Texas Democrats Stall, Run Out The Clock On Republican Anti-Gay Marriage Bill

A Republican effort to pass a bill that would prohibit government employees from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Texas failed to come to a vote, as Texas Democrats successfully ran out the clock on Friday. Republicans had until midnight Friday to pass the bill, which had nearly unanimous GOP support in the Republican-controlled chamber. However, Democrats stalled by engaging in long debates over noncontroversial pieces of legislation, and by introducing measures sure to be voted down, like raising the state’s minimum wage.

The anti-gay marriage bill’s sponsor Cecil Bell (R-Montgomery County) expressed frustration that the GOP had been outmaneuvered by the Democratic minority. Bell complained, ”there was a bunch of folks who don’t think that state sovereignty is a high priority”. Democratic Rep. Celia Israel (North Austin/Pflugerville) offered a different perspective from Bell’s. She exclaimed:

We’re sending a message to Texas that this is worth fighting for. We’re not in the majority. We don’t control the ship. But we can help to steer it in the right direction.

This is not the first time Texas Republicans have been defeated by a passionate Democratic minority in the Lone Star State.  In June 2013, State Senator Wendy Davis (Fort Worth) led a successful Democratic filibuster of anti-abortion legislation in the state’s upper chamber, running out the Senate clock, and forcing Republicans to regroup in order to push through anti-abortion legislation in a later session. Davis’ long floor speech captured national attention and caused the GOP some embarrassment.

As time expired on the anti-gay marriage bill Friday, more than 20 pieces of legislation were still stacked ahead of Bell’s bill. The Democrats had placed enough procedural hurdles in the way to prevent the GOP bill from coming to a floor vote.

Although the Texas legislature is dominated by Republicans, Lone Star state Democrats continue to fight for the rights of everyday Texans. Those Democrats are determined to stand up and fight, using whatever legal means possible to ensure that LGBT Texans are not denied the right to marry the person they love.

Republicans Rally Behind State ‘Religious Freedom’ Laws

The Republican National Committee has endorsed state legislation that has been used to justify anti-LGBT discrimination.

'LGBT rights are human rights'

'LGBT rights are human rights,' Obama says

Neil Cavuto Lashes Out At President Obama For Telling The Truth About Fox

Someone needs to tell Fox's Neil Cavuto he should leave the comedy to the comedians.

Telling The Truth About Fox

Republicans Forced To Admit That Obama Approved Raid On ISIL Was Successful

Republicans like McConnell (R-KY) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) have been forced to admit on the Sunday shows that the Obama approved raid on ISIL in Syria has been successful.

On ABC’s This Week, McConnell said, “Well, the president has done a good job with these special operations type missions. Where I think the administration has fallen down is they tend not to favor, generally speaking, capture and interrogation. Although it’s good that the wife of this terrorist was captured and will be interrogated. I’ve been distressed, for example, about the willingness to release prisoners at Guantanamo. Look, this is not a criminal type matter. This is a defense matter. What you want to do is you want to capture people, you want to interrogate them, and you want to try to prevent the next atrocity. I wish we’d had, you know, frankly, more emphasis on capturing, detaining and interrogation than on strikes. Although the strikes are important, and I congratulate those who carried it out. It sounds like it was a very successful mission.”

Marco Rubio (R-FL) said on Fox News Sunday, “For now, let’s just say it was a successful raid, and it’s good news. Obviously, anytime you can take away and degrade top leadership of an organization it’s a positive step forward….It remains a risk, but obviously we want to congratulate the men and women in uniform who carried it out and the President for undertaking the mission.”

McConnell and Rubio are two of the Republicans who tried to sabotage President Obama’s foreign policy with their letter to Iran, so for Republicans to not only admit the mission was a success, but also praise the president is something that has been virtually unseen during the Obama presidency.

Reports are that the US raid in Syria has killed 32 ISIS members including four leaders. The symbolic message that the raid sends is that terrorists are not safe anywhere on this Earth. It takes an unspeakable amount of leadership for the President to authorize a mission where special operations forces are going into a territory where they have no allies on the ground.

The courage showed by those who carried out the mission is immeasurable, but they wouldn’t have been there if Obama would not have approved the mission. As much as it must drive Republicans crazy, even they are admitting that President Obama has been successful.

