Republican Jackass of the Week

John Stossel, who worked for years at ABC News and now is at the Fox Business Channel.

Here are the first couple of lines from his recent essay on Fox's website:

Plan to drive more this summer? Annoyed by the price of gas? Complaining that oil companies rip you off?

I say, shut up. Even if gas costs $4 per gallon, we should thank Big Oil.

Got that? We should thank the oil companies that are at the root of the biggest source of pollution in the world and global climate change. And just ignore the thousands of spills the people and animals of the planet have endured.

Yeah, thanks a bunch.

Stossel claims we should be thankful to them because they have to do so much. And what do they get? Nothing. Well, a lot. Record-breaking amounts of a lot.

It's hard work having to suck the oil out of the ground, refine it and then schlep it to you ungrateful wretches.  Nevermind that for each of the last several years, they made higher profits than any other companies in the history of the world. Record-breaking profits. Higher than any company since... forever.

Keep in mind, these same Fox righwing oil company apologists defended the highest gas prices in American history, when the price spike occurred mid 2008, during Dubya's last year in office.

Only when a similar but smaller spike took place during President Obama's first term did they scream.

Come on, John. I know you work at Fox. But even you should know better. Defending the ruthless companies that have a monopoly on oil and gas, and conspire to raise prices and gouge people at will -- not to mention spill, pollute and kill countless animals and people in the process -- makes you our Republican Jackass of the Week.

Your certificate's in the mail.

Michele Bachmann Calls it Quits

The world of political comedy suffered a deadly blow this morning.

Crazy-Eyes Bachmann

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann announced, at 3am, that she will not run again for her seat in the House of Representatives.

Why now? Could it be because the polls show her Democratic opponent, Jim Graves, even with, or a little ahead of her? Or might it be because she's being investigated by the Federal Elections Commission for ethics violations in her 2012 presidential campaign, and just this week the FBI launched a criminal investigation?

She also recently suffered a setback when, after fighting to block same-sex marriage, it was signed into law in Minnesota just days ago.

We've enjoyed so many laughs over the last eight years. I remember like it was just yesterday (stroke your chin, look up, and hear the harp strumming in your head):

• In 2008, she accused her fellow House members of being anti-American when she said, "the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look at the views of the people in Congress -- are they pro-America or anti-America?"
• Then there was the time she confused John Wayne, the movie actor, with a serial killer. While campaigning in Waterloo, Iowa, she claimed she was "campaigning in the spirit of John Wayne, who was from Waterloo." Unfortunately, the actor was not from Waterloo.  But serial killer John Wayne Gacy was.
• At another campaign stop, she made the audience sing Happy Birthday to Elvis. Sadly, it wasn't his birthday -- it was the anniversary of his death.
• While campaigning in New Hampshire, she mistakenly claimed the Revolutionary War began there. "You're in the state where the shot was heard 'round the world in Lexington and Concord." Apparently she confused Concord, New Hampshire with Concord, Massachusetts.
• Then there was the time she claimed our Founding Fathers were against slavery. "Slavery was evil and a scourge and a blot and a stain upon our history. But we also know that the very founders that wrote these documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States." Uh, no, Michele. Many of the Founding Fathers, including George Washington, owned slaves. It took almost 100 years before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
• She claimed that Obamacare meant that "someone's 13 year old daughter could walk into a 'sex clinic,' have an abortion, and be back home" via the

  

  We'll miss the corn dogs while campaigning in Iowa.

  school bus that very night.
• Pretending climate change doesn't exist, she asserted, "carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas."

Let's hope, for comedy's sake, that Rupert Murdock realizes that Michele's vacuous stare, tenuous grasp of politics and history, and tendency to blurt out the most bizarre statements makes her the perfect candidate to be the next Fox Channel contributor.

Democratic California Gov Creates Surplus

From Addicting Info:

California Governor, Without Republicans to Obstruct Him, Creates Budget Surplus

In February Texas republican Governor Rick Perry made a trip to California. His supposed intent was to lure California businesses to Texas. The premise is that Texas is more business friendly than California. To be sure, Texas is a state that gives away over $19 Billion in taxpayer dollars even as it cuts basic and higher education. Instead of reinvesting its surplus in human capital, it is attempting to change the Texas constitution to return surplus dollars.

