Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

and … It’s Only Tuesday!


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And The Crazy Things Conservatives Have Said This Week Are Piling Up

Is it just us, or does this week seem to already have a particularly large number of right-wing conservatives saying crazy things? Here are six of the most unfortunate:

1. Todd Akin Says He And Joe McCarthy Were Both Victims Of The Liberal Media. Remember Todd Akin? The failed Missouri Senate candidate has recently re-emerged in the public sphere to defend his claim in 2012 that women who were victims of “legitimate rape” could not get pregnant. In a phone interview with St. Louis Dispatch, the former congressman compared himself sympathetically to Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-WI), who spearheaded the infamous Communist witch hunt in the 1950s.

2. Rupert Murdoch Says Climate Change Should Be Approached With Great Skepticism. The chairman and CEO of News Corporation — one of the world’s largest media conglomerates, which includes Fox News and The Wall Street Journal — reflected candidly on climate change in a wide-ranging interview Sunday, saying he thought it should be approached with great skepticism. “At the moment the north pole is melting but the south pole is getting bigger,” he said. “Things are happening. How much of it are we doing, with emissions and so on? As far as Australia goes? Nothing in the overall picture.” Murdoch went on to argue that “we shouldn’t be building windmills and all that rubbish.”

3. Congresswoman Urges GOP To Bring Policy Discussion ‘Down To A Woman’s Level’. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) is a second-term Congresswoman and chair of the Republican Women’s Policy Committee. In a panel on women and the Republican Party, she suggested that the best way for the party to appeal to women is to talk down to them. “Men do tend to talk about things on a much higher level,” Ellmers said. “Many of my male colleagues, when they go to the House floor, you know, they’ve got some pie chart or graph behind them and they’re talking about trillions of dollars and how, you know, the debt is awful and, you know, we all agree with that.” But, she went on to say, “We need our male colleagues to understand that if you can bring it down to a woman’s level and what everything that she is balancing in her life — that’s the way to go.”

4. Congressional Candidate: Most Energy Problems ‘Are Caused By Environmentalists’. George Cicotte, a Republican candidate for Washington’s fourth congressional district, said at a candidate forum Saturday that if environmentalists hadn’t “stopped nuclear in its tracks” in the 1970s, there would be a lot less greenhouse gas pollution today. “Really, when we talk about energy problems, most of the energy problems are caused by environmentalists,” he said. “Wind energy? I’ll be honest — give me a break.”

5. GOP Congressman: Kids At Border “Gang Members” From Culture Of “Rape”. A Florida Republican congressman called undocumented immigrant children at the border not children at all but gang affiliated persons from a culture of thievery, murder, and violence.
“A lot of these children … quote-unquote … ya know, the first caller mentioned it, ya know, they’re gang members. They’re gang affiliated,” Florida Republican Rep. Rich Nugent said on WOCA radio Monday.

6. TX GOP Lawmaker: Teens He Saw At U.S. Border Looked Like ‘Threat’. The Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security went on “Fox News Sunday” this morning and told host Brit Hume that many of the teenagers he saw at the United States-Mexican border facilities looked like a “threat.” Representative Michael McCaul (TX) said that “it’s very heart-wrenching as a father to see that — mothers with their babies.” He then added, “I also saw some 17-year-olds that I thought looked more like a threat.” McCaul did acknowledge that these teenagers were “caught in the middle, between [administration] policy and what the drug traffickers are doing in Central America.”

SMH.

Rebuilding America!


whitehousebannerWhat Rebuilding America Means for You

Our nation’s infrastructure has long been our economic backbone. A well-performing transportation network keeps jobs in America, allows businesses to expand, and lowers prices on household goods for American families.

But we’ve been investing in our infrastructure less and less — and, as a result, congestion and maintenance backlogs have gone up:

  • 65% of our roads are rated in less than good condition
  • 25% of our bridges require significant repair or can’t handle today’s traffic
  • 45% of Americans lack access to transit

It’s time to rebuild our roads and bridges in a smarter, more responsible way while supporting millions of jobs.

