This WaPo piece should give David Broder’s shriveled corpse a post-mortem hard-on:
Both sides do it! Bipartisan consensus is needed!
Fuck all.
Reader Interactions
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.
Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.
Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.
The worst democrat is better than the best republican.
Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.
Republicans don’t trust women.
Everybody saw this coming.
Republicans do not pay their debts.
The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.
How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?
Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.
Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.
We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.
I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.
Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.
“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”
“Squeaker” McCarthy
DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.
Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.
The revolution will be supervised.
Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.
Only Democrats have agency, apparently.
After roe, women are no longer free.
Consistently wrong since 2002
You are here: Home / The Posts, They Write Themselves
DCLaw1
Apropos of nothing, did anyone else watch Real Time tonight? The Fonzi of Freedom was a guest, and good lord, he was absolutely insufferable.
BGinCHI
How can it be too much to ask for a reporter to ask the question:
What does the GOP blame the Dems for?
Can anyone make a case that the GOP House isn’t going to be blamed for this?
Mark S.
Can any of these Beltway dipshits come up with one concession the House Republicans have made in these entire negotiations?
Oh that’s right: they’ve agreed to discuss raising the ceiling. Both sides do it!
JenJen
Did anyone happen to catch Nick Gillepsie on Bill Maher’s show tonight? Good fucking grief, my head is still spinning. Maher let him talk over everyone, everything he said was utter nonsense, he’s totally pushing the debt limit deadline is on Obama’s birthday meme, and at one point the mayor of the poorest city in Pennsylvania (who seemed interesting and I really wish Gillepsie would’ve let him get a word in) actually suggested that he and Nick take it outside. True story.
The guy just infuriates me. Also, the oozing hipster look is just way, way too much.
Corner Stone
Yeah, President Obama “won” today.
General Stuck
The polls are very clear that they hold the goopers more to blame. I think there is a basic knowledge even low info voters have, that congress is the money handler.
ant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFHYyErkA0
Lol
You know, for someone I’ve been reliably informed by FDL and GOS to be chomping at the bit to slash Spcial Security and Medicare, Obama seems to be putting up quite a fight. Doesn’t he realize the role he’s been assigned by his caucausian betters on the left?
Citizen_X
Christ! Thanks a heap for that image, Cole.
Derf
Except when there is war or whatever other issue you get all spittle mouthed and hair on fire about.
So I guess we can add hypocrit to your long list of mental malfunctions Captain Doom John Galt Cole!
Nicole
My husband had never heard of Gillespie, and within two minutes was shouting at the television every time Gillespie opened his mouth. This week’s episode was awful.
Lolis
This is why the bully pulpit doesn’t work. Maybe it worked when everybody had one radio station that the president could reach everyone, but it doesn’t apply to our current world. Most people get their news filtered by pretty questionable people with questionable motives. We are fucked.
scav
This just after DougJ calls NYT readers somewhat well-meaning, intellectually lazy and not-that-smart. WaPo readers are clearly aiming for and achieving malevolently ignorant and refusing to dabble at all in meaning, well or otherwise.
auntieeminpaz
Yeah,President Obama WON today. You have a problem with that?
jwb
General Stuck: “The polls are very clear that they hold the goopers more to blame.” I really wonder how long it will last if Obama manages to sidesteps the crisis and the media (or rather the overlords) decide to start enabling the Goopers again. That’s what we’re seeing tonight, I think, the media testing those waters. But that nonsense is ultimately predicated on Obama solving the debt crisis so the media can safely blame him for the crisis that didn’t happen. It’s one reason I wonder if he doesn’t plan to make it more than a little painful for the masters of the universe—though that’s not really Obama’s style, he might go there if he believes it’s the only way to repair the political system.
Linda Featheringill
@Corner Stone:
Actually, Obama may have won today, although he probably doesn’t feel that way. He is disappointed and angry and frustrated and etc.
IF Norquist is as influential/powerful as everyone says he is, we’ll get a nice 2-year rise in the debt limit. Taxes versus cuts can be pushed back a little bit. The 24/7 angst will be over. And we can move on to something else.
Standard & Poor might downgrade us a bit because our politics are not under control, not predictable, and might not be entirely sane. But they’ll get over it eventually. And we can skip ahead to the next opera.
Dennis SGMM
@General Stuck:
During the Nixon years we DFHs came up with a phrase that summarized the whole ugly mess; “I’ll take full responsibility for my actions – but none of the blame.”
Today’s conservatives don’t even want to accept the responsibility for their actions and in their eyes they should be greeted as liberators rather than be blamed. I am only a modest and self-taught historian so I’m unable to come up with even a remotely apt historical parallel for this kind of everyday madness.
auntieeminaz
Yeah. President Obama WON today. You have a problem with that?
JenJen
@Nicole #11: Agreed, it was absolutely awful this week. Then again, Dan Savage and Marc Maron were a tough act to follow.
Didn’t Gillespie say at one point that Boehner is his
congressman? Christ, is this tool a fucking neighbor of mine?
I’ve read his stuff whenever it’s been mocked on my favorite blogs (like this one!), but until tonight had never seen him in real live action. He’s an idiot, and not one person on that panel called him on it.
