Here’s the real reason that John Boehner (R-pathetic) is offering a “Grand Bargain.” The carpet is about to be pulled out from under him.
The Huffington Post is running a story right now that there are 17 moderate Republicans (meaning that they don’t burn the kitten’s corpse after they strangle it these days) who are willing to side with House Democrats to send a clean continuing resolution to the Senate.
All 200 Democrats would need to stick together and team up with those Republicans to pass the bill, but House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) would have to be willing to put it to a vote, which so far he has given no indication he will do. But if he does, the votes appear to be there. The Senate would pass the bill in no time, sending it to be signed by President Barack Obama and ending the shutdown.
This “grand bargain” by Boehner is nothing that we haven’t seen before, and there’s nothing grand about it. From Taegan Goddard:
Big caveat: “What’s not being discussed: increased taxes or revenues. From what I hear, this combined deal is being softly and informally sold to members; Wednesday’s talks were abotu (sic) gradually getting them engaged in the prospect. And it’s all about what the GOP could win – there’s little about what they’ll give in return.”
And further from the Wall Street Journal Washington Wire blog:
Republicans fear that their negotiating position is weakening headed into the debt ceiling fight. Now that the new health-care law has kicked in, GOP refusals to fund the government unless Democrats agree to changing the health law seems pointless, said one conservative House Republican. And the GOP strategy on Tuesday to launch a series of narrow spending bills, but bring them up under a procedure in which they could be blocked by Democratic opposition struck some lawmakers as a waste of time.
“All eyes are on Speaker Boehner,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) “He is the one person who has the ability to reopen the government.’’
On a personal note, my sister, who works for DoD in Germany is furloughed. I will be furloughed on Monday when VA IT runs out of last year’s appropriations money. UPDATE: Or, I’ll be required to work without knowing when or if I’ll be paid if they decide that I’m “essential.” My boss just texted me that they haven’t made that decision yet between me and my office-mate. We may alternate weeks of being essential and being furloughed, which is what I texted him I would prefer so at least neither of us gets completely fucked over. But now is the time for Harry Reid and President Obama to hold firm. We’re winning.
raven
My bride is in a state position funded by the Feds. Some WIC Programs are shutting down but she’s ok for a while.
chopper
I’m not furloughed for similar reasons, but I think we have more carryover funds. We might be able to go a few weeks.
aimai
The amount of hysteria over this imaginary “grand bargain” is absurd. Whatever Boehner does he is going to try to sell it as a “grand bargain” because he can’t simply go back to his caucus and admit that they all managed to sign on to a suicide pact and got absolutely nothing for it but the contumely of the entire world. He’s going to call it a “grand bargain” even if it consists of Obama crushing what remains of Boehner’s testicles on public tv.
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
I have friends who work on an AFB. They’re lasting out the week and then it’s off to parts unknown. My company works with many gov’t agencies and we’re treading *very* lightly.
Goddamned Republican domestic terrorist traitors.
RaflW
Grand Bargain talk is just what faux centrists and hacks like Chuck Todd need to get a boner.
Lavocat
This truly is a win-win for Democrats. And I hope Obama is ready for Round 2 come October 17th with the debt limit fight. Let him be directed by Section 4 of the 14th Amendment. Time to go all Chicago-style on those Republican asses.
Redshirt
Is the government the largest employer in the country?
dmsilev
A couple of nitpicks: Firstly, if the House can pass a clean CR, they don’t have to wait at all for the Senate to pass anything; the House can simply pass what the Senate already passed and then the CR goes straight to Obama who would sign it in about 5 seconds flat. Secondly, the big caveat that people keep pointing out is that 17 House Republicans who claim to want a clean CR is not necessarily the same as 17 House Republicans who would actually vote for such a thing should it be brought up. I think we’d need a much bigger number, 40 or 50 say, before it’s reasonable to expect such a vote. That’s a big enough margin that the GOP “leadership” might not even bother trying to twist arms, and it has lots of room for error for “talks big, doesn’t act” folks.
SiubhanDuinne
@Lavocat:
Seconded.
/Chicago girl
raven
@Lavocat: Da three minute motherfucker we’s called it on da west side.
