Congress

While the nation's major news media outlets virtually ignored the Kermit Gosnell murder trial, they media fell over themselves to outdo each other in lavishing praise on Texas State Senator Wendy Davis. You will recall that the pro-choice Democrat was hailed for her filibuster of SB 5, an abortion regulation law that bans surgical abortions after 20-weeks into a pregnancy and sets in place…

Michael Tomasky lambasted House Speaker John Boehner on The Daily Beast Wednesday for Boehner’s recent comment that Republicans should be judged on how many laws they repeal, not how many new ones they pass. The special correspondent summed up his feelings in the article’s sub-headline: "This is unprecedented, irresponsible, and terrifying.” And why was Boehner’s statement “terrifying?”…

For some reason, press reports I've seen thus far dealing with revelations that disgraced former congressman and now-New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner continued "sexting" after his June 2011 resignation won't directly tell us that he didn't stop sexting -- assuming we've heard the last of this, which is by no means certain -- until November 2012 or January of this year, 4-6 months…

PBS led off Thursday’s NewsHour with a story about President Obama’s efforts to defend his healthcare law amid increasing public skepticism. But the taxpayer-funded network managed to avoid mentioning the recent harsh criticism of the law from three prominent labor union leaders, despite a vague reference to “worry from some supporters.” Anchor Jeffrey Brown, who narrated the package,…

Today, as the wire service AFP reported in a story carried at Yahoo.com, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in the question and answer exchange after his prepared testimony, told the House Financial Services Committee that "If we were to tighten (monetary) policy, the economy would tank." That assessment of the economy's fragility qualifies as news, especially given the Obama…

In a contentious exchange with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, moderator David Gregory lectured the Republican for writing a letter to the NFL opposing Obama administration efforts to use the sports league to promote ObamaCare: "...it was striking how political it was....You refer to it as a bill; it's actually the law of the land....How can you write such…

On Thursday's All In show, as Chris Hayes complained about the vote by House Republicans to separate the food stamp program from the farm bill, the MSNBC host accused GOPers of taking the action "so they could focus solely on the farm stuff and really embrace not caring about the poor." Hayes also charged that Republicans had "jettisoned 47 million hungry Americans." The MSNBC host began the…

While NBC and CBS covered Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell having a "war of words" over GOP opposition to some of President Obama's nominees, neither network detailed the hypocrisy of Reid considering the so-called "nuclear option" to eliminate the filibustering of such nominees. On Thursday, Time's Michael Scherer cited numerous quotes from Reid…

Want to be "heroic" on immigration in Andrea Mitchell's eyes? Easy: team up with Chuck Schumer and President Obama to push amnesty through Congress.  Want to earn Andrea's ire?  Focus on border security.  She'll scold you and say you should be "ashamed." Yes, there was Andrea on today's Morning Joe, praising amnesty-pushing McCain as "heroic," while scolding conservatives who want to focus…

A friend of mine and I separately received an email from the Department of Labor yesterday which made both of us to ask the same question: Why would anyone want to start up or expand a business and hire employees in the current hostile atmosphere? DOL's release, positioned as part of its celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act, announces a contest which it calls…

In Texas, it’s only a matter of hours until abortions are banned at 20 weeks.  It’s a popular bill amongst those residing in The Lone Star State – with 62 percent supporting the law.  Nationally, 50 percent of women and 52 percent of Millennials also want abortions to be banned at 20 weeks.  Overall, only 14 percent of Americans support late-term abortions.  The public is not with them, so pro-…

The July 9 broadcast of Now with Alex Wagner wouldn’t be complete without a panel discussing Texas State Senator Wendy Davis – and the abortion battle in Texas. Yet, it reached a new level with New York Times op-ed contributor Beth Matusoff Merfish declaring that she was “proud” her mother underwent an abortion since “she had the wisdom and the courage to know that her own potential would be…

On the Wednesday, July 3, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC analyst Ezra Klein -- also of the Washington Post -- joined host O'Donnell in complaining that congressional Republicans refuse to help the Obama administration make changes to ObamaCare that even the administration has concerns about, with Klein charging that the GOP is trying to let the act fail "no matter how many people…

Appearing on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd blamed Republicans for ObamaCare beginning to collapse under its own weight: "...you could argue that there are some Republicans that are trying to sabotage the law, that they're hoping to not get it off the ground and then they can suddenly make the case, 'See, we've got to get rid of it.' And they've got some…