by

News/Politics 2-28-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

As always, Open Thread.

____________________________________________________

First, a feel good story. Well, at least for me and fellow Yankee fans. The rest of ya’s, probably not. 😯

Say Hello! to the next generation. 🙂

From FoxSportsSouthwest

“Andy Pettitte is just like any other baseball dad who happens to have played 17 MLB seasons for the New York Yankees and Houston Astros and won five World Series titles.

“He sends me a text before every game that says, ‘Good luck buddy, to God be the glory.’ ” Josh Pettitte said. “He’s just a bystander now.”

Well, sort of. The younger Pettitte, who plays for Deer Park High School near Houston, threw a no-hitter on Friday against the Boerne (Texas) Champion Greyhounds. He struck out 10 and walked one, and then admitted it is pretty helpful to have one of the best pitchers of a generation as your father.”

Cue my maniacal laugh. 🙂

____________________________________________________

Next, an Update.

Key provisions of the Voting Rights Act appear to be in jeopardy. Maybe it’s just me, but the lawyer for the DoJ sounded unprepared for the obvious questions from the Justices.

From NBCNews

“Central parts of an election law dating back to the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, the Voting Rights Act, appeared to be in jeopardy Wednesday after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a challenge to them.”

“When Verrilli defended the section 5 of the law, Chief Justice John Roberts asked him, “Do you know which state has the worst ratio of white voter turnout to African American voter turnout?”

Verrilli said he did not, to which Roberts replied: “Massachusetts. Do you know what has the best, where African American turnout actually exceeds white turnout? Mississippi.”

Roberts then asked Verrilli which state has the greatest disparity in registration between whites and African Americans, and again Verrilli did not know.”

Pete Williams is pretty upset. 🙂

And if you feel like checking out the comments be warned. This is NBC after all, so cries of voter suppression and racism are the norm.

____________________________________________________

Meanwhile, President Obama has Verrelli calling on the Supreme Court to overturn DOMA.

From CNSNews

“On Friday, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli formally filed a legal brief with the Supreme Court, calling the  law unconstitutional and “discriminatory against gays and lesbians.”

“It is abundantly clear that this discrimination does not  substantially advance (the government’s) interest in protecting  marriage, or any other important interest,” Verrilli wrote in the  67-page document.

“The Statute simply cannot be reconciled with the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection,” he said.

Conservative legal experts like Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, say the government’s position is “outrageous.”

____________________________________________________

Mr. Woodward should have seen this coming. It is after all, the Chicago way.

____________________________________________________

Lawmakers are attempting to override the Obama admins decision to declare the Ft. Hood shootings “workplace violence”. They are correct. Call it what it was. Terrorism, motivated by Islam.

From PJMedia

“Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), whose district includes Fort Hood, told PJM the base is soldiering on, but a recent ABC News interview in which the officer who shot Hasan during the rampage says President Obama has “betrayed” the victims came as no surprise to him.”

“Carter just introduced yet again legislation to ensure that the victims and victims’ families in the Fort Hood attack are eligible for the same treatment, benefits, and honors as Americans killed or wounded in an overseas combat zone.”

“Major Hasan was connected, influenced by Alwaki,” Wolf said. “The administration thought Awlaki was dangerous enough that they killed him with a drone missile… It’s got to be fairly significant, the fact that they did this to an American citizen.”

“The people at Fort Hood, the wounded have been getting a very, very bad deal with Panetta,” the congressman continued. “It clearly is a terrorist attack. It is not workplace violence and by not calling it that, it’s a failure.””

____________________________________________________

And once again, or still, Texas shows how it’s done. Don’t panic, it’s not another future Yankee player. 🙂

From Forbes

“Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Rick Perry made a quick tour of California to remind business owners that life’s a whole lot easier in the Lone Star State. Perry’s California critics called him “Governor Oops” for his miscues during the presidential debates, and Gov. Jerry Brown dismissed the Texan’s recruiting drive as “not a burp,” and barely even a certain bodily release of gas.

Laugh away, Californians. But Perry is playing the stronger hand here. Texas trounced the rest of the country our latest survey of the Best Cities for Good Jobs, with five metropolitan areas in the Top Ten, including the four best cities to find jobs in the next few years.”

And it’s not just low paying service industry jobs as liberals allege.

