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Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
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President Obama Speaks at the Baylor University Memorial Service
Ed Schultz Will ‘Get Back To Work’ On MSNBC Next Month
Tom Kludt 3:17 PM EDT, Thursday April 25, 2013
Liberal pundit Ed Schultz will return to MSNBC next month, the network announced Thursday.
“The Ed Show” will return to the left-leaning cable news network on Saturday, May 11 at 5 p.m. ET, with another live broadcast scheduled for the next day.
Schultz’s program previously aired on weeknights at 8 p.m. ET, but the new program hosted by Chris Hayes, “All In,” shifted to that time slot earlier this month. “The Ed Show” will now air on weekends and will expand to a two-hour program in the summer.
Schultz announced the return of his program Thursday on Twitter.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/ed-schultz-will-get-back-to-work-on
The George Bush Manure Locker Is Now Open
By Charles P. Pierce
at 11:44AM
Once, in pursuit of a book, I made it a point to visit (twice) the Creation Museum in Hebron, Kentucky. It is a trip I can recommend highly to everyone. The place is chockful of such good old honest American lunacy that it gives me faith that this country always will have a renegade intellectual streak running through it somewhere. For example, it is the contention of the museum that some dinosaurs survived the Great Flood by riding it out on Noah’s Ark. (How did they fit them on there, you ask. Ah, says the museum, borrowing a concept from the old Monty Python skit about how they stamp lions “property of the zoo.” They loaded them when they were small.) OK, so that’s silly, and we all know it, but the Creation Museum pushes its theory into the delightful speculation that the surviving dinosaurs are the basis for all the dragon legends that exist across almost all cultures and, I’m sorry, but that’s delightful. It’s something one might hear on History 2, spouted by… The Most Awesome Man On Television.
Anyway, my point is that the Creation Museum is more honest in its crackpot interpretation of history than another manure locker that happens to be opening today. And the courtier media is preparing once again to disgrace itself in the kind of epic fashion it has not displayed since rolling over for C-Plus Augustus and the Avignon Presidency in 2002. Let us be quite clear about what is going on here. The courtier press is going to spend an entire day “reconsidering” the worst, most destructive presidency in the history of the Republic. Its putative leader — Although Tiger Beat On The Potomac went long today on the notion that Bush’s administration was a ball of snakes, and that he and Dick Cheney really didn’t get along. This was presented as some sort of alibi — is giving a whole clutch of interviews in which he says, basically, hey, shit happened and then I left office. TBOTP even argues — with the spectacular credulity of a five-year old reading about Santa Claus — that the Iraq war wouldn’t have happened had the intelligence services not misled poor, goodhearted George W. Bush. It was about here that I reached for the Prestone and didn’t care that we were out of ice.
Former Secretary of State Powell admitted in a May 2012 book that “the President did not think war could be avoided” by the time Powell addressed the U.N. Security Council in Feb. 2003. “He had crossed the line in his own mind, even though the [National Security Council] had never met – and never would meet – to discuss the decision,” Powell said. Karl Rove suggested in his memoir that Bush would not have invaded Iraq had the intelligence reports been accurate. “Would the Iraq War have occurred without W.M.D.? I doubt it,” Rove wrote. “The Bush administration itself would probably have sought other ways to constrain Saddam, bring about regime change, and deal with Iraq’s horrendous human rights violations.” Bush wrote in his own book: “No one was more shocked or angry than I was when we didn’t find the weapons … I had a sickening feeling every time I thought about it. I still do.”
Bullshit.
Paul O’Neill told us years ago that the administration had determined to invade Iraq right from the very first cabinet meeting he attended. I will make the Toby Ziegler bet — all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets — that there are specific details about carving up Iraq in the still-secret minutes of that energy task-force that Dick Cheney chaired. Donald Rumsfeld put it on his to-do list on the afternoon of September 11, 2001. And there was, “He tried to kill my Dad,” to say nothing of the purely oedipal satisfaction of finishing a job Poppy didn’t have the stones to finish 20 years earlier, making Junior the vicarious winner of that fistfight he once proposed to the old man on the front lawn.
Read more: George Bush Library Opening – The George Bush Manure Locker Is Now Open – Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/george-bush-library-opening-042513#ixzz2RVmVQ5T1
SCANDAL PROMOS!!!
