Black and White Lily wallpaper

Black and White Lily wallpaper

Dana Milbank on Kagan and Senate conservatives, Kagan may get confirmed, but Thurgood Marshall can forget it

As confirmation hearings opened Monday afternoon, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee took the unusual approach of attacking Kagan because she admired the late justice Thurgood Marshall, for whom she clerked more than two decades ago.

“Justice Marshall’s judicial philosophy,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, “is not what I would consider to be mainstream.” Kyl — the lone member of the panel in shirtsleeves for the big event — was ready for a scrap. Marshall “might be the epitome of a results-oriented judge,” he said.

This would be the same Kyl that keeps leaving his truthiness at home. So we’re to put on our dunce caps and sit in the corner for thinking Justice Scalia, Roberts, Alito and Thomas were put on the court despite their extreme right conservative agenda. One which they make no apologies for pursuing.

It was, to say the least, a curious strategy to go after Marshall, the iconic civil rights lawyer who successfully argued Brown vs. Board of Education. Did Republicans think it would help their cause to criticize the first African American on the Supreme Court, a revered figure who has been celebrated with an airport, a postage stamp and a Broadway show? The guy is a saint — literally. Marshall this spring was added to the Episcopal Church’s list of “Holy Women and Holy Men,” which the Episcopal Diocese of New York says “is akin to being granted sainthood.”

With Kagan’s confirmation hearings expected to last most of the week, Republicans may still have time to make cases against Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Gandhi.

Myths and falsehoods about Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination. Any time a liberal or progressive feels like they are having a bad day in the message wars take solace in the fact when conservatives resort to lies to make their point it means you’re winning.

Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN) has been smok’n that tea again – Wamp’s Monthly Stimulus Hypocrisy: Stimulus Both A ‘Flawed Notion’ And Creates ‘Good High-End Jobs’

Earlier this year, ThinkProgress released a report detailing how more than 114 lawmakers who voted to kill the Recovery Act — over half the GOP caucus in Congress — later either took credit for stimulus projects or hailed stimulus-related programs as a success. Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN), who is mentioned in the report for celebrating a stimulus-funded laboratory after voting against the stimulus, has continued to vigorously attack the stimulus as a failure, while hailing Tennessee stimulus projects as a success.

On Friday, Wamp’s office released a statement praising the construction of a new Alstom steam and gas turbine factory in Chattanooga. Wamp said the $300 million dollar factory, “means good high-end manufacturing jobs for our region’s workers.” Wamp did not mention anywhere in the release that Alstom’s new plant was boosted by $63 million in stimulus funds, and that the Recovery Act Wamp opposed contains various clean energy loan guarantees and tax credits for Alstom’s business.

Scott Brown (R-Mass), who graduated summa-cum laude in dumb things conservatives think and say – has stated the stimulus has not created even one job. Wamp and Brown could never campaign together if they’re not going to get their messages lies straight. Republicans are not accurately portrayed as the party of no. They are the party that is hoping the economy will not recover so the electorate will vote them back to power, Republicans are Undercutting National Economic Recovery

Sad farewells to Senator Byrd – Flashback: Sen. Byrd’s Speech on Eve of Iraq War

Another week another right-wing myth about the BP Gulf spill, Gulf Cleanup, Foreign Assistance, and Jones Act Confusion

A 1920 maritime law is not blocking foreign vessels from helping in the Gulf oil spill cleanup, according to the Coast Guard.

We’ve gotten a few questions from readers about the Jones Act of 1920, which according to some lawmakers, conservative commentators and news reports is a maritime law that has blocked foreign vessels from helping in the Gulf oil spill cleanup.

That’s not true. At least, not so far.

According to Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, 15 foreign vessels are already working on cleanup, and so far waivers haven’t been needed. Here’s what he told reporters on Friday:

If the vessels are operating outside state waters, which is three miles and beyond, they don’t require a waiver.  All that we require is an Affirmation of Reciprocity, so if there ever was a spill in those countries and we want to send skimming equipment, that we would be allowed to do that, as well, and that hasn’t become an issue yet, either.

To the extent that there is a waiver required and they come to us, we’re more than happy to support it in making that request to CBP [Customs and Border Protection].  But to date, since they’re operating outside three miles, no Jones Act waiver has been required.

Steps have already been taken to expedite the waiver process should they actually be needed.

It should also be pointed out that many offers of foreign assistance are actually offers to sell supplies, and consideration of domestic inventory goes into the decision to accept them. Here’s the Associated Press:

“These offers are not typically offers of aid,” said Lt. Erik Halvorson, a Coast Guard spokesman. “Normally, they are offers to sell resources to BP or the U.S. government.”

Only Mexico offered the U.S. anything for free. It said it would give the U.S. government some containment boom. BP separately bought 13,780 feet of boom and two skimmers from Mexico in early May, according to the State Department.

Fox has been among the conservative disinformation distributors for the myth about the Jones Act.

Leave it to Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government to be mistakenly honest about the Dave Weigel WaPo scandal – I Like the Dave Weigel Who Insulted Liberal Pundits a Lot Better

It’s hard to respect a “journalist” who repeatedly insulted and mocked leading conservatives he was assigned cover, and even wished death on some of them, to a secretive email list compromised of liberal media figures around the country.  Whatever this says about Weigel’s political orientation, it speaks loudly and clearly to the fact that he was an unprofessional jerk, and that’s putting it kindly.

The Ministry of Truth has decreed that you may bash Democrats in your private correspondence all you like, but you may not bash conservatives. Using personal correspondence to bash liberals is professional and intellectually consistent. Any future journalists out there might want to write down those rules. Dave used a “secretive” e-mail list? You know like the ones conservatives use which one can find by typing Conservative+e-mail list into Google. The oxygen deprived readers at Big Gov ate that post up like a starving kid in a Dickens novel..