Ok, ok. I knooow. There’s Illinois tonight. But still. Europe has it’s own stories to tell. We do have elections coming up, some really important, too. Most prominently France. And here’s what setting me off, once again:
You do not pander to the right wing haters without consequences. Marine LePen, daughter of ill-reputed right winger Jean-Marie LePen is running at around 16% of votes in recent polls.16% that Nicolas Sarkozy desperately wants to have, to get a second term. Sarko himself has been busily blaming minorities for France’s problems for years now, to get the right to vote for him and LePen wouldn’t be her father’s daughter if she didn’t, never mind her switch of focus.
The neighborhood near Toulouse railway station where the Rue Jules Dalou is located is shabby and depressing. The houses are narrow and mostly only two stories high. There are no gourmet shops or chic boutiques. It’s a long way from the image of France that you see in the tourist brochures.
On any normal evening, the area would be deserted at 10 p.m., but this is not a normal evening. Since Monday morning, nothing in Toulouse is normal. That was when an unknown perpetrator on a motor scooter drove into the Rue Jules Dalou and shot dead three children and a teacher.
The shooting took place in front of and inside a Jewish school, the Collège et Lycée Ozar Hatorah. Now, photographers, cameramen and reporters are gathered in a crowd outside the cordoned-off building. Local residents, students and friends have placed flowers at the entrance, where the killer fired the first shots. “You will always be angels,” is written on one of the notes.
The four haven’t been the only ones to die. Three paratroopers of North African descent were killed recently as well as well as one of Caribean descent wounded. By the same perp.
This, obviously, reminds me of the German so-called Döner killings mentioned in the earlier post on the subject. Random shootings of immigrant small business owners, that could recently be traced back to a Nazi cell.
I dare to predict it is going to be a right wing Neo-Nazi behind this all. He will be, of course, a lone lunatic, as the three Germans behind the killings were lone lunatics, as Breivik was a lone lunatic and it has nothing at all to do with the fact, that hate speech and pandering to the right wing of politicians is making the Nazi’s sick views legitimate and sets the violence off. Nothing at all.
This is our open thread. Join us and yes, you may mention Illinois.
March 21st, UPDATE: The Washington Post has an UPDATE today.
AP News: Job seekers getting asked for Facebook passwords
Next? Your mother’s maiden name and bank pin number.
The lord of the manor would usually like to have his way with your wife and his son could roger your daughter (or son based on persuasion) too.
Terry, “Gosford Park” should be your kind of movie. It didn’t stop anywhere near the middle ages, serfdom and stuff I mean.
I can’t remember mine. I haven’t logged in to F’book in a while. Anyway, there’s nothing there to look at.
Where’s the right wing outrage over giving up our right to free speech?
I think it is right next to the outrage over having to sign away your due process rights in favor of ‘binding arbitration’.
If you wanted that job badly enough, you’d be tempted to hand it over.
I’d prolly ask her for hers, and if she didn’t reply tell her to put it where the sun won’t ever shine.
I think I recognize this system of employment
Another Trayvon Martin witness comes forward
Maybe our local lawyer can weigh in here (although he’s not criminal right?) But with the police not doing a damn thing, what damage is being done to the case where witnesses are having to come forward (because the police don’t seem to be seeking them out), make their statements to the media, *just to put pressure* on the f***Ing cracker police force who refuse to do their jobs!?
I read an article somewhere this morning reporting that the police have no choice in the matter because the case wouldn’t be prosecuted. Some recent NRA-sponsored law in Florida extends the old Castle rule about killing (if he’s in your house, blam!) to any location, any time you feel threatened. Of course, in this instance the assassin followed the kid and then claimed he’d been attacked.
Happy Spring!
Jesus, what a stupid windbag He should wear plaid shorts, sneakers and yell loudly about how ‘Its not as good as Disneyland’ next time he goes overseas….
GOP Secret Service code names overheard: Romney chose “Javelin” probably a reference to the ’60s muscle car made by American Motors Corporation, the company once run by George Romney.
Santorum? The papist chose “Petrus,” a biblical allusion—as in St. Peter, the first pope. (The Latin name is derived from the Greek word for “rock.”)
Yeesh.
I have to admit, I think Javelin is a cool sounding code name. The homage to his father is even a nice touch.
Petrus is lame. They should just use Pope and get it over with.
If Romney wanted to use an AMC name for his codename, a better fit would have been Gremlin.
I was thinking the same thing…
Heh. As I…!
Rock? Like in dumb as a…?
Oh heck must read postees before commenting
Terry, great minds and all that 😀
What is the point of having a code name if you tell everyone the code name?
As in “dumb as a box of…”?
