In gutless fear over the real possibility of a Gadsden flag-waving teatard taking away his beloved seat at the government trough, Tom Reed, NY-23, voted against keeping the government open last night. Since I am on his mailing lists even though the mercy of redistricting took me out of his district, I was wondering how he would spin that. Here’s what turded into my inbox moments ago:
Last night, I voted against maintaining Washington’s status quo of governing by crisis.
Our nation faces monumental challenges, and we cannot continue kicking the can down the road.
America needs real leadership to deal with the problem of our enormous national debt, which is approaching seventeen trillion dollars.
With the next crisis looming in just three months, I am working tirelessly to craft long-term solutions to our challenges, but I need your help.
That first sentence is so fucking twisted I had to read it a few times to try to figure out just how many lies it encompasses.
The other Western New York Republican who soils his boxers every time he sees the shadow of a tricorn hat is Chris Collins (NY-27), who voted with Reed for default and crisis. Buffalopundit is worth a read on that jackass.
schrodinger's cat
Can a Democrat win in the districts you mention?
Steve M.
Well, ginning up and sustaining a crisis as a means of not governing is, in fact, an alternative to governing by crisis.
KG
Did he say what any of those long term solutions are?
Belafon
He didn’t lie. If they had prevailed, the US would have been in new uncharted territory, and we’d be governed by local gun toting, right wing thugs. We definitely wouldn’t be governing by crisis any more. Catastrophe, maybe, but not crisis.
Arclite
A bit O/T, but I’ll just post this story about how a pit bull rescued a cat from two coyotes.
Cruz is one coyote, house Repubs the other, while the cat is the American people. I’ll let you guys figure out who the pit bull is.
schrodinger's cat
Crisis averted, lets celebrate, by joining the kitteh in a happy dance.
scav
In his haste not to “kick cans”, he apparently takes great pleasure in kicking Federal employees and other Americans.
(OK, OK, he likely doesn’t believe anyone he feels like kicking is a “real” American®. If God Allmighty had wanted them to be Real Americans® he would have created them Wealthy, We-publican and White.)
IowaOldLady
Political cliches make me crazy. IMHO, someone needs to bleep all mentions of “kicking the can” and also “having a conversation.”
Gypsy Howell
I can’t wait for the lie-filled, truth-twisting missive I’m going to get from Joe Pitts. His emails make me sputter with rage on a good day.
That he hasn’t crafted one yet only means he’s still pondering how he can spin it. (Or he hasn’t received his TeaTard Talking Points yet.) Shitbag.
dpm (dread pirate mistermix)
@schrodinger’s cat: In a swing election it is possible. Collins beat Kathy Hochul, a D who won the seat in a special election after Chris Lee’s shirtless pics led to his resignation. Hochul won because the oldsters in the district were convinced that Republicans were going to steal their SS and Medicare. However, that district got re-districted into a R+8 in 2012 and Hochul lost 51/49. So that one is a reach.
Reed is in a R+3 district but there are a couple of problems there. First, most of the old district (NY-29) was an area where the Democratic party was almost nonexistent, which means no good “moderate” candidates will come up organically (e.g., state legislator). The D part of the district is Ithaca, which is full of hippies. So the R+3 is the good news, finding a good candidate that is moderate enough to get the swing voters in the old NY-29 to vote for is tough.
It will take more fuck ups, good candidates and plenty of money to push them out but I could see it happen.
Frankensteinbeck
Reread this in I Hate The Brown Guy mode.
If Obama would just learn his place, everything would be fine.
The browns have grown so powerful one of them was elected president.
If we kick people who aren’t like us – especially the browns – harder, maybe we’ll be on top again.
You’re desperate. You’re terrified of a nation ruled by browns. Give me money, because that’s all you can think of to try.
gelfling545
@schrodinger’s cat: A democrat can win and has won previously in Collins’ district although it generally tends GOP. There are also a fair number of people in the district who understand finance if not government and will recognize what a risk this was, although they may interpret Collins’ vote as political theatre. I’d have thought he would have been unelectable anywhere since he was such an incredible moron as County Executive but I hear he has a lot of powerful friends. I guess only time will tell. My daughter has moved into his district & looks forward to voting against him.
dpm (dread pirate mistermix)
@KG:
No, but sending him money was the first step towards those solutions.
Xecky Gilchrist
The thing that about made me dung my pants with shock last night is that uber-Blue-Dog Jim Matheson of Utah voted to end the shutdown. He’s usually a pretty reliable Republican.