Idiot Republican: Obama Must Officially 'Declare War On The Concept Of Terror'

Last month, Ohio Republican Bill Johnson stopped by “The Tom Roten Morning Show,” where he said that just as many did not grasp the Nazi threat in the run-up to World War II, the Obama administration is ignoring the dangers posed by terrorist groups today. The idiot’s so... MORE

Jeb Bush’s Brother Created ISIL

The responsibility of who fomented the rise of the Islamic State therefore falls on the shoulders of many actors, both American and Middle Eastern. 

Sorry. Iraq Wasn’t a Good Faith Mistake ...

It Was Based on Lies.

Guns, Guns, Guns: How States Like Georgia Make Cop Killing Easy

by Cliff Schecter

The felon who killed NYPD officer Brian Moore got his illegal gun from a state that has become a de facto exporter of crime weapons.
Last week, our society once again paid the price in blood for a government run by the galactically stupid and ideologically inept.
In New York, a police officer died. While a tragedy, that is not the story here. It's why this 25-year old member of the NYPD, Brian Moore, lost his life in a hail of bullets a week ago. It is once again a story about those of us living in the 21st century, suffering due to the actions of those bathing in a sea of branded myth and intellectual decay. Or as it's known in common parlance: Georgia.
Last year, when I first started writing this column, I covered the many foibles, distortions and atavistic tics of those who would seek to put guns in nursery schools, bars and cults, and give Stand Your Ground rights to felons. But you gotta give credit to Georgia legislators, for whom it takes a lot more than legal precedent, common sense and the opposition of constituents and law enforcement to prevail upon them to do something rash, like preventing people from getting shot. As dog is their witness, they'll never go hungry for bullets again!
The problem is that decisions made by pencil-dick provincial legislators in one state affect the health and safety of those living in every other contiguous state, which is where we now find ourselves. In New York City, a city in a state that chooses not to hand over policy to those with the cognitive capacity of a worn-out whoopee cushion, 90 percent of guns recovered from crimes come from out of state..
New York, you see, is among the states that have common-sense background checks to prevent felons, domestic abusers and the mentally incapable from getting guns—states that don't think it should be harder to get birth control than an assault rifle. Georgia, on the other hand, exported two times the national average of guns used in crimes. Guess which of these models for gun regulation leads to 48 percent fewer law enforcement officers killed?
We know that the firearm that led to Moore's murder, a .38-caliber revolver, was stolen from a gun store in Georgia in 2011.
I'll give you some time, especially if your name is John Lott.
So what do we know? We know Officer Moore was killed by a violent felon (attempted murder charge and nine arrests, two for assaulting police officers) not allowed to possess a firearm. We know that the firearm that led to Moore's murder, a .38-caliber revolver, was stolen from a gun store in Georgia in 2011. We know that it was one of 23 guns stolen overall, nine of which ended up on the streets of New York in crime scenes. We know that in 2006 and 2009, Georgia was the leading exporter of crime guns to other states.
We know that Georgia is so concerned about the welfare of its citizens, that it not only doesn't require one to report lost or stolen guns, but it prohibits localities in the state from doing so (so much for right-wing talking points about "local control!"). We know the effect of this is to allow a vibrant gun-smuggling operation of "straw purchases" for people who can't have guns, very lucrative for dealers or others who lack a conscience but love to charge a premium. And we know that Georgia lacks universal background checks by design, so any loon, terrorist or person with an axe to grind can walk into a gun show or go online, and buy guns that possess military firepower.
Let your kids walk alone to a playground a mile away, we'll swoop in like jacked-up Kal-El and threaten to take them away. That also goes for people who say there are positive benefits from smoking pot. Clearly, the only response is to have someone resembling a Terminator T-800 Cyberdine Systems Model 101 with a badge kick through your door through your window and deprive you of a child. Wanna sell a gun to a psychopath and serial killer? Or kill someone else's kid by "accidentally" shooting through a wall? No worries! it's just how we roll.
So right around the time we celebrate the 15-year anniversary of the The Brady Campaign's Million Mom March on Washington, D.C., an officer died. He didn't have to die. It was a choice that legislators made. To make it that much easier for this to happen. In the words of a dolt of a Tennessee legislator, while adding guns to their state parks as a sop to the National Rifle Association, "an act of dog."
Dog seems to get a lot of help from pretzel-logic, bullshit wranglers, if you ask me.

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Art Museum - not that Republicans would know  ... !

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Bernie Sanders and 17 Senate Democrats Urge Obama To Use The Presidency To Help Workers

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and 17 Senate Democrats are urging President Obama to use his executive powers to help American workers.

