StupidiNews, Shutdown Eve Edition!

In non-shutdown news...

• The Justice Department will sue North Carolina over its new voter ID act due to GOP elimination of some early voting and same-day registration, among other reasons.
• Kansas Christian groups are suing the state's Board of Education to block the adoption of science standards, claiming they violate freedom of religion and create a "hostile learning environment for those of faith."
• Climate experts have come to a consensus that another 500 billion tons of carbon released into the atmosphere would raise average temperatures by 3.6 degrees.
• German engineering giant Siemens will cut 15,000 jobs worldwide in order to compete globally, with at least a third of the cuts coming from the company's home turf.
• Google is bringing its Glass product on a nationwide demo tour, with the first stop demoing the wearable computing tech in Durham, NC next month.

While We're At It, War On Women Time!

Republicans have officially add more hostages to the government shutdown ransom gambit: America's women and their health.

House Republicans have added a measure aimed at limiting contraceptive coverage to the spending bill coming up for a vote Saturday night, a spokesman for Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas, told CNN. 

A senior House leadership aide confirmed that development. 

The so-called “conscience clause” would allow employers and insurers to opt out of preventative care for women which they find objectionable on moral or religious grounds. That prominently includes birth control, which most insurers are required to provide for free under current Obamacare rules. 

With this move, House Republican leaders would give any employer or group health plan the ability to opt out of contraception coverage for the next year. That time frame syncs up with the larger measure in which this is included: a one-year delay of Obamacare provisions not yet in effect. 

“This is a big deal for the congressman,” Huelskamp’s spokesman, Paul Nelson, told CNN. “He has been pushing for (the conscience clause) since he entered Congress.” 

Democrats say the measure is unnecessary because the administration has granted exemptions to contraceptive coverage to religious nonprofit institutions. But advocates, such as Huelskamp, insist that all institutions should be able to opt out of any preventative coverage for women that they find objectionable.

Three observations:  

One: this is a new demand added in the last 24 hours.  Republicans are not moving towards compromise, they are adding new demands.  Let's stop pretending there's any way to avoid a shutdown, and that it's anything but 100% the GOP's fault.

Two:  Republicans continue to try to punish groups that voted for Obama.  They want women, minorities, working poor, the unemployed, the elderly on fixed incomes, and students to suffer as much as possible so that they don't vote in 2014.

Three:  Republicans are misogynist bastards.  They honestly believe women should spend their lives pregnant and subservient.  A woman who wants birth control or an abortion is madness to them.  This isn't about saving money or preventing unwanted pregnancies, or even about lowering the number of abortions. This is about putting women "in their place", period.

As Zandardad told me this morning, Republicans fully expect Obama to cave.  They are going to be very, very surprised when he doesn't.

Last Call For Iran Us Into The Ground

John Hinderaker manages to evacuate the pus-filled cavity between his ears and brings forth this discharge:

This is really too easy: President Obama is willing to negotiate with Iran, but not with the House of Representatives. Commentators have been all over it, and I don’t really have much to add. Except to note that not only has Obama refused to negotiate with the House, he has also had his spokesman describe Republicans as suicide bombers. The irony is rich: those who are concerned about $17 trillion in debt “have bombs strapped to their chests,” while the world’s biggest sponsor of actual suicide bombers–you know, the ones who blow people up, as opposed to disagreeing with Democrats–are newly-discovered moderates.

Except for the fact that the stated goal of OBL and the 9/11 attackers was to damage the US economy to the point where it could no longer interfere in the Middle East.  Republicans in the last decade have done more for that goal than AQ's leadership, and now the House GOP is in fact about to do billions in damage to our economy with a shutdown and trillions with a debt ceiling default if their political demands are not met.

That is the very definition of economic terrorism, and yes, House Republicans are economic terrorists.  Period.  What's more, yes, Iran is more moderate than the American Taliban is right now.  The analogy is 100% fitting.

