Congressional Republicans - The Gang That Cannot Govern

Remember how Congressional Republicans boasted in the wake of the 2014 midterm elections tat they would show the nation how they could competently govern?  Like so much in today's GOP, that claim is proving to have been a fantasy in the minds of the seemingly lobotomized Republican circles.   Other than voting yet again to repeal "Obamacare" in the House, not much has been accomplished.  The GOP has tripped up on its own extreme abortion bill after even some Republicans concluded it was "too extreme."  Now, as a second act, the Congressional Republicans are about to defund Homeland Security as "conservatives" - think racists - want to hold back funding to stop Barack Obama's immigration executive order.  Leaving the country open to terror attacks is less important than keeping more Hispanics from remaining in the country.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the lunacy.  Here are excerpts:

Bang. Bang. Crash. That was the sound of the Republican majority in Congress shooting itself in both feet, then tripping over them.

At a moment of heightened concern that terrorists in the Middle East might stage or inspire attacks on U.S. soil, the GOP-controlled House and Senate are unable to agree on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. If the party’s aim is to show Americans it is ready to govern, we are witnessing an epic fail.

Rather than ensure the smooth operation of the agency charged with keeping the nation safe, Republicans would rather argue about a separate issue — immigration — and struggle over tactics for tilting at windmills. Meanwhile, a Feb. 27 deadline for passing an appropriations bill draws near. “I don’t believe we should shut down the Department of Homeland Security, given the threats that are obviously out there and the attacks on America,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday. But too few in his party are listening.

Republican conservatives want to use the Homeland Security funding bill to reverse President Obama’s executive actions allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to stay without fear of deportation. A measure stripping out money to fund Obama’s initiatives easily passed the House, with its massive GOP majority and streamlined procedural rules. But the Senate is a different story. 

It was obvious from the beginning that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did not have the 60 votes needed to get the bill through the Senate. Nevertheless, McConnell has dutifully brought the bill up three times. . . .

“Isn’t that the definition of insanity? Voting for the same bill over and over again?” McCain asked. 

Indeed, the whole episode does seem pretty insane. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) knew the bill he sent to the Senate would be dead on arrival. McConnell knew he didn’t have the votes to pass it.

Boehner and McConnell appear to be trying to teach House Republicans a lesson in basic arithmetic. The class, however, is busy throwing spitballs. 

The GOP majority in the House continues to value symbolic posturing over pragmatic action. 

Let’s see, what else have Republicans achieved since taking control of both chambers? Well, the House tried to pass a bill banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy but had to pull the legislation at the last minute over a requirement that rape victims report their assault to police before qualifying for an exemption. Republicans did manage to pass a bill authorizing the building of the Keystone XL pipeline, but Obama promises a veto and the GOP doesn’t have the votes to override him.

If this is the pattern, it’s going to be a long couple of years.

More Thursday Male Beauty

Boehner Expects House GOP to Accept SCOTUS Gay Marriage Ruling

I cannot say that I feel any sympathy for John Boehner.  The man is, in my opinion, a douche bag (and that's being kind).  That said, Boehner today stated that, if the U.S. Supreme Court, issues a ruling confirming gay marriage nationwide, he believes the House GOP will accept the ruling.   Part of Boehner's statement is based on the reality that there really would be little or nothing that the House GOP could do other than take symbolic votes to pass a proposed anti-gay amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would never see passage.  Nonetheless, I can already hear the howls and imagine the spittle flying in the office of hate groups like FRC, The Family Foundation here in Virginia, and the lunatic Traditional Values Coalition.  The New York Times looks at Boehner's apparent capitulation.  Here are excerpts:

Speaker John A. Boehner said on Thursday that he expected House Republicans to accept the decision on same-sex marriage that the Supreme Court is scheduled to issue later this year. 

“I don’t expect that we’re going to weigh in on this,” Mr. Boehner said. “The court will make its decision, and that’s why they’re there, to be the highest court in the land.” 

The statement comes as a bit of a surprise, given the House Republicans’ expensive defense of the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013.

