The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

[Patman]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

Lest we forget, we would have had a budget 4 months ago had the GOP not filibustered it in the Senate.

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/12/16/sen-gop-leader-kills-omnibus-bill

You mean all 41 voted against? You mean all 41... they couldn't get a single bit of bi-partisanship. For a group that came into 1/09 about how post-partisan they were going to be, its hard to imagine they couldn't siphon off one person. Of course "post-partisan" really meant "everybody agrees with us now, shut up"... but what do I know... I openly disagree with the smart set.

You'd think maybe it'd be infinitely easier to get a bill passed then than now? Maybe Democrats should have bent a little? Nah... that'd be unheard of... its mean to think that its good Dems should relent... its just immoral.

That being said, when they start to talk about budgets and the rest, they need to start quoting two figures... 1) the figure in current dollars... 2) the figure in dollars relating to how much borrowing those dollars will cost when we get around to paying off that debt. Maybe some people would see there's a problem when $10K for a Cowboy Potery Slam in Outer Nevada gets dual quoted at $25K. Or Obama's vacation to Williamsburg gets dual quoted at $100K/$245K... oh, vacation? Sure, it might only be a short trip away... but shouldn't the president of the people be awaiting a budget bill and a signature? Suppose he'll rush back... or will he be blowing it on a $500/$1240 round of golf? Maybe he knows something we don't... like maybe he wants a shutdown? Of course, those who will be affected by the shutdown probably won't be enjoying much... of course they wouldn't go to Williamsburg anyhow... don't want to run into those dirty furriners... isn't that right, Kepler? BTW, bigotry isn't an enlightening principle just because you hold liberal principles.

 

[Foxton]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

You mean all 41 voted against? You mean all 41... they couldn't get a single bit of bi-partisanship. For a group that came into 1/09 about how post-partisan they were going to be, its hard to imagine they couldn't siphon off one person. Of course "post-partisan" really meant "everybody agrees with us now, shut up"... but what do I know... I openly disagree with the smart set.

You kept your mouth firmly shut on calling out republicans for saying no to anything when the democrats had control and did cave to the endless filibusters and parliamentary pressures by the republicans for things like health care reform. How'd that turn out again because they didn't just go for the ZOMG SOCIALISM!11!!1!!

Do you actually think no one is going to call you on being so blatantly hypocritical? Would you point out all the things republicans have compromised on lately? Hmm?

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

You mean all 41 voted against? You mean all 41... they couldn't get a single bit of bi-partisanship. For a group that came into 1/09 about how post-partisan they were going to be, its hard to imagine they couldn't siphon off one person. Of course "post-partisan" really meant "everybody agrees with us now, shut up"... but what do I know... I openly disagree with the smart set.

As the tea party says...shut er down.

I guess that means means police, road construction, schools (including anything the privates get from the fed), and military. That means that nobody associated with the govt should get a dime or lift a finger. It would be one way to find out if things like water, electricity and heat are dependent on government services. Lets see if that anarchy comes to pass.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

When I came in to work today I overheard a water cooler conversation that the entire reason for the shut down was quote "they wouldn't agree to cut Planned Parenthood funding."

I never, ever discuss religion or politics at my job. How would I even begin?

This is a fun article on the games each side is playing trying to Out-Victim one another.

As the White House says no deal, it sets up meetings—there's another one with Boehner Wednesday night. As Republicans say no deal, they take meetings and revisit one-week stopgaps. In the prisoner's dilemma playing out right now, it's important that everyone act as obstinate and offended and inflexible as he or she possibly can.

We all have our personal favorite martyrs in Congress, and I'm sure there will be some memorable High Comedy coming from both sides of the aisle in the next couple days.

Just keep a cool head and at the end of the day remember every Republican wants to kill your children and every Democrat wants the terrorists to win.

 

[bronconick]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

When I came in to work today I overheard a water cooler conversation that the entire reason for the shut down was quote "they wouldn't agree to cut Planned Parenthood funding."

I never, ever discuss religion or politics at my job. How would I even begin?

That's exactly what the front page article on Yahoo about the shutdown is claiming.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_spending_showdown

Republicans said the principal hang-up in the negotiations center on the size of the spending cuts to be included in any deal to fund the government through September, when the current budget year ends. But Democrats said that a GOP demand to deny federal dollars for Planned Parenthood is at the heart of the deadlock.

Smooth move, there Dems.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

Smooth move, there Dems.

Personally I think Howard Dean's little off the cuff gaffe was even worse. The Dems have never been as good at staying on message as the Republicans. But then again the Wehrmacht looked pretty good for a while there, too, and we poor undisciplined dog faces stopped them eventually.

"You are the first American officer I have met. Are they all so ill-mannered?"

"Yeah. About 90 per cent."

The TP crowds chanting SHUT IT DOWN! while the GOP leadership says "this is all a plot by Obama to shut the government down" aint so good, either.

I fearlessly predict that when all is said and done the partisans will find, after a careful review of all the facts, that the other side was completely at fault and their side were innocent as angelic children.

 

[Bakunin]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

How would I even begin?

Hand out morning after pills and rubbers.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

Hand out morning after pills and rubbers.