PREVIEWS FOR TONIGHT!!
http://www.spoilertv.com/2013/04/scandal-episode-219-seven-fifty-two-new.html
ENDA introduced with bipartisan backing
By Steve Benen
–
Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:42 PM EDT.
2
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)
The legislation has been pending for nearly two decades, but in this Congress, ENDA will have more support than ever before.
In the United States today, it’s perfectly legal under federal law and in a majority of states to fire someone for being LGBT. Today, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House and Senate once again introduced legislation that would change that.
If passed, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013 (ENDA) would prohibit most public and private employers from discriminating against workers based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. Led by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO), this commonsense bill levels the playing field for LGBT workers by finally affording them the same workplace rights and safeguards afforded to other protected classes on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and disability, among others.
The full list of cosponsors is not yet available online, but Jared Polis’ press release points to bipartisan backing in both chambers: in addition to the many Democrats backing ENDA, the bill has also drawn the support of a few Republicans: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) in the House, and Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Susan Collins (Maine) in the Senate.
What’s more, President Obama has said, on multiple occasions, that he would welcome the opportunity to sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/04/25/17915739-enda-introduced-with-bipartisan-backing?lite
Kinds of Crazy
by BooMan
Thu Apr 25th, 2013 at 11:36:49 AM EST
Republican lawmakers, thought leaders, and entertainers can be divided loosely into three groups: assholes, the crazy, and the stupid, although there can be considerable overlap. And we can also create subsets for these groups. The largest group, by far, is the assholes. These are people who are extremely selfish, lack empathy, and often delight is saying and doing things just to be mean or to hurt other people’s feelings. They aren’t crazy or stupid, however, and they are often paid quite handsomely to be jerks. They will often parrot stupid and crazy things, but always very self-consciously, not actually believing what they are saying. Here are some typical examples:
ASSHOLES
Lawmaker: Ted Cruz
Thought Leader: Charles Krauthammer
Entertainer: Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter
Related, but much less self-conscious, are the people who are truly stupid. They will spout many things that they know to be untrue, but they have a tendency to internalize many Republican talking points and actually begin to believe them. They aren’t quite crazy, but their grip on reality is not very tight, either.
THE STUPID
Lawmaker: Rand Paul, Jim Inhofe
Thought Leaders: Peggy Noonan, Erick Erickson
Entertainers: Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity
Then we have the people who are basically unhinged. They may have ludicrous religious beliefs or they may fall for every conspiracy theory in the book, or they may just have no idea what in the hell is going on.
THE CRAZY
Lawmakers: Michele Bachmann, Steve King, Louis Gohmert, pretty much the whole Georgia delegation.
Thought Leaders: None
Entertainers: Donald Trump
There are other people who are hard to classify. For example, neo-cons like Bill Kristol, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte are not stupid, and they seem to have their senses about them. Yet, their policies are so destructive that we almost have to define them as crazy. Surely, anyone who follows their advice expecting good results is crazy. I think we can create a subgroup for these folks.
EVIL CRAZY ASSHOLES
Lawmakers: Dick Cheney, John McCain, Joe Lieberman
Thought Leaders: Bill Kristol, Jennifer Rubin
Entertainers: Dennis Miller
What’s almost completely missing is the old school Republican statesman who isn’t stupid, isn’t crazy, and isn’t enough of an asshole to disregard the needs of the poor or concerns about the environment or the importance of international organizations and collective security. Those folks have been driven out of the modern GOP.
So, where do you think various well-known Republicans belong in these classifications?
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/4/25/113649/329
For GOP and health care, it’s all or nothing
By Steve Benen
Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:40 PM EDT
We talked earlier about House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who thought he was being clever. He unveiled a bill that would invest in high-risk pools for those with pre-existing conditions, but pay for it by gutting the critical provisions of the Affordable Care Act. For Cantor, it was a political calculation — instead of just voting to repeal “Obamacare” over and over again, why not try a scheme that gives the appearance of governing?
House Republicans disappointed Cantor and rejected his plan. And what might they want instead? To vote to repeal “Obamacare” over and over again.
House conservatives are clamoring for a floor vote on a full repeal of the 2010 healthcare overhaul, saying that freshman Republicans need an opportunity to tell their constituents they tried to scrap the law.
