The Commentariat -- Feb. 11, 2014
Internal links removed.
Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday urged states to repeal laws that prohibit felons from voting, a move that would restore the right to vote to millions of people. The call was mostly symbolic -- Mr. Holder has no authority to enact these changes himself -- but it marked the attorney general's latest effort to eliminate laws that he says disproportionately keep minorities from the polls."
Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: "In prepared testimony for her first appearance on Capitol Hill since being sworn in last week as the steward of the nation's economy, [Fed Chair Janet] Yellen noted the job market has made progress since the Fed began its latest round of stimulus in late 2012. The unemployment rate has fallen from 8.1 percent to 6.6 percent. But she said in the prepared testimony that even that rate is still too high." ...
... Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Ms. Yellen's first public remarks as chairwoman were hard to distinguish from the last public remarks of her predecessor, Ben S. Bernanke. Speaking to the House Financial Services Committee, she emphasized that she was not seeking to change the Fed's course."
Alex Rogers of Time: "The House could vote as early as Wednesday on legislation to raise the country's borrowing limit, after Republicans met on Monday night in their latest effort to find elusive consensus on one of the final must-pass objectives before Washington goes into election mode. During a meeting in the basement of the Capitol, GOP leaders floated the idea of repealing a cut to veterans' pensions set to take place next year and attach that to a bill that would raise the debt ceiling for one year. It remains to be seen if a majority of the restive conservative conference will back party leadership, or if House Speaker John Boehner will be left to rely on Democrats to take action before what the Obama Administration has pegged as a critical Feb. 27 deadline." ...
... Sarah Mimms of the National Journal: "To get an agreement that would attract their own members and Democrats alike, House Republicans threw [Paul Ryan] ... under the bus just two months after he accepted congratulations alongside Sen. Patty Murray as the two who beat the odds and not only formulated -- but passed -- a two-year budget deal in one of the most intractable Congresses in memory.... Ryan specifically pushed for ... cuts [to retired military personnel's pension plans] in his negotiations with Murray late last year.... Asked about the plan Monday night, Paul Ryan repeatedly said, 'I've got nothing for you.'" ...
... Update. Elahe Izadi and Sarah Mimms of the National Journal: "House Republicans scrapped a plan they devised Monday night to raise the debt ceiling with an additional measure to reverse veterans' cuts. Instead, they're going clean, according to a source in the room. Leadership had wanted to extract something out of raising the debt ceiling and had settled on rolling back the $6 billion on cost of living cuts to military pensions. But Democrats have long insisted they won't give anything in return for raising the debt ceiling. The GOP plan would have relied on support from a good number of Democrats, since many conservatives will vote against raising the debt ceiling regardless of what's attached." Thanks to contributor Patrick for the link. ...
... Update, Ctd. Ashley Parker & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Facing a rebellion over his latest debt ceiling proposal, Speaker John A. Boehner on Tuesday told House Republicans that he would bring legislation to a vote that would raise the government's borrowing authority with no strings attached. 'You all know that our members are not crazy about voting to increase the debt ceiling,' Mr. Boehner said, explaining that his conference was frustrated with President Obama's refusal to negotiate over a debt ceiling increase. 'And so the fact is we'll let the Democrats put the votes up. We'll put a minimum number of votes up to get it passed.'"
¡No Más! Anna Palmer & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Immigration reform advocates are done playing nice with House Republicans. After holding their fire for years at the urging of the Obama administration, several immigration reform groups now plan to unleash their anger at the right. A new, more aggressive campaign kicks off Tuesday, when these groups say they will begin confronting Republican lawmakers at public appearances, congressional hearings and events back in home districts. The goal: Shame Republicans in swing districts into taking up the issue -- or make them pay at the ballot box in November." ...
... Gene Robinson: "... Obama has done everything humanly possible to make it easier for Republicans to support sensible reform. You know a party is dysfunctional when it can't take yes for an answer." ...
... Albany, New York, Times Union Editors: "Millions of lives kept on hold, again, all so some politicians can hedge their political bets." ...
... AND Greg Sargent posits that kicking the can down the road may be a particularly Stupid Republican Trick: "Consider the role of Ted Cruz, who is expected to run for president.... If Republicans try to pass reform in 2015, he'll have an opening to demagogue the heck out of the issue to appeal to a chunk of right wing GOP primary voters. He'll do all he can to turn the GOP primary process into an anti-amnesty sludge-fest." Yeah? Let's see Cruz top alligator moats & killer electric fences. ...
