Democrat (Of Course) Legislators In Connecticut Seek To Reorganize Catholic Church In That State
— DrewM

When I first saw this I thought it was something introduced by some crank legislator that would go nowhere, turns out the state legislature is really going to debate a bill that would unilaterally restructure the governance of the Catholic church in Connecticut.

After a priest stole $1.4 million from a church in Darien, state legislators have proposed a law that would regulate how parishes are controlled and operated.

The state's Catholic bishops rallied opposition from the pulpits at weekend Masses.

The law essentially would strip the dioceses of all financial control of parishes and leave bishops and priests to oversee "matters pertaining exclusively to religious tenets and practices." A board of elected laypersons would handle parish finances.

The bill, introduced Thursday by the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, chaired by state Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, and state Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, caught many Catholics by surprise. They heard about it during Masses.

Lawlor and McDonald are now denying they had anything to do with the bill. Apparently it just wrote and introduced itself or something.

The idea that this bill ever got this far makes you wonder if people elected to high positions of authority in this country have even heard of the US Constitution, let alone read it. Contrary to popular belief, the 1st Amendment was designed to protect religion from government not the other way around (and yes, we can argue about the doctrine of incorporation some other time but right now no one claims that the US Constitution isn't binding on the states).

This bill will die a quick and unanimous death but it shows that the political class really has to be reminded there are limits to what they may do. Left to their own devices, they would regulate any and every thing they felt like.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:14 AM | Add Comment
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China Tests The New Kid UPDATE: Not The First Time This Has Happened Recently
— DrewM

Chalk one up for Sheriff Joe, the Chinese (aka, the underwriters of Obama's debt run up) are checking out how Obama will respond to a push.

Five Chinese ships including a Chinese naval vessel harassed a U.S. Navy ship in the South China Sea on Sunday, at one point closing to within 25 feet of the ocean surveillance ship, the Pentagon said.

A Defense Department statement said the Chinese vessels "shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity" to the USS Impeccable, which was conducting routine operations in international waters 75 miles south of Hainan Island.

The Pentagon identified the Chinese vessels as a Navy intelligence ship, a bureau of maritime fisheries patrol vessel, a state oceanographic administration patrol vessel, and two small Chinese-flagged trawlers.

...The Navy ship responded by spraying one of the vessels with its fire hoses, but the Chinese ship closed further to within 25 feet and its crew members disrobed to their underwear, the Pentagon said.

I'm guessing in Chinese culture underwear is a great insult as opposed just being silly and rather embarrassing.

Let's see if the State Department can come with the right word in Mandarin for 'reset' or more likely 'keep buying our bonds, please'.

UPDATE: This is apparently only the most recent in a series of incidents at sea between Chinese vessels and US intelligence ships.

US responds with low level public protest.

That strikes me as about right. This kind of crap is just a bit of ritual harassment. You can't react to everything by going right to Eleventy!!!1!11!! There are bigger fish to fry in the China-US relationship (economics and Taiwan to name but two) and you can't hold the big issues hostage to this crap. You can say you have to hold the line everywhere or they will take more but you can also argue they simply want to see if they can rattle Team Obama and get under their skin. Better not to give them the satisfaction on the first round and see if they back away or ratchet it up, then adjust our response accordingly.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:32 AM | Comments (2)
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Hundreds Of Thousands Of Illegal Immigrants May Get Jobs Thanks To The So-Called "Stimulus" Bill
— DrewM

Awesome!

Studies by two conservative think tanks estimate immigrants in the United States illegally could take 300,000 construction jobs, or 15% of the 2 million jobs that new taxpayer-financed projects are predicted to create.

They fault Congress for failing to require that employers certify legal immigration status of workers before hiring by using a Department of Homeland Security program called E-Verify. The program allows employers to check the validity of Social Security numbers provided by new hires. It is available to employers on a voluntary basis.

...An advocacy group for immigrants, illegal and legal, did not disagree with the 300,000 estimate. Camarota says the estimate is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey and other independent findings that 15% of all construction workers in the USA are either illegal immigrants or lack the status of legal immigrant authorized to work.

But Jorge-Mario Cabrera, director of education for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said it is impossible to predict with certainty because it is unknown how many jobless immigrant construction workers may leave the U.S., frustrated by the economic recession, before the new spending produces jobs.

He questioned the Center for Immigration Studies' motives.

"Those are fear tactics. Â… 'The immigrants are here to take your job,' " Cabrera said. "I think that we really should be focusing on economic progress for all."

Heh. I thought the only point of the so-called "stimulus" was to create jobs for Americans. It seems this is one case where it is a zero sum game between illegals and citizens/legalized aliens.

It's also amusing that the Democrats put a 'buy American' provision in this bill but won't put in a 'hire American' provision. By shutting out foreign suppliers we risk a disastrous trade war that would hurt American workers but there's only benefits to American workers by ensuring only legal workers can be hired on federally funded projects.

