Idaho Senator Dan Foreman yells "Abortion is murder" at his constituents and then threatens to have them arrested. Yes, he's a Republican.

This is how Senator Dan Foreman, Idaho District 5, treats his constituents. We drove 7 hours to meet with him and he threatened to call the police if we entered his office. SPREAD THIS! pic.twitter.com/SfDzdciqg1

— nicky (@nicky_skinz) February 19, 2018

Well he seems nice.

Gee I wonder what ole Chris Christie has been up to? Oh, just yelling at baseball fans again.

At #Cubs #Brewers game. #ChrisChristie was getting razzed by fans, so he got in the face of one of them. 5:30 on @WISN12News pic.twitter.com/sx8euMgFy2

— Ben Hutchison (@BennyHutch) July 30, 2017

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie got into a spat with a baseball fan at a game in Milwaukee on Sunday, his latest public relations snafu to cap a month of snafus. 

In a video posted to Twitter, Christie is seen leaning over a fan who heckled him, angrily calling the man a “big shot” before storming away with a bowl of nachos.

A local news reporter for the station WISN12, Ben Hutchison, said he was a relative of the man Christie confronted, Brad Joseph. Joseph told the outlet he yelled the governor’s name “and told him that he sucked,” which sparked the encounter. 

“I called him a hypocrite because I thought it needed to be said. He turned around back towards me and got in my face for what seemed like a long time, but was probably only about 30 seconds or a minute. (He) was yelling at me. First he told me, ‘Why don’t you have another beer?’ which I thought was a decent come back, and I thought that was kind of funny. Then he started calling me a tough guy.”

Speaking of "tough guy" I wonder how tough Christie would be without all of that Secret Service protection? 

Besides what is the governor with the lowest approval rating in the country so mad about?

All the guy did was tell the truth.

Oh that's right, these GOP thugs are allergic to anything resembling the truth.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski seems a little testy. Gee, I can't imagine why.

Courtesy of Mediaite:

Earlier today, CNN’s Manu Raju waited in the halls so he could toss some questions at approaching members of Congress. At one point, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was walking with a purpose when Raju tried to get her opinion on the Republican proposal. And she wasn’t having it. 

“Could you give me a moment to get to my constituents, please?” Murkowski derisively asked Raju. When the reporter tried again, asking if she could give a yes or no on the bill, she stopped and went back to confront Raju. 

“Would you please be respectful?!” Murkowski angrily asked. As Raju insisted he was being respectful, the Alaskan lawmaker stomped off.

Since Murkowski was in Washington DC, and her constituents are way the hell up here in Alaska, I am a little confused as to who she was rushing off to talk with.

Besides how long can it really take to respond to that question with a "Are you kidding me? I can't vote for that bill! It would destroy my career!"?

Asked why he is not holding town halls Senator Marco Rubio replies Because "people get rude and stupid."

We finally caught up with Senator Marco Rubio at @FIU. He told us that he won't host a townhall because people act "rude and stupid." pic.twitter.com/DrefDkvrFD

— Tomas Kennedy (@Tomaskenn) February 23, 2017

Courtesy of HuffPo:When a constituent confronted Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) Thursday about why he wasn’t holding a town hall event during this week’s congressional recess, Rubio gave what seemed an honest answer. 

“I don’t know man, because town halls, people get rude and stupid ― on both sides,” the senator told the man. 

A community organizer for the Florida chapter of the Service Employees International Union tweeted a video of the encounter, which happened in a lecture hall at Florida International University, where Rubio teaches a class. The questioner appears to be Rafael Velasquez, a member of the Florida Democratic party’s board of trustees.

Not to give Rubio too much credit, but at least that sounds more honest that Louie Gohmert stating that he is afraid of getting shot like Gabby Giffords. 

However I would be willing to bet that the will live to regret this statement.

Republican gets booed and mocked during town hall for trotting out the old lie about death panels.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Constituents at a Florida town hall that Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) hosted erupted when another Republican official made the long-debunked claim that Americans are subject to so-called death panels under the Affordable Care Act. 

Bill Akins, the secretary of the Republican Party of Pasco County, made the claim during the town hall on Saturday. 

“Here’s the problem I have with the affordable healthcare act. Number one, there is a provision in there that anyone over the age of 74 has to go before what is effectively a death panel,” he said, prompting immediate screams and boos from the audience. “Yes they do, yes they do, it’s in there folks.” 

Akins went on to label the audience childish for calling him out on the lie. “OK children, all right children,” he said.

I can't believe he called them children.

You just KNOW that will be showing up in political ads in 2018, and probably 2020 as well.

And for him to resurrect Sarah Palin's 2009 Lie of the Year, is simply unconscionable. 

Clearly this is a well informed audience, and they simply were not going to allow these assholes to lie to them anymore.

Republicans being fact checked and called out on their lies in real time.  Whatever will they do?

