In other news, the cost of last weekend’s tornado outbreak, which included as many as 76 tornadoes, is reportedly estimated to be as high as $5 billion.

Unless I’m mistaken this is the first billion dollar natural disaster so far in 2013.

As Madison wrote in Article 3 “Yippee-ki-yay Mother Fucker.”

The current situation is reminding many folks of the impeachment controversy in 1998. Blinded by their hatred for President Clinton, Republicans made irrational decisions then, and they are making the same mistakes today. For some House Republicans, their view of the president is a natural by-product of representing districts that are custom-drawn, conservative cocoons, where everyone pretty much thinks the same. These districts aren’t representative of the nation as a whole.

Cook’s basic point is that the Republicans are having a hard time tarnishing the president’s credibility because they themselves have no credibility. And I would posit that the beltway media is also running low on credibility especially after the doctored Benghazi emails were exposed last week as a fraud.

More importantly, as Cook points out, President Obama will never appear on a ballot again, but the Republicans are still obsessed with opposing him.

It doesn’t seem far fetched to me to say the president’s approval rating could remain more or less static over the next four years unless something financially catastrophic were to happen.

Voters saw fit to elect the president twice and at this point lines of division in the electorate are fairly clear. And that’s bad news for Republicans, because the current electorate is not one they can win with.

The Congressional Budget Office predicted in 2009 that premiums for a middle-of-the-road exchange plan would come to about $5,200 per year.

Other states have seen their rates track relatively close to that figure, but California’s plans came in substantially lower — about $3,600 per year before subsidies.

Some young people in the state might not have to pay a premium at all — federal subsidies will be enough to cover the entire cost of one of the cheapest policies available.

Why are California’s premiums expected to be so much lower than previous estimates? Because under California’s exchange system the state can negotiate directly with insurers for lower premiums.

Isn’t Big Government grand?

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) remembered the one Latino in his administration on Thursday, one day after ThinkProgress highlighted an exchange in which he said “we do not have any staff members” who are Latino. [...]

On Thursday, Corbett’s staff identified Maria Montero, the Director of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs. [...]

ThinkProgress has previously reported that the governor has established a commission of Latino affairs, which his website describes as “the Commonwealth’s advocate agency for its Latino community.”

Republican outreach, amirite?

In January, Husted directed the 88 county boards of election to investigate all claims of voter fraud. The county boards and Husted’s staff found 625 cases of irregularity.

Of those cases, names of 115 people were referred by the county boards of elections to their local prosecutors.

Husted’s staff referred another 20 cases to the Ohio attorney general for possible prosecution. They involve people who appear to have voted in two states during the presidential election.

So out of 5.6 million votes cast, 20 might’ve been fraud. Maybe. Way to go, Mr. Husted. You successfully disenfranchised thousands of Democratic voters just to catch 20 people. Maybe. Good job.

By the way, if it’s a huge scandal that the IRS scrutinized the tax-exempt status of tea party groups, don’t you think it’s just a little bit scandalous that Republican lawmakers across the nation are actively disenfranchising millions of Democratic voters simply to elect more Republicans? Where are the hearings on this one, Mr. Issa?

Fortunately, law enforcement tracked her down through her Twitter account.

During a Thursday House floor speech about the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) practice of scrutinizing conservative groups, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) connected the so-called scandal to the idea that owls could mate on Kmart signs.

This guy gets to vote on legislation that impacts 310 million people. Louie Gohmert. Utterly terrifying.

GOHMERT!!!

“I intend to engage Congress about the existing Authorization to Use Military Force, or AUMF, to determine how we can continue to fight terrorism without keeping America on a perpetual wartime footing.

The AUMF is now nearly twelve years old. The Afghan War is coming to an end. Core al-Qaida is a shell of its former self. Groups like AQAP must be dealt with, but in the years to come, not every collection of thugs that labels themselves al-Qaida will pose a credible threat to the United States. Unless we discipline our thinking, our definitions, our actions, we may be drawn into more wars we don’t need to fight or continue to grant presidents unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states.

So I look forward to engaging Congress and the American people in efforts to refine and ultimately repeal the AUMF’s mandate. And I will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further. Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue. But this war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. It’s what our democracy demands.” President Barack Obama yesterday

Naturally this groundbreaking news was overshadowed by that yahoo from Code Pink who thinks the best way to convey a message is to shout it like a mental patient at the president.

Nevertheless, this is still a major and historic turning point in ending the war on terror, and it’s precisely what I’ve been calling for in my column over the last several months (here, here and here for instance).

The administration clearly regards the war on terrorism as an actual full-on war, and therefore is able to justify its actions as war-time measures authorized by the 2001 AUMF. Take away the AUMF, you take away the extraconstitutional war-powers of the presidency and the war ends. He gets it, and he’s clearly going to be working toward that goal. After all, as I’ve written before, he’s in a unique position to make it so: he’s annihilated much of al-Qaeda’s leadership and Bin Laden, and he doesn’t need to worry about re-election. Let’s just hope he can do it.

NBC 5 in Seattle: Photo of man on his car in Skagit River after I-5 bridge collapse.

Regarding that bridge collapse in Mount Vernon, Washington, here are the names of the senators who filibustered the president’s infrastructure bill via Bill Scher:

Sen. Sessions (R-Ala.)
Sen. Shelby (R-Ala.)
Sen. Murkowski (R-Alaska)
Sen. Lieberman (I-Conn.)
Sen. Chambliss (R-Ga.)
Sen. Isakson (R-Ga.)
Sen. Crapo (R-Idaho)
Sen. Lugar (R-Ind.)
Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa)
Sen. McConnell (R-Ky.)
Sen. Vitter (R-La.)
Sen. Collins (R-Me.)
Sen. Snowe (R-Me.)
Sen. Cochran (R-Miss.)
Sen. Nelson (D-Neb.)
Sen. Burr (R-N.C.)
Sen. Coburn (R-Okla.)
Sen. Inhofe (R-Okla.)
Sen. DeMint (R-S.C.)
Sen. Graham (R-S.C)
Sen. Thune (R-S.D.)
Sen. Alexander (R-Tenn.)
Sen. Hutchison (R-Tex.)
Sen. Hatch (R-Utah)
Sen. Enzi (R-Wyo.)

The deficit has been reduced by $800 billion since the president was inaugurated. We can afford to do this, but the Republicans refuse to allow it because they’re more interested in sabotaging the economy to destroy the president. In the crossfire, the destruction of that bridge.