Last Call For Third Time's Not The Charm

In a shocker to precisely no one in America, Republicans killed the Paycheck Fairness Act in the Senate for the third time in a row today, and frankly they don't believe anyone will punish them for it.

Republicans working to improve their image among women aren’t worried about suffering a political backlash if they follow through with plans to block the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Most Senate Republicans are expected to unite on Wednesday to block the legislation, which would allow workers to compare salaries without the threat of retaliation, force companies to explain pay disparities between men and women and allow those discriminated against to seek punitive damages.

But Republicans don't care.

The GOP is hoping that voters know better than to fall for what Republicans call Democratic “show votes” in the pitched seven-month battle for control of the Senate. Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said he’s even privately chided Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — who’s designed much of the Democrats’ election-year Fair Shot for Everyone agenda — over how transparently political Democrats have become in the past few weeks in laying out a Senate floor strategy heavy on legislation that has little chance of becoming law. 

“This whole thing is really backfiring on the administration and on our Democratic friends because people are seeing it for what it is: It’s a transparent political campaign. It isn’t actually about solving problems, because the law of the land is already paycheck equity,” Cornyn said in an interview.

Added Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the chamber’s No. 3 Republican: “They don’t care about the fix. All they care about is who pays at the ballot box.”

This coming from the party of "We have to make Democrats pay for Obamacare."  That's rich.  And yet the gender pay gap exists, especially for women of color.

But it's all a trick, you see.  No woman actually makes less than what a man earns for the same job, so we don't need laws preventing it.  Just like we don't need laws preventing voter suppression, racism, gay-bashing or misogyny.

Most of all, Republicans are convinced you'll stay home and won't vote in 2014.

Medicaid Expansion Is Not An Exercise In Statistics

Real people are affected by Republicans' refusal to expand Medicaid in 25 states, leaving millions in the Obamacare coverage gap where they have no insurance and should be covered by federal government funds. But Republicans hate Obama more than they care about poor unisured people, so they get screwed.

And sometimes, as a direct result of lack of coverage, they die.

Charlene Dill, a 32-year-old mother of three, collapsed and died on a stranger’s floor at the end of March. She was at an appointment to try to sell a vacuum cleaner, one of the three part-time jobs that she worked to try to make ends meet for her family. Her death was a result of a documented heart condition — and it could have been prevented.

Dill was uninsured, and she went years without the care she needed to address her chronic conditions because she couldn’t afford it.
Under the health reform law, which seeks to expand coverage to millions of low-income Americans, Dill wasn’t supposed to lack insurance. She was supposed to have access to a public health plan through the law’s expansion of the Medicaid program. But Dill, a Florida resident, is one of the millions of Americans living in a state that has refused to accept Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion after the Supreme Court ruled this provision to be optional. Those low-income people have been left in a coverage gap, making too much income to qualify for a public Medicaid plan but too little income to qualify for the federal subsidies to buy a plan on Obamacare’s private exchanges.

Florida has one of the highest uninsurance rates in the nation, and is home to a disproportionately large number of residents who struggle to afford health services. Nonetheless, lawmakers have continued to resist accepting generous federal funds to expand Medicaid to an estimated 750,000 low-income Floridians like Dill.

So she could have gotten help.  She babysat, she sold vacuum cleaners, she cleaned houses to try to earn enough for her and her three kids.  Friends tried to raise money for her heart meds, now instead they are raising money for her funeral.  Now those three kids don't have a mother because Republicans in Florida hate Obama.

Think about that for a while.

We Can't Impeach Him, He's Black!

The thought processes of far-right conservatives baffle me.  We're talking about people who are more afraid of being perceived as racists than the reality of what people might think of them actually destroying the country.  Take Iowa GOP Senate candidate Sam Clovis, for instance.

In an interview with The Daily Times Herald of Iowa, Senate Candidate Sam Clovis said the reason Obama hasn't been impeached yet is a "practical matter."

"I don't think so and I'll tell you why. It's not that what he has done would not rise to the level where it might be impeachable," Clovis said. "I don't think it's a practical, pragmatic issue and simply because I don't think the nation is ready for it. You know, within this generation we just went through an impeachment of a president and it didn't end well and now we have a situation where race is thrown into the card as well. And whether we like it or not, race is an issue."

The Daily Times Herald asked Clovis if he thought Congress wasn't trying to impeach Obama because of his skin color.

"Not knowing, I haven't talked to anybody [sic]," Clovis said. "But I would say there are people in the House of Representatives right now that would very much like to take the opportunity to start the process and I think the reason that they're not is because they're concerned about the media."

Clovis was then asked if he members of Congress are worried about what it would look like in news coverage to impeach the president because he's black. Clovis simply responded "yes."

So to recap, Clovis believes there's a case against Obama to impeach, he can't explain what it is, but the only reason it hasn't happened yet is because the media will call them racist if they do.

That's the only reason why Barack Obama is still President, because Republicans are scared of the media.

These guys baffle the hell out of me.

StupidiNews!

• A research team at the University of Louisville say they've made major progress applying electrical impulses directly to the spinal cord in order to stimulate movement in paralyzed patients.
• The US Navy's new railgun will be test mounted for sea trials in 2016, with the ability to use magnetic forces to propel a 23-pound projectile at seven times the speed of sound.
• Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's visit to China included tough questions from Chinese media in a joint press conference with Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan.
• Five-time Australian Olympic gold medalist Ian Thorpe's career is over as an infection contracted after shoulder surgery has put him in intensive care.
• Consumerist's Worst Company in America 2014 competition has found cable giant Comcast edging out agriculture giant Monsanto for the dubious honor.