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

House has always been full of morans

Mittens getting angry in Iowa.

A comment from Dan's post:

I LOVE this idea! Let's see how committed Obama is to getting the debt ceiling raised and "save our credit."

BTW, isn't this the longest amount of time Obama has spent in Washington since getting elected? I think so. If he stays in Washington until this is resolved, we will save tens of millions by him not using Air Force One and the entourage that goes with it.

I believe the correct term is "posse"

omg the comments on Dan's link are hilarious

xp: see?

Mittens is doomed

I hope conservatives appreciate how I defended Bush when libs got mad at his taking vacation time.

But sadly the mainstream media will phrase things using a false equivalency as "the principle-bound conservatives on the right" and the liberals on the left will not come together and agree to an adult compromise.

"alright, let's get down to business. let's fucking grow up and get serious. i agree to vote for this debt ceiling thing that must be done no matter what. but ONLY if you agree to repeal your signature accomplishment as president. i like toitles."

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/01/president-obamas-vacation-days/

I think the takeaway here is "ppl hate it when the President goes on vacation"

But sadly the mainstream media will phrase things using a false equivalency as "the principle-bound conservatives on the right" and the liberals on the left will not come together and agree to an adult compromise.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, July 13, 2011 2:30 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is like a mirror-world comment from redstate or something

That's what I was going for. Although I also had a discussion with someone who said "Obama is doing the right thing if both Bachmann and Kucinich are mad at him."

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/271742/ezra-klein-loving-it-michael-walsh

this just keeps getting weirder.

From Nate silver's article today:

If we do take the Republicans' no-new-taxes position literally, it isn't surprising that the negotiations have broken down. Consider that, according to the Gallup poll, Republican voters want the deal to consist of 26 percent tax increases, and Democratic voters 46 percent -- a gap of 20 percentage points. If Republicans in the House insist upon zero tax increases, there is a larger ideological gap between House Republicans and Republican voters than there is between Republican voters and Democratic ones.

This country is so fucked up

Lots of worthwhile stuff in that article btw

So it's come to this: the Republicans are divided and can't pick a candidate to back, so all Republican candidates are somewhat faltering when it comes to money, to degrees but especially compared to the fundraising juggernaut that is Obama. Which means more outlier right wing nuts will pick up local seats as Obama heads for a more and more certain second term (despite general dwindling of enthusiasm and support?). So we'll have a weak president, hopefully a familiar Dem senate (but who knows), and a House even more more definitively, defiantly Crazypants Republican. And hey, maybe at this rate another recession as well! If this first term was a frustrating mess, the second term will put it to shame on the dysfunctional front.

lolz with Lady Lindsey:

“Our problem is, we made a big deal about this for three months,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

“How many Republicans have been on TV saying, ‘I am not going to raise the debt limit,’ ” said Mr. Graham, including himself in the mix of those who did so. “We have no one to blame but ourselves.”

Problems, problems, problems. Everything's a problem with these guys.

Yeah but can't they just say "No, you're taking me out of context!" (a la Gingrich) in regards to those TV appearances?

They could, if they want to appear even worse

It looks like Cantor and the House crazies may not go along with the McConnell plan and so those heated discussions at the White House revolve around Cantor trying to push Obama into a 1.75 to 2 trillion cuts only package. Today they're supposed to discuss the revenue side. Obama will probably settle for closing of any deduction and declare it a victory.

cantor is such a gross human being

he even looks like a scumbag politician

that's right, in addition to smelling like a scumbag politician

President Obama may call lawmakers to Camp David over the weekend in order to continue debt negotiations, Business Week reports.

Pleeeez, make them stop...

I do enjoy seeing the big tent problem hit the other side for once.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says House Republican Leader Eric Cantor should not be part of the debt limit negotiations. He's calling the Virginia Republican congressman "childish."

Reid says Cantor's conduct during the sensitive White House talks have "shown, in Reid's words, "he shouldn't even be at the table." Reid says other congressional leaders are negotiating in good faith as an Aug. deadline approaches for raising the debt limit.

In other news, I wish Eric Holder would get the Justice Department to go after Rupert Murdoch:

from CNN:

On Wednesday, several senators sent letters to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to look into concerns that News Corp. violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, known as the FCPA. The law, enacted in 1977, makes it illegal for a U.S. person or company to pay foreign officials to obtain or retain business.

