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[789shadow]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ess-rehearsal/

What can they actually impeach Obama for?

President while black.

 

[Aaron Strife]

President while black.

Having too much swag

 

[Oblivion]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...r-boehners-obama-impeachment-dress-rehearsal/

What can they actually impeach Obama for?

The worst crime a person is capable of: Presidenting while Democrat.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

Solid blue collar choice for the RNC. Could flip the state to the republican nominee.

This never gets old PD

 

[AntoneM]

Why did I post in that gay cake thread... ugh.

 

[Crisco]

In 20 years, Obama will be remembered as a martyr who sacrificed his Presidency to usher in a new progressive Utopia. Or at the very least we'll all be too busy smoking legal weed and fucking outdoors to give a shit.

 

[Aaron Strife]

In 20 years, Obama will be remembered as a martyr who sacrificed his Presidency to usher in a new progressive Utopia. Or at the very least we'll all be too busy smoking legal weed and fucking outdoors to give a shit.

PD: "Michelle Obama can't win, America isn't ready for an openly gay president"

 

[eBay Huckster]

Wouldn't be surprised if the DNC for 2016 is held in Columbus, the party has a really strong presence there with OSU and all.

Plus it'd give me more of an impetus to get a job and bail the fuck out of the state before that summer.

 

[benjipwns]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...r-boehners-obama-impeachment-dress-rehearsal/

What can they actually impeach Obama for?

Technically, Congress can impeach for any reason it wants.

And I'm not sure how you'd challenge it in court.

 

[Aaron Strife]

Clinton in Louisiana - 46-45 against Bush and Huckabee, 46-46 against Paul, 46-42 against Christie, 46-45 against Cruz, 48-44 against Jindal (Iol)

Good news for PD:

Sarah Palin might have called for the impeachment of President Barack Obama Tuesday, but Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst actually beat her to the punch by six months.

At a Montgomery County, Iowa, candidate forum in January, Ernst told a crowd that she believed Obama had “become a dictator” and that he needed to face the consequences for his executive actions, “whether that’s removal from office, whether that’s impeachment.”

 

[thepotatoman]

Technically, Congress can impeach for any reason it wants.

And I'm not sure how you'd challenge it in court.

Replace "technically" with "debatably". People have and will continue to argue that fact, but I don't believe that's ever been truly settled. I have a hard time interpreting "high crimes and misdemeanors" as meaning anything other than a law of some sort being broken. Why would they even have a list of impeachable offenses in the constitution if it literally meant congress can impeach for whatever it wants?

 

[benjipwns]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/watergatedoc_3.htm

Impeachment, as Justice Joseph Story wrote in his Commentaries on the Constitution in 1833, applies to offenses of "a political character":

Not but that crimes of a strictly legal character fall within the scope of the power; but that it has a more enlarged operation, and reaches, what are aptly termed political offenses, growing out of personal misconduct or gross neglect, or usurpation, or habitual disregard of the public interests, various in their character, and so indefinable in their actual involutions, that it is almost impossible to provide systematically for them by positive law They must be examined upon very broad and comprehensive principles of public policy and duty. They must be judged of by the habits and rules and principles of diplomacy, or departmental operations and arrangements, of parliamentary practice, of executive customs and negotiations of foreign as well as domestic political movements; and in short, by a great variety of circumstances, as well those which aggravate as those which extenuate or justify the offensive acts which do not properly belong to the judicial character in the ordinary administration of justice, and are far removed from the reach of municipal jurisprudence

High indicates a type of very serious crime, and misdemeanors indicates crimes that are minor. Therefore this phrase covers all or any crime that abuses office. Benjamin Franklin asserted that the power of impeachment and removal was necessary for those times when the Executive "rendered himself obnoxious," and the Constitution should provide for the "regular punishment of the Executive when his conduct should deserve it, and for his honorable acquittal when he should be unjustly accused." James Madison said, "...impeachment... was indispensable" to defend the community against "the incapacity, negligence or perfidy of the chief Magistrate." With a single executive, Madison argued, unlike a legislature whose collective nature provided security, "loss of capacity or corruption was more within the compass of probable events, and either of them might be fatal to the Republic."