Gypsy Howell
In better news, the Obamacare website is finally operating a little better, and while I am — 17 days into my application — STILL trapped in ID verification, at least the new site modifications allowed me to start pricing out plans.
And it looks like I am going to save a SHITLOAD of money next year!!!!!!
Yay Obamacare!
aimai
Jeesus, if they put half the time into actually crafting working legislation that they do into crafting excuses for their asshole behavior we’d be in high cotton right now. Imagine the energy that could be released that was wasted in writing that memo?
MattF
They must have found that “Not kicking the can down the road” got the least-negative reaction from the focus groups.
NotMax
Shorter version: My position is much more important than your country.
Semi-OT:
As “brinksmanship” seems to be the word of the day, it would be remiss not to mourn that the now little known master of droll -manship books, Stephen Potter, is no longer among us to puncture current events.
David Hunt
@KG:
I doubt that he mentioned anything close to any plans he actually supports as it almost certainly a combination of starving poor people and rendering old people in Soylent Green.
Ash Can
@IowaOldLady: Hey, I’m all for kicking cans down the road. And back again. All day long. The only problem I have with it is deciding whose can to start kicking first.
Baud
Fixed.
Cassidy
Speaking of flag wavers, someone should write about the gun fetishists in San Antonio threatening violent, armed
Confrontation with the police.
floridafrog
@ Gypsy Howell – I too, am still stuck in ID verification and at first glance I thought I would save huge even on a Platinum plan. Then I gave up on the healthcare.gov site and went to the website of our only provider in my county, Blue Cross Blue Shield. Yikes, the approved plans are much more expensive that the estimate shown on the healthcare.gov page. I think the estimates shown are based on some midpoint age of the relevant range (mine was 30-64 years old). If you are near the top of that range (late 50s) the premium is roughly double the estimate. I am lucky to not qualify for a subsidy but will still end up paying roughly 12 percent of our household income for the policy.
Unfortunately my current plan is not compliant so I am one of those folks who will pay more and have a higher deductible than before. Still a big fan of OCA but it does not work out so well for all of us.
IowaOldLady
MSNBC has redesigned their site making it much slower and harder to find things. OTOH, Chris Hayes’ pic is endearingly geeky. He looks like a muppet.
pseudonymous in nc
@Gypsy Howell:
That’s a genuine problem with the site.
The ID part really needs to spell out which bits of “optional” data will put your application on hold if you don’t provide it. Or at least make it easy to revise and resubmit.
Walker
He represents Tompkins County. He won because he ran against an incompetent. He will go down because of this.
kindness
I lived in Ithaca for 2 years but voted absentee from downstate. Moved to CA and now I am represented by a TeaTard who would have happily let all of us walk the plank for their sacred fefe’s. Sucks. I don’t bother harassing him any longer. God knows it never mattered as I wasn’t a ‘real’ constituent. I donate money to the Democrat and vote. Other than that I shake my head that so many folks vote for the moran.
ranchandsyrup
Only his stance on NSA matters. Vote for Justin Amash! Glenzilla says he’s cool. The rest is just dead-end stuff.
Aaron S. Veenstra
That first sentence is pretty clear. He thinks governing by crisis is bad. He doesn’t mind the crisis part, it’s the governing that troubles him.
Walker
Martha Robertson is planning on running against Reed and has been campaigning through the entire shutdown.
Suffern ACE
Does anyone actually play kick the can anymore? Regardless, it seems like they’re playing a different game.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suffern ACE: Doom?
cincyanon
I don’t like the term “Teatards”. Maybe I’m too PC. I do like the term “Teanuts and Cracker Jacks”.
TG Chicago
Can we stop using the term “teatard”? It makes us look awful.
Jeremy
I don’t know why the National Review thinks a low turn out election on a Wednesday in a blue state like New Jersey means something. Booker will have to run in 2014 for a full term and I guarantee that he will win by 15-20 points or possibly more which is typical for a democrat in a deep blue state.
hoodie
Kick the can is a great game, with the general point being that the game can go on forever or until mom calls everyone in for dinner. These fuckers are like the little shit that gets pissed off because he can’t win the game now. All these assholes do is whine about some speculated financial catastrophe that’s predicated on medical costs continuing to outstrip inflation for something like 70 years, with the proposed solution being kill off some poor folks now so they don’t ever have to worry about it and do something like, say, pay fucking taxes commensurate with the resources they extract from this system. Hey, if it turns out their projections are wrong, shit happens, right?
