;)
The Commentariat -- Oct. 16, 2013
Lori Montgomery, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced a bipartisan deal on Wednesday to raise the debt limit through Feb. 7 and end the 16-day-old government shutdown. The bill must be passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and signed by the president, and it is unclear whether all that can happen before the Treasury Department exhausts its borrowing power Thursday. It avoids any major concessions on Obama's signature Affordable Care Act, a major victory for Democrats and a repudiation to House and Senate Republicans who for weeks tried to use the threat of a shutdown and potential default to force changes in the health-care law." ...
... Jonathan Chait: The debt ceiling crisis is over. ...
** Boehner Bites the Bullet? Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "The House will vote first on an emerging Senate proposal to open government and lift the debt ceiling, a move that would expedite bipartisan legislation developed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The move means that there is now a clear path to end the first government shutdown in 17 years, and the country now appears closer to avoiding the first potential economy-shaking default on U.S. debt.... The fact that House Republicans are now planning to go that route marks a stunning reversal for the speaker...." ...
... Jonathan Weisman, et al., of the New York Times: "House Republican leaders, who had appeared stymied in their efforts earlier in the day, rushed out a new proposal Tuesday afternoon that would reopen the government through Dec. 15, extend the government's borrowing authority until Feb. 7 and eliminate government contributions to lawmakers, White House officials and their staffs for their purchases of health insurance on the new insurance exchanges. Under the new plan, the Treasury Department would be forbidden to use 'extraordinary measures' -- juggling government accounts -- to extend its borrowing capabilities. Speaker John A. Boehner was hoping to bring a bill to a vote as early as Tuesday evening." CW: Sounds as if they want the government to default; otherwise, why prevent extraordinary measures, which has been the only thing keeping Treasury afloat while Congress fiddles. ...
... Update. New Lede: "On the brink of a historic default, House Republicans on Tuesday abruptly postponed a vote on their latest proposal to reopen the government and raise the debt limit, as a major credit agency warned that the United States was on the verge of a costly ratings downgrade. Hard-line conservatives and more pragmatic Republicans were in open revolt Tuesday evening, after the House Republican leadership rushed out a new bill in the afternoon, forcing a postponement of any vote on the measure. With the latest delay, chances increased that a resolution would not be reached before the Treasury exhausted its borrowing authority on Thursday." ...
... Update 2. According to the latest version of the story, Reid & McConnell are back to negotiating with each other, to what end I know not....
... ** Update 3. Clusterfuck Strategy. Let's hope Zeke Miller & Alex Altman of Time are right: "... in the perverse ways of modern Washington, [John Boehner's] Tuesday-night defeat may soon be marked in the history books as a step forward.... The path forward, which looked murky for a moment on Tuesday afternoon, now looks clear: the Senate will cut a bipartisan deal, and Boehner will be forced to pass it with Democratic votes. He has said repeatedly that the U.S. will not and cannot default." ...
... CW: My big mistake -- & I wasn't the only one to make it -- was believing that John Boehner & some of his House colleagues had the fortitude to stand up the the Tea Party. Maybe Boehner & Co. will pull something out of a hat Wednesday, but I don't know that today is so much different from two-plus weeks ago when they allowed the shutdown. Maybe nobody's using firearms, but this is a civil war, & the revolutionaries include ALL the House Republicans, not just the Tea Party tail that's wagging the dog. From Boehner on down, they're all traitors. Saul Jackman of the Brookings Institution just wrote a post urging President Obama to sign an executive order raising the debt ceiling, & he cites the President's emergency powers. I have been thinking along those lines exactly. The President no longer has the luxury of standing around making sandwiches for a few poor people. He has a duty to act on behalf of the country. Impeachment is a small price to pay. ...
... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "Obama's debt ceiling gamble may be paying off.... Scorched by the July 2011 fight that hurt the economy and his political standing (though not so badly as the Republicans'), Mr. Obama was determined to undo the precedent he had set by making concessions -- in that case, more than $2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, including the across-the-board reductions known as sequestration -- so that Congress would ensure that the government paid its bills." ...
... Wall Street Journal Editors urge the House to throw in the towel: "Republicans can best help their cause now by getting this over with and moving on to fight more intelligently another day." ...
