Saturday Night trailer trash version (doing what I know, since there’s no way I can match Sarah Proud & Tall in the coolth sweeps). Inspired, honest to FSM, by this:
… The Republican strategy to destroy Obamacare, such as it is, depends on the sort of mass-conscienceness raising not seen since Abbie Hoffman tried to levitate the Pentagon. Voters are generally inclined to blame Republicans in Congress for a government shutdown, or a debt default…
House Republicans don’t want to read that they’re “pushing to the brink of a shutdown.” They don’t want to wake up on October 2 to headlines about “Republicans shutting down the government over Obamacare.” This dream is pretty impossible to square with the strategy of shutting down the government over Obamacare.
Punchy
Oh, but the headlines will be quite vague. “Congress shuts down the govt” and “Republicans and Obama unable to come to agreement”; both implying the both-sides tripe.
Cant piss off the GOP and risk losing the junkets and Meet The Press visitors.
Mark S.
Does any other country in the world do this shit? Or is this another case of American exceptionalism?
Alison
I just fucking hope the largely worthless media will actually report it this way, and not go all BSDI/Chuckie Todd/let’s-pretend-we’re-impartial-by-doing-the-GOPs-bidding on it, as they always do.
Keith P.
They’re plan is apparently to shut down the government *and* default on the debt while saying “Obama made this happen.” When/if the media says the GOP made it happen, they’ll whine incessantly along with Fox that it’s media bias and hope that by doing it long and hard enough, the media will acquiesce and blame it on Obama not negotiating.
However, Obama has no choice, really. If he lets them dictate terms so they won’t trash the economy, this will be a go-to strategy by minority parties for the next 50 years. If I was him, I’d let them shut down the government, and when they try to default on the debt, use the Constitutional argument to bypass them. That will cause the House to impeach him, but public opinion (and the Senate) should be so far in Obama’s favor that it will backfire miserably.
Geoduck
@Mark S.: Yes, but they do it with actual guns. We may reach that point yet.
hilts
What Is Truth?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO5z2xUNUpU
Villago Delenda Est
Oceania is at war with Eastasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
Hill Dweller
Why can’t SNL ever competently mix the sound of their musical guests’ performances?
John O
Me, too. I think it’s the choice (and wager) he needs to make.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mark S.:
No, not really. When there’s cohabitation in France, for instance, the way it works is that the president gets to call the shots on foreign policy and the prime minister gets to call the shots on domestic policy. In Australia, where there’s now divided government, there’s the option either to moderate policy so that bills can pass the Senate, or call a ‘double dissolution’ election of both chambers to test the mandate. Most of the time, in the sane world, there’s either a coalition agreement or some other weighting so that when you win an election, you get to do what you want, and if people hate the stuff you do, they vote you out.
As James Fallows said the other day, the US is just about rich enough and big enough and has enough slack to cope with these increasingly frequent grand mal seizures. That may not go on for long.
The US constitutional settlement is basically unsuited to modern politics.
John O
Ear worm of late. She’s only 16, and I think this is a catchy little number:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcIKh6sBtc
Update: I had no idea what she looked like until two minutes ago, and now I feel like a dirty old man.
Hal
@Keith P.:
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I can’t remember another modern President in which impeachment seems perpetually on the table. Though I do remember David Brock saying that back when he was a right wing hack he had heard of Clinton impeachment talk before Clinton was even in office. Still, it seems like ever other thing Obama does is impeachable to a wide range of Republicans, from Cruz to McCain.
I say do it. Let the crazy Genie all the way out of the bottle and get it over with.
Amir Khalid
You know the ad that shows up in the upper right with one of two different busty young women? I prefer the one with the crazy eyes and the orange top, because she sits closer to the camera and her top has a lower neckline.
The Dangerman
If I were Obama, I’d make this a real shutdown; make it painful. Shutter the FAA and order nonessential air travel ceased; of course, that means no college football next Saturday, which should really piss off the South…
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
Banish the very thought.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Keith P.:
Again, you mean.
