Sold Down the River

Yeah, all you Kentucky coal county folks who voted 90 percent for a corrupt game-show host, his repug buddies in Congress are now killing your union health care and retirement.  Stop acting surprised.  Hillary Clinton and all us commie muslin terrist feminazi faggots have been telling you so for months.

Charlie Pierce:

... the (repug) elves in the Congress are busy, busy, busy selling out the Rust Belt suckers to whom, if the guilt-ridden elite political media is to be believed, we all owe a cookie for the next decade. First up, the coal miners! From the MetroNews in West Virginia:

The Miners Protection Act to address health and pension benefits for coal miners and their families will not be included in a continuing resolution bill, according to a Tuesday announcement. Congress said the bill, which would continue to fund the federal government, only has four months of funding for those retired miners and their widows. Cecil Roberts, international president of the United Mine Workers of America, called the announcement "a slap in the face to all 22,000 of them who desperately need their health care next month, next year and for the rest of their lives."

But, wait, isn't West Virginia represented in the Senate by that highly influential Democrat, Joe Manchin, who's been running around telling every camera crew inside the Beltway that that his party has to get right with the workin' man? Yeah, he's got the juice, no question.

Approximately 12,500 retired union miners and the widows of retirees stand to lose their pension and health care benefits across the nation

And those stalwart Kentucky defenders of Big Coal - which will benefit enormously from the ass-fuck, as opposed to the actual coal miners, AKA the ass-fuckees -  Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, and Representatives Hal Rogers, Thomas Massie, Brett Guthrie, Andy Barr and Ed Whitfield, repugs all, voted for the ass-fucking then refused to face the voters they just ass-fucked.

Folks, you're being sold down the river. I feel for you because selling you down the river is not good for the country. It never was. It is not immigrants who are selling you down the river. It is not minorities who are selling you down the river. It is not LGBTQ folks who are selling you down the river. Please remember all of that when you wake up pissed that you're, you know, down the river. If you look around the table and can't figure out who the mark is…

KY's Congress Repugs Voted to Hide Altered Food From You

The real issue here is not food safety, but food supply.  GMO crops are corporate possessions; farmers cannot save seeds for next year's crop, but must buy new seeds every year from Monsanto.  GMO put one of the planet's most toxic and despicable corporations in control of the entire world's food supply.

Regardless of whether genetically-modified organisms in food are dangerous to human health, they are absolutely lethal to the food supply and the ability of farmers to maintain sustainable crops.

But four of Kentucky's six representatives don't give a flying fuck about that.

Only Democrat John Yarmuth of Louisville and repug/teabagger Thomas Massie of Northern Kentucky voted to prevent Monsanto from sneaking unlabeled GMOs into our food.

Repugs Ed Whitfield, Brett Guthrie, Hal Rogers and Andy Barr all voted to take control of the nation's food supply away from farmers and consumers and give it to giant corporations.

Down with Tyranny:

This is a relatively simple issue. Food activists want to see potentially dangerous GMO food labeled so that consumers can make up their own minds about whether or not to feed it to their families. Monsanto and the GMO-Republicans, led by the Koch brother's Mike Pompeo (R-KS), want to make sure that there is no labeling and that the states that have already passed labeling laws to protect their citizens-- Connecticut, Maine and Vermont-- are over-ruled. I guess the concepts of states' rights and small government are trumped in GOP minds when their Big Business allies squawk loud enough! The bill passed (last week) 275-150. 

Kentucky's Gravity-Deniers in Congress: Paul, McConnell, Massie, Whitfield

They are gravity-deniers because denying the global warming that is on the verge of literally destroying human civilization is the intellectual equivalent of denying gravity.  And far worse morally.

Kentucky's four corrupt pieces of shit have received more than $3.7 million from the dirty-energy industry.  But the incentives they get are irrelevant to the deaths they have cause and are causing by their denialism.

Here are the Commonwealth's morons/liars:

KENTUCKY

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY-04): Rep. Thomas Massie challenged President Obama to roll out the proof that humans have played a hand in climate change. Massie said he was “disappointed” that the president in his second inaugural address blamed droughts on “human activity” and accused some of “denying the evidence of scientists,” the Washington Times reported. “As somebody with a science-type background, I took offense at that,” Mr. Massie said during a panel meeting billed as “Conversations With Conservatives.” “I would challenge him to show us the linkage — the undeniable linkage — between droughts and the change of weather, and some kind of human activity.” [Washington Times Inside Politics Blog, 1/22/13]

Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY-01): “Misrepresenting scientific research to support one’s own personal beliefs, particularly on an international stage, is dangerous, disingenuous and simply unacceptable. I call on Mr. [Al] Gore to come clean about the real science surrounding climate change and let the American people come to their own conclusions on global warming.” [Whitfield Website, 12/15/09]

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY): “For everybody who thinks it’s warming, I can find somebody who thinks it isn’t.” More recently, when asked whether he agreed that human activity was driving climate change, McConnell responded, “I’m not a scientist.” [Cincinnati Inquirer, 3/7/14; ThinkProgress, 10/3/14]

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY): “I think that scientific debate should not be dumbed down to politics. I think this debate has become so dumbed down beyond belief. The Earth is 4.54 [billion] or 4.6 billion years old. Anybody who’s ever studied any geology knows that over periods of time, long periods of time, that the climate changes, mmkay? I’m not sure anybody exactly knows why. But we have twenty-, thirty-, hundred-thousand sort of year cycles that go on with the climate. It has been much warmer than it is today. We have real data [for] about 100 years. So somebody tell me what 100 years data is in an Earth that is 4.6 billion years old? My guess is that the conclusions you make from that are not conclusive.” [Huffington Post, 4/23/14]

Ed Whitfield Even More Corrupt Than You Thought

I guess if you've gotten away for years pretending to represent Western Kentucky while living in Florida, you think you can get away with anything.