They want a final solution. You know who else wanted a final solution.
piratedan
@TG Chicago: I prefer Teahadi, ymmv
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Tea people is good.
shelly
His statement makes as much sense as Cruz/Palin shrieking over government monuments being shut down….when the government has been shutdown. You know, the place that runs the monuments… Oh, why bother.
My fondest wish? When some R congressman or senator gets up on CNN or MSNBC and starts blithering about ‘government spending!! The Deficit that will kill us all!!” Please, please, can one ‘journalist’ point out that the deficit is going DOWN. Please.
jl
He does need help. That part is true.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I like tea, especially strong black tea,
these teabaggers are giving tea a bad name.
Baud
@efgoldman: @Omnes Omnibus:
Teahilists would also work.
TAPX486
Maybe the voters in his district should liner up to kick his CAN down the road. Repeatedly
Violet
@piratedan: There’s always the classic: teabaggers.
shelly
‘Kick The Can’ is now an official drinking game. I’d add another one. Whenever some RW shill calls Obamacare ‘a trainwreck,’ you take a shot. Guys, you need to buy a Thesaurus and find ….some….other….words.. Use your words!
NotMax
@Violet
As their main shtick is acting like petulant brats, might one suggest Teawees.
Patricia Kayden
I hope you responded to Mr. Reed’s email, mistermix. I would have told him about himself and let him know that I did not vote for him. Hopefully, he’ll be voted out the next time around.
NotMax
@NotMax
(No edit option.)
Also too, because they are both small in number and small of mind.
Amir Khalid
Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission urgently needs a chairman, but it’s not like Senator Rafael Cruz cares.
tazj
I live in Chris Collins’ district and I thought that he might vote for raising the debt ceiling and ending the government shutdown when everyone figured it was going to pass. No, ever the jerk, he had to vote against this just like he voted to slash food stamps. I called his office about both things and figured I was wasting my breath but I just had to let his office hear from the other side. During the recession, the county received stimulus funds but he refused to spend most of it. Instead,.as county executive he cut funding to libraries, cultural programs, summer youth employment and even a program that provided childcare for poor working women.
In his explanation for his vote he choose to perpetuate the idea that raising the debt ceiling will add billions to the debt that the country actually could’ve got out of paying. Oh the horror we’ve done to future generations! Yet how easily he harms this generation, especially the poor of this generation.
fuckwit
@efgoldman: It is indeed insensitive to people with mental disabilities, who are generally so much nicer and kinder than the teabaggers.
@TG Chicago: True. Though I haven’t yet found an effective substitute for “Paultards” yet.
Generally, it’s satisfying to belittle these clowns with names, but it doesn’t solve anything. What we really need to do is belittle them with votes, like, removing them from office. Calling them any particular thing doesn’t really help that much.
I admire Obama’s ability to treat even the most noxious fools with respect and dignity. I wish I was that good of a person myself.
Patrick
People like Tom Reed owes America the $24billion that the shutdown cost our country. But I doubt he and the Republicans will have the decency to pay us. Low-lives…
max
Since you dig the radicalism, dude, why don’t you volunteer your head? (It’s not like you’ll miss it.) And we can tie it up in a burlap tea sack and then play polo with it. The game is like rustic and shit, so that should make your constituents happy.
Or we can just switch to Kick the Head. Whatever works.
max
[‘At least we wouldn’t be kicking the can anymore! Problem solved!’]
Skippy-san
Did you see where Conor Friedersdorf took Balloon Juice commenters to task? http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/sensitive-tea-partiers-need-to-stop-taking-criticism-so-personally/280642/
NotMax
@max
His ‘solution’ is to cease building the road, then bitch and moan when a Dead End sign is posted.
David in NY
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Don’t know if it’s really the case, but Chris Hayes the other night did a Mike Lee segment making the case that the Fed. Government is Utah’s biggest employer. E.g., every Californian who files a tax return sends it to Utah for processing. Might make a difference.
MattF
@Skippy-san: Well,
is not inaccurate. I’ll agree that ‘sometimes’ is a little weak, and if that’s how we’re perceived, we should strive to do better.
LanceThruster
@NotMax:
This.
David in NY
@Skippy-san: Makes me wonder. There was a fuss from the supporters of disabled people the other day about calling Tea Partiers “Teatards” (cf. “Retard”). So I’m wondering if they’ve ever gone after the conservatives used of “libtards.” If not, someone should tell them.
