This pretty much says it all:

U.S. House and Senate Republicans reached agreement on a budget plan that cuts about $10 billion from spending on Medicaid over five years and calls for about $70 billion in tax cuts. – Bloomberg

Congressional Republicans have earmarked plenty of money to increase the level of tax cuts, not so much money for the children, the elderly, and poor who rely on Medicaid for their health care.

MoveOn.org is organizing a large number of emergency rallies to “Stop the Judicial Takeover” aka, the GOPs threats to go ‘nuclear’.

The rally in Milwaukee begins at 5pm tomorrow (Wednesday) at the Federal Courthouse (517 E. Wisconsin Ave). More details at the moveon.org site, or you can find an event in your area as well.

66% of Americans must be against ‘people of faith’ if you buy into the GOP argument for fillibustering some of Bush’s judicial nominees. Or, maybe two thirds of Americans just don’t think it’s right to change rules in the middle of the game when it suits one party or another… ABC/Washington Post 4/21-24 Poll:

Would you support or oppose changing Senate rules to make it easier for the Republicans to confirm Bush’s judicial nominees?

Support 26
Oppose 66

It’s been a violent week in Milwaukee. More than five people have been killed since Sunday in the city – four of them with handguns – the youngest of whom was an innocent 7 year old girl hit by a stray bullet while playing outside her house.

As sensitive as ever, certain people are now calling for the reintroduction of the ‘conceal & carry’ gun laws that would mean more people on the streets would be carrying handguns because in their opinion, more people with handguns would actually lower the crime rate.

Just like having more cars on the highway would mean less accidents….

Ironically, one of the people in custody for homicide from last weekend was a guard at Walgreens who was carrying – you guessed it – a concealed handgun. He used it to kill an unarmed man he suspected of stealing a pair of sunglasses.

I mean, I know the NRA and their lackeys in polictical office are bound to push pro-gun laws, but trying to frame it as a way to lessen the amount of violence happening – during a very violent week – is just ridiculous.

It’s callous and inconsiderate to the families and friends of those who have lost their lives, and their argument is just plain wrong on top of that. More guns on the streets means more violence, plain and simple.

As Les points out, the Dow Jones Industrial average is down over 400 points so far this week. Does anyone, including the President himself, know how the private account plans would deal with something like a 5% drop?

Yes, this is what it’s come down to folks. In order to justify their changing of fillibuster rules so disent is removed from Congress, the Republican leadership is going to start casting the debate as a “Democrats are against God”.

“Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as “against people of faith” for blocking President Bush’s nominees.”

How totally “Christian” is it to exploit your faith for political gains?!!

You may have heard the heat is still on Tom ‘The Hammer’ DeLay about his ethics violations as House Majority leader, and how it’s a giant liberal media/Democratic smear campaign against him and his holy rollers.

I’m happy to report that yesterday, Rep. DeLay finally answered those lingering questions about his ethics violations once and for all in an interview in that Liberal rag, the Washington Times:

Mr. Hurt: Have you ever crossed the line of ethical behavior in terms of dealing with lobbyists, your use of government authority or with fundraising?

Mr. DeLay: Ever is a very strong word. – Washington Times

Ever is a strong word indeed Tom! It’s also an absolute one, and if you have to resort to redefining the lexicon during an interview – as my Republican friends always remind me when they give Clinton static about his “Define what the meaning of ‘is’ is” line – to duck the question, it’s a good sign that you can’t answer it honestly!

Right out of the “When accused of ethics violations, blame everyone except yourself” playbook, Tom DeLay tells his GOP Senate pals to carry water for him at a luncheon yesterday by blaming – drumroll please – Democrats for his ongoing ethical problems:

Attendees said DeLay, in extremely brief remarks, told the senators that, if asked about his predicament, they should blame Democrats and their lack of an agenda. – Washington Post

How can anyone even take the Republican party leadership seriously?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the hypocrisy of many Republicans over the past few years. There are a lot of things going on recently that the GOP supports now because there is a member of their party in the White House that they didn’t support, or had the opposite position on, when a Democrat occupied the oval office.

Social Security reform is a good example. Back in the mid 90′s, Clinton tried to bring the issue up just like Bush is today, but his efforts were pushed back by the GOP majority who claimed it wasn’t a problem. Of course, now that Bush is talking about it, there is a problem.

Another one is our involvement in Kosovo back in the late 90′s. Many Republicans were howling with rage that the US dared to proceed with a policy of ‘Nation Building’ by interfering in the conflict back then. Of course when Bush wanted to roll into Iraq, ‘Nation Building’ was all the rage among the GOP just 3 years – and a new President – later.

Of course, we can’t forget the use of congressional fillibusters to block judicial nominees from ever getting a vote. Senate majority leader Bill Frist said filibustering judicial nominees is “radical” and “nothing less than a formula for tyranny by the minority.” Of course, when Bill Clinton was President, Frist engaged in the exact same behavior he is now condemning: In 1996 Clinton nominated Richard Paez to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Republican controlled Congress held up Paez’s nomination for more than four years, culminating in an attempted filibuster on March 8, 2000. And none other than Bill Frist was among those who voted to filibuster Paez.

Just three examples of Republicans changing their tune when it suited their needs.

I stumbled against one more great example of this practice today by some of Wisconsin’s own Congressmen. Back in 2000, Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Menomonee Falls), Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac), Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), and Mark Green (R-Green Bay) sent out a joint press release that took the Democratic administration to the wood shed for letting gas prices reach $1.60 a gallon that summer.

“We need an energy policy that not only reduces gas prices today, but ensures greater price stability in the future,. Thanks to the lack of a national energy plan from this Administration, we are more dependent on foreign oil than we were a decade ago. That’s a threat not only to our national economy, but to our national security.” – Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner 2000 press release

With gas prices here in Milwaukee at $2.40/gallon and rising, why aren’t the Congressmen still pressing this issue? If $1.60/gallon had them ‘blasting’ the Clinton administration to implement a comprehensive energy policy to deal with staggering gas prices, where are they when the price is up almost another dollar??

In all these cases Republicans want it both ways (theirs), and if I recall correctly, last Summer we were calling that behavior ‘flip flopping’, or something like that…

Which really drives home the point. It’s only ‘flip flopping’ when it’s the other party doing it.