Even ginning up federal legislation to put money in your wife's pocket.

Lee Fang at The Nation:

LaserLock Technologies, a firm that sells anti-counterfeiting products, won a powerful congressional ally on Capitol Hill after recruiting a Kentucky congressman’s wife.

Representative Ed Whitfield, a senior Republican lawmaker from western Kentucky, personally submitted company documents on behalf of LaserLock to the congressional record in support of legislation crucial to the firm’s business. Whitfield’s wife, Constance Harriman, a registered lobbyist, has come under scrutiny from Office of Congressional Ethics investigators for unduly influencing Whitfield and his staff for her client, the Humane Society. But new revelations about her role with LaserLock, a company in which she is an investor and where she serves as a board member, reveal that Representative Whitfield may have used his congressional office to boost the fortunes of his wife’s company.

Whitfield’s effort to assist LaserLock is captured on video. A tape of a subcommittee hearing on the morning of April 25, 2013, shows the congressman intervening to endorse LaserLock-backed legislation to create a national standard for tracking the distribution of pharmaceuticals.

Five months prior to Whitfield’s advocacy on behalf of the firm, in November of 2012, LaserLock appointed Constance Harriman, Whitfield’s wife, to its board of directors.

 Yep, I'd say conservatard, repug-voting Western Kentucky got exactly the congressfuck it deserves.

All Five KY House Repugs Voted Against Fixing the VA

Mitchei-poo and the Tribble-Toupeed One both voted for the bill in the Senate, but Ed Whitfield (R-KY1), Brett Guthrie (R-KY2), Thomas Massie (R-KY4), Hal Rogers (R-KY6) and Andy Barr (R-KY6)* voted against it.

John Yarmuth (D-KY3) of course voted in favor of fixing the VA so Kentucky's 339,000 veterans can get timely healthcare.

When campaign season ramps back up after Labor Day, don't let Whitfield, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers or Barr get away with claiming they give a flying fuck about helping veterans, because that vote proves they don't.

Down with Tyranny:

Almost every Senate Republican-- even extremist obstructionists like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Lee and Richard Burr-- followed Bernie Sanders' lead last month to pass a bill to address the sordid situation at the V.A. It passed 93-3 with the only dissections (sic) from mentally unstable right-wingers Ron Johnson (R-WI), Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (R-KKK) and Bob Corker (R-TN).

The House Republicans can't quite get their shit together on the whole V.A. mess they've been desperately trying to turn into a talking point. Talking points are a lot easier for them than actually doing anything. So, Thursday evening they failed to pass a motion to instruct their conferees to agree to the original, bipartisan Senate-passed V.A. overhaul. It failed by 2 votes, 207-205, only 13 Republicans with the guts to stand up to the Tea party sociopaths and obstructionists. Every Democrat voted "yes" and the 13 Republicans were a gaggle of relatively mainstream conservatives (or Members in fear of losing in November) 

* On the second vote on Friday, Barr switched his vote to yes.

What Part of This Repug Platform Do Your Repug Candidates Agree With?

Mitch McConnell, Andy Barr, Thomas Massie, Ed Whitfield, Hal Rogers, Brett Guthrie - do they support this perfect expression of the repug id or not? Make them answer.

What about your state house and senate candidates? Make them answer, too.

Charlie Pierce:

John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell, and especially obvious anagram Reince Priebus, who nominally presides over Bedlam, need to be asked every day which parts of the Texas Republican platform they support and which parts they don't. They don't get to use the crazies to get elected and then hide behind fake Washington politesse when the howls from the hinterlands get too loud. We allow ourselves only two major political parties. One of them is completely out of its fcking mind. This is a national problem.

SNIP

If you want to see the clearest symptoms of the prion disease that has devoured the brain of the Republican party, the state Republican party is your Patient Zero. And, before a whole bunch of people in the Beltway media playpen  begin minimizing this craziness because it pretty much shatters the whole idea of Both Sides Doing It without which most of those people can't get out of bed in the morning. This isn't four guys in camo in Idaho. This isn't a guy broadcasting on a short-wave from upper Michigan, or receiving the truth about chemtrails and the Illuminati through his teeth. This is the Republican party representing the state from which he got our last Republican president, and one of the biggest states in the Union. This is what it believes, as summed up with realit-based parentheticals by Hendrik Hertzberg at The New Yorker:

Let's proceed to policy. In the next of its forty pages, the platform demands, among other things: That the Texas Legislature should nullify-indeed, "ignore, oppose, refuse, and nullify"-federal laws it doesn't like. (Unmentioned is the fact that, beginning in 1809, the Supreme Court has steadfastedly rejected state nullification of federal laws.); That when it comes to "unelected bureaucrats"-i.e., pretty much the entire federal work force above the janitorial level-Congress should "defund and abolish these positions."; That the Seventeenth Amendment, which was adopted in 1913, be repealed, so that "the appointment of United States Senators" can again be made by state legislators, not by voters. (Admittedly, the Texas Legislature could hardly do worse.), That all federal "enforcement activities" within the borders of Texas-including, presumably, the activities of F.B.I. agents, Justice Department prosecutors, air marshals, immigration officers, agricultural inspectors, and tax auditors-"must be conducted under the auspices of the county sheriff with jurisdiction in that county."

