Political Ruminations

Programming Notes

Sorry about the lapse. I’m having some trouble posting to the blog while also attending to my actual life. I’m hoping to be back to normal by sometime in February, but until then, I’m going to try to at least post the Morning Quote on a daily basis.

Morning Quote: John Boehner

Referring to the President Obama’s inaugural address, Speaker of the House John Boehner, as quoted by The Hill:

“Given what we heard yesterday about the president’s vision for his second term, it’s pretty clear to me that he knows he can’t do any of that as long as the House is controlled by Republicans. So we’re expecting over the next 22 months to be the focus of this administration as they attempt to annihilate the Republican Party.

And let me just tell you, I do believe that is their goal — to just shove us into the dustbin of history.”

No, Mr. Boehner, it would be very difficult to miss the fact that you and your House full of Republican idiots reprobates are doing an awesome job of annihilating your party all on your very own.

Morning Quote: Rand Paul

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) made a fool out of himself during a nationally televised public hearing when he asked Hillary Clinton about a covert CIA operation that was actually non-existent:

“It’s been in news reports that ships have been leaving from Libya and that they may have weapons and what I’d like to know is the annex that was close by, were they involved with procuring, buying, selling, obtaining weapons and were any of these weapons being transferred to other countries, any countries, Turkey included?”

Watch:

Clinton clearly doesn’t know what the hell Paul is talking about, nor should she know, since Paul’s “news reports” are also non-existent. He actually got the information from the website of conspiracy theorist/right wing whackaloon, Alex Jones, who published the ‘story’ yesterday morning. Tell me again why anyone would vote for this idiot?

Moronic Quote of the Day

During a conversation with a reporter from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga) claimed that President Obama upholds the “Soviet Constitution”, emphasis mine:

“The Constitution I uphold and defend is the one I carry in my pocket all the time, the U.S. Constitution. I don’t know what Constitution that other members of Congress uphold, but it’s not this one. I think the only Constitution that Barack Obama upholds is the Soviet constitution, not this one. He has no concept of this one, though he claimed to be a constitutional lawyer.”

Is it really possible that Rep. Broun is unaware that there is no “Soviet constitution”, that the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991? We truly do elect incompetent idiots.

H/T Ashby

Morning Quote: Wayne LaPierre

NRA CEO [whacko] Wayne LaPierre’s response to President Obama’s inaugural address:

“I've got news for the president: Absolutes do exist. Words do have specific meaning in language and in law. It's the basis of all civilization... Without those absolutes, without those protections, democracy decays into nothing more than two wolves and one lamb voting on, well, who to eat for lunch.”

Morning Quote: Barack Obama

During his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama touched on a problem which continues to plague us, income inequality:

“[….] we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship. We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.”

According to economist Joseph Stiglitz, income inequality is preventing us from achieving a more robust recovery:

There are four major reasons inequality is squelching our recovery. The most immediate is that our middle class is too weak to support the consumer spending that has historically driven our economic growth. While the top 1 percent of income earners took home 93 percent of the growth in incomes in 2010, the households in the middle — who are most likely to spend their incomes rather than save them and who are, in a sense, the true job creators — have lower household incomes, adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1996. The growth in the decade before the crisis was unsustainable — it was reliant on the bottom 80 percent consuming about 110 percent of their income.

Second, the hollowing out of the middle class since the 1970s, a phenomenon interrupted only briefly in the 1990s, means that they are unable to invest in their future, by educating themselves and their children and by starting or improving businesses.  Continue. reading….

Image credit: AP

Morning Quote: Davie Plouffe

Senior Obama adviser David Plouffe on the president’s plans for his second term:

“We have spent a lot of time trying to figure out both what to pursue but also these issues of making sure you’re bringing the same sort of energy and same sort of focus as the first term.”

Morning Quote: Joe Scarborough

During a discussion of Obama’s executive actions on gun control, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough warned his party to tread carefully where gun control is concerned:

“My Republican Party better tread very lightly. They’d better be very careful. They have wandered in and followed the NRA, whose (sic) made some horrible PR mistakes over the past month. Republicans better be careful and think twice before they make their next move.”

Watch:

Via Mediaite

Morning Quote: Robert Gibbs

During an appearance on Morning Joe, (former White House press secretary) Robert Gibbs made a case for activating ‘Obama for America’ to fight the gun control wars:

“The NRA is continually trumpeting they increased their membership by 'x' amount in this month. The president has the most exciting campaign apparatus ever built. It's time to turn that loose. It's time to turn that loose for something more than just an election. If the NRA's got a list, then Obama for America has a bigger list and it is time to get activated again.”