MorningtonCrescent
Here’s a moving song called “My Bathroom Is A Private Kind of Place” from the industrial musical “The Bathrooms Are Coming” by the bathroom fixture company American Standard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye-XZ4Ukl08
yes, really
John O
I’m frankly surprised at the semi-consensus here that the hostage has to die.
Oh, and great idea Dangerman, but you’ll have to put your no football dreams aside. All the teams anyone wants to watch on TV, the only place it matters, will simply charter. They have the money. :-)
BUT! Restricting air travel to bare necessity in general is a cool idea. I think that’s how hard-assed Obama needs to get.
Steeplejack
@hilts:
“What Is Love?”
The Dangerman
@John O:
Not if the towers don’t have controllers.
John O
@The Dangerman:
Wouldn’t you have to have controllers for even the bare essentials of air traffic?
Suffern ACE
@Hal: it’s all impeachable because all government is tyranny! Even poetry night and giving a dog to the kids. It’s all tyranny down my throat.
Punchy
@The Dangerman: Im assuming you’re referring to fans’ inability to travel. Wouldnt this also fuck all major sports leagues? Playoff baseball and NFL, unless they learn to love them some Greyhound?
Mark S.
@pseudonymous in nc:
I meant more narrowly about shutting down the government or defaulting on the debt just for the hell of it (not because you’re broke or it’s destroying your economy). I don’t ever remember reading about any other country doing that.
Blasphemy! You’re supposed to genuflect and say it’s the Greatest System of Government Ever!
The Dangerman
@John O:
My “bare essentials” would be pretty bare, but, ok, a skeleton staff of controllers.
hilts
@Steeplejack:
This is the only other “What Is” I can think of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XFfUt7HQWM
The Dangerman
@Punchy:
They’d be sitting on the ground, too, which means no action in Vegas….
ETA: I also assume that all major sporting events have some level of federal security involved; well, shut them down as nonessential.
John O
@The Dangerman:
The NCAA will make sure each top 25 team has its OWN controller.
I would also be pretty concerned about the politics of shutting down football/sports. It’s possibly our last common thread. Can’t get blamed for that.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mark S.:
Well, that’s sort of bound up with my broader point. The American “system” (and it really isn’t a system) manages to combine budgeting and appropriations and continuing resolutions and debt ceilings and pompom hats, and it’s also extremely good at electing numpties who are basically nihilists about government. Elsewhere, as a general rule, even extreme right-wingers believe that government has a function, even if those people think its function is to round up people who disagree with them.
As a filthy foreigner, I missed the
indoctrinationcivics classes.Yatsuno
@The Dangerman: Air traffic controllers are considered essential. However my office is not. The computer, however, keeps running, so it will do things like issue levies and other enforcement actions. And if there is no human to counteract it, you’re fucked.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Matt Millen is just as good of a color analyst as he was an NFL GM.
The Dangerman
@Yatsuno:
Yeah, I know, but I’m in a major foul mood (even watching SC getting the crap beaten out of it isn’t enough to brighten my spirits; maybe another ASU TD will do the trick).
ETA: Not too far from UCLA playing USC; hmmm, I feel things feeling better already
John O
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Helluva linebacker, though. Should’ve quit while he was ahead.
nineone
Man, oh man, That One sure brings out the crazy in them thar confederates.
A lotta theater, whining, and willie-waving. But no real wins. Not even the remotest chance of any. Fucking fundraising fuckwads. That they are able to make money off their repeated failures is un-fucking-real.
The upcoming faceplants ought to be extremely lucrative.
Morans.
mdblanche
Rep. Gwen Moore speaks the truth.
scav
Wonder how they’re going to gear up and boycott Exxon for recognizing (with benefits) same sex marriages. link here, I hope. not liking Safari update. Worse! It involves Health Care! Will they convert cars to run on Barilla Pasta and Chik-fil-a grease?
? Martin
@Mark S.:
No. And it’s serving as a great lesson to all the nations we’d like to move toward democracy that democracy doesn’t work.
