Last Call: The Great Gun Giveaway

Rep. Steve Stockman is back in the news (yes, the same nutjob wanting to impeach Obama over gun control and the same guy who's not smart enough to understand Twitter) with yet another example of his amazing partisan stupidity:

Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, is giving away a fre Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, which he wants you to grab “before Obama does.”

Oh good.

“Enter the drawing to win a FREE Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, almost impossible to find in stores and the number one firearm on the gun banners’ wish list!” Stockman writes on his website. “Winner drawn July 4, 2013.”

Same guy who tweeted this:

Our campaign bumper sticker: If babies had guns, they wouldn't be aborted. stockman2014.com #gosnell #tcot twitter.com/ReElectStockma…
— Rep. Steve Stockman (@ReElectStockman) April 12, 2013

Yeah, what a mensch, huh?  Now he's giving away an AR-15 because eff Obama.  I'm betting the winner doesn't get a background check as part of his or her prize, which is of course what the gun bill Democrats were trying to pass would have done. 

Republicans do things just to piss off liberals, minorities, women and gays and really that's all that matters to them.

Dinosaur Steve Does The Right Thing

Here in Kentucky, Gov. Steve "I'd be a Republican in any other state!" Beshear announced this afternoon that he will be expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, giving more than 300,000 Kentuckians access to health insurance through Medicaid and another 300,000 plus through the state's insurance exchange.  He laid out the case on his website, including some sobering facts:

Kentucky Ranks at the Bottom in Health Outcomes. Kentucky continues to rank at the bottom in most national health rankings. This includes 50th in smoking, 40th in obesity, 43rd in sedentary lifestyles, 41st in diabetes, 48th in poor mental health days, 49th in poor physical health days, 50th in cancer deaths, 49th in cardiac heart disease, 43rd in high cholesterol, 44th in annual dental visits and 48th in heart attacks. Access to health insurance will improve health outcomes.

The Bluegrass State is about as unhealthy as it gets, folks.  A big reason is that staggering poverty along the Appalachians makes health care impossible for a lot of people.  Beshear made the right call.  And hey, let's not forget that Obamacare will create good health care jobs, even here in Kentucky:

Expansion Will Have a $15.6 Billion Statewide Economic Impact Between FY14 and FY21, Creating Almost 17,000 New Jobs. According to an independent analysis conducted by the University of Louisville, expanding Medicaid will lead to a cumulative economic impact of $15.6 billion between FY14 and FY21. This impact will result from new health care spending that will occur, the nearly 17,000 jobs that will be created because of this expansion, and the local and state tax revenue that will be generated from those jobs. UofL projects these jobs will have an annual average salary of more than $43,000.

But here's the best argument I've seen so far to tell your uncle that watches FOX News all day:

Not Expanding Means Kentucky Taxpayers Subsidize the 20 States That Are Expanding. Currently, 20 states have announced their decision to expand Medicaid. If Kentucky does not expand its Medicaid program, Kentucky taxpayer dollars’ will still go to the federal government, which will use them to pay for Medicaid expansion in these 20 states.

And folks, that argument here in Kentucky?  That alone will guarantee that the state will remain signed on to Medicaid expansion for a good, long time.

Good job, DS.

Wasting Everybody's Time

Joe Kline wants to know why Republicans are wasting valuable time and resources on Benghazi...

Could it have been the Republicans who consistently voted against funds for increased embassy security? Hmmm…that makes their current carping seem awfully political, doesn’t it? Again, sins of politics are not mortal. But one does wonder why the Republicans tend to fix on issues like this, which are defined by their absence of substance. (I haven’t noticed the Republicans clamoring to spend more on embassy security–which would be a matter of substance, happily embraced by the Administration.But that would require a budget deal, which would give the President a win.)

...when everybody knows Republicans should really be spending time on the most important issue of the day:  purging the country of those undesirable Poors and Oldsters.

The sad thing here is that the Republicans are right, in part, about government spending. It is wasteful. There are far more efficient ways to do Medicare that would produce a better health care system for the elderly. Social Security disability is slouching toward scamdom. The Veterans Administration is a 19th century bureaucratic disaster. Unemployment benefits and food stamps should require some sort of return service from recipients. The list goes on…But rather than address the substance of those problems–problems that Democrats don’t seem very interested in solving–they obsess on the stupid: fixing on more-or-less budget debates, federal dictatorship fantasies and meaningless political ploys like Benghazi.

Joke Line doesn't say what those "more efficient" ways are, but I'm betting you'll find then in the annual Paul Ryan Austerity Budget.  Because after all, the most important thing imaginable right now is kicking anyone within two paychecks of homelessness square in the genitalia so that overpaid Village idiots can sleep better at night.

Awesome.

StupidiNews!

• An Arizona jury has found Jodi Arias guilty of first degree murder in the death of her ex-boyfriend, whose body was found stabbed, shot, and nearly decapitated.
• Rep. Michele Bachmann could be facing a lawsuit from a blogger over her characterization of a post in one of her speeches.
• While skeptics seriously doubt inventor Ronald Ace's claims that his "solar trap" panels could revolutionize energy the world over, the Department of Energy is still taking a look.
• US foreclosures are down to their pre-financial crisis levels as the number of new filings dropped to the lowest level in over six years.
• The FBI is claiming it has the right to search your e-mail without a warrant as possible Supreme Court rulings on the matter inch closer.