Republicans shake collective fist at sky, cursing reality for interfering with politics

By  Joan McCarter Mon Jul 30, 2012   Original

The House Republicans want to spend their last week before the long recess doing their usual shit: banning imaginary abortion practices; more abortion with the H.R. 3803, the "District of Columbia Pain–Capable Unborn Child Protection Act"; dishing out tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires; working on a tax reform bill that will also dish out massive cuts to millionaires and billionaires; and not doing anything whatsoever about jobs and the economy. But then pesky things like the worst drought in decades get in the way.

[T]ry as it might to control the message, Congress cannot control the weather. A record drought is ensuring that despite its best efforts, Congress will have to do some actual bipartisan, bicameral legislating before it breaks for the August recess. [...]

House leaders grappled with the way forward: Either pass a yearlong extension of the 2008 farm bill with disaster aid attached or pass a stand-alone disaster relief bill. Either route is troublesome politically.

And either way, what was once a week meant to highlight the House GOP’s united stand to extend the entirety of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will now become a quarrel over how to extend—and how to pay for—disaster aid. Rather than heading harmoniously into the August recess, the vote to dole out tens of millions of dollars in disaster aid is problematic for the GOP and highlights its divisions.

Darn it. It totally sucks when doing the job you were elected to do gets in the way of meaningless, futile, obstructive politicking. It's even worse when that critical issue you're supposed to be dealing with highlights the fact that the majority of your caucus only cares about meaningless, futile, obstructive politicking.

Remember when natural disasters were emergencies and didn't have to be paid for? No one ever talked about cutting funding for first responders in order to pay for disaster relief before this crew took over. Tax cuts, on the other hand? Nope. They never have to be paid for. Saving the nation's food growers? Eh. Food shortages will be good for the riff-raff, anyway.

Technorati Tags: The House,Republican Party,Tea Party,John Boehner,Farm Bill,Politics,Current Events

Mr. Romney Has Ceased To Be Amusing

By Crashing Vor   Sun Jul 29, 2012    Original

The headlines are rolling. The diaries are scrolling. Editors and producers are choosing which breath-taking declaration will win the lede, unilateral, amateur diplomacy or unilateral, amateur warmaking.

It doesn't matter, but for those following along, both the Washington Post and New York Times have chosen "Romney Declares War on Iran" over "Romney Declares War on Palestinians." Still, as I say, it doesn't matter. Mitt Romney, a half-formed man-child who made a splash in the corporate takeover game and mailed in a term as a state governor, has single-handedly undone decades of careful diplomacy and put the United States and its armed forces in danger.

What is perhaps saddest about this turn of events is that Mitt Romney himself doesn't give two shits about Israel. A Mormon, not a fundamentalist, he likely does not harbor beliefs necessitating Israel's triumph or destruction or crowning or dethroning. For Mormons, this continent has become the center of celestial concern, the "New Jerusalem." The old one was simply stage for the prelude of the real revelation.

So why would he stand on a terrace overlooking the "old" Old City and offer up our security to the crowd like Pilate offering a Barabbas for Jesus deal? What is so dear and holy to him that he is willing to trade our troops, our sailors, our flyers on the table to purchase it?

The presidency, of course. The dream of his father. The perfect picture of himself and his beloved wife waving from the portico of the White House, ultimate Prom King and Queen. He has stolen and destroyed and tax-dodged his way to wealth unimaginable but this final attaboy, this final "such a good son" has eluded him. And he must have it.

Like Israel, the actual job means nothing to him. He's made it clear that he intends to leave the policy and direction and management to others. He just wants that picture of him and Ann waving from that house.

But even a man of his wealth can't afford to simply pull out the AmEx black card and buy the office. For that he needs help from other obscenely wealthy men, men with their own agendas. And, since he cares nothing for actual policy, for a "vision thing," he's willing to let them exercise theirs, in exchange for their money (hello, Mr. Adelson, hello, Mssrs. Koch) or their credibility (hello, Mr. Cheney, hello, Mr. Bolton).

