Observations from the Abyss 10.5

This photo was posted on twitter by House Majority Leader Eric Ivan Cantor on the day the government shutdown started. Apparently it's supposed to show how the Republicans were ready to negotiate and that the Democrats of the Senate were the ones responsible for the shutdown. Rather get into that rather obvious falsehood I thought I would post the photo for strictly artistic reasons. I think it may be the best example of white and white photography I have ever seen.

Observations 9.20

And so it's time for Democrats, progressives, and liberals to sit back and watch as the Republican Party destroys itself. The only problem with this is the Republican Party may also destroy the world economy in the process, it may be worth it.

This short statement on the Republican budget, released by The White House yesterday, is worth reading. Maybe if the Republicans bothered to read it they could save themselves before they takeoff on what even the The Wall Street Journal called a kamikaze mission. I doubt they will bother. Italics are my own.

September 19, 2013
STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY
H.J. Res. 59 – Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014
(Rep. Rogers, R-KY)

The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.J. Res. 59, making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014 and for other purposes, because it advances a narrow ideological agenda that threatens our economy and the interests of the middle class. The Resolution would defund the Affordable Care Act, denying millions of hard-working middle class families the security of affordable health coverage.

If the President were presented with H.J. Res. 59, he would veto the bill.

The Administration is willing to support a short-term continuing resolution to allow critical Government functions to operate without interruption and looks forward to working with the Congress on appropriations legislation for the remainder of the fiscal year that preserves critical national priorities, protects national security, and makes investments to spur economic growth and job creation for years to come.

Observations from the Road 12.27

I never did get back to my emotional response to guns but I still plan on doing it at some point. That doesn't mean it will ever happen, my head is full of posts I plan on getting back to but never do. This is more like a mid-week post Christmas edition of Sunday Observations which is going to seem more like an economics lesson.

I hope you had a good Christmas because it seems Congress has a very special New Years celebration planned this year.

And so I give you this fiscal cliff thing, something I'm totally tired of hearing about. Here is the fiscal cliff in a nutshell; Congress can't seem to do anything, with over 200 votes Congress passes a draconian law that automatically does its job for it, Congress figures it will have to do something before its own law takes effect. Now, and this is the surprising part, Congress can't force itself to do anything to stop what Congress itself has created. Is it any wonder said Congress has an approval rating slightly lower than the Communist Party's? I didn't know the Communist party still existed.

Meanwhile the government will once again hit the debt ceiling on New Years Eve, something else to add to the cliff. I agree with former President Bill Clinton on this one. President Obama should just raise the debt limit by executive order and let the republicans take him to court if they want to. As Clinton said why should Congress be allowed to vote on expenditures they already passed? It's like you went out and bought a Christmas present on credit and than when the bill came decided not to pay it. What makes this even crazier is that the government currently pays 1% interest on new loans so borrowing now to pay for projects is probably the best investment they can make. The Treasury department says they can put off the ceiling for a few months by using accounting methods, I think I'll try that when it's income tax time.

A quick note on White House petitions. Some people have been complaining that 'joke' petitions are taking away from serious politics in this country. It is beyond me how that is possible given the state of Congress but that's what they say. Anyway there are some serious petitions to look at. One would have the President "Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group." It was started by a member of the hacker group Anonymous after the WBC announced it was going to protest at the funerals of the Newtown shooting victims. As of now it has 263,000 signatures so will get an official response which should be interesting. You can read it here.

Also there was a good but sad article about the complete disconnect between those who fight our wars and the rest of the country in Christmas day's edition of The New York Times. The article, "With a Parent Off Again at War, a Holiday of Pride and Isolation," included this line; "No one really cares,” Tyisha Smith, a 19-year-old senior, said of the outside world."

I'm sure Congress will get to Afghanistan after it gets past its Thelma and Louise moment.

Finally, and once again, where have you gone NHL?

12/28 update - I just read a Reuters article about the Westboro petition and it said 475,000 people has signed it. I was thinking 200,000 more signatures can't be possible in one day so I checked it out. Seems there are three petitions; the main one has 287,000, another to investigate Westboro's tax exempt status has 69,500 signatures, and a third to revoke its tax exempt status and label it a hate group has 63,000 signatures.

Observations from the Window 12.5

Did you ever wonder why when Bill O'Reilly is talking the words type next to him on a split screen? I never thought about it before but I think the answer came to me last night watching The Last Word. They showed a clip from O'Reilly's show and two reasons hit me. One reason could be that his viewers, and Fox News viewers in general, are so old they can't hear what he is saying. More likely is that those viewers are just so thick they need to see the words just to understand what they are hearing.

