Dear Annie Coons,

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Dear Annie, Thank you for the email. It is good to know that your husband, our Senator, views Senator Cruz as a lunatic and a danger to democracy. (Tom Carper also recently sent me an email, but unlike Chris he couldn't bring himself to directly point out the malfeasance of a fellow Senator.) I also liked this line, “If Congress spent half the time working on manufacturing policy as it spends manufacturing political crises, our country would be in far better shape.” Obviously true. And of course, his devotion to his family is admirable. What I didn't see in the email was any discussion about what Chris plans to do about the Republicans who have no goal other than to fuck shit up and rake in wingnut welfare.
Thursday Open Thread [9.26.13]

Thursday Open Thread [9.26.13]

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Brian Beutler today at Salon:
What happened over the past 48 hours is a direct consequence of Republicans making sport out of misleading the public, and particularly conservatives, about the threat Obamacare poses to the country. It created an incentive for publicity-hungry members to stage more and more elaborate, but ultimately symbolic, anti-Obamacare performances If Republicans really worried that Obamacare is as dangerous as they’ve been claiming for years — if they truly believed it will sap the middle class of ambition and bankrupt the country — then many more of them would have joined Cruz over the past 24 hours. At the very least, they wouldn’t have blown him off and attacked his motives and trashed him anonymously in the press. But the deceptive nature of their opposition campaign created an opening for a false savior like Cruz to outperform them. Republicans are annoyed with Cruz for plenty of reasons — he’s arrogant, he’s lying to primary voters about the limits of GOP power, he’s inching Congress toward a government shutdown most of the party wants to avoid. But a big subtext here is that he’s exposed the simple message that once united the party as a sham. If Obamacare is as perilous as the party claims, why wait until the next election to try and derail it? By swooping in like he did, knowing he couldn’t deliver, he actually exposed both charades — his own and his GOP antagonists’ — and left ACA intact.
So Republicans are liars. This is not news. What is news is that they might, finally, at long last, be paying a price for it.

Sorry but I can’t stop laughing

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I just can't get enough of this. The GOP clustf*ck-splosion over the ACA is endlessly entertaining to me. In this latest dispatch Red State's Eric Ericson tells Palin's "real America" that they can't go on "sucking it up" and voting for this year's McCain or Romney. He credits Palin's "real America" for every Republican win and blames DC squishes for every Republican electoral loss. It is too much. And the comments... oy!

Teabags now determined to O’Donnellize Mitch McConnell

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This stuff from Red State is too good.
Among the many insightful things Ted Cruz said during his historic filibuster through the night was that there is no honesty in the Republican Party. He noted that it would be better to have a Senate full of Republicans like Mike Lee and Democrats like Bernie Sanders – people who actually believe what they say, and are honest and open about it. What he meant to say is that most of Washington is full of finger lickin’ frauds like Mitch McConnell...
historic filibuster... bwah ha ha !
It’s time to rally to Matt Bevin – a man who will stand shoulder to shoulder with Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.
A Small Request for County Councilwoman Lisa Diller

A Small Request for County Councilwoman Lisa Diller

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Most of us have seen this grandstanding bit of business from Tom Gordon publicly calling for an apology from you for insisting on requests for information from the County Executive's Office be provided when requested. Ms. Diller's response here has been characterized as yelling -- which it might be, it certainly sounds as though she's frustrated with the lack of communication and the selective release of information to Councilmembers. If you listen to the audio of that meeting, (start around the 10 minute mark) you hear one Councilman talk about the Administration spending money on events and photo ops the County doesn't seem to have. The rest of this discussion is specifically about the refusal of Gordon and the County Attorney to provide a briefing in Executive Committee during that Finance Committee on the Pike Creek appeal.

Wednesday Open Thread [9.25.13]

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What a juxtaposition. Here is Calgary Texas Senator Speaker Strom Thurmond Joe McCarthy Ted Cruz's hometown newspaper today. The self promoter named Cruz should be getting the hook just about noon. If he refuses to yield the floor, he will be arrested and dragged out of the chamber by the Sargent at Arms.
AIG… I Just… No

AIG… I Just… No

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There simply are no words.
American International Group's chief executive said in an interview published Monday that the insurance company, which was aided by an extensive taxpayer bailout in the aftermath of the 2008 recession, was wrongly targeted for awarding its employees bonuses after the crisis -- comparing the outrage in Washington to lynchings that occurred in the Deep South a half a century ago.