Up until now, it has been great fun watching Mr. Romney's awful turn in the role of presidential candidate, culminating in a London run unmatched in the history of comedic theater.

Tonight, the laughter dies. Let us pray that is all that does.

A correction: It has been pointed out that I am mistaken in my assumption that Mr. Romney, as a Mormon, is not obsessed with fantasies of world war centered on Israel as a requirement to fulfill his religion's prophecies. I confess I'm not well-versed in that faith's tenets.

So nuclear conflagration over that itty bit of real estate is central to LDS doctrine. Okay. I think my title is more apt than ever.

Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney,Mormon,LDS,Israel,Iran,2012 Elections,Current Events

Corrupt Pennsylvania GOP Says No Voter Fraud Committed….Ever

Tue Jul 24, 2012   

Tomorrow, Judge Robert Simpson will hear the case the ACLU has brought on behalf of Viviette Applewhite and others against the state of Pennsylvania for its new voter ID law. That case should be significantly bolstered by the admission from the state itself that there is no history of in-person voter fraud in the state. Essentially it's a law in search of a problem.

The state signed a stipulation agreement with lawyers for the plaintiffs which acknowledges there “have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions in other states.”
Additionally, the agreement states Pennsylvania “will not offer any evidence in this action that in-person voter fraud has in fact occurred in Pennsylvania and elsewhere” or even argue “that in person voter fraud is likely to occur in November 2012 in the absense of the Photo ID law.”

The new voter ID law Pennsylvania passed is one of the most restrictive of all the states, requiring ID that in many cases doesn't exist, for example municipal employee photo IDs with expiration dates, which these types of ID don't actually have. These restrictions could keep more than a million registered voters from voting, and many of those voters don't realize it, believing the ID they possess will suffice at the polls.

The state of Pennsylvania, of course, argued in passing the laws that they did so to prevent voter fraud, which they just admitted in legal documents doesn't exist. But we know what the real reason is. Republican House Leader Mike Turzai told us:  "[...] Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done."

Originally posted to Joan McCarter

Technorati Tags: Pennsylvania,Voter Suppression,Election Fraud,The Republican Party,Mitt Romney,Politics,Current Events,2012 Elections

Democrats introduce bill to raise minimum wage to $9.80

  By Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor on Fri Jul 27, 2012

More than 100 House Democrats introduced a bill Thursday to raise the minimum wage. Rep. George Miller's proposed legislation would raise the minimum wage to $9.80 over three years, 85 cents per year, then link it to inflation, so that raising it wouldn't have to be a giant political fight every few years. Tipped workers, who haven't seen their $2.13 minimum wage increased since 1991, would get 85 cent raises until the tipped minimum was 70 percent of the full minimum wage.

"Anyone who works hard and plays by the rules should not live in poverty. Yet 47 million Americans now qualify as the working poor. Raising the minimum wage helps families make ends meet," Miller said in a statement accompanying the bill.

If you work at the current minimum wage for 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, with no time off at all, the $15,080 you earn puts you $50 below the poverty threshold for a family of two. That—and the fact that many minimum wage employers keep workers at part-time levels—is why so many working people are forced to rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid and other aid programs. It shouldn't be controversial to say that if you work, you shouldn't be poor. But to today's Republican Party, that counts as a radical statement.

Raising the minimum wage won't even come up for a vote in Speaker John Boehner's House. We need a Democratic majority and Speaker Pelosi for that, just as we did in 2006 when Republicans had been blocking minimum wage increases for years. If ever you're tempted to think there's not enough difference between Democrats and Republicans to bother voting, remember that Democrats are the ones trying to give 28 million workers a raise in a way that will stimulate the economy.

Technorati Tags: Minimum Wage,Democrats,Republicans,John Boehner,The House,Current Events