Donald Trump finds his constituency. White supremacists.

Courtesy of Vocativ:  

Reality TV star turned 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump is fast becoming a favorite with America’s white supremacists and hate groups. Trump’s claim that Mexican immigrants are “rapists” and criminals lost him his jobs at NBC and Univision, but it earned him the support of neo-Nazis and racist bloggers across the country, including a leader of the group allegedly cited by South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof as inspiration. 

White supremacist blogger Andrew Anglin of the website The Daily Stormer posted his “official endorsement” of Trump for president on Sunday, noting that the former Apprentice star “is willing to say what most Americans think: it’s time to deport these people [Hispanic immigrants]. He is also willing to call them out as criminal rapists, murderers and drug dealers.” In another post, Anglin commends Trump for his refusal to “back down from factual statements about Mexican rapists”. Anglin did not respond to multiple interview requests, but was profiled by Vocativ in 2014. 

Another of Trump’s supporters is Kyle Rogers, a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, the hate group authorities say inspired Roof to murder nine at a historic black church in South Carolina earlier this month. Rogers was hocking Donald Trump 2016 tee-shirts to nearly 40,000 followers on Twitter last week. His account is no longer active. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Rogers has been an active member of South Carolina’s Republican Party for nearly a decade and held a position on the Dorcester County Republican’s Executive Committee. 

Well there you go Trump, these are clearly your people.

While we're on the subject of white supremacists, guess who is coming out in defense of the Confederate battle flag?

Courtesy of MSN:  

The Ku Klux Klan will hold a rally at the South Carolina State House next month to protest efforts to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds.

Any group can request to hold a rally at the State House as long as its grounds are available, said Brian Gaines, a spokesman for the South Carolina Budget and Control Board. 

The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan requested the rally from 3 to 5 p.m. on July 18, Gaines said. The Klan is expecting 100 to 200 to attend, according to a copy of its state event form. 

Calling itself the "Largest Klan in America," the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are based in Pelham, N.C., according to the group's website.

Well now that Trump recognizes his demographic he could probably raise a pretty tidy sum selling confederate battle flag t-shirts and KKK tote bags on his campaign website. 

And if those items are manufactured in the same place as his clothing line well.....

......can you say "awkward?"

Anti-Obamacare ads may have helped to increase enrollment in blue states. Oops!

Courtesy of the Indy Channel:  

Congressional candidates opposed to the Affordable Care Act have spent $450 million on commercials attacking the controversial health care plan, but the effort seems to be backfiring in blue states. 

Anti-Obamacare advertisements in some liberally inclined states are actually helping health care exchange enrollments, according to a new Brookings Institution analysis. 

The study, done by Brookings fellow Niam Yaraghi, compared ACA enrollment data released by the Department of Health and Human Services in May to a map by Kantar Media CMAG that tracks anti-Obamacare ads across the United States. 

Yaraghi calculated a ratio based on the number of Obamacare enrollees divided by the number of people who potentially could have enrolled, and concluded that negative ads kept a lid on enrollment in red states and had the opposite effect in blue states.

The study  goes on to suggest that the ads led to increased awareness about the existence of a governmentally subsidized service and its benefits for the uninsured.

Or to summarize:

In other words, the commercials effectively acted as a PSA for the ACA.

Not only that but for those conservative Republicans who DID sign up for the program, despite advertisements warning them not to, the vast majority of them are quite happy they did: 

The survey, from the Commonwealth Fund, a research group, a research group, came to similar conclusions as other surveys about the expansion of health insurance. It found that about 15 percent of adults younger than 65 now lack health insurance, down from 20 percent before the Affordable Care Act rolled out in January. 

What was more surprising is that people who got the new coverage were generally happy with the product. Overall, 73 percent of people who bought health plans and 87 percent of those who signed up for Medicaid said they were somewhat or very satisfied with their new health insurance. Seventy-four percent of newly insured Republicans liked their plans. Even 77 percent of people who had insurance before – including members of the much-publicized group whose plans got canceled last year – were happy with their new coverage.

Overall I would say that the Republicans got their asses handed to them.

And not only that, but I would think that they lost a whole lot of potential voters who do not appreciate the fact that they were lied to about Obamacare, or have Republican governors who have not expanded Medicaid in their state, leaving them disillusioned with their party and with few options to receive the kind of coverage that they see other people enjoying in states with more reasonable administrations.

Nevada State Assemblyman says he would bring back slavery if his constituents wanted him to. There's some leadership for you.

KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe News Weather, Video - Courtesy of Raw Story:

A Republican Nevada state assemblyman said that he would vote for legislation in favor of slavery if his constituents wanted him to. According to the Las Vegas Sun, Jim Wheeler of Gardnerville, NV was speaking to the Storey County Republican Party when he made the remarks last August, although they are only now coming to light. 