... Because Obama? No. Because Cruz. Umberto Sanchez of Roll Call: "Sen. Ted Cruz ... in recent weeks has undermined Boehner's approach on both immigration and the debt limit -- the two biggest issues the Ohio Republican has been trying to navigate through his conference. As Boehner unveiled his leadership team's immigration principles at the House GOP's retreat two weeks ago, Cruz and his staff simultaneously torched the push for an immigration overhaul this year on Twitter and in interviews, immediately playing the 'amnesty' card. 'Anyone pushing that right now should go ahead and put a Harry Reid for majority leader bumper sticker on the back of their car,' Cruz told reporters early last week. It's a line he's used with some frequency in recent days, and the implicit target is Boehner...." Via Greg Sargent.
Juliet Eilperin & Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration announced Monday it would give medium-sized employers an extra year, until 2016, before they must offer health insurance to their full-time workers. Firms with at least 100 employees will have to start offering this coverage in 2015." ...
... Jonathan Gruber in the Los Angeles Times: "Before [healthcare] reform, the best research suggests that job mobility among workers with health insurance was reduced by one-quarter because of fears about losing that coverage. By freeing workers from that fear, healthcare reform promises not only to make individual lives better but also to boost innovation and efficiency in the U.S. economy." ...
... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: "It's a reflection of just how committed to lying about that Congressional Budget Office report Republicans are that the CBO felt compelled to put out another memo, this one reiterating what was clearly stated in the actual report: As many as 2.5 million people may choose to leave full-time work when they have the option of getting affordable health insurance elsewhere. Not that 2.5 million jobs would be lost." ...
... Paul Waldman of the American Prospect: AOL CEO Tim Armstrong's claim that the company had to cut benefits because ... ObamaCare was met with ridicule because his is a high-profile company employing, um, lots of reporters. "But something similar is happening at companies all over America. Even though health insurance premiums have risen every year, this year management is saying, 'Don't blame us -- it's Obamacare.... There won't be national news stories about it, and if the HR person tells [employees] the company's hands are tied, they'll accept the explanation. The boss's escape from accountability is complete. An AP poll late last year found that 76 percent of people with employer-sponsored plans said that changes in those plans, like increased premiums and higher co-pays, were because of the Affordable Care Act. Almost all of them are wrong. So where could they have gotten that idea?" ...
... CW: This is something Democrats really have to figure out how to fight. And, unlike in the AOL case, they won't get much help from the media. After all, that's not the media's job. Just ask Tuck Chodd. ...
... Your Boss Knows You Have Herpes (and He Might Tell Your Co-workers). Natasha Singer of the New York Times: Armstrong's remark about "two AOL-ers that had distressed babies...," "made in a conference call with employees, brought an immediate outcry, raising questions over corporate access to and handling of employees' personal medical data." CW: Armstrong's remarks make all the hoohah about the government's "getting between you & your doctor" sound hollow. All along, your employer & your company's HR Department have been nosing through your medical files.
Christi Parsons of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama plans to launch an initiative aimed at improving the lives of young black and Latino men by bringing businesses and foundations together with government agencies to change what an administration official called the 'school-to-prison pipeline.' The initiative, which Obama calls 'My Brother's Keeper,' is to be unveiled Thursday, the official said. It will mark the latest in a series of efforts by the president to spur social change outside the stalemated legislative process."
Waste, Fraud & Abuse. Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "An Army program meant to increase the number of recruits during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars devolved into an illegal free-for-all that could cost taxpayers close to $100 million, military investigators say, describing new details of what they called a long-running scheme among National Guard recruiters that went undetected for years. Army officials appeared before a Senate hearing on Tuesday and sketched out a huge criminal endeavor that has implicated more than 1,200 people -- 200 of them officers -- including two generals and dozens of colonels. Criminal investigators for the Army said soldiers, civilians and National Guard recruiters had used the program as a 'bounty' from which they could illegally collect money for recruiting soldiers they had not recruited."
Joe Nocera: U.S. bankers & retailers have been too cheap & "have spent way too much time blaming each other for the growing data theft problem" to switch from magnetic strip credit cards to the much more secure chip-and-PIN technology that is widely used in Canada & European countries.
