Friday Open Thread

2 Comments
Are you watching the circular firing squad that is the GOP right now? Of course, all of this depends upon the Democrats holding firm and not seeing themselves as hostages here. A tall order. But so far, so good. Yesterday, Harry Reid tried to speed up the votes so that the Senate could be done that evening to send the CR back to the House with some time to spare. Carnival Cruz and his sidekick Lee were having none of that, so they worked pretty hard to make sure that the bill was delayed -- sparking this great smack back by Senator Bob Corker telling Cruz he was confused:
A Wilmingtonian’s Appeal to City Council President Theo Gregory

A Wilmingtonian’s Appeal to City Council President Theo Gregory

21 Comments
We've all read the NJ articles and listened to the WDEL reporting, and some of us actually sat through the Channel 28 debacle of former Mayoral Policy Advisor Velda Jones-Potter's "explanation" as to how City taxpayers ended up paying for 20 WPD officers and other city resources at the Foxtail concert on 14 September. Many of us (publicly and otherwise) have been calling for a full, impartial investigation by City Council -- an investigation where the parties involved provide sworn testimony and where any found wrongdoing is referred to the Attorney General. Mr. Gregory did promise a Special City Council meeting dedicated to looking into why taxpayer dollars were so badly mishandled and who would have authorized this. Monday, September October 30 is the date, but I want to ask -- again -- that Mr. Gregory make sure that this is a robust questioning and investigation. Wilmington already has a bad reputation for governing itself, and making sure that the tough questions get asked and making sure that unethical behavior has consequences would be a great beginning in changing that reputation.

Dear Annie Coons,

3 Comments
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]

1 Comment
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

4 Comments
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

3 Comments
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.