Last Call For NatSecWonk

If you're going to go on Twitter and relentlessly criticize the White House on national security issues, make sure you're not working for the White House's national security team when you do it.

A White House national security official was fired last week after being caught as the mystery Tweeter who has been tormenting the foreign policy community with insulting comments and revealing internal Obama administration information for over two years.

Jofi Joseph, a director in the non-proliferation section of the National Security Staff at the White House, has been surreptitiously tweeting under the moniker @natsecwonk, a Twitter feed famous inside Washington policy circles since it began in February, 2011 until it was shut down last week. Two administration officials confirmed that the mystery tweeter was Joseph, who has also worked at the State Department and on Capitol Hill for Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Joe Biden. Until recently, he was part of the administration's team working on negotiations with Iran.

During his time tweeting under the @natsecwonk name, Joseph openly criticized the policies of his White House bosses and often insulted their intellect and appearance. At different times, he insulted or criticized several top White House and State Department officials, including former National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, Secretary of State John Kerry, and many many others.

Now as @natsecwonk, Joseph was brutal towards the GOP as well, but as any real national security wonk would know,  there's no such thing as completely covering your tracks if you continue to use the same modus operandi for two years.  If you're going to go after the people who employ you, eventually, they're going to notice.

Check out Daily Beast's record of some of @natsecwonk's most...interesting...tweets, too.  There's a lesson to be learned here.

Apparently Denial Is A River In New Jersey

Because failed US Senate candidate and GOP nutjob Steve Lonegan is now blaming the GOP shutdown he wanted for his loss to Cory Booker last week.

"There is no doubt in my mind or in the minds of any of my campaign staff that the shutdown cost me the election," Lonegan said in an interview with the New Jersey Star-Ledger on Monday. "If I had known it was going to happen and that it was going to be handled so badly in Washington, I wouldn't have run for Senate."

Lonegan supported the shutdown while he was running for Senate.

Booker was long expected to clinch the nomination and win the Senate seat. Lonegan trailed in most polling of the race, even before the shutdown.

It's one thing to lie to the universe and blame a position you supported for your loss.  It's another thing entirely to do it on something as asinine as a government shutdown in a state like New Jersey.  This guy isn't competent enough to run a leaf blower.  He's going to find out the hard way that he won't get any Chris Christie style passes from the NJ GOP or the press on this one.

Making A Moose Of A Website

President Obama vowed on Monday to see the problems with the healthcare.gov website fixed as soon as possible.

Obama’s new pitch is the health care law itself is “working just fine.” It just has a balky website that needs to be fixed — and will be fixed, he said. 

“Nobody is madder than me about the fact that the website isn’t working as well as it should, which means it’s going to get fixed,” Obama said. 

Much of Obama’s pitch centered on the guts of the law, rather than its online front door. He said there was no “sugarcoating” the tech problems, but he predicted that people will be patient in order to access health care they wouldn’t otherwise get. 

“The essence of the law, the health insurance that’s available to people is working just fine,” Obama said. “The problem has been that the website that’s supposed to make it easy to apply for insurance hasn’t been working. The website has been too slow, people have been getting stuck during the application process.” 

Obama said he has called for a “tech surge” to get HealthCare.gov running up to speed. He again advertised the government’s toll-free phone number as a way people can sign up while HealthCare.gov does not function as promised.

This is a measured, responsible solution to what have been legitimate problems with the website.

This however is not.

Sarah Palin says the glitches in the online rollout of the Affordable Care Act are a feature, not a bug. 

The former half-term Alaska governor and failed vice presidential candidate suggested Sunday in a Breitbart.com column that design flaws were intentionally implemented to make the system more difficult to use and drive Americans to accept a government fix. 

President Barack Obama admitted Monday that the site needed to be overhauled and announced a “tech surge” to make those repairs, but Palin said the eventual fix would be a Canadian-style socialized health care system.

“These unusable Obamacare websites make a reasonable person wonder how this administration could have made such a colossal bungle of the rollout when they are, after all, the same savvy experts who had the most sophisticated and precise campaign websites ever built,” Palin writes. “They could pinpoint voters down to a city block, but they messed up a website that cost the government over $200 million more than it cost Apple to develop the first iPhone. Purposeful?”

This is why Sarah Palin is not Vice-President, and Barack Obama is President.  As somebody who actually works in IT for a living, I can safely say Sarah Palin knows even less about high-end web solutions that are designed to handle hundreds of thousands of people than she does politics.

