The Daily Drift

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‘Iran’ Sends Open Letter To Republicans Praising Them For Turning America Into Iran

As the fallout continues for the 47 Senate Republicans who sent a letter to Iran to wreck critical diplomatic negotiations with the Obama Administration,...

‘Iran’ Sends Open Letter To Republicans

President Obama Tears Apart Senate Republicans For Sending Treasonous Iran Letter

President Obama had strong words for the Republicans who signed the letter Iran. The president said in the trailer for his interview with Vice that Republicans embarrassed themselves by sending the letter to a government that they consider to be their “mortal enemy.”

Video:

Video Link

In the trailer for an interview with HBO’s Vice that will air on March 16, President Obama said that Republicans embarrassed themselves with their letter to Iran:

I’m embarrassed for them. For them to address a letter to the Ayatollah who they claim is our mortal enemy, and their basic argument to them is, don’t deal with our president because you can’t trust him to follow through on an agreement. That’s close to unprecedented.

President Obama told Republicans that they embarrassed themselves, while calling out the hypocrisy of the letter itself, and suggested the act of trying to sabotage a negotiation with a foreign government was unprecedented.

The president was correct. The letter was an attempt to sabotage Obama while undercutting the president on the world stage. Instead of asserting their power, each of the 47 Republican senators embarrassed themselves and their country with their childlike letter to a foreign government. The president referenced the fact that the Senate Republicans who are pushing for war consider Iran to be America’s mortal enemy.

Apparently, though, the Senate Republicans view President Obama as a bigger enemy than an Iranian regime that funds and sponsors terrorism. The letter is a complete humiliation for the entire Republican Party. It was a reckless attempt to destroy a potential international agreement for domestic partisan political gain.

The letter was not an embarrassment for President Obama. In fact, the letter has helped Obama gain support from Democrats for any potential agreement by making the choice clear. Either Democrats support the diplomatic process, or they side with the Republicans who are pushing for a war with Iran.

The Republican senators took the potential Iran agreement from an executive versus legislative branch issue and turned it into a question of war or no war.

The few words that the president said in the Vice trailer were enough to understand that the Senate Republicans who signed this letter made a huge political mistake. The Republicans failed to embarrass this president, but they did manage to humiliate themselves in front of the entire world.

Feeling The Heat, Republican Ron Johnson Backpedals On Iran Letter (Sort Of)

On Friday morning, Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson backpedaled a little on his support for signing the Iran letter.…

At a Friday morning breakfast with Bloomberg reporters and editors, Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson backpedaled a little on his support for the letter signed by 47 Senators to the leaders of Iran. The controversial letter warned Iranian leaders that U.S. lawmakers or future presidents could disregard any agreements Iran made with President Obama. The patronizing and seditious letter was put forth by Arkansas freshman Senator Tom Cotton, and signed by 46 other Senate Republicans, including Johnson.

After tremendous public backlash, some U.S. Senators have launched into damage control mode, trying to tamp down the righteous outrage of their constituents. Ron Johnson, who faces a tough re-election fight in 2016, told reporters that addressing the letter to Iran’s leaders was a mistake. Of course, he quickly pivoted to saying that the only mistake was who it was addressed to, not the content itself. Nevertheless, the fact that the Senator even recognized that addressing the letter to Iran’s leaders was foolish is noteworthy. Johnson stated:

I suppose the only regret is who it’s addressed to. But the content of the letter, the fact that it was an open letter, none whatsoever.

After acknowledging his regret, he undermined his own statement continuing to want to have it both ways, by adding:

This is such an important deal, it’s a deal that rises to the level of a treaty that really should be evaluated and judged by the American people through their representatives. That treaty should come to Congress for an up-or-down vote.

Apparently Johnson is hoping that his feeble apology, and his halfhearted regrets, will somehow ingratiate himself to Wisconsin’s voters, who have soured on him since he was first elected in November 2010. A poll released on Wednesday showed Johnson trailing the man he beat in 2010, Democrat Russ Feingold, 50-41 in a hypothetical rematch.

Johnson knows that his political future is precarious, so he is attempting to limit the political fallout from signing the “treason letter”, while still trying not to say anything that would potentially offend his tea party base. The Republicans thought they could score a little propaganda victory with the Iran letter, but instead it has backfired in monumental fashion.

While Republicans in deep red states can probably survive the repercussions from their stupid stunt, swing-state senators, like Johnson, may have sealed their political doom. Senator Johnson’s weak efforts to distance himself from his signature may be motivated by his desire for political survival, but the damage has already been done. Whether or not he truly regrets his decision to sign the letter is unclear from his rather mealy-mouthed retraction. However, there is a good chance he will regret signing the letter, shortly after the polls close on Election Night in 2016.

