Last Call For The Erase Card

Kansas is sure trying to lock up "Worst Republicans In America" early this year, between Gov. Sam Brownback's austerity budget crash and Secretary of State Kris Kobach's inexcusable racist tirades.

As reported by Right Wing Watch, Kansas’ Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) told listeners of his radio show that President Obama could absolve black people of all crimes and refuse to prosecute them in the future. He also implied that Attorney General Eric Holder is a reverse racist for not applying civil rights laws to white people.

During the weekly show, a caller named Stu postulated that Obama may announce in the future that a “black person accused of a crime, charged with a crime, is not going to be prosecuted, regardless of the crime,” based on his recent immigration action. He also argued that the government is already in the process of doing so, since Holder did not prosecute Black Panthers.

Kobach didn’t dispute the claims, saying, “Well, it’s already happened more or less in the case of civil rights laws. I guess it’s not a huge jump. I think it’s unlikely, but you know I’ve learned to say with this president, never say never.” He also claimed that Holder “basically made it clear….that the civil rights laws were only to protect minority races, and he was not going to be enforcing them to the benefit of white people who were discriminated against on the basis of their race.”

Because throughout America's history, black people have been the real racists.  And this guy is the highest election official in the state.  Nice to know he thinks civil rights are reverse racism against white men like himself.

So why is this racist asshole still in office, Kansas?

Maryland Crab Bake

As I mentioned earlier this week, Maryland Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski is retiring after 5 terms in the Senate, and it was a thought at least that Martin O'Malley might put his Presidential aspirations on hold and take a shot at it.  Things move quickly in the Old Line State however, as Dem Rep. Chris Van Hollen represents the Maryland suburbs north of DC, and he's immediately thinking of moving up in the world.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told supporters Wednesday that he will run for Sen. Barbara Mikulski's (D-MD) Senate seat.

"I am writing to let you know that I have decided to run for the United States Senate from our great State of Maryland," Van Hollen wrote in the email to supporters. "I am very grateful to the citizens of Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District for the opportunity to represent them and want to thank the many Marylanders who, over the last 48 hours, have called, sent text messages, or emailed to urge me to run for the United States Senate. A more formal announcement will come later, but I wanted to let you know of my plans."

Van Hollen's announcement comes just a few days after Mikulski announced that she would not seek a sixth term in the Senate. Van Hollen has long been mentioned in Democratic circles as a rising star in politics and is seen as a possible future leader of the Democratic party in the House or perhaps a United States senator.

That means Van Hollen's prime real estate is up for grabs in MD-8, and as I said, things move fast.

Less than 24 hours after Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) announced his candidacy for outgoing Sen. Barbara Mikulski's (D-MD) Senate seat, there's already a Democrat running to take Van Hollen's House seat: Marriott International executive vice president Kathleen Matthews.

The news that Matthews—who is married to MSNBC's "Hardball" host Chris Matthews—is running was first announced in Politico's Playbook on Thursday. Before joining Marriott, Matthews was an anchor for local television station WJLA ABC7.

She's been hinting at plans to run for office for a while now and has been outspoken on gay rights and sustainability, according to Playbook.

Tweety's wife running for the House?  It's a safe Dem district for sure, but that brings me to Van Hollen's disastrous run as DCCC chair from 2007-2010.  He's the guy that ran on putting Blue Dogs in the House in 2008, only to lose 63 seats in 2010 when that strategy utterly backfired.  And now he's failing upwards?

And as far as Kathleen Matthews goes, well...she married Tweety.  I already question her judgment.

Look, I know these seats need to stay blue, but this is a real opportunity to put, you know, actual Democrats into office and not career politicians with dollar signs and fame in their eyes.

I suppose even that is asking too much.

The Next Benghazi

And it begins: House Republicans are already warming up subpoenas for Hillary Clinton's emails from her time as Secretary of State.  America's New Congress(tm).  Same old idiocy.

A House investigative committee issued subpoenas late Wednesday afternoon to the State Department, seeking a deeper look into former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton’s nearly exclusive use of personal e-mails to do her official business during her tenure, the committee confirmed Wednesday.

The House Select Committee on Benghazi, which first discovered Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail based on a home server in its inquiry into a fatal 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, is asking for all e-mails related to the attack from all Clintonemail.com accounts and any other staff members’ personal accounts.

“The Select Committee on Benghazi today issued subpoenas for all communications of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton related to Libya and to the State Department for other individuals who have information pertinent to the investigation,” according to a statement by committee spokesman Jamal Ware. “The Committee also has issued preservation letters to internet firms informing them of their legal obligation to protect all relevant documents.”

The move escalates the panel’s conflict with Clinton and could complicate her expected run for president.

Which, of course, is the point.  But millions in taxpayer dollars will be spent and thousands of man hours wasted on nothing, just like that last two years.  We all knew there was going to be two more of this stuff.

But hey America, you voted for this in 2014.  Or didn't give a damn enough to vote for it to stop, didn't you?

StupidiNews!

• US Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert was slashed on the cheek and hand by a knife-wielding assailant in Seoul, and is expected to fully recover.
• In response to a scathing DoJ report on Ferguson, Missouri's police and court system, Mayor James Knowles says that at least one police official has already been fired with two more on leave.
• The Supreme Court appeared to be split along ideological lines during Wednesday's oral arguments on the future of Obamacare subsidies in King v Burwell.
• Russia's Security Council is openly accusing the US of fomenting a plot to topple the Putin regime, less than a week after the death of opposition leader and Putin critic Boris Nemtsov.
• HBO will be offering its no cable necessary streaming service for $15 a month with Apple as its launch partner.