All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[Malvolio]

Actually, Republicans hold a slight edge in the numbers in state legislatures (Partly due to strong off-year elections and differences in population per state representative.)

But you forget plenty of other political candidates eligible by your standards. There are all the various municipal officeholders (mayors, city council, county manager, etc) and those elected to other positons (state attorneys general, state treasurers, etc.) in addition to everyone who was a losing candidate for political office since October 2010 (which also includes candidates who ran and lost primary campaigns in 2011 and later.) I assure you that I've done research on the matter.

A win in a high school debate wouldn't determine whether a position on an issue is correct. The creationist Duane Gish was known for a technique called the Gish Gallop, in which he overwhelmed debate opponents with a torrent of small arguments. This doesn't mean creationism is the correct explanation.

To further bludgeon the high school debate argument, if one side prepared lengthy arguments based on a false premise, all that work and preparation isn't going to mean much if the premise can be dismissed.

If it's based on a false premise, then it is, by definition, poor preparation. A short argument based on facts will always be better than a lengthy argument based on bullshit.

[Tendrin]

Republicans benefit from the system in California because Democrats hold the Governor's mansion and the state legislatures. So it's better for conservatives not to have Democrats in charge of gerrymandering.

It's always good news for Republicans.

[Tendrin]

A former staffer for the Republicans on the House Select Committee on Benghazi alleged that he was unlawfully fired in part because he resisted focusing his investigative efforts on Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, The New York Times and CNN reported Saturday.

Bradley Podliska, an Air Force reserve major who served as an investigator for 10 months, told the news outlets that he plans to file a federal lawsuit next month against the select committee for wrongful termination.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...ee-allegations

[Tendrin]

A win in a high school debate wouldn't determine whether a position on an issue is correct. The creationist Duane Gish was known for a technique called the Gish Gallop, in which he overwhelmed debate opponents with a torrent of small arguments. This doesn't mean creationism is the correct explanation.

To further bludgeon the high school debate argument, if one side prepared lengthy arguments based on a false premise, all that work and preparation isn't going to mean much if the premise can be dismissed.

Yeah. TO paint WBE's meticulously researched profiles as amounting to a 'Gish gallop' is patently absurd.

The Gish Gallop is the debating technique of drowning an opponent in such a torrent of small arguments that the opponent cannot possibly answer or address each one in real time. More often than not, these myriad arguments are full of half-truths, lies, and straw-man arguments — the only condition is that there be many of them, not that they be particularly compelling on their own. They may be escape hatches or "gotcha" arguments that are specifically designed to be brief, but take a long time to unravel. Thus, galloping is frequently used in timed debates (especially by creationists) to overwhelm one's opponent.

Yeah. That's not even remotely close to WBE's activity here.

[Spike-X]

An Air Force dental technician was fired after her co-workers accused her of being a witch.

Deborah Schoenfeld said her colleagues at the Epes Dental Clinic at Fort Meade, Md., harassed her because of her Hindu faith, claiming she was a spawn of Satan for practicing yoga and meditating.

In a supposedly civilised country. In the 21st century.

Interestingly, the champions of 'religious freedom' who were wailing and gnashing their teeth over Kim Davis just a few short weeks ago have been strangely silent about this story. Can't imagine why.

[Tendrin]

An Air Force dental technician was fired after her co-workers accused her of being a witch.



In a supposedly civilised country. In the 21st century.

Interestingly, the champions of 'religious freedom' who were wailing and gnashing their teeth over Kim Davis just a few short weeks ago have been strangely silent about this story. Can't imagine why.

I posted about this earlier, but the religious problems in the air force go way, way, /way/ deep. In fact, CHristian evangelization of our military has become a serious issue in general, but especially in the Air Force.

[Spike-X]

I posted about this earlier

Sorry about that, chief!

but the religious problems in the air force go way, way, /way/ deep. In fact, CHristian evangelization of our military has become a serious issue in general, but especially in the Air Force.

Yeah, I've read a lot about the persecution of non-Christians in the US military. I guess they're only concerned with protecting some people's freedoms.

[Tendrin]

Sorry about that, chief!



