House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously to release Democratic rebuttal memo.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously on Monday to make public a classified Democratic memorandum rebutting Republican claims that the F.B.I. and the Justice Department had abused their powers to wiretap a former Trump campaign official, setting up a possible clash with President Trump. 

The vote gives Mr. Trump five days to review the Democratic memo and determine whether he will try to block its release. A decision to stop it could lead to an ugly standoff between the president, his top law enforcement and intelligence advisers and Democrats on Capitol Hill.

I like this line:  "The vote gives Mr. Trump five days to review the Democratic memo and determine whether he will try to block its release."

Please, we KNOW he is going to try to block it because it will undercut his mythology about the Nunes memo vindicating him. 

However I am not really convinced that this memo needs to be released.

After all the Nunes memo was essentially its own rebuttal, as it did not deliver ANY of the things that Trump and his acolytes claimed that it would deliver. 

Either the Democratic memo will serve to drive a final stake through the heart of the Republican attempts to vilify the FBI and Justice Department, or it will serve as a distraction while the Republicans regroup and launch their attack from another direction.

Remember the goal here is to keep Donald Trump in office for as long as possible, and the Republicans have already demonstrated that there are no ethical or moral barriers that will keep them from that objective.

Finally, somebody has the guts to call out a White House spokesperson for attacking the media and spreading disinformation.

This is a moment to watch and remember. pic.twitter.com/Ld6EGfwiPx

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 27, 2017

I think that might be my favorite White House press corps moment since Mellissa McCarthy's Sean Spicer impersonation for SNL.

That reporter's name is Brian J. Karem, an award winning journalist who once went to jail to protect a source.

After the exchange Karem also tweeted this:

So, when we are wrong we correct ourselves but when has POTUS ever done that? We are not FAKE news.

— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) June 27, 2017

Definitely has a point.
 

Newly elected teabagging Senator Joni Ernst has been selected to give the Republican response to the President's State of the Union speech.

"Uh oh."

Courtesy of Politico:  

Newly elected Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst will give the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union next Tuesday. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called Ernst, a folksy member of the National Guard and former state senator, the “perfect” messenger for the big night. She defeated Democratic candidate Bruce Braley in 2014, taking a seat held by Democrats for 30 years.

The announcement was made at a joint Republican House and Senate legislative retreat here Thursday. 

“Americans voted for change and Sen. Ernst will explain what the new Congress plans to do and is already doing to change and what it is already doing to return Washington’s focus to the concerns of the middle class and away from the demands of the political class,” McConnell said. 

Oh this should be good. I wonder what I will find to mock this year?

Does anybody remember Bobby Jindal's incredibly awkward walk to the podium in 2009?

Or Marco Rubio's dive for the water bottle in 2013?

However my favorite would have to be Michele Bachmann's unofficial teabagger rebuttal delivered to somebody slightly off to her right.

Oh yes, Joni Ernst has a mighty large pair of clown shoes to fill.

But I've seen her talk, so I think she might be up to the job.

Hey remember that sob story about "Bette" having to pay $700 more for premiums thanks to Obamacare that was told during the official GOP response to the President's SOTU speech? Yeah that was bullshit.

"Wait, I'm getting fact checked? Nobody said anything about fact checking."

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

The centerpiece of the Republican party's attack on the Affordable Care Act following President Obama's State of the Union address this week was the story of "Bette." 

Bette was an otherwise unidentified Washington state resident featured in the official GOP response to the Obama speech delivered by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). According to Rodgers, 

Bette had written her a letter stating that she had "hoped the president’s healthcare law would save her money – but found out instead that her premiums were going up nearly $700 a month." The lesson, according to Rodgers: "This law is not working." Bette has now been tracked down by her hometown Spokane Spokesman-Review. She's Bette Grenier, who owns a small business with her husband. Unsurprisingly, her story is much different from the sketchy description provided by Rodgers. That description perplexed experts, including Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, who couldn't understand how a state resident "would have no choice but to pay $700 per month more for a policy that meets the Affordable Care Act’s coverage requirements," the newspaper reported. 

Grenier told the newspaper that she wrote Rodgers after her insurance company informed her that her $552-a-month catastrophic health plan would not be offered in 2014. It offered her an alternative plan complying with the ACA at $1,052 a month. 

But that sounds like her insurer trying to steer her to an overpriced option. A compliant plan meeting the Affordable Care Act's coverage mandates actually is available from Washington's insurance exchange for much less -- and with a deductible far lower than the $10,000 she was paying under the old plan and broader coverage, though lacking a provision for four free doctor visits a year provided by her old plan. 

