What’s this about another gubmint shutdown? It is just the echoes of mind?
Let’s make this a government shutdown open thread.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.
Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.
Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.
“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”
You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.
No one could have predicted…
Hot air and ill-informed banter
Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.
The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.
They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.
Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?
The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.
Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.
The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.
It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.
Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.
Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!
Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.
I really should read my own blog.
In my day, never was longer.
They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.
Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.
This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.
Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.
The Ancient Randonneur
Think Progress has a piece up about it.
cathyx
All congress needs to do is make the Bush/Obama Tax cuts permanent and we can get another year to stay open.
Hill Dweller
Republicans have added a lot of crazy riders to the omnibus spending bill, and are using the threat of a shutdown as leverage.
Also, too, they’ve added more crazy shit to the bill extending the payroll taxcut and unemployment insurance. And they want to pay for it by raising medicare rates for current beneficiaries(which would somewhat inoculate them from Dem attacks on the Ryan plan in ’12).
Oh, and there are reports the Obama admin has dropped their veto threat of the defense appropriations bill.
randiego
and from TPM
Make Dems cut Medicare or they shut it down.
David in NY
Well, it’s not just a “mistake.”
wrb
Just everybody talking at you.
Sun’s surely gonna shine in your back door some day if you’re going where the the weather suits your clothes, backing off the northeast wind.
I love that family of images that get used in so many American songs.
Come steppin’ down the stair, combing back her yellow hair.
eemom
this time it’s more of a “stealth” government shutdown. I.e, in contrast to the usual situation where everyone freaks out and pisses their pants weeks in advance and no shutdown happens, this time we’re all just merrily rolling along talking about Newt ‘n shit, and BLAMMO. Government shutdown.
Hill Dweller
Republicans don’t want to pass the payroll and unemployment insurance extensions because it will help the economy. But they can’t take the blame for it not passing, so they add a bunch of shit to the bill, and make the Dems block it.
As an aside, the republicans ripping Obama over Iraq today are an embarrassment to this country. I would have thought that after thoroughly embarrassed himself during the DADT and START legal fights last Dec., McCain would refrain from opening his mouth, alas…
kindness
Actually this is one time I think it’s Democrats that hold the upper hand. There won’t be a budget. The ‘middle class’ Tax Cut will get booted by the Senate & Barack will look even better, Republicans will look like punks to all except those already swilling the Kool-Aid.
It’s a win.
danimal
I think the Tea Partiers need to have at least one shutdown just to say they did it.
Kind of a “bucket list” of things to do before getting kicked out of Congress in November 2012.
burnspbesq
@Hill Dweller:
Cites or links, por favor.
Mike Goetz
This is just a general comment but does it seem to anyone else that everybody’s attitude just went en masse into the shitter over the last week? Here, on all the other blogs, in the country as a whole. What is it, Christmas time? Just a general sourness and discontent over every little thing.
TooManyJens
@eemom:
Newt and government shutdowns. If we’re going to re-live the 1990s, could we at least re-live the good parts?
Hill Dweller
@kindness: But in a effort to stop Republicans from passing the House version of the payroll/unemployment extension bill, and then skipping town, Reid attached it to the omnibus bill. However, McConnell blocked Reid from trying to vote on the House bill that extends the payroll/unemployment insurance this morning. McConnell also balked at a short term continuing resolution to keep the government going temporarily.
The Republicans are nihilists who are willing to destroy the whole damn country if they think it helps them politically.
JGabriel
DougJ:
The GOP has a sad that they didn’t shut it down over the summer, and now they’re shooting for a late December shutdown, so’s they can party like it’s 1995.
.
Corner Stone
@cathyx:
Oooo…ouch.
chopper
yeah, just like the last two times it didn’t happen.
Hill Dweller
@burnspbesq: It is on TPM’s livewire. They are citing a CNN release on Twitter.
FollowtheDough
The republicans mean it this time! Democrats get scared and give them more than they demand. That way you are playing 11 dimensional chess! 11 freaking dimensional chess! We got em this time , I promise
MikeJ
@JGabriel: Just need another blizzard to hit DC. It took me three days to dig out my car, and of course the plows kept trying to bury it again.
TooManyJens
@Hill Dweller: Salon has an AP story quoting Jay Carney as well. Carney didn’t say that Obama wouldn’t veto, but that his senior advisers would no longer recommend a veto because of the changes that were made to the bill.
Lev
All I know is, no matter what happens, somehow this is going to be blamed on Barack Obama.
JGabriel
@MikeJ:
DC has plows?
Damn. You learn something new every day.
.
Corner Stone
@FollowtheDough: “How do you negotiate with people who want to shoot the hostage?! How!!”
Corner Stone
“Show me how you get to 60 votes!!”
James
Can we not take a break from the perpetual outrage to appreciate the President’s speech this morning at Fort Bragg?
