Lundi Gras Reads
Posted: February 11, 2013 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: budget control act, mardi gras, religious idiots, The Black Keys, the sequester 71 Comments
Yes! It’s that time of year again! I was awakened by the familiar beat of drums and a brass band and the noises of a lot of people promptly at 7:30 am on Sunday. It was the Krewe of Eris which is a totally unauthorized and completely fun parade around the neighborhood and there were literally hundreds of people in costumes and bicycles. Eris is a krewe of young artists, actors, and performers here in the neighborhood and has been known to be bothered by the NOPD. It’s a bit of a circus parade. Literally. Many of the participants are puppeteers and performers of all kinds and sorts. Anyway, there are many parades and events that happen off the main streets and tourist areas. There are the Baby Dolls, the Skeletons, the Mardi Gras Indians, and many many other fine black street traditions too. I usually hang out in the neighborhood celebrations these days. They’re hard to miss unless you stay in your house. Check out NOLA DEFENDER for some great stories and pictures that you won’t see just anywhere.
So, here’s a few reads to keep you busy this morning while we get ready for the big day on Fat Tuesday.
Here’s a great read by Bill Keller on the “Conscience of a Corporation” about all those folks who claim religiousity as an excuse to deny women access to complete health care.
The Obama administration, in an unrequited search for compromise, has also proposed to excuse nonprofit organizations such as hospitals and universities if they are affiliated with religions that preach the evil of contraception. You might ask why a clerk at Notre Dame or an orderly at a Catholic hospital should be denied the same birth control coverage provided to employees of secular institutions. You might ask why institutions that insist they are like everyone else when it comes to applying for federal grants get away with being special when it comes to federal health law. Good questions. You will find the unsatisfying answers in the Obama handbook of political expediency.
But these concessions are not enough to satisfy the religious lobbies. Evangelicals and Catholics, cheered on by anti-abortion groups and conservative Obamacare-haters, now want the First Amendment freedom of religion to be stretched to cover an array of for-profit commercial ventures, Hobby Lobby being the largest litigant. They are suing to be exempted on the grounds that corporations sometimes embody the faith of the individuals who own them.
“The legal case” for the religious freedom of corporations “does not start with, ‘Does the corporation pray?’ or ‘Does the corporation go to heaven?’ ” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing Hobby Lobby. “It starts with the owner.” For owners who have woven religious practice into their operations, he told me, “an exercise of religion in the context of a business” is still an exercise of religion, and thus constitutionally protected.
The issue is almost certain to end up in the Supreme Court, where the betting is made a little more interesting by a couple of factors: six of the nine justices are Catholic, and this court has already ruled, in the Citizens United case, that corporations are protected by the First Amendment, at least when it comes to freedom of speech. Also, we know that at least four members of the court don’t think much of Obamacare.
In lower courts, advocates of the corporate religious exemption have won a few and lost a few. (Hobby Lobby has lost so far, and could eventually face fines of more than $1 million a day for defying the law. The company’s case is now before the Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.)
Meanwhile, it’s been determined that Cardinal Mahony will steal the pennies from your eyes to pay for his stable of pedophile priests.
The Archdiocese of L.A. took $115 million from its cemeteries’ maintenance fund in 2007, nearly depleting it. The move seems legal, but it was not announced, and relatives of the dead were not told.
Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison pointed out Republican lies and hypocrisy on the so-called sequester agreement on Sunday.
When Cole tried to pin the cuts on Obama, Ellison reminded him that Cole himself voted for the Budget Control Act that created the sequester:
COLE: I think it is inevitable. This was a presidential suggestion back in 2011, an idea. And yet the president himself hasn’t put out any alternatives. Republicans twice in the House have passed legislation to deal with it, once as early as last May and again after the election in December. Senate never picked up either of those bills, never offered their own thing. Now we’re three weeks out, and folks are worried. They ought to be worried. On the other hand, these cuts are going to occur. […]
ELLISON: Well, Tom, the problem with saying this is the president’s idea is that you voted for the Budget Control Act. I voted against it. We wouldn’t have ever been talking about the Budget Control Act but for your party refused to negotiate on the debt ceiling something that has been routinely increased as the country needed it. You used that occasion in 2011 August to basically say we are going to default on the country’s obligations or you’re going to give us dramatic spending cuts. That’s how we got to the Budget Control Act.