MikeJ
@Lavocat:
You should have told me earlier. My pizza stone is already warming on the grill, but it’s going to be a thin, crispy crust, not a chicago style. I like chicago style foodthings, they just aren’t proper pizzas.
Hal
I was just peaking over at Dailykos and noticed a freak out in one of the diaries over the imminent betrayal from Obama that’s right around the corner. Time to unpack the under the bus routine.
J.Ty
I presume these 17 republicans have never heard of a discharge petition, because otherwise this would be over. Hacks.
dmsilev
@Lavocat:
I dunno. I’m not sure that Republican asses soaked in mozzarella and tomato sauce and baked between a pair of crusts would be all that appetizing. I mean, people have put a lot of strange things in or on pizzas, but there are limits.
(sorry)
dmsilev
@Hal: I can’t be arsed to look, but I’m going to guess that Firedoglake is deep in the throes of “sold us out!” “under the bus!” “slap in the face!”.
Soonergrunt
@dmsilev: I’m just reading and reporting, but I see your point about the House passing the legislation as the Senate modified it last, and sending that to the President. As far as your whip-count math, well yeah, but that’s why the President needs to wait.
Suffern ACE
Yeah. Reading about this “grand bargain” it appears to be trying to do what Boehner tried to do last month-convince the TEA folk that they’d be in a better position to negotiate over the debt ceiling.
Hill Dweller
This isn’t just about the House Republicans. Senate Republicans repeatedly refused to appoint conferees for a budget conference with the House and WH, because they couldn’t filibuster a budget.
While Senate Republicans did support the CR(which includes the sequester cuts), they also sowed the seeds of the current hostage situation, because the normal budget/appropriation process made them irrelevant.
dmsilev
@efgoldman: According to Wikipedia, the largest is DoD with 3.2 million employees (including, of course, the folks in uniform), followed by (in the US) WalMart at 2.1 million and McDonalds at 1.9 million.
Belafon
@Hal: If you look at the number of comments vs recs you can see that most people are trashing it, plus there’s a diary up contradicting it.
It’s not all doom and resignation over there.
Ken
Yes, repeatedly shooting yourself in the foot can cause weakness.
Ash Can
::blinks::
::storms off, baseball bat in hand, to find whoever wrote this sentence::
THIS (whack) IS (whack) NOT (whack) A (wham) NEGOTIATING (whack) SITUATION (whack) YOU (whack) STUPID (bam) FUCKING (whack) ASSHOLE (whack whack wham whack)
dmsilev
@Soonergrunt: With regards to the whip count, it seems to be growing by four or five people a day. If that keeps up, we might see a resolution by say early next week. Otherwise, if things drag on for more than a week or so, the CR is going to get bound up in the debt-ceiling mess and we probably go right up to the edge of that.
demz taters
@efgoldman: At least two of my colleagues at the USGS, and there’s also a car in the parking lot every day with a “Who is John Galt?” bumper sticker. I hope to run into its owner eventually so I can point out that he’s certainly not someone who’d support government-funded science.
Soonergrunt
@efgoldman: Most Federal employees are rather reticent to discuss their politics in the workplace. That kind thing can end very badly–union complaints, IG investigations, Hatch Act violations…
The libertarian idiots are notable for their inability to shut the fuck up, but the fact that their beloved Paul family will never amount to anything real means that nobody really listens to them except people like me who ask “you work for the government, and you support a guy who wants to destroy your job? What the fuck is wrong with you? Get out of my office.” Which I did get a non recorded verbal counseling for, once.
Chris
@Ash Can:
You see what happens, Larry? YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FUCK A STRANGER IN THE ASS?
EriktheRed
Not believing it ’til I actually see it.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/02/1243498/-House-moderate-Republican-revolt-doesn-t-nbsp-materialize?showAll=yes
Ash Can
@dmsilev: OBAMA SOLD US UNDER THE FACE
PsiFighter37
@MikeJ: Don’t tell Chicagoans that, they get offended by those kinds of statements.
That said, as a New Yorker, we make the real pizza. You want a real pie? Hit up some of them joints in Brooklyn.
Also, too, the Democrats should just load up that scene from The Godfather II and play it whenever the Republicans come on the floor. Or they can do the version from the old Willy Wonka movie where he goes nuts at the end. Either way – press play, press rewind (at least if you’re doing this on VCR), press play again.