Ben Protess of the New York Times: A "lawsuit filed by Better Markets, a group critical of Wall Street, challenged the constitutionality of the [$13 billion] deal [between the Justice Department & JPMorgan Chase], a landmark settlement stemming from accusations that JPMorgan overstated the quality of mortgage securities it sold before the financial crisis. In a complaint filed on Monday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Better Markets argued that the Justice Department violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers when it 'unilaterally' struck the deal without a judge's blessing." CW: Okay, so maybe the Obama administration is "lawless."
John Swaine of the Guardian: "The Obama administration came under renewed pressure to disclose the legal grounds for its drone programme on Monday, amid reports that another US citizen accused of plotting attacks against Americans for al-Qaida overseas is to be assassinated. Legal experts and civil liberties campaigners urged the White House to explain the basis for a potential strike against the suspect, alleged to be an active 'facilitator' for the terrorist network and already responsible for deadly attacks on Americans."
Beyond the Beltway
Do Not Trust a Republican with Your Life. Amy Goodnough of the New York Times: "Last year, the Republicans who control [Arkansas]'s Legislature devised a politically palatable way to expand Medicaid under President Obama's health care law. They won permission to use federal expansion funds to buy private insurance for as many as 250,000 poor people instead of adding them to traditional Medicaid.... But just as the idea is catching fire in other states with Republican or divided leadership..., Arkansas may abruptly reverse course, potentially leaving the 83,000 people who have signed up so far without insurance as soon as July 1. Facing pressure from conservative challengers in the May primary, several Republicans who supported the plan last year are now considering switching their vote when the Legislature votes to reauthorize its financing, possibly as soon as next week. The defection of just one Republican could kill the program, state officials said."
"The Massive Progressive Protest You Didn't Hear About this Weekend." Esther Lee of Think Progress: "Somewhere between 80 to 100,000 people from 32 states turned out to protest four years of drastic state Republican initiatives in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday. The 'Moral March on Raleigh' ... marched from Shaw University to the state capitol to push back against the 'immoral and unconstitutional policies' of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory during the 2013 NC General Assembly session. Since North Carolina Republicans took over both legislative chambers in 2010, legislators have eliminated a host of programs and raised taxes on the bottom 80 percent, repealed a tax credit for 900,000 working families, enforced voter suppression efforts, blocked Medicaid coverage, cut pre-Kindergarten funding, cut federal unemployment benefits, and gave itself the authority to intervene in abortion lawsuits." ...
... Steve M. "It's probably unreasonable to expect the mainstream media to cover this protest movement: it's not violent, nor is it (by conventional standards) heartwarming. More to the point, it doesn't involve a lot of white upmarket residents of the West Coast or the Northeast. The mainstream media cares about D.C. politicians and New Jersey's Chris Christie and Greenwich Village's Philip Seymour Hoffman. Nobody in the media cares about a largely black protest movement in (ugh!) North Carolina. Nobody, that is, except the right."
Carol Morello & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "During his nearly seven-year stint as U.S. attorney, [Chris] Christie perfected a leadership style that enabled him to vault into the governor's mansion from a job that is not frequently used as a stepping stone to higher office. Along the way, he honed a brand of politics built largely on transactional relationships with supporters and adversaries alike. His approach has appealed to many voters. And yet..., Christie and his aides showed an early penchant for pushing boundaries in ways that have had ramifications.... In Washington, Christie's bosses were concerned about the appearance of several deals he struck with corporations that agreed to change their ways if they weren't charged in cases involving financial irregularities."
Beth DeFalco & Leonard Greene of the New York Post: "The New Jersey legislative committee investigating the Bridgegate scandal will probe records of helicopter rides Gov. Chris Christie took to see if he flew near Fort Lee while lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge were closed, sources told The Post. Lawmakers also want to know if the New Jersey governor took a ride with then-Port Authority exec David Wildstein...." ...
... Armando of Daily Kos sez he believes flight records will show Christie did fly over the GWB on 9/11. The GWB crosses the Hudson into the far northern part of Manhattan. The 9/11 site is of course downtown, & Trenton, New Jersey -- Christie's destination is south of that. Armando said Christie had no scheduled events that day in North Jersey. Ergo, a flyover the GWB & Fort Lee would be a curious detour. ...
By Stuart Carlson.
... Melissa Hayes & Michael Linhorst of the Bergen Record: "The special legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closure controversy is subpoenaing 18 individuals and groups, including additional staff in the governor's office and the State Police aviation unit." ...
... Michael Phillis of the Bergen Record: "Several current and former state employees have asked the attorney general's office to pay their legal fees related to the George Washington Bridge scandal which is being investigated by a joint committee in the Legislature and also the U.S. attorney's office." ...
