Last Call

Seems our old friend Col. Mustard has a couple mountain ranges worth of umbrage to unload on that big 108-page GOP "why we lost in 2012" report, and he wants to know why he wasn't consulted.

No, really.

I would not be surprised if the RNC spoke with some of the salaried conservative media class who share the Washington professional circuit.  But did they reach out to the Army of Davids who are the anti-thesis of the consultant model because we mostly don’t get paid or make much money blogging, we do this in our “spare” time, and we are outside D.C.?

Did the RNC get any input from the great unwashed conservative blogosphere?  You wouldn’t know it from the report if it did...

Oh, considering how badly they lost, I'm pretty sure they were letting the "great unwashed blogosphere" run things, and that's exactly why they're avoiding you now, Bill.  Your advice was to run somebody even loonier than Romney, who would have managed to lose by double digits.  I would have been fine with that, but let's not pretend you have this deep well of wisdom just waiting to be tapped when you can't admit the GOP lost due to awful policies.  I'm a blogger too, man.  Don't play a player.

For the RNC to produce a 100-page report and not have a single mention of the need to interact with and support the conservative blogosphere tells me that the RNC simply has rearranged the deck chairs on the HMS Consultant.

We may not be all that, but it’s clear that the RNC doesn’t want us to be any part of that.

Can't possibly imagine why not, man.  Maybe it was your screaming hatred of Liz Warren?  How's that working out for you?

Mea Iraq-ima Culpa

Ezra Klein takes to Bloomberg News to admit his guilt in supporting the unconscionable Iraq War ten years ago, which in this business takes some guts.  It's also a reminder that A) it's been ten years, and B) a hell of a lot of liberals supported Iraq and believed the nonsense spun by Bush and Cheney.

I supported the Iraq War, and I’m sorry.

I have my excuses, of course. I was a college student, young and dumb. I thought that if U.S. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell and former President Bill Clinton and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair all thought it was necessary, then that was because they had intelligence proving as much. I thought there was no way the Bush administration would neglect to plan for the obvious challenges of the aftermath. I turned on the war quickly when I saw how poorly and arrogantly it was being managed. 

Back in 2002 I was out of college and had lost my job in the dot-com collapse,  so I had some time on my hands.  I didn't buy the intelligence then, and I'm glad I didn't.  I didn't see the reason to go in to Iraq at all, considering as a high school student I watched the first Iraq War on TV and saw how thoroughly flattened the place was.  If Saddam was a cruel despot and he still didn't use his "WMD" against us then with tanks rolling up entire divisions of his troops, why would he have waited years?

By 2004 it was clear Iraq was a huge mistake.  I was told to shut up and support our troops.  The anti-war movement was shouted down, ridiculed, and persecuted at every turn.  Now, a vast majority of Americans believe it was a horrible, bloody error in judgment.

It's a lesson all of us should remember.

Ashley, Alison, And The Turtle

It's yet another "Kentucky Democrats are quietly trying to get rid of Ashley Judd for current SecState Alison Lundergan Grimes to take on Mitch" story, this time from Politico, and featuring Big Dog.

Democratic heavy hitters — including Bill Clinton — are quietly trying to woo a new candidate to jump into the race to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, even as actress Ashley Judd is taking steps toward launching a star-studded campaign of her own.

With fears growing in some Democratic quarters over Judd’s potential candidacy, some prominent Democrats in the Bluegrass State are beginning to set their sights on 34-year-old Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of state. Among Grimes’s attributes: She lacks political baggage since she’s served barely a year in office, and she hails from a well-connected family influential in Kentucky Democratic politics. But it’s not at all certain if she’ll jump into the race.

Grimes does have the Clintons in her corner. Earlier this month, the former president — a longtime friend of Grimes’s father — privately urged the young secretary of state to mount a Senate bid while assuring Grimes that both he and his wife, Hillary, would get behind her should she decide to take on the powerful Senate GOP leader, according to several sources familiar with the matter.

Attending an event for former Kentucky Sen. Wendell Ford in Owensboro earlier this month, Clinton privately met with Grimes for about 35 minutes, where they discussed her political future. Sources said Clinton made the case that the Senate bid would offer a bigger platform than the governor’s mansion or the U.S. House race in the 6th Congressional District, covering Frankfort and Lexington, which the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had hoped she would pursue.

Grimes has also met with officials from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to Kentucky Democratic sources. Both the DSCC and Clinton’s office declined to comment.

Now Grimes would have her own set of major problems, mainly the lack of experience and the fact she'd at best be another Joe Manchin/Heidi Heitkamp, a Red State Dem who would certainly not have the best progressive record on things, especially on the environment.  King Coal still rules here in the Bluegrass State, and nobody is getting into office without their blessing.  That includes Ashley Judd, folks, so pay attention.