“Today, I’ve come to speak to you about the end of the war in Iraq. Over the last few months, the final work of leaving Iraq has been done. Dozens of bases with American names that housed thousands of American troops have been closed down or turned over to the Iraqis. Thousands of tons of equipment have been packed up and shipped out. Tomorrow, the colors of United States Forces-Iraq — the colors you fought under — will be formally cased in a ceremony in Baghdad. Then they’ll begin their journey across an ocean, back home.”
It was quite a touching speech, thanking them all for their service. You should watch it, or read the transcript: Remarks by the President and First Lady on the End of the War in Iraq | The White House
“Looking back on the war that saved our union, a great American, Oliver Wendell Holmes, once paid tribute to those who served. “In our youth,” he said, “our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing.”
All of you here today have lived through the fires of war. You will be remembered for it. You will be honored for it — always. You have done something profound with your lives. When this nation went to war, you signed up to serve. When times were tough, you kept fighting. When there was no end in sight, you found light in the darkness.
And years from now, your legacy will endure in the names of your fallen comrades etched on headstones at Arlington, and the quiet memorials across our country; in the whispered words of admiration as you march in parades, and in the freedom of our children and our grandchildren. And in the quiet of night, you will recall that your heart was once touched by fire. You will know that you answered when your country called; you served a cause greater than yourselves; you helped forge a just and lasting peace with Iraq, and among all nations.”
I mean, that’s sumthin’, right?
TooManyJens
Did anybody else see Kayak’s hilariously awful “apology” for the way they handled the “All-American Muslim” situation?
dogwood
@Hill Dweller:
It’s what they do. It’s election time and this plays to the base. There’s no downside for them either because Democrats seem to have lost interest in this issue, so they won’t get any push back. I mean this is a great blog and all, but it’s pretty evident by the FP posters that threads about Christmas songs and McMegan, are more interesting to them than the President’s appearance at Fort Bragg today.
gbear
@Lev: I blame Obama.
Brachiator
It is just the echoes of mind? As has been the case for the last few years, Congress and the president leave a number of hot items pending until the last minute, just before the Xmas recess.
It’s not certain who will blink this time. The Democrats would come up looking stronger, even if they let the payroll tax cut extension lapse. If they go for a phony “compromise again,” they will give the GOP an advantage that they can use up through the next election (see, we told you we could make the Democrats cut spending and hold the line on tax increases).
Alex S.
The unemployment rate went down to 8,6%, from 9% last month. Someone needs to sabotage the economy…
Corner Stone
@Brachiator:
In which alternate reality?
Calouste
@Corner Stone:
You stall the negotiations until the hostage taker falls asleep from exhaustion, then you have a marksman put a bullet in his brain. In practice, negotiations with hostage takers are not as much negotiations as stalling tactics until the commandos are ready.
Raven
@Calouste: Brain? Ha.
Hill Dweller
@Brachiator:
But with mandatory spending cuts for next year already in the pipeline, the economy will get even worse without the payroll taxcut and unemployment insurance extensions. Republicans know it.
Come Nov., when the economy sucks, and the republican propaganda machine(with help from the hacks in the MSM) has convince the voters it was the Dems’ fault, it will be a bloodbath at the polls.
carpeduum
Your such an ass DougJ. Posting disappearing Romney blog and then disappearing my posts. Fuck you you hypocritical clown!
dogwood
@James:
Thanks, you beat me to it. It should be something, but it obviously isn’t. I’ve been watching the blog today, just dumbfounded that the FPers weren’t posting over each other with this story. All day the front page has looked like BJ on a very slow news day. This is why it’s so often depressing to be a Democrat.
chopper
@carpeduum:
oh, the LOLs.
Mino
The First Lady’s speech today really touched me with her obvious sincerity. She is such an asset to the cause of service families.
And I’m surprised no one has spoken of Stiglitz’s piece in Vanity Fair. Chilling.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/01/stiglitz-depression-201201
Soonergrunt
This is worth a chuckle.
Gravenstone
@TooManyJens: There were good parts in the 90’s?
Violet
@TooManyJens:
Oh, gawd, that is awful. Like this part:
So they base their spending on demographics of viewers, yet looked into it enough to decide it was a “worthy topic.” Huh? Followed by:
So…we don’t look at politics, but we’re upset because the show is controversial due to politics. Okay…
And this bit of class:
Seriously? This is Kayak’s Chief Marketing Officer and this is how he communicates? A high school kid could do better.
Amir Khalid
@TooManyJens:
Yeah, I saw that. If Kayak knew the topic — ordinary Michiganders who happen to be Muslim — was a “particular lightning rod”, as strange as that sounds, then they did in fact know TLC’s intentions from the start. And why would they not want TLC to court attention for a show in which they were buying advertising time?
