*****Official Government Shutdown Gamethread*****

[Trainwreck2100]

Lol TeamR

[DMX7]

Blue team has its boot on the neck of red team.

[baseline bum]

Boehner is OJ Mayo in the clutch tbh

[ElNono]

http://i44.tinypic.com/2iw35eh.jpg

"I think the reason is because President Obama can't wait to get Americans addicted to the crack cocaine of dependency on more government health care"

"Because, once they enroll millions of more individual Americans it will be virtually impossible for us to pull these benefits back from people."

[Nbadan]

Troops are paid on the 15th and the final day of the month, and Mr. Gates said that if a government shutdown began after Friday, troops would receive half a paycheck for the first two weeks of April. After that, troops wouldn't be paid until a deal is reached in Washington to fund the government, although they would receive any back pay owed, he added.

"If it goes from the 15th to the 30th, you wouldn't get a paycheck on the 30th," he added. "But you would be back-paid for all of it. So that's the deal." < / article >

http://www.cbs8.com/story/14398971/local-military-membe...

According to a statement on the Defense Department website, the armed forces members would continue to earn their salaries, but wouldn't actually receive any money until Congress reaches a budget agreement.

[angrydude]

oh god no. Now I won't be able to visit that national park I never visit.

[Wild Cobra]

Obomba gave his buddies a year extension. All the republicans are doing is holding out for a year for everyone else. Even though the media isn't reporting this important fact, it will come out election time.

I think the "D's" will lose badly.

[ElNono]

There's actually more than just 'parks'. It's a whole load of people that will be furloughed without pay. Pay that was used to purchase goods sold by other people, whether they're red or blue team players. Hopefully the posturing won't extend much further than the debt ceiling deadline. But, looking at the current intransigence, would anyone be surprised if this extends until next year?

[ElNono]

Obomba gave his buddies a year extension. All the republicans are doing is holding out for a year for everyone else. Even though the media isn't reporting this important fact, it will come out election time.

I think the "D's" will lose badly.

You also thought "D's" would lose badly 10 months ago, so there's that...

[SA210]

https://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/q71/556591_559040680816487_1213130222_n.jpg

[SA210]

https://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/q71/1374233_590683824300822_272864759_n.jpg

[2centsworth]

https://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/q71/556591_559040680816487_1213130222_n.jpg

:lmao

[Blake]

http://i44.tinypic.com/2iw35eh.jpg

"I think the reason is because President Obama can't wait to get Americans addicted to the crack cocaine of dependency on more government health care"

"Because, once they enroll millions of more individual Americans it will be virtually impossible for us to pull these benefits back from people."

It's like those eyes are staring deep into my soul.

Make it stop

[Chief Brody]

Yeah, think of all the piss-poor attitude n!gger employees you won't have to put up with at the DMV, Court, or any other government office for the foreseeable future. Picturing those worthless people suffering doesn't really make me teary-eyed. I'm actually kind of excited.

[The Reckoning]

here's a video of a baby raccoon playing in a bathtub for the meantime


http://youtu.be/bgzpfktxwfc


or a dog doing a trick


http://youtu.be/dRijc5GbdbU



either way they're doing more work than congress

[Trainwreck2100]

In honor of GTA online tomorrow


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jy7ceLVVgU

[SA210]

https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/q71/1381545_598056796907681_1637226917_n.jpg

[SA210]

https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/q71/1236950_422561977843801_677183990_n.jpg

[velik_m]

Will NSA stop spying on us during the shutdown or is this the kind of shutdown where only good stuff gets shutdowned?

[ElNono]

Will NSA stop spying on us during the shutdown or is this the kind of shutdown where only good stuff gets shutdowned?

The latter

[baseline bum]

Will NSA stop spying on us during the shutdown or is this the kind of shutdown where only good stuff gets shutdowned?

Only good shit like the national parks get shutdown. We'll still have pervert scanners at the airport, TSA, homeland security, we'll still bomb kids in the Middle East, and so on.

[boutons_deux]

MILLIONS FLEE OBAMACARE

Millions of Tea Party loyalists fled the United States in the early morning hours today, seeking what one of them called “the American dream of liberty from health care.”

Harland Dorrinson, 47, a tire salesman from Lexington, Kentucky, packed up his family and whatever belongings he could fit into his Chevy Suburban just hours before the health-insurance exchanges opened, joining the Tea Party’s Freedom Caravan with one goal in mind: escape from Obamacare.

“My father didn’t have health care and neither did my father’s father before him,” he said. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to let my children have it.”

But after driving over ten hours to the Canadian border, Mr. Dorrinson was dismayed to learn that America’s northern neighbor had been in the iron grip of health care for decades.

“The border guard was so calm when he told me, as if it was the most normal thing in the world,” he said. “It’s like he was brainwashed by health care.”

Turning away from Canada, Mr. Dorrinson joined a procession of Tea Party cars heading south to Mexico, noting, “They may have drug cartels and narcoterrorism down there, but at least they’ve kept health care out.”

Mr. Dorrinson was halfway to the southern border before he heard through the Tea Party grapevine that Mexico, too, has public health care, as do Great Britain, Japan, Turkey, Spain, Belgium, New Zealand, Slovenia, and dozens of other countries to which he had considered fleeing.

Undaunted, Mr. Dorrinson said he had begun looking into additional countries, like Chad and North Korea, but he expressed astonishment at a world seemingly overrun by health care.

“It turns out that the United States is one of the last countries on earth to get it,” he said. “It makes me proud to be an American.”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/10/millions-flee-obamacare.html?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=borowitz&mbid=nl_Borowitz%20(176)

[ElNono]

lol @ root canals and colonoscopies having a higher approval rating than Congress right now

[boutons_deux]

lol @ root canals and colonoscopies having a higher approval rating than Congress right now

The 10% that approve of Congress now, are they mostly Repug or Dems?

[boutons_deux]

GOP Wants Budget Conference To Undo Shutdown That It Has Blocked For Last Six Months (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/01/2706691/gop-shutdown-conference/)

After the House passed a slew of funding bills with amendments attached to delay and defund Obamacare, the lawmakers switched gears right before recessing for the evening and formally requested a budget conference with the Senate. A conference would mean convening a group of bipartisan lawmakers from both houses, or a conference committee, to work out a compromise between their competing visions for what a government budget should look like.

But House Republicans have had an opportunity to conference with the Senate since April. That’s when lawmakers in the Senate, led by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), passed a budget and opened the door to create a committee to hash out the differences between that bill and the House budget, which it passed in March. Republicans had made the lack of a Democratic Senate budget a talking point for three years (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/05/08/1982581/seven-times-senate-republicans-demanded-the-budget-process-they-are-now-obstructing/), arguing that Congress should return to “regular order” by passing budgets in both chambers and conferencing to work out the differences. Yet after the Senate passed a bill and the opportunity to do so became real, Senate Republicans blocked Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) from creating a conference committee (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/04/23/1909271/gop-refuses-budget-conference/).

In the months after that, those Republicans blocked 18 separate attempts (http://www.republican.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/floor-updates) to go to a budget conference with the House.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/01/2706691/gop-shutdown-conference/

[Th'Pusher]

The 10% that approve of Congress now, are they mostly Repug or Dems?
They're morons. Problem is, no one approves of congress as a body, but plenty of people approve of they're individual congressperson

[Winehole23]

The Disarray, Dysfunction, and Legislative Blundering of the Congressional GOP (http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/359763/disarray-dysfunction-and-legislative-blundering-congressional-gop-reihan-salam)

By Reihan Salam (http://www.nationalreview.com/author/)





inSharePeter Suderman has a clear explanation (http://reason.com/blog/2013/09/27/republican-grandstanders-have-committed) of “the disarray, dysfunction, and legislative blundering” that is plaguing the congressional GOP. He observes that Republicans have nothing like a workable legislative strategy, because a determined group of GOP lawmakers refuses to acknowledge that a legislative minority can only do so much:




The trick will be to work effectively within those limits, exploiting clear opposition weak points and pushing for narrow victories that stand some change of being accomplished. …


But what Cruz and many of his allies in the defunding fight have done is just the opposite. They have gone big—on rhetoric, on theatrics, on policy requests. And they have stoked demand for grand showdowns amongst many of their supporters, making it harder for those who might prefer more targeted battles to proceed. They’re getting the showdowns. But they’re not getting much else.


Right now the GOP has no strategic or tactical savvy. Instead, the party has a surfeit of bluster.
The left-of-center Bloomberg Businessweek correspondent Joshua Green, meanwhile, is rooting for a government shutdown (http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/09/26/why-rooting-for-government-shutdown/cv4KPv8UHtQ4vlTUgjFtyI/story.html), in part because it will clarify whether or not the U.S. public approves of the Republicans’ efforts:

One powerful driver of Washington dysfunction is the certainty among partisans of both camps that Americans secretly agree with them and would rally to their side during a shutdown. In April 2011, when Republicans first demanded concessions to pass a continuing resolution, many hoped for a shutdown because they thought the Tea Party movement that had rebuked Democrats in the midterm elections would rise up once again. Today, many Democrats want a shutdown because polls show Republicans would be blamed. Some Republicans disagree. “I think Americans would side with the people who are fighting against a law they know is unfair,” says Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint, the godfather of the “defund Obamacare” movement. A shutdown would make clear who is right and who is wrong, removing the temptation for another showdown.
But Green also speculates that a shutdown might demonstrate that what he calls “the current system of negotiation-by-public-threat” is politically toxic, and that congressional Republicans might step back from the brink.


To state the obvious, Republicans are facing a collective action problem. Successive rounds of budget brinkmanship are redounding to the benefit of a small number of Republican lawmakers, who are building their profile and fundraising on the strength of their theatrics. At the same time, successive rounds of budget brinkmanship risk undermining the political prospects of Republican candidates in competitive districts, and they might undermine the GOP brand more broadly.


My sense is that the disarray and dysfunction currently on display in Congress flows from campaign finance regulations that have weakened broad-based, national political parties while strengthening solo political entrepreneurs. Many of us hope that some future Republican presidential nominee will be able to impose order on the GOP’s congressional wing. But it is just as easy for me to imagine a popular Republican president facing ferocious attacks from a minority of opportunistic legislators aided by allied independent expenditure groups.



http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/359763/disarray-dysfunction-and-legislative-blundering-congressional-gop-reihan-salam

[Winehole23]

counterpoint:


In recent weeks, Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/section/mike-lee) of Utah worked with the Senate Conservatives Fund on ads about defunding Obamacare. Cruz and Lee in the videos implored conservative voters to tell their senators to defund Obamacare.

Now, the Senate Conservatives Fund is running attack ads in the states of reluctant Republican senators. “Republicans in Congress can stop Obamacare by refusing to fund it. But Senator Lamar Alexander refuses to join the fight,” a typical SCF radio ad says. “It’s time for Lamar Alexander to start listening to us and not his friends in Washington.”


You can see why other Republican senators wouldn't like this. You can see why they don't like Cruz and Lee playing ball with these outside groups. And you could see how this dynamic could hurt the Republican Party. (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/republican-party)
But here's the Tea Party interpretation of this anger: “Senators don't like to be held accountable,” Matt Hoskins, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund wrote me in an email this week. “They don't like it when their voters find out that they aren't doing everything possible to stop Obamacare.”


Mike Needham, president of Heritage Action, compares the recent changes in political dynamics to the changes in music after the Internet and Napster. In the mid-1990s, the big record labels benefited by being a bottleneck through which listeners had to get music. The Internet has democratized the distribution of music, and the oligopoly of the large labels has crumbled.



Senators and congressmen used to have a near-monopoly on explaining Congress to their constituents. They could say they were trying to repeal Obamacare, while really they were casting symbolic votes and walking away from any real fights.
Heritage Action, FreedomWorks, Club for Growth, and the Senate Conservatives Fund, like Napster, use technology to smash that bottleneck. Now lawmakers can’t control what their constituents hear anymore.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/ted-cruz-pushes-senate-to-listen-to-the-people/article/2536337

[AntiChrist]

Why do people act like this doesn't happen fairly regularly?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/25/here-is-every-previous-government-shutdown-why-they-happened-and-how-they-ended/

[Creepn]

MILLIONS FLEE OBAMACARE

Millions of Tea Party loyalists fled the United States in the early morning hours today, seeking what one of them called “the American dream of liberty from health care.”

Harland Dorrinson, 47, a tire salesman from Lexington, Kentucky, packed up his family and whatever belongings he could fit into his Chevy Suburban just hours before the health-insurance exchanges opened, joining the Tea Party’s Freedom Caravan with one goal in mind: escape from Obamacare.

“My father didn’t have health care and neither did my father’s father before him,” he said. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to let my children have it.”

But after driving over ten hours to the Canadian border, Mr. Dorrinson was dismayed to learn that America’s northern neighbor had been in the iron grip of health care for decades.

“The border guard was so calm when he told me, as if it was the most normal thing in the world,” he said. “It’s like he was brainwashed by health care.”

Turning away from Canada, Mr. Dorrinson joined a procession of Tea Party cars heading south to Mexico, noting, “They may have drug cartels and narcoterrorism down there, but at least they’ve kept health care out.”

Mr. Dorrinson was halfway to the southern border before he heard through the Tea Party grapevine that Mexico, too, has public health care, as do Great Britain, Japan, Turkey, Spain, Belgium, New Zealand, Slovenia, and dozens of other countries to which he had considered fleeing.

Undaunted, Mr. Dorrinson said he had begun looking into additional countries, like Chad and North Korea, but he expressed astonishment at a world seemingly overrun by health care.

“It turns out that the United States is one of the last countries on earth to get it,” he said. “It makes me proud to be an American.”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/10/millions-flee-obamacare.html?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=borowitz&mbid=nl_Borowitz%20(176)




Lol this is satire right?

[AntiChrist]

Lol this is satire right?


No, it's absolutely true.

[EVAY]

The 10% that approve of Congress now, are they mostly Repug or Dems?

It's the friends and families of Congressmen/women and their staffs.

[AntiChrist]

As a strategy, it is stupid, IMHO

[Winehole23]

Why do people act like this doesn't happen fairly regularly?did someone suggest it doesn't?

[Winehole23]

the US Congress failing to fund what the US Congress has already approved is a rather fundamental sort of failure, wouldn't you say?

[Creepn]

Yeah, think of all the piss-poor attitude n!gger employees you won't have to put up with at the DMV, Court, or any other government office for the foreseeable future. Picturing those worthless people suffering doesn't really make me teary-eyed. I'm actually kind of excited.

What about all of the happy excellent go-getter attitude white employees that are affected by this?

[AntiChrist]

did someone suggest it doesn't?


I'd say there seems to be a bit of hysteria over something that has happened quite often in the past.

[dbestpro]

The ultimate irony. If the healthcare law is delayed a year then the Democrats would have enough ammo that they would probably take over the House.

If the healthcare law is allowed to proceed it will have a large amount of very unhappy people that will probably move the Republicans into control of the Senate.

They are both fighting for the right to lose the next election.

[AntiChrist]

The ultimate irony. If the healthcare law is delayed a year then the Democrats would have enough ammo that they would probably take over the House.

If the healthcare law is allowed to proceed it will have a large amount of very unhappy people that will probably move the Republicans into control of the Senate.

They are both fighting for the right to lose the next election.


I agree with this. If they think ObamaCare will turn out to be a train wreck, just leave it alone and use it against them in the next election.

[boutons_deux]

ACA will not fail, it will be huge, humane step forward for America, catching up with more humane, less rich-dog-eat-poor-dog unRandian countries.

There will be lots of modifications, tweaking to make ACA work even better, and it will take much longer than necessary because of bloody minded Repug obstructionism and propaganda, but it will happen.

You right-wing assholes have been listening to the Repug/Fox/hate-media LIARS, and believing them. You'll be proven to be willfully ignorant dupes.

[boutons_deux]

Colbert recaps series finale of U.S. government in ‘Breaking Gov’
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/01/colbert-recaps-series-finale-of-u-s-government-in-breaking-gov/

[boutons_deux]

Jon Stewart rips Constitution-hugging Republicans: They’re like ‘an as*hole causing a head-on collision’
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/01/jon-stewart-rips-constitution-hugging-republicans-theyre-like-an-ashole-causing-a-head-on-collision/

[Winehole23]

I'd say there seems to be a bit of hysteria over something that has happened quite often in the past.No examples?

Nothing at all from this thread? It doesn't appear your adversaries on this point have even entered the field...

[Winehole23]

...

[boutons_deux]

No examples?


Your boss shut down government 12 times, didn’t call him terrorist

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/09/30/matthews-burned-your-boss-shut-down-government-12-times-didnt-call-him-terrorist-84359

[Winehole23]

an epochal financial panic twinned with an anemic recovery did NOT propel Obama to certain defeat in 2012, as widely predicted on this board.

[Winehole23]

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/09/30/matthews-burned-your-boss-shut-down-government-12-times-didnt-call-him-terrorist-84359
I'm sorry, you said something?

[Oh, Gee!!]

The republicans need to stop playing to the vocal minority of the party. the ACA lives on, and they look like spoiled children to the average voter. they got the tea party vote though!

[Winehole23]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-on-verge-of-fullscale-government-hoedown,34057/

[Winehole23]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/10/millions-flee-obamacare.html

[Winehole23]

I agree with this. If they think ObamaCare will turn out to be a train wreck, just leave it alone and use it against them in the next election.tie your political fortunes to things getting worse and being able to blame it all on the other guy. that has happened quite often in the past.

worked great for the GOP in 2012, wouldn't you say?

[baseline bum]

an epochal financial panic twinned with an anemic recovery did NOT propel Obama to certain defeat in 2012, as widely predicted on this board.

It probably would have if the idiot Republicans didn't run on ending Medicare.

[boutons_deux]

It probably would have if the idiot Republicans didn't run on ending Medicare.

Romney also ran on repeal/replace ACA

[baseline bum]

Romney also ran on repeal/replace ACA

He could have survived that without his teabagger VP trying to end Medicare for everyone but the boomers.

[baseline bum]

I'll still never understand Romney going teabagger when he was already getting their anti-###### vote anyways.