Grimes might roll things back and go after Ben Chandler's old House seat in KY-6 too.  I don't know.  She could decide to walk away from Washington totally and stake out her claim for Governor, lord knows we need somebody in the D column to follow Dinosaur Steve Beshear.

What I do know is this:  I want Mitch McConnell gone, and if the price is I have to be nice to the Clintons long enough for them to use their pull here to actually help somebody other than themselves, I'll take it.

StupidiNews!

• Voters in South Carolina will see Stephen Colbert's sister Elizabeth as the Democratic candidate for the vacated House seat of now Senator Tim Scott, with former Gov. Mark Sanford in the GOP runoff.
• On the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, filmmaker and activist Michael Moore is calling former Bush Pentagon head Donald Rumsfeld "a war criminal as far as I'm concerned".
• The House Ethics Committee is investigating Alaska Republican Don Young for allegedly taking improper gifts and using campaign funds for personal use.
• The EU and the President of Cyprus are scrambling to come up with an alternative bailout plan as Cypriot lawmakers have rejected a levy on bank deposits.
• San Francisco's new stadium for the defending NFC champion 49ers will include the most powerful Wi-Fi network ever devised for a sports venue.

Last Call

As widely expected, Sen. Dianne Feinstein's assault weapons ban legislation is officially toast.  Majority leader Harry Reid is taking it out of the Dems' gun violence package and will be putting it forward as an amendment, where it will meet an ignominious demise.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on Monday that a controversial assault weapons ban will not be part of a Democratic gun bill that was expected to reach the Senate floor next month.

After a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Monday, a frustrated Feinstein said she learned that the bill she sponsored — which bans 157 different models of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines — wouldn’t be part of a Democratic gun bill to be offered on the Senate floor. Instead, it can be offered as an amendment. But its exclusion from the package makes what was already an uphill battle an almost certain defeat.

The smarter folks long predicted this, as I pointed out in January.  But with the assault weapons ban gone, Dems can now get to the real meat of the bill:  firearms trafficking penalties and universal background checks.

There are two likely paths: Reid could advance a gun trafficking bill with a school safety provision; some form of background checks and the assault weapons ban would then be offered as amendments. In the other scenario, Reid might offer a background checks bill that includes the gun trafficking and school safety provisions, with assault weapons again offered as an amendment.

The Judiciary panel also approved a bipartisan gun trafficking bill backed by Leahy, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), among others, that dramatically boosts penalties for “straw purchases”of weapons, in which a person buys firearms on behalf of an individual barred by law from possessing them. Thanks to its support from Republicans, Reid and Leahy want to see this bill as a foundation for the Democratic gun package on the floor.

But Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) are continuing to seek conservative GOP partners for their universal background checks bill. The two Democrats negotiated with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on the issue for weeks, but in the end that deal fell apart. Schumer and Manchin are meeting with other Republicans to seek their backing, yet they have not been able to find a partner. Kirk, a moderate, is likely to be part of whatever legislation Schumer and Manchin introduce. 

All this vote wrangling is nice.  Nothing will pass the House.  It would cost Boehner his job as Speaker.  It probably won't get a vote, or worse, we'll have the House pass some crackpot NRA bill and then nothing happens.  Here's the sad part:  an assault weapons ban has no chance because our Congress is bought and paid for by the NRA, and there's not a gorram thing you can do about it. We had an assault weapons ban.  It died.

Just like the tens of thousands killed in firearms violence by these weapons.

We're still paying for 2010, folks.  It's a big, big bill.  But not as big as the butcher's bill for firearm violence in America.

Rand Paul's Path To Oblivion

And Rand Paul's reign as the "true conservative" GOP 2016 hopeful ends today, apparently.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is endorsing a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants.

In a speech to be delivered Tuesday morning to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the potential 2016 presidential candidate declares, “If you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you.” A copy of the speech was obtained in advance by The Associated Press.

Paul’s path to citizenship would come with conditions that could make it long and difficult for illegal immigrants. Chief among these, Congress would have to agree first that progress was being made on border security.

Nonetheless, Paul’s endorsement of allowing illegal immigrants an eventual way to become citizens puts him in line with a growing number of Republicans who are embracing action on immigration as a way to broaden the GOP’s appeal to Latinos. On Monday, a Republican National Committee report called on the GOP to support comprehensive reform, though without specifying whether it should include a pathway to citizenship, which is decried by some conservatives as amnesty.

If you've been keeping track, that actually puts Jeb Bush on the far right, Paul in the middle, and Rubio on the left on this issue as the guy actually working with Democrats.  It will be interesting to see if the SHAMNESTY crew turns on Paul now....

