Last Call For Madam President

The latest Pew Research poll on women in politics and business has more than a few interesting findings, but this one shouldn’t surprise anyone:

Yep, only 16% of Republican men would hope to see a female president in the US in their lifetime, and only 20% of Republican women do. You betcha. Also, too.

Seriously, Republican women?  You don't want to see a woman in the White House?  Is it because of Hillary specifically, or is it because there's no way your party full of misogynist jackasses would ever nominate a woman for the Oval Office, and you're all resigned to the fact that any woman in the White House would have to be a Democrat?

The Other Purity Caucus

It looks like the die hards in the House GOP has had enough of the Republican Study Committee, the unofficial Tea Party Caucus, and one that has grown to encompass nearly three quarters of the House GOP.  Now the "real conservatives" are splintering off to form their own caucus of...something.

House conservatives are plotting a mass exodus from the Republican Study Committee as soon as next week over simmering dissatisfaction with the group's direction.

The members have been talking for weeks, and they met Monday night to formalize their plans to institutionalize a competing, invitation-only organization that they see as a real conservative caucus that can push Speaker John Boehner rightward. Once a bastion for the conservative movement, the RSC has strayed too far from its original mission and been co-opted by the same party leaders it is meant to exert pressure upon, the members believe.

Republican leaders will be watching closely: Any divisions among conservatives might dilute the right's ability to influence the leadership on key issues like immigration and spending, though the RSC has always been stocked with independent-minded members who never really took marching orders from the group anyway.

The new group, which does not yet have a name but is expected to include more than 30 members, is being de-facto led by former RSC Chairman Jim Jordan, although the formal leadership structure could change. It will also include Rep. Mick Mulvaney, who lost an election to become the chairman last year, disappointing many conservatives. The other founders are Reps. Justin Amash, Ron DeSantis, John Fleming, Scott Garrett, Raul Labrador, Mark Meadows, and Matt Salmon. Most but not all of those members are expected to renounce their RSC memberships, along with other members who will join the group.

Many of the members will meet Tuesday evening with Sen. Ted Cruz to discuss their plans and other matters over pizza, though Cruz himself has not been involved in the formation of the new group. Cruz's chief of staff, Paul Teller, was fired from his role as RSC executive director in 2013 after provoking the ire of party leaders and some members of the group.

Looks like the long-predicted conserva-schism has finally and officially arrived.  Maybe it will allow Boehner to consolidate more power, maybe it will wreck his day, but either way, Republicans are going to be fighting themselves and not concentrating on Obama.  That's a good thing.

So keep up that GOP civil war, guys.  No better way to prove to America that you never intended to govern, only to destroy.

The Gold And Weed Party

Sen. Rand Paul has a new campaign manager for his 2016 adventure in Glibertarianland.

The hiring of strategist Chip Englander, who recently guided a gubernatorial candidate to victory in Illinois, marks a clear step forward for the Kentucky Republican as he prepares to transform his cadre of loyalists into a full-scale campaign. 

Doug Stafford, Paul’s longtime confidant, will remain as his chief political adviser. In an interview Tuesday, Stafford said he will rely on Englander “for the day-to-day execution” of Paul’s operation. 

The move underscores Paul's unorthodox approach to presidential politics and his expected candidacy, with plans to put an emphasis on outreach to the poor and younger voters while also courting conservative activists in early-primary states. 

In an interview Tuesday, Englander argued that Paul’s unconventional positions would lay the foundation for a potent Republican coalition. Paul has articulated mostly non-interventionist views on foreign policy, while taking hardline stances against tax hikes and President Obama’s health-care law domestically. 

“America has intractable problems and it’s going to take a transformational leader to fix them,” Englander said. “Senator Paul is going to be the bold, transformational figure in this race.”

Rand Paul's view is of a federal government that can't afford to pretty much do anything, ever.  That all gets left to the states to tell people how to live their lives.  Also, weed.  Hope this guy works out better than the last campaign hire Rand made, who ended up being only marginally better than the guys working for his dad's campaign.