[boutons_deux]

He could have survived that without his teabagger VP trying to end Medicare for everyone but the boomers.

don't forget his Randian 47% moochers/takers comment to his live audience of 1% right-wing assholes.

he also ran on repealing all financial regulation

[baseline bum]

don't forget his Randian 47% moochers/takers comment to his live audience of 1% right-wing assholes.

he also ran on repealing all financial regulation

If I was Romney I would have done just like Christie is doing right now and pretend to be a level-headed centrist. Then he could go full teabagger after conning the public.

[Chief Brody]

What about all of the happy excellent go-getter attitude white employees that are affected by this?

Collateral damage, though rest assured their education and work ethic will land them other jobs.

[angrydude]

Collateral damage, though rest assured their education and work ethic will land them other jobs.

not in this economy

[Chief Brody]

What about all of the happy excellent go-getter attitude white employees that are affected by this?

Collateral damage, though rest assured their education and work ethic will land them other jobs.

[rjv]

government workers will now have about as much downtime as this forum's 24/7 posters do.

[rjv]

by the way, the next thread should be the debt ceiling preview/predictions

[angrydude]

I just want to know where all my god damn roads have gone

[angrydude]

http://i.imgur.com/vwMin.gif

[boutons_deux]

THE REIGN OF MORONS IS HERE

In the year of our Lord 2010, the voters of the United States elected the worst Congress in the history of the Republic. There have been Congresses more dilatory. There have been Congresses more irresponsible, though not many of them. There have been lazier Congresses, more vicious Congresses, and Congresses less capable of seeing forests for trees. But there has never been in a single Congress -- or, more precisely, in a single House of the Congress -- a more lethal combination (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-cusp-of-shutdown-house-conservatives-excited-say-they-are-doing-the-right-thing/2013/09/28/2a5ab618-285e-11e3-97e6-2e07cad1b77e_story_1.html) of political ambition, political stupidity, and political vainglory than exists in this one, which has arranged to shut down the federal government because it disapproves of a law passed by a previous Congress, signed by the president, and upheld by the Supreme Court, a law that does nothing more than extend the possibility of health insurance to the millions of Americans who do not presently have it, a law based on a proposal from a conservative think-tank and taken out on the test track in Massachusetts by a Republican governor who also happens to have been the party's 2012 nominee for president of the United States. That is why the government of the United States is, in large measure, closed this morning.

We have elected an ungovernable collection of snake-handlers, Bible-bangers, ignorami, bagmen and outright frauds, a collection so ungovernable that it insists the nation be ungovernable, too.

We have elected people to govern us who do not believe in government.

We have elected a national legislature in which Louie Gohmert and Michele Bachmann have more power than does the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who has been made a piteous spectacle in the eyes of the country and doesn't seem to mind that at all. We have elected a national legislature in which the true power resides in a cabal of vandals, a nihilistic brigade that believes that its opposition to a bill directing millions of new customers to the nation's insurance companies is the equivalent of standing up the the Nazis in 1938, to the bravery of the passengers on Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, and to Mel Gibson's account of the Scottish Wars of Independence in the 13th Century. We have elected a national legislature that looks into the mirror and sees itself already cast in marble.

We did this. We looked at our great legacy of self-government and we handed ourselves over to the reign of morons.

This is what they came to Washington to do -- to break the government of the United States.

It doesn't matter any more whether they're doing it out of pure crackpot ideology, or at the behest of the various sugar daddies that back their campaigns, or at the instigation of their party's mouthbreathing base. It may be any one of those reasons. It may be all of them. The government of the United States, in the first three words of its founding charter, belongs to all of us, and these people have broken it deliberately.

The true hell of it, though, is that you could see this coming down through the years,

all the way from Ronald Reagan's First Inaugural Address in which government "was" the problem,

through Bill Clinton's ameliorative nonsense about the era of big government being "over,"

through the attempts to make a charlatan like Newt Gingrich into a scholar and

an ambitious hack like Paul Ryan into a budget genius, and

through all the endless attempts to find "common ground" and a "Third Way."

Ultimately, as we all wrapped ourselves in good intentions, a prion disease was eating away at the country's higher functions. One of the ways you can acquire a prion disease is to eat right out of its skull the brains of an infected monkey.

We are now seeing the country reeling and jabbering from the effects of the prion disease, but it was during the time of Reagan that the country ate the monkey brains.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Shutdown_Blues

iow, America is fucked and unfuckable.

[ChumpDumper]

Republicans already caving on national parks.

[Suspect]

I dont really keep up with political stuff so can someone tell me whats the worse case scenario this can lead to for us as a country? or is this not that big of a deal in the big picture

[AntiChrist]

I dont really keep up with political stuff so can someone tell me whats the worse case scenario this can lead to for us as a country? or is this not that big of a deal in the big picture

Not really a big deal.

I did did get a chuckle from some of the govt websites that are denying access, probably as a FY gesture. NASA even has their message in Spanish -- lol

[ChumpDumper]

I dont really keep up with political stuff so can someone tell me whats the worse case scenario this can lead to for us as a country? or is this not that big of a deal in the big pictureBig picture is it could return the House to The Democrats if it goes on long enough to really fuck things up.

[AntiChrist]

Big picture is it could return the House to The Democrats if it goes on long enough to really fuck things up.

Yep, that is a possibility.

[boutons_deux]

Repugs proposing a bunch of mini-CRs.

Fox's rich talking heads, still being paid, are saying the shutdown is a pinprick, nothing to worry about, no big deal.

[boutons_deux]

mini-CRs didn't even get passed by the House! :lol

[AntiChrist]

http://reason.com/archives/2013/10/01/let-us-be-clear-obama-deserves-chief-res

[boutons_deux]

http://reason.com/archives/2013/10/01/let-us-be-clear-obama-deserves-chief-res

pure bullshit. self-ridicule by reason.com

President is not a king, as demonstrated by 40 assholes in one of the 3 branches have incredible power of the negative, of NO, and the President is powerless to overcome, unlike a king or military dictator.

[MannyIsGod]

Not really a big deal.

I did did get a chuckle from some of the govt websites that are denying access, probably as a FY gesture. NASA even has their message in Spanish -- lol

Are you sure its a FY message? Sometimes they are mandated not to operate. Some of the USGS sites I use are up but others are down. NOAA is down but the NWS is operating.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-consumer-confidence-2013-10

Short term consumer confidence seems to be steady. Let's see what happens in a week if it keeps up.

[InRareForm]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/10/shutdown good article tbh..

[boutons_deux]

Maddow showed many clips of tea baggers, 2010 candidates and 2011 electeds, saying 3 years ago they intended to shut down the govt. And several today said they were giddy about the shutdown.

Barry ain't gonna compromise, not gonna touch ACA, so the Repugs are now and will be losers all around.

[boutons_deux]

Repugs refused 18 times to conference with Dems about the budget.

Today, Cantor tweets this pic of Repugs ready to conference but no Dems:

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1472943.1380653441!/img/httpImage/image.jpg-large_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/cantor.jpg-large

:lol Repugs are such FUCKING LIARS

[SA210]

https://scontent-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/q71/11525_430385880399852_1131372051_n.jpg

[TDMVPDPOY]

lol land of the free, even basic healthcare u cant provide?

[ElNono]

http://reason.com/archives/2013/10/01/let-us-be-clear-obama-deserves-chief-res

Terrible piece. Conference between the Senate and the House on the budget didn't happen because the House flat out refused (after demanding that the Senate present a budget nonetheless, as part of the 2011 fiscal deal negotiation), not because a 'bunch of stuff'.

And no, when it comes to appropriations, that's a task specifically delegated to Congress.

There's certainly plenty of blame to go around for the last minute theatrics, but pretending this wasn't planned to strong arm when the GOP has really no other leverage is just flat out absurd.

[SA210]

:lmao:rollin:rollin



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoSnqofelsQ


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVyF2WdyzsE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AOJBiklP1Q

[AFBlue]

Why are we still shut down? It's clear at this point that Obamacare is going forward, glitches notwithstanding, and no leverage is going to be gained through a continuation of this situation.

The Republicans just need to concede that Obamacare isn't going to be a part of this negotiation and get the government running again. If they want concessions on entitlement programs, the debt ceiling discussion seems the best avenue for that. And if they want to repeal/replace Obamacare, it'll have to come through elections as a backlash for poor implementation and lack of follow through on the promise for "lower premiums".

[MannyIsGod]

Reading this really pissed me off.

http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1nikjj/scientists_please_discuss_how_the_government/

I was able to access the USGS water site earlier but I know some of the GIS sites are down.

[ElNono]

Why are we still shut down? It's clear at this point that Obamacare is going forward, glitches notwithstanding, and no leverage is going to be gained through a continuation of this situation.

The Republicans just need to concede that Obamacare isn't going to be a part of this negotiation and get the government running again. If they want concessions on entitlement programs, the debt ceiling discussion seems the best avenue for that. And if they want to repeal/replace Obamacare, it'll have to come through elections as a backlash for poor implementation and lack of follow through on the promise for "lower premiums".

If the House puts to a vote a clean CR bill, it will pass. It will be approved between the Dem minority and the non-tea potty Republicans, but it will pass. The Senate already passed it, so there's no chance of filibuster there.

It will likely cost Bohener his speakership, but the current manufactured crisis will likely cost him anyways.

There's no reason for the shutdown other than the House speaker no letting the House take a vote to please an extremely vocal and well funded minority.

In other words, the shutdown has everything to do with the GOP representatives being scared shitless of what their primaries are going to look like if they don't put their fists in the air and go ahead with this dog and pony show.

People call McCain a RINO and other stuff around here, but he's one of the few that speaks up without being scared of these extremist groups, and when he said 'elections have consequences', he's absolutely right. Barrycare will be repealed in the same way it was enacted: by winning elections to gain power and ramming the repeal through. It won't happen in this administration though.

[baseline bum]

If the House puts to a vote a clean CR bill, it will pass. It will be approved between the Dem minority and the non-tea potty Republicans, but it will pass. The Senate already passed it, so there's no chance of filibuster there.

It will likely cost Bohener his speakership, but the current manufactured crisis will likely cost him anyways.

There's no reason for the shutdown other than the House speaker no letting the House take a vote to please an extremely vocal and well funded minority.

In other words, the shutdown has everything to do with the GOP representatives being scared shitless of what their primaries are going to look like if they don't put their fists in the air and go ahead with this dog and pony show.

People call McCain a RINO and other stuff around here, but he's one of the few that speaks up without being scared of these extremist groups, and when he said 'elections have consequences', he's absolutely right. Barrycare will be repealed in the same way it was enacted: by winning elections to gain power and ramming the repeal through. It won't happen in this administration though.

Boehner looked like he'd lose it last time the teabaggers pulled this shit too.

[ElNono]

Frankly, I think Boehner is waiting for Barry to override Reid. He already knows from the last 5 times or so that Barry will blink. But I just don't see Reid letting it happen, tbh.

[Trainwreck2100]

Frankly, I think Boehner is waiting for Barry to override Reid. He already knows from the last 5 times or so that Barry will blink. But I just don't see Reid letting it happen, tbh.

Yeah Barry's folded an assload of times, but now he's basically saying "fuck you, ima four year lame duck, bitch"

[baseline bum]

Frankly, I think Boehner is waiting for Barry to override Reid. He already knows from the last 5 times or so that Barry will blink. But I just don't see Reid letting it happen, tbh.

I don't know man. Second term OMonkey doesn't need to worry about reelection.

[DPG21920]

Is there any chance that Obama does not finish his term? What if Republicans win the Senate majority?

[Trainwreck2100]

Is there any chance that Obama does not finish his term? What if Republicans win the Senate majority?

he doesn't really need to worry about that, the Rs have to worry about keeping the house after all this

[DPG21920]

he doesn't really need to worry about that, the Rs have to worry about keeping the house after all this

Ultimately agreed, but my question remains?

[ElNono]

Yeah Barry's folded an assload of times, but now he's basically saying "fuck you, ima four year lame duck, bitch"


I don't know man. Second term OMonkey doesn't need to worry about reelection.

He's still in it for the style points though. That's just who he is. He'll probably keep campaigning and doing bus tours well into 2015...

[ElNono]

Is there any chance that Obama does not finish his term? What if Republicans win the Senate majority?

If this shit keeps going two weeks from now, he'll likely break a law (probably the debt ceiling law) to simply avoid a default. That will likely cause the House to impeach him, but the Senate will leave him off the hook. So in the near future, not very likely.

(More on the outlaw president on this opinion piece here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/opinion/obama-should-ignore-the-debt-ceiling.html)

[DPG21920]

Thanks. Nono, what is your personal opinion on that subject (the impeachment of Obama). Do you fundamentally believe he deserves to be impeached and if so, do you find it likely?

[SA210]

Obama should be impeached for war crimes and treason, since a long time ago.

[ElNono]

Thanks. Nono, what is your personal opinion on that subject (the impeachment of Obama). Do you fundamentally believe he deserves to be impeached and if so, do you find it likely?

Personally, my understanding is that 'high crimes' (what the Constitution indicates as a cause for impeachment) is a fairly nebulous term. We had a Prez impeached over to what apparently amounts to 'sexual misconduct', yet we had other Prez not impeached after flatly admitting to breaking the law (but hiding under the National Security blanket).

So, I think it's a highly politically charged subject. IMO, unless it's well supported, impeachment can backfire pretty badly too, and can be damaging to democracy if overplayed. What's clear to me, IMO, is that impeachment isn't going anywhere with Barry as long as the Senate is controlled by the Dems. And frankly, even with Barry suckitude, he's still much more liked than the Congress that would need to bring the charges.

So, personally, I don't see it happening.

[DPG21920]

Interesting. So you definitely think that it's not likely either way, but I somewhat sense you don't really see a need or believe he deserves to be impeached (whether it's based on principal or actual interpretation of the constitution).

[ElNono]

Interesting. So you definitely think that it's not likely either way, but I somewhat sense you don't really see a need or believe he deserves to be impeached (whether it's based on principal or actual interpretation of the constitution).

There are instances that I think you could make a solid case for impeachment (IE: I've expressed many times my disappointment at his doubling down of civil liberties violations, constitutional protected privacy, etc). But I'm also a practical person, and I understand that the dynamics of the impeachment process is one much closer to politics than law (IMO). So I don't dwell on it too much.

In a way, it's similar to what's going on in the House now. I understand they despise Barrycare (I don't like it either), and I also understand the extreme ideology (even if I don't necessarily share it), but the current political climate right now indicate this isn't the time or place strategically speaking to have that fight (IMO obviously).

[SA210]

https://scontent-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/q71/1379372_10151737830668040_1293741248_n.jpg

[ChumpDumper]

Obama can just concentrate on foreign affairs legacy shit while the republicans choke themselves with their own teabags. It has to be a relief to put domestic stuff on autopilot and win by forfeit.

[HI-FI]

He's still in it for the style points though. That's just who he is. He'll probably keep campaigning and doing bus tours well into 2015...

:lol
pretty much all he was hired for anyways.

[MannyIsGod]

https://scontent-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/q71/1379372_10151737830668040_1293741248_n.jpg


The government doesn't own nature. The American people own the national parks and it is managed by the government because who else is going to manage it? There are tons of federal lands people can use but the National Parks are special and protected. They really can't operate without staff there for a multitude of reasons including protection of the lands and sites in question. Many of these parks also require a fee - unlike national forests - which can't be collected if no one is there.

And god damn post an original thought for once. Not everything has to be a meme picture.

[Rogue]

The US should've shut down the federal government years ago and replaced it with a new government that works with any sort of efficiency and on behalf of the people rather than big corps and billionaires, imho.

[Trainwreck2100]

The US should've shut down the federal government years ago and replaced it with a new government that works with any sort of efficiency and on behalf of the people rather than big corps and billionaires, imho.

Killing citizens united would be a good step in the right direction

[TDMVPDPOY]

wouldnt obama be the first black US president to impeach, also first US president impeach for war crimes and treason?

the white folks see nothing wrong with it if they can get away with it

[boutons_deux]

The Republican Party’s Constitutional Coup

Writing in the Washington Examiner, the well-connected conservative columnist Byron York estimates (http://washingtonexaminer.com/how-30-house-republicans-are-forcing-the-obamacare-fight/article/2536611)that as many as 175 of the 233 House Republicans are prepared to support a “clean” budget resolution stripped of references to the Affordable Care Act.

James Fallows writes in The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/09/your-false-equivalence-guide-to-the-days-ahead/280062/), “this is different from anything we learned about in classrooms or expected until the past few years. We’re used to thinking that the most important disagreements are between the major parties, not within one party; and that disagreements over policies, goals, tactics can be addressed by negotiation or compromise.

“This time, the fight that matters is within the Republican Party, and that fight is over whether compromise itself is legitimate.”

By attempting to use budgetary extortion to annul a law passed by both houses of Congress, found constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, and ratified by a presidential election, an inflamed minority inside the Republican Party is attempting something like a constitutional coup d’état.

Fallows: “there is no post-Civil War precedent for what the House GOP is doing now. It is radical, and dangerous for the economy and our process of government, and its departure from past political disagreements can’t be buffed away or ignored.”

Former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson: “We are no longer seeing a revolt against the Republican leadership, or even against the Republican “establishment”; this revolt is against anyone who accepts the constraints of political reality. Conservatives are excommunicated not for holding the wrong convictions but for rational calculations in service of those convictions.”

David Ignatius sees Boehner as a total failure (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-john-boehner-is-a-leader-without-followers/2013/09/27/c8145b2a-2705-11e3-ad0d-b7c8d2a594b9_story.html): “Unable to control his own caucus, negotiate effectively with the president or pass legislation, he flounders in office—a likable man who is utterly ineffective.”

the Speaker employing a deliberate rope-a-dope strategy: “After another defeat or two, and under the pressure of a shutdown, Boehner will finally turn to the 30 and say, ‘We tried it your way, over and over. Now, the majority will pass a resolution.’”

http://www.nationalmemo.com/the-republican-partys-constitutional-coup/

The other angle is Boner preserving himself. If he calls a vote on a clean CR, he seriously risks losing his Speakership.

[boutons_deux]

Stewart rolls

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/02/jon-stewart-destroys-callous-fox-news-host-fck-you-for-mocking-the-poor/

[boutons_deux]

And of course the Christ-like political "Christians" show up (old white rich guy with white, Biblical, manly facial hair to hide his dicklessness)

Christian TV host asks God for ‘military takeover’ of Obama’s presidency

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/joyner_131001a-615x345.jpg

A Christian TV host this week called on God to consider a “military takeover” of President Barack Obama’s government because it could be the only way to save the country from tyranny.

