Topic - Daily Kos

On Monday, Senator Marco Rubio—whose parents famously fled Castro's Cuba before that was even a thing to do—ganged up with seven other senators (including John "Teh Surge" McCain and Lindsey "Benghazi" Graham) to unveil a bipartisan framework for comprehensive immigration reform. No doubt this was a calculated move by Rubio; he doesn't need any GOP consultants telling him that "send them all back" is no longer a viable electoral strategy—but it was heroic nonetheless. He now finds himself on ...

via RightWingWatch Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Glenn Beck: "This is the dumbest idea I ever heard. Women now fight on the front lines? Democrats are hailing the move as another giant leap forward for equality. Progress, you know. Forward! And on the outside looking in it's one of those feel good stories—oh great, women are great soldiers too, they deserve an equal chance, oh that's great. War is the act of killing each other. And to win, you have to kill people faster than the other team...

We all agree that it’s critical to cut unnecessary spending. But we can’t just cut our way to prosperity. It hasn’t worked in the past, and it won’t work today. It could slow down our recovery. It could weaken our economy. And it could cost us jobs – now, and in the future. The economy was the focus of President Obama's weekly address, as he pointed to positive indicators and urged continuing efforts to pay down the national debt and work seriously on job creation—emphasizing that slashing sp...

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE… "Not cool, Robert Frost!" I think we may have a candidate for 2040. Enjoy… More on this 9 year-old whippersnapper here. Pull mah finger, kid, and ya got mah vote. February checklist: peeps, jelly beans, Cadbury eggs, candy hearts, chocolate bunnies. Check, Check, Check, Check and Check. Let the gorging commence. Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Arkansas State Sen. Jason Rapert (R): I hear you loud and clear, Barack Obama. You don't represent the country that I grew up with. And your values is not going to save us. We're going to take this country back to the Lord. We're going to try to take this country back for conservatism. And we're not going to allow minorities to run roughshod over what you people believe in! For a crowd that claims to be the most American of Americans, they sure have lost sight of what America is. The days of ...

Offered without comment: Why do you let them brand you as the stupid party? Why do you let them do it? Why are you branding us as the stupid party when our ideas are the ideas that work? Don't let them brand you. You're letting them put your brand right on your hide. This is the stupid party. Bobby Jindal says, "Yeah, we're the stupid party. Look at the brand right here on my hide." Conservative ideas are not stupid. They are wise. They work. They are strategic. Every one of them. Conservatis...

Thank God Hagel didn't accuse Canada of committing war crimes or Cruz would've been really mad. According to Sen. Ted "Calgary" Cruz (R-TX), defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel isn't just a raging anti-Semite, he's a raging anti-Semite who accused Israel of committing war crimes. Even worse, says Cruz: Hagel did it on Al Jazeera of all places. Yikes. Cruz leveled his allegation on Thursday afternoon during Hagel's confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Cruz set up ...

I know this has made the rounds quite a bit, but I still laugh every time I read it: Scarborough recalled just how wrong Republicans, and many mainstream pundits, had been about the outcome of the election. He, too, he said, fell for the conventional wisdom in the final weeks, that Mitt Romney was riding a wave of momentum, with his big campaign crowds as ultimate proof. His source for this judgment? “[Uber-pundit] Mark Halperin called me and said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like it!’” If we e...

Independence USA's new ad attacking Debbie Halvorson There have been a number of key developments recently in the race to succeed ex-Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. in Illinois' 2nd Congressional District. Most importantly, it seems that the crowded field has largely winnowed down to three serious contenders: ex-Rep. Debbie Halvorson, state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, and ex-state Rep. Robin Kelly. Indeed, another candidate, freshman state Sen. Napoleon Harris, just dropped out and threw his support to Kell...

Stephen Lynch's introductory video Well, blargh. After hemming and hawing and even contradicting published reports saying he'd run for Senate, conservative Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch finally launched his campaign in the special election to succeed John Kerry. And Lynch's preferred campaign message is exactly as chip-on-the-shoulder as you'd expect. Indeed, seeing as he begins the race way behind in the polls against fellow Rep. Ed Markey, Lynch's only hope is to go negative. He's off to a ...

