Just another Republican doing what he does best… lying.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) talked to Right Wing News about voting for Ronald Reagan:
“I remember, I was a teenager, had just become a teenager and voted for Ronald Reagan — limited government, you know, smaller government, lower taxes, strong national defense. You knew what you were getting. You knew how a Reagan administration, a Reagan presidency was going to be better for you.”
One problem: Blogging Blue notes Walker wasn’t old enough to vote in either 1980 or 1984 when Reagan ran for president.
Thanks to massive internal disarray, Republicans are unable to agree on any kind of immigration reform plan. They can’t say that, though, so they’re blaming it on the fact that President Obama is a rogue despot who can’t be trusted to enforce the law no matter what it is. He’ll implement the parts he likes and ignore the rest, just as he’s been doing for years with his sun-king presidency. So no immigration reform.
Also thanks to massive internal disarray, Republicans are unable to agree on a plan to raise the debt limit. Plan A was to demand the end of risk corridors in Obamacare (aka the “insurer bailout”), but that went nowhere. Plan B was to repeal the benefit cut for veterans that was enacted last month, which might have gone somewhere since Democrats are probably willing to go along with that in any case. But that didn’t make the cut either because it would have made it tough for tea partiers to vote against the bill. Plan C is to “wrap several popular, must-pass items around a provision to extend the federal government’s borrowing authority beyond the November midterm elections.” But even this plan is look shaky.
The common thread here is that the Republican Party is unable to get its act together enough to look beyond next week. Both immigration reform and a quiet debt limit increase would benefit the GOP in the long term. But both would also infuriate the yahoo wing of the party in the short term. So far, the yahoo wing is winning.
Now that George Zimmerman would not be getting paid in a so-called “celebrity” boxing match, his attorney O’Mara has announced that he will not be representing Trayvon Martin’s killer in an upcoming lawsuit against NBC.
A spokesperson for O’Mara, who is a CNN legal analyst, confirmed to HLN Thursday that O’Mara will no longer be the local counsel on record for Zimmerman’s libel lawsuit against NBC.
O’Mara similarly told CNN in September that he wouldn’t be representing Zimmerman in his impending divorce case or the domestic altercation case against him at the time. Zimmerman’s girlfriend had accused him of pointing a shotgun at her, but then later changed her story, saying the incident never happened. Florida State Attorney Phil Archer announced in December that no assault or domestic violence charges would be filed against Zimmerman.+
After months of anticipation, The Walking Dead season 4 returned with a special emphasis on Michonne
The show began where it left off last season at the prison, now inhabited by walkers due to the governor and his followers’ failed attempt to be the new occupants. The Governor you will remember, lost his life in that attempt and Rick and his people were scattered, trying to escape the fighting and the zombies invasion.
The show opened with Michonne returning to the prison grounds where Hershel was decapitated. She paid her last respects to the fatherly figure’s zombified head and was on her way, resorting back to using two hand less, mouth less zombies as her protection.
Meanwhile, Rick and his son Carl are having some parent/child issues.
Almost beaten to death by the governor in the last episode, Rick struggled to keep up with Carl and at times, tried to put his one good foot down. But Carl apparently lost respect for his father and questioned Rick’s leadership style. An explosive scene showed Rick, unconscious on the couch of a home the pair settled into, with Carl unleashing a verbal assault on his father.
We get to see a different side to Michonne. Usually the callous, unabashed zombie killer who always rejected emotional contact, part of Michonne’s past was revealed to the audience in a dream. We saw her as a happy mother and “lover,” living her carefree life despite the apparent start of the zombie apocalypse. We also saw the first two zombie victims she used as her protectors.
The season 4 premier lived up to expectations. We watched as Michonne fought with herself and her emotions. She was finally beginning to trust the people and accept her new existence at the prison only to have it all ripped away again. We watched as she aimlessly wandered the plains, surrounded by zombies, then snapped out of her mindless stupor, slaughtering 21 zombies in the process.
The show ended with her searching out and finding the home occupied by Rick and Carl.
Next week’s show will focus on other members of the scattered prison compound, as they struggle to survive and reunite.
A lawsuit challenging Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan that was filed by fellow Republicans in the state Legislature was dismissed in a ruling released Saturday, handing Brewer a major victory in her battle against conservative members of her own party.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper agreed with Brewer that the lawmakers challenging the law don’t have the right to sue, saying their argument was incorrect that a hospital assessment included in House Bill 2010 that passed in June was, in fact, a tax that required a supermajority vote of the Legislature under Arizona’s Constitution.
