Month: November 2014

Republicans Warn That Immigration Order Will Foment Anarchy and Violence among Their Base – Obama Tells Them, ‘Pass a Bill’

Jon Ponder
S. 744, a bill to reform immigration, passed with bipartisan votes in the Senate in June 2013, but House Republicans refused to put it up for a vote

Last night Pres. Obama unveiled his executive order to defer the deportations of 4.4 million undocumented residents, allow spouses of green-card holders to apply for legal status, make it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to get visas and more.

Today, predictably, Republicans are in full lather trying to shift public attention away from the fact that they have no alternative plan for immigration reform — and, worse, that for a year and a half House Republicans have been sitting on the immigration bill — Senate bill S. 744, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill — that passed the Senate with bipartisan votes in June 2013.

Instead of proposing an alternative to the president’s order, the GOP strategy is to focus public attention on the process — Obama’s executive action — by claiming, falsely, that the order is illegal. In fact, presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush also signed executive orders deferring deportations, and Republican presidents Eisenhower, Ford and George W. Bush also made unilateral changes to immigration procedures through executive orders.

The Republican leadership is making a calculation that by ginning up rage at the president over the order, they can avoid having to take a substantive position on immigration, even if the derangement they foment drives their racist base to violence and anarchy, as Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn and others have predicted.

[…]

GOP Senator: Facts about Legality of President’s Executive Order Don’t Matter to Republicans

Jon Ponder
Watch the video below the fold
Watch the video below the fold

In an interview with Susan Page at USAToday, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., warned that the Republicans’ base might be provoked into violence, if Pres. Obama signs an executive order on immigration, as planned:

The country’s going to go nuts, because they’re going to see it as a move outside the authority of the president, and it’s going to be a very serious situation,” Coburn said on Capital Download. “You’re going to see — hopefully not — but you could see instances of anarchy. … You could see violence.”

Coburn appeared on on MSNBC’s right-wing gabfest, “Morning Joe,” to clarify his remarks. In doing so, however, he committed a classic Kinsey gaffe — meaning he inadvertently told the truth:

I just… you know .. Joe, I just think, ah, the President oughta walk into this a lot more slowly, especially after an election. This idea, the rule of law, is really concerning a lot of people where I come from. And whether it’s factual or perceptual, it really doesn’t matter. And the glue that holds our country together is this common belief in the rule of law. [Emphasis added.]

A Republican senator admitted on their show that facts were irrelevant to his party’s base. What was the reaction from Scarborough, his cohost Mika Brzezinski and Jeremy Peters, the New York Times reporter whose turn it was next to ask Coburn a question?

[…]

Keystone XL Will Add the Number of Permanent Jobs the U.S Economy Makes Every 10 Minutes

Buck Banks

10 minutes, 9 seconds

Time it takes the U.S. economy to create 50 jobs in 2014 — that’s the number of permanent jobs the Keystone XL pipeline would create after its completion, reports the Washington Post. The U.S. economy has been averaging 229,000 new jobs per month since January, and at that rate, it would take less than one week to create the 42,000 temporary jobs Keystone supporters tout.

Democratic Support for Keystone XL Is About One, Not 42,000, Jobs

Buck Banks

Hardened cynics, we will also note one job-related reason that this issue is even being discussed today. When Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) political position became obviously tenuous after Election Day, Senate Democrats quickly began pushing forward Keystone XL approval in the hopes that it would help her chances in next month’s runoff against Rep. Bill Cassidy (R). Between Election Day and December 6th, the economy will probably create over 200,000 jobs without the Senate doing anything. The question on Capitol Hill appears to be if the vote will save one short-term job: Landrieu’s.

— Philip Bump, writing on Washington Post’s The Fix political blog.

Malloy Explains How He Survived the Midterms

Buck Banks

I was never going to run away from the president. It was not even in consideration. I support the president. I think the president has been right. I mean, look at the numbers, look at the job growth, sustained job growth—the greatest in American history. The. Greatest. In. American. History. Why didn’t people run on that?

— Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D), quoted by the Daily Beast, on why he was one of the few Democrats who survived the 2014 midterm elections.

McConnell Believes in Science — When It Suits Him

Buck Banks

Those who took a serious look at the science and the potential benefits reached the conclusion long ago. They understand that the whole drama over Keystone has been as protracted as it is unnecessary. We hope to turn the page on all of that today.

— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who regularly deflects questions about climate change by saying he is “not a scientist,” the New Republic reports. “But apparently McConnell will make an exception when it comes to the Keystone XL pipeline. In remarks on the Senate floor, hours before a vote on a bill that fast-tracks construction of the pipeline, McConnell pointed to the ‘science’ supporting the legislation.”

Landrieu Only Participated in 30 Percent of Energy Committee Hearings

Buck Banks

30

Percentage of energy committee hearing and subcommittee meetings at which Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) spoke or submitted written testimony or questions between 2009 and November 2014, according to an analysis of congressional records, videos and transcripts by Bloomberg. Yet she “is presenting herself as a leading voice for Louisiana on energy issues in the U.S. Capitol, showcasing her inside influence by forcing a Senate vote on a bill that would allow construction of the Keystone pipeline, a project backed by industries and voters in her state.”