The conservative Club for Growth said Friday that it will punish House members who voted for a flood insurance measure aimed at helping pay for Hurricane Sandy's damage. link

Former Rep. Barney Frank wants interim appointment to replace Kerry in Senate

Justin Sink - 01/04/13 08:15 AM ET
Outgoing Rep. Barney Frank has asked to be appointed as an interim senator to replace Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

What are they talking about?

What has this guy done to deserve to be labeled a possible president?

Is this the way they pick the schlemiels from whom we get to pick?

The anti-gay comment on the nominee and his disdain, apparently, for Hormel's advocacy for equal rights, (Hormel finally received a recess appointment) were not an aberration, but rather part of his record on LGBT issues.  Hagel, more recently, was against repeal of DADT noting that the military was no place for "social experiment."  

Chuck Hagel has now issued an apology saying "my comments 14 years ago were insensitive..."   neither the strongest apology nor the most rapid response known to man.  Now maybe former Senator Hagel has sufficient redeeming qualifications to overcome this little blemish on his record (if you do not count the voting machine issue), and will be a great Secretary of Defense.

As of early December [2012], Obama had submitted 171 district nominees, compared to 177 in Bush's first term and 196 in Clinton's. Moreover, Obama submitted 15 of the nominations after the convention recess, with no chance of confirmation in the first term; Clinton and Bush submitted one and three post-recess nominations.

And Obama was slower to submit them as measured by average days to the nomination from the vacancy date (i.e., the date the incumbent publicly announced the future date on which s/he would leave active service; the date s/he left active service if no such announcement; or Inauguration day for vacancies inherited from previous administrations). Obama submitted district nominees, on average, 406 days after the date of the vacancy, versus 276 days for Bush and 370 for Clinton. (The times are slightly lower for nominees whom the Senate confirmed.)

He was also slower to submit them as measured by the pace of nominations.

Some facts about Obama's judicial nomincations and his first term:

Three things stand out about President Barack Obama's First Term efforts to appoint federal judges:

• His first term will end with more vacancies than when it started because of, comparatively, fewer nominees, later submission dates, and a weaker district nominee confirmation rate.

• The contentiousness that affected President William Clinton's and President George W. Bush's efforts to appoint judges to the courts of appeals did not appear to worsen during Obama's first term, but battles have heated up over district nominations.

• The elapsed times for making district court nominations and confirming them have grown to eye-popping levels.

Why, yes, as a matter of fact, there is. It's called sports talk radio. And to be blunt, there's really no bigger cesspool of d*ck-swinging misogyny and truly bogus opining to be found anywhere else.

Por ejemplo, I offer sports columnist Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, who made a guest appearance yesterday on "Petros and Money," which is broadcast on Fox Sports Radio. My words alone will not do justice to what this man talked about on the air. You'll just have to listen for yourself.

Owners of a Mercer Island apartment complex have notified residents that they are not allowed to smoke pot or cigarettes in their apartment units and they're required to report their neighbors who do.

"It's scary," said resident Alexander Aversano.  "It affects my way of life."

Aversano is a medical marijuana user who uses a smokeless cannabis oil to treat back pain he incurred during the Iraq war in 2005.

"It's like the Gestapo," the Army veteran said of the three-page notice management at the 77 Complex placed on tenants' doors Thursday night.

The letter by Abode Management, LLC of Renton says marijuana use and possession is prohibited in the building.  It also says apartments can be searched if management gets a written notice that a tenant has been using pot.

Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration's health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insuran

Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own.

Seriously, these are books written by actual scholars who were intrigued by the rise of *ssholes in the 20th century and into the 21st, although the species certainly existed before 1900.

If it seems that present day United States is rife with @ssholes, well, that's because it is. In addition to the usual collection of pr!cks and schm*cks and jerks and d!cks, we have an amazing collection of @ssholes.

So, who gets your vote for @sshole of the Year 2012?