“One explanation that is definitely false: Texas isn’t growing on the backs of underpaid, non-union workers. While Texas is a right-to-work state, many of the highest paying jobs in the Dallas area are with unionized defense manufacturers like Bell Helicopter and Lockheed Martin, which produces the F-35 Lightning II fighter at a mile-long plant in Fort Worth.”

““People say it’s all low-pay jobs, so I looked at employment growth by wage quartile,” she said. And guess what? Not only is the Dallas-area per-capita income of $39,548 comfortably above the national average of $37,000, but it’s growing fastest in the top half of wages above $16 an hour.”

____________________________________________________

40 thoughts on “News/Politics 2-28-13”

  2. Funny how liberals are now ready to hang our national security on the will of countries like Germany, Russia and Japan, who in the memory of those alive today wanted to kill us all, but the fellow Americans in the South must pay forever.

    Like

    Reply

  3. Linda,

    OK, now you’re just being silly. You do know those don’t count right? 🙂

    You sound like my neighbor Keith. The Cleveland Indians are like 5-0 and he’s already wondering when playoff tickets will go on sale. As always, come July reality will slap him in the face. Poor thing. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  4. The Governor of New York is exempting Hollyweird from the new firearm restrictions. The very people that create monsters like Columbine and Sandy Hook get a pass while the people who have nothing to do with these heinous acts are punished. Why am I not surprised?

    🙄

    Like

    Reply

  6. I see Obama had his emergency meeting with Repubs to try and reach a another deal (but this time he’ll honor his promises, really, he promises). But as I’ve been saying, he doesn’t want a deal, he wants to continue his endless campaigning. So how’d the meeting go you ask?

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/27/obama-top-lawmakers-will-meet-friday-budget-cuts/

    “Never let it be said that President Obama has failed to spend time with Republican leaders in seeking an alternative to automatic budget cuts that are due to hit most federal departments Friday. On Wednesday, for example, the president gave GOP lawmakers as much as seven minutes, a rare face-to-face encounter that the White House described as a “meeting.”

    “With speeches and other staged events, the president has tried to build public pressure for his agenda of tax increases coupled with spending cuts.

    But he has made little time for negotiating directly with lawmakers who oppose his plans.

    “It is a sincere conviction among Republicans that the president’s negotiating posture isn’t about getting a deal done, it’s a zero-sum political game where his aim is to destroy the Republican [House] majority in the next election,” said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist who served in 2008 as Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign manager. “It’s certainly not an effective strategy for a leader in search of a deal.””

    Seven minute meetings. Now does that sound like someone who wants to fix the sequester issue? It sure doesn’t to me.

    Like

    Reply

  7. Roy,

    Sadly there are many like your wife who will be effected by this. When they talk of cuts to the DoD, post daycare workers aren’t what people had in mind. But rather than make real cuts to waste, this is what they do. And it’s intentional too. They seek to make people suffer to try and score political points to get what they really want. Higher taxes. It’s disgusting. And I’m sorry to see it effect people like you. But this is how they’re playing this.

    Like

    Reply

  10. Judging from their reaction to being told to shun FOX a few years back I’m betting Obama has made a big mistake. The MSM will close ranks. He better throw this person under the bus fast.

    Like

    Reply

  11. Well folks, it looks like the GLBT Community here in Colorado Springs have decide to us as a poster child for their cause a very confuse 6 year old.

    For those who have not heard about this story. There is this 6 year little boy who at the age of 18 month determine he was a girl instead of a boy and at the age of 4 years old wanted a sex change done. The School decides that it was not ok for him to use the girl bathroom, he dress as a girl for school. The he could use the boy’s bathroom or the teacher bathroom. The mom was not ok and knows she has gotten the lawyers for the GLBT Community involved, they have filed suit against the school at the Colorado Human Rights Boards

    The family with the backing of the GLBT Community is now parading this poor little boy around for all the media to see. Why do people do this? Why must they use their children in such a manner?

    Like

    Reply

  16. Michelle,

    If the conact is to get their side, or to ask questions about the story, I don’t have a problem. After all, a good journalist will seek to let both sides give their version, and let the reader/viewer decide. I think that is responsible journalism.