StupidiNews!

• Human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say the Obama administration's use of armed drones in Pakistan and Yemen could constitute war crimes. 
• A county judge in Texas has switched political parties from Republican to Democrat and blasted Tea Party Republicans for shutting down the federal government in a video announcement. 
• Tuesday elections in Israel will see the selection of Jerusalem's mayor as incumbent moderate Nir Barkat is challenged by hardliner Moshe Leon while Palestinians boycott the elections as usual.
• Netflix most likely passed HBO last month in paid US subscribers, reaching some 30 million Americans compared to the pay cable giant's 28.7 million in September.
• Researchers investigating disappearing bees and "colony collapse disorder" are pointing towards evidence that a common insecticide weakens the immune system of bees, leaving them vulnerable to infection. 

Last Call For NRA Brian

Oliver Willis argues that Montana Dem Gov. Brian Schweitzer's extremist pro-NRA, pro-coal stance disqualifies him from higher office in the modern Democratic party, and he's correct.

First of all, Schweitzer courted the NRA for an endorsement. He didn’t just come out in favor of gun rights aimed at hunters and sportsmen as many other Democrats in red states and in national races have (including President Obama) but he actively courted the most extreme of the “mainstream” gun groups in America, the NRA. The group that is in part financed by the gun manufacturers and who has stood against nearly every sensible gun law for the past 20 years or more.

When he obtained that endorsement, Schweitzer didn’t just note it on his website or send out a press release. He appeared at an event with Wayne LaPierre and touted the video on his Youtube page.

Remember, the NRA opposed the weak post-Sandy Hook background checks – something that Republicans like Pat Toomey and John McCain voted for, as did red state Democrats like Mary Landrieu. 

For a long time I’ve been an advocate of a wider tent within the Democratic Party, and I don’t want them to become purge central like today’s GOP, but you also need to stand for things.

Sadly, yet another deadly school shooting occurred today, this time in Nevada.  The alleged shooter, a student, used a handgun stolen from his parents to shoot and kill a teacher and wounded 2 other students. Given Schweitzer's pro-NRA record, there's no place for him in national office.  And if that wasn't bad enough, his pro-coal record is just as bad:

Schweitzer is also a proponent of fake clean coal technology and other sketchy energy concerns. He asked Montana officials to claim they “support the use of coal money for the completion of your project/projects.” In a profile, 60 Minutes described him as “Montana’s Coal Cowboy.” 

Schweitzer has also backed the Keystone XL pipeline, and described opponents of it as “jackasses.” I’m far from an environmental purist, but especially post-BP shouldn’t we think again and again about tying ourselves to fossil fuels and to the environmental impact that errors in the world of fossil fuels create?

Just as I would have serious doubts supporting any of Kentucky's NRA-loving King Coal Dems for national office for the same reasons, I can't support Schweitzer for President.  Oliver's right:  you've got to stand for something, and YAY GUNS isn't it.

Orange Julius Gets Poll-Axed

The latest CNN/ORC international poll out today has some pretty lethal post-shutdown numbers for the GOP, and for House Speaker John Boehner in particular:

Just more than half the public says that it's bad for the country that the GOP controls the House of Representatives, according to a new national poll conducted after the end of the partial government shutdown.

And the CNN/ORC International survey also indicates that more than six in 10 Americans say that Speaker of the House John Boehner should be replaced.

The poll was conducted Friday through Sunday, just after the end of the 16-day partial federal government shutdown that was caused in part by a push by House conservatives to try and dismantle the health care law, which is President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement.

According to the survey, 54% say it's a bad thing that the GOP controls the House, up 11 points from last December, soon after the 2012 elections when the Republicans kept control of the chamber. Only 38% say it's a good thing the GOP controls the House, a 13-point dive from the end of last year.

This is the first time since the Republicans won back control of the House in the 2010 elections that a majority say their control of the chamber is bad for the country.

So the shutdown has definitely hurt the GOP, at least in the short term.  Will it mean big gains for the Dems in 2014?  I'm still not sure that will happen.  It would be awesome if that was the case, but November 2014 is a year off.

But if the GOP still has numbers this bad a year from now, well things aren't going to be fun in Happy Republican Land.  I'm betting Cruz and company will find a way to make that happen.