AAA Bonds
Glenn Greenwald master troll:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/07/22/oslo/index.html
I . . . I can never top this
Punchy
You haven’t been watching the “liberal” media lately, have you? Not only will they not get blamed, they’ll be portrayed as the victims. Goalposts relocating and whatnot.
Gin & Tonic
I understand your frustration, but in what universe do you imagine a headline in a mass-circulation newspaper reading: “Obama-Boehner talks collapse; GOP to blame”?
Corner Stone
@auntieeminaz: WON what?
General Stuck
Probly not long. The important thing is that he doesn’t get blamed for it. The overall economy is the main issue, and him stopping disaster that didn’t happen will not have a lasting effect. Except for maybe a few indies.
The polls are remarkably static, sort of like they were the last 3 years of Bush, except the range for Obama is 45 to 50 percent, and that doesn’t, and hasn’t change much for two years, or so.
What it does, is promote a general sense of trust, and performance under pressure, that won’t hurt him on election day. But it’s still the economy, stupid. Though i think he will get reelected, but it will be close. There are a lot of folks out there who just don’t want Obama in the WH.
Some of them are regulars commenters on this blog.
AAA Bonds
I won today. It’s the AAA Bonds century
Fax Paladin
Also, notice the prominence of the teleprompter in the photo. Somehow I suspect that’s not an accident.
AAA Bonds
Europe can convince Greece to institute austerity but the President can’t convince the Republicans to cut Medicaid.
Elie
Its not that the GOP will ever be stated as the outright “blame”. Its that they won’t be defended as much..
I dunno. I am just tired of defending the guy who is leading our team. I feel like I am spending more energy defending Obama from “our side” than the so called opposition. At least 1/3 of the comments here are extremely critical of anything he does — even the straight out accomplishments such as the news today that gays would be able to just be themselves and serve in the military (though why, I cannot imagine, frankly) .
Again, it wasnt enough, not fast enough, and he did not have the right whatever.
What on earth. I have no idea why he wants to even try for a second term. I would tell y’all to go fuck yourselves and retire to an island to write spy novels and paint chrome red nailpolish on Michele’s toenails…
I think that Corner Stone would be a great candidate. He has it all: sex appeal, sharp wit and a cold grasp of how to get things done in a very adversarial climate. Yep.
First Name Last Name
@JenJen: After Gillespie said that bit about being a constituent of Boner’s, I had to look him up.
Supposedly the smug li’l shit lives (at least part time)in Oxford.
…One more reason I’m glad I live a quarter mile into the northern border of Hamilton County (Although Congressman Combover Chabot isn’t much of an improvement).
Earl Butz
And in other news, looks like Norway has their own Timothy McVeigh.
Sorry for exporting that brand of lunacy, Norway.
Yutsano
@AAA Bonds: What. A. Tool.
DCLaw1
JenJen:
Gillespie (the Fonzi of Freedom) gratuitously insulted that mayor, and I wish he had dragged his ass outside. The man said he was mayor of the poorest town in PA, and Gillespie, never knowing how to shut off his obnoxious glibertarian routine, blurted out, “You must be proud.”
And then the smug declarations that predictions of economic collapse if the US defaults have been “debunked.” What a self-satisfied pile of leather-bound bullshit.
Lolis
@AAA Bonds:
Wow, the comments are amazing. One woman who dares challenge GG is personally attacked by all the GGbots. I think some of what he writes is interesting to consider, but writing so within 12 hours of the attack is pretty tacky. He does seem to imply that purposefully targeting civilians is the same as military operations that accidentally harm civilians. I think those are two very different things.
The Dangerman
How can it be the GOP’s fault? They passed Cut, Cap, and Balance after all (ignore the fact that it was a steaming pile of shit). Some writer at WaPo (Jennifer Rubin?) says this was a huge win for Boehner; I don’t see how that can be, but the fluffers are fluffing madly, apparently.
We have some whacked out chick out here that cut off her man’s thang and sent it through the garbage disposal; I say this chick gets to date Republican Congressmen if they cause a default.
Lol
Thanks to Corner Stone et al, I’ve come to realize that Obama has been playing 20 dimensional chess in his efforts to roll back the safety net. Everytime he says he won’t do it? Just part of the plan. You wouldn’t uderstabd it. It’s clear to everyone else how when he doesn’t cut Medicare he’s actually sig ally his desire to do so. You just need to know where to look.
jwb
General Stuck: “Some of them are regulars commenters on this blog.” Yes, I’ve noticed and it makes me wonder what realistic option they think they have in 2012. No Dem other than Obama will be elected President in 2012. So it’s Obama or one of the Goopers. I would really like to hear one of them make the argument for why a Gooper is preferable to Obama in 2012.
jwb
Elie: you forgot to mention that Corner Stone knows how to wield that bully pulpit. I bet he’d get us all unicorns and ponies as well.
celticdragonchick
That is the conclusion I reached. Back when there was just the big three news networks, the bully pulpit of the President was impossible to ignore. Today, while the President was giving one of the most important news conferences of his term, our local CBS station was running local news instead. Un-fucking-believable.
JenJen
@First Name Last Name #28:
Oh? Why in the hell does he want to live there if he’s not teaching or studying? Maybe hoping a little Paul Ryan and PJ O’Rourke magic fairy dust will land on him? Can you tell I’m an Ohio U alum? ;-)
Sorry about Combover. I’m just barely south of Boehner’s district, which means I get Mean Jean Schmidt. I’ll never really understand this corner of the state.