On his Monday Internet broadcast, Morning Star TV’s Rick Joyner predicted that democracy was “doomed” unless the Lord imposed martial law.

“The balance of powers in the legislative and judicial branches were supposed to balance and keep in check, hold in check, the potential tyranny from the executive branch overstepping their bounds,” Joyner explained. “The people are not always right, it depends on what people they are. And another thing the founders warned about is this thing will only work for a moral and a religious people. You remove morality, you remove the religious influence ( IOW, ME!! :lol ), and it cannot work.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/01/christian-tv-host-asks-god-for-military-takeover-of-obamas-presidency/

[baseline bum]

https://scontent-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/q71/1379372_10151737830668040_1293741248_n.jpg

Because there'd be a log flume and a roller-coaster there if the government didn't own it.

[SA210]

The government doesn't own nature. The American people own the national parks and it is managed by the government because who else is going to manage it? There are tons of federal lands people can use but the National Parks are special and protected. They really can't operate without staff there for a multitude of reasons including protection of the lands and sites in question. Many of these parks also require a fee - unlike national forests - which can't be collected if no one is there.

And god damn post an original thought for once. Not everything has to be a meme picture.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z5hEVWe0DU0/TZ863sEnntI/AAAAAAAAACA/TAMB_cWbI38/s1600/Cry_Baby_by_buttonnose.jpg

[EVAY]

Because there'd be a log flume and a roller-coaster there if the government didn't own it.

Yes there would!!!! Thank you!!

[MannyIsGod]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z5hEVWe0DU0/TZ863sEnntI/AAAAAAAAACA/TAMB_cWbI38/s1600/Cry_Baby_by_buttonnose.jpg

Dude if either of us is a crybaby......

[boutons_deux]

Government Shutdown Puts Hundreds of Thousands of Middle-Class, Low-Wage Workers at Risk


The worker, who preferred not to reveal his real name, is an attorney in his early 30s who earns $70,000 a year and owes over $100,000 in law school loans. He and his wife identify as middle-class, though their steep student loans cause them to live paycheck-to-paycheck.


“Since Congress failed to pass an appropriation, we have to go into work on Tuesday for just four hours to do ‘shutdown operations,’” he told RH Reality Check. “After that, we go home indefinitely. Some management is staying, but we go home and turn off our phones, watch the news, and wait for this to be resolved.”

Once the shutdown ends, there is no guarantee he will receive back pay for the days he doesn’t work. One of his biggest concerns is his student loan payments. “I don’t know whether I’m going to try to defer my student loans while the shutdown is going on or not. It’s difficult to defer temporarily,” he said.

The attorney’s wife, who also spoke to RH Reality Check on the condition of anonymity, works at a D.C.-based nonprofit and owes $30,000 in student loans. “We are lucky enough that we both make a decent living, but Washington, D.C., is extremely expensive,” she said. “We pay very high rent for a one-bedroom apartment. We have to sit down and figure out how long we can survive, if we can make rent this month, and chances are strong that we cannot.”

She said that if worst came to worst, the couple could try to borrow money from friends. “But I know many are much, much worse off,” she said.

“A lot of my colleagues are just disgusted and dismayed,” said her husband. “This is hard on me, and I make a reasonable salary. I know there are many who don’t make much at all who can’t afford to not be paid for even a couple of days.”
Though the short term will be a struggle for this couple, over the long term they are in a better position to rebound than many. The majority of federal government workers earn $35,000 to $40,000 per year, as Ned Resnikoff points out (http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/09/30/federal-workers-prepare-to-lose-their-paychecks/) at MSNBC.com. J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, told Resnikoff, “[The salary range] is not over-bloated, that is not overpaid and ridiculous, that is people who are struggling to buy food and keep a roof over their head.”

These workers are cooks, wait staff, and concession workers who earn low salaries and have little chance of economic mobility or stability. Some low-wage federal workers (https://www.aflcio.org/index.php/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/Low-Wage-Federal-Contract-Workers-to-Strike-Today) were speaking out about their wages before the shutdown; indefinitely losing their wages will only exacerbate their struggles.

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/10/01/government-shutdown-puts-hundreds-of-thousands-of-middle-class-low-wage-workers-at-risk/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=government-shutdown-puts-hundreds-of-thousands-of-middle-class-low-wage-workers-at-risk

[SA210]

Dude if either of us is a crybaby......

It's you

[boutons_deux]

Ted Cruz Warns That Shutdown Could Lead To A Terrorist Attack Against U.S. (http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/10/02/2719221/ted-cruz-warns-that-the-shutdown-he-caused-could-lead-to-attack-on-us/)http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/10/02/2719221/ted-cruz-warns-that-the-shutdown-he-caused-could-lead-to-attack-on-us/

Cruz brilliant? :lol

[MannyIsGod]

It's you
ok

[boutons_deux]

Top Conservative: Not ‘The End Of The World’ For Women And Infants Losing Food During Shutdown (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/02/2716921/bill-kristol-shutdown-wic/)http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/kristol-300x186.jpg

“I don’t think it’s the end of the world,” Kristol said of the shutdown,

Arkansas scrounged up leftover federal funds (http://arkansasnews.com/sections/news/arkansas/update-state-workers-idled-school-food-programs-continue-day-1-shutdown.html) that will buy two weeks’ worth of school meals for tens of thousands of those kids, but when that money runs out no more will come from Washington unless the government reopens.

There is no guarantee other states will share Arkansas’s good fortune, either. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) will not issue new payments to states (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/30/2701131/shutdown-wic/), meaning that any state that has already spent all its federal food assistance money will be without recourse. Utah’s WIC program shut down suddenly on Tuesday, leaving 65,000 residents without nutrition assistance (http://www.ksl.com/?sid=27074351&nid=148). WIC administrators in Chicago and Wisconsin told Forbes they do not know how much of a funding cushion they have and fear a surprise cutoff (http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2013/10/02/government-shutdown-9-million-moms-and-babies-at-risk-as-wic-program-halts/2/) to services. In Tennessee, contingency funding may or may not (http://www.newschannel9.com/news/top-stories/stories/tennessee-wic-program-continues-now-7292.shtml) last into next week.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/02/2716921/bill-kristol-shutdown-wic/

[boutons_deux]

Rick Perry: Implementing Obamacare Is A ‘Felony’ (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/02/2716961/rick-perry-implementing-obamacare-is-a-felony/)“If this health care law is forced upon this country, the young men and women in this audience are the ones who are really going to pay the price,” Perry claimed. “And that, I will suggest to you, reaches to the point of being a felony toward them and their future (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/10/02/rick_perry_implementing_obamacare_a_criminal_act_1 20179.html#.Ukvyj7JL7RI.twitter). That is a criminal act, from my perspective, to put that type of burden on them, to mortgage their future like that.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/02/2716961/rick-perry-implementing-obamacare-is-a-felony/

Holy shit, the right-wing, Repugs, tea baggers are saturated with dumbfucks. :lol

[boutons_deux]

TX greasebag, also full of shit (which is how TX bubbas, shitkickers, and rednecks love their politicians)

Congressman: House Republicans Probably Have Votes To Impeach Obama

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) answered questions from a fervent anti-Obama constituent at a town hall this weekend, telling a woman that he would take a closer look at her birther conspiracy document before claiming there were enough House Republican votes to impeach the president.

http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/congressman-house-republicans-probably-have-votes-to-impeach-obama/5209702f78c90a16a000043f (http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/congressman-house-republicans-probably-have-votes-to-impeach-obama/5209702f78c90a16a000043f)

[boutons_deux]

Five Facts That Show The GOP’s Newfound Desire To Compromise Is Bogus (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/02/2719271/five-reasons-the-gops-newfound-desire-to-compromise-is-bogus/)


1. House Republicans could have avoided a shutdown by accepting a Senate offer that made huge spending concessions to conservatives. The government shut down at after Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) declined to bring up a short-term spending bill (known as a “continuing resolution” or CR) passed by Senate Democrats. The government has operated on CRs rather than proper annual budgets ever since 2010, when Republicans first began demanding (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/20/2649481/timeline/) that cuts be attached to even the most basic functions of government. Compared to the budget Democrats had enacted at that time, the Senate CR rejected late Monday night in the House is $199 billion lighter. What’s more, the first House Republican budget of the Tea Party era would have spent $109 billion more (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/budget/news/2013/09/30/76026/the-senate-continuing-resolution-is-already-a-compromise/) in 2014 than what the Senate CR proposed. The Senate CR didn’t include language preventing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans had sought. But in the most fundamental sense the Senate CR represented a huge budget compromise with Republicans who want huge spending cuts.

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FundingLevelCharticle-1.png

2. Congress has already cut $2.4 trillion from the deficit. Congress has enacted about $2.4 trillion (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/budget/news/2013/01/08/49137/the-deficit-reduction-we-have-achieved-so-far/) in total deficit reduction since 2011. Roughly three dollars out of every four (http://www.offthechartsblog.org/program-cuts-far-outweigh-tax-increases-in-deficit-reduction-to-date/) knocked off the deficit in that time has come from spending cuts, indicating substantial compromise on the part of Democrats who support the programs that absorbed those cuts.

3. Republicans can’t even pass specific legislation enacting the further cuts they say they want. Republicans say they want even more spending cuts, but budget resolutions and abstract packages like sequestration just set total spending levels without identifying specific cuts to achieve those levels. When Republicans in the House try to get specific (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/report/2013/09/10/73488/why-austerity-fails-when-the-cuts-get-specific/) about their grand gestures, they fail. In August, House leaders yanked a bill of specific cuts to lead removal programs, community development grants, and homelessness assistance programs because it was not going to pass (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/08/01/2397391/house-republicans-appropriations-cuts/).

4. Republicans refused to enter budget negotiations with the Senate 18 times – and bragged about it – before they started accusing Democrats of refusing to go to conference this week. On Tuesday, Republican leaders tweeted a photo (https://twitter.com/GOPLeader/status/385075215157317632/photo/1) of themselves sitting across from empty chairs. But the GOP refused to fill those chairs themselves for six months (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/01/2706691/gop-shutdown-conference/). Democratic Senate leaders requested a conference committee with the House to hash out the differences between their budget proposals 18 separate times (http://www.republican.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/floor-updates) over half a year, and Republicans refused each time. Senators like Rand Paul (R-KY) took to the floor of the chamber with signs boasting (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/07/01/2241941/republican-obstruction-of-budget-process-hits-100th-day/) of the number of days they’d succeeded in “Preventing A Back Room Deal To Raise The Debt Limit.”

5. Republican demands indicate the only “compromise” they’d accept involves President Obama adopting Mitt Romney’s policies. Even as they cry “compromise,” Republican lawmakers are insisting that Democrats must agree to gut the landmark 2010 health care law. They have not budged from that position (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/10/01/2708081/conferees/) in the current fight, which is just the latest instance of Republicans defining compromise as agreeing to their positions. Previously the party has demanded a balanced budget amendment (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/27/280754/boehner-gop-want-chaos-debt-ceiling/) to the Constitution, supply-side tax reform (http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/09/26/226528237/what-the-house-wants-a-debt-ceiling-preview) of the sort designed by former Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan (R-WI), letting companies refuse to cover birth control (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/house-gop-budget-strategy-government-shutdown-97496.html) in employee health care plans, deregulating (http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/09/26/226528237/what-the-house-wants-a-debt-ceiling-preview)the coal (http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/154895-sen-conrad-mining-policy-dispute-remains-spending-bill-stick-point)and oil (http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/09/26/226528237/what-the-house-wants-a-debt-ceiling-preview) industries, and slashing food stamps (http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/house-republicans-draft-their-debt-ceiling-playbook-20130707) funding. Those are just some of the 21 Republican party platform planks that the GOP has demanded (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/30/2699221/21-things-republicans-demanded-shutdown-default/) as conditions for either extending government funding or agreeing to pay the country’s bills on time.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/02/2719271/five-reasons-the-gops-newfound-desire-to-compromise-is-bogus/

Feels like this shutdown could go on for weeks, overlapping the debt ceiling Repug crisis even if Oct 17 is somewhat of a soft drop-dead date as we learned in the 2011 debt-ceiling Repug crisis.

[vy65]

Five Facts That Show The GOP’s Newfound Desire To Compromise Is Bogus (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/02/2719271/five-reasons-the-gops-newfound-desire-to-compromise-is-bogus/)


1. House Republicans could have avoided a shutdown by accepting a Senate offer that made huge spending concessions to conservatives. The government shut down at after Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) declined to bring up a short-term spending bill (known as a “continuing resolution” or CR) passed by Senate Democrats. The government has operated on CRs rather than proper annual budgets ever since 2010, when Republicans first began demanding (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/20/2649481/timeline/) that cuts be attached to even the most basic functions of government. Compared to the budget Democrats had enacted at that time, the Senate CR rejected late Monday night in the House is $199 billion lighter. What’s more, the first House Republican budget of the Tea Party era would have spent $109 billion more (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/budget/news/2013/09/30/76026/the-senate-continuing-resolution-is-already-a-compromise/) in 2014 than what the Senate CR proposed. The Senate CR didn’t include language preventing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans had sought. But in the most fundamental sense the Senate CR represented a huge budget compromise with Republicans who want huge spending cuts.

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FundingLevelCharticle-1.png

2. Congress has already cut $2.4 trillion from the deficit. Congress has enacted about $2.4 trillion (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/budget/news/2013/01/08/49137/the-deficit-reduction-we-have-achieved-so-far/) in total deficit reduction since 2011. Roughly three dollars out of every four (http://www.offthechartsblog.org/program-cuts-far-outweigh-tax-increases-in-deficit-reduction-to-date/) knocked off the deficit in that time has come from spending cuts, indicating substantial compromise on the part of Democrats who support the programs that absorbed those cuts.

3. Republicans can’t even pass specific legislation enacting the further cuts they say they want. Republicans say they want even more spending cuts, but budget resolutions and abstract packages like sequestration just set total spending levels without identifying specific cuts to achieve those levels. When Republicans in the House try to get specific (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/report/2013/09/10/73488/why-austerity-fails-when-the-cuts-get-specific/) about their grand gestures, they fail. In August, House leaders yanked a bill of specific cuts to lead removal programs, community development grants, and homelessness assistance programs because it was not going to pass (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/08/01/2397391/house-republicans-appropriations-cuts/).

4. Republicans refused to enter budget negotiations with the Senate 18 times – and bragged about it – before they started accusing Democrats of refusing to go to conference this week. On Tuesday, Republican leaders tweeted a photo (https://twitter.com/GOPLeader/status/385075215157317632/photo/1) of themselves sitting across from empty chairs. But the GOP refused to fill those chairs themselves for six months (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/01/2706691/gop-shutdown-conference/). Democratic Senate leaders requested a conference committee with the House to hash out the differences between their budget proposals 18 separate times (http://www.republican.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/floor-updates) over half a year, and Republicans refused each time. Senators like Rand Paul (R-KY) took to the floor of the chamber with signs boasting (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/07/01/2241941/republican-obstruction-of-budget-process-hits-100th-day/) of the number of days they’d succeeded in “Preventing A Back Room Deal To Raise The Debt Limit.”

5. Republican demands indicate the only “compromise” they’d accept involves President Obama adopting Mitt Romney’s policies. Even as they cry “compromise,” Republican lawmakers are insisting that Democrats must agree to gut the landmark 2010 health care law. They have not budged from that position (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/10/01/2708081/conferees/) in the current fight, which is just the latest instance of Republicans defining compromise as agreeing to their positions. Previously the party has demanded a balanced budget amendment (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/27/280754/boehner-gop-want-chaos-debt-ceiling/) to the Constitution, supply-side tax reform (http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/09/26/226528237/what-the-house-wants-a-debt-ceiling-preview) of the sort designed by former Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan (R-WI), letting companies refuse to cover birth control (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/house-gop-budget-strategy-government-shutdown-97496.html) in employee health care plans, deregulating (http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/09/26/226528237/what-the-house-wants-a-debt-ceiling-preview)the coal (http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/154895-sen-conrad-mining-policy-dispute-remains-spending-bill-stick-point)and oil (http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/09/26/226528237/what-the-house-wants-a-debt-ceiling-preview) industries, and slashing food stamps (http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/house-republicans-draft-their-debt-ceiling-playbook-20130707) funding. Those are just some of the 21 Republican party platform planks that the GOP has demanded (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/30/2699221/21-things-republicans-demanded-shutdown-default/) as conditions for either extending government funding or agreeing to pay the country’s bills on time.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/02/2719271/five-reasons-the-gops-newfound-desire-to-compromise-is-bogus/

Feels like this shutdown could go on for weeks, overlapping the debt ceiling Repug crisis even if Oct 17 is somewhat of a soft drop-dead date as we learned in the 2011 debt-ceiling Repug crisis.

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/holoprelude/images/Hitler%20Youth%20poster.jpg

[boutons_deux]

Dispatches from 9 Red States: Despite Tea Party Speeches, Web Glitches and Lousy Local Media, Many Residents Want Obamacare


http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/red-states-residents-want-obamacare?akid=11001.187590.IfEwMR&rd=1&src=newsletter904577&t=5&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark (http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/red-states-residents-want-obamacare?akid=11001.187590.IfEwMR&rd=1&src=newsletter904577&t=5&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark)

this is EXACTLY why the Repugs want to kill ACA. It's going to be huge success, HUGE PROGRESS, for USA, and in red states, as well. Repugs are fucked, have fucked themselves. Let 'em bleed.

[TSA]

Dispatches from 9 Red States: Despite Tea Party Speeches, Web Glitches and Lousy Local Media, Many Residents Want Obamacare


http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/red-states-residents-want-obamacare?akid=11001.187590.IfEwMR&rd=1&src=newsletter904577&t=5&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark (http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/red-states-residents-want-obamacare?akid=11001.187590.IfEwMR&rd=1&src=newsletter904577&t=5&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark)

this is EXACTLY why the Repugs want to kill ACA. It's going to be huge success, HUGE PROGRESS, for USA, and in red states, as well. Repugs are fucked, have fucked themselves. Let 'em bleed.




