Sanity is prevailing. http://t.co/K8OdUsKFgd
— Rep. Pete King (@RepPeteKing) March 3, 2015
In which I am forced to agree with Pete “the Mucker” King. From the Yahoo article:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bitterly admitting defeat, House Republicans on Tuesday abandoned their attempts to use the Homeland Security Department’s spending bill to force concessions from President Barack Obama on immigration, and sent him legislation to fund the agency through the end of the budget year with no strings attached.
“Sanity is prevailing,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, before the House voted 257-167 in favor of the $40 billion spending bill, which Obama was expected to sign promptly. Minority Democrats provided the bulk of the “yes” votes.
The outcome averted a partial agency shutdown which would have begun Friday at midnight. It was a major victory for Obama and the Democrats, and a wholesale retreat for Republicans, who have spent months railing against an “unconstitutional overreach” by Obama in extending deportation stays and work permits to millions of immigrants in this country illegally.
In the end Republicans who’d tried to use the DHS spending bill to undo Obama’s actions had little to show but weeks of gridlock and chaotic spectacle on Capitol Hill in the wake of assuming full control of Congress in the November midterm elections…
Conservative lawmakers who humiliated Boehner last week by voting down a three-week spending bill he proposed did not speak up in the private meeting to dissent or ask questions, people present said.
Afterward, they said they were disappointed but had no more moves to make.
“I don’t know that there is one,” said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. “This is the signal of capitulation.”
The measure passed Tuesday funds the Homeland Security Department through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year. It pays for numerous priorities including Transportation Security agents, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, a host of immigration-related functions and grants to local governments….
Presumably the True Conservatives(tm) figured Netanyahu’s star turn, plus the pointless media agitation about OMGWHEREARETHEEMAILS stirred up by that little weasel Trey Gowdy and his NYT accomplices, provided sufficient radar chaff to distract their crankier constituents. President Obama is, as always, lucky in his enemies — because luck, as the strategists say, favors the prepared mind…
***********
Apart from small quiet achievements, what’s on the agenda for the rest of the day?
Phylllis
Wishing it was mid-May so all this damn mishegas with testing would be over. Leave it up to the SC legislature to make an already bad situation as fuck-ton awful/ridiculous as possible.
rikyrah
ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
Governor Tom Wolf ✔ @GovernorTomWolf
Follow
“So the 1st thing my budget does is restore the $1 billion in cuts to public education that occurred under the previous admin.” – Gov. Wolf
10:45 AM – 3 Mar 2015
Bystander
Isn’t it “Pete (the M’ucker) King”?
The Moar You Know
This is important: NO THEY DIDN’T. This bill was passed by Democratic votes. Not Republican ones. The vast majority of the House GOP all voted against it.
SiubhanDuinne
Since this is an open thread, I will just mention that I have a friend (IRL and FB) who was in line at O’Hare this morning right behind Alex Baldwin, and later was on a flight to Vancouver just a row or two back from William H Macy. My friend holds a responsible position, but he is certainly no celebrity. Just kind of interesting confluence of events.
Amir Khalid
I am curious to know what Werebear thinks of this.
kindness
I feel ashamed.
I just had a quick thought that I would like to have read Sully today with all the hub-ub going on. Then I remembered how I’ve been quite happy not reading him this last month.
I’m ashamed.
JPL
Pelosi said she was promised an up or down vote and I guess even though Boehner and Salise denied it, she was
correct.
askew
Oddly enough I just spent this afternoon taking my annual privacy training and testing. Hillary would have failed the test.
So, it looks like the WH is washing their hands of Hillary’s mess. Press Secretary said today that the WH told all employees to use government email for government work and that the State Dept/Hillary’s team would have to determine whether or not she was in compliance with all regulations/laws.
Also, according to House Oversight Committee who may be full of shit, Hillary has multiple private email accounts that were listed in the emails she gave to the committee. Lovely.
gene108
Much of this could have been avoided years ago, if Boehner brought the Senate immigration bill to the floor for a vote it would have passed with a majority of Democratic votes and enough Republican votes to be considered “bi-partisan”.
Linda Featheringill
@Amir Khalid:
That is charming!