@DCLaw1 #31: Yeah, I saw that exchange, and when he said “you must be proud” I wanted to drag his Jersey-Shore-meets-hipster-meets-Ed-Hardy-douche pleathered ass outside my damned self.
RalfW
Watching a rebroadcast on C-SPAN right now, but will shut the TeeVee off at 1:05 EDT when Boner comes on. Obama’s doin’ well.
But the media obviously left the room and had to fit this into the ultra-predictable and damaging “both sides” narrative.
The media really only has one frame, and rams every damn thing thru it. It’s a fucking disaster having the press we have now.
Suffern ACE
@AAA Bonds – re: GG – If I wanted to write a column that would turn fence sitters off to my side, I would write that.
Elie
[email protected] —
Corner Stone. He is the MAN. He has all the answers and he is sexy and righteous. HE would not have made any mistakes, would only have ended up with a complete WIN. Of course, he is white, which helps. That said he is just the most amazing man in the world and would have avoided the pitfalls in any negotiation. He would not have fallen for or made any difficult trade offs. He just says “NO”.
Corner Stone — 2012…the most amazing man in the world! Your TRUE FOR REAL Manly man, jumbo balled, mensch of a Progressive… certified and approved — gold sealed by the Hamsher and Greenwald (who could ask for more?)
Corner Stone. Because its TIME.
celticdragonchick
Also, Sully is getting shrill these days…
America’s Cold Civil War
Calling it “The Cold Civil War” was pretty damned spot-on, I think.
celticdragonchick
Also, Sully is getting shrill these days…
America’s Cold Civil War
Calling it “The Cold Civil War” was pretty damned spot-on, I think.
Martin
Yeah, neglected from the discussion of that package was that even with all that they cut from spending, it still didn’t balance. They still needed about $3T in revenue increases over a decade to actually balance.
Anya
Corner Stone shares with the Republicans their classic knee jerk reactionary bully style. And let’s not forget his absolute dislike and mistrust of President Obama; as well as his cynicism and cavalier attidude when it comes to the political process and governing.
DCLaw1
RalfW:
“But the media obviously left the room and had to fit this into the ultra-predictable and damaging “both sides” narrative.”
What’s funy is that Obama himself noted this insipid habit in his remarks, telling the press corps that this issue, of all issues, did not fit their usual false equivalence mindlessness. But they just can’t help it. Jernalism iz HARD!
ogliberal
My wife had no idea who Fonzi was but immediately tagged him as being a dickhead. What he said to Fetterman was out of line. Fetterman got a masters from Harvard, went to work for AmeriCorps in Braddock, PA, decided to stay and is now mayor. Read his Wikipedia entry – dude walks the walk. Gillepsie will never contribute as much to society in five lifetimes yet he felt he could deliver a low-blow to a dude who is actually trying to do something to make things better. I’m glad Fetterman kept his cool but I would have been more than happy to see him and Brazile put Fonzi in the Malachi Crunch.
RE: the tea bagger imbeciles/morons/lunatics. They honestly believe that default won’t really be bad at all and that even if it is, it won’t affect their hardworking, patriotic, white, Social Security/disability collecting asses – it will just deliver pain to those lazy, good-for-nothing, flat-screen-owning brown folks who already get more than they deserve. And whatever happens, it will all be the fault of that uppity guy in the White House. The sad thing is that, in the past, even if these lunatics elected them, the GOPers in Congress held at least a ounce or two of sanity that would prevent them from driving the nation off a cliff. The tea bag elected House members today are as insane as the folks who voted for them. Cantor is exploiting this to try to get Boehner’s job and Boehner is scared shiiteless. Neither is a tea bagger himself but that’s who they answer to.
Martin
That double rainbow guy is running for President. I bet he’d be awesome.
hamletta
I don’t think that’s a good idea; all he ever talks about is pie.
While I believe that most Americans like pie — even members of Team Cake — I don’t think all-pie-all-the-time is a sturdy enough platform for a presidential campaign.
Corner Stone
@Lol: Did he want The Big Deal, or was that all an 11-D charade?
Did President Obama effectively use the bully pulpit during this crisis or not?
Corner Stone
@Elie: Now that’s the most sensible thing you’ve ever said on this blog.
Give me a minute or two to create a fake persona who supposedly lives with me and they’ll be along to tell you how brilliant all my comments are.
James E. Powell
@Lolis:
I agree to a point. It’s true that the president, alone, cannot get the message out. The Republicans don’t consistently win message and narrative wars by having one person make a statement. They all make the exact same statement, ten or twenty times if necessary. It works.
Which is why I argue, and have argued, that Democrats who wants to keep themselves and their party’s president in office, ought to be making themselves available to the local news shows in their respective districts. People watch those shows and senators and congress-creatures are a big deal in small markets.
Cliff
Question:
Am I allowed to be skeptical and critical of Obama while at the same time being fed up with Hamsher and pissed at the Teatards razing the country?
Or do I have to pick one of those three?
Corner Stone
@Elie: Now we’re getting somewhere.
Corner Stone
@jwb: You’re going to have to try harder from now on. It’s kind of pathetic where you’re at, to this point.
Elie
EWWWW — It makes me sooo excited to think about commenting on Corner Stone’s performance — ahem — in office.