But it's another sign that Rand is gearing up to lose in 2016.  Should be a fun trip.

StupidiNews!

• It took 19 days, but two men became the first to free climb Yosemite's famous El Capitan summit by the steepest and most dangerous route, the Dawn Wall.
• The GOP has set July 18-21, 2016 as the date of their national convention in Cleveland, a full month ahead of their 2012 convention schedule.
• Communications giant Samsung has reportedly made a $7.5 billion offer to buy BlackBerry to arm itself in its continuing battle against Apple.
• Pope Francis will visit the Philippines today to celebrate with Asia's most Catholic country and home to one-eighth of the world's Catholics.
• Facebook is finally beta-testing its long-rumored corporate social networking alternative to LinkedIn and Yammer called Facebook at Work.

Last Call For Number Three

Slate's John Dickerson:

Mitt Romney never "genuinely" believes anything.

Supporters say that what’s still true about Romney is that he has the skills that would be useful in the White House. Since his defeat, a series of management failures in government agencies like the IRS, Veterans Affairs, and the botched rollout of Obamacare have demonstrated a need for someone with Romney’s talent for turning around big institutions. Romney and his boosters also say his foreign policy assessment about Russia was validated after the election, giving him standing in a field that at the moment doesn’t contain anyone with substantial foreign policy experience.

Romney’s supporters also say that while he may have flaws, other candidates do too and he has advantages they don’t have. He has run before and they describe him as more relaxed and looser. With his name recognition and ability to raise ready cash, Romney could possibly take advantage of a shortened campaign calendar that party strategists say will favor well-funded candidates who can compete in multiple states and afford the complicated delegate husbanding operation.

The big question for Romney to consider is this: Now that he has enjoyed a resuscitation of his reputation among Republicans, could he handle coming in fifth in a primary or enduring the everyday indignities of a modern campaign? That would be an especially deep price to pay if he shows the more personal side that he—and particularly his wife, Ann Romney—believe he was never allowed to show in the last race.

I honestly don't know who's the bigger idiot, Mitt or the people who enable him.

Seriously, Mitt may think he's entitled to the White House by dint of being Mitt Romney, and yeah, 60 million people voted for him.  It's possible he could win.

Two losses to Obama says he can't.

Three Days Of The Orange

A not-so-gentle reminder that as many death threats as President Obama gets, he's far from the only person in DC to get them.

Ebola, evil voices and the devil.

Those are just a few of the things a Butler County bartender cited as reasons he was going to kill House Speaker John Boehner this past fall, federal agents said.

Michael Robert Hoyt, 44, was indicted Jan. 7 on charges of threatening to murder the congressman in a plot police said included poisoning his drink at a country club.

Hoyt served drinks to Boehner for more than five years at the Wetherington Country Club in West Chester and was known as “Bartender Mike” to employees there.

Hoyt called police on Oct. 29, a week after being fired from the club, and blamed Boehner for his woes, police said.

When officers visited Hoyt at his home on Matson Avenue in Deer Park, they said the plot thickened.

“Hoyt told the officer he was Jesus Christ and he was going to kill Boehner because Boehner was mean to him at the country club and because Boehner is responsible for Ebola,” United States Capitol Police (USCP) Special Agent Christopher M. Desrosiers said. “Hoyt advised he had a loaded Beretta .380 automatic and he was going to shoot Boehner and take off.”

Officers said Hoyt told them he regretted not having enough time to put something in Boehner’s drink. It was also discovered Hoyt emailed Boehner’s wife about the plot a day before he called police, Desrosiers said.

Wetherington is just about as swanky as country clubs get up in Butler County, the heart of Boehner Country, in the suburbs north of Cincy. Boehner's an asshole and he's a terrible Speaker of the House, but that's not an excuse for this idiocy.

