Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

This blog will pay for itself.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

You are here: Home / House GOP Fails Tea Party

House GOP Fails Tea Party

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This is weak sauce:

House Republicans have added a measure aimed at limiting contraceptive coverage to the spending bill coming up for a vote Saturday night […]

The so-called “conscience clause” would allow employers and insurers to opt out of preventative care for women which they find objectionable on moral or religious grounds. That prominently includes birth control, which most insurers are required to provide for free under current Obamacare rules.

Contraception coverage is the best they can do? What about abortions? Do they need to borrow Putin’s balls to get the job done? What will it take for them to take the hard votes? Primary all these RINOs, I say.

Reader Interactions

149Comments

  2. 2.

    Poopyman

    And no doubt there’s a way to separate “religious grounds” from “cheaper”.

    Not that it matters either to the wingnuts who propose it or to the Dems in the Senate who’ll kill it. They will, of course. (??)

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Contraception coverage is the best they can do? What about abortions?

    This just shows that the GOP is willing to be reasonable and meet the Democrats half-way. /Mark Halperin

  5. 5.

    Wag

    @JPL:

    What about those little blue p i l l s? Taking those is probably the only way that the whackos can get it up

    Those pills make babies. Those pills are good medicine, not bad medicine like birth control.

  6. 6.

    sparrow

    Does it actually say it’s for “women” ? I mean bullshit either way but holy shit you can hardly make your hatred of women more clear. Assholes.

    … and contraception seriously? WTF? Something like 98% of couples (that includes marrieds, guys) use/believe in contraception. It’s kind of a hallmark of being a civilized country, ya know?

  8. 8.

    debbie

    Seriously, their FREEDOM includes the right to deny others their freedom? These guys couldn’t be more Cotton Mather if they tried.

  11. 11.

    Short Bus Bully

    Can we just call them the John Birch Society and be honest with everyone?

    And remember when David Broder and David Brooks were arguing that the “Tea Party” was a moderate’s dream come true, 50/50 dem and repub?

    Good times.

  15. 15.

    IowaOldLady

    And, btw, I thought providing contraception actually cut the cost of health insurance since it’s much cheaper than pregnancy.

  16. 16.

    J

    Absolutely right! Surely they can aim a bit higher, at the repeal of the law of gravity or the second law of thermodynamics at a minimum.

  18. 18.

    Chris

    Contraception coverage is the best they can do? What about abortions?

    I love it. They’re trying to block birth control, but not abortion. You know, just in case there was any doubt that it might be about saving babies’ lives and not controlling women’s bodies.

  19. 19.

    mai naem

    WTf is wrong with these mofos and contraceptives? We aren’t even talking about abortion. Just plain ole contraceptives. Jeebus, don’t they realize this will help stop all those brown people they hate from being born? Dumbasses. Even the Catholic priests have given up on contraceptives.

  21. 21.

    MattF

    Did the House actually vote for that provision? I didn’t see it in the NYT article. Just FYI, from that article, House Republicans were ‘giddy’ about their ‘victory’:

    The mood in the Capitol on Saturday, at least among Republicans, was downright giddy. When Republican leaders presented their plan in a closed-door meeting on Saturday, cheers and chants of “Vote, vote, vote!” went up. As members left the meeting, many wore beaming grins.

    Representative John Culberson of Texas said that as he and his colleagues were clamoring for a vote, he shouted out his own encouragement. “I said, like 9/11, ‘Let’s roll!’ ” That the Senate would almost certainly reject the health care delay, he added, was not a concern. “Ulysses S. Grant used to say, ‘Boys, quit worrying about what Bobby Lee is doing. I want to know what we are doing.’ And that’s what the House is doing today, thank God.”

  22. 22.

    cathyx

    Why aren’t the pharmaceutical companies speaking up against the ban on contraceptives? They would lose a lot of money.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    For those wondering, the actual bill language is very broad:

    Section 2713(a)(4) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300gg-13(a)(4)) shall not be effective for any period before January 1, 2015, with respect to the requirement for specific coverage for any sponsor of a group health plan (or, in the case of student health plans, the institution of higher education offering such plans), health insurance issuer, or individual opposing such requirement for coverage based on religious or moral objections.

    It also seems wholly gratuitous because the continuing resolution provides for a one-year delay of all of Obamacare anyway.

  25. 25.

    Cacti

    @sparrow:

    Something like 98% of couples (that includes marrieds, guys) use/believe in contraception. It’s kind of a hallmark of being a civilized country, ya know?