A defiant Ted Cruz vowed to continue fighting Obamacare on Sunday, and criticized his fellow Senate Republicans for not coalescing around his failed strategy.

“I will continue to do anything I can to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare,” the Texas Republican said on ABC’s This Week.

Gonna hold you to that, Ted...

Cleanup On Aisle Daiichi

Meanwhile in Japan, yet another admission by the government of PM Shinzo Abe that the cleanup from 2011's nuclear disaster will take far longer than previously estimated...several years longer.

Radiation cleanup in some of the most contaminated towns around Fukushima's nuclear power plant is far behind schedule, so residents will have to wait a few more years before returning, officials said Monday. 

Environment Ministry officials said they are revising the cleanup schedule for six of 11 municipalities in an exclusion zone from which residents were evacuated after three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant went into meltdown following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The original plan called for completing all decontamination by next March. 

Nobody has been allowed to live in the zone again yet, though the government has allowed day visits to homes and businesses in some areas after initial decontamination efforts, said Shigeyoshi Sato, an Environment Ministry official in charge of decontamination. 

"We would have to extend the cleanup process, by one year, two years or three years, we haven't exactly decided yet," he said.

A little perspective about what constitutes an "unacceptable" government "disaster" when it comes to efforts to try to fix "huge problems" right?  Maybe the problems we're having over here aren't so bad in comparison, because THIS is what a disaster looks like, people.

StupidiNews!

• New Jersey is now the 14th state to recognize and perform same-sex marriages after the NJ Supreme Court denied an injunction ahead of a January appeal by Gov. Chris Christie.
• The Islamist militant group Boko Haram is claiming the murder of 19 motorists at an ambush roadblock in northern Nigeria near the border with Cameroon.
• The latest figures show Penn State University's legal fees in the conviction of former football coach Jerry Sandusky has topped $50 million, with total fallout including fines and settlements approaching $160 million.
• JP Morgan Chase has agreed to pay a record $13 billion to settle civil claims over subprime mortgages, but the settlement does not absolve the bank of criminal charges.
• The once lost Star Wars precursor short film Black Angel is being restored for Netflix and iTunes availability in 2014.

A Helping Of "I Scream, Alamo"

The nutjobs want their Second Civil War against Obama and what he represents, and they will do anything to get it.

Gun rights activists gathered yesterday at the Alamo to protest any and all laws that would prohibit them from openly carrying firearms. The “Come and Take It San Antonio!” rally broke a longstanding Texas tradition of not using the symbol of its independence as a political prop. 

From 1905 until 2011, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas were the custodians of the Alamo; but in 2011, custodianship was transferred to the state’s General Land office, the commissioner of which, Jerry Patterson, approved of yesterday’s rally. Patterson is currently running for lieutenant governor. 

“I respect the opinions of folks who say this is not the right place,” Patterson told the thousand or so assembled. “But I submit to you there’s one standard we should apply to gatherings here at this sacred cradle of Texas liberty and that is whether our activity and our purpose would be supported by those men who gave it all."

These sentiments were echoed by radio personality Alex Jones, who told the crowd that “I’m not different from my ancestors, and you’re no different from your ancestors. My ancestors on both sides of my family started the Texas revolution, and I’m here to tell you that that revolution was a continuation of human beings fighting against bullies and tyrants in every civilization throughout history, and this is the struggle of the individual.” 

He went on to call Mexico “a countrywide Chicago,” before suggesting that the Second Amendment also applies to citizens of Mexico. “There is a fight worldwide to take your guns. Dianne Feinstein, ‘Handgun Control Incorporated,’ the few dozen Democratic operatives they’re going to have marching here in a little while, these so-called ‘moms,’ they are here to disarm you while Homeland Security buys tens of thousands of armored vehicles and millions of bullets.”

Alex Jones and his gun-toting has the right to call for an open revolution against the US government.  Just like I have to right to call Alex Jones, and every person who supports him, a racist America-hating asshole.  See how free speech works in America?

Tea Party Insanity Can Never Fail...

...it can only be failed, as Ted Cruz declares war on the Squishies who reopened the government and didn't push the economy into collapse.

According to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, it’s his colleagues, more than anyone, who should be blamed for the failure of the defund-Obamacare campaign — and he expects conservatives to remember come primary season. 

