Keep Your Head Down, And Your Powder Dry

Tags

2nd Amendment, abortion, debt ceiling, Humor, life in the meadow, Mitt Romney, NRA, Virginia, Women's reproductive rights

It’s never too early to become paranoid.

Just a friendly warning.

For some unknown reason the phrase from Richard III keeps running through my head. No, not “a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”

Rather, “now is the winter of our discontent.”

And that’s odd since this winter has been a wimp. Shhh, forget I said that, don’t want to jinx it now when it’s only a week until Spring, more or less. Paranoia you know.

And I’m not especially discontent either, in case you were wondering. Not particularly content but not discontent, or uncontent. Call me bi-content. No sexual in-u-end-o implied.

We’re going to mini-shop today. That’s not full shopping, no dis-shopping, or bi-shopping, but mini. Mini is a more than picking up a quart of milk and some eggs and less than stocking up for the apocalypse shopping. It’s shopping at the “bad store” which is more properly called a “market” because it certainly is not super. It could be a grocery store back in the 60’s when markets were “mom and pop” operations and grocery stores were things like the A&P. Then came really really large grocery stores, and we started calling them supermarkets. That was wrong, since they are in no way markets and are more properly called supergroceries. 

Got all that? I like things to be orderly and logical. Wal-Mart is not logical. Supermarkets are not logical, because they have a whole lot more in them than super groceries. As you no doubt know, you can bank, get your hair done, get glasses, drink Starbucks, eat a full freakin’ meal, visit the deli, buy clothes, electronics, hardware, books, music, jewelry, drugs, alcohol, toys, carpeting, and sign up for liposuction. Well maybe not the last. But heck, in LA? possibly.

¶

Have I mentioned how much I dearly love hypocrisy?

Which is great, since the GOP delivers it up by the shovelful each and every day for my enjoyment.

Dear Willard has taken to attacking Ragin’ Rick on his voting to raise the debt-ceiling a bunch of times when Bushie was doin’ the asking. Remember Republicans didn’t get offended at this until 2008. Before that, they did it all quite routinely.

Anyways, Willard was on his usual rant, talking about how fiscally bad old Rick was, and don’t ya just know, while he was saying all those things, he is standing right smack next to, on the same podium, having been endorsed by, new BFF, Sen. Robert Portman (R-OH, who had (wait for it . . .) voted for an increase in the debt ceiling right along side Ricky all those Bushy years.

But no, it gets worse! Portman was Bush’s budget director, so he was part of the team ASKING FOR THE DEBT CEILING INCREASES!

Oh, Lord am I loving this campaign season. I feel like I either captured the goose that laid the golden egg or I have awakened in Midas’ treasure room. Oh my gosh, I may have a serious female moment.

¶

Picked this up from the Fifth Column. A picture is, as we know, worth a thousand words.

Every day the GOP focuses on social issues, is another day Obama gains.

I guess ridicule works a bit. The Virgin-ya Governor is having a few second thoughts about the probe-your-girl-stuff-before-your-abortion bill.  It’s been delayed while he “looks for a compromise.”

Meanwhile somewhere in GA, a Democrat has introduced a ban on vasectomies, saying they “deprive millions of unborns their chance at life.” It’s a joke, but of course, that is lost on a segment of the duh Right.

I just can’t reconcile why it is bad for the government to set standards for school lunches but good that they poke around in my uterus. Where is the logic? But that would be asking a bit much from the average TeaNutz® wouldn’t it?

If only the poor Republicans could encase their “candidate” in a vacuum, keeping them pristine. Out in the real world, they begin to rust all too soon, and then crumble through their hands into dust. And then they go in search of another. I’d pick a new steel mill to buy from if I were them. Or is that a tin mill?

The logic of the absurd: Next to hypocrisy, I love circular logic best. Fact: since elected, President Obama has not pushed for one single bill that in any way limits gun ownership or acquiring guns in this country. This of course does not deter the flaming nuts. One such nut, IRA chief-sky-is-falling-buy-a-gun nut, Wayne LaPierre, insists that all this is just camouflage for what is to come.

“Lip service to gun owners is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term.

