Politics and other nightmares

God, I love this squabble. The White House is getting a new petition urging Persident Obama to stoy using the "wives, mothers and daughters" rhetorical frame:

When one party is so completely in the minority, its members can feel free to speak freely about what's really in their hearts and minds. So we have Missouri Democrats, outnumbered 24-10 in the Senate and 109-52 in the House, proposing this:

Goodness gracious:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she opposes a cut in congressional pay because it would diminish the dignity of lawmakers' jobs.

"I don't think we should do it; I think we should respect the work we do," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. "I think it's necessary for us to have the dignity of the job that we have rewarded."

This story just astonishes me: "Ex-San Diego mayor who gambled away $1 billion remorseful"

Maureen O'Connor was the first female mayor of San Diego. But when she left public life, she spent countless hours seated in front of video-poker machines, authorities said.

State Sen. Dennis Kruse has intoduced a lot of oddball and meddlesome education bills in this session of the General Assembly. Finally he hits on one that's not a bad idea:

Doctors and fitness experts agree that the more you move, the healthier you are.

State Sen.Dennis Kruse (R-District 14) said that’s the principle behind his proposed legislation.

Boy, the General Assembly seems to be suffering from a severe case of -- what shall we call it? -- vegephobia. First, there was the bill to make the "right to hunt, fish and farm" a constitutional right. Now there's this:

Are there really so many people not paying attention?

This seems like a dumb ban to me:

So I've been reading these stories about the silly "right to hunt, fish and farm" amendment for the Indiana constitution, and they all say that if the General Assembly approves it, there will be a voter referendum next year, and I keep thinging, but wait a minute, amedments have to go through two legislative sessions before making it to a refrendum. What the heck's going on?

Uh huh:

A January 2013 survey finds only about a quarter (26%) saying they can trust the government always or most of the time, while nearly three-quarters (73%) say that they can trust government only some of the time, or volunteer that they can never trust the government.

Majorities across all partisan and demographic groups express little or no trust in government.