Oh, I See

The "deal" everybody was so tickled about early yesterday - the one that had Mitch and Harry locked in the kind of mutual stroke-fest that'd make Harry Reams blush - fell apart when the House TeaPublicans blanched at the idea that there could be a few Dems in Washington who might actually have the balls that everybody keeps telling them they need to find.

From PoliticusUSA:

Do you want to know what Republicans get out of the proposed Senate debt ceiling deal? Nothing, but a crushing surrender.

Republicans will get no changes to Obamacare. They will get no further spending cuts. The government will be funded until mid-late December, and here’s the kicker according to Greg Sargent, “According to the Democratic aide, Dems are likely to demand a debt limit extension into early summer — nine months, rather than six – with the idea being that the closer to the 2014 elections we get, the harder it will be for Republicans to stage another debt ceiling hostage crisis. Democrats don’t want such a crisis. They would prefer that Republicans simply agree to extend the debt limit cleanly. But by pushing this so deep into the 2014 election season, they are giving themselves a kind of insurance policy that guarantees that if Republicans do stage another debt limit crisis, Republicans will pay a serious political price for it.”

They saw it as unconditional surrender.  And worse yet, surrender to a guy they refer to as (alternately, and sometimes simultaneously) a "Commie Muslim Nazi Coon, and his jack-booted LibTard henchmen".  I guess we should've know it was never gonna fly.  But it did get their attention even tho' there are still way too many Repubs who are stuck in the same bubble that had them believing Romney was going to win last year.  The problem now is making sure the Dems don't over-reach, but y'know, the temptation is strong to just slap their stoopid face around the other side o' their head.

Dear Mr Hurt

I'm on the mailing list of my congress critter, and he sends me this kinda crap every week.

My reply:

Mr Hurt -

Your little update is chock-full of passive language, and if you were paying any attention at all in English Comp class in high school, you'd know that another way of saying "passive language" is this: bullshit.

You guys in the House took the hostages - you shut down the government, and you're threatening default. But you insist on painting yourself as either an innocent bystander, or some kind of victim of the bad ol' Democrats. But no matter how hard you try to spin it, people are finally getting hip to your tricks. 74% of us know you're lying to us when you say the ridiculous things you've said (eg) in this email. And what's even worse is the simple fact that you're willing to spend so much time and energy lying to yourselves as well. That horse is dead - you can stop beating it now.

There are certain things normal people just kinda know without having to be told, but apparently, you're in need of a reminder, so here's the short list:
Never piss into the wind.
Never pet a burning dog.
And never ever negotiate with hostage takers.

I look forward to the time you're selling shoes down at the mall.

Mike Roberts
434.960.8698
evillemike2009@gmail.com

A Confirmation Bias To Call My Very Own

The Guardian:

Let us state this unequivocally: false equivalency – the practice of giving equal media time and space to demonstrably invalid positions for the sake of supposed reportorial balance – is dishonest, pernicious and cowardly.

Sometimes, the opening graph is all ya need.

But then:

On the other hand, according to the grassroots American Council of Liberty Loving Ordinary White People Propped Up by the Koch Brothers, the liberal media want to contaminate your precious bodily fluids and indoctrinate your children in homosocialism.

And to drive the point home, he quotes WaPo:

Ultimately, the grown-ups in the room will have to do their jobs, which in a democracy with divided government means compromising for the common good. That means Mr Boehner, his counterpart in the Senate, Harry M Reid (D-Nev), minority leaders Sen Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) and Rep Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) and the president. Both sides are inordinately concerned with making sure that, if catastrophe comes, the other side takes the political hit. In truth, none of their reputations stands to benefit.

And so - "the left" is right about how "the right" is wrong.

Charlie's Pissed

And you really don't want Charlie Pierce pissed at you.  He'll cut you - up down and continuously.

DumFux News "reporter" Ed Henry flounced out of the room when Jay Carney refused to call on him during a press briefing - Mr Pierce, if you please:

(the piece starts off with a block quote from HuffPo)
A visibly angry Henry walked out of the briefing after press secretary Jay Carney ignored his repeated questions. Speaking to colleague Brian Kilmeade on Monday, Henry said that, though he looked annoyed, he had to duck out to appear on television. "The briefing went on for about 40 minutes and I didn't get a question, for whatever reason," he said. "I guess Jay Carney will have to answer that. I don't know why, I guess maybe he was upset. I wasn't. I was running to do a live shot." "Does he do that a lot?" Kilmeade asked of Carney. "That hasn't happened before, ever," Henry said, adding later that the "professional thing" for Carney to do would have been to call on him.