Wingnutism reached a new low yesterday when the United Nations disabilities treaty fell five votes short of ratification in the Senate. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, based largely on the Americans with Disabilities Act, was negotiated by the Bush administration and signed by President Obama in 2009. It has been signed by 155 countries and ratified by 126 including Britain, France, Russia and China. Eight Republicans voted for the treaty but a two thirds majority was needed and it fell five votes short. The reason the wingnuts used for voting against it, home schooling. I have this vision of a wingnut fantasy, blue U.N. helicopters flying over America dropping wheelchairs.

John Kerry called the vote one of the saddest in his 28 years in the Senate, "a wake-up call about a broken institution that’s letting down the American people." I repeat, The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is almost a copy of the Americans with Disabilities Act, something that has been law in the United States for twenty two years. These people really are just pathetic and stand for absolutely nothing positive, nothing at all.

After that embarrassing display a petition currently on the White House website looks even better than it did when I first saw it. It says, "Cease paychecks and health benefits to ALL members of Congress and the President until the fiscal cliff is avoided."

Maybe it should say stop paychecks until the Congress of the United States of America starts acting a little more mature than a typical junior high school student council.

Observations on Amerika 11.13

Not long after President Obama's reelection the spirit of Jefferson Davis infected some people and they have filed petitions to secede from the union on the White House website. Now you can argue the merits of just letting Texas secede and be done with them but I have this fear of it becoming a narco-terrorist haven. A small country filled with religious zealots, a wacko leader in Rick Perry, and flooded with guns. What could possibly go wrong? Maybe we should just call it Texistan.

But this is the United States of America and if we can't have fun with secession who can? This is an official petition filed yesterday with the White House. I think it is courtesy of our friends at The Daily Kos but I'm not sure, maybe just its rogue editor David Waldman. It only has 25 signatures so far so please do your part to help this fledgling country.

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Peacefully grant the State of Herp-a-Derp to withdraw from the United States of America & create its own NEW government
As the founding fathers of the United States of America made clear in the Declaration of Independence in 1776:

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one neighbor to secretly let his dog crap on the lawn of another, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." Therefore, herp-a-derp-derp, but please keep sending my Social Security check. I earned that, yo.

Created: Nov 12, 2012
SIGNATURES NEEDED BY DECEMBER 12, 2012
TO REACH GOAL OF 25,000: 24,975

11/14 update - Due to the seriousness of the secessionist cause I wanted to update this with some links. The first is a self-proclaimed epic rant by David Badash at The New Civil Rights Movement. Read his article and you will learn that wingnuts in 42 of the 50 states have started petitions to secede, "The Only States That Don’t Want To Secede Are The Ones With Gay Marriage."

On The Huffington Post I found something that's too funny. It seems somebody in Texas started a petition to have the city of Austin secede from Texas and remain part of the union. So far that petition has over 4,000 votes. But also in this article you will see that the Hardin County Republican Party Treasurer, Peter Morrison, called Obama backers maggots. That should give you a pretty good idea what kind of people these are.

From The New Republic comes the best of all, "Go Ahead and Secede, Texas. I Dare You," and the one you need to read if you read any of them. If you do read it you have to read it all from beginning to end. It gets a bit serious in the middle and you'll start to think that maybe Texas would be better off but the finish is totally awesome. I don't want to ruin it but I will finish with the final line from that column ....

"Don’t mess with us, Texas. You just might get what you want."

11/16 update - Sorry for this bit of sad news but the petition for the State of Herp-a-Derp to secede from the union was removed from the White House website because it violates the site's terms of service and is in fact fictional. Really? I never would have guessed. At this writing petitions to deport anybody who signs a petition to secede remain on the site. Probably just wishful thinking on everybody's part.

Observations on the 2012 Election

The political comedy that is Willard's campaign continued as John Sununu was let out of his cage to do Rush Linbaugh's dirty work only to have him put back in his cage when Willard again demanded an apology. This time Willard demanded Sununu apologize to President Obama for saying the President should "learn how to be an American."

Seriously, sometimes you just can't make this shit up.

Meanwhile the Obama campaign continued to respond with ads such as this. The dude's face at the end is just classic. Hopefully the link works, the spot hasn't been released to the public yet.


link