It is relentless, dangerous and gripping the country. A major heat wave this weekend has prompted officials in 17 states to issue heat warnings and advisories.Gee, I didn’t know Fallin was a member of a ministry or served in some other official capacity with a religious organization.
On a temperature map of the nation Sunday, you'll find several large areas in the 90s and a patch that had highs above 100 degrees.
At least two hot weather-related deaths have been reported, and forecasters say the high heat is expected to spread over the next few days.
CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports that it's been so hot for so long in Oklahoma, the governor called for a statewide day of prayer in hope of some divine intervention.
"I think if we have a lot of people praying, it moves the heart of God," Gov. Mary Fallin says.
I wonder if some spirit of divine intervention, by the way, moved her to “(kiss) and (have) inappropriate contact with (a) state employee,” an Oklahoma State Trooper who eventually resigned (here)?
Also noted in the old Wordpress post is the following:
- She aided and abetted the “teabaggers,” along with many others of her party (of course).And let’s hope Fallin has better luck with her little “pray for rain” gambit than her fellow “Bible belt” governor, “Goodhair” Perry, had here.
- She went nuts over the DHS report on extremist groups from Secretary Janet Napolitano (hitting a little too “close to home,” I guess), without noting that the report included left wing extremist groups also.
- Fallin responded to the notion of the dollar being replaced as the major reserve currency in the world by supporting a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment that would disallow a foreign currency replacing the dollar as legal tender in the USA (hat tip to the blog “Kids Prefer Cheese”); even though the “global currency” rumor is admittedly silly (as was Fallin’s response), there are countries, most notably China, who are looking to valuate against a “basket” of currencies as opposed to the dollar, as Nouriel Roubini has pointed out.
- Fallin was one of the House reps who changed her vote on the Wall Street bailout from “no” to “yes.”
- She voted against the “cramdown” legislation to help people restructure their mortgages, the “Pay for Performance Act” in the matter of executive compensation, the stimulus (of course), SCHIP, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, the Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act, relief for the Alternative Minimum Tax, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act, extension of unemployment insurance, the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, and on and on and on.
To begin, Clark Judge, speechwriter and special assistant during the administration of The Sainted Ronnie R, tells us the following (here)…
Today, again, the GOP caucus is divided, but with a difference. The tea party freshmen are insisting on a strong negotiating stance. They want real spending cuts without tax increases. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has become their voice in the budget talks. Reflecting uncertainty about holding non-freshmen in line, both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker John Boehner have signaled readiness to accept cosmetic compromises.Funny, but that’s not how the vast majority of this country sees it – as noted here…
Mr. Boehner in particular is responding to House members desperately in search of cover from fallout over the president's threat to delay Social Security checks if the debt ceiling isn't raised. Many are terrified of Democratic attack ads painting them as would-be destroyers of Medicare. The GOP defeat this May in the special election in New York's 26th District shook them, which is a sign of how badly they've defended their positions.
After all, if Social Security tax receipts don't cover all the checks in any month, the Social Security Trust Fund can sell its government bonds, bills and notes, as Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C), recently suggested. The holdings are enormous, and sales, even at a discount, could cover the system's needs for years, much less the time to finish budget parlaying.
So, if the checks stop coming, it will be the president who decided to stop them. That's not a hard message to get across.
Poll: 71% shun GOP handling of debt crisisAnd…
Even half of the Republican respondents (51 percent) voiced disapproval of how members of their own party in Congress are handling the talks. Far fewer Democrats expressed disapproval of their own party's handling (32 percent) or President Obama's (22 percent) of the urgent quest to raise the nation's debt limit ahead of a looming default on Aug. 2 if action isn't taken.Also pertaining to the budget, I give you this from “Mad Thad” McCotter…
Amidst this debt ceiling debate, this president and his Democratic minions’ arguments have descended from “straw men” to “bogeymen” in their attempts to scare Americans.I hate to break the news to our ol’ buddy Thad, but that, in part, is exactly what would happen (and if McCotter doesn’t want to believe Obama, maybe he’ll believe this guy).
