NBC News reports on the aftermath of the Republican Party’s losing strategy to put party before country, in a very unpatriotic attempt to make Obama a one-term President by bringing government to a halt, resulting in two years of Doing Nothing and Getting Paid For It:
“By passing just 196 bills into law so far, it is in the running to become the least productive Congress since the 1940s. In fact, that amount is 710 fewer public laws than was produced by the 80th Congress (from 1947-48), which first earned the moniker “Do-Nothing” Congress.
[...] The U.S. House Clerk’s office keeps official records of all congressional activity dating as far back as 1947. During those 65 years and 33 different Congresses, more than 20,000 public laws have been passed. The 104th Congress (1995-1996) currently holds the record low for passing the fewest pieces of legislation since 1947 — just 333 bills were passed into law during that two-year span.
[...] The 107th Congress (2001-2002) is next, passing only 377 new laws during its time in Washington. To avoid earning the distinction as the least productive Congress since 1947, 138 bills must move through the House and Senate before the end of this Congress next month.”
The 113th Congress may not be much better. The Washington Post reports that Eric Cantor released the 2013 schedule for the House, and they’re scheduled to meet ONLY 126 DAYS IN 2013!
House lawmakers are scheduled to meet for 126 days in 2013, a slight increase from this year, but in line with the Republican strategy of giving lawmakers extended periods to spend back home. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) released the schedule for the first session of the 113th Congress on Friday. The Senate has not yet announced its 2013 schedule, but if history is any guide, senators will generally be in session for four-week stretches between recesses. As with both sessions of the 112th Congress, the House will keep with a two-weeks-on, one-week-off plan that was a boon for the 89 GOP freshmen lawmakers who sought reelection this year. Democrats regularly bemoaned the schedule, arguing that lawmakers should have been spending more time in Washington working to address the nation’s struggling economy and that the time spent away from the Capitol contributed to the rancorous, partisan nature of most debates. But Cantor said Friday that lawmakers need the time back home for what his office has dubbed “district work periods.”
First Read via Political Wire: “For those who have departed on their August recess, we salute you — for going down as one of the most unproductive, contentious, and unpopular Congresses in modern history. So in addition to last summer’s debt-ceiling debacle, the Super Committee’s failure, and the near-government shutdown during 2011, Congress has failed to come together to pass a comprehensive farm bill. And Senate Republicans yesterday filibustered a cybersecurity bill.” “
So here’s your current Congress: Republicans are working to block or dismantle laws; Democrats are focusing on protecting what’s already law; and no one is getting stuff done. As we wrote earlier this week, one of the most profound changes on Capitol Hill is the job requirement. It’s no longer about bringing home deliverables to your state or congressional district (like roads, bridges, or new schools). Instead, it’s about scoring ideological points and waging partisan crusades.”
Roll Call: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) this evening rejected a plan offered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to set up a vote on repealing the 2010 health care law before the end of September. “Our Republican friends are hopelessly stuck in the past,” Reid said before objecting to a GOP unanimous consent request. “They continue to want to fight battles that are already over.””
Those teaparty government haters have the greatest jobs in the federal government. Where else can you show up, do nothing, actually hurt the people you’re supposed to be working for, and then take a month-long break? The best thing we can do for our country is to vote them out, put people in who actually want to work for their paycheck, and clean up this huge mistake.
“…on Friday, I signed into law a bill that will do two things for the American people. First, it will keep thousands of construction workers on the job rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure. Second, it will keep interest rates on federal student loans from doubling this year – which would have hit more than seven million students with about a thousand dollars more on their loan payments. Those steps will make a real difference in the lives of millions of Americans. But make no mistake: we’ve got more to do. The construction industry was hit brutally hard when the housing bubble burst. So it’s not enough to just keep construction workers on the job doing projects that were already underway. For months, I’ve been calling on Congress to take half the money we’re no longer spending on war and use it to do some nation-building here at home. There’s work to be done building roads and bridges and wireless networks. And there are hundreds of thousands of construction workers ready to do it…” — The President’s weekly address
…
“Conservatives would have you believe that our disappointing economic performance has somehow been caused by excessive government spending, which crowds out private job creation. But the reality is that private-sector job growth has more or less matched the recoveries from the last two recessions; the big difference this time is an unprecedented fall in public employment, which is now about 1.4 million jobs less than it would be if it had grown as fast as it did under President George W. Bush. And, if we had those extra jobs, the unemployment rate would be much lower than it is — something like 7.3 percent instead of 8.2 percent. It sure looks as if cutting government when the economy is deeply depressed hurts rather than helps the American people.” – Paul Krugman
…
Yesterday at a Fourth of July parade, Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) provedthat one’s elevator doesn’t need to get anywhere close to the top floor to be a Republican Member of the House:
CONSTITUENT: Hi, I’m (inaudible) how are you? Happy Fourth of July. Jesse Jackson, Jr. is passing a bill around to increase the minimum wage to 10 bucks and hour. Do you support that?