It makes me just get goose bumps with anticipation.
Corner (or would you prefer, Stone?) Why did you FAIL to meet this promise or that which I made up in my head? Why can’t you make me happy? Where is X you promised and why did you have to make any compromise to get it? Why didnt you MAKE THEM LISTEN TO YOU??? You didn’t try hard enough…
Uhmmm — just cannot wait. Corner Stone — 2012 — Its TIME.
auntieeminaz
@Corner Stone He won the debate re: debt ceiling and the Republicans refusal to compromise.
Corner Stone
@hamletta: Man that’s just harsh. Give me another chance! I can change!
And although chocolate pie is my fav, I’m open to discussing a coconut cream if that’s in your wheelhouse.
jwb
hamletta: The Pie Party candidate. Brilliant. Did you see what those idiots did with tea? If the teatards can practically run the country off the cliff with tea, just think what a man with Corner Stone’s talents could do with pie! I’m going to finally get my pony.
Mnemosyne
@hamletta:
Funny, most of the comments I see from CS are about cupcakes, possibly because I can custom-edit the filter to say whatever I want. And because cupcakes rule.
Corner Stone
@auntieeminaz: Ok. What did that “win”.
freelancer
I think you’re on to something.
jwb
Corner Stone: And one of these days you’ll remember how to craft a sentence.
Trollenschlongen
So…what is your point?
Corner Stone
@freelancer: et tu, freelancer?
Corner Stone
@jwb: That’s you’re comeback?
Good God.
Corner Stone
There’s nothing I enjoy more than the “triumphant pie” people.
Such a sad little coterie.
jwb
Corner Stone: You’re trying too hard, and it’s showing.
hamletta
Maybe, but will it be as well-crafted as the crimped edges on his pies?
America needs to know!
Corner Stone
@jwb: You’re right of course. As usual jwb, your cool outsider observations have laid the scene quite bare, once again.
It’s amazing, to say the least.
Dennis SGMM
Obama’s to my mind abysmal choices for his economic team when the economy was already bleeding to death suggest to me that the goal of multi-dimensional chess is to talk pretty while losing. His faith in that pack of fools and knaves led him, when he did have Congressional majorities and a shit-ton of good will, to set legislative priorities that had little or no effect on the economic problems that continue to stare us in the face. He’s accomplished some undeniable good things and in any other time but this he might have been regarded as a great President. These are, lamentably, the times that we have and Obama has failed to meet them. Neither he, nor any other Democrat I can think of, is capable of doing any better. The system that produced them has become obsolete because of its own false assumptions and its overarching belief that people who have lots of money are good for anything other than having lots lots of money. Nothing from the right or from the left has risen to provide us with politicians who are even remotely courageous, let alone capable of dealing with a changed world.
If the Ship of State is to again right itself it will take years for it to do so. That righting, if it does occur, will not be at the hands of any of today’s politicians.
Corner Stone
@hamletta: The rest of them I could take. It was tough when freelancer disempied me. But I could man up through that.
But you hamletta? You of all people for God’s sake?!
How could you do this to me? Leave me here like this…exposed and open. Wounded and vulnerable.
This is going to take some time. Time, and a lot of Bee Gees.
JenJen
@ogliberal #47: Thanks for the info about Mayor Fetterman. We didn’t hear enough from him because Gillespie and even Maher kept shouting over him as they argued. It was just a crappy show, but thanks for salvaging a little bit of it for me so I can read more about the guy who suggested taking Fonzi’s smug ass outside. Think I’ll check out the HBO site to see what went down in the online segment.
hamletta
Oh, dear. You need to read more Regretsy.
Mnemosyne
@Mnemosyne:
Heh. And this is what the filter spit out directly under my comment:
I love my cupcake filter (with occasional pie cameos).
jwb
Corner Stone: Cool outsider—ok, now that’s just too funny.
Mnemosyne
@hamletta:
I has a confused. The site you linked to had nothing about cupcakes.
celticdragonchick
It will take the destruction of our banking system and possibly a fair amount of violence (unfortunately) to do that. The same Goldman Sachs folks who led us into perdition are, of course, the same ones still in charge and will continue to be until the system itself is dismantled.
Corner Stone
@jwb: It was really a remark aimed at your persistent habit of explaining some commenter to another party here. Like some kind of blog facilitator.
You know, above the comments and of the comments, but still detached enough to give others the cogent nugget to help them navigate the comments. With a gentle wise nudge.
Corner Stone
Everyone, I apologize for interrupting your collective Snoopy Dance tonight.
I’ve created my sockpuppet live-in girlfriend and we’re going to retire for the evening.
Karen
Pie is better than cake.
Except if it’s cheesecake.
Or Carvel Ice Cream Cake.
Can I nominate Cookie Puss?
aisce
@ mnemosyne
at what point do you freaks stop congratulating yourselves for running a browser script that spares you from the horrors of scrolling past comments you don’t care for? 2013? we fucking get it. you’re fucking four year olds who stick out your tongues and sneer that you’re never talking to anybody ever again. congratulations.
you’re worse than corner stone with this pie and cupcake bullshit. act like adults for a change.
