Stories to Watch: 3/18/14

Pretty dead out there for US politics news, so this one might be short. As always, hover your cursor over the links to preview the headlines.


Looks like not everyone is afraid to stand up to the NRA.


Ed Kilgore pokes a hole in Republican fearmongering over the Russia/Crimea story; "If Russia’s annexation of Crimea is a world-historical disaster exposing the West to unparalleled danger from a revived Russian Empire laughing at Obama as a weakling, why is the stock market up today? Just wondering." Rightwing blowhards act like Russia just swallowed up Oklahoma, when a week ago none of them could've found Crimea on a map -- in fact, I'm willing to bet that most Republicans still can't find Crimea on a map. The idea that Ukraine has anything to do with the US is ridiculous and breathless hysteria from wingnuts shows just how few criticisms of substance the right actually has of US foreign policy. It's like the pink sweater "controversy" -- this is the sort of bullshit you pretend to freak out over when you're scraping the bottom of the outrage barrel.


Speaking of breathless hysteria and Crimea: Mitt Romney decides to chime in. He's about as helpful, thoughtful, and insightful as any random Fox News talking head -- Hannity included.


Pres. Obama tells Latinos that signing up for Obamacare doesn't mean your relatives will be deported. I wasn't aware that this was a concern, but if it is, it should've been made clear from day one.


How dead is it out there for political news? Well, the New York Times has a write up of a pastry chef who's leaving the White House -- and it became a top story on one of the more popular political aggregators today. So yeah, it's that dead.


Finally, Georgia GOP Rep. Paul Broun -- now running for the Senate -- blew $33K of taxpayer's money on a "rhetoric coach." That's what you call your "fiscal conservatism."


[cartoon via Truthdig]

Under Obamacare, you can quit your dead-end job and work for yourself. Conservatives hate that

The always dependable wingnut blogger Jim Hoft supplies us with our sample headline here. It’s usually the case that Hoft is only useful for pointing and laughing at for his clumsy and transparent attempts at propaganda. But in this case, he’s pretty much representative of the new rightwing take on this latest turn of Obamcare events:

Washington Post: Count Polly Lower among those who quit their jobs because of the health-care law.

It happened in September, when her boss abruptly changed her job description. She went from doing payroll, which she liked, to working on her boss’s schedule, which she loathed. At another time, she might have had to grit her teeth and accept the new position because she needed the health benefits.

But with the health-care law soon to take effect, she simply resigned — and hasn’t looked back.

“It was wonderful. It was very freeing,” said Lower, 56, of Bourbon, Ind., who is now babysitting her 5-year-old granddaughter full time. With the help of federal subsidies that kicked in Jan. 1, she is paying less than $500 a month for health coverage for herself and her husband.

Obviously, Lower isn’t “living off the government teat,” as Hoft puts it, because you can’t eat healthcare and insurance won’t pay the rent. What she was able to do was quit a job she hated with a lousy employer and find a better way to pay the bills. While it’s not a very ambitious or long-term business plan, she has become an entrepreneur .

Turns out conservatives hate that.

And why wouldn’t they? These are the same people who think asking for more than the minimum wage makes you some sort of freeloader. These are the sort of people who mock workers for drawing a paycheck. These are the people who think reducing income inequality is a form of class warfare.

Want to quit your soul-crushing, dream-smashing job and start your own business — or even take some time off to get a better education or just find a job better suited to your skills?

Not if conservatives have anything to say about it.

It’s never been clearer that the right isn’t about what’s good for working people — i.e., the vast majority of Americans. It’s about what’s good for employers. It’s about cheap labor and few rights for workers. And now wage slavery. That can’t figure out how to make being trapped in a dead-end job look good, so they — like Hoft — try to make being able to leave that job look bad.

And since the best they can come up with is chuckleheaded spin worthy of Jim Hoft, they’re not going to have a lot of luck.

Stories to Watch: 12/9/13

Senate dems say they'll bring a raise in the minimum wage up after the first of the year. The party may be hoping that the extremely popular move might bring out more dem voters and that this, along with an improving economy, might give them a leg up in the elections.


Virginia Republicans have learned absolutely nothing from Ken Cuccinelli's high-profile loss to Terry McAuliffe in that state's gubernatorial race. In fact, to hear them talk, you'd think they won big, instead of losing statewide executive offices in a sweep. At a state GOP confab this weekend, one Republican said they needed to run more people like disastrous Lt. Governor candidate E.W. Jackson, while another blamed media "false prophets" for making up a "War on Women" narrative -- just because Cuccinelli and Jackson have histories of waging war on women's rights. Republicans really do live off in their own little world, don't they?


Speaking of made up wars, Fox News' "War on Christmas" exists pretty much entirely in their own minds -- and in their lies.


Israeli leadership will skip out on attending Nelson Mandela's funeral. While they don't state it as the reason, the high regard Mandela's memory enjoys among Palestinians is certain to be seen as at least a contributing factor.


The NSA and CIA spied on people play World of Warcraft. Seriously. You are literally not safe from prying eyes anywhere. This ridiculous level of domestic surveillance used to be the punchline of Yakov Smirnoff jokes. Now Smirnoff jokes don't work: "In capitalist America, computer screen watches you. In Soviet Russia, computer screen watches you." See, there has to be some sort of contrast.


Ted Cruz is a character in a coloring book, where kids can learn all about being selfish dickholes like people who worship Ted Cruz.


A Fox News exec got $8 million in hush money on retirement. Not sure what Roger Ailes is hiding here, but it's got to be flabbergastingly awful.


Finally, it's a short one today because snow and wind and I don't want to talk about it. Odds are good you got the same thing, so you know where I'm coming from.


[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]

Being a conservative is easy

[via Tweeter Economy]