YOUNG: Probably not.
CONSTITUENT: 10 bucks, that would give us a living wage.
YOUNG: How about getting a job?
CONSTITUENT: I do have one.
YOUNG: Well, then why do you want that benefit? Get a job.
What I’m saying is, a GOP Congressman doesn’t need to be in possession of all the fries in his Happy Meal to be elected. If Rep. Bill Young and a sack of earthworms were competing on a game show, there’s a real possibility the sack of earthworms would be walking away with the prize money. That said, it’s inevitable that the conservative brain trust of Florida will re-elect this guy again and again and again. ‘Merika!
Right now, we are seven days away from thousands of American workers having to walk off the job because Congress hasn’t passed a transportation bill. We are eight days away from nearly seven and a half million students seeing their loan rates double because Congress hasn’t acted to stop it. [...] This is a time when we should be doing everything in our power – Democrats and Republicans – to keep this recovery moving forward. My Administration is doing its part. On Friday, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced $500 million in competitive grants for states and communities that will create construction jobs on projects like road repair and port renovation. And that’s an important step, but we can’t do it all on our own. The Senate did their part. They passed a bipartisan transportation bill back in March. It had the support of 52 Democrats and 22 Republicans. Now, it’s up to the House to follow suit; to put aside partisan posturing, end the gridlock, and do what’s right for the American people. It’s not lost on any of us that this is an election year. But we’ve got responsibilities that are bigger than an election. We answer to the American people, and they are demanding action. Let’s make it easier for students to stay in college. Let’s keep construction workers rebuilding our roads and bridges. And let’s tell Congress to do their job. Tell them it’s time to take steps that we know will create jobs now and help sustain our economy for years to come. – President Obama
WHAT ROMNEY / REPUBLICANS STAND FOR———————————————
Romney (of all people! see above) quickly blames President Obama for slow job creation, higher unemployment and the nation’s recovery — “Today’s weak jobs report is devastating news for American workers and American families,” Romney said in a statement. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee added: “It is now clear to everyone that President Obama’s policies have failed to achieve their goals and that the Obama economy is crushing America’s middle class.” — Boston.com
The blame game — At a certain level, this is almost amusing. Matt Yglesias noted this morning how “impressed” he is by conservatives’ ability to “pretend to believe Obama is 100% responsible” for all economic developments a year and a half into divided government. He added, “You can’t fake that kind of bulls**t, it takes real conviction.” But we can go further with this. The same Republicans who are blaming monthly job totals on the White House have argued – last year and this year – that GOP measures have improved the economy, and that credit for recent improvements should go to them, not the president. The logic is incoherent: for Republicans, when there’s discouraging economic news, Obama deserves all the blame. When there’s good economic news, Obama deserves none of the credit. Job losses in 2010 were Obama’s fault; job gains in early 2011 and 2012 have nothing do to with Obama; and tepid growth in the spring of 2012 are back to being Obama’s fault again. — Steve Benen
Austerity hurts the country: the GOP continues to push for it, while the media attacks Obama – Economic experts agree that spending cuts in a weak economy hurt the creation of jobs and economic growth. Though Republicans in Congress spent much of 2011 demanding spending cuts, the media are amplifying their attacks on President Obama’s economic record. – MMFA
Why the jobs deficit is more important than the budget deficit – [W]e can’t possibly achieve the growth needed to reduce the budget deficit as a proportion of the total economy unless far more people are employed. Workers are consumers, and consumer spending is 70 percent of economic activity. And cutting the budget means fewer workers, directly (as government continues to shed workers) and indirectly (as government contractors have to lay off workers) and therefore fewer consumers. Yet deficit hawks continue to circle. – Robert Reich
If it weren’t for this destructive fiscal austerity, our unemployment rate would almost certainly be lower now than it was … during the Reagan era. — But one significant factor in our continuing economic weakness is the fact that government in America is doing exactly what both theory and history say it shouldn’t: slashing spending in the face of a depressed economy. In fact, if it weren’t for this destructive fiscal austerity, our unemployment rate would almost certainly be lower now than it was at a comparable stage of the “Morning in America” recovery during the Reagan era. – Paul Krugman
MORE austerity for the rest of us: FIRE SEASON – Congressional budget cuts of over $500m could leave crews scrambling for resources in an already overactive fire season Fire experts are warning that $512m in congressional budget cuts could leave communities dangerously exposed in an early and active fire season. “A person has to wonder. Is this going to be the new norm – frequent record-setting fires, while the number of federal firefighters and air tankers continue to shrink?” wrote Bill Gabbert, a former fire management officer in the Black Hills of South Dakota. – Raw Story
That’s great news when combined with this news: drought expands throughout USA – Only two states — Ohio and Alaska — are entirely free of abnormally dry or drought conditions, according to the Drought Monitor. The drought is expanding into some areas where dryness is rare, such as New England. – USA Today
The USA hasn’t been this dry in five years.