California has been seen as a basket case with regards to its exploding budget deficits. Interesting enough this was occurring during the administration of Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. He attributed the deficits to reduced tax revenues and overspending. He cut programs in draconian fashion but could never escape the reality that he was making the problem worse. Ultimately he did what both Reagan and Bush did, leave exploding deficits to their successors.

California now has a budget surplus. Depending on whose numbers one uses, it is anywhere from $1.2 billion according to the Governor or $4.4 billion according to the Legislature’s independent financial analyst. How did California do it and what should they do about the surplus?

Democrats President Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, and Governor Jerry Brown did not attempt an ideological game with blinders to the actual results. They tried basic arithmetic. They raised taxes. Interesting enough, the results were the same.

Bill Clinton got a balance budget with a surplus. Barrack Obama is seeing a budget deficit that is shrinking faster than anyone expected. Suffice it to say that the budget deficit hole left by two wars, two massive tax cuts, and a massive drug program on the credit card by the previous administration along with an irresponsible & intransigent Congress cannot be solved in two terms.

Jerry Brown remembered basic arithmetic as well as he brought California to a budget surplus. He raised taxes on the wealthy and cut programs (some more than he should). Does this sound familiar, the balanced approach? Time and time again the evidence is out there that it works and it improves the economy for all.

Boy Scouts Cling to Discriminatory Policies

From ABC News:

The Boy Scouts of America today voted to lift its longtime national ban on admitting openly gay Scouts but will continue to exclude openly gay adults from leadership roles.

So, according to this logic, gay kids are just fine, but watch out! As soon as one turn 18, he becomes a raving child molester!

Newsflash to the Boy Scouts of America: there have always been, and still are, thousands of gay boy scouts as well as thousands of gay scout leaders -- before and after this ruling. Nothing's changed.

This is as dumb as closing your eyes at the beach and pretending those billions of grains of sand don't exist. Open your eyes. Surprise! They're still there!

The Boy Scouts of America issued a statement saying, in part,  "Going forward, our Scouting family will continue to focus on reaching and serving youth in order to help them grow into good, strong citizens."

Yes, good, strong citizens who have been taught to exclude and discriminate. Great values, huh?

In case any holier-than-thou, rightwing Christian-types are reading this, here's a shocker: From your beloved spawn's very first day, he has been exposed to "the gays." The doctor who delivered him may have been gay, certainly several of the nurses were, and so were hundreds of classmates, teachers, coaches, neighbors, friends, and even your relatives, whether you know it or not.

"The gay" is not contagious.

This is exactly like when Don't Ask Don't Tell was officially ended for the armed services. There were thousands of gays and lesbians serving in all branches the day before it ended as well as the day after -- the exact same number. Nothing changed. The sky didn't fall. The world didn't come to an end.

Funny thing is, this matters a lot less to today's kids than it does to the homophobic middle aged Boy Scout officials making this call. Today's kids all know other gay kids; they know a lot of kids with two fathers or two mothers; they know a lot of kids from mixed ethnic backgrounds, etc. All of this has been commonplace for decades. Go to any school in the country and kids really don't care a whit about any of this.

It's only the older folks who are losing sleep over this. As all surveys on same sex marriage show, the approval numbers increase with each successively lower age group. In other words, 30% of people over 65 may approve, but 45% of people under 50 approve, and 70% of people under 25 approve.

The bottom line is exclusion and discrimination are not values that should be supported by this organization. And as long as it operates under a Congressional Charter (a US law condoning the mission, authority and activities of the group), institutionalized discrimination within the group should be expressly banned.

The IRS "Scandal" Explained

This is not as complicated as it sounds. And you won't fall into a coma and hit your face on your keyboard. I promise. Here we go:

Once upon a time, the US Supreme Court decided to uphold the Citizens United case, allowing corporations and organizations -- including foreign entities -- to spend unlimited amounts of money in support or opposition to a candidate, without having to disclose where that money came from. It struck down a previous law banning this practice.