Ellison also pointed out that the new GOP kinder and gentler message is simply another shade of lipstick on the same old pig.
This morning on “This Week,” Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., dismissed recent gestures by prominent members of the GOP suggesting a softening of Republican positions as simply “lipstick on a pig.”
“I think all of this stuff is just surface stuff. It’s like lipstick on a pig, ” Ellison said. “I mean, the bottom line is, the Republicans have a core values problem, not a ‘who knows who Tupac Shakur is’ problem.”
Ellison was responding to ABC News political analyst and contributor Nicolle Wallace, who praised Marco Rubio on the roundtable. The Florida senator is seen as a rising star in the GOP and a member of the party that could help Republicans win more Latino support. Rubio recently endorsed a bipartisan senate proposal aimed at reforming America’s immigration system.
“He’s everything we need and more. He’s modern. He knows who Tupac is. He is on social media,” Wallace said. “I mean, he’s got the policy. He’s in touch with, I think, the lives of ordinary people. And he’s a very accessible guy. He talks about being a working dad and juggling his own priorities.”
How stupid do Republicans think we are? There’s so many demographics moving against their ideas that they really seem clueless.
It is no secret that young voters tilt left on social issues like immigration and gay rights. But these students, and dozens of other young people interviewed here last week, give voice to a trend that is surprising pollsters and jangling the nerves of Republicans. On a central philosophical question of the day — the size and scope of the federal government — a clear majority of young people embraces President Obama’s notion that it can be a constructive force, a point he intends to make in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
“Young people absolutely believe that there’s a role for government,” said Matt Singer, a founder of Forward Montana, a left-leaning though officially nonpartisan group that seeks to engage young people in politics. “At the same time, this is not a generation of socialists. They are highly entrepreneurial, and know that some of what it takes to create an environment where they can do their own exciting, creative things is having basic systems that work.”
Here in Montana, a state that backed John McCain in 2008 and Mr. Romney last year, voters under 30 have helped elect two
Democratic senators and a new Democratic governor. Nationally, young voters have since 2004 been casting their ballots for Democrats by far wider margins than previous young generations — a shift that could reshape American politics for decades.
China’s economy continues to eclipse that of the US. It will shortly have the largest annual GDP. As of now, it’s the largest Trading Country in the world.
China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum of exports and imports of goods, official figures from both countries show.
U.S. exports and imports of goods last year totaled $3.82 trillion, the U.S. Commerce Department said last week. China’s customs administration reported last month that the country’s trade in goods in 2012 amounted to $3.87 trillion.
China’s growing influence in global commerce threatens to disrupt regional trading blocs as it becomes the most important commercial partner for some countries. Germany may export twice as much to China by the end of the decade as it does to France, estimated Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Jim O’Neill.
“For so many countries around the world, China is becoming rapidly the most important bilateral trade partner,” O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs’s asset management division and the economist who bound Brazil to Russia, India and China to form the BRIC investing strategy, said in a telephone interview. “At this kind of pace by the end of the decade many European countries will be doing more individual trade with China than with bilateral partners in Europe.”
One of my absolute favorite groups one big in the grammies last night. Here’s one of the great songs from the BLACK KEYS!!! The lead singer also brought some in for Dr. John so we’re all happy for the Keys tonight! (And no, the dude in the video is not one of the band!)
This is the band:
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Dak, your link on the LA Dioceses using cemetery funds to pay off lawsuits and keep from going bankrupt makes me laugh, in a sarcastic way, since Pope Benedict is resigning later this month.
Oh, and I love the images you have on this post!
They are float and costume designs from the early 1900s. Wonderful women artists did many of them.
you can find a lot of the images on line … here’s one place that keeps some but the state museum, Tulane, and many other places host the drawings themselves and some of the original costumes
http://nutrias.org/exhibits/
Here’s some actual pictures from 1901
http://nutrias.org/exhibits/mg2000/rexphoto.htm
Leda Plauche was the leading costume designer of the time …
http://nutrias.org/exhibits/plauche/plauche.htm
I have a really good friend that designs some of the more elaborate ones now. They’re beyond kewl. She does a lot for the Lafeyette parades and they’ve got a strong french influence.
