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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Early Morning Open Thread

Early Morning Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  February 24, 20115:01 am| 37 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Stupidity

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Gail Collins, bless her, brings us up to date on the proposed federal shutdown, aka “Revenge of the Pomeranians“:

Right now, all around the country, federal agencies are making plans for an orderly way to shut down nonessential services if Congress fails to do anything to keep the boat afloat next week. The air traffic controllers will stay on the job, but I would not plan any visits to a national park if I were you…
__
All hope for averting disaster lies with Speaker John Boehner, who used to be a strangely tanned blowhard but is now regarded as a beleaguered statesman. This just happened a few days ago, so you may not have gotten the memo.
__
Unfortunately, so far, Speaker Boehner has not been all that helpful. There is very little in Washington that can’t be explained by an episode of the original “Star Trek,” and Boehner is playing out the one where the Romulan captain prefers the ways of peace but is saddled with a crew that will mutiny if he fails to follow through on the plan to blow up the galaxy.
__
Our current problem began last year when Congress never got around to passing any appropriations bills. It’s not all that unusual for our elected officials to fail to complete their budgetary duties, but this was the first time they didn’t accomplish anything. Really, you’d think they would have issued a stamp to commemorate the achievement…

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Reader Interactions

37Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Kevin

    February 24, 2011 at 5:12 am

    your definition of “nonessential” may differ, of course.

  2. 2.

    M. Bouffant

    February 24, 2011 at 5:17 am

    You might want to change the link. No, strike that, tried a different approach & I can get to the front page but am asked to log in every time I click the column.

  3. 3.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    February 24, 2011 at 5:17 am

    It’s cool. If we can’t have a government for a while me & the basenjis will cover it.

    I’ve got two smart ones who can process visa applications and a bitey one to collect on delinquent child support.

    http://washingtonindependent.com/105792/if-the-government-shuts-down-which-services-will-be-shut-off

  4. 4.

    stuckinred

    February 24, 2011 at 5:34 am

    The goobers in Georgia are starting the sweat the budget cuts for agricultural subsidies. Xin Loi motherfuckers!

    Bishop, D-Columbus, and state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, a Republican from Commerce, met Wednesday to discuss ways of protecting federal farm spending as Congress weighs deep budget cuts. House Republicans passed a continuing budget resolution Saturday proposing cuts to a range of agriculture programs, although the Senate has not yet acted on it.

  5. 5.

    Mike Kay (Peacemaker)

    February 24, 2011 at 5:37 am

    DO NOTHING CONGRESS

    They’ve been in office two months now and they haven’t done a thing.

    (other than going soft on crime/rape)

  6. 6.

    Xenos

    February 24, 2011 at 6:05 am

    Having been out of circulation for a while, what was the reason for there being no budget last year? Election year posturing, the guarantee that anything would be filibustered, or some actual filibusters?

  7. 7.

    MikeJ

    February 24, 2011 at 6:16 am

    @M. Bouffant:

    I can get to the front page but am asked to log in every time I click the column.

    make a new bookmark. Put it on your bookmarks toolbar. Paste the following code into the location field of your bookmark. Anytime you click a link and are asked to login to nyt, click the bookmark.

    javascript:(function(){C=document.cookie.split(';%20');for(d='.'+location.host;d;d=(''+d).substr(1).match(/\..*$/))for(sl=0;sl<2;++sl)for(p='/'+location.pathname;p;p=p.substring(0,p.lastIndexOf('/')))for(i%20in%20C)if(c=C[i]){document.cookie=c+';%20domain='+d.slice(sl)+';%20path='+p.slice(1)+'/'+';%20expires='+new%20Date((new%20Date).getTime()-1e11).toGMTString()};window.location=window.location.toString().split('=')[1].split('&')[0]})()

  8. 8.

    Joseph Nobles

    February 24, 2011 at 6:21 am

    My interpretation is that the Democrats sacrificed the budget (with which the Republicans would have raked them over the polls in the elections) in order to set up the lame duck to get the bills done that they did get done. Let the Republicans do the cuts. The people courageous enough to cut entitlements will be rewarded with a long retirement at the end of the 112th, and Obama (and as it turns out, the Democratic Senate) will be there to stop anything really foolish that the Republicans come up with.

    I also don’t believe that the Republicans can use the reconciliation process to liberate the Gang of 14 in the Senate this year, since there is no budget from last year to reconcile with. That won’t work in 2012, but that’s an election year as well, and the Republicans having screamed and cried about reconciliation so loud last year, their using it themselves next year will come at a heavy political price.

    At least that’s how I see the 11-D chessboard.

  9. 9.