I guess we will have to wait and see if enough healthy young people sign up or if the majority of them say fuck it and just pay the penalty. Doesn't the system's success basically depend on this?

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I guess we will have to wait and see if enough healthy young people sign up or if the majority of them say fuck it and just pay the penalty. Doesn't the system's success basically depend on this?

The private insurers profit margins depend on it.

[boutons_deux]

I guess we will have to wait and see if enough healthy young people sign up or if the majority of them say fuck it and just pay the penalty. Doesn't the system's success basically depend on this?

Some companies, eg IBM, somewhat of a industrial leader and an extremely well managed company, are already dumping their retirees and employees into the exchanges.

After the exchanges prove themselves, I think there will be a huge number of companies following IBM's example.

So the "death spiral" of the exchanges having too many sickos and not enough young healthies will very probably not arrive.

[TSA]

The private insurers profit margins depend on it.

Gotcha. I haven't been following all that closely as I don't pay anything out of pocket. It's been quite entertaining though hearing both sides bitch, moan, and point fingers.

[boutons_deux]

A Senator Bluntly Says What We're All Thinking About The Awful And Obnoxious Government Shutdown

Senator Warren decided to get to the brass tacks about what this government shutdown is actually going to do to the country. She doesn't mince words.

https://www.upworthy.com/a-senator-bluntly-says-what-were-all-thinking-about-the-awful-and-obnoxious-government-shutdown?c=upw9

[boutons_deux]

Midweek Madness: 10 Remarkably Stupid, Right-Wing Statements About the Shutdown and Obamacare

1. Tex. Gov. Rick Perry: Implementing Affordable Healthcare is a Criminal Act
“If this heath care law is forced upon this country, the young men and women in this audience are the ones who are really going to pay the price. And that, I suggest to you, reaches the point of being a felony toward them and their future. That is a criminal act, from my perspective.”
The Lone-Star Gov. may need a wee bit of schooling in criminal law.

2. Betsy McCaughey, conservative “thinker”: Obama Wants Your Sexual History
The so-called Liberty Belle wrote in a column for the New York Post: “Are you sexually active? If so, with one partner, multiple partners or same-sex partners?’ Be ready to answer those questions and more next time you go to the doctor.”
Someone needs to tell her that that is what doctors do. Already. And that, yeah, sexual history is part of health care.

3. Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky: “The president is more than willing to negotiate with the Iranians. I don’t know why he isn’t willing to negotiate with us.”
Are you sure that you want to compare Congressional Republicans to hardline mullahs? I think we’re beginning to understand which group is the more reasonable.

4. Laura Ingraham: “Sob stories” from injured vets unable to get care because of the government shutdown, will make the GOP cave.
Oh God, yeah. Either that or kids with cancer who can’t get treatment at the NIH. What a bunch of whiners.

5. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: There’s a lot of blame to go around in Washington.
Well, Wolf, the blame doesn’t really go all the way around. It pretty much stops with the right-wing fringe of the Republican party.

6. Rep. David Schweikert (Arizona Republican): Government shutdown is “my idea of fun.”
What other hobbies do you enjoy? Robbing old ladies and pushing wheelchair-bound people down the stairs?

7. Rep. William O’Brien (Republican, New Hampshire) : Obamacare is Like the Fugitive Slave Act.
How so, exactly? And gee, do you think the racial connotations here are a coincidence?

8. Sen. Rand Paul: We haven’t had a big debate about Obamacare.
Dear Mr. Paul, Perhaps you can get your memory loss treated under …. hmmm … what? Obamacare?

9. Rep. Todd Rokita, (Republican, Tennessee): “We just want to help the American people get through one of the most insidious laws created by man, that is Obamacare.”
Wow, that puts it above slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Indian Removal Act, Japanese Internment, and that’s just in America. It’s also worse than the Nuremberg laws, laws allowing female genital mutilation, and laws allowing non-virgin brides to be returned.

10. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (Republican, Tennessee): “People are probably going to realize they can live with a lot less government than what they thought they needed.”
Yeah, who needs those silly food inspectors or plane inspectors or frivolous cancer treatments or meals for poor children? Fingers crossed about no natural catastrophes!

http://www.alternet.org/print/tea-party-and-right/midweek-madness-10-remarkably-stupid-right-wing-statements-about-shutdown-and

:lol

[EVAY]

Rick Perry: Implementing Obamacare Is A ‘Felony’ (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/02/2716961/rick-perry-implementing-obamacare-is-a-felony/)“If this health care law is forced upon this country, the young men and women in this audience are the ones who are really going to pay the price,” Perry claimed. “And that, I will suggest to you, reaches to the point of being a felony toward them and their future (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/10/02/rick_perry_implementing_obamacare_a_criminal_act_1 20179.html#.Ukvyj7JL7RI.twitter). That is a criminal act, from my perspective, to put that type of burden on them, to mortgage their future like that.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/02/2716961/rick-perry-implementing-obamacare-is-a-felony/

Holy shit, the right-wing, Repugs, tea baggers are saturated with dumbfucks. :lol






Which of us years ago would have imagined that W. would prove to be the smart Texas governor?

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Gotcha. I haven't been following all that closely as I don't pay anything out of pocket. It's been quite entertaining though hearing both sides bitch, moan, and point fingers.

The business tax credits and medicaid expansion are funded by a capital gains tax hike and a tax on the highest bracket.

The idea behind getting the people who don't need health insurance to pay is to offset the cost of all the other new people. I think it's overstated considering that old people already have medicare. They just want more captive customers.

[baseline bum]

A Senator Bluntly Says What We're All Thinking About The Awful And Obnoxious Government Shutdown

Senator Warren decided to get to the brass tacks about what this government shutdown is actually going to do to the country. She doesn't mince words.

https://www.upworthy.com/a-senator-bluntly-says-what-were-all-thinking-about-the-awful-and-obnoxious-government-shutdown?c=upw9




I love Senator Warren. It's too bad she could never get elected president in our bullshit elections where only those who are willing to provide sufficient favors to raise $1 billion have any chance.

[TSA]

The business tax credits and medicaid expansion are funded by a capital gains tax hike and a tax on the highest bracket.

The idea behind getting the people who don't need health insurance to pay is to offset the cost of all the other new people. I think it's overstated considering that old people already have medicare. They just want more captive customers.

Guess we'll just wait and see how it pans out. Going to be a disaster for one party either way.

[boutons_deux]

Obama meeting at WH with Congressional leaders changed nothing this evening.

Dems refuse to touch ACA and Repugs only want to take a chunk out of ACA, compounded now with the Macho (white) Man need to save face and not get bitch-slapped by a n!gg@ in front of their maran voters.

Could go on for weeks.

[ElNono]

Government funded media deemed essential

Government funded media programs have been deemed "essential" and will continue programming during the government shutdown, the Broadcasting Board of Governors announced Tuesday.

Programs like Voice of America, Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Martí), Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa) are considered “foreign relations essential to national security."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/10/government-funded-media-deemed-essential-174096.html

[boutons_deux]

Which of us years ago would have imagined that W. would prove to be the smart Texas governor?

smart? dubya? never, he was always nothing a but front man, a placeholder, a useful idiot for the Powers Behind The Throne, the money men, the oil men

[m>s]

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/holoprelude/images/Hitler%20Youth%20poster.jpg

sieg heil mein fuhrer!!!!

[ElNono]

:lol surprised boutons didn't link to this one yet... it actually has it moments, tbh...

Meet the Morons Who Caused the Shutdown
There has never been a single House of the Congress with a more lethal combination of political ambition, political stupidity, and political vainglory than this one.

Representative Vicky Hartzler of Missouri (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/shutdown-morons?click=pp#slide-1)

Representative Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/shutdown-morons?click=pp#slide-2)

A Bedlamite Medley to Mix It Up (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/shutdown-morons?click=pp#slide-3)

Representative Steve Fincher of Tennessee (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/shutdown-morons?click=pp#slide-4)

Representative Michael Burgess of Texas (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/shutdown-morons?click=pp#slide-5)

Representative Tom Marino of Pennsylvania (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/shutdown-morons?click=pp#slide-6)

Representative Reid Ribble of Wisconsin (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/shutdown-morons?click=pp#slide-7)

Representative Blake Farenthold of Texas (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/shutdown-morons?click=pp#slide-8)

Representative Ted Yoho of Florida (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/shutdown-morons?click=pp#slide-9)

[EVAY]

smart? dubya? never, he was always nothing a but front man, a placeholder, a useful idiot for the Powers Behind The Throne, the money men, the oil men

Sorry, b_d, I was trying to be facetious.

[Nbadan]

How Less Than 5% Of The US Population Caused The Government To Shut Down
Everyone thinks the situation in Washington is the result of two parties unable to come together. But who's really behind it?


In the 2012 elections, a little more than 59.6 million Americans voted for representatives from the Democratic party while 58.2 million voters supported the Republican candidate.

But due to the way that congressional districts are organized, Democrats got 33 fewer seats than the GOP in the House of Representatives.

So right off the bat, the House GOP represents a minority of Congressional voters.

But it gets worse.

Let's look at the element of the House GOP that supports tying the continuing resolution to fund the government to an un-passable defunding of the Affordable Care Act.

Judging by the number of people who signed freshman Rep. Mark Meadow's (R-N.C.) letter, 81 members of the 233 GOP caucus support this hardcore strategy. They're called the "suicide caucus" by The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza.

Now, let's keep in mind that even this is a high estimate. The National Review's Robert Costa — who may be the most plugged-in reporter on House Republicans — told the Washington Post's Ezra Klein that he estimated only 30-40 members really want to tie Obamacare funding to the C.R.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/less-5-us-population-caused-183636906.html?utm_content=bufferbc963&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

The suicide caucus.....classic

[Nbadan]

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/564394_626874694000997_183181792_n.jpg

Word!

[Nbadan]

Summary for anyone who is interested and who wants to more fully understand what is happening with our federal government right now:


1. This shutdown is not happening because both parties won't compromise. This shutdown is happening because Republicans in the House of Representatives have refused to pass a budget bill without a bunch of amendments tacked on to it, chiefly amendments nullifying Obamacare.

2. Obamacare is not directly tied to this budget bill in any way. It is a separate piece of legislation, already passed and signed into law back in 2010. The House Republicans are just saying, "We don't like this law, Obamacare, that was already passed, and because we do not have the votes to repeal it in the manner laid out in the Constitution" -- they don't; they've already tried to repeal it 42 times, yes, that is true, 42 times -- "we're going to instead DEMAND that the law be repealed or delayed, or else we won't pass this budget legislation necessary to keep the country running."

3. Again, Obamacare was signed into law, in the fashion laid out in the Constitution of the United States, in 2010. It was not, like, laid down by martial law, unless you think a bunch of congresspeople and senators voting for a bill counts as martial law.

4. Also, the president behind Obamacare was reelected in 2012. Also also, in 2012 the Democrats retained control of the Senate, and House Republicans actually lost the popular vote, but stayed in control of their chamber because of shrewd gerrymandering. All of which is to say: If Americans hate Obamacare so much, how come they reelected Obama and voted so strongly for Democrats.

5. Remember that in 2012, the Supreme Court, led by a conservative chief justice and majority, upheld Obamacare's constitutionality, except for one part. (And that part is kaput. The president is not trying to enforce it with UN troops and black helicopters. It's why we don't have a state-run health exchange here in Wisconsin.) So, to sum up: Obamacare was not only enacted according to the rule of law in this country, it also survived scrutiny by the highest judiciary body in the land, which is in the hands of the opposition party.

6. The point being: None of this is to say whether Obamacare will be good or bad for the country! It is only to say that it was passed according to the rules, and it's been legitimized by our top court and implicitly by citizens who voted to reelect the president whose name it bears. Socialist tyranny, it's just not.

7. What the House GOP is pulling right now -- "Get rid of Obamacare or we'll shut down important services and risk a global financial catastrophe by not raising the debt ceiling" -- this is not politics as usual. This is extortion. They are a minority; even plenty of other Republican legislators think that what these guys are doing is absurd and dangerous (and this will likely become more clear the longer the shutdown goes on). If these guys want to get rid of Obamacare, they should go out and campaign and get more senators and a president elected. That is how democracy works. AMERICA, Y'ALL.

8. A note on the debt ceiling: Voting to raise the debt ceiling is not voting to spend money that the U.S. doesn't have. Congress *already voted* to spend that money. The debt ceiling is a bizarre, redundant device, and we are basically the only country that has one. (Denmark has one, but it's just a formality and has never been a point of controversy or contention.) Essentially, it's like if your dad went out and bought a lot of stuff with his credit card, but then he had to ask your mom if it was OK for him to pay the credit card off. The money is already spent. If your mom says no, then your dad is failing to honor his obligations, and his credit rating (and your mom's!) is going to be trashed. The difference on the larger scale is that if the U.S.'s credit rating is trashed, the whole planet's economy could take a massive hit, because we are, you know, a global super-power.

9. Again, this is not about a lack of compromise on both sides. The House GOP is demanding that the president and congressional Democrats just undo their chief legislative victory. And it was a legitimate victory! And frankly, Obamacare is something that a lot of Americans *want*. Those Americans are real citizens, too. So this is like if your dad and your mom and you and your sister all vote to go to Olive Garden one Thursday evening, but your little brother wants to go to Applebee's, and so instead of just accepting that he won't always get his way and planning a stronger case for Applebee's for next Thursday, he flips out and runs outside and slashes all the tires on the car so you guys can't go anywhere. Except, again, much crazier, because instead of just one family it affects millions of people and could also set off an economic calamity of titanic proportions.

10. Let me be clear: I do not hate Republicans. My dad is a Republican! I am a small businessperson! I go to church! I LOVE CHRISTMAS. This is not about name-calling or hating on anyone, and frankly, I do not expect to change anyone's mind about any of the proceeding details. But I am tired of the notion that both parties are equally to blame for our troubles; it has surely been true in the past, but it's not right now. (And it is entirely possible for ALL POLITICIANS TO BE AWFUL and for ONE OF THE TWO PARTIES TO STILL BE CONSIDERABLY WORSE.) Believe me, I would love nothing more than to see a revitalized Republican party, with views that I might disagree with but which were not straight-up lunacy. IT WOULD MAKE MY DUMB INTERNET FIGHTS A LOT MORE INTERESTING.

I can't believe I'm posting this. I am a fool. I don't know if I will even respond to comments. I have a headache already. Maybe it would not be so bad if we all downloaded our consciousnesses into computers after all.

http://www.facebook.com/farwent/posts/10151914750738606

[TSA]

Summary for anyone who is interested and who wants to more fully understand what is happening with our federal government right now:



http://www.facebook.com/farwent/posts/10151914750738606
Your article mentions the Constitution numerous times, does he realize what Republicans are doing is perfectly Constitutional? Not saying I agree with them but they are working within the rules laid out.

[Nbadan]

There is no constitutional requirement to produce a budget...But it really doesn't matter, because the work of the government continues to be appropriated through various appropriation bills.

[Nbadan]

Suppose we were under attack and the President refused to order the military to engage in a war declared by Congress. It's basically the same thing as the House Republicans shutting down the government and refusing to pay lawful debt.....rather than debating such an insane idea with a radical Congress, the President should sign an Executive Order to keep government running, as is, until the budget issues can be resolved. It should be kept "as is" because only the legislative branch can pass laws to increase or decrease spending. But they do not have the authority to shut down our entire government.

[Th'Pusher]

Your article mentions the Constitution numerous times, does he realize what Republicans are doing is perfectly Constitutional? Not saying I agree with them but they are working within the rules laid out.
See what happens when you try and comment on something that falls outside of your single issue, pistol Pete? You look like a fucking moron. There is a reason the was no government shutdown before 1976. Stick to whining about gun control.

:lol singe issue

[boutons_deux]

Your article mentions the Constitution numerous times, does he realize what Republicans are doing is perfectly Constitutional? Not saying I agree with them but they are working within the rules laid out.

the ACA was voted into law. the Repugs didn't have enough votes to stop it. elections have consequences

approved as Constitutional by extremist right wing SCOTUS

the 2012 Pres election was a referendum on ACA, and Americans approved it by a huge margin, kicking anti-ACA Bishop Gecko's ass in a huge defeat. elections have consequences

you gun fellators don't have a clue about the Constitution and how democracy should work. minorities lose elections (but their rights are protected), majorities make the laws, so GFY

[boutons_deux]

BOEHNER: OBAMA STUBBORNLY REFUSING TO END CRISIS I CREATED


http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/boro-boehner-shut.jpg

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that he was disappointed after meeting with President Obama at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, telling reporters, “The President is stubbornly refusing to end the crisis I created.”

“Government is about teamwork,” Mr. Boehner continued. “I’ve done my part by putting together an entirely optional crisis that has shut down the government and will throw thousands out of work. Now it’s up to the President to do his part by ending it.”

Mr. Boehner said that he was “flabbergasted” that the President was looking to him to bring the current government shutdown to an end: “So after doing all of the hard work to push the country to the brink, I’m supposed to pull it back, too? How about you pitching in a little, Mr. President?”

The House Speaker said that he hoped he did not have to manufacture an another entirely avoidable crisis over the debt ceiling in order to stir the President to action. “Quite frankly, orchestrating these unnecessary stalemates takes a lot of energy and I could really use a rest,” he said.

But Mr. Boehner seemed pessimistic that the President “got the message.”

“Because of my actions, thousands of federal workers have already been furloughed,” he said. “How many more people do I have to throw out on the street before the President wakes up?”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/10/boehner-obama-stubbornly-refusing-to-end-crisis-i-created.html?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=borowitz&mbid=nl_Borowitz%20(177)

[TSA]

See what happens when you try and comment on something that falls outside of your single issue, pistol Pete? You look like a fucking moron. There is a reason the was no government shutdown before 1976. Stick to whining about gun control.

:lol singe issue

Is the Republican's tactic unconstitutional? Yes or No?

[pgardn]

Is the Republican's tactic unconstitutional? Yes or No?
No

Slavery was not either.

But it it was referred to. As in government had the right to regulate it. Property escaped to another State would not result in that property being freed.

So how archaic do you think the constitution can be Mr. 2nd amendment?

[EVAY]

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/564394_626874694000997_183181792_n.jpg

Word!

Wow. That is totally impressive. Wish it could be posted on Fox News online or something. But they probably wouldn't understand the timing or source of it.

