Last Call For The I-Word

Republicans really need to stop assuming nobody's paying attention to their town hall meetings.  Take Rep. Brent Farenthold of Texas, for example.

Texas Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold said that Republicans could secure the votes to impeach Barack Obama in the House of Representatives. Farenthold was speaking at an open house held at a Civic Center in Luling, Texas, Saturday according to a YouTube video description and the Congressman’s online schedule. His answer came from a constituent’s question about conspiracy theories surrounding President Obama’s birth certificate.

“I think unfortunately the horse is already out of the barn on this, on the whole birth certificate issue,” Farenthold said. “The original Congress when his eligibility came up should have looked into it and they didn’t. I’m not sure how we fix it.”

“You tie into a question I get a lot: ‘If everyone’s so unhappy with the president’s done, why don’t you impeach him?’” Farenthold continued. “I’ll give you a real frank answer about that: If we were to impeach the president tomorrow, you could probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it. But it would go to the Senate and he wouldn’t be convicted.” 

On what grounds, Congressman?  You actually have to have a legal, Constutional reason to impeach.  Nice to know then that Republicans in the House would be willing to apparently make a few reasons up to impeach the President, knowing full well they'd never get the 67 votes necessary in the Senate to convict and remove.

But sure, Republicans.  Keep talking about impeachment and government shutdowns like the clowns you are.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

Donald Trump:  still a racist, birther moron.

Correspondent Jonathan Karl asked the former presidential candidate about his pursuit of Obama's birth certificate, suggesting it made him look not serious.

“Why does that make me not serious? I think that resonated with a lot of people,” Trump said.

Karl pressed if Trump still believes Obama was not born in the United States.

“I have no idea," Trump said. "I don’t know, was there a birth certificate? You tell me. You know, some people say that was not his birth certificate. I’m saying I don’t know. Nobody knows. And you don’t know either.”

“I'm pretty convinced he was born in the United States,” Karl replied, which prompted Trump to jump in and seize on "pretty convinced."

Karl then said he believed Obama was born in the U.S. "without question.".

“Jonathan, you said you’re pretty convinced, OK? So let’s just see what happens,” Trump said.

Also still inexplicably employed by the "liberal" NBC, still taken seriously as a political candidate for higher office, still the best example of who Republicans really are, and still has a dead weasel on his head.

Steve King Of The Melonheads

Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King refuses to let go of his hatred towards undocumented Latinos, and won't until he's forced to by voters.

In what became a heated argument, Rep. Steve King on Sunday once again defended his controversial remarks about drug smugglers among immigrants who could be legalized under the DREAM Act, setting off a tense exchange with Republican strategist Ana Navarro.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," the Iowa Republican was asked to a respond to a his remarks that “for everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert."

King said his statements were accurate and have been misconstrued.

"My numbers have not been debunked. I said valedictorians compared to people who would be legalized under the act that are drug smugglers coming across the border. My characterization was exclusively to drug smugglers," King said.

Host David Gregory said the remark had been debunked in that it was impossible to know how many valedictorians or drug smugglers would be involved in the DREAM Act.

“Then, what's their number? How many valedictorians do they suggest? And I’ll tell you, I've seen the drug smugglers," King said. "For this to be characterized by Dick Durbin as valedictorians, I'm telling the American people that I recognize that. … But this proposes to legalize a lot of people that will include the people who are drug smugglers up to the age of 35.”

It was at this point on MTP that GOP strategist Ana Navarro tore King a new one.

“I think Congressman King should go get some therapy for his melon fixation. I think there might be medication for that. I think he's a mediocre congressman with no legislative record and the only time he makes national press is when he comes out and says something offensive about the undocumented or Hispanics,” Navarro said, saying he’s been “helpful” to the debate by getting other Republicans to denounce his remarks.

Gregory brought King back to allow him to respond.

“First of all, I spoke only of drug smugglers. And if Ana understands the language, she should know that. I didn't insult her or other Republicans,” King said.

“I’m not undocumented, congressman, I vote,” Navarro interjected.

This is a Republican politico saying this to King on a Sunday show, no less.  Not that he didn't deserve every ounce of Navarro's scorn, of course.  But the larger message is that any sort of Latino outreach by Republicans like Navarro is 100% worthless as long as the GOP remains the party of Steve King and the dozens of assholes like him.

Navarro knows this full well, and she's rightfully furious.  Steve King makes her job impossible.

I have no sympathy for Navarro, however.  You chose to align yourself with racists like King, now you're learning the hard way why King is irredeemable.  Good luck with your Sisyphean efforts, and don't let the boulder roll you down on the way to 2016.

StupidiNews!

• The jury in the trial of reputed Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger has returned a guilty verdict on 31 of 32 counts, including involvement in 11 murders.
• Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk unveiled a new "open source" transportation project named "Hyperloop" which could theoretically transport riders from LA to SF in 30 minutes.
• A McClatchy study shows that in nearly 40 years of existence, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has never tried to declassify documents itself, even though it can try.
• Newark Mayor Cory Booker heads into today's New Jersey Senate special primary election with a massive lead and is expected to easily win the October 16th general election.
• BlackBerry says it's exploring putting itself up for sale as sales of the BlackBerry X10 phone have not met expectations.