...oh but wait.  The Rand Paul crew is now completely denying the report.

Rand Paul’s advisers claim the Associated Press report is false, and the senator does not back a path to citizenship. His office said in a statement, “He does not mention ‘path to citizenship’ in his speech at all.” An adviser told the Washington Post, “What his plan is extending to them is a quicker path to normalization, not citizenship, and being able to stay, work and pay taxes legally.” The headline has been updated.

So which is it?  Well, we're not sure.  Actually taking a position is deadly if you're a Republican.

Both Sides Are To Blame, Right?

So if you're still wondering after the Steubenville trial "Well why don't more teenage girls report rape and sexual assault" and take the cases all the way to court, it's because FOX News will "accidentally" out you for retribution.

During correspondent Mike Tobin’s report about the guilty verdicts in the Steubenville rape case on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, the girl’s first name was broadcast without being censored.

“We have not known, really, how the victim is doing, Mike,” host Martha MacCallum told Tobin. “Is there any information on that today?”

“Well, a relative tells me that she spends a lot of time in her room,” Tobin explained. “She has been back out playing sports, and through it all — you’ll be surprised to learn — she made the honor roll one more time.”

“A family representative says the remorse coming from the football players came too late,” the correspondent added. “We saw their reaction yesterday.”

At that point, the report cut to footage of one of the rapists, 17-year-old Trent Mays, apologizing to the victim in court on Sunday.

“I would truly like to apologize to [redacted], her family, my family and the community,” Mays said. “No picture [of the rape] should have been sent around, let alone even taken.”

Raw Story has redacted the victim’s first name from this report and the video below, but Fox News did not.

A Fox News editor’s note added to an Associated Press report published on Sunday insisted that the conservative network would not name the minors charged in the case.

“Editors’ Note: The Associated Press named the minors charged due to the fact they have been identified in other news coverage and their names were used in open court,” the note said. “FoxNews.com will not name the defendants.”

So hey, plausible deniability from the crew at FOX.  Because shaming the victim is really what it's all about.  "Oops, it would be awful if we accidentally let your name slip on national TV like that if you went to trial, dear."

Ahh, but FOX News isn't alone.  Not by far, you see, both CNN and MSNBC were guilty of the same awful act as well.

All three cable news networks aired a clip of one of the defendants, Trent Mays, apologizing to the victim in the courtroom. Mays had addressed the victim by name, which was not censored during CNN and MSNBC's broadcasts on Sunday and Fox News' broadcast on Monday. Local CBS affiliate WTRF also aired the clip without editing the victim's name out.  

Gosh, MSBNC AND CNN did it first.  Before FOX.

That's a hell of a message to send, yes?

Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said two 16 year old girls are facing charges after allegedly making threats against the rape victim in Steubenville.

Abdalla said one teen turned herself in and the other one was arrested.

They are being held in the Jefferson County Juvenile Detention Center and will appear before Judge  Samuel Kerr Tuesday.

Death threats.  From other girls.

This is where we are in America.  Feel the pride.

StupidiNews!

• Pakistani officials say they have made an arrest in connection with the 11-year old beheading murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
• The US Supreme Court upheld without comment the $220,000 illegal song-downloading verdict against Jammie Thomas-Rasser.
• Within hours of President Obama's nomination of DoJ civil rights division lawyer Thomas Perez as Secretary of Labor, Senate Republicans promised a brutal confirmation fight.
• European austerity and ten-year mortgage deferment plans have triggered another wave of housing price collapses, this time in relatively stagnant Denmark.
• Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello is stepping down at the end of the month after the video gaming company's disastrous SimCity launch.

Last Call

It's looking like America has reached a critical mass on same-sex marriage:  in less than ten years, support for same-sex marriage in the US has jumped 26 points in ABC News/Washington Post polling.

Most Americans, moreover, say the U.S. Constitution should trump state laws on gay marriage, a question now before the U.S. Supreme Court. And – in another fundamental shift – just 24 percent now see homosexuality as a choice, down from 40 percent nearly 20 years ago. It’s a view that closely relates to opinions on the legality of same-sex marriage.

That's actually a pretty big jump since just last August, after the President made his views clear and the repeal of DADT happened.  It certainly didn't hurt the President's re-election chances, now did it?

Intensity of sentiment about gay marriage also shows considerable change in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. In 2004, strong opponents outnumbered strong supporters by a broad 34 percentage points. Today strong supporters are ascendant, outnumbering strong opponents by 11 points.

Full PDF of the poll here.

At this point, I'm confident to say that same-sex marriage will be fully legal in all 50 states within ten years.  It may be five.  It may even be less.

Oh, and support of same-sex marriage by minorities now is 61% as opposed to 57% of whites.  Just throwing that out there.