Keep an eye on that last sentence. The Republican party of the state of Texas, a state which has 38 electoral votes and which will send 153 delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention, has endorsed the exact theory of government that was promulgated by the gun-toting yahoos at the Bundy Ranch. And there's more.

...there are plenty of things that Texas Republicans plan to do away with entirely-or, to use their preferred word, things they would subject to "abolishment." (For Calhoun conservatives, I suppose, "abolition" has regrettable overtones.) A partial list: Personal-income taxes; Property taxes; Estate taxes;  Capital-gains taxes; Franchise and business-income taxes; The gift tax; Minimum-wage laws; Social Security ("We support an immediate and orderly transition to a system of private pensions"); The Environmental Protection Agency;The Department of Education and all its functions; "Unelected bureaucrats"; "Any and all federal agencies not based on an enumerated power granted by the United States Federal Constitution"; Congressional pensions; Supreme Court jurisdiction in cases involving abortion, religious freedom, and the Bill of Rights; The Federal Reserve; "Foreign aid, except in cases of national defense or catastrophic disasters, with Congressional approval," Obamacare (but you knew that already).

The Republican party of the state of  Texas, a state that went for Mitt Romney by over two million votes, would like to do away with the Federal Reserve, and any Supreme Court jurisdiction in any case involving the Bill Of Rights. And, yes, there's more.

Things that the Texas Republicans support: Withdrawal from the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and the World Bank; "Traditional methods of discipline, including corporal punishment;" "Reducing taxpayer funding to all levels of education institutions," Returning to "the time-tested precious metal standard for the United States dollar."

Barr, Rogers, Whitfield vote to let the NSA keep illegally spying on you.

Teabagging Tommy Massie sponsored the legislation to stop the NSA, and Brett Guthrie joined John Yarmuth in the bipartisan vote, so voters in Kentucky's Sixth, Fifth and First Districts might want to look a little harder at the ballot come November.

Down with Tyranny:

The success of Massie's amendment limiting NSA domestic spying-- and it was a big success, having passed 293-123-- came as a surprise. It's not exactly the bill Glenn Greenwald would have written but if it ever becomes law-- I can't imagine Dianne Feinstein allowing it to get through the Senate-- it will block intelligence agencies from conducting warrantless and “backdoor” searches of U.S. communications. The amendment prohibits the search of government databases for information on U.S. citizens without a warrant and cuts off funding for the CIA and NSA to build security vulnerabilities, or "backdoors," into domestic tech products or services for surveillance purposes. Massie: "The American people are sick of being spied on."

\

Never Forget, and Vote Accordingly

Via Digby:





Senator Mitch McConnell
Senator Rand Paul
Ed Whitfield, KY-1
Brett Guthrie, KY-2
Thomas Massie, KY-4
Hal Rogers, KY-5
Andy Barr, KY-6

Remember in November.

KY Repugs Vote to Allow Toxic Waste Everywhere

Ed Whitfield, Thomas Massie, Hal Rogers and Andy Barr all voted yes on HR 2279, which guts the Superfund law. Brett Guthrie did not vote, and Democratic representative John Yarmuth voted no.

Congratulations especially to Massie and Barr, whose Central Kentucky constituents will have them to thank when toxic fracking waste from the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline poisons our land and water but the pipeline company gets to skate without consequences.

Charlie Pierce:

The next time you see your friendly neighborhood Republican, ask him why his party is so enthusiastically in favor of toxic waste.

You know it's a corporate-financed, "business-friendly" scam because of the right party name they hung on it -- the Reducing Excessive Deadlines Obligations Act. With the stock market going through the roof, and CEO pay going into orbit, American business is simply too embattled and burdened to be bothered to carry enough insurance to clean up the toxins that the free market must unleash upon the land in order to maintain our liberty. And, also, before the EPA could designate a site as a Superfund site, the EPA now would have to jump through even more hoops constructed by some champions of the environment like Rick Perry, he of the unregulated exploding fertilizer plants, and Louisiana's "Bobby" (Y'all Come Poison Us, Heah?) Jindal. For 30 years, Superfund has been cleaning up toxic dumps all over the country. This bill was designed to make that job harder because the people who own American industry have created within the American economy a class of reckless sociopaths bent on turning the United States into another corporate state that they can bleed and poison for their own profit before moving along. This bill will die in the Senate or, if everyone in the Senate takes LSD at the same time, the president will deliver on his promised veto. But you have to keep an eye on everything passed by this House of Representatives. This is the wish list. They get the Senate in 2014, and the White House in 2016, this is the basis on which the country will be governed. Be aware of that.

Erik Loomis has seen the post-Superfund future, and we are fucked:

I now see why the Republicans passed the bill to gut Superfund. It’s clearly unnecessary, what with a company actually named Freedom Industries taking care of the good people of West Virginia.

Schools and restaurants closed, grocery stores sold out of bottled water, and state legislators who had just started their session canceled the day’s business after a chemical spill in the Elk River in Charleston shut down much of the city and surrounding counties even as the cause and extent of the incident remained unclear.

The federal government joined the state early Friday in declaring a disaster, and the West Virginia National Guard planned to distribute bottled drinking water to emergency services agencies in the nine affected counties. About 100,000 water customers, or 300,000 people total, were affected, state officials said they reported in requesting the federal declaration.