We see the president’s strategy crystal clear: Get re-elected and, with no more elections to worry about, get busy dismantling and destroying our firearms’ freedom, erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights and excise it from the U.S. Constitution. …

When the sun goes down on election day Barack Obama will have America’s gun owners to thank for his defeat.”

Now, those who sniff a bit too much gunpowder, see it this way: Vote for Obama, it’s good for gun and ammo sales!

Well, I’m soon off on the mini-trip to secure some victuals. Wish me luck and safe journey. I am going into the belly of the beast–aka bad store.

Gawking at an Accident

Tags

CCB, corporatocracy, debt ceiling, economics, GOP, John Boehner, teabaggers

Much as we all turn our heads at a freeway accident, unable to not look, I’ve been caught in the macabre fascination of watching a branch of government self-destruct before my very eyes.

After writing e-mails and tweets to my congressmen, advising them to get on the ball and get a balanced approach in the works, nothing changes. Even when polls suggest that by overwhelming margins of high 60’s to high 70’s, the American people are speaking out in favor of a balanced deal including cuts and revenue, and universally blaming Republicans for the log jam, nothing is being done.

I’ve been mesmerized by John Boehner’s dizzying death dance with the TeaNutz®. Some pundits are now dividing the Congressional GOP as those that are “sane” versus the “insane. The TeaNutz® are being called “hobbits,” uneducable, and intractable in the extreme. Boehner is giving screaming speeches in near tears as he tries to make it appear somehow that he didn’t totally cave to the least and worst of his fellow GOPers.

Of course Boehner and McConnell know that the TeaNutz® have once again handed the high ground to the Dems and the President. Even Billo the Clown screeches that they have insured Obama’s re-election with their insane inability to accept anything but their own rhetoric. Indeed Boehner has not budged a single one even with the usual promises of earmarks, good committee assignments and the coffers of the RNC for their re-election. These fools actually believe that they were sent on this holy mission by “the people”, and they are so ill-educated as to the facts of the real world that nothing gets past that mantra.

The polls serve to appeal to the “sane” GOP only, which it is still hoped will agree with Democrats to accept mostly a win as good enough and will in a true bipartisan fashion give up the necessary votes to avoid Armageddon.

I’m not at all sure it will happen. We ordered our money out of the stock market on Wednesday and we won’t be going back in until this crisis is over and we start to see a settling of the markets. We’ve never done this before, but our broker sure didn’t make any argument against our doing so.

Our Congress is so dysfunctional as to be worthless, and I’m getting to the point where I see only once solution. It is not some ideologically pure third-party, because I think that reasonably unrealistic. What I see the need for is that all Americans, or at least enough of them agree to simply vote out every incumbent up for re-election. This will be painful for everyone. The House will go back to the Democrats and the Senate will go to the Republicans. However the message will be clear.

The ONLY thing that these fools understand is a threat to their own livelihood. If they understand that scorched earth policies by their party will result in removal from office at their next election cycle, I suspect they will get the message that they actually have to learn to get something done.

And the President MUST start to engage the public with education as to basic economics. Even with a panel of economists of the highest order if necessary. Question and answer format.

The GOP (rightly) claims that polls show that a majority of American favor CCB. But that is because they don’t understand it. It sounds right, but it is not at all so. Most families don’t live this way. The analogy is quite simple. Under a CCB approach to your family finances, you don’t buy cars or homes until you have saved all the money to pay cash. And that means no more credit cards either. You want your mortgages and car loans? Well the government does too, except they are paying benefits to most people in one form or another.

In states that have enacted CCB, they maintain their budgets by raiding pension plans. That is why you see the draconian actions of Republicans in those states trying to gut unions and then advising state workers not to count on their pensions any more. They have been borrowed against, there is no money in them, just a big IOU.

You want to live under CCB? They forget about social security or medicare. They will be small pittances and you will be footing most of the costs for your medical care.

I imagine, once explained, that the poll numbers in support of CCB will drop like a rock.

