Stories to Watch: 1/28/14

House Republicans waste everyone's time with a doomed bill that would make health insurance coverage of abortion all but illegal. Every7thing about this points to just how useless the Republican Party has become in Washington; not only is it going absolutely nowhere -- making it an exercise in futility -- but it also puts a stake in the heart of the notion that Republicans are against pointless and burdensome regulation of private commerce. It's like they found a new way to twiddle their thumbs that somehow also incorporates hypocrisy.


Exhibit A of Republicans' uselessness, in the form of a headline for a story about GOP Sen. Roy Blunt: "Senator Expresses Outrage That The Government Has Taken Over Government Contracting." No, seriously.


Exhibit B: 24 House Republicans voted to deny climate change today. Tomorrow, they'll probably vote aginst the existence of fractions, because they make math too hard to do.


According to one influential conservative activist, Beyoncé is possessed by a "demonic spirit." Again I have to point out that this was a totally serious argument and is not something from The Onion.


Meanwhile, Glenn Beck says that Katy Perry is practicing witchcraft and "demonic glorification." I swear I'm not making any of this up.


Louie Gohmert said something stupid again. This one's got to be in his top ten dumbest.


Rand Paul continues his desperate and doomed quest to get us to hate Bill Clinton, instead of Mike Huckabee and the Republican War on Women.


Democrats plan a new push to extend jobless benefits, no doubt following up on a call the President's sure to make at the State of the Union tonight.


Finally, a massive, shocking, and sickening rape scandal hits the Alabama Department of Corrections.


[cartoon via Truthdig]