Shortly after the Thursday spill from Freedom Industries hit the river and a nearby treatment plant, a licorice-like smell enveloped parts of the city, and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin issued an order to customer of West Virginia American Water: Do not drink, bathe, cook or wash clothes with tap water.

The chemical, a foaming agent used in the coal preparation process, leaked from a tank at Freedom Industries and overran a containment area. Officials from Freedom, a manufacturer of chemicals for the mining, steel, and cement industries, hadn’t commented since the spill, but a woman who answered the phone at the company said it would issue a statement later Friday.

Now that’s some clean coal! Freedom indeed!!!

Kentucky Repugs All Vote to Let Your Boss Steal Your Pay

That's not a metaphor.  That's precisely what Teabagger Thomas Massie, 4th District, Candy Barr, 3rd District, Brett Guthrie, 2nd District, Ed Whitfield, 1st District and Hal Rogers, 5th District did yesterday.

Down with Tyranny:

Remember when the GOP used to name bills that were meant to pollute the air, the Clean Skies Act? (Wednesday) Eric Cantor introduc(ed) his Working Families Flexibility Act (H.R. 1406), through Alabama puppet Martha Roby. It is meant to deny working men and women overtime pay.

SNIP

Keith Ellison (D-MN) was more succinct: "99% of Americans have seen their income decline during economic recovery. Yet Republican are pushing a bill that ends overtime pay." So was Tony Cárdenas (D-CA): "Tomorrow, we vote on letting companies stop paying overtime. Paying people less for working more? Is that what our country should be about?" Or, as Donna Edwards (D-MD) put it yesterday morning, "The only flexibility in the GOP bill is the flexibility for workers to be abused by their employers." George Miller tweeted this graphic to help make clear what the Republicans are up to:

Needless to say, the Republicans weren't enamoured of Alan Grayson's amendment, the Paid Vacation Act of 2013 and wouldn't even allow a vote. It's worth reading carefully, though, because it highlights the difference between a forward-looking progressive mindset compared to what the GOP is trying to do to further diminish ordinary working families and drag the country back in time.

UPDATE: GOP Law To Abolish Overtime Pay Passes

It'll never get taken up in the Senate, of course, but it passed 223-204, 8 Republicans voting with the Democrats and, shamefully, 3 conservative Democratic whores crossed the aisle in the other direction: Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN). Right after the vote Progressive Caucus co-chairs Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) released a joint statement:

    "H.R. 1406, which eliminates the right to overtime pay for overtime hours worked, is a direct assault on one of the most important protections American workers still have. Destroying common-sense labor laws may help big business and campaign donors, but it hurts the millions of working Americans who have been getting by on less and less since the Great Recession.

    "The forty-hour work week was one of the most consequential and hard-fought victories for working people in our nation’s history. Working Americans who earn overtime pay should get it when they earn it. Employers and employees have agreed on this for decades. The bill passed by House Republicans today undermines this basic agreement.

    "The gap between the richest Americans and the rest of us has been widening for years. In the last three decades, average incomes for the top 1 percent went up 277 percent, while average incomes for middle class families only rose by 35 percent. This bill lowers workers’ wages by taking away their hard earned overtime.

    "This will hurt our economic recovery and make Americans’ lives harder. It’s time for Congress to stop wasting time and invest in putting the American people back to work. We should be increasing worker pay, not taking it away."

If you work for a paycheck, you don't count as far as repugs are concerned.  You're there to exploit until you drop dead, because thanks to the Wall Street economy, there are thousands lined up to take your place.

Kentucky Repugs Voted Down Only Budget That Does What Kentuckians Want

The Back to Work Budget creates jobs, grows the economy, helps the middle class, protects social security and medicare, maintains the social safety net and yet reduces the deficit.

But Kentucky's congressional repugs voted it down: cAndy Barr in the Sixth District, Hal Rogers in the Fifith, Thomas Massie in the Fourth, Brett Guthrie in the Second and Ed Whitfield in the First.  All voted for the granny-starving economy-killing Blueprint for Feudalism of Paul Ryan, but not for the one budget that would help Kentuckians.

John Yarmuth, of course, voted for it.

Down with Tyranny:

No one thought it would pass. It's far too good-- too sensible, too weighted towards the non-rich-- for any Republican to consider voting for it. It failed today 84-327 and, sure enough, not a single Republican voted for it. But, then again, neither did most Democrats. More than a few non-Progressive Caucus Members voted for it-- like Stephen Lynch who desperately wants Massachusetts Democratic primary voters to think he's a progressive-- but I was horrified and disappointed by the CPC members who didn't vote for it, as well as by other progressives who voted NO.

Last week, writing at Huffington Post, R.J. Eskow, explained why the CPC budget vote is the most important budget battle in the country.

We won't have a functioning democracy until more of our representatives stand up for the principles in this document. That's why every Representative's vote for this budget matters. It's why each member of the House, and each of us, needs to stand up and be counted.

The CPC budget is smart, effective, and practical, creating up to seven million jobs while reducing the Federal deficit by $4.4 trillion. And yet it's being marginalized by the press and dismissed by leaders of the CPC's own Democratic Party.  Its provisions are enormously popular with voters across the political spectrum. And yet in Washington's insular world of self-fulfilling prophecies we're told that this budget is unimportant because "it will never pass."

...The CPC budget begins by recognizing what most sensible economists understand: A lingering recessionary economy like ours needs an up-front jolt of public investment. (The first one wasn't big enough.) It invests $2.1 trillion in public investment and jobs growth, with $700 billion in its first twelve months.

