Of the list of people who are not allowed to complain about President Obama’s “executive overreach” in yesterday’s directive involving undocumented students being allowed to apply to work permits, the absolute top of that list consists of two, maybe three people. One of them is former Dubya legal “ace” John “Of Course We Can Waterboard” Yoo, who promptly calls down the wrath of Nemesis herself upon his doomed soul with this observation over at NRO.
President Obama’s claim that he can refuse to deport 800,000 aliens here in the country illegally illustrates the unprecedented stretching of the Constitution and the rule of law. He is laying claim to presidential power that goes even beyond that claimed by the Bush administration, in which I served. There is a world of difference in refusing to enforce laws that violate the Constitution (Bush) and refusing to enforce laws because of disagreements over policy (Obama).
This is pretty much the equivalent of the Mouth of Sauron proclaiming that Gondor is violating Middle Earth’s OSHA laws by having all those dangerous, pointy swords everywhere, and won’t somebody please think of the children. I’m hoping dark Nemesis has some pretty sturdy Doc Martens, because certain asses are in dire need of having boots inserted in them and rotation will probably be necessary. Yoo’s own theories on the plenary executive are phenomenally daft, but claiming that the President has the authority to declare unending bloody war on tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan citizens but doesn’t have the authority to direct enforcement procedures of executive branch agencies is so absolutely douchetronic that Yoo probably needs to waterboard himself for a while just to balance the scales of the universe.
And yet, Nemesis is off getting an all-day mani/pedi or something because Yoo continues on without several million Olympian arrows magically appearing in his chest.
Imagine the precedent this claim would create. President Romney could lower tax rates simply by saying he will not use enforcement resources to prosecute anyone who refuses to pay capital-gains tax. He could repeal Obamacare simply by refusing to fine or prosecute anyone who violates it.
The funny part is everyone at NRO who read this sentence said “Shut! The Front! Door! That’s a brilliant idea! We’ll just refuse to enforce the crap we don’t like! John Yoo, you’re a genius!” Because that’s exactly what President Romney would do, simply stop enforcing things. Hell, it’s what Bush did with Wall Street. It’s not like the Bush-era Securities and Exchange Commission or the Food and Drug Administration or practically any other government regulatory body in the executive branch actually enforced laws. They decided their job was not in fact regulation but to help the industries they were supposed to be checks upon get around regulation. Yoo had no problem with that, or the whole “Hey, Congress Schmongress!” thing with Afghanistan, Iraq, and detainees getting fake drowned and all that jazz either. Using the executive’s enforcement directives to not deport kids? That’s worth putting POTUS in the dock, yo.
Yoo’s big finish:
So what we have here is a president who is refusing to carry out federal law simply because he disagrees with Congress’s policy choices. That is an exercise of executive power that even the most stalwart defenders of an energetic executive — not to mention the Framers — cannot support.
How his hands were able to type that sentence without automatically wrapping themselves around his own throat only proves that I need more psionic training.
Baud
Meh. I said this a few threads ago, but Yoo has decided his life’s mission will be to troll liberals. He is not to be taken seriously.
BTW, don’t tell NRO, but President Romney could also use the pardon power to accomplish all the same things. It’s right there in the constitution. The key constitutional check against these abuses is not to elect these assholes in the first place.
c u n d gulag
Now, you, not Yoo, can’t say that this isn’t pure feckin’ comedy gold!!!
So, the President stomping on the testicles of his/her opponent’s children is fine, according you Yoo-Yahoo – but this, THIS!, is overreach bordering on tyranny!
TYRANNY, AH TELLZ YA!
What’s next, an article by Archbishop Dolan on how children need to be able to identify sexual predators, and how to avoid the child-feckers?
(The answer, Arch-enemy-of-children-Bishop Dolan – is largely to avoid going to a Catholic Church).
Is Yoo-Yahoo still teaching law at Berkley?
And if so – why?
He knows less about Constitutional Law than the janitor at the feckin’ school.
John Yoo – another Conservative suffering from a complete “irony” deficiency!
Dug
Who the fuck is Nemesis? Your snark is tuned to a frequency only you can understand.
jayjaybear
I’m sorry, but you’re doomed to eternal disappointment with karma if you’re expecting any modern Republican to have a crisis of conscience brought on by self-examination.
Davis X. Machina
@Dug: Hubris’ girlfriend.
It was on Xena, Warrior Princess, I think.
Hal
The Framers! The Framers! Oh lord in heaven, The Framers!!!
The Framers are long dead. Can we please stop interpreting the constitution on the basis of what we think a bunch of slave owning rich white men might have done. It’s fucking 2012. Things change, needs change. The Constitution is purposely vague because no one could have had the foresight to predict how the country would change and evolve.
This is the one the The Framers absolutely seemed to understand.
Svensker
Shut. The. Front. Door!
Brilliant.
@Dug:
Google is your friend.
beltane
Wake me up when John Yoo is hauled before a war crimes tribunal.
Handy
At least he said “framers” and not some reference to the bible . . .
Yoo should be drawn and quartered.
