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Friday Night Open Thread

By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Fri Sep 18, 2009 at 08:34:13 PM EST
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Via Surburban Guerilla, a new Janis Joplin song from 1968:

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

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    Friday Night Open Thread | 12 comments (12 topical)

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    I was discussing some history (5.00 / 3) (#1)
    by kenosharick on Fri Sep 18, 2009 at 08:42:21 PM EST
    related issues in the news with my students this week and one young lady wanted to know why no covered the 2million people who had marched in DC against Obama.  I tried to gently straighten her out on the numbers, but she responde that her brother who is a political science major at GWU was there and KNEW that that many people were there.  Her brother was inscensed that no media had covered the event. Of course all major media covered it extensively (including the Wash. Post on the front page). I doubt either of these young people looked at a newspaper, but probaly got their "news" from rush or glenn. After our discussion, I could tell that she did not believe me for a second- after all, as a college instructor, I am part of the vast left-wing conspiracy.

    Give them some historical context (5.00 / 2) (#6)
    by Cream City on Fri Sep 18, 2009 at 10:34:18 PM EST
    about marches on Washington -- all the way back to Coxey's Army, but we don't have crowd estimates on that.  However, my fave blog by two women of a certain age, as we say, has this to say about the tea partiers:

    A few thousand white folks called in sick to work last week so they could parade around the nation's capital on Saturday and Fox News declares a revolution is underway.  My goodness.  I don't know which is more sad - the fact that they couldn't spell half the words written on their illegible signs or that they all left their white hoods at home.  Bring the hippies back.  Their protests were much more entertaining.  Just to give you some perspective:

        * 1925 -  Ku Klux Klan - 35,000 KKK members marched on Washington
        * 1963 - March for Freedom with Martin Luther King - 250,000 marched
        * 1969 - March to end the Vietnam War - 600,000 marched
        * 1993 - Gay and Lesbian Rights - 800,000 marched
        * 1995 - Million Man March - 600,000 marched
        * 2004 - March for Women's Lives (Pro-Choice)  - over 1 million marched
        * 2009 - Obama Inauguration - over 1 million celebrate
        * September 12, 2009 - Tea Party Hillbilly Rally - 78,000 marched but only 3 seemed to know what they were marching about.

    And there's more, always much more, as the wonderful Margaret and Helen take on the media and tell it like it was and is:

    But it's not really these 78,000 marchers that worry me.  It's the media that gives them so much attention.  Did anyone else notice that when a million Pro-Choice women marched on Washington and 50 nut-jobs stood on the corner mis-quoting the bible, it was the bible thumping nut-jobs getting more coverage on the evening news?

    Yeh, as we discussed here the other day, a lot of us women of a certain age lost a lot of respect for the media that day.  So what we saw last year was just more of the same. . . .


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    Thanks- this is what I did (5.00 / 1) (#11)
    by kenosharick on Sat Sep 19, 2009 at 09:42:08 AM EST
    I talked about the two marches I participated in and how when you are in the middle of the crowd it may seem larger than it actually is. I am marching in October (gay rights) and I wonder how much coverage we will get.

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    I know plenty of poli-sci majors at GW (none / 0) (#2)
    by andgarden on Fri Sep 18, 2009 at 09:26:39 PM EST
    Talk about appealing to an irrelevant authority. . .

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    Go to Hot Air and Pajamas Media (none / 0) (#12)
    by Upstart Crow on Sat Sep 19, 2009 at 03:56:38 PM EST
    The press (even Fox) consistently reported that the crowd was in the "tens of thousands." More reliable estimates (see Hot Air and Pajamas Media for their summation of various reports) are in the hundreds of thousands to 1.2 million (outliers say 2 million).

    Crowd for Obamas inauguration was about 850,000. Some of the cops who were at the rallies last weekend say this was the biggest event they had ever seen.

    Look at the photos.

    Sorry, your friends were closer to being right than you gave them credit for.