... D. S. Wright of Firedoglake figures out why Rudy Giuliani is one of Christie's sole defenders: "Guiliani is under contract with Mercury Public Affairs, the consulting firm for Michael DuHaime, one of Christie's closest advisors also implicated in the Hoboken/Sandy aid scandal as his firm did polling to show there was support for a real estate development project.... So the only person of any note publicly defending Governor Christie in the Bridgegate scandal is being paid by one of Christie's closet advisors?"
Marc Santora of the New York Times: "Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York ... used his first State of the City speech on Monday to propose measures that he said would protect the poor, encourage undocumented immigrants to participate in city life and raise the minimum wage to help lift residents into the middle class. At the same time, he repeated his call for the city's wealthiest residents to pay more to help the less fortunate. It was the first time a Democrat has delivered the State of the City address in two decades, and Mr. de Blasio left no doubt that he was going to pursue a decidedly liberal agenda."
Presidential Election 2016
Alex Pappas of the Daily Caller: "Sources close to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough think he is seriously considering the prospect of leaving morning television to run for president in 2016." CW: Will select Mica as veep candidate. ...
... To advance his own presidential chances, Scarborough dumps on former BFF Chris Christie. Tal Kopan of Politico: "MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said Monday that New Jersey Chris Christie has become a 'distraction' to the Republican Governors Association. 'The fact is right now, he's a distraction to the RGA,' Scarborough said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.' 'If Republicans' job is electing governors and you got a guy running the RGA that has Republican candidates running away from him, that's a serious problem.'"
Tal Kopan: "Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Monday that when it comes to Hillary Clinton, Republicans will have a 'truckload' of material to use against her, and it's all fair game. Priebus said recent, repeated comments from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Texas) bringing up President Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky as a critique of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are legitimate." ...
... Digby: "So everyone's wondering why in the heck the Republicans are dusting off their Lewinsky playbook.... The reason they are doing this is simple: the War on Women.... The War on Women opens the door for Republicans to do what pleasures them the most --- talk about other people's sex lives in detail even as they condemn it. It arouses them." ...
... Related. Sort of. Brian Resnick of the National Journal: "Reports of reports of a rumored forthcoming Washington Post article say that President Obama has been having an affair with Beyoncé. Curious that the two, who are some of the most followed and cloistered individuals in the world, could keep the relationship quiet until now.... Curiouser still that this is coming from Obama, who has long been reported to be gay. But this president has managed to keep a lot of his nefarious past and present quiet." Resnick finds more reports of Obama's "nefarious behavior."...
... Peter Beinart in the Atlantic: "So why the anti-Clinton offensive? Because Paul isn't speaking to most Americans -- he's speaking to the Christian right.... Given that one of his key selling points in the GOP primary will be his (relative) support among younger Americans, Paul can't exactly crusade against gay marriage or the legalization of pot. Bashing Bill Clinton provides a politically safer way to champion moralism."
... Tal Kopan: "Some of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's most private conversations, on issues from her husband's affair to health care policy, are part of newly published documents revealed in the archives of one of her best friends. The trove of documents include correspondence, journal entries, memos and interviews from the mid-1970s to about 2000 from one of Clinton's best friends, political science professor Diane Blair, who died in 2000. While they have been open to the public since 2010, The Washington Free Beacon reported on and published the contents of the files for the first time on Sunday night." CW: Some of the published items are interesting.
Right Wing World
Where even the so-called intellectuals are paranoid maniacs. Charles Pierce is on the case.
News Ledes
Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette: "More than 100,000 gallons of coal slurry poured into an eastern Kanawha County stream Tuesday in what officials were calling a 'significant spill' from a Patriot Coal processing facility. Emergency officials and environmental inspectors said roughly six miles of Fields Creek had been blackened and that a smaller amount of the slurry made it into the Kanawha River near Chesapeake."
New York Times: "Shirley Temple Black, who as a dimpled, precocious and determined little girl in the 1930s sang and tap-danced her way to a height of Hollywood stardom and worldwide fame that no other child has reached, died on Monday night at her home in Woodside, Calif. She was 85." The Los Angeles Times obituary is here.
San Diego Union-Tribune: "The electoral chaos caused by former Mayor Bob Filner comes to a close Tuesday as San Diego voters choose one of two City Council members -- Democrat David Alvarez and Republican Kevin Faulconer -- as the city's next mayor."
