December 2012 - Page 8 of 11

McConnell’s Embarassing Stunt: Forced to Filibuster Himself

December 7, 2012December 7, 2012 Jon Ponder

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced legislation to raise the debt ceiling on Thursday, apparently with the intent of showing that even Democrats would not support such a bill.

However, McConnell’s plan backfired after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) called for a vote on the legislation, which would have given the president the authority to raise the federal debt ceiling on his own. The top Senate Republican was forced to filibuster his own bill.

“What we have here is a case of Republicans here in the Senate once again not taking ‘yes’ for an answer,” Reid said, after McConnell announced his filibuster. “This morning the Republican leader asked consent to have a vote on this proposal, just now I told everyone we were willing to have that vote — up or down vote. Now the Republican leader objects to his own idea. So I guess we have a filibuster of his own bill, so I object.”

After Railing against the Individual Mandate for Years, Top Teabagger Jim DeMint Quits Senate to Lead Organization That Invented the Individual Mandate

December 6, 2012December 8, 2012 Jon Ponder

In 2009, not long after Pres. Obama and the Democrats opted to forgo the single-payer option for health-insurance reform and go instead with the conservatives’ option of mandating that individuals must buy insurance from insurance corporations, the right wing abruptly disavowed their own plan, even going so far as to label it “socialism” and demonize it by referring to it as Obamacare.

Few pols and propagandists were more persistent in pushing the false narrative that Obamacare and its individual mandate were jack-booted socialism than the top teabagger in the Senate, Jim DeMint of South Carolina. Now, in one of those ironic turns in politics that you couldn’t possibly make up, DeMint has announced he is resigning from the Senate to run the same right-wing “thimk” tank that invented the individual mandate back in 1993, the Heritage Foundation.

[…]

If Michelle Obama Runs for Senate, She Already Leads Opponent by Double Digits

December 6, 2012 Buck Banks

51% to 40%

Spread by which Michelle Obama already leads Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), if she decides she wants to follow the Hillary Clinton path once her husband leaves office in January 2017 and run for U.S. Senate, a new Public Policy Polling survey finds.

Rand Paul Disses Ashley Judd

December 6, 2012 Buck Banks

I heard she lives in Scotland. I thought she was running for Parliament.

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in an interview on WMAL, about actress Ashley Judd (D) possibly running for U.S. Senate in Kentucky. He added that she was “way damn too liberal for our country, for our state.”

Obama’s Approval Rating Soars After Re-Election

December 6, 2012 Buck Banks

53% to 40%

President Obama’s current approval rating, his best score in three years, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Voters also trust Obama and Democrats more than Republicans, by a 53% to 36% margin, to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”

Ryan Coy About 2016 Prez Bid

December 6, 2012 Buck Banks

I’ve decided not to decide. You can’t hold on forever doing that, but I’ve decided to focus on my family and my job.

— Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), talking to Time about a possible 2016 presidential bid, something his advisers “admit he is eyeing” and “something other Republicans say is virtually a given.”

Why Hillary Clinton Is Already the 2016 Frontrunner

December 6, 2012 Buck Banks

I have no clue whether or not Hillary Clinton will run for the presidency in 2016, but I would argue that she would be the strongest non-incumbent frontrunner in modern history upon inspection of the primary landscape… 1. Clinton’s polling at a record 61% in the early primary field… 2. Clinton is on her way to winning the endorsement primary… 3. Clinton has organization in the early primary states… 4. Clinton isn’t going to make an idiotic statement… 5. Clinton’s got the demographics on her side.

— Harry Enten, writing in the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper.

Urge to Purge

December 6, 2012 Buck Banks

If there’s one thing Republicans value, it’s fealty,
Which can lead, at times, to a harsh reality.
At Speaker Boehner’s urging,
Some committees got a purging —
Not, he said, for ideology, but lack of loyalty.

Slight Majority of Americans Support Same-Gender Marriage

December 6, 2012 Buck Banks

53%

of Americans say same-sex marriage should be legal, tying the record high, while 46% say it should not, according to Gallup.Americans who oppose same-sex marriage are most likely to cite religion or the Bible as the reason.

Moore Took $800k in Tax Incentives to Make Anti-Corporate Welfare Documentary

December 5, 2012 Buck Banks

$841,145

Amount filmmaker Michael Moore received in tax incentives from the State of Michigan to make “Capitalism: A Love Story,” a documentary against corporate welfare, the New York Times reports.

51% to 40%

Spread by which Michelle Obama already leads Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), if she decides she wants to follow the Hillary Clinton path once her husband leaves office in January 2017 and run for U.S. Senate, a new Public Policy Polling survey finds.

I heard she lives in Scotland. I thought she was running for Parliament.

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in an interview on WMAL, about actress Ashley Judd (D) possibly running for U.S. Senate in Kentucky. He added that she was “way damn too liberal for our country, for our state.”

53% to 40%

President Obama’s current approval rating, his best score in three years, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Voters also trust Obama and Democrats more than Republicans, by a 53% to 36% margin, to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”

I’ve decided not to decide. You can’t hold on forever doing that, but I’ve decided to focus on my family and my job.

— Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), talking to Time about a possible 2016 presidential bid, something his advisers “admit he is eyeing” and “something other Republicans say is virtually a given.”

— Harry Enten, writing in the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper.

53%

of Americans say same-sex marriage should be legal, tying the record high, while 46% say it should not, according to Gallup.Americans who oppose same-sex marriage are most likely to cite religion or the Bible as the reason.

$841,145

Amount filmmaker Michael Moore received in tax incentives from the State of Michigan to make “Capitalism: A Love Story,” a documentary against corporate welfare, the New York Times reports.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“If you are committing fraud against the American people, all of us in public leadership should be trying to stop it and throw you in prison for enriching yourself off the American taxpayer.”

— Vice President JD Vance, on Fox News.

“Your generation has a great bullshit meter, because you’re fed bullshit online all day. And the Democratic Party brand right now is so bullshit.”

— Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D), quoted by The Atlantic, speaking to college students.

“We are done, Americans are done with endless conflict in the Middle East, spending trillions of dollars, American lives… this is insane and we have to call it for what it is.”

— Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), on CNN.

Numerati

+175,000

“The U.S. State Department announced on Monday that it has revoked more than 175,000 visas during President Donald Trump’s administration so far,” Fox News reports.

$4,600

11

30%

A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.

61% to 35%