WHAT THE PRESIDENT / DEMOCRATS STAND FOR ————————————
The road NOT taken: The American Jobs Act – It seems like ages ago, but it was just last September when the president delivered an address to a joint session of Congress, laying out a detailed plan to boost job creation. It’s easy to forget, but it was a credible, serious plan — the AJA would have prevented thousands of layoffs for teachers, cops, and firefighters; invested heavily in infrastructure; and cut taxes intended to spur hiring. [...] Despite public clamoring for action on jobs, congressional Republicans reflexively killed the American Jobs Act, saying it was unnecessary. The House wouldn’t bring it up for a vote, and a Republican filibuster killed it in the Senate. For GOP policymakers, this was a time when Washington should stop investing in job creation and start focusing on austerity — lower the deficit, take capital out of the economy, and everything would work out fine. As panic sets in after this morning’s brutal jobs report, take a moment to consider a hypothetical: what would the economy look like today if Congress had followed Obama’s lead, responded to public-opinion polls, and passed the American Jobs Act? In 2012, do you think the nation could use those 1.3 million jobs or not? — Maddow Blog
Steve Benen: The Republican Party’s passive disinterest to the jobs crisis — This is, after all, a Republican-led Congress that has plenty of time to fight a culture war — I’ve lost count of the anti-abortion bills that have reached the House floor, including one yesterday — but has shown passive disinterest to the jobs crisis. Follow this pattern of events:
With the job market struggling, Obama unveils the American Jobs Act, a State of the Union agenda filled with economic measures, and an economic “to-do list.”
Republican lawmakers ignore the proposals, and the job market deteriorates.
The GOP then blames Obama for the failure his policies, which Congress didn’t pass.
Weekly Address: It’s Time for Congress to Get to Work — President Obama speaks to the American people from a Honeywell manufacturing facility in Minnesota about his proposal to make it easier for companies to hire our returning service members for jobs that utilize their skills and help grow our economy. – The White House
…
The insane scenario unfolding before our eyes — Under a Republican president, the United States endured eight years of disastrous economic stewardship—arguably the worst of the post-war era—that nearly led to a second Great Depression. In response, voters elected a Democratic president and gave him huge majorities in both chambers of Congress. Rather than work with the new president, Republicans ran to the right and promised to defeat this president by any means necessary. They abused institutional rules to block nominees, and imposed a de-facto super-majority requirement on all legislation. Republicans rejected stimulus, the automobile rescue, a climate bill built from their ideas, a health care bill built from their ideas, and a reform bill designed to keep the Great Recession from happening again. This was an amazingly successful strategy. It destroyed Democratic standing with the public, energized the right-wing fringe, and led to a historic victory in the House of Representatives. Once in command of the House, Republicans pushed hugely draconian budgets, risked a government shutdown, and nearly caused a second economic collapse by threatening to default on the nation’s debt. This reckless behavior depressed the economy, prolonged the recovery, and destroyed trust in the nation’s political institutions. The Speaker of the House has even promised to do this again, if Democrats don’t bow to his demands for greater spending cuts. Now, those same Republicans—and their enablers—are running to replace President Obama by blaming him for the entirety of our economic situation. – Jamelle Bouie
Gosh, I wonder why the economy is underperforming? Remember all the talk a few years back about how we wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of 1937, when FDR pulled back too soon on support for the economy? Here, from FRED, [...] using rates of growth: Government current expenditures – GDP deflator (the right measure of inflation) – Growth in civilian noninstitutional population [...] So we haven’t seen spending cuts like this since the demobilization that followed the Korean War. — Paul Krugman
Federal Spending, Taxes, and Deficits Are Lower Today Than When Obama Took Office — This is an inconvenient truth. It is inconvenient for Mitt Romney that spending, taxes, and the deficit are all lower today than when President Obama took office. It is inconvenient for liberals (not to mention, really inconvenient for the unemployed) that we’ve been overly aggressive in paring down our deficits even with high unemployment and huge cuts to state and local government. – The Atlantic
WHAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY STANDS FOR TODAY—————————–—
“I like competition, and I think the game is like a sport for old guys. I mean, you know, I can’t compete in competitive sports very well, but I can compete in politics, and there’s the—what was the old ABC ‘Wide World of Sports’ slogan? ‘The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.’ The only difference is victory is still a thrill, but I don’t feel agony in loss.” – Mitt Romney, comparing the presidential election to a game, in an interview by Peggy “Drunk at” Noonan, published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal.