And Charlie goes to work:

You work for the bilge pump of wingnut propaganda. The "professional thing" for you to do is to slink off and do five years penance reading the hog reports on a 300-watt station in west Texas before you're allowed in respectable company again. The "professional thing" for journalists with any pride to do is to spit at the mention of your network's name and to hang bells around the neck of you and all your colleagues so that we know when you're coming and can clear the room. You're lucky you have Jay Carney. Put me in that job and you're doing your stand-ups from a chicken wagon halfway down the mall. Put me in that job and your picture is in every guard shack.

Your organization is a running sore on the profession. It's what happens when a craft fails to keep its septic system up to date. You do not deserve the respect given to a schizophrenic in Lafayette Park who screams about the aliens from Zontar and the Rockefellers. I know people who staple their screeds to lamp posts in Central Square who are far more worthy of professional courtesy than you are. You work for a Chronic Ward of grifters, unemployables, and whatever else sticks to the bottom of journalism's shoes on a hot summer's day.
Brian Kilmeade is your "colleague."
Res ipse loquitur, dude.

A Question

Repubs are trying to "save face" by offering to fund the federal government piece by piece - which I think is another lie being peddled to us by the Press Poodles because the Repubs have mostly won already. The Dems are in practical agreement on budget numbers that are very near to Paul Ryan's wet dream of a government funded at Wal-Mart Wage levels.  But that's another rant.

Here's my question: Which part of Da Gubmint do you think this guy was fighting for?



Or do you think that maybe he just kinda understood that it makes no sense fighting to  improve something if you don't fight to keep it alive?

A Mob

These mush-brained TeaParty dipwads really are just a fuckin' mob.

And BTW - when the Bloglodytes on the "conservative" side throw the term Lynch Mob at The Libruls (and their own guys now too) with such regularity and dispatch, one thing ya gotta figure is that they're employing the same ol' same ol' tactics of Straw Man and Projection.  Cuz y'know what - if lynching somebody is not on your mind (or on your agenda) then why do you keep bringing it up?

Second - isn't a lynch mob pretty much what happens when your system of government breaks down?  And one step further - which party has been speaking so stridently and working so diligently to rid us of this meddlesome government?

So, the TeaTards had a little get-together at the White House over the weekend...

...because they actually believe the crapload of crap they've been fed about "A Citizens' Grand Jury" and how it's OK for them to show up in DC to "arrest the Prez" and how they aren't really a buncha racist Neo-Confederacy assholes at all.

(hat tip = The Richmonder)

When it gets this fucked up, it almost never ends well.




And from Democratic Underground:

Watching It Die

If you think too many people are voting for the wrong things, then the logical thing to do (if you're the GOP anyway) is to make it harder and harder for 'em to vote.

We've seen this in the Repubs' attempts to push down on voter turnout, because they know more people who tend to vote for Democrats will be affected than the other way.

And so now, we can take the same kind of tactic and turn it on the Representatives of We The People, and just make it so that nobody gets a chance to vote at all.

It should be pretty clear by now that this "Republican Party" is in the thrall of an authoritarian cadre who increasingly exhibit the behavior of people who are not the lovers of freedom and democracy that these assholes claim to be.

.

"The Majority Leader" referenced in the rule Van Hollen is trying to address (House Rule XXII, Sec 4) is Eric Cantor - who may think he's in the catbird's seat, but may yet turn out to be the fall guy.

There was a time I really didn't think Eric Cantor was on board with the wingnuts.  I tho't I could see something in his demeanor that told me he was just trying to deal with the "factionals" as best he could.  No more.  I think Cantor's fears and ambitions have gotten the better of him.

Anyway, if you think your democracy's in some kind of trouble, the solution never includes cutting back on democracy itself.

Don't be a rube.

What It's Costing Us

We're allergic to paying for the things that actually make us exceptional - and I'm not talking about the empty rhetorical bullshit being peddled by "conservatives".

Typical American Boy

Amazing Rhythm Aces:

Sunday Jam

Curtis Stigers - I Don't Want To Talk About It Now