Quote :

"You've heard me rail against how deep our social safety net goes, but even I think this is ridiculous."

Perhaps Kansas should support free birth control and give easier access to abortion clinics if it is serious about reducing social spending....

We all know how bible thumping states think though, often logic is overridden by blind religious fervor.

6/19/2015 3:55:21 PM

no, republicans are now going after family planning (birth control)

House Republicans Try to Zero Out Funding for Family Planning
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2015/06/16/house_republicans_and_title_x_they_want_to_zero_out_federal_funding_for.html

Quote :

"The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies just offered a budget proposal that would end federal family planning programs. "None of the funds appropriated in this Act may be used to carry out title X of the [Public Health Service] Act," the bill reads. Title X is the only federal program dedicated solely to providing contraception and other preventive reproductive health services. That's right, they're trying to zero out Title X—the only federal program that directly subsidizes contraception—as well as other reproductive health care programs for low-income patients. Affordable STI tests? The pack of $15 birth control pills you get from Planned Parenthood? The Pap smear you got at the public health clinic? They want to get rid of all of it. "

6/19/2015 3:57:54 PM

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/245535-lindsey-graham-defends-confederate-flag-it-works-here

Graham is pro racist symbology.

6/19/2015 4:29:48 PM

Quote :

"You've heard me rail against how deep our social safety net goes, but even I think this is ridiculous."

I'm sure there a machine out there somewhere that spits out $5s, but most of the ATMs I use only dispense $20s. Then there's the $1 fee Kansas charges welfare recipients for each transaction, plus whatever the ATM owner charges.

That $25 limit really means you're going to spend $23-$24 to put a twenty in your pocket.

6/19/2015 6:14:40 PM

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/19/rick-perry-charleston-church-shooting-accident?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Tweet

Can't really get what rick perry is saying here. Hope none of you ever wonders again why minorities, and people who are actually against racism, don't vote republican, and won't be any time soon.

6/19/2015 6:30:21 PM

No, no. It's because of:
* Gun-free Zones
* Gays
* Abortion
* Drugs
* The teaching of evolution (so says Rush Limbaugh)
...... All of these (and others) I heard just today via conservative media....

6/19/2015 9:30:20 PM

Does the GOP not realize that Hispanics and Asians are paying close attention to how they react to this? Digging in their heels to support racist symbology, and lukewarm condemnations of such a tragic event won't fade in peoples' minds. I can't imagine how embarrassed "moderate" republicans must feel right now.

6/19/2015 11:50:20 PM

Quote :

"http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/charles-cotton-nra-charleston-shootings I saw burro espousing this same idiocy earlier."

What? Please, point me to the post where I said the pastor would still be alive today if he had just not supported gun control. Your hatred of me has cause you to go insane, apparently.

6/20/2015 12:09:58 AM

On 6/19 at 12:30 am, you implied that these people would have been alive had they thought to wisely carry a gun on them at all times.

6/20/2015 12:51:31 AM

Romney is pro removing the confederate flag from the state house.

If the SC gov had any balls she would take the flag down and deal with the consequences.

6/20/2015 3:35:05 PM

^^ you're starting to lose it, and now you're moving the goalposts.

not supporting gun control != carrying a gun with you at all times.

And that's not even remotely what I was talking about in the post I assume you are referencing.

6/20/2015 6:22:06 PM

I think burro is usually a hyperbolic blowhard with a tenuous grasp on reality, but you just out-burroed him with that one.

6/20/2015 7:41:04 PM

Quote :

"no, republicans are now going after family planning (birth control) House Republicans Try to Zero Out Funding for Family Planning"

why why why?

I don't understand how one can be a conservative or a republican and not support subsidized birth control.

BC equates to:

- Less abortions (which makes the christian base happy)
- Less welfare and food stamp babies (to make the fiscal conservative base happy)
- Less minorities!!!! (we know how republicans in the south feel about dark people)

I suppose these blow hards live in some idealistic fanstasy land where people won't have sex until marriage and are so badly blinded by dogma they can't see a pragmatic solution to a societal problem.

