Sequestration Nation

Joshua Green over at Bloomberg News has one theory why Republicans are so eager to let sequestration kick in:  it'll hurt Dem districts more, a Bloomberg study finds:

The study shows that Democratic congressional districts will be harder hit by the military cuts than Republican ones, and that eight of the top 10 districts that will experience the deepest cuts are represented by Democrats. Robert Levinson, the Bloomberg Government defense analyst who conducted the study, found that “Democrats won 47 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives in the 2012 election, but 58 percent of the military’s fiscal 2012 prime contract spending went to companies performing work in those districts.” Among the top districts, military spending in those represented by Democrats averaged $893 million this year, vs. $573 million in those represented by Republicans.

Which districts will experience the most pain? Topping the list is Missouri’s first district, which is represented by Democrat William Lacy Clay and received $11.4 billion in “prime defense contract dollars.” Interestingly, Clay may not have to worry. Much of the defense work in his district is done by Boeing for the Saudi government and therefore won’t get cut. Democratic Representative James Moran, on the other hand, is probably concerned about the $11.3 billion sent to Virginia’s eighth district. Rounding out the top three is Republican Representative Kay Granger, whose Texas 12th district received $9.8 billion last year. Representative Morris Brooks of Alabama’s fifth district is the only other Republican in the top 10, with $5.9 billion in contracts headed his way.

Now defense pork is still defense pork, but I'd have to say that this explains at least somewhat the GOP about face on the sequester in the last month or so, and why they've been trying to do everything they can to shift blame for it to the Democrats.  The bigger issue is that Republicans are completely okay with the sequester at this point as long at Dem voters get hurt.   And considering a lot of actually useful things in the defense budget are going to get the axe (VA programs, medical care, VAWA provisions for the military, etc) well, as long as Dems feel pain, the Republicans don't seem to mind at all...

The Absolution Solution

Conservative Republicans believe three things about black voters:

1. We voted for Barack Obama simply because he's black,
2. If Republicans had a credible black Tea Party candidate for president, they would split the Democrats' black/Latino coalition, and
3. Nobody could ever call Republicans racist again if that candidate won the White House.

In other words, wingers think it would usher in that "near-permanent Republican majority" they've been dreaming of.  Ideally in their little zero-sum world, it would be a black conservative versus Hillary Clinton in 2016, splitting black voters from white women.

Of course before Republicans can test this theory, they have to find a conservative black candidate without all of Herman Cain's ridiculous baggage and creepy demeanor.  Some think they have found that candidate this month in Dr. Ben Carson, or at least Dave Weigel seems to think so.

On February 7, at the usually-sleepy National Prayer Breakfast, pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson talked for a surprising 23 minutes about the national debt and the threat of political correctness. It was surprising because Carson has been a famed physician for at least 26 years, ever since he participated in the first separation of Siamese twins conjoined at the head. Not many people realized that Carson had just written a book of political musings, and that he would take this live-on-C-Span opportunity to summarize it.

Carson immediately became a star, as compelling black conservatives seem to do. How could they resist a black physician who criticized the president while the president sat there, bearing it? The next day, Carson appeared on Sean Hannity's TV show. He critiqued the State of the Union on Fox News. He joined Twitter today and rapidly crossed the 7,000 follower mark. (For comparison, black Republican Sen. Tim Scott has 19,000-odd followers after a month in the Senate.) His book, America the Beautiful, surged to the top 5 on Amazon.

And now I see that he's joining Newt Gingrich and Paul Ryan on This Week.

Here's part of the speech after the jump:

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Federal prosecutors have charged former Democratic Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. with misuse of $750,000 in campaign funds for allegedly personal gain.
• NASA is looking to send a probe to Jupiter's moon Europa to explore the ice-covered moon for signs of life.
• California state parks officials kept a hidden surplus for as much as $20 million over 20 years, according to state investigators.
• Singapore's first Prime Minister, 89-year old Lee Kuan Yew, has been hospitalized by a stroke-like event linked to irregular heartbeat.
• Facebook found several of its engineers' PCs had been hacked through last month's Java exploit, but the company assures users and investors that no data was compromised.

Last Call

Politico's Ken Vogel picked a fight with the wrong guy...Nate Silver.

