Today is Valentine’s Day but don’t expect a sweetie-pie OpinionList. No, today’s post is all about politics, just in case you’re tired of all the flowers and chocolate.

POTUS: Joe Scarborough?: As if it weren’t bad enough that we have him on every day on Morning Joe Joke, Joe Scarborough might be interested in running for President in 2016. Please, what could be worse than that? Bringing Mika as his VP nominee.

It’s Fox News, Stupid: Did you hear that James Carville has joined Fox News? Why would he want to? What about CNN? Perhaps, he was learning the ropes there. Since 2012, I’ve been calling it the Conservative News Network or Fox News Lite. I’m hoping that he’ll give all those Fox News anchors and commentators a piece of his own mind and a bigger piece of reality. The Clinton advisor who coined the phrase, “it’s the economy, stupid,” might find himself saying the word “stupid” more often than not.

The GOP’s Cruz To Bear:  Ted Cruz decided that he couldn’t let a clean debt ceiling bill go through the Senate, so he announced he would filibuster again (although this time without the green eggs and ham). “When the cloture vote came up Wednesday afternoon in the Senate, Democrats voted for it en masse, but the measure still needed a few votes to pass. After a tense hour, and with the nation’s full faith and credit on the line, it fell to Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn to, well, pick your cliché: swallow the bitter pill…walk the plank.” Frankly, anyone who makes Mitch McConnell swallow a bitter pill has my appreciation, but just until McConnell gets voted out. Then, I’ll go back to condemnation, my usual stance vis-a-vis Cruz, and probably one already adopted by most Republicans.

King Barack?: Lately there has been a bombardment of stories on what President Obama’s critics call his “imperial presidency,” referring to the level of executive action taken by the president. Ted Cruz is one of the strongest critics (why am I not surprised?). He penned an editorial on The Washington Post which begins, “Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency, none is more dangerous than the president’s persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive fiat.”  Now, I don’t believe President Obama is an imperial President, not only because Ted Cruz claims it and therefore it’s a lie, but because a Twitter graphic listing executive orders by various Presidents confirms that he is not (I trust Twitter today more than I do traditional media). But if it were true that President Obama is an imperial president, it wouldn’t surprise me at all. After all, he has needed to bypass too many GOPers, otherwise known as royal pains in the ass.

No Benghazi Conspiracy: “The Republican-led House Armed Services Committee concluded its review of the 2012 attack in Benghazi. In short: The most feverish of conspiracy theories have no basis in fact.”  Hear that RWNJ’s and those who act like them? NO CONSPIRACY, and it’s Republicans saying it.

United Citizens Must Fight Citizens United: I plan to write a post as soon as I finish reading “Dollarocracy,” a book that explains in detail “How The Money And Media Election Complex Is Destroying America.” In the meantime, know that as NPR reports, “even efforts to control money take money.”  The irony.

Obamacare Because Obama Cares!: The New Republic reports, “3.3million people have now selected private insurance plans through either the federally or state-run Obamacare marketplaces. About 1.1 million of those signed up in January…” and “…the proportion of Americans without health insurance has fallen to 16 percent—lower than it was in the first quarter of 2013 and lower than its been anytime since Obama first took office.” I think that all of us who support President Obama, and all those who are tired of the GOP should sign up. First, to cover ourselves adequately and secondly to prove the GOP wrong. Obama cares, now let’s show him that we do too.

The War On Voting Rights: Guess who’s waging it? The same people who are waging wars against women, immigrants, gay marriage, and anything that is logical, decent and just. But for the sake of brevity take a look at the interactive map created by The New Yorker. It’s scary.

 

Note: Original publication date: 2-14-14. Date has been changed for display purposes

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