Today's edition of quick hits:
* On the streets of Egypt, two years later.
* Saeed al-Shihri: "Al-Qaida's No. 2 in Yemen died in a U.S. drone attack last year in southern Yemen, the country's official news agency and a security official said Thursday."
* A major staff reorganization for President Obama's West Wing team, including elevating Denis McDonough to replace Jack Lew as the new White House Chief of Staff.
* Rewarding failure: "Reince Priebus was re-elected chairman of the Republican National Committee on Friday, overcoming divisions and tensions in the party."
* I remember when this seemed very far away: "The Standard & Poor's closed above 1,500 for the first time since the start of the Great Recession in 2007."
* Who got the better end of the deal on filibuster reform? Put it this way: it's Mitch McConnell, not Harry Reid, doing the end-zone dance.
* A national embarrassment: "The long Election Day lines around Florida may have turned away more than 200,000 frustrated would-be voters who gave up and went home before they cast ballots — or else saw the lines and elected not to join them."
* Good move: "The backlash from Gov. Bobby Jindal's decision to cut hospice care from the state's Medicaid program as of Feb. 1 has been loud and sustained. Loud and strong enough to force Jindal to reverse that decision."
* Ya don't say: "One of the National Rifle Association's senior lobbyists said an ad by the nation's leading gun-rights group after a school shooting in Connecticut that refers to President Barack Obama's children was 'ill-advised.'"
* I don't expect much from Fox News, but inviting Jerry Boykin onto "Fox News Sunday" is indefensible. On the other hand, the network has reportedly parted ways with a certain former half-term Alaska governor.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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Meanwhile, in Russia....
Russia’s lower house of Parliament, the Duma, has overwhelmingly backed a bill that would ban “homosexual propaganda.”
Approved by a vote of 388-1-1, the law — pushed by the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church – would make public events and sharing “propaganda” about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community with minors punishable by fines of up to $16,000.
The legislative definition of propaganda is exceedingly broad, and could mean anything from television shows with gay characters to two women kissing on a street corner.
More:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/01/25/uk-russia-gay-idUKBRE90O0GI20130125
Zounds! Russia in bed with right wing evangelists?
Is Sarah going to work for Chik-Fil-A-hole full time now?
Probably not, she'd lose money with their "no pricey speaking engagements on Sunday" clause.
A nicer thing could not have happened to this whacko Republican Party!! It is hard to believe that they are just so WILLING to self-destruct!!!
Apparently Wisconsin is still the center of Southern Intelligence. I just wonder if they tried to recruit Larry the Cable Guy.
If only that were true, oncearepublican. Rience, Il Principe, has found a lawful way to win elections, even as the party continues to alienate the electorate. Redmapping conforms to state and federal election laws (such as they are), and as Rachel noted last night, can only be stopped when state politicians become too embarrassed to be caught undermining the basic principles of democracy.
Those republicans who are too embarrassed now may become unembarrassed as it becomes increasingly clear that the emerging demographics find them increasingly detestable. The Michigan governor and legislature are already at that point, not the least bit embarrassed to openly "govern" as a junta. I fear they're not dinosaurs, on the cusp of extenction, but pioneers of the cabal of RWNJs, for whom sanctimony and intolerance are a show of faith in their one true religion/ideology.
ns
Glad the drone attacks are working. How does this settle with declarations of war, the Geneva convention and precedent when someone we don't like gets the technology? I pray that you reflect your "reward for failure" comments toward those who engineered our mid-east policy or lack thereof. Agree with you Fla election boards are ridiculous. Where are the biggest issues? I am guessing Broward county and similar liberal bastions.
Good to see efforts are being made to trim medicare costs at the state level as Mr. Romney recommended. Also good to see some growth in the markets after 4 years of recovery. Your ad hominem attacks on personalities don't warrant a response, as they are just typical failures to form a cogent argument.
Good luck to the House and Senate republicans in stalling Obama's failed agenda from further damaging the country.
A missive from La-la Land.
"Agree with you Fla election boards are ridiculous. Where are the biggest issues? I am guessing Broward county and similar liberal bastions."
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From the article:
In Orange and Miami-Dade, more than half the precincts, including many large ones, closed before 8 p.m.
And some of the state's largest counties — notably Duval (Jacksonville) and Pinellas (St. Petersburg) — reported almost all precincts were closed by 8:30 p.m.
