.
Dana Milbank sums up the “Conservative pests [who] swarm John Boehner on Congress’s first day“:
… Twenty-five conservatives — more than 10 percent of the Republican caucus — rebelled against their leader on the first day of the new Congress. It was the largest revolt against a House speaker in more than a century, and the rebels were within striking distance of the 29 votes they would have needed to deny Boehner the speakership — if all sitting members of the House voted.
But more than two dozen were missing when Congress convened at noon, a few because of snow-related travel delays but most of them Democratic members of the New York delegation who were attending Cuomo’s funeral. Because the speaker is elected based on the majority of those voting, this reduced the number of votes Boehner needed from about 218 to 205 — and the conservative rebellion fizzled before it ever had a chance…
It was conservatives’ last, best chance to disrupt Boehner and his leadership team. Right-wing interest groups had pushed for the rebellion against the speaker Monday, claiming it was the most important issue to tea party activists since Obamacare. Conservatives saw it as a crucial time to make their stand because, now that Boehner has the gavel and the largest Republican majority in decades, he can afford to ignore the roughly two dozen die-hard conservatives in his caucus — if necessary, recruiting Democrats to offset their “no” votes on legislation….
And the stalwart RWNJs True Conservatives have learned from this — what?
First action as Chairman. Subpoena Eric Holder on Fast & Furious. @GOPoversight #FastandFurious pic.twitter.com/1xtH4kLMQB
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) January 6, 2015
***********
Apart from watching our opponents proving the old saw about doing the same thing over and over, what’s on the agenda for the day?
OzarkHillbilly
Looking forward to a high of 11 degrees today. At 9 am. Downhill from there.
raven
Lil Bit say ‘mornin.
JCJ
@OzarkHillbilly:
My phone tells me that here in Bangkok it is 91 degrees while back home in Brookfield, Wisconsin is 1 (above zero.) I hope it warms up a bit before I get back!
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: @OzarkHillbilly: Not that far north of you and we are supposed to have a high of 8 and a low of -1. 24 right now, but as you said from now until sometime late tomorrow it is all downhill. I am wondering what the temp will be w/ the windchill. We are supposed to have 20+ MPH winds.
With that said I watched the local news last night, which is something I NEVER do, and you would have thought the end of the world was upon us. I was thinking, “dude we don’t live in caves. We have houses with these things called heaters. I think we’ll all make it.”
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Aw–dorable.
I won’t taunt anyone about the cold weather — I did my time in it and I truly hated having someone else tell me how nice it was down here when I was up there.
Which takes me immediately to Mel Brooks:
[rimshot]
raven
@Mustang Bobby: “We have to protect our phony baloney jobs here”!
Mustang Bobby
@raven: “I didn’t get a harrumph from that guy!”
raven
I posted this and went to bed but it got enough funny comments that I thought I’d post it for the morning crew:
For a while now, Athens-Clarke County has refused to do much to make Prince Avenue safer to cross in spite of pleas from neighborhood residents and businesses—not move a dangerously located crosswalk, install more visible signals or consider even experimenting with fewer travel lanes, medians and/or pedestrian islands.
Now, perhaps county officials have come up with a solution. Tomorrow, the ACC Traffic Engineering Division will install orange flags and flagholders on either side of the crosswalks at The Grit and Daily Grocery.
Pedestrians will be instructed to pick up a flag and wave it before crossing, then replace the flag on the other side. Don’t forget to continue observing traffic, activating the flashing beacon, making eye contact with drivers and proceeding with caution.
Tommy
@raven: Wow and I followed your link and that is a real thing. We can land on the moon but we can’t find a way for people to safely cross the street. Ain’t America great?!
Mustang Bobby
@raven:This makes more sense:
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: The flags been stolen yet?
raven
@Tommy: We walk it every morning. There has been a fight between residents and the city for years. It’s a major street that is actually under the control of the state DOT and they only care about moving traffic from the hinterlands into downtown and UGA. The yokels that drive in haul ass like they are still on the highway so it is a volatile mix.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ll tell you in an hour when we get back. The other local paper had this
“Flag theft was also a problem in Berkeley, Calif., according to that city’s website. During a three-year program there, from 2001-04, the city spent $10,000 to replace stolen flags. Also according to the Berkeley website, just 2 percent of pedestrians used the flags.”
raven
@Mustang Bobby: THIS goes on my FB now!