Thanks for posting the image links — they are so creative.
Dak, you are “one beat behind” the headlines today: Pope Benedict is resigning, pleading “infirmity”,.
Pedophilia, contraception, the role of women, and the use of condoms will remain the same no matter who becomes the next pope. As a matter of fact, I am sure that whoever succeeds him has already been “chosen” as one who shares the same beliefs.
As those lose members and continue to shell out monies to victims the Church has been tainted from the leadership on down.
But Benedict’s role in the cover up of criminality cannot be downplayed. As the person in charge of the record keeping involving the behavior of pedophile priests while the victims suffered for decades he will never be able to overcome the perception of corruption.
This will also be the week the networks seek to drag out the commentary of that lunatic Bill Donahue from the Catholic League who will more than likely declare this just “another attack on the Church”.
Stay tuned.
Poor RATzinger!!! With church scandal breaking out all around him he declares “infirmity” and quits? I suppose being the leader of the most corrupt organization on the planet is draining. He has butlers selling him out, banking and property ownership questions bubbling up, AGAIN, Cardinals being de-commissioned for covering up pedophilia, a church that prohibits contraception and choice fighting hospital lawsuits by declaring that the “fetus” isn’t a person, stories of women and girls sentenced to lives as slaves in catholic laundries in Ireland, children abused in catholic schools and orphanges and the list goes on and on. They need to disband the entire franchise, it’s a clusterfuck of corruption.
“As a matter of fact, I am sure that whoever succeeds him has already been “chosen” as one who shares the same beliefs.”
I agree Pat. This church is beyond restoration. Expecting a new Pope to change the direction of the church would be like expecting a new Don to change the direction of the Mafia.
Mouse, so true. That amongst other things is why I am an atheist. I was Church of England (aka Anglican) until I turned 12. That’s when I realized all the good things the church espoused was antithetical to what the people practiced. Church, thy name is hypocracy.
My guess is the resignation has something to do with the fact that Ratzinger was the one in charge of the abuse cover-up in his previous job.
He and Dick Cheney ought to be put some where together in a jail cell and made to contemplate their many victims.
Why don’t they just embrace the evil and elect Cardinal Bernard Law?
And he chose to resign just as Lent is about to commence. Interesting.
Most of them die in office so this resignation comes with much speculation. The burden of being “keeper of the secrets” must have become too much.
But just like Boston’s own infamous Cardinal Law, he will live out his days in luxury, immune from the punishment of protecting the criminals who have had free reign for decades.
Some “wag” just commented that it would be “refreshing” to see a female pope.
Undoubtedly this person has little knowledge of the Church. Only a cardinal can be considered for the papacy. As of now there are no female cardinals, bishops or priests for that matter.
If they were to ever admit a female into the “club” it would more than likely be someone along the lines of a Sharron Angle or Michele Bachmann who would sanction this inequality and continue the attacks on gays so that alone may not be such a “big deal”.
Church teaching has women solildly in the position to keep giving birth long after her plumbing has been destroyed! “Submission” is her only means to enter heaven.
A “free thinking woman” has no place in this group.
Sometime years ago I heard a song with lyrics like this:
“Wouldn’t it be nice
if the next Jesus Christ
came down to Earth
as a woman?”
I sing that chorus every so often.
There are no women in the heirarchy of the Catholic Church whatsoever. The catholic church wouldn’t even allow women on the altar during the consecration until 20 years after Vatican II. The highest rung on the ladder for a catholic woman is eucharistic minister which essentially means you get to take communion to the sick and dying or hand out the host during church communion. Women aren’t included in any decisions regarding the doctrine or dogma. Women are basically relegated to the role of being seen when they’re needed, which is usually the dirty work, but never, ever,heard.
There was a female pope though.
Pope Joan
That’s one of the better fables. 🙂
I thought that was just a story…Pope Joan – Mysteries of History – U.S. News Online
In fact there were many female religious in the past, many bishops – they were all put to death, I believe in the 16th (?) century. Couldn’t afford to have any of those do-gooders who followed the rules hanging around.
