Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

In the News: America’s New Congress – Buyers Remorse?

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Found on the Internets …



A series of tubes filled with enormous amounts of material

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Greg Sargent, WaPo: GOP deportation priorities, in the raw

As expected, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives today passed a package of measures that would roll back President Obama’s executive actions shielding hundreds of thousands of DREAMers, and millions of parents of children who are U.S. citizens or legal residents, from deportation.[…]

Today’s action goes further than merely defunding Obama’s recent executive actions deferring the deportation of immigrants brought here as children (the 2012 DACA) and of millions of parents of children who are U.S. citizens or legal residents (the more recent DAPA).

It also defunds the implementation of the 2011 Morton memos. […]

“Republicans just voted against a mainstream law enforcement utilization of prosecutorial discretion,” Frank Sharry of America’s Voice tells me. “Would they instruct enforcement agents to treat a DREAMer, the spouse of a soldier, or the mother of an American citizen as an equal deportation priority to a convicted gang member, a smuggler, or a serious criminal?”

Apparently so. Here is how they plan to solve the sticky wicket of deporting parents of American citizens and the humanitarian crisis created from millions of children left parentless:

A group of hardline conservatives will use this week’s GOP retreat to pressure their colleagues into adopting an agenda that includes bills to end “birthright” citizenship …

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Pew Poll

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Jan. 7-11 among 1,504 adults, finds that Obama’s job approval has risen five points since December (42%). […]

For the first time in five years, more Americans say Obama’s economic policies have made conditions better (38%) than worse (28%); 30% say they have not had much of an effect. And Obama engenders more confidence on the economy than do the leaders of the new Republican majority in Congress.[…]

Currently, 40% approve of Republican leaders’ plans and policies for the future, while somewhat more (49%) disapprove. Shortly after the midterm elections, when Republicans gained full control of Congress, about as many approved as disapproved of GOP future plans (44% approved vs. 43% disapproved).

Now that Americans have caught a glimpse of the future, they appear to be having a bit of buyers remorse.

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More …

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Yay, West Virginia!!!

Facing Backlash, West Virginia Board Of Education Votes To Make Climate Change Curriculum Scientifically Accurate

The West Virginia Board of Education voted Wednesday to change newly-agreed upon science standards and make them once again available for public comment, an act that came after pressure from parents and others in the state who felt that the standards didn’t accurately portray the science of climate change.

In December, the West Virginia Board of Education approved statewide science education standards that were based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) but which contained altered portions aimed at portraying climate change as a debate. The Board decided Wednesday that the standards will be changed back to their original NGSS versions – with the climate-change-doubting alterations removed – and released for public comment. In March, after the public commenting period is complete, the Board of Education will vote again on the standards. […]

Lisa Hoyos, Director of Climate Parents, praised the Board of Education’s decision to re-issue the standards without the climate-denying additions Wednesday.

“Ensuring students are taught evidence-based facts in their science education is a fundamental principle that the Board affirmed today, after veering off course in December in adopting altered climate science standards,” she said. “Parents by the thousands stood up for accurate climate science education, and we are thankful that the West Virginia Board of Education listened to us.”

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Boo, Libertarians!

Senator Says Most People On Disability Don’t Deserve It

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is claiming that there is widespread fraud in the country’s disability system because most people who get benefits merely suffer from anxiety or sore backs.

At a meeting with legislative leaders in Manchester, NH on Wednesday, caught on tape by American Bridge, Paul told the room:

   The thing is that all of these programs, there’s always somebody who’s deserving, everybody in this room knows somebody who’s gaming the system. I tell people that if you look like me and you hop out of your truck, you shouldn’t be getting a disability check. Over half the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts. Join the club. Who doesn’t get up a little anxious for work every day and their back hurts? Everyone over 40 has a back pain.

Fewer than four in ten applications are approved even after all stages of appeal. Medical evidence from multiple medical professionals is required in most cases to determine eligibility, which means showing that an applicant suffers from a “severe, medically determinable physical or mental impairment that is expected to last 12 months or result in death.” The severity of the disabilities of those who get benefits is underscored by the fact that one in five men and nearly one in six women die within five years of being approved.