The very difficult case of impeaching someone in the House of Representatives and removing that person in the Senate by a vote of two-thirds majority in the Senate was meant to be the check to balance against efforts to easily remove people from office for minor reasons that could easily be determined by the standard of "high crimes and misdemeanors". It was George Mason who offered up the term "high crimes and misdemeanors" as one of the criteria to remove public officials who abuse their office. Their original intentions can be gleaned by the phrases and words that were proposed before, such as "high misdemeanor", "maladministration", or "other crime". Edmund Randolf said impeachment should be reserved for those who "misbehave". Cotesworth Pinkney said, It should be reserved "...for those who behave amiss, or betray their public trust." As can be seen from all these references to the term "high crimes and misdemeanors", there is no concrete definition for the term, except to allow people to remove an official for office for subjective reasons entirely.

Alexander Hamilton said, "...those offences which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself."

If a law has to be broken, then wouldn't impeachment be invalid until the person was convicted of the crime?

 

[pigeon]

Replace "technically" with "debatably". People have and will continue to argue that fact, but I don't believe that's ever been truly settled. I have a hard time interpreting "high crimes and misdemeanors" as meaning anything other than a law of some sort being broken. Why would they even have a list of impeachable offenses in the constitution if it literally meant congress can impeach for whatever it wants?

I think you're technically correct, but Congress is both the body that impeaches and the body that determines whether the offense they are impeaching somebody for has been committed, so in the practical sense, it doesn't matter. Congress can say that something's a violation of a law and then find that they were correct. There's no Congress of appeals.

 

[benjipwns]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vi...ts_borders_isnt_really_a_country_anymore.html

PAT BUCHANAN: There are people all over the world that to come to the United States but as Ronald Reagan said a country that won't or can't control its borders is not a country any more. And Sean, what's happening on our southern border and Europe is the failed states of the Third World are driving people basically to try to seek to have what exists in the West and the United States. But the truth is if you do not get control of folks pouring in to your country from all over the world, they will alter the character and composition of your country and change it forever without the consent of the American people.

BORDER CHAOS

 

[thepotatoman]

Gay rights groups withdraw support of ENDA after Hobby Lobby decision

Rea Carey, the group's executive director, said in an interview that “If a private company can take its own religious beliefs and say you can't have access to certain health care, it’s a hop, skip and a jump to an interpretation that a private company could have religious beliefs that LGBT people are not equal or somehow go against their beliefs and therefore fire them. We disagree with that trend. The implications of Hobby Lobby are becoming clear."

"We do not take this move lightly," she added. "We've been pushing for this bill for 20 years."

Separately, a coalition led by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights said in a joint statement that they also would be withdrawing support. The bill’s religious exemptions clause is written so broadly that “ENDA’s discriminatory provision, unprecedented in federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, could provide religiously affiliated organizations – including hospitals, nursing homes and universities – a blank check to engage in workplace discrimination against LGBT people,” the group said, adding later that if ENDA were to pass Congress, “the most important federal law for the [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] community in American history would leave too many jobs, and too many LGBT workers, without protection.”

You know, it could end up that this ruling hurts religious freedom as a whole, because now people are getting a lot more wary about including religious exemptions in bills/orders, expecting that exemption to be claimed by the same people they're trying to target.

I think you're technically correct, but Congress is both the body that impeaches and the body that determines whether the offense they are impeaching somebody for has been committed, so in the practical sense, it doesn't matter. Congress can say that something's a violation of a law and then find that they were correct. There's no Congress of appeals.

I see, that makes sense.

 

[Wilsongt]

Rapetrialgate go! Paul/Cruz 2016/2020. Palin/cheney 2024/2028

 

[RustyNails]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vi...ts_borders_isnt_really_a_country_anymore.html

BORDER CHAOS

Pat Buchanan never hid his racism well and after all these years still learned nothing.

 

[benjipwns]

It’s been frustrating to see so many people in the black community be convinced that Chris McDaniel was a racist just because someone they trusted told them he was. If they did a little research on their own, they would find out that McDaniel was a basketball standout at South Jones and Jones County Junior College."