Liz Warren Gets The Win...Maybe

The battle over Deputy Treasury Secretary Antonia Weiss is over, and Liz Warren has prevailed over the Obama administration. Weiss has withdrawn his name from consideration.  Chuck Pierce:

This, of course, is the handiwork of Senator Professor Warren, who put together a coalition against Weiss's nomination that ran from, well, her, all the way over to Joe Manchin (D-Bituminous) that fought Weiss's nomination. Weiss will get some job at the Treasury that doesn't require him to go through that pesky confirmation process in which he would have to explain how getting $20 mil from his current employers just for taking a government job isn't merely a pro-active brib...er...retainer. Too bad. I was looking forward to how he would explain that one to the Senator Professor.

Already, of course, the financial press is agog at the whole notion that the Senator Professor actually would do what she said she would do. This kind of thing makes for a nice "narrative," but trying to break the grip of the financial-service industrial complex over the institutions that are supposed to regulate it, well, my dear Ms. Warren, this simply is not done. 

Most of Weiss' banking experience is in international mergers and acquisitions, and he spent much of his career overseas. As Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance, he would have been responsible for decisions on national debt, consumer policy, and Treasury stability. A number of former Treasury officials thought Warren was way out of line, and that Weiss' experience was perfect for the position he was being nominated for.

Here's the "number of Treasury officials" who thought the Senator Professor was "out of line." Two of them worked for the Avignon Presidency, whose stewardship of the national economy you may remember from the days when you were sleeping in a van down by the river. The point of opposing Weiss was to demonstrate clearly that the interests of the financial-services industrial complex, and the interests of the political entity known as the United States of America, are not always in line with each other, and that the former has to be accountable -- seriously accountable -- to the latter, as inconvenient as that may be to people like Antonio Weiss who, I assure you, will be doing just fine. This also is not merely a symbolic victory. This is a demonstration that business is not as usual any more. There are serious policy implications to that simple fact.

The fact is Liz Warren walked up to President Obama, told him to go to hell, and followed through.  This nomination wasn't sunk by the GOP.  It was sunk by Liz Warren, period.

Say what you will about party loyalty.  She picked her fight and won, which is more than I can say for basically any other Democrat in Congress in the last two years.

Having said that, the key is to look what happens next.  Weiss will still end up in Treasury, his replacement will still be somebody from Wall Street, but Liz Warren already made her point.  It's a win for Weiss, for President Obama, and for Sen. Warren.

For us, eh.  Not so much.

StupidiNews!

• As the latest issue of French weekly Charlie Hebdo goes on sale today, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is taking responsibility for last week's deadly Paris attacks.
• House Speaker John Boehner says that House Republicans will fund the Department of Homeland Security in a bill this week, but block any funds for President Obama's immigration orders.
• Flooding in the southern African country of Malawi this week has killed at least 48 as President Peter Mutharika has declared half the country to be a disaster area.
• The World Bank has cut back its global economic outlook for 2015 in Europe and Asia, leaving the US as the strongest economy this year.
• President Obama is taking aim at state laws designed to limit internet provider competition by keeping cities from providing municipal broadband internet access.

Last Call For Meet The New Austerity Guy

Same as the old austerity guy.  Georgia Republican Tom Price is taking over for Paul Ryan as chair of the House Budget Committee, and where Ryan was good at lying about wanting to wreck Social Security and Medicare, Price really doesn't give a damn.

"What I’m hopeful is what the Budget Committee will be able do is to is begin to normalize the discussion and debate about Social Security. This is a program that right now on its current course will not be able to provide 75 or 80 percent of the benefits that individuals have paid into in a relatively short period of time," he said at a Heritage Action for America event in Washington, D.C., according to AJC. "That’s not a responsible position to say, ‘You don’t need to do anything to do it.’"

Price, whose predecessor Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) never put forward major reform proposals in his otherwise ambitious budgets, offered means-testing and increasing the eligibility age as possibilities. He also hinted at privatizing Social Security.

"All those things ought to be on the table and discussed," he said.

