Zombie Republicans

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Photo Credit: The American Spectator Staggering, without direction, not quite dead and in search of brains, the Republican Party is giving a really good performance as the Zombie Party. According to the media’s current narrative, it has to rid itself of the Tea Party’s influence or die.

That narrative tells us the state of the Party is entirely the fault of conservatives, Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee in particular. They — with Cruz’s filibuster — led Republicans into a battle they couldn’t win. If only the House Republicans had gone along with the strategy of the Republican Establishment, they’d have come out of the latest round of crises stronger than they’ve been since, well, we’re not sure when.

If conservatives had obeyed their betters, there would be a chicken in every driveway and a piece of Ted Cruz in every pot. Or at least that’s what the media narrative — propelled by the Republican establishment and the Dems — would have us believe.

There are a few problems with that narrative. To dissect it, we need to be energetic in a way we can only feel if we’re really angry. Anger and frustration are permitted here. Whining is not. And context is important.

The context of the current round of crises — and the temporary solution to them — is that President Obama has never yet been compelled to compromise. Not on Obamacare, not on tax rates, not on individual budgetary items or overall spending. Heaven forbid that any government spending be limited. On none of those things will Obama bargain. He simply won’t negotiate any compromise, so Republicans have spent the past two years trying to find a way to force him to negotiate with them.

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Good News from Washington — UN Arms Trade Treaty DOA in US Senate

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Photo Credit: REUTERSSens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) released a bipartisan letter this week signed by 48 of their colleagues pledging to oppose the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which Secretary of State John Kerry signed on behalf of the United States in September.

This letter makes it clear that the Senate will not ratify the treaty in the foreseeable future.

Since a treaty requires a two-thirds majority to win the Senate’s advice and consent, the ATT is at least 17 votes short of the 67 votes needed to secure ratification. And if anything, the Moran-Manchin letter understates Senate opposition to the treaty.

Eleven other senators, all Democrats, supported either an amendmentopposing the ATT offered earlier this year by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a concurrent resolution led earlier this year by Moran, a 2012 letter led by Moran or a 2011 letter led by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.).

Put it all together, and a total of 61 senators either have pledged to oppose the ATT or have publicly expressed skepticism about it. If it ever reaches the Senate, the ATT is more likely to be opposed by 67 senators than to find a two-thirds majority willing to support it.

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Stupid is as Stupid Does

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Photo Credit: AP While most of us took a relaxing break from work over the weekend, politicians did not. In fact, they were out en masse doing what they do best. Believe me, it wasn’t pretty.

First up, Marco Rubio.

Florida’s junior senator has a lot of making up to do with his base after becoming the face of scamnesty in the Senate. He went quiet after the bill went to the House, then began appearing again with Ted Cruz in the defund ObamaCare fight. He helped Cruz considerably during his filibuster and he voted the right way on both cloture and on the spending bill. His name was being mentioned again by conservative websites who had all but disowned him.

And then, he went and blew it.

On Fox News Sunday (of all places), Rubio endorsed Mitch “Benedict Arnold” McConnell in his primary against Tea Party candidate Matt Bevin. Guess Rubio’s perfectly fine with that almost 3 billion dollar bribe McConnell got to sign the deal that Rubio voted against.

Stupid is as Stupid does.

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French President Hollande Berates US Over Spying Claims

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Photo Credit: BBCFrench President Francois Hollande has expressed “deep disapproval” over claims the US National Security Agency secretly tapped phone calls in France.

In a phone conversation with US President Barack Obama, he said this was “unacceptable between friends and allies”, demanding an explanation.

The White House said the claims “raise legitimate questions”, seeking to ease French concerns.

The NSA has recently spied on 70.3m phone calls in France, it is claimed.

Officials, businesses and terror suspects are believed to have been tracked in just 30 days between 10 December last year and 8 January 2013.

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Scientists Issue Safety Warning over GM Food as Government Pushes for Public Acceptance of Controversial Crop

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Photo Credit: PAEighty-five scientists have joined forces to challenge the claims of biotech giants and the UK government that GM food is safe for humans.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, who has responsibility for food and farming, and the industry have embarked on a huge public relations exercise to win over a sceptical public to genetically modified food.