When John McCain spends six minutes trying to get you to admit that your position on the war in Iraq was wrong and his was right—and acts like a complete dick doing it—you know you're doing something right: Chuck Hagel is no saint. He voted for the initial authorization to use military force in Iraq. But he realized his mistake and owned up to it. John McCain, meanwhile, is still crusading against history, trying to convince anyone who will listen—and even peole who won't—that he was right al...

Good news, folks! On Thursday morning, Fox News assembled a panel of expert pundits to explain why the nation's GDP shrunk by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, and boy oh boy did they ever deliver some insightful analysis. For example, Charles Payne of their business channel revealed this stunning conclusion: "The economy has been slowed in part because there has been a war on success and constant threatening and demonization of business." Well that's a bold explanation. The only pro...

Warning: If you're a fan of Wayne LaPierre and his stewardship of the National Rifle Association, do not watch this video from today's Senate Judiciary Committee gun control hearing, because Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) completely demolishes him, along with his argument against gun background checks. Another striking moment comes at the eight-minute mark of the video when Denver University Law School Adjunct Professor David Kopel responds to a question from Durbin about magazine capacity by saying...

Today's comic by Jen Sorensen is Dirt-y politics: The bigots at NOM want you to join them for the "March for Marriage," their grassroots hate-fest they're holding next month. And it's so grassroots-y that they can't even find a real family to promote it. Dropping likes flies: Fox News "had its worst ratings since 2001 in January ..." "The network had a 12-year low in the coveted 25-54 demographic in primetime and fell to its lowest total day ratings since 2008." Good question: Wayne LaPierre ...

Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords delivers her opening statement at today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence: Thank you for inviting me here today. This is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for Democrats and Republicans. Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard, but the time is now. You must act. Be...

This is United States Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, making the case that guns video games are "a bigger problem than guns" because unlike guns, "video games affect people." "Whatever you do, please do not play Angry Birds" CHUCK TODD (MSNBC): Can you envision a way of supporting the universal background checks bill? LAMAR ALEXANDER: Chuck, I'm going to wait and see on all of these bills. I think video games is [sic] a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect pe...

A short time ago, President Barack Obama concluded a 25-minute speech in Las Vegas, Nevada, making the case for immigration reform. The "news" of the speech is that he is embracing efforts in the Senate to craft bipartisan legislation that would reform our immigration laws and provide a path to citizenship for the millions of people living in our country without legal status. "At this moment, it looks like there’s a genuine desire to get this done soon," Obama said. But while he said that the...

A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvad...

Meet Stuart Varney, a Fox Business News anchor who appeared on the mothership earlier Monday to tell Fox viewers why they should be very troubled at the prospect of immigration reform. According to Mr. Varney, granting citizenship to the 11 million people currently living in America without legal status would be a fiscal disaster for the country because they would suddenly become "eligible for Obamacare." Mr. Varney does admit that he's not entirely sure what he's talking about, saying "we do...

First off, I'm including another one of these videos, but I'm beginning to wonder whether it's counterproductive to do so. I think they're instructive in terms of showing what sorts of idiotic things people routinely do with dangerous weapons (and tools, toys, etc.). Further, it's instructive that people think these things are worth videotaping. And there's another level of meta-issues wrapped up in the fact that people think these things are funny in the "Ha ha! We should try that!" sense. B...

In case you haven't yet seen John Kerry's testimony on global warming at the hearings on his nomination for secretary of state, here it is: Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2012—Verizon workers are still fighting for middle-class jobs. Help make tax-dodging Verizon take notice: Here's a company that paid a negative federal income tax rate from 2008 to 2010, dodged state taxes, raked in enormous state and local subsidies, paid its top executives more than a quarter of a billio...

Well, NRA crackpot Wayne LaPierre is back. He's been laying low for a month, after his crackpot performances immediately after the Newtown mass murder, but the NRA apparently decided that (1) Obama's inaugural speech was all about them, and (2) they needed, really, the biggest goddamn crackpot they could find to go up and "rebut" the mean things the president said. So here's Wayne! “Obama wants to turn the idea of absolutism into a dirty word,” LaPierre said. “Just another word for extremism....