Baud
BTW, this:
is a lie. Conservative jurists have always been highly deferential to the Executive’s prerogative to allocate scarce law enforcement resources.
White Executives anyway.
The Dangerman
There needs to be a Hall of Fame of “IOKIYAR”; this asshole might get his own wing.
ETA: I am so looking forward to the USSC upholding Obamacare; these idiots will throw a fit. If SB 1070 goes down while Obamacare is held up, well, that might be hoping for too much…
dug
@Svensker: Yes, Google is my friend. I had taken the time to check the Lexicon to see if Nemesis was some sort of new, Balloon-Juicy nickname for Maureen Dowd or something, but if I have resort to Google to discover that Zandar is referring to the obscure and nonexistent Greek goddess of retribution in a post about John Yoo, then my accusation stands. The snark level is apparently it’s own reward. Clarity was obviously not his goal.
Omnes Omnibus
@dug: I don’t know, mate; the reference was pretty clear to me.
RossInDetroit
Is Yoo aware that under Obama deportations have taken place at a faster pace than under Bush? Of course he is. he’s just picking facts to support his latest outrage.
also: NEMESIS!
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
yes I am with you. I really liked the idea of Nemesis being out getting a mani-pedi, but that’s that must be the girly girl in me.
Svensker
@dug:
Apparently Greek mythology is no longer standard in schools. Pity, as the allusions are so vivid.
Nemesis is also a noun, derived from the goddess’s name, as is hubris (derived from her bf’s name). Both words are good to know.
Svensker
@Valdivia:
That made me laugh, too.
Baud
@RossInDetroit:
Someone here yesterday said that, although Obama had deported more people, his policy focused much more heavily on deportation of criminals and that deportations of non-criminals had gone down. If true, it’s the first I heard of it.
Comrade Mary
@dug: Dude. Duuuuude. The concept of a nemesis is something most reasonably well read people are familiar with. Reasonably well-read people who aren’t familair with the concept will Google gracefully and go “Huh. Something I didn’t know before. Thanks, Zandar, for furthering my education.”
Also: duuuuuuuuuuuude.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Dug: Read a fucking book. FFS
Julia Grey
Seriously? You’ve never heard of someone being a nemesis to someone else? In your entire adult life?
Haven’t you even read a COMIC BOOK?
Jay in Oregon
@dug:
I knew who Zandar was talking about and I’ve had trouble identifying the song references in DougJ’s post titles.
At the same time, I can usually find them on YouTube or the like and discover (or rediscover) good music. I sure as hell don’t go flaunting my ignorance in the comments.
God forbid someone actually learns something.
TheOtherWA
Bush beat him to it. Laid off many staff who audited large estates and trusts in 2006. You know, the estates with a lot of money who could really benefit from cheating.
“Others however, believe that the cuts are an attempt to effect estate tax repeal through the back door – that is, to significantly reduce audit activity on wealthy Americans.”
http://rubinontax.blogspot.com/2006/07/irs-to-significantly-reduce-transfer.html
It’s 2012 and the Bush administration is still pissing me off.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@dug: Dig, Dug.
fuckin’ hell
kay
I think it’s a political strategy.
Like the health care bill wasn’t about health care but instead was about the commerce clause, like contraception coverage wasn’t about contraception but was about religious liberty, immigration won’t be about immigration it will be about states rights ir executive power.
Conservative lawmakers are vulnerable on all these issues, so the conservative legal community provide them consistent, coordinated cover, by portraying every policy choice as unlawful.
Democrats and liberals have nothing approaching this complete union and coordination with liberal lawyers. Republicans and conservative lawyers are a team. They work in concert. the legal claims are all part of a political campaign.
MariedeGournay
@Dug: The goddess of divine retribution, the leveler. The only god I wish existed. She had a habit of destroying those who gained too much wealth and power through unjust means. John Yoo would not be the first to be crushed under her black wings if she were suddenly appear, but he would be on the list.
piratedan
what I want to know is how guys who put artwork in frames got so powerful, does this have anything to do with guilds?
trollhattan
About all I could come up to top Yoo’s frightfully ironic plea to “just think of the ‘Framers'” (and why is a public university perfesser falling prey to the wingnut Habit of ranDom CapitAlization?) would be Dick Cheney decrying modern medicine’s embrace of technology.
These bastards just glide everywhere (other than Europe) in their parachutes spun of the finest gold despite (because of?) their serial crimes and permanent damage to the nation and its people. Which isn’t good enough, they have to throw up roadblocks to keep the repair crews from fixing any of the damage. Sickening.
dug
@Comrade Mary: Good lord. I can’t believe I have to clarify this, but I have no problem with the concept of nemesis. It’s a very common word. The problem of my comprehension arose from my failing to anticipate that Zandar might actually be lamenting the absence of a lesser-known nonexistent deity in a discussion about executive overreach. I foolishly assumed that he must have been referring (via nickname) to someone who exists, and who might be relevant to the discussion.
The horror!
arguingwithsignposts
Is Dug just a sockpuppet for Zandar’s creepy stalker dude?