JCJ
Just got back to the hotel after seeing Nine Inch Nails in St Paul. Awesome show.
cckids
@hilts:
For some reason, that quote (not the song) flashed me into Jesus Christ Superstar, Pilate: “So what is truth? Is mine the same as yours?”
Can’t find it on youtube.
Cacti
Wall Street may be deciding it’s time to take out the trash in their favorite party come 2014.
President & CEO of the American Bankers Association wrote an op-ed in the WaPo, explicitly condemning use of the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip.
BillinGlendaleCA
@The Dangerman:
Quite a few trojies getting injured in this game. Oh and another ASU TD.
ETA: It’s U$C.
piratedan
@Cacti: strange, these fuckers watched the R’s shiv the government in 2011 and still came out in favor of them. I won’t believe the banksters fleeing the GOP until the money starts floating ashore in Dem campaigns.
John O
@Cacti:
Frank Keating is going to be pretty surprised when he is deemed a RINO hippie by the 27%ers.
Villago Delenda Est
@John O:
The man is a banker.
That means he’s a Jooooooooooooo!
Yatsuno
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Fuck, always and forever, the Univer$ity of $poiled Children.
:: hides from Mnem and Burnsie ::
John O
He’s a banker all right. He made sure to include a both sides do it reference, and a desire to kick the poors.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Cacti:
You may be overestimating Wall Street’s power to affect events. The only worry for the teahadists is a challenge from their right because their districts have been so thoroughly gerrymandered that a ham sandwich with an R after its name on the ballot would win. They don’t need the dough from Wall Street. Sure, they can’t win a national election, but they don’t need to as long as they can keep a death grip on the House. They don’t even need to retake the Senate because they can stop any bill or any appointment there as it is.
If someone had only proposed a fifty state strategy we might not be quite so deep in shit right now.
handy
Damn straight. Also, too, should be fun the drives to work this week hearing local Trojan Sports Radio howling about Kiffin like Teabaggers howl about Obama.
piratedan
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: I don’t wanna blame Dem’s for the complete insanity that the GOP has evolved into. Don’t we kick Dem’s enough? I don’t want to let the GOP off for the shit that they are responsible for. Let’s just work in 2014 to prevent these yahoos from taking over and simply lay the blame on the GOP for losing their ever loving minds as far as governance of the nation is concerned. Pissing about our collective lack of effort in 2010 isn’t going to solve the problems of today. Never knew that this country was so riddled with so many closet racists but apparently I was gravely mistaken.
John O
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
One of the straws I’ve been grasping at is the “Wall St. to the rescue” idea, but I’ve been convinced by you and others out here that the monster is now out of Money Man’s control.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Yatsuno:
For the longest time, I didn’t know Mnem was a trojie. Burnsie, that’s another story.
fuckwit
@Yatsuno:
Not to St. Ronald they weren’t!
@John O: I dunno if it’s a consensus, as much as there aren’t any other options AFAICT. Look, at this point, there are insane terrorists holding the country hostage. Your choice is to give in and let them do this again and again, or to take a stand and say NO. And it’s not like a normal hostage situation, where once you get your hostages back you are safe. In this case, the House Rethugs still have the ability to hold CR’s or debt ceilings hostage indefinitely! Which means if you give in to the demands, the hostage-takers can just keep taking you hostage again and again forever as long as they can keep thinking up new demands!
Once again, the Rethug Projection Machine goes all-out with Cruz making his Munich/Chamberlain/Nazi comparison. The teabaggers are the revolutionary, insatiable power-lusters that can not be negotiated with and will only keep demanding more and more– like the Nazis– and of course what does Cruz do but accuse Obama of being a Nazi. Though at this point Cruz seems quite a bit more like Lenin than Hitler. Still.
I’m pretty sure it was Krugthlu in his “Great Unraveling” who pointed out that the modern Rethugs are incapable of being negotiated with, since they do not believe in democracy at all and are a revolutionary force that will never stop until they either destroy themselves or are destroyed by someone else.