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
That would be a tropical heatwave here! There is some hope it might climb to ZERO later today. one of those days I’m glad for the carpool, the car will be warm by the time they pick me up.
Tommy
@raven: Well that sucks in general and even more since you walk it daily. There is a place like that in Falls Church, VA. Route 7. Worked near it for years. The city did this very strange thing. They built an elevated pedestrian walkway. But then again in other places Falls Church has speed bumps that are like, well driving over a curb if you don’t slow to almost a stop.
BillinGlendaleCA
Should be in the lower 80’s here in LALALand.
Schlemazel
@raven:
I hope you are careful out there.
There was a similar problem with a road in a Minneapolis suburb & it was a constant battle until a senior and a kid got killed about a week apart. There were some large demonstrations that may have disrupted traffic during rush hour a couple of times & the highway dept installed elevated walkways.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Miami-Dade County has installed a couple of pedestrian-activated stop lights on US 1, perhaps the busiest non-freeway roadway in the county. On lesser-traveled streets they have installed signs that say “STOP when pedestrians are in the crosswalk” with solar-powered flashing lights that are activated by the pedestrians. Oddly enough, they work.
raven
@Schlemazel: For us the worst spot is a corner close to the beginning of our walk where people haul ass into Prince from a feeder street that comes in from the county. We approach from the left and lots of people are turning right and do not look in our direction. There are school crossing guards there when we come back and we always marvel at the “crazy people”!
OzarkHillbilly
“Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter.”
I hereby propose a National Kirby Delauter Day!
Mustang Bobby
@Schlemazel: I remember waking up on beautiful sunny morning in Minneapolis in January 1977 and the weather blurb on the TV informed me it was -17. That’s not the coldest I’ve been (Petoskey used to get down to -20), but they were so Minnesota-nice about it that it seemed normal.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: The two spots where those flags are going have the really bright flashing lights and they have not done the trick.
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: Gotcha covered, fella.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: I think he learned the meaning behind the saying “never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.” Did you see the op-ed the paper wrote? Used his name 27 times. There was a footnote. It just said “Kirby Delauter.” If you took the letter that started the first 13 sentences, you got it, spelled “Kirby Delauter.” That paper has a flipping sense of humor …. and good for them. Cause this is laugh out loud funny.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: So they think someone waving a flag will make a difference. Oy.
Schlemazel
@Mustang Bobby:
I remember 3 straight days of -30, walking to school. Now it gets to -10 or so with a wind & they close the schools! Now, where did I leave the onion for my belt?
@Mustang Bobby:
Well of course! People ignore flashing lights but an orange flag is an attention getter. OY! is right.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: Rachel had a segment on him as well last night.
Mustang Bobby
@Schlemazel: No wonder my grandparents, who lived a block from Lake Harriet, requested that they be cremated. It was the first time they were warm. (Thank you, Robert W. Service.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: Acchhh … you Minnesotans all think you know cold. I once went floating at 20 below F! Of course, my MN Sis does something like that every day. In all seriousness, one of the most beautiful mornings of my life. The river was robin egg blue with 6 inches of snow on the ground and everything else covered in 2-3 inches of hoar frost.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah watching Rachel now and she is just getting into it. This should be good.
Randy P
You kids and your complaints about the cold.
We went to visit my sis in Wisconsin last week and it was single digits most of the week. Did that bother us? Heck no!
Of course we spent the whole week indoors eating good food and drinking wine, while enjoying a roaring fireplace and a houseful of warm friendly beasts.
So then what happens? I get a miserable cold from the plane ride back to the balmy skies of Philly. Oy.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
you get used to it I guess.
@Mustang Bobby:
When people ask how we could move from Florida to Minnesota I say “you know, its warm in hell too but I like it here better.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: My Sis sure did.
Meanwhile, in Cincinnati a police officer shot an armed black man: Himself.
(i suppose not really funny, but the line just wrote itself.)
Mustang Bobby
@Schlemazel: I did move from Florida to Minneapolis in 1975 to go to grad school, trading one UM for another. The difference is that it’s in the summer down here that we stay inside to keep out of the harsh weather.
