World News Korner

Courtesy of TPM:

While Republican senators were fuming at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) for holding up a $1.1 trillion spending bill aimed at preventing a government shutdown, Democrats saw a silver lining: the move by Cruz and Lee gave Democrats an opening to move a number of President Barack Obama's nominees for federal judgeships and the executive branch.

What happened was that when Cruz and Lee scuttled a deal between Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that would have allowed lawmakers to leave Washington D.C. for the weekend and come back Monday they gave Democrats a chance to advance Obama's presidential appointees by having to stay in D.C. to deal with the spending bill.

The extra time over the weekend gave Reid the opportunity to, through the Senate's executive session, file cloture on the nominations and move them sooner than they would have under the deal Reid and McConnell had planned on and that Cruz and Lee blocked. Under the original deal Reid would have had to schedule votes on the nominees later in the upcoming week, when Democrats may not have wanted to stick around to vote.

Was worried Dr. Vivek Murthy might not get confirmed but thanks to @TedCruz, looks like he will. #TopDocNow #SurgeonGeneral
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) December 13, 2014

Courtesy of Politico:

The nominations may take days of procedural votes and a lot energy but are likely to be a boon to the president’s hopes of winning approval of as many nominees as possible before his party loses the Senate.

“A lot of these people have been sitting in the calendar for a long time. So if this prompts my leadership to stay a little longer to get a lot of nominations done, then I’m happy about that,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) of the unusual Saturday session.

That's Ted Cruz for you. He always knows exactly where to find his foot. Right next to his molars.

Update: Well the bill passed.

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On Wednesday a group of Tea Party enthusiasts gathered outside the White House to protest immigration reform. And then thinks got just a touch racist.

Courtesy of Right Wing Watch:

“Hang the traitor!”

“Hang the lying Kenyan traitor!”

“We’ve got rope.”

“Plenty of trees in the front yard, wouldn’t be the first one hung on one of them trees.”

“Whatever happened to those good ol’ days?”

“Don’t snap his neck, you watch him choke to death.”

“He’s just biding his time until Satan takes him home to where he belongs.”

Gosh isn't it great that we live in a country where just about any toothless inbred dipshit can stand outside the home of the President of the United States and discuss exactly how they would hang him from a tree?

I simply cannot imagine why people keep insisting that the Tea Party is racist. Can you?



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Courtesy of CNN:

Rep. Michele Bachmann says now that she's leaving Congress, she can "take the handcuffs off."

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday, the eight-year Minnesota congresswoman said she wants to play a major role in the 2016 presidential campaign -- even though she has no plans to seek the Republican nomination.

"I intend to go around the country and speak nationally on a variety of issues. I'll be writing. I'll be affiliating with groups," she said.

Well I don't know who had Bachmann handcuffed, but that just seems wrong.

If they really wanted to control her they would have gagged her instead.

As for her plans to "go around the country and speak nationally on a variety of issues," I think she might be trespassing on somebody else's turf.

Besides who can really take her seriously until she gets her own channel?

Right?

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Courtesy of MSNBC:

“You know,” Warren said Friday, “there is a lot of talk lately about how Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. There is a lot of talk coming from Citigroup about how Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. So let me say this to anyone who is listening at Citi – I agree with you. Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. It should have broken you into pieces.”

I cannot remember when the last time was that I wanted to stand up and cheer for a speech on the Senate floor, but I certainly did yesterday.

Elizabeth Warren has now thrown down the gauntlet for her fellow Democrats, and I really don't think they can ignore it.

And you can tell that Warren really frightens the Republicans by who is coming after her since this speech.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), responding to Sen. Elizabeth's Warren (D-Mass.) criticism of the $1.1 trillion government spending bill's provision that allows banks to take more risk with taxpayer money, on Friday evening went after Warren and other Democrats who sided against the bill.

"If you follow the lead of the senator of Massachusetts and bring this bill down … people are not going to believe you are mature enough to run the place,” Graham said on the Senate floor. “Don’t follow her lead. She’s the problem."

"I'm sure on MSNBC you're going to be well thought of, and on the liberal version of talk radio you'll have your moment with that crowd," Graham said, chiding Warren and other Democrats who deplored what has been called a Wall Street giveaway.

"You're tired, you're frustrated, you're upset about a provision in the bill you don't like," he added of Warren.

Yeah way to talk down to somebody who is clearly your intellectual superior.

By the way as you may have noticed from the previous post Warren has at least one well known conservative figure essentially agreeing with her about the Cromnibus bill. Sarah Palin.

Gee I guess we can all look forward to an impassioned ghostwritten Facebook post in favor of Senator Warren. Right?

Right?

Not right?

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Courtesy of Politico:

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said the House Republicans who passed $1 trillion-plus funding bill late Thursday “flipped American voters the bird.”

“It’s baffling really,” Palin said in an interview with Breitbart News on Friday. “The Republican Leadership in the House just flipped American voters the bird by sidelining the new Congress we just elected.”

Palin’s criticisms come the morning after the House passed a spending bill by a 219-206 vote. While the bill will keep the government open for another year, Palin and other conservatives are not happy that the legislation will fund President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration and the Affordable Care Act — or as Palin calls it, “the mother-of-all unfunded mandates.”

“It stinks to high heaven,” Palin said of the bill. “Did arrogant politicians not get the memo that Obama’s agenda was decisively defeated in last month’s historic midterm landslide?”

She continued, “Good Lord, America said loud and clear, not just ‘no,’ but ‘hell no’ to Obama’s failed policies.” Palin said she hopes that the 162 Republicans who backed the bill face backlash and called this an “example of the GOP establishment campaigning one way and then governing another.”

“It’s quite nauseating,” she said. “They promised they would do everything in their power to stop Obama’s executive amnesty — I heard their darn campaign speeches promising to do so! — and yet when they have the power to do so (power that we the voters just gave them) they tacitly endorse Obama’s failed agenda.”

Aww, her's feelings are hurt because the Republicans are not doing what she is gosh darn telling them to do.

You know it's almost like you DO need a title to get things done in this country.

At this point Palin has become reminiscent of the old lady who constantly writes letters to the electric company complaining that the power lines next to her house have rendered her parakeets sterile. Or the amateur astronomer bitching to the Mayor's office because the new highrise is blocking his view of Venus.

Nobody listens to them either.

Gosh kids remember when that Sarah Palin woman could make a statement and it was covered by hundreds of media outlets?

Yeah, whatever happened to her?

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Courtesy of TPM:

Kentucky's proposed "creationist theme park," Ark Encounter, won't receive tax incentives from the state because of potentially discriminatory hiring practices, the news website Insider Louisville reported on Wednesday.

The secretary of the state's tourism and arts cabinet sent a letter to the theme park's lawyers on Wednesday explaining the decision. The park, being built in Williamstown, Ky., may have been eligible for up to $18 million in tax breaks from the state, according to the website. But Kentucky backed out after the proprietors of Ark Encounter refused to agree to hiring practices that wouldn't discriminate on the basis of religion, the site reported.

Loss of the tax incentives will likely signal the end of the project because:

Answers in Genesis, the group behind Ark Encounter, has experienced funding issues throughout. In 2011, the company had only managed to garner $4.3 million in donations, a far cry from the proposed $24.5 million.

You know I hate to bring this up, but I do believe that according to the Bible Noah built HIS without benefit of tax incentives.

I'm just saying.

I saw an earlier story about this where a commenter said, "Well I'm bummed. I was really looking forward to that awkward moment when the fire inspectors posted the maximum occupancy allowed inside the Ark."

Good point.

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