Republican Rep. Trey Radel, an ex-talk radio blowhard who's facing charges possession of cocaine, is a big supporter of the War on Drugs. I'm sure he'll demand the insanely harsh penalties he's advocated for drug offenders be applied to himself, because Republicans are such big fans of personal responsibility. Wow, I actually got through that with a straight face. We all know he'll try every trick in the book to weasel out of it. Republican hypocrisy? Safest prediction ever.
Even as a jobs program, the Keystone XL pipeline fails. A new report shows that upgrading existing pipelines would actually create more jobs.
An update on the effort to reform the filibuster. Let's do this. Let's liberate Washington and bring democracy to the US Senate. Greg Sargent reports that Harry Reid is ready to pull the trigger. Hope it's not another bluff.
In a very real and direct way, both Virginia state Sen. Creigh Deeds, who was stabbed by his son, and that same son -- who committed suicide afterward -- are victims of budget cuts. Cutting corners in mental health comes with serious and tragic consequences.
Paul Ryan spouts some pseudo-biblical mumbo-jumbo and pretends it's an alternative to funding food stamps. Seriously, it doesn't even make sense if you're a believer. Observe: "You cure poverty eye to eye, soul to soul. Spiritual redemption: That’s what saves people." Yeah, that's not what Jesus said. Seems to me that the founder of Ryan's religion got busy handing out bread and fish to people who were hungry. Besides, by Paul Ryan's reasoning, there are no Christians in poverty. Obviously there's more to his argument than that, but not a whole lot, not anything you haven't heard before, and not anything that makes any more sense. As always, the GOP's "fiscal wonk" is only pretending to have some idea what the hell he's talking about.
Healthcare.gov is well on it's way to functionality -- a story the media and punditry seem ill-equipped to cover.
The Supreme Court lets stand Texas' restrictive abortion law, ruling that the interests of the state would be harmed by blocking it. So forcing women to give birth against their will = liberty. And "statism" and regulating small businesses out of existence = Republican ideals. These people believe in nothing. All the things they say are their deeply held convictions are just convenient rationalizations.
Finally and somewhat related, Republicans are totally about big gummint getting out of the way and letting the states govern states -- local control! 10th Amendment!-- until they're not.
[cartoon via Truthdig]