    Brian S (formerly Incertus)

    February 24, 2011 at 6:35 am

    Our current problem began last year when Congress never got around to passing any appropriations bills

    Maybe this is picking nits, but would it kill Collins to point out just who made it impossible to pass bills of any sort, not just appropriation ones, last year?

  10. 10.

    BruceFromOhio

    February 24, 2011 at 6:42 am

    It’s not all that unusual for our elected officials to fail to complete their budgetary duties, but this was the first time they didn’t accomplish anything.

    This was what the American electorate wanted, signified by some 60 teatwats gaining seats in the lower house.

    Reap what you sow, bitches.

  11. 11.

    Southern Beale

    February 24, 2011 at 7:17 am

    Loved this part:

    Have you ever watched pet-rehabilitation shows like “The Dog Whisperer”? The House is the deranged Pomeranian that yelps and throws itself against the window and tears up the upholstery 24/7. The Senate, meanwhile, is like a narcoleptic Great Dane you can hardly rouse for dinner.

  12. 12.

    Southern Beale

    February 24, 2011 at 7:28 am

    Have we all seen this Rolling Stone article?

    Runaway General Deploys Psy-Ops On US Senators To Increase War Funding

  13. 13.

    And the Horse He Rode In on

    February 24, 2011 at 7:35 am

    @Southern Beale: The Men Who Stare at (Old) Goats?

  14. 14.

    JPL

    February 24, 2011 at 7:39 am

    @stuckinred: Did you see the article in AJC yesterday where chicken processors are complaining about immigration reform? It appears there is a lack of good, hard working latinos applying for jobs. Everyone knows that latinos love cleaning those chickens.

  15. 15.

    Mr Furious

    February 24, 2011 at 7:44 am

    Anybody else notice on NPR that “Marketplace” now conspicuously and repeatedly refers to itself as a product of “APM! American Public Media!” since the GOP took it’s NPR-defunding stance?

    Just a little thing the grates on me every morning… Kai and company distancing themselves from the rest of the Commies on the leftist network.

    Maybe it’s just me…

  16. 16.

    stuckinred

    February 24, 2011 at 7:55 am

    @JPL: Only the beginning. We are about 3 blocks from “the poultry” as it is called in these parts. Goldkist will be screwed if they keep this shit up.

  17. 17.

    agrippa

    February 24, 2011 at 8:02 am

    Reap what you sow.

    But, there are many in this country who do not see the connection between reaping and sowing.

  18. 18.

    djork

    February 24, 2011 at 8:07 am

    Anybody else notice on NPR that “Marketplace” now conspicuously and repeatedly refers to itself as a product of “APM! American Public Media!” since the GOP took it’s NPR-defunding stance?

    Just a little thing the grates on me every morning… Kai and company distancing themselves from the rest of the Commies on the leftist network.

    They’ve been doing that as long as I can remember. Not that it makes Kai any less annoying…

  19. 19.

    Mike Kay (Peacemaker)

    February 24, 2011 at 8:08 am

    @Mr Furious: do you listen to NPR using a radio or an online stream?

  20. 20.

    Mr Furious

    February 24, 2011 at 8:11 am

    I know that’s always been “University of California and American Public Media” but the APM is new, and there’s definitely a spring in Kai’s voice when he says it now. Every. Chance. He. Gets.

  21. 21.

    Mr Furious

    February 24, 2011 at 8:14 am

    I hear it every day in the car on the radio. Though I did go online while writing the comment to make sure I wasn’t crazy. They definitely say the APM with the oomph of a new launch.

    Mountains out of molehills, to be sure. And dwarfed by any appearance by McMegan.

  22. 22.

    JWL

    February 24, 2011 at 8:17 am

    There’s another original Star Trek where Kirk upsets a diplomatic status quo between two warring worlds by destroying a death zapping machine. The worlds had long ago agreed it was better their citizens volunteered to commit suicide via the machines after computerized attacks, rather than endure property damage to their planets.

    It’s high time that executive branch and congressional democrats stop pussyfooting around by according republicans the respect due an “honorable opposition”. They should instead go for the throat of the GOP by any means necessary, starting by calling the SOB’s what they are today, and what they have been for far too long: the party of rule or ruin.

  23. 23.

    BP in MN

    February 24, 2011 at 8:19 am

    @Mr Furious:

    Remember that APM and NPR are competitors as distributors of programming. APM is basically Minnesota Public Radio; I can tell you that MPR has had constant pleas to call Congress and tell them not to defund public radio, so if there’s any gleeful emphasis it’s a Kai thing, not mandated from above.

  24. 24.

    keithly

    February 24, 2011 at 8:24 am

    Kai Ryssdal irritates me no end. He always sounds smarmy to me. I particularly dislike his enabling of Megan McArdle. Who needs Despondex with Kai on the air?

