Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) contended with several hecklers during a Thursday town hall at the Mount Laurel YMCA. Throughout the question-and-answer session Christie critics stood up and shouted at the governor over issues including the Bridgegate scandal and Hurricane Sandy relief funding. At one point, Christie stopped to shout back, “Either sit down and keep quiet or get out, one or the other. We are done with you.”
Ultimately police removed six protesters from the event, four of whom are students at Rowan University. “I’m here to say people still care about the Bridgegate scandal,” one of the students, 19-year-old Michael Breintold The Star-Ledger after he was forcibly removed from the building. “They still care about the misappropriation of Sandy money.”
“I really youthful enthusiasm, I really do,” Christie told the crowd as the protesters were being removed. “And these folks who come in here today, ginned up for their own partisan purposes, they’re get exactly what they want, because they get taken out, they get attention and then press follows them out and interviews them.”
“They don’t want an answer from me,” Christie continued. “If they wanted an answer from me, they would wait to be called on and I’d give them answer.”
Short version: The GOP is a staggering corpse that is fading into irrelevance and the real future is in the fight between pro-corporate Democrats and pro-worker Democrats.
But you definitely want to see it for yourself . . .
Transcript:
Krystal Ball: “Who will win the battle for the soul of the GOP? Will it be the establishment or the tea party, the libertarians or the social conservatives? Well after watching all sides battle it out at CPAC I have come to a definitive conclusion. Are you ready? Here is the answer; it doesn’t matter.
That’s right, who wins and who loses in the fight for control of the Republican party is totally irrelevant.
Sure, it is a fun parlor game to look at whose up and whose down in the Ted Cruz/Rand Paul showdown. Wait. No. It’s not. It’s a terrible parlor game. What is a parlor game?
Anyway, if you care about the future of this country the Republican party machinations are of now consequence. There’s a few reasons. First, look at this graph.
There is an unprecedented gap between the voting preferences of young voters and everyone else. Millennials may not be crazy about self-identifying as Democrats but whatever they call themselves they’re liberal. They are much more likely to vote Democratic than older generations.
So Republicans, do you know why in five of the last six Presidential elections you’ve lost the popular vote? It’s because every year the electorate is becoming browner and more influenced by the millennials who are more liberal than any other modern generation, and sorry GOP, they’re staying that way. To paraphrase Sally Field at her Oscar win, they don’t like you, they really don’t like you.
And who can blame them? The second reason the GOP is irrelevant is because your economic ideology is toast, debunked, discredited. Your intellectual heavy is Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan! You’ve been flailing around in a house that Reagan built for three decades and still haven’t realized it’s just an empty frame with no foundation. Come back to me when you have some actual evidence for your economic ideology, and no, Ayn Rand novels don’t count.
Nope. Republicans and their deck-chair shifting civil war don’t matter. If you are interested in where the country goes from here the action is all on the Democratic side, and while our own internal divide is less noisy than the Republican one it is just as real and waaaay more important.
This divide, the one that counts, is between the pro-corporate democrats and the pro-worker democrats. It’s pretty easy to tell which are which. In their best incarnation the pro-corporate dems do Wall Street and corporate America’s bidding while doing the best they can to shore up the safety net so that when working folks are inevitably abused by big banks and big business at least there is something of a net to catch them.
Pro-worker dems want to stop the abuse in the first place and keep and expand the safety net just in case those protections fail.
When pro-corporate dems get their way, as they have in democratic politics for, oh, the past twenty-two years, inequality rises. And when inequality rises the power of the plutocracy rises. And when plutocrats call the shots like they do now the safety net gets it.
Plutocrats, it turns out, don’t much care for supporting the workers on whose backs they earn their riches. So even though corporate democrats may be well intentioned their policies lead to a toxic brew of money, plutocracy and power that shreds the safety net, strips workers of their right and hollows out the middle class. The plutocracies wish is their command.
Now to be clear, either type of democrat is a million times better than the folks the GOP has to offer, but that is a pretty low bar. Time to expect more. To demand more. Do we want a society that governs for the needs of the many, or the desires of the few? I know which side I’m on, do you?”
On Throwback Thursday, Colin Powell posted a photo he took of himself before selfies became popular. He was doing selfies before any of you, and by the way, I’m ripping all of mine to shreds because this is the selfie that trumps all others.
He writes:
“Throwback Thursday – I was doing selfies 60 years before you Facebook folks. Eat your heart out Ellen! The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is standing by comments he made linking a “culture” of men not working in inner cities to poverty, saying the remarks had “nothing to do” with race.
The House Budget Committee chairman told Crew of 42’s Lauren Victoria Burke on Wednesday that his comments, made earlier in the day on Bill Bennett’s “Morning In America,” were taken out of context.
“It was a long talk and he asked about the culture and I just went off of that,” Ryan told Burke. “This has nothing to do whatsoever with race. It never even occurred to me. This has nothing to do with race whatsoever.”