Breaking news: The entire history of the church is all “just a story.”
It’s why there’s a papal chair that was used when a pope is nominated. He sits on the chair –which is bottomless–and all the cardinals say in latin –they hang well– as they feel his balls.
http://archives.weirdload.com/popes.html
You can read about pope joan there, the chair, and the 9 popes that quit
https://twitter.com/JoeMyGod/statuses/300978818364100608
I love my JMG…..He always has something that fits the occasion.
LOL!
Yesterday there was a spread in our regional paper about the anniversary of the Knights of Malta with a picture of the knights who’d been invited to the celebration in Rome. The article spoke of the charitable works of the knights over the years. About 30 years ago I was named a “Dame of Malta” . The ceremony was imposing, a few friends and my hubby attended at a church in NYC and the following dinner at the Waldorf Astoria – the only time I’ve heard from them since is when they were seeking donations for crisis around the world.
Yesterday when we met those dear friends for dinner they had clipped the article and asked “what’s wrong with that picture?” Of course I knew what they meant – there were no women in the picture. I’d never even heard about the event until I saw it in the paper. I guess women are good for the money – but not for a ‘thanks.’
Another slap at women.
I saw that. I wonder if Rick Santorum was invited? He’s a “Knight.”
They talk about “Cathics who leave the church” baloney – the church left all of us a loooonnng time ago, we were just deluded.
How about Christine O’Donnell? Her new line could be, “I’m not a witch, but a Cardinallette.” Either way about the same validity in scientific circles.
Rubio has the travails of “being a working dad and juggling his own priorities” ?!
The heart bleeds.
I think I’m gonna cry
GOP strategist: We need Rubio because ‘he knows who Tupac is’
Tupac died in 1996.
Maybe he is thinking of hologram Tupac? Hologram Tupac Was Inevitable – Jack Hamilton – The Atlantic
Out of touch again
Rubio is more than anything an advertisement for Republican denial. Saying he’s happening because he can identify a rapper who’s been dead for going on 20 years just brings it to the level of self-parody.
HUH? As a single sole support mom amongst so many others he had better man up and doe what he needs to do, just like the rest of us did without accolades from the press. We did what we had to do for our beloveds and we didn’t use our beloveds for plus points in a political career.
Ditto that darlin
Rubio strikes me as someone none too bright.
His Spanish speaking origin is what is driving all the interest his way. The GOP believes that Rubio is going to lead them into the “promised land” owing to his youth, looks, and Spanish speaking background.
So far he has been unimpressive and his past association to Scientology may pose an issue in the future. The “kook” factor at play.
This is a guy who came out strongly in favor of Tea Party principles when he thought they were on the ascendency. Today, only a few months later, most of his time is spent downplaying their role and his affilation in looking to appear “reasonable”.
I have about as much trust in his turnaround as I do in Jindahl’s. These people are actually unprincipled and act accordingly when they see an opening.
Unlike Chris Christie who has some heft (no pun intended) in the political arena, these idiots are nothing but opportunists who will change positions on the turn of a dime in order to gain traction with the voting public.
Rubio is as phony as Jindahl but it is fun watching them elbow each other out of the way in order to look more “presentable”.
Rubio was Mormon until they moved from Nevada to Florida where he converted to Catholicism. He is a first class opportunist.
Latest Republican fake meme: Obama was “disengaged” on 9 /11/12.
Gunman dead, 3 injured in Wilmington courthouse shooting | 6abc.com
Woman tweets this as it happens…
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/02/wilmington-delaware-courthouse-shooting/61997/
3 dead, the gunman and two women. A very common story. I am so pissed off at angry men offing women and children all the time.
TPM: New Winger Conspiracy Theory Takes Flight
We may be able to watch this thing in real time.
“Lady” Lindsay is fighting for his political life in SC. Not that his replacement would be a whole lot better since he would be facing another Tea Party financed idiot but this also reveals why he is so hell bent on keeping his lizard face in the public eye.