The Supreme Court  not only opened the floodgates allowing unlimited and unregulated corporate money to flow into campaigns, it also blurred the line between political groups and non-profit social welfare groups. Until then, these social welfare groups could only apply for tax-exempt status as "501(c)(4)" groups, with the strict privilege of not engaging in political speech. But now it's difficult to determine which social welfare groups live up to that standard. Certainly the Teabagger groups did not: they were completely political in nature.

So this Supreme Court ruling occured in 2010, and immediately afterward, over 3,000 rightwing groups that opposed President Obama sprang up like weeds and demanded to be recognized as non-profit, civic organizations that should be given tax-exempt status. The IRS noticed they all used the words "tea party" or "patriot." So they used those as search terms.

Because of this, it was determined the IRS "used inappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions," as the complaint goes.

In other words, yeah, the IRS is supposed to determine which groups deserve tax-exempt status and which don't; they just can't use specific terms flagging rightwing groups.

So the IRS is now faced with the challenge of filtering out groups that step over the line and flagrantly abuse the social welfare moniker without appearing to specifically target rightwing Teabagger groups. See?

The real problem, as Lawrence O'Donnell clearly pointed out this week on his msnbc program, is that back in 1959, the IRS arbitrarily changed the word "exclusively" to "primarily" in this rule:

Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code defines tax-exempt social welfare groups as: Civic leagues or organizations not organized for profit but operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare.

In 1959, under the administration of Dwight Eisenhower, the meaning of this section was changed dramatically when the IRS decided the word “exclusively” could, in effect, be read as “primarily.”

“For 54 years, the IRS has gotten away with the crime of changing the word ‘exclusively’ to ‘primarily',” said Lawrence O’Donnell on The Last Word  Monday. “The IRS took a hard, clear word like ‘exclusively’ and changed it into a soft word  ’primarily’ and then left it to the IRS agents to determine if your organization was primarily concerned  with the promotion of social welfare.”

This is why every Teabagger group was given tax-exempt status, despite the fact that they are not social welfare groups, but completely political in nature, which flies in the face of the IRS rule stated above.

The bottom line is that even though the IRS used rightwing-specific terms to search for these groups, not one was turned down for tax exempt status, even though they should have.  And it wasn't an Obama appointee in charge during these years -- it was Douglas Shulman, appointed by George Dubya Bush.

Republican Jackass of the Week

As I posted on The Facebook earlier this week:

Horrific destruction in Oklahoma. Should we send billions in aid? Without a doubt.
But let's remember that when the same aid was needed in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the two rightwing Teabagger Jackasses from Oklahoma (Sen Tom Coburn and Sen Jim Inhofe) voted NO.

Now Coburn is firing back at everyone who criticized him for demanding that emergency funding should be offset with equal spending cuts somewhere else. He says there's no need for emergency funding, which tends to attract unnecessary "pork" benefiting unrelated issues in other states, since the money is already available in a separate account.

Congress did indeed budget about $18 billion for disasters in 2013. But Coburn had nothing to do with it. The House and Senate funded that amount to FEMA for emergencies without any strings -- or offsets -- attached. Coburn voted against that. And he voted against disaster aid to Hurricane Sandy victims. And he claims he wants offsets for the money that his own state gets.

He can make all these grandiose claims to pander to the far rightwing Teabaggers who elected him. But it doesn't matter. The House and Senate have already set aside that money for just such emergencies with no offsets needed.

So this phony gets the best of both worlds: saying no but getting truckloads of federal money for his state.

Senator Tom Coburn: our Regressive Republican Jackass of the Week. Oh, and a big fat hypocrite.

"Why Can't He Hold His Own Umbrella?"

You have to hand it to Sarah Palin.

Now one of the most irrelevant people in the world -- but she still knows how to grab a little attention now and then.

And this was so funny and ridiculous, I couldn't pass it up.

This failed mayor, failed half-term governor of one of the smallest states, failed vice presidential candidate, failed reality TV show host, and failed political pundit who was fired from Fox of all places, recently whined, in the form of a Tweet (since that's her only platform these days), "Most Americans hold their own umbrellas."