[boutons_deux]

We already have an example of the Dems (LBJ) not standing up to the Repugs when he discovered that the Repugs were scuttling the Paris peace talks, which lead to the prolongation of the VN war and many 1000s of US and VN dead. LBJ was furious, but didn't expose Richard Nixon for the slimy, corrupt bastard he was.

Repugs then figured they could pull all kinds of shit (like St Ronnie's gang telling the Iranians to hold the hostage until St Ronnie was elected in return for no US retaliation for the Embassy seizure), and the Dems would let is slide.

Barry and Harry absolutely have to Never Give An Inch on ACA and force the smash-mouth Repugs to total defeat.

[TSA]

No

Slavery was not either.

But it it was referred to. As in government had the right to regulate it. Property escaped to another State would not result in that property being freed.

So how archaic do you think the constitution can be Mr. 2nd amendment?

Extremely arcaic, but that wasn't my point.

[Th'Pusher]

Is the Republican's tactic unconstitutional? Yes or No?
Strawman. No one said their tactic was unconstitutional. Unpatriotic? Absolutely. The reference to the constitution in the piece cited was in reference to the passing of and constitutionality of the ACA. You just hear the word constitution and get a conservative boner - "what they're doing is not unconstitutional...not that I agree with it." Typical fucking pussy.

[TSA]

Th'Puther is a bit grumpy this morning. Is someone a government worker out of work today?

[boutons_deux]

Is the Republican's tactic unconstitutional? Yes or No?

the Constitution isn't the ONLY law of the land.

Is the budget Constitional?

Is the federal debt limit, raised 19 TIMES under dubya, Constitutional?

Here's a question as irrelevant as yours: is it good-faith democracy for the minority party to block the majority party AND federal law just because they know it will hurt them politically? Elections have consequences.

[TSA]

Here's a question as irrelevant as yours: is it good-faith democracy for the minority party to block the majority party AND federal law just because they know it will hurt them politically? Elections have consequences.

Good faith democracy :lmao

[boutons_deux]

Good faith democracy :lmao

bitch-slapped, like a typical gun fellatin right winger, you respond with smileys.

[TSA]

I'm sorry. LOL @ good faith democracy, by either side.

[SA210]

https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/q71/575667_10153342371645515_1445990353_n.jpg

[SA210]

Judge Napolitano: Obama Wants Shutdown to Be as Painful as Possible


Judge Andrew Napolitano (http://foxnewsinsider.com/people/judge-andrew-napolitano) stopped by Fox & Friends (http://foxnewsinsider.com/show/fox-and-friends) to discuss the controversy surrounding WWII vets being denied entry into the D.C. memorial due to the government shutdown. Then again, the judge pointed out that the shutdown hasn't stopped surveillance operations at the NSA.

With some help from members of Congress (http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/10/02/michele-bachmann-vows-prevent-wwii-vets-being-denied-entry-memorial), the elderly vets eventually did bypass the barricades, but Napolitano believes President Obama wanted this shutdown because it helps him politically.

Like with the sequester (http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/04/23/judge-napolitano-obamas-actions-sequester-may-be-unprecedented-american-history), Napolitano said the Obama administration wants the shutdown to be as painful as possible, and has the ability to "increase the pain or decrease the pain" on the American people.

VIDEO: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/10/03/judge-napolitano-obama-wants-shutdown-be-painful-possible

[boutons_deux]

Judge Napolitano? :lol ugly says as ugly is. same swith Scalia.

And with a name like Napolitinao or Scalia are these assholes Real Americans? sounds hyphenated to me! :lol

Fox Repug Propaganda network? :lol

You Can't Be Serious to expect such a source and your post to be taken seriously.

1. Repugs CAUSED the shutdown, using it as pressure on Dems to kill or hurt ACA.

2. the vets BROKE THE LAW by visiting a govt site CLOSED BY THE REPUGS' shutdown, not closed by the Dems. I thought you right-wingers were strong on law enforcement, fundamentally for applying the law to everybody? IT'S THE LAW! :lol

3. Dems are not folding, they are returning returning the shutdown pressure back onto the Repugs, who can open the govt with clean CR vote any time they want to.

4. The Repugs voted for the sequester and CAUSED, PROLONG THE SHUTDOWN, but it's only the DEMs who cause pain? :lol

[boutons_deux]

WATCH: You’ll Almost Feel Bad For RNC Chairman Reince Priebus After This Smackdown

It has become the question of the day: What do Republicans want from the government shutdown?

MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts took this question directly to Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus Thursday morning — and Priebus struggled to find a coherent answer.

Instead, he said they can’t know what they want because the president won’t negotiate. :lol

When that didn’t work, Priebus attacked the host for using “talking points” and said he felt as he were debating the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Then he blasted the problems with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act health care exchanges.

Roberts referenced reports from conservative media and Tea Partiers that the far-right group (http://washingtonexaminer.com/how-30-house-republicans-are-forcing-the-obamacare-fight/article/2536611) is keeping Speaker Boehner from passing a bill to fund the government.

“It’s not Tea Party tactics,” Priebus rebutted. “This is what the American people want.” :lol Holy shit!

However, Obamacare, the chairman didn’t note, is far more popular than the government shutdown (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2013/0930/Obamacare-isn-t-popular-but-government-shutdown-is-even-less-so-poll-shows-video), which more Americans blame on House Republicans than anyone else.

Roberts also earned extra points for apparently becoming the first human being in history to ever pronounce “Reince” correctly.

After this appearance and a possibly even worse smackdown on Morning Joe last year (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3036789/ns/msnbc-morning_joe/vp/48799877), you probably shouldn’t expect to ever see Priebus on MSNBC again.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/watch-youll-almost-feel-bad-for-rnc-chairman-reince-priebus-after-this-smackdown/

[Dirk Oneanddoneski]

The great government shut down of 2013

by James Buchanan

A Yahoo news article reports “The federal government officially shut down for the first time in 17 years at midnight on Monday, after House Republicans refused to drop demands that parts of the Affordable Care Act be delayed in return for approval of a mandatory government funding bill.”

“Federal employees who are considered essential to public safety will be expected to work this week. But most federal offices will be closed until Congress reaches a deal. The shutdown is the first one of its kind since 1996, when the government closed for 26 days under President Bill Clinton.”

Most White Americans of course couldn’t care less whether the federal government shuts down, and more than a few people on the right-wing and in libertarian circles would like to see the government shut down become permanent. Admittedly some non-essential federal government workers will be put through the wringer and may have to take out short-term loans, but the last big government shut down only lasted a month, and they know their monetary problems are only temporary compared to the 9.5 million American workers, whose jobs have disappeared completely during Obama’s four years and eight months in office.

The federal government is supposed to protect the borders of the US which it has deliberately failed to do under Obama and it’s supposed to protect us from attacks from foreign countries which it has repeatedly failed to do as our immigration service let in the 19 “911 hijackers” not to mention the two Chechen militants, who set off the bombs at the Boston Marathon and a long list of other disgruntled Third World people, including the family of Nidal Hassan, the shooter in the Fort Hood massacre.

Why is the US government letting in so many people from the Third World? Because the Democrat Party is trying to establish a permanent majority via Third World people, which will give it perpetual power. Barack Obama got almost 100 percent of the Black vote and about 80 percent of the Latino vote. Third World people see the Democrats as the party of the Third World, which will mercilessly tax White people to supply them with hand outs.

This gets us back to why the US government is shutting down: The Democrats are trying to force ObamaCare on the American government even though it will impose an oppressive tax burden on working Americans. The true purpose of ObamaCare is to provide free health care for the 100 million Third World people living in the US at the expense of the White taxpayer. One could argue that some of these Third World people have jobs, but most Third World people don’t earn enough to pay for all the government services that they receive such as “free” public school education for their many children, and most of the non-Whites who have good-paying jobs, got them thanks to racial quotas, basically stealing those good-paying jobs from better-qualified White people.

The Democrats and the liberal media “spun” the last government shut down as if it were one of the most heartless, cruel things to happen in all history!! In reality, most Americans didn’t care. The Republicans retained control of Congress after the “infamous 1995 government shut down” so the enormous media smear campaign had little effect except to intimidate people with bad memories.

This time, the Republicans have a very clear reason for a government shutdown: Ending ObamaCare. The US economy is two-thirds dependent on consumer spending. If 90 million working Americans suddenly have to cough up several hundred dollars per month (or more) to feed this new government program, it will DEVASTATE consumer spending for millions of Americans. Many will have nothing left to spend after paying for all their necessities of life plus their mandatory ObamaCare premium.

Once millions of Americans lose their disposable income, how many of them will be going to movie theaters or nail salons or hair dressers or dozens of other service-industry businesses? Half of all American workers are employed by small businesses, and they will bear the brunt of the side effects of ObamaCare. The US economy is much more frail than most people know. The only reason our stock market has been going up is due to the Federal Reserve pumping $85 billion per month into the market. If some lunatic massive government tax increase comes along (like ObamaCare) that devastates consumer spending (which it will), then it’s straight back to massive lay offs and a shrinking economy like we saw in the first few years of the Obama administration.

Frankly, I’d like to see the economy collapse under Obama. That’s probably the only way that many thick-headed liberals will realize what a disaster Obama has been for America. I can’t blame the Republicans for doing their job and trying to protect American from an unwanted, massive tax increase. The economy however may still collapse. The 22 to 30 million illegal aliens in the US, whose children are getting a free education at our expense, are imposing a massive crippling cost on America.

America is no longer the 90 percent White nation, which sent White men to the moon, as it was in the 1960s. Modern day America is one-third non-White. Most of the non-Whites are low-IQ Blacks and Latinos, most of whom are only suited for low-wage manual labor or service industry work.

One book by Professor Richard Lynn and Finnish Professor Tatu Vanhanen called “IQ and the Wealth of Nations” notes that a nation’s prosperity is strongly linked to the average IQ of that nation. As America fills up with Third World people, the average IQ of the US will plunge as more needy Third World people demand more government services, which means more taxes for us. The IQ for American Blacks is about 85 points. The average IQ for Mexico is 87 points. Curiously, the average IQ for Kenya, where Barack Obama gets half his genes from, is a pathetically low 72 points.

[Wild Cobra]

BOEHNER: OBAMA STUBBORNLY REFUSING TO END CRISIS I CREATED


http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/boro-boehner-shut.jpg

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that he was disappointed after meeting with President Obama at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, telling reporters, “The President is stubbornly refusing to end the crisis I created.”

“Government is about teamwork,” Mr. Boehner continued. “I’ve done my part by putting together an entirely optional crisis that has shut down the government and will throw thousands out of work. Now it’s up to the President to do his part by ending it.”

Mr. Boehner said that he was “flabbergasted” that the President was looking to him to bring the current government shutdown to an end: “So after doing all of the hard work to push the country to the brink, I’m supposed to pull it back, too? How about you pitching in a little, Mr. President?”

The House Speaker said that he hoped he did not have to manufacture an another entirely avoidable crisis over the debt ceiling in order to stir the President to action. “Quite frankly, orchestrating these unnecessary stalemates takes a lot of energy and I could really use a rest,” he said.

But Mr. Boehner seemed pessimistic that the President “got the message.”

“Because of my actions, thousands of federal workers have already been furloughed,” he said. “How many more people do I have to throw out on the street before the President wakes up?”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/10/boehner-obama-stubbornly-refusing-to-end-crisis-i-created.html?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=borowitz&mbid=nl_Borowitz%20(177)




LOL...

I hope you don't take a comedian's article as fact.

[boutons_deux]

LOL...

I hope you don't take a comedian's article as fact.

hell no!

I take WC's facts as comedy

[ElNono]

I take WC's facts as comedy

:lol

[baseline bum]

I take WC's facts as comedy

:rollin

[boutons_deux]

Under the Hastert Rule, a House Speaker should not allow a vote on any legislation that is not supported by a majority of the majority party, which is the Speaker’s caucus.

The rule is named after former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who said that relying on the other party for the majority of votes was “something I would not generally do,” during a 2006 press conference.

Boehner has waived the rule in the past, but most recently he has used it to justify not bringing a new bill to the floor. He might have to reconsider his stance, though, because Hastert is now saying that the “Hastert Rule is kind of a misnomer (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/03/denny-hastert-disses-the-hastert-rule-it-never-really-existed.html),” and nothing more.

On Wednesday, Hastert explained to The Daily Beast that when he made the 2006 comments, he was “speaking philosophically” and that it “wasn’t a rule.”

The former Speaker then explained that “the real Hastert Rule is 218,” referring to the number of votes needed in the House for a bill to pass. He then continued: “if we had to work with Democrats, we did.”

Although Hastert did not say whether or not Boehner should waive the Hastert Rule and admitted that he and the current Speaker do not talk, he did offer some insight that Boehner might find handy: “We had to find a way to compromise and get things done. I wasn’t a show horse; I wasn’t on TV programs.”

“You can’t be in Congress and shut down the government and get anything done. It’s an oxymoron,” Hastert added.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/dennis-hastert-real-hastert-rule-is-218-if-we-had-to-work-with-democrats-we-did/

[SA210]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/q71/1384165_591816230854248_2125610413_n.jpg

[Wild Cobra]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/q71/1384165_591816230854248_2125610413_n.jpg
No.

it wouldn't suit their unethical agenda.

[ChumpDumper]

lol unethical

[AntiChrist]

Takes more effort to put up Barrycades than to do nothing

[Wild Cobra]

Takes more effort to put up Barrycades than to do nothing

LOL..

I like that!

Barrycades!

[spurraider21]

alright so i'm no expert, but this is what i understand about the situation...



republicans hate obamacare. obamacare passed and was signed into law.

the supreme court said the law is within constitutional limits

i'm not a fan of obamacare either, but if it passed, it passed. thats how the system works.

since obamacare is signed into law, it shall be funded.

republicans refuse to pass a budget that funds obamacare, which is required to be funded since it has been signed into law

republicans refuse to vote/pass a budget unless obamacare is repealed/amended

there is no requirement to amend/repeal obamacare

government gets shut down as there is no movement on either side. the republicans refuse to pass a budget which NEEDS to be passed, and the democrats refuse to budge on a bill that has already been passed and thus does not (by law) require reform/repeal


am i factually incorrect or did i miss anything? legitimate question i wana make sure im all caught up here

[Wild Cobra]

So spurraider....

Is there any part of the shutdown that affects you?

Anyone you know?

[spurraider21]

So spurraider....

Is there any part of the shutdown that affects you?

Anyone you know?


hmm, that appears to be irrelevant to my question though. i don't want to comment on the shutdown if i'm not fully informed on the situation. was everything i said factually correct or did i miss anything? i think once i get a better understanding of the situation i'll be in a better place to comment on it

[Wild Cobra]

hmm, that appears to be irrelevant to my question though. i don't want to comment on the shutdown if i'm not fully informed on the situation. was everything i said factually correct or did i miss anything? i think once i get a better understanding of the situation i'll be in a better place to comment on it
I disagree with what you said. I can't disagree with it without reviewing and citing references, but I'm pretty sure you are wrong as well.

Remember how the democrats funded the viet-Nam war, until Nixon had a chance of winning it? They defended the war, and that's why we pulled out. It is one thing not to implement funding of something not in progress yet, but really bad to defund something in progress.

Most the voters do not want Obamacare. It is already costing jobs, and causing employees to get reduced hours, because it is costly if an employer falls in within certain criteria.

Besides. Weren't we told that Obamacare wouldn't cost the tax payers anything? Why does congress need to fund it, or was that another lie from the left?

[ChumpDumper]

It's another lie from you.

[SA210]

lol barrycades

[spurraider21]

I disagree with what you said. I can't disagree with it without reviewing and citing references, but I'm pretty sure you are wrong as well.

Remember how the democrats funded the viet-Nam war, until Nixon had a chance of winning it? They defended the war, and that's why we pulled out. It is one thing not to implement funding of something not in progress yet, but really bad to defund something in progress.

Most the voters do not want Obamacare. It is already costing jobs, and causing employees to get reduced hours, because it is costly if an employer falls in within certain criteria.

Besides. Weren't we told that Obamacare wouldn't cost the tax payers anything? Why does congress need to fund it, or was that another lie from the left?
saying "they claimed it wouldn't cost the taxpayers anything" is fallacious.

look, if the voters felt so strongly about obamacare, they should have voted for people that would repeal it. instead, you have a majority of democrats in the senate and democrat in the oval office.

dude, this is completely regardless of whether or not we like obamacare. the voters elect these guys. they passed the law, president signed it. now the guys that lost are being sore losers even though the vote went through fairly in the system devised by the founding fathers, and now are being too stubborn to admit they lost a vote and are holding the government hostage.

i repeat, this is regardless of whether or not we like obamacare. i'm not a fan of the bill by any stretch. but if we want it out, we just vote in congressmen/presidents that will repeal it. clearly, that didn't happen. neal with it

[ElNono]

So, are we getting a tax refund for the time this shit been shutdown?

[EVAY]

So, are we getting a tax refund for the time this shit been shutdown?

:lol From your lips to the IRS' ears.

[boutons_deux]

Tactic I heard on NPR

Repugs are now saying Boner "VOWS" not to cause a default on the debt, if only the Dems would cave on ACA. :lol

They must have heard that the Dems know caving in on a biggie like ACA will encourage the Repugs to do it again and again. dem Dems be pretty smart. :)

[spurraider21]

i'm starting to think the Republican party doesn't understand the concept of majority vote in congress

[Venti Quattro]

:lmao GOP

What a fuckin bunch of babies

[EVAY]

i'm starting to think the Republican party doesn't understand the concept of majority vote in congress

Well, that is where it is, isn't it? Doesn't it seem that the Tea Party Republicans in Congress actually want to say "I will let Dep't. X get funded, but I won't let Dept. Y get funded unless I get my way"?

Doesn't that logic lead to the conclusion that they do not accept the results of democratic elections?

Doesn't that logic lead to the conclusion that they believe that ONLY they should determine every single part of the entire government of the U.S.?

Is that level of arrogance unprecedented?

If the Dems give in, what would stop them in the future if they are in the minority of holding the government hostage to something that they want, like increased funding for EPA emissions testing or something, or for blocking the enactment of something that the Republicans want, like lowering corporate tax rates?