Harping nonstop on Obama and faux conspiracies just might pull his butt out of the fire come 2014 if he is able to make it through the primaries.
An Irishman by the name of Brennan is a Muslim? Holy moly!
His real name is John Abdul-Brennan. 🙂
There’s a new e-book coming out about Benghazi today or tomorrow. (The authors tweeted yesterday that it would be today, but Amazon still has it scheduled for tomorrow.)
Benghazi: The Definitive Report
Article on it from The Daily Mail
Supposedly the attacks were retaliation for CIA assassinations of “al Quaeda” operatives, and this will all done by Brennan behind Petraeus’ back. And Petraeus was brought down in a “coup.”
Sounds like 30 lbs of bullshit in a 10 lb bag to me!
That part is not correct. Doherty didn’t come from Tripoli to Benghazi. He was security for the CIA annex in Benghazi from the start.
I’m not endorsing it. It was just something I saw on Twitter.
jeremy scahill @jeremyscahill
Wow. The new book by @BrandonTWebb and @JackMurphyRGR “Benghazi: The Definitive Report” is gonna shake stuff up.
Esquire: The Shooter
Yeah, there’s gratitude for you. As opposed to the lifetime healthcare and pension and etc that a Congresscritter gets.
O/T but I am laughing my head off over the latest revelation coming from journalists who wrote a new book outlining how Whitey Bulger, the notorious murderer from MA and who evaded the law for almost 20 years, was eventually caught.
It seems as though the infamous Whitey, chronicled fictiously in the movie “The Departed”, became outraged at a neighbor who spoke glowingly of Obama winning the WH. This did not go down well with Whitey who then refused to speak to her again.
As a result, the neighbor began to pay closer attention to Whitey and made a call to the FBI because he managed to raise her suspicions. He was arrested after so many years on the run and brought back to MA for trial. Supposedly to happen some time this year.
So the “blame” for Whitey’s arrest can be laid at the feet of Obama. Had he not been elected Whitey may not have registered his “indignation” for a black president and he and the neighbor would have enjoyed more happy times together.
Whitey was not only a felonious murderer and a corrupt “businessman”, he was also an “in your face racist” which caught up with him at the end.
Hilarious!
OMG, that’s a riot! Thanks Pat.
As usual, truth is always stranger than fiction.
Tiger Beat: President Obama’s State of the Union: Aggressive
Liberals and conservatives both wonder about ‘SNL’ unaired riff on Hagel’s Israel comments
I don’t want to post the link (Daily Caller) but I just saw that Ted Nugent is going to be at the State of the Union as the guest of Tx Rep. Steve Stockman.
I hope the Secret Service is paying attention.
Some one should talk about his history as a child rapist and a draft dodger.
Good Grief – nugent is a person that no one would want to be associated with – I wonder about the sanity of the Republican official that invited him. Nugent is an ugly human being. Why would anyone want to be associated with him?
If Nugent, the guy who lived in his feces/urine dreanched clothes to avoid the Vietnam draft, is going to the SOTU, they need to start spraying the Febreeze right now
Hon, I don’t think Febreeze will do the job. I doubt that Javex would do the job. A flame thrower perhaps, but ordinary cleaning supplies were not created to deal with the Ted Nugents of this world.
again, he likes teenage girls too … he’s essentially a pedophile
http://www.roctober.com/roctober/behindthemusic1.html
He likes the little girls? Yeah…..This boy has some major problems, a flame thrower might not be powerful enough HT!
Paedophiles are not recoverable. Nugent is a paedophile. As a woman who was molested when I was all of 5 years old – this man disgusts me. MInd you, the fact that hIs music was horribly awful has nothing to do with my condemnation – or does it?
I’m hoping the Secret Service keeps him out of the SOTU. He’s made comments/threats concerning Obama that has led to him being questioned by the Secret Service within the past year. They should not allow him to even park in D.C. let alone attend the SOTU address. He makes pond scum look good.
Here’s a sample of Nugents bile
“Last year, he told National Rifle Association members that “I will be either be dead or in jail by this time next year” if the president was re-elected. He has also called Obama a “piece of shit” who should “suck on my machine gun.”
Raw Story (http://s.tt/1zEtS)