I don't get how this is offensive.  It's pretty much true.  It's only degrading to Jewish people if you use it with the agenda that the disproportionate amount of Jews in corporate boardrooms is a bad thing.

It's not "offensive".  It's more, a sloppy way of putting it.....because it's uncomfortable for many Jews for people to put it in such blunt terms, saying that they have disproportionate influence.  (Even if you think the disproportionate influence is benign, as Biden suggests here.)  It's not the sort of thing that Obama, for example, would ever say, because he's more deft than Biden is at threading the needle on something like this.  So is Hillary Clinton.  So is Marco Rubio.  So are most of the other likely 2016ers (at least, those with a realistic chance of winning their party's nomination...I'm excluding Ben Carson types).  I'm not saying that this particular statement by itself would be that problematic for Biden in a potential campaign.  Just that it's the type of thing that, when repeated in enough circumstances, causes elite opinion to sour on a candidate, and treat them as "Not A Serious Person Who Knows How To Play The Game"(tm).

Hypothetical pundit in 1951: "It's been 50 years since a president was assassinated in office.  Obviously, the Secret Service must now be sophisticated enough to thwart any future assassination attempts."

Honestly she doesn't sound like a very good dietician. She likes the idea that he's trying to reduce his soda intake?! Just tell him to stop drinking non-diet soda, jesus christ it's not that hard, both taste like fizzy syrup water.

Keep in mind, these recommendations have been filtered through Bushie's brain.  Since we weren't actually present at the discussion, we don't know exactly what words the dietician used.

See, I think it's only an issue though to people who want to make it one. It's no Benghazi, and people don't even care about that. Will quips like these really move mountains? It's just Joe Biden being Joe Biden. He wasn't trying to be rude, and I think his audience realized that. Honestly, there are a lot of people out there who actually really like that he doesn't keep himself to a script. I'm one of them.

It's not that anyone will be offended by this stuff as such.  It's that, for politicians playing on the biggest stage, the media (and the late night comedy shows) siezes on stuff like this to show that the person isn't serious.  For now, it's fine, because he's only veep.  His every statement actually isn't scrutinized in minute detail the way it will be if/when he's a presidential candidate himself with a strong chance of winning the nomination.  But when we get to that point, the accumulation of micro-gaffes could cause him to be seen as more of a figure of ridicule.  That's what I think is damaging.

[The Jewish people have contributed greatly to America. No group has had such an outsized influence per capita as all of you standing before you]

This is the sort of thing that I think will be commonplace during a potential Biden presidential run, and part of the reason why I think one overestimates Biden's chances in a Clinton-less race if one only goes by polls:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/biden-praises-jews-goes-too-far.html

Biden spoke in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month.  He said the following:

"The Jewish people have contributed greatly to America. No group has had such an outsized influence per capita as all of you standing before you, and all of those who went before me and all of those who went before you …

You make up 11 percent of the seats in the United States Congress. You make up one-third of all Nobel laureates …

I think you, as usual, underestimate the impact of Jewish heritage. I really mean that. I think you vastly underestimate the impact you’ve had on the development of this nation."

And then, when talking about increasing support for gay rights:

“It wasn’t anything we legislatively did. It was ‘Will and Grace,’ it was the social media. Literally. That’s what changed peoples’ attitudes. That’s why I was so certain that the vast majority of people would embrace and rapidly embrace” gay marriage, Biden said.

“Think behind of all that, I bet you 85 percent of those changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense, the influence is immense. And, I might add, it is all to the good.”

As Jonathan Chait remarks, it's actually quite problematic for someone like Biden to put it so bluntly, that there is an "outsized influence" of Jewish people on the culture, because that feeds anti-Semitic stereotypes.  And indeed, while Biden's comments are actually philo-Semitic, in praise of Jewish influence, they're already being seized on by anti-Semites, for whom such influence is read as being nefarious.

Most politicians playing at Biden's level are deft enough to thread the needle on something like this.  But Biden isn't.  By itself, it's a very minor thing.  But he makes such a habit of talking like this, that if he were to mount a serious presidential bid, I think the cumulative effect of statements like this could end up being quite damaging.

"Results of an Iowa poll on Gov. Branstad, Medicaid will be available at 6 a.m. on Thursday, May 23."

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-and-centers/polling-institute

Probably the 2016 related stuff will be released tomorrow.

Do we actually know if this poll includes 2016 questions?

$37,080 / year

Dave makes $37,000 a year from this site?  Then why are we moderators toiling away as unpaid help?  Time to organize a labor action.

Think an opponent like Santorum would bring this up in a primary?

There's no actual public policy issue at stake here.  So to bring up any criticism of someone for speaking at a dinner that honored someone who was transgender would come off more as outright bigotry.  The other candidates might be unwilling to speak at such a dinner themselves, but criticizing someone else for speaking there is also risky.