Somehow I think means testing will vanish very quickly from Price's repertoire of "what's on the table".   That leaves raising the eligibility age into the 70's and of course the big one, privatization.  The key here is that Ryan was smart enough to not try to force a government shutdown over Social Security by putting it in the budget talks (and smarter still not to get involved in the clown car mess).  Price apparently is looking for that fight as soon as possible.

We'll see if Democrats can stand up to him, and what can get through the Senate.

New tag: Tom Price.  He's a pretty important guy these days.

Putting On A Clinic

While Republicans are busy trying to fight Obamacare battles from 2010, the retail world and American health consumers are both moving on toward making affordable health care more available with the rise of retail, in-store clinics in drugstores, grocery stores, and Wal-Marts.

Patients suffering everyday complaints like chest colds or ankle sprains have long faced the lamentable choice between waiting days to see their family doctors or enduring time-sucking, unpleasant and expensive visits to hospital emergency rooms, especially at night and on weekends when physicians typically aren't open for business. It's one of the most annoying aspects of the way medical care is provided in the United States.

Big chains like CVS, Walgreens and Walmart are stepping in to try to correct this market failure. These and other retailers are opening hundreds of new walk-in clinics, staffed by medical professionals such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants. They're betting that Americans craving speed, convenience and easy-to-understand prices will be willing to break their habit of expecting a doctor to handle all of their medical issues.

"People are demanding health care to react similarly to other service industries, where people have a need and they want it relatively easy," said Nancy Gagliano, a primary care physician and chief medical officer for CVS Health's MinuteClinic. "The traditional health care system really is not adequate to support the need."

Although still vastly outnumbered by doctors' offices and hospitals, retail clinics are spreading rapidly: There currently are almost 1,900 across the U.S., up more than sevenfold since 2007, according to data compiled by Merchant Medicine, a consulting firm that tracks the sector.

Remember, the Republican argument is that Obamacare was going to make health care both unaffordable and unavailable, and that Americans were going to have to wait weeks to see a doctor for even minor health issues.  The obvious solution, staffing retail clinics with physicians' assistants and nurse practitioners, frees up emergency rooms, urgent care centers, and doctor's offices for more serious medical issues.  Since the Affordable Care Act was passed, the number of these clinics have increased by more than 50%.  I've been to one myself (a Walgreen's clinic) and got prompt service, and they took my insurance.

You're going to see more of these around in the coming years I think, and it's a good thing.  And it's important to remember that the Affordable Care Act made staffing these clinics a lot easier and here in Kentucky these clinics accept Kynect health plans as well as expanded Medicaid, and the electronic medical records provisions allows these clinics to share visit information with your doctor the next time you do visit them.

It's a good idea and I think we need more of these.

The Blue Dog Class Of 2018 May Change Jobs

Given the fact that we sit at home and complain rather than vote in midterm elections, is it any wonder that red state Blue Dog Senate Dems facing a tough 2018 midterm race are instead considering a much easier 2016 gubernatorial race in their respective states?

The 2014 Republican rout left just five red-state Democrats in the Senate — and three of them are thinking about an early exit, decisions that could complicate Democrats’ plans to take back the chamber in 2016 and beyond.

Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, all of whom are up for reelection in 2018, are flirting with bids for governor next year instead. If they follow through and win, Democrats fear they’ll open up seats that could favor the GOP. And if they lose, their chance for reelection to the Senate could plunge too.

A McCaskill spokesman said the two-term senator is deciding which office would give her the greatest platform to deliver for Missourians, as well as how it might affect her family. Heitkamp’s office won’t address the gubernatorial rumors, but wary North Dakota Republicans are considering a plan to tinker with the state’s Senate vacancy law. Manchin has said that if the partisan fever in Washington doesn’t break soon, he’ll consider running for governor again.

All three have had gubernatorial ambitions for years: Manchin was elected to two terms as West Virginia’s governor before choosing to run in a 2010 special election to replace longtime Sen. Robert Byrd after Byrd’s death. Heitkamp was defeated in the 2000 governor’s race by Republican John Hoeven, with whom she now serves in the Senate. McCaskill lost narrowly to Matt Blunt in the 2004 gubernatorial contest and now serves alongside Blunt’s father, GOP Sen. Roy Blunt.