    When you’re not part of the GOP country club crowd, planning the size of your family is one of the biggest economic decisions you’ll ever make. The average family doesn’t have 2.5 children because married couples abstain from all non-baby making sex.

  26. 26.

    CaseyL

    Does the amendment actually specify, in so many words, “preventative care for women”? Because that covers things like PAP smears and, oh, any pre-natal care.

    ETA: Thanks, Baud. The “religious exemption” is even broader than that: an employer can opt out for any damn reason at all.

  27. 27.

    Tara the Antisocial Social Worker

    @J:

    Surely they can aim a bit higher, at the repeal of the law of gravity

    I believe this requires the standard joke about getting a suspended sentence.

  28. 28.

    Violet

    @Cacti: The GOP country club crowd doesn’t have many more than 2.5 children either. It’s the evangelical teatards who have the gazillion kids. And they don’t compromise.

  29. 29.

    cathyx

    No wonder the conservatives are such negative downers. If I only had sex to procreate, I would be wound tighter than a pull toy, especially since I only have one child.

  31. 31.

    NonyNony

    @Baud:

    opposing such requirement for coverage based on religious or moral objections.

    Holy crap that’s overly broad language.

    Wouldn’t that mean that if your employer was a Christian Scientist, they could refuse to have health care coverage for their employees at all? Or if they were a Scientologist could they refuse to have any coverage that involved prescription drugs? Or if they were Catholic could they refuse to have any coverage of fertility treatments (which the Catholic Church is vehemently against, though you wouldn’t know it from some of the more right-wing of their followers in the US)?

    And hell it isn’t just religious objections either – it says moral objections. What if your employer believes that it’s immoral to immunize children with the flu vaccine? Could they deny coverage? Or if your employer believes that Big Pharma is a scam trying to suck money out of the pockets of upstanding citizens? Could they deny prescription med benefits because of this “moral objection”? Hell someone could just say they have a moral objection to the very idea of insurance because it’s a form of gambling.

  32. 32.

    Tara the Antisocial Social Worker

    I have a religious and moral objection to providing any medical care to Republican politicians without first Supergluing their mouths shut.

  34. 34.

    WereBear

    @Baud: It’s so inspiring that they are the only ones who get to have “moral objections.”

    Starving people is something I have moral objections to, but Republicans are A-Okay with it.

  35. 35.

    dmsilev

    @cathyx: They remind me of the classic definition of a Puritan, as a person who is deathly afraid of the idea that someone, somewhere, is having a good time.

  37. 37.

    TAPX486

    Don’t worry the GOP has a laundry list of things that want passed. The short list in the current CR, the medium long list for the debt limit and then ever growing lists of demands for the next CR in December and the one after that and the one after that and for ever and ever.

    If Obama and Reid suggest that they will take even one step toward the GOP by agreeing to bring the donuts to the next meeting, then they might as well just resign and turn the government over to the crazy people. The only way to break this is to show you will get nothing, zilch, nada. Just public scorn. It won’t change the minds of the nuts but maybe it will supply a bit of backbone to 40-50 semi-sane Republicans. Boehner and Nancy then can pass some minimum amount of legislation to keep the government and the economy running. Not ideal but better than a hostage crisis ever 3 months until 2016

  39. 39.

    Tara the Antisocial Social Worker

    @NonyNony:

    Since Republicans worship the Almighty Dollar, obviously their have a “religious and moral objection” to providing any coverage that costs them money.

  40. 40.

    Davis X. Machina

    @cathyx: They stand to make far more if they can kill off Obamacare altogether. The spectre of the government eventually bargaining over the prices for the drugs the people it covers take is a powerful incentive to Kill the Bill.

  41. 41.

    PsiFighter37

    What happened to all the other conservative wet dreams, like putting Minutemen on every foot of the US-Mexico border, repealing all gun laws, and banning any kind of human rights for gay people?

    The teabaggers brewed themselves some weak tea. They can do better than this, I know they can. Clearly this didn’t get enough input from the likes of Louie Gohmert and Michelle Bachmann.

  42. 42.

    Violet

    Couldn’t that clause be challenged on discrimination grounds? Why can women be left out of preventative care but not men?

  43. 43.

    Tara the Antisocial Social Worker

    @WereBear:

    Starving people is something I have moral objections to, but Republicans are A-Okay with it.

    Hey, no fair! Who said you could apply morality to stuff that happens above the waist?

    I mean, besides that Jesus guy?

  46. 46.

    azlib

    What is really insane is they are bonkers about a healthcare law which was invented by the Heritage Foundation.

  47. 47.

