Congress has lost its mind...

[glatt]

My US Representative is Jim Moran (D). I can't tell you the number of times over the years that I've shaken his hand while he's standing outside my Metro station or at some local event like a parade or something. The guy is everywhere and has been around forever. When I first moved down here, I liked him. He's on my team, and he seemed jolly and friendly. Then about ten years ago, there were allegations that he was an anti-Semite. I never got the whole story on that, but he claimed it wasn't true and had some photo ops with Jews to prove it, and said it was just a political smear. So then there was a tarnish, and I didn't really like him so much after that. I realized that he hadn't really been doing anything in Congress. A young guy ran against him in the primary, and I voted for the young guy, but Moran is the incumbent and has a lot of name recognition, so he won.

I think maybe there was even another time that someone ran against him in a primary. I'll always vote against Moran in the primary now, but I can't vote for a Republican in the general election, because I disagree with the Republicans. Moran is kinda slimy, but he's MY slimy guy.

This past election, he had his 23 year old son, Patrick Moran, working with him on the campaign, and an O'Keefe operative entrapped the son on hidden video talking to a "potential voter" who was trying to commit voter fraud, and Patrick after many minutes got tricked into advising him ways to do that. My take on that was that the son, Patrick, was a naive idiot who allowed himself to get tripped up by the dirty tricks of the Republicans. Patrick was wrong, he came out and admitted that he was wrong and apologized, and his dad, the Congressman, stood by him and apologized. And took him off the campaign. I basically gave the son and the dad a pass because I thought it reflected more on the Republicans. But it showed they were idiots.

Well this morning, I just learned on Facebook (!) of a story that should be on the front page of the Washington Post, but had been buried where I never saw it. Salon tells us this son Patrick assaulted his girlfriend in front of some witnesses. He grabbed her by the hair and smashed her face into a metal garbage can, breaking her nose and fracturing her skull. He pleaded guilty, but got slapped on the wrist with probation because she now claims her heel broke and she fell into the garbage can. The Congressman's office released a statement that it's a deeply embarrassing private issue, and they referred to the woman's claim that she "fell" and asked that the couple be allowed to move forward in privacy. No mention that he admitted guilt or that there were witnesses, or that he really did assault her. They are pushing the story that she fell.

I'm so sick of Jim Moran. He really needs to step down. His time has come. You can't blame the father for the sins for the son, but you can blame the father for trying to sweep this under the rug. And you can certainly blame the Washington Post for not putting this on the front page. The Post has endorsed Moran numerous times over the years and their bias is really showing on this story.

[ZenGum]

Remember STOCK, the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge act, that was supposed to make insider-trading laws apply to the Washington trough-snouted hogs? That was passed with such fanfare in (election year) 2012?

While no-one was looking...

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...s-itself.shtml

... well, it's nice that they can be non-partisan about something.

[xoxoxoBruce]

OK, they only rolled back the disclosure provision for staffers. That protects the corporate shills, scumbag lawyers, and family members on staff, and makes sure the brokers still get the inside info.

I'm not surprised, disgusted, but not surprised.

At least they taught Martha Stewart a lesson.

[richlevy]

Man, the Republicans are really trying to f**k with immigration reform.

From here.

As Mother Jones' Adam Serwer first noted, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), an outspoken skeptic of the immigration bill, has proposed extending this policy only to "domestic service" occupations. The amendment lists specific positions immigrants can hold, which are limited to "cooks, waiters, butlers, housekeepers, governessess, maids, valets, baby sitters, janitors, laundresses, furnacemen, care-takers, handymen, gardeners, footmen, grooms, and chauffeurs of automobiles for family use."

Footmen???????

This is the party that is trying to win back the Hispanic vote?

[ZenGum]

Grooms????

I think that list is longhand for "chores all the n####rs used to do 'afore they done got all uppity".

Seriously, illegals are a de facto underclass, might as well stop hassling them about it.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Grooms????

I think that list is longhand for "chores all the n####rs used to do 'afore they done got all uppity".

Seriously, illegals are a de facto underclass, might as well stop hassling them about it.

Add to that the fact that it's probably unconstitutional. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and indentured servitutude. Limiting people to these occupations might fail that test.

Are footmen all the male members of the footfootfoot family?

[ZenGum]

Well, they're a step up from Shitmen.

[Lamplighter]

We've been through something like this before...
Judge Alito will be so pleased

From Wiki:

Michael Shumway "Mike" Lee (born June 4, 1971) is a lawyer and
the junior United States Senator from Utah. Lee is a member of the Republican Party.

Lee has been a constitutional lawyer in Utah and Washington, D.C,
in addition to serving as a clerk for then-Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr.
His father, Rex E. Lee, was the founding dean of Brigham Young University's
J. Reuben Clark Law School, and Solicitor General of the United States during the Reagan administration.
<snip>

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by richlevy

indentured servitutude.

servitutude?

It's not like my instream spellchecker didn't warn me that I'd misspelled servitude.

[ZenGum]

America, you might want to try this.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...647_story.html

Short version, thousands of Bosnians - mostly new mothers - have formed a blockade around their parliament, but rather than trying to throw the leaders out, they are forcing them to stay in until they stop bickering and do their bloody jobs.

The crisis issue is that they haven't been able to register new births since February and still haven't fixed the problem.

The real problem is deeper:

Bosnia is one of the world’s most over-governed countries. It consists of two semi-autonomous mini-states, each with a president, government and parliament. Those are linked by a joint parliament, government and a three-member presidency.

Disagreements between the ethnicities have nearly ground many government services to a halt.

[sexobon]

We wanted to lock our representatives into the Capitol building; but, only so we could get someone to fly a plane into it. It's hard to get good terrorists these days.

[glatt]

It wouldn't work in the US. They have tunnels and a private subway line in and out of the place.

[Griff]

hmmm... that looks familiar
* Dear NSA this post does not constitute a threat.