After the Supreme Court deemed parts of the act unconstitutional in 2013, some House Republicans sought to draft an amendment to go around the Supreme Court’s ruling. 

 The Washington Blade further noted in part:

Evan Wolfson, president of the LGBT group Freedom to Marry, said House Republicans made a “commendable decision” not to participate in the marriage cases this time around and called it “a real step forward” after defending DOMA in court.

“Their evolution reflects the momentum for the freedom to marry nationwide, as well as the quiet hope of most Republican officials and operatives that the Supreme Court will rule in our favor and bring the country to national resolution, thereby rescuing them from their prior stance against the freedom to marry,” Wolfson said. “They know their past pandering to part of their base is way out of step not only with a majority of the American people and independents, but with Republicans under 50 and even with young Evangelicals.”

Outgoing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has already said the Obama administration will file a brief in the case arguing on behalf of marriage rights “for all Americans.”

San Francisco Archbishop: Church Employees Must Not Masturbate

If the caption of this post sounds insane, welcome to the insane and neurotic world of the Catholic Church hierarchy that remains obsessed with all things sexual no matter the reported statements of Pope Francis.  Among the most insane sitting archbishops is San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone - yes, the one of DUI fame and purported "father of Proposition 8" - who has issued a pronouncement binding on employees of Catholic institutions and schools within his archdiocese that bans among other things pornography and masturbation.  How exactly Cardileone would enforce this mandate is left to speculation.  The San Francisco Chronicle has details.  Here are highlights:

The conservative Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco has developed a new document for Catholic high school faculty and staff clarifying that sex outside of marriage, homosexual relations, the viewing of pornography and masturbation are “gravely evil.” 

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s document applies to faculty and staff at four Catholic high schools: Riordan and Sacred Heart in San Francisco, Marin Catholic in Kentfield and Serra High School in San Mateo. It states that administrators, faculty and staff “affirm and believe” the controversial statements, which will be part of the faculty handbook.

The document goes on to say that marriage is between “one man and one woman,” despite California law allowing same-sex marriages. It also notes that sperm donation, the use of a surrogate and other forms of “artificial reproductive technology” are also gravely evil.

The document notes that while not all staff at the schools are Catholic, they are “required to stand as effective and visible professional participants and proponents of truly Catholic education.” Those who are not Catholic “must refrain” from participating in organizations that “advocate issues or causes contrary to the teachings of the church.”

Anyone as obsessed with all things sexual as is the case with Cordileone must have severe psycho-sexual issues of their own.  Especially since research has shown that the most vociferous homophobes are the ones most "turned on" by gay porn.   Part of me cannot help but wonder how soon until Cordileone is under investigation for sexual abuse like Archbishop John Nienstetd.

   

Thursday Morning Male Beauty

Why Is Congress Hiding the Truth About Saudi Arabia's Involvement in 9-11?

Chimperator George Bush with Saudi buddies

I usually do not buy into conspiracy theories and leave such lunacy to members of the GOP base.  But the continued refusal to declassify 28 pages of the investigation of congressional intelligence committees into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks makes one wonder what is being hidden.  This question is fanned by the reality that in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the Bush/Cheney regime allowed  only one flight to take off from America's airports and it was loaded with Saudis fleeing America.   The New York Times looks at the continued controversy over denying the American public all of the information compiled by the congressional committees.  If there's nothing to hide, then why act like there is some damning information.  Here are article highlights:

A still-classified section of the investigation by congressional intelligence committees into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has taken on an almost mythic quality over the past 13 years — 28 pages that examine crucial support given the hijackers and that by all accounts implicate prominent Saudis in financing terrorism.

Now new claims by Zacarias Moussaoui, a convicted former member of Al Qaeda, that he had high-level contact with officials of the Saudi Arabian government in the prelude to Sept. 11 have brought renewed attention to the inquiry’s withheld findings, which lawmakers and relatives of those killed in the attacks have tried unsuccessfully to declassify.