The three senators will weigh gubernatorial bids in 2016 against staying in the Senate and facing voters in the 2018 midterms. The past two midterms were disastrous for Democrats, though a new president in 2017 and an improving economy could scramble that dynamic. Still, the loss of up to three proven candidates — who represent states increasingly hostile to Democrats — would be, at minimum, a setback for the party.

Granted, if this is the path they choose it means this sets up battles in those states to choose replacement senators and whatnot, but given that we don't care about midterm elections (not enough to vote in them anyway) do you blame them?

The best part is these are red states, so odds are they will run and lose anyway (Manchin might actually win, but McCaskill and Heitkamp will probably lose big no matter what they do.)  We'll lose more Dem Senate seats, and that means even if we do get the Senate back in 2016, we'll give it right back in 2018.  Probably explains why after this Politico piece went up, Sen. McCaskill immediately denied she was going to run for Governor in Missouri.

Of course, if Democrats voted in midterm elections, this wouldn't be as much of a problem, now would it?

StupidiNews!

• The militant group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has issued new threats to France promising "the worst and more" as 10,000 French troops are deployed to protect targets.
• A federal judge has struck down South Dakota's state ban on same-sex marriages on Constitutional grounds, finding a "fundamental right to marry."
• An attack on a military base in Cameroon by Boko Haram militants was repulsed and 143 militants were killed according to Cameroonian officials.
• California Attorney General Kamala Harris is expected to announce that she will pursue the US Senate seat left by retiring Democrat Barbara Boxer in 2016.
• UK Prime Minister David Cameron wants full government access to encrypted messaging apps or he will move to ban them if re-elected in May.

Last Call For The Mask Slips

...And Republicans tell the truth about their plan to punish a generation of Democratic voters.  Todays contestant is Louisiana GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal, who admits that Republicans want to take affordable health care away from millions.

“I don’t think conservative health care reform is about, we’re going to compete with [the left] in terms of how many people we see have an [insurance] care,” he said. “That not the ultimate goal.”

He later elaborated, “If we start with the premise that we’ve gotta give every single person a card, and that’s the only way we can be successful, we’re done. We’ve adopted their metric of success…if the metric of success is gonna be which plan can say ‘we’ve given people more cards,’ they always win. Because they will always spend more, they will always disrupt more.”…

He also put it this way: “I do think it’s a mistake if we argue we can’t take back what Obama has already given.”

So there you have it.  Jindal is a sitting Governor who actively admit the plan is to punish his own constituents for the criminal act of being poor in a state like Louisiana.  And as long as Republican voters are convinced that Obamacare is a costly handout from a black President to those people then he's right:  what political damage will any Republican candidate incur by saying "I promise to hurt poor minorities"?

The second Republican buy into the notion that government should help the people instead of the one percent, they lose.

And they know it.  Better to keep the people angry, poor, and unhealthy.  After all, without affordable health care, if they die, they're no longer Bobby Jindal's problem, are they?  And millions will go along because they figure there's no way Republicans like Jindal would ever take away their government benefits and health care.

They're wrong of course.  But it's more fun to punish others, because Americans are mean, awful people who vote with the intent of being mean, awful people.  The rest of us gave up some time ago.  You have to look no further than last November to prove that.

No Win Situation In Paris

It's funny that the same media that constantly attacks the President for playing golf and "taking vacations at taxpayer expense" is now laying into the White House for not going to Sunday's Paris rally.

Don’t look for the president or vice president among the photos of 44 heads of state who locked arms and marched down Boulevard Voltaire in Paris. Nor did they join a companion march the French Embassy organized in Washington on Sunday afternoon.

