Who was it who first called the GOP presidential primary field a clown car? Could that be any more apt, what with the entrance today of Bobby Jindal, who announced today with…are you kidding me? A hidden-camera video of him telling his kids?
I’m all for modernity and all, but I’m also for taste of the good variety. I expect Louisiana’s in for it the way Wisconsin is:
Leaders of Mr. Walker’s party, which controls the Legislature, are balking at his demands for the state’s budget. Critics say the governor’s spending blueprint is aimed more at appealing to conservatives in early-voting states like Iowa than doing what is best for Wisconsin.
Lawmakers are stymied over how to pay for road and bridge repairs without raising taxes or fees, which Mr. Walker has ruled out.
The governor’s fellow Republicans rejected his proposal to borrow $1.3 billion for the roadwork, arguing that adding to the state’s debt is irresponsible.
“The governor rolled out $1.3 billion in bonding,” Scott Fitzgerald, the Senate majority leader, said in an interview. “It’s not been well received, is the best way to put it.”
Predictably, Charles Pierce is no fan, but also predictably, he’s smart/entertaining about it:
His speech, later on Wednesday afternoon, just as the daily apocalyptic thunderstorm was rolling in across Lake Pontchartrain, was completely of a piece with that persona. The applause invariably was a perceptible beat behind his applause lines, as though his audience briefly had to ponder the intellectual abstractions behind clinkers like, “I am not running for president to be someone. I’m running for president to do something.” before cheering. And, make no mistake, I realize that Jindal is running on a shoestring, but he really should pay his speechwriters because the folks who are working that job, evidently for free, really need to go.
OK, then. So how was your day? Mine was enervating, a slog, an afternoon of staring out a window at an ugly view, trying to build a head of enthusiasm and mostly failing. But I got done what I needed to get done, ate a sandwich and some chips and basically chalked it all up to a C-minus.
Not that there weren’t bright spots. I hope Sarah Palin saved her money over the last five years. A review of a truly awful movie is frequently a pleasure to read.
And an excellent piece by Rick Perlstein on the disintegration of the American left in the ’70s. Long, but worth your time, lest anyone get smug about swinging pendulums and suchlike.
Sorry this site has been such a bleh-fest lately. I’m in a rut. Speaking of pendulums. They always swing back, so let’s keep swinging and hope for the best.
Brandon said on June 25, 2015 at 12:24 am
Sorry this site has been such a bleh-fest lately.
Not to mention the horrific news out of South Carolina.
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A review of a truly awful movie is frequently a pleasure to read.
No one takes down bad movies as John Simon did. Armond White is one of the last true critics around.
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Dexter said on June 25, 2015 at 2:05 am
Poor Shawskank’s husband, what a sap. A couple days ago The Post reported she had been having sex with the two murderers in a closet four times a week. The hubby, who will make a perfect cartoon character model in the next Shrek film, is in total denial. His loyal Shawskank wife would never cheat on him, no no never never uh-uh-uh.
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David C. said on June 25, 2015 at 6:11 am
So sad. $P and Todd will have to sell the Hummer limo and get something more appropriate like a Chevy Chevette limo.
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alex said on June 25, 2015 at 7:52 am
Where else but in America could a swarthy Indian Rhodes scholar with a biology degree from Brown present himself on the national stage as a crass caricature of an evolution-denying, swaggering buffoon and get away with it? This on top of calling his own party “the party of stupid.” I’m sure he’s having a ball finally pursuing the acting career he wanted instead of the humdrum Ivy League career track his wealthy parents forced upon him.
As for La Palin, I’m sure she’s only on hiatus. As soon as the Republicans lose again in 2016, Fox can drop all pretenses of seriousness and make her mistress of ceremonies again for the big commiseration.
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Jeff Borden said on June 25, 2015 at 8:45 am
I’m with Alex. While Bobby Jindal is a despicable hack who has made life in Louisiana harder for countless millions with his ideology, how difficult must it have been to destroy the intelligent, fact and reason driven man he was before embracing his inner douchebag?