“I think it is the right thing to do,” said Representative Stephen F. Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts and an author of a bipartisan resolution encouraging President Obama to declassify the section. “Let’s put it out there.”

Mr. Lynch and his allies have been joined by former Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee was a leader of the inquiry. He has called for the release of the report’s Part 4, which dealt with Saudi Arabia, since President George W. Bush ordered it classified when the rest of the report was released in December 2002.

Mr. Graham has repeatedly said it shows that Saudi Arabia was complicit in the Sept. 11 attacks. “The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11, and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier,” Mr. Graham said last month as he pressed for the pages to be made public.

Proponents of releasing Part 4, titled “Finding, Discussion and Narrative Regarding Certain National Security Matters,” have suggested that the Bush and Obama administrations have held it back for fear of alienating an influential military and economic partner rather than for any national security consideration.

But there seemed to be little appetite for declassification among the Republican leaders of the intelligence panels. Senator Richard M. Burr, the North Carolina Republican who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was skeptical of the value of releasing the pages, calling them more of a historical document in a fight against terrorism that has shifted substantially since 2002.

A side piece to the article notes as follows:

Three of the Saudi princes accused by the Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui have strong diplomatic and business ties to the United States. 

Prince Bandar bin Sultan was known as “the toast of Washington” who had an “aura of charming roguishness” when he served as Saudi ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005. He is a nephew of King Salman and King Abdullah, who died last month. Prince Bandar, 65, had been close to President George Bush and his son, President George W. Bush . . . 

Prince Turki al-Faisal, 69, is another of the king’s nephews. He replaced Prince Bandar as the Saudi ambassador in Washington in 2005 and served in that post for two years. He was the head of Saudi intelligence from 1977 until Aug. 31, 2001. . . 

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, at 59 is a grandson of Saudi Arabia's founder, King Abdulaziz, and is chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company and the wealthiest member of the royal family. . . .  He owns Rotana, the Arab world's largest entertainment company, and holds significant investments in Citigroup, TimeWarner, Twitter and Apple, among other companies.

Obviously, if the Bush/Cheney regime acted to protect those who financed the attacks, it makes perfect sense why Congressional Republicans don't want the classified section of the report made public. It would not help the GOP cause in 2016.

Virginia Republicans Again Kill Measures to Address Rising Sea Levels

An increasingly common scene in Norfolk

Science denying Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly have again killed proposed legislation that would have aimed at addressing rising sea levels threatening Hampton Roads and other coastal areas of Virginia.  The head in the sand refusal to accept reality goes hand in hand with the continued control of the Virginia GOP by the ignorance embracing theocrats and hate merchants at The Family Foundation and it's "Christian" allies.  These people are literally fiddling while Rome is burning and one has to wonder how desperate things need to become before they will get the head out of their ass.  The Virginian Pilot laments to continued idiocy.  Here are highlights from today's main editorial:

There is little dispute that rising seas and sinking land have combined to threaten Hampton Roads.

Federal and state scientists who've conducted research and simulations estimate seas could rise by anywhere from 1.5 to 4 feet (or more) by 2100. At the high end, it's an increase with devastating implications for life here and for the economy of Virginia.

For years, state lawmakers have dragged their feet rather than addressing the threat, sacrificing the long-term security of critical assets and communities to partisan crusades and gamesmanship. This week, they doubled down, dismissing pragmatic proposals that would build off the bevy of commissions and panels convened to contemplate solutions.

Under Villanueva's bill, the proceeds from Virginia's participation in RGGI would have gone toward helping plan and prepare for sea-level rise in Hampton Roads, as well as strengthening renewable resource programs and boosting economic development in southwestern Virginia, where fossil fuel mining and production traditionally have been strong sources of jobs.

The regional initiative is designed specifically to promote competition and incentives to cut carbon dioxide, a gas that helps trap heat in the atmosphere and increases global temperature.

But the program also highlights the value of economic and energy diversity, amplifying efforts to make greener energy sources more affordable and more available. Research suggests its design to promote competition actually drives down consumers' electricity rates.

