Re-arranging the deck chairs (and sunbathers) for the book "The Art of Clean Up." The perfect Father's Day gift your kids can give your OCD ex-husband. Just sayin'.

The Art of Clean Up: Life Made Neat and Tidy
	Author: Ursus Wehrli

Open thread below...

Thomas Jefferson must be rolling in his grave:

If a woman in Virginia has a miscarriage without a doctor present, they must report it within 24 hours to the police or risk going to jail for a full year. At least, that’s what would have happened if a bill introduced by Virginia state Sen. Mark Obenshain (R) had become law.

And yet, the Virginia Republican Party wants to make Obenshain into the state’s top prosecutor. This weekend, Virginia Republicans selected Obenshain as their nominee to replace tea party stalwart Ken Cuccinelli (R) as the state’s attorney general.

Under Obenshain’s bill, which was introduced in 2009,

When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance upon the mother at or after the delivery or abortion, the mother or someone acting on her behalf shall, within 24 hours, report the fetal death, location of the remains, and identity of the mother to the local or state police or sheriff’s department of the city or county where the fetal death occurred. No one shall remove, destroy, or otherwise dispose of any remains without the express authorization of law-enforcement officials or the medical examiner. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Under Virginia law, a Class 1 misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of “confinement in jail for not more than twelve months and a fine of not more than $2,500,” so Obenshain’s bill could lead to a woman who decides to take a day to grieve the loss of a pregnancy she’d hoped to carry to term spending a year of her life in jail for that decision.

Unless all the normal people turn out in massive numbers to vote, you can kiss sanity goodbye for this state.

When I was writing my book on the history of American political debate and change - The Progressive Revolution: How The Best In America Came To Be - in 2008, I was doing some research on the sequence of events in the 1960s, I was struck by the fact that so many big things happened so close together. As I wrote in my book:

"The civil rights movement inspired other progressives not only to help in the civil rights cause but also to come together around a range of other issues and constituencies. A renewed wave of feminism was sparked in great part by Betty Friedan's influential book The Feminine Mystique. The environmental movement gained broad public appeal when Rachel Carson's Silent Spring became a best seller. Students began to organize themselves. The Port Huron statement, written by Tom Hayden and others, prompted young people to get involved in politics through the student and antiwar movements. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was founded. Cesar Chavez used many of King's organizing tactics, as well as new ones of his own, to unionize farm workers in the agricultural fields of California. And as the 1960s wore on, progressives of all stripes looked with growing concern at the Vietnam War and began to protest in earnest against it.

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This morning, Lois Lerner went before a Congressional committee and invoked the Fifth amendment with regard to her role in the selection process for challenging applications for tax-exempt status.

“I have not done anything wrong,” she said. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.” But on the advice of counsel, she said, she would not answer questions or testify before the committee.

Lerner is the official in charge of the tax-exempt division of the IRS. She is the top of the top of the food chain when it comes to how the agency conducted itself in the selection and treatment of applications for exemptions. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, she has managed to avoid getting the axe.

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On Friday, Fox News' Monica Crowley informed Hannity's audience that President Obama and his administration have an "ideology of control" just like communist, socialist, and fascist regimes of times past.

Over the weekend, we heard comparison after comparison of the IRS so-called scandal to Watergate. Even David Gregory chimed in on that chorus by legitimizing the claims rather than forcing the squawkers to justify their claims.

Similarly, Paul Ryan's claim that connection between the IRS and Obamacare is somehow sinister and threatening is yet another dog whistle to the Tea Party masses.

Meanwhile, Rand Paul is trumpeting the fanfare over Benghazi and trying to flog Hillary Clinton with it. Of course, it's not just intended to flog Hillary, but also to serve as a clarion call for the masses to rise up this summer yet again.

On the extreme side of things, we have radio hosts claiming Obama is really the first openly gay president who hasn't come out of the closet yet. Um, okay. But wait! There's more.

According to Virginia's Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate, winger pastor EW Jackson, Democrats are slave masters and Obama is really a Muslim. Did I mention that Mr. Jackson happens to be black?

What we have here are the beginnings of a long, hot summer, with tons of manufactured discontent. Unlike 2009 and 2010, wingers don't have Obamacare to kick around anymore even though they think they do. They've had control of the House since 2010 but haven't done anything with it other than repeal ObamaCare 37 times, block every job bill that had a chance of actually improving the lives of Americans, and thump their chests about Benghazi and other stupid inventions.

All of the noise is, as Katrina Vanden Heuvel called it, deployment of weapons of mass distraction, sacrificing real issues and governance for political point-scoring, brewing a summer with town hall meetings full of angry elderly white people shaking their fists at evil Democrats for scandals Republicans caused.