Indeed, Obama’s public reactions to the attacks in Paris last week have been muted. His initial response Wednesday to the killing of 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper offices was delivered as he sat calmly in an armchair in the Oval Office speaking about the “cowardly” acts and defending freedom of the press. Two days later, as a gunman took hostages and went on to kill four people in a kosher grocery, Obama took a few seconds away from a community college proposal rollout in Tennessee because he said with events unfolding, “I wanted to make sure to comment on them” — but neither then nor afterward specifically condemned that attack.

Obama wasn’t far from the march in D.C. on Sunday that wended silently along six blocks from the Newseum to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Instead, he spent the chilly afternoon a few blocks away at the White House, with no public schedule, no outings.

Joe Biden was back home in Wilmington, Delaware. Neither they nor any high-level administration official attended either event.

France’s top diplomat in the U.S. tried, diplomatically, to make the best of it.

“Thank you to Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary at the Department of State, who has represented the U.S. Authorities at the demonstration in DC. A friend,” Ambassador Gérard Araud tweeted Sunday evening, as criticism of the administration mounted.

And though it’s symbolism — Obama made several statements last week condemning the terror, and the government has been supporting French efforts throughout — the symbolism has caught a lot of attention.

It's a convenient fiction.  If President Obama had gone to Paris, there's no doubt in my mind this very same Politico article would also be filled with criticism -- this time about how the President's Secret Service presence was disruptive to ordinary Parisians and how the cost was being borne by hard-working American taxpayers while the President was on "yet another vacation jaunt".

Of course, it didn't stop the White House from admitting they should have sent someone to Paris.

Nope, it's just another ridiculous example of our "liberal media" in action.

Brownback To The Drawing Board

Kansas GOP Sen. Sam Brownback may have won re-election, but it just puts him the the cross-hairs of his state's crumbling economy: a mess 100% of his own making as cutting state taxes to the bone has all but collapsed revenues and left the state in hundreds of millions of dollars in red ink. His plan to slash school spending is making him even more unpopular.

Now it seems Brownback has no choice but to raise revenues.

Gov. Sam Brownback will include proposals to increase tax revenue to help fill a projected budget hole when he unveils his budget plan later this week, his chief of staff says.

He also will tackle education spending, which accounts for more than half of the state’s budget, as part of his proposed fix, said chief of staff Jon Hummel.

When Brownback starts his second term — and the 2015 legislative session — on Monday, he will have to balance his signature tax-cut policy with a deficit projected at $648 million in the next fiscal year. His handling of this challenge, which his critics say is self-imposed, could define his legacy as governor.

“The governor has had a very consistent policy of wanting to limit growth in spending. He wants to keep income taxes low,” Hummel said. “And you know, circumstances have changed. Revenue didn’t come in quite as was projected. ... If we can do some things on the tax side and do some things on the budget side and still maintain that overall philosophy, then he’s always been open to that.”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article5904450.html#storylink=cpy

And just like that, Brownback's tax cuts have caused the state to go from a balanced budget to $648 million in the hole.  Now it's Kansas schoolkids and families who have to pay the price.

He confirmed that education spending, which Brownback left largely unscathed in the plan he announced last month to trim this year’s budget, would not remain untouched this time around.

“School finance will be part of our budget conversation,” Hummel said. “The governor feels like the growth in spending that’s occurred the last several years in school finance is unsustainable. He’s going to encourage them (the Legislature) to look at ways to do that, to address that. There’s different ways to do it. You could reform the current system or you go to a completely new system.”

I have little sympathy for Kansans who voted for Brownback twice despite his snake oil.  And oh yes, he's still in more than a little legal trouble.

A few hours later The Associated Press reported that a federal grand jury is investigating loans to Brownback’s re-election campaign. The only loans the campaign received were from Brownback and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer.

The administration has dismissed the investigation as being without merit. But Beatty said it could hamper Brownback as he tries push through a budget fix.

“Certainly being under investigation weakens a governor,” Beatty said. “It weakens his ability to persuade…all those tools you use to get that bill on your desk the way you want it to be.”

Make your bed, Kansas.  You voted for him.  Now it's time for the consequences.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article5904450.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article5904450.html#storylink=cpy

StupidiNews!