Villanueva's bill failed in a House subcommittee on Tuesday; the previous week, Sen. Donald McEachin, a Democrat from Henrico County, witnessed the demise of his version of the plan in the Republican-controlled Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

Those defeats reflect the disconnect between those who live far from the places subject to the immediate effects of a changing coastline. And the fight many Virginia politicians continue to wage against the science that clearly shows mankind's role in warming the planet.

Over the past century, the sea has risen by 18 inches at Sewells Point in Norfolk. Flooding that once occurred only during severe storms now occurs several times a year.

The Navy has spent millions of dollars lifting piers at Norfolk Naval Station as part of its effort to adapt to the reality of rising water, and to prepare for the future. Norfolk, too, has begun making changes, including requiring that new homes be built three feet above sea level.

But much more must be done. Building floodgates, raising buildings and implementing other countermeasures carry an estimated cost of $1 billion just in Norfolk; other cities, including Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Poquoson and Hampton, have monumental needs, too.

Those cities and their residents cannot be left to fend for themselves against a rising tide.

Virginia's economic success is tied to Hampton Roads' security. The commonwealth could've taken real, substantive action toward protecting its residents, communities and economy by participating in the regional cap-and-trade program.  Unfortunately, [Republican] lawmakers refused.

Wednesday Morning Male Beauty

Seeking a GOP Vaccine for Ignorance

Columnist Kathleen Parker is once again bucking what's popular amongst the ignorance embracing base of the Republican Party as she slams those who have refused to have their children vaccinated with a resulting threat of epidemics of once eradicated diseases.   Yes, there are some liberals who have stupidly joined the anti-vaccine bandwagon, but the core group are the same crowd as the home schoolers who seek to avoid anything required by the government.  Here are highlights from her column in the Washington Post:

Flashback: Galileo is under house arrest pondering the unyielding ignorance of The Church for refusing to consider his heliocentric proposition that the Earth circled the sun.

We find this historical anecdote preposterous today, but people were persecuted for lesser heresies in Galileo’s time. Though we are now centuries removed from such dim-wittery, we find ourselves in a not-dissimilar pickle. 

After decades free of many crippling and deadly diseases thanks to the miracle of vaccines, some people are skeptical. Parents fearful of side effects, often on account of anecdotal evidence or discredited studies, are reluctant to vaccinate their children.

Some see vaccines as a conspiracy of Big Pharma. Elsewhere, especially in the South, people are simply distrustful of authority, especially government.  The latter group is familiarly known as the GOP base. They tend to be litmus-test conservatives on social issues and place Scripture above science. 

Most Americans under the age of 50, including doctors, have never seen measles. Now, after decades of being a virtually measles-free nation, we have 100 cases spread across at least 14 states and the potential for more as stubborn purists resist common sense. Science and experience overwhelmingly support vaccines, and the single study to the contrary, suggesting a connection to autism, has been thoroughly discredited.

Naturally, into this tar pit, the GOP presidential field has fallen. Or rather, been pushed. Asked about the vaccine controversy, both New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul have handed the media a fresh bone to gnaw.

While parents’ rights should always be protected in the absence of harm to their children, the public health of the nation also has to be protected. Individual rights are justifiably modified when the exercise of those rights adversely affects others. Smoking is a textbook example of this premise. 

Aspiring presidents would do well to articulate these conflicts with compassion, without condescension or pandering — while explaining why, in this case, vaccines are the right choice. For starters they might quote Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Study after study has shown that there are no negative long-term consequences. . . . And the more kids who are not vaccinated, the more they’re at risk and the more they put their neighbors’ kids at risk as well.”