Over the weekend I watched The Billionaires' Tea Party, which is an updated version of AstroTurf Wars made during the health care town halls. It includes footage from American Majority training sessions where participants are instructed in the fine art of gaming everything from Amazon reviews to social media. It was a good review in anticipation of what they plan for this summer and 2014.

The Occupy movement and all activists should be prepared to take them on this time. They do not get to benefit from the element of surprise. Most people who aren't insane know there's an effort afoot to gin up everything they possibly can to keep this president and Democrats from doing anything worthwhile, but we don't have the Villagers on our side, nor should we ever expect to.

If I were you, I'd put those local town hall dates in my planner and plan to attend, if only to counterbalance the insanity they're about to unleash on us all.

Link:

An active duty soldier was “beheaded” Wednesday afternoon in London by machete-wielding assailants who were shot by police moments later, British media outlets reported.

The man was reportedly stationed at the Royal Artillery Barracks in London, near the location of the attack. Luke Huseyin, who witnessed the attack, told The Telegraph that he noticed the commotion after two dark-skinned men emerged from a wrecked vehicle dragging another man.

He went on, explaining:

They started slashing him up with the knife and hitting him in the stomach with the machete. I don’t think it took long before he was dead. There were people passing by who were screaming and running away. I’ve never seen anything like it.

He added that it took about 20 minutes for police to arrive, during which time the men just stood and waited for them. When they arrived, the men allegedly ran at police brandishing weapons, only to be shot down.

A photo of one of the attackers was published on Britain’s 4 News, showing a black man in a black jacket holding two large knives, his hands covered with blood. An eyewitness told the channel that the men said they “wanted to give a message to the British government” in retaliation for military deployment on Arab lands.

“He was getting people to take photos of him,” the man explained in audio published online. “He was standing there crazed like, ‘Take photos of me!’ Like he wanted to be on TV.”

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Scandal Fatigue: n. A condition whereupon suffers "can't F'ing BELIEVE these partisan, government and/or corporate media pricks are crying victim to actions they themselves have been guilty of for the last 40 years and FLOODING the airwaves with this crap when there are REAL scandals out there to cover and actual work to be done."

Sufferers of Scandal Fatigue often exhibit tell-tale symptoms such as the sudden uncontrollable urge to rant, either publicly or by audibly grumbling to oneself; increased anxiety; and a strong desire to self-sooth by watching internet cat videos. In severe cases, suffers may start to believe that Meet The Press is a balanced national conversation. Seek immediate attention if Fox News starts sounding rational.

Luckily today there's a cure: fast-acting Absurdity Today with Julianna Forlano. Taken weekly alongside your regular dosage of independent media, and Real Time/ Daily Show/ Colbert Report /Viewpoint regimen, Absurdity Today can arrest your symptoms in under two minutes.*

Side effects include increased mirth, feelings of well being without dampening the desire or ability to be an active participant in democracy, spontaneous laughter but not in the crazy way, and a sense of community.

Watch this video to see if Absurdity Today is right for you!

*These statements have not been approved by the FDA probably because they are true.

Somehow, I'm not all that surprised that we went from this hopeful news on Ed's show in February to this crashing disappointment in May. We can say that in this case, the bad guys clearly won -- assuming, of course, that you believe sick people have the right to know what they're ingesting:

On May 16, the Obama Interior Department announced its long-awaited rules governing hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") on federal lands.

As part of its 171-page document of rules, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the U.S. Dept. of Interior (DOI), revealed it will adopt theAmerican Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model bill written by ExxonMobil for fracking chemical fluid disclosure on U.S. public lands.

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I sure hope Jack Lew got the message loud and clear. Senator Elizabeth Warren is not going to allow him to mollycoddle banks the way Tim Geithner did. In Wednesday's Senate hearing, she asked him a few pointed questions intended to send a very straightforward message.

Warren began by speaking about a string of scandals that emerged as a result of the continued existence of "too big to fail banks." Despite this evidence and the fact that many officials have admitted the dangers to the economic system posed by big banks, Warren noted that various members of President Barack Obama's administration have appeared unwilling to prescribe concrete measures to address them. She then pointed specifically to a quote from a Treasury official during former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's tenure that suggested the department had been instrumental in scuttling an earlier bipartisan amendment that would have enacted restrictions on "too big to fail."

About those banks considered "too big to fail"? Warren put Lew on the hot seat.

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Ramona's Voices: Six things media personalities could and should avoid when covering a disaster.

Rumproast: Coburn the compassionate.

Not the Singularity: When conservatives don’t get climate science, part 3,461.

A Taxing Matter: Times letter writers seem to get the IRS "scandal."

West Coast Stat Views: Affinity cons and the looting phase in education.

Guest post by Batocchio. E-mail tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.