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…
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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.
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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.
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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…
Comrade Kevin
your definition of “nonessential” may differ, of course.
M. Bouffant
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.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
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
stuckinred
The goobers in Georgia are starting the sweat the budget cuts for agricultural subsidies. Xin Loi motherfuckers!
Mike Kay (Peacemaker)
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)
Xenos
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?
MikeJ
@M. Bouffant:
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]})()Joseph Nobles
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.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
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?
BruceFromOhio
This was what the American electorate wanted, signified by some 60 teatwats gaining seats in the lower house.
Reap what you sow, bitches.
Southern Beale
Loved this part:
Southern Beale
Have we all seen this Rolling Stone article?
Runaway General Deploys Psy-Ops On US Senators To Increase War Funding
And the Horse He Rode In on
@Southern Beale: The Men Who Stare at (Old) Goats?
JPL
@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.
Mr Furious
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…
stuckinred
@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.
agrippa
Reap what you sow.
But, there are many in this country who do not see the connection between reaping and sowing.
djork
They’ve been doing that as long as I can remember. Not that it makes Kai any less annoying…
Mike Kay (Peacemaker)
@Mr Furious: do you listen to NPR using a radio or an online stream?
Mr Furious
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.
Mr Furious
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.
JWL
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.
BP in MN
@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.
keithly
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?
SRW1
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?
PaulW
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.
mark
Wait, why are you guys still listening to NPR? Can’t get enough Republican talking points? Love David Brooks?
gnomedad
Shaka, when the walls fell.
Testing.gnomedad
@gnomedad:
I tried to get rid of the code box, but I think it broke the editor.
rikryah
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
gordon_schumway
@PaulW: Whoa, whoa. A fat, sarcastic Star Trek fan. You must be a devil with the ladies.
RalfW
Her column was still accepting comments, but it’ll be hours and probably comment #389 when it gets through, so I’ll repost here:
Bulworth
Heh, indeed.
RalfW
@JWL:
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.
RalfW
Argh, edit function not working! In above, I meant “immigration & border enforcement” not immigration reform. Damn decaf.
PeakVT
Anybody else notice on NPR that “Marketplace” …
No, because NPR doesn’t air Marketplace. It’s your local NPR affiliate that puts it on.
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly Known as Chad N Freude
@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.