That said, there's no reason why independent Super PACs wouldn't bring up such a thing.

*bump*

And now Hickenlooper grants a reprieve from execution for a quadruple killer who's been on death row for 17 years.  His lawyers had been arguing for the reprieve on the grounds that he's mentally ill.  At least some among the vicitms' families disagree, and accuse Hickenlooper of playing politics:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/23/us-usa-execution-colorado-idUSBRE94M02K20130523

I'm not suggesting that there's political motivation here.  Just pointing out that it potentially has political ramifications, if Hickenlooper does decide to run for prez.  Remember when Bill Clinton oversaw the execution of that mentally retarded guy, allegedly proving that he's tough on crime?  (Actually, you probably don't remember, since most of you weren't born yet.)

[transgender advocacy]

Rand Paul recently opined that the GOP needs to reach out to a more diverse voter base:

http://therun2016.com/we-need-people-with-tattoos-pony-tails-beards/

“We’re going to win when we look like America. We need to be white, we need to be brown, we need to be black, we need to with tattoos, without tattoos, with pony tails, without pony tails, with beards, without.”

Well, in at least one small way, Paul himself seems to be taking that to heart.  He's going to be the keynote speaker at the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Julian Simon Award dinner in June:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/competitive-enterprise-institute-to-honor-transgender-woman-at-annual-dinner/article/2529854

(CEI is a "free market/libertarian think tank".)

He's the keynote speaker at the dinner, but not actually the award winner and guest of honor.  The guest of honor will be Deirdre McCloskey, who CEI describes as follows:

Deirdre McCloskey teaches economics, history, English, and communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. A well-known economist and historian and rhetorician, she has written sixteen books and around 400 scholarly pieces on topics ranging from technical economics and statistics to transgender advocacy and the ethics of the bourgeois virtues. She is known as a “conservative” economist, Chicago-School style (she taught for 12 years there), but protests that “I’m a literary, quantitative, postmodern, free-market, progressive Episcopalian, Midwestern woman from Boston who was once a man. Not ‘conservative’! I’m a Christian libertarian.” (Emphasis added.)

It may be a minor thing in the grand scheme of things, but I actually find it hard to imagine Rubio or Walker doing an event like this.

I know Google has sent notices to other sites about such threads. So perhaps that is the reason?

Why are they doing that?

Because of people hotlinking images on Google sites without giving credit?  Or is it because some of the pics were too risque, and Google was going to change the relevant website's status in its search filters or something?

In any case, there are only six people with the ability to delete the threads in Off Topic:

Dave
Nym
The three OT mods: Inks, Mikado, Torie
whoever it is who started the thread

There were no recent reports of the threads in question, and no discussion on the mod board about closing down the threads.  So I doubt it was one of the OT mods going rogue.  Most likely either the thread starter decided to delete it on a lark (wasn't an earlier iteration of the Hot Girls Thread inexplicably deleted under such circumstances?), or else Dave got some kind of warning about the threads from some site like Google, and decided to delete it.

It's not like it would be unprecedented for Dave to do something without telling the mods.  The Leip works in mysterious ways.

Apparently he was also involved in a triple homicide alongside the bombing suspect.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57585725/ibragim-todashev-implicated-tsarnaev-himself-in-triple-homicide-before-fbi-shooting/

So Tamarlan was allegedly one of the culprits in a triple homicide in 2011, but was never caught?  That might explain why he stupidly seemed to think that he could get away with the marathon bombing.

Does it mean that we should be okay with this guy being investigated like this and possibly even prosecuted?

I do not think that two wrongs make a right.

Where's the wrong here?

As I said a few posts ago, wrong would (I think) be if they actually charged Rosen for this.  That is, charged him for soliciting classified information.  National security journalists solicit classified information all the time, and if the DoJ started charging them for that, then national security journalism would be in crisis.

Yeah, why are you going to your cousins every night to help her put her kids to bed?

Because his own kids are in Kenya, and he needs to put someone's kids to be every night.  Doesn't that make sense?

I remember the false idea that some had for some reason that Palin was some sort of moderate libertarian governor.

Or the idea that the fact that she "isn't a big name" means that she won't make much of a splash......as if being the first ever female GOP VP nominee wouldn't instantly make her a household name.

http://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=81692.msg1691412#msg1691412

if it's Palin, and she has to come from Alaska and be in Ohio at noon Friday, word will definitely leak out the (Thursday) night Obama is making his speech...and that's exactly how I would script it.

palin has no chance

thanks for your deep explanation

Ok, how about this.  I doubt it will be Palin.  She doesn't bring much to the ticket and isn't a big name in Republican circles.

Plus she is too moderate to help McCain with the demographic in which he really struggles: conservatives.

I dont see a path to the nomination for Romney.

Romney has no path to the nomination.

again, there is no path for Romney to the GOP nomination...unless the rest of the field implodes at the same time (ala Gary Hart).

