Tuesday, August 06, 2013

HEADS WE WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE

It's just how they roll

 http://thehill.com/video/sunday-shows/315431-king-terror-threat-a-wake-up-call
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) . . . “I’ve had problems with the administration on different issues. But what they are doing now is what has to be done. They’d be derelict if they were not. And you know we can’t criticize them for doing too little with Benghazi and now criticize them for doing too much.“



 
They won't stop until we stop them

 http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/report-fl-gov-rick-scott-to-launch-new
FL Gov. Rick Scott To Launch New Voter Roll ‘Purge’

 More: http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/05/19881209-floridas-scott-readies-second-disgusting-voter-purge

 RNC declares war on the networks

 http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/rnc-to-networks-drop-hillary-productions-well-pull
RNC To CNN, NBC: Drop Hillary Films Or We’ll Pull Presidential Primary Debates

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/05/1228987/-RNC-threatens-to-nix-2016-primary-debates-on-CNN-NBC-and-MSNBC

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/08/rnc-makes-threats-over-cnn-nbc-clinton-shows.html

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/08/priebus-rnc-nbc-hillary-miniseries
 
CNN responds: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/cnn-to-rnc-premature-decision-to-limit-debates
Puzzled over what they say would be a "premature" decision to pull several 2016 presidential primary debates should a documentary on Hillary Clinton go forward, CNN on Monday called on the RNC to "reserve judgment" before committing what they call the "ultimate disservice to voters." . . .

 I say, call their bluff

 http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/08/reince_priebus_threatens_nbc_and_cnn_the_republican_party_will_refuse_to.html 
Why Republican candidates should only debate each other on Fox News.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/08/05/gop-threatens-to-retreat-deeper-into-closed-information-feedback-loop/

A very disturbing trend
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/05/1229059/-NSA-shares-surveillance-data-with-Justice-Department-for-criminal-nbsp-cases 
NSA shares surveillance data with Justice Department for criminal cases

 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/05/1229002/-The-big-cover-up-How-the-DEA-uses-domestic-spying-to-poison-justice

More: http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/08/05/us-justice-a-rotting-tree-of-poisonous-fruit/

 http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/08/05/about-the-reuters-dea-special-operations-division-story

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/08/reuters-nsa-secretly-helping-drug-agencies-target-us-persons

 Well, this complicates the narrative

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/report-tamerlan-tsarnaev-was-in-possession-of-right 
Tamerlan Tsarnaev Was In Possession Of Right-Wing Literature

More: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/bbc-boston-bomber-had-literature-about-white 

Mitch McConnell's re-election campaign is going to be one of the nation's nastiest

 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/05/1229050/-Mitch-McConnell-unites-tea-party-and-Democrats-at-Fancy-Farm
Inside Washington, Mitch McConnell isn't good for much of anything aside from dysfunction and gridlock. But at this weekend's traditional Fancy Farm in Kentucky, he proved he can get the tea party and Democrats to finally agree on something: He's been in office for way, way too long and it's time to go.. . .

 http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/08/mitch-mcconnell-reelection-shutdown-default.php
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s re-election battle against a credible conservative opponent upends congressional politics in a way that makes it harder to avoid a government shutdown and debt default. In the past, the Kentucky Republican has had a knack for cutting deals at the last minute to break impasses and avert fiscal crises.

This time around — as federal government funding expires Sept. 30 and as the U.S. brushes up against the debt limit in the fall — playing that role could end his career. . .

 In the primary: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_08/despicable_mitch_in_action046217.php

 The Democratic opponent: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3036697/#52679749
Alison Lundergan Grimes

Bonus item: A man of principle

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/05/rep-ted-yoho-tanning-tax-is-a-racist-tax-against-white-people
Rep. Ted Yoho: Tanning tax is a racist tax — against white people

More: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/rep-yoho-obamacare-racist-because-white-peop 

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL: http://pbd.blogspot.com

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Monday, August 05, 2013

NOBODY'S IN CHARGE

Republicans run wild

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/us/politics/gop-governors-warn-party-members-in-congress-not-to-shut-government.html 
G.O.P. Governors Warn Party Members in Congress Not to Shut Government

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/08/05/house-republicans-might-cut-off-their-partys-nose-to-spite-its-face-on-immigration/
House Republicans might cut off their party’s nose to spite its face on immigration