Why don't the Tea Partiers understand that this is not a way to GOVERN in a republic whose government is elected by majority vote?

[boutons_deux]

pure WC comedy!

"Remember how the democrats funded the viet-Nam war, until Nixon had a chance of winning it?"

Democrat LBJ's Paris peace talks were subverted by the Nixon Repug campaign in the '68 election. Nixon told the VN that they would get a better deal from him than from LBJ. Peace talks collapsed. Nixon and the military, aka "better deal", fought on, AND LOST that war 1975.

[Th'Pusher]

Well, that is where it is, isn't it? Doesn't it seem that the Tea Party Republicans in Congress actually want to say "I will let Dep't. X get funded, but I won't let Dept. Y get funded unless I get my way"?

Doesn't that logic lead to the conclusion that they do not accept the results of democratic elections?

Doesn't that logic lead to the conclusion that they believe that ONLY they should determine every single part of the entire government of the U.S.?

Is that level of arrogance unprecedented?

If the Dems give in, what would stop them in the future if they are in the minority of holding the government hostage to something that they want, like increased funding for EPA emissions testing or something, or for blocking the enactment of something that the Republicans want, like lowering corporate tax rates?

Why don't the Tea Partiers understand that this is not a way to GOVERN in a republic whose government is elected by majority vote?

AS MIDNIGHT on September 30th approached, everybody on Capitol Hill blamed everybody else for the imminent shutdown of America’s government. To a wondering world, the recriminations missed the point. When you are brawling on the edge of a cliff, the big question is not “Who is right?”, but “What the hell are you doing on the edge of a cliff?”


The shutdown itself is tiresome but bearable. The security services will remain on duty, pensioners will still receive their cheques and the astronauts on the International Space Station will still be able to breathe. Some 800,000 non-essential staff at federal agencies (out of 2.8m) are being sent home, while another 1.3m are being asked to toil on without pay (see article). Non-urgent tasks will be shelved until a deal is reached and the money starts to flow again. If that happens quickly, the economic damage will be modest: perhaps 0.1-0.2% off the fourth-quarter growth rate for every week the government is closed. The trouble is, the shutdown is a symptom of a deeper problem: the federal lawmaking process is so polarised that it has become paralysed. And if the two parties cannot bridge their differences by around October 17th, disaster looms.


Battles over spending are nothing unusual—indeed, Congress has not passed a proper budget on time since 1997. But this battle represents something new. House Republicans are blocking the budget not because they object to its contents, but because they object to something else entirely: Barack Obama’s health-care reform, a big part of which started to operate this week (see article). Their original demand was to strip all funding from Obamacare. In other words, they wanted Democrats to agree to kill their own president’s biggest achievement. That was never going to happen. As the deadline for a budget deal approached, Republicans scaled back their demands. Instead of defunding Obamacare, they said that its mandate for individuals to buy health insurance (or pay a fine) should be delayed for a year.


The bane of budgetary brinkmanship
That may sound more reasonable, but it is not so, for two reasons. First, delaying the mandate could wreck the whole reform. Obamacare sits on two pillars. Everyone is obliged to have insurance, and insurance firms are barred from charging people more because they are already ill. If only the second rule applies, the sick will rush to buy insurance but the healthy will wait until they fall ill before doing so. Insurers will have to raise premiums or go bust, making coverage unaffordable without vast subsidies. Obamacare will enter a death spiral and possibly collapse. For some Republicans, that is the goal.


The second reason is that Republicans are setting a precedent which, if followed, would make America ungovernable. Voters have seen fit to give their party control of one arm of government—the House of Representatives—while handing the Democrats the White House and the Senate. If a party with such a modest electoral mandate threatens to shut down government unless the other side repeals a law it does not like, apparently settled legislation will always be vulnerable to repeal by the minority. Washington will be permanently paralysed and America condemned to chronic uncertainty.


It gets worse. Later this month the federal government will reach its legal borrowing limit, known as the “debt ceiling”. Unless Congress raises that ceiling, Uncle Sam will soon be unable to pay all his bills. In other words, unless the two parties can work together, America will have to choose which of its obligations not to honour. It could slash spending so deeply that it causes a recession. Or it could default on its debts, which would be even worse, and unimaginably more harmful than a mere government shutdown. No one in Washington is that crazy, surely?


Step back from the edge
America enjoys the “exorbitant privilege” of printing the world’s reserve currency. Its government debt is considered a safe haven, which is why Uncle Sam can borrow so much, so cheaply. America will not lose these advantages overnight. But anything that undermines its creditworthiness—as the farce in Washington surely does—risks causing untold damage in the future. It is not just that America would have to pay more to borrow. The repercussions of an American default would be both global and unpredictable.


It would threaten financial markets. Since American Treasuries are very liquid and safe, they are widely used as collateral. They are more than 30% of the collateral that financial institutions such as investment banks use to borrow in the $2 trillion “tri-party repo” market, a source of overnight funding. A default could trigger demands by lenders for more or different collateral; that might cause a financial heart attack like the one prompted by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. In short, even if Obamacare were as bad as tea-party types say it is (see Lexington), it would still be reckless to use the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip to repeal it, as some Republicans suggest.


What can be done? In the short term, House Republicans need to get their priorities straight. They should pass a clean budget resolution without trying to refight old battles over Obamacare. They should also vote to raise the debt ceiling (or better yet, abolish it). If Obamacare really does turn out to be a flop and Republicans win the presidency and the Senate in 2016, they can repeal it through the normal legislative process.


In the longer term, America needs to tackle polarisation. The problem is especially acute in the House, because many states let politicians draw their own electoral maps. Unsurprisingly, they tend to draw ultra-safe districts for themselves. This means that a typical congressman has no fear of losing a general election but is terrified of a primary challenge. Many therefore pander to extremists on their own side rather than forging sensible centrist deals with the other. This is no way to run a country. Electoral reforms, such as letting independent commissions draw district boundaries, would not suddenly make America governable, but they would help. It is time for less cliff-hanging, and more common sense.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21587211-land-free-starting-look-ungovernable-enough-enough-no-way-run-country

[spurraider21]

Well, that is where it is, isn't it? Doesn't it seem that the Tea Party Republicans in Congress actually want to say "I will let Dep't. X get funded, but I won't let Dept. Y get funded unless I get my way"?

Doesn't that logic lead to the conclusion that they do not accept the results of democratic elections?

Doesn't that logic lead to the conclusion that they believe that ONLY they should determine every single part of the entire government of the U.S.?

Is that level of arrogance unprecedented?

If the Dems give in, what would stop them in the future if they are in the minority of holding the government hostage to something that they want, like increased funding for EPA emissions testing or something, or for blocking the enactment of something that the Republicans want, like lowering corporate tax rates?

Why don't the Tea Partiers understand that this is not a way to GOVERN in a republic whose government is elected by majority vote?
I agree. I'm not registered with either party. I'm not a fan of most of Obama's policy, and quite frankly not sure why people were so eager to reelect him. But the demeanor the TOSB GOP is showing is straight up embarrassing. Like when Cruz gave a dramatic reading of Green Eggs and Ham

[Clipper Nation]

:lmao GOP

What a fuckin bunch of babies
They really are a fucking embarrassment and a huge disservice to actual conservatives, tbh....

[EVAY]

AS MIDNIGHT on September 30th approached, everybody on Capitol Hill blamed everybody else for the imminent shutdown of America’s government. To a wondering world, the recriminations missed the point. When you are brawling on the edge of a cliff, the big question is not “Who is right?”, but “What the hell are you doing on the edge of a cliff?”


The shutdown itself is tiresome but bearable. The security services will remain on duty, pensioners will still receive their cheques and the astronauts on the International Space Station will still be able to breathe. Some 800,000 non-essential staff at federal agencies (out of 2.8m) are being sent home, while another 1.3m are being asked to toil on without pay (see article). Non-urgent tasks will be shelved until a deal is reached and the money starts to flow again. If that happens quickly, the economic damage will be modest: perhaps 0.1-0.2% off the fourth-quarter growth rate for every week the government is closed. The trouble is, the shutdown is a symptom of a deeper problem: the federal lawmaking process is so polarised that it has become paralysed. And if the two parties cannot bridge their differences by around October 17th, disaster looms.


Battles over spending are nothing unusual—indeed, Congress has not passed a proper budget on time since 1997. But this battle represents something new. House Republicans are blocking the budget not because they object to its contents, but because they object to something else entirely: Barack Obama’s health-care reform, a big part of which started to operate this week (see article). Their original demand was to strip all funding from Obamacare. In other words, they wanted Democrats to agree to kill their own president’s biggest achievement. That was never going to happen. As the deadline for a budget deal approached, Republicans scaled back their demands. Instead of defunding Obamacare, they said that its mandate for individuals to buy health insurance (or pay a fine) should be delayed for a year.


The bane of budgetary brinkmanship
That may sound more reasonable, but it is not so, for two reasons. First, delaying the mandate could wreck the whole reform. Obamacare sits on two pillars. Everyone is obliged to have insurance, and insurance firms are barred from charging people more because they are already ill. If only the second rule applies, the sick will rush to buy insurance but the healthy will wait until they fall ill before doing so. Insurers will have to raise premiums or go bust, making coverage unaffordable without vast subsidies. Obamacare will enter a death spiral and possibly collapse. For some Republicans, that is the goal.


The second reason is that Republicans are setting a precedent which, if followed, would make America ungovernable. Voters have seen fit to give their party control of one arm of government—the House of Representatives—while handing the Democrats the White House and the Senate. If a party with such a modest electoral mandate threatens to shut down government unless the other side repeals a law it does not like, apparently settled legislation will always be vulnerable to repeal by the minority. Washington will be permanently paralysed and America condemned to chronic uncertainty.


It gets worse. Later this month the federal government will reach its legal borrowing limit, known as the “debt ceiling”. Unless Congress raises that ceiling, Uncle Sam will soon be unable to pay all his bills. In other words, unless the two parties can work together, America will have to choose which of its obligations not to honour. It could slash spending so deeply that it causes a recession. Or it could default on its debts, which would be even worse, and unimaginably more harmful than a mere government shutdown. No one in Washington is that crazy, surely?


Step back from the edge
America enjoys the “exorbitant privilege” of printing the world’s reserve currency. Its government debt is considered a safe haven, which is why Uncle Sam can borrow so much, so cheaply. America will not lose these advantages overnight. But anything that undermines its creditworthiness—as the farce in Washington surely does—risks causing untold damage in the future. It is not just that America would have to pay more to borrow. The repercussions of an American default would be both global and unpredictable.


It would threaten financial markets. Since American Treasuries are very liquid and safe, they are widely used as collateral. They are more than 30% of the collateral that financial institutions such as investment banks use to borrow in the $2 trillion “tri-party repo” market, a source of overnight funding. A default could trigger demands by lenders for more or different collateral; that might cause a financial heart attack like the one prompted by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. In short, even if Obamacare were as bad as tea-party types say it is (see Lexington), it would still be reckless to use the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip to repeal it, as some Republicans suggest.


What can be done? In the short term, House Republicans need to get their priorities straight. They should pass a clean budget resolution without trying to refight old battles over Obamacare. They should also vote to raise the debt ceiling (or better yet, abolish it). If Obamacare really does turn out to be a flop and Republicans win the presidency and the Senate in 2016, they can repeal it through the normal legislative process.


In the longer term, America needs to tackle polarisation. The problem is especially acute in the House, because many states let politicians draw their own electoral maps. Unsurprisingly, they tend to draw ultra-safe districts for themselves. This means that a typical congressman has no fear of losing a general election but is terrified of a primary challenge. Many therefore pander to extremists on their own side rather than forging sensible centrist deals with the other. This is no way to run a country. Electoral reforms, such as letting independent commissions draw district boundaries, would not suddenly make America governable, but they would help. It is time for less cliff-hanging, and more common sense.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21587211-land-free-starting-look-ungovernable-enough-enough-no-way-run-country

Excellent article. Thank you for finding and posting. Very clear exposition of what is happening and the real scale of it.

[boutons_deux]

"This is no way to run a country"

the Repugs and tea baggers AREN'T INTERESTED in running the country, in governance. They want to destroy govt, as St Ronnie said "government is the problem". And they'll never give up their power to gerrymander which gerrymander gives them.

[Wild Cobra]

They don't want to destroy government. they want to reduce the size of it.

[MannyIsGod]

hell no!

I take WC's facts as comedy

:lmao

[Jacob1983]

Any predictions on when this shit ends? Will it be longer than the one back in the day?

[Venti Quattro]

They really are a fucking embarrassment and a huge disservice to actual conservatives, tbh....

:lol GOP
:lol bunch of crybabies in suits and ties
:lol American Taliban
:lol holding the economy hostage

[boutons_deux]

They don't want to destroy government. they want to reduce the size of it.

The various agencies that have been talked about to be killed

SEC
FDA
EPA
OSHA
NASA
FDA
IRS
NOAA
Education
all regulations
USPS
public education

The right wingers want govt removed, effectively killed, as a countervailing power United Corporations of America, the financial sector, the 1%. For them govt has no role to play. The country is be controlled only by the capitalists, mega-corporations, 1%, financial sector. That's the fundamental reason the those groups finance the extreme tea baggin frauds, libertarians.

Small govt means no govt (aka killed) that could challenge the power of those groups.

TPP is effectively a corporate/capitalist coup d'etat where corporations are granted powers that supercedes any govt that signs on to TPP, where govt laws like regulation of environment, health, employee/patient safety, etc cannot impinge on corporate activity.

[boutons_deux]

The Shutdown in 10 Infuriating Sentences

1 Democrats have already agreed to fund the government at Republican levels. (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/budget/news/2013/09/30/76026/the-senate-continuing-resolution-is-already-a-compromise/)

2 Despite what you might have heard, there have only been two serious government shutdowns in recent history, and both were the result of Republican ultimatums. (http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/10/2nd-government-shutdown-recent-history)

3 Democrats in the Senate have been begging the House to negotiate over the budget (http://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/newsreleases?ContentRecord_id=a94cbb48-f1da-42dc-8a66-14711904bd4d) for the past six months, but Republicans have refused.

4 That's because Republicans wanted to wait until they had either a government shutdown or a debt ceiling breach as leverage, something they've been very clear (http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/09/public-blames-republicans-government-shutdown) about all along.

5 Republicans keep talking about compromise, but they've offered nothing in return (http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/09/i-think-republicans-are-confused-about-word-compromise) for agreeing to their demands—except to keep the government intact if they get their way.

6 The public is very strongly opposed (http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/10/public-obamacare-republican-hostage) to using a government shutdown to stop Obamacare.

7 Contrary to Republican claims, the deficit is not increasing (http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/09/deficit-falling-falling-falling)—it peaked in 2009 and has been dropping ever since, declining by $200 billion last year with another $450 billion drop projected this year.

http://www.motherjones.com/files/blog_reality_budget_deficit_small.jpg

( "OUT OF CONTROL GOVT SPENDING?" just another huge REPUG lie to rouse you right-wing rabble :lol )


8 A long government shutdown is likely to seriously hurt economic growth (http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/10/long-shutdown-would-seriously-hurt-economic-growth), with a monthlong shutdown projected to slash GDP in the fourth quarter by 1 percentage point and reduce employment by over a million jobs.

9 No, Democrats have not used debt ceiling hostage taking (http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/09/30/no_democrats_never_really_held_the_debt_limit_host age.html) in the past to force presidents to accept their political agenda.

10 This whole dispute is about the Republican Party fighting to make sure the working poor don't have access to affordable health care. (iow, the Repugs and their paymasters want to deny govt any beneficial role in society, because for them EVERYTHING must be provided by the for-profit "free market" and of course at wealth-suckingly high prices)

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/10/shutdown-debt-ceiling-explained

Maddow had a great destruction of Newt Gingrich as REPUG anarchist govt shutdowner. He said he said he shut down the govt because, on the Presidential plane trip to Rabin's funeral in Israel, he wasn't invited by Clinton to the front of plane and then made to exit by the rear door, while Clinton, Carter, Reagan exited by the front door.

And now we hear one Repug (and of course he took it back), and speaking probably for many Repugs, that Repugs, having lost so far and going to lose the shutdown standoff, must get something back from the Dems, anything, so Repugs can save face.

iow, they don't give flying fuck about governing or ACA, now or ever, it's all an adolescent, schoolyard power game by old rich white guys about not letting that n!gg@ beat them up and walk away unscathed.

[boutons_deux]

Eric Cantor Dismisses Clean Bill To Reopen Government

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Thursday that a bill to reopen the government must chip away at Obamacare, despite growing calls from his own members for a "clean" funding bill with no such strings attached.

A reporter pointed out that at least 17 House Republicans have now said they'd vote for a clean bill, which is the required number to pass such a measure, with the support of all Democratic members. In fact, the number has hit at least 20 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/house-republicans-clean-cr_n_4024755.html?1380739351), but Cantor was uninterested. The reporter then asked Cantor why House leadership would not bring a funding bill up for a vote and fight Obamacare within the context of the debt limit.

"The speaker and I have both said that the Republican position is we believe we should fund this government, but we also believe that there should not be any special treatment for anyone, and that is why we believe the right solution to that is to provide for a delay of the individual mandate under the health care law," Cantor said.

"And in the same vein and perhaps with even more intensity, no way in the world should members of Congress get special treatment under that law either," he added. "So all we've got to do is come together, and we can iron out the differences."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/eric-cantor-clean-continuing-resolution_n_4037152.html

[boutons_deux]

Polls find risk to GOP in House over shutdown


By pushing Congress to the brink of a shutdown over Obamacare, House Republicans ultimately stand to lose on the very issue that helped bring them to power, pollsters and analystshttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/30/polls-find-risk-to-gop-in-house-over-shutdown/#) say.
Although polls show President Obama is getting a hefty sharehttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/30/polls-find-risk-to-gop-in-house-over-shutdown/#) of the blame for the budget impasse, surveys also show that the Republicans are faring worse than the president. Most voters dislike

Obamacare, but they dislike a government shutdown over the health care program even more.

For example, a Rasmussen :lol Reports survey Monday found that 45 percent of the public favor a shutdown until Democrats and Republicans can agree on spending cuts. That was down from 53 percent only two weeks ago.