Dear America

I really hate President Obama to the point of obsession, so despite this week's excellent diplomatic news involving Syria, Iran, Israel and the Palestinians, I'm going to find some unnamed diplomats from allied countries and have them complain about why Obama hasn't bombed the crap out of Syria, Iran, and the Palestinians yet.  It's so depressing, I may not finish my fourth Cosmo of the day.

--Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal

Bonus Verbatim Stupidity:

"In the past we have seen some America overreach," said the prime minister of a Western democracy, in a conversation. "Now I think we are seeing America underreach." He was referring not only to foreign policy but to economic policies, to the limits America has imposed on itself. He missed its old economic dynamism, its crazy, pioneering spirit toward wealth creation—the old belief that every American could invent something, get it to market, make a bundle, rise.

The world's Brahmans are disappointed.  They've never liked Obama as President.  I can't possibly imagine what makes his different from the other 43.

We're underreaching you know when we draw down from decade-long wars and refuse to start new ones.   We need new shiny wars, dammit.

Dinosaur Steve Evolves Into Obamacare Steve

No state has embraced Obamacare quite like Kentucky, a state that has for decades been in the bottom quintile in practically every health metric available.  You can thank Gov. Steve Beshear for that, and he's not running away from the program in any way.  Friday he took to the NY Times to explain to the country that Obamacare cannot come fast enough for those of us here in the Bluegrass State.

Sunday morning news programs identify Kentucky as the red state with two high-profile Republican senators who claim their rhetoric represents an electorate that gave President Obama only about a third of its presidential vote in 2012.

So why then is Kentucky — more quickly than almost any other state — moving to implement the Affordable Care Act?

Because there’s a huge disconnect between the rank partisanship of national politics and the outlook of governors whose job it is to help beleaguered families, strengthen work forces, attract companies and create a balanced budget. 

It’s no coincidence that numerous governors — not just Democrats like me but also Republicans like Jan Brewer of Arizona, John Kasich of Ohio and Rick Snyder of Michigan — see the Affordable Care Act not as a referendum on President Obama but as a tool for historic change.

Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul know there's nothing they can do to stop KYnect, the state's health exchange.   Where other red state Republicans have tried everything imaginable to sabotage exchanges and Medicare expansion, in a state that's almost 90% white and where the median income is nearly 20% less than the national average, not to mention where one in six lack insurance, Republicans calling Obamacare a program for those people will not work.  Kentucky state lawmakers fell into line almost immediately when they realized the federal government was tripping over itself to pay for the expansion.   Kentucky jumped at the idea and ran with it since day one.

And the man behind that push has been Steve Beshear.  His message for Mitch and Rand?  You lost.

As for naysayers, I’m offended by their partisan gamesmanship, as they continue to pour time, money and energy into overturning or defunding the Affordable Care Act. It’s shameful that these critics haven’t invested that same level of energy into trying to improve the health of our citizens. 

They insist that the Affordable Care Act will never work — when in fact a similar approach put into effect in Massachusetts by Mitt Romney, then the governor, is working. 

So, to those more worried about political power than Kentucky’s families, I say, “Get over it.” 

The Affordable Care Act was approved by Congress and sanctioned by the Supreme Court. It is the law of the land. 

Get over it ... and get out of the way so I can help my people. Here in Kentucky, we cannot afford to waste another day or another life.

Never been more proud of this state or its governor in my life.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• In a unanimous vote, the UN Security Council has approved a measure to compel Syria to turn over all chemical weapons or face consequences.
• After two centuries, George Washington has finally been honored with his own Presidential Library near his home in Mt. Vernon, Virginia.
• President Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani engaged in a nearly 15-minute phone conversation on Friday, the first talk between leaders of the two countries since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
• The contingency plans for day-to-day operations in the White House during a government shutdown finds that President Obama would send about 75% of the staff on furlough.
• Microsoft will introduce Xbox Fitness to Xbox One users this holiday season to compete with Nintendo's fitness offerings.