“Unfortunately, rather than supporting House Republicans, a significant number of Senate Republicans actively, aggressively, and vocally led the effort to defeat House Republicans, to defeat the effort to defund Obamacare,” Cruz says, in an interview with National Review. “Once Senate Republicans did that, it crippled the chances of this effort, and it caused the lousy deal.” 

When pressed to cite specific Republican senators who may face primary trouble, Cruz refuses — “I’m not interested in a battle of personalities.” But he strongly urges conservatives to hold those lawmakers “accountable.” 

“As with every decision elected officials make, the consequences of those decisions are up to the American people,” Cruz says. “But I will say this: From Day One in office, I’ve urged the American people to hold every elected official accountable, and far too many elected officials are not listening to the American people. . . . when you’ve got 10 to 20 Senate Republicans going on television, day after day after day, saying, ‘we cannot win, this is a fool’s errand, we will lose, nothing will happen, we will surrender,’ and blaming Republicans every step of the way, it eliminates the ability to get a positive outcome. 

“Now, I have publicly said it is likely that I will stay out of all incumbent primaries,” he continues. “But every elected official has to make the case to the grassroots in his or her state on why he or she is effectively fighting for them.” When asked whether using the word “likely” means he’s leaving room to back a challenger, Cruz repeats the line, saying it’s “likely” he’ll stay out.

2014 is going to be brutal on the GOP side.  Already Mississippi GOP Sen. Thad Cochran has drawn a Tea Party primary challenger since the shutdown ended last week and I'm betting a lot more are on the way.  The results are going to be pretty brutal as they continue to eat their own.

If It Wasn't Somehow On The Table Before...

The Tea Party has nothing left but Obama Derangement Syndrome now, and a couple good catches by some liberal blogs tell us what insanity will spring from the forehead of Insane Obama-hating Zeus next.  First, Ed Kilgore:

Well, you gotta hand it to the wordsmiths at Heritage who came up with this line for Jim DeMint responding to the argument that the 2012 presidential election sealed the deal on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act:

I can hear many conservative friends saying to me right around this point: “Jim, we agree with you that ObamaCare is going to wreck the country, but elections have consequences.”

[But] ObamaCare was not the central fight in 2012, much to the disappointment of conservatives. Republicans hoped that negative economic news would sweep them to victory, and exit polls confirmed that the economy, not health care, was the top issue. The best thing is to declare last year’s election a mistrial on ObamaCare.

A “mistrial.” That’s hilarious.

That would be hilarious, except for the fact that DeMint is advocating the nullification of the 2012 election, and implying the fact that America elected Barack Obama not once but twice is irrelevant.  And what would "declaring last year's election a mistrial" look like?

Ask House GOP nutjob Steve Stockman, as Steve M. points out.  The nutjob Texan is handing out copies of the World Net Daily screed Impeachable Offenses to every Congressperson he can find.

But they wouldn't try to impeach Obama with Democrats controlling the Senate (and thus preventing conviction), would they? Well, Democratic control of the Senate didn't stop them from shutting down the government in order to defund Obamacare, did it? And a futile impeachment attempt wouldn't rattle global financial markets! (It didn't in 1998, right?) So it's a genius plan!

Yes, I think the history of the shutdown, and the fact that the Crazy Caucus would clearly do it all over again despite the fact that it was an utter failure, strongly suggests that the crazies might go for impeachment next. And John Boehner probably will do nothing to stand in their way. And there'll be primary challenges for any doubters. 

Oh yes, if it wasn't somehow on the table before, it is now.  Watch.  We're nowhere near peak ODS.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Blasting the UN Security Council as ineffective and full of "double standards", Saudi Arabia has turned down the invitation to join the council as a rotating member.
• The Kansas Supreme Court has indefinitely suspended the law license of former GOP state AG Phil Kline over conduct violations in office during his crusade to prosecute Planned Parenthood. 
• Former Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley has passed at the age of 84, Foley spent 30 years as a Washington State Congressman and served as Speaker from 1989 to 1995.
• After more than four years of negotiations, Canada and the EU have reached a free trade deal, announced in Brussels this week.
• "Ransomware" in the age of Bitcoin means that hackers that invade your PC to hold your data hostage are finding it easier to get paid.