In a letter, Sanders wrote to the President:

The federal government continues to be America’s largest low-wage job creator, subsidizing poverty-level wages through taxpayer-funded contracts. We urge you to harness the power of the presidency to help workers.

Now is the time to declare that the federal government will invest our taxpayer dollars to incentivize model employers that commit to creating good jobs and to rebuilding America’s ailing middle class,” wrote the senators. The letter was sent to the president today.

Sen. Sanders and the Senate Democrats urged President Obama to boost the wages of federal contract worker to a living wage. The letter didn’t specify what wage they were seeking, but liberals, including Sen. Sanders, have suggested a living wage of $15/hour.

Seventeen Democratic senators signed on to the letter including Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Al Franken (Minn.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Chris Murphy (Conn.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Ben Cardin (Md.), Robert Menendez (N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), and Martin Heinrich (N.M.).

The issue has the potential to be a big winner for President Obama and the Democratic Party. With this letter, Sen. Sanders (I-VT) reminded Democrats that he is an outspoken advocate for low-wage workers. Since the odds of the Republican-controlled Congress passing a minimum wage increase are exactly zero, Democrats are going to have to action where they can to help the country’s underpaid workers.

The contrast between Democrats and Republicans could not be clearer. While Republicans are trying to cut taxes for the wealthy, Democrats are pushing for higher wages. President Obama has an opportunity to do something important for a group of low-wage workers, and something tells me that his executive action pen will be wielded again.

Democrats Threaten To Kill The Patriot Act’s Domestic Spying Programs With Filibuster

Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans have unified around the common goal of killing some of the Patriot Act’s worst domestic spying programs with a filibuster.

Politico reported on the fact that key parts of the Patriot Act are set to expire with no deal in sight:

The prospects of a deal look grim: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday night proposed just a two-month extension of expiring PATRIOT Act provisions to give the two sides more time to negotiate, but even that was immediately dismissed by critics of the program.

….

The Senate is stalemated. McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) want to prolong the authorities for 5½ years untouched. But libertarian-leaning Republicans and Democrats are threatening to let the authorities expire. Just extending them a few months faces long odds of clearing Congress before the break.

“I’m going to filibuster. I’m going to do everything it takes to block a short-term extension,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). He and Paul (R-Ky.) have threatened to filibuster any attempt to prolong the bulk collection program.

There is broad support for the USA Freedom Act, which is a bill of modest reforms, but McConnell and other spying hawks want a five and a half year extension of the full Patriot Act that is unlikely to happen.

Democrats and their Republican allies on this issue can win by doing nothing. They are never going to pass a two-month extension of the program, and they are definitely not going to pass McConnell’s plan.

The Patriot Act is one of the ugly living legacies of the post-9/11 Bush years. It is a horrible piece of civil liberties violating legislation that was hurriedly passed in the panic after 9/11. Some Republicans have already started to trot out the scare rhetoric of the terrorists coming to kill us all if the NSA loses its illegal data collection programs, but the tide has finally turned.

Most Americans are ready to put their liberties ahead of fear. Getting rid of some of the most egregious programs in the Patriot Act would not only restore freedom. It would also be the first steps towards removing another ugly stain that was left behind by the shrub.

Ziggy

Quick Hits

Rapper 'Killer Mike' To Bill Maher: O'Reilly's More Full Of Shit Than An Outhouse

Maher: Americans Won't Take Anything Seriously Unless It's Delivered With A British Accent

Jon Stewart Takes Fox, Scarborough To Task For Whining About Obama Saying Fox Demonizes The Poor

The match game: Connect the oligarch to the GOP politician he owns

“Whether it’s the Koch brothers or Soros on the left or Sheldon,” former GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich recently said, “if you’re going to have an election process that radically favors billionaires and is discriminating against the middle class—which we now have—then billionaires are going to get a lot of attention.”

The Match Game

Paul Ryan Lies Through His Shiny White Teeth To Deny Republicans Gutted Amtrak

Last Thursday, Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) went on Fox News to lie through his shiny white teeth about the Republicans’ role in the fatal Amtrak crash. And of course,...

Paul Ryan Lies

Marco Rubio struggles to explain Iraq position

 THIS SHOULD BE EASY

Dumber than Dubya

Wisconsin Republicans Pass Bill Banning Poor People From Buying Shellfish, Potatoes And Ketchup

From the "OK, now this is just plain silly" Department:

Wisconsin Republicans are following through with their plan to be the cruelest state in the nation when it comes to the way poor people are treated.

