President Obama delivers plan to close Guantanamo Bay. As expected the Republicans freak out.

Courtesy of CNN: 

President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility after delivering his plan to Congress to achieve a goal that has long eluded his presidency. 

The blueprint comes seven years after Obama made an Oval Office vow to permanently shutter the prison for enemy combatants, but it already faces objections from Republicans and legal obstacles they have placed to transferring Guantanamo detainees to U.S. prisons. 

Obama nonetheless said emptying the prison would move the country past what he described as a troubled era of wartime behavior. 

"The plan we're putting forward today isn't just about closing the facility at Guantanamo. It's not just about dealing with the current group of detainees, which is a complex piece of business because of the manner in which they were originally apprehended and what happened. This is about closing a chapter in our history," he said during short remarks at the White House. 

"Keeping this facility open is contrary to our values," Obama said. "It undermines our standing in the world. It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law."

Of course this news was not exactly welcomed by the Republicans.

This courtesy of Esquire: 

The president has never wavered in his desire to close down the prison, but it is pure Green Lanternism to imagine that he could have done it alone. The Republicans in Congress, adorning the politics of fear with a glistening coat of chickenshit, passed a law that forbade the use of taxpayer money to fund the transfer of Gitmo detainees to the United States, where they might use their Muslim heat vision to melt the walls of a SuperMax somewhere in the heartland. Right on schedule Tuesday, this line of argument found voice in the Richelieu of Rumford. 

Even before the report was submitted to Congress, lawmakers were lining up to voice their objections. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) accused the Obama administration of not properly describing the risks associated with the remaining detainees at the prison. "The American people have a right to expect that the administration will be transparent and honest with them about the activities and associations of the terrorists who remain at Guantanamo," Ayotte said in a statement Monday. "The administration's refusal to do so only underscores the fact that closing Guantanamo will make Americans less safe."

Yeah, you know what kept us "less safe?" 

Starting two unnecessary wars, bombing the crap out of civilians, and then caging often innocent people like animals for as much ten years without benefit of a trial.

Gitmo is the perfect propaganda tool and keeping in open puts American lives at risk every single day.

Just another reminder as to why it so important that Democrats hold onto the Presidency.

Young woman stands up to stump Trump on his attitude toward women. But was she a plant? Maybe.

This exchange received quite a bit of attention from the blogosphere which correctly pointed out that Trump never really addressed the woman's questions and seemed a little condescending.

But as it turns out the young woman's name is Lauren Batchelder and she was once an intern for Kelly Ayotte and is currently an intern for Jeb Bush.

Of course when THAT news came out the Right Wing blew up and is now calling Batchelder a plant by the Bush campaign.

A contention by the way that Trump himself was quick to promote.

The arrogant young woman who questioned me in such a nasty fashion at No Labels yesterday was a Jeb staffer! HOW CAN HE BEAT RUSSIA & CHINA?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2015

Well if Jeb! really was behind this I think he just shot himself in the foot. Probably the same one that he seems to have permanently jammed in his mouth.

Not happy with simply attacking liberals, a recently unmuzzled Sarah Palin is also cannibalizing her own.

Courtesy of Breitbart: 

“Conservatives are getting ready for the 2014 and 2016 primaries. We have long memories, and there will be consequences for those who break campaign promises and vote for this amnesty bill," Palin told Breitbart News. "Competition makes everyone work harder, be better, and be held accountable. This applies to politics, too. No one is ‘entitled’ to anything." 

She continued, "Rigorous debate in competitive primaries allows candidates the opportunity to explain their flip-flops. So think of contested primaries as a win-win for politicians and their voters." 

Palin responded to Breitbart News's request for comment about an interview she did earlier on Tuesday with John Gibson on Fox News radio in which she said Rubio and Ayotte "turned their back" on voters and should be primaried to be held accountable. Rubio and Ayotte will be up for reelection in 2016. 

"Every politician should be held accountable for breaking their campaign promises," Palin said during an interview on the "John Gibson Radio Show" on Fox News radio. "They turned their back on the American public, so why should they not be held accountable?" 

Palin said Rubio had promised that "border security would come first," and he would not support "legalization of illegal immigrants" and "amnesty" before border security while running in the Florida Republican Senate primary against Charlie Crist in 2010. She said Ayotte, whom she endorsed, had on her campaign website in 2010 that there were "no excuses" not to secure the border and also said she would not support amnesty. 