A CNN/ORC poll released Monday found that 46 percent of Americans would blame Republicans for a shutdown and 36 percent would blame Mr. Obamahttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/30/polls-find-risk-to-gop-in-house-over-shutdown/#).

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/30/polls-find-risk-to-gop-in-house-over-shutdown/#ixzz2glgKFZ48

[TDMVPDPOY]

pure WC comedy!

"Remember how the democrats funded the viet-Nam war, until Nixon had a chance of winning it?"

Democrat LBJ's Paris peace talks were subverted by the Nixon Repug campaign in the '68 election. Nixon told the VN that they would get a better deal from him than from LBJ. Peace talks collapsed. Nixon and the military, aka "better deal", fought on, AND LOST that war 1975.

at its peak US aid to South vietnam was $30billion a year leading upto the final days of the war..i dont know how much that is at current inflation rates, but damn thats more then some states in america get

[boutons_deux]

Government shutdown: Potential 2016 candidates seek distance

For those who would be GOP candidates next time, then, a little distancing is in order. That is far easier to pull off if you’re not residing in the Beltway or its environs right now.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, for one, has taken on the Washington contretemps as Example A of how not to do things -- an approach that artfully helps to demonstrate his willingness to work with Democrats, the dominant party in the state in which he’s seeking reelection.

“I told my staff today: If I were down there, I would say, ‘Listen, we’ve got seven hours to go. Guess where you’re spending the next seven hours? Right here in the Roosevelt Room. We’re not leaving until we get a solution to this problem,’” the Republican governor said in Red Bank earlier this week, (http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/09/christie_calls_government_shutdown_a_failure_of_ev eryone_responsible_for_the_system.html) just before the shutdown took effect.

“I think everybody’s handled it poorly,” Christie said.

Later, at a groundbreaking for a university building in Glassboro, he pounded home the message again (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMMdgD4ISLc) with the help of state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat who lauded Christie for working with his party to boost the state’s education spending.

“As Steve very well put it, it is in stark contrast to what we're seeing right now in the nation's capital, where not only won't people work together, they won't even talk to each other,” Christie said. “And you know that doesn't happen here … even when we're angry with each other we don't let ourselves stop talking to each other. And those relationships are the type of relationships that allow you to make the progress that we're all noting her today.”

A potential 2016 competitor, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, used his position as chairman of the Republican Governors Assn. to stiff-arm his compadres in the Capitol.

“Republican governors are not going to take a back seat to anyone in Washington anymore,” he said in a statement, adding: “We are no longer going to outsource the Republican brand to the talking heads in Washington. We are not going to allow the Republican Party to be defined by the dysfunction in Washington. We are not going to allow the antics in Washington to damage or destroy what we stand for.”

For good measure, Jindal tweeted (http://www.twitter.com/bobbyjindal): “There's a crisis every week in Washington D.C.”

It can be a little tougher to gain distance from a perch inside the Capitol. On Wednesday, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman outlined for reporters (http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2013/10/02/portman-says-forget-obamacare-fight-for-now-go-for-a-deficit-reduction-deal/) a grand framework for the budget that he called “a step in the right direction.” Portman, who was short-listed for vice president on the 2012 Republican ticket, said he was trying to sell both parties on his plan.

He brushed aside the current effort to force delays or defunding of President Obama’s healthcare law.

“We fought that fight; we fought hard,” he said. “We’ve done what we can do at this point, including taking the government into shutdown.”

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, meanwhile, was also seeking a bit of remove from the dust-up that he, more than anyone else, had forced. (Cruz kicked off the effort with a 21-hour verbal tour de force that included references to Nazis, the “Star Wars" empire and its rebels, and “Green Eggs and Ham.” Though, were he to stay in sync with the message of the Dr. Seuss masterpiece, he would have suggested at least trying Obamacare, not the opposite.)

“We're in a shutdown for one reason,” he declared on Wednesday (http://www.twitter.com/sentedcruz), blaming it all on the Democratic Senate leader. “Harry Reid wants a shutdown.”

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/545/article/p2p-77655006/

Rand Paul of course is up to his Wombat hair in the shutdown :lol

[TDMVPDPOY]

the problem isnt the debt, t hey just dont want to follow a black leader

[AntiChrist]

Barrycades now with wire ties at WWII memorial

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BVvCkmPCIAIunjR.jpg



For comparison, Barrycade at WWI memorial

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BVkshNuCMAA8yza.jpg

[AntiChrist]

the problem isnt the debt, t hey just dont want to follow a black leader


Keep drinkin det KoolAid


Funny thing, when Obama unilaterally suspends employer mandate for 1 year, no big deal. When Republicans want to delay the individual mandate, pure evil.

[boutons_deux]

Barrycades now with wire ties at WWII memorial

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BVvCkmPCIAIunjR.jpg



For comparison, Barrycade at WWI memorial

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BVkshNuCMAA8yza.jpg

all you assholes have is trashing talking the Barrycades? :lol

[hitmanyr2k]

What the hell was this idiot congressman thinking? As if Republicans couldn't look any more stupid he actually berates a woman for doing her job as a result of the shutdown his party caused? And then bicycle helmet guy made him get the fuck out of dodge :lol From a comedy standpoint the GOP is the gift that keeps on giving.

xoHLY80ukls

[AntiChrist]

It's weird that they have employees around to keep erecting the barrycades.

[boutons_deux]

It's weird that they have employees around to keep erecting the barrycades.

not getting paid

[Wild Cobra]

It's weird that they have employees around to keep erecting the barrycades.

I wonder what essential job they aren't doing...

[boutons_deux]

With No New Plan, Boehner Makes Angry Plea on Shutdown

House Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting on Friday with no new strategy to end the budget standoff and an angry plea to President Obama to negotiate over his health care law.

“This isn’t some damned game,” :lol said Speaker John A. Boehner, his voice rising in anger. “The American people don’t want their government shut down, and neither do I. :lol All we’re asking for is to sit down and have a discussion, reopen the government and bring fairness to the American people under Obamacare.” :lol

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/us/politics/with-no-new-plan-boehner-makes-angry-plea-on-shutdown.html?from=homepage

So the Repugs STILL want ACA damaged in some way. Fuck 'em all to hell.

Damn, Boner brings some really weak shit at talking points.

[boutons_deux]

With Federal Wallet Closed, States Agonize Over Opening Their Own

With no end in sight to the federal government shutdown, governors across the nation are struggling with a cascade of tough decisions about when and whether to step in with state funds to keep an ever-growing list of shuttered parks and programs operating until the deadlock is resolved.

The decisions so far involve mostly high-profile programs receiving federal support that have been immediately imperiled, among them parks, Head Start programs that provided nutrition and education for low-income 3- and 4-year olds, law enforcement on Indian reservations and the National Guard.

The decisions and difficulties promise to grow more complicated and more polarizing if the shutdown extends and federal poverty programs administered by the states – in particular heating assistance and child nutrition programs -- begin running dry.


The Head Start program is looming as a particular source of pressure for governors and their states. There are thousands of Head Start grants, typically starting at the beginning of the month, meaning that on Nov. 1 more programs around the country are going to run out of money.

Yasmina S. Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association, said 19,000 children from low-income families had lost or were at risk of losing services in 11 states because of the shutdown.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/us/with-federal-wallet-closed-states-agonize-over-opening-their-own.html?from=homepage

And notice insane sociopathic Repugs and Randians in DC NEVER mention HeadStart

They also didn't give a shit about cancer treatment for kids/NIH until somebody brought it up. Oh yeah! Hey, that's horse we can ride!

Repugs cut $2B from NIH in 2011 and Boner wouldn't even allow the vote to restore it.

But now, politically advantageous, their whiny about cancer treatment for kids (anyway, how was that not already defined as essential service?)

[boutons_deux]

House GOPer: 'I Need My Paycheck' During Shutdown


http://a4.img.talkingpointsmemo.com/image/upload/c_fill,fl_keep_iptc,g_faces,h_365,w_652/romney-2012--7.jpg


Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) told a local television station that she would not be deferring her pay during the government shutdown, as some other members have done.

"I need my paycheck. That's the bottom line," Ellmers told WTVD in Raleigh, N.C. "I understand that there may be some other members who are deferring their paychecks, and I think that's admirable. I'm not in that position."

According to Ellmers's official website (http://ellmers.house.gov/biography/), she was a registered nurse for 21 years before being elected to Congress. Her husband Brent, the website says, is a general surgeon.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/house-goper-i-need-my-paycheck

So hilarious how tone-deaf the this Confederate assholes are.

[boutons_deux]

latest news from Bullshit Mountain

http://www.alternet.org/jon-stewart-blasts-fox-news-bullshit-coverage-government-shutdown?akid=11008.187590.2eem9D&rd=1&src=newsletter905623&t=9

[SA210]

:lol

Shocking! CBS Hounds Pelosi Over Shutdown: 'You've Called Them Arsonists'




CBS This Morning has a long established history of conducting softball interviews (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2013/09/24/cbs-plays-softball-bill-clinton-hillarys-future-global-initiative-que) of liberal/Democratic guests, while unleashing (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2013/07/10/cbs-gop-faces-demographic-death-spiral-if-they-oppose-immigration-ref) on conservative/liberal ones. But on Friday, the morning newscast surprisingly hounded Rep. Nancy Pelosi on the ongoing government shutdown. Obama supporter Gayle King repeatedly pressed Pelosi about "people [who] are just saying...work it out....both sides have to be willing to leave something on the table."

Anthony Mason underlined how "Senator [Harry] Reid called some Republicans anarchists. You've called them arsonists....How do you get a meeting of the minds when people are talking like that?" Norah O'Donnell also wondered about "a scenario...where Democrats would be willing to give on a larger budget deal – the grand bargain coming back, and giving on entitlements, so that we can move forward."

O'Donnell led with the Thursday security scare at the Capitol, and raised the subject of the shutdown by asking, "Is it true the Capitol Police are working without pay because of the budget shutdown?" Once the San Francisco liberal confirmed that this was the case, King began pursuing her about her role in the shutdown:

GAYLE KING: ...What do you say to people that say, just work it out, without going into the tit for tat that seems to be going on both sides? What will it take, Madame Speaker, to resolve this issue?

http://newsbusters.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/main_375/main_photos/2013/October/2013-10-04-CBS-CTM-Pelosi.jpg

REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Well, it will take some – coming together on the Republican side. It's very hard to negotiate with the Republicans when they can’t negotiate with themselves. But having said that-

KING: I know, but they're saying the same thing about you guys, too.

PELOSI: No, it isn't; no, it isn't. We have – four times – brought to the floor their bill and voted 100 percent for their bill, and they still won't take yes for an answer. But let's take a deep breath on this. We have a serious matter. Our government is shut down. The – the default on our full faith and credit is at risk. And so, we have to find a path. And so, we have...said to the Speaker, we will accept your bill – we don't like the bill....But we will accept that in order to go forward. But they do not have, within their own ranks, the ability to take yes for an answer-

KING: I know. A good friend of mine said, in any negotiation, both sides have to be willing to leave something on the table.

PELOSI: That's right, and that's why we agreed to their number...which we don't like. We've always said to them, we'll help you procedurally; we'll help you substantively....

Mason continued with his citation of Harry Reid and Pelosi's name-calling. The former House Speaker answer by launching more attacks against her Republican opponents:

PELOSI: Well, the fact is that there are, within the ranks of the Republican Party – and this is the bigger picture that the Republican Party has to deal with, and has an impact on our country – if you don't believe in a government role, then it's easy for you to say, in order to lift the debt ceiling, we want to eliminate all EPA rules for clean air, clean water, and the rest....You have to come to a conclusion. Sandy aid – fewer than 20 percent of the Republicans voted for Sandy aid. They have something going on there. I say Republicans, take back your party.

O'Donnell then asked her "grand bargain" question. Pelosi replied that "the President already has in the budget that he agreed to in 2011. That isn't a happy scenario for our members, but...nonetheless, it was part of a grand bargain, and it all depends on what the bargain is."

Near the end of the segment, King hounded her one more time, pointing out that Pelosi has "five children, and you're used to squabbling. In one sentence, what would you say to your children if they were behaving the way the Democrats and the Republicans are behaving?" The liberal guest replied by actually pointing a finger at the left-leaning press: "Well, I don't agree to your stipulation of behavior. The President of the United States has gone forward with – extending the hand of friendship over and over. I think that has been lost in the news."

Mason interrupted and shot back, "But, at the same time, the President's saying, we won't negotiate, and he's taking criticism for that." Pelosi stuck to her talking points, but King came right back: "To the people outside, it really just does seem like white noise. It just seems like, you say something; they say something...And the people are just saying, you guys, just work it out. That's all I'm saying."


Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2013/10/04/shocking-cbs-hounds-pelosi-over-shutdown-youve-called-them-arsonists#ixzz2gnzPOrr9

[Clipper Nation]

384894496497868801

[TDMVPDPOY]

most of these politicians are already millionaires or earning other shit in the private sector b4 joining into politics, these fkn clowns crying over a paycheck...

[Jacob1983]

These greedy motherfuckers should work a week as a waiter at IHOP or a cashier at Wal Mart and they will definitely be a lot more concerned about their paychecks. These idiots in Congress should not be paid anything during this shutdown. That means they do not earn any money during the shutdown and will not get paid for time lost once the shutdown is over. Money and power are the only things that our piece of shit congress cares about. We are stupid to think that they give a shit about us. They don't give a shit about us. They just want money and power. Plain and simple. If their pay had actually been in danger of being taken from them, there wouldn't even be a shutdown and you know that.

[boutons_deux]

TELL BOEHNER: END THE SHUTDOWNhttp://www.dccc.org/page/s/Stop-The-Shutdown?source=em_PET_2013.10.05_b1_stop-the-shutdown_signers

[Wild Cobra]

Tell the democrats to end the shutdown.

Republicans have worked on several individual bills to pay for things like WIC, and other programs. It is the democrats who are failing to vote on the bill from the house.

[boutons_deux]

Tell the democrats to end the shutdown.

Republicans have worked on several individual bills to pay for things like WIC, and other programs. It is the democrats who are failing to vote on the bill from the house.

WC's Comedy Central.

The ACA is law. Elections have consequences. Repugs lost, so they fuck up the country and the law.

After the budget approved by the Dems in the "clean CR" is just a tad more than sociopathic asshole fraud Ryan's own budget number (aka, a HUGE Dem comprosie), the Repugs have offered NOTHING except fucking up ACA

[Venti Quattro]

Tell the democrats to end the shutdown.

Republicans have worked on several individual bills to pay for things like WIC, and other programs. It is the democrats who are failing to vote on the bill from the house.

LOL WHAT

This is about the Repugs hostaging the country because they don't want the ACA.

[Michael Jordan.]

lol wc

[boutons_deux]

Federal judge slaps down Darrell Issa over request for shutdown exception

A federal judge was less than amused when Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) requested that a lawsuit he filed two years ago be allowed to move forward in spite of the fact that federal courts have been immobilized by the Republican shutdown of the U.S. government.

According to Think Progress, Judge Amy Berman Jackson refused to consider violating the shutdown to handle the case, saying that it’s ridiculous for Issa to make the request, considering his caucus’ role in ordering the government to close.

“There are no exigent circumstances in this case that would justify an order of the Court forcing furloughed attorneys to return to their desks. Moreover, while the vast majority of litigants who now must endure a delay in the progress of their matters do so due to circumstances beyond their control, that cannot be said of the House of Representatives, which has played a role in the shutdown that prompted the stay motion.”


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/05/federal-judge-slaps-down-darrell-issa-over-request-for-shutdown-exception/

:lol the $400M Issa still riding his Fast n Furious (headless) hobby horse :lol

[boutons_deux]

To understand the shutdown, you have to grasp the mindset of the Republican base

Democracy Corps – a Democratic-leaning polling firm – released a study this week (http://www.democracycorps.com/attachments/article/954/dcor%20rpp%20fg%20memo%20100313%20final.pdf) based on a series of focus groups they conducted with loyal Republican voters. They divided them up into three sub-groups which together represent the base of the party.

Evangelicals represent the largest group, followed by Republicans who identify with the tea party movement. “Moderates,” the third group, make up about a quarter of the party’s base,


They think they face a victorious Democratic Party that is intent on expanding government to increase dependency and therefore electoral support. It starts with food stamps and unemployment benefits; expands further if you legalize the illegals; but insuring the uninsured dramatically grows those dependent on government. They believe this is an electoral strategy — not just a political ideology or economic philosophy. If Obamacare happens, the Republican Party may be lost, in their view.

And while few explicitly talk about Obama in racial terms, the base supporters are very conscious of being white in a country with growing minorities. Their party is losing to a Democratic Party of big government whose goal is to expand programs that mainly benefit minorities. Race remains very much alive in the politics of the Republican Party.

They worry that minorities, immigrants, and welfare recipients now believe it is their “right” to claim [public] benefits. Tea Party participants, in particular, were very focused on those who claim “rights” in the form of government services, without taking responsibility for themselves.

Evangelicals still focus overwhelmingly on social issues. They think gay rights are the biggest threat to our society, but they also worry about the loss of what they see as an idyllic small-town culture.

Tea partiers display a libertarian streak, and are far less concerned with social issues. They are staunchly pro-business.

Both groups displayed a high level of paranoia,

participants worried that their participation might trigger surveillance by the NSA or an audit by the IRS (http://billmoyers.com/2013/05/15/the-taxman-and-the-tea-partiers/).

In addition to thinking that Obama is a liar, and a covert Communist, these two groups were also more likely to express the belief that he is secretly a Muslim.

Climate change is another dividing line between moderate Republicans and the hard-right. GOP moderates may be unsure of the science on climate change (http://billmoyers.com/2013/08/15/a-dem-adrift-in-alec-land/), but they don’t reject it out of hand, and some are legitimately worried about the effects of a changing climate.

Evangelicals and Tea Party Republicans share and are consumed by skepticism about climate science — to the point where they mistrust scientists before they begin to speak


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/05/to-understand-the-shutdown-you-have-to-grasp-the-mindset-of-the-republican-base/

So the ignorant evangelicals and tea baggers are primarily worried how ACA, which directly aids 10Ms of themselves as Christian, low-wage, rural, uninsured whites, will win votes for Dems. How True! Beautiful! Right-wing assholes voting Repug, against Dem which directly against their own best financial, health interests.