What people have to get is that the GOP has always hated social security and medicare. They have tried to cut them since their inception. They see the deficit as a way to get away with it finally. They want, as one pundit suggested to return to a time of a hundred years ago, when business did whatever it wanted and people lived with what was offered. After all, the poor, if they had no vision and no drive, deserved nothing but the poor house. America was for the entrepreneur, the self-sufficient, the fittest. The rest are just the necessary fodder to turn the wheels of industry.

This is Ayn Rand. That is the GOP.

How will it all play out? I have not a clue. We seem trapped in an insane scenario. Have you gone to the asylum recently and tried to have a rational conversation? Enough said.

 

Related articles

• Vote your conscience? Not in today’s GOP (doubleplusundead.com)
• Tea party extremism brings buyer’s remorse to Republicans (capitolhillblue.com)
• Gallup: Obama has modestly higher approval on debt, Boehner losing moderates (dailykos.com)

Anybody Interested in Starting a New Country?

Tags

budget, debt ceiling, economy, GOP, John Boehner, teanutz

Perhaps it is true that no empire can last forever.

Perhaps it is true that inevitably a state rots from within.

Perhaps.

Perhaps my perspective is not long enough.

Perhaps.

All I do know is that my heart is as heavy as solid iron. I am but a step from weeping in frustration and defeat.

I cannot understand what insanity has captivated an insignificant number of people such that they are prepared to see the country either descend to chaos or to punish the least able among us by leaving them paupers, fit only for the workhouse or death.

It may be pure indifferent ignorance liberally coated in self-interest and the defiant claim that “I got mine, and I worked for it, and I just don’t care about you. It’s YOUR problem.” It may be a diabolical agenda that we are not privy yet to: “We will guarantee that you will be the plantation foreman Jeff, just help us destroy this democracy of the weak.”

In any case, we are spiraling into a hopeless morass of destruction. How to negotiate with insane people? The answer seems at this point that we accept a reprieve of utter destruction now, in exchange for having it later. That is what the TeaNutz© seem to be offering. They will stand on the prow of the sinking ship of state screaming their “no taxes” until the sea swallows them up.

Why?

It seems because their hatred of this president is greater than anything rational people can surmise. They fear they cannot live with another four years, and they fear if he gains anything, that will happen. The fact that they destroy the country in the process, well that now seems acceptable collateral damage.

 We can assure them that they can live through another four years of course. We did. But of course, they will not see it that way. Bush’s debt-ceiling raises, his reductions in revenue, his unpaid for wars of choice, and his silly and expensive drug prescription extravaganzas are somehow different.

People who are used to doing business in Washington, like John Boehner, figured that once in Washington these intellectual midgets could be controlled. But Boehner has proven no more capable of dealing with insane and ill-informed jackasses than Democrats are. He appears most often as a man caught in the headlights, being pushed and carried along on a wave of caucus madness that he neither understands nor can speak to.

He struts forth and engages, deals and finagles in ways that his predecessors always did, only to be bluntly informed that “we will not deal.” Tail between his legs, he retreats, engineers another lie and tries to appear “still in control.” He is not.

The young and upcoming (they think) cubs growl as they manuever for position. Cantor and King, Walsh and West, they all prod and poke their TeaNutz© into line. Each, even the most docile and quiet are given their mike time to crow about economic matters they have no real understanding of. They spend their evening before memorizing the prepared talking points. “Just ignore questions you don’t understand, and go back to bullet points. You’ll do fine.”

exhilarating times. Talking to national audiences when just a few months ago, you were barbering at the local shop or pushing life insurance. Wined and dined by the rich lobbyists who smirk and giggle behind their backs about their “backward” ways, they thrill to the excitement and the seeming power that is but a finger tip away.So they think.

Notice that whatever rational Republican remain are deathly quiet? Not a word from them. They are shamed, deep in their heart, yet they STILL would rather put their own re-election first rather than save the country. There is no courage out there, on either side. No George Washington for us. Only sad hulks of human beings who have found a good living working in the beltway.

A pox on all their houses.

There are times, waking in the middle of the night when clarity comes. When you can feel what must be going through the minds of those who do try. I have not been happy with this President on a number of occasions, yet I know that he is trying with all his heart to do right. My heart goes out to him. Rational thinking cannot overcome insane ignorance, especially when even semi-moderate Republicans would rather succumb to crazy than slap it down–after all, taking down this President remains the insane FIRST order of business.