@ trollenwhatever
that glenn greenwald is a degenerate asshole. either that, or autistic. for his sake, i hope his brain simply doesn’t function normally and he is rendered incapable of understanding concepts like “tact” and “timing” and “not being overzealous to the point of complete insensitivity towards others.” because the alternative is that he’s just a smug prick.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
Corner Stone – July 23, 2011 | 12:36 am · Link
@auntieeminaz: WON what?
—————-
DADT.
Biggest civil rights victory in 50 years.
Karen
@aisce
Who’s running a filter, I just thought that we were talking about cake or pie as a way to cool things down and since Corner Stone was nominated I figured he could run against Cookie Puss but I doubt he’ll win.
Mnemosyne
@aisce:
What do you have against dessert? Were you traumatized by Cake Wrecks or something?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Corner Stone:
“That’s you’re comeback?”
“That is you are comeback?”
Good god is right.
Dollared
No Dennis, the endgame is The United States of Just Like Singapore. We’re all going to end up in Babbittland, where you have to be GOP and Christian to keep your job.
Watching the Christians and Wingnuts take care of each other at my Fortune 500 employer is just a harbinger of future enforcement of Babbitt Rules.
aisce
@ mike kay
fifty years, eh? unless we skipped forward in time in the last few minutes without me noticing, 50 years ago was 1961.
1961.
let’s work on those math skills, mikey. it diminishes the achievement.
Roger Moore
@James E. Powell:
It helps that all their ideas are simple enough to squeeze into 10 second sound bites, and that they show more fidelity to the needs of messaging than truth.
Dennis SGMM
@celticdragonchick:
GS and others have managed to do what Willie Sutton and John Dillinger couldn’t have imagined in their wildest dreams. They;ve managed to rig politics in such a way that politicians now work for them. They’ve rendered themselves immune to prosecution and even when they make bad bets the gov falls all over itself to make them whole and to do it quickly. Would that that the same gov showed the same interest and zeal in making the rest of us whole as well.
First Name Last Name
@JenJen: Aw dammit! My condolences about Mean Jean…there’s always been something a little um, “short bus” special about the politics in our lovely little corner of the state and I’ve pretty much given up trying to understand it myself -let alone try to explain it to outsiders…
@ogliberal:
THIS.
Dollared
@Cornerstone, you are clearly winning the battle for attention. All you have to do is point out that Obama is posturing to the right of Reagan and Nixon, and the girls just want your milkshake.
I am in awe of your skills.
Dollared
@Cornerstone, you are clearly winning the battle for attention. All you have to do is point out that Obama is posturing to the right of Reagan and Nixon, and the girls just want your milkshake.
I am in awe of your skills.
MattR
Watching a repeat of Bill Maher and God is Gillespie a douchebag. I think the last straw was his assertion that because when he got a car loan last year somebody talked to him about all the payment details that means that everybody who took out a mortgage or loan of any type was given that exact same accurate info in clear details the loanee could understand.
It is actually pretty impressive to see him repeatedly lay out a set of facts that point to one thing and then jump to a completely different conclusion out of left field.
Yutsano
I think that’s called Humpty Dumpty logic. Or something.
Dennis SGMM
@Dollared:
Babbitt is still one of my favorite reads. It’s too bad that it’s been consigned to the dustbin of Old Books that people only read when they have to. It is, as you pointed out, a near perfect encapsulation of the afflictions that burden our times.
Joel
@aisce: I’m thankful for the filter. It’s great. I don’t visit the blog to read deep thoughts from Brick Oven Bill and Uncle Clarence Thomas.
Karen
@Dollared
I’m sure tons of people would love to live in a Singapored USA. A benevolent dictator, guaranteed housing, guaranteed job, guaranteed money award for having children, a guaranteed education….who wouldn’t want that?
You just have no rights, civilly or otherwise, you have tons of little laws you get fined for breaking and you can be caned. You HAVE to smile and be pleasant because harmony is STRONGLY encouraged.
How many people would except that trade-off?
GregB
Dollared,
One of the big things that Rupert Murdoch said in his hearing in England was that Singapore was the ideal country.
None of the America first wingnuts seem to realize that their great and powerful leader just declared that the USA was not number one.
Mjaum
After the calamity yesterday, where a right-wing US-influenced terrorist killed at least ninety of my countrymen, almost all of them children aged between 15 and 18, I have to admit to a hope that the US crashes and burns.
This is the price we pay for your appeasement of hate speech.
Sorry if this is off-topic. It’s been a long, long night.
Dennis SGMM
@Karen:
As long as they were the ones wielding the cane, I’d say that all of the Republicans and most of the fundies would repeal the entire Bill of Rights in a hot second for less.
James E. Powell
@Roger Moore:
How hard is to say that “the Republicans refuse to deal in good faith. They want to wreck the economic recovery because they think it will help them win the next election. The American people need to get on the phone and tell the Republicans to stop playing games.”
Dollared
Wow, I missed the Murdoch quote on Singapore. That is amazing – and probably pleases his Chinese pals no end.
MattR
@Dennis SGMM: Second Ammendment? They’d at least have to think for a second before giving up their guns.
JenJen
@First Name Last Name #91: I’m in Cincy, by the way; where are you? Birds of a feather, and whatnot. Although honestly I don’t know a single person in my social circle who would vote for Chabot, Schmidt, or Boehner, and to a person I believe they would have pegged Nick Gillespie as a complete tool in 120 seconds or less, and still, that triad of idiocy gets reelected every midterm save for that brief respite from Combover 2008-2010. It’s horrifying.
