The State of New York becomes the first state in the union since the Newton Massacre to pass meaningful firearm reform. Needless to say, the NRA has to whine about it.
Senate Republicans face spreading debt limit realism within their ranks. So how is this all likely to pan out? Pretty much the way it did the last time -- although hopefully without more "fiscal cliff" idiocy.
Related: smart people agree that constantly renewing a debt ceiling is a really stupid policy.
Don't kid yourself, Chuck Hagel's going to be the next Defense Secretary.
Texas Republicans have apparently never heard of the supremacy clause in the Constitution.
I was busy, so I had to miss the beginning of Gov. Scott Walker's State of the State address, so I'm skipping the whole thing -- and have no idea what the hell he said. I'll read it later. So until then, I'll just say, "Hey, how about that one thing he said about doing that really crazy thing? Wow. Wisconsin sure did pick a winner, huh?" It's bound to apply to something.
Nancy Keenan, the exiting president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, warns that abortion rights are under attack in the ongoing War on Women. "The battle is on all fronts," Keenan said. "I think the most critical to all this is that we have to make sure we defeat anti-choice politicians and elect pro-choice politicians to stop this nonsense that we’re seeing both at the state level and the federal level." You heard her. Go do that.
Leon Leyson, the youngest of the Jews helped by Oskar Schindler, has died at 83. The AP has a quote of his on surviving the Holocaust: "I can recount dozens of times where if I had stepped to my left I would have been gone, or if I happened to step to my right. It wasn't anything like being smart or clever or anything like that."
Finally, a $60 billion Hurricane Sandy disaster aid bill clears the House in a sickeningly lopsided vote. 179 Republicans -- nearly all of them -- opposed the bill, preferring instead to hold their fellow Americans hostage to their trickle-down, consumer-demand-attacking, flatearth economic mumbo-jumbo. If you're in the area devasted by the storm and you vote Republican, all I can say is that you're one stupid, stupid, self-destructive person.
[Cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]