That sounds like a lot until we compare it to the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which, as Bill Moyers notes, may be as much as $4.4 trillion (plus another trillion in interest). Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates that it will take another $3 trillion just to cover the overall cost of medical care for wounded soldiers.

Next to that, $2.1 trillion to restore our damaged economy is a bargain. The budget would create an estimated 6.9 million jobs, cut wasteful Pentagon spending, reduce Medicare costs by ending corporate giveaways, modestly increase tax levels for high- and ultra-high-income Americans, and assess Wall Street for its excessive risk-tasking behavior.

It reduces the deficit in part because its up-front expenditures are an investment, not a military waste of money (or, far more tragically, of lives).

The only high-ranking House Democrats who voted for it were Jim Clyburn (SC), the Assistant Majority Leader and Xavier Becerra (CA), the Caucus Chairman. The rest of the leadership team all voted with the Republicans: Pelosi, Hoyer, Crowley, Israel... Wasserman-Schultz hid in the ladies room during the vote.

I'm not going to bother to mention all the Blue Dogs and New Dems who crossed the aisle and voted with the Republicans against the only sensible budget that's been proposed this year. But I do want to point out a list of Congressional Progressive Caucus members who voted against the budget; just shocking:

SNIP

Being pro-Choice or pro-gay marriage or against racism doesn't automatically make someone a progressive. If you don't care about economic justice issues... you're something else.

Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money:

As Yglesias says, Brooks ends up making the case about as well as anyone actually trying to make it could.  The former’s summary is useful:

Long story short, I would say the CPC budget has the following main advantages over the Ryan budget:

• More food and medical care for poor children.
• Less air pollution and a meaningful chance to avert the worst consequences of climate change.
• Lower taxes on middle-class and working-poor families.
• Medicare reform focused on reducing the unit price of health care services rather than increasing it.
• More funding for transportation infrastructure and basic research.

Brooks says the Ryan budget has the following main advantages over the CPC budget:

• High-income individuals will be less inclined to take vacations or retire and more inclined to work long hours.

This is…not a difficult choice.

Kentucky Repugs Vote Down Minimum Wage Hike

That's Ed Whitfield in the First District, Brett Guthrie in the Second, Thomas Massie in the Fourth, Hal Rogers in the Fifth and cAndy Barr in the Sixth.

They want you to get half of the poverty level for doing back-breaking work that none of them could do for five minutes.

Remember in 2014.

From Think Progress:

House Republicans on Friday unanimously voted down a bill that would have raised the minimum wage. Six Democrats joined them in defeating the effort.

The vote came after a surprise move by Democrats, who tacked onto a jobs training program bill an amendment that would have brought the national $7.25 minimum wage to $10.10 by 2015. But Republicans managed to defeat the effort while approving the bill overall.

A few weeks back, House Minority Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) came out in support raising minimum wage, responding President Obama’s State of the Union call for a wage increase. Pelosi’s effort, and the effort proposed Friday, would actually bring the minimum wage up higher than Obama’s suggestion of $9.

If the minimum wage were brought up to $10.10 an hour, it would not be a revolutionary hike; rather, it would be indexed to inflation and consistent with historical borrowing power. Had the minimum wage been indexed to inflation in 1968, it would be $10.40.

How Much Do Mitch and AynRandy Hate Women?

This much.

This afternoon the Senate overwhelmingly voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, 78-22. Every Democrat plus 23 Republicans voted for it. All four of the Republican women in the Senate, Kelly Ayotte (NH), Susan Collins (ME), Deb Fischer (NE) and Lisa Murkowski (AK) were among the 23 who voted YES. And then there were the other 22-- all male, right-wing extremists, the Hatred and Bigotry wing of the Republican Party. What a disgrace, that on the same day Republicans were showcasing potential 2016 presidential nominees Marco Rubio and Rand Paul by having them respond to President Obama's State of the Union address, both of them were in the small minority of anti-women fanatics and misogynists. Here's the full list:
SNIP

• Miss McConnell (R-KY)

• Rand Paul (R-KY)

SNIP

President Obama was grateful for the strong support the bill got on both sides of the aisle. "Today the Senate passed a strong bipartisan bill to reauthorize and strengthen the Violence Against Women Act," he said minutes after passage. "This important step shows what we can do when we come together across party lines to take up a just cause. The bill passed by the Senate will help reduce homicides that occur from domestic violence, improve the criminal justice response to rape and sexual assault, address the high rates of dating violence experienced by young women, and provide justice to the most vulnerable among us. I want to thank Senator Leahy and his colleagues from both sides of the aisle for the leadership they have shown on behalf of victims of abuse. It's now time for the House to follow suit and send this bill to my desk so that I can sign it into law."

Ah... the House. Yes, the crazy, extremist House. Boehner and Cantor have indicated they will refuse to allow it to come up for a vote. Last month Gwen Moore (D-WI) and John Conyers (D-MI) introduced an identical bill to the one that passed today, H.R. 11, which has 194 co-sponsors... all Democrats. Boehner has it bottled up in the Judiciary Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Education and the Workforce Committee, the Financial Services Committee, and, oddly, the Natural Resources Committee, where his reactionary cronies who head those committees, respectively Robert Goodlatte (R-VA), Fred Upton (R-MI), John Kline (R-MN), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and Doc Hastings (R-WA) are dutifully keeping it from serious consideration. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) is one of the Senators who supported the legislation who had a message for Boehner and his cronies today: "Domestic violence and abuse are inexcusable. And so was the House of Representatives' failure to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act last year... There are 24 new victims of domestic violence every minute. An average of three women will be killed today by their partners. It's long past time to bring the Violence Against Women Act back, and to take a stand against domestic violence."

