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

If, not I'd, despite what my autocorrect thinks

Here's how I'd phrase it instead: "take away guns" instead of "increase revenue, end tax break giveaways," "universal gay marriage" instead of "expand Medicare," and "Al Franken and Rachel Maddow are great Americans" instead of "rising inequality." Good luck!

I'd say "starvation diets are even worse for nations than they are for people."

And how amazing it is that all the people telling us to starve ourselves are PIGS.

Yes!

Be sure to mention Marxism and your fallen comrades at least once in every sentence.

Maybe you could trick the econ prof into letting his professorial side bloom into full-on lecture mode, and try to get him bogged down in long-winded, technical, jargon-filled minutiae. Encourage him by looking fascinated and nodding a lot. The moderator will be working against this, tho.

To expand: minorly misuse a technical term and bait him into correcting you, at great length.

listening to sunday show replays on cspan radio. in between shows they have excerpts of the morning call-in

question is, who's your candidate and what's your level of enthusiasm?

guy calls in from utah and is like "mitt romney's my candidate." "what's your level of enthusiasm?" "rippin and roarin! he's going to turn things around and lead this country in the right direction.. what with the mayan prophecy of the world ending in 2012 and so on"

^^ clowning the radio host

yeah i'm gonna guess he wasn't being serious

"and so on

I'm opening myself up to ridicule, but whatever; a reminder that he is human, and there are things to admire.

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/obama-fathers-day-lessons-13878525

Actually, I'll save you the trouble: "He's even ready to unleash the military on his daughters."

what

don't mind him

lol

"His daughters are willing to fight his extra-constitutional acts in Yemen and Libya."

As the deadline for raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling approaches, House Republicans are discussing a temporary extension of the cap

Oh great, lets let Republicans and the mainstream media keep talking about the deficit and debt way into the fall, while no one talks about addressing unemployment because that would require liberal steps or tax cuts Republicans don't want because such cuts would hurt their campaign stance that Obama singlehandedly made the economy worse

well unemployment could be fixed by tax cuts / it was caused by the deficit in the first place qed we lose again

thought it was cute that McCain called GOP dwarfs expressing a wish to rein in one or two military adventures as "running to Obama's left," like there's anything partisan about maintenance of our permanent war economy.

Cranky old man McCain was also blaming illegal immigrants coming across the border for starting fires in Arizona even though the National Park Service said that was not true

the Mexicans are making it difficult to provide bottled water to dehydrated babies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43UFiboINQc

I know, I know, I know. It's not funny. But of course, none of this is

damn.

followed some youtube rabbit-hole links and wound up watching an obama campaign speech from 2008. that shit is depressing now.

NJ Dem leaders throw unions under the bus:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/06/nj_pension_reform_vote_reveals.html

I have a self-appointed pro-union agitator pal who travels around to various protests (with a random emphasis on Wisconsin), but I'm beginning to view him as a tragic figure, like Quixote. I respect his tilting, though.

yeah, I have a NJ labor organizer friend who linked to that article, and his F'book update was "Destroy the NJ Dem Party and start over"

Don't think focusing on Wisconsin is THAT random...

Ezra Klein in the W. Post has a depressing piece on the debt and deficit negotiations and how the Dems keep giving in, but the Republicans don't.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-budget-debate-democrats-wont-say-no-and-republicans-wont-say-yes/2011/05/19/AGRJdLeH_blog.html

I used to know what people were talking about when they called for a “grand bargain” on the deficit: Democrats would give in on spending cuts, and Republicans would give in on tax increases. Today, we’re on the verge of a couple of grand bargains. But whatever the Republicans are giving in on, it isn’t taxes

and the Dem 'rank-and-file' is exerting no pressure on the party to do otherwise. Because it would take direct action, ie, general strikes, massive protests -- I mean tens of millions -- and this simply is not that kind of country, certainly not anymore. We have our toys (for now), just sigh and shrug at everything else.

otm

I am really annoyed by this "Dinner with Barack" fund drive because I'd already decided I wasn't donating money to him this year and I know I wouldn't win anyway, but I really want the chance to win so that I can bring aero and Alfred

(I assume, Morbs, that you would not be interested, or rather that you would spend the entire dinner announcing to everyone repeatedly that you are not interested and possibly refer to him as "President Bush-Palin" a few times)

really want the chance to win so that I can bring aero and Alfred

Let's invite curmudgeon and k3vin k so that we can each chip in for the keg.

I am surprised no one has suggested registering as Republicans so y'all can aid the most fun candidate in the primaries.

I have suggested this multiple times!

is it dinner at the white house or is it "dinner with Barack at a place of your choosing?" I think a pizza party is the way to go here

does wendy's still have the "super bar"?

dinner w/ Barack has been a leftover shit sandwich.

it took a long time to get here but I'm pretty sure strongo just made the greatest post in the history of this thread

morbs I don't think there's usually any leftovers with shit sandwiches. if you like them, you finish 'em, and if you don't, putting what's left in the refrigerator is kind of adding insult to injury

all i'm saying is that bush i's regime probably isnt well regarded by history now but it gave us the super bar

http://www.daysinnfallsviewhotel.com/images/applebees-ext.jpg

Applebees bar!

the shit sandwich was in Japan: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/16/scientist-poop-burger-video_n_878210.html

"let them eat soggy garlic bread and cheese from a heated urn"

putting what's left in the refrigerator is kind of adding insult to injury

this is the MO of Your Democratic Party!

"Wendy's phased out the Superbar Buffet in 1998 for economic reasons."

r.i.p. camelot :'(

hahahaha morbs

Imagine a lunch reception with a group of 42 industry-friendly House lawmakers calling themselves the “New Democrat Coalition"

Ugh. From Washington Monthly

Buried deep within the president’s health care reform law is a secret weapon to slow the rising costs of Medicare and tame the federal budget. It’s called the Independent Payments Advisory Board, and once it’s up and running it will have the power to fast-track a host of cost-cutting reforms that the health care industry has been resisting for years.

Naturally, Republicans want to kill the new board. But they need help from across the aisle. And they just might get it. As Sebastian Jones reports in the upcoming July/August issue of the Washington Monthly, a group of 42 industry-friendly House lawmakers calling themselves the “New Democrat Coalition” is poised to join the GOP in gutting the most important cost-cutting measure in Obamacare.