Last Call For Cheesed Off GOP In Wisconsin

Republicans can be such petulant clowns sometimes.  Why should anyone take them seriously?

Wisconsin Republicans will vote at their convention next month on a proposal affirming the state's right to go it alone, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Daniel Bice reported Monday.

The state party's Resolutions Committee has voted in favor of a so-called "state sovereignty" measure stating the party "supports legislation that upholds Wisconsin's right, under extreme circumstances, to secede," according to the Journal-Sentinel. The resolution came out of one of the state party's regional caucuses and was edited and adopted by the committee despite top GOP officials' efforts to quash it.

Why would you vote on this unless you wanted people to think you hated America and no longer wanted to be a part of it?   What "extreme circumstances" constitute the necessity for secession?  Another Democrat in the White House? 

Gov. Scott Walker (R) dismissed the unconventional proposal last week.

"I don't think that one aligns with where most Republican officials are in the state of Wisconsin — certainly not with me," Walker said Friday at a press event, as quoted by the Journal-Sentinel.

Gosh, what a bold statement.  He doesn't think secession "aligns" with GOP officials in the state.

Why do Republicans hate America so much that they want to leave it?  That kind of was the problem 150 years ago, yes?  So do Republicans want a second Civil War?

Why else would you want to affirm the right to secede?

Grimes: Fight To Raise Minimum Wage

In a Sunday op-ed in the Louisville Courier-Journal, Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes went after Sen. Mitch McConnell over the GOP's refusal to even consider raising the minimum wage.

Times may be tough, but I am running for the U.S. Senate because I believe Kentucky's best days are still ahead of us. It starts with leaders who will start working for Kentucky again. That begins with raising the minimum wage.

President Clinton once said that raising the minimum wage is "pro-work, pro-business and pro-family." I share his view and have made clear since entering the race, we must raise the minimum wage for all Kentuckians to strengthen the middle class and help our people — including over 250,000 Kentucky women — provide for their families and put food on the table.

Those against raising Kentuckians' wages, including my opponent Mitch McConnell, defend the status quo by falsely claiming that it would cost the economy jobs. But taking a step back and looking at the facts — a very different picture is presented. Historically, raising the minimum wage has created jobs and boosted the economy. This time, economists who have studied this issue at length have found that increasing the minimum wage now will cut unemployment again and once more create jobs.

Kentucky includes some of the poorest counties in America, with median incomes well below the national average.

Indeed, the nonpartisan Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KCEP) released a report just last year detailing the economic benefit that raising the minimum wage would have. The KCEP found that a minimum wage increase to $10.10 an hour would create 2,200 jobs right here in Kentucky, boost earnings for hundreds of thousands of hardworking Kentuckians, and grow the commonwealth's GDP by over $500 million.

Critics also claim that the minimum wage is an issue that solely affects teenagers. In reality, nearly 90 percent of Kentuckians who would see their earnings go up from a minimum wage increase are 20 years of age or older.

Furthermore, nearly 30 percent of those who would benefit from increased wages have children. As the UK Center for Poverty Research notes, minimum wage workers head an increasing number of households today.

Raising the minimum wage is also wildly popular here in the state, with 61% of Kentuckians wanting to raise the minimum wage.  This is a good issue for Grimes to attack on, and hopefully it will continue to help her campaign.

Why She Left, In Her Own Words

Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius appeared on Meet the Press Sunday to explain why she resigned her cabinet position.

"Well, actually, I made a decision at the election that I couldn't leave along with a lot of my colleagues who left at the end of the first term. That did not seem to be even a topic to consider since there was still one more chapter in this Affordable Care Act that needed to roll out," she said. "There is never a good time."

But she said that at the beginning of January, she began to discuss her departure with President Obama.

"And I went back to him in early March and said, 'You know, I'm really optimistic we're gonna meet the targets and the enrollment is good. While the site is working well, I think once we finish this first chapter you really should begin to look for the next secretary who can be here through the end of your term.' And that really wasn't a commitment I was willing to make," she said.

"I made it pretty clear that that really wasn't an option, to stay on. I mean, it was fair to either commit till January of 2017 or leave with enough time that he would get a strong competent leader."

So yes, Ezra Klein was right.  She quit while she was ahead.

StupidiNews!

• A 78-year old man connected with white supremacist groups is being held as a suspect in the shooting deaths of three people at two Kansas City area Jewish centers.
• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the country's three-year old civil war is turning in the government's favor.
• In Nigeria, suspected Islamist Boko Haram militants have killed at least 68 in a rampage across two villages near the Cameroon border.
• Swiss voters will go to the polls in May to vote on a referendum setting the country's minimum wage at 22 Swiss francs per hour, or about $25, the world's highest.
• Glow in the dark road markings have made their debut in the Netherlands on a 500 meter test stretch, which could save millions on streetlights.