Btw, how over is it for Ron Paul? In Puerto Rico, he lost to Fred Karger, a former actor who bills himself as “The first openly gay Republican presidential candidate.
It’s been over for a while, but the candidate/corpse continues with delusions of convention broker/kingmaker/moron-ness
Heard about this on Stephanie Miller this morning. Romney has launched a series of ad featuring Santorum’s 2008 endorsement.
Freedom’s Lighthouse » New Mitt Romney Ad Uses Santorum’s 2008 Endorsement of Romney – Video UPDATED: Now It’s a Series of Ads
Oh, those pesky recording devices.
According to a promo I think I saw correctly last night, Stephanie Miller might be getting her own show on Current TV. I like her. She’s funny.
This is in fact true. She and Bill Press will have their radio shows broad cast live on Current TV. Bill from 6-8, and Steph from 8-11. They’re not changing the format or moving to a fancy set or anything. It will be their current programming, simply telecast. I’m looking forward to it. 🙂
In other news from Arizona… Russell Pearce, “Architect” of SB1070, has decided to run for State Senate again. Oh joy, he thinks he’s destined to be President of the Senate again…
QOTD:
“On May 2, 2011, Obama, in a fit of political correctness, sent a SEAL team to kill Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The SEALs, upon entering Bin Laden’s compound, inexcusably failed to call him a radical Islamist … Bin Laden wanted a religious war. Bush and Obama refused to let him have it. At the end of his life, isolated by left-wing drone strikes and marked for death by PC commandos, this was Bin Laden’s chief lament. And that, Sen. Santorum, is why you don’t call it a war on radical Islam: because choosing your words carefully is part of winning the war,” – William Saletan, Slate.
bmm I like your QOTDs. A LOT.
Me too. I also appreciate EV’s reminder that hate and xenophobia are everywhere. If anyone is silent about how wrong hate speech is, they are complicit.
Thanks, EV. 🙂
Oops, and OiMF.
Just what we don’t need. Another war. I’m sure the neocons and the “bomb Iran” crowd would disagree. But we can’t afford it.
Pentagon war game forecasts U.S. would be pulled into a new war if Israel strikes Iran | The Envoy – Yahoo! News
And Bibi knows it and we know that he knows it and Ahmadinnerjacket knows that he knows that we know it. I am just not sure that ‘we’ know that he knows that we know that he knows it.
We’re one dead Archduke in a convertible away from a major clusterf***.
Kirk Cameron says Piers Morgan is an inappropriate and insensitive meanie.
Ohhh the irony…
OK, srsly, who the fuck is Kirk Cameron?
Some guy who used to be on a show when he was a kid, and is now “important” in fundygelical homo-hating/fearing circles.
Heh… he’s trying to time travel back to a time where there wasn’t any divorce or murder or incest or division in America… good luck with that, Kirk.
Those times in the past weren’t exactly hunky dory for everyone. Women couldn’t vote and couldn’t even own property, the existence of slaves was prevalent in America. In Europe, Things weren’t that much better… kings and queens and serfdom was the norm.
Of course, if you were a rich white man…
And if we could travel back in time then Kirky boy would have never become known to anyone other than his homohating friends.
Kirk is one of the stupidest and most dishonest freaks in the freak show. He’s definitely one of those who thinks that he can say any damned thing he wants as long as he shouts his love for Jebus loudly enough. Martin Bashir hosted a “debate” of Cameron and Comfort vs “The Rational Response Squad”.
Their stated purpose was to prove that creationism is true without resorting to Scripture as, so-called, evidence. They didn’t last ten seconds before they went all preachy and started citing the Ten Commandments and the Book of Genesis. The funny part is that they chose to disbelieve they had violated the terms of the “debate” from word one.
You have got to see this guy’s picture:
http://wusa9.com/news/article/197739/373/Residents-Seek-Culpeper-Co-Sheriffs-Ouster-
Do I live in the south or what?
If you look up “Bubba” in the dictionary, there’s a picture of that guy. 😀
Too many trips to the Waffle House?
Is it pronounced” Kuhhhl pepppah?
Close RU, but we’re not the deep south, it’s close to pepppeh. I didn’t know you spoke Bubba.
Pretty tree. 🙂
I would guess that, in Virginia, you can choose your parents, but not your sheriff. .
Fox currently has this as their lead story on the website. Keep waiting Bristol. Your’e not that important.
Bristol Palin Awaits Obama’s Call | Fox News
Really? I might have missed it but I don’t recall Ed Schulz or Thom Hartmann spending more than three days making stuff up about her and calling her names.
Palin. What did you expect?
Desperate for attention? Her momma taught her well: “I’m the victim here!”
Fluke didn’t ask the President to call her.
Can you imagine??? Wahhh….I was insulted….I want the President to call me!