I ran on defunding, burying and getting rid of Obamacare ... a lot of the members of our house, of our conference, ran on the same thing. So for us not to speak up is not to speak up for the American people. -- Rep. Ted Yoho (RTP-Fla.), defending his refusal to vote for any House bill that doesn't defund the ACA
... CW: During the interview (by Jake Tapper of CNN), economist Yoho claimed that "... You know, we hit the debt ceiling in 1985. We didn't raise the debt ceiling. We hit it and we didn't raise it for three and a half months. We're still here. We hit it again in 1995. For four and a half months, they didn't raise the debt ceiling. We survived that. We will survive this." What that genius Yoho doesn't understand is that in 1985 & 1995 the Secretary of the Treasury took extraordinary measures to pay the bills, something Jack Lew began doing months ago. ...
... Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "It's extortion for the sake of extortion," as it has been all along. ...
... Josh Barro, a self-described Republican, of Business Insider: "There is no serious argument for Republican governance right now, even if you prefer conservative policies over liberal ones. These people are just too dangerously incompetent to be trusted with power." ...
... Dana Milbank captures some of the absurdity of the moment, including House Republicans joining in a few choruses of "Amazing Grace." ...
... Maureen Dowd writes perhaps her worst column ever, tho she does have a few good grafs about Cruz & Palin & Vitter. ...
... Greg Sargent: "Dem Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a key ally of the Dem leadership and White House, told House Democrats at a private meeting today that a vote for the new House GOP plan is a vote for a deliberate Tea Party effort to sabotage the emerging Senate deal. In an interview with me, Van Hollen strongly suggested it will get no Democratic votes, which could call into question the ability of Republicans to pass this plan through the House, as some conservatives are already balking at it because it raises the debt limit 'This has no Democratic support,' Van Hollen told me." ...
... Neil Irwin of the Washington Post explains the "sunk cost fallacy" to House dimwits. "If there is to be a successful resolution of the debt ceiling and government shutdown standoff, it will be because House Republicans come to grips with an important concept that they have, to date, showed little appreciation for. It is called the sunk cost fallacy. A sunk cost is something you're not going to get back.... The fact that House Republicans have 'fought so hard' is irrelevant to the future costs and benefits of any deal. The more the caucus is making decisions based on what happened in the past, the less likely they are to make strategy decisions that are best for both the country's and their own future prospects." ...
... CNBC/Reuters: "Fitch Ratings put the US government's 'AAA' credit rating on 'rating watch negative' Tuesday, saying that the standstill on the U.S. debt ceiling negotiations risks undermining the effectiveness of the country's government and political institutions. U.S. stock index futures fell." ...
... Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: The impending default could cause delays in distribution of Social Security payments.
Issa Unaware Government Shutdown Means Government Shuts Down. Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "Closing national monuments to make life difficult for the public during a government shutdown is 'disgusting' and 'despicable,' House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa said at the start of a hearing Wednesday on the National Park Service's decision-making. Democrats responded by asking who shut down the government."
Frank Rich: "The present-day anti-government radicals in Congress, and the Americans who voted them into office, are in the minority, but they are a permanent minority that periodically disrupts or commandeers a branch or two of the federal government, not to mention the nation's statehouses. Their brethren have been around for much of our history in one party or another, and with a constant anti-democratic aim: to thwart the legitimacy of a duly elected leader they abhor, from Lincoln to FDR to Clinton to Obama, and to resist any laws with which they disagree. So deeply rooted are these furies in our national culture that their consistency and tenacity should be the envy of other native political movements." ...
... Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post: "Today’s tea party-ized Republicans speak less for Wall Street or Main Street than they do for the seething resentments of white Southern backwaters and their geographically widespread but ideologically uniform ilk. Their theory of government, to the extent that they have one, derives from John C. Calhoun's doctrine of nullification -- that states in general and white minorities in particular should have the right to overturn federal law and impede majority rule. Like their predecessors in the Jim Crow South, today's Republicans favor restricting minority voting rights if that is necessary to ensure victory at the polls."
Paul Krugman on "the GOP tax": researchers at Macroeconomic Advisers have bound that bad fiscal policy promulgated by Republicans has cost the country billions & has resulted in a 1.4 percent higher unemployment rate. (And they're not even talking about the effects of the shutdown & looming default.)
Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The greatest threats to the ultimate success of the new health-care law come not from the technical problems that have plagued its rollout, but from a hostile political climate in many individual states and from potentially serious weaknesses in its design. Those are the conclusions of a cautionary report just published by the Brookings Institution's new Center for Effective Public Management."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a major case challenging Environmental Protection Agency regulations concerning greenhouse gases. The case is a sequel to Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, a 2007 decision that required the agency to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles if it found they endangered public health or welfare. Two years later, the agency made such a finding, saying that 'elevated concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere' pose a danger to 'current and future generations.' It set limits on emissions from both new vehicles and stationary sources.
Tom Edsall of the New York Times on campaign finance: "... more than a quarter of the money spent on political campaigns in 2012 came from 0.1 percent of the American population.... Corruption and the appearance of corruption are here to stay. The difference now is that the squalid character of the system has become institutionalized. It's so deeply integrated into the routine of Congress that, McCutcheon [-- the case before the Supreme Court --] notwithstanding, the American political-monetary complex provokes cynicism and apathy rather than outrage, protest or indignation. It is also kindling for fiery populists on both the left and the right."
President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to former Capt. Will Swenson. Quite a moving ceremony & the President got in a dig at Republican obstructionists:
... BUT. Jonathan Landay of McClatchy News: videos show that the story told by Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer, who also received the Medal of Honor for his part in the battle for which Swenson received his, is inaccurate & "show no Taliban in that vicinity or anywhere else on the floor of the Ganjgal Valley at the time and location of the 'swarm.' The videos also conflict with the version of the incident in Marine Corps and White House accounts of how Meyer, now 25, of Columbia, Ky., came to be awarded the nation's highest military decoration for gallantry." Swenson's account, and others, contradict Meyer's story. Landay does not question Swenson's actions. Via Charles Pierce, who writes glowingly of Landay.
President Obama made remarks Monday at Martha's Table about the government shutdown:
Local News
Greg Moran of the San Diego Union-Tribune: "Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s professional and personal collapse continued Tuesday when he pleaded guilty to three criminal charges that he grabbed and fondled women during his brief time at City Hall. The 71-year-old Filner pleaded guilty to one felony charge of false imprisonment and two misdemeanor charges of battery at a hearing in San Diego Superior Court. The former 10-term congressman's pleas came just two days before a criminal grand jury was set to hear evidence against him. As part of the plea deal with the state Attorney General's Office, Filner will not face any jail or prison time. Instead he will be sentenced to three years of probation. He will also have to serve three months of home confinement and will be banned from ever seeking or holding public office again."
News Ledes
New Jersey Star-Ledger: "After an abbreviated but heated two month campaign, polls are now open and voters can cast their ballots in the special U.S. Senate election between Democrat Cory Booker and Republican Steve Lonegan." ...
... UPDATE: Election results at nj.com (No winner called as of 8:30 pm ET) ...
... UPDATE 2: The Associated Press has called the vote for Booker.
New York Times: "A month after JPMorgan acknowledged that 'severe breakdowns' had allowed a group of traders in London to run up $6 billion in losses, the bank has preliminarily reached a rare agreement to admit that the trading blowup itself represented reckless behavior, according to people briefed on the negotiations." ...
... UPDATE: "... the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ... announced on Wednesday that JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s biggest bank, agreed to pay $100 million and admit wrongdoing to settle an investigation into market manipulation involving the bank's multibillion-dollar trading loss in London."
Share Article
Reader Comments (26)
I am becoming increasingly convinced the Tea Partiers, who after all are the product of the 1% financing, are firmly set on creating default to cause interest rates to rise.
Rising interest rates are in the best interests of the people who control the great majority of the money in our economy. Rising rates bring to market tangible assets held by leveraged risk takers who have been banking on continued low rates dictated by the Fed. The more rates rise, the better the deals to be had. Tough shit for the 99%.
@Roger Henry
...Or... They want the President to take an executive action to prevent default, to which they would respond with impeachment proceedings. If he doesn't and we default, well the that would be unconstitutional. Gohmert tipped the hand at the value voters conference. Either way they get to impeach. Rotten to the core these people are.
@ Roger & Dave: Or both.
After all these years of praising St. Reagan and his "government is not the solution, government is the problem" mantra, the right wing has succeeded in bringing government to its knees. They shut it down and are preparing to renege on our debts in an effort to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States government. And make no mistake, this is deliberate effort to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States government.
