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

meister brau, that's my name, that name again is meister brau

― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, July 13, 2011 12:36 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

IRL LOL

hahaha
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Natives here have long called this area the Inland Empire, a grand title for a stretch of cities about 50 miles east of Los Angeles. Now, a few political leaders are hoping this empire will lead a movement to break off from the State of California.

Frustrated by a state government he calls “completely dysfunctional” and “totally unresponsive,” a conservative Republican county supervisor is pushing a proposal for roughly a dozen counties in the eastern and southern parts of the nation’s third-largest state — conspicuously not including the heavily Democratic city of Los Angeles — to form a new state to be called South California.

i grew up in SoCal. Riverside is the toxic waste capital and armpit of California. good freakin' riddance fascists!

I was born in Riverside.

true story

Meanwhile Congressional leaders and Obama are gonna meet again at the White House this afternoon. 3 weeks more or so of this, or will Obama capitulate before that time, no matter what is on the table -the McConnell plan or whatever.

uh McConnell's plan is a total capitulation by the GOP

As long as it doesn't involve Republicans raising taxes on the rich themselves, McConnell may see it as a partial victory. While we wait to see the outcome, some insiders are just fixating on the Boehner versus Cantor issues- this from the w. post-

Since pulling the plug on the deal, Boehner has been largely silent in the meetings, leaving House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to present details of the House’s position. On Tuesday, people in both parties said, Obama tried to reestablish Boehner’s primacy.

Cantor, who is advocating a smaller deal, at one point demanded that Obama offer the details of his vision for a “grand bargain.”

“Where’s your paper?” he asked angrily.

Obama snapped back: “Frankly, your speaker has it. Am I dealing with him, or am I dealing with you?”

ooh snap

White House leaks on purpose when they want to

lol

White House leaks on purpose when they want to

here I was thinking they leaked on purpose against their will

Nancy sez

McConnell's statement yesterday about a deal being impossible for as long as Obama remains president was amazing. Obama's being pilloried here and many other places for being ready to give away the store; McConnell's statement was 180 degrees counter to the facts. Is he telling the country that any non-Republican as president is simply unnacceptable anymore, or is he hinting at deeper character flaws in Obama that make him specifically unacceptable no matter what he proposes?

As far as the idea, way upthread, that McConnell's proposal yesterday finally proves the Republicans aren't serious about governing, I'd go back to their 2008 VP candidate and start working forward from there.

I'd go back to their 2008 1992 VP candidate and start working forward from there.

fixed

GOP always says that kind of thing ahead of an election year clemenza

wow, i had no idea pelosi was 71 years old

she has like 30 grandkids or something

so boehner is on board, kind of, with the mcconnell plan, the right wing is livid, but even BIG GROVE aka the norquister is kinda sorta ok with it. i haven't read any of the lefty wonks' analyses of the plan yet.

this shit is getting really bizarre. maybe the rentiers are finally starting to twist arms? what would the right metaphor be, two people playing chicken on bicycles and then they look around and notice they're on a freeway...

Most of the strident tea partiers are too ideological (i.e., either too dumb or too poor) to realize that the real oligarchic implications of their intransigence don't actually serve the oligarchy's real interests.

waht

i think that's otm!

yep

Yeah, basically the GOP is dealing with two very different groups, tea partiers and big business. The tea partiers pretty much refuse to raise the debt ceiling without massive cuts and zero revenues. Big business OTOH just wants to get the debt ceiling raised and be done with it because they understand that it will be economically catestrophic to leave it along. The GOP leadership is obviously leaning toward the big business (and more reasonable) view and is trying to find a way out of this mess without losing too much face.

without losing too much face.many seats

fixed

honestly, I think they may be screwed in terms of the elections next year either way, but we'll see.

please someone straighten me out if i'm wrong, but it seems like President Obama missed an opportunity to advocate for something like he is now pushing several months ago, maybe even during the lame duck session? did the WH anticipate that letting it get to this point would smoke out the crazies? because it kind of has, so um kudos?

imo it was pretty evident he would come to the center (or even further right? i don't even know any more...) at some point; why not skip all the pressure-cooker theatrics and just, you know, say "hey fuck y'all we're doing x,y,z (ie. basically using the template the Simpson-Bowles commission laid out). get on board or the ensuing bullshit is all on your hands."

honestly, I think they may be screwed in terms of the elections next year either way, but we'll see.