Of course, I am not a cat.
trollhattan
I hope Steeeeve King threw a cantaloupe calf at Peeeete King. King Fight!
askew
I have to say it’s been fun watching Obama rack up win after win in his “lame duck presidency”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
has this been gone over, from the Very Serious Sunday Morning Foreign Policy Sage and Grown Up Republican, Lindsey Graham
his syntax kind of suggests he’s talking about his own surgeries, but I feel safe in saying he was taking a cheap shot at Nancy Pelosi. Does Senator Puff Pastry really wanna establish that as our level of discourse?
trollhattan
@kindness:
Looks like you have two choices:
Join support group.
A bottle of nice Irish whiskey.
I know what my vote would be.
Mike in NC
@kindness: Had Andrew Sullivan been live-blogging Netanyahu’s speech I’d have passed out several hours ago from drinking.
waspuppet
@The Moar You Know: The story does say that, but your point is taken: The overall tone of the story is “Republicans wise up” when it should be “Teabaggers Lose.”
For example:
They couldn’t find one Democrat to say that? Or one Democrat for the entire story?
Mike in NC
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hey, he came in second to last in the all-important CPAC straw poll!
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Everybody who thinks we’re too hard on the poor dear should read that quote. “Catty” doesn’t begin to capture it, and I’d welcome J-Stew revving up Blanche DuBois Graham for this one.
I thought the Senate was the “serious side” of congress?
burnspbesq
Been an interesting day for ol’ Petey, what with getting trolled by Cardinal Dolan (!) and all.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/cardinal-dolan-finally-makes-sense-comparing-isis-to-christian-terrorists-is-an-accurate-analogy/
mdblanche
@trollhattan: That King fight will come to a quick end when Pete kneecaps Steve in retaliation.
beth
@kindness: I keep picturing his poor husband getting thousand word screeds sent to his phone every five minutes and shouting “for Christ’s sake Andrew, blog already!”
TriassicSands
One wonders why the Republicans haven’t figured out by now that this coercive approach to governing doesn’t work as long as the Dems have the filibuster and Obama has the veto. They’re like stubborn little children repeatedly hacking off their noses to spite their faces. Keep on hacking, fools.
@askew:
In some ways it seems more like the Republicans are racking up one loss after another — all self-inflicted. (Just a difference in emphasis.) Obama wins almost by default, because the Republicans are so damn stupid and so incredibly inept. If this were a tennis match, the GOP would have zero aces and an uncountable number of unforced errors. And the great thing is, they’ll be back at it tomorrow.
People actually vote for these clowns. Amazing.
burnspbesq
@The Moar You Know:
Like fcuk they didn’t. A clean bill got passed. Those “no” votes are purely symbolic, an attempt (which is likely to be unsuccessful) to protect them from Teahadist backlash at home.
Republican tails are between Republican legs. Period, full stop.
Bubblegum Tate
Sanity is prevailing.
Or, as my favorite wingnut put it, “The House voted today to approve the filthy and disgusting DHS funding bill – it is called ‘clean’ by the Ruling Class because it cleanly drops a hammer on the American people.”
I didn’t think this would provide so many sweet, sweet wingnut tears.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
A good point. A better way of saying it would be that the House Republican leadership gave up on trying to force concessions. OTOH, that somebody gave up and they passed a clean bill is the really important point; the Democrats were able to win in the face of a Republican majority by sticking together and having a simple, straightforward message.
askew
@TriassicSands:
I’d call them Obama’s wins. Yes, the GOP sucks but a lot of his wins have nothing to do with them – Immigration Executive Order, Cuba announcement, etc.
piratedan
well… based on his past dilliances with Sanity, I’d hardly wager that Peter King knows what she looks like much less address her chances in the Congressional UFC.
Steeplejack
All day I have felt out of sorts, like I am teetering on the edge of coming down with something. Just now starting to catch up on the news of the day. I see Bibi’s speech was the masterpiece we all expected, and here’s the Republicans in Congress functioning like a well oiled machine. I love good government!
My small, quiet achievement was to go to the grocery this afternoon ahead of what I hope will be the last batch of horrid winter weather here in NoVA: “wintry mix” and ice tonight and tomorrow, up to 5" of snow tomorrow night and Thursday. Not much compared to the Northeast, but plenty bad for our wussier clime. So I’m set to hunker down and ride out the whole thing.
And I got some hot and sour soup and egg rolls from the great Chinese restaurant. That was a good early dinner. Ready to face the evening with new resolve.
Patricia Kayden
@The Moar You Know: Dems should run ads featuring the Repubs who voted against funding DHS while we are fighting terrorism abroad. This is political malfeasance.