“It’s all in the game, yo. All in the game.”Omar Little
Romney argues big spending cuts would cause ‘Depression,’ contrary to Tea Party activists – While rival schools of economic thought have never agreed on each other’s fundamental principles, over the past several decades, the notion that more government spending helps during a recession had gained broad acceptance. But it has been rejected by Tea Party members of Congress and conservative interest groups like the Club for Growth, who have bemoaned Obama’s stimulus package and other efforts to boost the economy as job-killing government spending. Club for Growth declined to comment for this article. The rhetorical thrust of a sharp distinction between the Tea Party’s demand for big cuts and Obama’s supposed propensity to spend has been a central tenet of the GOP’s political messaging over the past two years. And Romney has run afoul of budget-cut purists before, recently over comments he made during a campaign stop in Michigan. “If you just cut, if all you’re thinking about doing is cutting spending, as you cut spending you’ll slow down the economy,” Romney said, according to MSNBC. That comment prompted this response from Club for Growth lobbyist Andy Roth: “It’s hogwash. It confirms yet again that Romney is not a limited government conservative.” — HuffPo
And so it naturally follows: DC Republicans reinvent themselves as Keynesians to warn of the impending harm to the U.S. economy of cutting government spending. — TPM
A top Mitt Romney campaign adviser on Friday disavowed conspiracy theories pushed by Donald Trump, one of Romney’s most high-profile supporters. The adviser said the campaign could not be held responsible for everything that Romney supporters say. Trump is a birther. He clings to the notion that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, not the United States, despite the fact that this theory has been proven to be baseless. Next week, Romney will be holding an event with Trump. In a CNN interview on Friday, Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom said the campaign was going ahead with the May 29 event despite Trump’s birther views. — HuffPo
Trump still talking about Obama’s place of birth yesterday – “Look, it’s very simple,” said Trump, who has spent the past 13 months questioning Obama’s constitutional eligibility to occupy the White House (and only doubled down with his stubborn skepticism after Obama produced a long-form birth certificate, certifying he was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Hawaii, and then hilariously roasted him at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner. “A book publisher came out three days ago and said that in his written synopsis of his book,” Trump went on, “he said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia. His mother never spent a day in the hospital.” — Lloyd Grove | Daily Beast
Romney-Trump 2012? — Asked Friday in a guest appearance on ABC’s “The View” if he was interested in joining Mitt Romney’s presidential ticket, Donald Trump asked, “Who would turn it down?” – CNN Political Ticker
Let the eagle soar! Paid sick leave for workers: ILLEGAL — Last year, Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and Wisconsin’s Republican legislature approved a law making it illegal for Wisconsin’s cities to require that businesses provide their workers with paid sick days. Milwaukee had crafted a law mandating paid sick leave for workers within the city, but Walker and Wisconsin GOP nullified it. A judge, in ruling that the state had the ability to preempt Milwaukee’s law, said “I don’t feel real good about how this happened politically.” Louisiana’s legislature is now considering a similar bill to preempt local efforts at requiring paid leave for workers… [...] Just a few cities in the country — Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Seattle — along with the state of Connecticut require that workers receive paid sick leave. The United States is all alone in the industrialized world in not requiring some form of paid leave as a matter of national policy. Each year, the U.S. economy loses $180 billion in productivity due to sick employees attending work and infecting other workers. — Think Progress
House GOP plans August vote to extend Bush tax cuts – “Knowing that comprehensive reform will take time, we must ensure that while Congress is working to bring about competitive change, government does not increase the cost of business,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor wrote in a note to Republican representatives on Friday. “Before we leave for August, I expect to schedule a vote on legislation preventing the largest tax increase in history.” – Raw Story
Damage done: The Romney campaign seems to have decided that it can’t repair the damage to his chances with Hispanics post-primary and he’ll focus on getting votes elsewhere. – TPM
WHAT THE PRESIDENT / DEMOCRATS STAND FOR ————————————