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/cantor-government-doesnt-create-jobs
Cantor: 'The Government Doesn't Create Jobs'

 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/05/the-republican-party-isn-t-conservative-enough.html
The Republican Party Isn’t Conservative Enough

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/ted-cruzs-claim-that-the-1995-96-government-shutdown-was-good-for-the-gop/2013/08/03/9cd6085e-fbbe-11e2-9bde-7ddaa186b751_blog.html
Ted Cruz’s claim that the 1995-96 government shutdown was good for the GOP

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/chaos-looms
The trouble is that it’s hard to give this issue anything like the amount of coverage it deserves on substantive grounds without repeating oneself. So I do try to mix it up. But neither you nor I should forget that the madness of the GOP is the central issue of our time. . . .

In case you missed the Sunday talk shows 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/04/sunday-morning-liveblog_n_3703765.html

Bonus item: The Daily Show on the GOP on the minimum wage issue

 http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/daily-show-shreds-fox-news-on-minimum.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL: http://pbd.blogspot.com

I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
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Sunday, August 04, 2013

HOSTILE TAKEOVER

We're seeing a war for control of the Republican party -- it's generational, it's ideological, and it's a death-struggle between two conceptions of the purpose of politics 

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/republicans-go-on-attack----against-others-in-gop.php
The barbs are personal, the differences are multiplying among Republicans, a party divided over spending, foreign policy, a willingness to risk a government shutdown in order to defund the health care law and more. . .

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/which-direction-for-the-fractious-gop/2013/08/03/24d1e68a-fc3f-11e2-9bde-7ddaa186b751_story.html
The politicians who will seek to lead the Republican Party into 2016 have an unenviable challenge ahead. They must decide whether the path to the White House calls for a less confrontational brand of conservatism or an even sharper right turn — and then persuade others in the party to follow. . . .

Will Rand Paul (R-KY) endorse Mitch McConnell (R-KY)?

http://www.dailypaul.com/293660/rand-paul-n-an-awkward-situation-in-kentucky

Ted Cruz has decided to brand himself the anti-Obamacare candidate

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/02/the_republican_grownups_futile_war_on_ted_cruz/
A small contingent of the more Tea Party-ish Republican senators has decided to shut down the government unless “Obamacare” is “defunded.” (Or, at least, they plan to threaten to shut down the government.) Defunding Obamacare is not really as simple as it sounds. The ACA involves a lot of “mandatory” as opposed to “discretionary” spending, so you can’t really effectively repeal the program through the Continuing Resolution. (Here’s Karl Rove explaining the issue.) The plan was Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) idea, but its current most vocal proponent is Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a very smart man who purposefully talks like a very crazy man, because he understands how to become a celebrity in the modern conservative movement.

Cruz doesn’t care if the plan makes sense, either as policy or even as political tactics. If he cared about passing conservative legislation, he wouldn’t spend all of his time purposefully angering his Republican colleagues. If he cared about the Republican Party’s national image and reputation, as opposed to his own image within the conservative activist community, he would have offered rhetorical support for immigration reform, as Rand Paul did. Cruz is in it for himself and himself alone. A majority of Americans want the GOP to be more conciliatory and moderate. A majority of Republicans strongly believe that the party must be even more conservative.

So if all the “grown-ups” — the respectable, professional Republicans — tell Ted Cruz not to do something, he is going to be even more dedicated to doing that thing. This week, all the respectable, professional Republicans told Ted Cruz not to try to shut down the government over Obamacare. . . .

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/02/the-gops-kamikaze-mission-to-stop-obamacare

 http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/ted-cruz-hopes-groundswell-kill-obamacare

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/08/01/conservatives-are-right-their-window-to-destroy-obamacare-is-closing/

 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/03/1228519/-Saturday-nutpick-a-palooza-Obamacare-and-the-inevitable-demise-of-civilization

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/02/why-do-republicans-keep-voting-against-obamacare-because-we-keep-writing-about-it/ 
Why do Republicans keep voting against Obamacare? Because we keep writing about it.
 