First order of business? Can you believe that?

I was really ready to call it a day with politics this morning. But then I heard Michele Bachmann, and I was reminded that there are people engaged in the process that really want to talk about important issues of the day.

Did you hear? In her White House, there will be no teleprompters! Now that is change I can get behind.

Damn them all.

** I e-mailed weenie Chuck Grassley, my GOP senator. Boehner’s congressional phones and email server have crashed utterly. You can let him know what you think at Twitter at @SpeakerBoehner. Whether rational protest affects these jackasses is anybody’s guess.

Related articles

• Boehner After GOP Hostage Taking: ‘This is about doing the right thing for our country.’ (crooksandliars.com)

The Palinator Syndrome Strikes Again

Tags

Congress, debt ceiling, deficit, economy, Islamophobia, Oslo, Reince Priebus, right-wing fundamentalists, RNC, Scott Walker, terrorism, voting, Wisconsin

We all know that Sista Sarah is the Queen of Whine, but really this does take the cake.

First we had John Bolton, Mr. Unconfirmable, tell us that this was “a classic terrorist effort” and specifically “Islamic terrorism.”

Then of course plenty of other right-wingers did the same.

What are we talking about? The Oslo massacre. Of course, it turned out that the actor was a Christian fundamentalist, steeped in a whole lot of anti-Muslim hate.

So who are the victims? The dead? The wounded? The family of those slain and injured? The nation of Norway? My heavens no.

The real victims are the right-wing anti-Muslim movement. Gracious me.

So says the right-wing rag FrontPageMag. Their cause has been harmed by the Norwegian who went on a shooting spree killing dozens. Now the Left will be using the event to point the finger at them. After all it was “perfectly reasonable” for everyone to assume that the Oslo killings were at the hands of Islamic Jihadists.

But the Left will use Breivik to divert attention from worldwide jihad, to advance their cultural Marxism, and to demonize the defenders of freedom.

Yeah, whine on you awful people.That is some serious chutzpah. . .or as Michele says Choots-pa.

♦

I was watching the Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd this morning on MSNBC. He had a couple of “expert” Washington watchers. Both agreed that this Congress may well be the most dysfunctional of all time. One of the guys went on to say something that I think explains it all quite well.

Basically he claimed that both parties now act like parliamentary parties, in other words, they are entirely ideological. There is no longer a middle. But they are not in a parliamentary system of government where the majority simply enacts its laws. Instead the GOP is now functioning as a party of NO to every and all legislation proposed by the Democrats. Their goal is not to govern and do what is right for the country, but to deny the other Party of any “wins.” Newt Gingrich authored this manner of retaliation back in the 90’s. It is in full flourish now.

The Democrats did the same basic thing between 2006-08, though we of course would argue that it was to effectively stop the horrible actions of the Bush administration. In any case, he argued, there is no courage exhibited by anyone to do the right thing–only the politically “right” thing. 

Perhaps we will see the beginnings of a new party, or just a growing number of folks running as “Independents”, beholden to neither side, who will act on behalf of us. We can but hope.

♦

Remember the lovely Reince Priebus? You know who I mean. Head of the RNC? Well I was reading a post from Brilliant at Breakfast yesterday about his call-out to the faithful to send money in the wake of the Democrats and their “insatiable hunger for ever higher taxes, greater government growth, reckless spending and massive trillion-dollar deficits”.

Jurassicpork has coined (or at least I think he/she has) a new term, that frankly left me chuckling on and off all day. Reince Priebus = Rinsed Penis.

Well, heck a laugh is a laugh…and I thought it a mighty good one.

♦

Oh, and I also read Moe’s great post on the deficit. The chart really explains it all. I just wish Obama would grab some prime time, set up the charts, and SHOW the public the real numbers.

♦

Reason 3,739 which Rethuglians are unfit to “govern.” Remember our old friend Scott Walker? Ya know who I mean, union buster and about to be recalled Walker? Well the thug is at it again. Among other awful things, his band of GOPers and he have managed to disenfranchise tons of Wisconsinites with their new voter ID law.