“If that’s what they wanted, I’d have to hold my nose, I’d have to bite my tongue and they’d probably have to hold a gun to my head, but yeah, if that’s what the citizens of the, if that’s what the constituency wants that elected me, that’s what they elected me for,” he said. “That’s what a republic is about.” 

Now, Wheeler said to the Sun, “liberal operatives” are spreading the video in an effort to smear him.

Well I do believe I am one of those "liberal operatives" so you know what that means. (It means I play the video of him saying the words so that all of you can make an informed decision on whether he is being portrayed honestly or not. Though I don't think that is what HE thinks we do.)

You know I believe I understand what Assemblyman Wheeler was trying to say (Scary, right?), however I think he misses an important part of his job.

It is not the job of politicians to simply jump through whatever flaming hoop their constructions are holding up at any given time, it is also to help the people who voted them into office in understanding that flaming hoops are dangerous and should not be misused.

In other words people do not always know what is in their best interests because they are living their lives and may not have had to time to educate themselves on every single issue up before the Assembly.

And it is not as if his constituents are completely homogenous, therefore it would be impossible to vote in a way to satisfy every single one of them (Especially, let's say, if any of them were African American. For instance.) so his argument is fairly ridiculous.

Besides that, slavery it bad, and if Assemblyman Wheeler cannot adequately explain THAT perhaps he does not belong in politics.

Republican Congressman gets fact checked by audience during town hall and told to "stop lying" about Obamacare. Oh, this is good!

"Wait, how did you get a hold of actual facts about the Affordable Care Act?"

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Things got heated for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) during a town hall question-and-answer session in Winter Haven, Florida on Thursday. His constituents called him out over his multiple votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as well as misleading claims that the law’s consumer protections are being dismantled by the Obama administration. 

Webster was responding to several constituents’ questions about the consequences that repealing Obamacare — which House Republicans, including Webster, have voted to do on 40 separate occasions — would have for the people in his district. Attendees asked Webster if he had any plans to replace consumer protections included in Obamacare, such as guaranteed insurance coverage for Americans with pre-existing medical conditions and free preventative health screenings for seniors: 

QUESTIONER: What happens to us when Obamacare is repealed? What happens to people with pre-existing conditions that can’t get health care? What happens to those of us who finally have access to health insurance for the first time in nine or ten years? What happens to us? And you want to make this local, I’ll make this local. I’m a constituent, right now I can’t get health care. I’m waiting for this [insurance marketplace] to open and I’d like to know why we keep repealing [Obamacare]? 

The congressman defended his repeal votes by saying the law would drive up Americans’ health care costs by requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions. He then claimed that President Barack Obama himself thinks his signature law is unworkable. As evidence, Webster implied that the law’s protections — such as its cap on consumers’ annual out-of-pocket medical costs — were being dismantled by the Obama administration. That prompted an outcry from the audience, as people booed and countered Webster’s claims. 

An event official interrupted at that point, asking the audience to be respectful and give Webster a chance to speak. One audience member replied by saying, “Well, tell him to stop lying!”

And THAT my friends, is how the tide starts to turn.

Newt Gingrich suggests that constituents ask their GOP House members what their replacement for Obamacare will be. Damn, now I'm agreeing with Newt Gingrich!

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

There’s been lot of chatter today about these rather blunt remarks from Newt Gingrich about the perils of the GOP’s obsession with destroying Obamacare while refusing to offer any meaningful alternative: 

“I will bet you, for most of you, you go home in the next two weeks when your members of Congress are home, and you look them in the eye and you say, ‘What is your positive replacement for Obamacare?’ They will have zero answer,” Gingrich said. 

Gingrich blamed the problem on Republican culture that rewards obstruction and negativity instead of innovation and “being positive.” 

“We are caught up right now in a culture, and you see it every single day, where as long as we are negative and as long as we are vicious and as long as we can tear down our opponent, we don’t have to learn anything,” Gingrich said, acknowledging the “totally candid” nature of his remarks. “We have to do the homework.” “This is a very deep problem,” said Gingrich. 

I don’t think this is an accident or an off the cuff remark. It looks to me like there are enough data points out there to suggest that Republicans now recognize that their overall posture on Obamacare — not to mention on the president himself — is deeply problematic, and are seriously grappling with it at the highest levels of the party.

Okay is this a sign that some in the GOP are starting to think reasonably?

Because if that is true there is about to be a HUGE scuffle within the party to grab hold of the reins of power. 

Chris Matthews just declared that Rand Paul WILL be the 2016 Republican candidate. But that will ONLY happen if the old guard of the party lose their hold completel , and if that happens it could be great news for the Democrats in the short run but bad news for the country in the long.

Of course it should be remember that Gingrich says off the wall things all the time simply to get attention, so this could simply be more of that. Even though, this time, it does sound pretty reasonable.