The Sunday talk show line-ups

http://firedoglake.com/2013/08/04/sunday-talking-heads-august-4-2013/  
ABC’S THIS WEEK:  Terror.  Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, plus House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) and Rep. Peter King (R-NY).  Then, Glenn Greenwald. Roundtable: George Will, Matthew Dowd, Jeff Zeleny, Soledad O’Brien, Neera Tanden, Michael Chertoff, now chair of The Chertoff Group, and Jeffrey Goldberg.

CBS’ FACE THE NATION: Russia. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Then, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Roundtable.

CNN’S STATE OF THE UNION:  Terror. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).  Then, Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY).  Obamacare Roundtable: Anita Dunn, Artur Davis, Donna Brazile, Alex Castellanos.

KORNACKI’S UP:
Fmr. Rep. and congressional candidate Marjorie Margolies(D-PA) (@MMargoliesPA)
Kurtis Lee, political reporter, Denver Post (@kurtislee)
Dave Weigel, political reporter, Slate.com, msnbc contributor (@daveweigel)
Mark Glaze, director, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (@markcglaze) – via remote
Jared Bernstein, msnbc contributor, Sr. Fellow, Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (@econjared)
Avik Roy, senior fellow, The Manhattan Institute, contributor, The National Review (@avik)
Jim Demers, former co-chair, Obama 2008 Campaign
 
MOYERS & COMPANY:  Encore: The Faces of America’s Hungry.  Kristi Jacobson and Mariana Chilton reveal tragic truths about hunger and food insecurity in America.

NBC’S MEET THE PRESS:  Assistant Democratic Leader Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Vice-Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). Then, Rudy Giuliani. Baseball, Bob Costas. Roundtable: Joe Scarborough, Rick Santorum, Joy Ann Reid, Andrea Mitchell.

Bonus item: in Fox World, they can't tell the difference between carbon dioxide and TOO MUCH carbon dioxide

 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/03/1228464/-Steve-Forbes-on-carbon-dioxide-We-can-t-live-without-it
Steve Forbes on carbon dioxide: 'We can't live without it'

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL: http://pbd.blogspot.com

I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
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Saturday, August 03, 2013

CRACKERS!

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/charlie-rangel-tea-party-is-same-group-of 
In an interview with the Daily Beast published Friday, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) suggested Tea Partiers are the "same group" who fought for segregation during the Civil Rights movement. 

“It is the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police. They didn’t care about how they looked," Rangel said. . . .

 More: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/02/charlie-rangel-on-immigration-pope-francis-his-successor.html
Get out of town!

 http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/08/house-gop-40th-obamacare-repeal-vote.php 
House GOP Passes 40th Obamacare Repeal Bill Before Going Home For Summer Recess

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/02/19836390-and-then-there-were-40
Capping a legislative work period more noted for what it failed to pass than for what it completed, the House voted for the 40th time on Friday to repeal President Barack Obama's health care reform law . . . [read on]

 http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2013/08/02/congress-heads-home-having-accomplished-almost-nothing/
Today Congress heads home for more than a month but leave behind a mountain of unfinished business.. . . [read on]

 http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/02/19833856-first-thoughts-out-like-a-lamb?lite
In short, September and October now are going to be a mess. The assumption was there would at least be some spending bills moved, the Farm bill dealt with, and possibly progress on immigration. And, yet, nothing really happened . . . [read on]

 The Senate reached an agreement to avoid filibusters on Obama's executive branch appointments. Now can they avoid a nuclear meltdown over judicial nominees?

 http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/08/gop-telegraphs-mass-filibuster-of-top-judicial-nominees.php
GOP Telegraphs Mass Filibuster Of Obama’s Top Judges

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/08/patrick-leahy-nuclear-option-filibuster-judges.php
Top Democrat Floats Nuclear Option Over Judicial Filibusters

More: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/02/1228444/-A-nuclear-showdown-looming-over-judicial-nominees

Will the Repubs take over the Senate in 2014?

