Paris By Night

So Islamic State is very loudly claiming responsibility for yesterday's coordinated attacks in Paris that left scores dead and hundreds injured.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Saturday for the catastrophic attacks in the French capital, calling them “the first of the storm” and mocking France as a “capital of prostitution and obscenity,” according to statements released in multiple languages on one of the terror group’s encrypted messaging accounts.

The remarks came in a communiqué published in Arabic, English and French on the Islamic State’s account on Telegram, a messaging platform, and then distributed via its supporters on Twitter, according to a transcript provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist propaganda.

An earlier statement was released but was deemed unlikely to be authentic because of anomalies in the language, as well as an error in a date provided, according to experts on jihadist propaganda.

The statement was released on the same Telegram channel that was used to claim responsibility for the crash of a Russian jet over the Sinai Peninsula two weeks ago, killing 224 people. As in that case, it made the announcement in multiple languages and audio recordings.

President François Hollande of France said on Saturday that the Islamic State was responsible. Analysts said the nature of the attacks was more in keeping with actions of the Islamic State than with those of Al Qaeda, and the timing and extent of the celebration expressed online by the group’s supporters added weight to the claim.

“Eight brothers, wrapped in explosive belts and armed with machine rifles, targeted sites that were accurately chosen in the heart of the capital of France,” the group said in the statement, “including the Stade de France during the match between the Crusader German and French teams, where the fool of France, François Hollande, was present.”

“Let France and those who walk in its path know that they will remain on the top of the list of targets of the Islamic State,” the statement added, referring to the attacks at the Bataclan concert hall and elsewhere in Paris.

As awful as these attacks were, the response from bloodthirsty Republicans is what frightens me more. Ben Carson would have us at permanent war with Islam:

If Carson were currently serving as president, "I would be working with our allies using every resource known to man in terms of economic resources, in terms of covert resources, overt resources, military resources, things that they don't know about -- resources," he said. "In an attempt not to contain them but to eliminate them before they eliminate us. We have to recognize that the global Islamic movement is an existential threat -- it's very different than anything we've ever faced before."

Carson also urged Americans to encourage lawmakers to block the Obama administration from allowing more refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East from entering the United States.

Nearly every other Republican would follow suit, from The Donald...

Donald TRUMP, the showman businessman, is also a foreign policy newcomer yet is already previewing how he would bomb his way to peace. In Trump’s mind, the United States can cut of the Islamic State’s cash flow by interrupting its access to vast oil reserves under the ground it controls through fear. “I would just bomb those suckers. That’s right. I’d blow up the pipes,” Trump said. “I’d blow up every single inch. There would be nothing left. And you know what, you’ll get Exxon to come in there and in two months, you ever see these guys, how good they are, the great oil companies? They’ll rebuild that sucker, brand new—it’ll be beautiful.”

...to Ted Cruz...

Sen. Ted CRUZ is similarly urging America to lead a coalition to fight extremism where is starts. “We need boots on the ground, but they don’t necessarily need to be American boots,” Cruz said. “The Kurds are our boots on the ground.” Instead, the United States would lend overwhelming air power. As for rhetoric, Cruz says America must not show mercy. “If you join ISIS, if you wage jihad on America, then you are signing your death warrant,” he said. In response to the attacks in Paris, Cruz warned Americans that “we are seeing an unmistakable escalation of ISIS’ ambitions and the scale of their terrorist attacks outside Syria and Iraq.”

..to supposed "moderates" like John Kasich.

Ohio Gov. John KASICH has long supported sending U.S. military forces into the Middle East to stamp out threats to America. “I’ve said all along we should have a coalition. We should be there, including boots on the ground. … You’ve got the air power, but you can’t solve anything just with air power.”

Understand that if a Republican wins next November, with a GOP Congress, we will have hundreds of thousands of troops in the Middle East in a few years.  It will be the worst of The Sandbox under Bush, and it will break this nation more surely than any ISIS attack on US soil ever could.

Also keep in mind that every single GOP candidate for president -- even Marco Rubio -- is now calling for "sealing the borders" and ejecting Syrian refugees.

If you thought the GOP position on immigration was bad before?

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Supreme TRAP Kings

The constitutionality of state TRAP laws (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) will go before the Supreme Court later this term with an expected June decision. At stake is whether or not state legislatures can effectively regulate abortion providers out of existence as they have in states like Texas, Florida, and Ohio.  The Texas case, Whole Women's Health vs. Cole, will go before SCOTUS from the 5th Circuit.