$arah faces the same dilemma as poor Ann Coulter, who is doing her best to reinvent herself as a nativist in her latest grab for attention by slurring and slamming Hispanics. There are younger and prettier loony conservative women out there. Apparently, even on the far right, the same rules apply to the genders. John McCain will always be welcome. He’s allowed to be a cranky old man. $arah will not. She’s yesterday’s conservative crush. Christ, Fox has a whole stable of younger, blonder babes who sell that right-wing crap with more energy than $P. And because Mooselini is, above all, incredibly lazy and work averse, she has never progressed beyond the cliche-spouting train wreck she was in 2008, so she really has nothing to say the beyond word salad that even former admirers have grown tired of.
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Peter said on June 25, 2015 at 9:24 am
“Mooselini” Oh, I hope her dismissal is more hiatus, if for no other reason than I miss those nicknames.
Although I would rather have anybody as president other than Ted Cruz, I have to admit I appreciate that he speaks in complete sentences. The next coherent statement out of Snowzilla will be her first. If I was in her family I would have punctured my ear drums a long time ago.
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adrianne said on June 25, 2015 at 9:50 am
Here in the great Northeast, we’re waiting breathlessly for Chris Christie’s presidential announcement. Everybody but Christie knows what a lunatic bid this is (his latest poll rating are 30 percent, Richard Nixon territory), but it will be entertaining to see him on the national stage for a while. And Scott Walker and the Repubs in Wisconsin must believe in magic, because how else do you pay for roads except through taxes?
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brian stouder said on June 25, 2015 at 9:55 am
Adrianne – we need a SCOTUS update!
Aside from that, here’s a double-goodie for the angry white crowd, from the Fox News front page
ART CRIME
Arrest warrant for Obama poster creator in Detroit
sarcasm mode ON Is this an OID thing -looking to arrest artists?
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brian stouder said on June 25, 2015 at 9:58 am
scotusblog says maybe 3 or 4 opinions coming, judging from the size of the boxes of documents…
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nancy said on June 25, 2015 at 10:07 am
Brian, the artist in question is Shepherd Fairey, the one who did the Obama “hope” poster. He was hired to do a mural and spent his downtime putting up some unauthorized pieces elsewhere. This is a brick-headed move that in the end means absolutely nothing.
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brian stouder said on June 25, 2015 at 10:05 am
(make that ‘3 or 4 decisions‘)
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MarkH said on June 25, 2015 at 10:17 am
SCOTUS: ACA lives.
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Dave said on June 25, 2015 at 10:18 am
6-3 in favor. Dissenters Thomas, Alito, Scalia.
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Bitter Scribe said on June 25, 2015 at 10:34 am
That review of “Ted 2” was great. I always disliked MacFarlane because I thought “Family Guy” was overrated and unfunny. My dislike turned to loathing when he did that punk-ass “We Saw Your Boobs” number at the Oscars. I kept hoping one of the actresses he was insulting would walk up to the podium and kick him between the legs.
(Although, full disclosure: I actually liked the original “Ted.”)
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Sue said on June 25, 2015 at 10:43 am
MarkH, and as a result, so do many people.
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Joe K said on June 25, 2015 at 10:48 am
I’ll change the subject,
Got married 32 yrs ago today,
Hope for 32 more, small country church at the time, surrounded by houses now.
Reception at the Garrett American Legion, ham sandwich, chips, cake, dj, 7 ice cold kegs of Budweiser, and the whole Fort Wayne Rugby Club, plus my very large extended family.
We still have people tell us how much fun it was.
Pilot Joe
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brian stouder said on June 25, 2015 at 10:51 am
Joe, congratulations; and here’s wishing you and your (no doubt) lovely wife several more decades of happiness and health
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Peter said on June 25, 2015 at 10:51 am
Congrats Pilot Joe. My lovely bride and I are coming up on 31 years, but it only seems like 31 minutes.
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Deborah said on June 25, 2015 at 11:02 am
Hooray for the ACA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know I used up my quota of exclamation points for the next couple of years!!!!!!!
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adrianne said on June 25, 2015 at 11:26 am
So here’s our initial take on the ACA, but we’ve got plenty more in store, including the top of Scalia’s head exploding. What a rant in his dissent! My favorite line is “we should just start calling it SCOTUScare.” What a capital idea!
http://www.law360.com/articles/663431/breaking-supreme-court-hands-obama-another-victory-on-aca-
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brian stouder said on June 25, 2015 at 11:29 am
And he throws around epithets like ‘legal applesauce’ and others, in his opinions.
