McAuliffe has significant lead over Cuccinelli heading down the homestretch

MoonHowler

Many analysts believe Cuccinelli’s brand of conservatism fit more in politics 30 years ago than they do now.  Others feel the first nail in the coffin was because of scandals involved with Virginia governor Bob McDonnell.  The final blow was delivered by house republicans who are taking significant heat for the government shutting down and the brinksmanship over raising the debt ceiling.

One cannot overlook that women favor McAuliffe over Cuccinelli by  nearly 20 points  in addition to Cuccinelli’s other woes.  It seems that a perfect storm has gathered to knock Cuccinelli  out of the running.  However, its over when its over and the final ballot has been counted.  Until then, its anybody’s game.

 

 

Krauthammer: Where is Ted Cruz now? Where are the generals?

MoonHowler

Politico.com:

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer continued his criticism of Sen.  Ted Cruz on Thursday, asking, “Where is he now?”

“How exactly was he going to achieve abolition of Obamacare? Explain that to  me. Has he ever explained it? And where is he now?” Krauthammer said on “The  Laura Ingraham Show.”

Krauthammer, who has previously hit Cruz (R-Texas) on the  strategy of shutdown to defund Obamacare, included Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) in his  questioning and said the two went home to “have lunch.”

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Saved by the shutdown?

MoonHowler

zoo closed

Washingtonpost: (Ezra Kline)

The case was nicely made by Alec Philips of Goldman Sachs. “If a shutdown occurs, we would be surprised if congressional Republicans would want to risk another difficult situation only a couple of weeks later,” he wrote. “The upshot is that while a shutdown would be unnecessarily disruptive, it might actually ease passage of a debt limit increase.”

The idea was that if House Republicans got their shutdown Oct.1, they would be feeling enough political pain by Oct. 17 that they wouldn’t dare add to it by breaching the debt ceiling. And that’s exactly what happened.

Ezra Kline predicted this phenomena a week or so ago.  It has come to pass.   The Congressional Republicans are now feeling the heat with a 24% approval rating.  The tea party(ies) are feeling even worse pain with an only 21% approval rating.  It doesn’t look like they are going to be primarying anyone.

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Virginia governor’s race analysis: Beware of unintended consequences

MoonHowler

There are some interesting facts in this video. The most dangerous thing to either candidate is that each man’s respective base grow complacent and stay home.

With less than a month until the election, the heat is on for the heart and soul of the Old Dominion. I never like calling an election. I feel it jinxes things up. However, it might be a subtle reminder to those who want to play a little ‘war on women’ that there can be deadly electoral paybacks.

What the women don’t take care of, the shutdown will.  Unfortunately for Cuccinelli, the antics of his party have bled over into his campaign.  That actually seems a little unfair.  The banana republicans should have thought of that before trying to ignore rule of law.  Their attempt to play hardball to get their own way definitely has had unintended consequences.  The Cooch just might be one of those consequences.

Greece v. Golloway: How long before Greece comes to PWC?

MoonHowler

Why does Greece, New York keep popping up?  It seems to me that when government opens its meetings with prayer, regardless of what kind of prayer, it has endorsed religion for however long that prayer lasts.   Isn’t that what the Supreme Court has ruled against?

I don’t think its fair to ask Christians to give up mentioning Jesus at public meetings.  I don’t think Muslims should be expected to forego Mohammad.  I also don’t think non-Christians should be forced to pray to Someone who is not a deity in their faith.

This all begs the question why we have public prayer at meetings.  How about praying at home or on the ride over?   How about not forcing religion on those who want to do public business?  Enduring someone else’s religion should not be a prerequisite for doing business with state, local or federal government.

Some GOP house members scrambling for fallback strategy

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Key GOP figures on Wednesday sent their clearest signals that they are abandoning their bid to immediately stop the federal health-care law — the issue that forced the government to shut down — and are scrambling for a fallback strategy.

Republican Party leaders, activists and donors now widely acknowledge that the effort to kill President Obama’s signature initiative by hitting the brakes on the government has been a failure. The law has largely disappeared from their calculus as they look for a way out of the impasse over the shutdown and for a way to avoid a possible default on U.S. debt.

Instead, they are regrouping for a longer battle over the health-care law. They also are trying to refocus the upcoming debt-ceiling showdown on fiscal issues, including entitlements and tax reform.

The strategy to defund the Affordable Care Act “needed a Plan B, and its authors, if they had one, didn’t share what it was,” said Heather R. Higgins, head of the Independent Women’s Forum and founder of a coalition of conservative groups seeking repeal of the health-care law.

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FCHC sues the State of Virginia: May the force be with them!

MoonHowler

A challenge to Virginia’s strident anti abortion regulations moved forward today.
Rosemary Codding is the director of Falls Church Healthcare Center. In the above video, Rosemary is shown accepting an award from NARAL for her continuing efforts in the field of reproductive rights. That night she announced that FCHC filed a petition in circuit court in Arlington to set aside the onerous TRAP laws that will close most clinics in Virginia. Today, an Arlington County circuit court judge ruled that FCHC could move forward with its suit challenging the new TRAP laws.

Washingtonpost.com:

The Falls Church Medical Center is seeking to overturn an April decision by the Virginia Board of Health that applies strict, hospital-style building codes to the clinics. Among other things, the rules mandate the width of hallways and doorways as well as the number of parking spaces. Some providers have said costly renovations needed to comply would put them out of business.

