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

yeah I was v pleased with that

Greenwald on the 74-8 cloture vote to extend the USA PATRIOT Act, and the odious Dianne Feinstein:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/05/23/bipartisanship/index.html

As the government comes closer and closer to the brink, its efforts to assert itself grow increasingly frenetic and exaggerated.

Regrettably, what lies on the other side will probably bear greater semblance to the Mexican drug lords than to anything any of us would consider to be civil order.

But this dynamic has become uncontrollable. The only question is not whether - but when.

—Diogenes
Read Diogenes's other letters

surely they're in the public domain by now

oh i forgot, mickey mouse.

how can diogenes afford a computer

He sells ounces of his cynicism on eBay.

Dennis Perrin bought enough to stuff Rush Limbaugh.

remember in ender's game when ender's sociopath brother took over the world by calling himself demosthenes on the internet

Pawlenty, like Huntsman, is trying to distance himself from the past, and being called on it by bloggers

In 2006, Pawlenty wasn’t well liked by the far-right, as he defended big government, endorsed cap-and-trade, wanted to reimport prescription medication from Canada, and wanted officials to be more effective and aggressive in fighting the oil industry.

Everything he told Limbaugh yesterday, just like the new persona he’s struggling to adopt, just isn’t true.

And really, that’s just scratching the surface. Wonk Room ran a fact-check piece yesterday, noting seven obvious lies Pawlenty told yesterday, on issues ranging from health care on the nation’s finances. Similarly , the AP ran a similar piece, highlighting several more of the candidate’s falsehoods from yesterday.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_05/tim_pawlentys_version_of_the_t029786.php

Hopefully Biden won't give away the farm in debt talks today:

As much as the Ryan budget was a catastrophic political mistake for House Republicans, these talks – particularly today’s focus – offers an opportunity for Ryan and the GOP to save face. If they get a budget deal, especially one with cuts to Medicare or Medicaid, they can credibly say that their boldness to talk frankly about entitlements ended up succeeding in chipping away at the problem. And Democrats could hardly position themselves as the defenders of Medicare if they enact a grand bargain that shifts cost-sharing onto seniors.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/05/24/biden-debt-limit-talks-today-to-cover-medicare-medicaid/

aren't most farms in debt?

Not the corporate ones receiving government subsidies

scott brown/kathy hochul 2012? bipartisan boogaloo?

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-05-24/democrat-leads-in-poll-before-today-s-n-y-congress-election.html

A Hochul victory would be “a major upheaval,” sending “a real message to the Republicans in Congress that the Medicare proposal is deadly,” Len Lenihan, the Erie County Democratic chairman, said in an interview

It takes a fear campaign on Medicare and a 3rd party Tea candidate for Dems to win in Republican districts like this one. And I hope Hochul does.

Tea party candidate.

Put the votes for the Tea party candidate and the Republican together and the Dem loses (Anti-Ryan medicare strategy or not)

yes it's very funny how non-binary parties work

A Hochul victory would be “a major upheaval,” sending “a real message to the Republicans in Congress that the Medicare proposal is deadly,” Len Lenihan, the Erie County Democratic chairman, said in an interview

It takes a fear campaign on Medicare and a 3rd party Tea candidate for Dems to win in Republican districts like this one. And I hope Hochul does.

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, May 24, 2011 2:15 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark

after which Obama may STILL put Medicare on the table.

Democrats could hardly position themselves as the defenders of Medicare if they enact a grand bargain that shifts cost-sharing onto seniors.

Bingo! Now just sit back and watch it happen, folks.

i don't think we want to run so far away from ryan's slash-and-burn plan that we start saying medicare cost growth isn't a problem. it would outrun even clinton and (to my knowledge) pre-reagan tax regimes.