This relates to the following picture, where the President was recently speaking in the rain.

Why, this is an outrage, right Sarah? Who does this Kenyan, Socialist, Marxist, Muslim-without-a-birth-certificate think he is, right?


Of course, no Republican president would ever allow a member of the military to hold an umbrella.

Well, at least Sarah would never do that, right?
















Actually, many Democratic leaders have indeed held their own umbrellas.

But this is what happened when Dubya tried it...

AP Leaks were Legally Investigated

In 2012, the CIA thwarted a plot by al-Qaida in Yemen to bomb a US-bound airliner. Inside info was leaked to the AP and published. Leaks related to national security can put troops and intel officials at risk around the world. The Justice Dept legally subpoenaed the phone records of the AP to discover the source of the security leaks. No conversations were monitored. The Pres made no apologies for protecting US interests. If leaks had occurred under a republican president, they would have been screaming "treason! execute!"
I don't see a problem.

No More Benghazi For You!

So... after months of Regressives foaming at the mouth pretending there was a huge scandal/conspiracy/coverup about Benghazi, and even months after they saw the emails, they tried to indict Pres Obama and Sec of State Clinton because they're scared to death of her chances in 2016. Yesterday the White House released 100 emails, and guess what? No WH tampering with talking points, no Clinton coverup, just the usual intel agencies bickering about how much intel to make public.
Wahh... the rightwings' favorite toy has been taken away.

Republican Jackass of the Week

Marco Rubio, Regressive republican senator from Florida (where else).

This week, he manufactured so much fake outrage at the IRS, with its dastardly scrutiny of Teabagger groups, that he demanded the head of the IRS be fired!

Immediately!

How dare President Obama's IRS commissioner investigate the 3500 Teabagger groups that sprang up immediately after the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, requesting non-profit classification for tax-exempt status! Right, Marco?

Here's the problem: there was no "head of the IRS." The usual obstruction from the Regressives of President Obama's nominees caused the IRS to have only a temporary, acting IRS commissioner.

And who was the commissioner in charge of the IRS during the alleged scandal? That would be Douglas Shulman, appointed by none other than George Dubya Bush!

Whoops.

(Steven Miller, who symbolically resigned yesterday, was the acting commissioner whose 210-day term would have ended in 3 weeks anyway, on June 8. He was not the acting commissioner during the alleged scandal.)

And by the way, it's the job of the IRS to scrutinize groups that request non-profit, 401(c)4 status.

Marco Rubio, confused and thirsty Florida senator, who needs to spend 30 seconds with The Google before opening up his big mouth: this week's Republican Jackass of the Week.

The Fake Benghazi "Scandal" is Officially Over

Couldn't have said it better myself. From Maddowblog:

Rachel noted on the show last night that the controversy surrounding Benghazi effectively "went away" yesterday, and given the latest information, it's hard to imagine how any serious person could disagree.

The White House yesterday afternoon released the inter-agency communications that went into crafting the "talking points" requested by Congress last September. Lawmakers already saw these materials months ago -- they found nothing controversial at the time -- but Republicans and the media decided it was time to see them again.

So, the administration, eager to put the matter to rest, released the documents. In turn, we learned what we already knew: there was no cover-up; State and the CIA engaged in a predictable bureaucratic "tug of war"; and this:

The internal debate did not include political interference from the White House, according to the e-mails, which were provided to congressional intelligence committees several months ago.

And with that, everything Republican conspiracy theorists desperately wanted Americans to believe -- there's a scandal; there's a cover-up; there's evidence the White House manipulated and lied about a crisis for political ends -- suddenly evaporated before our very eyes.

House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) office issued a statement last night saying the revelations raised more questions. In fact, I have one myself: how is any fair-minded person still expected to take the Republican arguments about this non-scandal seriously?

What's more, note that most sensible people realized the right's conspiracy theories were wrong, which is why the so-called "controversy" was relegated to Republican media, until last Friday's report from ABC News pushed the story into the mainstream. That ABC News report, we now know, was wrong.