But now they're finding out that, when push comes to shove, the large majority of Americans don't really buy into that Reaganesque bulls***. They WANT their Medicare, they WANT their Social Security, they WANT their national parks, their FDA, their CDC, and their monuments.
So what do these tea partiers do? They try to convince us that the party they've bashed as being the party of big government all these years is actually the party that wants to shut it all down. They try to tell us that the party that has spent the last thirty years telling us that the government is the source of all our problems is now actually trying to preserve our government.
What rank hypocrisy. What stunning, unmitigated gall. It's enough to make one physically ill.
I do hope Obama takes Executive Action to avoid defaulting. I relish the thought of the rancid Tea Baggers--and their Paul Revere, Louis Gohmert, propose impeachment. After what these Neanderthals have done to the American people and to our government, I think the public's reaction would be outrage! Except, of course, for those racist states in the South and their bigoted brethren in parts of the Plains and Middle West. I really, really would like them to begin secession proceedings.
Bring it on!
Obama should sign that executive order. Let them impeach. Two Democatic presidents over the last thirty years. One impeached for blow jobs - one impeached for being blah. That ought to cement the Republican's reputation.
On my commute I tuned in to CSPAN, to the tail end of what seemed to be a Heritage round table discussing potential for individual civil action (lawsuits) against the USG for denial of access to National Park sites closed during the shutdown. In response to a tendentious question from a participant, (Greatly condensed short form - "Why would the Park Service want to deny citizens their rights?"), a Heritage lawyer on the panel responded, "Who knows? Why does the sun rise? Why does it set?" and then went on to suppose that it is because the Park Service has a spiteful disrespect for "the people." All in an aggrieved and unctious tone.
I suppose it would be too much for a Heritage rep to respond that when the government is closed, its non-critical functions are unavailable to the people. Or own up to the fact that Heritage is an instigator of the problem, and is using it to create confusion and fear, and the closure of monuments on the Mall provides them a great symbolic cudgel to foster that divisive effort. Encouraging lawsuits is just Stage IV of the disruption plan.
But I had to laugh that a Heritage lawyer doesn't know why the sun rises or sets. He probably thought he was being poetic or metaphorical -- I thought it was a great metaphor for false pride in abysmal ignorance.
And ... the war monuments are technically closed, but the global war is not.
Finally ... separate subject ... I understand the frustration that leads us to desire the President to bait impeachment by executive action. But an impeachment under such circumstances would do as much or more damage to the US than a default would. And it would really scare people around the world, to whom we are still a symbol of hope and justice (despite all). Can you imagine an "impeachment coup" that signals to the people of the world that the country with the greatest ability to deliver nuclear weapons anywhere, any time, is now run by crazy people?
Holy shit these traitors not only tied up our government in the back seat but they've also shot out their knee caps while cruzing towards the cliff with their bottle of bourbon. I never thought the sugar daddys would ever let the shit show go this far, but the fact that we're potentially one day away from international shame and embarrassment is beyond comprehensible. The backwood brethren clearly aren't THAT influential in this clusterfuck to warrant such treacherous actions. Other forces are at work in the shadows here.
Boehner has clearly lost his fucking mind. He seriously needs rehab. Take him off the bottle and throw his ass in rehab. Bring in the specialists to pray the cray' away.
@Patrick: Your concern about an "impeachment coup" is overblown, I think. First, it is likely that an impeachment effort will arise whatever Obama does or doesn't do -- Sarah Palin said this past weekend that Obama should be impeached for defaulting on the U.S. debt, ferchrissakes. Second, it isn't clear that a bill of impeachment would pass the House. It seems quite possible that a couple of dozen House Republicans would vote against it -- unless the leadership pressured them to vote in favor. Third, there is no chance the Senate would convict. There could be an 85-15 vote against conviction.
As Kate M. writes, the majority of the public would likely be outraged by the effort. At the very least, the public will view impeachment as an extremist stunt. (That's why I think many House Republicans would vote against it.) The President should hire a team of lawyers & go about his business as usual, virtually ignoring the crazies. It's possible that some in the international community who aren't aware of what a bunch of jokers we have in the House would be a bit concerned, but I think Wall Streeters have the sense to recognize folly. The crazies will lose this skirmish & only further expose their lunacy.
Marie
Marie: Maybe I should have written "impeachment coup attempt." I certainly don't think the attempt would succeed, at least not to conviction.