    Violet

    @azlib: Passed by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by a black President. That’s all you need to know to explain the freakout. Same exact law passed by Republicans and signed into law by a Republican president would be considered genius.

  48. 48.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TAPX486:
    Why? Not getting what they want for the last four or five negotiations has led to screaming declarations that conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed. They didn’t even want the Sequester. That was put in because both sides assumed it would force a renegotiation. Only after the fact did the Teatards declare that they would rather shiv the military than give Obama anything, and only after THAT fact did they rewrite history (as they do) and pat themselves on the back for cutting spending. Before the Sequester it was an endless fail parade of Obama taking them to the cleaners. They learned nothing, and they’re not going to learn anything, and there’s no reason they have to learn anything.

  49. 49.

    PsiFighter37

    @azlib: Don’t tell Jim DeMint that – don’t want to compromise his conscience while he’s receiving that sweet, sweet millionaire salary/wingnut welfare for running that joint.

  51. 51.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    It’s just coincidence that Tea Party soteriology so often involves saving money for the wealthy and inflicting punishment on the not-wealthy.

  52. 52.

    fka AWS

    @Baud:

    They want to turn employers into feudal lords.

    Moreso than they are now with so much health insurance tied to employment.

  54. 54.

    WereBear

    President Obama knew they would pull this again. I am certain he has a plan, because he has declared he will not back down.

    Unlike the Tea Partiers, who simply clam that whatever they got is what they wanted all along, I’ve noticed that President Obama will not declare an action unless he can back it up.

  56. 56.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @PsiFighter37:

    Some of the guys who founded the Heritage Foundation are dismayed that it’s gone full metal teatard and thus destroyed whatever intellectual heft it once commanded.

  58. 58.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @TAPX486:

    True but I did say ‘MAYBE” there are a few sane ones left.

    Maybe, indeed. If there are any such you can bet the ranch that Cruz will make sure that those apostates are replaced by zealots.

  63. 63.

    Anoniminous

    @TAPX486:

    Your “40-50 semi-sane Republicans” is why, eventually, both the CR and debt ceiling will be passed. Removing $2.9 trillion from the US economy and then refusing to honor US debt will crash the US economy and shortly thereafter the global economy.

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Corporate wing of the GOP will eventually join with Democrats and pass the CR and debt ceiling. We have to go through this nonsense first because re-election politics.

  64. 64.

    RSA

    @Baud: Thanks for the language.

    …for any sponsor of a group health plan (or, in the case of student health plans, the institution of higher education offering such plans), health insurance issuer, or individual opposing such requirement for coverage based on religious or moral objections.

    We really need to get something on the books about what kinds of entities can have religious or moral objections. Any sponsor, institutions of higher education, insurance issuers, and corporations in general don’t have morals or religious beliefs. Only real, live human beings do.

    (My naive view is that if you run a corporation and want your moral views to override those of your employees, you need to assume personal responsibility for the results.)

  65. 65.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @RSA:

    …you need to assume personal responsibility for the results.

    That concept left the Republican party during the Reagan administration.

  66. 66.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @RSA:

    (My naive view is that if you run a corporation and want your moral views to override those of your employees, you need to assume personal responsibility for the results.)

    Well, the entire purpose of a corporation is to dodge personal responsibility, so we’ve got an oxymoron from the get-go. Emphasis on the moron.

  67. 67.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Baud:

    They want to bring back feudalism, period. That’s the entire point of libertarianism, with the libertarians as the new feudal masters.

  72. 72.

    Anoniminous

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    If the GOP doesn’t claw back support from seniors they will lose the House in 2015. A drop of 16% of support in that critical voting demographic means the 2014 election is shaping into an “outlier” election – as compared to statistical history – meaning their heavily gerrymandered districts will act against, rather than for, them.

    As this election seems to be shaping more like 2006 than 2010 Cruz and the other Usual Suspects going even further down the rabbit hole will only acerbate and solidify this situation.

  73. 73.

    patroclus

    Cutting out contraceptive coverage is stupid – the Republicans are insane.

    This Iranian diplomatic breakthrough is Berlin Wall falling level stuff. I watched the Iranian foreign minister on This Week with George Stepinalotashit and it really appears possible, if not likely, that the U.S. and Iran are about to reach an agreement to drop all economic sanctions in exchange for a committment not to highly enrich uranium beyond military grade and this decades-long low-level military conflict and high level financial/political war just might end soon. This is AMAZING! Rouhani sounds like he really means what he says and he’s definitely on a charm offensive.