Morning Quote: Steny Hoyer

On Monday, House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) talked to reporters about Speaker John Boehner and what action the Republican House is likely to take on the debt ceiling:

“Speaker Boehner has made it very clear he thinks defaulting on the debt would have very detrimental consequences, yet he continues to have members to talk about it as an option for negotiations.”

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made it clear that Congress must act to avoid default, which could occur as early as mid-February:

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other key leaders in the House and Senate, Geithner said that the Treasury Department is already taking "extraordinary measures" to fulfill the nation's financial obligations.

However, Geithner warned those steps would run out sometime between mid-February and early March, with a more precise estimate to be issued later.

"Any estimate, however, will be subject to a significant amount of uncertainty because we are entering the tax filing season, when the amounts and timing of tax payments and refunds are unpredictable," Geithner said.

He added, "For this reason, Congress should act as early as possible to extend normal borrowing authority in order to avoid the risk of default and any interruption in payments."

If the debt ceiling is not increased, Geithner said that the country would be forced to try to pay its bills only with the cash it has on hand on any given day, warning of dire consequences if the government is forced to go that route.

"The U.S. government makes approximately 80 million separate payments per month," Geithner said. "These include payments for Social Security; Supplemental Security Income; Medicare; Medicaid; national security needs, including military salaries, military retirement, veterans' benefits, and defense contractors; income tax refunds; federal employee salaries and retirement; law enforcement and operation of the justice system; unemployment insurance; disaster relief; goods and services sold to the government under contracts with small and large businesses; and many others."

He added, "If Congress does not act to extend borrowing authority, all of these payments would be at risk. This would impose severe economic hardship on millions of individuals and businesses across the country."

Morning Quote: Barack Obama

During a press conference on Monday, President Obama rejected the notion of minting a platinum coin and the possibility of invoking the 14th Amendment, referring to these ideas as “magic tricks” and “loopholes”. He also explained the debt ceiling process, as well as the constitutional roles of the president, and the Congress in the process:

“And there are no magic tricks here. There are no loopholes. There are no easy outs. This is a matter of congress authorizes spending. They order me to spend. They tell me you need to fund our defense department at such an such a level. You need to send out social security checks. You need to make sure that you’re paying to care for our veterans. They lay all this out for me, because they have the spending power. And so I am required by law to go ahead and pay these bills. Separately, they also have to authorize a raising of the debt ceiling in order to make sure those bills are paid.

So what congress can’t do is tell me to spend X and then say we’re not going to give you the authority to go ahead and pay the bills.”

Watch:

Morning Quote: Colin Powell

On Meet The Press yesterday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell (R), called out the Republican Party for their racial intolerance:

“There’s also a dark — a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party. What do I mean by that? I mean by that that they still sort of look down on minorities. How can I evidence that?

When I see a former governor say that the President is “shuckin’ and jivin’,” that’s racial era slave term. When I see another former governor after the president’s first debate where he didn’t do very well, says that the president was lazy. He didn’t say he was slow. He was tired. He didn’t do well. He said he was lazy. Now, it may not mean anything to most Americans, but to those of us who are African Americans, the second word is shiftless and then there’s a third word that goes along with that. The birther, the whole birther movement. Why do senior Republican leaders tolerate this kind of discussion within the party?”

Powell was speaking of Sarah Palin and former Romney surrogate, John Sununu, when he referred to “former governor(s)”.

(h/t Mr. Brink)

Quote of the Day

Wingnut rocker Ted Nugent compares himself/gun owners to the iconic Rosa Parks:

“But there will come a time when the gun owners of America, the law-abiding gun owners of America, will be the Rosa Parks and we will sit down on the front seat of the bus, case closed.”

Think Progress:

Since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December, the NRA and pro-gun advocates have tried to argue that gun owners are the true victims. Comparisons of President Obama to the totalitarian regimes of Hitler, Stalin, and Chavez are flying around the conservative blogosphere. Nugent, a reliable conspiracy theorist, is actually more moderate to advocate peaceful resistance and faith in law enforcement. In comparison, former NRA president Marion Hammer recently urged armed insurrection against the Obama administration, which she claimed was preparing to take away guns to “control the masses.”

Realistically, as Media Matters notes, any executive order would likely focus on background checks or existing regulations.

Morning Quote: the NRA

Evidently, the NRA is unhappy with Vice President Joe Biden’s task force, emphasis mine:

“The National Rifle Association of America is made up of over 4 million moms and dads, daughters and sons, who are involved in the national conversation about how to prevent a tragedy like Newtown from ever happening again. We attended today’s White House meeting to discuss how to keep our children safe and were prepared to have a meaningful conversation about school safety, mental health issues, the marketing of violence to our kids and the collapse of federal prosecutions of violent criminals.