ETA: I’ve never thought disparaging nicknames for political figures or groups were much use. But if Conor is going to complain about it here and on the Orange Satan, he ought at least give a nod to the insults hurled from the right against liberals and, even worse, the President. But anyway, it’s what commenters do.
kindness
@David in NY: My tax returns go to Fresno.
Davis X. Machina
@Skippy-san: I don’t know about the rest of you, but I disagree with them out of personal disdain.
They’re contemptible. And the truth of an assertion is an airtight affirmative defense against libel.
kindness
Political correctness. You are of course right. It is wrong to call someone a retard or other similar connotation. And I will still do so occasionally even knowing it is not appropriate. So I will try to tone it down as I did say TeaTard above. But I will make no promises that I will hold to that forever. And really in my mind when I use the term retard, I don’t think retarted. I think idiot and not one who was born that way or developed into that following some terrible mishap. In my mind they are separate beasts. So please forgive me but at the same time there is a point at which political correctness can run amuck.
Ash Can
@Skippy-san:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
That article has a few moments (like the one cited), but it’s really nothing more than an entire dumptruck full of words used to say, “I don’t think the Tea Partiers are icky, I just think they’re a bunch of crybaby assholes. There’s a difference, although hell if I can explain what it is.”
Patrick
@MattF:
I wonder if they would get more respect if they themselves would treat the President of the United States with respect.Over the last five years they have gone nuts about the birth certificate, calling him a muslim, a Kenyan and what have you. Respect goes both ways. Just a thought…
andy
Even the Red Diaper babies over at the American Conservative:
Xecky Gilchrist
@David in NY: That is possible. There is a giant IRS office in Ogden, IIRC, which is not his turf but I’m sure it’s an attention-getter. The University of Utah is another biggie in the state, likely *is* in his yard, and for damn sure it uses a lot of government funding.
piratedan
@Ash Can: yeah Conor is giving them the old, “yes, I agree with you, but do you have to be so YOU about it” routine. Definitely tones of holding his nose in support of them, wishes that they would perhaps be a bit more civil, you know, perhaps a bit of reflection before flinging poo and calling names and then being shocked when folks decide that if THAT is the level where the argument is being waged, then decide to return invective in kind.
Same old, “how dare you mock me when I’m mocking you! Don’t you realize that I’m your superior?”
yeah names can hurt if you let them, so can images… you guys stop calling us commies and nazis and showing pictures of our president as a witch doctor and maybe you might get some conversation in return.
Chris
@Baud:
Teahilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of movement conservatism, Dude…
David in NY
@kindness: Thank you. Interesting. I only know what Chris Hayes said, and I usually think of him as a more careful type, but he probably didn’t produce the segment. Or maybe a little overstatement.
But see also @Xecky Gilchrist: re big IRS center in Ogden.
Baud
@Chris:
I’m sorry. I don’t understand.
gogol's wife
@Skippy-san:
that is hilarious
LanceThruster
@kindness:
Retard(ed) is a perfectly valid word and not disparaging to the learning challenged as it can refer to timing out of sync (as with a combustion engine distributor).
Omnes Omnibus
From the Conor link. 1. They called themselves teabaggers first. If they are that clueless, who are we to fight it. 2. Conor says insults; I say accurate descriptions.
bemused
Dissing tea party people is a natural response. If the shoe fits, which it does, they deliberately chose to wear it.
Chris
@Baud:
Reference to The Big Lebowski. Sorry. It’s not to everyone’s tastes, I guess.
Ramalama
If one does soil one’s boxers does that mean the soil escapes said fabric fabrication?
JPL
@Skippy-san: haha.. The Government spends the most on Defense, Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. What do the assholes want to cut? A million here or there is not gonna do it.
Am I being disrespectful?
Fair Economist
Retard as a verb is OK. Retard as a noun is a very insulting term, IMO up there with the n-word for offensiveness. “Teatard” is not being used as a verb. It’s not OK. It doesn’t really even insult them properly, as they are delusional rather than stupid. “Teahadi” is a sharper insult, and far less offensive.
Mike E
@LanceThruster: Gotta rehabilitate the word “niggardly” too, by those lights, right?
Fellatio Alger
@fuckwit: how about Paulturds?
MomSense
@Gypsy Howell:
Yay ObamaCare!!! Stick with it!