Teabagger shitbag Thomas Massie of Kentucky's Fourth will of course vote against it, and John "Congressman Awesome" Yarmuth of the Third will vote in favor. How the Commonwealth's other four repugs break on this will say much about their willingness to invite a 2014 teabagger primary by voting with President Obama. The Fifth's Hal Rogers is safe, and the First's Florida resident Ed Whitfield doesn't seem to give a shit about anything or anybody in Kentucky. But Brett Guthrie in the Second might be vulnerable, and Candy Barr in the Sixth is a coward who so far has voted with Massie every time.

Domestic violence against women has always been a right-wing value. It's part of their Bronze Age patriarchal ideal. It's sick and has no place in the 21st Century-- just like the Republican Party. Many of the senators who voted for domestic violence today are in backward, brainwashed states like Utah and Idaho or in states where backward brainwashed people still command majorities at the polls, like in Oklahoma and Texas. There is no one to hold those senators accountable for their vote; they'll probably be feted for it! I have a feeling, though, that this vote can come back to bite Miss McConnell and Lindsey Graham in their butts in 2014. And Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson and Roy Blunt are clearly out of step with voters in Florida, Wisconsin and Missouri.  

As Juanita Jean put it:

It’s kinda my job to let you know that both Texas Senators voted against the Violence Against Women Act.

They hate the President more than violence against women.
Well, either that or they’re wife beaters.

KY Guntards in Congress

No surprise that teabaggers Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie (Fourth District) are proud guntards, along with Florida resident Ed Whitfield of the First District.

Or even that Mitchie-poo "declined to say," although in the context of his probable primary thrashing by a teabagger that seems to translate as "no guns." If I were living in the same house as Elaine Chao, I wouldn't have any guns, either.

Candy Barr and John Yarmuth may have declined out of worry that the many liberals in their blue district would frown on an arsenal.

But why are you so shy, Brett Guthrie of the deep-red Second District? Hal Rogers of the mountainous Fifth?  Is it possible you don't want your guntard constituents to find out you are too smart to have weapons in the house?

Interesting that only the Indiana representatives - one repug, one Democrat - were willing to say they do not own guns.

And yes, teabagger Massie is even more guntardedly insane than you ever imagined.  Thanks again, stay-home Democratic voters of the Fourth.

Joseph Gerth at the Courier: 

A bumper sticker on the car of U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie says flatly: “If you know how many guns you have, you don’t have enough.”

The newly elected 4th District Republican from Kentucky may have some idea of what he owns, but wouldn’t he’d rather not share that publicly for a USA TODAY/Gannett/Courier-Journal survey of gun ownership among Congress members.


“Rep. Massie will not disclose the contents of his gun collection, but he does own firearms that (President Barack) Obama seeks to ban,” Massie spokesman Gary Howard said.


Massie said in a campaign position paper last year that he has had a permit to carry a concealed weapon for 10 years and collects “Class III firearms,” which include machine guns, silencers and short-barreled shotguns and rifles.


The president has proposed reinstituting the federal ban on assault weapons, as well as limiting the number rounds in gun magazines and mandating background checks for all gun sales.


Massie, who is sponsoring legislation that would allow people to bring firearms into schools, is one of at least four Kentucky and Southern Indiana Congressmen who have said they own guns.


The others are Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-1st District, who said he owns two handguns and a .410-gauge shotgun and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who said it would be “irresponsible for me to tell would-be criminals what kinds of guns I would use to defend myself and my family or provide a shopping list for a thief.”

Only One Human Being in Kentucky's Congressional Delegation

And of course it's Congressman Awesome.

Chris Kenning and James Carroll at the Courier:

Saying “doing nothing is not an option,” U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, promised Monday to support a comprehensive new package of gun control legislation he believes can pass Congress in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings .

“I have been largely silent on the issue of gun violence over the past six years, and I am now as sorry for that as I am for what happened to the families who lost so much,” he said in Louisville news conference during which he called for “meaningful action.”

But while Yarmuth publicly endorsed greater gun control, other Kentucky and Southern Indiana lawmakers — most Republicans — were reluctant Monday to take a stand, either sidestepping the issue or refusing to comment altogether.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a speech on the Senate floor Monday afternoon, said there was “no escaping the fact that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary stands out for its awfulness.” But the Kentucky Republican did not say whether he believes there is a need for new gun-control measures.

Mitchie-poo's always been a coward, but you'd think the Commonwealth's Tribble-toupeed Teabagger would be shouting libertarian gun-nuttery from the rooftops.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s spokesperson did not respond to requests for an interview.

I'll bet Ashley Judd would leap at the chance to talk about Sandy Hook.

Reps. Brett Guthrie, Tom Massie and Andy Barr also chickened out of commenting, although Reps. Ed Whitfield and Hal Rogers, whose asses are permanently grafted to their House seats, offered typical weasel words.

It's not as if Kentucky doesn't know the shock, pain and permanent damage of a school shooting. Fifteen years later, Heath High School in Paducah is still kept locked around the clock, and shooter Michael Carneal is still appealing his life sentence on grounds of mental defect.

No fucking kidding, motherfucker.

At least Carneal admits what he did and that it was wrong.  That's more than McConnell, Paul, Guthrie, Massie, Barr, Whitfield and Rogers can say.