[boutons_deux]

Pentagon: Most Furloughed Civilians Ordered Back To WorkThe Pentagon is ordering most of its approximately 400,000 furloughed civilian employees back to work.

The decision by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is based on a Pentagon legal interpretation of a law called the Pay Our Military Act.

That measure was passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama shortly before the partial government shutdown began Tuesday.

The Pentagon did not immediately say on Saturday exactly how many workers will return to work. The Defense Department said "most" were being brought back.



http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/pentagon-most-furloughed-civilians-ordered-back-to-work

[boutons_deux]

Arizona Is Only State To Stop Welfare Checks During Shutdown

Arizona appears to be the only state to have stopped cutting welfare checks during the federal government shutodown, the Arizona Republic reported (http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131004arizona-welfare-checks-shutdown.html?nclick_check=1) Friday.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer's administration announced this week that 5,700 families eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families would not be receiving their checks, which average $207 a month, while the federal government is shut down.

Federal officials have told state welfare directors that they could use alternative sources of funding during the shutdown to keep assistance programs funded, and they will be reimbursed when the federal government re-opens.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/arizona-is-only-state-to-stop-welfare-checks-during-shutdown

[Wild Cobra]

Arizona Is Only State To Stop Welfare Checks During Shutdown

Arizona appears to be the only state to have stopped cutting welfare checks during the federal government shutodown, the Arizona Republic reported (http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131004arizona-welfare-checks-shutdown.html?nclick_check=1) Friday.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer's administration announced this week that 5,700 families eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families would not be receiving their checks, which average $207 a month, while the federal government is shut down.

Federal officials have told state welfare directors that they could use alternative sources of funding during the shutdown to keep assistance programs funded, and they will be reimbursed when the federal government re-opens.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/arizona-is-only-state-to-stop-welfare-checks-during-shutdown




Politics as usual.

Brewer wants AZ to pay for keeping the national parks open, but she was told by the feds they could not allow her to do that. Why should AZ pay for these benefits then? There are 10 other states that use only federal money for TANF. You would think the feds would say "sorry. we cannot let you pay for them during the shutdown." Seems the Obamatrons in decision making positions are targeting what they want to target.

Hypocrisy...

[ChumpDumper]

Politics as usual.

Brewer wants AZ to pay for keeping the national parks open, but she was told by the feds they could not allow her to do that. Why should AZ pay for these benefits then? Seriously?

[Wild Cobra]

Seriously?
I misworded that.

The feds will not allow her to pay to keep the Grand Canyon open. One should assume the feds will not allow her to pay for TANF either.

Or...

Do you believe in hypocrisy?

[ChumpDumper]

I misworded that.

The feds will not allow her to pay to keep the Grand Canyon open. One should assume the feds will not allow her to pay for TANF either.

Or...

Do you believe in hypocrisy?Seriously?

[TDMVPDPOY]

with this shutdown, why havnt the people stand up and revolt?

[boutons_deux]

Did The Feds Really Order Scott Walker To Shut Down Wisconsin Parks?

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) this week directed a state agency to resist a federal order to close certain parks during the federal government shutdown, prompting headlines from some conservative media (http://washingtonexaminer.com/scott-walker-refuses-federal-order-to-close-state-parks/article/2536844) outlets (http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/10/03/WI-Gov-Scott-Walker-Defies-Feds-Keeps-Parks-Open). But the National Parks Service now says no such order was given. Or not exactly, anyway.

Wisconsin officials decided this week that they would keep open seven properties that are part of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve -- an "affiliated area" of the National Park System -- despite a letter sent on Tuesday to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) from the National Park Service. In the letter, a copy of which was provided to TPM, an official wrote that the National Parks Service had determined that keeping the properties open "requires substantial involvement by federal personnel that will not be available during the shutdown of government operations."

DNR officials took the letter to mean that they were being ordered to close the parks.

the seven properties in question ... only receive about 18 percent of their operating budget from the federal government.

"we were told that we were going to have to shut down these properties" (the Repug bitch LIES! Surprise, never happens.)

"Due to the government shutdown, there was no longer funding available with which to make grant payments to the DNR and on October 1 notice was given to them to suspend performance of all activities funded by that agreement. There was no directive from the National Park Service to cease operations; we merely informed them that the payments through their cooperative agreement would cease for the period of the shutdown.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/scott-walker-resists-federal-order-to-close-parks-during-shutdown

So the WI Repugs LIE to inflame the right-wing hate-media. Repug usual tactics by the Repugs. Of course, their backwoods WI bubbas will only remember the lies.

[boutons_deux]

A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning

Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan.

Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed “blueprint to defunding Obamacare (http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/ryanriebe/joint-letter-on-sequester-savings),” signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups.

It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans — including their cautious leaders — into cutting off financing for the entire federal government.

To many Americans, the shutdown came out of nowhere. But interviews with a wide array of conservatives show that the confrontation that precipitated the crisis was the outgrowth of a long-running effort to undo the law, the Affordable Care Act, since its passage in 2010 — waged by a galaxy of conservative groups with more money, organized tactics and interconnections than is commonly known.

With polls showing Americans deeply divided over the law, conservatives believe that the public is behind them. Although the law’s opponents say that shutting down the government was not their objective, the activists anticipated that a shutdown could occur — and worked with members of the Tea Party caucus in Congress who were excited about drawing a red line against a law they despise.

The current budget brinkmanship is just the latest development in a well-financed, broad-based assault on the health law

Groups like Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks are all immersed in the fight, as is Club for Growth, a business-backed nonprofit organization. Some, like Generation Opportunity and Young Americans for Liberty, both aimed at young adults, are upstarts. Heritage Action is new, too, founded in 2010 to advance the policy prescriptions of its sister group, the Heritage Foundation.

The billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, have been deeply involved with financing the overall effort. A group linked to the Kochs, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, disbursed more than $200 million last year to nonprofit organizations involved in the fight. Included was $5 million to Generation Opportunity, which created a buzz last month with an Internet advertisement showing a menacing Uncle Sam figure popping up between a woman’s legs during a gynecological exam.

On Capitol Hill, the advocates found willing partners in Tea Party conservatives, who have repeatedly threatened to shut down the government if they do not get their way on spending issues. This time they said they were so alarmed by the health law that they were willing to risk a shutdown over it. (“This is exactly what the public wants,” Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, said on the eve of the shutdown.)

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-the-planning.html?from=homepage

VRWC doesn't exist? :lol

and you libertarian fellators and tri-cornered-hat maran tea baggers are part of it by voting in your asshole politicians.

[boutons_deux]

The Triumph Of The Ratfuckers

As the Reign Of The Morons enters its third day, let uspause for a moment to pay tribute to a political visionary whose entire career presaged the current moment,anticipating the essential dynamic in play in Washington right now in all ofits petulant, kindergartenish glory. Let us raise a morning glass to DonaldSegretti, the ratfucker.

(As any student of Watergate knows, "ratfucking" was theword used by Segretti and a number of other officials in the Nixon White Housefor the dirty tricks they ran in student elections when they all were at theUniversity of Southern California. Segretti -- as well as his pal, Dwight Chapin-- simply transferred these techniques to our national elections.)

There are two basic philosophical foundation stones toratfucking.

The first is that political sabotage for its own sake is a worthyenough goal. There doesn't necessarily have to be an obvious purpose or obviouslogic behind it. Everything is simply tactics. Those tactics either work orthey don't.

To believe this, of course,one must first believe that all politics is a essentially a zero-sum game ofpower; you win and the other guy loses. Who rules? Period. One cannot for amoment contemplate the notion that politics -- and therefore, government -- hasanything to do with the public good. I trust I don't have to spell out theparallels between this elemental basis of ratfucking and what the Republicansare about in their current campaign of vandalism. This has now entered a timein which we are seeing sabotage for sabotage's own sake. Remember, theconservative rump faction has brought this shutdown upon the country becauseits members refuse to agree to a federal budget that contains lowerdiscretionary spending than even Paul Ryan contemplated. That's because now --as Congressman Marlin Stutzman pointed out clearly yesterday -- this isn't aboutthe budget, or even about economics, it's about who wins and who loses. It'sabout whether or not John Boehner, the castrato Speaker Of The House, can keephis job. The public, as was said during our previous Gilded Age, be damned.

Segretti's activities were meant to bring embarrassment andpublic scorn upon his targets. They were not aimed at proving to voters thatthe opposition was wrong. They were aimed at making it look ridiculous. HubertHumphrey's bastard child. Edmund Muskie's rallies cancelled. Sooner or later,of course, the viciousness and the schoolyard taunting can't be contained.Segretti's activities, while relatively harmless, opened the ballgame for thelate Lee Atwater's vicious race-baiting and for the entire public career ofKarl Rove, in which the latter has not drawn a single breath in which he didnot dedicate himself to the degradation of the political process and thepoisoning of the political debate.

The second basic philosophical tenet of ratfucking is that it is essentially bullying.

It is essentially about ridicule and deceit as ends in themselves. Segretti's activities were meant to bring embarrassment and public scorn upon his targets. They were not aimed at proving to voters that the opposition was wrong. They were aimed at making it look ridiculous. Hubert Humphrey's bastard child. Edmund Muskie's rallies cancelled. Sooner or later, of course, the viciousness and the schoolyard taunting can't be contained. Segretti's activities, while relatively harmless, opened the ballgame for the late Lee Atwater's vicious race-baiting and for the entire public career of Karl Rove, in which the latter has not drawn a single breath in which he did not dedicate himself to the degradation of the political process and the poisoning of the political debate.

Read more: Donald Segretti Tribute - The Triumph Of The Ratfuckers - Esquire (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/donald-segretti-ratfking-100413#ixzz2gxNUXWQ3)

In 1974, Segretti pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misdemeanor) counts of distributing illegal (in fact, forged) campaign literature and was sentenced to six months in prison, actually serving four months.

Segretti was a lawyer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawyer) who served as a prosecutor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecutor) for the military (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_United_States) and later as a civilian. However, his license was suspended (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disbarment) for two years following his conviction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Segretti

Note that Segretti actually went to prison for forging, and Chapin, while nobody has gone to prison for similar crimes in the 2000s.

[boutons_deux]

What Is John Boehner Scared Of?

Upon arriving in Congress, in 1991, Boehner quickly became the leader of a rebel faction called the "Gang of Seven" that

used overdrafts at the now defunct House bank to discredit the Democratic majority that had controlled the chamber for forty years.

After the Republicans took control, in 1994, the new House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, rewarded Boehner by bringing him into the leadership as chairman of the Republican Conference, the fourth-ranking position in the House.

He quickly shelved some of his more radical ideas-abolishing the Department of Education and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration-but he remained more conservative than the garden-variety country-club Republicans who still populated Capitol Hill.

In 1995,

he was caught passing out checks from the tobacco lobby on the House floor.

While he later apologized, the incident did nothing to harm him inside the Republican caucus.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/10/what-is-john-boehner-scared-of.html

[boutons_deux]

American Voters Reject GOP Shutdown Strategy 3-1, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Dems Up 9 Points In 2014 Congressional Races







American voters oppose 72 - 22 percent Congress shutting down the federal government to block implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.




Voters also oppose 64 - 27 percent blocking an increase in the nation's debt ceiling as a way to stop Obamacare, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.




American voters are divided on Obamacare, with 45 percent in favor and 47 percent opposed, but they are opposed 58 - 34 percent to Congress cutting off funding for the health care law to stop its implementation.




Republicans support the federal government shutdown by a narrow 49 - 44 percent margin, but opposition is 90 - 6 percent among Democrats and 74 - 19 percent among independent voters.



http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-and-centers/polling-institute/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=1958

[boutons_deux]

voters picking a generic Democrat over a generic Republican 43% to 34%, which they point out is the widest Democratic margin measured so far.



Asked “If the election for the U.S. House of Representatives were being held today, would you vote for the Republican candidate, or for the Democratic candidate in your district?”
The last time Republicans were almost this low was in April, but they managed to damage the Democratic brand with the summer of fake scandals.

Quinnipiac cautioned that we are far out from the midterms, but that the GOP brand is taking a beating, “In general, the Republican brand is down as evidenced by the Democrats’ unusually large lead in the so called generic ballot. But we have 13 months before an election can translate this public opinion edge into electoral gains and in politics that amount of time is forever.”

https://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/01/2014-warning-poll-democrats-win-republicans-43-34.html

[Wild Cobra]

I see Bouton's is shitting out posts every few minutes again.

My God... You should take some medicine...

[boutons_deux]

I see Bouton's is shitting out posts every few minutes again.

My God... You should take some medicine...

WC needs a huge dose, hourly, of reality.

[boutons_deux]

after vowing he won't cause federal default....

Boehner: The Nation Will Be On ‘The Path’ To Default If Obama Doesn’t Accept GOP Demands (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/10/06/2738351/boehner-well-be-on-the-path-towards-default-if-obamas-doesnt-accept-gop-demands/)

STEPHANOPOULOS: He continues to refuse to negotiate, the country is going to default?

BOEHNER: That’s the path we’re on. The president canceled his trip to Asia. I assume — he wants to have a conversation. I decided to stay here in washington this weekend. He knows what my phone number is. All he has to do is call.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/10/06/2738351/boehner-well-be-on-the-path-towards-default-if-obamas-doesnt-accept-gop-demands/

the Repugs, if they cave on trashing ACA, have already won on the budget, with the Senate CR bill the House is very close to Ryan's sociopathic, unbalanced, fuck the 99% /enrich the 1% budget, approved by the House 3 times.

[boutons_deux]

GOP In Grave Danger Of Losing House In 2014, PPP Polls Show

Shutting down the government may end up costing Republicans control of the House of Representatives.

A series of polls released Sunday show just how damaging the shutdown has been for the GOP. The liberal-leaning Public Policy Polling compiled two dozen surveys, commissioned and paid for by MoveOn.org Political Action, from House districts around the country, taken from Oct. 2 through Oct. 4. Sample sizes were between 600 and 700 voters in each district.

For Democrats to win a House majority, 17 seats would need to switch to their party's favor. Results show that would be within reach, as Republican incumbents are behind in 17 of the districts analyzed: CA-31, CO-06, FL-02, FL-10, FL-13, IA-03, IA-04, IL-13, KY-06, MI-01, MI-07, MI-11, NY-19, OH-14, PA-07, PA-08, WI-07. In four districts, the incumbent Republican fell behind after respondents were told their representative supported the government shutdown: CA-10, NY-11, NY-23, VA-02. Three districts saw GOP incumbents maintain their hold over their Democratic challengers, even after hearing their elected officials' views on the shutdown, including CA-21, NV-03 and OH-06.
Back in 2012, Democrats picked up eight seats (http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/2012/results/house) in the House, closing the gap of Republican control to 234-201.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/06/gop-house-2014-polls_n_4050686.html

I expect as the Repug base of poor, white rurals, even in red states, sign up for ACA, and Repugs now in the individual insurance market switch to plans in the exchanges to save $1000/year, the Repugs will lose even more popular support.

yes, the bloody minded VRWC campaign to destroy ACA's possiblities of success are well founded on fears of getting fucked horribly electorally.

[boutons_deux]

...

[boutons_deux]

Cruz insists that he has ‘not remotely’ hurt the Republican Party brand

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday asserted that his crusade to kill President Barack Obama’s health care law by shutting down the U.S. government had not damaged the Republican Party in any way.

During an interview on CNN, host Candy Crowley asked Cruz if he had hurt the GOP brand.

“Not remotely,” Cruz laughed. “But I also think far too many people are worried about politics.”

“Listen, if we worry about what’s impacting the American people, the politics will take care of itself,” he continued. “The politicians that are gazing at polls — there is a reason why the most common sentiment across this country is that politicians aren’t listening to us, there’s a reason why Congress has a 10 to 15 percent approval rating.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/06/cruz-insists-that-he-has-not-remotely-hurt-the-republican-party-brand/

:lol Cruz and his fucked up father living in their own fantasies.

[boutons_deux]

I see Bouton's is shitting out posts every few minutes again.

My God... You should take some medicine...

Dramatic, historic period.

Retrograde Repugs win the continuing resolution with sequester cuts locked in but still are assholes and shut down govt trying to maim ACA, while ACA, the first truly progressive program in decades, is launched, with real possiblity of screwing the Repugs out of power for decades.

And the Repugs are threatening to force US Treasury into default. Exciting times

[boutons_deux]

The White Man’s Last Tantrum?

With the U.S. government shutdown and a threatened credit default, Tea Party Republicans are testing out a new system of national governance in which they get their way – or else. But is this the beginning of a new Jim Crow era of imposed white supremacy or just the white man’s last tantrum, asks Robert Parry.

American pundits are missing the bigger point about the Republican shutdown of the U.S. government and the GOP’s threatened default on America’s credit. The real question is not what policy concessions the Tea Partiers may extract, but rather can a determined right-wing white minority ensure continuation of white supremacy in the United States?

For years, political scientists have been talking about how the demographic changes in the United States are inexorably leading to a Democratic majority, with Hispanics and Asian-Americans joining African-Americans and liberal urban whites to erode the political domains of white conservatives and white racists.

But those predictions have always assumed a consistent commitment to the democratic principle of one person, one vote – and a readiness of Republicans to operate within the traditional standards of democratic governance. But what should now be crystal clear is that those assumptions are faulty.

Instead of accepting the emergence of this more diverse and multi-cultural America, the Right – through the Tea Party-controlled Republicans – has decided to alter the constitutional framework of the United States to guarantee the perpetuation of white supremacy and the acceptance of right-wing policies.

In effect, we are seeing the implementation of a principle enunciated by conservative thinker William F. Buckley in 1957: “The white community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically.” Except now the Buckley rule is being applied nationally.

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/10/04/the-white-mans-last-tantrum/

[m>s]

i for one am ready to fight and die to make sure that my country remains my country to answer the question in your article boutons, get ready for a 2nd civil war with enough tenacity and hatred spilling out to put the first one to shame. the ferociousness of this one will be more on the level of stalingrad or leningrad if it comes to that. the failures in vietnam and afghanistan should have taught the globalists a thing or two but for some reason they're not as smart as they try to act like. the outcome of this guerilla war war will be the same as all the others.

[ChumpDumper]

So m>s is declaring himself to be the same as the Viet Cong and Taliban.

OK.