Eugene Register-Guard, Sunday, November 18, 1979:

Khomeini orders some hostages freed

No, not that.

Showers

No, not that either. Lower.

Dismal day

If you were among the standing-room-only crowd of 41,235 fans at the University of Oregon-UCLA football game Saturday at Autzen Stadium, you know how wet it was. If you weren’t there, this gives you a good idea of what you missed. For Duck fans, the game was as bad as the weather. The Bruins broke on top early and sloshed their way to a 35-0 victory over Oregon…

Okay, fine. It rained and the Ducks sucked, neither of which was news in 1979. So what are we doing with a generation-old newspaper clipping in the files?

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An editor’s note: this post was researched and drafted late Saturday morning (CT), with the tweets on which they were based sent by me around noon.  And then, after a dash to the laundry room, I turned on the TV and heard the news.

The title you see here was initially chosen because of the fact that — as the first draft put it — “a Nor’easter full of wind, snow and stupid is due next week when they bring up the (oh, dear) ‘Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.'”  But, of course, that vote isn’t going to happen next week, given what has happened.  And yet the title remains on this post, unchanged; to some extent, it still seems apt, in a very odd way.

The Psychometer was launched in the last week as a way to call attention to the fact that House GOP members sometimes lose their grip, in a way that allowed for audience participation, and was fun in general.  But maybe, now, it will serve as one of thousands of canaries in a coal mine.  (If it continues at all — that discussion can also happen, and perhaps should.)

Everybody is swearing-off hyperbolic, emotionally-loaded language now.  They’re saying that they’re going to be more civil, to “disagree without being disagreeable.”  But you watch how long that lasts.  And, in its way, the Psychometer will watch too, if in fact it remains a going concern.

Will, for example, Ted Poe (Tex.) take it down a notch?  If you don’t know him yet, he’s entering his fourth term, and was a judge from the Gulf Coast north and east of Houston.  He was one of those judges who handed out Scarlet Letter sentences — sandwich boards saying “I’m a thief” and such.  Also, he has this adorable habit of closing every speech he gives by saying: “…and that’s just the way it is.” Perhaps it is an homage to Jim “BEAM ME UP!” Traficant. (Or, perhaps, he’s just a fool.)

Anyway: he had several rants this week — a couple about border security, and one on the plight of a guy who flew the American flag but got hammered by a homeowner’s association. (To be fair: homeowner’s associations are a bunch of suburban busybodies who are obsessed with perfection. Screw ’em.)  But, those comments didn’t make the cut in my eyes.  What did get nominated?  This:

T Poe calls HCR “totalitarian” act of “oppression,” placing “chains on the American people.” CR 1/6, H50

Now that’s some Grade A Crazy.  Slavery and dictatorship in the same breath, almost.  So the question is this: does this sort of statement get made after what happened yesterday?  If so, how soon from now, and to what level?

That discussion continues post-jump, together with Mike Pence giving himself a stump-speech talking point at the expense of ladybits, and Steve King, twice, on health care, and a possible expansion of the criteria beyond House GOPers to cover clueless press hacks.

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Who knew that Ettore Boiardi (later Chef Boy-Ar-Dee) had such a storied career.  Think about that next time you have canned ravioli to soothe your soul.

And go nominate my pal GottaLaff for a Shorty Award for politics. Because she’s smarter than the average pundit.

Title: “The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life”

Authors: Glenn Beck and Keith Ablow

Rank: 7

Blurb: “The process of finding happiness through personal redemption was not easy, but it left Glenn with a blueprint for how to confront future adversity.”

Review: “I am disappointed in the New Age views of both authors. If you are looking for a Biblical discussion of healing, look elsewhere. As a 7 year listener to the radio show, I like him very much, but now I may question his POV.”

Customers Also Bought: “Unlikely Mormon: The Conversion Story of Glenn Beck”.

Footnote: “He gets $13 million a year from print (books plus the ten-issue-a-year magazine Fusion). Radio brings in $10 million. Digital (including a newsletter, the ad-supported Glennbeck.com and merchandise) pulls in $4 million. Speaking and events are good for $3 million and television for $2 million.” [Forbes]

The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]

A brief new thread for you early risers:

• Nothing terribly new from overnight in regards to medical condition.  Latest from Arizona Republic is as follows: “As of 4:30 a.m. Sunday, Giffords remained in critical condition at University Medical Center in Tucson, according to hospital spokeswoman Darcy Slaten.”
• The idea that Rep. Gabby Giffords may survive is tempered by the thought that the bullet that entered her head, and exited, naturally did some damage.  Permanent, irreparable damage is, I think, a safe presumption; guesses as to the extent of it (cognitive or otherwise) are not.  None of this lessens the horror at all.  On that point: total death toll still stands at 6.
• John Boehner to speak at or around 0830 ET.  My guess is that the Sunday chatshows (Face the Nation, Meet the Press, etc.) are going to flood the zone.  Whether or not anybody wants to say anything provocative (for example: “this is what happens when you rile people up,” “how dare you,” and the cream-pie tossing that would naturally follow) is a big question.  I think that a Dem or two might hint at Going There, but not actually do it.
• Word is that there will be no business done in the House this week, at all.  Whether or not they actually gavel in is up in the air, but I think at some point they probably will, at least in a pro forma, “the government continues to function” sort of way.  HCR repeal vote is certainly off.
• Nothing further on the possibility of an accomplice that was raised last night.  Speculation on Loughner’s motivation and level of mental illness continues, shedding more heat than light as you would expect. [ADD: Fearless Leader posted comments by Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, speaking to Olbermann last night.  That comes as close to “informed analysis” as we have seen thus far.

Stinque Book Club will appear at its regularly scheduled time, I am reliably informed.  Further updates as warranted.

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center talks to Keith Olbermann about Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner’s textual YouTube videos.

Reading through all of his materials, or the materials purported to be his, he sounds quite mad, out of his mind.

But there is a thread through the material that really seems pretty clear: That thread has to do with seeing the government as an enemy. The books you mentioned, there’s a theme that runs through all of them, particularly the Ayn Rand book: The idea of the individual against the state. There are ideas like the idea of the only legitimate currency being backed by gold and silver. It’s a core idea of the Radical Right in this country.

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Stinque correspondent Jamie Sommers reports from the Phoenix candlelight vigil for victims of Saturday’s Tucson shooting.

It’s difficult to tell from the pictures but there were about 200 people there, mostly Democrats and local activists. I got there kinda late so I missed the first round of introductory remarks. The person I did see (Dem Party Chair Don Bivens) was mostly drowned out by some nutjob (haven’t we had enough of them today) calling Russell Pearce, Jan Brewer and “the White House” a bunch of thugs who are responsible for today’s murders. From what I could hear, his remarks were pretty generic “hearts and prayers go out to the families of the victims” type stuff. That was followed by the bagpipe player. Thankfully, the asshole nutjob shut his pie hole during that.

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