KY Repugs Vote to Destroy Economy

Remember this a year from now when Kentucky's congressional repugs - Brett Guthrie, Geoff Davis, Hal Rogers and Ed Whitfield - are running for re-election claiming Democrats are destroying the economy:

Steve Bene:

But before we move on from this ridiculous, right-wing plan, let’s not brush past too quickly exactly what House conservatives endorsed yesterday. Even if this was just theater, and even if everyone in the political world knew this was not a serious attempt at policymaking, it’s hard not to marvel at just how far these House Republicans are willing to go.

Remember the radicalism of Paul Ryan’s budget plan? “Cut, Cap, and Balance” makes Ryan’s plan look centrist by comparison.

We’re talking about a plan that would immediately take $100 billion out of the U.S. economy, eliminating thousands of jobs in the process. It would make draconian cuts to key public priorities, including education, infrastructure, and energy. It would gut Social Security and Medicare, and make it almost impossible for any Congress to ever raise taxes on anyone ever again. It goes out of its way to protect tax cuts for the very wealthy, while targeting the most vulnerable.

It doesn’t even do an effective job of reducing the deficit, since that wouldn’t be the point — this is about dismantling the modern American government itself; not bringing the budget closer to balance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Bob Greenstein explained that CC&B “stands out as one of the most ideologically extreme pieces of major budget legislation to come before Congress in years, if not decades.”

The plan is practically a caricature of Republican priorities — it’s something liberals might come up with as an exaggeration to make the GOP look ridiculous — and yet, just yesterday, it passed the House, 234 to 190. As radical as this is, 96% of the House Republican caucus voted for it, even knowing it would fail. (The percentage would have been slightly higher, but some GOP members voted against it because, they said, it didn’t go far enough.)

I’m glad Washington can now turn its attention to real solutions to the impending crisis, but these 234 conservatives, which included a handful of Blue Dog Democrats, shouldn’t be let off the hook too easily. This is a vote that should shame them indefinitely.

David M.F. Shankula at Barefoot and Progressive:

The rest of the delegation voted as expected because about a fifth of the state’s population are on Medicare and Rogers, Whitfield, Guthrie and Davis would rather they not be.

Liberals know that government spending supports huge chunks of the American economy, from Social Security checks to college tuition to agriculture to prisons, and slashing that spending hurts, not helps, Americans.

Why Are You Paying for Health Care for Rethugs Who Don't Want You To Have the Same?

All six republican members of Kentucky's Congressional delegation voted last month to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Representatives Ed Whitfield, Brett Guthrie, Geoff Davis and Hal Rogers, and Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul all voted to take away from you decent and affordable health care.

And on February 1, all six of them grabbed for themselves the decent, affordable health care they just voted to take away from you.

karoli at Crooks and Liars:

Today is a happy day for many GOP freshmen Congressmen. Why? Because as of today, their government-subsidized health care is in effect. And that health care plan is robust. For starters, no one can be excluded or penalized for pre-existing conditions, regardless of age. Dependents are covered up to age 26, whether they're students or not, and even if they have a pre-existing condition.

But wait, there's more:

Beginning today, a new Republican Member of Congress with high blood pressure, diabetes, or any chronic condition is immediately covered at the same premium cost as 8 million other federal employees. The same is true for his or her spouse and dependent children, regardless of age, gender or prior illness.

So, no pre-existing conditions, no rate hikes, and best of all, the government pays about $700/month for each enrollee. Isn't that nice of them? Let it sink in: Taxpayers are paying $700 per month for Congressmen like Darrell Issa, and Virginia Foxx to have access to quality health care while they go about the business of repealing it through the courts and Congress for the rest of us.

In the this-is-no-surprise category, we have current polls which say a majority of Americans think those who seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act should decline their own government-subsidized health insurance.

Most Americans think incoming Congressmen who campaigned against the health care bill should put their money where their mouth is and decline government provided health care now that they're in office. Only 33% think they should accept the health care they get for being a member of Congress while 53% think they should decline it and 15% have no opinion.

Do you have the gold-plated health insurance plan members of Congress enjoy? Can you afford to pay $700 per month for your anti-ACA repug representative to enjoy the health coverage he/she just tried to deny you?

Call and email your members of Congress to tell them exactly what you think about them making you pay for their health care while they are trying to take yours away.

Have you talked to your Democratic neighbors today?

Your Republican Congress Critter Voted to Raise Your Taxes

Yes, it did. Unless it's named Ron Paul, Walter Jones or John Duncan, it voted yesterday against extending the middle-class tax cuts.

It voted to raise your taxes.

Be sure to thank it. Thank it publicly. In the letters page of your local paper. And in your holiday letters and emails.

Here's the official roll call from the clerk of the House of Representatives. The motion was to extend tax cuts for the middle-class. A "No" vote is a vote to let those tax cuts expire, thus raising taxes on middle-class families. In the list of "No" votes, you will find every single repug member of the House, except for Paul, Jones and Duncan. Every other repug voted to raise your taxes.

Never forget.

All four Kentucky republican congress critters voted to raise taxes on middle-class families - everyone earning less than $250,000.

Brett Guthrie voted to raise your taxes.

Geoff Davis voted to raise your taxes.

Hal Rogers voted to raise your taxes.

Ed Whitfield voted to raise your taxes.

Proud Liberal Democrat John Yarmuth and Ridiculous Blue Dog Ben Chandler voted against raising your taxes.

Spread the word.

Watch House Repugs Vote to Kill Jobs

Last month, the First District's Ed Whitfield was the only repug member of Kentucky's Congressional delegation to vote to extend unemployment benefits to workers shut out of the job market by the recession.