  74. 74.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Villago Delenda Est: I was going to say the same thing. The whole reason corporations exist is to create an entity alternative to the individuals who found them. You can’t have it both ways. A corporation can’t have moral views. If you want to be able to exert your moral views, great, but you can’t do it from within the guise of a corporation. IANAL.

  75. 75.

    Anoniminous

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    My guess is Boehner will, with the help of Wall St., rally the semi-sane GOP House members and after a personal meeting with the lobbying firm of Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, and Johnny Walker come out and declare he is allowing a vote “for the good of the country.”

  76. 76.

    dmsilev

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    So… what is Boehner going to approve? Except for alcohol, I haven’t a clue what makes that man tick.

    Money, and at least the trappings of power. I think he’s rapidly coming to a point, even if he doesn’t know it yet, where he’ll have to chose between one or the other.

  77. 77.

    feebog

    I think the recent showdown over the confirmation of nominees in the Senate is a teachable moment. The lesson is that Republicans will bloviate, obstruct and whine until their bluff is called. I also think that Obama has learned that lesson and will deal with the House like you would any other spoiled six-year old; go sit in the corner until you learn to behave.

  78. 78.

    ShadeTail

    @cathyx:

    Why aren’t the pharmaceutical companies speaking up against the ban on contraceptives? They would lose a lot of money.

    They are. The GOP are simply ignoring them, just like they’re ignoring all the rest of the business community when it comes to sane economics. You think the big banks and etc. want a government shutdown or default? Of course they don’t, because it would cause massive disruption for their business. The GOP don’t care.

  80. 80.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @dmsilev: He’s got at least $3.1M cash on hand over a year before the next election, and raised $25.7M in the 2011-2012 cycle. If he weren’t Speaker, he wouldn’t have anywhere near that much campaign cash as simply an obscure OH Congressman.

    I think he knows that this is as good as it gets when it comes to power and influence. He’s just trying to hold on and keep his head down enough to keep the job and the money that goes with it. I don’t think there’s more to it than that.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  81. 81.

    The Red Pen

    I contacted Vicky Hartzler’s office and let her know that if they don’t pass a bill mandating public floggings for adultery, she’s getting primaried.

  82. 82.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @ShadeTail:
    The GOP have been the party of money for so long, it’s hard for many people to grasp that those days are gone. They’re now the party of sadistic psychos. Some of their policies still benefit the rich, but that’s a side effect of hating liberals and torturing the poor. Other than possibly the equally insane Koch Brothers, Tea Partiers give no fucks what the business community thinks.

  83. 83.

    Anoniminous

    @WereBear:

    It is good news.

    Glossing, it is it’s a long time until November 2014 and the structural edge needs to solidified. We need to work our asses off to make it happen.

  84. 84.

    Mary G

    This column by the Washington Monthly’s weekend guy, Samuel Knight, is a great critique of Ted Cruz’s appearance on MTP this morning:

    In an interview with David Gregory this morning, Senator Ted Cruz cited numerous examples why his legislative strategy based around straw men reeks of badger excrement of the most pungent variety.

    It concludes:

    But Cruz’s clear distaste for anything remotely resembling intelligent argument or good faith negotiation (Republicans first cited fiscal responsibility as a reason to oppose debt ceiling increases) has been rewarded by Republican voters: Public Policy Polling revealed on Friday that Cruz is, thus far, most likely to win the 2016 GOP Presidential Primary.

  85. 85.

    Violet

    Interesting. Saw this headline on Yahoo News.

    If Republicans Want To Shut Down Washington, They’ll Have To Ask China’s Permission First

    It’s from Forbes.
    This paragraph is interesting:

    Unbeknownst to Cruz, and seemingly to most of the rest of the Republican party, the creditor nations hold the high cards. If they were to sell just a small proportion of their American assets, they could send Wall Street into a tailspin. They are unlikely to do this but even if they were merely to slow the pace of their buying, bond yields would rocket and stocks could fall 15 percent in the space of a couple of weeks. A key thing here is that American asset valuations are at historic highs — the Standard & Poor’s 500 is on a P/E of 19 and long-term bonds yields are still near their lowest levels in many decades.

    I’d bet the Tea Partiers have zero idea that other countries have leverage over the US.

  86. 86.

    scav

    @The Red Pen: Isn’t stoning biblically based? OT, so the real stuff, not the red-letter betrayer and wimpifier of the true red-meat covenant. And just where are all the scarlet letters of this nation’s lauded heritage? Have we even executed a witch since, well, donkeys years?

  87. 87.