We are seeing that now in wide-screen HD.
It’s a dangerous time. I’m not cheering on the destruction that will come, because there will be collateral damage, lots of it, and myself probably among the carnage. But what do you do? Let the terrorists get away with whatever they want, AND STILL LEAVE THEM MORE HOSTAGES TO TAKE, INDEFINITELY? That’d be beyond stupid.
It is what it is. This is a very scary time in our history.
Bob's Had Enough
@John O: Well-financed slightly more moderate candidates might take some of the primaries. Strong fiscal message with a less batshit crazy social agenda.
More moderate Republicans do seem to be getting fed up with the Baggers. Most likely it’s not if they’ll start trying to push them out, but how soon.
Yatsuno
@BillinGlendaleCA: I don’t know how you missed that. She’s admitted that’s how she turned into a California girl several times. I think she would have stuck around Chicago or the Midwest were it not her passion for films.
wasabi gasp
Hanni El Khatib – Build. Destroy. Rebuild.
John O
It sure is, and it’s one crying shame that such a huge chunk of the electorate is either oblivious to it or ignorant about it. I’m not by nature someone who panics easily, but I’m telling some loved ones they better think strongly about battening down the hatches.
The shutdown is inevitable and will be mostly just a small political nuisance, as DougJ consistently points out, but the debt ceiling thing is very, very serious business, as is impeachment.
John O
@Bob’s Had Enough:
That process will take forever, and there is no such thing as a moderate Republican anywhere outside the NE. We’re in for one bumpy ride.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@piratedan:
Never said that the mass psychosis that is today’s Republican party is the Dems’ fault. It is in significant measure the fault of the Democratic leadership that the psychos have become able to stymie any Democratic president. Though the depth of Republican nihilism began to be apparent during the Clinton administration and flowered during the Bush years our leadership continued to hibernate between national elections. Meanwhile, the Republicans were busy taking over any number of state leges to the detriment of us all. We’re reduced to hoping that demographics or la Terreur will take them down. Well, hope in one hand and shit in the other. See which hand fills up first.
Hill Dweller
One of Politico’s congressional reporters said(on twitter) she could smell booze as congressmen passed her exiting the chamber.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Yatsuno: I guess that she’s just not obnoxious about being a trojie. Lots of folk come to CA to go to our schools, not all go to $C. I knew plenty of folk from your land of birth that were at UCLA. Most were from Punahou, I’m sure they knew a black guy a year behind them with big ears.
Bob's Had Enough
@John O: I don’t think that’s true. I suspect in many districts there are numbers of Republicans who have become uncomfortable with Bagger extremism.
I think the Baggers’ best days are behind them. And I don’t think people are going to take kindly to having the economy disrupted.
Tea Party support is down. People are as scared about a fiscal meltdown. In a few months people will no longer be suffering from Obamacare anxiety. It’s looking like our military involvement in Afghanistan is winding down. Syria seems to be working out pretty well. Things are looking up with Iran. It’s going to be harder to convince PBO is bad for the country.
SatanicPanic
@John O: They tried impeaching Clinton- the country yawned. Maybe they realized that impeachment isn’t good enough and that’s why they are going after the debt ceiling, but impeachment is about the least scary thing in our future right now.
YellowJournalism
@Hill Dweller: “Go home, GOP. You’re drunk!”
Carolinus
@Keith P.:
This will be particularly infuriating because it’s Beohner who proudly announced a 2013 strategy of never negotiating directly with President Obama in favor of budgeting through regular order:
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/275295-boehner-tells-gop-hes-done-with-one-on-one-obama-talks
And then, after the Senate negotiated a budget and passed it, it’s again the GOP who have multiple times now refused to allow a conference committee to form, because the House GOP thinks Boehner might have to offer some minor concessions in the negotiations and they can’t allow that:
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/298223-senate-gop-denies-formation-of-budget-conference-for-third-time
lurker dean
made the mistake of reading a few articles on google news. gop is working all night and dems just rejecting. i made the even worse mistake of reading the comments to the articles, gop is saving the country from obummer bankrupting us, because of course he singlehandedly caused the huge deficit and debt. i want to punch a villager in the face so badly right now.
lurker dean
made the mistake of reading a few articles on google news. gop is working all night and dems just rejecting. i made the even worse mistake of reading the comments to the articles, gop is saving the country from o-bummer bankrupting us, because of course he singlehandedly caused the huge deficit and debt. i want to punch a villager in the face so badly right now.