President Obama this morning focused on the appointment of his two latest official nominees—Mary Jo White to head the Security and Exchange Commission and Richard Cordray to continue his leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—to make larger points about economic fairness and leveling the playing field for all Americans. Here in America, we know the free market is the greatest force for economic progress the world has ever known. But we also know the free market works best for ...

Picking up where we left off last week (and I've added quite a few FAILs to that list since I originally posted last Saturday), I present this week's top GunFail moments. Before I get started with this week's list (so far), one update from last week: LONGMONT, CO, 1/23/13: A man who told police he lost his .380 semiautomatic pistol while riding his motorized scooter through a north Longmont neighborhood on Jan. 16 told police he found the gun between some couch cushions in his home on Wednesd...

Ron Johnson's bad day. In utterly unimportant news, Sen. Ron Johnson, who got his lawmakin' parts handed to him by Sec. Clinton this week, has released the following pouty statement: The Washington Post – the poster child of Washington status quo - said I had the 'Worst Week in Washington.' Benghazi was a failure of leadership by Secretary Clinton: before, during and after the terrorist attack. I dared to actually demand that Secretary Clinton explain why she refused to debrief her own staff ...

Saxby Chambliss won in 2002 by comparing Vietnam war hero Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), the chickenhawk Republican political hack who won his Senate seat by comparing triple amputee Vietnam veteran Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden, is retiring. U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss will announce this morning that he’s dropping plans to run for a third term in 2014, a decision certain to set off an avalanche of Republican candidates who will seek to replace him. Word ou...

How most of America feels On the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, NBC/WSJ has released a supposedly stunning new poll that actually confirms what most other polling on abortion shows: Americans want reproductive rights to remain legal, thank you very much: [A] majority of Americans – for the first time – believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. What’s more, seven in 10 respondents oppose Roe v. Wade being overturned, which is...

Meanwhile, just a few months ago, Mitt Romney spent millions accusing President Obama of cutting Medicare by $716 billion. Woe is Politico: The president has never precisely defined what hard choices he would be willing to make on Medicare and Social Security. It’s not even clear what he would do if he had the power to remake the programs on his own, without worrying about opposition from Republicans or Democrats. How incredibly sad. President Barack Obama just isn't willing to make hard choi...

What he said: Conservative or liberal, Obama's 2nd inaugural address was a great speech, one that was well received. Except by ideologue conservatives. Unusual opening from David Brooks, the conservative: The best Inaugural Addresses make an argument for something. President Obama’s second one, which surely has to rank among the best of the past half-century, makes an argument for a pragmatic and patriotic progressivism... During his first term, Obama was inhibited by his desire to be postpar...

As we celebrated President Barack Obama's second inauguration, Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer had a sad: BILL HEMMER: It is remarkable. The unemployment rate four years ago on this day was 7.8 percent. And four years later, the unemployment rate, as reported, is 7.8 percent. Byron. BYRON YORK: That's a great point. [...] Unemployment is still very high. As you said, same rate it was, and we're going to have to see what the president says about that. Man, these Fox guys are falling down on the jo...

This shouldn't have happened. In the conservative world, conspiracy theories are par for the course these days. It seems that just about every single policy proposal or major news development is the result of some hidden agenda or half-baked nefarious scheme. Doesn't matter whether it is labor and unemployment statistics, the sordid saga of birtherism, the Petraeus affair, anything and everything that George Soros has ever dared to touch, or every single thing that Glenn Beck ever said on air...

Are you all ready for hockey season? We'll lead things off with Rush Limbaugh, who has now said that if only John Lewis and his fellow civil rights leaders had been armed, then the incidents at Selma wouldn't have happened. No, seriously. Try this. If a lot of African-Americans back in the '60s had guns and the legal right to use them for self-defense, you think they would have needed Selma? I don't know, I'm just asking. If John Lewis, who says he was beat upside the head, if John Lewis had ...

Rep. John Barrow (D-GA-12) is proud of his guns. Well, good for him! I doubt very much whether he's bothering anyone with those dusty old pea-shooters. And if they've got sentimental value to him, well, what's it to me? Right? Of course, when you're a member of Congress, those antiques can be your meal ticket, since you can take 'em out and wave 'em around once every couple of years, and—if you're willing to say the right magic words—convert 'em into NRA endorsements and cold, hard cash. And ...