@MattR #94: Loving the Gillespie pile-on probably a little more than I should.
Yutsano
@Dennis SGMM:
Adjusted that for ya.
EDIT: And MattR beat me there. Yer just lucky you got a cute puppeh.
Dollared
MJaum, our deepest sympathies. No country deserves this, least of all Norway.
Dennis SGMM
@MattR:
They believe that having guns makes them immune from having their guns taken away.
Yutsano
@Mjaum:
This is exactly why I want a Canadian passport.
Roger Moore
@Karen:
And one of the ways that harmony is encouraged is by forcing ethnic balancing in housing projects. Somehow I doubt that many wingnuts would be happy with laws saying their neighborhood had to have a minimum percentage of Blacks and Hispanics.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
If he didn’t do ACA in his first year then it was never going to get done. Just ask Clinton.
I’m old enough to remember when ACA was biggest issue evah, even bigger than the unemployment rate and withdrawing from IRaq and freeing the gays.
He never had good will with the republicans or the corporate media. they set out to destroy him from jump street. every single republican in the house voted against the stimulus and the beltway media took their side against the stimulus and red baited the president.
we were losing 700,000 jobs per month, now we’re not. Detroit was dead, now it’s not. stock market was at 6,000, now it’s not (People rightfully hate wall street, but at the same time most pension funds are in equities).
So he hired the Summers. FDR hired the Joe Kennedy and relied on Sidney Weinberg. LBJ hired the Dougles Dilon. I like Krugman but he’s no saint, as he’s a rabid free trader (even worse than friedman).
Suffern ACE
Hmmmm. Singapore. Now if we could only compress ourselves into 2,000 people per acre and leave that whole problem of dealing with rural political interests behind us, we’re set. Help if we could move the country to a major shipping lane. Otherwise, I think we’re somewhere between Myanmar or Thailand if we want to suddenly become an Asian Tiger.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
If he didn’t do ACA in his first year then it was never going to get done. Just ask Clinton.
I’m old enough to remember when ACA was biggest issue evah, even bigger than the unemployment rate and withdrawing from IRaq and freeing the gays.
He never had good will with the republicans or the corporate media. they set out to destroy him from jump street. every single republican in the house voted against the stimulus and the beltway media took their side against the stimulus and red baited the president. http://tinyurl.com/3wlhkl7
we were losing 700,000 jobs per month, now we’re not. Detroit was dead, now it’s not. stock market was at 6,000, now it’s not (People rightfully hate wall street, but at the same time most pension funds are in equities).
So he hired the Summers. FDR hired the Joe Kennedy and relied on the Sidney Weinberg. LBJ hired the Dougles Dilon. I like the Krugman but he’s no saint, as he’s a rabid free trader (even worse than friedman).
MattR
@Yutsano:
It is surprisingly annoyingly difficult. I had a Canadian Customs agent tell me I should get one but once I saw what it would entail I let it drop. (And it would probably be easier for me than most since I can drive into the Consulate in NYC)
JenJen
@Yutsano I kind of love the way we both used the word “tool” this evening. You for Greenwald, me for Gillespie. Na Zdorovie!!
Caz
The best possible outcome of this is that they don’t reach a deal and Aug. 2 comes and goes without raising the debt ceiling. In that event, the govt will be about $160 billion short of all it’s spending items. So they will have to prioritize spending, meaning they’ll pay debt payments/interest, SS, and medicare right off the bat, and then as they go down the list, the things near the bottom will not get funded at 100% of the level they want. That means they’ll have to…wait for it….CUT SPENDING on some things!!
Unfortunately for you Juicetards, there won’t be anything close to a default, which means you’re going to have to own up to either (1) ignorance before the fact, falling for the lie that there would be a default without a debt ceiling raise by Aug. 2, or (2) dishonesty, as people will now see that your lies about a default being unavoidable were wrong.
Dennis SGMM
@Roger Moore:
With respect, I think that you’re way too optimistic about human nature. If the price of admission included ethnic balancing then the wingers and fundies would simply continue to maltreat their new neighbors. It would just provide the loonies with proximate targets for their abuse.
Dollared
To be fair to Murdoch, I think he was talking about paying public officials enough so that they aren’t corrupt. He’s got a point there, one that Mr. “Federal Pay Cut for Wall Street Police” Obama seems to have missed.
Yutsano
@Caz: Two words Caz: Fuck and You. You are directly messing with my livelihood. Because of stupid glibertarians like you I’ll be forced to work for little to no pay. Your maths don’t add up, as has been shown numerous times on this blog. The worst part: I STILL have to work to enforce the tax code just so you can be all smug and superior.
@JenJen: GMTA. But you do haz teh cute puppeh.
Martin
$160B per month is more than the entire discretionary budget per month. That means $0 in military spending. $0 in border patrol. $0 in IRS revenue collection.
It’s not cut spending on some things. It’s cut spending on everything other than mandatory spending. Honestly, how any of you graduated from 4th grade with those math skills.
Roger Moore
@Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century):
And I’m old enough to remember that ARRA came first and ACA came later. It’s hard to complain that Obama didn’t make the economy his #1 priority when a massive stimulus was the first major item on his legislative agenda. I guess I’m just an Obot.
