Monday, at long goddamned last, the travesty that is the Department of Veterans Affairs might be moved a giant step closer to getting fixed, when a joint Congressional committee announces its roadmap to reform. Among a number of major changes, largely at the instigation of co-chair Senator Bernie Sanders, the committee is expected to recommend a significant increase in funding for additional medical professionals, something likely to cause some Congressional Republicans to balk, given how they much prefer throwing borrowed trillions at creating wounded veterans rather than, you know, spending millions to treat them.
Encouragingly, over 100 House members co-signed a letter last week requesting Congressional leadership to keep both houses in session past the scheduled August recess if a bill hasn’t been completed. The other 335 or so were too busy packing their flip-flops and sunscreen, presumably.
Well, it’s now “official,” or at least as “official” as anything emanating from CNN can be. Their breathless new poll shows that if the 2012 election were held today, Mitt Romney would best Barack Obama 53% to 44%. Interestingly, though equally fictionally, the other 3% of voters would divide their benighted ballots among (in no particular order) George W. Bush, Thomas Dewey, Lyndon LaRouche, Rush Limbaugh, Ross Perot and Ted Nugent. While I won’t be sharing my raw data anytime soon, trust me, that conclusion is rigorously scientific. Just like the CNN-ORC International poll was. Of course, the election of 2012 was actually held in – surprise! – 2012, and Mitt Romney, deservedly, now resides in the “where are they now” file. Just like CNN does, come to think of it.
California Governor Jerry Brown heads to Mexico Monday for three days of meetings with President Enrique Peña Nieto, and later with various Central American leaders, as the migrant children crisis continues to develop. Meanwhile, Texas fathead Senator John Cornyn predicts that a “skinnied-down” bill to provide emergency border funding could pass this week, “skinnied-down” being fathead Cornynese for “starved for funds” or “useless” or “c’mon, now, we got us an August recess to get to.”
With 100 days remaining until the mid-terms, Greg Walden, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, predicted over the weekend that November 4 would be a “wave” election for his party. And with 99 days remaining until the mid-terms at time of writing, I predict Greg Walden will be job-hunting beginning November 5.
A lot of people (if they were tripping on Republican Kool-Aid, anyway) were confident that former Virginia Governor Bob McDonell would by now be preparing to hit the ground running on a 2016 White House bid. Well, funny thing about that. As it happens, McDonnell is preparing to hit the ground running on a last-ditch attempt to keep his sorry ass out of prison, as he and wife Maureen face 14 federal counts, a veritable Whitman’s Sampler of corruption charges, starting Monday. Hey, hang in there, Smilin’ Bob, and no, I don’t mean “hang” literally. Wait. Come to think of it, let’s just wait and see what the jury has to say.
This week, an unprecedented internal migration to Charlottesville, Virginia has an outside chance of happening following last week’s revelation by the US National Bureau of Economic Research that the town is America’s “happiest place.” But is it really? Well, Donnie Glass, chef at Charlotteville’s Public Fish & Oyster, insists the town has “all the things you’d want from a big city.” Except for, one supposes, the bigness, which is probably why Newport News and Richmond – big as they are – were ranked, somewhat more particularly, as the nation’s “happiest cities.”
I’m unclear as to how anywhere in such proximity to DC, large or small, could be considered happy in any way, but there you go. Not coincidentally, Charlottesville lies a mere seven miles from Thomas Jefferson’s former abode, and of course back in the day moneyed white guys, what with their slaves and all, were happy indeed, apart from, I guess, that whole independence from the Crown thing.
