Author Archives: Scott Launius

On the Iowa Ruling

Posted on April 3, 2009 by Scott Launius

As much as I love the courts, and their ability to protect the rights of those who most need protecting, I’ve never thought they’re the best way to achieve our goals here.  Remember, our goal should not just be the legal right (which is obviously important), but  also widespread public support for said right.  We’re getting close, but we’re not there yet.

That said, the fact that a court ruled this way – unanimously – in a relatively socially conservative Farm State is fantastic.  Massachusetts, California, and Vermont are states that opponents of equal marriage rights like to deride as being full of liberal elites, whose views don’t represent Middle America.  They’ll have a hard time making the same claim about Iowa.  I don’t want to sound too optimistic here, but still – I think this really could be a turning point.  It sounds cheesy, but when I read this this morning, it actually made me feel good – it was sort of uplifting, in a way few court rulings are.  This reinforces what I’ve believed for a while now – that, by the time our generation is fortunate enough to have children of our own, they will all  grow up to have full legal rights to marry their partners – regardless of their sex.

Posted in Blog, LGBT, Progress | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

CNN Got Jokes

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Scott Launius

So I’m on CNN.com a few minutes ago when I saw this under CNN’s “Latest News”

Ticker: I want Obama to fail, actor says

Well, I thought to myself, who could that be?  Aren’t all actors crazy socialists who would probably describe Obama as “a little conservative for my tastes”?

So I clicked on the link. 

It’s about Fred Thompson.  

He may be a former Senator, presidential candidate, etc.,  but to CNN, he’s just some “actor”.  This gave me great pleasure.

BOOM! Roasted!

Posted in Blog, Humor | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Gays are now "just like the Moslems"

Posted on February 18, 2009 by Scott Launius

In a new documentary, Utah State Senator Chris Buttars makes some remarks about gays that are…less than friendly.

Apparently, the wacky “give gay people rights and stuff” movement is going off the deep end (presumably, because of that whole “giving people rights and stuff” part that Senator Buttars is none too fond of).  And apparently this reminds him of…

It’s just like the Moslems. Muslims are good people…but it’s been taken over by the radical side.

Yeah! These “equal-rights wantin’” gay people are just like the radical Muslims.  The radical Muslims who became terrorists.  Because we didn’t give them rights.  In America.  What?

Oh, I see.  It’s a moral issue:

What is the morals of a gay person? You can’t answer that because anything goes.

Uh, no.  The reason I can’t answer that question is SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT, natch.   But seriously, I should probably listen to you on this.  What was it you said about a year ago?  If only you had said something tremendously stupid and vaguely racist, like referring to a bill(?) as…

This baby is black, I’ll tell you.  This is a dark, ugly thing.

I’ll confess, I don’t really know the context of that.  But it sounds like it’s both moral AND well-reasoned.

But that was a year ago.  The comments above were just a “moron aftershock”.  He couldn’t possibly have said anything else about THE GAYS…

They’re probably the biggest threat to America going down I know of.

But wait.  I thought they were “just like the Moslems”?  At worst, wouldn’t they be co-biggest threat to America?  Come on man, if you’re going to be prejudiced, at least be consistent about it.  But I do appreciate your use of street lingo like “going down”.  Well here’s some more street lingo for you, Mr Buttars: If I were unfortunate enough to have stupid shit like this pop into my head, I hope I would at least retain the decency to keep it on what we call “the downlow”.

This guy should take some Pepto-Bismol for his verbal diarrhea.

(Full video here)

Posted in Blog, LGBT | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Good to Know: The World Nearly Ended on September 18th

Posted on February 11, 2009 by Scott Launius

So I don’t know why this has flown under the MSM radar, but in an interview with C-SPAN two weeks ago, Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) made some startling revelations:

On Thursday (Sept. 18), at 11am the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the U.S. – to the tune of $550 billion – was being drawn out in the matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help and pumped $105 billion in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account (the previous guarantee was $100,000) so there wouldn’t be further panic out there.

If they had not done that, their estimation is that by 2pm that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the U.S., would have collapsed the entire economy of the U.S., and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.

That sounds like all kinds of fun.

Now this has been questioned by some sources.  For one thing, the FDIC did not publicly announce the possibility of an insurance cap increase until several days later.  But still, damn.

Posted in Blog, Economy | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Barack Obama Just Got Awesomer

Posted on February 5, 2009 by Scott Launius

So a couple years back, Barack Obama wrote a book.  He then did the reading on the audiotape on the book.

Everything is funny out of context:

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/blogs/phlog/OBAMA_THAT_GUY.mp3

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/blogs/phlog/OBAMA_FRIES.mp3

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/blogs/phlog/OBAMA_NUMBER.mp3

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/blogs/phlog/OBAMA_BLAM.mp3

And my favorite: 

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/blogs/phlog/OBAMA_IGNORANT.mp3

Posted in Barack Obama, Blog, Humor | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Obama Wants "Buy American" Provisions of Stimulus Bill Removed

Posted on February 3, 2009 by Scott Launius

In his interview this evening with Charlie Gibson, President Obama said – okay, we’ll say “implied” – that he wants the controversial (read: stupid) “Buy American” provisions removed from the stimulus bill:

CHARLES GIBSON: A couple of quick questions. There are “Buy America” provisions in this bill. A lot of people think that could set up a trade war, cost American jobs. You want them out?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I want provisions that are going to be a violation of World Trade Organization agreements or in other ways signal protectionism. I think that would be a mistake right now. That is a potential source of trade wars that we can’t afford at a time when trade is sinking all across the globe.