We all know that this is aimed at reducing the number of Democrats able to vote, and thus help them win elections when they are truly not the favored candidate. But knowing that the Democrats will do everything in their power to help seniors, students, and the poor to get those ID’s, Walker figured out another good ploy to deny the desires of the people.

At that would be? Why closing ten DMV offices statewide–all of which are in heavily Democratic locations and extending the hours to get those voter ID’s in typically Republican areas.

The GOP is upfront: they will change the rules to cheat and win. Meanwhile a  Brennan Center for Justice study shows that voter fraud nationally accounts for 44 one millionths of one percent of all votes cast.

Does Walker think that voters won’t remember?

♦

Gosh, I went and gone and done it again. Screwed up.

A week or so ago, the Contrarian and I went to the SS office to get my name changed. (Okay so I am a bit lazy, but really there was no good reason to do it until now when we are about to apply to SS in a few months.)

So anyway, I arrived with a “copy” of my marriage certificate as requested. Except they corrected that to the “original” so a trip to the Clerk of the Court ensued. Back to the SS office and I finished the paperwork. She swung the screen around and I tried to make out the information on the screen with my bifocals. And said it looked “fine.”

I got my card. Middle name wrong. I changed my middle name from Ann to my maiden name of McCameron. I just use the initial M. So I call them.

Yeah, you guessed it, I gotta go back. I failed to catch THEIR error. My bad.

A fine example of bureaucracy in action.

 

 

Anybody for RotoRootering a Few Butts?

Tags

Bill O'Reilly, budget, debt ceiling, economy, fundamentalists, gay rights, GOP, idiotic laws, marriage equality, Oslo, religion, Reproductive Rights, state legislatures, teanutz, wingnuts, Women's issues

Bill O’Reilly, Fox Noise mouth, may be one of the more rational (at least he wants to be) voices at the propaganda machine, but heck that isn’t really saying anything much. He’s a mush head of the first order.

His “opines” are so often nothing but third-rank right-wing babble, and recently he took to sucking his toes once again.

If you hadn’t heard, the Institute of Medicine recently recommended that contraception should be available to women without co-pay requirements. If one is serious about cutting abortions, one would think that making sure that pregnancy avoidance would have top priority.

Not so to Billo. He theorized thusly:

 “Many women who get pregnant are blasted out of their minds when they have sex. They’re not going to use birth control anyway.”

Yes, women are just drunken sluts who get taken advantage of by sex hunting men. I suspect he didn’t think that through to the last part very well. Or as Keith Obermann suggested, maybe Billo was talking about his own relationships.

It’s what I like about Fox. They offend everyone, always. And make that a good hard steel bristle brush, thanks!

♦

Rushy Limpbaugh says the August 2 date on the debt ceiling was picked because it needed to be before the start of Ramadan. Louis Gohmert said it was picked because it was the day before the President’s birthday and he wanted it done to raise campaign funds. Steve King says there is no crisis because the President can order anything paid whenever he wants to. Michele said it all gave her a migraine.

If aliens ever landed and met these four empty vessels, they would mark this planet down as having: most intelligent life? whales. Make that an extra LONG steel bristle brush will ya? And with 4 ends? I wanna give it to them all at once.

♦

What I was hoping President Obama would say in his press conference yesterday:

“It seems that Speaker Boehner is not in control of his caucus. I ask them to send me Grover Norquist. Apparently he is in charge and I need to negotiate directly with him.”

Alas the President is too civil for that.

♦

Best line I’ve seen so far:

 “House Speaker John Boehner took his balls and went back to the House, presumably to give them back to Eric Cantor.” (Mustang Bobby at The Reaction )

♦

John Bolton, we have been lead to understand was “sure” that what happened in Oslo was an Al Qaeda operation. Course it wasn’t, since Bolton is an idiot. It was a homegrown terrorist, and self-identified “Christian conservative.” And so when somebody tells your that it is horrible to accuse fundamentalists of being dangerous. . . And would you dip that roto-rooter brush in hot sauce first?

