But it’s NOT Republican Obstructionism – ‘McConnell: Reid will be ‘worst’ Senate leader ever if he goes nuclear’

‘Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared Thursday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would be remembered as the “worst leader of the Senate” in history if he uses the “nuclear option.”
@ : http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/310547-mcconnell-reid-will-be-remembered-as-the-worst-leader-of-the-senate

Ummmmm……

‘McConnell Sings Very Different Tune On Nuclear Option Than In 2005’
‘After Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned Tuesday that going nuclear on filibuster reform for nominations would lead to the end of the 60-vote threshold for all matters, Democrats quickly pointed out that McConnell had supported a similar proposal during the 2005 filibuster battles’.
@ : http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/06/mcconnell-filibuster-nuclear-option-2005.php

And then……….

‘McConnell Warns Reid: Change Senate Rules, GOP Will Use YOUR New Rules On Everything When We Take Majority’
“There not a doubt in my mind that if the majority breaks the rules of the Senate to change the rules of the Senate with regard tonominations, the next majority will do it for everything,” McConnell said on the floor’.
@ : http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2013/06/mcconnell-warns-reid-change-senate-rules-gop-will-use-your-new-rules-on-everything-when-we-take-majority-2666430.html

And then of course there was this from the great Mitch McConnell…..

‘Mitch McConnell’s amazing filibuster of his own bill’
‘On Thursday, when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filibustered a bill he had introduced only hours earlier’.
@ : http://theweek.com/article/index/237508/mitch-mcconnells-amazing-filibuster-of-his-own-bill

Blog Running – ‘Mitch McConnell’s problem: How can he threaten to obstruct the Senate even more’?

 

This was a little over a year ago…

‘This, to Democrats, is the real problem: Republicans don’t really object to the nominees. They object to government working well under the Obama administration, and they’ve come up with a strategy to stop it from happening’.

‘Filibuster reform needs to come with big gains in order to be worth such high costs’.

‘And so, historically, the Senate only considers major changes when the minority is obstructing something the majority really, really cares about’.

‘In 1917, it was a law that was a prelude to entering World War I. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, it was civil rights’.

‘What’s so odd and interesting about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s threats to eliminate the filibuster on executive-branch nominees is that the impetus is the exact opposite: The majority is considering rules changes precisely because there’s nothing more the minority can obstruct that they really, really care about’.

‘These aren’t usual times in the Senate’.

‘So far as Reid is concerned, Republicans have already killed pretty much everything else the Democrats might want to do’.

‘When he’s been confronted with the argument that Republicans might bring everything to a stop if Democrats change the rules, I’m told Reid’s reply is sharp: “And that would be different how?”

‘Consider the record’.

‘Republicans abandoned a budget deal in favor of the mess that is sequestration’.

‘Gun control failed’.

‘Student loan rates doubled’.

‘Republicans are promising another debt-ceiling showdown’.

‘And now immigration looks unlikely to make it through the House’.

‘What exactly is left that Democrats want to get done and Republicans are likely to work with them to finish’?

‘This is the problem for Senate Republicans right now: The intensity of their obstruction has cut their leverage. Increasingly, Senate Democrats are coming to the conclusion that there’s no way for President Obama to have a successful second term working through Congress. Republicans, in their view, are simply too reflexively opposed to anything the president wants to do’.
From : http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/11/mitch-mcconnells-problem-how-can-he-threaten-to-obstruct-the-senate-even-more/

 

A ‘Conservative’ vision for America – The Republican ‘purge’ continues…. – ‘The Children Lash Out’

When was the last time ANY Republican proposed ANY legislation that would actually DO SOMETHING POSITIVE for America?

This is the only way Republicans seem to feel they can ‘govern’.

Don’t like Planned Parenthood? – Cut Funding.

Don’t like NPR? – Cut Funding.

Don’t like Obamacare? – Cut Funding.

Don’t like the IRS? – Cut funding.

Now intelligent, responsible Representatives would debate and hold hearings to discover the actual (if any) problems and fix them via legislation.

Not Republicans.

They don’t even attempt to solve problems.

Just Cut Funding……..

‘How to be a House Republican, Lesson #174: Constantly accuse President Obama of retaliating against people on his imaginary “enemies list”, then when you get busted for making up the IRS scandal, actually retaliate by cutting the agency’s budget by 24 percent to “send a message”.

‘The House Appropriations subcommittee with IRS jurisdiction cleared a spending measure gutting the tax-collecting agency’s budget next year by 24 percent in fiscal 2014. That $9 billion allocation is 30 percent less than President Barack Obama requested for the agency charged with rolling out his signature health care law’.

‘Rep. Peter Roskam, the chief deputy whip in the House, called the appropriation a “reckoning for the IRS.”

“The IRS has abused power, abused the taxpayer, abused discretion and been unwise and foolish in how they’ve carried out the authority that was delegated to them … and they will be held to account in the appropriations process,” the Illinois Republican said’.
From : http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-children-lash-out.html

Blog Running – ‘A new name for the Republican Party’?

GREAT stuff over at First Read….

‘The deranged GOP majority in the House of Representatives has decided to torpedo immigration reform’.

‘They’ve decided that they don’t need any minority voters because they tend to represent lilly white districts that have been Gerrymandered to keep “those people” out’.

‘On to the post title. I like to be helpful and I think it may be time for the GOP to change its name to something more accurate. Here are a few suggestions’:

‘The Neo-Know Nothings’.
‘The original anti-immigrant party ran former President Millard Fillmore so you know they were awesome. Great name, terrible President’.