Brittney Martin of The Dallas Morning News explains:

The justices will determine whether two provisions of the law, requiring doctors who perform abortions to maintain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and requiring all abortions to be performed in hospital-like surgical centers, create an unconstitutional obstacle for women seeking abortions. 

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the provisions in June, but the Supreme Court put the facilities requirement on hold while they considered a review. Two other provisions of the 2013 law, which ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and regulate the administration of abortion-inducing pills, are not currently being challenged. 

The state argues that the regulations will decrease the risk of complications for abortion patients. But opponents say the procedure is already safe. 

Of the more than 360,000 women who had abortions in Texas from 2009 to 2013, no one died due to complications. And in 2013, the most recent year for which state statistics are available, less than 1 percent of women seeking abortions experienced a complication. 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the provisions were “common-sense.” 

“The state has wide discretion to pass laws ensuring Texas women are not subject to substandard conditions at abortion facilities,” Paxton said in a statement. “The advancement of the abortion industry’s bottom line shouldn’t take precedent over women’s health, and we look forward to demonstrating the validity of these important health and safety requirements in Court.” 

While the immediate goal for the Texas abortion providers that filed the suit is to keep their clinics open, they also recognize that the case will affect abortion restrictions nationwide. 

“My hope is that we can show that regulations like this are — without question — an undue burden, and that they’re not based in safety or medicine, but that they are a political tool to take the rights away from women,” said Amy Hagstom Miller, chief executive of Whole Woman’s Health, which operates four abortion clinics in Texas.

Again, the reality here is that TRAP laws are designed to close abortion clinics.  Should the Texas law be upheld, expect more states to implement them to the point where the regulations become so onerous that all clinics are closed.  The goal here is the de facto end of legalized abortion, and the "legalized" is the important part.  Women will turn to other methods if no legal means are available, and they will risk serious medical harm and death as a result.

I guarantee you there are already 4 votes to give states all the leeway on TRAP laws that they want, and none of those four justices that will side with Texas in this case happen to have a vagina.

Besides, it's going to be a rough, rough June for the candidates on both sides heading into next November:

And now it is official: Contraception, abortion, affirmative action, and unions on the court's docket before the presidential election.

— Irin Carmon (@irin) November 13, 2015

Panic At The GOP Disco

Time to check in with Ivor Tossell's "Five Stages Of Trump" tweet again.

5 stages of Trump thinkpiece: 1. Ha Ha, Trump 2. Why Trump Can't Win 3. Explaining Trump 4. We Must Respect Real America 5. Oh God, Oh God

— Ivor Tossell (@ivortossell) July 25, 2015

Hello, Stage Five!

Less than three months before the kickoff Iowa caucuses, there is growing anxiety bordering on panic among Republican elites about the dominance and durability of Donald Trump and Ben Carson and widespread bewilderment over how to defeat them. 

Party leaders and donors fear that nominating either man would have negative ramifications for the GOP ticket up and down the ballot, virtually ensuring a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidency and increasing the odds that the Senate falls into Democratic hands. 

The party establishment is paralyzed. Big money is still on the sidelines. No consensus alternative to the outsiders has emerged from the pack of governors and senators running, and there is disagreement about how to prosecute the case against them. Recent focus groups of Trump supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire commissioned by rival campaigns revealed no silver bullet. 

In normal times, the way forward would be obvious. The wannabes would launch concerted campaigns, including television attack ads, against the ­front-runners. But even if the other candidates had a sense of what might work this year, it is unclear whether it would ultimately accrue to their benefit. Trump’s counterpunches have been withering, while Carson’s appeal to the base is spiritual, not merely political. If someone was able to do significant damage to them, there’s no telling to whom their supporters would turn, if anyone.

Dr. Heckle and Mr. Jive here haven't just upended the apple cart, they've set it on fire and are throwing flaming apples at everyone they can find. They've taken the bread and circuses grift to the endpoint and everyone's all stunned to see that in the era of reality show politics that the hooting masses love the guys that aren't supposed to have any chance of winning. Oh, and there's this.

According to other Republicans, some in the party establishment are so desperate to change the dynamic that they are talking anew about drafting Romney — despite his insistence that he will not run again. Friends have mapped out a strategy for a late entry to pick up delegates and vie for the nomination in a convention fight, according to the Republicans who were briefed on the talks, though Romney has shown no indication of reviving his interest.