• Senate Republicans admit that they are at least four votes short of overriding a promised Obama veto on forcing approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
• In a meth bust gone wrong, an Albuquerque police officer shot and almost killed an undercover narcotics officer during a sting operation.
• Movies "Boyhood", "The Grand Budapest Hotel", and "Birdman" all walked away with multiple Golden Globes last night, while "The Affair" and "Transparent" had big night in television.
• The flight recorder from doomed AirAsia Flight QZ8501 has been located by divers, as Indonesian officials hope the data will provide answers as to the deaths of 162 on board.
• SpaceX's Dragon rocket launch was a success for the commercial space transport company, but the ship's planned landing on a flat barge in the Atlantic was too rough for the rocket to survive.

Last Call For Off The Plan

And the Republican assault on Obamacare in the 114th Congress begins in earnest.

On Thursday, House Republicans will vote on an anti-Obamacare bill that could toss up to 1.5 million Americans off their employer-sponsored health plans. To make the case that this is a good idea, top GOPers are misrepresenting what the legislation would do. They claim the measure would help prevent companies from reducing worker hours in order to cut employees' health insurance benefits. Yet the legislation would likely encourage businesses to decrease hours so the firms could avoid providing health insurance to workers. "While political leaders often stretch the truth to make their case, they usually don't claim the opposite of the truth," Robert Greenstein, the president of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), noted Wednesday. "That, however, is essentially what Republican congressional leaders are doing."

The bill House Republicans introduced Wednesday would change the way the Affordable Care Act defines full-time work and, thus, who is eligible for employer-sponsored health care. Currently, the ACA requires companies with 50 or more employees to provide affordable health coverage to 95 percent of their full-time workers or pay a penalty. This measure, called the employer mandate, begins to go into effect this year. Under the 2010 health care law, full-time work is defined as 30 or more hours per week. The GOP bill would change the law's definition of full time to 40 hours per week.

The bottom line?  1.5 million Americans would lose their employer-sponsored health insurance, and because of the 40 hour line, they'd lose a host of other benefits too, like paid vacation, medical leave, and of course, hours.

In other words, employers could cut people to 39.5 hours a week and save a lot of money, rather than having to cut people to 29.5 hours a week just to keep them off insurance (and having to hire more people, which doesn't really save them money).

But that's what Republicans are fighting for, to cut benefits to millions.

As always.

Meawhile at Dick's House

America may love torturing brown people, but there are still some of us who remember that Dick Cheney and his buddies should be in prison on war crimes charges about now.

Two protesters were arrested at the McLean, Virginia, home of former Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday after 20 demonstrators, some in orange prison jumpsuits, walked onto his property to mark the 14th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay prison.

The protesters from the anti-war group Code Pink walked up to the house before police arrived and asked them to leave, said Fairfax County police spokesman Roger Henriquez. Two members who refused to go were arrested on trespassing charges, he said.

Police identified the two as Tighe Barry, 57, and Eve Tetaz, 83, both of Washington DC. The pair face misdemeanor charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct, police said.

Another Code Pink group demonstrated without incident outside the home of CIA Director John Brennan, also in the Washington, D.C. suburb of McLean, as part of its "Guantanamo Anniversary Weekend Torturers Tour."

I don't agree with everything Code Pink does, but harassing the hell out of Cheney?  Go right ahead, ladies.  In a fair and just world he'd be in prison anyhow.

The French Connection

As many as a million marchers and several European heads of state attended a rally in Paris today showing solidarity with France and the victims of this week's attacks.

President Francois Hollande and leaders from Germany, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Britain and the Palestinian territories among others, moved off from the central Place de la Republique ahead of a sea of French and other flags. Giant letters attached to a statue in the square spelt out the word Pourquoi?" (Why?) and small groups sang the "La Marseillaise" national anthem.

Some 2,200 police and soldiers patrolled Paris streets to protect marchers from would-be attackers, with police snipers on rooftops and plain-clothes detectives mingling with the crowd. City sewers were searched ahead of the vigil and underground train stations around the march route are due to be closed down.