The “New” Empathetic face of the Republican Party …

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Editor’s Note: Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 11 Comments

11 comments

  2. JanF

    House action

    The defunding amendment was adopted in a 237-190 vote, with seven Republicans voting no, while the DACA amendment was approved 218-209, with 26 Republicans defecting.

    House Democrats were unified in opposition to both provisions.

    The 10 Republican no votes on the final legislation came from Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Mike Coffman (Colo.), Carlos Curbelo (Fla.), Jeff Denham (Calif.), Mario Díaz-Balart (Fla.), Robert Dold (Ill.), Renee Ellmers (N.C.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) and David Valadao (Calif.).

    The two Democrats voting in favor were Reps. Brad Ashford (Neb.) and Collin Peterson (Minn.).

    Two Democrats voted for this monstrosity. 🙁

  3. JanF

    Nancy Pelosi to name first Muslim lawmaker to House intelligence committee

    Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced in a closed-door meeting Tuesday she would name the first Muslim lawmaker to the House’s Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. […]

    [Rep. André Carson of Indiana] would be the first Muslim to serve on the committee and was the second Muslim to be elected to Congress. He already serves on the Armed Services Committee and worked for the Department of Homeland Security’s Fusion Center – the clearinghouse established by the federal government to streamline data sharing between the CIA, FBI, Department of Justice and the military.

  4. JanF

    The states will just “do the right thing”!!!!

    Top GOPer confirms Congress won’t strengthen Voting Rights Act

    A top Republican has all but confirmed that Congress won’t move forward with legislation to strengthen the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which was badly weakened by the Supreme Court in 2013.

    Rep. Bob Goodlatte, who chairs the House Judiciary committee, said Wednesday morning that the landmark civil rights legislation is still robust enough to stop racial discrimination in voting.[…]

    A bipartisan group of lawmakers last January introduced legislation to strengthen the VRA. But despite an intense lobbying effort by civil rights groups, Goodlatte had declined even to hold a hearing on the measure. Wednesday’s comments go further still in confirming that Republicans see the bill as a nonstarter.

    Looks good from Goodlatte’s ivory tower:

    In Wednesday’s comments, Goodlatte noted that the law still contains a “bail-in” provision that allows jurisdictions to be placed under federal supervision if they’re found to have racially discriminated in their voting systems. But the process is typically lengthy and complex, meaning it’s not well-suited for stopping discrimination that’s already occurred.

    Sadly, the “bail-in” also requires that we have an Attorney General interested in voting rights. As long as there are Democratic presidents, we will. But the protections are pretty weak if the party holding the White House can invalidate them.

    Rights that have to be constantly “earned” are not rights at all.

  5. JanF

    From ThinkProgress

    The Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA), which the House passed on Tuesday, is ostensibly aimed at cutting costly regulations imposed by federal and independent agencies, but it would actually make it much more difficult to pass and enforce protective measures overseen by the government.

    “It is actually a stealth attack on all the various statutes Congress has passed over the last 40 years to protect public health environmental quality,” according to Ronald White, director of Regulatory Policy at the Center for Effective Government. White told ThinkProgress that the RAA adds at least 70 new procedural steps into a process that already takes years for agencies to navigate through Congress. He said this is part of “a whole slew of anti-regulation legislation” that he expects to see in coming months. […]

    In an analysis for the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), Celia Wexler, a representative for the Scientific Integrity Initiative at UCS, says this “special-interest interference” jeopardizes the mandates of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. “The RAA emphasizes the costs to businesses, not the long-term benefits to the public,” she writes.

    President Obama has threatened to veto this bill should it make it to his desk.

  6. princesspat

    Guest: Dan Evans and the efficacy of bipartisanship

    Evans understood that partisan differences are not about good and evil, nor right and wrong; they are about contradictory truths. Democrats who want to spend more money for good schools are right. Republicans who want limited government are right. And the political process is about forging coalitions to balance legitimate, but conflicting, political truths.

    “This administration is not ashamed of the word conservative, and not afraid of the word liberal,” Evans said in his first inaugural address.

    Later on he put it this way: “There are no Republican schools or Democratic highways, no liberal salmon or conservative parks.”

    No, there is just the people’s business, and the people will rarely agree completely on what that business should be. For that, we need leaders.

    The Dan Evans R’s were responsible people  ::sigh::

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