    If it’s just a heads up this is coming, cover your butt kinda thing then I do. They also shouldn’t be taking direction on how to spin it either, like you see with NBC all the time. That will only get worse with the addition of Axelrod and Gibbs to NBC’s “consulting staff”. Their coordination with Obama, OFA, and Dems isn’t journalism. It’s flat out propaganda.

    Like

    Reply

  19. Meanwhile at least one of the adults in this has an idea where we could cut. Harry Reid will be hardest hit. From Twitter.

    Senator Pat Toomey✔ @SenToomey

    What to cut: $50,000 for a Cowboy Poetry Festival. $5M for sports diplomacy. $1M to taste test food on Mars. Think we can manage? #sequester

    5:55 PM – 28 Feb 13

    Like

    Reply

  23. mumsee it is amazing on how it helps him focus. One week in school it took him one hour to do 10 math problems, a week after being on the meds, he did 40 math problems in one hour.

    Like

    Reply

  25. It just came across the radio that AG Holder is going to go after States and Groups that stand against Gay Rights. He stated they are not going to sit by and let people discriminate against people of the GLBT Community. What and How He is going to do that was not reported.

    Like

    Reply

  27. One of my liberal Facebook friends posted something with the names of the 138 Republicans who voted against the Violence Against Women Act. Now, I’m assuming there must be a flaw in the bill – or something else – to cause them to vote against it. But of course, many will say that it’s because those cold, heartless Republicans don’t care about protecting women.

    Anyone care to enlighten me on why they voted against it? What was the problem with the bill?

    Like

    Reply

  29. The sequester debate strikes me as a confused muddle for several reasons.

    One, I’m reminded that the American gov’t was designed with fear in mind. It was designed to barely succeed but not to succeed well as this might result in tyranny. Now this worked fairly well until both parties created rules and procedures (filibusters, supermajority) that didn’t allow anything to get done.

    From reading sources from the left and right, I get the impression the Republicans don’t want to own this. In fact, they seem to give up on governing altogether to the point of abdicating any right to budget. Somehow they don’t seem to realize people elected them to govern not avoid gov’t. Republican Senators should be fired for attempting to abdicate budgetary responsibility.

    The Republican avoidance of responsibility or ownership of the upcoming cuts is rather puzzling — they are supposedly the party of small gov’t and balancing the budget. Its also rather puzzling since sequester originated from the debt ceiling deal which they signed.

    If across the board cuts occur, Perry may not be bragging about Texas much longer as his success depends on the military industrial complex.

    Like

    Reply

  30. Although there appears to be legitimate need to modernize and adjust the voters act, Scalia seems intent on annoying his detractors — “racial entitlement” is a bad choice of word

    Like

    Reply

  31. HRW, Our economy in Texas is very diversified. Last year over half the homes built in the US were built in Texas. Agriculture, oil and gas, tourism, healthcare, education, auto manufacturing, and high tech industries, we’ve got them all.

    Like

    Reply

  33. HRW,

    “Republican Senators should be fired for attempting to abdicate budgetary responsibility.”

    Really? C’mon. It’s the Senate that hasn’t passed a budget in years. It’s Obama, who for the 4th outta 5 years is late with his again. This time he’s trying the lame excuse that it’s the sequesters fault. His past actions show it’s a lousey excuse.

    Really? Please.

    Like

    Reply

  35. Maxine Waters always makes me laugh. She is a good reminder that Joe Biden is not really the dumbest person in Washington.

    HRW, I went back and read the article. The Bell and Lockheed plants are close to me and I have friends that work at both places. The truth is that both of those plants and other defense related businesses have been cutting employees for several years now.

    Like

    Reply

  37. AJ — I’m making a specific reference to the Republican offer to give up their constitutional right to set the budget as referenced in yesterday’s post. Both parties have performed poorly and neither side wants to own the fallout from budget cuts (and the US system allows parties to duck responsibility). I am surprised the party which claims financial responsibility as a platform doesn’t want to own the sequester — I’d think they would be proud to have caused it, ie forcing Obama to make cuts.

    I like Joe Biden. I know he suffers from foot in mouth syndrome but he has blue collar appeal. When I first heard him speak in the primary debates. I found him more appealing than Obama or H Clinton.

    Like

    Reply

  40. rickyweaver,

    Don’t confuse Canadians with facts. Remember, it is the Republican Senators who won’t let a budget pass. And Keynes was right, too.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment