Last Call For Pissed Christie, Con't

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Christie presents your Republican minority voter outreach from the GOP governor of a blue state, 2015 GOP primary season edition.

Later in the town hall, when a mother of two police officers asked about how Christie would support law enforcement, the governor let loose fiery attack on the Black Lives Matter movement in general and in particular, on Clinton's willingness to meet with representatives of it.

"I think all lives matter," said Christie, who was standing in a cafe where a lever-action rifle hung inside its entrance with the words "We Don't Dial 911" above it.

"But let me tell you this: When a movement like that calls for the murder of police officers...no President of the United States should dignify a group like that by saying anything positive about them, and no candidate for president, like Hillary Clinton, should give them any credibility by meeting with them, as she's done."

Last month, Clinton had met privately with members of the Black Lives Matter movement while in Washington D.C. for the National Council of Negro Women.

Christie vowed never to do so.

"I want the Black Lives Matter people to understand: Don't call me for a meeting. You're not getting one."

"Black Lives Matter called for the murder of police" is the new  "Black Panthers are attacking white voters at polling places" baloney and it will be repeated for years.

And believe me when I say as far as GOP voters are concerned, every black voter is a "Black Lives Matter thug".

All Around The World The Same Song

Republicans are trying to repeal Obamacare yet again (attempt number 54, by my math) this time with a couple of differences: they are using budget reconciliation, and they are including cutting all funding for Planned Parenthood.

The Senate parliamentarian has ruled that defunding Planned Parenthood can be part of a special Republican package repealing parts of ObamaCare, The Hill has learned. 

The parliamentarian on Tuesday gave word that the provision passes muster under the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which means it can be attached to a reconciliation package that cannot be filibustered on the Senate floor.

Some Senate sources had raised questions over whether the reconciliation bill passed by the House — which strips funding from Planned Parenthood — was even eligible for the reconciliation process. 

That question is now settled, which means the Senate can begin debating the measure once GOP leaders round up enough votes to bring it to the floor. 

“The House of Representatives passed important legislation that ripped out the core pillars of ObamaCare and fully complies with the House’s budget rules. Today the Senate Parliamentarian advised us that their ObamaCare repeal bill can proceed under the rules of reconciliation,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

“The Parliamentarian also confirmed that the restrictions on payments to certain health care providers in section 201 of the House bill can be accomplished consistent with the Byrd rule,” Stewart added, referring to language defunding Planned Parenthood.

So this is all great fun for the GOP, but it's going to run into a guaranteed veto by President Obama. The question is will this legislation get attached to must-pass legislation?  The budget deal has already been signed, so where does this bill go?

It's a definite boon to the four Senate Republicans running for President in 2016. If this does get past the Senate, these four can say "I proved the only thing keeping Obamacare and Planned Parenthood alive now is Obama, and once I win in 2016 we can and will end his legacy."

Of course, that goes for Trump, Carson, Fiorina, Jeb! and the rest of the pack too.

Short of a piping hot plate of red meat for the base, this accomplishes nothing.

That appears to be the point, however.

The Great Debate Debate, Con't

A couple of points raised in last night's GOP debate that I wanted to bring up, first Trump on the minimum wage:

But, taxes too high, wages too high, we're not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is. People have to go out, they have to work really hard and have to get into that upper stratum. But we can not do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world. We just can't do it.

Considering Trump inherited his millions from his dad, that's a hell of a thing to say.  The greatest capitalist country on earth has businesses that can't afford to pay taxes or to pay workers?  Ben Carson was even more nuts.

As far as the minimum wage is concerned, people need to be educated on the minimum wage. Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases.

It's particularly a problem in the black community. Only 19.8 percent of black teenagers have a job, who are looking for one. You know, that -- and that's because of those high wages. If you lower those wages, that comes down.

What?  Black teenagers are making too much money?  People should be grateful for the experience, Carson said.  You don't need to be paid.  Does anybody actually agree with that?  Rubio weighed in too:

If you raise the minimum wage, you're going to make people more expensive than a machine. And that means all this automation that's replacing jobs and people right now is only going to be accelerated.

Here's the best way to raise wages. Make America the best place in the world to start a business or expand an existing business, tax reform and regulatory reform, bring our debt under control, fully utilize our energy resources so we can reinvigorate manufacturing, repeal and replace Obamacare, and make higher education faster and easier to access, especially vocational training. For the life of me, I don't know why we have stigmatized vocational education. Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.

You should be grateful for the experience, you don't need to be paid, and you should be lucky we don't replace you with a robot.  Amazing.

That's where Republicans are on the working poor.  You make too much money and you're ruining it for the rest of us.

StupidiNews!

• Multiple anonymous threats were made on social media against black University of Missouri students in the wake of the ouster of UM officials over failing to deal with incidents of racism.
• A new report by a California think tank finds half of the state's undocumented immigrants are poor enough to qualify for Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program.
• Libyan forces faced off in Benghazi against Islamic State fighters leaving 16 dead as Libya remains divided among two competing government armies and ISIS militants.
• New York AG Eric Schneiderman has classified daily fantasy sports illegal gambling under state law in the latest blow to DraftKings and FanDuel.
• A bipartisan House bill aims to increase business opportunities in space, allowing companies to claim asteroids for mining rights and indemnify commercial space launches through 2025.