Political Randomness

[hepcat]

The worst part is that Obama wasn't even born in the United States.

[El Guapo]

CSM, 2006

In fact, no modern court has had a sitting president on a jury. Ronald Reagan came the closest when he was summoned in the 1980s by Santa Barbara County, Calif. He was granted a deferment until he was out of office.

The question was about former presidents, not sitting presidents.

[Isgrimnur]

No indications that it has.

ABC

In 2015, former President George W. Bush answered the jury duty call in Dallas. He was not selected to sit on a jury. And in 2003, former President Bill Clinton reported for jury duty in federal court in New York City. He also was not selected.

[malchior]

I have to imagine neither side of a trial wants someone that potentially disruptive on a jury.

[Moliere]

So becoming President is a good way to get out of jury duty?

[Isgrimnur]

And here's the winner of today's "Good Luck With That" award:

Jim Beam is one of the most popular bourbons in the country and one of the best selling in the world. So when the distillery makes the news, it’s usually because of its whiskey. However, spokeswoman Mila Kunis got herself (and Jim Beam) into the political fray after she revealed she’d been sending donations to Planned Parenthood in Vice President Mike Pence’s name.

While appearing as a guest on “Conan,” Kunis explained to host Conan O’Brien the practical joke was a way for her to express her disagreement with the vice president’s stance toward Planned Parenthood, contraception, and abortion. While Jim Beam hasn’t officially expressed any position on Planned Parenthood, Kunis’ advocacy for the reproductive healthcare provider led to what might be called a modicum of outrage on Twitter.

The aggrieved have started a #BoycottBeam campaign on Twitter, but an effective boycott seems dubious and pointless. Nevertheless, the tweets are pretty entertaining. NoMoreLiberals tweeted “After drinking Jim Beam for 30 years Im done. Your spokeswoman Kunis donates to Planned Parenthood in Prnce’s (sic) name. #BoycottBeam,” and Pickles n Cheese declared in a tweet “I will not drink another drop of Jim Beam! #BoycottBeam.”

[Rip]

I've never understood why anyone drinks that nasty crap anyway.

The only way I would drink that is if the only other choice was Canadian Club.

[pr0ner]

It will be interesting to see if anything comes from this revelation about Roy Moore.

Leigh Corfman says she was 14 years old when an older man approached her outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Ala. She was sitting on a wooden bench with her mother, they both recall, when the man introduced himself as Roy Moore.

It was early 1979 and Moore — now the Republican nominee in Alabama for a U.S. Senate seat — was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. He struck up a conversation, Corfman and her mother say, and offered to watch the girl while her mother went inside for a child custody hearing.

...

Alone with Corfman, Moore chatted with her and asked for her phone number, she says. Days later, she says, he picked her up around the corner from her house in Gadsden, drove her about 30 minutes to his home in the woods, told her how pretty she was and kissed her. On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.

...

Aside from Corfman, three other women interviewed by The Washington Post in recent weeks say Moore pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s, episodes they say they found flattering at the time, but troubling as they got older. None of the women say that Moore forced them into any sort of relationship or sexual contact.

Wendy Miller says she was 14 and working as a Santa’s helper at the Gadsden Mall when Moore first approached her, and 16 when he asked her on dates, which her mother forbade. Debbie Wesson Gibson says she was 17 when Moore spoke to her high school civics class and asked her out on the first of several dates that did not progress beyond kissing. Gloria Thacker Deason says she was an 18-year-old cheerleader when Moore began taking her on dates that included bottles of Mateus Rosé wine. The legal drinking age in Alabama was 19.

Of the four women, the youngest at the time was Corfman, who is the only one who says she had sexual contact with Moore that went beyond kissing. She says they did not have intercourse.

In a written statement, Moore denied the allegations.

“These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,” Moore, now 70, said.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, with that kind of new information he could be our next President.

[Rip]

I doubt it, to be POTUS you need to at least have oral sex with them.

[tjg_marantz]

I'm sure there'll be a lot of whataboutism and justification and calls of witch hunt.

[Rip]

I'm sure there'll be a lot of whataboutism and justification and calls of witch hunt.

If there isn't anything but some he-said she said stuff from 1979 it would be the weakest witch hunt in history. Heck Obama and Bush were coke heads back then and no one seemed to care all that much.

[tjg_marantz]

All in one post. Great success!

[El Guapo]

[Daehawk]

Roy Moore was removed from 1990s divorce case after he barred lesbian from seeing her children unsupervised

Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for Senate in Alabama, ruled in a 1990s divorce case that a woman who had a lesbian affair couldn't visit her children unsupervised or with her partner, writing that the "minor children will be detrimentally affected by the present lifestyle" of the mother.

Ive never understood why these weirdos have this strange opinion of homosexuals. Where do they think homosexuals come from anyways??