    Felonius Monk

    @Anoniminous:

    rally the semi-sane GOP House members

    Semi-sane GOP do not exist. Witness that GOP voted unanimously for their latest legislative turd last night. However, IMO, sanity has little to do with it. It is FEAR. They are all afraid of the Tea Party Monster. And the Tea Party Monster is not a bunch of old white people on SS and Medicare nor it is a bunch of nearly illiterate rednecks. They are the camouflage for a very well funded and powerful group that has a very specific agenda — the takeover of our government so they can control this country and make it accede to their wishes all under the guise of patriotism, flag waving, and the Constitution.

    The fact that we focus almost entirely on the so-called crazies in the Congress and the idiots in the Hoverounds without really looking at what is really behind this insanity allows this small group to further consolidate their power and enlarge their numbers.

    The MSM has certainly failed to look behind the curtain. In fact, they don’t even seem to realize that there is a curtain let alone anyone behind it. Where is Toto when you need you need him.

    Until this is all exposed for everyone to see, the Republican intransigence will continue.

  88. 88.

    Randy P

    @CaseyL: I’m getting self-congratulatory emails from Pat Toomey, who I’m sad to say is my senator in my corner of PA. All the stuff about how important it is to defeat Obamacare and protect religious freedom.

    I’m just about ready to write a gushing constituent note to his website thanking him for protecting an employer’s right to institute Sharia Law.

    I thought Repubs were against that, but I guess I was wrong.

  89. 89.

    Violet

    @Felonius Monk:

    The MSM has certainly failed to look behind the curtain. In fact, they don’t even seem to realize that there is a curtain let alone anyone behind it.

    The MSM is the curtain.

  91. 91.

    MattF

    @Violet: Well, if it’s in Forbes, one should seek independent confirmation. IMO, the stock market is due for a correction– and I know that a lot of people are thinking cash is relatively safe.

  92. 92.

    shelly

    Another House Republican on the cable tee-vee blithering that they’re ‘really doing this for the American people.’ Yup, 80% of Americans don’t want a government shut-down, but hey, you know better.

  94. 94.

    schrodinger's cat

    Andrew Sullivan update. I went over to his blog after a long time and not a single post about the default or the GOP hostage taking, what gives? Is he still on vacation or something?

  96. 96.

    eemom

    @Anoniminous:

    My guess is Boehner will, with the help of Wall St., rally the semi-sane GOP House members and after a personal meeting with the lobbying firm of Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, and Johnny Walker come out and declare he is allowing a vote “for the good of the country.”

    Tee hee

  99. 99.

    Alexandra

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    It’s Sunday, which, I’m guessing, means two things:

    1. A lot of pre-prepared content, possibly by stunt doubles.
    2. It’s his schtick. Sundays over there are always about Gawd™ etc.

    And that’s fair enough. Good for him for taking time off. Nothing he’s going to say at this point is going to change anything.

  100. 100.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Randy P:

    That is precisely the right tack to take with fucktards like Toomey.

    Of course, if you’re imposing “God’s Law” as opposed to “Allah’s Law”, it’s perfectly OK. Never mind it’s the same fucking deity.

  101. 101.

    scav

    @Villago Delenda Est: &
    @Randy P: They do rather assume all companies are run by the right kind of Christians, while screaming elsewhere about those jooos that run everything, those scary Chinese communists that are going to take over everything (having momentarily forgotten all the financial oomph of the gulf states), let alone all those hippy dippy socialist European multinationals. Of course, those companies have no right to moral positions.

  102. 102.

    xenos

    @Anoniminous:

    A drop of 16% of support in that critical voting demographic means the 2014 election is shaping into an “outlier” election – as compared to statistical history – meaning their heavily gerrymandered districts will act against, rather than for, them.

    This is absolutely critical. GOP support is pretty strong in most of their districts, but if they lose a certain fractions of votes then a lot of otherwise gerrymandered districts can flip at once. Then the obstruction problems will move back to the senate. Maybe we can get the filibuster killed around that time, and finally exercise the dictatorial control people accuse us of using all the time.

  104. 104.

    Anoniminous

    @Felonius Monk:

    See Violet’s comment above. There’s no Law of the Universe mandating the US dollar as the default global currency. An extended shutdown of the US government followed by a refusal to raise the debt ceiling would force other countries to move to an alternative. Iran has been pushing to shift global commodity trade in oil from the dollar to a basket of currencies. So far they haven’t gotten much traction. Throw the stability of the dollar into doubt and countries will fall over themselves to make the switch. Granted this would throw the Forex Market ($3.98 trillion/day) into turmoil, sending the world into a Depression and even risking a global economic collapse; countering this is the certainty of global economic collapse by keeping everything denominated in dollars. US based trans-nationals know all this and are capable of strong arming, as we’ve seen before, the Corporate Wing of the GOP into moments of sanity.

