Last Call For Mrs. Graham

Larry Wilmore is doing a pretty solid job of following Jon Stewart in Colbert's slot on The Nightly Show and Wilmore laid into the political media this week for worrying more about how Sen. Lindsey Graham's bachelor status would affect him as President than his completely awful foreign policy.

“Democracy works, just as long as we have a free press that doesn’t shy away from the important questions,” Wilmore said.

He showed a video clip Thursday on “The Nightly Show” of Fox News host Andrea Tantaros saying “one of the big questions being asked of Lindsey Graham is who would be his First Lady.”

“Why is that a question?” Wilmore said. “This is a dude who wants a war with Iran so bad he put it on his Amazon wish list. We’re asking him about his non-existent First Lady?”

Wilmore said Graham, the South Carolina Republican senator, had a creative solution to filling the role without a wife.

The GOP candidate told reporters he had a sister, so perhaps she could fill the role.

“Is Lindsey Graham trying to Duggar his way into the White House?” Wilmore said. “I’m guessing he’s got at least 19 votes and counting.”

Graham also said, chuckling, that he had lots of friends, so maybe there could be a “rotating First Lady.”

“Incest and orgies?” Wilmore said. “Bill Clinton’s probably thinking, ‘Wow, this guy’s taking it to the next level. I may not vote for Hillary at this point.’”

Wilmore is correct.  Huckleberry Graham is the GOP candidate openly pushing for a huge American ground war in the Middle East.  He's been absolutely wrong about everything remotely involved in the arena of international relations. On domestic issues, he's all about cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, deporting DREAMers, and nationwide restrictions on abortion access.

The guy is a complete disaster even by 2016 GOP candidate standards, and we're worried about his marital status?

No.

A Long Way Across Texas

The Fifth Circuit has upheld Texas's abortion clinic regulation regime, legislation that has already closed most of the clinics in the state and now will leave at least a million women a hundred miles away or more from any abortion services.

Federal judges upheld a sweeping anti-abortion law on Tuesday in a decision that will shutter most abortion clinics in Texas.

The ruling held that the law, HB 2, which requires abortion facilities to comply with hospital-like standards, does not pose an undue burden for the majority of women seeking abortion in Texas, millions of whom will now have to travel hundreds of miles for an abortion.

The law calls for clinics to follow the state's rules for ambulatory surgical centers, facilities that are very costly to operate. In 2013, Planned Parenthood opened a brand-new ASC in Forth Worth at a cost of $6.5 million. Only seven abortion clinics in Texas comply with ASC standards; 13 other clinics face imminent closure.

Whole Woman's Health, the plaintiff in the case, vowed to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court and to ask the justices to put the ruling on hold immediately. Unless the Supreme Court steps in, the clinics will be forced to close in 22 days. The case, if it goes before the high court, could result in a definitive ruling on when an abortion restriction is too restrictive and constitutes an "undue burden."

"Not since before Roe v. Wade has a law or court decision had the potential to devastate access to reproductive health care on such a sweeping scale," said Nancy Northrup, the CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents Whole Woman's Health in the lawsuit.

The ruling is a broad victory for Texas on what most consider the most restrictive abortion law in the country: Other provisions of HB 2, which were not a part of Tuesday's ruling, have already closed more than 20 abortion providers across the state. Judges were drawn from the most conservative appeals court in the country, US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

A few years ago Teas had more than 40 clinics.  Now that number will be reduced to seven.  This is what happens when "small government Republicans" decide that government can indeed be used to regulate clinics out of business and trap women in pregnancies, all while screaming about "liberal fascism" and "regulatory burdens".

Expect more Republican states to take up Texas-style clinic regulations, designed specifically to put clinics out of business and to take choices away from women.

The GOP's Not Even Trying Anymore On The Obamacare Fix

If you believe the stories out of the GOP this week, Mitch the Turtle has a double secret probation plan for fixing Obamacare should the Supreme Court wreck subsidies to federal exchange states.

No, stop laughing you guys, they are totally serious!

Congressional Republican leaders say they have a fallback plan ready to go if the Supreme Court cripples a core component of Obamacare this month. 

But the details of the plan are being kept secret. 

"We'll have a plan that makes sense for the American people," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday in a radio interview with The Joe Elliott Show. 

But what's in the plan? 

"We'll let you know depending on the outcome of the decision," the Kentucky Republican said, referring to the case King v. Burwell, which is expected to be decided this month. 

Bloomberg tried to get answers Tuesday from the senior Republicans who work on health policy. Their fallback plan might interest millions of Americans who stand to lose their insurance subsidies, as well as the insurance industry, which would likely lose many customers and be compelled raise premiums. Details to come, the planners say. 

"Yeah, we are" ready to act, Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, the chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in an interview. But what will the action be? "We'll let you know if we have to do it," he said.

Oh, well then.  I can't wait for your super secret plan, boys. I'm sure it'll work just as well as the last 50 billion ones.

Seriously, are Republicans this disdainful of everyone's intelligence level? Is anyone in America buying this nonsense?

StupidiNews!

• A Cleveland judge has found probable cause to charge Office Timothy Loehmann with the murder of 12-year old Tamir Rice in a fatal police shooting last November.
• A Virginia teenager has plead guilty to aiding Islamic State by supplying them information over his Twitter account, a crime that could see him get 15 years in federal prison.
• North Carolina Republicans have overridden a veto by GOP Gov. Pat McCrory to pass a law allowing government officials to refuse to perform marriages.
• Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is stepping down July 1 and ousted co-founder Jack Dorsey will take over as interim CEO, returning to the position he was booted from in 2008.
• A federal judge has denied a stay of FCC net neutrality rules requested by the broadband industry, clearing the way for the new regulations to take effect today.