Inflamed duck, indeed I knew that Republicans had passed a lot of bills through the Michigan legislature during the lame inflamed duck session but I had absolutely no idea just completely batshit nuts they had gone until this morning. That’s when I read this headline at Michigan Radio: MICHIGAN GOVERNOR MAKING HIS WAY THROUGH 282 BILLS Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder […]

John Boehner: between a tea bag and a hard place

John Boehner has been negotiating all week with President Obama and his staff to resolve the “fiscal speedbump” issue. President Obama took a step toward Speaker Boehner in the negotiations by allowing the Bush tax cuts to remain in place for incomes over $400,000/year (up from $250,000), making some cuts to entitlements to be named later and agreeing to a different way to calculate Social Security cost of living increases that would lower how much our seniors get in their monthly allocation by a smidgen — the so-called “chained CPI”.

In return, Boehner offered to extend the debt ceiling for two years and allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for income over $400,000.

This was, however, a bridge to far for his tea party leadership team, according to Ezra Klein at the Washington Post. So, he offered what he’s calling “Plan B” and the response from the White House was a resounding “screw you”.

Check it all out after the jump.

Maintaining a permanent Republican majority the easy way

Yesterday, delegates to the Michigan Electoral College cast Michigan’s 16 votes for Barack Obama. The President won Michigan handily, beating Mitt Romney by nearly 10 points. However, Republicans still maintain control over our state legislature and hour Congressional caucus. How is this possible?

Gerrymandering.

Find out how Republicans are trying to exploit this by changing how we choose our president after the jump.

The one question you need to ask yourself whenever the GOP is fighting for something As Chris has been reporting, Michigan’s GOP is taking the thumping they received on November 6 as a sign they need to become even more extreme by pursuing privatization of schools and a “right to work” for less law. In their effort to bust unions […]

At least we know who they work for now — they’ve made that clear

House Republicans have released a counter-proposal to President Obama’s budget plan to avoid plunging us off the fiscal cliff speed bump. Unsurprisingly, it raises tax revenue but doesn’t allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. In fact, according to analysis by the Washington Post, it appears to lower taxes for the top tax bracket.

Details and more GOPocrisy and insanity after the jump.

Pay no attention to the lobbyist behind the curtain

As LOLGOP pointed out this morning, there are Republicans who handily won re-election in their gerrymandered districts who do not fear the fiscal cliff. They can serve their two-percenter masters without fear that plunging our country into another recession will hurt their political careers in any way. But President Obama has a couple of things going for him. The first is that most Americans WILL blame the Republicans for “going there” if we do, indeed, go off the mythical cliff. Then there’s the fact that he won the election largely because he promised the super-wealthy would no longer be allowed to avoid paying their fair share in taxes.

Democrats are beginning to show some real spine in this debate. Politico reports today that many of them are ready to use their success on November 6th to restore some sanity to our budget.

Details after the jump.

A clown car with a new paint job and faster internet is still a clown car

I’m hoping that LOLGOP will forgive me for stealing his User Picture but it just seems so apropos to this piece. I say that because, considering how much money political consultants make giving bad advice to Republican candidates and their leadership, the GOP elephant pleasuring itself sums up their party to a tee right now.

My take on the current state of the Grand Old Party after the jump.

We’re not getting Obama on the ballot until Malia is ready 2012 was extraordinarily important election because it decided whether ObamaCare would be maimed before it could even go into effect. However, whether the law gets funded and properly will be a constant question because of an election too many Americans just skipped—2010. Republicans got about 500,000 fewer votes for […]

Seizing the moment

“Tuesday night, we found out that the majority of Americans agree with my approach”

That was President Obama yesterday wasting no time in claiming the mandate handed to him by a plurality of Americans: It’s time for an end to Republican obstructionism and, absolutely without question, it’s time to quit pretending that it’s acceptable to balance our budget and reduce our deficit by raising taxes on seniors and the middle class while letting our wealthiest Americans continue to avoid paying additional taxes. It was his first public appearance since the election and it was powerful.

Video, transcript and commentary after the jump.

Recently I said I was finally done with these things, but with yet ANOTHER idiotic, offensive statement by a Republican about rape victims the other day, I’ve been turned into Al Pacino in Godfather III* I therefore present the Republican Rape Advisory Chart…Volume IV. I’ve also included links to the complete 4-volume set; feel free to use/repost as appropriate, but please […]

Yes, that’s right. Just like Peter Jackson’s production of The Hobbit, I’ve found so much raw material to work with that I decided to break what was originally a single story into two, and now three sections. As I reported yesterday, in addition to being front-paged here at Eclectablog and at dKos, the first chart went utterly viral, hitting everything […]