Baud
@arguingwithsignposts: Knockabout? I doubt it. That guy is unhinged. I don’t get that vibe from Dug.
kay
Conservatives don’t want to talk about immigration.
Send out the Federalist Society hacks to talk about executive power and states rights, and, presto!
We’re no longer talking about immigration or 800,000 people, we’re talking about abstract legal theories.
Worked like a charm on health care.
Yoo’s legal analysis tracks the GOP Senate leadership perfectly. They announced yesterday this wasn’t about immigration, it was about executive power, and now here come the conservative legal scholars to give them cover.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@dug: “The
horror!funny”You stepped in it. You doubled down and stepped in it again. Your bad. At least it kept the commentariat entertained.
Care to say anything else? Responding to mind blistering ignorance is comic relief we could really use. It helps offset the doom of the politics on this blog.
arguingwithsignposts
@Baud: True, he was unhinged. I was just wondering. It seems like everyone except DougJ has their own FP stalker brigade.
Keith
Let’s not forget that Bush also chose not to enforce mining safety regulations (aka laws). Oh, but I guess he decided those were unconstitutional as well.
Baud
@kay:
Yep. Conservatives don’t so much win the debate as much as they frame the debate in their favor. It helps to have the massive information network that they do.
One reason Obama has been successful is that, to the extent he has been able to rise about the noise, he is extremely gifted at framing the debate in his terms.
Baud
@arguingwithsignposts:
DougJ is his own stalker.
TheOtherWA
@MariedeGournay: She would be wonderful. We desperately need some leveling around here.
Comrade Mary
@dug: Look, when I was a kid, I remember being offended when I found out that Montreal had a hockey team called the Maroons because Bugs Bunny, that’s why. I knew about the colour maroon, and I knew the word moron was an insult, but I didn’t get what Bugs was really saying in his parody Brooklyn-Bronx accent. My dad laughed at me and I got over it without sending Mel Blanc a scathing letter.
I didn’t realize until a few years ago that “nemesis” — which I’m pretty sure I first learned about it through a comic or cartoon, too — was derived from the name of an obscure Greek goddess. I don’t remember when I found out, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t lambaste the source for making a reference that I didn’t get right away. I figure it’s my job to learn things, that’s all.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@TheOtherWA: I’ve been wondering about your screenname. Is it based on the idea that people say Washington when referring to DC – hence “TheOtherWA” meaning Washington State?, or are you from Eastern Washington – aka The Idaho Annex? Or is it something else entirely?
I’m just curious.
Signed,
Somebody from (western) Washington state.
Omnes Omnibus
@dug: Okay, let’s try this one more time. When, and this happens to all of us occasionally – even me, one misreads something that everyone else understands, it might not be the fault of the writer. If many were confused, then Zandar was unclear. That wasn’t the case here.
kay
@Baud:
He wins some and he loses some. He lost the health care debate to conservative-libertarian lawyers, but I think the lawyers lost the contraception debate. I don’t think anyone buys the religious liberty bullshit they churned out on command.
Obama couldn’t get 3 prominent liberal lawyers to agree on what to have for lunch, while the GOP has a huge army of conservative lawyers who will produce an argument to back the political campaign in 24 hours.
It’s a huge advantage for conservatives.
Omnes Omnibus
@kay:
That is what the Federalist Society is here to do. Christ, even their name is a lie.
mk3872
Having Yoo out there writing garbage like this against Obama is the President’s own fault.
Obama had the opportunity to prosecute Bush torture idiots like Yoo and refused to.
Now Yoo has a Law Professor job and free reign of the opinion pages.
Smedley the uncertain
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, not to me…
Baud
@kay:
They’ve been at it longer, although our side is often not well served by our propensity too bicker among ourselves.
A lot of prominent lawyers (including liberal lawyers) also work at big law firms that represent big companies. It can hurt client development to be seen as to aggressively supportive of Democratic policies.
scav
dug at least is up-front about his self-awareness in not knowing when to stop digging. That and by their stigmata of self-announced and willful ignorance followed by a quick side of waffle and soft-shoe bullshite shall ye know them.
Mnemosyne
@dug:
I’m sorry that your education did not include Greek mythology, but since it’s something that’s frequently alluded to in American and European culture and literature, you may want to repair that hole in your knowledge base.
And for gods’ sake, do it before you even attempt reading anything by Neil Gaiman, or Shakespeare, for that matter.
arguingwithsignposts
@Baud: That’s the difference between education and indoctrination. How many Regent Law School grads did Bush appoint?
TheOtherWA
@danah gaz (fka gaz): Yes, it was to make clear I was in WA state, but as I found out later, many people here refer to DC as the “other Washington,” so it didn’t work very well.
I need a new nickname, but haven’t decided on one yet.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@TheOtherWA: The people that say DC is the other wa don’t read any news. News stories often lead with WASHINGTON as a location when they mean DC. So you are right, and they are wrong. I’m with you. =)
Baud
@arguingwithsignposts:
That’s a bit too facile for me.