“[T]he rate of spending – federal spending increase is lower under President Obama than all of his predecessors since Dwight Eisenhower, including all of his Republican predecessors. That is a fact not often noted in the press and certainly never mentioned by the Republicans. [T]his President has been – has demonstrated significant fiscal restraint and acted with great fiscal responsibility. That is also why he has put forward a balanced plan to further reduce our deficit and debt by over $4 trillion….. I simply make the point, as an editor might say, to check it out; do not buy into the BS that you hear about spending and fiscal constraint [sic] with regard to this administration. I think doing so is a sign of sloth and laziness.” – White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, speaking to the press corps on Wednesday aboard Air Force One
An Obama Spending Spree? Hardly. – The fact that the national debt has risen from $10.6 trillion to $15.6 trillion under Obama’s watch makes for easy partisan attacks. But the vast bulk of the increase was caused by a combination of revenue losses due to the 2008-09 economic downturn as well as Bush-era tax cuts and automatic increases in safety-net spending that were already written into law. Obama’s policies, including the much-criticized stimulus package, have caused the slowest increase in federal spending of any president in almost 60 years, according to data compiled by the financial news service MarketWatch. — TPMDC
Obama calls Romney speech ‘a cow pie of distortion’ – The president said there may be value in Romney’s experience in corporate buyouts, “but it’s not in the White House.” He also noted that the former governor doesn’t talk about his record in Massachusetts. Speaking directly to Iowans, Obama used local lingo to slam Romney: “Governor Romney came to Des Moines last week and warned of a prairie fire of debt,” he said. “But he left out some facts. His speech was more like a cow pie of distortion.” Then he quipped, “I don’t know whose record he twisted the most – mine or his.” — MSNBC
Bill Maher: Obama ‘is a lousy socialist’ — Maher ended Friday night’s “New Rules” segment by calling out the Right’s ridiculous mischaracterization of the President. “…Newt Gingrich called Obama the most radical Leftist President in history. Senator Marco Rubio called him the most divisive figure in American history. Michelle Bachmann said Obama is the most radical President we have ever seen in the history of the country …John Bolton said Obama just doesn’t care about national security. Honestly, there are Mexican drug mules who don’t pull this much stuff out of their ass,” Maher said. Maher, expressing disappointment in Obama’s accomplishments, then said, “If Obama were as radical as they claim, here’s what he would have already done: Pulled the troops out of Afghanistan, given us ‘Medicare for all,’ ended the drug war, cut the defense budget in half, and turned Dick Cheney over to the Hague.” – Raw Story
Such a surprise. Congress is collectively stupider, thanks to the Tea Party electing the dumbest politicians available:
American Idiots: Congress Dumbs Itself Down One Full Grade Level: Congress appears to be getting collectively dumber. The Sunlight foundation analyzed Congressional speech and found that over the past seven years they’ve gone from talking like high school juniors to sophomores. While many factors account for the full-grade level drop off, the study found that the 2010 freshman class of Tea Party Republicans are partly responsible for spreading the stupid. As NPR points out: “Of the 10 members speaking at the lowest grade level, all but two are freshmen, and every one is a Republican.”
How did they get voted in? Take a look at their constituency:
1) Being in Congress loses its thrill for some lawmakers - For members of Congress, the thrill is gone. They don’t make national policy anymore. They can’t earmark money for communities back home. The public hates them. And perks little and big, from private jet travel to a little free nosh now and then, have been locked down by ethics rules. As they head for the exits this year, many leaving Congress say the prestigious job of being a congressman sucks now, and that’s why lawmakers young and old are trading in their member pins for a new life in the private sector.
2) What is Congress “doing” this week? - Afghanistan: Lawmakers expressed condolences and concern on the Sunday morning political talk shows in response to the news that a U.S. soldier allegedly opened fire on Afghan civilians inside homes before turning himself in. There are several Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committee hearings scheduled for this week that could serve as venues for senators to raise further concerns or skepticism about the war. [...] Fixing Congress: The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee plans to hold a hearing Wednesday to review several pieces of legislation that would change how Congress handles the budgetmaking process, including a proposal known as “No Budget, No Pay.” (GET THIS: from this same article, the Republicans say to expect three major endorsements for Romney. They consider that “doing something.” That’s “work” to them.)