LeftCoastTom
@aimai: He may need a microscope to find them given what Boehner’s already allowed Ted Cruz (R-Calgary) to do to them.
PsiFighter37
Just for good measure, in case you want to be inspired.
LeftCoastTom
@PsiFighter37:
I’ve had pizza in Rome, served with a 1/2 liter carafe of wine for $4 (outrageous, given the $2 cost in Firenze the year before). I think I’ll go with it.
raven
@PsiFighter37: Bah, that thick shit became a big deal in the 80’s. It’s like Harry Carey, real Chicago people know Jack Brickhouse was da Cubbies voice.
Biscuits
@Lavocat:
I hope the dems go Machiavellian on the pukes. Now is not the time to let bygones be bygones. Kick them when they’re down, then drop an anvil on their necks. That includes the moderates. I’m sick of these people and their drama queen antics. We deserve a government that functions.
demz taters
@Soonergrunt: This is true…I had no clue as to my co-workers’ politics until I’d been there over a month and we started getting together socially.
The Dangerman
@aimai:
I’m smelling Pay Per View here.
? Martin
@dmsilev: Maybe. They’re going to need a discharge petition to end this. Voting for a bill your Speaker puts up is a lot easier than voting to bring a bill to the floor that he opposes. There’ll be consequences for doing that. Be skeptical of that nose count because I don’t think it means what it sounds like. Even the guy who called the tea party lemmings backed up Boehner in the vote. They all know who runs the show over there.
gbear
…onto John Boehner’s shoulders while 73% of the country lines up to take turns kicking him in the junk.
agorabum
Well, we’re not winning. We’re all losing. All of us, even the Republicans who don’t know it. Because the shut down is wasting time and money and making us look like idiots and a dysfunctional democracy, because the solution doesn’t abolish the debt ceiling, and it doesn’t fix the worst parts of the sequester or provide any actual additional, needed investment into the economy (i.e. add’l stimulus).
Sure, when you stop the terrorists from destroying a city, its a win. But its a much smaller win when you only stop them after they’ve blown up a couple of carbombs and destroyed a neighborhood of homes, leaving thousands homeless.
SiubhanDuinne
This is sort of O/T, but I just need to say: there are lots and lots of progressive-message links and photos and graphics I come across that I would forward and link to, except that they are riddled with grammatical, syntactical, and orthographic errors. And I just can’t.
I.Just.Cannot.
David in NY
The judiciary has about two weeks of money before they separate the sheep (who get to work for no money) from the goats (who don’t get to work for no money).
Ash Can
@raven: Harry Carey was OK, but I always saw him as being an import from St. Louis who brought that Budweiser swill with him. Jack Brickhouse was the genuine article.
NotMax
@? Martin
Never trust a man the color of rust.
Belafon
@agorabum: True, but we either stop them now, or they will rampage through every city. And yes, it sucks.
Emma
@aimai: OOOH. PBS fundraising week!
gbear
@Ash Can: HE’S WORSE THAN GREYHOUND!!
John O
Just wait until the Main Event, in about 3 weeks. Because that’s where we’re headed. The two sides aren’t even on the same planet.
Frankensteinbeck
@LeftCoastTom:
Weird. Pizza is an American dish, only in an Italian style – much like curry is a British dish in an Indian style.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
Line 3 for you, it’s Jack Haley.
Orange you glad it wasn’t George Hamilton?
lamh36
I know this has been posted upteen times, but I’m posting it again. Cause it really needs to be seen to be believed. People are so against Obama personally, that when asked if they prefer “Obamacare” to the “Affordable Care Act”…they actually said Obamacare. When told that ACA and Obamacare was the same damn thing. They just couldn’t believe it. Now tell me again that certain people just don’t like the ACA because is was done by Obama!!!
It’s now my go to response to people spouting RWNJ talking points, particularly those I know who voted for Romney.
Jimmy Kimmel asks: Six of One – Obamacare vs. The Affordable Care Act
Baud
Disagree. Obama needs to go on the TV and tell the country that he really is a socialist Kenyan Muslim who was sent to infiltrate the U.S. political system and destroy it by slashing government spending, shutting down the government and destroying the full faith and credit of the country. Then he should laugh maniacally that nothing can stop him now.