    It’s all about power and money with these #$%^!ers and if the CR and debt ceiling raise aren’t passed they can kiss both good-bye.

  105. 105.

    WereBear

    @MattF: I know that a lot of people are thinking cash is relatively safe.

    Unless the US has its currency devalued. That’s the kind of fire the Tea Party is playing with.

    Which is why I think the leash will be yanked… if there is a leash.

  106. 106.

    Davis X. Machina

    … sending the world into a Depression and even risking a global economic collapse;

    Extremism in the defense of extremism is no vice. A cleaner, harder, stronger, leaner, more God-fearing America will arise, and it won’t be long before it takes its rightful place in the world again.

    (If you don’t actually believe that there is a rest of the world out there, then just skip the last part — it’s full of foreigners anyways.)

  107. 107.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Felonius Monk:
    Deceptive. There is no reason for not-batshit members to NOT vote for any crazy-ass thing the Teatards propose. It’s not getting through the Senate or Obama’s veto anyway. As for the stuff about the small group trying to take power, I’m sorry, but I completely disagree. The only rich people who weren’t better off before the Teatards went crazy are the Kochs, and they can’t control the monster, either. They just don’t care, because they’re as lunatic as the monster. The clowns are driving the car.

  108. 108.

    Violet

    @WereBear: I think this is the big question. Is there a leash and does it still work? It doesn’t seem like the Tea Partiers pay much attention to any kind of leash.

    @Anoniminous: See: what the Americans did to the British in the Suez. I don’t know anything about this guy’s blog, but it’s a good summary of that situation. Key paragraphs:

    The United States held much of the debt that Britain was in. Some of the bonds were owed to the US as part of Britains World War II debt to the US government, corporations and individuals and some of them were part of the Marshall Plan to help rebuild Europe post WWII.

    The US used this debt to put tremendous pressure on Britain to halt the invasion. Eisenhower ordered Humphrey, secretary of the treasury to prepare to sell part of the US governments sterling bond holdings. His British counterpart advised his prime minister, Anthony Eden, that if the US did sell their bonds, the British pound would devalue to such an extent that they would no longer be able to import what they needed to sustain the islands. Eden announced a cease fire on November 6th.

    We leaned on the British because of our economic leverage. They did what we wanted from a foreign policy standpoint. There’s no reason other countries can’t do that to us now.

  109. 109.

    LesGS

    @schrodinger’s cat: It’s Sunday. He doesn’t do politics on the Sabbath. He was actually pretty good on the issue earlier in the week. He has a running thread on the GOPs “war on our system of government.”

  110. 110.

    Another Holocene Human

    So when the GOP privatizes education and gives out vouchers = good. But when the Democratic party takes the already private healthcare industry and gives customers vouchers subsidies = tyranny.

    Sounds like another case of IOKIYAR.

  112. 112.

    Cacti

    As we stand at the edge of another GOP-manufactured crisis, I’m reminded of 2010 when jackasses like Ed Schultz were telling Democrats not to vote.

    Thanks guys!

  113. 113.

    fuckwit

    @Anoniminous: It’s not even about power, it’s about ego and nihilism. I’m buying bitcoin. In large quantities. Now.

    @TAPX486: Yeppers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f6l1QljpMo

    @Anoniminous: That’s the most likely scenario. Boner ignores the Hastert Suggestion, and pulls together enough business-fearing R’s to vote along with Pelosi’s caucus to pass a clean CR and debt ceiling. Essentially, the only way out of this is for Boner to cut his tearorrists loose and give up even pretending to work with them.

  114. 114.

    burnspbesq

    @Poopyman:

    Who will rid me of this meddlesome Congress?

    The electorate, if we get off our asses and get out the vote in 2014. Ignore idiots like DougJ who keep saying that we can’t overcome the gerrymandering.

  115. 115.

    fuckwit

    @Anoniminous: It’s not even about power, it’s about ego and nihilism. I’m buying bitcoin. In large quantities. Now.

    @TAPX486: Yeppers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f6l1QljpMo

    @Anoniminous: That’s the most likely scenario. Orange Julius ignores the Hastert Suggestion, and pulls together enough business-fearing R’s to vote along with Pelosi’s caucus to pass a clean CR and debt ceiling. Essentially, the only way out of this is for Orange Julius to cut his tearorrists loose and give up even pretending to work with them.

    (edited because FYWP)

  117. 117.