See how your state is affected, and learn how the President’s plan will rebuild America.

What's at stake if Congress doesn't act

Weekly Address: Expanding Opportunity — It’s Time for Congressional Republicans to Do Their Part

In this week’s address, the President recapped his visits with folks who have written him letters about their own American stories — their successes and struggles. While congressional Republicans are blocking meaningful measures that would strengthen the middle class, the President continues looking for ways to grow the economy and expand opportunity for more hardworking Americans.

READ MORE

Children or Political footballs


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The Border Crisis Is Not An Opportunity To Play Politics

A growing humanitarian situation at the Mexico-U.S. border, with tens of thousands of children fleeing violence and organized criminal activity in Central America to the U.S. and neighboring countries, has brought immigration to the forefront of the political conversation again, highlighting both the need for immediate action and long-term reform. Tens of thousands of children and families have come across the border recently, leaving immigration officials with overcrowded detention facilities and little capacity to process them.

President Obama has issued a request for Congress to provide $3.7 billion in emergency funds to care for and speed up the repatriation of the more than 57,000 children. Vice President Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson have all either visited Central America or the border to assess the crisis.

Meanwhile, too many Republicans are exploiting child refugees to score political points. Gov. Rick Perry, after meeting with Obama in Texas last week, asked “I don’t know whether [Obama’s] inept, or there’s something else going on.” Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) went even farther, going on a diatribe against the migrant children and urging Texas to unilaterally declare war. Here’s what he said:

Even with $3.7 billion that’s requested, there’s no way for what’s being called for is going to stop the invasion that’s occurring. That’s why I’m hoping that my governor will utilize Article 1, Section 10, that allows a state that is being invaded — in our case more than twice as many just in recent months, more than twice as many than invaded France on D-Day with a doubling of that coming en route, on their way here now under Article 1, Section 10, the state of Texas would appear to have the right, not only to use whatever means, whether it’s troops, even using ships of war, even exacting a tax on interstate commerce that wouldn’t normally be allowed to have or utilize, they’d be entitled in order to pay to stop the invasion.

Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution provides that “[n]o state shall, without the consent of Congress, . . . engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.” We are not talking about war. We are talking about children—many younger than 10—who have experienced horrible conditions in their home countries and on the journey, and who are alone and scared.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) stressed this point and called out the xenophobia in this debate yesterday: “There is American exceptionalism, I believe in it,” Gutierrez said. “I say we are the strongest, wealthiest, most powerful nation in the world, and children are coming to our borders, we should protect them.”

BOTTOM LINE: We need to show compassion and take care of these children who have traveled thousands of miles from three of the most dangerous countries in the world. They deserve a hearing to determine if their claims are valid, and we should treat them humanely throughout that process, while sending resources to expedite it. Meanwhile, House Republicans must take responsibility to fix the long-term issue of a broken immigration system and stop refusing to vote on the bipartisan, comprehensive immigration bill that passed the Senate a year ago.

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Affordable Care Act …


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The Affordable Care Act’s Dramatic Impact On The Uninsured, In One Chart

Yesterday we wrote about some of the GOP health care myths that have been busted with the latest good news from research on how the Affordable Care Act is working. Well, right after that, another great piece of new evidence showed up. This time (with consideration for your Friday afternoon), we can summarize it in a single chart:

gallup

As the chart above reveals, according to the latest polling by Gallup, the rate of Americans without insurance dropped by 3.7 points between the fourth quarter of 2013 and the second quarter of 2014, from 17.1 percent to 13.4 percent. That is a dramatic decline that directly coincides with the open enrollment period for new plans under the ACA.

How’s that for some good news?

BOTTOM LINE: The evidence continues to roll in. Millions of Americans are getting covered thanks to the Affordable Care Act — including huge numbers of individuals who were previously uninsured.