NotMax
Music, you say?
From the 19th century (and a greatly underappreciated American composer) a piece that manages to, toward the end, make a piano sound like a banjo.
Thlayli
@Amir Khalid:
I think the woman in orange is Katy Perry, ex-wife of Russell Brand and maker of terrible music.
I don’t recognize the woman in the other ad, in the off-white strapless.
Matt McIrvin
@? Martin: There are plenty of fine examples of democracy. The lesson is just that the United States isn’t some kind of paragon.
Patrick
@lurker dean:
People on the far right could care less about the deficit. Heck, if they did they would have shut down the government during the bush era. There was a surplus that the GOP took and turned into record deficits. Two huge tax cuts that we couldn’t afford, followed by one of the most idiotic wars in our history against Iraq costing over a trillion dollars. And just recently they had no problem approving a big bill full of farm subsidies for rich farmers. If you truly care about your hard-earned tax dollars, by all means do not vote a Republican into office! He/she will find a way to waste it.
Suffern ACE
@Carolinus: yeah. Interesting how that is forgotten.
Mr Stagger Lee
@John O: Peasants need their bread and circuses, otherwise they will revolt. speaking of which nothing better happen, when I watch the final episode of Breaking Bad, or I will get the Yasser Arafat starter kit.
nineone
@Amir Khalid:
@Thlayli:
Have we no Corrie fans on the blog? The one with the crazy eyes is Helen Flanagan who once played Rosie Webster on Coronation Street. She left to show to become a tabloid/reality show Princess and move in with her Footballer Boyfriend. Beats workin’, neh?
I know, I know. I blame proximity to CBC Windsor for my addiction to Corrie, and my undying love of Hockey. It’s a blessing, and a curse.
John O
@Mr Stagger Lee:
Yes, we do.
Went on a BB jag to see what the fuss was all about, cranked through about 4 seasons, and I have nit to pick with the nearly complete lack of a sympathetic protagonists. I realize the show is called Breaking BAD, but for FSM’s sake, how much money is enough for Walt’s family?
I have trouble squaring Walt’s fundamental rationality (a science teacher?) with the number and scale of irrational decisions he’s making. I understand that’s sort of the point, but it takes some of the fun out of the show for me. The Sopranos made me laugh quite a bit.
John O
@SatanicPanic:
Agreed and understood. And I think it will happen again. The yawning. But the threat of minority party hostage taking and regular impeachment proceedings after pretty much losing an election soundly, on a set of continuously recurring events is not a good sign for the health of a Republic.
Frankensteinbeck
@hilts:
What ARE birds? We just don’t know.
@fuckwit:
And if you deny them and they don’t get what they want, they’ll do it again anyway. There’s nothing stopping them from that, either. It’s not like they learn lessons or care about reality.
Peter
@John O:
Wrong question. His family never wanted any of the money. The real question is, how much money is enough for Walt?
And the answer is that there is no answer. It’s never enough money. He can always see more, and he can never look away from that for fear of losing out.
lurker dean
@Patrick: oh i know. and a lot of PBO’s deficits are/ were from the wars and bush tax cuts. but the villagers will never point it out. in some ways i dont blame republicans, if i could get away with lying over and over, why would i stop, esp when all i have otherwise are failed policies to talk about.
billB
Barry has to say NO More. The only thing dogs understand is a smack on the azz. Let them deal with the banksters, they control the purse. Even their true masters the KochSuckers will hurt bad with this, and blaming our Pres won’t stop the dollars from leaving the KOCH pockets, BWAAAHAAA