Winter is over. We have all decreed that it is over. Think pansies, daffodils, and cowslips. Anything but winter. What are good flowers to plant now that won’t die if there is an overnight freeze?
How soon can you set out rosemary bushes and cypress from winter gifts? Will they die if they go out now?
How about those cherry trees? Will they bloom before Memorial Day? (Just kidding)
Senate Republicans derailed a Democratic bill Wednesday curbing paycheck discrimination against women, an effort that even in defeat Democrats hoped would pay political dividends in this fall’s congressional elections.
Wednesday’s vote was 53-44 to halt GOP tactics aimed at derailing the legislation, but that fell seven short of the 60 votes Democrats needed to prevail.
The outcome on the Senate floor was not a surprise, but Democrats were playing to a wider audience.
With public opinion polls showing Democratic voters less enthusiastic than Republicans this year, Democrats aimed the measure at women, who historically lean more toward their party than men. They were also casting the issue as a crucial one for the middle class because so many families rely on female wage-earners — and promised to revisit it before Election Day.
The Iowa primary is going earthy early this year. First of all, Joni Ernest, Republican state senator from Iowa, gave her state a “let’s make ’em squeal” commercial. In a well-done political ad, she gave her prospective constituency a brief bio, telling them that she grew up on a farm castrating pigs so she knew how to slice and dice pork. Now we have Bob Quast threatening to blow someone’s “balls off” if they come to his door to harm his daughters. Quast’s sister was apparently murdered by a sexual predator.
Will this kind of bluntness attract voters? Does a filters-off ad appeal more to voters? Maybe in Iowa. I think Washington, DC is a little too pristine and white glove for this type of ad. How about the kids who might hear these commercials. Is it sending a good signal?
Do we want our politics to have this violent of an image? Finally, is there anything we can do about it even if we object? Voting with your remote seems like great over-simplification.
Quast is running as an independent. Ernest is a Republican. I can only speculate what the Democratic opponent will come up with.
It sounds like a war on external genitalia to me.
