Author: Trish
Chris Wallace Eats Mitch McConnell For Lunch – on FOX
Enjoy watching Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), who already looks like a fish on the pier that someone caught by mistake and didn’t throw back in time, go blank when Chris Wallace (on FOX News!) asks what the Republican alternative is to “Obamacare.”
But keep a couple of points in mind as you view.
150 Mormons Leave Sect But Mitt Romney Stays
The courage recently shown by 150 ordinary Americans whose action could, and likely will, cause them to lose everything and everyone they held dear in their lives, is awe-inspiring.
What bold and risky move did these people take? They left the Mormon sect.
A group of about 150 Mormons quit their church in a mass resignation ceremony in Salt Lake City on Saturday in a rare display of defiance ending decades of disagreement for some over issues ranging from polygamy to gay marriage.
Participants from Utah, Arizona, Idaho and elsewhere gathered in a public park to sign a “Declaration of Independence from Mormonism.”
…The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is known for its culture of obedience, and the mass ceremony was a seldom-seen act of collective revolt.
Author Martha Beck has written extensively about her own decision to become an “apostate,” as Mormons call the people who leave the cult. She described the threats toward her family in her book, Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith. These included promises to make her husband unemployable, ostracize her children, and more darkly, alert the “Danites,” a type of Mormon assassins whose existence, like polygamy, the church denies.
If you’ve read the book — and if you want to know more about the Latter Day Saints I highly recommend it, along with Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven — you realize how extraordinary was the move by these 150 people who could no longer go along with Mormonism’s bizarre teachings.
Six Years Ago, Mitt Romney Loved the Individual Mandate
But back then, it was Romneycare.
It’s a Great Day: Healthcare Reform Upheld
Look out Rick Scott. The Florida governor has steadfastly refused to put the infrastructure in place to comply with healthcare reforms under the Affordable Care Act, so sure was he that the U.S. Supreme Court would strike the measure down. Well start moving, Rick, because Obamacare is here to stay. And THAT’S a BFD.
Early reaction, from around the web.
“Man, I hope that Scalia wrote a dissent. It might be the first SCOTUS decision with the word ‘fuck’ in it.” – The Rude Pundit
“Florida CFO Jeff Atwater sent out a press release crowing about its demise … and then immediately tried to recall it. ‘News’ outlets are tweeting, correcting, recalling. I like my news as quickly as the next guy. But there’s some value in making sure you have it right first.” – Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell
“Election angle NOT good for President in this respect: It may galvanize Republican voters to show up at the polls; opposite effect for Dems” – West Wing Reports
“In lieu of flowers I hear Fox News would like viewers to send donations to Heritage Foundation today as RWers mourn” – Eric Boehlert
“Fortunately, we can count on President Romney to repeal the… Oh, never mind.” – Jim Antle
“Per @petewilliamsnbc: main dissent written by Scalia. Will. Be. Epic. Oh, and his sidekick Clarence wrote something or other, too…” – Joy-Ann Reid
What are your thoughts? We’d love to hear in the comments section. And we’ll be right back after we finish doing the chicken dance.
Breaking News: Democrats Set to Walk Out on Holder Contempt Vote
Joy-Ann Reid is reporting that House Democrats, outgunned and outnumbered by House Republicans and Teabillies, will join the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in walking out on the contempt of Congress vote set to be held on our hero, Attorney General Eric Holder, on June 28.
Yes, with all the pressing issues before the country, which, if you listen to FOX News is about to collapse from same, House Speaker John Boehner found time to not only investigate Holder (but not his predecessor in the Bush administration who started the Fast and Furious program), but to stop everything and take a vote on whether the voluminous information Holder has supplied to date is sufficient. The problem is that what Holder has coughed up does not show criminal wrong doing on the part of the Obama administration. Boehner and his co-conspirators want more, even if the proof they need never existed.
The CBC:
Instead of focusing on job creation and other critical issues before this Congress, we have been asked to engage in a political stunt on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. Our constituents elected us to do real work, not to engage in meaningless partisan activity.
For those keeping track, Pres. Obama announcing he will not enforce deportation of the narrow group of children and young adults defined by the Dream Act, which failed to get a filibuster-proof majority in 2010, is election year prostitution. But stopping the work of the House of Representatives to focus on a partisan witch hunt that, if anything incriminates Republicans’ gun lobby pals, is time well spent. Yeah, no.
The Issue That Romney Will Never Live Down
We don’t just “Like” Dogs Against Romney on Facebook, we love them! The group is dedicated to a single issue: that Mitt Romney was wrong, wrong, wrong in 1983 when he strapped a crate to the roof of the station wagon that he and his wife and five sons rode in on a trip to Canada while the family’s Irish Setter (whose name was pronounced “shame-us”) rode in terror and gastroenterologic stress above.
Now they are offering all kinds of merch that keeps the incident front and center, including the fabulous bumpersticker shown.
Romney Has Less Idea What He Thinks Than You Do
It’s gotten to the point now where you could ask Gov. Romney what he wants for breakfast and he will respond something like, “The president has failed to lead on this issue.”
— Michael Scherer, White House correspondent for Time magazine, responding to the question of what Mitt Romney’s proposal is for immigration reform. Romney criticized Pres. Obama, even in the light of the recent Supreme Court ruling which supported the Obama Justice Department’s assertion that federal crimes cannot be created by state laws, such as those in Arizona.
Fortune Magazine Shows What You Suspected: Weak, NRA-Written Gun Laws Are to Blame for Fast and Furious
Fortune magazine proves what everyone who doesn’t watch FOX News suspected: The congressional investigation into the Fast and Furious program is a partisan witch hunt, and much of the responsibility for the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has to go to the gun lobby, which blocks maintaining a database of firearms.
A six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging gun walking is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies
Quite simply, there’s a fundamental misconception at the heart of the Fast and Furious scandal. Nobody disputes that suspected straw purchasers under surveillance by the ATF repeatedly bought guns that eventually fell into criminal hands. Issa and others charge that the ATF intentionally allowed guns to walk as an operational tactic. But five law-enforcement agents directly involved in Fast and Furious tell Fortune that the ATF had no such tactic. They insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. Just the opposite: They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn.
Indeed, a six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging that [ATF Supervisor Dave] Voth and his colleagues walked guns is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies. Fortune reviewed more than 2,000 pages of confidential ATF documents and interviewed 39 people, including seven law-enforcement agents with direct knowledge of the case…How Fast and Furious reached the headlines is a strange and unsettling saga, one that reveals a lot about politics and media today…
“Republican senators are whipping up the country into a psychotic frenzy with these reports that are patently false,” says Linda Wallace, a special agent with the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation unit who was assigned to the Fast and Furious team (and recently retired from the IRS). A self-described gun-rights supporter, Wallace has not been criticized by Issa’s committee.
…Irony abounds when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. But the ultimate irony is this: Republicans who support the National Rifle Association and its attempts to weaken gun laws are lambasting ATF agents for not seizing enough weapons—ones that, in this case, prosecutors deemed to be legal.
Take a few minutes and read the whole piece.