Read more 

Scott’s Dire Shutdown Warnings Prove Republicans Will Stop At NOTHING To Block Access To Healthcare

Florida's Rick Scott proves the Republicans are doomed, as he tries to screw poor people out of health coverage, while balancing his state’s budget.

Read full story 

Judge blasts Pennsylvania Republican sentenced to register as a sex offender

A Pennsylvania judge denounced a former local Republican Party leader on Friday while sentencing him to regularly register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

‘A sexually violent predator'

Tennessee Republican who pressured mistress to have abortion votes to restrict them for other women

DesJarlais admitted in court to pressuring a woman, with whom he was having an affair, and who was 24 years his junior, to have an abortion.

Tennessee Republican Asshole

OK, like is any other kind

Republican Insanity

Jade Helm 15 and eight other Obama plots that keep the lunatic fringe up at night

Jade Helm 15 is just the latest in a litany of lunatic fringe conspiracy theories about President Obama planning a military takeover of the country. While none of the theories has ever actually panned out, lunatic fringe shrieking heads and agitators keep inventing new ones.

Takeover!

Republicans Work to Defund Studies So They Can Deny Climate Change

While it may make sense logically that members of Congress would hold out on forming an opinion while waiting for evidence, it makes absolutely no sense that they would then work fervently to eliminate any means of getting that evidence -- unless of course they have no interest in the truth or evidence.

Deny Climate Change

Oil Tycoon Tries To Get Scientists Who Found Link Between Drilling And Earthquakes Fired

Billionaire is mad that scientists keep finding more evidence that his company is profiting from destroying the environment, tries to shut them up.

Read more 

Duke Energy Pleads Guilty To Nine Environmental Crimes, Agrees To Pay $102 Million

The fine is a result of the utility company's years of dumping coal waste into North Carolina’s rivers.

Republicans Want The Pope To Stop Inserting Religion Into Politics

HYPOCRISY ALERT!

The party of “christian” values doesn’t want anyone else using religion in politics… that’s their game…

Read more 

Religious Hate Group Forgets To Renew Domain Name ...

... Now It Redirects To Hardcore Gay Site

by Rowan Lee 

 

In a hilarious turn of events – hateful and homophobic pastor Randy Bryson of the Open Door baptist cult in Easley, South Carolina forgot to renew his hate-group’s website domain name. A gay rights activist saw an opportunity and snatched it – turning the tables completely upside-down on Bryson and company.
Bryson and his followers have a reputation for picketing gay-friendly events and college campuses – brandishing signs damning all “unclean” homosexuals straight to hell. Statements such as “FEAR GOD” and “AMERICA: GOD HATES YOUR SIN” bark out in black, white, and red in their clutched hands. Their website, WarningsofWrath.com, is featured on all of their signs and used to direct visitors to the church’s webpage. Now, visitors to the site are treated to a giant wall of hardcore gay site. The content features skinheads involved in obscene acts and more…
The anonymous activist had this to say about his move, “They condemned gays and rock music outside Carolina Rebellion…I bought the (expired) domain from their signs and pointed it at gay porn of people who probably like rock music. Fair?”
Fair indeed. The best part of the joke – wondering how long it took them to figure out what they were advertising – but we doubt many pay them mind anyway. Recent Gallup polls show 55% percent of America supporting gay marriage, with 8 in 10 young adults in favor of gay marriage alone. The times are changing; Bryson and flock now no more than a desperate and dying breed of intolerance.
Here is the before and after:

The Daily Drift

Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  

 

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Republicans make BAD neighbors ... !

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If It Were Just About The Issues, Bernie Sanders Would Win In A Landslide

Is it possible that he could be a true crossover candidate and even attract Republicans? If issues are on the table, polls say yes.

Read more 

Democratic Led Minnesota Senate Approves Expanding Early Voting And Voting Rights

On a 39-28 party-line vote, the Democratic-controlled Minnesota State Senate approved a bill expanding voting rights for residents on Monday. The measure, sponsored by Democrat Katie Sieben (Newport), would extend early voting to 15 days before an election, expand mail-in balloting to small communities, and permit convicted felons to vote immediately after they are released from prison.

Democrats argued that changing the law would not only make it easier for Minnesotans to vote, but also that the provisions of the bill would save the state money as well. Republicans, however, were unpersuaded and they refused to support the measure. Nevertheless, the bill sailed through the Democratic-controlled Senate though its fate remains unclear.