But the potential for damage is real. These people are not sane, and the world will see that. And it is scary to think of the (still really powerful) might of the US bent by crazies.
@Patrick: Nonetheless, I can't see why the financial world would find an actual default now better than no default followed by an impeachment effort by the same crazies who thought a default was "good for us." Clinton's impeachment had almost zero effect on the markets, & for awhile it wasn't a sure thing that he would survive a Senate vote. For your theory to hold, you have to assume that the world markets would (a) assume Obama would lose his job & (b) be more afraid of a Biden presidency than of a Gore presidency.
Marie
@safari: I believe I said this some time back. Boehner needs rehab. He should take the out that many other politicians and celebrities have taken: check himself into rehab and say to Cantor on the way out "It's your problem now."
IMHO what the Republicans are doing is TREASON, including most of the Georgia delegation. Note to Yoho: A veterinary practice is not the same as a government.
A few thoughts about the Republican mob as presently constituted before I head off for a couple of weeks and watch our National Theater from a greater distance.
Marie thought Speaker Boehner and some of the other House leaders would have more fortitude. I had hoped so, too, but that they did not might tell us something we should have known. Today's Republican party attracts certain personality types, many of which have been named here: authoritarian certainly, ignorant often, self-centered always, but brave? I've not seen it. This is the party of the chicken hawks, remember? The party that starts wars only if they are sure other people, never themselves, will have to fight them.
And....it is the party that deliberately attracts the fearful and timid, whose primary recruiting tools are fright and resentment of those other guys who are out to get you. Manipulative and cynical, yes; courageous, willing to sacrifice self in pursuit of large, encompassing, humanitarian goals? Never. That's not what the Republicans are about.
Pundits speak of a split in the party. I don't see it, or don't see it the same way as most pundits. Pundits say the party has been taken over by insurrectionists. If by that word we mean True Believers who have simply swallowed and excreted a purified form of the business ethic (a contradiction in terms?) that animated the old Republicans, you know, the party of business that has never known or cared about much but money, maybe. But I don't think that's what the pundits mean. They mean to bathe those they call the moderate Republicans of yore, that disappearing species, in the glowing light of nostalgia, as being reasonable and responsible, unlike their loony successors.
I get the argument, but for my part I see Tea Baggers' beliefs and behaviors as natural extensions of the business model, self-centered and selfish, and who as they have been taught by their consumer culture find meaning only in the worship of things that can be bought, sold and profited by. For them social connections don't exist outside of business arrangements, where one is always counting coup or taking advantage. That's the way they view the world; and if you're always watching out for the other guy, that guy who's out to get you, paranoia becomes a way of life.
The main difference then between the Baggers and the lamented and shrinking moderate faction within the party of R's is that the moderates might be more cautious and not so likely to burn down the block in which they live because they have more to lose...
But outside of that the Bagger and the moderates are brothers and sisters under the skin, and IMHO equally deserving of obloquy and dislike.
I have been screaming at the teevee and the computer during this whole shutdown debacle that there was more to this than repealing/defunding the ACA (and I'm not a conspiracy theorist). It seemed like I was the lone voice. This is about Obama and this is the TP's treasonous plan to bring down this president and drown the government in the bathtub, the two missions they've had since the 2008 election. John Boehner is either an unwitting (dimwit for sure) accomplice or he knows exactly what is happening. Why is nothing being done to stop them?
Teabagging Frankensteins.
I have to agree with the opinion that none of the Masters of the Universe are praying, teabag-like, for default. Predictions from all but the imbecile teabagger traitors in congress are making it painfully clear that the fallout from the nation's inability to service the national debt will be far worse than the Lehman implosion, and that little party triggered an international economic tsunami that has yet to fully abate, at least for average, non-MOTU types.
The fact is they can't control the yo-yos. Even the Kochs, who shovel scads of shekels their way, can't ride herd on the monsters they've helped create.
And monsters they are. Someone recently compared the teabagging tyros in congress to kidnappers who have no problem shooting their captive and they'll snip off body parts to send back for identification to prove how crazy they are. The hope is that they'll get their ransom because the other side cares more for the life of the victim than they do their money. That's the game they're playing here.