In any event, it’s not the Regent Law School lawyers that conservatives turn to to justify their legal arguments.
Omnes Omnibus
@TheOtherWA: Have you considered “Roger” or perhaps “Orville”?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
Also, on topic:
The ONLY response that John Yoo deserves for ANYTHING is this:
Why haven’t you turned yourself in yet, WAR CRIMINAL?
Any response other than that only serves to validate his continued participation in free society. He doesn’t deserve it. Even the criticism he gets isn’t deserved. He deserves prison. That’s it.
Mnemosyne
On the Yoo front, I’m guessing that what they’re aiming for here is, “Oh, sure, torturing people was bad, but obviously this is even worse since even John fucking Yoo is offended by it!”
And as long as people pretend that Yoo does not have a long history of only being offended by executive overreach when there’s a Democratic president, I guess it might work.
(No, seriously, take a look at some of the stuff Yoo said about Bill Clinton’s “imperial presidency.” It’s hilarious, in a pitch-black comedy kind of way.)
(Edited ’cause I lost track of a sentence halfway through writing it.)
TheOtherWA
@danah gaz (fka gaz): Thanks. But I still want a new nickname. :)
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Yes, Yoo is, and always has been, a right-wing hack lawyer who will say whatever he needs to say to benefit his fellow right-wing hacks.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@TheOtherWA: For creative inspiration you could do worse than Jello Biafra’s Names for Bands
“Six Million Jews” might be poorly received though =)
Valdivia
@kay:
I think you will appreciate this. A couple of years ago, someone who shall remain nameless set me up with a law professor at one of the local centers of learning (manhattan edition). The guy was supposed to be the rising intellectual light of the Federalist society. And right out of the bat over a glass of wine said whip-smart-conservative® started making jokes about torture in Guantanamo. Not snarky jokes, but ha ha isn’t torture funny jokes. That’s when I realized these guys are total hacks and at the service of whatever talking point is out there.
Needless to say I confirmed all my prejudices about these guys in other ways. Ahem.
TheOtherWA
@danah gaz (fka gaz): Westeros Zombie Brigade is a little clunky, but I like it.
trollhattan
@TheOtherWA:
Growing up in Seattle I was bugged by national news always saying “Seattle, Washington.” To distinguish it from all the other Seattles?
Gets lonely up there in the country’s forgotten corner.
Neo
The Hispanic population ought to be a little wary of the President’s claims.
Since an Executive Order doesn’t carry the same weight as a law .. and there is a law that says differently than the President, it’s quite possible that this pandering to the illegal Hispanic community (who shouldn’t be voting because that is illegal no matter) could turn into the biggest group of patsies to turn themselves into ICE under the mistaken belief that the President can just ignore the laws that strike him unfavorably.
It’s very possible that “DREAM Lite” could turn into a nightmare.
trollhattan
@Neo:
Your concern duly noted.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Neo: “Since an Executive Order doesn’t carry the same weight as a law”
Addressed ad-nauseum over the past week here. Are you so broke that you can’t afford to pay attention?
“t’s quite possible that this pandering to the illegal Hispanic community (who shouldn’t be voting because that is illegal no matter)”
1. Who says it’s a pander to undocumented migrant workers? What about their loved ones with residency? Are you always this stupid?
2. It’s offensive to refer to any group of people as illegal. Fuck your racist bullshit. Even if you don’t realize it’s racist, fuck you for your ignorance. There is no such thing as an illegal community.
Neo
@danah gaz (fka gaz): so you need a lesson in how pandering works ?
Valdivia
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
thank you. what you said a thousand times.
Neo
@danah gaz (fka gaz): … and don’t ever call me a racist when you are the racist
trollhattan
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
Low-grade trollery–maybe rates a 2.5 on a 10-scale. I think it might be in training, or something, as it seems to have missed the post immediately above.
Yutsano
@trollhattan: Yeah, but sometimes I want to tell them to bugger off and have us become the 14th province of Canada.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Neo: Not from you, douchebag. You’re an ignorant clown.
Mnemosyne
@Neo:
Uh, you do realize that not every Latino in the US is here illegally, right? The majority of Latinos in the US were born here or became naturalized citizens.
So you’re not winning yourself a whole lot of friends when you talk about the “illegal Hispanic community” and claim that any Latino who votes is doing it illegally.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Neo: here we go. standard wingnut trope from some idiot who doesn’t like the fact that he doesn’t have a captive audience to spew racist crap.
Shorter: IT’S ALWAYS PROJECTION.
DIAF, asshole.
JGabriel
Shorter Yoo: Letting undocumented kids go to college is way worse than crushing their testicles.
John Yoo — Master Troll.
.
arguingwithsignposts
@Neo: I can’t figure out if this is firebagging or teabagging.
Mnemosyne
@JGabriel:
I have to admit, I’m still very confused by the right-wing’s stance that we’re better off deporting smart kids who were brought here illegally by their parents. I mean, wouldn’t a simple cost-benefit analysis say that it’s a smarter idea financially to help them go to college, get good jobs, and have them pay back the money that was spent on them (plus more!) in the form of taxes rather than write that money off as a total loss?