And the Republicans will look up and shout, "Save us!" And Mitt Romney will look down and whisper "47 percent." Oh well, I guess those sidelined mega-donors will have to console themselves with all the local, state, and House races that they've bought over the last five years. I'm sure they'll be okay even if they don't win the White House. The rest of us?  Well...not so much.

Last Call For A Coaled Shoulder For Hillary

Over in the eastern part of the state, the Clinton campaign released details of a $30 billion plan to help Coal Country, but short of shutting down the EPA entirely, voters here simply do not care for national Democrats anymore.

The state's eastern coalfield is suffering through a sharp downturn in the coal industry that long underpinned the economy. Coal jobs have dropped by half since 2011.

There are a number of reasons for that, including competition from cheap natural gas and cheaper coal from other regions; the depletion of large seams that were less expensive to mine; and tougher environmental rules aimed at protecting air and water quality.

However, many people in the region blame the downturn mostly — or entirely — on environmental rules.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley, a Democrat, said it appears Clinton's proposal includes some good initiatives that could help his home region, and that Clinton deserves credit for paying attention to problems in coal country.

But what many people want is regulatory relief for the coal industry. That would be the quickest way to put miners back to work, Mosley said.

"Anybody's plan that doesn't address that is not going to be well received in my area," he said Thursday.

Clinton's plan certainly didn't mention backing away from environmental rules.

And Clinton's campaign said she supports what the Obama Administration calls the Clean Power Plan, which would mandate significant cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants.

The plan itself is a good one, designed to get jobs to eastern Kentucky to replace coal jobs that aren't coming back.  It includes infrastructure projects and using an existing $2.5 billion environmental fund paid by coal companies to reclaim land, fund schools, and to get federal money to these areas for job training and business grants.

Republicans don't care, the only answer for them is to magically create coal jobs here that don't exist by throwing out environmental regs.

Republicans quickly blasted Clinton's proposal. A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said Clinton would continue Obama's failed environmental policies that are killing jobs, and Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short said "if Hillary Clinton were truly on the side of coal country, she would stand up to extreme anti-energy environmentalists that run the Democrat Party instead of embracing their agenda that is killing jobs and driving up costs."

We've already proven that Kentuckians will literally vote against their own health care to stick it to the ni-CLANG! president, so why would we embrace Hillary Clinton for any reason?

It's a nice plan, and it's what Coal Country needs.  Who knows, we may even get the help here someday, but no matter who wins the Democratic nomination in 2016, they're losing the Bluegrass State by 20-25 points next November.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/11/12/4134970_hillary-clintons-plan-to-help.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/11/12/4134970_hillary-clintons-plan-to-help.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Poll Positioning In Louisiana

Two new polls out this week show Democrat John Bel Edwards with a massive lead over Sen. David Vitter to succeed Bobby Jindal in the Louisiana gubernatorial race. Market Research has Edwards up by 14, 52-38%, and a University of New Orleans poll has Edwards up by an even larger 18-point margin, 54-36%.

Here's the question though: considering the polls in Kentucky were universally off by 14 points, where a 5-point Conway lead turned into a substantial 9-point Bevin victory, are these two polls anywhere near being close to correct?

I think there's considerable doubt in an off-year, low-turnout runoff that's not even being held on Election Day, that a Democrat is winning in Louisiana in 2015 by 14 to 18 points.  The people who actually vote aren't the people who are being polled, and that shift towards Vitter will only be magnified by the low turnout.

Do not be surprised if Vitter makes this a nailbiter, or if he manages to pull out a win.  Polling across the board in 2015 has been rotten.

Cruz Missile Attack, Con't

Over in the GOP Clown Car death match arena, Ted Cruz is going after fellow GOP senator Marco Rubio over immigration and it's going to get ugly, fast.

Mr. Cruz was asked Wednesday night by a reporter in Kingston N.H., if there was still a distinction between his position on immigration and Mr. Rubio’s. 

“It is not complicated,” Mr. Cruz said, then paused before adding, “that on the seminal fight over amnesty in Congress, the Gang of Eight bill that was the brainchild of Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama, that would have granted amnesty to 12 million people here illegally, that I stood with the American people and led the fight to defeat it in the United States Congress.” 

Mr. Cruz said: “In my view, if Republicans nominate for president a candidate who supports amnesty, we will have given up one of the major distinctions with Hillary Clinton and we will lose the general election. That is a path to losing."