Then we just sit back and wait for the Republicans to spring into action and do everything we want.
LeftCoastTom
@? Martin: I agree with your skepticism, but I wonder how real the fear of consequences would be in this case (alternative hypotheses including “reps advertising themselves as sane are lying”, or “reps advertising themselves as sane but not showing it are even bigger wimps than Boehner himself”). After all, on the farm bill half of Boehner’s committee chairs opposed him – they’re part of the ‘leadership’ [sic], it was a ‘must pass bill’, and they successfully screwed him over and yet remain committee chairs. I just don’t see what consequences would arise from screwing Boehner over given the tire marks he already has on his back.
EDIT: And, I wouldn’t use the ‘lemmings but I went along anyway’ guy (Nunes) as evidence of much of anything, Nunes is a right-wing nut job who wants to get rid of the Antiquities Act.
SiubhanDuinne
@demz taters:
I retired about three months ago but have been working as a contract employee at the same place a few days a week for the past few months. And the person who was hired to replace me used to work for a (fairly wingnutty)GOP senator. He (replacement) hung posters of Reagan all over his office walls, like the first day on the job.** And I was told today by a colleague that he (replace,ent) doesn’t like to use Google as a search engine because China or something.
** Am trying to imagine what the official corporate reaction would have been if I had put up Obama Hope and Change posters on my office walls.
Emma
@agorabum: yeah well. I’ll take my victories where I can get them. Under our system of government, ain’t much we can do about the bastards except convince their constituents to vote them out.
PsiFighter37
@The Dangerman: I’m thinking Celebrity Deathmatch. Settle things with ridiculously graphic over-the-top claymation.
NotMax
@PsiFighter37
Plastic bagging several slices of cold NY pizza for my flight back home was perfect in case I got peckish during the trip.
Nice and flat, so took up practically no space in the carry-on bag stashed under the seat.
Randy P
We have a number of people still at work, including myself (all due to the vagaries of who has carryover funding, like you). But among those who have been furloughed are the people who empty the trash cans, and clean and stock the bathrooms. I noticed today we were down to about 1-1/2 rolls of TP in each stall in the bathroom I use.
I think it’s going to start getting ugly. I predict cannibalism by Monday.
John O
@Baud:
Sad, funny, and true. Nicely put!
Gian
times like these I wish for some kid with a fake drone kit would have it circle over the more paranoid GOP house members houses.
just for the comedy effect of the “drone”
heard one of the GOP house m-fers on Hate radio on the way home when I switched during a baseball commercial. uninterrupted bullshit about millions of people having mass rate increases, all to loving ball washing from the hosts. flipped back to the game.
I’d kinda like to see Francona visit Boston in his first year as the clevelend manager
NotMax
@trollhattan
Tell Mr. Haley I’ll be with him as soon as I get off the line with Buddy Ebsen.
And never really trusted George Hamilton, either.
pj
@Ash Can: I loved Brickhouse too, but his beer sponsor was Hamm’s. Yuck.
scav
Hasn’t Wile E often been observed frantically building new things as he plummets? It’s not always just raising the sign with “Oops” as he hovers a moment before the long drop.
@agorabum: It’s not exactly that we are a well-functioning democracy at the moment and just look odd because of a wavy mirror. And there are several massive arkloads of idiots. Nothing “looking like” about the situation. It’s not as though hiding our feet of clay will produce a better outcome.
demz taters
@SiubhanDuinne: When I started, I asked what was appropriate for the walls in my office and was told “nothing overtly political. And no porn.” I think Reagan would qualify as political porn.
Belafon
@Frankensteinbeck: Pizza’s Italian originally.
ranchandsyrup
My brother got furloughed with the Forest Service. He just accepted a new position in ID and was in the process of selling home in N. California through relocation process. This puts that on hold so he’ll be selling it during the winter so he’s more likely to have to take the fed’s offer later on. That’s just an inconvenience compared to not having a job for a spell.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Hal: Haha – Firebaggers! Those fuckers are everywhere.
jl
I’m confused. I thought I read today that Reid offered to reopen grand bargain talks and Boehner said no.
It’s getting too confusing to follow all this.