Dennis SGMM
@Caz:
Is their an Ignorant Shite of the Year award that I don’t know about? I can only conclude that there is one and that you crafted your post to make you a front runner for it.
The money in your pocket, in your bank account, in your retirement plan, is a fiction the second that “the full faith and credit” of the US becomes moot. If the US defaults then I hope that you’re better at field dressing house pets than you are at economics.
Roger Moore
@Dennis SGMM:
And under Singaporean law, they would likely be quite literally slapped down for it. Their ethnic balancing rules have teeth.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
in 1993, within his first 100 days in office, Clinton tried to push threw a tiny $19 billion stimulus bill and it was filibustered.
At the time, unemployment was at 7.3 percent, the Dems had 57 members in the senate, they had a pretty tough majority leader in george mitchell, Clinton’s approval rating was at 64%, and there was no Fixxed News. And they still couldn’t pass a measly bill.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/22/us/gop-senators-prevail-sinking-clinton-s-economic-stimulus-bill.html
yet, obama sucks.
MattR
@Martin: Have you seen this analysis from the Bipartisan Policy Center? It is the source of that $160 billion figure and it breaks down the various types of spending and shows various options for prioritizing what we pay (and how screwed we are). Starting on page 23 of the PDF are a series of charts detailing in revenues and payments due each day from August 3rd on.
One potentially scary thing that is new to me is that we have $500 billion of bonds maturing (and that we will want to roll over by issuing new bonds) during the course of the month. $91 billion of that is on August 4th with another $93 due on the 11th. Theoretically, we should be able to issue bonds with no problem but if the market is starting to worry we may have to pay higher rates to borrow the money.
Karen
@Roger Moore
Not to mention that they pay the Chinese women to have babies and they pay the Indian women not to.
They want racial harmony yet the are Chinese favored.
JenJen
@Yutsano #118: Did you ever see this one of the krazy-eyed-killah puppy at 11 weeks old? Taken the morning after the Bruins won the Stanley Cup that is his namesake; he was raging in the back yard as though my weedy wildflower beds were in the heart of Vancouver. I can still feel his pain.
Also, my puppeh is smarter than Caz, and dresses better than Nick Gillespie.
First Name Last Name
@JenJen: Cool, I’m in Springdale (even though most of the mail -including mail from the state and the Feds- lists my address as Cincinnati). I’ve been told by some people that the widespread casual substitution of individual outer-ring suburbs for the closest “big” city (by businesses and residents) is somewhat unique to Cincinnati, but I’m not sure I buy that…
And speaking of birds of a feather, I was thinking the exact thing – one of my friends and colleagues (even the few wingutty ones) ever had a good word to say about the triad of terror….
I know I’m surrounded by these fools (I was reminded of that last fall far too often when I was greeted by the site of an obnoxiously large Boehner (tee hee!) or a KKKasich yard sign)…But thankfully I managed to systemically avoid integrating them into my (albeit small) social circle.
I still hold onto the random factoid that Cincy hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1972 as a ray of hope for the region. Futile, I know.
@Yutsano #109: It’s always good to have options -especially in light of current events…
Yutsano
@JenJen: Fierce puppeh is fierce. And I still love his ears.
@Martin:
There’s a further implication here. Yes there will be no money for it…BUT WE ARE STILL EXPECTED TO WORK. Think about that. We will not get paid and have no guarantee of back pay, yet I am STILL fully expected to perform my duties. Caz essentially wants me and my whole office to be literal slaves for his ideology.
bemused
Gillespie’s ‘you must be proud’ remark was really obnoxious revealing exactly who he is. I rarely see anything about this jerk but every time I do he is wearing his cool black leather jacket. He probably sleeps in it too.
Dennis SGMM
@Yutsano:
Caz doesn’t understand the first thing about anything. Despite that, I’m grateful when he/she shows up here to remind me of how much ingrained, willful, ignorance besets the nation for which I and my forebears shed our blood.
Yutsano
@Dennis SGMM: Very few members of my family were in the borders of the United States before 1890. As far as I know none of them participated in the big struggle that was the Civil War. (They were heavily involved in the exploration of what is now Saskatchewan and Manitoba but that’s a digression.) It amazes me how that still is essentially unsolved today. We may yet go the route of Yugoslavia.
(I don’t care, as long as I can vote to become the eleventh province.)
Calouste
Norway shooter now described by the police as a “Christian fundamentalist”.
Kane
The very first words out of Boehner’s mouth at the press conference are disingenuous, intellectually dishonest, and untrue. Michele Bachmann has campaign ads boasting that she won’t vote to raise the debt ceiling. Ron Paul has said he won’t vote to raise the debt ceiling. There are videos on YouTube where Mike Pence and fellow Republican members of congress are chanting “cut it or shut it” along with a Tea Party crowd. These people have made it no secret that they want a default. They bought it, and now they own it.
Suffern ACE
@Kane:
So speaketh the so-called most influential thinker, or something like that.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-22/default-now-or-suffer-a-more-expensive-crisis-later-ron-paul.html
Kane
We might as well get used to the idea that this is the new normal. This isn’t limited to raising the debt ceiling, it’s about every single issue and challenge we face as a country.