Cooper’s ruling, dated Friday, said it is the Legislature itself that determines if a two-thirds vote is required under a voter-approved constitutional amendment called Proposition 108.
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers Brewer assembled to support her plan voted not to impose that requirement on the law, which expanded the state’s health insurance program for the poor, known as the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS, and imposed the hospital assessment.
“In short, Plaintiffs are a minority group within the Legislature who lost a battle over H.B. 2010. They do not claim a concrete, individual injury. Rather, they seek to overturn the vote of the House and Senate. The Legislature as a whole did not authorize them to bring this action,” Cooper wrote.
Brewer spokesman Andrew Wilder called the court ruling “a huge victory.”
A college football star, poised to become an early NFL draft pick in May, announced Sunday that he’s gay and proud of it.
Michael Sam, coming off an All-American season as a defensive lineman for the University of Missouri Tigers, said he knows well that coming clean about his sexual orientation is a “big deal.”
“I am an openly, proud gay man,” Sam, 24, last year’s Southeast Conference defensive player of the year, said in interviews with ESPN and the New York Times.
Projected by some to be taken in the early rounds of the NFL draft this summer, Sam would become the first openly gay professional football player.
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) on Sunday suggested that President Barack Obama’s health care law would make some people so lazy that they didn’t want to work at all.
Last week, Republicans used a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that said 2.3 million less hours would be worked after the Affordable Care Act was implemented to claim that the law was destroying jobs.
A Washington Post fact check, however, pointed out that access to health care meant that people would no longer be forced to work if their only reason for working was to receive insurance benefits.
But on Sunday, Blunt stuck to the Republican talking point, saying that providing health care “can’t be a good idea” if it allowed people who were only working for health insurance benefits to leave the workforce.
“I think any law you pass that discourages people from working can’t be a good idea,” the Missouri Republican asserted. “Why would we wanna do that? Why would we think that’s a good thing? How does that allow people to prepare for the time when they don’t work?”
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), who also appeared on Fox News Sunday, was ready with an answer.
“They’re in employment solely because they get health benefits,” Cardin explained. “This is a voluntary choice.”
“In some cases, these people might have two jobs because of these health benefits,” he added. “Now, they don’t need to work two full-time jobs to get their health benefits.”
I have two favorite passages from Moran’s article. Here is the first:
Yes, we knew Christie was a bully. But we didn’t know his crew was crazy enough to put people’s lives at risk in Fort Lee as a means to pressure the mayor. We didn’t know he would use Hurricane Sandy aid as a political slush fund. And we certainly didn’t know that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer was sitting on a credible charge of extortion by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.
With all due respect to Moran, and I do agree with him on many issues, I knew that Christie was a nightmare way before he actually lulled the rest of New Jersey to sleep. He did put people’s lives in danger by cutting programs to the poor, the less fortunate, and to schools by making cuts that could have been alleviated with a small increase in revenue. He did treat Sandy as a political event right after it happened and rode that wave all the way to this past November since he didn’t have an economic record he could successfully run on. His YouTube videos also showed that he had no patience for anyone who disagreed with him and that he would not take any responsibility for the negative aspects of his policies. I can’t speak for Kim Guadango, but she and Christie do make a wonderful team.
So when Moran says that we didn’t know, he’s wrong. Many of us did know and tried to make it clear what was happening. But the Christie ad machine was too well-oiled and too loud. Blame yourself, Mr. Moran. Leave the rest of us out of it.
And now for the second:
And let’s not forget his opponent, Sen. Barbara Buono. She was not up to the job of being governor — even in the view of many Democrats. She got the party’s nomination because more credible candidates, including Cory Booker, backed out in the face of Christie’s strength.
I have not forgotten Barbara Buono and the ethical, caring campaign she ran. Nor have I forgotten that she spoke about the people who make up the majority of New Jersey; people who need to work for a living and whose lives have not benefited from the governor’s policies and, indeed, are being asked to give more while the wealthy are not. She was, and is, certainly up to the job of being governor. The problem is that Moran cannot recognize the difference between a noise machine and beautiful music. That the Democratic Party did not support her is a problem that I recognized and wrote about. President Obama could have come to New Jersey, and he abdicated his responsibility. But you can’t make the connection between Barbara Buono’s ability to run this state with the lack of endorsements.
