Obama Jokes

Lawmakers expressed both anger and bewilderment that IRS leaders had not told Congress sooner about indications that the tax agency had improperly singled out conservatives and Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status. A highly-anticipated hearing by the top investigative committee in the Republican-controlled delivered on the drama that was expected of it. Lois Lerner, the IRS official in charg    

Virginia Lt. Gov. nominee E.W. Jackson (R) (Credit: Associated Press)Birtherism is passe these days, save for a few Onoda-esque holdouts. The new conspiracy, if E.W. Jackson gets his way: Harry Reid is faking his faith. Jackson, a highly-controversial figure thrown into the limelight after Virginia Republicans nominated him to be their Lieutenant Governor nominee this past weekend, argued that Reid was just pretending to be a Mormon during an appearance on Glenn Beck’s TV show on October 18, 2012. After Beck said he couldn’t understand how he and Reid can share the same religion yet have such different policy views, Jackson reasoned that the Senate Majority Leader must not actually believe his faith. “I think some of the people who claim to be Mormon or claim to be this or claim to be that, that’s all they’re doing. They’re just claiming,” Jackson said. “They don’t believe it or feel it in their hearts.” BECK: How do you get people who are religious, who are decent people, just completely to divorce themselves of those principles in the voting booth? It’s like Harry Reid. I’m a Mormon, he’s a Mormon. I don’t understand, I’m sure he doesn’t understand me. I don’t understand how he can be for the things he is and do some of the things that he does and still say that he’s in good standing with the scripture, because it doesn’t work. JACKSON: There’s a saying I’ve heard among ministers: “some are called and some were sent and some just got up and went.” I think some of the people who claim to be Mormon or claim to be this or claim to be that, that’s all they’re doing. They’re just claiming. It’s a head thing. It’s something they inherited. But they don’t believe it or feel it in their hearts. Watch it: Among Jackson’s other controversial statements: gays are “very sick,” Democrats are “more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was,” and that President Obama has “Muslim sensibilities.“     

A Democratic Senator who came under fire for linking turbulent weather in Oklahoma to Republican politicians who don’t believe in climate change has apologized for the ill-timed remarks.    

Koschi, via FlickrThe tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma on Tuesday left incredible devastation and loss in its wake. But the damage may have been even worse if it weren’t for a warning from the National Weather Service (NWS) 16 minutes before it touched down, allowing some to seek out safety. As George Zornick reported at The Nation, the tornado emergency it sent out “no doubt saved hundreds of lives in Moore.” But the NWS has been struggling with budget cuts in recent years and is facing down even more cuts thanks to sequestration. Zornick reports that the agency in which the NWS is housed, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has been on the budget cutting radar for some time: Since taking control of the House in 2011, Republicans have targeted NOAA for severe cuts—they came out of the gate proposing a massive 28 percent cut in their first budget that year, which was moderated by the end of the process. But the assaults on the NOAA budget continued, and the agency couldn’t escape the sequester, which will lop 8.2 percent from the NOAA budget. This lead the acting administrator to institute an across-the-board hiring freeze in March, and four days of mandatory furloughs are on the horizon. (There is already a 10 percent vacancy rate at the agency.) NOAA has proposed furloughing all of its 12,000 employees for four days over a two-month period starting in July. The NWS itself issued a warning that furloughs on top of the current hiring freeze could have literally disastrous consequences. “One missed event would realistically cost millions,” said President Dan Sobien. Among the potential fallout, the agency listed “reduced efficiency and accuracy for tornado events due to reduced alertness of short staffed offices.” The cost of tornado damage can be incredibly high, as the disaster in Moore demonstrates. One expert has estimated that the price tag could reach $3 billion, which would make it one of the costliest tornadoes in the country’s history. In all, thunderstorms caused about $28 billion in economic losses in 2012, with the majority caused by tornadoes. Insured losses due to thunderstorm damage have increased sevenfold since 1980. And as can be seen in the chart below, after falling during the 1980s and 1990s, the costs of tornado damage have been rising sharply in recent years: Without timely and accurate warnings from the NWS, more lives will be lost and more property potentially damaged, increasing the costs. But Congress doesn’t look ready to rush to the agency’s rescue. While furloughs at the Federal Aviation Administration led to swift legislative action, lawmakers are urging caution before addressing cutbacks at the NWS.     

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