidence, we are about to eliminate essential skills for individuals in favor of group skills for drones, aka "official good citizens."

It would not surprise me if few politicians, politicians, school superintendents, or academics who advocate/oppose Common Core had ever heard of Euripides or understand why they should. STEM is the narrow goal that matters.

Writing is officially no longer important and reading has been relegated to a clerical rather than an analytical task.

It is official: To hell with intellectual weightlifting.

[Jane]

The downside Iggy is that MA makes up really stupid law. I'm sure the penalty will include free stuff for the perp.

DOT I think he also helped organize some of them.

[mad jack]

The Massachusetts legislature will not be able to design a constitutionally acceptable statutue that will prevent someone from filming a full clothed person in public and that's a good thing. A blanket beating is sometimes the only punishment available for pervs in these types of cases.

[Captain Hate]

I'm with mad jack and Jane. A law like that could be used against somebody whose infant plays with an iPhone and inadvertently gets a gap shot that nobody looks at but it's there on the camera roll. Pervs will be perv; deserving of beatdowns.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Upskirts-- the whole issue reminds me of John candy's character in Splash. "when something works for me I stick with it."

[Danube on iPad]

My heart soars like the hawk:

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/030514-692240-chevron-wins-case-after-years-millions-spent.htm

[Captain Hate]

He's not unfit because of his legal work. He's unfit because he went to demonstrations and rallies to assert the killer was innocent.

He also made some wildly inaccurate accusations of the dead policeman's character based on nothing but a wild imagination. Perhaps that's permissible in defending his client, but his client was quoted by the emergency room people as being more bigoted in attitudes and actions than Faulkner could have been.

[mad jack]

CH, the police don't even know if he actually got any "good" pictures as they couldn't access the phone. Any guy using a cell phone could theoretically be charged with violating this statute if the interpretation the state wanted to go with was allowed.

[Old Lurker]

And once Reading and Writing are both gone, so are past and future History and Thinking.

Mission Accomplished!

[Jane]

Dot,

Did you get to talk to your partners about Chevron yet? I can't wait to hear what they say.

I was thinking about Jim's comment that this stuff has been getting more common over the last 25 years. Is it all because of class action suits, and when did they start? I always thought that was such a ruse.

[Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet]

Jane:

Mass tort class actions have proliferated at least since the asbestos cases of the late '70s. The amounts of money are staggering, and so is the temptation on both sides to hide or manufacture critical evidence. Discovery cheating has sadly become all too commonplace.

Remember Erin Brockovich? Love Canal? FenFen?

[MaryD]

This is very off- topic, but my husband and I are thinking about an Aegean cruise from Athens to Istanbul, with stops at Nafplion, Mykonos, Rhodes, Ephesus and Volos. Do any of you travelers have an opinion, or suggestions for some reading on the area. BTW, it was OL's link to the vista outside of his Istanbul hotel that really whetted my appetite.