[Edited on June 22, 2015 at 12:21 PM. Reason : a]

6/22/2015 12:21:02 PM

birth controls leads to rampant amounts of sex out of wedlock/sex that isn't for procreation. Duh

6/22/2015 1:34:46 PM

and that makes god angry which causes tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, fires, and earthquakes

6/22/2015 1:44:33 PM

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/-empathy-gop-presidential-race-2016-/397115/

a solid assessment that speaks to why some on this board are fed up with the party

6/29/2015 4:55:44 PM

Until those same folks quit voting republican (any republican), nothing is gonna change.

/former republican

6/30/2015 11:36:37 AM

They are deathly afraid of the religious right, because they helped Obama win his second term. Why? Because they didn't want to vote for a Mormon. A fucking Mormon. Who cares if Romney was Mormon. I think he would've made a good president, and closer to the middle than anything we have now.

Until the religious right move off into their own party and have their own candidate, you're gonna see all Republican hopefuls dodge questions about abortion and gay marriage.

6/30/2015 12:21:50 PM

Did the Christian Right really vote for Obama because Romney was a Mormon? I'm curious what percentage actually did this.

While Obama says he's Christian, most GOP folks I know are convinced he's Muslim and would vote Mormon as the lesser of two evils.

6/30/2015 12:44:11 PM

more republicans voted for Romney than they did McCain

6/30/2015 12:44:20 PM

Quote :

"They are deathly afraid of the religious right, because they helped Obama win his second term. "

ahahahahahah you are sooooooo precious

6/30/2015 1:23:04 PM

They didn't vote for Obama, they just didn't vote. So yea, they voted for Obama.

6/30/2015 2:59:55 PM

you just really don't care to back up what you say, do you?

it's not that difficult

6/30/2015 3:19:12 PM

79 percent of evangelicals and a 6 point change? wow, rjrumfel is like extra wrong

6/30/2015 4:15:41 PM

^^I have no skin in this game, but i believe he was talking actual numbers, yet you pulled up a chart with percentages.

Quote :

"A cliff-hanger presidential election, major issues at stake, an estimated $6 billion spent in the 2012 campaigns and an eight million person increase in the eligible voters all failed to sustain the upward momentum for turnout from 2004 and 2008. Voter turnout dipped from 62.3 percent of eligible citizens voting in 2008 to an estimated 57.5 in 2012. That figure was also below the 60.4 level of the 2004 election but higher than the 54.2 percent turnout in the 2000 election. Despite an increase of over eight million citizens in the eligible population, turnout declined from 131 million voters in 2008 to an estimated 126 million voters in 2012 when all ballots are tallied. Some 93 million eligible citizens did not vote. The turnout percentage of eligibles voting was down from 2008 in every state and the District of Columbia, except two – Iowa and Louisiana. The turnout numbers of citizens who cast ballots were down in every state but six – Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, North Dakota and Wisconsin."

http://bipartisanpolicy.org/library/2012-voter-turnout/

[Edited on July 1, 2015 at 12:25 AM. Reason : ]

7/1/2015 12:24:13 AM

Percentages matter though because his claim was that evangelicals didn't vote for Romney because he is Mormon and that's why he lost, but the percentages show that's not why he lost.

7/1/2015 4:40:11 AM

It certainly didn't help.

He lost because of the media and the unrelenting PAC ads. The whole "Romney killed my wife" shit, "fire Big Bird" and "Binders full of women" campaigns worked to his disadvantage. But those folks that didn't turn out to vote? Shame on them.

7/1/2015 8:55:39 AM

7/5/2015 10:31:54 AM

Looks like Jeb and Trump so far are the rising stars.

This makes me think Jeb will be the nom, but I don't see Jeb bringing out the vote?

7/13/2015 3:40:08 PM

Quote :

"and that makes god angry which causes tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, fires, and earthquakes "

LOL.

I wonder why god was so mad at Texas this past spring even after they passed their anti-abortion legislation.