"I think that they should be challenged. I don't have a problem with heated debates and contested primaries where they have to answer to constituents regarding their flip-flopping on such a fundamental position as amnesty for illegal immigrants," she told Gibson. "I don't have a problem at all with contested primaries. In fact, competition makes us all better and makes us be held accountable and I'd like to see them held accountable and answer as to why it is that they flip-flopped." 

"Marco Rubio has blatantly flip-flopped on his position on immigration, on amnesty, and border security," Palin said to Gibson, before noting the Senate's Gang of Eight bill he orchestrated would reward law breakers and give President Barack Obama "a victory in his mission to fundamentally transform America economically."

You know it is at times like this that I almost wonder if Palin is not a liberal plant. However being a liberal from Alaska you would think SOMEBODY would have put me in the loop.

I rarely agree with Palin, as is well documented, but I am in 100% support of her idea to primary the popular Rubio and Ayotte, and possibly replace them with even more outrageous Right Wing knuckle draggers. Because in my opinion that could do nothing but help the Democratic candidates in those races.

Here is the thing about Sarah Palin. MOST adults make a mistake and learn a little something from it. But not Palin.

She is that kid running around with a safety helmet on in the house, Bouncing off of walls, sticking metal items into the outlets, and having to have her bathwater prepared for her so that she does not scald herself.

Where as most people have come to realize that this constant primarying of sitting Republican politicians is doing damage to their ability to do their jobs by reaching compromises, Palin is essentially willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater in the hopes of electing such stubborn and rigidly partisan politicians that essentially NOTHING ever gets done.

Like I said, keep up the good work oh Grizzled One. The Democrats could not ask for a better conservative spokesperson. And the more ignorant, simple minded Right Wingers that take her advice as divinely inspired the easier it will be for the Democrats to get and maintain a majority for many years to come.

(P.S. If you want to hear the entire Palin interview with Gibson, just click here.)

Once a GOP star, Kelly Ayotte sees poll numbers plunge after vote to block vote on background checks.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

A new poll has New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) down a total of 15 points from her previous approval rating in a survey that followed her vote against requiring background checks for firearms purchases. 

Ayotte's plunge underscores the changing politics around gun control and gun safety. In years past, lawmakers worried that a vote for gun control would bring the anger of the National Rifle Association. In the new reality, votes against gun control also carry a political risk, as the Ayotte poll indicates. 

A full three-quarters of New Hampshire voters support such background checks, along with 56 percent of Republicans, according to Public Policy Polling. A WMUR Granite State Poll taken in January and February found that more than 9 in 10 state residents supported implementing background checks at gun shows. 

It's not entirely clear yet how opposition to background checks will play out at the polls, but there are signs Ayotte’s vote may have taken a toll.

I think it is entirely possible that the politicians that caved under NRA pressure may find themselves regretting that decision en masse.

I wrote yesterday about the fact that activist groups are targeting Mark Begich, and other Democratic Senators that voted to block the bill, and it is increasingly beginning to look as if some Republicans may find themselves wishing for a do over as well.

Ultimately I think the NRA is playing a losing game in the long run. They may indeed hold off gun control legislation in the short term, but a strong coalition of voters comprised of both younger Americans and female voters, feel NO allegiance to the 2nd Amendment,

Much like gay rights this could be a turning point in how America views gun ownership in this country, and as usual I think the Republican party is on the wrong side of the issue.

When CPAC needs star power to help sell tickets who do they turn to...Donald Trump! Seriously?

Courtesy of the National Review:  

Donald Trump is bringing one crucial component to CPAC: commercial starpower. 

Trump, who has publicly raised doubts about President Obama’s birthplace, is already a controversial choice of speaker for the conservative conference, thanks to his history of not-so-conservative positions and donations to Democrats. 

But the Donald has his fans — and they’re willing to pay up to be in the same room with him. 

According to one source close to CPAC, ticket sales had a sharp upward spike after Trump’s speech was announced. He’s not the only crowd-generator slated to speak: sales also increased when it was announced that Sarah Palin would speak. 

So to be clear this Right Wing love fest could not drum up enough ticket sales with the appearances of Jeb Bush, Eric Cantor, Kelly Ayotte, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and Bobby Jindall. And it wasn't until they added a media whoring, birther blowhard and an ex-half term Governor from Alaska, who was recently fired from her job on Fox news, that they noticed an uptick in ticket sales?

You know I think that just about tells me EVERYTHING I need to know about the conservative party in this country.

Oh where is that meteorite from outer space when you really need it?