We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment. While claiming that no policy proposals would be “prejudged,” this Task Force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners – honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans. It is unfortunate that this Administration continues to insist on pushing failed solutions to our nation’s most pressing problems. We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen. Instead, we will now take our commitment and meaningful contributions to members of congress of both parties who are interested in having an honest conversation about what works – and what does not.”

Note the only slightly veiled threat to fight efforts at gun control with bribes to Congress. As if they haven’t been doing this all along.

Morning Quote: Joe Biden

Yesterday, Joe Biden made it clear that the president is likely to take executive action on gun control:

“The president is going to act. There are executive orders, there's executive action that can be taken.

We haven't decided what that is yet, but we're compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and all the rest of the Cabinet members.”

Morning Quote: Nancy Pelosi

On the House floor yesterday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) ripped into Tea Party Caucus member Pete Sessions (R-Tx) over middle class tax cuts:

“Do I detect your smirk to mean that you don’t think Republicans will vote for middle income tax cuts, Mr. Sessions, should I take it to mean that you will continue to hold middle income tax cuts hostage, giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in our country?

The unfairness of it is appalling, the fact that it increases the deficit is disgraceful, and that it does not create jobs is a big mistake for us to make.”

Watch:

H/T Alexander

Morning Quote: Barack Obama

ABC News: “As the clock ticks toward a tax hike on all Americans in 20 days, President Obama predicted Republicans would join Democrats to extend current rates for 98 percent of earners before the end of the year.”:

“I'm pretty confident that Republicans would not hold middle class taxes hostage to trying to protect tax cuts for high-income individuals.”

Oh really?

Morning Quote: Barack Obama

During an interview yesterday on Bloomberg Television, President Obama said that Republican math doesn’t add up:

“It's not me being stubborn; it's not me being partisan. It's just a matter of math.”

If you decide to watch the interview, let me just note that it seems to me that the interviewer, Julianna Goldman, is sympathetic to John Boehner’s recalcitrant, do-nothing Republican House.

CLIMATE CHANGE: What a Few Degrees Difference Means to Humankind

In the National Geographic documentary “Six Degrees Could Change the World”, we come face to face with the future and the rising temperatures induced by humankind.

If you’ve ever wondered what it would mean for our world, for our children and grandchildren, if we do nothing to mitigate the manmade causes of rising global temperatures, you must watch this film. If you are a parent, probably not a good idea to watch it with very small children.

According to HuffPost, scientists no longer believe that we can limit the warming to a couple of degrees Celsius:

The amount of heat-trapping pollution the world spewed rose again last year by 3 percent. So scientists say it’s now unlikely that global warming can be limited to a couple of degrees, which is an international goal.

In case you were wondering, 1ºCelcius = 33.800ºFahrenheit. Adds.......just to clarify, a rise of 1ºCelcius = 1.8º Fahrenheit (in mean global temperatures.

Chart of the Day

We knew that the current (112^th) Congress was a do-nothing sort, but now, thanks to Steve Benen’s handy dandy chart, we know that the 112^th Congress is actually the do-nothingest Congress since…..the House Clerk began keeping records in 1947.

Keep in mind that it wasn’t Democrats who held things up. It was Republicans who were set on defeating Obama. And many of these Republicans/Tea Party people were reelected on November 6 by their obviously know-nothing constituents.

Via Ashby

Santorum to Write for World Net Daily

Rick Santorum has agreed to become a columnist for the notorious World Net Daily, a site best known for advancing the birther movement. Think Progress:

The former Pennsylvania senator, who was voted out of office in 2006, will use the perch to remain in the conservative consciousness as he eyes another presidential bid in 2016. His column will be featured on the site every Monday.

Santorum’s extreme views will fit in well at WorldNetDaily. In the past, he has compared homosexuality to bestiality, told rape victims they shouldn’t be permitted to get an abortion but rather should “make the best out of a bad situation,” and said food stamps are unnecessary because obesity rates are so high.

Culling WorldNetDaily’s conspiracy theories to a manageable list is a herculean task, but here are a few choice headlines:

• ARPAIO: ‘PROBABLE CAUSE’ OBAMA CERTIFICATE A FRAUD
• POSTMAN: AYERS FAMILY PUT ‘FOREIGNER’ OBAMA THROUGH SCHOOL
• MICHAEL SAVAGE: WAS BREITBART ASSASSINATED?
• OBAMA’S ‘MISSING YEAR’ AT COLUMBIA FOUND?

Chances are good that Santorum will once again seek a presidential nomination in 2016.

Image credit: Charles Dharapak/Associated Press