7/13/2015 6:31:42 PM

get a load of this happy horseshit from speaker boehner today:

http://www.speaker.gov/general/ending-president-obama-s-man-made-water-shortage-california

claims the entire california drought is because of obama...well, "california democrats"...and has nothing to do with the climate. the drought is completely man-made

of course, he does this by obfuscation - hoping that by saying something in odd units of measurement, in this case 3 million acre-feet of water, will just be accepted and overlooked.

so I did the math. an acre foot of water is 325,851 gallons (source: http://www.ose.state.nm.us/WR/glossary.php). which is a lot. and then when you say there is a loss of 3 million of those puppies, it's a whole lot. 977.6 million gallons. woah!

but then I found that the drought stood at 63 trillion gallons...in august of last year (source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/28/californias-drought-what-losing-63-million-gallons-of-water-looks-like/)

which means these 3 million acre feet of water would account for 1.552% of the total drought losses...if the drought stopped last august.

if it has continued at the same rate of 3.5 trillion gallons a month that was observed to get to the august, that 3 million acre-feet is just 0.963% of the total water loss

fucking great work, speaker

[Edited on July 14, 2015 at 3:34 PM. Reason : .]

7/14/2015 3:33:37 PM

You're right that the amount of water they are talking about is pretty insignificant in the big scheme of things. I don't think acre-feet was necessarily used to be deceptive though, I've seen it used before to describe large impoundments of water, since its pretty descriptive, acres of surface area of the lake multiplied by its depth (obviously an accurate calculation requires more effort than that).

What he really isn't telling you is the other reasons that water was released. Chinook Salmon fisheries (probably a $billion industry) and to help prevent saltwater intrusion in the bay area also require regular flows of water throughout the year.

7/14/2015 4:52:59 PM

acre-feet is an appropriate unit and should be much easier for most people to visualize in gallons, its a common standard unit

7/14/2015 5:25:35 PM

Wow the anti global warming community is starting to sound about as moonbat crazy as the Dick Cheney insider 9/11 conspiracy theorists.....

So what started out as LIES by liberal america hating scientists to keep their cushy jobs researching climate change has progressed to the democrats secretly creating a drought in California causing $billions in damages just so they can push forward their climate change agenda to destroy the economy.

7/14/2015 7:07:07 PM

and that should just about be the end of the Donald

7/18/2015 1:18:54 PM

^
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/donald-trump-john-mccain-war-hero/

This whole thing has to be some performance on Trumps part. Or maybe being born with a silver spoon has just made him so out of touch with reality. Either way, i can't imagine how anyone would continue to support him.

7/18/2015 3:30:27 PM

SI'm not sure. It wouldn't be the first GOP nominee to shit on another politician's war service. Bush swiftboated McCain and John Kerry got shit on too.

If Trump continues to rise, or even just sustains his position, in the polls, then we should all she a tear for what conservatism has become. It's sad.....and frightening.

[Edited on July 18, 2015 at 3:52 PM. Reason : Oops, I guess it was Kerry that was swift boated. Point still stands.]

7/18/2015 3:46:40 PM

GOP: It's OK to assassinate the honorable service most of us didn't do...as long as the service was done by a democrat

7/20/2015 4:03:29 PM

Quote :

" Oops, I guess it was Kerry that was swift boated"

Bush* had a smear campaign against McCain that claimed he had a black child out of wedlock, his wife was a drug addict, and that he was a homosexual; that's probably why you got them mixed up

*an unknown party

7/20/2015 4:19:33 PM

lol Trump ain't gonna lose points for this McCain thing

7/20/2015 4:36:21 PM

Jeb Bush Promises To 'Challenge The Whole Culture' Of Washington
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/20/424722465/jeb-bush-promises-to-challenge-the-whole-culture-of-washington

LOL, so the 2nd son of a recent president, who's family has been part of american politics for decades thinks he's the one that's going to challenge the whole culture of washington?

C'mon Jeb, nothing about that makes any sense.