Last Call For Cruz Uncontrolled

Ted Cruz is about to seriously destroy the GOP, and the conservative "minds" at Weekly Standard are emitting delicious tears at waterfall levels of flow and may actually drown themselves in denial.

There’s no doubt Cruz made mistakes. On tactics, he and his allies chose the wrong objective (defunding, rather than delaying key parts) and perhaps the wrong vehicle (the continuing resolution rather than the debt ceiling). And more than once, he put House Republicans in an exceedingly difficult spot. Cruz misled his followers at times by creating the impression that stopping Obamacare was a matter of willpower rather than arithmetic (Republicans alone don’t have the votes). As John McCormack has noted, Cruz alienated many would-be allies with phony purity tests​—​claiming that conservatives who disagreed with his tactics were part of a “surrender caucus” and even likening them to appeasers of the Nazis. Many conservatives​—​both inside the Congress and out​—​have dedicated the better part of the last four years working first to fend off and then to derail Obamacare. Because they disagree with Cruz on a tactical issue, they’re now the surrender caucus? Nonsense. 

But Cruz and his allies have succeeded in one crucial respect: The debate is now focused on Obamacare and at precisely the moment when many Americans are beginning to understand just how flawed the law is. Despite the many missteps​—​sometimes by passive Republican leaders and sometimes by dogmatic defund enthusiasts​—​Republicans today are in a strong position to capitalize on what Cruz and his allies have done.

And then that "strong position" exploded Thursday as the Tea Party decided it will wreck the country and blame Obama, Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, everyone but themselves.

There's now an excellent possibility now that our economy will suffer massive damage over the next few weeks.  Keep in mind that the GOP is to blame.

Like A House Afire

With all indications that the GOP will shut down the government on Monday, House Republicans are moving forward to the bigger debt ceiling battle.  They don't want much in order to spare the country from a second recession and possibly a major economic depression, just pretty much everything Republicans have tried to pass since the Obama administration started.

As the nation moves dangerously close to a government shutdown on Oct. 1, House leaders are shifting their focus to the next big fiscal fight: raising the nation’s $16.7 trillion borrowing limit by one year before Oct. 17. On Wednesday night, Republicanscirculated an outline of demands, threatening to push the nation into default unless President Obama and the Democrats in the Senate agree to enact a wish list of Republican priorities. 

Though Obama has repeatedly insisted that he would not negotiate over the must-pass legislation, leadership is hoping to satisfy conservative members by including every “major piece of the Republican agenda” save a “ban on late-term abortions — and some lawmakers who oppose abortion were arguing to add that,” the Washington Post reports.

It gets better.  They want:

• The Keystone XL pipeline.
• A neutered Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• $120 billion in Medicare cuts and premium hikes.
• To open up the entire US coast to offshore drilling.
• Eliminate EPA greenhouse gas regulations.
• Subject nearly all executive branch actions to a vote in Congress,
• and a one year delay on Obamacare.

This is their starting position.  See, it's reasonable because it's not a repeal of Obamacare, and there's no federal ban on abortion.  They came down from those demands.

Only one problem:  they don't have the votes to pass this.

In a closed-door meeting, the leaders outlined to their members a proposal that would demand a laundry list of Republican priorities in exchange for a yearlong suspension of the nation’s $16.7 trillion borrowing limit. The centerpiece of the plan is a one-year delay of President Obama’s signature healthcare law. 

But hours after the meeting, the party had yet to release the legislation formally, and conservatives complained that it lacked specific spending cuts and failed to tackle entitlement reform. 

“We still have some challenges,” said Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), an ally of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and member of the GOP whip team. “We’ve got an awful lot of support, but clearly at this point we don’t have a final product that’s attracting the number that we need. Hopefully that’ll change, and I think it could.” 

