*If you don’t get the joke, there is a political meme out there known as “Dems In Disarray”. It seems that certain columnists and websites every so often love to write what is known as a “Dems in Disarray” piece, usually when there is very little about the Democratic Party which is in disarray. (I’ve even seen “Dems In Disarray” … Read More
Breaking: Who Is The House Speaker?
As my Twitter feed suggests, something is happening with the GOP House. Kevin McCarthy was expected to voted in as House Speaker. But the rumor is he is out. He dropped out. Chaffetz is it. Yup, not a rumor. McCarthy, who admitted that the Benghazi investigation was politically motivated to get Hillary, dropped out. Election postponed. Remember, this person comes … Read More
Quote Of The Day
From former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, in his new memoir, The Courage To Act: [I] lost patience with Republicans’ susceptibility to the know-nothing-ism of the far right. I didn’t leave the Republican Party. I felt that the party left me. That’s a Reagan quote, except Reagan was talking about the Democratic Party. Bernake was nominated for the job by president … Read More
Shut Down The Benghazi Committee
The normally-unfriendly-to-Hillary New York Times has had enough of the Benghazi thing. That’s pretty surprising since The New York Times has run one phony exclusive after another. First, her famous emails were illegal, except they’re not. Then they were contrary to regulations enacted, oops, 18 months after she left office. Next Hillary was the subject of an FBI criminal probe. … Read More
Aid For Me And Not For Thee
What a jerk Washington (CNN)Sen. Lindsey Graham is asking for federal aid for his home state of South Carolina as it battles raging floods, but he voted to oppose similar help for New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2013. “Let’s just get through this thing, and whatever it costs, it costs,” Graham told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on … Read More
Departing Boehner Takes A Swipe At Tea Party Congresscritters
The exiting John Boehner is free from his shackles and can say anything he wants. And boy, does he hate the rightwing extremists: Outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner (R) ripped into some of his Republican colleagues on Sunday for failing to be realistic about what the party can and cannot do, and took a jab at bombastic Texas … Read More
Breaking: Boehner To Resign From Congress End of October
Breaking News: Speaker John A. Boehner will resign from Congress at the end of October, aides say http://t.co/xNxxzwFxkQ — The New York Times (@nytimes) September 25, 2015 I wonder if this has anything to do with his rift with others on the right — in particular, the pressure from the far right to shut down the government in order to … Read More
The Pope’s Speech To Congress (And By Extension, The American People)
He reminds us that “America” is more than the United States, and that we are all immigrants. He calls out the black/white-good/evil mindset in politics and promotes pragmatism in resolving problems. He reminds us of the Golden Rule in calling for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty (as well as a subtle nod to banning abortions). He speaks of … Read More
Despite Charleston Mass Murders, GOP Doesn’t Want To Address Guns… Or Even Gun Murder Research
A GOP-led panel just blocked a proposal that would have reversed a nearly 20-year-old ban on funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to research on gun violence. The House Appropriations Committee voted 32-19 against ranking member Rep. Nita Lowey’s (D-N.Y.) amendment to a bill that would fund health, education and labor programs in the next fiscal … Read More
Response To Amtrak Train Crash: Let’s Gut Amtrak
On Tuesday, an Amtrak train — the Northeast Regional train, No. 188 — was traveling from Washington to New York when it derailed around 9:30 p.m., just outside Philly. The National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed that the train was traveling at more than 100 miles an hour or twice the speed limit in that part of the corridor. More than … Read More
Our Polarized Congress
What the pictograph below is saying is nothing new — we all know that Congress is more polarized now than ever before. But it is a startling visual representation of that fact. This is from a group of researchers recently in a paper published in PLOS One. They’ve drawn dots for each representative, and lines connecting pairs of representatives who vote together … Read More
The Proposed GOP Budget
“A budget is a moral document; it talks about where your values are,” said Representative Rob Woodall, Republican of Georgia and a member of the Budget Committee. “ Okay, Rep. Woodall. Then let’s see where the Republicans values are, by looking at its proposed budget: Without relying on tax increases, budget writers were forced into contortions to bring the budget … Read More
Schock Out
It wasn’t the Dowton Abbey-themed office, or the private jets to the Taylor Swift concerts, or the $5k custom-made “Presidential” lectern that finally sent Rep. Schock scrambling for the exit — it was a classic sales grift. According to Politico: … Schock billed the federal government and his campaign for logging roughly 170,000 miles on his personal car from January 2010 … Read More
“Isn’t This The Ultimate Degree of the Collapse of Political Ethics and the US System’s Internal Disintegration?”
That’s a direct quote from the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, in reference to letter written to Iran and signed by 47 Republican senators essentially trying to sabotage negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Thanks, GOP, for showing how divided and unreliable and unresolute America is.
47 Traitors Get Schooled By Iranian Foreign Minister, Who Understands The US Constitution
A GOP letter from Senate Republicans to Iran about the pending nuclear deal warns Iranian leaders that any agreement between Washington and Tehran could be voided by Congress and simply not upheld once Obama leaves the White House in 2017. The letter was spearheaded by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). Naturally, it received some backlash. White House press secretary Josh Earnest was unusually blunt … Read More