JPL
@raven:
Hopefully, those that have to wave flags to cross the street have mittens on today and tomorrow, or they will be in danger of frostbite. At least that’s what the local news is telling me.
BruinKid
Shit shit shit shit shit. Gunmen have killed at least 11 people at a satirical Paris magazine, and are still on the loose.
JPL
I still have sweet potatoes in my shed. Yesterday I covered them but I’m not sure that’s enough to prevent freezing.
JGabriel
@Tommy:
We were able to land on the moon. Nowadays? Maybe not so much. I doubt we still have functioning equipment for the job. Sure, it could be rebuilt easily enough – much more easily, for instance, than getting Republicans to fund it though.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone.
Sitting in my car, warming it up.
Windchill currently -23.
JGabriel
@Tommy:
Or who buy bandwidth by the gigabit.
Southern Beale
Apparently some Catholic extremists actually got enough money to make a movie claiming “amazing new scientific evidence” that the earth is the center of the universe! And it’s coming to a theater near you!
Tommy
@JGabriel: I like he pulled out the “do you know who I am” line. Whenever that line is used, well things never end well even for people far more famous, rich, and powerful than he is. He is freaking council member.
Bystander
BruinKid, now they are saying 11 dead, two of whom are policemen. Moanin’ Joe, lover of freedom, is blaming the magazine.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Roll up your windows. ;-)
Mustang Bobby
@Bystander:
What happened to the “They hate us for our freedoms” meme?
Anabasis
I think the Republicans need t o change.
Lurking Canadian
@Southern Beale: Well, both the Newtonian and Relativistic models of the cosmos reject the existence of any preferred frame of reference, which means you CAN formulate everything as though the Earth were the centre of the universe. Makes the math inconvenient, though.
leeleeFL
@Southern Beale: and the little BabyJebus laughed his butt off!
raven
Well damn, lil walk and the shit comes down.
NotMax
@Schlemazel
Back when lived in St. Paul, there was one January when the high for the entire month was zero.
Forget precisely what the actual temperature was one particularly brisk night, but distinctly remember the weather reports estimated the wind chill made it feel like minus 84. Still had to wake up once or twice during the night/wee hours of morning, bundle up and head out to start up and run the car for a while, a nightly ritual of winter.
MattF
@Tommy: I have a suspicion that you’re not dealing with someone who learns from experience. The guy is a known hothead and pain-in-the-ass who happened to get elected to a local government position, so this business is just expanding his repertoire.
NotMax
@Schlemazel
Back when lived in St. Paul, there was one January when the high for the entire month was zero.
Forget precisely what the actual temperature was one particularly brisk night, but distinctly remember the weather reports estimated the wind chill made it feel like minus 84. Still had to wake up once or twice during the night/wee hours of morning, bundle up and head out to start up and run the car for a while, a nightly ritual of winter.
(Repost due to linkage error.)
SFAW
@Mustang Bobby:
The French (a/k/a cheese-eating surrender monkeys) have ALWAYS hated us for our freedom fries. So they deserve it. Or somethin’.
debbie
@raven:
Move city offices to one side of the bridge and set up their parking lot on the other side. Bet that’d get a reaction from the DOT.
SFAW
@MattF:
Re: expanding his repertoire: Jeb’s already doing oppo on this guy. He’s seriously concerned – a guy who combines the stupidity of Gohmert, the assholishness of LePage, the slightly-non-Real-‘Murikan name of Rancid Prickus, and the arrogance of … just about every Rethug. He’s a Reichtard’s dream.
ETA: Oh yeah, he hates the press. Although these days, with most of the MSM turning into the Stenographer’s Society, that’s no big thing.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
What a nimrod. This is the best: “Finally, as something of an Easter egg for the careful reader, the first letter of each paragraph spelled KIRBY DELAUTER.”
raven
I need Mika to explain to me that 12+ people shot with AK’s is “carnage”.
Iowa Old Lady
They’re really going after Fast and Furious again? It’s like Groundhog Day. I suppose it keeps them out of the streets.
High of 0 here today.