Our seniors were told their hard-earned Social Security checks would be stopped. Our brave veterans were told the services our grateful nation provides them (never mind that there is much more we could do) could be stopped.
Our entire citizenry was told America could face an economic Armageddon.
So what is McCotter’s answer? Something called “Cut, Cap and Balance,” which I guess is the latest Repug catchphrase since he repeats it a few times for the easily-led who actually take Fix Noise seriously.
What McCotter doesn’t say, though (pointed out here), is that “Cut, Cap and Balance” doesn’t include cuts to Social Security, Medicare – more on that here – and something called the “Global War on Terror” (hmm, let me think about that one for a minute – kind of rings a bell…).
Wrongheaded as the cuts to the first two are, at least Obama is trying to meet these clowns while they’re busy moving the goalposts once again (to reiterate, every single thing Obama does these days, rightly or wrongly, is aimed right at those independent voters, many of whom might as well flip a coin before they open the curtain of the voting booth for all of the effort they put into learning about the candidates and the issues).
Oh, and don’t forget that McCotter is running for president.
Sure he is.
No really, I’m serious.
Update 7/18/11: And by the way, "cut, cap and balance" this, wingnuts.
Want more dumb debt ideas from the Repugs? How about some monstrosity called “Fair Tax,” which (as noted here) is basically a 23 percent national sales tax which (as noted here) would replace the federal income tax (trouble is that that pesky United States Constitution would have to be amended to basically hand over the authority to raise taxes to the states; let those zany hijinks ensue as our federal government collapses for good…and of course, Mike Huckabee and Repug presidential aspirant Herman Cain have signed off on it – as I said before, we only have one national party currently acting like adults in this country).
Also on the debt front, David Addington (of all people) chimed in at The Daily Tucker here…
The McConnell Plan would put America deeper into debt and achieve nothing toward the vitally important objective of getting federal overspending and overborrowing under control. All the McConnell Plan requires the president to do is submit a list of suggested spending cuts that exceeds the dollar amount of the requested hikes in the debt ceiling. The McConnell Plan does not give those spending cut ideas or any alternative ideas any legal effect or even specify an accelerated procedure for congressional consideration of such ideas — the McConnell Plan just requires the president to submit a piece of paper.As I said before, short of asking for a declaration of war, I don’t see it written anywhere in the Constitution that the president should allow his powers to be decided for him by Congress (and I’ll be happy to use a female pronoun one day concerning our chief executive if it’s the right person). So basically, I believe Obama should tell McConnell that he’ll be back to request raising the debt ceiling when he believes that he has to do so, and the Senate Minority Leader can take his “plan” and go filibuster himself with it.
If the outcome of the current presidential-congressional negotiations over how to get spending under control is the McConnell Plan of just letting the president have the freedom to go on borrowing another $2 trillion, then Senator McConnell and every congressional Republican who votes for it will bear as much political responsibility for this action as President Obama and the Democrats.
Senator Jim DeMint was right to describe the McConnell Plan to the newspaper The Hill as “like leaving the jail door open and looking the other way, then saying it’s not our fault.” And Representative Jim Jordan was even more succinct with his view on the McConnell Plan on the website Politico.com: “I’d say, ‘No way.’”
Conservatives should follow their lead.
But for David Addington to pose as some sort of level-headed influence here is a grotesque joke.
As noted here, Addington once called former Bushco Secretary of State (and five-star general) Colin Powell “soft” and “easy to get around.” Also, if you favored observing precedents of international law, Addington was the first to call you “soft on terrorism.” And he was reportedly one of the Buscho lawyers who dismissed the Geneva Conventions as “obsolete,” “quaint,” and irrelevant to the war on terror.
The fact that an individual like Addington is treated seriously even at a propaganda outlet like The Daily Caller is about as damning a commentary on the utter pollution of our public discourse as you can imagine.
In response, I would ask that you read through all of these slides from Tim Dickinson’s recent article in Rolling Stone about Roger Ailes, the life form in charge of that media monstrosity, to see how the Obama Administration is maligned, usually falsely, on a daily basis (actually, hourly basis is more like it). And name for me a president who has ever had to endure similar treatment.
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