Donald Trump Struggles To Be Birther-Consistent

This is interesting:

Billionaire Donald Trump, the most prominent “birther” to question Barack Obama’s eligibility to serve as president, asserted Friday that Sen. Ted Cruz must clear up legal doubts about his own eligibility due to his birth outside the United States.

“It’s a problem. It could be a difficult problem, but he admits that he was born in Canada,” Trump told reporters in Iowa on the eve of the first major gathering of 2016 presidential hopefuls.

“He’s a friend of mine. I have great respect for him. But …certainly it’s a stumbling block and he’s going to have to have it solved before he goes too far,” Trump said.

Trump states that Cruz is "going to have to have it solved before he goes too far." Solve what? The facts are not in issue because, as Trump points out, Cruz admits he was born in Canada.  In other words, Cruz admits to having the same eligibility problem that Trump believes dreams Obama has.

Cruz doesn't need to solve anything. Instead, Donald Trump needs to come to terms with his own racism.

Quote of the Week (Updated)

“Chemotherapy turned off for perhaps 12,000 people, dialysis going dark for 10,000. The horror stories will be real.”

- Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), warning fellow Republicans that they had better have an alternative ready to go in the event the Supreme Court guts Obamacare subsidies in three dozen states.

I could be wrong, but I don't believe the Supreme Court will hold that 75% of Obamacare has been illegally implemented, which is what the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell want the Court to do.

Chief Justice Roberts, back in 2012, had the opportunity to kill this particular baby while it was still in the crib.  He declined to do so then, and I don't see him doing it now, given that millions of people currently have health coverage under the ACA.

UPDATE: Bonus Historic Quote:

“If you take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region.”

- Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sept. 12, 2002, during testimony before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.

In case you didn't hear, the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 is now widely considered to be the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history, and Bibi was one of the most vocal cheerleaders in support of that epic cluster-fuck.  For Christ's Sake, Netanyahu actually guaranteed that a U.S. invasion of Iraq would have "enormous positive reverberations."

My Favorite Part About The Bill O'Reilly Falklands Fabrication Scandal?

That's easy.  What I really like is that it is starting to seep into the mainstream media.

I've repeatedly heard mainstream outlets -- as part of their coverage of VA Chief Bob McDonald's false claim that he was in Army special forces -- compare McDonald's situation to the embellishments made by Brian Williams and Bill O'Reilly about their "combat" experiences.

O'Reilly knows that Fox News will never fire or suspend him over this, particularly given that Fox undoubtedly hired O'Reilly to lie about stuff.  But what probably worried O'Reilly the most is that the mainstream media would start lumping him in with Brian Williams.

Well, that is exactly what has happened, and even an idiot like O'Reilly knows that it will be pretty hard to un-ring that particular bell.

Rudy Giuliani Is Starting To Chicken Out

How brave:

After doubling and tripling down on his controversial comments regarding President Barack Obama's lack of love for America, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Sunday moved closer to something of a mea culpa. "My blunt language suggesting that the president doesn’t love America notwithstanding, I didn’t intend to question President Obama’s motives or the content of his heart," Giuliani wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Of course he intended to question the President's motives. Christ, he even used The C Word when talking about Obama the other day.

What undoubtedly happened is that someone in the GOP told Giuliani that unless he pulled his head out of his ass right quick, he's going to turn into Donald Trump or Glenn Beck. So now Rudy is beating a hasty retreat, which is too bad because I was really enjoying his meltdown.

Historic Quotes of the Week (As Well As A Fairly Recent One)

"The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war."

- President George W. Bush, from remarks made at Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. on September 17, 2001.

"[I]t would be a huge mistake for we, as Americans, to assume that this represents some kind of--or should lead us to some kind of condemnation of Islam. That's clearly not the case. This is a perversion, if you will, of some of these religious beliefs by an extremist group. We have extremists associated with, you know, every imaginable religion in the world. But this is by no means a war against Islam."

- Vice-President Dick Cheney, on Sept. 16, 2001.

