US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

They talked at the White House last night till 11 and are supposed to continue today. Ugh. This federal government worker is still wondering if I am going to be considered "essential" or not, and my additional selfish concern is if I will have to eat my plane and hotel tickets for the April 20th vacation I planned that involved going to national parks. I bought them awhile ago. If I am considered "essential" I cannot take leave and have to work. If I am considered non-essential I could go but the national parks will be closed! They're supposed to let us know by Friday the 8th whether we're "essential" or not. During the Gingrich shutdown I was not, but I have a different job now with the same Agency.

I wouldn't bet on a weeklong shutdown,

Obama is likely to fold before then

Ha, right, which means they'll likely cut your job before they furlough you!

(Just kidding, hope you keep your job)

This is nothing new, but the NY Times has an article about representatives who voted for cuts and then when they got home to their district turned around and fought to restore and retain the 'cut' projects for their district. Below is the rationalization by freshman Washington state rep Jaime Herrera Beutler. As a candidate, Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler denounced stimulus spending and, once elected, voted for a Republican budget bill that would make $61 billion in cuts to a vast array of programs this year

The Port of Washington's 10 million grant was scheduled to be cut by the House vote. After voting to cut the funding, Beutler acted to restore it after constituents contacted her.

Ms. Herrera Beutler, Ms. Wagner said, has been “incredibly receptive” to their concerns.

Ms. Herrera Beutler’s spokesman said the project in her district was small relative to total government spending.

“We’re talking about $10 million out of a more than $1 trillion bill,” said the spokesman, Casey Bowman. “There are likely other small cuts made in H.R. 1 that she didn’t fully agree with but she voted to cut spending over all because, as economists have said, cutting federal spending will help economic recovery.”

as economists have said, cutting federal spending will help economic recovery.”

Most economists have NOT said that.

Keynes was WRONG!

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada said on Thursday that disagreements over abortion funding and environmental rules were holding up a budget deal. NY Times

Cos those issues are really making up the majority of our national deficit.

Also, may radioactive oil tsunamis destroy every congressperson's beachfront property in 2012.

God, I can already see Obama caving on the EPA riders, maybe Wednesday next week.

If he does...grrrrrrrrr. I hope there would be a massive protest.

if Obama is smart (which he may not be, at this point) he is aware that not compromising will be a sop to his base that will help him in '12. we'll see.

Clinton just barely won in '96, thx to Perot, and Obama likely won't have the same margin of error. unless Trump forms his own party lol.

Shakey, Clinton's electoral mandate in '96 was comfortable, which was enough to make Perot a non-factor.

Yeah, wtf, Shakey? Dole lost that election from the get-go. He was the Republican version of Mondale.

we've had this argument before.

Clinton: 49.2%
Dole: 40.7%
Perot: 8.4%

you realize that 40.7 + 8.4 = 49.1, right

can't tell if you're impressed by Clinton's whopping 0.1% margin of victory there

(IOW, going by who actually voted, even assuming every Perot voter would have switched to Dole, Clinton still would have won)

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/04/third_party_myth_easterbrook

The myths that just won't die
Repeat after me: Ross Perot didn't cost George H.W. Bush the election

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/cathie-black-is-out-as-chancellor/

This is INSANE; she can't even have put up pictures in her office yet

can you guys even read? I'm not talking about '92.

and like I said: Clinton just barely won in '96, thx to Perot, and Obama likely won't have the same margin of error.

xp

good riddance to cathie black imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZi4JxbTwPo

lol

Z S, I really can't imagine what policy decision Obama could make at this point that would spur "a massive protest" from his so-called base, or any people who don't think he's a Muslim socialist. They've shut up and gotten paddled for two years, and any status-quo / GOPish behavior in the next 18 months will be written off to "he has to do this to get reelected."

I think you're probably right. But I also think that if there's any major voting block that Obama is counting on that could potentially revolt, it's the environmental movement. Greens have been pissed at Obama's attempts to compromise with the environment for a long time now, and caving on the EPA riders might be the final straw.

But again, you're probably right that outside of a bunch of articles and NGO email blasts deridng the decision, not much would happen. Really really really hoping he doesn't cave.

the budget negotiation seems to be hung up on a bunch of shit that is not budgetary! hilarious

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/04/third_party_myth_easterbrook

The myths that just won't die
Repeat after me: Ross Perot didn't cost George H.W. Bush the election

― goole, Thursday, April 7, 2011 11:46 AM (1 hour ago)

gregg easterbrook is one of the internet's biggest longwinded retards, which is quite an accomplishment

the budget thing fucking pisses me off, I'm halfway through mortgage approval and if the government shuts down (because my mortgage is federally backed) it will be completely delayed for got knows how long.