TheOtherWA
@JGabriel: What JGabriel said.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@arguingwithsignposts: His defense of his racist statements (here) with the (paraphrased) “you are the racist by calling me racist”, is pure wingnut.
kay
@Baud:
I’m fine with purely partisan political advocates who are also lawyers. I simply request that lawyers who are purely partisan political advocates stop calling themselves scholars, and media stop selling them as scholars.
It isn’t true.
“Here’s John Yoo quoting Mitch McConnell” would be an honest headline, I think, because that’s exactly what happened yesterday.
Context. It’s necessary.
Yutsano
@arguingwithsignposts: Trolls gotta troll. Herp de herp.
ruemara
@dug: Wow. You’re not just ignorant, illiterate and lacking in curiosity, you’re belligerent about it. Stumbled over from Red State?
Omnes Omnibus
@arguingwithsignposts: I am going to go with tea.
JGabriel
@Mnemosyne:
Of course.
But I’m not sure why you are confused by the right-wing stance, since villification of foreigners, or any others, is pretty much a diagnostic criteria of fascism and right-wing politics in general.
A right-wing movement that didn’t try to punish undocumented children for the faults of their parents wouldn’t be a proper right-wing movement. They’d be moderates and RINO’s.
.
pete
@ruemara: Some words too long, no can read
NancyDarling
@Comrade Mary: Was Bugs Bunny making a dig at the Montreal Maroons when he said that?
@dug: As a sometimes clueless woman of a certain age (it’s hard to be hip when one lives in the Ozarks and doesn’t, by choice, have a teevee) I sometimes interject some inanity on these threads. After some gentle ribbing by BJers, I know when it’s time to shut up.
Oh, I understood the Nemesis reference. I sometimes mix up the Greeks and Romans though.
However, Google is my friend when popular culture references here fly over my head.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
@trollhattan:
All my life, hearing everybody say “Washington State” has always annoyed the bejeesus out of me. Yeah, it’s a fucking state! What’s your point? Seriously, is there any chance of confusion between a city and a state? If there is, say “Washington D.C.” if that’s what you mean, or just “D.C.” State trumps city every time.
Svensker
@dug:
Honey, you done dug yourself a big enough hole already.
@Valdivia:
Ahem? Really? Like, what, exactly, “ahem”? Not that I’m nosy or anything…
Omnes Omnibus
@The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge: Does New York State also bug you?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge: Tell that to the newsers. They tend to lead with “WASHINGTON” as a location when they mean DC… It’s not just them. I do agree that Washington DC should be referred to as DC.
I don’t know if you live here in the state or not. If not, I don’t care if it annoys you – it’s not your business in any case. If you do live here, then maybe you should direct your annoyance at the people who actually confuse the issue, by referring to the district by the unqualified term “WASHINGTON” all the damned time.
brantl
@Dug: Check a dictionary. ace.
gogol's wife
@Svensker:
This is why Davis X. Machina’s reply was so funny, because Xena is probably where most people now get their Greek mythology knowledge. Although isn’t even Xena dated?
Svensker
@Mnemosyne:
They don’t necessarily care about CBA. Ideology trumps all and their ideology wants punishment for “bad deeds,” whether that makes any sense for anyone — or for society — or not.
I just wish they felt the same way about Jamie Dimon as they do about undocumented Hispanic kids.
Anoniminous
For those interested in expanding their knowledge of Greek Mythology should try Robert Graves’ (of Goodbye to All That fame) The Greek Myths.
CAVEAT: His interpretation of the Myths is … um … unique … so beware of that. For me, and lots of others, his retelling of the myths makes the purchase more than worthwhile.
Svensker
@gogol’s wife:
Yes. I LOL’d.
brantl
It’s what he did related to every business. Agriculture, food, drugs, oil, coal, mining, everything.
Valdivia
@Svensker:
Biggest grin. Boy do I have stories not limited to this one hack. A friend, as a joke, told me I should just give up on my serious academic project and write a gossipy outrageous book called “Sex and the Neocon” :D
I promise if you are ever in DC I buy the drinks and tell the stories. Suffice it for now to say that I, accidentally and in passing, brushed my hand against his arm and the torture joker almost fell off his chair. Like he thought that meant he was going to get lucky. Fat chance of that.
brantl
@dug: You’re kind slow, then.
Anoniminous
@Anoniminous:
And after the entire thread.
This
gnomedad
Love this. The Party of “I Know You Are But What Am I” rides again.
joes527
@Julia Grey: I assumed that John was making a star trek reference, but evidently they don’t teach the classics in school any more. Next thing you’ll be telling me that the wrath of kahn means nothing to you.
Kids these days…
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: Wouldn’t the book just be a series of stories about overcompensation and fear of inadequacy?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Valdivia: Funny how they don’t get that compassion is sexy. Also, things that impress their fat balding beer buddies don’t impress teh womenfolk. It’s almost comical, as though they secretly want to land teh sexytimez with a serious version of Larry The Cable Guy, or something.