"We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam."

- President Barack Obama, on February 18, 2015.

Bonus Quote of the Week

“Well, you know God created man first. Then he took the rib out of man to make woman.  And you know, a rib is a lesser cut of meat.”

- South Carolina State Sen. Thomas Corbin (I'll let you guess what party he's from).

Quote of the Week

"The House has done its job -- why don't you go ask the Senate Democrats when they're going to get off their ass and do something other than to vote no?"

- Speaker of the House John Boehner, who has apparently forgotten that Republicans now control the Senate.

Needless to say, I am thoroughly enjoying the trainwreck that is happening now that the GOP completely controls the legislative branch.

The Great Unraveling Begins

Here we go:

A senior Israeli official suggested on Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been misled into thinking an invitation to address the U.S. Congress on Iran next month was fully supported by the Democrats. Netanyahu was invited by the Republican speaker of the house, John Boehner, to address Congress on March 3, an invitation Boehner originally described as bipartisan.

The move angered the White House, which is upset about the event coming two weeks before Israeli elections and that Netanyahu, who has a testy relationship with Democratic President Barack Obama, is expected to be critical of U.S. policy on Iran.

"It appears that the speaker of Congress made a move, in which we trusted, but which it ultimately became clear was a one sided move and not a move by both sides," Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told 102 FM Tel Aviv Radio on Friday. The interviewer asked if that meant Netanyahu had been "misled" into believing Boehner's invitation was bipartisan, a characterization Hanegbi did not contest.

Of course, that is complete horseshit. Bibi and his people knew from the start that this was going to be a partisan affair. Christ, the whole point of this particular fuckery was to embarrass Obama.

I'd be surprised if Netanyahu's speech was cancelled, though -- that would amount to an admission that it was a mistake to schedule the speech in the first place.  Such an admission would show weakness on the part of Bibi and the Republicans, and the last thing right-wingers want to do when they're trying to make Obama look weak is to look weak themselves.

And speaking of right wingers, why do Republicans keep stepping on their own dicks when it comes to the issue of rape?

The Time Has Come For Democrats To Launch Their Obamacare Counter-Offensive

It looks like Republicans are finally starting to get bored with trying to repeal Obamacare (from Dana Milbank):

In Tuesday’s repeal effort by House Republicans — their first of this Congress and their 56th overall — it became clear that they had succeeded at one thing: They had bored even themselves into a slumber.

For much of the debate Tuesday afternoon, no more than a dozen seats were occupied on the pro-repeal side of the House. More than once, the GOP had nobody available to speak.

Word is that this latest attempt to repeal will die a quick death in the Senate because the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster simply aren't there. But I believe it would be a mistake for the Senate Democrats to filibuster this bill.

Harry Reid should simply come out and say there will be no filibuster and that the House Bill repealing Obamacare will receive an up-or-down vote in the Senate. Both Reid and Obama should state publicly that they want an up-or-down vote so they can get the Senate Republicans on the record as to which ones want repeal and which ones don't.

Obama can then veto this bill, doing so while a dozen Americans who would be dead today if it wasn't for the Affordable Care Act stand behind him.  Hell, Obama can even hand out pens afterwards.

You see, when the previous fifty-five votes to repeal Obamacare took place, the Affordable Care Act hadn't been fully implemented yet.  But that is no longer the case, and if a member of the House or the Senate votes right now to repeal, that means this individual is voting to take health coverage away from millions of Americans.

I think Sun Tzu once wrote that the best time to attack an enemy is when he is falling asleep.  Well, maybe he didn't actually write that, but he should of.  The GOP is getting bored with trying to repeal Obamacare, so the time has come for the Democrats to hit back hard and make the Republicans own their repeal votes.  After all, the 2016 General Election is just around the corner, and I suspect that millions of voters might not like the fact that the GOP is trying to take health coverage away from them.

Quote of the Week

“That idea has some merit to it.”

- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, on Ted Cruz's statement that he would throw himself in front of a moving train if that’s what killing health reform would take.