Polling guru Nate Silver and Politico investigative reporter Ken Vogel lobbed angry messages at each other Friday on Twitter over, of all things, whether to call something a “clarification” or a “correction.”

At issue was an article Silver had written for the New York Times about GOP strategist Karl Rove’s new Conservative Victory Project, which was formed to back electable Republican candidates in order to win back a majority in the Senate.

After the article was published, Silver updated the piece and appended a clarification to the end explaining the change. Vogel thought that note should have been labled a “correction” instead, and he took to Twitter to complain. Silver fired back, and the battle was on.

“At this point you’re just being a troll and misleading your Twitter followers about what I wrote,” Silver wrote to Vogel. “Grow up.”

“I’m happy to have a debate about this in any forum you chose, but please try to stick to the merits & avoid name calling,” Vogel responded.

This isn’t the first time Silver has sparred with someone at Politico. In late November, he said the news outlet covers politics like sports but “not in an intelligent way at all.” Politico media reporter Dylan Byers also wrote critically of Silver ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

Responding to the spat, Silver told TPM in an email on Friday: “I’ve been pretty jetlagged and had forgotten that the first rule of the Internet is ‘don’t feed the trolls.’ Was a mistake for me to get involved on Twitter.”

True, but it's fun to beat up WIN THE MORNING.  Hell, I do it whenever possible, but picking a nerd fight with the High King of all Political Wonks?  Bad idea, Vogel.

Read the play-by-play after the jump:

Super Powers Not Included

A meteor went screaming over the Ural Mountains near the Russian border with Kazakhstan early this morning, leaving behind hundreds injured from the impact wave as it detonated over the city of Chelyabinsk. 

People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt the shock wave, according to a Reuters correspondent in the industrial city 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow.

The fireball, travelling at a speed of 30 km (19 miles) per second according to Russian space agency Roscosmos, had blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail that could be seen as far as 200 km (125 miles) away.

Car alarms went off, thousands of windows shattered and mobile phone networks were disrupted. The Interior Ministry said the meteor explosion, a very rare spectacle, also unleashed a sonic boom.

"I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it were day," said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals Mountains.

"I felt like I was blinded by headlights."

The meteor, which weighed about 10 tons and may have been made of iron, entered Earth's atmosphere and broke apart 30-50 km (19-31 miles) above ground, according to Russia's Academy of Sciences.

No deaths were reported but the Emergencies Ministry said 20,000 rescue and clean-up workers were sent to the region after President Vladimir Putin told Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov to ease the disruption and help the victims.

The Interior Ministry said about 1,200 people had been injured, at least 200 of them children, and most from shards of glass.

Meanwhile, we dodged an even larger rock this afternoon as asteroid 2012 DA14 missed the Earth by 17,500 miles...considerably less than the circumference of the planet we're on.

It's raining things, man.  Things.

[UPDATE]  Heh.

Four Versus Thousands

John Hinderaker at Power Line is outraged, OUTRAGED I TELL YOU that President Obama did nothing to stop the BENGHAZI MASSACRE DEBACLE and HAS HE NO SHAME?

The White House admitted today that President Obama made no phone calls–none, zero–on the evening of September 11, 2012, during the seven or eight hours when Americans were being murdered in Benghazi. He didn’t talk to Leon Panetta, or any military personnel, or Hillary Clinton. What was he doing that night? We may never know; perhaps writing the speech that he gave at a campaign event the next day in Las Vegas.

Information on Benghazi has to be pried out of the administration with a crowbar; Lindsay Graham got the White House to identify the calls that Obama made that night–none–by holding up Chuck Hagel’s confirmation. Graham says he will put a hold on John Brennan, too, until he gets more facts on Benghazi from the stonewalling White House. Good for him.

The administration’s quiescence in the face of the terrorist attack in Benghazi has always seemed inexplicable. Why didn’t anyone try to help the besieged Americans over the course of that long night? Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey testified on Benghazi before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, but their account made no sense. They said that no help was dispatched to try to save the Americans because 1) the State Department never requested it, and 2) there wasn’t enough time. But there was plenty of time, seven or eight hours before the last two Americans were finally overcome.

Hey Johnny?  I've got seven words for you.