Anyway, I need to spend my evening stuffing my mattress full of gold guns ammo goats and generators.
Spaghetti Lee
This fight has felt different. The Republicans just don’t have It, this time. Mojo, swagger, tactical advantage, whatever you want to call it. Seems like every day there’s a new story about the united front cracking up and anonymous GOP sources talking about what a disaster this will be for the party and what a dickhead Ted Cruz is.
burnspbesq
I was “essential” during the 1995 shutdown, because I was preparing a major case for trial, so I got to commute from Orange County to San Diego four days a week without being paid for what I was doing. Yeah, they caught up after the shutdown ended, which was nice right before Christmas, but I put a hurtin’ on savings and credit cards for three weeks.
The thing was–and I never thought about this until just now–I had a two year old kid at the time. If he had gotten sick, would Blue Shield have paid for his care, or would it have refused to pay because the Gubmint was delinquent in paying the premiums? Anybody know the answer to that question?
liberal
@Biscuits:
Even that’s not going far enough. The Republican Party is a cancer on the body politic and must be destroyed.
Mike in NC
I vaguely remember the shutdown supervised by that maggot Gingrich 17 years ago. I was a contractor on K Street with what was then the INS, so apparently it was considered an essential project and nobody was furloughed. It was still all a childish crock of shit.
LeftCoastTom
@jl: Yeah, there was a dKos diary on that topic which made the wreck list because morons.
scav
@Frankensteinbeck: Pizza American in the Italian style? Again ???. I just read it was introduced to many Americans during Prohibition when many Italians ran bars. Well, that and the Romans would like a word, plus the innumerable others who have put toppings on flat bread.
PsiFighter37
@Spaghetti Lee: I think it has to do with how absurd the lies Republicans spew these days are. Even Michelle Caruso-Cabrera (a Larry Kudlow acolyte on CNBC, one of the more egregious among many) was giving Pete Roskam a dirty “do you think I’m fucking stupid?” look when he was dancing around her questions about being hostage takers.
burnspbesq
@PsiFighter37:
No need to shlep to Brooklyn. I’ll be perfectly happy with Ray’s, either the one at Sixth Avenue and Tenth Street (that was the closest one to NYU Law when I was getting my LL.M) or on Seventh between 53rd and 54th (convenient alternative to Stage Deli).
Suzanne
I had to go to a meeting at the airport yesterday, and I am badged, so I get to go through the employee lane. The TSA agent who checked my badge looked like he wanted to commit seppuku, and I asked, “So you’re ‘essential’, huh?” He rolled his eyes, nodded, and put his head down on his little podium. I think he was hung over.
demz taters
@burnspbesq: Health benefits continue through the furlough, then the missed employee contributions are taken when the paychecks start back up again.
mclaren
@Redshirt:
The U.S. government is certainly the largest single employer in America, since the U.S. military remains the world’s largest employer by far, at 3.2 million jobs. (Amusingly, the People’s Liberation Army of China comes in a distant second at 2.3 million jobs.) But what you’re really asking is whether more jobs are being created by government hiring, or by private sector hiring.
For the last 5 months, 73% of all new jobs have come from government hiring. As Obama keeps pointing out, this U.S. economy is essentially being kept afloat right now by government spending.
That said, net public sector jobs have actually fallen since 2009. This is because so many states have laid off so many of their employees.
See this chart of job creation in public vs private sectors since 2009.
Since June 2009, 2.8 million net private sector jobs have been created, but the public sector as a whole has lost a net 600,000 jobs. As mentioned, most of that is due to wholesale cutbacks on the state level — net hiring is up considerably at the federal level.
angler
Moderates! We don’t have no stinking moderates. Don’t count on the decent-burial-for-dead-kittens caucus. Meanwhile some hedgie somewhere is tripling down on shorting T-bills.
LeftCoastTom
@burnspbesq: late 1980s or so…there was a huge forest fire around Groveland/Buck Meadows/etc…offshore winds a few days blew its smoke into the Bay Area. I vaguely remember a CA-Cant-Pass-A-Budget episode occurring that year, because Republicans. Thankfully we don’t have to worry about Republicans at the state level now.
