Cities are taking the lead in fighting climate change, because nations are really dropping the ball.
Florida's idiotic and cowardly "stand your ground" law is basically just open season on kids.
Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf confirms that GOP talking points about his office's Obamacare report are way wide of the truth. The Affordable Care Act will not cost American jobs, but instead it "spurs employment and would reduce unemployment over the next few years." The exact freakin' opposite of what Republicans have been saying. Told ya so.
And it wasn't just Republicans: most of the media completely botched the CBO report story. They all got it so wrong that it should be a scandal. It won't be though, because scandals become scandals when the media reports them. "This is easy stuff," says Kevin Drum. "How is that so many folks blew it? Obviously Fox News deliberately wanted to put the worst spin possible on this report. But why did everyone else go along? What's the deal here?" I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an answer.
The outrage over a Utah school taking lunches away from kids because their parents had a negative balance on their school lunch accounts raising an interesting question; why aren't we just as freaked out that kids and their families are going hungry at home?
Republicans say that immigration reform is really and truly dead. At least, dead until 2015, when they swear they're going to bring it up again. Then they'll say they can't agree on anything and declare it dead until 2016. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Finally, a Texas teen who used an "affluenza" defense -- a phony psychological condition where being a rich kid supposedly makes it so you just can't help but be a selfish asshole -- in a drunk driving case gets off again with only one year probation and a turn through a posh rehab center. Prosecutors had pursued a 20 year sentece for two injured victims. He had previously dodged jail time in the same incident for the deaths of four. Justice in America, ladies and gentlemen. If you've got the money, you're pretty much literally above the law. And when we complain about it, we're told we're engaging in "class warfare."
[cartoon via Truthdig]