Even mild global warming could completely melt Greenland’s ice cap - The Greenland icesheet is more sensitive to global warming than thought, for just a relatively small — but very long term — temperature rise would melt it completely, according to a study published on Sunday. [...] Greenland is second to Antarctica as the biggest source of locked-up water on land. If it melted completely, this would drive up sea levels by 7.2 metres (23.6 feet), swamping deltas and low-lying islands. [image: NASA]
Fourth Warmest Winter On Record For The U.S. - February is gone, and the non-winter of 2011 – 2012 is the history books as the fourth warmest in U.S. history, said NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center yesterday. The winter average temperature of 36.8°F was just 0.4°F cooler than the warmest winter on record, the winter of 1999 – 2000. If you lived in the Northern Plains, Midwest, Southeast and Northeast, it seemed like winter never really arrived this year–27 states in this region had top-ten warmest winters.
4) LOL Rick Santorum: ‘I’d like everybody to get out’ of race - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has a foolproof plan to win the GOP nomination: He wants everybody else to just quit. On Sunday, NBC host David Gregory asked the candidate if he would like to see former House Speaker Newt Gingrich drop out if he loses upcoming primaries in Alabama and Mississippi. “I’d like everybody to get out,” Santorum admitted. “That’d be great if they could just clear the field.” “Congressman Gingrich can stay in, the Speaker can stay in as long as he wants, but I think the better opportunity to make sure we nominate a conservative is to give us an opportunity to go head to head with Gov. [Mitt] Romney at some point. Hopefully that will occur sooner rather than later.” [image: thatslayerchick]
5) Chris Matthews: The GOP is ‘treating women like they’re not really voters’ - Chris Matthews displayed Sunday morning his bemusement for the Republican Party’s comments and behavior towards women so far during the 2012 presidential campaign. “One of the time warps these days is watching Republicans ignore the simple fact that women vote and are the majority voters,” he said on his weekly show. “I do think it’s odd the way we’re talking about contraception — by the way, as if that’s only a women’s issue, it’s a male female issue, obviously — and treating women like they’re not really voters.”
Centrist Women Tell of Disenchantment With Republicans- Deborah R. Stevens, a self-described “dyed in the wool” Republican, said she felt hopeless. “I’m looking for a candidate that will be honest, that will come out and say, ‘Yes, I support women, I want you advanced and not trampled upon,’ ” said Ms. Stevens, 63, who lives near Myrtle Beach, S.C. “I want answers desperately. I want candidates to tell me, ‘I’m not overturning Roe v. Wade.’ It’s there. Leave it there.” Ms. Russell, who changed her political views at the baby shower, said she was impressed with how Mr. Obama handled his administration’s compromise over the much-debated birth control policy, saying, “I think he’s more of a women’s candidate.” Mr. Romney’s reaction to Mr. Limbaugh’s statements about the Georgetown student cemented a negative view of him. “I expected him to have the guts to stand up and say what Rush did was wrong,” she said. “Wrong, wrong, wrong in every sense of the word wrong.” A rally for women’s rights in San Diego on Thursday drew Jessica Lopez, 27, a registered independent who said she voted for President George W. Bush in 2004. Ms. Lopez said her choice this year became clear amid the Republican debate on contraception and abortion. “This has really energized me, that I need to get more involved with the Obama campaign,” she said. Ms. Lopez added: “The G.O.P. has never been so clear about their agenda for women. I’m afraid if we get a Republican president, my health will be up to their personal discretion.”
Hysterical Womenfolk All On The Rag Despite Gallantries of The GOP - You would think the women of America — particularly “right-leaning” women who voted for George W. Bush and John McCain — would understand when the great big strong menfolk tell them not to worry their pretty little heads about things like “their bodies” and “not being filthy whores.” But in a shocking twist that nobody could have predicted, it seems “women,” if there even is such a thing, are catching themselves a little case of the sulks! Ladies are now stealthily congregating at baby showers and beauty parlors and, we don’t know, shoe stores? and morphing into Obama-voting communists, just because the Republican party patiently explained to them that a man’s place is at the head of the household, and a woman’s place is in A Handmaid’s Tale. [...] In happier news for the GOP, recent polling suggests that fully one-third of women still want the Republicans to control Congress. They will get a special treat tonight. Maybe a new vacuum.
6) GOOSE / GANDER / FAIRPLAY TURNABOUT AND WHAT NOT:Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, men would have to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency, if state Sen. Nina Turner has her way. The Cleveland Democrat introduced Senate Bill 307 this week. A critic of efforts to restrict abortion and contraception for women, Turner says she is concerned about men’s reproductive health… Turner said if state policymakers want to legislate women’s health choices through measures such as House Bill 125, known as the ‘Heartbeat bill,’ they should also be able to legislate men’s reproductive health.