The usually-addled Whitfield may have voted yes by mistake, which makes next week's vote to save tens of thousands of teachers, police officers and firefighters from losing their jobs especially interesting.

Will Whitfield maintain his apostasy, or has the GOP Inquisition tortured him back into line? Will repugs Brett Guthrie (KY-2), Geoff Davis (KY-4) and Hal Rogers (KY-5) count the days to November and reckon this is their last chance to show voters they give a shit about the non-rich? Will repug-in-Blue-Dog clothing Ben Chandler fuck over the Democrats again and switch his vote to no? Stay tuned!

Steve Benen:

THE GOP LINE ON STATE AID.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that the House will return from its August recess next week, voting in emergency session on a state aid package. It's a great move -- the funding, which will formally pass the Senate today, includes $10 billion to save school teachers' jobs, and $16.1 billion in state Medicaid funding. It can't wait another five weeks.

It's safe to assume that the vast majority of House Republican, if not literally every member, will grudgingly work their way back to D.C., only to register their opposition to the measure. But will be the rationale be? House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) argued yesterday:

"The American people don't want more Washington 'stimulus' spending -- especially in the form of a pay-off to union bosses and liberal special interests. This stunning display of tone-deafness comes at the expense of American workers, who will be hit by another job-killing tax hike because Washington Democrats can't kick their addiction to more government 'stimulus' spending."

Hmm. Aid to struggling states will help prevent the layoffs of school teachers, firefighters, and police officers. For the House Republican leader, these folks are "special interests." But when he works with Wall Street executives to kill new financial industry safeguards, or meets with insurance companies to kill health care reform, or meets with polluters to kill energy/climate legislation, these aren't "special interests."

In this sense, the "special interests" label is a bit like the "judicial activism" line -- court rulings the GOP finds offensive constitute "activism," and public employees the GOP doesn't care about are "special interests."
For that matter, the bill is fully paid for through spending cuts and cutting a corporate tax loophole that helps make it easier to send jobs overseas. Boehner is supposed to like the former, and his defense of the latter is bizarre.

The floor debate next week will no doubt be endlessly entertaining.

Whitfield, Davis, Guthrie, Rogers all vote to let Wall Street screw you.

Ben Chandler was not the only member of Kentucky's Congressional delegation to vote against a new law preventing Wall Street from raping consumers to death.

Joining Wire Hanger in trying to throw Kentucky's hard-working middle-class into the Big Bank Snake Pit were repugs Ed Whitfield, Brett Guthrie, Geoff Davis and Hal Rogers.

Steve Benen explains:

THE WALL STREET REFORM AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT.... Yesterday's big news on the Hill was the House vote on bringing new safeguards and regulations to how Wall Street does business.

The House approved a Democratic plan on Friday to tighten federal regulation of Wall Street and banks, advancing a far-reaching Congressional response to the financial crisis that rocked the economy.

After three days of floor debate, the House voted 223 to 202 to approve the measure. It would create an agency to protect consumers from abusive lending practices, set rules for the trading of some of the sophisticated financial instruments that fueled the crisis, and take steps to reduce the threat that the failure of one or two huge banks or investment firms could topple the entire economy. [...]

The Democratic authors of the House legislation hailed the bill as the biggest change in oversight of Wall Street since the Great Depression, and said they believed they had struck a careful balance between protecting the public and the economy while not stifling economic growth and market forces.... The bill represents an attempt to address comprehensively what many of its supporters have called the underlying causes of the collapse -- reckless risk-taking unrestrained by regulation.

There is, of course, a chasm between the status quo and the ideal. Democrats claim that the reforms are the most significant since the New Deal. A wide variety of progressive analysts believe the reforms fall far short of what's needed. Who's right? Well, both are.

For all the key improvements, the House bill lacks, for example, a cramdown provision, which Blue Dog Democrats joined Republicans in killing, and which would have likely made a major difference in the lives of many. For that matter, institutions that are "too big to fail" are still "too big to fail."

But it's worth noting that just one year after Wall Street recklessness pushed the global economy to the brink of wholesale collapse, exactly zero House Republicans voted for watered-down safeguards, deeming them too onerous. Indeed, their unanimous opposition to Wall Street accountability came just a few days after the House Republican leadership huddled with more than 100 lobbyists to rally opposition to preventing Wall Street irresponsibility.

Shortly after the vote, DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse issued a statement. The subject line of the email read, "Seriously?"

"Not one Republican voted for the financial regulatory reform and consumer protection bill in the House. Not one," Woodhouse said. "One year after nearly the worst financial collapse in our nation's history -- a collapse brought on by the excessive greed and risk taking of Wall Street and by the anything goes regulatory environment put in place by Republicans -- not one Republican in the House thinks that consumers deserve additional protections or that the practices of Wall Street should be curbed. Do the Republicans not get that one of the reasons they lost so badly in 2006 and 2008 is because the public believed that the GOP had just become shills for oil companies, Wall Street financiers and insurance companies? Apparently not -- because here they go again."

The goal, apparently, is for Republicans to actually suffer some electoral consequences for this one. DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told reporters that GOP opponents of reforming the way Wall Street does business "are going to pay a very heavy price."

And in his weekly White House address this morning, President Obama reminded Americans, "Just last week, Republican leaders in the House summoned more than 100 key lobbyists for the financial industry to a 'pep rally', and urged them to redouble their efforts to block meaningful financial reform."

Is this the issue on which Democrats take the offensive?

Don't say it. I already know the answer.