Lee County ranked worst in the Sentinel analysis. Its last precinct didn't close until 2:54 a.m. Wednesday — nearly eight hours late. In all, 54 percent of the county's voters were in precincts that stayed open past 8:30 p.m — and half, or 27 percent, voted in precincts still open at 10 p.m.
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Cape Coral and Fort Myers are the main cities in Lee County...and the area, according to the 2000 census is 87% white. Their congressional representative is Republican Connie Mack IV.
The article didn't mention Broward.
You're talking to a true believer, Helen, I wouldn't bother. And the belief is not longer in some god, it's in the Religion of the Holy Talking Point, where scoring points is more important than the facts.
Steve Lynch has announced he is going to run for Sen. Kerry seat. Jindal has said the republican party must stop being the party of stupid. I don't think either one will happen
That would require evolving and unfortunately they don't believe in that.
I bet a lot of those voters in FL who looked at the lines and left were poor whites. Minorities were determined to make a statement. While whites were not all that much into Romney, especially when they realized that Ryan wanted to cut their SS benefits within a decade and undercut Medicare.
Poor whites are no longer going to be shoo in voters for the GOP. A lot of the white Baby Boomers feel betrayed by outsourcing, the stagnant standard of living since Clinton, and the lack of social mobility for those not born upper class. They came to majority after St. Reagan and don't really have any connection to today's Republican Party. Less church going, more tolerant and accepting of minorities, don't care about debt ceilings and other conservative economic principles that don't directly affect them in their daily lives. Poor whites have more in common with poor Hispanics than with rich white Republicans and the Religious Right.
Truth be told, Republicans are losing ground across ALL demographics now. But they would never admit it to themselves.
According to the analysis reported by The Orlando Sentinel, the 200,000 "missing votes" would have broken approx 108k for Obama and 92k for Romney.
Considering the laws were changed by the GOP to make it harder for minorities to vote, even that scheme didn't totally work out....
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A new Florida law that contributed to long voter lines and caused some to abandon voting altogether was intentionally designed by Florida GOP staff and consultants to inhibit Democratic voters, former GOP officials and current GOP consultants have told The Palm Beach Post.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/early-voting-curbs-called-power-play/nTFDy/
Question?
If the people of a redmap district vote in majority blue....then the redmap area goes...blue for that election?
In other News: Sen Harry Reid (D NV) Surrendered while visiting the French embassy today
When asked what he was surrendering he answered "What do you want?"
and now here is Bill Fogbound with the weather...
(with apologies to France)
Every voter who had to stand hour after hard hour in those long lines, remember Republicans built that and vote them out of office next election.
OMFG: Is this the best they can do? Street heat is all OFA is going to be about? If OFA is going to be an effective pressure group, they are going to have to get a lot more sophisticated than a simple bulk letter campaign telling me who my representatives are.
Email from Organizing for Action recieved today:
Really? OFA doesn't know that every single one of these individuals are strongly pro gun control from one of the most strongly pro gun control states in the union?
Rachel must be devastated by the news Al-Qaeda's #2 in Yemen was killed via drone.
Does anyone believe as I do that Harry Reid's refusal to push for real filibuster reform was his way of getting back at President Obama for marginalizing him during December's fiscal cliff negotiations?
A little tit for tat, on something that will effectively stymie Obama for the rest of his term? Rather drastic revenge. If so, Reid needs to be listed forthwith as an infiltrating Republican.
If Obama knew Harry's mode of operation, and after 4 years why would he not know, then Obama made the right choice.
Harry Reid has always been a DINO; it's just harder to see when the Republicans have swerved so far toward the lunatic right fringe. But damn, this was frustrating to watch.
"Reince Priebus was re-elected chairman of the Republican National Committee on Friday, overcoming divisions and tensions in the party."
In computational mathematics at the very least division by zero is defined as impossible, or to be represented by infinity. So if it were possible for Mr. Zero to overcome divisions it would render the party into infinitesimals, too small to be measured.
But that being said it possible to see where the Republican idea of the job creators came from. Nothing in nature examples show us that the largest animals sprang into existence by a similar division, but if we divide any number by another small enough number you can get easily the idea that millionaires and billionaires are instantly created, rule the planet and in their munificence create all jobs, consumers, energy and commerce and doing so out of the goodness of their hearts.
Whatever is say-able in polite company about either party comes from similar division by zero mathematics, to get to result afterward is pure fantasy.