Svensker
@Valdivia:
Dang. DC is not in my foreseeable future. However, hold that thought! Or come visit Toronto. I promise to be all ears. :)
dp
@mk3872: This.
brantl
@danah gaz (fka gaz): If they are in the country illegally and they pal around together, that would definitely be an illegal community. You don’t make the rules on wording, bud. the dictionary does.
Svensker
@Anoniminous:
Hah. Also, too, yes!
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@brantl: If you’ve ever had a traffic infraction you are illegal. Coming to this country without going through the proper channels is a CIVIL INFRACTION. Like a speeding ticket, or jay-walking.
I suppose I can define you by your acts. Since the odds are that you’ve been written up for a moving violation at one point in your life, that makes you illegal.
And the dictionary doesn’t define English you moron. It codifies the definitions.
adjective
1.
forbidden by law or statute.
2.
contrary to or forbidden by official rules, regulations, etc.: The referee ruled that it was an illegal forward pass.
noun
3.
Informal . illegal alien.
Notice the informal bit. That makes it as proper as “ain’t”. If you want to be ignorant, so be it. Just don’t expect any respect from your betters.
joes527
@NancyDarling: many of the reference around here that I have to Google for lead me to the urban dictionary.
And I end up really regretting my curiosity.
NancyDarling
@brantl: Whut???
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
with a lot of arrogance, bullying, macho pretension on their side and amused wry smart-ass cracks by moi. But the gossipy obsession of the Village with itself would make me a lot of money I would hope?
@Svensker: you got a deal. If you are ever on the east coast though let me know. I always enjoy sharing those stories with someone who appreciates them. :D
Valdivia
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
Yes to everything you said. But for me the most striking thing was that his joking revealed to me the fact that when in his comfort zone, this guy and his brethren actually thought it was very funny to joke about torture. A constitutional intellectual leading light of the Federalist Society thought that was funny. Staggering.
NancyDarling
@Valdivia: Conservatives are never funny. Their mean gene won’t let them be.
Rafer Janders
That would be the Bush administration which you claimed had the power to order a child’s testicles to be crushed with full legal impunity?
Refusing to deport illegal aliens: tyranny!
Crushing child’s testicles in order to torture child’s parents: duly constituted legal action.
Anton Sirius
Put this in as a comment over at NRO for fun… I don’t expect it to actually go up:
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia:
Women don’t find that attractive? Good to know. Now that I am single again, I guess I need to rethink my approach ‘cuz that was going to be my schtick.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Omnes Omnibus: If you ended up single again, I’d say that was your first clue. =) Just sayin’
Yutsano
@Valdivia: Definitely more than your dissertation. Not to mention cementing your reputation as BJ’s spicy Latina commentator. We might have issues getting clearance from Miss Sarah though. I’ll just up her gin ration.
Omnes Omnibus
@danah gaz (fka gaz): Thanks for the tip. Ass. FWIW.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Baud: Here’s the chart.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Omnes Omnibus: I must have hit a nerve. I was just playing along with your own statement and gently ribbing you, guy. =)
Not big on the link. Too much guitar on the lead in, for my tastes. I’m sure it said something clever though.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Omnes Omnibus: I must have hit a nerve. I was just playing along with your own statement and gently ribbing you, guy. =)
Not big on the link. Too much guitar on the lead in, for my tastes. I’m sure it said something clever though.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano:
That’s unpossible.
Valdivia
@NancyDarling:
I so totally agree. But when they try to be in social settings it is so revealing about what lurks in their souls.
@Omnes Omnibus: I must say as someone who suffered on the female end of a lot of dating in the last 2 years that you would be surprised how many of your fellow men think it is a recipe for VICTORY! Let’s just say I learned to look at a lot of these dates as if they were an anthropological experiment in which I was doing (very drunk) field work.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@danah gaz (fka gaz): Go go gadget duplicate comment. Also, FYWP, Too.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Valdivia: I imagine that the very drunk part was a necessary component of any extended study in this regard. =)
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
Biggest grin. I am going to have to kiss you for that.
And then I am going to ask tongue firmly in cheek: What, Verfassugsbeschwerde is not a thrilling topic guaranteed for the top 10 bestsellers of all time? ;)
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: Um, I think it looks interesting.
/law nerd
Yutsano
@Valdivia: Depends on how you sell it baby. But keep in mind a girl’s gotta eat too. Though just from that snippet I know which angle you’re pursuing. And now I want to go to Buenos Aires again.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
Oh, yeah, born and raised and lived in Seattle my whole life. I guess we’ve all got pet peeves, and that’s always been one of mine. That and all the Californians who’ve moved up here and stick “the” in front of everything: “The I-5”, “The Puget Sound”.
Linda
Of course! Creating an executive order to authorize anything besides torture (er, enhanced interrogation) is wicked. But cutting off funding so that the agency can’t do it’s job is fine and good. And the Republican way of cutting off the law at its knees.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge: “That and all the Californians who’ve moved up here and stick “the” in front of everything: “The I-5”, “The Puget Sound”.”