There's just nothing left. Trying to characterize this as a genuine political story worthy of attention has been a misguided partisan exercise for months, but now, it's reached the point of ridiculousness. Every reporter saying the White House is engulfed in "three scandals" is misleading the public -- there was a deadly attack against a U.S. diplomatic outpost last year, which left four Americans dead. It was a tragedy; it was not a political controversy.

Put a fork in the Benghazi story; it's done.

You Can Never Trust a Republican

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie seemed like the last of a dying breed: a moderate Republican who thought for himself, put destructive partisan politics aside and did what was best for his state and all of its people.

He angered many in his party when he shook hands with, and hugged, President Obama, even gushing at how quickly and efficiently the President reacted in sending aid to New Jersey after "Superstorm Sandy" blew through the Northeast.

President Barack Obama "has kept every promise he's made" about helping the state recover, Christie stated. That same day, President Obama's housing secretary approved $1.83 billion in federal money to help the state rebuild and recover from the storm. "Everything the president promised me they'd do, they've done. I don't have any complaint this morning on the issue of disaster relief."

That was then; this is now.

Last week, Christie vetoed a bill that would have given New Jersey a two week window of early voting in upcoming elections. Regressive republicans all over the country have, for the past couple of years, not only refused to increase early voting time, but have actually cut days and hours, resulting in long lines where Americans have to wait for many hours before exercising their right to vote. This voter suppression technique was used mostly in areas where there are high percentages of black, Hispanic, middle class, and retired voters. In other words, in mostly Democratic areas.

The voter suppression trick didn't work. President Obama was re-elected in a second electoral landslide, winning 332 electoral votes to Weak Willard Romney's 206.  And despite attempts to preclude minorities from voting, turnout in these areas actually increased from previous years. Gee, it's as if everyone was able to see through the dirty tricks the Regressives were trying to pull, and became even more determined to vote, no matter what it took.

What was the feeble excuse Christie used for this tactic? Cost. He said early voting would have cost the state an extra $25 million this year, and about $2 million each year thereafter.

That would have required increasing the state's $32.9 billion budget by less than one-tenth of 1% this year and less than a hundredth of 1% every year thereafter. 

So the guy who seemed oh-so-reasonable and bipartisan when he needed truckloads of money for his state, is now pandering to the far rightwing nutjobs in his party, because he knows what all Regressives know: if you can't win them over with your ideas, block their access to the polls.

Darrell's Issa's Very Shady Background

He's the guy in charge of running one Benghazi hearing after another, in a fishing expedition for a non-existent scandal to attempt to bring down President Obama as well as destroy 2016 frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

But Darrell Issa has had more than his share of arrests and suspicion of criminal activity.

• He was suspected of arson when his car alarm factory burned down just three weeks after he quadrupled his fire insurance, removed computers and software from the building and transferred car alarm designs from a filing cabinet to a fireproof box. 
• An old army buddy thought Issa stole his car, and after threatening Issa, the car reappeared the very next day. 
• He and his brother were both arrested for stealing a Maserati from a Cleveland showroom. 
• He was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon in his car. 
• He was arrested yet again when his brother sold Darrell's car to a dealer, immediately cashed the $16k check, and then the next day Darrell reported the car as stolen. 
• Within 6 months of that arrest, he crashed his truck into another car and left the scene before police arrived. The driver sued Issa for $20k and settled out of court.

This is the guy the Regressive republicans elected to be the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight, whose job is to investigate the alleged wrongdoing of others.

More here and here.

The IRS "Conspiracy" Against the Teabaggers

It doesn't exist.

Despite all the shrill noises coming from Rupert Murdock's Fox channel (when they're not screaming about the other imaginary scandal -- "Benghazi!"), there is no IRS conspiracy against the myriad of Teabaggers' organizations. At all.

After Barack Obama was elected to his first term, and after the Citizens United ruling allowing any corporation or organization -- from anywhere on the globe -- to donate unlimited amounts to a presidential candidate, the IRS was suddenly flooded with applications for so-called non profit organizations wanting to be allowed tax-exempt status.