I think they totally are, but I seem to be in the minority opinion about that

i mean, his base can't yell "sellout" any louder than they already are

xpost

honestly, I think they may be screwed in terms of the elections next year either way, but we'll see.

sort of depends on how many resentful, addled tea-partiers and tea party sympathizers kick the bucket before the next election. those guys aren't going to change teams based on *facts*

my friend found this toddler-sized t-shirt in Bangkok and bought it for his 2 year old, thought it belonged here:
http://i.imgur.com/NYO0Y.jpg

Shakey: I'm convinced that the dems will gain seats in the house (although maybe not regain control), hold on to the Senate, and Obama will be re-elected. Even if the GOP holds on to the house, they are going to have a much more difficult time enforcing their will (not that it works great now) after 2012.

will: Obama definitely should have dealt with the debt-ceiling during the lame duck session, delaying it led us to this current mess.

registered oemocrin

OBTL HYM of teh SPLSLIC

registered oemocrin

― ☂ (max), Wednesday, July 13, 2011 11:24 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/50260_286043192531_7243484_n.jpg

please someone straighten me out if i'm wrong, but it seems like President Obama missed an opportunity to advocate for something like he is now pushing several months ago, maybe even during the lame duck session?

yes yes yes

someone correct me if i'm wrong, but extending the bush tax cuts was a temporary measure, wasn't it? wouldn't letting them expire solve a great huge whomping chunk of the deficit "problem"?

I said this yesterday: the debt ceiling argument is lovely and I'm happy Macca is in trouble, but let's talk about SS and Medicare again.

like, why isn't that being factored in, since by current law they will expire?

xpost

someone correct me if i'm wrong, but extending the bush tax cuts was a temporary measure, wasn't it?

2012 they expire again, but no one, including the President has any interest in allowing it to happen.

yeah time will tell if democrats will be ready by next (election) year to wage war on taxes, but lol doubtful

this is MN state stuff, but holy shiiiiiit

http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/125459928.html

Hundreds of bars, restaurants and stores across Minnesota are running out of beer and alcohol and others may soon run out of cigarettes -- a subtle and largely unforeseen consequence of a state government shutdown.

In the days leading up to the shutdown, thousands of outlets scrambled to renew their state-issued liquor purchasing cards. Many of them did not make it.

Now, with no end in sight to the shutdown, they face a summer of fast-dwindling alcohol supplies and a bottom line that looks increasingly bleak.

OK, that's a burn-the-Bastille moment.

That'll put an end to that standoff toot sweet. If govt has any function at all, it's to keep people liquored up!

xp

Taibbi:

The blindness of the DLC-era "Third Way" Democratic Party continues to be an astounding thing. For more than a decade now they have been clinging to the idea that the path to electoral success is social liberalism plus laissez-faire economics – in other words, get Wall Street and corporate America to fund your campaigns, and get minorities, pro-choice and gay marriage activists (who will always frightened into loyalty by the Tea Party/Christian loonies on the other side) to march at your rallies and vote every November. They've abandoned the unions-and-jobs platform that was the party's anchor since Roosevelt, and the latest innovations all involve peeling back their own policy legacies from the 20th century. Obama's new plan, for instance, might involve slashing Medicare and Social Security under "pressure" from the Republicans.

I simply don't believe the Democrats would really be worse off with voters if they committed themselves to putting people back to work, policing Wall Street, throwing their weight behind a real public option in health care, making hedge fund managers pay the same tax rates as ordinary people, ending the pointless wars abroad, etc. That they won't do these things because they're afraid of public criticism, and "responding to pressure," is an increasingly transparent lie. This "Please, Br'er Fox, don't throw me into dat dere briar patch" deal isn't going to work for much longer. Just about everybody knows now that they want to go into that briar patch.

If the debt-ceiling impasse threatens future beer summits, I know President Obama will act.

god the post is so horrible. why in fuck is this in the STYLE section??

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/grover-norquist-the-anti-tax-enforcer-behind-the-scenes-of-the-debt-debate/2011/07/12/gIQAPGNSBI_story.html

[Norquist] has, he said, been in e-mail contact “on a regular basis” with “leadership and leadership staff” during the debt talks, “just to check in to see if there was anything they needed from me.” When he read in the news that House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), a pledge-taker, was apparently considering a compromise, he simply dropped him a note asking, “What did you say?”

I seem to recall some story about Grover Norquist sleeping with a giant Planter's Peanut statue next to his bed, but can't find anything about it... was this just some horrible nightmare I had

As he meticulously folded sheets of newspaper, adjusted business cards, repositioned scissors and laid down a stress ball next to a pair of hand grips, Norquist acknowledged issuing gentle reminders to pledge-takers.

When he read in the news that House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), a pledge-taker, was apparently considering a compromise, he simply dropped him a note asking, “What did you say?”

OK I laughed.

I think I have read weird stuff about him.

said this yesterday: the debt ceiling argument is lovely and I'm happy Macca is in trouble, but let's talk about SS and Medicare again.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Why? You get joy about hearing Obama say cutting them is good and necessary?

A reminder that no one "wins" this family feud.