♦

Meanwhile, folks on the extreme social right-wing are sure that this marriage equality in New York is one more step to the debauchery of Old Rome. This fine piece comes from “the sky is always falling” National Review. You’d think they would be embarrassed to print such sludge.

Just a few points:

• Brian S. Brown: Go look up the definition of racism. And when you are done, go talk to the small businesses that cater to weddings. They are ecstatic. And don’t get me started about divorce lawyers.
• William C. Duncan: Two points. It’s been pretty much debunked that marriage is for the purpose of procreation. As to “slippery slope” oh please can’t you be more creative?
• Chuck Donovan: What? I derive some comfort about ancestors? Are you nuts? Read what you wrote. I bet you can’t explain that drivel.
• Matthew J. Franck: No court mandated marriage equality, no legislative mandated equality. Oh yeah, we usually submit EVERY decision to a referendum. How long have you been in this country bucko?

Well there is a good deal more, but you get the drift. Make sure the roto rooters are all of the same-sex for this band of merry bigots.

♦

It is quite clear to me now that humans are a resilient species. How so? Why it progresses, fitfully I admit, even when only about 10% of its total numbers are certifiably sane. I bet no other species can claim that.You disagree? Well read AlterNet’s list of  “The 10 Craziest State Legislatures in America.”

Read it? Now tell me I’m wrong.

We now need so many roto-rooters that I can justifiably call myself a “job creator.” Lower my taxes you dolt!

 

 

 

Speaking of the Debt Ceiling Crisis. . .

Tags

budget, debt ceiling, economy, Eric Cantor, GOP, hall of shame, Louis Gohmert, Michele Bachmann, political hacks, Steve King, teabaggers

Well, it’s been an interesting time of it since Mitch “the Turtle” McConnell offered up his “we wash our hands of this mess” alternative to a deal on the debt ceiling.

The hard right is wailing, and the usual bunch of nuts are pushing each other off the microphone, eager to spew their own idiocy before an increasingly irritated public.

Boehner lost his swagger as Speaker, and now stands mute and castrated behind boy wonder and all-around poop, Eric Cantor. Eric has seen that his only real path to the Speakership is over the dead body of Boehner and as champion of the TeaPeople, sliced and diced to anyone who would listen at the last White House meeting.

Finally President Obama reminded the little shit just who was President.

Now, people who only play the part of a journalist (moi) have been increasingly angry with the President over his handling of this budget deal. I’ve been fearful that he was giving away too much, especially as it relates to Medicare and Social Security. These are things I have paid my dues into and as I approach 62, they are becoming increasingly dear to my heart. Yet once again, as the Contrarian says, Obama proves to be playing chess against opponents who are playing checkers.

One blogger was wont to say that Obama and his team are either political geniuses, or the luckiest sons-a-gun on earth. They managed to say the right words, the GOP took the bait, and now they are firmly in a corner from which they cannot extricate themselves.

You gotta conclude that the President and the Democrats are in full control now when you see who is screeching from the right. Eric Cantor of course is now front and center. Trouble is, everyone knows he and Boehner don’t exactly get along, and everyone knows Eric wants Boehner’s job. So his credibility is like in negative numbers when it comes to trusting his motives in all this.

Next we find Sarah “do you still love me?” Palin. The Palinator, whose understanding of economics should fill up the label of a Valium vial, weighed in, explaining to Sean “the finger” Hannity, that Obama is holding the “full faith and credit” of the US of A hostage. Course she has not a clue of what she just said in that, having no concept of what the phrase full faith and credit means.

In words that send a thrill up the nether regions of her minions, the TeaPeople, she advised GOP leadership to “not retreat, but reload.” Trying desperately to recapture her fading relevance, Wasilla Woman mewed that she didn’t even under stand Mitch’s latest capitulatory offer. (No surprise there.) In addition, she opined that she didn’t “necessarily believe” that a default on August 2 would be catastrophic for the country. What she does “necessarily believe” was, of course, not forthcoming.

Meanwhile, the Larry, Moe and Curlycue show was going on elsewhere. If you can imagine a more hilarious threesome than Louis (Gomer without the brains) Gohmert, Steven (I have 732 anti-Obamacare bills pending) King, and Michele (pray the gay away) Bachmann, well I’m not sure who they would be.