"Bin Laden determined to Strike in US".

You see, when the previous President went AWOL, thousands of US civilians died and we got stuck in two decade-plus long wars where hundreds of thousands more died.   The current President is the one who cleaned up that particular Bin Laden mess and is still cleaning up after it.

And you bring up four guys after that happened?  You're not even worth the time to mock, man.  Go away.  Shoo.

StupidiNews!

• The body pulled from a burned cabin near Big Bear Lake in California has been confirmed as fugitive former LAPD cop Chris Dorner.
• Senate Democrats have unveiled a plan to avoid steep sequestration cuts, the plan includes the "Buffett Rule" to raise revenue to avert the cuts.
• Red state governors in Atlantic coastal states say Interior Secretary nominee Sally Jewell needs to allow offshore drilling as soon as possible if confirmed.
• A 1982 drawing by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was the biggest prize at a London contemporary art auction this week, fetching nearly $20 million.
• Oakland, California residents are up in arms over the Alameda County Sheriff's Department being the first agency in the state to propose using domestic surveillance drones.

Last Call

Back home in NC, with Republicans now controlling the state legislature and the Governor's mansion with the election last November of Pat McCrory, the Tarheel State's about to get a crash course in Austerian Hysteria. First up on the chopping block:  cutting unemployment benefits to the point where the state with the fifth-worst unemployment rate at 9.2% is all but eliminating jobless benefits.

North Carolina lawmakers approved deep cuts to benefits for the jobless on Wednesday, in a state that has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates. 

In a debt-reducing effort, the Republican-controlled legislature voted to cut maximum weekly benefits to $350 from $535, a 35 percent drop; reduce the maximum number of weeks for collecting benefits to between 12 and 20 weeks from 26 weeks; and tighten requirements to qualify. The cuts would begin with new jobless claims on July 1. 

If the bill is signed by Gov. Pat McCrory, as expected, North Carolina would be the eighth state to roll back jobless benefits under the growing financial burden of the recession. 

The measure’s sponsors said it would spur job growth by paying down $2.5 billion in debt to the federal government. The bill passed the State Senate by a vote of 36 to 12. 

“North Carolina owes the federal government $2.5 billion because of a broken unemployment insurance system,” said Mr. McCrory, a Republican. “We’re going to pay down that debt, make the system solvent and provide an economic climate that allows businesses, large and small, to put people back to work. 

And if you think the billion or so a year this will save the state will end up back in the pocket of taxpayers, you're insane.  Once the debt is paid off,  there will of course be tax cuts for businesses.  Not workers, mind you.  Oh, and here's the best news:

The bill also disqualifies 170,000 unemployed people — 39 percent of the 438,000 jobless — from federal emergency extended benefits because it reduces the number of weeks people can receive benefits to below 26. The federal government has set 26 weeks as the national requirement for receiving federal funds. 

Better hope you don't get laid off if you live in NC, with $2.5 billion disappearing from the state's economy in a three year period, that's a hell of a contraction.  Max benefits cut by a third, max weeks cut in half, no federal benefits for anyone. Gotta stick it to those poor people, because we all know that the only reason anyone's ever unemployed is that they're too lazy to take a job that pays $7.25 an hour (or less, if you're waitstaff).

But somehow, this will create jobs, right?

Insanity Pays

NRA spokesloony Wayne LaPierre is still certifiable...certifiable like a banker's check, that is.  The crazier he gets, the more firearms and ammunition gets sold, and he's upping the dosage to max insanity this week with a new op-ed in the Daily Caller.

It has always been sensible for good citizens to own and carry firearms for lawful protection against violent criminals who prey on decent people.

During the second Obama term, however, additional threats are growing. Latin American drug gangs have invaded every city of significant size in the United States. Phoenix is already one of the kidnapping capitals of the world, and though the states on the U.S./Mexico border may be the first places in the nation to suffer from cartel violence, by no means are they the last.

The president flagrantly defies the 2006 federal law ordering the construction of a secure border fence along the entire Mexican border. So the border today remains porous not only to people seeking jobs in the U.S., but to criminals whose jobs are murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping. Ominously, the border also remains open to agents of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Numerous intelligence sources have confirmed that foreign terrorists have identified the southern U.S. border as their path of entry into the country.