Reuters: "Frustrated about prospects of getting Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign a long-term security deal, the United States is considering waiting until he leaves office before completing the pact and deciding on a troop presence beyond 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday."
Washington Post: "China and Taiwan held their first official government-to-government talks on Tuesday since splitting during a civil war in 1949, in an attempt to forge closer economic links and reduce tensions over the thorny issue of eventual re-unification."
Guardian: "Eleven days after the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, the US military's top special operations officer ordered subordinates to destroy any photographs of the al-Qaida founder's corpse or turn them over to the CIA, according to a newly released email. The email was obtained under a freedom of information request by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch."
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Reader Comments (14)
Re: Bill and Hil and the bucket of water; I can't speak for women; in fact I'm another guy that don't know what they want. But I think the Repub's plan to smear Hil with Bill's "I got a dick, where will it fit" problem will backfire on many women voters. They might even support Hil more if in their own lives they have experienced the great pain of betrayal and an a unfaithful partner.
As a man I always am uncomfortable with knowing about other men's affairs. Everybody has got their own moral standards so I let lying dogs sleep but don't bring your girlfriend around when I know your wife. Never once did I put any blame on the spouse for the actions of a cad. Some women must feel like this but even now our society gives the get out of jail card to the man and expects the woman to pay his bail.
What with their wars on women, bridges, ethics, decency, common sense and pretty much anything else worthwhile, the GOP makes you want to laugh or cry. So in the interest of attaining both goals, it's time once again for Bad Limericks:
Randy Paul loves to play dirty
with his War on the Women he flirties.
Hypocrisy reigns as
Buddha boy feigns
that his ethics are clean and not blurry
Republicans, never altruistic
and naught but misogynistics
love to point fingers
but doubt always lingers,
they're nothing but cheap voyeuristics
The GOP used to grow misty
with dreams of a White House for Christie
twixt his bullying days
and bridge closing ways
his well toasted ass is now crispy
So now the GOP House is pulling the plug on the military retirement COLA and appears to be ready to put a clean debt ceiling bill on the floor. http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/house-gop-scraps-debt-ceiling-plan-20140211
Prior to that, Speaker Boehner said that he had the necessary GOP votes for the bill with COLA rider, but didn't say how many. I assume it was "if all Dems vote for the bill" he would need X GOPs plus himself to have a majority of one. But the D's couldn't guarantee all their votes, so now there's no time left for anything but a clean bill. And forget that three-day reading period -- big snow will put DC in the freezer Thursday, these guys don't work on Fridays, then there's a 3-day weekend (Prezdint's Day). If they don't get done by Wednesday (tomorrow) in the House, they are bumping up against the default deadline Treasury has marked, given required Senate actions. So, kudos to Mr. Boehner who (maybe) has taken the lesson remarked by Senator McConnell a few months back, "There's no learning to be had from the second kick of a mule." Or, "even a blind pig finds the occasional acorn."
Of course, this could all fall apart when the threats to elect a new Speaker start piling up.
Isn't it interesting how often members of the Party of Responsibility need/want to disavow any responsibility for their own actions?
Last night I watched a Frontline documentary tracing the illegal machinations of hedge fund manager and multi-billionaire Republican, Steve Cohen, owner and general manager of SAC Capital Partners. He recently paid a $1.8 billion fine for illegal activities (largest fine ever) and is the subject of intense FBI and Justice Dept. scrutiny for insider trading, but he knows nothing about any of that.
In one deal which made him hundreds of millions in a few minutes, on the basis of an e-mail providing illegal insider information, Cohen and his lawyers claim that although he opened the e-mail, he never really read it, and just happened to make that deal in time anyway. He also declines any responsibility for the many traders at his firm who have been indicted and convicted of insider trading.
He knows nothing.
Same with Christie. He had no idea that his staff was going behind his back doing all these terrible things. He just happened to have his helicopter fly over the GWB the day his "staff" had most of the bridge shut down which he didn't actually know anything about. Don't look at him though.
He knows nothing.
Republicans. You can trust them to be stand up guys and take responsibility. Same as you can trust a congenital liar to always tell the truth.
@Akhillus. Pardon my meter:
Oh, who will Republicans choose
If Chris Christie is destined to lose?
Marco, Paul Ryan or Huck?
Bush or Rand Paul? No such luck.
I'll put my money on Senator Cruz.
Marie,
Always good to keep the meter running where the GOP is concerned.