You read that right — House Republicans are afraid their constituents might not realize they tried to repeal the health care reform legislation unless GOP leaders bring it to the floor again.
Estimates vary, but by my count, congressional Republicans have voted 39 times to repeal all or some of the Affordable Care Act. Do House members seriously believe a 40th time is necessary to help get the message through to the public?
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/04/25/17914606-for-gop-and-health-care-its-all-or-nothing?lite
Limbaugh, Levin And The Future Of The GOP
Apr 25 2013 @ 11:20am
Frank Luntz tried to keep the following statement a secret at a recent University of Pennsylvania talk. But nothing is secret when everyone has a smart phone. Money quote:
“And [Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin] get great ratings, and they drive the message, and it’s really problematic. And this is not on the Democratic side. It’s only on the Republican side…[inaudible]. [Democrats have] got every other source of news on their side. And so that is a lot of what’s driving it. If you take — Marco Rubio’s getting his ass kicked. Who’s my Rubio fan here? We talked about it. He’s getting destroyed! By Mark Levin, by Rush Limbaugh, and a few others. He’s trying to find a legitimate, long-term effective solution to immigration that isn’t the traditional Republican approach, and talk radio is killing him. That’s what’s causing this thing underneath. And too many politicians in Washington are playing coy.”
Coy? I’d say simply too scared to speak. But Luntz is right. The GOP leadership, if it still exists, needs to disown these two fanatics and haters if it is to stand a chance of becoming more than white, old, male and angry.
http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/04/25/limbaugh-levin-and-the-future-of-the-gop/
wonderful comment at POU:
TresL
During my morning walk it came to me that all the lies that will be told today about GWB are expected but will be corrected.
They are expected because Republicans lie all the time about everything. Whenever one of them accidentally tells the truth, it shocks anyone within earshot. It’s what they do; it’s who they are and it is the only way they win elections because the truth to republicans is like garlic to a vampire. It not only destroys them but it always favors PBO.
The lies will be corrected by history and any historian worth his salt but guess where else they will be corrected? The Obama Presidential Library is where PBO’s list of accomplishments will be historic and lengthy and many of his major triumphs are inextricably linked to GWB’s most devastating failures.
There would be no need for PBO to rescue the economy had Bush not crashed it. There would be no need for PBO to end the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars had Bush not started and horrifically mismanaged them and then left office without even a thought to ending them. There would be no need for PBO to authorize the mission that killed Bin Laden had Bush cared enough to do it himself. There would be no need for PBO to end the Bush tax cuts had Bush not irresponsibly signed them into law. There would be no need to pay down the deficit had Bush not taken a projected surplus and exploded the deficit. There would be no need to re-establish the credibility of countless government agencies and departments like FEMA and Justice had Bush not staffed them with cronies and incompetents. I could go on and on.
His disastrous presidency will be thoroughly documented as the failure it was through what will be a meticulous accounting of the successful presidency against insurmountable odds of PBO. Bet on it.
Local Michigan Democrat Caught On Tape Calling Town Official An ‘Arrogant N*gger’.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/local-michigan-democrat-caught-on-tape-calling-town-official-an-arrogant-ngger/ …
Buena Vista Township Clerk Gloria Platko is resisting demands that she step down after another local official taped a phone conversation in which Platko referred to Township Supervisor Dwayne Parker as “an arrogant nigger.”
The 63 year-old Democrat later apologized for the “slip of the tongue,” but shockingly insisted that her use of the slur doesn’t make her racist, because she has “eaten Thanksgiving dinner with black friends at their house.”
uh huh
so he was UPPITY?
uh huh
Special Report: The radicalization of Tamerlan Tsarnaev
By Alissa de Carbonnel and Stephanie Simon
MAKHACHKALA, Russia/CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts | Tue Apr 23, 2013 8:28am EDT
(Reuters) – In America, he had been a cocky and charismatic heavyweight boxer who wore fancy pointy leather shoes and slick white shirts down to the gym.
In Dagestan, the volatile southern Russian region where he lived for a time as a teen and returned to spend the first half of 2012, he became a quiet young man who spent his days online studying Islam, nursing a growing anger against heretics.