Governor Chrisite has always been an ego-driven bully and he has now been wounded politically. What was going to be one of his main campaign weapons, his outrageously inappropriate berating videos, will now be his greatest liability. He’ll need to come up with a different persona in order to reclaim the political middle if he wants to be president, and that will be extremely difficult. Will the core conservative Republican voter shun him? Probably not, but that’s not where elections are won.
Chris Christie has won his final election victory. He was always as he appears now, and it was always apparent to those of us who looked hard at his record and actions. That the Star-Ledger is just noticing tells us all we need to know about its myopia.
After weeks of waiting, The Walking Dead mid-season premiere is set for tonight at 9 p.m. eastern/pacific on AMC.
Let’s refresh ourselves on what happened last time.
Given the amount of time that’s passed since the mid-season finale in December, you may need a refresh on what happened in The Walking Dead season 4, episode 9.
1) Hershel and The Governor have died. In a shoot out at the prison, The Governor kills Hershel, and Michonne kills The Governor (a.k.a. Brian) moments later.
2) Speaking of the prison… bye, prison! The gun fire battle also sent the prison up in flames, so now Rick and company are in need of a new place to call home. Rumors indicate that by the end of season 4, they’ll have a new place.
3) All of the survivors are out on their own. Numerous promos (viewable below) show that each of the good humans are on the run by themselves. Some of them are in very small groups of two – maybe three – but the mid-season premiere will show how they all cope without being in a bigger group setting.
4) Baby Judith may or may not be dead. Rick and Carl believe she’s been killed, but viewers think someone like Beth may’ve picked her up. If so, we can’t wait to see the reunion between the father, son, and daughter. Hypable readers have speculated wildly about whether or not she’s alive.
Although the main stories in the press focus on gridlock and the lack of compromise, that doesn’t mean that things aren’t slowly changing in the United States. As usually happens, change is driven by the people as they react to circumstances created by the politicians, and that in turn leads to more calls for change. Politicians, meanwhile, usually lag behind the grass-roots calls because they are essentially reactive beings loathe to offend or move too fast.
Consider immigration. There is clearly a need to reform out immigration laws, and most of that is related to things other than a path to citizenship. The Republicans have already felt the wrath of Hispanic voters, but because most of the conservatives have safe districts, and because of their irrational fear of giving President Obama any political victory, the party doesn’t full see the urgency for a vote this term.
The latest argument is that Obama is not to be trusted with the law because he’s already made executive changes to the ACA, and the GOP fears that he will make similar changes to anything they negotiate with him. Now, though, they’re being called out by Senator Charles Schumer. His idea is to pass the law, but have it become operative in 2017, after Obama leaves office. After all, the ACA was passed in 2010 and didn’t become fully operational until 2013. Why not immigration? The GOP’s answer, through Rob Portman of Ohio, seems somewhat promising, but overall the Republicans have little interest in taking voters’ minds off the health care rollout, even if millions of Americans now have the security of health insurance.
Make no mistake that immigration reform will get done sooner or later. Sooner, it will be done with Republican input. Later, it will be done solely by Democrats because the growing Hispanic community will see the GOP as an obstacle. The next Republican presidential nominee had better drop the deportation rhetoric if they want to have any chance of being elected.
Meanwhile, the country will move forward with or without the politicians. As it always has.
A new candidate for a Michigan seat on the Republican National Committee wants gays “purged” from the GOP and claims homosexuality is a “perversion” created by Satan himself.
Mary Helen Sears of Houghton County in the state’s Upper Peninsula, elected vice chair of the Michigan Republican Party’s 1st District last year, posted a rant in April on the Schoolcraft County GOP website — preceded by a warning asking readers to “please use your discretion before taking any decisions based on the information in this blog.”
In the post, Sears claimed that homosexuals prey on children, argued that “Satan uses homosexuality to attack the living space of the Holy Spirit” and advocated that Republicans “as a party should be purging this perversion and send them to a party with a much bigger tent.”
A long long time ago, Glenn Beck admitted that he was involved in the type of propaganda that caused division in the country. He made that revelation two weeks ago.
Glenn Beck apparently forgot his moment of truth from two weeks ago. He is now back to his same old tricks to fool his uneducated audience into thinking the worse of the President and his policies. In his recent diatribe however, Glenn Beck’s conclusion had nothing to do with any policies of the president, but solely based in fear and further division.
Expanding on something said by Justice Scalia a week ago, Beck warns that if Americans refuse Obamacare, Abortions or Global Warming, they would be rounded up and tossed into internment camps.
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