Redshirt
@Baud: Word. OFA should be pumping out these messages daily: Drink Water! Don’t Eat Poison! Learn the Science of Gravity! Soon enough there’ll be Wingnut deaths a’plenty and then we shall know peace.
Ash Can
@scav:
Ladies and gentlemen, John Boehner.
PsiFighter37
@burnspbesq: They renamed the one on 11th and 6th to Roio’s – I think whoever is actually the original Ray’s Pizza must’ve sent out a cease and desist order – the Ray’s right by me (at 26th and Lexington) changed their name at the same time as well. So did the one at St. Mark’s and 3rd.
I loved Ray’s as a kid, but there’s way better pizza in Manhattan if you’re looking for it. That said, I don’t think it holds a candle to places like Di Fara’s and Grimaldi’s out in Brooklyn.
? Martin
@jl:
Reid offered to open full budget talks (this would be request #19 that Boehner has refused because a budget must originate in the House – regular rules). Boehner wants a grand bargain – debt limit, Keystone, repeal gun laws – the whole megillah.
fuckwit
And now is a time to repost this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC8C_JH2eQc
Jay C
@Hal:
Dude: chill: It’s dKos: Barack Obama could magically grant rainbow-maned unicorns to the whole populace, and some mope on dK would no doubt post some poor-mouthing diary about how HIS unicorn crapped all over his rug, and how it didn’t come with a magic carpet to whisk away the unicorn sh*t, so OMG!!11! Obama is a Corporatist Sellout and Worse Than Bush and Reagan Combined!
And it would zip to the top of the Rec List in about ten minutes….
mclaren
@Baud:
Genius!
You, sir, win this thread.
Mike in NC
@Soonergrunt: I spent three unhappy years as an IT contractor at US Customs Data Center, surrounded by vocal anti-government shitbirds who spent most of their time downloading and sharing articles by Ann Coulter and the like. Doing their jobs? What a quaint notion.
Suffern ACE
@burnspbesq: no. No. No. Not Rays! If you can’t bring yourself to go to brooklyn, there’s Lombardis, or 28 or Harry’s. ID say John’s but there was an unwanted visitor problem there recently.
fuckwit
With regards pizza, I, a native New Yorker, some years sat down here in San Francisco with a native Chicagoan and a native Bostonian, and a native Californian. The three of us dog-piled the Californian about how badly California pizza sucks. Pineapple, bacon, avocado, etc, DO NOT FUCKING BELONG ON A PIZZA. EVER.
Now, New York thin crust pizza, Chicago deep dish pizza, and Boston greek pizza, we agreed, that’s a fucking pizza, and you’ll never see shit on there that doesn’t belong.
peej
I’m a federal IT contractor. The agency I work at is effectively shut down, so I’m sitting at home bored out of my mind. And I’m definitely not going to get paid for all of this because my company is too small to do such things. At least I get to keep my health insurance. I just sent my congressman (a Democrat) an e-mail asking him to stand firm against the Republican extortion. Yeah, I’m being personally affected by all of this, but I’m patriotic enough to consider what’s best for my country (unlike the teahadis).
Randy P
@fuckwit:
Wait, bacon? I think bacon is fine on a “meat lovers”.
Back in the 80s in Georgetown (Washington, DC) there was a place that put Chinese food on pizza. Moo shi pizza is surprisingly good, and kind of a relative of the sort of sandwich you assemble while standing in front of the refrigerator when you’re young and male and staring at the leftovers.
I’m gonna guess there are some things in this list that you don’t approve of either. These guys are a really good pizza joint in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore.
David in NY
@Suffern ACE: Did Burns say Ray’s? He just what the kids call a poseur then. Sheesh. Claims to be from New York does he? @burnspbesq: Also, I ate at that Ray’s in law school, and well, you don’t know much about pizza …
kc
That sucks. I hate that for you, Soonergrunt.
LAC
@Hal: I wish those asshats at DKos would take their betrayal meme, shove it up their asses, followed by their heads and tape them shut with duct tape. Those whiny fucks are why we are stuck with this awful Congress.
Soonergrunt
@burnspbesq: The President of my union, AFGE (Local 2562 REPRESENT!) stated that BCBS and the other Federal insurance programs will continue to provide services to all enrolled beneficiaries, whether furloughed or not.