Cole said leaders were still tinkering with the plan, which senior Republicans earlier had said would go to the House Rules Committee on Thursday.

The Tea Party apparently wants even more cuts, and they're not happy about the year delay at all.  They're not going to vote for anything short of full repeal.

So now, odds are not only good that the government will shut down on Monday night and stay shut down for the foreseeable future, the debt ceiling bomb will kick in on top of that, and the American economy will pretty much collapse overnight.

I predicted that the Titans of Wall Street would never allow this to happen.  It may very well be that they can't prevent this from happening either.  The GOP will destroy the country in order to hurt Obama.  That's all that matters to them now.  They will leave a country of ashes and millions suffering in their wake.  If they can't run the country as a Christian fundamentalist Dominionist theocracy, they will raze America to the ground.

Sobering, but becoming more and more true daily.

How The West Was Fired

Apparently Allen West is apparently such a complete and total douchebag that he actually managed to get himself canned from the clown show blog/GOP propaganda mill at Pajamas Media.

Former Congressman Allen West is leaving his job at Pajamas Media after an altercation with a female staffer in which he allegedly called her a “Jewish American princess,” BuzzFeed learned on Thursday. 

“In order to focus on political interests, Allen West will transition from his full-time role as director of programming for Next Generation.TV to a twice-a-month contributor of written commentary on PJMedia.com, effective October 1, 2013,” PJ Media financier Aubrey Chernick wrote to staff in an email from Sept. 16. “I wanted our staff and consultants to have this information first. However, PJ Media is not announcing this publicly for several weeks, so please do not share this news with anyone outside of the company until you see our public announcement.” 

In a message to staff, West wrote: “Shortly, I will be giving up my position as director of programming at Next Generation.TV to get back on the front lines to expand the message of constitutional conservatism across our country.” 

Two sources familiar with what happened told BuzzFeed that West had gotten into an argument with a female employee and called her a “Jewish American princess” while telling her to “shut up.” 

Reached by phone, West told BuzzFeed he was leaving his job voluntarily, though one source familiar with the situation told BuzzFeed he had been fired. He did not deny that an exchange with the employee had occurred, but said it hadn’t led to his leaving the company. 

“No, I didn’t get fired,” West said. “I’m leaving to pursue political aspirations. That’s it. There’ll be a statement that comes out and it’s effective in October.”

Sure, he didn't get fired, just like he didn't get fired by voters in the 2012 election.  He voluntarily chose to lose the election to pursue this opportunity, which he couldn't even hold for a year.  The guy has a completely awful employment record, you know.  I wouldn't hire him as a pizza delivery driver.

It's also pretty amazing that out of all the awful things Allen West has said since employed by PJ Media, the thing that actually gets him fired is "Jewish American princess."  That's pretty insulting, but c'mon, we're talking about a guy who thinks Orange Julius is covering up Benghazi for Obama.

Still employed at Fox.  I think.  Think about what that says for a moment.

StupidiNews!

• The latest comprehensive UN report on climate change raises the probability of man-made global warming in the last 50 years to 95%.
• Texas Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis will reportedly challenge presumed GOP nominee and current Attorney General Greg Abbott for Governor in 2014.
• The UN Security Council could vote as soon as today on a US and Russia backed resolution to turn over Syria's chemical weapons without the threat of US military action.
• At least one Senate Democrat is predicting President Obama will select current Fed vice chair Janet Yellen to lead the Fed after Ben Bernanke's departure in January.
• As Google turns 15 today, a lawsuit claiming Gmail scanning mail to bring ads to users constitutes "email wiretapping" is moving forward as a massive class-action suit.

Last Call For The Party's Over

The Tea Party's over, that is.  Tea Party support among Republicans has plummeted from where it was in Gallup's numbers in November 2010.

The poll suggests that the partnership between the Tea Party and the Republican Party may be waning. Although some of the Tea Party's most visible representatives in politics today are associated with the Republican Party, and while rank-and-file Republicans are more likely to call themselves supporters than opponents of the Tea Party movement -- a far greater number identify as neither.