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/09/politics/ ... index.html

[Moliere]

Where do they think homosexuals come from anyways??

[El Guapo]

[milo]

Gloria Thacker Deason says she was an 18-year-old cheerleader when Moore began taking her on dates that included bottles of Mateus Rosé wine.

Have we, in the end, no decency? Lines must be drawn somewhere.

[Isgrimnur]

... is that a dick joke?

[Smoove_B]

If Mitch McConnell is saying something, you know people are worried.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called on the party's nominee for Senate in Alabama, Roy Moore, to withdraw from the race if a new report that he pursued teenage girls in his 30's is confirmed.

"If these allegations are true, he must step aside."

[noxiousdog]

What?

Holy crap people are weird. Completely consensual encounters 40 years ago are going to disqualify someone from running for Senate?

16 is above the age of consent in most of the US and all of Canada.

edit: I didn't see the 14. That would be a problem.

[Isgrimnur]

14. The age she was at the time of the allegation was 14. And the law in Alabama has been 16 since at least 1977.

[Smoove_B]

16 is above the age of consent in most of the US and all of Canada.

You've since edited and updated your post, but I want to clarify that while it might be legally acceptable, I would absolutely question someone in their early 30s "dating" a 16 year old. If that labels me as "weird", so be it.

[noxiousdog]

16 is above the age of consent in most of the US and all of Canada.

You've since edited and updated your post, but I want to clarify that while it might be legally acceptable, I would absolutely question someone in their early 30s "dating" a 16 year old. If that labels me as "weird", so be it.

Sure, but that shouldn't be the thing that ends his campaign (ignoring the 14 year old, though I do have trouble accepting that as face value). There's a lot more about him to be offended about.

And I agree with Rip, 49 man/ 22 woman is worse, especially when it's an employment situation.

[Isgrimnur]

It IS Alabama, you know. At least it hasn't been determined that they were related.

FBI

Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released its second compilation of annual data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
...
Of the 6,137 incidents involving non-forcible sex offenses, 83.1 percent included statutory rape and 16.9 percent included incest.

[El Guapo]

McConnell has asked Moore to quit if the allegations are true.

[Isgrimnur]

McConnell has asked Moore to quit if the allegations are true.

Smoove_B has posted that McConnell has asked Moore to quit if the allegations are true.

[pr0ner]

Here's a defense of Roy Moore for you.

Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.

[Holman]

From WaPo:

It was early 1979 and Moore — now the Republican nominee in Alabama for a U.S. Senate seat — was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. He struck up a conversation, Corfman and her mother say, and offered to watch the girl while her mother went inside for a child custody hearing.

OMFG. He picked up a minor at... a child custody hearing??

[Moliere]

The bible is awesome! You can justify anything.

[Isgrimnur]

Let's hope that Trump doesn't end up lusting after the wife of a soldier serving in a war zone.

[El Guapo]

McConnell has asked Moore to quit if the allegations are true.

Smoove_B has posted that McConnell has asked Moore to quit if the allegations are true.

Fake news! I raised this point first, everyone says so, they say that El Guapo is the best at raising points like this, and that Smoove B is garbage, nobody likes him. Everyone says so.

[Skinypupy]

I love that Moore's first line of defense is running to Breitbart.

[Grifman]

Here's a defense of Roy Moore for you.

What an idiot. I don't remember Joseph seducing a young girl while her mother was in court. Or sexually fondling an unmarried 14 year old.

[Enough]

I just came to post this nonsense. What a piece of work. Is everyone in Alabama on drugs?

[malchior]

I just landed to see that the GOP suddenly doesn't have a problem with men going after underage girls. Cool. How much further can we fall every day?

[Smoove_B]

I just landed to see that the GOP suddenly doesn't have a problem with men going after underage girls. Cool. How much further can we fall every day?

It just falls in line with their new strategy. Deny it happened until proof emerges that it really did. Then point out it's technically not a crime so what's the big deal? Collusion with Russia, dating 14 year olds - no worries.

[pr0ner]

It's interesting diving into alt-right Twitter for a bit and seeing them tossing the usual "FAKE NEWS" allegations at WaPo and circling the wagons around Moore.

[Holman]

I love that Moore's first line of defense is running to Breitbart.

That's the new fault line, though. Bannon pushed Moore when McConnell was pushing Strange.

Moore is blaming the Librul Media, but there are rumblings on the far right about how quickly some Republicans are lining up to condemn him. The Bannon alt-right smells an Establishment hatchet job (although it's hard to see what McConnell gets out of giving the seat to a Democrat).

This is what the GOP civil war in 2018 will look like.

[Holman]

I just came to post this nonsense. What a piece of work. Is everyone in Alabama on drugs?

My truce with my Alabama parents involves near-total silence on politics, but I feel like I'm going to have to ask them about this.

As it happens, in 1979 we lived in Birmingham and my sister was also 14.