When the next terrorist attack comes, the Obama administration won’t accept responsibility. Instead, it will do what it does every time: blame a scapegoat and count on Obama’s “mainstream” media enablers to go along.

Got it?  Gun control laws will kill your family because Scary Brown People will murder all of us in our sleep.  ONLY GUNS CAN SAVE YOU.  (PS, please ignore the fact that an AR-15 will have a really, really hard time stopping a 747 from flying into a building.)

Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals. These are perils we are sure to face—not just maybe. It’s not paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival. It’s responsible behavior, and it’s time we encourage law-abiding Americans to do just that.

WHEN TORNADOES MADE OUT OF BROWN PEOPLE COME, SHOOT THEM.  Shoot them with the shiny new guns you just bought from the manufacturers the NRA represents.  Because otherwise, the brownadoes will kill your babies and your dog.

But you'll buy.  That's the point.  Wayne LaPierre is a genius at this.

Hold On To The Night

Sen. Rand Paul continues to make an ass of himself and my state by threatening to hold up the nomination of CIA Director John Brennan until he gets classified info.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday threatened to hold John Brennan's nomination for CIA director unless he receives more answers on the administration’s drone program.

“I have asked Mr. Brennan if he believed that the President has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and my question remains unanswered," Paul said in a statement. "I will not allow a vote on this nomination until Mr. Brennan openly responds to the questions and concerns my colleagues and I share.

"These issues must be discussed openly so that the American people can understand what constraints exist on the government’s power to use lethal force against its citizens," Paul continued. "Before confirming Mr. Brennan as the head of the CIA, it must be apparent that he understands and will honor the protections provided to every American by the Constitution."

To recap, Mr. "Obama is a dictator ruling by fiat" here has no problem imperiously using the power of bureaucracy to make petulant demands when it suits him.  And as with Huckleberry Graham's blocking of Chuck Hagel, it has nothing to do with the nominee's qualifications, and everything to do with the President they so despise.

Rand Paul will not allow a vote, you see.  He controls the country, apparently.

Arrogant little moron.  Remember this next time he accuses the President of being a fascist.

StupidiNews!

• US Airways and American Airlines have received the green light to form the world's largest airline, reducing the number of large US carriers to just four.
• The director of a documentary detailing the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church asserts the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI is "inextricably linked" to the crisis.
• Senators Barbara Boxer and Bernie Sanders have introduced tough new climate change legislation that they admit will be a near-impossible sell even among Democrats.
• The EU recession continues, as now even Germany is facing economic contraction with the Eurozone 4th quarter 2012 seeing a -0.6% loss.
• EA executive Blake Jorgensen says he doesn't expect Sony or Microsoft to make their new consoles backwards compatible with the current generation.

Last Call

To recap, Republicans are unleashing unprecedented obstruction against President Obama: for the first time in American history, a Cabinet secretary nominee will face a filibuster.

Sen. Roy Blunt signaled Wednesday that there may be enough votes in the Senate to delay debate on the nomination of Chuck Hagel to lead the Pentagon.

Blunt (R-Mo.) said he believed there were 40 votes in the Senate that indicated “it’s too quick to end the debate on this nomination.”

The GOP, which controls 45 votes in the Senate, would need 41 votes to block former Sen. Hagel from hitting the 60-vote threshold that some Republicans have threatened.

“I don’t think we’ll move forward for a few days on that,” Blunt said at POLITICO’s post-State of the Union event. “And there’s been requests for more information. I think ultimately Senator Hagel will provide that information.”

In particular, Republicans on the Armed Services Committee have asked for more detailed financial disclosures from Hagel – a demand dismissed by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the committee’s chairman.

“We’re not going to accept a change in the rules that applies to one nominee,” Levin said earlier this week as he defended Hagel. “We are not going to accept your suggestion and innuendo that there’s some sort of conflict of interest.”

This has nothing to do with Chuck Hagel, and everything to do with Republicans who despise this President.  Indeed, Republicans filed their motion to filibuster Chuck Hagel's nomination this afternoon, requiring a cloture vote on Friday.  This means Democrats have to come up with 60 votes, and at least 5 Republicans, to proceed.   So far only Susan Collins has committed to this, and it's entirely possible that Republicans will be able to delay Hagel's nomination indefinitely.