Democratic Governor Mark Dayton has intimated that he would prefer to sign a bi-partisan election bill, but Republicans appear unwilling to support any changes that would make it easier for Minnesota residents to vote. Minnesota had the highest voter turnout in the nation in both the 2012 and 2008 presidential elections. In 2012, 76.1 percent of Minnesota’s voting eligible population cast ballots. In 2008, 79 percent voted. The state allows same-day registration, which makes voting easier than in states that have an earlier registration deadline.

Even with the highest turnout in the country, Minnesota Democrats are working to make the process even easier for residents, especially those in small towns. They are also working to extend the franchise to recently released felons who have served their time in prison. That provision is known as the “North Dakota model,” because Minnesota’s next door neighbor, North Dakota, allows felons to vote immediately upon being released from prison.  A dozen other U.S. states besides North Dakota also allow newly released felons to vote.

Republicans offer many reasons why they oppose making voting easier, but the most obvious reason is a political one. In 2012, Barack Obama carried 17 of the 20 states that had the highest voter turnout. When people vote in large numbers, Democrats typically do well. Minnesota Democrats are helping their cause by making voting easier. However, they are also doing it because, in a democratic society, voting participation is an essential element of representative government.

There is no reason to make voting difficult if you trust the will of the people. Minnesota Democrats apparently trust the will of the people, while Republicans would rather make it more difficult for people to vote. Given the policies they advocate, it isn’t hard to figure out why.

Vermont Passes Major New Progressive Voting Reform

Voter turnout could soon see a big boost in the Green Mountain State.

Ohio Republicans’ Diabolical Plan For A Poll Tax

No Money, No Vote

Reckless Republicans Respond To Deadly Derailment With More Proposed Cuts To Amtrak

As President Obama expresses shock and grief over the tragic Amtrak derailment that left 6 dead and 200 hospitalized according to hospital officials, even Republicans don’t have faith that their own party will deal with the impending transportation funding bill responsibly.

Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) said, according to a tweet by Oliver Knox, that he will be stunned if Republicans deal with the highway trust fund responsibly:

As hundreds of people are being treated for injuries, the Republican led House Appropriations Committee is meeting to discuss cutting Amtrak’s budget by $251 million. President Obama asked for $2.5 billion in funding, but Republicans responded with a budget that calls for $1.1 billion.

Republicans have had it out for Amtrak for a long time, refusing to pass President Obama’s expansion of the rail service through the stimulus and defunding it at every turn.

In September of 2014, the House voted to cut Amtrak’s authorization for new construction spending by 40%, and they claimed it was bipartisan because they wanted to cut Amtrak funding all together and privatize it:

The measure, which was passed on a voice vote with little debate, would reduce Amtrak’s authorized spending level for new construction from approximately $1.3 billion per year under the last Amtrak funding measure to about $770 million annually beginning next year.

Republicans and Democrats on the panel said the measure was bipartisan, despite the construction budget cut, because it does not go as far as previous GOP efforts to completely eliminate Amtrak’s federal funding and privatize its profitable Northeast routes.

…

Republicans said the new measure would keep funding levels in line for the company while forcing them to streamline their operations when it came to construction.

So Republicans cut the funding from the usual estimated 1 billion and now they will decry any suggestion that maintenance and security require funding (see Benghazi). But not all Republicans are on board with their party.

Rep. Ryan Costello (R-PA) called for a boost to funding for Amtrak on CNN Wednesday morning, citing safety concerns of his constituents, “If we’re not investing in our safety for the Northeast Corridor, we’re not doing what we should be doing down here. We need to continue to invest in our passenger rail system.”

President Obama expressed his grief and commended fire, police and medical first responders in a statement, “Along with Americans across our country, Michelle and I were shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the derailment aboard Amtrak Train 188. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those we lost last night, and to the many passengers who today begin their long road to recovery.”

“Along the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak is a way of life for many. From Washington, DC and Philadelphia to New York City and Boston, this is a tragedy that touches us all. As we work to determine exactly what happened, I commend the fire, police and medical personnel working tirelessly and professionally to save lives. Philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love – a city of neighborhoods and neighbors – and that spirit of loving-kindness was reaffirmed last night, as hundreds of first responders and passengers lent a hand to their fellow human beings in need.”