Exactly what turned Tamerlan Tsarnaev into the suspect accused of three murders and mass wounding in the Boston Marathon bombings may never be known. He died in a gunfight with police leaving no explanation. His younger brother and alleged co-conspirator Dzhokhar is in hospital, barely able to speak.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/23/us-usa-explosions-radicalisation-special-idUSBRE93M0CZ20130423
Potus and Flotus at Dallas Love Field
Mythe; where are you?!
Probably at the Library dedication? :) She tried to take photos yesterday while she was on the phone with me. lol
Efforts on to identify body possibly of Sunil Tripathi
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/us-canada-news/Efforts-on-to-identify-body-possibly-of-Sunil-Tripathi/articleshow/19726835.cms
WASHINGTON: US authorities are trying to determine if a body pulled from Providence river is missing Indian origin studentSunil Tripathi, who was erroneously linked on social media to the Boston bombings last week.
The Rhode Island medical examiner’s office is conducting an autopsy on the body, but so far no positive identification has been made, ABC News reported citing spokesperson Dara Chadwick.
The body appeared to be a male in his twenties and had “been in the water for a while,” said commander Thomas Oates of the Providence Police department.
Tripathi, a 22-year-old philosophy major at Brown University, was last seen on March 16 but ignited a social media firestorm last week after the FBI released a photograph of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects wearing a white baseball cap.
This is the full Barbara Bush smackdown of Jeb Bush.
Then Lauer posed the question to the Bush family’s 87-year-old matriarch, the no-nonsense Barbara Bush. And she poured enough cold water on her son’s potential candidacy to give it hypothermia.
“He’s by far the best qualified man,” she began, “but, no, I really don’t [think he should run].”
Bush’s explanation sounded like something you’d see on an anti-Jeb bumper sticker.
“I think it’s a great country, there are a lot of great families, and, it’s not just four families or whatever,” she said, possibly alluding to the Clintons as well. “There are other people that are very qualified, and we’ve had enough Bushes.”
Sorry, Jeb. You’ve been grounded.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/04/barbara-bush-jeb-weve-had-enough-bushes.html?mid=twitter_dailyintel
Every.BIT.of.THIS.
CNN writes, (CNN) – While former President George W. Bush says he wants his brother Jeb to run for president in 2016, their always-blunt mother said Thursday she feels differently. “He’s by far the best qualified man, but no. I really don’t,” she said when asked if her son, the former Florida governor, will make a White House bid.Follow @politicalticker “I think it’s a great country. There are a lot of great families, and it’s not just four families or whatever. There are other people out there that are very qualified and we’ve had enough Bushes,” she said. Her comments came Thursday morning on…
Continue reading Barbara Bush on Jeb in 2016: ‘We’ve had enough Bushes’ at CNN
Fucking A; we’ve had enough BUSHES. Let’s stay out of the BUSHES for good. In fact, let’s stay away from the CLINTONS, KENNEDY’S, et.al. NEXT!
Anti-rape Activists Get Death Threats
by Steven D
Thu Apr 25th, 2013 at 08:47:41 AM EST
Threats of violence and rape have been made toward fifteen Dartmouth student activists who protested about unreported rapes (as well as homophobia and racism) at a Dartmouth event for prospective students over the weekend. Specifically, fifteen current students entered a room where 500 prospective students were being wined and dined by Dartmouth, whereupon they shouted “Dartmouth has a problem!” What was that problem? Read on:
As the protesters walked around the prospective students sitting crossed- legged on floor, they yelled, “Three years, 15 reported sexual assaults. But 95 percent go unreported. Only three rapists expelled in 10 years. Dartmouth has a problem!”
The chant went on to allege incidents on campus of homophobic, sexist graffiti and a verbal racist attacks that have occurred over the past couple years. One student carried a sign that read, “I was called fag in my freshman dorm.”
Yes, those activists disrupted an official Dartmouth event to tell a story about one aspect of life at Dartmouth that Dartmouth probably was not going to tell its incoming class of freshman (not that many other colleges or universities reveal the often sordid side of campus life when trying to entice prospective students to attend their institution of higher learning – it’s simply not a topic fit for polite conversation don’t you know). Still what poor manners those activist “scum” displayed. How uncivilized. How boorish old, man.