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Julie Robinson said on June 25, 2015 at 11:30 am
Deborah and Littlebird, what a huge relief for you.
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Little Bird said on June 25, 2015 at 11:44 am
SUCH a relief!!
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alex said on June 25, 2015 at 11:50 am
A little jiggery-pokery, a little argle-bargle and presto! A Scalia opinion is born!
Happy anniversary Joe; hope you’re going somewhere fun to celebrate.
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nancy said on June 25, 2015 at 11:54 am
Seven kegs? No wonder they’re still talking about it.
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brian stouder said on June 25, 2015 at 12:18 pm
A pleasing snap-reaction to Justice ‘Words have no meaning’ Argle-Bargle Scalia
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/25/8845697/scalia-king-burwell-dissent-semantic-holism
the lead –
Dissenting in the King v. Burwell case, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia complained that “words no longer have meaning if an Exchange that is not established by a State is ‘established by the state.'” This is an amusing piece of trolling, but the reality is that words have never “had meaning” in the way Scalia thinks.
Individual stringz of letterz r efforts to express meaningful propositions in an intelligible way. To succeed at this mission does not require the youse of any particular rite series of words and, in fact, a sntnce fll of gibberish cn B prfctly comprehensible and meaningful 2 an intelligent reader. To understand a phrse or paragraf or an entire txt rekwires the use of human understanding and contextual infrmation not just a dctionry.
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Jolene said on June 25, 2015 at 12:21 pm
Yes, hooray for the ACA, hooray for Obama, and hooray for all of us. Let’s hope this decision prompts some Republican governors to expand Medicaid, which would enable several million more Americans to get coverage.
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coozledad said on June 25, 2015 at 12:21 pm
My Republican alter ego, Junious Kissinger, just got this email from Jeb!
Junious,
The Supreme Court just upheld Obamacare yet again.
This is the direct result of President Obama. He deliberately forced ObamaCare on the American people in a partisan and toxic way.
And we both know that Hillary Clinton will be more of the same. We cannot let this happen.
That is why I need you to make a one time – emergency contribution of $50, $25, or $10 to my campaign to ensure that NEVER happens.
Junious, you know in your heart that we cannot afford four more years of the same policies, which will be the case under a Clinton White House. But the only way to prevent that is to make the most generous contribution you can afford right now of to stop her.
And here is my promise to you. As President, I will uphold our Constitution, I will not compromise my duty to you or the American people.
We need a President who will repeal and replace ObamaCare with a conservative solution.
So join me today, and ensure we put a stop to Hillary Clinton and the overreaches of the last six years.
Thank you,
Jeb
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nancy said on June 25, 2015 at 12:31 pm
Junious Kissinger. But of course.
I’m disappointed he didn’t sign it with the exclamation point.
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Heather said on June 25, 2015 at 12:28 pm
Yes, this Obamacare thing is really “forced.” So forced that Congress passed it and the Supreme Court upheld it.
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Hattie said on June 25, 2015 at 12:36 pm
Har har! How mad this makes those a-holes is a big part of the euphoria I’m feeling today!
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beb said on June 25, 2015 at 12:47 pm
I’m trying to channel how Steven Colber’ would have re-written Jeb!@#$’s fund-raising email…
Dear Junious,
Today the Supreme Court has unheld the ACA, forcing tens of millions of Americans to have health care for the first time in their lives. Just send $10, $20, a thousand dollarts to the my “Terri Shiavo for life” super PAC and when elected President I will ensure than no American will ever again be afflict with competent healthcare!
I agree with Nancy that this has been a blah kind of week. Even a sharp take down of Ted 2 can not lift my spirits since it wasn’t nearly vicious enough. But it I’ve loath Seth MacFarlane for at least a decade. He’s the kind of guy who would make cruel jokes about a patient he’s performing a colonoscopy on.
I did not know that Bobby Jindal was a Rhodes Scholar. Considering how he turned out it raises questions about the qualifications for becoming a Rhodes Scholar. Amusingly, Jindal approval rating in Louisiana is lower than that of President Obama. And Obama lost Louisiana in 2012 by double-digits.
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Basset said on June 25, 2015 at 12:53 pm
Congratulations, Joe and Mrs… 34 years for us, reception was at a UAW hall in Kalamazoo.