Nancy Reagan Turned Down Rock Hudson’s Plea For Help

Anti-gay bigotry isn't anything new with the Republican Party.  Sadly, it has been the party norm for decades and as a well documented new story at BuzzFeed illustrates, even prominent Republicans are only too willing to throw friends who are gays under the bus rather than offend the sensibilities of the foul Christofascists within the ranks of the party base.  A case in point? Nancy Reagan and Ronald Reagan who refused to take any action to help actor friend Rock Hudson to secure an experimental treatment as he was dying.  With "friends" like the Reagans, one seemingly doesn't need enemies.  Here are some article excerpts (read the entire piece):

On a Sunday evening in July 1985, just hours after arriving in Paris from Los Angeles, Rock Hudson collapsed shortly after checking into the famed Ritz hotel.

The 59-year-old actor was once one of Hollywood’s hottest stars throughout the 1950s and ’60s, seen as the embodiment of “the American man” — tall, dark, and handsome. A constant fixture on the big screen, he starred alongside leading actresses like Elizabeth Taylor in Giant — netting an Oscar nomination for the role — and Doris Day in a series of popular romantic comedies.

By the mid-1980s, though, while still close with many from Hollywood’s golden era like Day and friendly with Ronald Reagan, another actor of the era and now the president of the United States, and his wife, Nancy Reagan, Hudson was no longer the broad-shouldered icon. He was frail, ill — the airline almost refused to let him board the nonstop flight to France.

Hudson was dying from complications related to AIDS.   Although only a handful of people knew it, Hudson was in Paris desperately seeking treatment for AIDS — treatment that even a prominent, wealthy actor could not get in the United States in 1985.

Although more than 5,500 people had died from the disease by the start of 1985, the government had taken few significant steps toward addressing the disease — with the Reagan administration recommending a $10 million cut in AIDS spending down to $86 million in its federal budget proposal released in February 1985.

Over the following days, the pair, along with Hudson’s American publicist, Dale Olson, tried everything in a desperate attempt to get the dying actor moved to the military hospital for treatment.

These 10 days changed the course of history, as the world learned that Hudson was gay — and why he was dying.

“AIDS was on the front page of virtually every Sunday morning paper in the United States,” Randy Shilts wrote of the Sunday that followed Hudson’s collapse and revelations in his epic coverage of the epidemic, And the Band Played On. The revelations changed the course of AIDS coverage — and the broader attention paid to the disease. Hudson’s death a few months later, on Oct. 2, 1985, made him the first high-profile celebrity death from AIDS that was openly acknowledged as such.

One key part of this story, though, has never been told until now — not discussed at the time and lost in piles of paperwork from the Reagan administration. As Hudson lay deathly ill in the hospital, his publicist, Olson, sent a desperate telegram to the Reagan White House pleading for help with the transfer.

“Only one hospital in the world can offer necessary medical treatment to save life of Rock Hudson or at least alleviate his illness,” Olson wrote. Although the commanding officer had denied Hudson admission to the French military hospital initially, Olson wrote that they believed “a request from the White House … would change his mind.”

First Lady Nancy Reagan turned down the request.

The telegram, along with the documents detailing the White House’s response, were initially discovered by a new project focused on “archives activism” that is based out of D.C.

Charles Francis, the president of the newly reconstituted Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., provided the documents to BuzzFeed News after the group — with support from the law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery — obtained them from the Reagan Presidential Library. BuzzFeed News confirmed the documents’ authenticity with archivists from the Reagan Presidential Library.

“The view was, ‘Well, we’re so sorry’ — and she was, they were both very sorry for Rock’s condition and felt for him and all the people — but it just wasn’t something that the White House felt that they could do something different for him than they would do for anybody else,” Weinberg said.

“Seems strange that the Reagans used that excuse, since they often did favors for their Hollywood friends during their White House years,” Staley told BuzzFeed News, pointing out a time when President Reagan personally intervened to assist a fundraising effort led by Bob Hope, as detailed in a biography of the entertainer. “I’m sure if it had been Bob Hope in that hospital with some rare, incurable cancer, Air Force One would have been dispatched to help save him. There’s no getting around the fact that they left Rock Hudson out to dry. As soon as he had that frightening homosexual disease, he became as unwanted and ignored as the rest of us.”

I have always viewed Nancy Reagan as a cold bitch.  It seems I war more correct than I knew.