Last Call For That Second Civil War Thing Again

What happens when you put professional clown Alex Jones in the same room with professional gun nut Larry Pratt, who thinks the NRA is too liberal?  Why, Obama is trying to kill us, of course.

Jones asked Pratt about a Washington Times report about a 2010 Pentagon directive — an update to a series of similar directives crafted under previous administrations — outlining how and when the military can use force to quell domestic unrest “in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the president is impossible.”

Jones, of course, read this to mean that it is “official and has been confirmed” that the military is “training with tanks, armored vehicles, drones” to “take on the American people, mainly the Tea Party."

“Well, he’s certainly not thinking that Muslims are a threat,” responded Pratt, “so he’s turning to his political opponents, declaring that they’re the enemy and ignoring the fact that Muslims from time to time have a tendency to go ‘boom.’”

Pratt then cited the 2009 DHS report to claim that the Obama administration has “fingered veterans as potential terrorists, people who believe in the Second Amendment, who are pro-life, who want to work for limited government.”

“I guess the idea of limited government really would terrorize a socialist,” he said, adding, “The enemy is freedom and they really are doing what they can to extinguish it.”

The paranoia has to always be fed in order to create cop-killing lunatics like Jerad and Amanda Miller, so no surprise there.  Of course these idiots are going to claim martyrdom when someone questions their right to murder people because of the Second Amendment.

Eggs, broken, omelets, and by eggs, apparently these guys mean "cops".

No, It's Not Both Sides

Last week's Pew Research Center poll on American political partisanship is full of very interesting bits, but to me here's the most powerful finding:



The more liberal you are, the more you want compromise in order to reach a win-win situation politically.  The more conservative you are, the less you want to compromise at all, for any reason.

That defines the last 15 years perfectly in American politics, and why we're in the rotten situation we're in now with Republicans happily willing to punish their own constituents, neighbors, and communities rather than reach an accord with Democrats.

And it's why they're doomed, long-term.

Deal With The Devils

The awful deal last week by Virginia Democrat and state Sen. Phil Puckett to abandon his party in order to earn a cushy appointed post and a judgeship for his daughter in exchange for giving control of the state Senate to the GOP has resulted in what the Republicans were after all along:  passing a state budget that would refuse to fund the Affordable Care Act in the state.

The Virginia General Assembly adopted a long-delayed state budget late Thursday, acting after an hours-long debate among newly ascendant Senate Republicans who fought among themselves over whether the plan threw up sufficient barriers to Medicaid expansion.

The Republicans, who gained control of the Senate Monday when a Democrat resigned from what had been an evenly split chamber, approved a spending deal hashed out by a bipartisan group of House and Senate negotiators.

But they first amended it in a way intended to make it harder to expand the federal-state healthcare program for the poor under the federal Affordable Care Act — Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s top legislative priority.

As midnight approached, the plan moved over for consideration by the House of Delegates, where it quickly passed. It was expected to then head to McAuliffe’s desk, but with no certainty that he would approve it and avert a government shutdown before July 1.

McAuliffe quickly issued a statement after the House vote: “When this budget reaches my desk I will evaluate it carefully and take the actions that I deem necessary, but this fight is far from over. This is the right thing to do for Virginia, and I will not rest until we get it done.”

A government shutdown in Virginia, home to the most government employees in the country per capita, would be lethal to McAuliffe. And the bill is designed specifically so that the governor cannot authorize Medicaid expansion without the approval of the General Assembly.  And Republicans like State Sen. Richard Black are thrilled:

“This was a stunning victory for the Republicans. We passed a budget in a single night and we have effectively blocked Medicaid expansion.”

Denying health care to hundreds of thousands of Virginians is what Republicans consider to be "a stunning victory."

Let that sink in for a minute.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• President Obama has ruled out sending troops into Iraq, but he is considering a "range of other military and diplomatic options" according to the White House.
• Boston, LA, San Francisco, and Washington, DC remain in the running for the 2024 Summer Games, the winner being announced in 2017.
• The federal judge who struck down Wisconsin's ban on same-sex marriage has put those weddings on hold as the state plans to appeal the ruling.
• The Netherlands crushed defending World Cup champions Spain 5-1 with two goals from Robin van Persie as Chile and Mexico also got wins in Brazil on Friday.
• Restaurant chain PF Chang's China Bistro is breaking the manual credit card machines out of storage as the company investigates where a digital credit card breach originated from.