Yeah, I've read a lot about the persecution of non-Christians in the US military. I guess they're only concerned with protecting some people's freedoms.

No big thing at all, man, I just mentioned it so you can look back and see the posts on it


You should also check out the Military Religious Freedom Foundation's dealings with the Air Force and some of the cases that've come up. There's been a lot of diaries on the subject matter on DailyKos too.

From their Wiki:

In January 2011, the MRFF demanded that the US Army cease and desist their policy of administering a “spiritual fitness” component to the mandatory Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program test, whereby soldiers’ combat-readiness and ability are judged on the basis of their religiosity. MRFF also utilized the media to bring criticism to bear on the fact that evangelical Christian rock concerts were being organized and funded under the auspices of the Spiritual Fitness program.[27]

Military Religious Freedom Foundation litigation sparked by a prayer luncheon hosted by the US Air Force Academy's chaplain service (which featured retired Marine Corps Lt. and fundamentalist Christian Clebe McClary as keynote speaker) was reviewed by a federal judge on February 2011. U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello's ruling stated that the plaintiffs (which included both the Foundation and USAFA professor David Mullin) lacked sufficient legal standing to challenge the event.

A significant MRFF victory[29] arrived in 2011 when the US Air Force, in response to the pressure caused by the release of internal training material via a Freedom of Information Act request, revised the ethical indocrination course material to which nuclear missile launch officers were exposed as a standard component of their training. The course has been defended by a spokesman for the Air Force's Air Training and Education Command as a means towards "[helping] folks understand why we’re doing what we’re doing. In the missile launch industry, it takes a certain mindset to be able to walk in the door and say, yes, I can do that”[29] Included in the a course is the PowerPoint presentation Who Are You When No One Is Looking: Five Ethical Principles For Service To The Air Force, a presentation which reveals a Christian militarist perspective and which heavily quotes Judeo-Christian scripture and contains a synopsis of the Just War Theory of St. Augustine of Hippo. Controversially, the PowerPoint also contains a slide excerpting the words of former Nazi Party member, SS Sturmbannführer, aerospace engineer and rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun, who is quoted as stating that "We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon (the ballistic missile) to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world best be secured." in reference to his 1945 surrender to American occupation forces and subsequent recruitment by the United States Office of Strategic Services via Operation Paperclip.[30] MRFF client and missile officer training attendee Damon Bosetti recounted to the media that he and his Air Force colleagues would refer to the religious portion of the ethics training course as the "Jesus loves nukes speech".[29] In September 2011, Senator John Cornyn encouraged the Air Force to resume the class.[31]

Another recent success was on May 24, 2012. After MRFF threatened suit over the "Crusaders" name and Cross and Shield logo for the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron VMFA-122, the Marine Deputy Commandant for Aviation directed VMFA-122 to revert the unit's identification back to the previous name and logo "Werewolves."[32]

The religious radicalization of the military is a serious issue.

[jeanvaljean]

But Yoga is clearly evil.

I tried it twice and was hurting for days both times.

[Carabas]

No big thing at all, man, I just mentioned it so you can look back and see the posts on it


You should also check out the Military Religious Freedom Foundation's dealings with the Air Force and some of the cases that've come up. There's been a lot of diaries on the subject matter on DailyKos too.

From their Wiki:
...the PowerPoint also contains a slide excerpting the words of former Nazi Party member, SS Sturmbannführer, aerospace engineer and rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun, who is quoted as stating that "We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon (the ballistic missile) to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world best be secured....


The religious radicalization of the military is a serious issue.

Gosh... I feel soooo much safer knowing that the majority of earth's nukes are in the hands of a bunch of religious nutjobs who have people fired for being a witch.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

And to conclude with something not Walker related, a Fox News opinion piece is making the rounds. Keith Ablow, a contributor, doctor, and Ben Carson supporter decided to jump to the defense of Carson and wrote an article. Oh man did he write something..


Read the full article here before it's probably taken down!

Oh, my Lord. That kook Ablow sure DID write something all right.

In other words, no matter how much evidence there is that one party is qualitatively and quantitatively more insane than the other, and that no one bothers to present information to prove an equivalency to either, you're denying the fact that there's a clear pattern.