The people who believe anything they are told are to be cared for, but cannot be relied upon to support their belief in demonstrable facts. Since believing without such facts is act of pure faith, then any position held is utter fantasy. Neither believer nor the faithful need any demonstration at all.
For when Republicans talk about the economy, few of anything makes sense, and there no is math that supports their position.
Yet they persist to conjure new meanings for words and assigning musical notes to those sounds, the result is so much discordant noise, that it is impossible to silence them. Thus the noise is analyzed by the Democrats, deciphered, subject to filters and analysis that the discordant mess takes up all the available time. If the Republicans make all the noise and Democrats are preoccupied by interpreting the noise where is there any time to dissect the Democratic ideas that are often based on similar non mathematical reasoning?
The key to understanding the political issues in terms of economic problems is itself blocked by so called business people who make the outlandish claim that they make sense, but when science and engineering discipline's is applied to the business the result is the demotion to used car salesmen, who turn up in your drive way ready to repair your car.
Republicans who stop talking sound more and more sensible, allowing the Democrats to start talking.
It really is a shame that working Republicans, who arrived after working a full day, at the polling stations in Florida were denied their right to vote!!!
Food for thought-We love MSNBC! It's on from the time we get home from work till it's time to go to bed. Looking at options to reduce the TV bill I started looking into the available plans that have MSNBC and I was shocked to find that Fox news is available on the most basic tier while to get MSNBC you must go up at least 2 more tiers. Doesn't mean much if you can afford another 50 bucks a month. Now I know why when I tell my less liberal friends that they need to watch you to get the straight scoop they just give me a blank stare. Perhaps we should start a Super Pac to fund MSNBC so we can get the message to our poorer brothers and sisters. No way I'm giving up my Rachel fix, though I've got my Itunes podcasts. Just sayin
Watching Rachel cover her story, "A National Embarrassment", and thinking I would so enjoy watching her tackle the Nebraska chapter of the story. Nebraska is currently one of two states that does not allow an electoral college winner-take-all in presidential elections. Following the 2008 election in which President Obama won 1 electoral vote in (Omaha) Nebraska, local Republicans made a lot of noise about changing the rules to winner-take-all. They were tying themselves in knots to prevent a Democratic candidate from ever again receiving an electoral vote from Nebraska. I do not recall their efforts succeeding, however, I am now struck by the efforts of several states to, like Nebraska, split their electoral college votes. It is obvious to anyone with a functioning brain that the Republicans intend to bend the rules from election to election in order to fix the next election's results. Please, Rachel. Look at Nebraska post the 2008 election and then rerun your "...National Embarrassment" story. I cannot wait to watch you tackle the WHOLE story! A Nebraskan for 30 years now...
Watching Rachel cover her story, "A National Embarrassment", and thinking I would so enjoy watching her tackle the Nebraska chapter of the story. Nebraska is currently one of two states that does not allow an electoral college winner-take-all in presidential elections. Following the 2008 election in which President Obama won 1 electoral vote in (Omaha) Nebraska, local Republicans made a lot of noise about changing the rules to winner-take-all. They were tying themselves in knots to prevent a Democratic candidate from ever again receiving an electoral vote from Nebraska. I do not recall their efforts succeeding, however, I am now struck by the efforts of several states to, like Nebraska, split their electoral college votes. It is obvious to anyone with a functioning brain that the Republicans intend to bend the rules from election to election in order to fix the next election's results. Please, Rachel. Look at Nebraska post the 2008 election and then rerun your "...National Embarrassment" story. I cannot wait to watch you tackle the WHOLE story! A Nebraskan for 30 years now...
Without marriage rights, the LGBT community is already being treated as 3/5 person. Also, I hope Mary Jo White does a much better job with clean up & integrity @ SEC than the Dems did with recent filibuster reform. Would be nice to people made accountable for their actions.
Yes, it would be nice...so how'd that Scott Walker recall again?
Luckily, Wisconsin did get Tammy Baldwin elected and voted for President Obama. We just lost 500 more jobs...hopefully, Wisconsin continues to wake up and I can be proud of being from Wisconsin again......
Geez...lost 500 jobs? Look across the country...you MUST be kidding.
Jeremy Scahill documentary Dirty Wars needs to be talked about, How can this administration, that i backed 100% let JSOC operate with no oversight or accountability to the American People.
ocumentary Dirty Wars needs to be talked about, How can this administration, that i backed 100% let JSOC operate with no oversight or accountability to sohbet