Month: October 2013

GOP-Controlled North Carolina Becomes First State to Suspend Welfare Payments Because of Republican Shutdown

Jon Ponder

The North Carolina Republican Party’s war on the state’s poor people got a boost from the congressional GOP’s shutdown of the federal government on Monday. The shutdown gave the tea partyists who run North Carolina an excuse for suspending welfare payments in November:

North Carolina on Monday suspended its Work First program, formerly known as welfare, because of the federal shutdown in Washington.

County social service agencies stopped processing new applications for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families because federal monies are expected to dry up by November unless Congress can reach a deal for funding the federal government.

The Department of Health and Human Services sent out a letter Thursday to county social service directors telling them to stop processing new applications as well as re-certifications for November.

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Lindsey Graham Pleads with Dems to Show Mercy on Republicans

Pensito Editors

We won’t be the last political party to overplay our hand. It might happen one day on the Democratic side. And if it did, would Republicans, for the good of the country, kinda give a little? We really did go too far. We screwed up. But their response is making things worse, not better.

– Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., begging Democrats to go easy on Republicans, who are in trouble with voters because they shut down the government and are threatening to default on the national debt.

News Anchor Asks Tea Party Rep: ‘Do You Hate Obamacare More Than You Love Your Country?’

Jon Ponder

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A member of the Fourth Estate finally asked a tea party Republican a question that cuts to the heart of their latest manufactured crisis. The exchange occurred today when MSBNC’s Thomas Roberts interviewed the eternally unctuous Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn:

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I’m Not Part of the New American Center, and I’m OK with That

Buck Banks

Esquire magazine has a new study out that claims that the American electorate is actually not divided into liberal and conservative extremes, but instead has a big, fat middle: A new Esquire-NBC News survey “shows us that everything we are told about politics in America today — that there is no middle ground between left and right, blue and red, us and them — is wrong… there is a large group of American voters — even a majority — who make up a New American Center that is passionate, persuadable, and very real. They are merely waiting for Washington to find them.”

They even provide an online survey to enable you to see where you fall on the continuum. I took it and — no surprise here — ended up in the progressive camp. Where are you on the political playing field?

Cook: Where’s the Adult Behavior and Respect for Office?

Buck Banks

Increasingly we are seeing more members, in both chambers and both parties, leadership as well as rank and file, who seem to have little sense of customs, traditions, and responsibilities of the institutions that they have been given the honor or privilege to serve. We are seeing more and more behavior and tactics that truly bring disgrace on the institution. Much of the same can be said about this White House as well …. There is nothing new about divided government; it has been the rule more than the exception for much of modern history. But how it is handled has changed — we aren’t seeing adult behavior from any of the three corners of this House-Senate-White House triumvirate.

— Pundit Charlie Cook.

Will Marriage Equality Come to North Carolina Next?

Trish

After Republicans hijacked North Carolina’s general assembly, an anti marriage equality constitutional amendment was presented to voters, and it passed. But with the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which ended the ridiculous Defense of Marriage Act, some local officials are doing the right thing anyway.

[Buncombe County Register of Deeds Drew] Reisinger told Reuters: “Lord knows I’ve had a handful of close friends who are in same-sex relationships come in and ask for a marriage license. It’s hard to get the words out to tell them, ‘No.'”

He said licenses were sought by six same-sex couples, including a lesbian couple together for 20 years whose request had been repeatedly denied.

“I have concerns about whether we are violating people’s civil rights based on this summer’s Supreme Court decision,” said Reisinger, 30, who is married and was elected to his post in Asheville, North Carolina, three years ago.

In Pennsylvania, Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who also is a Democrat, said in July she would not defend her state’s ban on gay marriage in a case before federal court in Pennsylvania, calling it “wholly unconstitutional.”

Reisinger’s office issued a statement formally requesting the North Carolina attorney general’s review.

Plumber Joe Wants a White Republican President Because He’s an American

Buck Banks

Admit it. You want a white Republican president again. Now before you start feeling like you’re a racist, understand you are not. Wanting a white Republican president doesn’t make you racist, it just makes you American.

— Joe “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher, the everyman used by John McCain in the 2008 presidential campaign, in a new post on his website.