Hey, Wingnuts ...

Bernie Sanders Shows The Media That No One Cares About Hillary Clinton’s Emails

During an interview, Senator Bernie Sanders demonstrated to the media that their obsession with Hillary Clinton’s emails is not shared with the American people.

Sanders told Politico:

“Why am I asked about Hillary Clinton every other day, about her emails?” he asks. “Do you know what — I can’t swear to you on this — last I checked, here in Washington, do you know how many calls I got from Vermont on Hillary Clinton’s emails? Zero. Yet I can’t walk down the hallways here without hearing about Hillary Clinton’s emails.”

Even when pressed on what policy differences exist between him and Clinton, Sanders bristles before eventually posing a series of pointed questions aimed at the former first lady.

“What are her proposals to rebuild a disappearing middle class and to deal with the very high levels of poverty?” he asks. “What are her proposals to create millions of decent-paying jobs in this country? What are her proposals to create a foreign policy that does everything it can to prevent us from getting into another disastrous war? What are her proposals to deal with the greed and recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street?”

Senator Sanders is correct. The Hillary Clinton emails story is a media creation that has been seized on by Republicans who are looking for anything to use against the likely Democratic 2016 nominee. The truth is that the media wants to talk about Clinton because the Republican presidential field is dull as dirt.

The media needs to be asking members of Congress how many phone calls are coming into their offices about Hillary Clinton’s emails. One suspects that the Republican letter to Iran has generated a much stronger response with the American people, but some sections of the media would rather talk about emails and an “issue” that will have no relevance to voters in 2016.

People who will be going to the polls will care about jobs and the economy. They will want a president who will keep the country out of wars, and probably a president will keep the good momentum going that President Obama has built.

Hillary Clinton’s emails aren’t going to matter in November 2016, and Senator Sanders is right to call out the Beltway political media for chasing the latest shiny object instead of working to inform the public about issues that matter.

Republican Hypocrites Who Want To Subpoena Hillary Clinton Don’t Have To Save Their Own Emails

The same House Republicans who want to subpoena Hillary Clinton’s emails have made sure that they aren’t required to save their own emails.

The AP reported:

Congress makes its own rules, and has never subjected itself to open records laws that force agencies such as the State Department to maintain records and turn them over to the public when asked.

There’s also no requirement for members of Congress to use official email accounts, or to retain, archive or store their emails, while in office or after. That’s in contrast to the White House and the rest of the executive branch. Official emails there are supposed to be retained, though the controversy over Clinton’s use of a personal email account while secretary of state has exposed vague and inconsistent requirements from one agency to another.

But if the rules at federal agencies are unclear, at least there are rules. On Capitol Hill, there are almost none. That means that the same House Republicans who are subpoenaing Clinton’s emails as part of their inquiry into the Benghazi, Libya, attacks are not required to retain emails of their own for future inspection by anyone.

House Republicans are contemplating no less than three investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Some in the House have gone as far as to suggest that the full House could subpoena the Clinton email server. The news that House Republicans have exempted themselves from the same standard that they are trying to hold Hillary Clinton has pushed this story from being ridiculous to absurdity.

How can anyone take the Republican angst over Clinton’s emails seriously when they took steps to exempt themselves from having to save any of their own emails? Republicans suggest that they are different and that the public doesn’t need to see their emails. In other words, Boehner’s House is telling the American people to trust them.

If there is one thing that Americans have learned since Republicans took control of the House, it is that they should never be trusted. The Republican hypocrisy is par for the course for the party of do as I say, not as I do. In the coming days and months, House Republicans are going to try to make a mountain out of the Clinton email molehill, but every time they mention emails, Boehner and company should be asked why they keep their emails hidden from the public.

Playing the email game is destined to backfire on the Republican Party.

David Vitter Introduces Amendment To End 'Birthright Citizenship'

Yes, this is what happens to a human trafficking bill with Republicans in charge.

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Arizona lawmaker has to reveal a dark secret to school wingnuts about abortion

Tucson lawmaker Victoria Steele became the latest Democratic lawmaker to spill her guts about being the victim of sexual assault in order to try and slow down conservative Republicans who are bound and determined to chip away at the right to have an abortion.

Schooling wingnuts about abortion

NASA Administrator Gives Ted Cruz An Epic Lesson In How Science Works

by Katie Valentine

Ted Cruz thinks NASA should spend less time studying the planet and more time finding ways to go out into space.