Now that? I can get behind that. I also like the foriegn staters that visit where I’m living now, and refer to La Conner as Lackineer… or Skagit as Skaggit. That takes some serious phonetic abuse. And they do it all the time. It makes me want to slap them silly.
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
I tried to make it sexy but believe me it was hard work! :)
Buenos Aires is always lovely, even these days with the Evita in Chief making it almost impossible to think of the country in the same way.
@Omnes Omnibus:
if you are trying to flatter me it worked :)
Seriously–recurso de amparo us a fascinating topic. I can go on and on both about the history of it in spanish speaking countries and it’s uses in the countries that do have it.
Villago Delenda Est
Yoo is exactly the sort of guy who would raise a ruckus at the Wannsee Conference because the Fuhrerorder didn’t have all it’s i’s dotted and t’s crossed.
Yutsano
@Valdivia:
FYWP.
As I was saying, I snickered at this. I wonder if her followers are old Peronists.
trollhattan
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
A slight correction is in order: that’s Southern Californians. By the time I-5 clears the Grapevine, the “The” gets dropped like a hot rock.
None of them can pronounce “Puyallup,” regardless of which part of the state.
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
There is a joke that all Argentinians are Peronistas. Both her followers and her enemies are Peronistas. But they come from different wings of it. Also a lot of urban-rural tensions as well as divisions in the intellectual elites.
Citizen_X
I’m sorry, refresh my memory: when did Bush heroically do this? Can somebody please translate from Wingnut?
dug
Argh. Guys, seriously – I’m not a lover of ignorance and I’m plenty happy to have learned of Nemesis. So I guess I stepped in it. Thanks for updating me. Though it may shock some of you to learn that it is possible to have been taught Greek Mythology without ever touching on Nemesis’ existence. Assuming online searchable texts and the Great Gizoogle are correct, I now know that Nemesis has a very uncertain origin mythos and is not mentioned in The Odyssey, The Iliad, or even Clash of The Motherfreakin Titans. Perhaps she was in Xena, but I never watched it back then because I had an actual girlfriend.
As for me assuming a nickname was in play, well BJ has been known to employ the occasional snarky nickname. Just ask America’s Concern Troll, Bible Spice (aka Caribou Barbie, aka The Wasilla Wingnut), Big Media Matt, Bobo, Chunky David Brooks, The Dick Whisperer, Doughy Pantload, The Fonzi of Freedom, Glenzilla, K-Thug (aka Krugthulu), McMegan, MoDo, Mittens, Our Lady of Perpetual Outrage, Tweety or The Moustache of Understanding.
But I digress. I guess the point I’m trying to get at is this – You may not choose to believe it, but I’m a pretty well-read guy. I enjoy Balloon Juice and I’m really not asking for a dumbing-down of the level of discussion. But if a post about John Yoo and executive overreach requires a Google search or knowledge of the lesser Greek sub-deities, then it may have become a bit too twee and rarefied to be much use to the rest us rubes. Just a thought.
I’m off to work. Glad to have entertained. Please resume the pile-on.
Svensker
@trollhattan:
My mom used to make my husband say it. “Pull-y’all-up” would get her non-stop giggling.
Bill Murray
@TheOtherWA: if you want to keep wa on your handle, you could go with
You Gotta Have Wa — the title of a good book by Robert Whiting on Japanese baseball
http://www.amazon.com/You-Gotta-Have-Wa-Vintage/dp/0307455971/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339874685&sr=1-1&keywords=you%27ve+got+to+have+wa
Hypatia's Momma
@dug:
Us?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@trollhattan: Pyu-al-up.
Villago Delenda Est
@trollhattan:
“The gateway to Orting”.
asiangrrlMN
@dug: As it seems that you are one of the few who did not know whom Nemesis was, maybe you’re criticizing the wrong person. Plus, if you can slam Zandar for using Nemesis because you personally don’t know who she is, we can certainly slam you because we personally do.
John Yoo should be thanking his stars every day that he’s not rotting in jail. He needs to STFU.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: I like odd things. I once wrote an article on the interdiction at sea of refugees. Lots of interplay between UN Conventions and Treaties and US law. Nut of the article: refugee status depends on having left someplace not having arrived someplace else; therefore, all refugees nabbed at sea deserve status hearings and should not simply be shipped back to their country of origin.
Comrade Mary
@dug: Well, if you’ve delved deeply enough into the sources to determine that Nemesis may be a mythical mythical figure, maybe you’re too well-read.
No harm, no foul. Carry on.
Holy fuck! This just in: the stage for tonight’s Radiohead show in Toronto just collapsed: one person is dead, several are injured. The concert is cancelled, of course, but Jesus, those poor people working on the stage.