“This isn’t a race based comment it’s a breakdown of families, it’s rural poverty in rural areas, and talking about where poverty exists — there are no jobs and we have a breakdown of the family,” he explained, repeating “This has nothing to do with race.”
His comments had drawn sharp criticism from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA, who blasted them as a “thinly veiled racial attack” and argued he used “inner city” and “culture” as code words for “black.”
But in his conversation with Burke, Ryan shifted to talking about a lack of jobs in the context of “rural poverty.” As Think Progress pointed out, government data shows that poverty is becoming increasingly concentrated in rural rather than urban areas, so the congressman is on the money there.
The poverty problem has consumed Ryan in recent weeks. The Wisconsin Republican released a report earlier this month casting doubt on federal anti-poverty programs, then slammed Democrats’ support for food assistance programs in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference with a story about free school lunch that turned out to be untrue.
Obama says Russia will pay for meddling in Crimea, China unveils satellite photos of possible airplane debris, and more
1. Obama vows consequences unless Russia backs down in Ukraine
President Obama expressed support for Ukraine’s new premier on Wednesday and said the U.S. would “apply a cost” to Russia if it doesn’t back out of Crimea. Obama plans a final diplomatic push to get Moscow to loosen its grip on the Ukrainian region before voters there decide Sunday whether to break from Ukraine to join Russia. Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart on Friday. [The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal]
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2. China unveils satellite photos showing possible airplane debris
China posted satellite images on a government website showing what could be debris from theMalaysia Airlines jet that vanished on Saturday with 239 people on board. The plane, which had just left Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing, was last tracked not far from the area where the satellite spotted the floating objects, off the southern tip of Vietnam. The images were released Wednesday, but recorded on Sunday. [BBC News]
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3. Jan Brewer announces her retirement
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) announced Wednesday she would not run for reelection when her term ends this year. Brewer, known for her hardline immigration and abortion policies, would have had to win a court battle to run again. Arizona governors are limited to two terms, and she has served one full term and part of a second. Brewer said it was “time to pass the torch,” but vowed to work hard in her final months. “My pen and veto stamp have plenty of ink,” she said. [The Huffington Post]
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4. Turkish protests spread after teen’s death
Two people were killed as protesters clashed with police in Turkey on Wednesday following the funeral of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan, who died Tuesday from an injury he sustained during last June’s violent demonstrations. He was going to buy bread when he was hit in the head with a tear-gas canister. His death struck a nerve with massive anti-government crowds, who called Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a murderer. [Reuters]
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5. Rockets fired from Gaza land in Israel
Gaza militants launched a fresh volley of rockets into southern Israel on Thursday, a day after the most intense barrage fired from the Palestinian territory since 2012. Eight of the 30 rockets fired on Wednesday exploded in developed areas, although no injuries were reported. Israeli military sources vowed a response. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, saying the rocket barrage was payback for a deadly Tuesday airstrike. [The Associated Press, The Jerusalem Post]
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6. Six killed in Manhattan buildings explosion
A suspected gas explosion destroyed two building in New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood on Wednesday, killing at least six people and injuring at least 64 others. Nine occupants of the buildings still remained unaccounted for late Wednesday night. “This is a tragedy of the worse kind because there was no indication in time to save people,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said. [ABC News]
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7. Investigation rattles Herbalife’s stock
Herbalife shares plummeted Wednesday after the nutritional supplements marketer announced it was being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission. Pershing Square hedge fund investor Bill Ackman has been slamming the company’s business plan, and said this week that its marketing is essentially a pyramid scheme. Herbalife refuted the accusation, and said it welcome the FTC inquiry. [USA Today]
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8. Teen who sued her parents moves back home
Rachel Canning, the New Jersey teen who unsuccessfully sued her parents for tuition money, has returned home, her parents’ lawyer said Wednesday. The parents, Sean and Elizabeth Canning, cut her off financially just shy of her 18th birthday when she left the house, upset over their rules. The judge denied her request for emergency support, saying the case could “open the gates for 12-year-olds to sue for an Xbox.” [The Christian Science Monitor]
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9. Alabama’s ban on gay… divorce
A court in Alabama had denied a lesbian couple the right to divorce, because the state doesn’t recognize their legal Iowa marriage. Circuit Judge Karen Hall said in a one-sentence ruling that there was no way to grant Michelle Richmond and Kirsten Allysse Richmond the uncontested divorce they sought “pursuant to the laws of this State,” which doesn’t recognize the validity of same-sex marriage in the first place. [NBC News]
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10. Arthur Chu’s reign ends on Jeopardy!
Controversial Jeopardy! champ Arthur Chu lost on Wednesday night’s show, ending his streak on its 12th day. Chu, whose reign was the game show’s third longest, angered devoted fans with his unorthodox, all-over-the-board strategy of buzzing in quickly and jumping around among categories. Chu won $297,200, and took his loss in stride, posting his voice dubbed into Weird Al Yankovich’s “I Lost on Jeopardy!” [USA Today]
The Fifth Column 