News Roundup for 7/28/11
John Boehner rounds up the votes for his debt limit plan
-Headline of the Day-
“Payback may be coming for congressman’s ‘disloyalty’.”
Right now, Speaker Boehner is trying to round up enough votes to get his debt limit plan out of the House of Representatives. This is super-important, despite the fact that it will then go to the Senate to die. Yeah, Boehner’s wasting everyone’s time, but so what? It’s super-important that this thing get passed. Why? STOP ASKING QUESTIONS!
Anyway, it really, really tight as of this writing. He’s basically one vote short — but he knows one place he might get it. And that place is Rep. Jim Jordan’s Ohio district. See, the census has Ohio getting fewer congressional districts and Republicans in that state back Boehner. Jordan’s a Tea Party nutjob, so he supports a more crash-and-burny approach to the debt limit, defying Boehner’s calls for a just-burny solution. As a result, Ohio Republicans are threatening to draw him out of the new congressional district maps.
“He doesn’t know it, but he solved a problem for Republican line-drawers by (figuratively) standing up and saying, ‘I’m a jerk and I deserved to be punished,’” says an anonymous source. So it’s get in line or be eaten.
Republican cannibalism; one of the more fearsome sights a cruel Mother Nature has to offer. (Columbus Dispatch)
-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, Dogboy and Mr. Dan are back and they’re going to talk about the debt ceiling! Yay!
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We have to destroy America to save it! (MarkFiore.com)
-Bonus HotD-
“Rep. Paul Broun Urges Debt-Addicted America To ‘Give Up Its Country Club Membership’”
And while you’re at it, knock it off with all the Lear Jets. (Wonkette)
News Roundup for 7/21/11
Totally not-insane Rep. Allen West greeting visitors to his office
-Headline of the Day-
“West: Wasserman Schultz And Dems Attack Me Because I’m A Black Conservative.”
When Allen West let his rage get away from him, it got him into a little hot water. After Debbie Wasserman Schultz said she didn’t like the way West voted, West fired off an email that stopped just short of accusing her of being the Whore of Babylon. I guess because he’s a thin-skinned prick or something. Really Al, if you want nothing but praise, you really picked the wrong profession.
Anyhoo, West’s email struck a lot of people as pretty sexist (how would he have responded if Schultz wrote to tell him he proved he wasn’t a man?) and now a bunch of Democratic women are demanding his apology.
Well, that’s not going to happen. See, these commie whores — including this one and this one — are just being racist. They’re mad because a black man had the guts to leave the liberal “21st-century plantation” — whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean (conservatives really seem to like inapt slavery metaphors).
“The thing that really most aggravates me is that there is this double standard, in that the people on the hard left can continue to attack conservatives and especially minority conservatives, and female conservatives,” said West. “But yet when all of a sudden you stand up and you say that you will not tolerate this anymore, then they claim to be a victim — which I find just absolutely laughable.”
This strikes me as an odd statement to make while you’re playing both the victim and the race cards. (Talking Points Memo)
-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, have you heard about the big drought in Africa? No? There’s a reason for that…
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The thing about starving people is that, if you ignore them, they really will go away. (MarkFiore.com)
-Headline of the Day-
“Fox Host: Free Birth Control Is Liberal Conspiracy To ‘Eradicate The Poor.’”
Kinda, yeah. If people aren’t having kids that they can’t afford, a lot fewer of them will wind up in poverty.
Explain to me again how that’s a bad thing? (ThinkProgress, with video)
Stories to Watch: 2/12/11
Kind of a boring weekend around here so far. This time of year, the days keep getting longer, but all the additional sun doesn’t seem to accomplish anything. We’re on the downhill slope of winter, to be sure, but it sure doesn’t feel that way. Now here’s the news…
Rightwing fears are seeming more and more unfounded as the Egyptian military says they’resticking with the country’s treaty with Israel and protesters reaffirm that, yes, this is all about democracy.
Just a reminder: the Obama administration is awful on matters of privacy and domestic surveillance.
Senator Gabrielle Giffords? Let’s wait and see if she’s still up to being Representative Gabrielle Giffords, OK guys?
House GOP finally settle on $100 billion in cuts. Problem is, it’s never going to happen.
Rep. Peter King earns another Profile in Courage award by pissing himself over Muslims again.
Finally, Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin threatens to sic the National Guard on state workers who might get mad about his plan to dismantle their union. The same day Mubarak steps down, Walker steps up. Hooray for Republican freedom!
Stories to Watch: 2/9/11
It. Is. Cold… Period. Now here’s the news…
That didn’t take long. Hours after a scandal broke involving Craigslist, photos, personal ads, and his own marriage, Rep. Christopher Lee — a NY Republican — has resigned. It’s kind of weird, because it sounded like it was embarrassing, but survivable. You wonder if there’s more to it or whether Lee just didn’t have the guts to face constituents after the story broke.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jim Webb announces he won’t seek reelection.
House GOP suffer another embarrassing loss. This time, in trying to take back money paid to the UN. On their previous loss, Adam Serwer largely agrees with me — the influence of the Tea Party on the final vote count is being wildly overstated.
House Republicans who took the dare and swore off the commie, gummint-controlled health insurance offered to members are starting to get what all that reform stuff was all about. Welcome to the real world, mad tea partiers.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is regaining her powers of speech.
Finally, labor joins in with protests in Egypt by staging a general strike.