Fair Economist
Any budget bill would permit a motion to reconsider and amend into the Senate CR version. The 17 “moderates” had a chance today, and didn’t. The talk is still fluff at this point. Remember, the Republicans mostly want a CR passed, but they want *other* Republicans to cast the needed vote so they don’t take flack from the Tea Party. So they’re *saying* they’ll do it, hoping to convince somebody else that it’s a done deal and they can vote for it, but none actually do it.
JGabriel
Soonergrunt @ Top:
Wait, I though the moderates ARE the ones who burn the kitten’s corpse first … as opposed to the ones who drink the kitten’s blood raw first.
.
BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
When I first read that I read it as: “gold guns” “ammo goats” and “generators”. I was curious as to what an ammo goat was.
dww44
/a@Soonergrunt: This is one more reason why I absolutely love you, Soonergrunt.
I’ve a friend, formerly in the Air Force, now a civilian employee as an engineer at the nearby AFB, which is largest civilian employer in the whole state. I emailed her to see if she’d been furloughed;she responded that for now she wasn’t, but that the whole situation upsets her greatly (she’s 2 kids in college and one just out who doesn’t yet have a paying job) and while she blames both sides, she said that Obama is the real problem because he doesn’t lead and he doesn’t compromise. She is a diehard Republican and is not shy about letting her political views be known. (I swear there used to be consequences for that, i.e. losing one’s job)
I try to avoid political conversations with her because she’s a Fox watcher and it’s a waste of time. But I responded to her and told her she was very wrong, gave her links, including a link to Andrew Sullivan’s post about Rick Perry’s comment that Obama’s enforcing of the ACA was a felony. He (Sullivan) called the modern GOP revolutionaries. I’ve not yet had a reply from her, but am sure that I will.
Suffern ACE
@David in NY: ok. Being fair. Rays was an institution in the village for a long time. I didn’t like their pizza as they used canned mushrooms. However, it was definitely part of the landscape. And I can see NYU students missing that image. Nyc folks older than Burns probably feel the same way about Horn and Hardart. That said, pizza and food in NYC in general for the moderately budgeted middle class diner has improved a lot in the 15 years I’ve been living here. Rays is the dried cardboard crust New York pizza that was everywhere when I moved here.
Suffern ACE
@dww44: I have very little confidence that the furloughed government workers in Virginia will come out in droves and let the tea party know that they suck next month by telling one of their first superstars to stay out of the governors mansion.
I bet they’ll vote for both sides to continue to do it.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Just about the only things that can match “what is really pizza?” for sheer food obnoxiousness are “what is real barbecue?” and “what is real chili?”.
BillinGlendaleCA
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Or real Mexican food.
dww44
@Suffern ACE: Yep, hadn’t thought about the impact on VA voters in the upcoming governor’s election. Could impact if the shutdown continues for a couple more weeks, I would think. By that point, everyone’s going to be hurting.
Suffern ACE
@dww44: to me that is almost as important as a default. It is very important that the Democrats win that race. Our voters have to start coming through in elections like this or there is little point in hoping that Republicans will fear voter backlash.
It will be very tough to argue that the public is fed up with the Tea Party if Ken Cunicelli wins. Sadly, I think that the shut down won’t change many people’s minds. Government workers who voted Republican for years ago will pull the same lever this time and those that voted Dem will do the same. Four years ago, that was not nearly enough voters on our side.
NotMax
@Suffern ACE
Aside from being affordable, the creamed spinach and the mac & cheese at the Automat were really, really tasty.
Suffern ACE
@The prophet Nostradumbass: I’m from the upper Midwest originally. Barbecue is that ground beef sandwich that goes by “sloppy joe” in other less refined parts of the country, isn’t it?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@BillinGlendaleCA: Okay, well, that comes close.
nemesis
My son and his GF work for the EPA. Both are furloughed as a result of the teatards jihad on America.
evodevo
@burnspbesq: If the premiums were being taken out of your paycheck, it may indeed have been a dicey situation. Within a couple of weeks, the insurance co. would probably have cancelled your insurance, unless you could work out something with them. Similar thing happened to a co-worker of mine last year. Ended up having to pay the hospital bill on credit cards, and still owes a shitload.