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    JUSTICE Act seeks to fix PATRIOT and FISA (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by Ben Masel on Fri Sep 18, 2009 at 09:27:48 PM EST
    Senators Feingold and Durbin, with 8 co-sponsors, have introduced the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools In Counterterrorism Efforts (JUSTICE Act.) Full text not on Congressional servers, but Justin Sanchez has the pdf

    The measure, according to Feingold's press release, would curtail, but not eliminate FBI National Security letters, limit "Sneak and Peak' warrants to the most serious crimes, tighten roving wiretaps, repeal telecom immunity under FISA, block "bulk collection' of communications' content, limit the governments usew of FISA data later determined to have been collected unlawfully, step up Congressional oversight, and tighten PATRIOT's definitions of "Domestic Terrorism' to not include peaceful civil disobedience. Also narrowed, the definition of "material support' for terrorism, so that a target or defendant would have to know their resources were being abused.

    So far as i can tell, this is not an Administration initiative, but Feingold and Durbin striking out on their own. probably a good thing, as it'll be easier for Russ to line up Republican support.

    Discussion at Get FISA Right Facebook Group, McJoan's dailkos frontpager, and my diary there.

    Orly Tatiz (5.00 / 2) (#4)
    by andgarden on Fri Sep 18, 2009 at 09:29:40 PM EST
    is about to get sanctioned (PDF):

    "It was deja vu all over again." In her most recent tirade, Plaintiff's counsel seeks reconsideration of the Court's order dismissing this action. Instead of seriously addressing the substance of the Court's order, counsel repeats her political diatribe against the President, complains that she did not have time to address dismissal of the action (although she sought expedited consideration), accuses the undersigned of treason, and maintains that "the United States District Courts in the 11th Circuit are subject to political pressure, external control, and . . . subservience to the same illegitimate chain of command which Plaintiff has previously protested." (Pl.'s Emergency Req. for Stay of Deployment 2.)

    Counsel's conduct violates Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and sanctions are warranted. Accordingly, Plaintiff's motion for reconsideration (Doc. 15) is denied, and counsel for Plaintiff is ordered to show cause why the Court should not impose a monetary penalty of $10,000.00 upon Plaintiff's counsel for her misconduct. Counsel shall file her response to this show cause order within 14 days of today's order.
    From tonight's McLaughlin Group: (5.00 / 3) (#7)
    by FoxholeAtheist on Fri Sep 18, 2009 at 11:53:06 PM EST
    Eleanor was saying that the GOP harbors far-right extremists because they're useful to the Republicans.

    To make the point she told a story about a guy who went to see a psychiatrist because his brother thought he was a chicken. The shrink asked, "how long has this been going on"? And the guy said, "10 years". The psychiatrist then asked, "why haven't you sought help before?". And the guy said, "because we need the eggs".

    There it is.

    Any response from the rest? (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by Fabian on Sat Sep 19, 2009 at 03:42:01 AM EST
    Eleanor is their token liberal and frequently gets no support from the rest of the group.

    To be accurate, the people who are useful aren't the fringies, birthers and deathers but Limbaugh, Beck and the other preachers who whip them up.  

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    Yep, the loons/goons with the microphones... (5.00 / 3) (#10)
    by FoxholeAtheist on Sat Sep 19, 2009 at 04:58:46 AM EST
    they lay those jumbo eggs - the ones that are larger than extra-large and bursting right out of the carton.

    The guys on the McLaughlin Group even had to laugh at Eleanor's joke - it was just too spot on. BTW, Eleanor said it was a joke President Reagan used to tell. I don't know if he meant it in relation to the GOP's big time loony goons though.

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    I Can't Help It (none / 0) (#5)
    by daring grace on Fri Sep 18, 2009 at 09:46:56 PM EST
    These AP headlines keep getting to me:

    PR man charged with killing girl, 3, in drive-by

    It's a very sad story, but honestly, I don't think I would have opened the link except I thought some publicist was going around shooting toddlers.

    I guess PR is now accepted usage like NY? I kind of thought it was not.

    You're right, without the context (none / 0) (#8)
    by FoxholeAtheist on Fri Sep 18, 2009 at 11:57:48 PM EST
    there is no way of knowing whether PR refers to Public Relations or Puerto Rico. I always do a double take on it too.

    Parent
    Friday Night Open Thread | 12 comments (12 topical)

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