These buffoons introduced a bill that would require (if anybody bothers to read their crayon on construction paper bill) that armed-service personnel be paid first if we go into default. All for show of course. Again, Michele also exited reality and said the President was “holding the full faith and credit of the US hostage”.

 She continues to claim that the President is lying about any catastrophe. Showing her math skills, she explains that although our obligations per month total over 300 billion, and our revenue is only about 125 billion, we “can pay all our bills from revenue.”

Steve King (of clowns) went on Chris Matthews and ‘splained that he gets his knowledge that there is no default problem from “the American people” and then puffed up and touted his own “independent judgment.” Chris pressed on, and King graciously added, his expertise on all matters economic came from “a long experience of dealing politically, and in business, and raising a family, and being an American citizen…”

Being suitably impressed with that Chris asked if King Dong read the Wall Street Journal or the NYTimes? King said, he did occasionally, but  “I don’t trust the words of any source.”

Steve, who vies next month against an orangutan named Nelly, for the world stupidity championship, was asked finally whether he could name one international expert who agreed with him. Steve, swelled up with superiority, and crowed, “this is not an international problem, it’s an American one!”

Louis (Larry Stooge) mostly stood in the background trying to decide when all this money talk was done what he would have for lunch. (American cheese on my burger or Swiss? Ahh, American, it looks much more patriotic).

Mr. Gohmert (Gomer Pyle without the voice), cautioned Mr. Boehner not to listen to that Obamer fella, and then mumbled, “just copy what lovely Michele said, as what I say too.”

That, ladies and gents, is an example of the big guns of intellectual stature batting for the GOP. I mean, they must be so proud.

Meanwhile average Republicans were asked to comment. To a person the same response: “Louis? Sarah? Michele? Steve? I never knew them.  And the cock crowed a third time.

Related articles

• Will Marshall: Will Cantor Blow Up the Economy? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Bachmann, King, Gohmert Have Solution To Debt Ceiling (lezgetreal.com)
• Obama-GOP debt talks get tense at White House (msnbc.msn.com)
• Eric Cantor Emerges as GOP Leader in Debt Ceiling Debate (socyberty.com)
• Passing the Ball to Eric Cantor (politicalwire.com)
• Reaction to McConnell’s debt-ceiling proposal highlights deep fissure in GOP (dailykos.com)
• Obama Takes Cantor to the Woodshed (economistsview.typepad.com)
• ‘Enough is enough,’ Obama says, calling for deal (ctv.ca)
• Obama vs. Cantor: Tempers Flare As Debt Ceiling Negotiations Take a Dramatic Turn (swampland.time.com)
• Why Mitch McConnell Will Win the Day (robertreich.org)

The Rise and Catastrophic Crash of the Tea People

Tags

budget, debt ceiling, economy, GOP, teabaggers

Like alien beings they seemed to arise spontaneously from the “grassroots” of America. Across the land, they gathered with funny/offensive/stupid signs and claimed they wanted their country back.

We laughed, we teased, and we wrote them off as goofy racists.

We learned that they were anything but grassroots, but instead with the creation of economic behemoths like the Koch brothers and political operatives like Dick Armey.

They were encouraged to chant “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it any more” about any perceived grievance, as long as they voted for Republicans to correct whatever issue got their dander up.

And it worked. The barely literate, and politically unsavvy sent a gaggle of Tea Candidates to Congress, taking the House, and swaggering around halls they have never seen before except in pictures, now confident that they would do as their constituents demanded–reduce government to a few paltry offices, such as defense and foreign affairs. The fact that such actions would be disastrous, well, that would require thinking into layer two, and TeaPeople can’t do that.

Now the powers that be, didn’t care much about the absurd expectations of the TeaPeople. They knew the Washington game–new freshman congresspersons were quite quickly told to shut up, listen up, and do what you are told. That is the way it is.

They were allowed to introduce and even pass all their silly social engineering nonsense. They died in the Senate. The railed against the new Affordable Health Care Act, huffing and puffing and feeling powerful.