Yet, the response to the protesters has created, shall we say, a bit of a sticky wicket for good old Dartmouth. You see, a number of “brave” anonymous posters to Facebook and an online forum, “Bored at Baker,” named after the school’s library, decided that these foul-mouthed ruffians deserved a little of their own medicine. Well, more than a little, and not quite the same medicine, if you get my drift:
…………………………
In response the protestors created their own online blog,Real Talk Dartmouth, to post screenshots of some of the worst threats, and to stimulate dialogue regarding the issues of racism, sexual assault and homophobia present at Dartmouth.
As one of the activists who participated in the protest stated:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/4/25/84741/8949
The non-snub of Planned Parenthood
By Steve Benen
Thu Apr 25, 2013 9:40 AM EDT.
Planned Parenthood is hosting a national gala tonight in Washington, and President Obama had been scheduled to attend in person. The White House announced yesterday, however, that the president would not be able to make it — forcing opponents of reproductive right to declare “victory.”
Mallory Quigley, spokesperson for the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List, suggested this had something to do with the Kermit Gosnell murder trial — though Gosnell had no affiliation with the group. “No matter the reason for his backing out, it is certainly a good time to distance oneself from Planned Parenthood,” Quigley said in a statement.
The truth is more straightforward.
Actually, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday the president had delayed his appearance at Planned Parenthood’s annual gathering so he could spend more time with victims of last week’s explosion in West, Texas. He will speak Friday at the group’s national conference.
But never let accuracy get in the way of buzz.
Obama isn’t “distancing” himself from the health care group; he’s doing the opposite.
Indeed, his appearance at Planned Parenthood’s national conference on Friday is an extension of his long-time support for the organization, including making support for the group a key issue in his 2012 re-election campaign.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/04/25/17912633-the-non-snub-of-planned-parenthood?lite
House GOP kills Cantor’s health-care scheme
By Steve Benen
Thu Apr 25, 2013 9:10 AM EDT
It looked like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) had come up with a fairly clever scheme. Unfortunately for him, it died yesterday when his fellow House Republicans refused to go along.
The gambit was a little complicated, but in a nutshell, Cantor thought he’d come up with a way to severely undermine the Affordable Care Act — the House would pass a bill to strip federal funds from the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which helps states set up the exchanges that are needed to make the ACA work. The proposal would then divert that money into existing-but- underfunded high-risk pools for the uninsured — a favorite GOP health care policy — that help people with pre-existing conditions buy subsidized coverage.
For Cantor, the plan checked a lot of boxes. If the exchanges are gutted, implementing “Obamacare” would be nearly impossible. At the same time, voters were supposed to see this and say, “See? House Republicans really are interested in providing solutions to problems people face in the real world.” As a matter of public policy, this was an awful idea, but the whole endeavor was billed as an element in the party’s “rebranding” campaign.
So what happened? Cantor’s plan failed miserably because his own allies balked.
On Wednesday, Republican leaders abruptly shelved one of the centerpieces of Mr. Cantor’s “Making Life Work” agenda — a bill to extend insurance coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions — in the face of a conservative revolt. […]
Items that Mr. Cantor had hoped would change the Republican Party’s look, if not its priorities, have been ignored, have been greeted with yawns or have only worsened Republican divisions.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/04/25/17912406-house-gop-kills-cantors-health-care-scheme?lite
Tonight, SCANDAL, Baby! :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0eTS3Ps8AA
Check out the crackas in the background, LAUGHING at this racist, fat tub-o-lard.
Ignoring a problem does not make it go away
By Steve Benen
Thu Apr 25, 2013 8:00 AM EDT
The good news is, Congress’ Joint Economic Committee held a hearing yesterday on a chronic national problem in need of meaningful policy solutions: long-term unemployment. As the Huffington Post reported yesterday, long-term jobless rates are at their worst point in the post-World War II era.
And while I’m glad the Joint Economic Committee agreed to take the issue seriously enough to hold a hearing, the bad news is, most of the committee’s members didn’t care enough to show up.
National Journal’s Niraj Chokshi, who tweeted the above image reported:
It stands to reason that lawmakers who often decry the high jobless rate would want to be seen publicly trying to tackle the problem, right? Well, apparently not.
