Month: July 2013
Could It Be that Republicans are Just Too Stupid to Govern?
But there’s another alternative worth considering: What if House members are trying to act in their self-interest; they’re just exceptionally bad at figuring out what that is? What if they’re, you know, kinda dumb? For example, if you’re a House Republican, presumably you have some policy preferences: You’d like to massively cut taxes for the wealthy, you’d like to slash spending for the poor, you’d like to privatize Social Security and voucherize Medicare. In short, you’d like to enact the Ryan plan in its full, Randian glory. But, of course, there’s no way to do that as long as there’s a Democrat in the White House. And, unfortunately, as long as you’re committed to acting crazy — threatening needless government shutdowns; insisting that Obamacare is the greatest assault on freedom since the Nazi march across Europe; failing to fix massive electoral liabilities, like your perceived hostility to Latinos —you may preserve your House majority. But it’s going to be damn-near impossible for a Republican to win the presidency.
— Noam Scheiber, writing in the New Republic, considers whether the threat by House Republicans to shut the government down over Obamacare is rational, albeit with perverse incentives.
Obama’s Commitment to Middle Class Met with Skepticism
46%
Of Americans believe the president when he says he wants to refocus the remainder of his term on helping the middle class, while 50% do not believe him, a new Monmouth poll finds.
Republicans Agree Party Has Problems, but Not Solutions
67%
Of Republican voters believe that their party must address major problems to be more competitive in the future, according to a new Pew Research poll. And 59% say improved messaging alone will not be enough.Key finding: 35% say the party has compromised too much with Democrats, 27% say not enough, while 32% say party leaders have handled this about right.
Keeping Score: Bush Had Taken 399 Days Off by the Fifth Summer of His Presidency – Obama Has Taken 87 Days Off
As August approaches, and President Obama schedules a little r-and-r at Martha’s Vineyard, there are apparently some predictable gripes on the right about his time off. The AP provides some context: “Obama has taken far less time away from the White House than his predecessor, George W. Bush, who spent weeks at a time at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Obama has taken 87 days off, compared with 399 days for Bush at a similar period in his presidency, according to CBS News’s Mark Knoller, who keeps detailed records of presidential travel…
A lot of folks forget this, but Ronald Reagan set the record for most vacation days for a sitting president — a record that stood until George W. Bush passed Reagan’s seemingly unbreakable benchmark.
Watch the Earth Get Hotter Before Your Very Eyes
This video is posted by climatecentral.org, but was produced by NASA. It begins in 1880, the first year of the modern record of global temperatures, and shows how the world has heated up in the past nearly century and a half. Note though, how fast the change comes at end, as greenhouse conditions begin to take hold. Bluer shading indicates below normal temperatures while red tones indicate higher ones.
Addicting Info: 10 Embarrassing Things Republicans Have Done to North Carolina Since the Tea Party Seized Power
1. Reinstating Jim Crow-style voter suppression laws 53 years after the historic Woolworth sit-ins in Greensboro
2. Under the guise of motorcycle safety, passing a big-government Republican takeover of North Carolina women’s uteruses, which Gov. McCrory signed into law despite a campaign promise not to restrict women’s reproductive rights
3. Cutting funding for programs that feed the hungry and house and clothe the unemployed — which is a paradox because these Republicans claim to be Christians and this directly countermands Jesus’ requirement that Christians must help the poor and needy
4. Attempting to unilaterally nullify the U.S. Constitution and create a North Carolina state religion
5. Killing a proposal for background checks for gun buyers while passing a bill to make it legal to carry concealed weapons on college campuses, state property, greenways, bike trails, at sporting events and in businesses that serve alcohol
When Will White Americans Take a Stand Against White on White Crime and the Culture of White Youth Lawlessness?
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In the segment of MSNBC’s “All In” above, host Chris Hayes and Cord Jefferson, a West Coast editor for Gawker.com, discuss Jefferson’s recent article about the unchecked violence and lawlessness that increasingly characterizes America’s white culture:
A frightening and violent mob swept through the normally quiet seaside community of Huntington Beach last night following a surfing competition in the area. Businesses were vandalized and looted, portable toilets overturned, and brutal fistfights waged right out in the open. It was an ugly display and a sad day for California. But more than that, it was a reminder that we must begin to seriously consider the values of our thuggish white youth.
Many people don’t want to hear this kind of tough love, of course. They’d like to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that all white children are as sweet and harmless as Taylor Swift. But the reality is that the statistics tell a different story. For instance, according to research from the Department of Justice, 84 percent of white murder victims are killed by other white people. Similarly, white rape victims tend to be raped by other whites [PDF]. White-on-white violence is a menace to white communities across the country, and yet you never hear white leaders like Pastor Joel Osteen, Bill O’Reilly, or Hillary Clinton take a firm stance against the scourge.