I’m leaving for a vacation with limited Internet access, so this will be my last post for a while. Luckily, since Maker’s Mark has decided not to water down their product, I should be fine.
Archives for February 2013
The Makers Get Their Due
Facebook will pay no tax on $1.1 billion in pre-tax profits, will probably get a refund of $429 million and will reduce future tax liability by $2.17 billion using lost loss carry-forwards.
Let’s just hold hands and pray that it’s enough to keep Mark Zuckerberg and the rest happy and working instead of running off to their own version of Galt’s Gulch.
Open Thread: Catch-G22
From the left-wing anarchist firebaggers at NBC news:
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba — While the prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks were in the Guantanamo courtroom this week, guards seized confidential legal documents, books, photos and even toilet paper from their cells, according to a prison camp lawyer.
Most of the seized items will be returned, the camp lawyer testified in a hearing Thursday marked by angry outbursts, eye-rolling and lengthy diversions from the docket in the war crimes court at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.
Defense lawyers said some defendants returned to their cells after court sessions earlier in the week to find that bins containing their legal documents had been ransacked and confidential papers relating to their defense were missing.
The seizures happened while the camp’s top legal adviser was on the witness stand giving assurances that no one was reading those private legal documents, said Cheryl Bormann, an attorney for defendant Walid Bin Attash….
Greetings from a Crazy Cat Lady
Here is a new pic of Ariel, who will be down here from Connecticut on Wednesday or Thursday. It’s harder to take pictures of her than Tunch, because she actually moves, so this is a little blurry:
I cleaned the spare bedroom, vacuumed the whole place, changed the sheets, and put the gate up, trying to get rid of the smell of Tunch so she will have her safe zone. I’m really kind of excited.
I’m also a touch worried that I really am slipping into hoarder status. What can I say, I love my animals. I took a nap today at around three after the Pens beat the Sabres, and climbing into bed, I had to lift the comforter for Lily and Rosie to get in, and as I was passing out, Tunch came for a visit. When I woke up an hour later, I heard Tunch purring next to me, Lily was snoring in my ear and drooling on my shoulder, and Rosie was nestled up next to my thigh. How does it get any better than that?
Why, by adding a cat to purr in my other ear. WINNING!
I’m not sure I like the name Ariel or Oreo (her name is Oreo, but my mom calls her Ariel because Oreo is not elegant enough- and for my mom, a dog person, to fall for a cat, you know she is a keeper.).
So, Balloon Juice readers, what does she look like to you? A Sascha, maybe?
Serious People…
ETA: I notice that as I wrote this John has come up with more on Lindsay Graham’s ongoing star turn theater of the absurdly malicious. Must be a harmonic convergence or something…
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It’s getting sad, really, watching Senator Graham twist and turn as he tries to find some way of avoiding being Lugared next election.
Here he is on how to avoid the damage of the sequester:
“Here’s my belief: let’s take Obamacare and put it on the table,” he said. “If you want to look at ways to find $1.2 trillion in savings over the next decade, let’s look at Obamacare. Let’s don’t destroy the military and just cut blindly across the board.”
Here’s the Congressional Budget Office on what the budget would look like without the health care reform measure that is the signature accomplishment of President Obama’s first term:
Assuming that H.R. 6079 is enacted near the beginning of fiscal year 2013, CBO and JCT estimate that, on balance, the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting that legislation would cause a net increase in federal budget deficits of $109 billion over the 2013–2022 period. Specifically, we estimate that H.R. 6079 would reduce direct spending by $890 billion and reduce revenues by $1 trillion between 2013 and 2022, thus adding $109 billion to federal budget deficits over that period.
So forget the fact that there is exactly zero chance that the President or his party would acquiesce in this latest ham-fisted South Carolinian attempt at the nullification of duly passed federal law. Pass over in silence the fact that this kind of nonsense is exactly what is needed to continue to paint the GOP as the party of rigidity, incapable of anything other than fighting the last war…
…and ignore all of the reasons that the utterance of this crap may play great on Fox News — and that such theater is exactly what (some) Republicans themselves have noticed constrains the party’s ability to speak past its dwindling core.