To be sure, this is much more positive than Democrats' views of the Tea Party, with a majority describing themselves as opponents of the political movement. However, it is also far less supportive than three years ago, when two-thirds of Republicans identified as Tea Party supporters.

Similarly, just as Republicans are mixed in their views of the Tea Party, Tea Party supporters themselves have mixed views about the Republican Party: 55% hold a favorable view of it and 43% an unfavorable view. This contrasts with the highly positive views toward the GOP expressed by Republicans, with 79% rating it favorably, and 19% unfavorably. Tea Party supporters and Republicans are aligned however, in their broadly unfavorable reaction to the Democratic Party.

The signs of a crack-up in the GOP are all there, and the outcome of the shutdown nonsense is shaping up to be a total disaster for the Republican brand.  The opportunity for the Democrats is huge if they play their cards right.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Miss Piggy is joining Kermit the Frog in the Smithsonian.

(Jacquelyn Martin/ Associated Press ) - A Miss Piggy muppet, that was used on “The Muppet Show,” is all dressed up during a ceremony to donate additional Jim Henson objects to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. Miss Piggy is finally joining Kermit the Frog in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of Jim Henson’s Muppets, and Bert and Ernie will have a place in history, too. Henson’s daughter, Cheryl Henson, is donating 20 more puppets and props to the National Museum of American History.

I'm pretty much okay with this.

Smithsonian magazine welcomed Miss Piggy, dressed in a silver evening gown and holding a red rose, with a photo shoot. The museum allowed her to pose with Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” and wearing the real 45-carat Hope Diamond from the National Museum of Natural History. 

“She was very well-behaved, considering she wanted to take it home with her,” said Bonnie Erickson, who created the Miss Piggy puppet with Henson and now is executive director of the Jim Henson Legacy foundation. 

The gift was made on what would have been Henson’s 77th birthday and shortly after his wife, Jane Henson, died in April.

And yes, Jim Henson's work absolutely belongs in America's most famous museum.

Avik Roy Is At It Again

The official numbers on Obamacare premiums are in and they are better than predicted:

As for premiums, before tax credits kick in, they will average 16 percent below the Congressional Budget Office's original estimates for a silver-level plan (which covers 70 percent of costs). The number of insurers in a state is directly tied to how low premiums will be, Lambrew noted. Arizona, with an average of 106 plans to choose from, had the second-lowest average premiums for a 27-year-old adult: $166 a month. Wyoming, with an average of 16 plans, had the highest average premium at $342 a month. 

But then the tax credits take effect. Those knock the premium for that 27-year-old, projected to earn $25,000, down to $145 in most states. For a family of four making $50,000, the credits take the premium price down from more than $1,000 in some states to $282.

Forbes's official mouthpiece for the Republican party propaganda on Obamacare, Avik Roy, has taken the Health and Human Services report on Obamacare premiums and turned it into this massive pack of cherry picked lies:

Based on a Manhattan Institute analysis of the HHS numbers, Obamacare will increase underlying insurance rates for younger men by an average of 97 to 99 percent, and for younger women by an average of 55 to 62 percent. Worst off is North Carolina, which will see individual-market rates triple for women, and quadruple for men.

HOLY CRAP MY INSURANCE IS GOING TO DOUBLE no it's not, people.  Once again, Roy singles out a small slice of the population, in this case young men buying pre-Obamacare, catastrophic-only coverage that no longer meets criteria for minimum coverage standards, and says OH NO PREMIUMS WILL DOUBLE FOR ALL MEN.

It will not.  And the subsidies will make people who can't afford insurance have options.  Remember, Republicans did everything they could to ensure Red states didn't expand Medicaid coverage.  In these states, insurance premiums are higher than in Blue states that expanded Medicaid coverage.

You can blame Republicans for higher premiums.