And these construction and other jobs won't be cheap day labor jobs hired out of the parking lot of a Home Depot. They will be government funded projects meaning the pay scale will subject to the provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act.

So how exactly is hiring non-Americans directly or indirectly on the public payroll helping to put Americans back to work, which was supposedly the whole point of this trillion plus dollar exercise?

Posted by: DrewM at 07:11 AM | Add Comment
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Time to Make a "Love Connection"
— Russ from Winterset

It's pretty bad when you lose "conservatives" like Buckley, Frum & Parker, but how low do you have to go before you lose rock-ribbed conservatives like......Meghan McCain! Writing over at The Daily Beast, Ms. McCain has declared in her most recent column that Ann Coulter Does Not Speak For Meghan McCain!

I know, I know. Whoda thunk it?

Now Meghan McCain has several things going for her here:

1. She's rich. Mom's family business means that Ms. McCain could coast through life like a Kennedy or a Heinz-Kerry.

2. Meghan McCain is a hottie. Let's not let this thread degenerate into the myriad of ways that we'd "hit it", but instead simply stipulate that Meghan Is Hot.

3. Her brothers were raised in a household where military service to our country is valued, so I think it's probable that she feels the same way. That's a big plus for her character in my book.

With all that said, I have a few problems with Ms. McCain's position here.

Let me get this straight: Meghan McCain's father spent the last 2 years and the years 1999 & 2000 vying for the nomination of the Republican Party for the Presidency, and Ms. McCain has only been a registered Republican for ONE YEAR? OK, let's assume that she was too young to be politically aware when he ran the first time. Why wait until spring of 2008 to register? Was she waiting to see if Daddy got the nomination before she came on board with his party's nominee? If John McCain had lost the primaries and had to watch this last election from the bullpen, I think it's probable, even CERTAIN, that Ms. McCain would still be sitting on the fence. Let's just say that her commitment to the Republican Party is based more on who their latest Presidential nominee was rather than a long-standing commitment to shared values. Hell, at least she's still talking to Daddy, which is more than the Giuliani kids will do with their Pops.

I don't mind seeing think-pieces from people who don't think as clearly as I do. I usually figure that they've got something in their background that gives them an insight into the subject that I might not have. You know, like reading a Leonardo DiCaprio column on global warming because one of Leo's 27 cars is a Prius? But Ms. McCain's writing gig at the Daily Beast seems to be solely based on the fact that her Daddy ran for president last year. Shit, at least Chris Buckley wrote a few good novels while he was living off WFB's conservative bona fides. What has Meghan McCain done that compels me to give two craps and a stroke about what her position on issues in the political arena happens to be?

I think that I've got a solution that will kill two birds with one stone. Ms. McCain previously lamented the effect of the 2008 election on her dating life, and we all know a certain NYC-based Beta Male pundit who couldn't get laid at a women's prison, even if he showed up with a bottle of roofies and a fistfull of pardons.

Let's see if we can get these two wacky kids together and start the healing process!

On the plus side, this would make an EPIC sitcom. Just spitballing here, but I think the first season of this sure-thing powerhouse could revolve around the happy couple and their wacky misadventures on the way to the altar. The difficulties in getting the groom's hot-blooded Asian American guardian to agree with the wife's cranky old war hero father on the caterer, florist and photographer for the wedding is a multicultural EPIC WIN for whichever network picks this up first. Hell, daddy dropping the "gook" bomb at the first meeting between the families could carry an entire episode by itself!

This idea is pure genius, and I'm just GIVING. IT. AWAY. Because I care.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 06:58 AM | Add Comment
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Top Headline Comments 03-09-09
— Gabriel Malor

"Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks."

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:09 AM | Add Comment
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Overnight Open Schadenfreude: Seattle P-I Rages Against the Dying of the Light (genghis)
— Open Blog

Mercifully, the Seattle P-IÂ’s suffering is nearing its end, yet the end is nigh. Still, the brave columnists and editors have decided to do their best to entertain us, in what short time remains. TonightÂ’s opinion piece is from columnist Joel Connelly, a long-time unrepentant lefty well-seasoned journalist with the paper asking Without Papers, Who Will Speak Truth To Power? A fair enough question, so letÂ’s let him make his case. (Original content is compressed to save screen space, yet again, since every single sentence is also its own paragraph)

”UNFOLDING HORROR stories of wrongheaded loans and wretched excesses by bankers prompt a reasonable citizen to ask: Who was guarding the store? Who was looking out for white-collar crime? Outrage and ersatz populism on cable TV news -- spread by guys with seven-figure salaries -- has taken the form of blunderbuss attacks on Congress and pictures of villains. (redundant –ed) Nobody questions the absence of watchdogs. The Seattle P-I did just that. Our paper has painstakingly detailed how FBI agents and dollars were diverted from white-collar crime to the war on terrorism. The promise of $1 billion to revitalize white-collar work graced our front page a week ago. It's satisfying to see as the print P-I nears its last edition.”