Instead, do what is sadly laughable in our politics today: pay attention to the actual policy.
If you do, you’ll notice that a sitting, senior senator just proposed deficit reduction by increasing the deficit.*
That this fact doesn’t earn immediate ridicule from the mainstream media — and not just us DFH bloggers — is a pretty precise measure of how deep is the sh*t in which our polity now wallows. To be sure, this is hardly the most risible, or most corrosive of Graham’s recent performances; nor that of the GOP at large. But the sheer bald obviousness of the big lie here gets my goat. Does he think we’re that stupid?
Don’t answer that.
*I do know that Graham’s statement could suggest something other than the repeal examined in the CBO analysis cited above. But every GOP proposal on health care that I can recall that calls for something other than a total reversal of Obamacare makes the fiscal picture worse. So unless and an until Sen. Graham advances a specific plan, I’ll default to the existing corpus of Republican “ideas” on the matter.
Image: Matthais Robinson, Charge of the Light Brigade, 1864.
The Guns and Butter Divide in One Quick Paragraph
GRAHAM: Well, all i can say is the commander-in-chief thought — came up with the idea of sequestration, destroying the military and putting a lot of good programs at risk. It is my belief — take Obamacare and put it on the table. You can make $86,000 a year in income and still get a government subsidy under Obamacare. Obamacare is destroying health care in this country and people are leaving the private sector, because their companies cannot afford to offer Obamacare and if you want to look at ways to find $1.2 trillion in savings over the next decade, look at Obamacare, don’t destroy the military and cut blindly across the board. There are many ways to do it but the president is the commander-in-chief and on his watch we’ll begin to unravel the finest military in the history of the world, at a time when we need it most. The Iranians are watching us, we are allowing people to be destroyed in Syria, and i’m disappointed in our commander-in-chief.
The notion that miniscule cuts to the most bloated military in the world is, in and of itself, offensive to common sense. That this douchebag wants millions of Americans to die without health coverage to keep shuffling three quarters of a trillion to said military really says it all.
The Guns and Butter Divide in One Quick ParagraphPost + Comments (78)
Open Thread: Soldiering On
Heartbreaking Washington Post piece on Gabby Gifford’s new crusade:
… Since the school massacre in Newtown, Conn., Giffords has emerged as the country’s most famous victim advocate, the face of a renewed effort across the country to legislate gun control. It is impossible to be near Giffords and not be reminded of her injuries.
But she has lost neither her sharp political instinct nor her determination to deliver her message. When asked during her visit to Capitol Hill if she might be more powerful in her new role, her answer was swift and firm.
“Yes,” she said. “Impact.”
Yet the question is whether the former congresswoman can change the seemingly intractable opposition on Capitol Hill to new restrictions on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and loopholes in background checks. The sides in the debate have long been chosen, and few members of Congress will cross the powerful gun lobby to support the kinds of changes that Giffords advocates.
In short, in her new role, will Gabby Giffords have an impact?
If not, it won’t be for lack of trying. She and Kelly have embarked on a full-scale campaign to try to reduce gun violence. They have created an advocacy group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, raised a considerable chunk of money and brought their message to Washington, where Giffords was once regarded as a rising political star.
Their partnership works like this: Kelly does most of the talking. Giffords sits or stands beside him, animated and smiling, offering a word here and there. It is not what Giffords says in her new role as much as what she cannot say. Her message is mostly silent, a reminder that no one, even a member of Congress, is immune from the random violence that can transform — or end — a life.
“Gabby has particular insight into the issue, being a former member of Congress, a victim of gun violence, a gun owner and a strong supporter of the Second Amendment,” Kelly, a former astronaut and space shuttle commander, said. “I think folks want to hear what she has to say about this.”…
Every good marriage is a partnership, and I sincerely hope mine will never be tested to this degree.
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Apart from being grateful for our obscurity, what’s on the agenda for the evening?