    Another Holocene Human

    @patroclus:

    This Iranian diplomatic breakthrough is Berlin Wall falling level stuff. I watched the Iranian foreign minister on This Week with George Stepinalotashit and it really appears possible, if not likely, that the U.S. and Iran are about to reach an agreement to drop all economic sanctions in exchange for a committment not to highly enrich uranium beyond military grade and this decades-long low-level military conflict and high level financial/political war just might end soon. This is AMAZING!

    Yes. I’m not just cautiously optimistic, I’m optimistic period. Obama and State have to have been working on this for years for this to happen. Very good news for my Iranian friends living in the US.

    Of course our dipshit media and white supremacists are too busy wanking over healthcare for the poors and those people to pay any attention or, perish the thought, give Obama any credit.

  119. 119.

    Jeremy

    I agree with others who point out that the GOP doesn’t care what the business community thinks. Even the Chamber of Commerce supported President Obama’s infrastructure bank proposal along with labor and the GOP house told them to go to hell. The business community begged the GOP to get a bipartisan deal done on the debt and they have ignored them every time.

    This is not your father or grandfather’s republican party.

  121. 121.

    burnspbesq

    @FlipYrWhig:

    The whole reason corporations exist is to create an entity alternative to the individuals who found them. You can’t have it both ways. A corporation can’t have moral views. If you want to be able to exert your moral views, great, but you can’t do it from within the guise of a corporation. IANAL.

    So far, two of the three Courts of Appeal that have been asked the question have agreed with you. Supremes have yet to be heard from.

  122. 122.

    fuckwit

    @FlipYrWhig: There was a recent circuit court decision which said almost exactly that, in response to this issue (a corporation trying to get out of covering birth control). Corporations can’t have freedom of religion, they aren’t people. If the SCOTUS decides to let that stand, then this whole line of argument is done for, and takes a big chunk out of corporate personhood and might even undermine CItizens United too (again, IANAL)

  123. 123.

    burnspbesq

    @WereBear:

    if there is a leash.

    There isn’t. Teahadists and Occupiers agree that Lloyd Blankfein is the Antichrist and Jamie Dimon is his acolyte.

  124. 124.

    BBA

    @Another Holocene Human: It’s the mandate and regulation that bothers them. If they wanted to put their money where their mouths are, they’d repeal the compulsory education laws.

    (They actually did that in Mississippi after Brown v. Board, because they’d rather have no schools at all than desegregate.)

  125. 125.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Anoniminous:

    If the GOP doesn’t claw back support from seniors they will lose the House in 2015. A drop of 16% of support in that critical voting demographic means the 2014 election is shaping into an “outlier” election – as compared to statistical history – meaning their heavily gerrymandered districts will act against, rather than for, them.

    Is this information credible? I ask because the website is new to me and the comments are full of obsessive comments about Anonymous’ script kiddies allegedly blocking Karl Rove’s alleged “back door” into Ohio’s voting machines, which is a narrative laden with, er, imponderables, that even gullible I find hard to swallow.

  126. 126.

    Another Holocene Human

    @BBA: But they do get rid of compulsory education. Many states let them homeschool away without lesson plan approval or welfare checks for the children. (California is an exception which other states ought to follow). There’s a trial going on in Pennsylvania right now involving a disabled “home schooled” 6 year old with disabilities who was beaten and starved to death by his biological parents.

    (Also, read Vicky’s incredibly honest account of her Quivering “Home’s Cool”. If only public schools have to meet standards we risk creating a generation of lost children.)

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    Congress Cracks Up
    By GAIL COLLINS
    Published: September 27, 2013

    Our challenge today is to explain how Congress evolved into our national nutcase.

    So, what do you think is wrong with these people? Thanks to gerrymandered Congressional districts and the Tea Party, we do seem to have a surprising number of elected officials who actually don’t believe that raising the debt limit so the government can pay its bills is a good plan. (“All that does is just say: ‘Well, you’ve got a little bit more credit — keep spending,’ ” Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina once told a radio interviewer.)

    But there’s got to be more to it than that. Let’s try to think of three other reasons the United States Congress continues to behave as if it’s playing the Jack Nicholson part in “The Shining.” I’ll go first.

    1. The Republicans are desperately, obsessively demonizing Obamacare to cover up the fact that they don’t want to do anything to Medicare or Social Security. Those used to be the party’s obsession — remember privatizing Social Security? But that was before they noticed that the entire Republican base is on Social Security.