Have you considered arguing against the science of climate change? That's another argument where 98% of the evidence is clear, but there's widespread denial to it.

I think it's safe to say NOTHING will ever convince Mets that his beloved Republican party isn't twenty times more batshit, howl at the moon insane than the Democrats. To futilely continue trying to convince him otherwise is clearly a waste of time and keystrokes.

Gosh... I feel soooo much safer knowing that the majority of earth's nukes are in the hands of a bunch of religious nutjobs who have people fired for being a witch.

Yeah, this is highly worrisome. I would prefer religion be in the church, not in NORAD.

[Arvandor]

I think it's safe to say NOTHING will ever convince Mets that his beloved Republican party isn't twenty times more batshit, howl at the moon insane than the Democrats. To futilely continue trying to convince him otherwise is clearly a waste of time and keystrokes.

FINALLY!!!!!! You're starting to get it.

[worstblogever]

I think it's safe to say NOTHING will ever convince Mets that his beloved Republican party isn't twenty times more batshit, howl at the moon insane than the Democrats. To futilely continue trying to convince him otherwise is clearly a waste of time and keystrokes.

Well, it's not those who are determined to remain unconvinced that I'm writing the series for at this point. There are a lot of folks who go, "Wait, who's this? I never heard of this guy and- HOLY S*** that guy's nuts!"

An interesting side-effect is the unintentional comedy that comes from seeing someone tie themselves in knots to deny an obvious conclusion.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Well, it's not those who are determined to remain unconvinced that I'm writing the series for at this point. There are a lot of folks who go, "Wait, who's this? I never heard of this guy and- HOLY S*** that guy's nuts!"

Now, now! Let's not leave out the girls (Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, etc.) who can be just as crazy, if not moreso in some cases.

An interesting side-effect is the unintentional comedy that comes from seeing someone tie themselves in knots to deny an obvious conclusion.

And that's Mets all over. But I admire his devotion to his party.

[worstblogever]

One year ago today, we published our original profile of the U.S. House Representative from Illinois’ 19th District, John Shimkus, one of the dumbest deniers of climate change on Capitol Hill, who actually cites a promise that God made to Noah in the Book of Genesis as proof against the phenomenon, and wants to eliminate carbon dioxide restrictions from the EPA, viewing it as “taking away plant food from the atmosphere”. He also compared IRS commissioner Lois Lerner to “the Republic of Korea”, which is actually SOUTH Korea while grilling her in hearings about the IRS scandal. John Shimkus is such a class act that he got up and walked out in the middle of President Obama speaking to a joint session of Congress about healthcare reform back in 2009, but sadly, came back to work after that.

In the 2014 elections, Shimkus won re-election with 75% of the vote against Democrat Eric Thorsland. He is now serving in his tenth term in Congress (he has reneged on a promise to his constituents to only serve six terms), and has sat in that body long enough that he actually voted for the impeachment of Bill Clinton back in 1999.

Shimkus has continued to fall into line with a lot of his fellow loons in the House:

• July 10th, 2014: Rep. Shimkus votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
• On January 22nd, 2015, an anti-abortion bill, HR 7, was moving through the House, and was halted because even some members of the GOP were put off by the language in the bill regarding its definition of rape. John Shimkus, however, had no problem with that, and voted for it anyway.
• On February 3rd, 2015, Rep. Shimkus co-sponsors and votes for the latest Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act.
  This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
• On May 13th, 2015, John Shimkus voted for HR 36, a ban on abortion at 20 weeks, which he also co-sponsored.
• On September 11th, 2015, Shimkus votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
• On September 18th, 2015, Shimkus votes with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood based on manufactured outrage over "sting" videos recorded of Planned Parenthood employees by a Pro-Life organization that have been widely debunked for being deliberately misleading through selective editing.

It seems unlikely that John Shimkus is going anywhere unless he wants to. He’s a consistent vote with his party, that doesn’t leave much room for potential primary opponents to challenge him, and any Democrat has a ridiculous uphill battle to unseat him in a conservative-leaning district. Until he does opt to retire (maybe he just forgot how to count to six terms), he’s probably going to be around for some time.