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/08/02/for-now-dems-are-still-narrowly-favored-to-hold-senate-majority/

 http://www.nationaljournal.com/columns/cook-report/here-s-how-republicans-can-take-over-the-senate-20130801

 Rand Paul and Chris Christie, still at it

 http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/08/rand-paul-chris-christie-feud.php
GOP Heavies Go To Blows Over Bacon, Beer And Domestic Surveillance

More: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/08/01/more_republicans_favor_paul_over_christie.html
Republicans Favor Paul Over Christie

 Another good news/bad news jobs report

 http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/08/economy-adds-162000-jobs-in-july.php 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/02/1227060/-Report-for-July-weaker-than-expected-with-162-000-jobs-added-Jobless-rate-falls-to-7-4-U6-at-14

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/02/19833765-unemployment-rate-reaches-lowest-point-in-nearly-5-years

 Lots more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/02/everything-you-need-to-know-about-todays-big-jobs-report/ 

The kind of people they are

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/02/1228488/-House-GOPer-thinks-she-s-just-the-woman-to-stop-that-foreign-born-America-hating-despot-named-Obama
"What I need from you is to know what you can do, you and your fellow non-communist colleagues in the lower House, what you can do to stop these communist tyrannical executive orders laid down by this foreign-born, America-hating communist despot?" [watch!]

Bonus item: In Fox World

 http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/08/the_day_in_100_seconds_fox_news_scandals.php 
Fox is amazed that the rest of the world doesn’t find the same things scandalous that they do. [watch] 

More nonsense from Fox: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/08/fox_news_obamaphone.php
 
***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL: http://pbd.blogspot.com

I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
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Friday, August 02, 2013

A WRENCH IN THE WORKS


This is all they have left

 http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/08/senate-republicans-filibuster-transportation-housing-bill.php
Senate Republicans Block Key Funding Bill On Their Way Home For Summer Recess

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/us/politics/gop-push-to-slash-food-stamps-puts-farm-bill-in-jeopardy.html 
G.O.P. Push to Slash Food Stamps Puts Farm Bill in Jeopardy

"Leadership" http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/01/1228217/-McConnell-successfully-derails-transportation-nbsp-bill
McConnell successfully derails transportation bill

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/01/19818807-boehners-plan-to-hurt-the-country-on-purpose  
Boehner's plan to hurt the country on purpose

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_08/the_awesome_weight_of_governin046159.php
Boehner rejected the suggestion from Democrats that Republican leaders had lost control of their conference.

“I’m not the least bit concerned about what some might want to describe as perception,” he said. . . [read on]

 A wrench

 http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/01/19816173-first-thoughts-landing-with-a-thud
We’ve made this point before, and we’ll make it again: Congressional Republicans aren’t on the same page right now on, well, ANYTHING. . . .

 http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/08/house-republicans-and-the-limits-of-crazy.html
Yesterday, the House of Representatives pulled a bill from the floor for lack of votes — the sort of scrambling chaos that occurs routinely in the chamber where John Boehner presides like a trembling child monarch. But this defeat was different. . . 

 http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/07/gops_long-predicted_comeuppance_has_arrived.php
“With this action, the House has declined to proceed on the implementation of the very budget it adopted three months ago,” said an angry appropriations chair Hal Rogers (R-KY). “Thus I believe that the House has made its choice: sequestration — and its unrealistic and ill-conceived discretionary cuts — must be brought to an end.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/01/republicans-didnt-have-the-stomach-for-housing-and-transportation-cuts-heres-why/ 
Why the House GOP’s cuts to housing and transportation were so unpopular

http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/08/01/the-gop-calls-its-own-fiscal-bluff/
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the current GOP’s refusal to do anything but propose to slash spending is that “propose” is all they really want to do. They cannot actually stomach the actual cuts their abstract ideology demands. And so what happened yesterday, when the House leadership suddenly yanked a bill slashing transportation and housing spending, is of a piece with the growing incoherence on the right.. . .

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/01/republicans-need-a-budget-deal-they-need-a-budget-deal-bad 
Republicans need a budget deal. They need a budget deal bad.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/08/01/the-great-gop-crack-up-will-have-to-wait/
Senate Republicans just successfully filibustered the transportation and housing bill, with most of the Republicans who had voted for the bill in committee siding today with the GOP leadership and the Tea Party against letting it move forward.. . .

 http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/08/the_gop_governing_dysfunction_republican_would_rather_wait_until_2012_than.html
“I told you we’d kill it, and we did.”