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called for a thorough investigation into what went wrong, “This is a tragedy that hits close to home for many here in D.C. – along a familiar route for many Members of Congress traveling to and from Washington, and one of the busiest rail corridors in the nation. We must have a thorough investigation and assessment of what went wrong, and I am pleased the NTSB and FRA have deployed teams.”

Until the investigations are completed, we won’t know what caused the tragic derailment. But we do know that reckless defunding in an effort to impose a partisan agenda has dangers. This is logical, and when we defund security it’s disingenuous to make the next many years about how that security failed, failing of course to examine the lack of funding.

Republicans can’t make the argument against public transportation so they try to kill it quietly, by defunding it and making it so unworkable that people stop using it (see their efforts to kill the post office). They claim they are getting rid of bloat, as they justify multi-million dollar bonuses in the private sector (or, rather, the private sector whose losses are paid for by the public). If a top executive must be allowed millions in bonuses in order to perform, why doesn’t an entire transportation system require a similar increase in funding in order to perform?

Not investing in infrastructure can have life and death consequences. Republicans are gambling with Americans lives just to score a few partisan political points. For once, would it be too much to ask for House Republicans to put down their dog-eared copies of Ayn Rand’s fiction and do what is right?

Americans lives are depending on it.

Update: The House Appropriations Committee rejected an amendment to increase funding for Amtrak.

Koch Republicans Ignore Dead and Injured Americans And Vote To Cut Amtrak’s Budget

House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee put their blinders on, ignored the deaths of seven Americans and voted to cut funding to Amtrak.

Politico reported that House Republicans went on to vote to cut Amtrak’s budget, “Democrats called this the worst possible time to chop Amtrak’s funding to $1.13 billion from its typical $1.4 billion, as called for in a House spending bill that was moving through the Appropriations Committee on Wednesday morning. The House bill would also cut half the funding for D.C.’s Metro system, which had a rush-hour meltdown just two days ago because of smoke in the tunnel connecting Washington with Northern Virginia, as well as a smoke-inhalation death in January.”

Republicans are hiding behind the sequester to justify their cuts, but this excuse doesn’t hold up because had no problem with manipulating the system to restore sequester mandated defense cuts.

Hundreds of Americans were injured, and seven people are dead. The Republican response to this loss of life is that the country can not afford to spend more money on rail safety.

House Republicans have outdone themselves on tone deafness. The Koch controlled Republican House majority has never been sensitive to the wants and needs of ordinary Americans. Gerrymandering has turned screwing over the bulk of the population into a profitable strategy for House Republicans.

At a time when the nation’s transportation networks are in desperate need of repair, Republicans are ignoring the infrastructure as it crumbles around them. It is true that the cause of the Philadephia Amtrak derailment remains unknown, but each of these accidents are a warning.

The Republican refusal to heed the warning is setting the country up for a major disaster.

Republicans Spit On Women’s Constitutionally Protected Freedom By Passing Abortion Ban Bill

The Republican series on how to incentivize rape while claiming they don’t have a war on women continues. The House of Representatives has voted 242-184 to pass a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The votes split along party lines with just four Republicans voting against it, one voting present, and four Democrats voting for it.

Like the “At least he doesn’t beat you” mantra, Republicans are selling their new way to incentivize rape with this heady qualification from Jackie Walorski (R-IN), “This has a much less punitive substance to it. It’s important that when we look at the care of women who are in crisis, that we make sure they’re totally taken care of.”

Less punitive! Thanks, Republicans. But wait, by “take care of”, Republicans mean making things harder for rape victims and putting women’s health at risk. After all, this is the redo from the January debacle wherein Republicans tried to deny abortion to rape victims unless they had filed charges with law enforcement.

The new bill, put forth by Trent Franks (R-AZ), makes it ever so slightly easier than the old bill on rape and incest victims. Republicans apparently feel that rape and incest victims need extra obstacles before being able to access their Constitutionally-protected right to privacy and liberty over their own bodies.

Furthermore, as Congresswomen Julia Brownely pointed out on the floor as she tried to protect women from Republican showboating, the GOP bill puts women at risk as written because it does not protect the long term health of the mother:

“My amendment would ensure that nothing in the bill would prevent a woman from terminating a pregnancy after 20 weeks if her health were at risk. Only 1.1 percent of abortions performed in the United States occur after the 20 week mark. These rare procedures are often the most medically difficult and dangerous cases, where women – and many of whom want to be parents – are faced with impossible decisions. As it is written, H.R. 36 would force a doctor to wait until a condition becomes life-threatening before performing an abortion. It shows no concern for the long-term health of the mother, her future ability to bear children, or her right to make her own medical decisions. It ignores that there are very real – and serious – reasons why a woman may need an abortion later in pregnancy.”