And they don't actually care about the harm they're about to inflict on national and global economies because they don't really know much about it. Don't know, don't care. Besides, they listen to Fox and Limbaugh and Drudge--all highly respected economists, by the by--who tell them that forcing the country into default is the noble and righteous thing to do, that this will show everyone that the government can get by with far less. They don't recognize or don't care about the fiduciary (and governmental) responsibilities they agreed to shoulder when they took an oath to uphold the Constitution. There's that problem with responsibility again.
So what do we have? We have people who are ruthless but stupid. Childish but dangerous. Cavalier with rules but quick to force others to abide by their own. Intemperate with their perceived powers but oblivious to their duty as members of congress, and American citizens.
I have no doubt that they will not back down. That would mean, in their small minds and withered hearts, losing to their hated enemy, the Kenyan fascist/socialist. You can hear the insanity whenever they compare a healthcare plan to the Holocaust or the institution of slavery. They are idiots. And they're scaring the shit out of the rest of the world.
If it weren't for their safely gerrymandered districts, it would be my hope that they would all be sent packing in the next go 'round. But that ain't happening and no one on the Republican side, as others here have noted, will say boo to these Frankenstein monsters.
Oh, that they should all slip away on an ice floe as did the monster and his creator in Mary Shelley's imagination.
The big difference is that at least Shelley's monster had a heart and a conscience.
Actually, this snippet from Charlie Pierce could have a fill in the blank space to include such as Steve fking King, et al.
"Ted fking Yoho."
"A guy who should be a minor annoyance at zoning board meetings in Florida is suddenly capable of helping to bring down the financial stability of the world."
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/today-in-the-reign-of-morons-101613
Read the Frank Rich article earlier this week and sat on commenting about it, I think he always has a reasoned assessment on current situations (he usually does)...though the 'there's not much hope for improvement in politics because of gerrymandering, tea-partiers, etc. SAFE in their home districts' tone tends to leave me feeling frustrated. Options for change seem far off. It's just more kick-the-can nonsense ahead.
P.S. Never underestimate, no make that never OVERestimate the intelligence of some people. Just spotted a comment below Jonathan Chait's latest article about the end of the debt ceiling crisis:
"... Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor??!!!
We definitely need education reform in this country. Bring back History classes, Civics classes, Geography classes. Oy!
If, as it appears, a solution is on the horizon (and we're not talking about a cure for cancer here, more like discovering that when it rains, you get wet), it seems that the cowards in the MonkeyHouse are going to let the Senate bail them out then vote on the bill after the the Senate passes it. That way they can attempt some weird sort of face saving jiggety-jig by claiming that Republicans in the other chamber sold them out. Those rat bastards!
It will be fun to see these pig fuckers squirm. But, true to their monster heritage, they'll mindlessly lumber off to wreak havoc somewhere else. Just because the government will be allowed to do its business for a few months doesn't mean the zombie apocalypse is over. Hell, no.
Right Wing World will move on to the next source of outrage. Holy mother, there are so many. There are textbook companies that don't plaster pictures of Jesus on every page. Do you believe that shit? There are poor people (not white, Southern poor people though...they're decent) scarfing up food they don't deserve. There's election fraud everywhere you look. Liberals are coming to take our guns. And of course, there is always the president who, during the Sacred Shutdown, kept a National Mooslim Museum opened with his own money.
What? You didn't know that? It was all over Fox. C'mon.
The end result is that, once again, wingnuts make the entire country look like club-footed amateurs with inner ear problems trying to learn to how to sway in place without falling over.
@Akhilleus I think your assessment of the Tea Bag contingent is exactly right. As Rich opined, I'm afraid we are in for much more of the same. This is a perfect storm of true believers, ignorance and character disorders both in Congress and in groups of certain voters. The legislators are led by the blazing sociopathy of Ted Cruz whose thirst for power is his only goal and Obama hate drives many voters. Then you have the Speaker, supposedly managing this mess. Boehner's alcoholism dictates his state of mind and his actions, neither of which are in the interests of the country. I think he is just trying to hang on to the bar stool to avoid falling flat on his face on the floor.
Now that the Senate has reached a deal, perhaps the impeachment question will be moot, maybe not. Patrick, I see your point about the influence of an Obama impeachment preceding. Clinton's impeachment was about a sexual action, disguised as perjury. Obama has already spent his presidency defending his legitimacy to even hold office each and every day. The default of the US based on a President's interpretation of the Constitution is a far more serious issue than Clinton's BJ.