The silent march - which may prove the largest seen in modern times through Paris - reflected shock over the worst militant Islamist assault on a European city in nine years. For France, it raised questions of free speech, religion and security, and beyond French frontiers it exposed the vulnerability of states to urban attacks.

"Paris is today the capital of the world. Our entire country will rise up and show its best side," said Hollande in a statement.

We sent Eric Holder over, and the irony of course is that Bibi Netanyahu is there, along with Turkish PM Erdogan, which really, really puts the concept of free speech into perspective.  Angela Merkeal and David Cameron, too.  These folks don't believe in freedom of speech any more than the guys who shot up Charlie Hebdo did.

A very different reaction than America's some thirteen years ago, but America has its own immigration fight now after Republicans politicized the Department of Homeland Security, and the stakes just got a lot higher in their quest to shut down the DHS over President Obama's immigration orders.

Senate and House Republicans are warning against a standoff with President Obama and Senate Democrats that could shut down the department tasked with protecting the homeland within weeks of terrorist attacks against Western targets. They worry the GOP could wind up taking the blame, which is what happened when a dispute over implementation of the Affordable Care Act shuttered the federal government for 16 days.

While Republicans are unified in their desire to reverse the executive order Obama issued after Election Day shielding an estimated 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation, some are warning Tea Party colleagues such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) not to take the fight too far.

“Defunding that part of the bill that deals with enforcing the executive order makes sense but we can’t go too far here because look what happened in Paris. The Department of Homeland Security needs to be up and running,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Former Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) on Friday called it “absolutely essential” that counterterrorism be funded given the spate of attacks around the world.

A Senate GOP aide warned that Democrats would pounce on a departmental shutdown to accuse Republicans of prioritizing the desires of their conservative base over national security.

“There’s no question that if the DHS shuts down in some way, Democrats will do everything to take full advantage of the situation,” the aide said.

It's the Republicans who set up this shutdown showdown.  Now they're complaining that it's a terrible idea?  It always was.   Now the plan is to put a bill on the table defunding immigration or risk shutting down Homeland Security completely anyway?

Amazing.

Last Call For Slow Going In Fast City

To the surprise of exactly zero people, NYPD Comimssioner Bill Bratton today confirmed that New York's Finest are New York's Not Workingest.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is confirming a work slowdown, following reports that criminal summonses have declined by 90 percent. 

In an interview with NPR's Robert Siegel, Bratton said the department has taken a close look at the numbers. 

"We're coming out of what was a pretty widespread stoppage of certain types of activity, the discretionary type of activity by and large," he said. He added that despite the slowdown is prosecuting smaller, quality-of-life criminal offenses, major crimes in the city are down overall. 

Bratton also said he's aware of how difficult the past few weeks have been for officers. Late last year, police responded to widespread protests in the city, following a grand jury's decision not to indict a police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner. And just last month, two police officers were shot and killed in Beford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. 

"I'm very conscious of the impact of all of those on my personnel," Bratton said, adding that the department is taking a measured approach as it returns to normal policing.

Bratton appears to be saying that the NYPD is now returning to whatever normal is, i.e. harassing the hell out of any non-white resident of the five boroughs that they can find.  Not sure if the NYPD is actually doing so, but we'll see over the next month what the numbers are.

I wonder what Bratton promised the unions and the rank-and-file.  They wouldn't be ending the slowdown unless they got something out of it.  My guess is major, major concessions from City Hall about police union contracts...and the knowledge that they can successfully push around Mayor de Blasio in the future.

Very interesting to see where this goes.  On the other hand, it's possible that the NYPD isn't "coming out of the slowdown" at all, and that Bratton's going to be hung out like a beef carcass. Either situation is a win for the NYPD.  It's just a matter of how much they run up the score at this point.

Of course, there's always the possibility that the NYPD are in fact angels protecting New York from icky brown people, so what do I know?