More: http://prospect.org/article/gop-hot-mess

 The fight against Obamacare moves to the states

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/01/inside-the-obamacare-resistance/ 

Neanderthals

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/01/bastards-in-north-carolina.html
Bastards in North Carolina

More: http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/01/19819930-north-carolina-targets-key-womens-health-clinic
 
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/01/1228248/-Texas-Republican-says-Wendy-Davis-should-pay-for-special-session-needed-to-pass-GOP-abortion-bill
Texas Republicans are still steamed that Texas Sen. Wendy Davis tried to ruin all their anti-wommenfolk fun. Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, a man Texas readers will recognize as one of the more cracked eggs in the Texas crackpot basket, says that Davis should be paying for the second special session they had to have because Republicans weren't able to efficiently ram through their anti-abortion measures during the first session . . .

 Congressional Repubs aren't done with naming buildings and airports and highways for St. Ronald; now they want to rename GEOGRAPHY for him

 http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/31/19795658-for-every-question-there-is-a-reagan 

[NB: What next? Ronaldia? Reaganopolis?] 

Mitch McConnell is in a bit of trouble in his re-relection bid. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy

 http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/poll-kentucky-voters-want-mcconnell-out

 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/02/with-new-poll-mitch-mcconnell-has-trouble-on-two-sides.html

 More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_08/despicable_mitch046148.php
 
The disappearance of the "middle class"  
 
 
Pope Francis is shaking things up 
 
Perhaps most strikingly, he said on the subject of gay priests and presumably gays in general: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” [read on] 
 
 
Conservative Catholics Recoil 
 
What About Women, Pope Francis? 
 
We all see how "scandals" start -- but who tells us when they're over? 
 
 
 
 
In Fox World: misinformation and pandering to the yee-haw crowd 
 
Kilmeade: 'Almost Convinced' Bigfoot Real 
 
Bonus item: Ted Cruz, just a humble man . . . 
 
 
***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL: http://pbd.blogspot.com

I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
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Thursday, August 01, 2013

THERE IS NO THERE THERE

The GOP-controlled House makes its priorities clear

 http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/07/31/house_will_spend_week_trying_to_embarrass_obama.html
House Will Spend Week Trying to Embarrass Obama

 More: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/07/31/are_house_republicans_just_dumb.html
Are House Republicans Just Dumb?

 http://www.nationalmemo.com/obamacare-has-driven-republicans-stark-raving-mad/
If insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, it’s tempting to observe that congressional Republicans have gone stark, raving mad. My own GOP congressman, Rep. Tim Griffin, recently delivered himself of an opinion column boasting about having “voted more than 30 times to repeal all or parts of Obamacare.”
Only in politics does somebody expect praise for sheer futility. . .

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/07/31/gop-leaders-refuse-to-level-with-the-base-about-obamacare/ 
GOP leaders refuse to level with the base about Obamacare 

 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/31/1228008/-Republican-fail-to-do-it-again-Transportation-and-housing-bill-collapses-with-a-THUD
Republicans (fail to) do it again: Transportation and housing bill collapses with a THUD

 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/31/1227889/-GOP-plan-would-kick-5-million-people-off-food-stamps-and-increase-health-care-costs
GOP plan would kick 5 million people off food stamps and increase health care costs 

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/07/house-republicans-budget-spending-cuts-failure
The lunatic wing of the Republican Party has long held views that are impossible to reconcile. This is one of them: they think they can slash spending without affecting anything useful. But it turns out that even their fellow Republicans don't agree. . . .

The kind of guy he is 

 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/30/1227751/-Mitch-McConnell-to-McCain-and-Schumer-When-are-you-all-getting-married
Mitch McConnell's most defining personality characteristic (and this is coming from both sides of the aisle; the sort of stuff that qualifies as a flattering portrait of the man is thin gruel indeed) is that he is, well, a jerk. . . . [read on] 

 More: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/31/1227770/-McConnell-takes-the-fifth-on-Obamacare-shutdown-threat
McConnell takes the fifth on Obamacare shutdown threat

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/07/31/mitch-mcconnell-struggles-to-reassert-control-over-gop-caucus/
Mitch McConnell struggles to reassert control over GOP caucus 

 And so, Obama really only has one choice

 http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/obamas-no-congress-strategy-94947.html
President Obama’s no-Congress strategy

 More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/07/gops_long-predicted_comeuppance_has_arrived.php
Republicans have dealt with some embarrassing moments on the House floor over the past year, but none so revealing or damning as today’s snafu, when they yanked a bill to fund the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. Even the recent farm bill fiasco wasn’t as significant an indictment of the GOP’s governing potential.