At the risk of stereotyping, what color do you think his buddies were on those teams? They not only played ball together, but they went to each others’ homes, ate together, hung out together, shared each others’ problems and dreams. It would’ve been nice if some of those old teammates had come forward to talk about the Chris they know, but being labeled “Uncle Tom” is almost as damning as being labeled a racist. It’s a sad reality.

 

[Mike M]

Wooooow

 

[HylianTom]

Clinton in Louisiana - 46-45 against Bush and Huckabee, 46-46 against Paul, 46-42 against Christie, 46-45 against Cruz, 48-44 against Jindal (Iol)

Good news for PD:

Whoa.. I'd love to be a swing state again. I'd be willing to sick-out at work to see Hillary or Bill. And hearing my Republican uncles freaking-out over "the Hildabeast" would be entertaining as hell.

(never mind that their normally-Republican-voting wives would be the reason she's competetive here..)

 

[Oblivion]

Related:

Referring to a photograph of a Moral Monday protest, [Malcolm "Mac"] Butner said on Facebook: “Gee, they are all black. I guess the white folk could not get off because they were too busy working (and) being productive, good citizens.”

“The primary difference between the leaders of the Confederate States of America and the Union is that Confederate leaders were godly gentlemen and the Union folks were not,” Butner posted June 5.

http://wonkette.com/553726/racist-official-is-oh-holy-sweet-jesus-thats-so-fing-racist

 

[RustyNails]

So what' the timetable on the 3.7b immigration crisis bill Obama is requesting?

 

[speculawyer]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vi...ts_borders_isnt_really_a_country_anymore.html

BORDER CHAOS

But the truth is if you do not get control of folks pouring in to your country from all over the world, they will alter the character and composition of your country and change it forever without the consent of the American people.

Yeah, we should have kept the Irish out, right Pat?

 

[speculawyer]

I burst out laughing when I got to the 'what color do you think . . . '

 

[Suikoguy]

Fun times in Cleveland todaaay!

First thing I thought of as well

 

[benjipwns]

Should make a new one in celebration.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

So what' the timetable on the 3.7b immigration crisis bill Obama is requesting?

never

 

[WayneMorse]

First thing I thought of as well

As someone who's lived in Cleveland all his life, it isn't even the most depressing city in Ohio, that probably goes to Toledo.

 

[benjipwns]

Lima.

 

[eBay Huckster]

Lima.

I always forget that city exists.

(Probably because I'm never further north than Dayton on I-75.)

 

[WayneMorse]

Ohio is pretty much a collection of decrepit metropolitan areas (with the exception of Cincinatti and Columbus) surrounded by a bunch of affluent suburbs. Pretty much like any other midwestern state.

 

[Oblivion]

As someone who's lived in Cleveland all his life, it isn't even the most depressing city in Ohio, that probably goes to Toledo.

I can vouch for this. My mom and brother lived there for 6 years after she split with my dad and I only visited them once during that entire time cause of that shitty ass location.

 

[speculawyer]

First thing I thought of as well

Oh man those are funny . . . but I feel bad.

 

[Oblivion]

Wait a minute...

Wasn't Cleveland where the Drew Carrey Show took place in?

 

[benjipwns]

Wait a minute...

Wasn't Cleveland where the Drew Carrey Show took place in?

Yeah, he's from there. And he TRIED TO SAVE IT: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLACB2B97FD63A63BE

Best segment by far, meeting with the City Council: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ-vLM0mK1Q

 

[WayneMorse]

Cleveland has banked their future on Johnny Manziel and Lebron.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

I don't know what you guys are talking about Cleveland Rocks

 

[Avon Barksdale]

Cleveland has banked their future on Johnny Manziel and Lebron.

They're gonna be very disappointed...in other words, Wednesday.

 

[benjipwns]

Didn't someone seriously write an article arguing the federal government do something about LeBron because of his economic importance to the city? I should see if I can find it and if it was serious or not.