We had better get used to the idea that tea party crowd is going to be around for a while. Some might only survive one term, but others are in very safe districts where their only potential challenge will come from those representing policies even further to the right.
The Republican obstruction of 2009 – 2010 is quaint in comparison to the political disorder that the GOP has adopted. Corporate sponsored anarchy is the new normal.
Amir_Khalid
@Karen:
This was one of the things that got them kicked out of Malaysia in 1965, a month shy of their second anniversary as a state. They objected to the Malay- and Muslim-tilted order in the rest of the country, but weren’t any better themselves when it came to favoring the Chinese ethnic majority in their own state.
John Puma
I’ll grant you utterly justifiable annoyance with the idiot media’s pathological obsession with “bipartisan consensus.” But has the media dictated that to Obama or has the media been parroting Obama’s personal obsession?
When you stand for nothing you fall for anything AND when you refuse to demonstrate to the politically vanquished that elections have consequences then you DO become a one-term flash.
stuckinred
John Puma’
fuck off asshole
Lysana
@Corner Stone:
That’s the grammatical prowess of someone who picks on me for six hours in multiple threads for using the original short form of “microphone?”
A round of applause for the Great White Hope, everybody!
Kathleen
Gillespie is a gibberishtarian punk. The mayor asked to take him outside when Gillespie made some snide response to mayor’s statement that his town was one of the poorest in Pennsylvania. A typical, smug, insufferable Southwestern Ohio exurbanite. Thanks to all of you who did the heavy googling about this clown so I didn’t have to dip into the sewer. JenJen, I’m wearing my Driehaus t shirt as I type. I’m stil in mourning. OT – I’m sure the Cincinati Stink Wire will feature a breathless front page year book post about Boner (cue tongue bath).
Kathleen
First Name Last Name/JenJen: Of course, you ar exempted from my snarky comments about exurban dwellers! I live in city of Cincinnati, and I think we have some amazing, smart elected officials in the city. It would be fun to link up with some local BJ fans.
ValleyCat
@Kane
What elected Tea Party officials? They all have a big fat “R” next to their names.
harlana
: Yeh, ain’t it great? Keep those cameras rolling. Petulant little assholes are gonna keep being petulant little assholes. They’re all puffed up like bantam roosters and they look like a bunch of completely out of touch, mean-spirited little shits.
ogliberal
Good NYT profile of John Fetterman here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/magazine/13Fetterman-t.html?pagewanted=all
Kathy in St. Louis
The Washington Post is taking the win/win path. Blame both sides, even though the President has given more than 50%. That way, you won’t offend any subscribers on the right or advertisers. Then, if or when the President has to cave completely to keep the country out of default, the Post can have some of its pithier editorial writers examine the whys and wherefores of “Obama’s weakness”. What a totally gutless, weak, non-player the formerly august newspaper has become.
Obama will have to use the 14th amendment and just tell congress to stuff it. Let the courts sort it out.
Rome Again
@celticdragonchick:
God, I hate agreeing with Sully, but I have to say he’s right. I said the same thing just yesterday.
Rome Again
@Kathy in St. Louis:
Newspapers are suffering right now (I work for one, I see it in action) and they can’t afford to be honest. They need the revenue.
Rome Again
@Martin:
It’s the new math Martin. I found a website of a GOP congressman in a Texas district last night, who explains that the debt is to be blamed on Democrats because if you break down the entire debt and divide it by the number of times we’ve had a Democratic congress, that equals the number of times Democrats were responsible for the explosion of debt. He never addressed the individual expenditures of any particular congress. This is what passes for math skills now.
Martin
@MattR: I hadn’t seen that link, thank you!
The payment/revenue schedule is very important and treasury hasn’t made it easy for me to find it.
Right, and a good bit of the $91B on the 4th is Social Security Trust Fund money which is needed to pay SS/Medicare checks. And we can’t issue new bonds before the 4th to pay off that $91B because of the debt ceiling, so if we have nothing in reserve, we can’t clear the $91B to even raise new debt. So that’s why they’re uncertain whether they can send those checks out.
The GOP really has no fucking idea how this works.
vheidi
@49 Martin:
FTW!
And while I’m here, anyone know how to fix reply function in Chrome?
JenJen
Hey Kathleen @#143! Are you on Twitter? If so, get in touch with me at my name-link. I agree; so many cool Cincinnatians, so many disastrous election results!
Kathy in St. Louis
Rome Again @149. I know that papers are hurting. My daughter was an advertising manager at the major here in St. Louis. None of my friends take the paper anymore, which is sad. Our family still does, even though my daughter no longer works there. Regardless, the paper is not worth reading. It’s a shell of its former self. It’s also going bankrupt. However, that really doesn’t excuse the wimpy editorial and false equivalencies of the Washington Post. Conservatives are always going to distrust it, no matter how much the paper sucks up. The liberals and progressives who have supported it forever have been told to go s—- themselves. Doesn’t sound like a great business model to me.
AAA Bonds
“Told to go shit themselves”?
Kathleen
[email protected] – OK. I’m now following you on Twitter. But I am somewhat of a twit when it comes to Twitter. Not sure what to do next (cue flushed face at admission of technological ineptitude)
Kathy in St. Louis
AAA [email protected]….Really, you have the time to count the spaces that I used instead of the word screw? My, perhaps you can start taking in ironing if you have that much time on your hands.