While we may not be able to prevent every senseless act of violence in this country, if there is even one thing we can do to reduce it – if even one life can be saved – we’ve got an obligation to try. President Obama made a forceful and direct appeal this morning to listeners of his weekly address, pushing his proposed curbs on gun violence as a policy that will make "make a real and lasting difference also requires Congress to act – and act soon." The specific measures he touted this morning...

Just after Christmas I had some sharp stomach cramps, not unlike indigestion. Over the last year I've lost some fat, put on some muscle, and greatly improved my aerobic capacity. During the holidays I worked out extra hard to max out the benefit of eating a lot of rich food. So the likely culprit was GERD, an ulcer, or maybe even a hernia. But just to be safe, a number of tests were ordered. This week one of those specialists, a cardiologist, laid it on me: a mild heart attack. He hastened to...

You can sign up here to be part of the National Day of Service on Saturday, Jan. 19.

The CWA makes the case for reform. According to Politico, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is not likely to keep a requirement that opposing senators maintain a talking filibuster in his reform plan. He is, however, willing to move forward with the constitutional option—passing reforms with a simple, 51-majority vote. Which is kind of ridiculous. Using the constitutional option (the "nuclear option" in GOP-speak) is going to make the Republicans irate. If he's going to go so far as to use it...

First Lady Michelle Obama announces Organization for Action, a non-profit organization that will build on the volunteer network and infrastructure of President Obama's campaign apparatus to continue supporting his agenda over the course of his second term—and potentially beyond. If we want to finish what we started and truly make that change we believe in, we can't stop now. And that's why today I'm proud that our friends and supports are launching Organizing for Action, the next phase of our...

The White House is not pleased with the National Rifle Association's ad released on Tuesday that calls the president an "elitist hypocrite" and asks, "Are the president's kids more important than yours?" "Most Americans agree that a president's children should not be used as pawns in a political fight," Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. "But to go so far as to make the safety of the president's children the subject of an attack ad is repugnant and cowardly." Naturally, the NRA r...

As this video of Rep. Peter King (R-NY) reminds us, Republicans have killed the legislation before, but this time passage seems likely. David Rogers: Republicans cleared the way for House action Tuesday on Hurricane Sandy disaster aid after the leadership stepped in to pare back scores of amendments that could have been problematic to passage. More than 90 amendments had been filed as of Friday but just a dozen will be made in order under a resolution reported by the House Rules Committee on ...

Once upon a time, unions were not the most immigrant- or immigration-friendly organizations. Today, it's a different story. Most unions want to see comprehensive immigration reform that doesn't demonize immigrants and doesn't create a pool of low-wage guest workers with few legal rights, subject to the whims of a single employer. And they don't just want it. They're fighting for it. In a broad look at the history of unions and immigration, from Cesar Chavez's "hardline position against illega...

President Obama today on the debt limit: Republicans in Congress have two choices here. They can act responsibly, and pay America’s bills, or they can act irresponsibly and put America through another economic crisis. But they will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy. The financial wellbeing of the American people is not leverage to be used. The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip. And they better choose quickly, be...

Inmate from the documentary "The House I Live In" The War on Drugs, a label we inherited from Richard Nixon, is a lie. It is simply a war on people, and has had the most dire effect on people of color, whether inside the borders of the U.S, or as a part of destabilizing military interventions in other countries. If you have not yet watched the documentary film The House I Live In, it is a must see. It was the winner of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize—Documentary. Eugene Jarec...

Long before Joe Biden confirmed their worst fear—that President Obama is planning to go all Mr. Bananagrabber on them—those at the forefront of America's civil gun rights movement began making their doomsday preparations; and with good reason. Ever since he first took office, Obama has been promoting so-called "infrastructure" projects—just like Hitler did. And now, in the wake of the Newtown school shooting (which could've been stopped by an armed sex offender), he wants to expand his dictat...

2012 was a presidential election year, so you knew the hate would be strong. But which was the strongest of all? You decide! The worthy contestants below the fold.