And, gee, if I recall correctly, Bristol is the one who got pregnant without the benefit of being married at the time…I don’t recall Limbaugh calling her a slut, however.
It is not an insult if it is true.
Bingo!
Do the Palins think that everything is about them? Narcissistic lot.
Yes. Yes, they do.
Hey, sweetie! If you get tired of waiting for someone important to call you, I’ll call you!
But you won’t really like the names I’d use.
TP’s excellent climate coverage continues. A very simple summation with a very scary map.
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/03/20/448090/500-days-of-summer-get-used-to-it-says-abc-news-thanks-to-global-warming-but-nbc-is-still-out-in-the-cold/
Joe Romm is a better analyzer of weather patterns than John Kyl and Jim Inhofe combined. That’s is like comparing the tax policies of Warren Buffet and either of the Koch brothers. Who in each of these comparisons is a self-made man?
GOP announces possible ballot problems in Illinois.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/illinois-election-officials-ballot-problem-will-likely-delay-gop-primary-results/2012/03/20/gIQAKp2pPS_blog.html?hpid=z2
To me it looks like they want to make sure they can rig the vote for Romney, they want this over. Cynical? Yes.
Who is the real Mitt Romney? Quite a mashup, especially the last @45 seconds:
Thank you.
I just put up a Happy Birthday post for our Walt. Wish him a happy day!
Happy Spring, indeed. The earliest since 1896, in fact.
“The vernal equinox — the first day of spring — arrived today at March 20 at 05:14 Universal Time, or 1:14 a.m. EDT. Even more intriguing is that for those in the Mountain and Pacific Time zones, the equinox actually arrived last night, March 19.”
Dang, I missed the parade.
Will the Supreme Court strike down Obamacare? Probably not:
“Las Vegas hasn’t posted odds on whether the Supreme Court will reject health care reform. But the American Bar Association has done the next best thing. As part of a special publication devoted to the case, the ABA surveyed a group of veteran observers and asked them to predict the outcome. The results? Eighty-five percent predicted that the court will uphold the law.”
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/101842/supreme-court-health-care-prediction-aba-survey-lopez
We can hope.
The one reason that the majority of the Supreme Court will validate the act is that this is an election year. If the law is struck, the GOP will be shucked. Enough of the law has phased in to the extent that liberals will have a handle on just how conservatives offer a blow to people in the 99 percentile.
Many families who have post college members up to age 25, will see those medical benefits expire. Those with preexisting conditions will be expelled from the system. Premiums will explode. High risk pools will fall by the wayside.
All of this will fall immediately before the 2012 election. This could well become the silver wedge that splits GOP voters who have voted Republican merely because their folks did from those who thought that the Republican Party offered financial well-being to their families.
– Andy Borowitz
Heh!
Rantorum’s Reverend Wright Moment.
“I do remember him saying that and I wasn’t quite sure if he was saying it for himself,” Santorum said. “I wasn’t quite listening to everything to be quite honest with you. But I wasn’t quite sure if he was speaking for himself or speaking quite generally, but I didn’t clap when he said it because that’s not how I think.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election-2012/santorum-microscope-attending-church-service-pastor-tells-non-chistians-article-1.1047510?localLinksEnabled=false
For some reason I don’t think FAUX”News” will spend spring, summer, and early fall condemning him.
Oops! This is the link I meant to post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-montgomery/get-out-santorum-perkins-_b_1368094.html
Well, that’s another bag. The light isn’t good for pictures, so I’ll have to do it tomorrow.
It’s pretty cute, even if I do say so myself. 🙂 Of course, I wouldn’t mention the ugly bags.
There are no ugly bags….only bags that are attractively challenged. 😉
Heh, well I’ve made some that are pretty challenged! 😀
…Monday evening, the former Massachusetts governor told a voter to “vote for the other guy” if she wanted access to “free birth control” and said that the federal government should not subsidize women’s health care through Planned Parenthood…
Sounds like a plan to me….
He’s still saying that? 😆
Rick Santorum: President Obama Shouldn’t Let Daughter Go To Mexico
Mind your own business, you lying fucking dooshbag!
Yeah, like anyone should be taking parenting advice from Beck and Santorum.
I don’t think that I know of another more fear-based individual except for maybe Rush Limbaugh.
Unfortunately, there are millions of them out there.
Ron Wyden gets half a clue — won’t support Ryan’s budget, but still supports Ryan killing Medicare. 🙄
It’s time to start writing Ronny some notes again, and a visitation to one of his town halls. Health issues, especially for older Oregonians has been his leading issue for years, but he keeps coming up short by leaning to fiscal conservative ideas that hurt, not help.
I’ve been unable to understand his positions, asked his staff for clarification, got some, and still am confused. Might be time to primary Ron a few years down the line.