7/20/2015 5:34:25 PM

^^
:-/

Quote :

"A new ABC News/Washington Post poll released Monday found Trump with 24% support among Republican voters. That almost doubles his next-closest opponent, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who had 13%. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) is in third place with 12%. Unlike a Monmouth University poll released earlier in the day, the ABC survey found that Trump's support dropped on Sunday compared to the earlier days the pollster was in the field. However, the sample size that day was relatively small. That drop could have been a consequence of Trump's controversial claim on Saturday that Sen. John McCain (R-McCain), a former prisoner of war, was not a "war hero." The real-estate developer quickly reversed his position, however, and insists he recognized McCain as a hero. The comment has since been the subject of a media firestorm."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-dominates-stunning-2016-212924033.html

7/21/2015 12:44:21 AM

As someone that occasionally interacts with DOT personnel, these Highway Trust Fund shenanigans are turning into a huge headache. What is so damn controversial about appropriating money for this countries BASIC infrastructure? Why can we not fund anything for longer than 3 months (if that bill even passes).

7/28/2015 4:07:46 PM

because politicians are deathly afraid of anything that could be considered a tax increase and the highway fund is funded by the gas tax

there are a bunch of things to be legitimately infuriated by when it comes to politics, but this is at the top of the list for me. there is absolutely no excuse to have an infrastructure as dated and inefficient (and dangerous) as we currently have.

7/28/2015 5:03:54 PM

It wouldn't be controversial if that's all the proposed Highway Bill did - fund basic infrastructure. It's the unrelated amendments and bloated spending that make it controversial.

7/29/2015 6:50:32 AM

That's a part of my point though. The senate cobbled together a 3 year extension. It's overall a crappy bill since it uses lame accounting tricks to fund the trust, but by-God, they put something together that looked like a majority could vote for...

Then McConnell allowed an amendment repealing Obamacare. Why add a poison pill this late in the game and this close to the deadline? Fucking dumb congress fucks, that's why.

7/29/2015 1:37:06 PM

I wish I could provide an explanation for anything GOP leadership in the Senate has done since assuming the majority again, but most low level grassroots bomb throwers like myself aren't in the loop. Don't forget the Ex-Im Bank amendment which was also inserted last minute by Sen. McConnell himself - who then promptly voted against his own amendment I guess so he could tell his constituents in KY he voted against the Ex-Im Bank while still collecting the campaign contributions from Ex-Im Bank corporate proponents. The Obamacare vote was designed to fail bc cloture requires 60 votes and McConnell knew it wouldn't get 60 - and it actually only got 49 meaning some R's didn't even vote for it. It was basically another Obamacare show vote so leadership could appear to be doing something to oppose the president.

Yes, it's a clusterfuck.

7/29/2015 1:52:24 PM

Ted Cruz the science denier:

“If you look at satellite data for the last 18 years, there’s been zero recorded warming,” Cruz said in California’s Orange County. “The satellite says it ain’t happening.”

Instead, Cruz said, government researchers are reverse engineering data sets to falsify changes in the climate. “They’re cooking the books. They’re actually adjusting the numbers,” Cruz said. “Enron used to do their books the same way.”

“I’m saying that data and facts don’t support it,” Cruz said to applause from 450 donors to the political network organized by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

Science, however, does not back up Cruz’s position. Geochemist James Lawrence Powell, an adviser to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, reviewed peer-reviewed science journals and found that only two articles rejected climate change during 2013. His sample size: 10,885 articles.


http://time.com/3981623/ted-cruz-climate-change/?xid=fbshare

8/3/2015 11:35:11 AM

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/07/iran_hearings_the_congressional_grilling_of_john_kerry_and_ernest_moniz.single.html

Quote :

"The most disturbing thing about this exchange isn’t Cruz’s obnoxiousness. It’s his intellectual confidence in the face of his own ignorance. He doesn’t know the slightest fraction of what Moniz knows about EMPs. Either Cruz doesn’t understand this difference between himself and Moniz, or he doesn’t care. He hasn’t even taken the trouble to read the full transcript. And when he’s given a complex scientific answer to a simplistic, politically crafted question, he rejects it. Can any thinking person, after reading this exchange, feel comfortable with Cruz as president?"

You could pretty much say the same about all of them IMO, this whole Iran debate has exposed them as a clown party who will drag us to the brink of another war if given the chance.

8/3/2015 12:31:13 PM

^ i wonder if they're just playing it up for the cameras and media, but they act normally in the classified meetings?

8/3/2015 1:28:27 PM