Month: November 2013

Earlier today, Senator Harry Reid invoked the “nuclear” option to eliminate filibusters for cabinet, sub-cabinet and judicial nominees, providing yet another half-a-loaf baby step forward in moving around endemic Republican obstinance.  The rule change makes it so that the Senate requires a majority (50+1), rather than a supermajority (60) to confirm Presidential appointees to essential roles within government. The change in Senate procedure does not prevent the minority party from filibustering legislation or Supreme Court nominees, which is why the Democrats in the Senate remain namby pamby candy asses.  The biggest problem with the grotesque abuses of the silent...

Over at The Raw Story, they are reporting on a video now circulating of an interview Fox News’ Chris Wallace did recently with Senator Ted Cruz.  In it, Cruz seems to be taken aback by the laughter that erupts from the crowd when he explains that he didn’t want a shutdown. “I didn’t want a shutdown.  Throughout the whole thing, I said, we shouldn’t have a shutdown.” The audience burst out in laughter at that remark. Chris Wallace actually, surprisingly, calls him on this.  “Yes, keep the government open, but only if Obamacare is defunded.” Reality here for Ted...

ThinkProgress just posted this today: On Saturday, nearly 40 armed men, women, and children waited outside a Dallas, Texas area restaurant to protest a membership meeting for the state chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a gun safety advocacy group formed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. According to a spokeswoman for Moms Demand Action (MDA), the moms were inside the Blue Mesa Grill when members of Open Carry Texas (OCT) — an open carry advocacy group — “pull[ed] up in the parking lot and start[ed] getting guns out of their trunks.”...

As of today, officials have confirmed 10,000 lives lost after Supertyphoon Haiyan made landfall and devastated large parts of the Pacific.  Reports so far indicate that this was the most powerful, most intense typhoon to ever make landfall, with sustained winds of more than 195 mph. The IPCC issued a report on climate change recently that laid out the risks of global climate change, and an increase in extreme weather events was one many of the expected consequences.  As the ocean heats, storms will continue to increase in power and destructive force. The climate has definitively warmed, with the...