It’s Always Sunny in Madison
While we just can’t get excited over the Shocking! revelation that Bill O’Reilly used Sacramento footage to illustrate “union thuggery” in Wisconsin, we have to give props to the enterprising Madisonites who have added some impromptu set design to their protest.
And speaking of thuggery, Wisconsin Republicans are ready to put on their jackboots:
The resolution says if Democrats do not return to the chamber by 4 p.m. Thursday, they are in contempt of the Senate and Fitzgerald shall order Senate Sergeant at Arms Ted Blazel to “take any and all necessary steps, with or without force, and with or without the assistance of law enforcement officers, by warrant or other legal process, as he may deem necessary in order to bring that senator to the Senate chambers so that the Senate may convene with a quorum of no less than 20 senators.”
“They’re insulting the very fabric of our representative democracy,” explains Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Because compelling the People’s Representatives to attend “with force” is something Jefferson would approve.
Senate Republicans threaten missing Democrats with contempt [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, via TPM]
Photo: MNnurses [via Weigel]
“This week, on Bounty Hunters . . .”
How can you not be in contempt of a kangaroo court.
@Dodgerblue: Have we ever established from where “kangaroo court” derives? The phrase always makes me think of classic Looney Tunes cartoons.
T/J: our friends at TSA, keeping us safe:
(CNN) — The Transportation Security Administration is facing criticism after three box cutters were discovered aboard a JetBlue flight at New York’s JFK airport on Saturday.
The tools, like those terrorists wielded in the 9/11 attacks, tumbled from a man’s carry-on as he was stowing it in an overhead compartment on Flight 837 to the Dominican Republic, according to a New York Post report.
A flight attendant alerted the captain, who contacted the Port Authority Police. Officers also notified the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the FBI.
A Port Authority source expressed anger over the incident to the New York Post.
“In case anyone has forgotten, the TSA was created because of a couple boxcutter incidents,” the source told the newspaper.
@Nabisco: Etymology unknown per the intertubes.
@Nabisco: This looks reasonably authoritative:
The earliest known citation of the term is American and appears in a collection of magazine articles by Philip Paxton (the pen name of Samuel Adams Hammett), which were published in 1853 under the title of A stray Yankee in Texas:
“By a unanimous vote, Judge G– was elected to the bench and the ‘Mestang’ or ‘Kangaroo Court’ regularly organized.”
But no definitive origination, apparently.
You won’t be laughing when we’re all in the Pepsi-Comcast-Halliburton Freedom Camps(TM).
@¡Andrew!: Of course, given Halliburton’s track record they will be ridiculously easy to escape from. A good shout will see a ton of the walls come down.
@¡Andrew!: USA brought to you by Koch Industries.
@Dodgerblue:
@nojo:
Partridge also gives the 1853 date & the American origin for the term (sans citation) with the present common meaning.
There are 5-6 pages of “kangaroo ______” phrases in Australian slang dictionaries, but the first Australian citation for “kangaroo court” is from 1960 and is probably derived from American sources during the war years.
@Dodgerblue:
box cutters made it through the scanners? at JFK?
heck of a job, TSA!
And if these tactics don’t work they are fully prepared to hold their breath and stomp their feet until somebody pays attention.
Re: boxcutters on plane; have you ever tried opening those tiny bags of peanuts?
NOJO • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @ManchuCandidate: I have birthright citizenship in Cascadia, so I think I’m good.
MANCHUCANDIDATE • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @nojo: Only the sane parts... like the West coast, New England (minus the Bruins and…
NOJO • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @ManchuCandidate: So, can you guys annex us now?
MANCHUCANDIDATE • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! PP is done. 51st state, my ass.
NOJO • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @FlyingChainSaw: No, but my government was.
FLYINGCHAINSAW • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @nojo: Were you kidnapped?
NOJO • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @FlyingChainSaw: I’ve spent the past five weeks looking like Astronaut Dave going through the…
FLYINGCHAINSAW • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! NOJO - HOW COME WE'RE NOT COVERING KRASNOV?
NOJO • The Reckoning Four years later: Uhhh, how’d that work out?
JNOV • Hanging by a Thread @nojo: yeah. I had a feeling you’d say that.