The question now is, considering this means the Republicans have completely scrapped the filibuster deal they worked out with Harry Reid less than a month ago (surprise, right?)  what will Harry Reid do?

I know what he should be doing right about now.  Will he go back to the filibuster and blow it up?

The Kroog Versus The "Savior"

Paul Krugman was merciless with last night's GOP response to the President speech, given by Sen. Marco Rubio.  He punctures my favorite zombie lie:  the dreaded "Community Reinvestment Act forced banks to make loans to broke minorities" load of garbage:

Here’s the passage:

This idea – that our problems were caused by a government that was too small – it’s just not true. In fact, a major cause of our recent downturn was a housing crisis created by reckless government policies.

OK, leave on one side the caricature of Obama, with the usual mirror-image fallacy (we want smaller government, therefore liberals just want bigger government, never mind what it does); there we go with the “Barney Frank did it” story. Deregulation, the explosive growth of virtually unregulated shadow banking, lax lending standards by loan originators who sold their loans off as soon as they were made, had nothing to do with it — it was all the Community Reinvestment Act, Fannie, and Freddie.

Look, this is one of the most thoroughly researched topics out there, and every piece of the government-did-it thesis has been refuted; see Mike Konczal for a summary. No, the CRA wasn’t responsible for the epidemic of bad lending; no, Fannie and Freddie didn’t cause the housing bubble; no, the “high-risk” loans of the GSEs weren’t remotely as risky as subprime.

This really isn’t about the GSEs, it’s about the BSEs — the Blame Someone Else crowd. Faced with overwhelming, catastrophic evidence that their faith in unregulated financial markets was wrong, they have responded by rewriting history to defend their prejudices.

For Republicans to admit that the banks caused the financial crisis would of course destroy the GOP's base:  the banks, and the people who profit massively by them.  They will tell this lie until they are on their deathbeds, and even then it's only 20-80 that they'd recant.

"The government caused the financial crisis" has to be made to be the truth, or the GOP is done forever.  They know that.  It's the only reason we haven't mobbed every banker in the country yet.

And they're damn well aware of it.

Republican Outreach...With A Clenched Fist

Sen. Marco Rubio explained his vote against the Violence Against Women Act yesterday thusly:

Unfortunately, I could not support the final, entire legislation that contains new provisions that could have potentially adverse consequences.  Specifically, this bill would mandate the diversion of a portion of funding from domestic violence programs to sexual assault programs, although there’s no evidence to suggest this shift will result in a greater number of convictions. These funding decisions should be left up to the state-based coalitions that understand local needs best, but instead this new legislation would put those decisions into the hands of distant Washington bureaucrats in the Department of Justice. Additionally, I have concerns regarding the conferring of criminal jurisdiction to some Indian tribal governments over all persons in Indian country, including non-Indians.

Wait a minute, I mean the awful giant screw you to Florida's Seminole tribes and other Native Americas over criminal jurisdiction of assault of women on tribal lands aside, Marco Rubio seems to be saying that the federal government has no business in enforcing the safety of half the population of the United States.  Also, please note that it should be left in Marco's view up to state and local officials for funding (I guess because "assault" depends on the opinion of any men that are around) but not if those officials are Tribal Police.

Okay.  Sure.  That makes sense.  And because of this, Rubio thinks he's taking a principled stand for Florida's women.

There's your outreach from the GOP, folks.  A crack across the jaw so you'll know who's in charge.

StupidiNews!

• San Bernardino County law enforcement officials say charred human remains found after a shootout and cabin fire may be those of wanted fugitive Chris Dorner.
• President Obama's State of the Union speech included calls for Congress to raise the minimum wage, fix aging bridges, provide preschool for all kids, pass gun control legislation, and more.
• Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul blasted the President's proposals as more of the same, Rubio attacking climate change, while Paul attacked both parties for spending.
• The President also called for trade talks with the 27 member nations of the European Union for a new trade agreement package that would benefit both sides.
• A new "intelligent design" bill in Missouri would go much further than "teaching the controversy", it would redefine science itself  and demand equal classroom time for counter-theories to evolution.