But, Romney has no path to the nomination....never has.

Romney still has no path to the nomination unless every other GOP candidate fumbles multiple times, and a late comer could still win it

Not that Romney would have won the nomination (he never had a path to the nomination)...

Romney's only path to the nomination is by default: 1) every conservative GOP candidate disqualifies him/herself…2) no one else enters the race...

there is no way the jmfcst's of the gop are going to vote for romney

dude, [Romney] is done, stick a tea bag in him

Romny has no path to the nomination...short him

http://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=12005.0

http://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=62495.0

Looks like Milwaukee and Minneapolis may be bidding for the DNC:

http://www.democraticconventionwatch.com/diary/5834/milwaukee-and-minneapolis-may-both-want-2016-democratic-national-convention-dnc16

A trusted source has passed along that Minneapolis will bid to be host city for the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Also... Milwaukee, WI is in the process of gauging support for a bid.

Updated list of cities reported to be considering a bid:

Charlotte (RNC)
Cleveland (both parties)
Columbus (both parties)
Dallas (both parties)
Indianapolis (both parties)
Kansas City (RNC)
Las Vegas (both parties)
Milwaukee (DNC)
Minneapolis (DNC)
Nashville (both parties)
Newark (both parties)
Philadelphia (DNC)
Phoenix (RNC)
Salt Lake City (RNC)
St. Louis (both parties)

Who is your dream candidate Mitty?  If it could be anyone currently alive and in good health, who would you like to see be elected in 2016?

More:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-orlando-fbi-boston-bombing-20130522,0,469079.story

Todashev, 27, was arrested by the Orange County Sheriff's Office on May 4 and charged with aggravated battery with great bodily harm. Details of that arrest were not immediately available.
.
.
.
However, WESH Channel 2 is reporting that FBI sources confirmed that agents interviewed Todashev several times because of his links to the Boston bombing suspect.

Todashev, who is from Chechnya, "flipped out" during an interview Tuesday night and an agent was forced to shoot him, the FBI said, according to WESH.

FBI sources also said Todashev has extremist friends overseas, WESH is reporting.

This apparently occurred in Orlando, FL:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/22/18418012-fbi-agent-kills-man-linked-to-boston-bombing-suspects

An FBI agent was involved in a deadly shooting connected to the Boston Marathon bombing case.

The man who was shot, Ibragim Todashev, had been interviewed about his connections to the bombing suspects before by the FBI and started out cooperative, NBC sources said.

The suspect then went to attack the agent and was shot, the sources said.

The suspect is deceased, the FBI said.

Interesting how low 'affair' scores in acceptability yet is curiously fairly common. Surveys have it at about 13-20% (ie the % of those who admit to having an affair) at a conservative estimate.

Not that surprising.  Plenty of people do things that they believe to be wrong.  E.g., lying and cheating.  While there are of course circumstances in which one can rationalize lying or cheating because of circumstances (e.g., a "white lie"), many many people do it in cases where they believe it to be wrong....and then feel guilty afterwards (or not).

And of course, not everyone is going to be honest in a poll like this.

Here is my compilation of retrospectively amusing commentary on the 2008 GOP primary race:

http://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=71919.0

Sarah Palin, pregnant:

http://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=72000.0

Edwards love child story:

http://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=66543.0

British Dixie was later outed as a sock master, who created socks (e.g., Freedom Fighter) who he argued with:

The black turnout won't be as high this year, and that only just pushed Obama over the line, so lean Romney.

More racism from BritishDixie. Tell me, are you a Klansman or somethign.

The U.S. has caused far more hurt to the world than the Soviet Union would have done.

It really annoys me people who attack the U.S for adopting an interventionist foreign policy. If the U.S had done that in World War II, then Nazi Germany might have lived a much longer life. Not to mention the Kims ruling all of Korea and Kuwait being ruled by Saddam Hussein, who incidentally would still be inflicting his brutal murderous regime upon his people. Not to mention the Soviet Union and China having free reign to wreak havoc around the world.

Yeah you're one who believe the U.S is a force for good. The U.S. has caused far more hurt to the world than the Soviet Union would have done. It oppressed the poor people of Vietnam, it armed Islamic extremists in Afghanistan, and invaded Iraq, violating the countries rights. I'm ashamed that there are British people like you.

<<Incendiary language removed. Grammar corrected. Peter>>

I would expect this kind of nonsense from the citizens of Tulsa or Wheeling, not one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the US.

As noted in the OP, anti-fluoridation has migrated from the Bircherist Right to the Crunchy Left.  Ithaca, NY is another city that doesn't fluoridate the water (or at least, they didn't as of a few years ago...not sure if things have changed), and Ralph Nader has been anti-fluoridation for many years now.  It's gone from Evil Communist Plot to Evil Capitalist Plot.

Which senators voted yea and nea in the Judiciary Committee?