With it clear that attacking Rubio on his use of a GOP party credit card really isn't going anywhere fast, we turn to the assault on Rubio's immigration Gang of Eight efforts, something that Greg Sargent notes was in the works for some time now.

Cruz’s broadside contains two key ingredients. The first is the suggestion that Rubio’s support for Obama/Schumer comprehensive reform shows that his current posture on immigration is not to be trusted. Rubio has retreated to the position that the border must be fully secured before we can even discuss legalization. And Rubio has also sought to reassure conservatives with a careful straddle: he doesn’t support Donald Trump’s call for deportation of the 11 million, but neither does he align himself fully with Jeb Bush’s and John Kasich’s forceful moral and practical criticism of Trump’s vow of mass removal. However, conservatives are not convinced: they want him to fully rule out any future “amnesty,” which (by their lights) he has not done yet. Cruz may also press Rubio to say whether he’d immediately end Obama’s executive action protecting the DREAMers from deportation. It’s a point on which Rubio has fudged, and it’s a legitimate question. 

The second key ingredient in Cruz’s monologue goes to the heart of competing theories of the 2016 presidential race. Cruz is claiming that only a GOP nominee who is unequivocally opposed to “amnesty” can draw the sharp contrast with the Democratic nominee that is necessary for a Republican to win the White House. (This is of a piece with a broader belief that Republicans must break their addiction to nominating squishy moderates rather than Real Conservatives.) 

This theory is diametrically opposed to the prevailing theory among many GOP strategists (including, at one point, the RNC), which holds that to win in future national elections, the GOP must embrace meaningful immigration reform that reorients the party as more culturally welcoming and inclusive, broadening its demographic appeal. It’s hard to say where Rubio now stands on this spectrum — the hedging in his immigration pronouncements seems designed to keep that vague. But Rubio strategists are reportedly convincedthat his ability to maintain mainstream appeal will be key to his success, which suggests he hopes to reserve room to pivot back to a more pro-reform posture later, if he wins the nomination. Cruz may challenge Rubio in ways designed to foreclose that possibility.

In other words, the biggest difference among Trump, Carson, Cruz and Rubio, the four leading GOP candidates in the polls right now, is that Rubio is the establishment candidate.  What makes him the establishment candidate more than anything else is his position on immigration.  If Rubio is forced the publicly scrap that position (and he will), the GOP will almost certainly nominate a candidate whose stated position is mass deportation of Latinos. The only difference is how many and how quickly the deportations begin.

Republicans believe they don't need Latino voters in order to win the White House in 2016.  At all.

We'll find out if it's true.

StupidiNews!

• Pentagon officials say a drone airstrike in Syria may have taken out ISIS spokesman Mohammed Emwazi, aka "Jihadi John", featured in several graphic ISIS execution videos.
• A White House Secret Service agent has been fired after being arrested in a child sexting sting, allegedly sending naked pictures of himself to someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
• For the first time in 20 years, Swedish border police have started to check incoming trains for migrants, a move criticized by both the socialist left and nationalist right.
• 80-year-old alleged mobster Vincent Asaro was found not guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom this week on charges of planning the infamous "Goodfellas" Lufthansa JFK terminal heist of 1978.
• The American Medical Association is warning that two proposed health insurance mega-mergers could badly damage the insurance market and lead to much higher costs.

Last Call For Voting At The Kiddie Table

It's amazing how far we've come on the Republican idea of limiting voting only to those worthy (you know, Republican voters) and how it's considered perfectly reasonable.  Voter ID suppression tactics, calls to limit voting to property owners (an oldie but goodie) and now Glenn Reynolds has decided that college kids are no longer worthy of being considered adults and that we should raise the voting age to 25.

Consider Yale University, where a disagreement over what to do about — theoretically — offensive Halloween costumes devolved into a screaming fit by a Yale senior (old enough to vote, thanks to the 26th Amendment) who assaulted a professor with aprofane tirade because the professor's failure to agree with her made her feel ... unsafe. 

As The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf writes: “Erika Christakis reflected on the frustrations of the students, drew on her scholarship and career experience, and composed an email inviting the community to think about the controversy through an intellectual lens that few if any had considered. Her message was a model of relevant, thoughtful, civil engagement. For her trouble, a faction of students are now trying to get (her and her husband, also a professor there) removed from their residential positions, which is to say, censured and ousted from their home on campus. Hundreds of Yale students are attacking them, some with hateful insults, shouted epithets, and a campaign of public shaming. In doing so, they have shown an illiberal streak that flows from flaws in their well-intentioned ideology.”