  25. 25.

    SRW1

    February 24, 2011 at 8:26 am

    Given that the Belgians are uncatchably ahead in the discipline of not being able to form a government, the US Congress is going for the crown in the not-having-passed-an-annual-budget category?

  26. 26.

    PaulW

    February 24, 2011 at 8:42 am

    I love that Collins is referring to a classic ST: TOS episode “Balance of Terror,” the one that introduced the Romulans. But she got the story a bit off.

    The Romulan commander is doing his job testing a new plasma weapon on Starfleet bases along the Neutral Zone. But an underling with political connections keeps screwing up – breaking radio silence to report back to his cronies on Romulus, taunting the commander (who knows better) into making a foolish final attack on a wounded (but still lethal) Enterprise – leading to the Romulan ship’s destruction.

    But the metaphor still applies. Boehner may be someone who wants to be known for cool, effective leadership (while doing little effort), but the Teabagger underlings in the GOP want to push for a fight over the budget, abortion, etc. and are going to do so in ways that will make a majority of Americans turn against the Republicans (SEE Newt vs. Clinton 1995-96) right quick.

  27. 27.

    mark

    February 24, 2011 at 8:47 am

    Wait, why are you guys still listening to NPR? Can’t get enough Republican talking points? Love David Brooks?

  28. 28.

    gnomedad

    February 24, 2011 at 9:02 am

    Shaka, when the walls fell.

    Testing.

  29. 29.

    gnomedad

    February 24, 2011 at 9:04 am

    @gnomedad:
    I tried to get rid of the code box, but I think it broke the editor.

  30. 30.

    rikryah

    February 24, 2011 at 9:23 am

    any Chuck fans want to go along with my supposition that the new girl is Volkov’s daughter by Chuck’s Mom? and THAT is the reason she stayed with him all those years- he hid her kid away

  31. 31.

    gordon_schumway

    February 24, 2011 at 9:51 am

    @PaulW: Whoa, whoa. A fat, sarcastic Star Trek fan. You must be a devil with the ladies.

  32. 32.

    RalfW

    February 24, 2011 at 10:04 am

    Her column was still accepting comments, but it’ll be hours and probably comment #389 when it gets through, so I’ll repost here:

    All this hullabaloo is to protect the meager tax rates of a few hundred billionaires and perhaps 10,000 multi-millionaires. At what point do we millions of thousandiares and more millions of nothingaires get out the pitchforks and vote en masse with the pointy end?__
    I woke up to the news this a.m. that the New York Stock Exchange had it’s second most profitable year – ever. The members made unfathomable billions. But we, who bailed them out big time have to have austerity and shut downs and union busting thrown at us 24/7 by the GOP-Fox fog machine.__
    Enough.__
    I’m headed to my local, independent hardware store for their spring garden tool sale.

  33. 33.

    Bulworth

    February 24, 2011 at 10:06 am

    this was the first time they didn’t accomplish anything. Really, you’d think they would have issued a stamp to commemorate the achievement…

    Heh, indeed.

  34. 34.

    RalfW

    February 24, 2011 at 10:17 am

    @JWL:

    They should instead go for the throat of the GOP by any means necessary, starting by calling the SOB’s what they are today, and what they have been for far too long: the party of rule or ruin.

    I think Obama should immediately cut ICE’s current year operations to match the GOP House-passed budget. If Teahadists get mad, he can bat his eyes and say that the strong leadership message of the House was heard loud and clear: they wanted immigration reform gutted, and why wait for the Senate? Obama stands ready.

    Maybe do the same for Ag subsidies.

    I think it sucks raw that the GOP cowards are passing cuts the public would hate, hate, hate, expecting the Senate to restore them only to endure attacks for their wasteful spending ways.

    Maybe that’s why Reid is stalling, they can’t quite figure out how to hang the GOP by their own petards just yet. I sure as frack hope they figure it out soon.

  35. 35.

    RalfW

    February 24, 2011 at 10:19 am

    Argh, edit function not working! In above, I meant “immigration & border enforcement” not immigration reform. Damn decaf.

  36. 36.

    PeakVT

    February 24, 2011 at 10:23 am

    Anybody else notice on NPR that “Marketplace” …

    No, because NPR doesn’t air Marketplace. It’s your local NPR affiliate that puts it on.

  37. 37.

    Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly Known as Chad N Freude

    February 24, 2011 at 10:25 am

    @Mr Furious: I believe they were doing that for quite some time, maybe always, before the Republican attack on information. APM is a separate organization, not an arm of NPR. Same for Southern Cal Public Radio, which produces very good programs. APM used to be American Public Radio, but Media is much more 21st century.

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