CHARLES GIBSON: What’s in there now? Do you think that does that? Do you want it out?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I think we need to make sure that any provisions that are in there are not going to trigger a trade war.

Provisions like these almost always lead to far more negatives than positives.  For example, following the pattern often seen with what is essentially protectionism in the form of a government subsidy (not a “direct subsidy” in the classical sense, but that’s not important), a study showed that these provisions would indeed create roughly 1,000 jobs in the US Steel industry.  This, unfortunately, would be at the cost of as many as 65,000 (read “65 times as many”) jobs in other US industries as a result of increased input costs.

Also of note: the provision is, uh, illegal under WTO rules.  Way to go, guys.

Kudos to Obama for not giving into protectionist pressures coming from Congress.  Forgive them, Barack, they know not what they do.

(Via Marc Ambinder)

Posted in America, Barack Obama, Blog, Congress, Economy, Jobs | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

What Michael Phelps Should Have Said

Posted on February 2, 2009 by Scott Launius

From The Agitator, a letter from Michael Phelps to America (full text here):

Dear America,

I take it back. I don’t apologize.

Because you know what? It’s none of your goddamned business. I work my ass off 10 months per year. It’s that hard work that gave you all those gooey feelings of patriotism last summer. If during my brief window of down time I want to relax, enjoy myself, and partake of a substance that’s a hell of a lot less bad for me than alcohol, tobacco, or, frankly, most of the prescription drugs most of you are taking, well, you can spare me the lecture.

…

Yet you all get bent out of shape when Ricky Williams, or I, or Josh Howard smoke a little dope to relax. Why? Because the idiots you’ve elected to make your laws have without a shred of evidence beat it into your head that smoking marijuana is something akin to drinking antifreeze, and done only by dirty hippies and sex offenders.

You’ll have to pardon my cynicism. But I call bullshit. You don’t give a damn about my health. You just get a voyeuristic thrill from watching an elite athlete fall from grace–all the better if you get to exercise a little moral righteousness in the process. And it’s hypocritical righteousness at that, given that 40 percent of you have tried pot at least once in your lives.

Posted in America, Blog, Domestic Affairs, Rants, Scandals, Sports | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Robert Gibbs: Obama Will End "Don't Ask Don't Tell" Policy

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Scott Launius

In a video response to a question on Change.gov, White House Press Secretary-designate Robert Gibbs announced that Obama will end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and allow gays to serve openly in the military:

Thadeus from Michigan: Is the new administration going to get rid of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy?

Robert Gibbs: Thadeus, you don’t hear a politician give a one-word answer much, but it’s yes.

The policy, which had been in effect since 1993 when Clinton agreed to it as a compromise measure, prohibited those who “demonstrate(s) a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts” from serving in the military.  While Obama said during the campaign that he wanted to end the policy, he was seen by some as backpedaling in recent months, as Obama said he might not be able to end the policy until 2010, and only after he consulted generals, etc.

Especially given the current strains our military is under, I can’t imagine anything stupider than discharging perfectly qualified and honorable soldiers for their sexual orientation.

Unfortunately, the crazy idea of giving rights to gays is still controversial in this country.  I applaud Obama for his courage and consistency on this issue.  It’s things like this that remind me of why I was an Obama supporter all along.

Video

Posted in Barack Obama, Blog, LGBT | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

The Complicated End of Guantanamo Bay

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Scott Launius

Transition officials announced Monday that President Obama will follow through on his campaign promise to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, via an executive order to be issued next Wednesday.  Unfortunately, simply closing the base still leaves a number of questions to be answered.

There are 250 detainees still being held at Guantanamo.  What is to be done with them?  Some groups – such as the ACLU – are demanding that every one either be released or charged.  But that might be an overly black-and-white view of the situation.

David Cole:

But that solution fails to recognize the United States’ legitimate interest in holding individuals fighting against it in armed conflict…there are…as many as 100 detainees, who may not be prosecutable for a specific offense, but who are too dangerous to release — e.g., admitted Al Qaeda or Taliban fighters who have said that they would return to the battle in Afghanistan if released. What should be done about them?

Cole goes on to point out that it would be completely acceptable under international law to continue to hold them for the duration of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, much as we held Italian and German POWs during WWII.  And unlike the Bush Administration, Obama will presumably follow the rules protecting the rights of POWs while in detention, from which the Bush Administration inexplicably asserted they were exempt.

Finally, even after we decide who to keep in detention, that begs another question.  Where exactly will we detain them?  A facility here in the US?  Abroad?  It has been suggested that holding them here could create the potential for attacks (possibly to aid in escape attempts) on the new facility, which weren’t really a threat at Guantanamo, since it’s on an island in the middle of a military base.   While I think this possibility is far-fetched, security is certainly a legitimate aspect in the discussion.

Posted in Barack Obama, Blog, International, Social Justice, Torture | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

My Favorite Facebook-related Image Ever

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Scott Launius

logo_facebook

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Facebook “Lexicon“, but I just discovered it.  Basically, it’s Google Trends for Facebook Walls.  (If you don’t know what Google Trends is, click here and commence mind-blowage.)  As such, it allows you to compare trends in occurrence of terms on Facebook walls.  Try “Obama”, and you’ll see a marked increase around November 4th – much like you would with Google Trends.  But because Facebook Lexicon records person-to-person communication, you can also find things like this, a comparison of the terms “party tonight” and “hangover”:

(Best if viewed on “large” setting”) (more…)

Posted in Blog, Humor, Stuff Democrats Like | Tagged | 1 Comment