It’s kind of hard to argue that you are pro-life when your bill would actually serve to render some women infertile, if not kill them. Unless Republicans are arguing that women are not people.

So, the new bill is less on the side of rapists than the previous bill, but this is not saying much coming from the party that is making a habit of trying to pass legislation that will incentivize rape.

Although, and here’s the odd thing, under Trent’s new bill, a minor seeking an abortion still needs to have law enforcement contacted. So if a girl is raped by her father and seeks an abortion, she will have no choice but to have law enforcement involved, which will severely diminish the number of girls who seek an abortion after being raped.

This seems like it would disincentivize rape, but according to statistics, it would do the opposite. Rape is a drastically under-reported crime with an average of 68% of assaults in the last five years not even being reported, with only 2% of rapists ever serving a day in prison for rape.

Given that 73% of rape victims know their assailant, fewer girls will come forward to request the medical help that they are entitled to under Trent’s bill, out of fear of reprisal. And of course, Republicans tried in 2013 to give rapists the power to stop their victim from having an abortion, in just another bizarre episode in a series of Republican attempts to incentivize rape.

Who can forget the Republican attempts to “redefine” rape, so as to make the women sound guilty or their attempt to turn rape and incest victims into criminal exhibits, thus denying them the right to an abortion by criminalizing the ending of a pregnancy?

The “new” bill, which is a lot like these old bills in that it restricts freedom and liberty for women and girls while further exploring the Republican love affair with a fetus that ends abruptly at birth, also seeks to ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and requires women to receive medical care or counseling at least 48 hours before an abortion, but prohibits both services from being performed by her regular ob/gyn.

Handy, eh?

Of course, the Senate will most likely be the speed bump, but what this bill represents is important. It is not only yet another shot at the Supreme Court’s ruling that a woman is legally entitled to an abortion until the fetus is viable, but is is also part of an ongoing series in the Republican war on women. This series is the part where they incentivize rape and punish women and girls who are raped.

If that’s not war, what is?

Republicans Will Pay: Outrage Grows Over Congress’ 29th Assault Against Women in 4 Months

Planned Parenthood is not impressed with Congress. Specifically they are unimpressed with this Republican Congress’ (and a handful of Democrats’) ability to outright deny science and medicine in order to feed their political agenda.

Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, issued a statement upon the news that Republicans had once again passed yet another ill-conceived bill:

“There is no science or medicine behind this bill — just politics. This is the 29th time in four months that Congress has tried to restrict abortion, which is outrageous. The American public does not want politicians to interfere in women’s personal medical decisions and does not want Congress to spend its time on this.

“While women should not have to justify their personal medical decisions, the reality is that abortion later in pregnancy is very rare and often happens under very complex circumstances — the very kind of circumstances where a woman and her doctor need every medical option available to them.”

They aren’t alone. 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Secretary Hillary Clinton’s senior policy adviser Maya Harris pointed out that Republicans are putting women’s health at risk in a statement, “The bill puts women’s health and rights at risk, undermines the role doctors play in health care decisions, burdens survivors of sexual assault, and is not based on sound science.”

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was also unimpressed, calling out Republicans for failing to do anything but restrict rights for women, “The failed leadership of the Republican Congress has the jobs of hundreds of thousands of American workers being threatened by upcoming deadlines, with expiration of the Highway Trust Fund and the expiration of the Export-Import Bank days away. We have an urgent need for legislation to create jobs, raise wages and grow our economy for hard-working American families.

“Yet instead of creating jobs or strengthening hard-working families, Republicans have advanced another radical and unconstitutional effort to dismantle women’s right to comprehensive health care. This vote is just the latest measure in an unprecedented series of Republican assaults on women’s health care this Congress, from restricting how women can spend private money in purchasing coverage to enabling D.C. employers to fire women for buying birth control.

“Republicans should stop wasting time with radical assaults on women’s health, and start spending that energy finding solutions to the manufactured crises they have forced on the American people.”

But Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) called the bill “the most pro-life legislation to ever come before this body”, which is odd because this bill actually endangers women’s health and their fertility, and interferes in a doctor’s right to make a judgment call for his or her patient. We can only assume that women are not included in “precious life” that Republicans are trying to protect, even as they work to make the one thing that actually reduces abortions less available (birth control).

