re: Slate: Beto O’Rourke Couldn’t Land a Punch at His Final Debate With Ted Cruz

I watched the first 15 minutes or so of their first debate on Youtube the other day and then just turned it off. I lol'd at how pathetic of a candidate O'Rourke was. He is as hollow as a damn chocolate Easter bunny.

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Was that vote for flood assistance a stand alone bill, or a ploy that had a bunch of other unpalatable crap attached to it?

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LINK

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But the tax relief was bundled with other unrelated measures, like the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration and funding for a Native American diabetes program.

So, why did these Democrats vote against it? According to the Tribune, some of them wanted the tax breaks to include other natural disasters, thought there were too few hearings on the bill, or were upset that it wasn’t tied to a measure extending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. As the Tribune notes, Texas’s Democratic delegation has “presented itself as a united front in dealing with the storm,” so the four “no” votes is a noticeable break.

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i believe it was minimal pork (and i'm against all pork. Muslims aint got shite on me) compared to some other like Sandy. i'm open to being wrong, but when i researched it at the time it had 2 or 3 stupid things added as opposed to Sandy.

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There were also some items that appear to have been misunderstood. Ryan, for instance, referred in a statement to "non-Sandy expenses," such as "sand dunes at the Kennedy Space Center, highway repairs in the Virgin Islands, and roof repairs in Washington, D.C." But Sandy was a storm that stretched far beyond New Jersey and New York as it raced up from the Caribbean. The Smithsonian Institution suffered roof leaks from heavy winds and torrential rain, resulting in a $2 million request. The shoreline near Launch Pads 39A and B at the Kennedy Space Center also suffered major erosion, leaving the ocean less than a quarter-mile away, so $15 million was added to deal with that problem and repair a NASA facility on Wallops Island in Virginia that also was damaged by Sandy. We couldn't find a line-item for Virgin Islands highway funding, so it appears to have been relatively minor. The bill did wrap in some other 2012 disaster funding, including disasters that had been declared over Alaska Chinook salmon, New England groundfish, Mississippi fisheries and American Samoa bottomfish. Those are the fisheries that the Cornyn spokesman referenced - but they were disaster declarations. So one would think it would make sense to include relief in a disaster bill. Some lawmakers complained about $100 million in funding for Head Start, but that was limited to facilities that had been damaged in New Jersey and New York. This being Congress, one of course can find some eyebrow-raising provisions. In particular, there was $17 billion for the account that funds Community Development Block Grants, which were aimed at Sandy relief but also could be used for eligible disaster events in calendar years 2011, 2012 and 2013. So the main focus was Sandy, but the money could be moved to assist other disaster relief efforts over a three-year period. Still, it's all related to disaster relief. The bill also included tribal and state clean water and pollution mitigation grants ($600 million), funds to improve weather forecasting ($25 million), and upgrades to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aircraft ($44.5 million). Those provisions were intended to prevent future disasters but arguably were not related to Sandy. But that's less than 2 percent of the total.

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that's from a left leaning source, but there's enough there for me to go ehhhhhh.....

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There is a reason Obama won’t endorse him, I would be fascinated to know what it is.

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won't let him suck his dick