When your resume is so thin as to be nonexistent, your address is Nuts-Be-Us and your hair is removable the choices are limited. "Bill Clinton is a dog" (duhhh) will get some more traction and then it will be time for the Hilary-is-a-lesbian meme.
If a man had exhibited the calculated ambition that Hilary Clinton has in furthering her political life, he would be hailed for his genius and focus.
@Diane: Your last sentence: You bet your booty!
In case anyone was wondering about the origin of Little David Brooks' hatred for the 60's for Rock and Roll, and for "hippies" whatever that really means, here is a small sample of what Bobo's éminence grise, William F. Buckley, had to say about the Beatles, in a Boston Globe piece from 50 years ago.
"The Beatles are not merely awful; I would consider it sacrilegious to say anything less than that they are god awful. They are so unbelievably horribly, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art that they qualify as crowned heads of anti-music, even as the imposter popes went down in history as anti-popes."
Buckley and Bobo have since gone down in history as anti-septic; clean of any appreciation for a musical form that has rooted itself in cultures around the world and an understanding of the shattering changes brought about in the wake of the Beatles' arrival.
Better to remain in the conservative crew cut 50's and swoon over Pat Boone's bowdlerized, honkified, and rhythmically challenged hits stolen from black artists ("Toot-tee, Fruit-tee, Oh Root-tee").
Yeah, Bobo, swing it, baby.
So states are reluctant to repeal laws to allow convicted felons to vote. Hmmm, reminds me pardons are available for some people:
"...in 1974, Steinbrenner pled guilty to making illegal contributions to Nixon's re-election campaign, and to a felony charge of obstruction of justice. MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspended him for two years, but later commuted it to fifteen months. Ronald Reagan pardoned Steinbrenner in January 1989, one of the final acts of his presidency."
To bad Oprah doesn't still have her big annual gift show, she could invite the President as the big 'surprise" and he could come out and say" " You get a pardon. You get a pardon. You get a pardon....."
(Geez, I hope I spelled everything correctly. Those damn gremlins that switched the keyboard keys on me last week!)
AK: Did you have to mention Pat Boone? Here I was having a pleasant morning news roundup and then to be jolted by the banality which is/was Pat Boone and his uninspired vision of "American Music" which is essentially Mantovani with lyrics. I'm trying not to have a mid-morning course correction here. Anyways.
As Steve M writes above, "It's probably unreasonable to expect the mainstream media to cover this protest movement" with respect to the huge protest in NC. I've said for a long time if the left wants to get itself attention, get naked. The Doukhobor's in Canada protested the Canadian government policies by having the moms and grandmas and men protest naked when the government implemented policies against their religious beliefs. How telegenic would that be? Most people would concur that to protest naked means you're pretty committed about your subject. Think of naked protest as another tool in the toolbox when facts, logic, sense, and reason fail to gain traction.
People actually voted for this guy.
A lot of people. 71% of the voters in Louie Gohmert's district sent this brain damaged imbecile to congress. At least they could have found someone who had the briefest acquaintance with reality.
So yesterday, while whining his usual crybaby 'bagger bullshit, Louie Gohmert (Idiot, Tx) got two very important and basic facts completely wrong.
During a hissy fit on the floor of the House which he helpfully titled "Shame on You" (in case other 'baggers had trouble reading his crayon scribbles), Gohmert made this startlingly unhinged revelation:
"Mr. Speaker, today, once again, the President has
unilaterally, almost like a monarch, said ObamaCare is the law."
Ahhhh....Earth to Louie, it IS the law, you fucking moron. Congress voted on it, remember? You were there. You voted against it. You lost. It passed. The Supreme Court upheld it. The president signed it into....wait for it....LAW. Uninsured Americans are benefiting even as we speak. Oh, wait. I'm speaking. You're drooling.
Seconds later Loony Louie whined that it was too bad that the Democrats had shut down the government to, ya know, hurt AMERICA. Nothing Republicans would ever think of doing.
Can we deport the maniacs who voted for this particular maniac?
Stephen King has nothing on the Congressional Record. There is some scaaary shit in there.
Didn't see it linked anywhere and thought it worth a read. David Firestone's NYT op-ed:
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/the-debt-ceiling-is-now-pointless/?hp&rref=opinion
Probably gave Keller a shit hemorrhage as he went out the door.
@James: I believe we at RC said the same thing the last time the debt ceiling came up. WW I is long over and I don't recall any Liberty Bond drives any time in recent memory. Get rid of the anachronism of the debt ceiling.