StupidiNews!

• The death toll in this week's earthquake in Pakistan has risen to nearly 350 as both the military and Islamic militants in contested Balochistan province are looking for survivors.
• A Utah high school football coach suspended his entire team over cyber-bullying a classmate, allowing the team to reform only after meeting conditions.
• As Sen. Ted Cruz ended his 21-hour speech on the floor of the Senate, he and his colleagues then voted 100-0 to take up the bill to fund the government past October 1.
• As a government shutdown looms, 68% of Americans find that Washington is on the wrong track, with President Obama's approval rating at 47% and the GOP at 34% according to Bloomberg.
• AT&T announced plans to use old television spectrum to broadcast video to smartphones across its networks.

Last Call For The Cruz Con Game

The Daily Beast's Patricia Murphy has Sen. Ted Cruz down cold:  his idiotic showboating and fake filibuster did nothing to stop Obamacare, but it sure helped him raise a lot of money from Obama-hating Tea Party suckers and lining the pockets of the one percenters using the movement to destroy what little wealth they don't already own.

The biggest actors so far in Defund, Inc. have been Cruz, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, and the Senate Conservatives Fund, the leadership PAC that Jim DeMint launched as a senator and handed off to his former staff members to run as a conservative super PAC. While Cruz led the defund fight in the Senate this summer, the SCF led a huge parallel fight on the outside,setting up a website, running radio and television ads, robocalls and a direct mail campaign, all designed to raise money from still-hot conservative activists and urge them to sign a petition to tell Congress not to fund the health-care bill when they greenlight funding for the rest of the government.

Starring in the ads, the robocalls, and the direct-mail campaign were Cruz and Lee, two former Supreme Court clerks turned underdog Senate candidates turned conservative Senate firebrands. As Cruz and Lee staged a filibuster-like marathon speech session Tuesday into Wednesday, the SCF streamed them on its website. But while Lee’s brand of fire is like a light you’d offer a friend looking for a smoke, Cruz’s heat has been pure napalm, much of it focused at his own Republican colleagues in the Senate. It’s made Cruz easily the most hated man in the Senate, but a figure quite beloved by Tea Party purists who want nothing more than to support a senator who is willing to mix it up in a scrum, even—or maybe especially—with his fellow Republicans.

And he doesn't care, because he knows the game:  if America despises Congress, and Congress despises Ted Cruz, he's the ultimate Senate maverick.

Fast forward one year and Cruz has become a superstar for the conservative movement that the Senate Conservatives Fund is looking to harness.  Thanks to Cruz’s star power, they’re doing it.  As Cruz and Lee’s multimedia campaign blanketed the country, the month of August, typically a snooze for D.C.-based fundraisers, yielded the SCF’s largest nonelection year fundraising month to date, at $1.5 million. 

Most importantly, the SCF now has in its possession a massive email list of potential like-minded donors, thanks to the 1.5 million people who signed the defund petition on the Don’tFundObamaCare website.  While "a list" may just be a roster in some circles, in the parlance of power and politics, a list is nothing less than a warchest-in-waiting for the SCF to use on behalf of its allies and against its enemies in the 2014 mid-term elections and the 2016 presidential race.  It also makes the SCF the most relevant, and possibly the most powerful, conservative group in the country, including the Club for Growth and FreedomWorks. 

If anyone is still confused after the Obamacare funding fight (faux filibuster and all), Ted Cruz is now a 2016 contender and the SCF’s biggest ally. Its enemies are many of the men and women he shares a cloakroom with—any Republican senator who did not join in. 

It's the ultimate pogrom to cleanse the GOP of anyone who isn't willing to destroy the 99% in the name of the Masters of the Universe.  These clowns are primarying their own Senators, anyone who might cooperate with Obama for any reason, in order to obliterate them from politics.  The GOP Senate isn't as insane as the GOP House, and they're looking to fix that.

The con is on, and the con men are winning.