Attorneys for the medical center argued in court that abortion clinics have been treated differently than other outpatient medical facilities. Solicitor General Earle Duncan Getchell Jr. defended the regulations, saying that the Board of Health simply followed the General Assembly’s directive and the law.

Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Kendrick denied a request by the state to dismiss the case. He predicted that the contentious lawsuit will eventually go to the state appeals court.

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The Shutdown: What its all costing America

MoonHowler

These figures are staggering and so avoidable. The economy is bleeding money. Republicans in Congress–all we need to do is to pass a clean CR. You can avoid all of this. The Democrats have already agreed to hold their noses and accept the sequestration figures reflected in the CR.. That’s a pretty big compromise.

Tea party republicans, stop wasting the American taxpayers hard earned cash.

To John Boehner–Do the math! The votes are there!

MoonHowler

Good for those who have said they will vote YES for a clean CR!  Both my congressman, Rob Wittman and Elena’s congressman, Frank Wolf have stated they are now willing to send that clean CR.  It only will take 217 votes to reopen the government today.  Congressman Bill Young, one of my favorites, has also said yes to the clean CR.

From looking at the math, it appears that John Boehner is simply not being truthful  He does have the votes if he adds the republicans noted in the video  to the 195 definite democratic yeses,.  Boehner, do the math!

This has really gone on too long.  Today the VA regional offices will shut down because of additional furloughs.  Furthermore, we are only 9 days away from the debt ceiling deadline.  The debt ceiling issue absolutely must be resolved. The nation’s economy is at risk.  This is not a game of chicken and it cannot be treated like a game.

I would encourage the President to simply bypass congress and do what is necessary to keep our nation afloat.  We can’t allow juvenile delinquents to bring this nation to its knees.

The Cooch and his Albatross Cruz

MoonHowler
Albatross
Albatross

 

Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks
Had I from old and young !
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

From “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

Washingtonpost.com:

RICHMOND —  Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II made scant reference to the federal shutdown and said nothing at all about Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) on Saturday, when the two Republicans both addressed a conservative group.

But Cuccinelli, the GOP nominee for governor, met privately with Cruz before the event and urged him to find a solution to the shutdown, his campaign said.

Democrats have pounded Cuccinelli all week over his plans to appear at a Family Foundation dinner headlined by Cruz, widely considered the architect of the shutdown as a means of defunding the Affordable Care Act. Cuccinelli has said repeatedly that he disagrees with the tactic despite his fierce opposition the federal health-care law known informally as Obamacare.

The impasse in Washington has forced Cuccinelli to walk a fine line: between his longtime tea party supporters, who regard Cruz as a hero, and independent voters in a state with a large federal workforce, who tend to take a dim view of Obamacare but an even dimmer one of the shutdown.

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Faux News: Liar Liar Pants on FIRE!!

MoonHowler

UFB! So it’s free to keep all the land open? Maybe the Faux and Friends would like to volunteer to fund the electric bills, the trash pick up, as well as grounds upkeep, toilet paper and soap, and house keeping bills? I guess in Fauxland, these things are all free.

The free lie wasn’t the biggest lie, however. The mother of all lies was told by Anna Kooiman last Saturday about the President. She repeated a satire saying the President Obama was paying for a Muslim center to remain open with his own money. How absurd! Liar Liar Pants on fire. The story was told in a satirical online website, National Report. Just one quick glance at the site tells you that it is satirical. It was like falling for something you read in The Onion.

Kooiman later retracted her statement in a twitter the next day and Faux News will retract the remarks this Saturday, October 12, after every dim-wit in America has heard it and repeated it. How irresponsible.

Lies and gossip are like feathers from a split pillow. You can never stuff them all back in. That’s the reason to be as accurate as possible and when you aren’t, quickly take corrective measures. We all make mistakes. Anna Kooiman shouldn’t have been so quick to repeat a rather unbelievable story without checking her sources.

In the War on Sodomy–Cuccinelli suffers another defeat

MoonHowler

Thinkprogress.org:

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it would not hear Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II’s (R) appeal of a lower court ruling that held that the state’s sodomy ban is wholly unconstitutional. Cuccinelli had made his defense of the law an issue in his campaign for governor.

Virginia’s archaic Crimes Against Nature law made oral and anal sex a felony — even between consenting adults in the privacy of their bedroom. In 2003, the Supreme Court held in Lawrence v. Texas that sodomy bans like Virginia’s violated the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment.

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What do the radical republicans really want?

MoonHowler

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The answer remains very unclear. Obviously they know that they can’t block the ACA. Attempting to fund the government piecemeal just won’t work. It’s absurd to try. The question remains, what do they want? Why not pass a clean CR so we can move on. No one, including them, really knows what they want.

Congress-watchers say there are at least 20 republican votes in the house to pass the CR right now. Let’s do it. Holding funding hostage just isn’t the way to do business.

SNL: Winners and Losers

MoonHowler

In fairness to the website at www.healthcare.gov, different companies had different sections contracted out to them. then the contractors had to make all the different components talk to each other. I believe my friend who was one of the managers for the Medicaid end of it told me, 150+ different parts had to all communicate. Then when the website got slammed with 2.8 million inquiries, it’s no wonder things were a little iffy there for a while.