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coozledad said on June 25, 2015 at 12:55 pm
Junious is one of the Shoo-Fly, NC Kissingers. The family motto is “We Ain’t Jews.”
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Judybusy said on June 25, 2015 at 1:18 pm
Congratulations, Joe! I hope you get to do something fun with Mrs. Joe tonight!
Hooray for the ACA. I’m still reading that collection of Hiaasen columns, and the one this morning was about the implications for FL in not taking lots of federal healthcare dollars, in addition to the MA expansion. It’s just immoral.
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Sherri said on June 25, 2015 at 1:37 pm
Jeb! didn’t get the wording quite right. It’s supposed to be “In your heart, you know” not “you know in your heart”. Got to get the dogwhistle at the right pitch! Of course, this is reportedly the same guy who thought Chiang Kai Shek was a mystical warrior, so maybe he doesn’t know who Barry Goldwater is either.
It’s a wonderful day at the Court when Scalia is reduced to fuming about jiggery-pokery. I like the Supreme Court Breakfast Table discussion over at Slate about today’s decisions, not just the ACA decision but the Fair Housing decision as well which also went in favor of the good guys.
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Jolene said on June 25, 2015 at 1:37 pm
Which collection is that, JudyB? Must have missed your previous mention of it.
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Sue said on June 25, 2015 at 1:51 pm
Now I’m worried they’ll kill marriage equality to even things out. Though maybe I shouldn’t, perhaps Scalia got his dissents mixed up and he’s fuming about a different pokery.
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Sue said on June 25, 2015 at 1:55 pm
Here in WI, we worry about two things with Scott Walker: that he’ll come back before he’s had a chance to be humiliated in the debates, and that he’ll come back.
Run, Scotty, run. And keep running please.
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brian stouder said on June 25, 2015 at 3:06 pm
Sue – granted, I know bupkis; but it strikes me as remarkable that today’s SCOTUS decision regarding ACA was a 6-3, whereas the last biggie on ACA was 5-4.
I’m thinking that’s a very positive little tea-leaf clump, with regard to whether the Court wants to turn around and takes civil rights away from millions of Americans who just want to be married folks
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jcburns said on June 25, 2015 at 3:24 pm
Congratulations Pilot Joe. And Cooz, that’s an in-junious idea for a persona.
And congratulations to us all for moving forward, not backward when it comes to health care.
Justice Scalia, I’ll be happy to call it SCOTUS-care if you’d like. Are you getting adequate treatment for your SCOTUS, by the way?
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brian stouder said on June 25, 2015 at 3:38 pm
jc – that’s pretty close to a thread-win, I’d say!
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brian stouder said on June 25, 2015 at 3:39 pm
(imagine the millions that guy could win, if he recorded the commentary during HIS colonoscopy!)
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adrianne said on June 25, 2015 at 3:40 pm
OK, Brian, here’s the betting on SCOTUS’ remaining cases: They’ll do four opinions on Friday (the one I’m looking for is the challenge to EPA’s mercury emissions rule) and that leaves Obergefell v. Hodges, same-sex marriage, for Monday all by its lonesome.
My prediction is that Roberts will write for the majority upholding a constitutional right to marriage and it will be 6-3. The top of Scalia’s head might actually come off. Stay tuned.
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Deborah said on June 25, 2015 at 3:41 pm
We are celebrating today, 2 things, the SCOTUS decision about the ACA of course, and tomorrow is our 3 year anniversary for having a presence in NM. Both good things, especially for Little BIrd. First we cried tears of joy, with hugs all around, then we listened to Obama’s speech and cheered. Now we hope to have more to cheer about with the marriage equality decision. Judging how angry Scalia sounded in his dissent it makes me wonder if part of the reason for that is because he’s losing on all fronts. Hope so. May his head explode, and I mean that in the best possible way.
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Sherri said on June 25, 2015 at 3:46 pm
Maybe Scalia will retire in disgust! One can always hope! (Though Thomas is my first choice to kick off the court, followed by Alito, then Scalia. Scalia is occasionally reasonable on 4th Amendment cases, while any 8-1 case always seems to have Thomas as the dissenting voice, and not in a good way.)
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adrianne said on June 25, 2015 at 3:51 pm
I think the most dangerous conservative justice is Smilin’ Sam Alito. He’s trouble. Scalia has become amusing, and Thomas is a non-entity.