Oh not to this crowd. Pregnancy is a woman's just punishment for having teh sex.

 

[bronconick]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

You know, I think the last ten years would have been better if Senators had to actually filibuster instead of simply threaten it to get the other side to cave and not schedule a vote. Make these guys actually stand and read a phone book instead of releasing a press statement with the threat and going out to lunch with whatever lobbyist was on the schedule.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

Karl Rove, the genius who brought us that permanent realignment and thousand year Republican reich that lasted 6 years but which, to be fair to him, will probably haunt our country for the next 50, reduces the shut down to its essentials as only he can: the Republicans shouldn't do it because it could make Obama look like a stronger leader.

I can imagine Rove after Peal Harbor. "Whatever you do, guys, don't applaud FDR..."

 

[Priceless]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

That's exactly what the front page article on Yahoo about the shutdown is claiming.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_spending_showdown



Smooth move, there Dems.

All Planned Parenthood does is abortions! They don't provide cancer screenings, prenatal care, rape counseling, pregnancy testing, and general health care services from high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes screenings to simple vaccinations. They don't screen for STD's and STI's. They never help people quit smoking. They neglect to perform Pap Smears and LEEP procedures. They don't even give young women without insurance the means to prevent cervical cancer.

Oh wait...they do do all those things. Sounds terrible. We definitely shouldn't be funding them.

 

[Bakunin]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

We definitely shouldn't be funding them.

Agreed. They'd be a much better organization if only they'd focus on their bread and butter, which is vacuuming out fetuses.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

Agreed. They'd be a much better organization if only they'd focus on their bread and butter, which is vacuuming out fetuses.

The most significant problem with abortions is the wrong people get them. If middle class suburban liberal women start having Mormon-sized families (totally affordable, I mean, 2-Princeton income? Ka-ching! No career problems, either, just get a freaking nanny) we would demographically solve the whole problem at the polls in one generation.

The arm-pit hair types of the 70's did a lot of good for women (actually, not really, but the actual feminists of the first half of the 20th century did), but they really screwed the country when they added the anti-big-family V-chip.

 

[Bakunin]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

The most significant problem with abortions is the wrong people get them. If middle class suburban white liberal women start having Mormon-sized families (totally affordable, I mean, 2-Princeton income? Ka-ching! No career problems, either, just get a freaking nanny) we would demographically solve the whole problem at the polls in one generation.

The major flaw in your idea is this demographic of women (educated whites) isn't exactly gung-ho about having kids. I know a few of them, and they place greater value on their careers and traveling than on reproducing. Many others simply set their standards too high and drive away any interested men in their prime reproductive years and then are forced to turn desperate as they approach 40 and run out of time. The end result is they have 0-2 kids and play little to no role in reshaping the nation's demographics (which appear to be shifting due to immigration and the crazed reproduction that's going on in those incoming groups). Lastly, just because parents are left-leaning doesn't mean their kids will turn out that way. There's certainly a correlation there I'm sure, but it's by no means a slam dunk. The same applies to religious affiliation. I've managed to go my own way on religion *and* politics w/ respect to my parents. Suffice it to say, I don't really get along with them.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

The major flaw in your idea is this demographic of women (educated whites) isn't exactly gung-ho about having kids. I know a few of them, and they place greater value on their careers and traveling than on reproducing.

I think that's a false conflation of desires though. All you need to balance ginormous family size and the freedom to work and travel is money -- au pairs and boarding schools. And by the time your children are old enough to appreciate it you can lug them around on the Grand Tour and broaden their little freaking minds so they don't wind up watching RomComs and reading Nora Roberts. Also, tennis -- makes them more lithe and more marriageable.

Seriously, everything we need to know about expanding the non-derp portion of the country can be picked up from one Edith Wharton novel.

 

[MinnFan]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

All Planned Parenthood does is abortions! They don't provide cancer screenings, prenatal care, rape counseling, pregnancy testing, and general health care services from high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes screenings to simple vaccinations. They don't screen for STD's and STI's. They never help people quit smoking. They neglect to perform Pap Smears and LEEP procedures. They don't even give young women without insurance the means to prevent cervical cancer.

Oh wait...they do do all those things. Sounds terrible. We definitely shouldn't be funding them.

Then let them raise their own money. If they provide such a valuable service they should have no problem convincing the public to donate to them.

 

[unofan]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

Then let them raise their own money. If they provide such a valuable service they should have no problem convincing the public to donate to them.

"The world's greatest nation" should not force its least powerful citizens to rely upon charity. That's not governance, that's serfdom.

 

[MinnFan]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

"The world's greatest nation" should not force its least powerful citizens to rely upon charity. That's not governance, that's serfdom.

Instead it should use force to steal it That turns the rest of us into serfs of the state.

 

[unofan]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

Instead it should use force to steal it

Taxes = stealing. Real freaking original.

I'll respond in kind. If you don't like paying taxes, move to Rwanda. I hear they're a libertarian paradise with 0% tax rates.

 

[MinnFan]

Re: The 112th Congress - The first Orange-American to be elected Speaker

Taxes = stealing. Real freaking original.

What else do you call it when you take something from someone by force to give it to someone else? When the gov't goes something that you or I would be arrested for I'd say its a pretty good comparison.