    Ranting about Obamacare, which one New Hampshire politician recently compared to the Fugitive Slave Act, is an excellent way to give the impression that you’re fighting to reduce entitlements without having to do anything about the actual entitlements.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/28/opinion/collins-congress-cracks-up.html?smid=tw-share

  131. 131.

    rikyrah

    Quitting for Obamacare: Trapped workers may seek relief in new health exchanges
    JoNel Aleccia NBC News

    As millions of Americans wait to see how the federal health exchanges shake out, some who’ve been hanging onto their jobs just for the insurance say Obamacare gives them a new reason to bid their old employers goodbye.

    One Arizona couple, Claudia and Joseph Schulz, just quit their jobs, in fact, and launched a husband-and-wife real estate team, largely because they can sign up this week for health insurance not tethered to any position.

    “That was the fear before. We felt too much on our own,” says Claudia Schulz, 33, of Phoenix. “Now, if we’re able to make our dream come true of owning our own business, or at least giving it a shot, it’s worth it.”

    Starting a business or retiring early will suddenly become an option under the new exchanges, experts say, especially for the many employees who have felt trapped by so-called “job lock” — being stuck in a position because of the benefits, usually health insurance, it provides.

    “The Affordable Care Act completely changes the playing field,” says Paul Fronstin, director of the health research programs at the Employee Benefit Research Institute. “You don’t need your employer any more for health benefits.”

    It may be particularly attractive for older workers — those in their late 50s and early 60s still too young for Medicare — who will find they can get affordable insurance despite health problems. That will free them from the trap of needing to work, but being too sick to stay on the job, experts say.

    Entrepreneurs of all ages will be able to choose careers “based on the job where they’re going to be most productive,” says Laurel Lucia, a policy analyst at the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, Berkeley.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/health/quitting-obamacare-trapped-workers-may-seek-relief-new-health-exchanges-8C11277058

  132. 132.

    rikyrah

    Arizona nurses prep would-be patients on new health care law

    Figuring out what the Affordable Care Act means for you and your family can be intimidating, to say the least. If only someone would sit down and explain this to you in person.

    Actually, that’s exactly what volunteers from the Hispanic and Black Nurse Association of Arizona are doing.

    They’re visiting small businesses in their region and talking with owners, employees and customers to counsel them on what the different options mean, and the importance of signing up.

    These nurses are increasingly taking on leadership roles to promote wellness in their community.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/health/arizona-nurses-prep-would-be-patients-new-health-care-law-8C11281411

  133. 133.

    Anoniminous

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Weasel Words, HO!

    Taking into account it was a Democracy Corp poll I find it credible enough to give an indication of the way the environment of the 2014 election is shaping. I wouldn’t put a great of predictive or determinative reliance on it – way too earlier. If the findings are replicated in, say, May I’d be willing to start taking the finding more affective.

  135. 135.

    Felonius Monk

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    The clowns are driving the car.

    I beg to disagree. The clowns look like they are driving, but the car is being remotely controlled. This country is not immune to megalomania. Once the U.S. defaults on its debt (and it is likely to happen), things will become very unstable. There will be great unrest among the population on both sides of the political spectrum. It is easy to conceive of scenarios where it would be necessary for the President to declare martial law and then things could really go to hell. From that point on it doesn’t take much imagination to see the bad things that could happen.

  136. 136.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @rikyrah:

    These nurses are increasingly taking on leadership roles to promote wellness in their community.

    Damn hippies. “Wellness of their community”. What balderdash. Jeebus is rolling over in his grave at this vile socialist nonsense.

  137. 137.

    Chris

    @efgoldman:

    In their fantasy world, all of the other countries are satraps to the mighty, exceptional, Yew Ess of A. ‘Murrica, fuck yeah.

    But at the same time, those other countries are so powerful – especially the smaller ones like Iran, North Korea, and especially countries like Iraq after a decade of santions and bombing plus getting its army smashed in a war – that they’re on the verge of overthrowing the U.S. and establishing a Global Caliphate if we don’t give DOD everything it wants.

  143. 143.

    sparrow

    @Jeremy: And yet, to my 60-year-old fox-news watching parents, they are still happy to vote straight-ticket republican, because that’s their tribe. GAH!

  147. 147.

    Infamous Heel-Filcher

    @Another Holocene Human: Yes. I’m not just cautiously optimistic, I’m optimistic period. Obama and State have to have been working on this for years for this to happen. Very good news for my Iranian friends living in the US.

    Of course our dipshit media and white supremacists are too busy wanking over healthcare for the poors and those people to pay any attention or, perish the thought, give Obama any credit.

    Good. The rubes getting het up over Iran diplomacy only gums up the works.

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