Valdivia
if you’re looking for french reporting in english France24 is online, good reporting from the scene
http://www.france24.com/en/livefeed/
horrible, the editor is apparently dead.
ETA–apparently they called the journalists by name, so hunting specific people in the office.
MomSense
I was almost taken out by a front end loader driving in reverse really fast. I was blaring my horn but I think he was wearing some kind of ear protection. The look of horror on the crossing guard’s face as I crossed into the left lane and drove between oncoming cars and the front end loader as other cars slid to a halt was pretty incredible. Glad that wasn’t the last thing I saw in this life. The driver of the loader was looking over his right shoulder and I must have been in his blind spot. Do not get in the way of snow removal in Maine.
I don’t think I will need any coffee this morning.
Kay
@Iowa Old Lady:
They’ve been telling their base that Obama is breaking the law at least once a month for 6 years. They don’t have any choice. If Obama has been breaking the law for 6 years and no one is ever prosecuted then they’re all complicit. The base are halfway there anyway. A lot of them think they ARE complicit, which is not crazy. If someone in power tells you over and over that there is CLEAR lawbreaking going on and nothing happens, it’s rational to think those people are part of it, or at least completely ineffective and inept.
They can’t drop it. If they do they were lying the whole time or they’re not doing their jobs. Pick one.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: What about clean pants?
Steeplejack (tablet)
It’s 23° here in NoVA, wind chill of 8°, and I have to go to the dentist in an hour. Just a checkup, but I don’t want to be out and about. Brr!
Valdivia
@Steeplejack (tablet):
it is so so cold. One of my cats is even skipping his live tv street show because the area near the window is freezing.
bundle up!
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
I had to go home and change–because my coffee sloshed all over me!!
bemused
@Schlemazel:
You never really “get used to it”. You layer, adding a layer each decade after age 50 as needed. Gotta love the modern lightweight fabrics for outdoor clothing.
MN is a great place to own northern breed dogs with double layer coats, malemutes, huskies, samoyeds. They adore snowy and frigid days and beg to go out. I have seen some of those breeds in southern states and have always felt sorry for those pups never or rarely getting to experience the joy of northern winters.
Bystander
To finish up Moanin’ Joe’s Dispensary of Knowledge, Ayn Rand II explained that the French haven’t experienced terrist attacks the way the U.S. has. How big an idiot do you have to be to be on MJ?
Josie
@bemused: I had an akbash (Turkish goat herding dog). They are bred to stay with the sheep and goats out in the cold mountain winters. On the few really cold, rainy days we had in South Texas, she would go sit in the middle of the yard and smile.
Lurking Canadian
@bemused: It’s not so much about getting used to it. It’s that you have to commit. You need the long underwear. And the coat. And the neck protection. And the face protection. And the warm gloves. And (especially) you need the hat.
Where people get in trouble is thinking they can get away with shoes, no hat, thin leather gloves and a raincoat. No, you can’t. We are tool-using primates. Use the tools.
burnspbesq
@Valdivia:
Lemonde.fr is reporting that the dead include four of France’s best-known political cartoonists.
Tenar Darell
@bemused: @Josie: I always feel sorry for mini greyhounds and other small breeds in weather like today. It’s actually a balmy 18’F, but that is still too cold for them.
This seems the right place to post some animals who like snow and cold. Pandas rolling in the snow.
bemused
@Josie:
We are a Samoyed family and this breed sports smiley faces too. They aren’t water dogs, lacking the oilier hair, so they aren’t so fond of rain. As soon as the rain turns to snow though, they can’t wait to tear around in it totally excited and energized. They will take naps in snowstorms getting almost covered completely before they get up and shake themselves off. They have mellow temperaments and love people.
I had not known of Akbash breed before. They are huge! They sound like perfect dogs for guarding stock.
Valdivia
@burnspbesq: yes, all very well known and not exclusively working for Hebdo. It was their meeting day so all the staff were there and the attackers called them by name, targeting them. The New Yorker had a profile of the magazine not so long ago and there are good summaries of the work of the cartoonist that were killed in the french papers. Terrible.