The vast majority of these groups suddenly springing up either had the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their names. So a couple of low-level IRS workers used those words to search for these organizations so they could determine, if indeed, these organizations complied with IRS rules actually allowing them tax-exempt status.

This, by the way, is the job of the IRS.

But once anyone above these low-level IRS workers discovered that the teabaggers' groups appeared to be under additional scrutiny, the practice was stopped and the policy was changed. No high-level IRS official was aware of, or condoned, the scrutiny of these hundreds of anti-Obama organizations. Certainly the President himself knew nothing of what a couple of low-level employees were doing to seemingly make their jobs easier in tracking all these new, questionable groups.

If, during the Bush administration, Liberal groups had come under additional scrutiny, of course there'd be complaints and an investigation. But once it was established that only a couple of low-level employees took it upon themselves to search for these particular groups, and no upper level employees, nor the administration had any knowledge of wrongdoing, it would have ended right there.

"Nothing to see here, move along," we would have been told from Bush's spokespeople and the union teleprompter readers on Fox. But this is something for the righties to whine and carp about. Remember, it wasn't the Obama administration that was asleep while 3,000 Americans were killed in the biggest security failure in American history. It wasn't the Obama administration that lied us into an unnecessary War Against the Wrong Country, or deregulated the banking industry which led to the worst financial mess in 80 years and more foreclosures than we've seen since the Great Depression.

Seems like this is just a whiny bunch of Obama-hating sore losers screaming for attention and pretending they've been wronged. Keep in mind that no Teabagger group was denied anything, including their tax-exempt status because of the extra scrutiny. And keep in mind that the IRS has already apologized and changed the methodology for investigating these situations.

By the way, as an interesting sidenote, the guy in charge during this alleged conspiracy, was IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, and was appointed by -- wait for it -- George W. Bush. Shulman ended his 6-year term last November. President Obama has yet to nominate a new IRS commissioner.  So if these rightwingers are looking to put someone's head on a platter, it would have to be the guy Dubya appointed to run the IRS.

As O'Reilly or Hannity would have said, if the shoe were on the other foot, "Where's the problem? So a bunch of Liberal anti-Bush groups suddenly sprang up and a couple of IRS people, on their own, used a few specific search terms to find them more easily and see if they really deserved tax-exempt status. So what? These anti-American, anti-Bush people need to be put under the microscope to see if they really deserve tax-exempt status. I don't see a problem here."

In other words, get over it. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Republican Jackass of the Week

Based on "The Parting Shot" on the Bill Press Show:

It's the US House of Representatives, in Republican control, run by Speaker of the House, John Boehner.

The 1948 Congress was famously referred to as the "do nothing congress." But that was nothing compared to the 112th Congress over the last two years, which was the least productive congress in American history. And it looks like the current 113th Congress will accomplish even less, setting the bar even deeper into record territory.

Four weeks ago they sat around for a whole week and passed one bill: to renew the production of helium. Then they went home for ten days.

This week they worked all of three days and passed one bill, allowing business owners to replace overtime with "comp time." This bill is dead on arrival in the Senate. It's going nowhere.

And next week they will vote on only one issue -- to pretend to repeal Obamacare for the 39th time.

That's it. No action on climate change, immigration, common sense gun control, tax reform, education, or anything else.

These people are getting paid $174,000 a year and they accomplish absolutely nothing.

The US House of Representatives and John Boehner: this week's Republican Jackass of the Week.

Regressive Republicans Waste Millions

Another ridiculous edition of Theater To Entertain Morons occurred yesterday with another bizarre Benghazi hearing. What everyone already knows is that an independent study was already done and found no unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, coverups or anything regarding the attack on the embassy there six months ago.

And I've asked Regressives many times why they're so obsessed with the four unfortunate deaths that occurred at that US embassy, yet never raised a peep over the 60 or so people who were killed in similar terrorist attacks during the Dubya Debacle. The response is always silence with a dumb look.

Seven embassies and consulates were attacked while Dick and Dubya were occupying the White House. Here's a list.

Yesterday's hearing circus was just another feeble attempt to take down the President (ain't gonna happen) and to discredit former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, since she is seen as the frontrunner for President in 2016.