I wish Obama would come out and say the policy riders are legislative issues to be determined through the normal process but he seems to have made the political determination that his re-election chances look better if he just lets Boehner and Reid fight it out, while he says they need to act like adults

say retard again kev, really hits things home

doesn't look like Obama's gonna cave here. veto threat, reid saying shutdown is likely, etc. here we goooooooo

Rejecting that temporary week extension with the poison pills, is the most courageous thing Obama has done in awhile.

Harry Reid getting frustrated:

"They've made the decision to shut down the government because they want to make it harder, for example for a woman to get a cancer screening," Reid told reporters. "We're talking about issues relating to health of women. That's one issue that's held things up. The other issue is their wanting to change the air we breathe."
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/reid-im-beginning-to-doubt-whether-boehner-wants-to-avoid-a-government-shutdown.php#

http://i.imgur.com/yAXeP.png
L: gov't shutdown, R: GOP

goole - i'm sorry, i shouldn't have said that

yeah n/p. i don't think i 'got' what you meant by that post btw -- thought you were trying to discredit salon's debunking of the 'perot gave the election to clinton' idea, but easterbrook didn't write it, he was the target of it, etc etc, can't read good all the time

full list of riders here:

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:m9MccLcqiuoJ:www.ombwatch.org/files/budget/OMB_Watch-HR1_Policy_Riders.pdf+epa+riders+HR1&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgXjplNxTD-SMRlHlCzGV6Pbb3A4GTJ4UIBNnTUh5-qCWIff9E_WU4plCRFd2CDznP032yI-jzi0Kb86gmjiv9HHi5b4QVU0YGwEkfJH4p5KhmJnp-JIwcI4jaKHkKyIy0oke3G&sig=AHIEtbS_1mwQJDUUMeXhFIEJUG97IIU6MA

completely fucking outrageous and disgusting, republicans make me want to puke.

Party of "No!" just doin' their thang.

Prohibits, prohibits, prohibits ...

"the budget negotiation seems to be hung up on a bunch of shit that is not budgetary! hilarious"

^^ really can't be repeated enough. i'm so angry i could puke.

lol, and they said the culture wars were over--nope, turns out the economic wars are over and the poors lost

The repubs are gonna say that they are in the majority, riders are on every bill, even budget bills and it's the Dems who are being partisan. They really are idiot swine.

Dems should convince all GOP staffers to strike tomorrow.

Cosign akm's reaction to the list of riders. From a UK perspective, sometimes the US political system seems designed to end up in a giant clusterfuck.

just got this email

A message from Wisconsin MoveOn volunteer and Regional Organizer Steve Hughes:

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

I'm writing to you from Wisconsin, ground zero in the fight between Republicans and the middle class, where we just had a HUGE win!

I'm literally breathless. I'm witnessing history. Incumbent candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court generally get re-elected in a landslide. But in the general election on Tuesday, progressive JoAnne Kloppenburg closed the gap and won by a razor thin margin against conservative justice David Prosser!

The result was extremely close, and there's still a recount to grapple with, but this is a HUGE change from the primary where she lost 25% to 55% to conservative Justice David Prosser before Walker's attacks on workers began. And it's proof that the grassroots army that formed to battle Governor Scott Walker is a force to be reckoned with.

Tuesday night, all of us volunteers sat around the Kloppenburg office, right next to the Wisconsin 14, and watched these historic returns come in together.

And I knew it was happening because thousands of us MoveOn members, along with our friends and allies, voted, volunteered, knocked doors, hit the phones, and got out the vote through our emails, posts and tweets. We're a part of this, but now we need to make sure what happened in Wisconsin doesn't stay in Wisconsin.

blah blah give us money

strange given i just saw tweets saying prosser just took a 90 vote lead

Haha -- I just read on The Corner that "several thousand" votes for Prosser were just uncovered. Who's right?

this is the kind of shit that just... like, can we move on from this kind of "reporting" please?

But as the presidential schedule stands now, Mr. Obama is to leave Washington on Friday morning for Indianapolis, where he will talk about energy independence, then return to the White House in the early afternoon.

That travel schedule would still allow Mr. Obama to oversee the final hours of negotiations if they continue Friday afternoon. The government’s authority to spend money runs out Friday just before midnight.

Politically, being gone could be dangerous for Mr. Obama if it creates the perception that he is taking the possibility of a government shutdown lightly.

well you just explained why he's leaving, and you also explained that it'll only be for a few hours. does anyone actually believe obama is taking this giant, headline-dominating budget showdown "lightly", like tra-la-la i'm just skipping town for a little cause hey no biggie? i mean, NO ONE thinks that, surely. you might get some crank contending that on a phone-in show but in what universe would that be a "dangerous" "perception" aside from whatever crackpot universe this reporter is lending credibility to by writing this piece in the first place? JUST STOP

lol voting for judges