National

The hero cat, Tara, seen in the viral video saving a four year old kid from a vicious dog attack, will somehow throw out the first pitch at a minor league game in Bakersfield next week. I hereby predict that this cat will become the 2016 Republican nominee for President, since no human Republican can win.

If you oppose immigration reform, you should be forced to take the US Naturalization test. Like these idiots below, it is quite likely that you will not pass. In my perfect world, you, the idiot American citizen, would be deported.

Famed Ohio Vote Counter Karl Rove tried to say that Hillary Clinton is brain damaged, all the while lying to American people about the nature of Hillary's hospital stay (Hillary was in the hospital for 4 days, not 30, for a blood clot, not for brain injury). This is a typical Rovian Republican manuever: say something outrageous about a candidate just to get people talking about the candidate negatively. But you don't talk about the Big Dog's wife that way:

"First of all, I've got to give [Rove] credit," Clinton told moderator Gwen Ifill. Rove's smear "embodies that old saying that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. First they said she faked her concussion. And now they say she's auditioning for a part in The Walking Dead."

Damn. Now that is an insult.

"If the Republicans don't do it they shouldn't bother to run a candidate in 2016. I mean, think about that. Think about who the voters are."

Those are the words and opinion of Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue, on the need to pass immigration reform. Added to Mitt Romney's declaration last week that the GOP really needs to raise the minimum wage, and we are started to see a real split of the Republican Business Party from the Republican Crazytown Party. For you see, say what you will about Republican businessmen, but most of them tend to be able to understand reality. They understand that without immigration reform, the Republican Party as it currently exists will never again win a presidential election. And yet... First Read:

"Immigration is really a 'rock and a hard place issue' for the GOP: If they don't get the issue behind them, the GOP will struggle to win presidential elections. But the cost of getting the issue behind them -- short term -- could be more of a problem than many in the Acela Corridor realize. We've gone back and forth about whether we think immigration can get done either this year or EARLY next year. But judging by how divisive the issue still is -- and how potent the issue still is in primaries -- we're just not sure how it gets done without causing major internal damage in the GOP."

Immigration forces the GOP to make a choice: Either it wants to be the White Racist Party, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, it passes immigration reform and lets all the white racists out there leave the party for whatever KKK or Nazi organization they can find. If it doesn't pass immigration reform, the GOP wants to be the White Racist Party. Simple as that. We have a ton of polling results from the past week and this week inside....

There are now more than 70 lawsuits involving same-sex marriage pending in courts around the country. A dozen federal district courts have issued opinions in favor of same-sex marriage since last summer’s Supreme Court decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act in United States v. Windsor. Five federal appellate courts are now considering the issue.

Today, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond will hear arguments in the case challenging the constitutionality of Virginia's ban. No matter who wins, and no matter who wins in similar cases like it across the country, I expect that we are going to get a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on the unconstitutionality of these bans by June 2015.

I hope all of you enjoyed the weekend and the mothers among us enjoyed their special day. This is exactly the point I keep making about scientific fact. I don't give a shit if you don't BELIEVE in a fact. A fact is a fact is a fact no matter if your feeble mind cannot comprehend it. And a fact does not need your validation or approval to exist. Creationists and Bible Literalists say the Earth is only 6,000 years old. That is a falsehood, disproven by scientific fact. The Earth is in fact 4.54 billion years. Our climate has changed due to global warming. That is a fact. Our weather (i.e. climate) has already been affected. More brutal winters, more brutal summers, historic flooding, deadlier hurricanes and tornadoes, more severe and long lasting droughts, landslides, you name it. The media needs to start ignoring all of those who deny facts. You are not allowed to have an opinion on whether a fact exists. Well, you are allowed, but it is required that you be treated as a nutcase if you offer your opinion that snakes are flurry animals that love to cuddle with you. No, they are not. The sun is not blue. Water does not boil at -18 degrees C, and it does not freeze at 100 degrees F. Two plus two does not equal 20. The universe does not revolve around the Earth.

"A comprehensive, single piece of legislation on any topic, but especially on immigration, is going to be very difficult to achieve ... We keep talking about the same issue now for 15 years, and everybody is doing this all-or-nothing approach. And all-or-nothing is going to leave you with nothing."

-- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), quoted by Politico, on the prospects for immigration reform. This quote reveals what is fundamentally wrong with the understanding of the legislative process among Republicans. The reason you have comprehensive big bills on subjects like immigration is BECAUSE there is a divide of opinion on the issue. So a bill becomes comprehensive in order to accommodate compromise.