Sounds like a good idea, especially if he’s losing his Democratic focus.
This is why people really like Obama: Sign of the times
Bush would have flipped them the bird, and then giggled.
Mittens would have had the Secret Service detail tackle him to the ground.
George Zimmerman would have shot him.
And call him a “fucking coon.”
I find it very difficult to look at this child’s picture. I can’t imagine anyone seeing him as a threat. I might run from Mr. Zimmerman on a dark street, but this child?
I wouldn’t even look twice at him, but for Zimmerman, the fact that he was black is all that was required.
I heard Trayvon screaming on that 911 call, and it chilled me to the bone. He had to know he wasn’t getting away from that killer. It breaks my heart.
Well, he’s wearing a cap and not a hoodie….
Another Repressive GOP AZ lege….
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/PoliticalInsider/157762?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
And she’s a woman too.
Tammy Duckworth wins the primary, now goes up against that fuckwit Joe Walsh.
She will wipe the floor with his sorry ass.
Hmm…wounded vet vs. deadbeat dad, what’s a patriotic amurkan to do? The tree is the view from my kitchen windows.
Nice view!!
Compensation for living near Bubba. Actually it was a gift from a neighbor about 18 years ago. It thrived.
I gave her $25, not much, but she deserves to win. Her site is http://www.tammyduckworth.com/. The last time she ran, Rush did not think much of her.
My reasons include the insults that she received from the GOP on her military service.
If the loss of two legs and her record of civic and veteran’s spokesperson rises her well above the political excrement from the GOP.
The GOP harps on the need to support our troops, but omits the soldiers.
They are useful tools, Walt. It’s horrific, but it’s true.
Only the rightwing (I don’t bother with “extreme” anymore) can smear a veteran into nothingness.
Just when you think a Repiggie has a brain, Steve Schmidt goes on about the Ryan budget and “looming insolvency.” Asshole.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/vp/46802620#46802620
Molotov Cocktails Thrown At Texas Democrat’s Office
Yet another “lone wolf?” This is terrorism, nothing less. Whoever did this didn’t care that there were people in the building.
Is Karen Santorum taking the same drugs Laura Bush took?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/vp/46802620#46802923
Listening to Mittens’ victory speech in IL. What a fucking putz.
“Community organizer”
I would kick his fucking ass if he got close enough to me.
I had to skip most of it. I don’t hate him as much as I hate GWB or Santorum, but he’s getting there.
Just skipped most of Santorum’s speech. He has his daughters standing behind him, and damn, they are creepy. Especially the dark haired one.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46803330
Brrrrr. The WaPo has a piece on Santa’s Opus Dei leanings (or even connections) I have yet to read it, but that is one scary guy.
He is horrible, no matter how you look at him. When I see the crowds cheering him on, I get chills up the back of my neck.
I never would have thought we’d be in this situation right now. I remember thinking when I was a little girl, that when I was all grown up with children of my own, we’d be past racism and inequality.
I’m really sad that it didn’t come true. And shocked.
I’m fairly sure he is not going to be the nominee, but look at the alternative. I do hope Obama will get that second term.
We really have to work hard to make sure Obama keeps the presidency. We can’t let people get into the thinking that he’ll win over these clowns.
I love your choice of words, and I agree. For the most part I don’t give any of them that power to dictate how I feel. But Mitt…..gets to me. I truly believe he is a sociopath that will do anything, say anything, lie, distort, misrepresent, flip-flop depending on who he is talking to, ANYTHING to achieve power. He truly disgusts me. Rantorium, Gingrich, Paul, are sideshow clowns performing for my political amusement. Romney is everything that I despise in a whore politician.
AND he’s the “reasonable” one, compared to the others.
I’ve been terrified of Santorum, but when I really think about it, Romney is more frightening. He’s a meat puppet for the 1%, and that’s the last thing we need in this country.
Yep. I’ve rooted on Rantorium just to show this country what these people are about, and to damage Romney. Make all of their energy, and money being spent on a incoherent, vile voice that would only appeal to the 30% of the walking dead that inhabits this country. Btw that 30% has always been here. I grew up in Orange county, the petri dish of the John Birch Society on the west coast. I know these people, and here they are again, not necessarily in larger numbers, but definitely got the money, and the internet to relly fuck this country up. But I preach to the choir,
Yes, they’ve always been here, and always will be, sad to say. But they do have more power and money behind them these days. The possibilities could be devastating for all of us — even those fuckwitted 30%.
well dearest reader we only have 8 more months of this horror. Ha, *drink*
Oh gawd. *drink*
We can always rely on racist wingnut filth, right?
Fox News Commenters React to Trayvon Martin: ‘Good Shot Zimmy’