Boehner also claimed that the bill reflects the will of the people, as if the will of the people has anything to do with what Republicans do in the House.

It’s also just horribly sad to force even more anguish upon a woman and her family who are facing horrible choices in a pregnancy. This is not an area for legislators. This is a personal liberty issue that impacts families across the country, and I highly doubt that even hardcore Republican families will be very pleased when they realize that their vote means they don’t get a say in whether Mommy gets medical treatment or dies. That’s a far cry from “small government”.

Of course Republicans have been spared facing the consequences of much of their crazy because the Senate has been a speed bump, and President Obama keeps his veto pen handy when Republicans start stealing Constitutionally-protected freedoms from citizens.

Here’s an idea. Why don’t legislators try to do the thing they were hired to do and that we pay them to do — which is not, last I checked, practicing medicine or denying privacy rights to half of the population. Congress should consider leaving medicine to the people who know things about it or at the very least respect science and are able to comprehend basic things like the results of a study or the meaning of “viable”.

Republicans in Congress– doing nothing for the unemployed and underemployed or infrastructure or public safety or homeland security. They’re just here to troll women’s liberties. Relentlessly. Twenty-nine times in four months.

The egregious assault on personal liberty continues unabated, and women are not impressed.

Jeb Bush Breaks Campaign Finance Laws By Admitting That He’s Running For President

Jeb Bush’s admission that he is running for president while heading up a superPAC means that Bush is breaking the law, and the federal government must immediately investigate his illegal fundraising operation.

Video:

Bush said, “I’m running for president in 2016, and the focus is going to be about how we, if I run, how do you create high sustained economic growth.”

Jeb Bush didn’t just let the cat out of the bag. He broke the law. Jeb Bush is listed as the founder of the superPAC Right to Rise. Candidate Bush can not legally be involved or coordinating with any superPACs. The second that Jeb Bush admitted that he was running for president, he was in violation of the law.

However, as Reuters reported, Bush’s entire fundraising structure appears to be an illegal operation that is violating the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002, “Under a little-noted provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, if a candidate or officeholder or their proxies is directly or indirectly involved in “establishing, financing, maintaining or controlling” an outside entity, like an individual-candidate super PAC, it is illegal for the super PAC to receive or spend contributions that exceed the limit on contributions to a federal PAC of $5,000 per donor per year.”

On the surface, this appears to be silly. Jeb Bush is running for president. Everybody knows that Jeb Bush is running for president. Bush has done everything but declare his candidacy. The reality is that Jeb Bush is running an illegal fundraising operation the scope of which has never been seen in American politics before.

The mainstream media is too afraid to say it, but Bush’s statement that he is running for president was more than a slip of the tongue. It was an admission of illegal activity.

IF the American people want their representative democracy back, they must call on the FEC to immediately investigate the fundraising activities of Jeb Bush.

Scott Walker Humiliates Himself By Getting Basic American History Wrong

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his non-campaign campaign team continue to find new ways to embarrass themselves. Today’s lesson in failure got a fact of basic American history wrong.

Team Walker tweeted:

Scott Walker ✔ @ScottWalker

It's hard to believe that it has been 505 years since the first settlers arrived at Jamestown. - TW

1:45 PM - 13 May 2015

The problem with Walker’s tweet was that they were off by 97 years. The first settlers did arrive in May of 1607, but 2015 minus 1607 is 408, not 505. With this kind of math is no wonder that Scott Walker has driven the Wisconsin economy straight into the ground. Team Walker later corrected their math error by calling it a Twitter typo.

Blaming their bad math skills on a typo without admitting that they did anything wrong is typical of the Republican mantra that mistakes are never to be admitted.

Walker has been dodging and hiding out from the national media for months after a series of high-profile gaffes put the brakes on his early presidential campaign momentum. Walker has seen his lead slip in Iowa and New Hampshire turn into a free for all. Scott Walker is the preferred candidate of the Koch brothers, but he has quickly developed a reputation for opening his mouth and inserting his foot.

Walker has shown himself to be equally inept at foreign and domestic policy, and the gaffe that drove him underground was his comparison of ISIS to a computer virus.

Scott Walker can’t handle doing interviews with the media, and tweeting is a real problem. The man who thought that he could ride to the White House by comparing labor unions to ISIS is looking more and more like Sarah Palin with each passing day.