‘The Neo-Confederate Party’:
‘This has a nice ring to it and is accurate since the solid South is the GOP’s base. It would also make Senator Aqua Buddha and his crazy father feel right at home…’

‘The White People’s Party’.
‘It could lure David Dukkke back into the party but maybe they don’t want to do that. Maybe. The Jim Crow party is along the same lines but it sounds a bit too much like Bourbon for the religious right to groove on’.

‘Okay, I’ve kidded around, here’s my *real* suggestion’:

‘The Me Party’.
‘Current Republican doctrine, such as it is, is all about “self reliance” and keeping your boot on the head of the guy below you so that he or she cannot rise. They’re essentially narcissistic nihilists but those words are too big for the base so the Me Party will have to do’.
From : http://www.first-draft.com/2013/07/a-new-name-for-the-republican-party.html

Why America Is Failing – ‘House Passes Farm Bill, Now Without Food Stamp Cuts’

For those Americans, the elderly, military families, single mothers, working poor who depend on food stamps…..The Republicans will get right on that…..Right after they cut funding for it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — ‘The House has passed a scaled-down version of a massive farm bill, putting off a fight over food stamp spending and giving Republican leaders a victory after a decisive defeat on the larger bill last month’.

‘The GOP leaders scrambled to get the bill to the floor Thursday and gather enough votes this week after making a decision to drop a politically sensitive food stamp section of the bill and pass legislation that contained only farm programs’.
From : http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/house-passes-farm-bill-now-without-food-stamp-cuts.php

Republicans, The Party of Hate, Fear, Loathing and Bigotry – Rand Paul Edition – ‘Last Call For Southern Culture On The Skids, Part 2’

Come on Republicans!!!

You tried a rich snob that didn’t care about 47% of us……..

Why not a White Supremacist who thinks a a little racism is ‘OK’ in a ‘free society!!!

‘And Sen. Rand Paul’s response to critics that point out “Hey, your social media director is a neo-Confederate douchebag” is pretty much worse than the original problem’.

‘Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is standing by a close aide who for years made pro-secession and neo-Confederate arguments’.

“People are calling him a white supremacist,” Paul said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “If I thought he was a white supremacist, he would be fired immediately. If I thought he would treat anybody on the color of their skin different that others, I’d fire him immediately.”

‘Hey Rand? There’s a reason why people are calling him that’.

“Paul’s comments follow a report from the conservative Washington Free Beacon about Jack Hunter, who joined Paul’s office as social media director in 2012. In his 20s, Hunter was the chairman of the League of the South, a group that “advocates the secession and subsequent independence of the Southern State from this forced union and the formation of a Southern republic,” according to the Free Beacon report”.

“Anti-Defamation League Investigative Research Director Mark Pitcavage called the group “implicitly racist.”

“During his radio career Hunter also discussed “racial pride” and expressed his support for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, according to the Free Beacon. In 2004 Hunter wrote that the heart of Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was “in the right place.”

‘But no, Rand Paul defends the guy’.

“There has been no evidence of discriminatory behavior by Hunter, Paul said”.
From : http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2013/07/last-call-for-southern-culture-on-skids_11.html

A ‘Conservative’ vision for America ‘The State of US Health Ain’t so Good’

Of course the Republican plans for health care are great!!

Vote to repeal Obamacare and when the Senate doesn’t – just cut spending to any and all programs you can.

But to actually come up with any legislation for health care?

The wealthy and corporations don’t need it so why bother…….

‘There’s a ridiculously fantastic manuscript over at JAMA that you should go read right now. “The State of US Health, 1990-2010: Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors“: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=1710486&utm_source=Silverchair%20Information%20Systems&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=JAMA%3AOnlineFirst07%2F10%2F2013

‘Importance Understanding the major health problems in the United States and how they are changing over time is critical for informing national health policy’.

‘Objectives To measure the burden of diseases, injuries, and leading risk factors in the United States from 1990 to 2010 and to compare these measurements with those of the 34 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries’.

‘So how did we do compared to other countries’?

‘Not well’.

‘Between 1990 and 2010, among the 34 countries in the OECD, the US dropped from 18th to 27th in age-standardized death rate’.

‘The US dropped from 23rd to 28th for age-standardized years of life lost’.

‘It dropped from 20th to 27th in life expectancy at birth’.

‘It dropped from 14th to 26th for healthy life expectancy’.

‘The only bit of good news was that the US only dropped from 5th to 6th in years lived with disability’.
From : http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2013/07/the_state_of_us_health_aint_so045765.php#more

 

Republicans suspend free speech of Democrats in the US House of Representatives

Space….The Final Frontier – ‘Hubble finds deep blue planet that rains glass’

‘Astronomers have found a deep blue planet 63 million light years away that may rain glass – sideways’.

‘NASA says planet HD 189733b is one of the closest exoplanets that can be seen crossing the face of its star. Here’s how they figured out the color’:

“Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph measured changes in the color of light from the planet before, during and after a pass behind its star”.

“There was a small drop in light and a slight change in the color of the light”.

“We saw the light becoming less bright in the blue but not in the green or red. Light was missing in the blue but not in the red when it was hidden,” said research team member Frederic Pont of the University of Exeter in South West England’.

“This means that the object that disappeared was blue.”

‘NASA says the planet would look similar from Earth – a deep blue dot – if you saw it from space. But don’t plan a summer vacation there’.
From : http://www.nwcn.com/news/215098731.html

 

Republicans 2016 – ‘Perry Plans Foreign Trip

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said that he will visit Israel in October’.

‘Said Perry: “We will be going to Israel to bring together Arabs, Christian and Jews in an educational forum.”

My reaction to Rick Perry having an ‘educational forum’…..