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brian stouder said on June 25, 2015 at 4:08 pm
Adrianne – what is the theory amongst your newsroom? – is this a bit of theatrics from SCOTUS (saving the biggest for last?) – or is Dahlia Lithwick correct in saying that the BIGGIE BIGGIe decisions from SCOTUS require (and inspire) lots and lots of writing and re-writing from the justices, naturally pushing those decisions to the very last curtain?
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dull_old_man said on June 25, 2015 at 4:14 pm
Joe K–congrats and best wishes. I’m saying Fort Wayne must have a small rugby club if seven kegs of beer was enough. The bartenders in Chicago are still talking about when the New Zealand All Blacks had a match at Soldier Field. In the mid-70s a flight attendant told me that the Irish national rugby team and some fans drank a 747 dry between Dublin and New York. I have high expectations for rugby players.
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Sue said on June 25, 2015 at 4:16 pm
Yikes, I haven’t been paying attention.
TPP fast track passed yesterday. The bad news is, say goodbye to more of America’s middle class. The good news is, maybe now we can find out what’s in the thing.
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adrianne said on June 25, 2015 at 4:37 pm
Brian, I think Dahlia is correct – the Supremes could care less about drama, but these decisions do require a lot of drafts going back and forth among the justices.
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Jeff Borden said on June 25, 2015 at 4:40 pm
I can’t fathom all the votes SCOTUS cast aside from our dependable trio of twits — Alito, Scalia and Thomas– but I think the theory that John Roberts has his eye on how he will be portrayed by history is a not insubstantial argument. I loathe the guy and think he bullshit Congress while they considered his appointment. I would hardly describe him as an impartial umpire calling balls and strikes. Yet he upheld the individual mandate and now this.
Every time I see the multiple chins on Scalia and Thomas, I keep thinking sooner or later they will keel over. No such luck. And I’m with Adrianne. Of the three, Alito is the creepiest and slimiest. One of my favorite commentators has nicknamed him “Strip Search Sammy” for finding nothing wrong with the strip searches of women arrested for non-violent misdemeanors. He’s a major dick.
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Jolene said on June 25, 2015 at 4:49 pm
A propos of nothing, here is a piece written by David Simon in honor of his father five years ago and republished this past weekend in a Father’s Day remembrance. A pleasure.
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MichaelG said on June 25, 2015 at 4:55 pm
Congrats, Joe. May you have 32 more.
A very interesting take on Roberts’ vote from Josh Marshall:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-mick-jagger-reality-of-justice-john-roberts
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Brandon said on June 25, 2015 at 5:14 pm
https://workersbravo.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/sixteen-bitchy-comments-from-john-simons-movies-into-film-criticism-1967-1970/
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Jolene said on June 25, 2015 at 5:34 pm
For follow-ups on the ACA decision, WaPo has a list of updates (reactions, interpretations, political consequences) on the home page.
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coozledad said on June 25, 2015 at 7:05 pm
White privilege in action. If this kid were black, she’d be a cautionary racial poster child for O’Reilly or Hannity.
http://wonkette.com/589536/looks-like-god-knocked-up-bristol-palin-again
Tine to stitch that cooter up, honey.
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Jeff Borden said on June 25, 2015 at 7:29 pm
I’m especially enamored of Bristol’s plea for privacy. All she and her trashy family have done is perform fellatio on every camera lens within 100 yards for the past seven years, but now she’s going all Greta Garbo on us. So, if I understand this, for the second time the spokeswoman for celibacy has gotten pregnant outside of marriage. While the right-wing media will circle the wagons for Little Miss Virginity, imagine the reaction if something like this were ever to befall the Obama girls.
Thank you again, John McCain, for bringing this entire clan of snowbillies into the national consciousness.
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Suzanne said on June 25, 2015 at 9:13 pm
Amen, Jeff, amen.
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David C said on June 25, 2015 at 10:13 pm
Somebody has to take over the 19 and counting franchise. It’s not like she has anything else going like work or getting an education.
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Deborah said on June 25, 2015 at 11:22 pm
One of the commenters on the blog Gin and Tacos said “welcome to Skankorage”, when Ed mentioned that he had arrived in Alaska on his extended road trip. I thought that was priceless. Learning more and more about the Palins that about sums it up.
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