It doesn’t matter if All-American Muslims sucked, as the CMO claims. (The reviews I’ve seen have said, at worst, that it’s unexceptional.) He could have said its ratings, which I hear have not been strong, didn’t justify Kayak renewing their ad buy. Or that it wasn’t being watched by the right potential customers. Those would have made for a justified business decision. That he didn’t cite those reasons implies his company did indeed cave in to racism, and deserves the same criticism that Lowe’s has been getting.
eemom
@James:
speech, shmeech. He was at Fort Bragg, and I bet he didn’t even VISIT Bradley Manning.
James
@dogwood: I guess it’s you and me, then. And I’m glad for you. Yes, being a Dem in the blogosphere is becoming more and more depressing.
Amir Khalid
@Violet:
It says something that this Birge fellow contradicts himself from one sentence to the next. He panicked, I think, and didn’t think to get his story straight before he put up this statement.
TooManyJens
@Gravenstone: The economy was a hell of a lot better. Also, I was young.
chopper
@Soonergrunt:
heh. “i woulda got away with it if it weren’t for you meddling domes!”
ruemara
@Gravenstone: I had a job and a great apartment in Manhattan. I made $2 less than I make now and had 20 more hours work. I felt seriously wealthy and on my way. If I had just known…
ET
I am going to try and think happy thoughts…..
With that in mind enjoy the how to wrap a cat video a The Poke.
dogwood
@James:
It’s not just here James. I checked out the front pages at HuffPo, Wash. Monthly, TPM, LGM, Kos, and Sullivan. There hasn’t been a mention at any of those sights. The single issue that most exercised Democratic voters in ’08 is no longer worth a mention. One of my closest lifelong friends died unexpectedly 2 years ago. Her son just came home a few weeks ago from Iraq. I so wish she were still alive. This would have been a happy day for her.
It will be pretty hard for me to read the next diatribe about the MSM who only cater to people with the attention span of gnats. The blogosphere is becoming the poor man’s version of the same thing.
eemom
@TooManyJens:
Me too. Thanks — I knew there was SOMETHING I liked about the 1990s, couldn’t quite put my wrinkly old finger on it.
WaterGirl
@James: I have been in meetings all day and hadn’t seen any news. I am very grateful that you posted on this. I assume there will be video, and I will watch it.
As Joe Biden would say, this is a big fucking deal.
Bill Arnold
@TooManyJens:
Was talking with my dad last night. He has a grudge against Ginrich because he was doing a month-or-two-long national parks tour during the Gingrich government shutdown, and wasn’t able to go to some parks, and got kicked out of Death Valley.
askew
@dogwood:
The Obama Diary is covering the speech and other positive news from this Democratic admin. Basically, all the news that DK, TPM, etc. ignore get covered there.
dogwood
@askew:
I understand that, but you’d think I wouldn’t have to go to a fan club blog to get this specific news.
James
@WaterGirl: Here: President Obama and the First Lady Speak to Troops at Fort Bragg | The White House Very much worth watching, around 30-40 minutes.
James
@dogwood: I know. It’s been completely ignored in the liberal blogosphere. Very distressing. I’m beginning to think it has become an unhealthy place to hang out. Like bizarro freeperville. No good news dare be reported, lest the outrage subside. Depressing.
James
@eemom: Why would he bother to visit a traitor like Manning when he was there to address and commend the honorable troops who brought it home?
mclaren
Where have you been, Doug?
As soon as Obama caved on the debt ceiling threat, astute commentators pointed out that this opened the door to the Republicans in congress creating permanent shutdown crises. Ever since Obama’s cowardly capitalulation on the debt ceiling, every spending bill is now open to the threat of shutdown. We will stagger through these crises constantly, since the Repubs now realize that Barack Obama is a gutless wonder with no stomach for a fight. Push Obama hard, and he always folds and falls to his knees and crawls and whimpers. What does a bully do when faced with such a victim?
Escalate the bullying, of course.
Spending bills cluttered with policy riders as next government shutdown fight looms, 2 November 2011, from the Great Orange Satan. (So of course none of you can take this information seriously — even though it turns out to be exactly correct. Remember: facts you don’t like aren’t really facts, and inconvenient logic is always invalid, because it leads to conclusions that make you uncomfortable.)
Lex
What should be done here is so obvious that of course it won’t happen, but it’s this: The Dems should insist on a clean up-or-down vote, and if they don’t get it, then, by God, shut the government down and explain that it happened because the Republicans were trying to take money from the poor and middle class and feed it to the 1%. This claim happens to be true.
Same deal with the middle-class tax cut: You get a clean vote, or you do nothing and blame the resulting $1,000 annual “tax increase” on the middle class on the Republicans. What also happens then is that the Bush tax cuts expire, reducing deficits by $3.7 trillion over 10 years. Everyone’s a winner.
Some political questions approach rocket science. These two are not among them.