The campaign is built on an assurance that the food is safe to eat and could defeat a host of ills from malnutrition in the Third World to blindness in children.

GM supporters also insist crops are safe for the environment and to be used as animal feed.

However, these assurances have been questioned by the scientists, who warn there is a serious lack of independent research into the health effects of GM food.

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Poor Sleep Linked to Alzheimer’s in Study of Brain Scans

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Photo Credit: BSIP/UIG/Getty ImagesSleeping poorly or not getting enough rest may result in a type of brain abnormality associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a study showed.

Brain images of adults with an average age of 76 found that those who said they slept less or poorly had increased build-up of beta-amyloid plaques, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s, according to research published today in JAMA Neurology. None of those in the study had been diagnosed with the disease.

Though more studies are needed to determine whether poor sleep increases plaque or the plaque causes sleep troubles, the findings suggest another way people might be able to identify early changes that foreshadow Alzheimer’s. Research released at the Alzheimer’s meeting in July suggested that memory lapses may be one of the earliest discernible signs of the disease.

“This is part of a larger message that healthy sleep is an important contributor to health in general and especially to successfully aging,” said study author Adam Spira, an assistant professor in the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, in an Oct. 18 telephone interview. “It may be an important component in preventing Alzheimer’s disease, but that remains to be seen.”

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Study: 15 Percent of US Youth Out of School, Work

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Photo Credit: APAlmost 6 million young people are neither in school nor working, according to a study released Monday.

That’s almost 15 percent of those aged 16 to 24 who have neither desk nor job, according to The Opportunity Nation coalition, which wrote the report.

Other studies have shown that idle young adults are missing out on a window to build skills they will need later in life or use the knowledge they acquired in college. Without those experiences, they are less likely to command higher salaries and more likely to be an economic drain on their communities.

“This is not a group that we can write off. They just need a chance,” said Mark Edwards, executive director of the coalition of businesses, advocacy groups, policy experts and nonprofit organizations dedicated to increasing economic mobility. “The tendency is to see them as lost souls and see them as unsavable. They are not.”

But changing the dynamic is not going to be easy.

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NJ Becomes 14th State to Recognize Gay Marriage (+video)

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Photo Credit: MYFOXNY.COMSome couples in New Jersey had waited decades. At the stroke of midnight the moment arrived as New Jersey became the the 14th state to legalize gay marriage.

The celebrations came three days after the state Supreme Court rejected Gov. Chris Christie’s request to delay the start of the nuptials while he appealed a lower court’s ruling on same-sex marriage.

Weddings were held in several cities and towns across the state in the first minutes of Monday morning, as soon as a court order requiring the state to recognize gay marriage went into effect.

Peter Connell and David Calle have been together 13 years and were among those toasting their commitment at midnight. Now official they say the historic day was made even better when Christie announced Monday morning that he is dropping his appeal in the legal case.

My9 New Jersey

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Americans on Food Stamps Decline–From 47,760,247 to 47,637,497

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Photo Credit: APThe number of Americans enrolled in the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—commonly known as food stamps—declined from 47,760,247 in June to 47,637,407 in July, according to data released this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

At 47,637,407, there are still more Americans taking food stamps than there are people in Spain, which, according to the CIA World Factbook, has a population of 47,370,542.

The number of households benefiting from food stamps also declined from June to July, dropping from 23,116,892 to 23,074,914 in July…

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Police: Man, 68, Shoots At 22-Year-Old Man Upon Finding Him In Bed With Wife

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Photo Credit: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via Getty ImagesA local senior citizen shot a 22-year-old man after he caught him sleeping beside his wife in their guest house.

According to ABC 15, the unnamed 68-year-old man found Stephen Trevor Chapman, 22, slumbering next to his 63-year-old wife. Authorities told the station that, upon discovering the pair, he woke Chapman by tapping him with a cane and telling him to leave.

Chapman reportedly responded by yelling and refusing to go. Officials with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office then said that the homeowner, who is said to have Parkinson’s disease, fired what was referred to as a “warning shot” in Chapman’s direction.

The bullet hit a nearby wall, and Chapman sustained a minor hand injury from a stray fragment.

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