Patricia Kayden
@gene108: True. But Republicans don’t want immigration reform. T-Baggers would riot if that happened.
boatboy_srq
@waspuppet: When Peter King implies that the Teahad contingent is crazy, you know they’re far gone.
@burnspbesq: @Roger Moore: The fact that the GOTea still needed cover to protect them from a base they’ve riled up beyond any of their expectations and which is near demanding a storming of the WH to arrest and
lynchdetain The Kenyan Usurper says much more than that the leadership knuckled under to uniform Democratic resistance.Iowa Old Lady
Mr IOL will be late flying back from Detroit because Billy Bob’s Pretty Good Airline has decided to make it so. I’m digging leftover stew out of the freezer and reading “Girl on the Train.”
Amir Khalid
It seems that sanity did prevail, over the will of the Republican House caucus rather than by it. Taken together with the affair of Bibi’s speech, it’s as if the majority of House Republicans believe they were elected to spit in Democrats’ faces, rather than to govern or even to act like a sane legislative body.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
They may not be wrong.
Phylllis
@Iowa Old Lady: I’m not much on fiction these days, but that sounds intriguing. The David Zirin book about John Carlos is the Kindle daily deal today for $1.99–snapped it right up.
danielx
Your basic wintry mix coming down, pot roast in slow cooker, and watching cats on America’s Funniest Home videos with the daughter unit, who is in hysterics watching a cat trying to escape from the leg of a pair of jeans.
David Koch
This is Great News for McCain!
ThresherK
Guzzling sliced-lemon/diced-ginger/local-honey steeped in hot water, for my throat.
Dragging around some upper, lower and mid respiratory thing for several days and went to my doctor. Did not require antibiotics, which is good. This thing will run its course, and there’s nothing more than to take whatever steps I’ve done already.
However I’m a bit miffed at myself. I’m not the “run to my doctor for every owie” sort, so I don’t really like that overestimaiting my unwellness feeling.
boatboy_srq
@Amir Khalid: They were. TABMITWH, so Gubmint (big, small, already-drowned-in-the-bathtub) must be stopped before all Good Patriotic Righteous Xtian Hetero Caucasian Real Ahmurrcans™ are rounded up by the IRS, herded onto HUD buses and carted off to solar-powered-and-LED-lit FEMA camps for gay-marriage and reeducation. Nearly every single GOTea candidate from the last three cycles has campaigned on this.
mdblanche
@Roger Moore:
But, but the Sacred Hastert rule, imminent leadership challenge if the Speaker backs down. Sure, there’s no chance The Gang that Can’t Shoot Straight could topple him but they’ll still be big enough jerkasses that he’ll have to go to his dad’s place to commiserate.
lamh36
I’m trying to decide if I want to spend one more day off work for sick leave. I can do 3 days without having to provide a doctors note. I’ve already taken 2…honestly I feel better, just kinda want another day to IDK sleep, but I think I’ll just go ahead in to work. I went out today to pick up a few things and my sinuses did clear a bit. So maybe I need a lil Vitamin D anyway.
…eh…
Liberty60
@Patricia Kayden:
Because had the shoe been on the other foot we would have seen this on a 30 minute rotation on Fox News, 24/7:
“They voted AGAINST the American COMMANDER IN CHIEF of AMERICA during a TIME OF WAR and a CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS!!11 Spitting on American veterans and making Baby Jesus cry for the Crusades!!” During a TIME OF WAR!”
I couldn’t work in “Churchillian resolve” but I lack Frank Luntz’s skill.
TriassicSands
@askew:
Looking beyond Obama —
And I don’t have any problem with your calling them Obama wins — as I said, calling them losses is just a change in emphasis. For example, you could call the immigration executive order an Obama win, but it was made possible by the GOP loss — their failure to do anything on immigration. One reason I’d prefer to think of them as GOP losses is that Obama will be gone in two years and the more people who see the GOP for the clowns they are, the better. In other words, GOP losses may help the Dems more in 2016 than Obama wins will — Obama will go home and take his wins with him. We’ll be left with the public perception of the Republican Party and more emphasis there is on what total losers they are the better.
burnspbesq
@Patricia Kayden:
What you’re asking for would cost somewhere north of $50 million, and would likely be long forgotten before 11/8/16. So I’m not sure it’s worth doing.
Baud
@burnspbesq:
They shut down the whole government in 2013, and no one cared.
