24 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. This is what we can look forward to from the Obama camp as long as Newt remains the front-runner: http://2012.talkingpointsmemo….

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   1. He said, ‘just remember the higher a monkey climbs on a pole, the more you can see his butt.’ So, you know, the Speaker is very high on the pole right now and we’ll see how people like the view.

      I would think Gingrich is the monkey and his butt represents the bad things about him.  

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2. If Gingrich is elected president, will we have been Newtered?

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3. “Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works,” the former House speaker said at a campaign event at the Nationwide Insurance offices. “So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash,’ unless it’s illegal.”

   http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-50…

   More children than ever before in America are going to sleep at night without a home to call their own.

   One out of every 45 children – some 1.6 million – in the United States is homeless, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Center on Family Homelessness. The majority of the children are under age 7.

   The number of homeless children in 2010 exceeded even the total in 2006, when thousands of families displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced a historic spike in homelessness. Last year, at least 60,000 more children were homeless.

   http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/S…

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4. http://feministing.com/2011/12…

   The study  does say that women who have unwanted pregnancies have an increased risk of depression and anxiety, but choosing an abortion does not make them more at risk than having the baby. In other words the correlation is between mental stress and an unwanted pregnancy in itself, not between mental stress and abortion.

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5. The Next Roe v. Wade?: Jennie McCormack’s Abortion Battle

   Surviving, barely, on the $250 of monthly child support for one of her three kids, the unemployed, unmarried 32-year-old also knew she didn’t have the more than $500 she’d need for the two-and-a-half-hour trip from her bare-bones rental in Pocatello, Idaho, to Salt Lake City, the closest city with a clinic willing to terminate a pregnancy. She had no computer, no car, no one to take care of her 2-year-old-and like Idaho, Utah had a waiting period for abortions, which meant she’d have to make two round trips.

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6. U.S. to Aid Gay Rights Abroad, Obama and Clinton Say

   The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that the United States would use all the tools of American diplomacy, including the potent enticement of foreign aid, to promote gay rights around the world.

   Why has this been so under the radar?  You’d think the religious nutters in the GOP would be all over this instead of forwarding chain emails about the White House “holiday” tree.

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7. new from Gringrichco (a subsidiary of GOPco).

   Know some poor kids?  What better gift can you give the child that has nothing than the gift of a brighter future?

   

   

   My Cleaning Trolley (Girls Only) . . .

   . . . because at Gingrichco (a subsidiary of GOPco), we believe the solutions to America’s biggest problems are our little ones.  

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   1. 

      My Cleaning Trolley (Girls only) is for girls only.  You’re don’t want to become a housekeeper — do you — little boy?

      Ho Ho Ho — what’s that?  A tear?  You better not pout and you better not cry, . . . because if you do the good folks who bring toys to your homeless shelter might not get you the very latest from Gingrichco (a subsidiary of GOPco) — a very special something we designed just for poor little boys like you . . . the Henry Cleaning Trolley — Big Guy Janitor Edition.

      

      Now all you poor kids, girls and boys, have some early job training tools that you can all be thankful for this Christmas.

      So, . . . what are you waiting for, kid? . . . get to work.
      

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8. Which do you figure? The reason he gives?

   Trump said that he was ending the debate because he did not want to “give up my right to run as an independent candidate,” which he claimed the Republican Party was asking him to do if he wanted to moderate the debate. (Trump made waves by very loudly claiming he was considering running as a Republican earlier in the year.)

   or… only two candidates, one a total no-hoper, would touch it.

   And yeah I’m sure the GOP is real concerned about the whether or not the Donald wants to be their candidate. Insert eye roll here.

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

   World to the Donald. It’s over. Your fired. Don’t count on your TV show lasting much longer either. You just might have to go to work for a living. And no, nobody believes your a real billionaire.

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9. Looks like Colorado may have a new resident this spring – Rod Blagojevich may be coming to Littleton to serve his Federal prison sentence.

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   1. low security prison beds are a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give them away for nothing…

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   2. how that area could be called “Littleton” or “Englewood” (which is what I think it actually says on its sign – I’ll have to take a closer look next time I drive by). It’s Lakewood if it’s anywhere.

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      1. Article says it’s in Littleton, though.

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         1. They got that straight from the BOP’s website, as well as the “15 miles SW of Denver” line, even though the city limits come within a mile of the place.

            I guess it doesn’t really matter. If everything south of that is called “Littleton,” if only because the Post Office insists on giving it that designation (even the part that’s Denver), why not?

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10. TO:  Deborah Hersman, chairwoman National Transportation Safety Board

    RE:  NTSB Recommendation, Cell Phones and Driving

    Dear Ms. Herman,

    Greetings from the White house.

    Did someone at the NTSB not get the message that I’m trying to win a fucking election?

    Sincerely,

    Barry
    

    US calls for ban on in-car phone use … even with Bluetooth
    
    

    http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_n…

    OK, snark aside and recognizing the terrible injuries that this has contributed to (including recently one of our own Polsters), this really doesn’t seem to be a issue that’s going to win the current Administration overwhelming good will and warm the hearts of most voters; it plays right into the GOP narrative of too much government regulation (ala dust regulation on farms) and nanny-state intrusion in the personal lives and livelihoods of citizens.  Americans may often ignore the interests of their own pocketbooks when voting, but my guess is they won’t vote against the interests of their precious, precious, precious cell phones.

    Please don’t get me wrong here.  I’m not saying this isn’t a problem that needs addressing in some fashion; I am saying that politically this ban recommendation is a loser.  Or, am I just an insensitive and out-of-touch Neanderthal?

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    1. And if the only thing that matters is getting elected, then what benefit do we gain from winning an election?

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       1. I’d like to back you down a wee bit from your absolutist interpretation of what I wrote, unless you happen to actually know anyone who said, or believes, that the only thing that matters is getting elected.

          (OK, hell, I’ll give you the one — thankfully there is only one Willard out there — anyone else?)

          By “It’s”, are you contending that any and all manners of cell phone use are as impairing as driving drunk?

          Given that cell phones are the latest and probably the most ubiquitous of current driving distractions, does the use of other electronics (CB radios, audio devices, etc.) and the plethora of other distractions vying for the attention (billboards, screaming children, dancing sign spinners, waving politicians) of today’s drivers all fall below that .08% intoxication threshold?

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          1. do you see this a political winner or loser?  And, if it is a loser, is it a loser worth fighting the battle and taking the political hit anyway, because it’s the right thing to proceed?

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    2. Hands-free phone use is reasonably safe – at least it should be as safe as talking to a passenger.  The “ban them all” approach is overkill.

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       1. A hands free phone conversation vs. texting while driving is no comparison.  Why don’t they have any common sense and just ban texting while driving ?  Really stupid decision.

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          1. so if I am driving drunk I can call a cab to take me the rest of the way after I wreck

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          2. that places with texting bans have people who still do it, but on the down low.

             Someone on FB quoted a police friend of theirs who allegedly posted a rant about the unenforceability* of bans. People tend to put the phones well out of sight if cops are around.

             Something I’ve seen alleged on the web is that cell phone companies can track who might be driving (based on how quickly the user’s motion is making their signal transfer from one tower to the next) and could put the phones in a kind of silent mode when that happens, sending phone calls straight to voice mail and temporarily disabling texting. If true, it sounds like it would be a pain for passengers who would be unfairly shut down, but something along those lines might be the best solution.

             * sorry for the made-up word, if it hurts your eyes to read it.

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