Currently, the US is negotiating with both Syria and Iran, attempting to exit Afghanistan, major unrest in the Middle East, a cold warish relationship with Russia and is the subject of scolding from various other countries around the NSA spying scandals. All in all, the international markers are much more volatile than in Clinton's era and the US occupies a less powerful place in the world.
BTW. It looks like there is progress on the Iranian front.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/16/world/meast/iran-nuclear-talks/index.html (and others)
Hey, it just occurred to me that the 'baggers may try to find some way to claim that they were the ones who fixed this problem. Kind of like the arsonist who runs into the house he just set ablaze to rescue the cat so he can puff out his chest and strut his heroism.
Oh, the humanity!
Diane and Patrick,
Interesting about a possible impeachment. The monsters have already demonstrated that playing by the rules and worrying about terrible PR is not for them and the media echo chamber rewards every act of frightening stupidity with virtual statues all across Right Wing World. There is no penalty for idiocy. Not even for treason. So what the hell, let the wild impeachment rumpus begin.
After all, it fucked up Clinton pretty good. Large chunks of his second term agenda ended up in the White House dumpsters. Who cares if (whatever's left of) the mainstream media blows a gasket over another partisan witch hunt?
Ken Starr is considered a god by wingnuts for his part in sussing out the great blow job caper. Plenty of the current GOP membership cut their teeth on trying to impeach a president, so why not Impeachment Redux?
If just one wingnut can hold on to his cache of weapons, it will be worth it.
Maureen Dowd, who used to be one of the leaders in opinion journalism, has fallen on hard times. Here's my (as yet unpublished) reply to her fatuous column from this morning:
In the spirit of Godwin's Law, which says that any heated political discussion will eventually include the word "Hitler," I'd like to add Mahoney's Rule: No political discussion shall devolve into fictitious musings about how Jeb Bartlet would have behaved or which arms Frank Underwood would twist and how hard.
Good Lord, Maureen, your column was once one (actually, two) of the highlights of my week. These days, how difficult do you find it to state that one party, which for thirty years openly has done everything in its power to sap the government's strength, is now actively sabotaging that same government?
Clearly, desultorily engaging in two land wars in Asia does not bother these nabobs; nor does it bother them to hand trillions of dollars to the Wall Street banks (in Twelve Step programs this sort of behavior is called "enabling") to continue a worldwide craps game.
Giving away our thrift to absentee farmers and agribusiness also doesn't engage these worthies' ire. Nor does subsidizing oil companies, which have made tidy profits since, like, forever.
When government shovels money from the pockets of the poor and middle-class into the accounts of the rich and well-connected, it's business as usual. However, try to reverse that fiduciary flow, and, well, we can't have that, can we?
Ten years ago I knew Maureen Dowd. I felt in my Maine anonymity that Maureen Dowd was a friend of mine. You can finish this thought in the voice of Lloyd Bentsen.
Come back. We miss you.
I love ...love...love Pierce's description of centrists: "There are three kinds of people who claim to be centrists in this country today. There are embarrassed Republicans. There are lazy people. And there are liars. There is no fourth alternative."
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/response-to-new-american-center-101613
MAG, "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" Isn't that a Blutto line from Animal House? Maybe Animal House was before your time.
I agree Civics, Geography and History need to come back to HS classrooms. Not, however, the abysmal , boring history books of the past. The question is, how to find time to study these things when football, soccer, basketball, hockey, and baseball practice fill young peoples high school afternoons and evenings.
Okay, so there's joy in Mudville tonight. But I don't understand the final graf of the Jonathan Weisman & Jennifer Steinhauer NYT piece, which is a bolt from the non sequitur blue:
"House Democrats remained confused and angry. On a scale of 1 to 10, 'this is a 12,' in terms of ridiculousness, said Jackie Speier, Democrat of California. 'This is like a preschool that’s gone awry. I’ve been in public office for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it.'” WTF does this have to do with the story? Please explain.
@Roger Henry. Don't I wish that 'Animal House' was before my time. (Tho' I never saw it). So you think the poster was being cutely 'witty' or somethin? Still, wouldn't it make a splendid man-on-the-street query. It could be multiple choice. Bet the results would be nifty.
@James Singer. Must be a feeble attempt to show "both sides are to blame." I can't see where any Democrats are "confused"; "angry," yes.
Marie