Thursday Open Thread [1.24.13]
For once, the weeping willow gets one right:
Speaker John Boehner said he believes the primary goal of President Obama’s second term is to “annihilate the Republican Party.”
“Given what we heard yesterday about the president’s vision for his second term, it’s pretty clear to me that he knows he can’t do any of that as long as the House is controlled by Republicans,” Boehner said in a speech Tuesday to The Ripon Society. “So we’re expecting over the next 22 months to be the focus of this administration as they attempt to annihilate the Republican Party.
“And let me just tell you, I do believe that is their goal — to just shove us into the dustbin of history.”
My only quibble is that it is really the Republicans’ own actions and policy preferences that are leaving them in the dustbin of history. But the President will do all he can to pursue just, popular and right policies this year and during the entirety of the second term, and the GOP’s radical, feverish and irrational opposition to those policies, as well as their delusional conspiracy theories and hateful and bigoted social policy proposals will most assuredly leaving the Republican Party annihilated.
It is long past time that the the Republican Party in its current form be destroyed, and in its place a rational center right party dedicated to a social libertarian principles and fiscal responsibility. That is a opposition party that even I could vote for if the circumstances were right. So yes, Boehner, we want your party destroyed. The secret is out.
Meanwhile, Democrats “are taking steps to create a large-scale independent group aimed at turning traditionally conservative Texas into a prime electoral battleground, crafting a new initiative to identify and mobilize progressive voters in the rapidly-changing state,” according to Politico .
“The organization, dubbed ‘Battleground Texas,’ plans to engage the state’s rapidly growing Latino population, as well as African-American voters and other Democratic-leaning constituencies that have been underrepresented at the ballot box in recent cycles. Two sources said the contemplated budget would run into the tens of millions of dollars over several years – a project Democrats hope has enough heft to help turn what has long been an electoral pipe dream into reality.”
But Clinton’s appearance on the Hill, expected to be her last before she is succeeded by John Kerry, provided a broader vindication of the one-time (and probably future) presidential candidate. There had been concern among Democrats that the Benghazi episode would mar her otherwise successful tenure at State — but in fact she is leaving the post more popular than ever.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 67 percent of Americans view her favorably, a career high and roughly double the popularity congressional Republicans have. So when Clinton clashed with GOP lawmakers Wednesday, it had the feeling of a Hummer colliding with a Smart Car.
I second that agenda.
and in its place a rational center right party dedicated to a social libertarian principles and fiscal responsibility.
What that leaves out is advocacy for a broadly shared prosperity. It seems Democrats have capitulated to the existence of a large and permanent class of people excluded from the economy, who somehow have become the misplaced focus of fiscal responsibility, and the only debate is how little to dole out to them. Prosperity on the other hand seems to be all about enhancing the fortunes of those who are already prosperous.
And the stupid continues in trying to control women’s health care choices:
New Mexico Bill Would Imprison Rape Victims Who Receive Abortions
The theory being that women getting abortions after a rape would be tampering with the evidence of said rape. This is completely ignorant of how rape kits work (and just completely ignorant). But I’m with the first commenter here in that this bill needs to include a provision for removing and preserving the rapists’ junk in order to preserve that evidence.
Right?
I think that New Mexico Bill deserves it’s own post so the stupid is properly chronicled for 2014 & 2016.
Markell’s FY2014 budget includes cuts to income and gross receipts taxes, more State cops, and no salary increases for State employees (including the teachers he spoke so highly of in his State of the State address).
What. An. Asshole.
Delaware democrats make a really good model for that social libertarian/fiscal conservative party. “yeah, it’s totally cool that you’re gay… it is NOT cool that you want your salary to reflect the current cost of living”
“WILMINGTON — A woman who ran a website that sold nearly $1 million in pirated software from her Newark home and later embezzled over $40,000 from her employer was sentenced to 4 years and 10 months in federal court today.”
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130124/NEWS01/130124012/Woman-serve-time-selling-pirated-software-embezzling-
Meanwhile, not one executive from HSBC, which has admitted to “violating the Bank Secrecy Act, the Trading with the Enemy Act and other U.S. laws intended to prohibit money laundering,” has been indicted.
Not justifying the sale of pirated software. Just sayin’.
I thought this was funny: “…the chair Clint Eastwood used as a prop in his rambling and at times incoherent critique of President Barack Obama at the Republican National Convention is now one of the many pieces of political memorabilia in Reince Priebus’ office on 1st Street in Washington.”
LOL.
“Me Chairmaning!”
Related to Another Mike’s post — Lanny Breuer has resigned from the DOJ. Breuer was in charge of the Criminal Division which should have been bringing cases against the banks. Speculation is that the DOJ was embarassed by Breuer’s content-free appearance on the Frontline show The Untouchables (which is mandatory viewing, BTW).
The South: “defeated and dumb.”
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/jan/21/dumb-america/