 It might look like a minor hiccup, or a symbolic error. But it spells doom for the party’s near-term budget strategy and underscores just how bogus the party’s broader agenda really is and has been for the last four years. . . .[read on]

 Here's the difference, GUYS: one is a matter of bad personal behavior -- the other is a matter of unfair and destructive POLICY

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/07/31/gop-finds-its-own-war-on-women/
In 2012, Democrats’ constant refrain that the Republican party was in the midst of a “war on women” left the GOP — all the way up to presidential nominee Mitt Romney — exasperated at what they called a gross mischaracterization. Now Republicans are embracing the term as a way of reminding voters of Democratic men who have cheated, sexted, and harassed.

 In e-mails, press releases and tweets, the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee are highlighting a “war on women” waged by San Diego Mayor Bob Filner (harassment), New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (sexting), and former New York governor Eliot Spitzer (prostitutes). . . .

 And . . . it could get worse

 http://elections.firedoglake.com/2013/07/31/republican-base-wants-their-party-to-become-even-more-conservative/
Republican Base Wants Their Party to Become Even More Conservative

 http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/31/19799527-when-radical-isnt-radical-enough 
When radical isn't radical enough

 http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_07/the_fever_isnt_breaking046137.php
20-Week Abortion Bans Are Mostly a Charade

Rand Paul and Chris Christie look like they're setting up for a big fight in 2016

 http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/31/19796296-christie-paul-and-a-gop-fissure-coming-to-the-fore
More so than at any point in recent memory, the Republican Party is divided. GOP officials are fighting amongst themselves on everything from immigration to agriculture, the budget to filibusters, shutdowns to the culture war.

But nowhere is the fight as ugly as the growing feud between New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) . . . [read on]
 
Libertarians flex their muscle in the GOP 
 
Two views on the prospect for a Middle East breakthrough (thanks to CM for the links) 
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/opinion/global/roger-cohen-netanyahu-the-peacemaker.htmlThe notion that Netanyahu the Likudnik — fierce opponent of the late Yitzhak Rabin’s peace push, reluctant latecomer to the notion of two states, longtime ideologue of the Jewish right to all the Biblical land of Israel — might reinvent himself as peacemaker is not new. I have heard it from several people who have spent long hours with Netanyahu, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain.. . . [read on]

 http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/07/2013728103426476823.html
Moreover, despite Netanyahu's lip-service to the concept of two states, some of the most influential figures in the Israeli cabinet have made it clear that the two-state solution is dead. Naftali Bennet, head of the Jewish Home Party and a senior member of the current Netanyahu cabinet, has made clear that "The idea that a Palestinian state should be established within the Land of Israel has reached a dead end... The most important thing for the Land of Israel is to build, and build, and build [Jewish settlements]". . . .[read on]

 Oh-oh

 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data 
XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

 More: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/07/nsa-surveillance-xkeyscore

 http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/oliver-mr-president-when-michele-bachmann
Oliver: Mr. President, When Michele Bachmann is on Your Side, You May Want to Look at the Side You're On

 Some people have no sense of shame

 http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/07/behavior_reprehensible_comedy_appreciated.php
Filner and his lawyer are pursuing a new and additional line of argument - namely, that the City is partly responsible for the alleged harassment because the City did not provide Filner with adequate sexual harassment awareness training.. . .

 No joke

 http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/george-zimmerman-speeding-around-texas-with-gun.html
Acquitted Florida shooter George Zimmerman was stopped for speeding in Texas over the weekend but got off with a warning, TMZ reports, after informing police that he had a gun in his glove compartment and was headed "nowhere in particular."
  
In Fox World, their reporter did a GREAT job interviewing Reza Aslan. In the real world . . . 

Fox World: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/fox-news-defends-anchor-who-grilled-aslan-video

 Real World: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/reza-aslan-fox-news-jesus-muslim-book-video.html

 Bonus item: Republicans just can't understand this Internet thing

 http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/steve-king-tries-fundraise-liberal-groups-v

 Extra bonus item: How cable news covered the potty-mouthed Barbara Morgan story

 http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/07/a_day_in_100_seconds_classic--slutbag_edition.php 

 More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/slutbag-anthony-weiner_n_3682914.html

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