When a hearing to explore how to get the long-term unemployed back to work kicked off on Wednesday morning, only one lawmaker was in attendance. That was Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who was holding the hearing in her role as the vice chair of the Joint Economic Committee. The Joint Economic Committee is one of a handful of committees whose members come from both parties and both houses of Congress.
Yep, by the time the hearing began, Klobuchar was literally the only lawmaker in the room. In time, she was joined by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). The committee has 20 members — 10 from the House, 10 from the Senate — and 16 of them failed to make an appearance, including every Republican member of the panel.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/04/25/17911474-ignoring-a-problem-does-not-make-it-go-away?lite
The Morning Plum: GOP makeover is impaired by delusional thinking
Posted by Greg Sargent on April 25, 2013 at 9:05 am
Republicans appear to have persuaded large swaths of the party’s base that the campaigns to cut spending and to repeal Obamacare are moral crusades so urgent that the zeal behind them must never be permitted to weaken even slightly. This has created intertwined delusions — you can keep cutting spending forever with no consequences; one of these days Obamacare will face its grand reckoning — that have restricted the GOP’s maneuvering room on several fronts which are in the news today.
The New York Times has a big story this morning reporting that Eric Cantor’s drive to soften the party’s image has run headlong into the intransigence of conservatives unwilling to deviate from their austerity-only ideology and agenda. The latest example: The Helping Sick Americans Now Act, which would create a federal “high risk pool,” funded with money from another part of Obama’s health care law, that would allow people with preexisting conditions to get subsidized coverage.
The move was simultaneously designed to undermine Obamacare while portraying Republicans as compassionate towards those with preexisting conditions. But conservatives opposed it because it did not offer the promise of the complete destruction of Obamacare — a blow to the party’s effort to rebrand itself at a time when it continues to push for Obamacare repeal while offering no meaningful alternative. Yet this isn’t surprising. As Jonathan Chait argued recently in a different context, the GOP will not be able to offer any such alternative until the party untethers itself from the “decision that they’d rather keep taxes low than spend money to cover the uninsured.”
Meanwhile, on FAA delays, Republicans continue to celebrate the sequester as a victory for themselves, even as they decry the sequester-generated flight delays and blame Obama for them. In a must read, Jonathan Cohn details that this schizophrenic message gets to the core of the party’s larger problem. “In an ideal world, this would shake Republican faith in sequestration as an acceptable budget policy,” Cohn writes. ”They’d start discussions about replacing it with some other deficit reduction plan — ideally, one that didn’t rely so exclusively on immediate and arbitrary spending cuts.”
Yes, it turns out that in order to cut spending, you have to … cut spending on programs people like. But Republicans have spent years pushing the notion that the deficit can be dramatically reduced with zero in new taxes, and only through spending cuts, with little consequence. (The Paul Ryan budgets could not achieve their purported deficit reduction goals without wiping out large swaths of the federal government, and so they don’t detail with meaningful specificity how they’d achieve those goals.) So Cohn’s ideal GOP rethink of the sequester is an impossibility, too.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/04/25/the-morning-plum-gop-makeover-is-impaired-by-delusional-thinking/
Did Mark Sanford really stand out in the street and debate a cardboard cut out of Nancy Smash?
LMBAO You decide!
House liberals demand meeting with Obama on Chained CPI
Posted by Greg Sargent on April 24, 2013 at 4:07 pm
Top House progressives are demanding a sit down meeting with President Obama to underscore their opposition to any Social Security benefits cuts as part of a Grand Bargain — a sign that the left has no intention of allowing any cuts to go forward without a major fight.
The demand is being made in a letter that is set to be mailed to the President tomorrow, and was sent my way by a source. It is signed by Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva, along with Dem Reps. Jan Schakowsky, John Conyers, and Donna Edwards, and Senator Bernie Sanders. It says:
We write to request a meeting with you to discuss the inclusion of chained CPI in your recent budget proposal.