Grenier said she had flatly refused to even investigate her options on the exchange. "I wouldn’t go on that Obama website at all,” she said. “We liked our old plan. It worked for us, but they can’t offer it anymore.” 

Instead, she and her husband "have decided to go without coverage," the newspaper reported. 

"We wouldn't go on that Obama website."

We "have decided to go without coverage."

Yeah THAT'LL teach Obama!

You know the Republican strategy for 2014 seems to be to make a bunch of commercials featuring people who are upset at the horrible things that Obamacare has done to their health insurance.

However if THIS is the best they can do, and remember this was featured in the OFFICIAL Republican response, then it should prove quite easy for the Democrats to smack each one down in turn.

Essentially the Republican's position seems to be, "We hate Obamacare because Obama passed it, we like our OLD health care though we never really understood it, and we cannot work a computer. Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi!"

The President's SOTU speech. The good, the bad, and the ugly GOP responses.

CNN instant poll on Obama’s State of the Union pic.twitter.com/1WyEcllaX8
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) January 29, 2014

I am just going to use this post as a one stop shop for SOTU attacks, ratings, and trivia.

Above you can see the CNN instant polls.

Here ABC News gives you the breakdown by the numbers:

 As all the talk about the words in President Obama’s State of the Union address begins, here’s the speech by the numbers: 

80 applause interruptions 

15 minutes, 36 seconds – total length of those interruptions 

3 laughter interruptions 

40 standing ovations (19 of them bipartisan, 21 Democrats-only) 

36 rounds of bipartisan applause 

42 rounds of Democrats-only applause 

2 rounds where it was too hard to tell

Here is Rachel Maddow confronting  Rep. Huelskamp over this tweet, and many others:

Obama politicizes the military to end his speech. Totally expected, Mr. President. #SOTU
— Cong. Tim Huelskamp (@CongHuelskamp) January 29, 2014

Maddow challenged Rep. Huelskamp on-air over his strange and arrogant comments. 

“I have to ask you if that was tongue in cheek — do you really believe that was ‘politicizing’ the military,” she asked. 

Hueskamp responded that the GOP “actually invited our own veteran,” and claimed that the President “ran against the military” and “highlights them when it helps politically.” 

Never mind that President Obama spent hours with the troops during his vacation in Hawaii over Christmas, and made most of that visit off-limits to the press — so it wasn’t “political.” 

Maddow would not let the Tea Party member from Kansas get away with that. 

“How did he run against the military?” 

“It’s pretty clear — he wanted to bring the troops home, he wants to close Gitmo, he wants to do all kinds of things…” 

“Is bringing the troops home your definition of being against the military?” 

That’s when Huelskamp lost it. 

“You know they’re hiding the truth on Benghazi,” Rep. Huelskamp said. “We’re looking for them to come forward, let those folks testify who were on the ground.” 

“It’s also the responsibility of Hillary Clinton,” he added. “Just a few months ago she said what difference does it make? Two days ago she says it was the biggest regret in her life.” 

As the interview progressed, Huelskamp accused Maddow of “being a cheerleader” instead of a journalist. 

“Did you just call me a cheerleader?” she asked, shocked. 

“I don’t know, maybe you have that history,” Huelskamp quipped. “If it was Bush, you would be jumping and screaming.” 

“You’re amazing,” Maddow responded, clearly shocked and irritated.

Yep, that went well. What a douchenozzle!

Here are a few of the GOP responses:

First the official Republican response featuring  Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the gist of which apparently was that she really wanted to thank God for allowing her to give birth to a child with Down syndrome. (The Rubio thirst starts to hit her at about the 2:00 mark.)

Then there is the Tea Party response courtesy of Sen. Mike Lee.

Yes this Mike Lee, seen standing between the Lunatic from Lake Lucille, and Rafael Cruz wearing his Brokeback Mountain jacket.

Then Rand Paul gave HIS response to the President's speech, because....well everybody else got to. (You'll be happy to know that Paul got through the entire speech without bringing up Monica Lewinsky. However he did call government stupid, which of course would be less true if he and Mike Lee were to resign. Oh, and House Republicans called it blatant self promotion.)

There was apparently yet ANOTHER response delivered by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtine of Florida, but I don't know who the hell that is.

There was also a response from the aforementioned Lake Lucille Lunatic, but it is so full of moosepoop that it is really beneath our notice. (Besides she didn't write it.)

By the way here is the actual transcript of the speech so you can see for yourselves that it was pretty damn good.

And finally here is the best expression of the entire night.

Go ahead, try not to smile.

What made it even better is that it happened right next to Speaker Boehner, who had this expression on his face.

In many ways I think THAT summed up the different responses to the President's speech last night.