Cruz (R-TX), who is chair of the Senate Space, Science, and Competitiveness Subcommittee, addressed his concerns at a hearing Thursday on the $18.5 billion budget request for NASA’s fiscal year 2016. There, he asked NASA Administrator Charles Bolden what Bolden thought NASA’s “core mission” was.
“Our core mission from the very beginning has been to investigate, explore space and the Earth environment, and to help us make this place a better place,” Bolden said.
Cruz wasn’t satisfied.
“Almost any American would agree that the core function of NASA is to explore space,” he said. “That’s what inspires little boys and little girls across this country … and you know that I am concerned that NASA in the current environment has lost its full focus on that core mission.”
But Bolden defended NASA’s work here on Earth. NASA compiles data on the planet’s air pollution via satellite, engages in research on new forms of energy, and is a key agency for climate change and ice melt data. Bolden alluded to the agency’s study of climate change in his response to Cruz, saying that the agency can’t do any of its work — on the ground or up in space — “if the Kennedy Space Center goes underwater and we don’t know it.” That’s not a hyperbolic worry — scientists have warned that sea level rise is putting the Kennedy Center, which is located in Florida, at risk.
“It is absolutely critical that we understand Earth’s environment because this is the only place that we have to live,” Bolden said. “Science helps exploration; exploration helps science.”
Cruz said during the hearing that he worried about NASA’s increase in spending on Earth science and, according to Cruz, its decrease in spending on space exploration (Bolden said he didn’t have enough information on what Cruz included in his calculations of NASA’s spending, so he didn’t know whether he agreed with the Senator’s assessment of the agency’s spending). ThinkProgress reached out to Cruz’s office for additional comment but hasn’t heard back as of press time.
Cruz didn’t specifically mention NASA’s studies on climate change in the hearing, but the Senator has been outspoken on the issue before. Last year, he said that the earth had experienced “no recorded warming” over the last 15 years — a claim that climate scientists dismiss, saying that much of the warming has been going on in the deep oceans. 2014 was also the hottest year on record, according to NASA and NOAA.
Cruz also likes to joke about how cold weather must mean that Al Gore has been lying about climate change. Of course, cold weather in one part of the world has nothing to do with long-term observed warming trends.
Along with Republicans before him, Cruz has made the argument before that NASA should focus more on space exploration and less on issues facing our lowly planet. But for NASA, less time spent focused on Earth means less time gathering data on climate change and its impacts.
This rhetoric on climate change, coupled with the fact that Cruz had tried in 2013 to cut NASA’s funding, led to worries about what Cruz would do in his role as chair of the Senate Space, Science, and Competitiveness Subcommittee, which he took on earlier this year.
“Senator Cruz has been playing to the most extreme elements of his party on climate change,” Keith Gaby, communications director for climate and air at the Environmental Defense Fund, told ThinkProgress in January. “Having someone chair the Science Committee who claims there is no evidence of climate change in the last 15 years — when 13 of the 14 hottest years on record have occurred in the 21st century — is not an encouraging development.”

Chris Christie ‘Pardons the Corruption’

From the "Public Enemies" Department:

I must confess, I miss the Chris Christie of yesteryear. You know, the carpe diem kind of guy who would shut down bridges and imprison nurses on a whim. Since he…

‘Pardons the Corruption’

Good Question

Bobby Jindal: Champion Of 'The Stupid Party'

As the GOP embraces the reactionary politics and anti-government zealotry of the Tea Party, it is steadily purging “moderates” and empowering extremists. Nothing shows this trend more clearly than the lineup of potential Republican presidential candidates. In this new series, we’ll... MORE

Republicans Keeping Jim Crow Alive

Chris Matthews Accuses GOP Of Keeping Jim Crow Alive

GOPer Embarrasses Hannity On Fox With Epic Open Mic Flub

Missouri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder (R) humiliated Sean Hannity and Fox News in general when he was caught on a hot mic saying exactly what most of us have...

GOPer Embarrasses Hannity

Radio Host Cuts Off Wingnut Guest For Lying About Obama

Tim Farley cut retired Air Force Col. Dick Brauer's mic after he started the usual litany of lies.

A Wingnut Lying  - NOW That IS News

NYPD Caught Editing Eric Garner Wikipedia Pages, Along With Other Police Brutality Victims

They shouldn’t be able to get away with this.

Read full story 

Univision Demonstrates How Fox ‘News’ Should Deal With Employees Who Say Stupid Things On The Air

Fox “News” could learn a thing or two from Univision about how to fire an employee who says stupid things on the air after the Latin network canned one of their own hosts for making a horrible remark about First Lady Michelle Obama.

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Increasing economic inequality rises out of political partisanship

New evidence that increasing economic inequality rises out of political partisanship

Political scientists at the University at Buffalo and Pennsylvania State University have published new research investigating how partisan differences in macroeconomic policy have contributed to substantial and rising economic inequality […]

Republican Paradise