Oklahama Democrat Adds ‘Every Sperm Is Sacred’ Amendment to Personhood Bill- Oklahoma state senator Constance Johnson has a great sense of humor. To poke fun at the sheer absurdity of the Personhood Amendment which would give zygotes the same rights as extra-utero-American citizens, Senator Johnson added the following language as an amendment to the bill: However, any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.
The Rectal Probe amendment- To protest a bill that would require women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion, Virginia State Sen. Janet Howell (D-Reston) on Monday attached an amendment that would require men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication.
A bill that would ban Georgia males from seeking vasectomies - From the press release: “Thousands of children are deprived of birth in this state every year because of the lack of state regulation over vasectomies,” said Rep. Yasmin Neal, author of the bill. “It is patently unfair that men can avoid unwanted fatherhood by presuming that their judgment over such matters is more valid than the judgment of the General Assembly, while women’s ability to decide is constantly up for debate throughout the United States.”
Charles P. Pierce looks at Limbaugh’s fauxpology and gives us a thought experiment:
Rush Limbaugh unloads his weepy pilonoidal cyst of an intellect in this fashion on your daughter. Then, as his advertisers run screaming into the night, and as even his acolytes among Republican politicians can barely summon up the will to offer quarter-assed statements on the whole matter, he finally issues a statement wherein he, essentially, apologizes for:
1) Using the word “slut,” rather than, one supposes, “trollop,” “slattern,” or “lady of the town.”
2) For having far too sophisticated a sense of humor for the rest of us to comprehend.
3) For failing clearly to explain his deeply serious political philosophy regarding what is proper to discuss before Congress in these “very serious political times.” This, as the redoubtable Heather Parton points out, is a fairly recent development in his thinking.
Does any of that remotely constitute an “apology” to you for what he said about your daughter? Does any of that make you more likely to trust in the good faith of anything this Viagra-sponging pillhead says in the foreseeable future?
This new Rush-determined-appropriateness, with regard to subjects that should and should not be discussed in the hallowed halls of Congress, could have some unforeseeable backlash for conservatives. Here’s my thought experiment:
Imagine if some pro-life woman wants to discuss the issue of abortion and her choice not to have one in front of Congress. What if we all began speculating and lying about her private sex life. After all a simple testimony about birth control being covered by health insurance with co-pays suggested wild and unrestrained slutty sex and prostitution and sex tapes on the Internet to Rush Limbaugh — and his fanboys were eager to defend that disgusting line of reasoning.
So a discussion before Congress about abortions (or choosing not to have one) would certainly entail speculation on the details (probably and necessarily fictional) on the slutty sexy times that led to the “knocking up” of the woman who’s testifying. Here would be a woman who would be admitting she did not put a Bayer aspirin between her knees, as is typically required in the GOP. Wouldn’t that be like taking a Jerry Springer show before Congress — how inappropriate!
Limbaugh is telling us that, with regard to issues that are exclusively female concerns — getting pregnant, not getting pregnant, birth — we can all just make shit up to make a “joke” or “very profound point” with “absurdity” about individual women. Limbaugh decided that a young woman talking about health insurance plans covering birth control in Congress wasn’t “appropriate.” But he really wanted to shut that slut up. He’d like to shut us all up.
1) Average Corporate Tax Rate Falls to 12%, Lowest in Decades - Corporations in the U.S. paid only an average of 12.1 percent in taxes on the profits they earned inside the U.S in fiscal 2011, according to statistics from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The Wall Street Journal reports that it’s the lowest percentage corporations have paid on those profits since at least 1972, and it’s less than half of the 25.6 percent they paid on average between 1987 and 2008. [...] In an interview with NBC earlier this year, Romney flat-out stated lied that President Barack Obama had raised taxes on corporations. “If you want to get the economy going, lower corporate tax rates,” he said. “He’s raised them.” || Note: Meanwhile, corporate profits are at a60 year high.
2)“The federal government, as one of the nation’s largest employers, must set a standard of basic fairness. Contrary to portrayals of ‘generous’ federal benefits, federal employees do not receive paid dental or vision coverage or paid parental leave, nor do they get rich off their pensions. The typical lifetime federal employee will have an annuity from the defined benefit of approximately $1,000 per month. The government’s 401(k)-like fund, the Thrift Savings Plan, may provide around $400 per month if the average employee is able to contribute 5 percent of his or her salary for 30 years. While many private-sector entities have taken to eliminating or slashing health insurance and retirement benefits, especially for low-paid employees, our leaders should not support a race to the bottom for working Americans. Rather, they should seek out ways to increase economic and retirement security for those who may never be able to retire.” – National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley blasts CBO federal pay study
3) J.C. Penney stands behind Ellen DeGeneres - J.C. Penney is turning its back on One Million Moms, a group which called for the retailer to dump talk show host Ellen DeGeneres as its national spokeswoman because she is gay.
