Please locate the exit nearest you.
Unclear on the Concept: The Republicans plan to cut the deficit by cutting the government's income. It worked so well during the Bush years...
Follow The Bouncing Ball: The Republicans now claim that if Obama does not cave in and give them what they want, it will be his fault for being so irresponsible that they have to shut down the government. Obama, meanwhile, is still living in an alternate universe where the parties will "come together and do what's best for the country we all love".
Back to the Past: Fully half of the incoming GOP representatives deny the existence of anthropogenic (man-made) climate change. According to an OECD survey, the US ranks 17th in science education among the world's 30 richest countries.
Pig/Poke: Beware of banks offering to modify your mortgage. Some are then citing the lower payments as insufficient partial payments and foreclosing on the stunned home-owners.
Bite the Bullet: At a cost of $150 million to kill each Taliban soldier, the US cannot afford to win the war. And that doesn't count those bags of money the CIA drops off at Karsai's house.
Applied Logic: Lost amid the Republicans' strutting and the Democratic self-criticism is a potent victory for the people of California and Florida, where gerrymandering was replaced by new, independent commissions that will redraw district lines to create compact, contiguous congressional districts containing communities with common interests and concerns, based on existing city, county and geographical boundaries rather than on building impregnable fortresses for incumbents.
Petri Dish: The world's population did not reach 1 billion until after 1800. By 1920 it had doubled to 2 billion. Fifty years later it was 4 billion. By 2030 it will double again to 8 billion. At another billion every ten years, how long before we run out of everything?
Fickle: Over 60% of Americans think that majority rule should mean that a simple majority (51%) wins the vote. These folks want the Senate's filibuster rule abandoned, but only if their party is the majority party. It would take 67 Senators saying “Yea” to change the rule, and that's not going to happen.
Bait and Switch: John Boehner has acknowledged that all his talk about ending earmark spending was just that – talk – and that there is no chance that any limits on earmarks will be taken up under his... leadership?
Follow-thru: Republicans who ran on promises to destroy America's future are delivering. Rather than contribute one penny to the federal deficit, the incoming governors of Wisconsin and Ohio are pledging to return $1.2 billion to Washington rather than waste it on high-speed rail systems in their states. The tea-party heroes also intend to quash clean energy projects and defeat climate science through investment in denial.
Equality: From 1980 to 2005, more than 80% of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent. In the US, 24% of the pie goes to the overlords, up from a measly 9% in 1976. The US is more unequal than Guyana, Nicaragua and Venezuela. So naturally the Republicans want to give the top 1% another $370,000 in tax breaks.
Porn O'Graph: Accountability.
4 comments:
RE Unclear on the concept Along with a pay cut, I wonder if all the clean-cut tea baggers will do us all a favor and refuse to accept all the other benies that come with the position - free health care, delux retirement, gov't paid propaganda privileges (oh, I mean franking). I doubt it. Just as I doubt this new crop of hypocrites will prove any more impervious to all the other under-the-table goodies offered to those in power. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
You know, I've followed this blog for 3 years and it has been one of my favorites. You offered intelligent wit and perspective. But lately it's hissy fit after hissy fit over Republican agendas. Democrats, I'm sorry, are part in parcel of the same pig sty. They stink just as much... 2 years in power and they didn't do shit. Obama is NO better than Bush. So get over it and turn SAR back into a quality Blog.
Notsofastfriend signing off.
One of the great mysteries is how a Senate immobilized by GOP threats of filibuster somehow becomes "2 years in power" for the Democrats. The Democrats have spent two years as spineless cowards, true, but they have not been "in power." If they had been DADT would have killed, the US would have a rational single payer health system and global warming would have been addressed (albeit poorly).
I agree, Obama is no better than Bush in terms of the wars and the use of fear against the citizenry, and in the defense and condoning of torture and most definitely in his embrace of the imperial presidency.
And he is deluded in his attempts at a bipartisan governance.
But right now the GOPers are the ones running around crowing and making ridiculous promises and threats - they've donned the bulls-eye. I'm just taking the easy shots. If the Democrats somehow become relevant to the national discussion, then I'll pay attention to them. For now the wind blowing from the other direction.
It would take 67 Senators saying “Yea” to change the rule, and that's not going to happen.
It takes 67 during a session, but 51 at the beginning of each Congress (and 51 at any time if you believe the nuclear option is viable). I'm inclined to think that the self-imposed supermajority rule is unconstitutional because it usurps the Veep's role as tiebreaker and so the Senate should ditch it immediately, but that's just my entirely irrelevant opinion.
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