Gene108
@Patricia Kayden:
I know they do not want immigration reform, but there a ton of bills the Senat passed, between 2011 and 2015 that the majority of the House would have voted for, if they were ever brought up for a vote.
The fact that Boehner single handedly ground Congress to a halt the last four years has been overlooked. It’s all Democratd and Republicans cannot agree 100% of the time, so nothing should get done or only if a Republican super majority will vote for a bill in the House should it be brought up for a vote.
That is the new narrative of how Congress should work from the MSM. They basically ignore and give cover for Boehner single handedly killing jobs bills, high transportation funding, infrastructure spending, etc.
burnspbesq
@Baud:
If you’re inferring what I think you’re inferring, then I violently agree.
SiubhanDuinne
This is personal, and I’m not at all sure it will happen, BUT….
I want to tap into the BJ hivemind for some advice.
In slightly less than 2-1/2 years, I will be celebrating my 75th birthday. I’d like to do something spectacular on the day, like jump out of a plane or go hang gliding or take a hot air balloon trip, but the truth is, I haven’t the faintest idea where to even start. Where do I find out how much things cost, what kind of shape I should be in, what my options are, etc.
It doesn’t have to be in or around Atlanta. I am wide open for suggestions of all kinds, anywhere.
Baud
@burnspbesq:
Was I inferring or implying?
Mike J
@burnspbesq: We don’t need to buy ads. Boehner ran ads against Republicans himself.
Roger Moore
@Gene108:
It’s only been single handed because the Teabaggers had the other arm twisted behind his back.
Baud
@Mike J:
Damn.
gelfling545
@ThresherK: The fact that your illness does not require antibiotics does not mean a) that you are not really quite sick and b) that the illness does not require watching. If you are not better in a reasonable time, your doctor will now have a good picture of how sick you’ve been and for how long. For some reason they tend to take their own observations more seriously than self-reporting.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
In that case, I suggest having sex with a 25 year old. Or two.
Iowa Old Lady
@SiubhanDuinne: We went zip lining in Mexico a couple of years back and I loved it. You don’t have to be in particularly good shape. As a matter fact, it might not be daring enough for you. But it was a ton of fun.
This was the place:
http://www.vallarta-adventures.com/tours/extreme-zip-line-canopy-adventure#
Be sure to run the video.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
Three; that way their ages will add up to the same.
Heliopause
This was one of those rare occasions where the lunatic wing of the GOP were trying to do the right thing, if for the wrong reasons. Shutting down the Reichs Ministry for Fatherland Security, even for just a few days, would have been the best thing to happen in Washington since 2010.
rikyrah
@lamh36:
I dunno…just go on in, if the mood hits you tomorrow, lamh.
JPL
Ferguson leads ABC news including email by a police officer saying Obama wouldn’t be President for four years because now black man holds a job that long. Second is Petraeus’ sharing of classified information. I normally don’t watch ABC so maybe this is normal.
I was expecting bibibibibibibbi
Mike J
@Heliopause: Just out of curiosity, what do you think would have come of it?
ThresherK
@gelfling545: Thank you, but I am on the mend*, as my PCP agreed with me.
(*Won’t bother you with details except “no more cellophane ears”.)
Baud
@JPL:
I don’t watch network news, but I’m impressed. Which is sad.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Check. Thanks.
SiubhanDuinne
@Iowa Old Lady:
Oh, can’t wait to watch the video. I am actually a pretty timid person, so I’m really putting myself out there. That’s partly why I need two and a half years’ notice.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Roger Moore: Good point. Sequentially enjoyed 25 year olds could make for a hell of a birthday.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Your online persona is not timid, FWIW.
Iowa Old Lady
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m 67 and not happy with heights, so this scared me ahead of time. But it was so much fun and turned out to be not scary once I’d jumped off that first platform.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I like the way you think. That sounds like a lot more fun than jumping out of an airplane!
Baud
@WaterGirl:
One could always combine the two.
JPL
@Baud: The third topic was weather and the fourth was Hillary and at that point I turned it off.
WaterGirl
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): You guys are thinking too small. If you’re doing it right, it’s birthday week, not just one day.
@Baud: Why ruin perfectly good sex (one presumes) by doing something scary?
Baud
@JPL:
Nothing gold can stay.
tybee
@SiubhanDuinne:
a tandem jump is easily had and older folks than you have done that. there are places around atlanta.
or
mrs tybee and i are in our 60’s and did the “carnage run” last year.
http://www.whitewaterexpress.com/chattahoochee/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_8iDKzhvCk
may do it again this year. :)
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Surfing in Hawaii? That could be a nice two-fer. And yes, doing something memorable is a great thing to look forward to.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Some people get off on scary.