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4) What Caused This Year’s Deficit? Hint: It Wasn’t an Obama ‘Spending Binge’ - The federal budget deficit will again exceed $1 trillion this fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office reported today. That news is sure to trigger another round of condemnations from politicians and pundits who have a political or ideological interest in pinning these deficits on the domestic spending policies of President Barack Obama. Unfortunately for them, today’s report—along with dozens of other similar CBO reports in recent years—actually proves the opposite—that the current deficit is overwhelmingly the result of two factors: events that occurred before President Obama took office and tax cuts.
5) Santorum: Iran would nuke Missouri- Rick Santorum warned that if Iran procures a nuclear weapon, it would pose a threat even to Missouri. “Once they have a nuclear weapon, let me assure you, you will not be safe, even here in Missouris,” Santorum said Friday at a campaign stop in the Show Me State. “These are folks who have been and are at war with us since 1979. This is a country that has killed more troops in Afghanistan and Iraq than the Iraqis and Afghans.”
6) Obama urges passage of mortgage relief - US President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to approve his plan to provide relief to millions of homeowners who are having trouble paying mortgages. “In order to lower mortgage payments for millions of Americans, we need Congress to act,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. “They’re the ones who have to pass this plan.” The $5-10-billion plan, showcased by Obama this past week, would be financed by a portion of a fee on the most wealthy US banks.
7) EXCLUSIVE: Ari Fleischer Secretly Helped Guide Komen Strategy On Planned Parenthood- Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush and prominent right-wing pundit, secretly helped guide Komen Foundation’s disastrous strategy regarding Planned Parenthood. Fleischer personally interviewed candidates for the position of “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations” at Komen last December. According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen’s relationship with Planned Parenthood.
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8) Activists report Homs massacre, as U.N. Security Council mulls vote - Government forces “committed one of the most horrific massacres since the beginning of the uprising in Syria,” killing at least 260 civilians over the past day, the opposition Syrian National Council said Saturday. “During the attack, residential buildings and homes were randomly and heavily bombed,” the group said.
U.N. Security Council to meet on Syria as deaths mount - More than 200 people were reported killed in Syria, hours before the U.N. Security Council was scheduled to meet and likely vote on a draft resolution intended to pressure the government there to end its months-long crackdown on demonstrators, diplomats said. The meeting was scheduled to start at 10 a.m. ET Saturday. It was not clear which way Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, would vote.
9) Will Nevada give Romney a second straight victory? - Coming off a 14-point victory over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the rest of the GOP field in Tuesday’s Florida Republican primary, the former Massachusetts governor is considered the odds-on-favorite to win Nevada’s caucuses. [...] According to exit polls from the ’08 caucus, Mormons made up a quarter of the electorate, and Romney, who’s a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints, won 95% of their vote.
10) Romney to Nevadans: I Don’t Know ‘What The Purpose is’ of Public Lands - Public lands in Nevada – and other western states—actually provide an enormous economic boost and sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs. Indeed, recent Interior Department statistics show that federally managed public lands in Nevada provided over $1 billion in economic impacts and supported 13,311 jobs in 2010. This statistic doesn’t even include the economic impacts of Forest Service lands, managed by the Department of Agriculture).
The GOP is like the guy who keeps challenging people to fight him and then cries when he gets all beat up.
They’re also fretting about their presidential candidates, no doubt.
(Courtesy Politico)
I don’t know why the Republican / Teaparty Representatives hate the government. They get to do nothing, for years, and still draw a government paycheck every two weeks. No ideas, no solutions, no compromise with ‘the enemy,’ get paid.
It’s a great job, if you can convince enough dumb-asses to vote you in.
Yesterday at a Fourth of July parade, 
House GOP plans August vote to extend Bush tax cuts – “Knowing that comprehensive reform will take time, we must ensure that while Congress is working to bring about competitive change, government does not increase the cost of business,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor wrote in a note to Republican representatives on Friday. “Before we leave for August, I expect to schedule a vote on legislation preventing the largest tax increase in history.” – 
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Even mild global warming could completely melt Greenland’s ice cap
Fourth Warmest Winter On Record For The U.S.
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Centrist Women Tell of Disenchantment With Republicans
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Oklahama Democrat Adds ‘Every Sperm Is Sacred’ Amendment to Personhood Bill
The Rectal Probe amendment 
A bill that would ban Georgia males from seeking vasectomies
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