This isn’t the behavior of people who are capable of weighing opposing ideas, or of changing their minds when they are confronted with evidence that suggests that they are wrong. It’s the behavior of spoiled children — a characterization that Friedersdorf, perhaps unconsciously, underscores by not reporting the students’ names because, he implies, they are too young to be responsible for their actions. And spoiled children shouldn’t vote. 

This isn't tongue-in-cheek humor here, this is Glenn's "serious" weekly USA Today column.  He really is calling for the disenfranchisement of everyone age 18-25 because he doesn't agree with some college students.

The only person here showing an appalling lack of judgment that should preclude them from voting is Glenn Reynolds, with this ridiculously proto-fascist nonsense.

But he's considered a serious conservative voice with a weekly column in USA Today.

Go figure.

Welcome To Bevinstan, Con't

Today's dispatch from the front lines in the war on sanity includes Matt Bevin realizing just how quickly he can move when he realizes his administration could be indicted at light speed.

Republican Gov.-elect Matt Bevin has updated his transition website to clarify that everyone is welcome to apply for jobs in his administration.

The website, http://bevintransition.com , originally said Bevin wants to hire people who "share his traditional values." Bevin opposes same-sex marriage and supports Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who is seeking a religious exemption from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The website now says Bevin wants to hire people who "share his conservative values." Bevin spokeswoman Jessica Ditto said Bevin's team made the change after a reporter asked about the language. She said Bevin wants to be "abundantly clear" that his administration will be "inclusive, transparent and dedicated to the betterment of our state."

Or maybe Bevin realized that only asking for people sharing his "traditional values" is a massive, massive hiring practices indictment waiting to happen.  Considering how quickly Ernie Fletcher, the state's last Republican governor, was indicted in his first (and only) term for giving out jobs to his Republican buddies, Bevin did an immediate about face.  I'll give him this much, he's smarter than Fletcher was. Having a hiring investigation for your transition team is just...amateurish.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/11/11/4132690/gov-elect-bevin-starts-website.html#storylink=cpy

He's still just as crooked however.  Trust me on this.

Operation Hairpiece

I'm really, really beginning to think there's something to the whole perverse theory that Donald Trump is a Democratic plant working for the Clintons.

Trump appeared Wednesday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to defend his proposal, which he compared during the GOP presidential debate the previous evening to a policy similar to one employed by President Dwight Eisenhower.

That controversial program — Operation Wetback — resulted in the roundup and deportation in the 1950s of 1.5 million people, many of them legal American citizens, and dropping them off by the busload in remote areas along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump, who did not invoke the controversial program by name, said his plan would somehow avoid the tragic consequences of Eisenhower’s — which resulted in human rights abuses and deaths.

“You’re going to have a deportation force, and you’re going to do it humanely,” Trump said. “Look, we have to do what we have to do, and Ike did it and other people have done it.”

He didn’t describe how his program would preserve the illegal immigrants’ humanity — but he said it would somehow also be “cheap” to round up and deport millions of men, women and children living in the U.S.

It all starts with a wall that he has suggested he could force Mexico to build.

“It’s going to be a Trump wall,” Trump said. “It’s going to be a real wall, and it’s going to stop people and it’s going to be good.”

At this point Trump has so poisoned the well with Latino voters that I just have to laugh.  A lot of people say Eisenhower was the last decent Republican president we've had, but the guy rounded up hundreds of thousands of US citizens and dumped them in Mexico.

Thing is, that *does* make him arguably the least awful Republican president in the last century or so.

StupidiNews!

• Kurdish forces have launched an offensive to retake the town of Sinjar in western Iraq from ISIS, hoping to take control of a key road into ISIS territory in Syria.
• Russia says that DNA analysis confirms the discovery of Tsar Nicholas II's remains, in response to a dispute with the Orthodox Church over relics from his reign. 
• As many as 25 people are dead after an attack by Boko Haram militants in western Niger, including 20 militants killed by Niger soldiers.
• The suspected bombing of a Russian Metrojet flight in Egypt has some US lawmakers demanding answers to "insider threats" to airport security. 
• A new study finds that a single course of oral antibiotics can damage the balance of helpful microbes in the gut for up to a year.

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.