David Koch
Wow. If Glenn says it’s a scandal, then it must be scandal. Surely, the people who always quote Glenn to bash Obama aren’t going to stop now that he’s training his impeccable pulitzer pen on their favorite candidate. I mean, their attacks were about principal, not personality – right?
WaterGirl
@Baud: I do not resemble that remark.
If it were me I think I would go for sex + fireworks + water.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Unless someone can prove me wrong, this pic is the best one from the BiBi Cheney-Yahoo speech.
Just a tease to tempt you to click: Tutti Frutti.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Water, huh? I’m shocked.
Mike J
@WaterGirl:
You can have good sex without being scared, but it’s hard to have great sex without it.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He left those happy trail behind.
danielx
@Amir Khalid:
Yes. And your point would be what, again?
retiredeng
@JPL: At this point, if they want to get anything passed, they need to ask Pelosi for permission.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Yeah, who would have guessed?
On another subject, I now know just what muscles I pulled with my “splits on ice” this morning as I stepped out onto the deck with the pups. I seem to have pulled something near my shoulder blade, which showed up a few hours ago, and something else near my armpit, which is just rearing its ugly head now. I must have still been holding on to the handle of the sliding door, about to pull it shut as I stepped out and did the splits.
Just took 2 advil and I’m going to lie down and watch TV until I fall asleep.
@Mike J: That is a longer conversation for another day.
Goodnight everyone.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Feel better.
beltane
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That is the best picture ever. It makes me wish Liberace and other deceased luminaries could also have attended the speech.
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah: First day of Legislative Session in Florida today, Rick Scott opened the State of the State by piling up the bullshit fast and deep.
He hates public speaking and his head bobs around like a lizard when he’s up there talking. David Icke was onto something, people.
Plenty of vile coming from the House floor and the GOP Senate leadership as well, though.
Another Holocene Human
@The Moar You Know: Translation: the stopped using their majority to block a straight up and down vote. That is significant and it is a serious capitulation by the GOP.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Seriously?*
*(Are you just saying that because I sometimes say “fuck”?)
Another Holocene Human
@waspuppet: I think it’s hilarious, actually, but I guess you’d have to know something about politics, I suppose the quick gloss by the non-politics-watchers might reinforce “both sides do it”. However it is tap-dancing on the political aspirations of the Tea Party Crazy Caucus in Congress to quote Peter King throwing them so so hard under the bus … it’s too fucking funny … reporters can’t resist that shit and today I can’t either. I know exactly who he is but a tiny tribalistic NE part of me can’t deny I am LOVING that it’s Steve “cantaloupes” King who’s eating crow tonight while Peter “IRA” King is talking so much shit about him and his buddies. I could eat this up with a spoon.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Just my impression overall.
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
@Iowa Old Lady:
@WaterGirl:
@tybee:
@trollhattan:
Y’all are wonderful! I’m sure this won’t be the last time I ask, but these suggestions are great.
This comment will go into moderation for a while because links.
Anne Laurie
@burnspbesq: On the other hand, individual Dem candidates should most certainly hold on to the B-roll for their local races. “Sure, Rep. Teavangel says he loves America, but then why did he refuse to fund the brave men & women who protect our borders just for partisan political points?!? America’s enemies point & laugh at Rep. Teavangel — don’t let them laugh at you!”
burnspbesq
@Anne Laurie:
Yes, absolutely.
A Humble Lurker
@Baud:
@Roger Moore:
You’d want to disappoint three people for your birthday?
Suzanne
@SiubhanDuinne: Skydiving is what Bush I did.
If I were you, I’d look into hiking Kilimanjaro. Requires no special mountaineering experience—highest walking mountain in the world. See it before the snows are gone. Or run a marathon.
Suzanne
I was at work during Bibi’s speech, though I am reading it and commentary tonight.
What. A. Dick.
I can’t decide if Bush or Cheney is the better analogue. That’s not a compliment either way.
Morzer
@SiubhanDuinne:
Be reckless. Buy a Balloon-Juice subscription!
Joking aside, is there something you’ve always wanted to do, place you’ve always wanted to go, 25 year old you’ve always… sorry, the line’s breaking up. Thanks, Obama!