Any plan that isn't as radical as the Ryan plan will belong exclusively to the Democrats, politically speaking, because the Republicans identified themselves with the Ryan plan. The Ryan plan will not happen, so they will not pay a political price for embracing it. otoh, the compromise plan will happen, and the entire political price among disgruntled seniors will be paid by the Dems. This is how it works out IRL.

Many Washington observers expect that Biden and other negotiators in the White House-led talks will work right up to the Aug. 2 deadline. Some Republicans have suggested that markets would not necessarily be upset if they blow past it.

I guess Biden and Obama won't throw Congressional Democrats under the bus (a different cliche than I used earlier!)until August. It would be nice if Reid and others objected, but I'm not counting on it. Obama and the Dems should just stick with the already set out Dems Medicare proposal, but that's not their style.

well here's something: all the "courageous" governors who have slashed "spending" may be hitting a wall pretty quick

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/88874/the-hidden-tradeoffs-gop-candidates

details from MN, NJ, TX, VA, IN. basically, fiscal discipline is a mirage, and massive property tax hikes from starving localities aren't. great job!

Some Republicans have suggested that markets would not necessarily be upset if they blow past it.

very delicate journalistic style here

fiscal discipline is a mirage, and massive property tax hikes from starving localities aren't

Yeah, this is what I was saying about Pawlenty's "no tax increase" smoke and mirrors on the MN thread: while the value of my home plummeted in the last few years, my property taxes kept going up. I don't why it's headlined "hidden tradeoffs" though, it's painfully obvious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RET2Z5AVJ8A

her face!

(at 1:03 when he calls her a liar)

oh god

Elijah Cummings (D-MD): Ohhhhhhh

In addition, Republicans criticized Warren and the CFPB for what they saw as discrepancies between the agency and the rest of the federal government. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY), for example, pointed out the disparate salaries of bank regulators when compared to other federal workers, "The starting salary is $70,000, top salary is $140,000. Why are these folks getting paid much more than someone else in the federal government?" Warren tried to explain the rationale behind the pay scale -- regulatory agencies need to be competitive with banks to recruit the best talent -- but Buerkle wouldn't have it, and offered vague insinuations of misconduct as a response, "This is the government, not the private sector, and this regulatory agency needs to answer for a huge disparity regarding the federal jobs and these positions."

http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=05&year=2011&base_name=whos_afraid_of_elizabeth_warre

need a warrenohface.gif

Wow -- Warren's lost a lot of weight.

http://www.gifsoup.com/imager.php?id=2546577&t=o

my god

she wants to punch the shit out of that guy

Every time I've seen Elizabeth Warren speak on a talk show she immediately convinces me she's both the smartest and most compassionate person in the room.

That entire clip is almost painful with stupidity. How DOES she stay so calm???

she is one of my wife's favorite ppl in the HLS sphere of influence

How is that guy the chairman. :(

she did the bk text i used when i was in school, so i went out and learned about her, it was <3 immed.

Warren looks like the kind of woman who could recite Chapter Seven of The Wealth of Nations while draining snake poison from Mitch McConnell's leg.

if you know what i mean

unfortunately the snake then died.

http://madamenoire.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/aa-woman-winking.jpg

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/05/24/t1larg.warren.05242.jpg

amazing

Dag. That guy is a grade-A dick. But what else is new, right?

In other news, I'm not even going to post The Corner's gism-covered posts about Netanyahu's speech to Congress.

well here's something: all the "courageous" governors who have slashed "spending" may be hitting a wall pretty quick

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/88874/the-hidden-tradeoffs-gop-candidates

details from MN, NJ, TX, VA, IN. basically, fiscal discipline is a mirage, and massive property tax hikes from starving localities aren't. great job!

what's especially funny here is that in NJ we went through that exact same thing a decade before with the pre-Chris Christie Christie. and Whitman came w/n a rat's hair of losing her job when the public figured it out.

“All of this has happened before and all of it will happen again,” indeed.

WTF they are seriously, seriously calling this Warren hearing "Who's Watching the Watchmen"????