We appreciate your ongoing efforts to negotiated with Congressional Republicans in a serious, thoughtful manner, despite their unwillingness to consider a balanced approach. We also appreciate the many positive proposals in your budget, including much-needed additional revenue and the call for universal preschool. However, at a time when many Americans are struggling, cutting Social Security benefits would take money directly out of the pockets of American seniors and slow our economic recovery…a majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives and many Democratic Senators have expressed their vigorous opposition to cuts to earned benefit programs. […]
We would be happy to discuss proposals to strengthen Social Security, such as lifting the payroll tax cap to allow wealthy Americans to contribute to Social Security on all of their income like everyone else. We look forward to meeting with you at your earliest convenience.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/04/24/house-liberals-demand-meeting-with-obama-on-chained-cpi/
House honors ‘four little girls’ killed in Birmingham church bombing
By Ed O’Keefe,
Published: April 24
The House voted Wednesday to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the four young girls killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., a seminal moment in the civil rights movement.
Addie Mae Collins, 14, Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robertson, 14, and Cynthia Wesley, 14, were killed on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963, in a bombing that also injured 22 other churchgoers. The attack spawned international outrage and drew the attention of civil rights leaders, who went to Birmingham to expose the city’s discriminatory practices and compel Congress to pass civil rights legislation.
The Congressional Gold Medal is one of the nation’s highest civilian honors and is awarded annually by Congress. Golfing pro Arnold Palmer and global economist Mohammed Yunus are the most recent recipients. Other civil rights leaders have received the award, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, the “Little Rock Nine,” baseball great Jackie Robinson and the Tuskegee Airmen.
Over the years, the “four little girls,” as they became widely known in the cultural lore of the civil rights movement, have received fewer honors. There’s a Chicago scholarship program named for them and a memorial at Birmingham City Hall.
That changed Wednesday, when the House unanimously approved a bill honoring the four girls almost 50 years since their deaths. The bill was authored by Reps. Terri A. Sewell (D-Ala.) and Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.). It earned the support of more than 290 colleagues, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who called the honor “a strong reminder of how many people fought and died in the civil rights movement so that this country could live up to its founding ideals of equality and opportunity.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-honors-four-little-girls-killed-in-birmingham-church-bombing/2013/04/24/53a9545a-ad09-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_story.html
Greg Sargent ✔ @ThePlumLineGS
GOP: 1) Sequester is huge victory for us; 2) Awful FAA cuts are Obama’s fault; 3) Must not tax rich one penny to replace them
Soledad O’Brien Named Harvard Distinguished Visiting Fellow
April 24, 2013 by EURpublisher
The former anchor of CNN’s now-cancelled morning show “Starting Point” was named a distinguished visiting fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, reports the Huffington Post.
Harvard said O’Brien would spend the 2013-2014 year delving into topics related to public education in America.
“On Appian Way, in the heart of the Ed School campus, a banner reads, ‘Education Is a Civil Right.’ I believe this passionately and look forward to ensuring that right is a reality by working with the students, faculty, and staff at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the rest of the Harvard University community,” O’Brien said. “This appointment is both honor and opportunity.”
O’Brien left CNN’s earlier this year, after network president Jeff Zucker announced his plans for a new program with co-hosts Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan. Although O’Brien left her daily hosting gig, she said she would continue to work with the network by producing documentaries independently with her own production company
http://www.eurweb.com/2013/04/soledad-obrien-named-distinguished-visiting-fellow-at-harvard/
Congrats, Soledad!
Found a new show on PBS:
The Bletchley Circle
During WWII, the Brits rounded up some of their brightest female minds and took them to an estate called The Bletchley House. While there, they were involved in some of the best codebreaking of the War. The show centers on 4 ladies who met there.
After showing us what they did in WWII, you fast forward 10 years, and see where these ladies are. Because of national security, they were never allowed to tell people what they did during the war. Two are housewives, one’s a waitress and another one’s a librarian.
One of the housewives is following the case of a serial killer. She believes she has figured out the pattern of the killer, and goes to the police. They don’t find the body, so they think she’s a crank. She realizes that she can’t do it alone, and goes to find her other compatriots from Bletchley House. They are reluctant, until another girl goes missing, and they realize that maybe they can help.
This past week was the first episode, but it was good. You can check it out at pbs.org.
Thanks for the tip, Rik. I love British TV.
Ugh! It’s GW Bush on every news station this morning.
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Morning, everyone!
Mornin,’ SUNSHINE!
it’s still a hot chocolate morning, here.
May I have a cup?
Good Morning, Lady. Here you go; enjoy!
thank you!
Good Morning, Everyone :)