This is a party that is scared to death of Hillary Clinton, and seething with hate for President Obama.

Their numbers are shrinking. Women, gays, hispanics and blacks won't go anywhere near a Republican candidate's name on a voting ballot; and the Republican war on all those groups continues. Great strategy, huh?

Next week, as if they haven't wasted enough time and money, they're going to try, for the 39th time, to "repeal Obamacare." Right.

Exactly who is this supposed to entertain? Do these people have a clue how government works? Even if they managed to get a majority in the House to overturn the Affordable Care Act, it would then have to pass the Democratically controlled Senate, no doubt with 60 votes, and then the President himself would have to sign a bill that would eliminate his signature health plan. How absurd.

But the time wasting and money wasting continues. You may want to call your US representative, if he or she is a Republican, and read them the riot act.

Hero Who Rescued 3 Kidnapped Women is Hilarious

Another 165,000 Jobs Added

The US Dept of Labor announced the addition of another 165,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.5%.

The US has been gaining jobs for 38 months in a row. When Bush left office we were losing an average of 750,000 jobs a month. What a difference.

The report also substantially boosted the number of new jobs created in the prior two months. March's payrolls were raised to 138,000, some 50,000 more than previously reported, and February's job count was revised up to 332,000, the largest since May 2010.

And if Congress wasn't so busy trying to sabotage the American workforce for their own political gain with this ongoing "sequestration," the economy would be even more robust.

Republican Jackass of the Week

Meet New Hampshire's Senator Kelly Ayotte (R).

Her approval ratings recently plunged after her incomprehensible vote against required background checks for firearm purchases. In New Hampshire, 75% of all voters approve of background checks, including 56% of Republicans according to PPP (Public Polling Policy).

A WMUR Granite State Poll shows even higher numbers, with 88% wanting background checks, including 83% of Republicans.

But it must be hard to do your job and follow the overwhelming will of your constituents -- you know, the people you represent, who voted for you and pay your salary and furnish your benefits -- when the NRA is delivering wheelbarrows full of money to your door.

One more time: the background checks would keep criminals, the mentally ill, and those convicted of domestic violence from buying guns. I have yet to hear a coherent reason why crazy people and violent criminals should not be stopped from buying guns.

In the clip below, the daughter of the gunned-down principal of Sandy Hook Elementary school in Connecticut politely asks Ayotte why she voted against this common sense bill. Ayotte stumbled but could not provide any kind of answer.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

For putting the special interests of the gun manufacturing lobby ahead of the Americans who pay your salary, you, Kelly Ayotte, are a Jackass. Our Jackass of the Week.

A Republican Accidentally Tells the Truth

Why did almost all Regressive republicans in the Senate vote against basic background checks for weapons purchases a couple of weeks ago, despite 92% of Americans being in favor of them?
 
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania) has the answer.

"In the end it didn't pass because we're so politicized. There were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the president do something he wanted to get done, just because the president wanted to do it," Toomey admitted on Tuesday.

If the President is for it, these jackasses are against it. It's as simple as that.

Read more here. 

Let's Cut Even More Regulations

A 41-year-old man died Friday night after falling into a running meat blender at an Oregon plant that had been cited recently for safety violations.

Industrial hazards have been under increased scrutiny after a fertilizer plant explosion in Texas killed at least 15 people two weeks ago. It had not been inspected in about 30 years. It was allowed to be built just feet away from a school and an old folks home. (Details here.) 

Add these two recent disasters to the BP oil spill, the financial meltdown, the West Virginia coal mine that collapsed...

Tell me again, Dearest Regressive Republicans, how we don't need regulations and should "let the free market do whatever it wants."

Congress "Adjusts" Sequester to Their Own Needs Only

Martin Bashir said it best yesterday:

"It is any surprise that Congress is held in such contempt, when members won't bat an eyelash if the elderly lose 4,000,000 Meals on Wheels, or 100,000 children lose their place under Head Start. But if you delay House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at the airport, then he will pass legislation quicker than he pockets money from the NRA."