http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3681923

“The Republican Party wants a new base. The Republican leadership isn’t conservative. They’re not particularly crazy about conservatives,” Limbaugh said. “I’m a fairly prominent media conservative, I get more grief than the Taliban gets. I get more grief than Al Qaeda gets. All conservatives do because we constitute a threat to the way Washington views the country. And I don’t think it’s so much conservative vs. liberal, although it is, but it’s Washington vs. the rest of the country … and Washington has a mindset and a desire for the country that doesn’t dovetail with the majority of the American people.”

When asked about the Democratic Party, Limbaugh said that he was interested in “defeating them, not compromising with them.” He added, “The Republicans are shell-shocked. The image of racist, sexist, bigot homophobe has taken hold. They think that’s what people think of them. I think they’ve lost their confidence … and they have bought into this notion of why they are hated and disliked, and they are trying to change rather than defeat the people responsible for it all. I’m about defeating them within the political arena of ideas.”

Personally, I think Republicans *are* a greater threat to the longterm viability of the U.S. as a free nation than the Taliban (the Taliban isn’t voting to take away voting rights, as one example), and it seems like more and more people are noticing that curious situation.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/07/31/2387331/north-carolina-governor-cookies/

n Tuesday afternoon, McCrory — along with four of his security guards — came out of his mansion’s gates to deliver a plate of chocolate chip cookies to the crowd of protesters. He handed the plate to one of the activists and reportedly told her, “These are for you. God bless you, God bless you, God bless you.”

The gesture wasn’t well-received by the reproductive health activists frustrated with the governor’s recent legislative decisions. The protesters, who considered the move to be condescending, didn’t eat any of the cookies. Instead, they slipped the plate back under the mansion gates along with a note reading “We want women’s health care, not cookies.” They also began a chant: “Hey Pat, that was rude. You wouldn’t give cookies to a dude.”

Is there a gold medal for patronizing?   These seems like a solid attempt to win it.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/business/halliburton-pleads-guilty-to-destroying-evidence-after-gulf-spill.html

HOUSTON — Halliburton has agreed to plead guilty to destruction of critical evidence after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, the Justice Department announced on Thursday.

The oil services company said it would pay the maximum allowable fine of $200,000 and will be subject to three years of probation.

The maximum allowable fine should ALWAYS be expresses as a % of total lifetime earnings for corporate citizens who can’t, it seems, ever serve prison time….which denies real people of a % of total lifetime earning

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2598261

Gov. Pat McCrory on Monday signed into law a measure directing state officials to regulate abortion clinics based on the same standards as those for outpatient surgical centers, a change that critics say will force most to close.

Critics say the move represents a shift by the first-year Republican executive, who pledged as a candidate last fall that he wouldn’t approve any new abortion restrictions if elected.

Republicans… that’s the joke.  And it’s on you.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3660728/

Rushton, July 23: Senator Cruz’s statement cannot possibly be fact-checked, because it was not a factual statement

And there you have Rafael “Ted” Cruz in a nutshell.

http://news.yahoo.com/ginsburg-says-push-voter-id-laws-predictable-070702489.html

“The notion that because the Voting Rights Act had been so tremendously effective we had to stop it didn’t make any sense to me,” Ginsburg said in a wide-ranging interview late Wednesday in her office at the court. “And one really could have predicted what was going to happen.”

The 80-year-old justice dissented from the 5-4 decision on the voting law. Ginsburg said in her dissent that discarding the law was “like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

Weird how all that states who used to need pre-clearance IMMEDIATELY moved to restrict voting rights for minorities.  And by “weird” I mean…duuuuUUUUhhhh.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE96O0EJ20130725?irpc=932

This comes after documents came out where it is suggested they get plants to ask leading questions at any town halls they hold while taking their August vacation.

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/23/19644154-nbcwsj-poll-faith-in-dc-hits-a-low-83-percent-disapprove-of-congress?lite

And while 56 percent of Americans say they think congressional Republicans are too rigid in their dealings with the president, a plurality of GOP respondents say congressional Republicans are too quick to give in to Obama.

“In their mind, Republicans have been too quick to give in to Obama,” says McInturff, the GOP pollster, about the views of self-identified Republicans in the poll. “For the average Republican House member, he or she is more likely to be concerned about a primary than general election.”

And there’s the problem….the problem is obvious to everyone who is not the problem, but  those who are the problem are mostly worried about losing their jobs and try to keep their jobs by not fixing problems with the President.  Instead they loudly shout that he’s the reason they can’t solve problems, which OMG!!, the GOP base loves to hear.

http://www.talkradionews.com/for-immediate-release/2013/07/25/thursday-july-25.html#.UfES_Hoo4m8

onflict mineral rule survives legal test
A federal judge in the District of Columbia upheld a provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to impose disclosure requirements for companies that acquire “conflict minerals” from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The law was challenged as an infringement of corporate Free Speech rights by three trade associations—National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable—whose members acquire diamonds and other minerals from the Congo. Public Citizen and Amnesty International said the rule will provide critical information to investors and consumers.

I was reading my normal news and saw the bolded section above.  The context of the argument should give you pause, if not bring you to a full stop.