Then along came the debt ceiling issue, one that has come up dozens of times over the years, and has always been dealt with by a simple vote to raise the ceiling, for there was really no other option.

Except the TeaPeople, understanding not even basic Economics 101, said, heck no. We ain’t gonna vote for more debt, are you insane? If any one of our new freshmen or even any of the old-timers in Congress dared to vote for it, why we will “primary” ’em. For the TeaPeople actually thought they had the power now.

The leadership under McConnell and Boehner sought in plenty of closed-door meetings, to educate these dunderheads, who simple smiled stupidly and said, “the people” elected us to stop spending. Even if we understood this “economic reality” you speak of, it wouldn’t make any difference. We like being here, and we can’t get re-elected unless we do as we are told by “our constituents”.

And they thought they had the right idea. “Just threaten them with voting no on the debt ceiling, and those Democrats will have give us what we want, and what we really want is to end government entitlements for the lazy no-good loafers and the dumb old people too stupid to manage their money.”

And so Mr. Boehner did just that. And the Democrats gave them cuts on tons of programs that dealt with women’s health, kids breakfasts, student loans, and stuff like that, that meant a lot to working and poor people. And the Democrats asked that we also close loopholes, and cut subsidies that allowed corporations to save billions in taxes. They asked that multi-millionaires pay taxes at the rate they used to under Clinton.

And the TeaPeople told Mr. Boehner–“don’t even think about it. Keep threatening, and demand that social security and Medicare and Medicaid get cut too.”

And he did.

And the Democrats agreed, but then they insisted that some few of those tax things be added. The ratio was 85-15% in favor of the Republicans. Boehner wanted the “grand plan” that would make him the architect of a great Republican coup. Every rational Republican, all three of them thought they had scored big.

But the TeaPeople, being stupid, as they are, said no. When David Brooks, the conservative columnist, called them irrational and immoral, they said he was really a Democrat.

And Boehner realized his goose was cooked. These people were nuts.

So Mitch, “the Turtle” stepped in and saved Boehner, offering what some are now calling “the great capitulation”. He pretty much concedes that the President can raise the debt ceiling anyway. He dressed it up with some “spending cuts” that Obama can ignore.

The TeaPeople are screaming for blood. They call for Boehner’s resignation. They roar “traitor” at every turn.

And the TeaPeople? Oh they are so dumb they haven’t realized yet that they have been made, how shall we say, irrelevant. They can’t read polls which suggest that the Independents who gave them a chance to see if they could actually do something, are appalled at their “agenda”, and abandoning them in droves. Recalls are at an all time high across the nation.

I believe that the Republicans will lose the House again in 2012, and Boehner will have zero to show for his two years as Speaker. He will forever be the guy who failed spectacularly, and was left powerless by a group of silly unsophisticated goofs who disappeared just as quickly as they arose.

And some believe that Obama and a couple of his political operatives pretty much had this figured out long ago, and just out-Boehnered, Boehner until Boehner blinked. And they just might be right. Obama gets the debt ceiling raised at no price–which is exactly what should have happened last spring. The Republicans get nothing and prove their extreme incompetence to boot.

Nice way to head into 2012.

That’s the way I see it. You?

Related articles

• Meredith Bagby: Republicans Gone Wild: Unraveling Their Debt-Ceiling Strategy (huffingtonpost.com)
• Boehner Now Says Debt Ceiling is Obama’s Problem (themoderatevoice.com)
• Where Are The Rational People In The Debt Ceiling Debate? (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Obama presses; Boehner resists – Boston Globe (news.google.com)
• GOP Catering to Tea Party Ignorance on Debt Ceiling (usnews.com)
• Should we feel sorry for John Boehner? (themoderatevoice.com)
• A Guide to the Catastrophic Debt Ceiling Debate (politicore.wordpress.com)
• Eric Cantor, a New Nixon (themoderatevoice.com)
• Should Speaker John Boehner watch his back? (politico.com)
• McConnell proposes way to end debt-limit stalemate (capitolhillblue.com)
• McConnell fall-back plan that leaves debt ceiling hike to Obama (thehill.com)