Rafer Janders
@dug:
Jesus Christ. “Nemesis” is A WORD IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. It’s not that obscure. You don’t have to know that it’s “a lesser Greek sub-deity”, you just have to have a passing familiarity with English. Pretty much every 14 year old who’s ever read a Marvel comic has been exposed to it at one time or another.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
@Svensker:
Every year they’d send Johnny Carson a big arrangement of daffodils for the Daffodil Parade and for some reason he’d always show it on camera and thank the people of “Plooey-yap”, Washington. Then one time he pronounced it right and Doc Severinsen “corrected” him back to “Plooey-yap”. He’s from Oregon—you gotta know he did it just to be an asshole.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
@Rafer Janders:
Plus there’s the (probably nonexistent) star.
dug
@Rafer Janders: You have neatly grasped the obvious. What may have eluded you is the fact that capitalizing a noun implies that it is a proper noun, referring to a person or place. My question wasn’t “What the fuck is a nemesis?” it was, “Who the fuck is Nemesis?”
Savvy?
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh I would love to read this. Seriously.
Comrade Mary
dug, I scrolled back to your original comment, which was rather harsh. People weren’t piling on you because you didn’t know about the goddess, but because you were rude about the gap in your knowledge and apparently blamed Zandar for it.
If you had even left the second sentence off “Who the fuck is Nemesis? Your snark is tuned to a frequency only you can understand.”, things still may have gone better.
GxB
Late to the party but I just read it and have to vent somewhere – John Fucking Yoo bitching about the “Rule of Law” – Makes me wish I believed in Hell ‘cuz that’s exactly what that dick deserves. Jeebus, Tebow and Kirk Cameron, what a slap in the face. The karma debt these psychopaths have rung up… and not a one will ever pay – their great grandkids however…
Valdivia
@GxB:
I know right? That’s why I liked the idea of Nemesis wearing doc marteens.
Another Halocene Human
Shit, Zandar, Bush admin did that with taxes, too, until even Republicans got disgusted with the number of brazen scofflaws bragging about their tax evasion. (Bush II vigorously prosecuted EIC “fraud” however. Blood from a turnip iz ze Prussian vay/weh!)
Just remember, it’s only an outrageous affront to everything we hold dear when Democrats do it.
Another Halocene Human
@Davis X. Machina: I lol’ed.
Another Halocene Human
@dug: Wow, awesome goalpost relocation project, bro.
Mnemosyne
@dug:
Sorry, but given the evidence here, I think you’re vastly overestimating how well-read you are, especially in the classics. Did you need us to Google it for you?
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
The Republic, or the GOP.
These are now mutually exclusive. Only one of these can exist from now on.
Choose.
mclaren
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
Alas, hatred of small-d democracy and small-r republican government has become a bipartisan affair.
Under whose aegis did all those riot-armored goons arrest pre-emptively non-violent peaceful demonstrators and use military weapons to LRAD-blast the crowds into nervous system collapse and permanent deafness for daring to exercise their first amendment right to peaceably assemble?
Trick question. A Republican president authorized military weapons and DHS training and support to do it in November 2008 when peaceful demonstrators threatened the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis…
…And then a Democratic president authorized military weapons and DHS training and support to to do it earlier this year and last winter when peaceful Occupy demonstrators threatened to draw attention to that Democratic president’s unwise refusal to jail the Wall Street criminals who had crashed the American economy.
The DHS and the giant spy data centers filling up with petabytes of illegally interecepted private phone calls and email and bank records of everyone in the U.S. aren’t Republican institutions — they’re bipartisan.
The USA Treason Act (misnamed the USA Patriot Act, but in reality the single most unconstitutional and anti-democratic law passed in American history, one which wipes out of existence almost every one of the Bill of Rights) was not introduced by a Republican. It was written by a Democratic — our current Vice President, in fact, Joe Biden, a man who has done more damage to America than Aldrich Ames, Tokyo Rose, Robert Hanssen, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, John Walker Jr. and Benedict Arnold put together.
Yet the people on this blog constantly praise Joe Biden. They love him.
If you want to see who’s really destroying America, Judas Escargot, look around you at the commenters here. They rightly condemn Republicans who are taking us straight into a totalitarian police state where Americans are guilty until proven suspected, the ordinary citizen has a right to be tortured until he confesses to whatever the polizei require, and the people have a right to peaceably assemble and be deafened for life and get beaten into unconsciousness and then arrested for the crime of daring to dissent in public.
…But does anyone on this blog, anyone at all utter one single criticism of all the Democrats like Biden and Obama and Bill Clinton (who originated the infamous evil practice of “extraordinary rendition”) who are hurtling us straight into a totalitarian police state by infinitely expanding and militarizing police powers and Security State surveillance while simultaneously abolishing the rule of law?
Just take a look at the Washington Post series Top Secret America and ask yourself under whose aegis this grotesque mutation has transformed America into a higher-tech version of East Germany: Republcans? Or Democrats?
The answer, tragically, is: both.
Barry
@Mnemosyne: “@Neo:
Uh, you do realize that not every Latino in the US is here illegally, right? The majority of Latinos in the US were born here or became naturalized citizens.”
(a) No, he doesn’t.
(b) He doesn’t care – to him/her/it, they’re all non-white, so it’s all the same to him.