Josie
@bemused: They are huge. Teddi weighed about 150 lbs. She guarded me and the cats with great seriousness, but she was the sweetest, smartest dog I have ever had. Samoyeds sound similarly wonderful.
bemused
@Tenar Darell:
It’s more of a challenge having cold loving dogs in a hot climate and vice versa. We don’t get a lot of high 90 degree days in northern MN but we pay more attention to their comfort when we do.
ruemara
@MomSense: Thank goodness you’re safe. This has been quite very bad couple of days with violence in the news.
BruinKid
@Bystander: Who’s Ayn Rand II?
bemused
@Josie:
Very sweet and smart describe Samoyeds too. We got a companion almost 2 years ago for our five year old female (and us!) when our older one passed away at 13. She really missed her pal, being an only dog plus we like being a 2 dog family.The older one is about 55#, taller frame and younger is only 40# so they look like Mutt and Jeff together but they bonded immediately, really tight. A bonus from getting an active puppy is that the older dog gets a lot more exercise from all that romping. Puppies insist on playing almost every moment they are awake. The older one dropped weight she gained from laying around mourning, fit and trim in just a couple of months. The younger one is a huge cuddler too. Loads of fun at our house.
Tenar Darell
@bemused: I’ve never lived where I could have a dog, and I’m very allergic to cats, but reading all the dog and cat tales here does me good. I’m guessing that the shedding each spring in your home is epic! I bet that your dogs keep you active outdoors except during heat waves. (There’s something about mad dogs and Englishmen in that somewhere; not enough coffee yet to think of it).
bemused
@Lurking Canadian:
It’s a matter of survival. Just today read in local paper of a missing woman who went walking and it’s been bouncing below zero for day highs and dangerous windshield temps. She sounds like she was dressed for a short walk but probably needed more protection for the weather this week.
@Tenar Darell:
What a fun video to watch. Reminded us of the dogs playing in the snow.
bemused
@Tenar Darell:
How is the shedding with the Akbash? Oh yeah, when our dogs start to blow their undercoats starting in late spring, early summer, it’s a big job grooming them. I just wish all the hair would let loose evenly at the same time. Hours of grooming, mountains of hair, lovely fluffy stuff. It is very close to texture of mohair and I had some skeins of yarn spun from hair of previous dogs. Beautiful yarn. There are a couple of great fast speed videos of Samoyed owners combing the hair out, astonishing amount at the end. Now I just spread the collected hair around the outer fringes of our yard (we live in the country on 60 acres) for the birds to line their nests and hopefully deter the deer.
Elizabelle
Could we do a thread on the murders at Charlie Hebdo? I have no interest in Jeb Bush, and freedom of the press — as practiced by irreverent (and often aggravating) leftists who truly believe in freedom of the press AND freedom from a religious state — would be a fitting topic.
Ten of the Charlie Hebdo journalists and staff, at least, are lying dead and were targeted because of their work. Plus two police officers, perhaps assigned to protect them.
PLUS: I am thinking how — um — delicate a situation this might be for our homegrown rightwingers, in expressing solidarity with the victims.
On the one hand, you have (mostly) white people shot dead by Islamic terrorists in a major urban center.
However: they were leftists, skewered rightwingers and religious types — whether Islamic, Christian, or Jewish. And they were French. Ouch.
Elizabelle
@MomSense:
That would be terrifying. There but for the grace of Dog!!
Glad you are OK. Suspect that front loader driver will be more careful in future. Probably shook him up good too.
And liked hearing you and your wonderful sons listen to Elon and discuss his topics. Parenting at its finest.
Elizabelle
@Valdivia:
I’ve asked Anne or whoever to put up a thread about Charlie Hebdo.
For whatever reason, the fresh thread focuses on Jeb Bush. Vomit.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Valdivia:
If they had told me when I scheduled the appointment in July that it would be this cold I would have picked a different day!
Mike in NC
Cartoon looks frighteningly close to Dick Cheney.
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly: Seconded! My FB friends (even the conservative ones) are piling on with laughter over Kirby Delauter. Yes, that Kirby Delauter.
Josie
@bemused: Teddi did a lot of shedding even though I combed a lot out with a special rake. She couldn’t hold a candle,however, to my present dog, a corgi. He is a small dog with a big dog attitude and ability to spread hair to every corner of the house. He also has a wonderful smile. Love those smiling doggy faces.