Last Call For Los Castigadores

The GOP must now exact revenge for its humiliation this week at the hands of President Obama and the American people, so those of you who supported the Democrats have to be put in your respective places.  Today's contestants in "Know your role and shut your mouth!" (the home version) are Latinos and other immigration advocates, as House Republican Raul Labrador makes painfully clear.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) "has said he is committed to advancing immigration legislation in this Congress but there is virtually no interest among GOP lawmakers to vote for the kind of sweeping bill that Democrats are seeking," USA Today reports.

Said Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID): "It's not going to happen this year. After the way the president acted over the last two or three weeks where he would refuse to talk to the speaker of the House... they're not going to get immigration reform. That's done."

Added Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS): "That would really melt down the conference."

So yes, the Punishers are exacting revenge.  No immigration reform now, because that's the price The Punishers are making us pay because Obama made them look bad, rather than, you know, Republicans making themselves look like idiots.

Maybe America should stop voting for them, yes?  Because eventually, the group Republican Punishers will decide to target will include you.   And odds are between killing job bills, the economy, and shutting down the government, you've already been a victim.

The Cuccinelli Cuckoo, Clocked

In Virginia, a state where there are more than a few federal employees who were furloughed this month, Republican AG Ken Cuccinelli is now facing a decidedly uphill battle against Democrat Terry McAuliffe for the Governor's mansion.

A new NBC4/NBC News/Marist poll finds Republican Ken Cuccinelli slipping further behind Democrat Terry McAuliffe, 46 to 38 percent in the race for Virginia governor among likely voters. That’s 3 points wider than McAuliffe’s 43 to 38 percent lead a month ago -- before the shutdown. Libertarian Robert Sarvis gets 9 percent.

Virginia was one of the top states impacted by the shutdown -- with hundreds of thousands of federal workers, contractors, and military service members and retirees in the state. And a majority (54 percent) in the poll blames Republicans for the shutdown. Just 31 percent of likely voters blame President Barack Obama.

Four-in-10 – 39 percent – said either they or a family member has been affected by the shutdown, whether it’s employment, services or benefits.

Many say the shutdown will have an impact on their vote -- 38 percent of registered voters said it would have a major impact on it; 21 percent said it would have a minor one. Among respondents who said it has had a major impact on their vote, McAuliffe is winning them 55-27 percent. Among those who say it is a minor issue, McAuliffe also leads, 52-33 percent.

Cuccinelli only leads with those who say the government shutdown is not an issue, 49-36 percent.

I could have told you Rob Sarvis was going to cost Cooch the race months ago, but Rob Sarvis AND the shutdown means there's a very distinct possibility the guy may not break 40%.  Normally this is the point where the race tightens up (Americans love an underdog) but the shutdown is making that go the opposite direction.  Undecideds are running to McAuliffe and will continue to, is my bet.

McAuliffe may actually break 50% in this 3-way race when all is said and done.  Wouldn't that be something...

Some Cold Hard Reality

Let's keep in mind during the celebration dance here that America still elected the Tea Party nutjobs that shut us down in the first place, and odds remain extremely high that the vast majority of them will remain in power for a long, long time.  Nate Cohn lays it out:

So if the only facts I knew about this election were that it was 1) October of an odd-numbered year; 2) Democrats had an average lead of about 7 points on the generic ballot; and 3) the incumbent Democratic president had an approval rating in the low forties, I would not believe that Democrats were poised to retake the chamber.

And we know more about this election than those three facts. Here’s one fact: The newfound Democratic advantage on the generic ballot comes in at the height of a government shutdown, which could easily be as bad as it gets for the GOP. And yet even now, Democrats aren’t approaching 50 percent of the vote in generic ballot surveys. So if there’s no tsunami now, there’s plenty of cause to be doubtful that one will emerge later. The preponderance of undecided voters are Republican-leaners who voted to reelect their representatives last November; they’ll probably come home by Election Day.

Just consider the last 13 months. The president was reelected, Newtown, the fiscal cliff, gun control failed, the NSA and Snowden, the sequester, immigration reform stalled, Syria, and now a two-week government shutdown. Some of these things benefited the Democrats, others, probably more, benefited the Republicans. We live in interesting times, and memories of the shutdown will fade by November 2014.

They'll go back to the GOP for the same reason "moderate" House Republicans all voted to shut down the government.  They hate Obama and the Democrats more than they hate losing, and if their desire to see Democrats and their supporters punished wasn't white hot before, it's now burning a hole through the ground towards the center of the earth.

Some 95% of House members will be re-elected next year.  That will include the Tea Party, and that's just reality.