 

[benjipwns]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/murray-udall-legislation-hobby-lobby

Senate Democrats are poised to introduce legislation as early as Tuesday to reverse the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling which exempted for-profit corporations with religious owners from the Obamacare mandate to cover emergency contraceptives in their insurance plans.

The legislation will be sponsored by Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Mark Udall (D-CO). According to a summary reviewed by TPM, it prohibits employers from refusing to provide health services, including contraception, to their employees if required by federal law. It clarifies that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the basis for the Supreme Court's ruling against the mandate, and all other federal laws don't permit businesses to opt out of the Obamacare requirement.

The legislation also puts the kibosh on legal challenges by religious nonprofits, like Wheaton College, instead declaring that the accommodation they're provided under the law is sufficient to respect their religious liberties. (It lets them pass the cost on to the insurer or third party administrator if they object.) Houses of worship are exempt from the mandate.

This bill will restore the original legal guarantee that women have access to contraceptive coverage through their employment-based insurance plans and will protect coverage of other health services from employer objections as well, according to the summary.

...

The Murray-Udall proposal stops short of amending RFRA -- the 1993 law which says laws that substantially burden a person's practice of religion must be narrowly tailored to meet a compelling governmental interest -- to say it cannot be used as a shield if that harms others, as progressives had suggested.

 

[neurosisxeno]

Lima.

Glee tried to make it look fun. Then after 3 seasons they decided NYC was 100x more exciting.

 

[Diablos]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...r-boehners-obama-impeachment-dress-rehearsal/

What can they actually impeach Obama for?

Fuck all since they'll need like 67 Senators to actually remove him from office. Good luck with that!
If they're going after him over executive action, they have absolutely nothing.
I look forward to the GOP throwing up all over themselves in this election year stunt.

 

[HylianTom]

I'd love to see 'em try. Worked so well for them back in the 90s. Impeaching every Democratic president is a behavioral pattern that I'm sure voters would reward.. right?

Spoiler

(I can't find the Darrell-Hammond-as-Bill-Clinton "I. Am. Bulletproof." sketch, but that's what I'd post in this spot).

 

[Diablos]

MOMMA GRIZZLY SEZ IMPEACH!!!!!111

RAWR

 

[Wilsongt]

These people must feel awesome for making a mockery of the US and our government in general. They wonder why people don't see us as a threat or anything. We're too busy allowing our elected officials look like laughing stocks.

 

[Vlad]

Fuck all since they'll need like 67 Senators to actually remove him from office. Good luck with that!
If they're going after him over executive action, they have absolutely nothing.
I look forward to the GOP throwing up all over themselves in this election year stunt.

At this point, they're getting more mileage out of just claiming that he should be impeached than actually doing it. They just seem to love sitting around and acting like they're completely powerless to do anything to stop the tyrant in office. It'd be funny to watch if so many people didn't buy into it, kind of like how they're elected to goverment office on the platform that the government shouldn't be trusted with anything.

 

[AndyD]

Of course. Because once they file anything they actually have to both put their name to it, and put forth arguments and evidence. Which can be laughed out of town and compared to all other previous presidents' actions.

The threat and fear and uncertainty is what they are after, not the actual impeachment.

 

[PhoenixDark]

I burst out laughing when I got to the 'what color do you think . . . '

I think most people believe some variation of this argument. IE a person can't be racist if they have any connection of assosiation with another race, however minor. If you aren't burning crosses or lynching people, you aren't racist. I notice this argument all he time in GAF threads, most recently the Opie and Anthony one.

I think a lot of this has to do with white resentment but it's also a testament to how poorly schools discuss the US' racial past. There are so many people who simply don't know that slave owners had sex with slaves and treated some relatively fine. That flies in the face of the concept that being nice or having sex with a person of another race means you aren't racist. Having diverse friends doesn't prove anything.

 

[zargle]

As someone who's lived in Cleveland all his life, it isn't even the most depressing city in Ohio, that probably goes to Toledo.

Lima.

I'm pretty sure Youngstown would like to have a say in this.

 

[VanMardigan]

Oh man, Youngstown. I lived there briefly 15 years ago and it was decent, now it's just depressing and I have no idea why some of my friends would stay there.