A real life example of the "fierce urgency of now"

I really can't say it any better than Ezra Klein because this one has me in tears.

Derence Kernek wants to marry his partner Ed Watson before Watson’s Alzheimer’s advances to the point that he can no longer participate in, and remember, the ceremony. But though it increasingly seems as though gay marriage is just around the corner, Kernek and Watson don’t have much time left: “There are more bad days than good ones,” Kernek says sadly. You’ll never see a better example of the fierce urgency of now:

Sometimes it takes a Stewart to say it best...

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You've Lost That Loving Feeling

One of the all-time greats. How can you not feel this one?

Tracks of My Tears

More on GOP budget "values"

With Big Oil raking in record profits, House Democrats offered a Motion to Recommit to the House Republican short-term spending bill this afternoon making a responsible cut to the budget: putting an end to taxpayer-funded subsidies to large oil companies. Repealing these subsidies would save taxpayers tens of billions over the next decade and even ex-Shell CEO John Hofmeister agrees saying “with high oil prices, such subsidies are not necessary.”

Rep. William Keating (D-MA) offered the motion on the House floor saying “let’s stop sending taxpayers’ money to the most profitable companies in the world.”

Republicans voted unanimously against the motion, defeating it by a vote of 176-249.

According to Republicans, we're too broke to fund childhood nutrition programs, Head Start, environmental protection, food safety, community health centers, nuclear security, energy efficiency programs, scientific research, FEMA, Planned Parenthood, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Social Security Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control, among other things. And as a result, they're willing to put 1 million jobs at risk.

But we're not too broke to provide tax-payer funded give-aways to one of the most profitable industries in the country - oil companies.

Motown at the White House

Boehner switches to make "moral" case for GOP budget

House Speaker Boehner is scheduled to make a speech Sunday night to the National Religious Broadcaster's Convention.

"We have a moral responsibility to address the problems we face," Boehner says in his prepared remarks. "That means working together to cut spending and rein in government - not shutting it down."...

"Yes, this debt is a mortal threat to our country; it is also a moral threat," Boehner says in the prepared speech. "It is immoral to bind our children to as leeching and destructive a force as debt. It is immoral to rob our children's future and make them beholden to China. No society is worthy that treats its children so shabbily."

I guess I should say welcome to the party in seeing budgets as a moral statement. Call me cynical, but I suspect that this switch in rhetoric is probably more related to the fact that the economic case for the House budget was totally obliterated by things like the the Goldman Sachs report that predicted a drop in GDP growth of 1.5 - 2% if their budget was enacted. So if they can't make their case based on jobs and the economy, they'll try to make it on moral grounds.

Steve Benen is willing to take on that argument as well.

But I'd love to hear more from the Speaker about the extent of his moral commitments. Do we have a moral responsibility to address the needs of children? Boehner doesn't seem to think so -- he wants to gut funding for nutritional aid for pregnant women and women with young children, as well as education. Do we have a moral responsibility to tend to those hurt while wearing the uniform? Boehner doesn't seem to think so -- he wants to take money out of veterans' care.

Indeed, as long as the Speaker brought it up, what does he consider our collective moral responsibilities in the 21st century? Do they include environmental protections, which he's trying to eliminate, or health care coverage, which he's trying to destroy? Do they include job training, which he's sought to eliminate, or consumer protections like food safety, which Boehner has voted to dramatically scale back?

If none of these areas of public life count as "moral responsibilities," what would Boehner consider worthy?