Archive for December 19th, 2012

Wednesday Open Thread [12.19.12]

Filed in Open Thread by on December 19, 2012 13 Comments

Jeffrey Toobin:

“Conservatives often embrace ‘originalism,’ the idea that the meaning of the Constitution was fixed when it was ratified, in 1787. They mock the so-called liberal idea of a ‘living’ constitution, whose meaning changes with the values of the country at large. But there is no better example of the living Constitution than the conservative re-casting of the Second Amendment in the last few decades of the twentieth century.”

“The re-interpretation of the Second Amendment was an elaborate and brilliantly executed political operation, inside and outside of government. Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 brought a gun-rights enthusiast to the White House. At the same time, Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican, became chairman of an important subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he commissioned a report that claimed to find ‘clear–and long lost–proof that the second amendment to our Constitution was intended as an individual right of the American citizen to keep and carry arms in a peaceful manner, for protection of himself, his family, and his freedoms.’ The N.R.A. began commissioning academic studies aimed at proving the same conclusion. An outrĂ© constitutional theory, rejected even by the establishment of the Republican Party, evolved, through brute political force, into the conservative conventional wisdom.”

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First Major Test for Senator Coons – Bad Deal or No Deal ?

Filed in National by on December 19, 2012 9 Comments

With Obama wavering, negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff are heading in a disastrous direction. John Boehner bought some leverage with his “Plan B” — if they pass it in the house, the GOP thinks that they’ll force “moderate” Democrats in the Senate to cave. Clearly no deal is better than a bad deal, but […]

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The Polling Report [12.19.12]

Filed in National by on December 19, 2012 2 Comments
The Polling Report [12.19.12]

“Tradition trumped suspense Monday as members of the Electoral College cast the official, final votes in an exhausting 2012 presidential election, a constitutional formality on President Barack Obama’s march to a second term,” the AP reports. The casting of votes occurred in each of the 50 state capitol buildings and in D.C. In Arizona, the crazy racist birthers there took the opportunity to once again complain that a white man is not president.

“[T]hree of [Arizona’s 11 Electors] said questions remain about whether Barack Obama was born in this country,” Arizona Public Radio reports. Said state GOP Chairman Tom Morrissey: “I’m not satisfied with what I’ve seen. I think for somebody in the president’s position to not have produced a document that looks more legitimate, I have a problem with that.” Birther Arizona elector tells TPM: “Yeah, some people are going to say, ‘Oh, those stupid Arizonans, there they go again.’ But, you know, I’d rather be right than popular.”

In this case, you are neither. I hereby demand that all three produce their original long form birth certificates. I can tell them preemptively that I will find all three illegitimate and demand their immediate deportation to Europe.

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Wednesday Daily Delawhere [12.19.12]

Filed in Delaware by on December 19, 2012 1 Comment
Wednesday Daily Delawhere [12.19.12]

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