SiubhanDuinne
@aimai:
Reminds me of my ex, who — with his fraternity brothers — devoted endless hours in college to figuring out ever more novel and innovative ways of cheating on exams. They put orders of magnitude more thought and energy into those schemes than they would have done merely studying.
David in NY
Back to NY state — Chris Gibson (R-NY19) voted yea on the return-to-sanity-for-a-few-months bill. His facebook page whines that the President should have accepted a delay in the mandate on Sept. 30, without, of course, mentioning that litte fact. He’s running even with a generic D, 43-44, says PPP. I’ll be changing my registration to vote against him as soon as I retire.
Baud
@Chris:
Thanks. Haven’t seen it.
smedley the uncertain
@Omnes Omnibus:Really?? Sounds really sweet. We should invite them over for tea. How about Tea Perps??
Villago Delenda Est
Well, this is what you get for voting for borrow and spend like a poet on payday Rethuglicans. See: the shitty grade Z movie star, President Lets-put-the-S&L-bailout-“off-budget”-and-not-send-my-bank-robbing-number-3-son-to-jail, and then of course aforementioned President’s deserting coward of a son.
Instead, elect responsible actual fiscal conservatives like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden to the highest offices in the land.
Thank you.
SiubhanDuinne
@LanceThruster:
And a very common musical direction is ritardando which is nothing but “gradually slower.”
Villago Delenda Est
Oh, and “a liberal, a fanatical criminal”
Seanly
@floridafrog:
I think there is a 9.5% limit on premiums.
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne:
All teabaggers are getting “gradually slower” in both the physical and mental senses.
Villago Delenda Est
@TG Chicago:
How about “tea puke funnels”? Is that better?
Fuck the worthless racist scum. Fuck them repeatedly with a rusty, unlubed chain saw.
aimai
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, but why leave ourselves open for that kind of “how terrible you are to the disabled” kind of critique. I’d just move on to TeaHadis or Tealiban. Whatever we call them they are going to hate. But why use a term which could cause splash damage to other groups with which we are aligned?
dr. luba
@Patrick: Back in the day. one of the old docs complained to our department chairman that the nurses were not showing him the proper respect. The chief looked at him and said, “you have to earn the respect.”
Something these people (heretofore referred to as teahadists or WATBs) have yet to learn.
Yatsuno
@Xecky Gilchrist: Some returns do go to Ogden, but CA’s returns all go to Fresno. A bunch of other forms end up in Ogden, plus that’s the office that manages tax protestors.
p.a.
@SiubhanDuinne: sort of like my high school friends who can remember every concert we went to, the songs played and the order (and we were always stoned), but couldn’t pass a basic algebra test if you spotted them half the solution. Meanwhile I was decent at ‘book larnin”, but they’ll say “remember that Zappa concert in Worcester?” and I’ll be like, ” huh? was I there?”
Maybe the teatards will try to recruit the House stenographer to primary someone upstate!
TheWatcher
@Frankensteinbeck: When did the TeaTards become so frightened of the Cleveland Browns? God knows nobody else in the country is!
Mnemosyne
@schrodinger’s cat:
Whenever I make this tea at work, I have to warn our front desk because otherwise people think the building is on fire. And the Twinings Lapsang Souchong I make sometimes is even worse, smoke-wise.
schrodinger's cat
@Mnemosyne: I prefer Assam and Darjeeling teas to any other.
kerFuFFler
I live in Reed’s district. I called one of his offices repeatedly over the last ten days and his staff would not even answer the phone. So much for listening to people in his district.
Reed very narrowly won his seat last time because Ithaca, a blue stronghold, has been incorporated into his district. This time round we have a stronger candidate and a really good shot at dislodging this turd. If anyone in a safe district is looking for another race to contribute to that could make a big difference, consider supporting Martha Robertson!
kerFuFFler
@schrodinger’s cat:
Tom Reed could definitely lose to Martha Robertson in NY-23.
Bokonon
@tazj: That concern over the debt is so cute and special from a party that locked in massive structural deficits during the last decade. And how about the $21 billion that the shutdown just cost the federal government? Or the 0.8 percent of economic growth that economists think that the shutdown just shaved off of the economy?
I get the same mouth noises from my own GOP congressman’s staff – if you call in, they basically talk over you, and plaster you with these talking points as if you are ignorant, and need re-education. They don’t listen to their constituents. Instead, they try to either re-educate you or plow right over you. It is just infuriating.