Not only layers of painstakiness, but priorities. I do give Mr. Connelly credit for using both “ersatz” and “blunderbuss” in the same sentence. But he’s just getting warmed up:

”Shrinking newsrooms, elimination of "special projects" units and empty desks in state capitol pressrooms are worthy of public worry. Who is to get at the truth in order to speak the truth to power? Back when this scribe attended Bellingham High School, walls in Mr. Pooleon's classroom were covered by marvelous vertical food chain drawings, topped by polar bears and lions (he left out tigers from the equation, oh my – ed)(land) and orcas (sea). Seattle newspapers occupy a curious position in the media food chain. We have nourished those above us as well as the upstarts."

Wow. ThereÂ’s really nothing to add to that buffet of arrogance and..Â…weirdness. But Mr. Connelly goes on to explain how much weÂ’ll miss him and his cohorts:

”At the same time, "new media" -- our proliferating Web sites -- depend on daily fish wrappers more than they admit. Sure, Web sites have scored multiple breaks, from neighborhood stories to the Bush administration's purge of overly professional U.S. attorneys. But many also have ideological axes to grind, and proprietors addicted to three words -- "I," "me" and "my."

He’s got a point there. We do depend on daily fish wrappers, such as the P-I, more than we admit, but for obviously different reasons than what he’s drawn for a conclusion. Sure, Connelly mentioned our hard work breaking the U.S. attorney scandal, but never mentioned the HQ’s role in breaking the Paul Anka “Shirtgate” scandal. As for Intermesh sites having “an ideological axe to grind?” That’s a great point. Can’t have ideology creeping into our posts and stuff. And we really should stop using those nasty personal pronouns like "I" and "me" and simply get used to the collective ones. Mr. Connelly leaves us with a parting pearl of wisdom:

”The daily fish wrapper may die. Its values must live.”

Truer, yet odder words have never been spoken. WeÂ’ll miss the old girl and the comedy goldmine sheÂ’s provided for months. Below the fold is a musical sendoff as we prepare for it to slip the surly bonds of Earth and touch the bottom of our recycling bins for one last time.
more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 09:38 PM | Add Comment
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Elliot Spitzer is a Fetish-Choker, Says Call Girl
— Ace

Dang. And I thought that only happened on CSI. And Michael Hutchence's garage.

"He wanted a scenario where I was supposed to say I had just been to a self-defense class. He was supposed to respond, 'Let's see if you learned anything. He would be aggressive. I would have to defend myself.

"When he arrived, he took off his jacket but kept on his shirt and tie. His demeanor was nice, but I don't remember any kissing or tenderness. He wanted to get on with the role-play. It was the first time I'd done that.

"I remember holding his wrists and him pushing back. I felt he was gauging my strength. We moved to the bed. He put his clothes neatly to the side, folding his pants. Yes, he did leave his socks on.

"I was never fully undressed. He was naked. He was perspiring a lot. He was holding me down. He pinned me to the bed. That didn't bother me. But when he grabbed my throat, that was too much. I remember trying to push myself up off the bed, which made him apply more pressure. I've never been worried about my safety, but I was really concerned.

"Finally, I pushed him away and got up. He hadn't finished. But I'd had enough. I don't think he was planning on really hurting me. He didn't ask if I was all right. He didn't appear to be mad, either. Maybe he had had so many experiences with other people that he could see I didn't know what I was doing. As he was leaving, he gave me a tip."

Hot.

I remember at the time the transcripts came out there was some mention of a particular sex act Spitzer wanted, and was willing to pay extra for. I (and you) took various guesses.

Whoever said "Sexual Asphyxia," please contact me about picking up YOUR BRAND NEW CAR!!!!

Bonus: I missed this part:

P.S. Annie says she also had a date with "a current governor," not from New York. "But I'm not going to talk about that one." For now.

Sickinmass pointed that out.

Posted by: Ace at 08:21 PM | Comments (1)
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Star Trek XI Trailer 3
— Gabriel Malor

...getting a promotion from the sidebar.

Go here, no embed. As my bro says, "So good I want to marry it."

May 1. Wolverine
May 8. Star Trek
May 18. Angels and Demons (could take it or leave it)
May 22. Terminator Salvation

Iz gonna be a crazy month! more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:19 PM | Comments (1)
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Asshat of the month award
— Purple Avenger

Some tool in the WV legislature introduced a bill to ban Barbie dolls.

...It shall be unlawful in the state to sell "Barbie" dolls and other similar dolls that promote or influence girls to place an undue importance on physical beauty to the detriment of their intellectual and emotional development.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to ban the sale of Barbie dolls and other similar dolls...

Someone get this legislator to the ER quick - they've got a severe cranial impaction stuck up their rectum.

H/T Watcher of Weasles

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 06:18 PM | Comments (1)
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Data Point
— Gabriel Malor

Not sure what to make of this and didn't have my camera. The sidewalk in front of the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood has been chalked:

"BURN DOWN THE FEDERAL RESERVE"

Ronulans on the loose?

Discuss.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:18 PM | Comments (1)
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