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

A lot! Boehner, remember, has sucked on cigarettes on Congress' back porch since the nineties. His remarks and behavior (as chronicled in newspapers; who knows what really happened) suggest he really didn't mind sharing credit with Bam as the cutter of a Grand Bargain.

One of my best buddies met Boehner once, just after the 2008 elections. While my friend was getting color and reaction quotes at the Democratic Club in DC, Boehner walks in, a little drunk, and orders a round for everyone, whereupon he says within earshot of my friend that "you guys" ran "one fucking great campaign." The guy's a bro, just not a bright one.

Boehner hates me because like all Republicans, he can't do the math.

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/BigPictures/Cantor.jpeg

ha that's a great anecdote alfred

so, yeah, all those stories that hack journalists share about the good old days of Reagan and Tip O'Neill telling jokes and sipping champagne are concealing the truth about how things really haven't changed.

Broehner

My buddy stepped outside for a cigarette, then realized he was out. Boehner and one of his aides happened to be outside too, and my buddy's like, "Man, do I need a cigarette so badly that I need to bum one off John fucking Boehner?" Apparently the Minority Leader noticed his discomfort, and offered him the whole pack.

Boehner's voice sounds like he has multiple packs of cigarettes at his disposal at any time

The senior senator of tobacco

congressman, that is

this is killing me

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0711/Allen_West_tirade_WassermanSchultz_viledespicablenot_a_Lady.html

From: Z112 West, Allen
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 04:48 PM
To: Wasserman Schultz, Debbie
Cc: McCarthy, Kevin; Blyth, Jonathan; Pelosi, Nancy; Cantor, Eric
Subject: Unprofessional and Inappropriate Sophomoric Behavior from Wasserman-Schultz

Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional ,and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up. Focus on your own congressional district!

I am bringing your actions today to our Majority Leader and Majority Whip and from this time forward, understand that I shall defend myself forthright against your heinous characterless behavior……which dates back to the disgusting protest you ordered at my campaign hqs, October 2010 in Deerfield Beach.

You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!

Steadfast and Loyal

Congressman Allen B West (R-FL)

he keeps it REAL

Their districts are a hair's breath away from each other, by the way.

Didn't realize the 'cut/cap' measure the House passed actually includes a stipulation that any future tax increase will require a two-thirds majority vote in both houses!!!

yep it was a pretty ridiculous piece of legislation

wait, stop, is that seriously an actual letter composed by a US Congressman and not a Facebook status update?

this really is not going to end well is it?

apparently mullah omar is dead

http://twitter.com/#!/jeremyscahill/status/93504797881278465

or it could be a hack, who really knows

Scahill is no hack

haha

seems that taliban's website was hacked

apparently mullah omar is dead

― tupac, bach (J0rdan S.),

woah at first I read that as King Abdullah for some unknown (ethnocentric) reason and was totally bummed out. then I reread it and I am no longer bummed out, heh.

i'm not mad

hoos will you fucking chill

soon as i sober up

"Cc: McCarthy, Kevin; Blyth, Jonathan; Pelosi, Nancy; Cantor, Eric"

shut the heck up

Didn't realize the 'cut/cap' measure the House passed actually includes a stipulation that any future tax increase will require a two-thirds majority vote in both houses!!!

This is some devastating fucking news. Now we slide faster towards the Oligarchy Singularity.

I really need to re-think moving to Sweden.

Oh wait it still has to get passed by everyone else. Nevermind.

how devastating, a bill that will never pass the senate or get the president's signature

xp

Call me Almost Rupurt Murdoch

adam, you should probably move to sweden tho

The prime ministers of Sweden are only very rarely shot down in the street. Much less often than US presidents, tbf.

Plus taxes go to free health care and sweet parks rather than G.E. and the military.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare/7seal/R3_Seventh_Seal.jpg

Grim scene all around.

in case some of you aren't on the planned parenthood email list: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/health/policy/20health.html

A leading medical advisory panel recommended on Tuesday that all insurers be required to cover contraceptives for women free of charge as one of several preventive services under the new health care law.

Fucking excellent.

(actually, MAYBE Obama will stand up for Roe v. Wade ... God forbid some Goldman Sachs' daughter gets knocked up by some Williamsburg hipster douchebag and can't safely abort the kid.)

This is also why Roe v Wade isn't going anywhere under ANYBODY's Supreme Court, despite its potential overturning's use as a bogeyman by the Dems in elections for 30+ years. Get a new line, please.

please no quoting burt stanton's blog itt

The Swedish Consulate snuck in and removed the photo that went with my grim-scene comment above--not necessarily funny with it there, but baffling without.

The simple-minded endorsements of the Gang of 6 plan drive me nuts--

I hope the fact that it supposedly closes deductions will cause House Republicans to oppose it. If it became law, I visualize the Social Security and the Medicare and the other domestic spending cuts happening, the lower corporate tax rates happening, and the Social Security and Medicare age eligibility going up, but then oops-- the corporate and rich people deductions won't disappear as they're supposed to, and we'll be stuck with a deficit again (in addition to little money for domestic needs).

- the corporate and rich people deductions won't disappear as they're supposed to

^god, this. i mean, i could get behind lower corp rates IF these ridiculous loopholes were closed up and revenues were to actually go up. but my faith in that actually happening hovers right around zero. some good time reading if you're bored or are looking to be depressed. thinking of sending out an ALL CAPS forward of the following to everyone I know:

60-year-low tax revenues contribute to deficit growth:
http://economiccrisis.us/2011/04/60yearlow-tax-revenues-contribute-deficit-growth/

history of top marginal tax rates in the US:
http://ntu.org/tax-basics/history-of-federal-individual-1.html

U.S. rates vs rest of world (US came in at number 37):
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/tax_hig_mar_tax_rat_ind_rat-highest-marginal-tax-rate-individual

corporations exploiting a variety of loopholes that allow them to pay an effective rate of 0%
http://accounting-financial-tax.com/2011/06/12-big-yet-famous-corporations-pay-no-tax/

"The truth of the matter is that federal taxes in the United States are very low. There is no reason to believe that reducing them further will do anything to raise growth or reduce unemployment." - Bruce Bartlett
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/are-taxes-in-the-u-s-high-or-low/

(Bruce Bartlett has spent many years in service on the staffs of Representatives RON PAUL and Jack Kemp and Senator Roger Jepsen. He has been executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House, and deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department during the George H.W. Bush administration.)

http://accounting-financial-tax.com/2011/06/12-big-yet-famous-corporations-pay-no-tax/

^actually, negative zero. i mean, how the fuck do you "make the US more attractive to business" at that point? just, like, pay them to keep their doors open?

But those are exceptions some will claim. Right....

My senator Mark Warner is one of the business-friendly Dems in the Gang of 6. Ugh. He eats up that trickle-down nonsense and the lower corporate rate needed junk and pretends that he's making it Democrat friendly.

sure, they're some exceptions. i realize that most small businesses aren't granted the same backrubs and handjobs the big boys are. i'm sympathetic to the fact that our *nominal* corporate rates are on the high side compared to the rest of the industrialized world. so ok lower the rates, but close the godammned loopholes. but no. Grover Norquist might throw a fit.

if these nitwits who ostensibly run our country can't admit that revenues are a major problem, particularly when fighting two wars and dealing with a massive aging boomer population, i really don't know what else you can say about it except we're pretty much fucked. and why the zomg librul media </sarcasm> isn't talking about this non-stop is beyond me.