Potential liability flows from journalists at News of the World to its parent, News International, and to its parent, News Corp., which is a publicly held company in the United States.

Concerns that victims of the 9/11 attacks had their privacy violated appear to be traceable to a story published Wednesday by the Mirror, a British tabloid that includes a section it describes as "gossip gone toxic."

seems inevitable tbh

I mean the odds that the News Corp hacking of victims' stuff stopped at the water's edge is preposterous

odd idea

Concerns that victims of the 9/11 attacks had their privacy violated appear to be traceable to a story published Wednesday by the Mirror

i sort of love the mirror but they're not exactly paragons of reliability

them's some preposterous odds!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3716613.stm

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40156000/jpg/_40156213_mirror2ok.jpg

wait THAT'S where Piers Morgan came from????????

"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/7/73/20110128203738!Trollface.png"

- the whole uk

I do enjoy seeing the big tent problem hit the other side for once.

― bnw, Thursday, July 14, 2011 10:29 AM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark

hell yes. i know the fate of the universe is on the line, but yes.

President Obama may call lawmakers to Camp David over the weekend in order to continue debt negotiations, Business Week reports.

He's totally going to invite them in, then lock the door , run away and return to Washington. What are the odds no one notices the missing lawmakers?

"lawmakers" is being generous

But where will the immediate 44% cut in overall spending needed to avoid default come from instead? Michele Bachmann, who has gone so far as to demand the debt ceiling never be raised, dodged questions on the issue Wednesday by simply repeating her assertion that Social Security and troop pay be left sacrosanct.

Asked by TPM about what areas might need to be cut offset their proposed guarantees, Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-NY) offered a similar response, repeating that Social Security, Medicare, military pay, and veterans' benefits should all be off limits. Pressed to name any savings -- furloughing federal employees, shutting down various agencies -- that might be preferable, she said her focus was only on calling out Obama's threats.

"We're not targeting any of those things," she said. "We're not scheming on the House side to somehow have a menu of things that are going to happen when the inevitable denouement occurs."

Thanks

um

In other news, I wish Eric Holder would get the Justice Department to go after Rupert Murdoch:

from CNN:

On Wednesday, several senators sent letters to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to look into concerns that News Corp. violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, known as the FCPA. The law, enacted in 1977, makes it illegal for a U.S. person or company to pay foreign officials to obtain or retain business.

Potential liability flows from journalists at News of the World to its parent, News International, and to its parent, News Corp., which is a publicly held company in the United States.

Concerns that victims of the 9/11 attacks had their privacy violated appear to be traceable to a story published Wednesday by the Mirror, a British tabloid that includes a section it describes as "gossip gone toxic."

― curmudgeon, Thursday, July 14, 2011 11:30 AM Bookmark

It's pretty hard to hold a parent corporation liable for the actions of a subsidiary, and I'm pretty sure News International is incorporated in the UK, so probably the UK would have to pursue this under whatever equivalent statute (if any) it has.

BTW in re the debt ceiling stuff, in a more paranoid (lucid?) moment recently it dawned on me that maybe the Bush tax cuts were a kind of time bomb attempt to force later government shrinkage.

Minnesota gov apparently caving to GOP budget demands...?

BTW in re the debt ceiling stuff, in a more paranoid (lucid?) moment recently it dawned on me that maybe the Bush tax cuts were a kind of time bomb attempt to force later government shrinkage.

this was noted at the time they passed by certain people

yeah that philosophy dates back pre-bush even

I had to read Curmudgeon's c/p a second time, as I was pretty damn sure Bachmann is incapable of using the phrase "inevitable denoument." Nan Hayworth may have gotten a new word-a-day calendar, but her website is nonfunctional.

http://nanhayworth.com/

yeah that philosophy dates back pre-bush even

― iatee, Thursday, July 14, 2011 3:38 PM Bookmark

Sure. I remember reading lots of stuff about Grover Norquist and his bathtub in college (which would be the pre-W/early W years)

Sorry, I mean I read it when I was in college. I don't know what kind of bathtub Norquist had in college.

one filled with the blood of the poor, presumably