Via TPM, ponder this report on the latest in the fiscal cliff slope clusterf**k talks between our outstanding GOP opposition clueless toads and the President:
“I’m modestly optimistic that an agreement can be achieved,” he added.
Obama announced that the fate of a potential deal lies with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who will work together to present a prospective package to their respective conferences over the weekend.
Should that effort fail, however, Obama indicated that he would call upon Reid to bring the original White House proposal — extending Bush era tax rates on income below $250,000 including other measures — for an up-or-down vote in the Senate.
“We should let everybody vote, that’s the way this is supposed to work,” Obama said.
As Jed Lewison over at the Great Orange Satan put it:
Basically, Obama is saying that if there is no deal, if Boehner and McConnell don’t allow a vote, he’s going to go to town on them—that he’s prepared to use the entire weight of the presidency to hold them accountable for being obstructionists. And don’t forget: he’s got the inauguration and the state of the union to follow through on his threat.
This is the guy I hoped would show up today. And it appears he did. Channeling (imperfectly) my inner Tim F. — if you are represented by a GOPster, give ’em a call. Hell, if you’re represented by friends of my reps, Barney Frank, John Kerry and (for this last little while) the Senator from Cosmopolitan, the Hon. Scott Brown, (Holy FSM, do I feel good taunting that man), then give the good folks a call too, just to buck them up.
Image: Marinus van Reymerswale, The Tax Collector, 1542
jo6pac
Lets wait before getting excited to truely see what inside of the bill. We all know what was in till a few hours ago doesn’t mean it’s still in it.
gogol's wife
I know you won’t mind if I’m pedantic. It’s Fredo. “freddo” is “cold.”
Litlebritdifrnt
I would just like to point out that my Lancashire Hot Pot was AWESOME! That is all.
Comrade Jake
Why won’t Obama cut a lousy deal and let me get my emoprog butthurt on?
MikeJ
@gogol’s wife: So is the bottom of Lake Tahoe.
hitchhiker
My prediction is that Boehner will have to bring a bill to the house floor that will pass without any of the Tea Party loons supporting it. I think he’ll do it.
I hope Nancy Pelosi took the opportunity in that meeting to remind him that she once forced her team to vote on a bill funding the Iraq war, knowing that they desperately wanted her to refuse to do it. It’s a not-too-bad analogy to where he stands today.
FlipYrWhig
@Comrade Jake: It’s like the reverse of that anecdote much-loved by Ronald Reagan. Instead of eagerly digging in the horseshit in search of the pony, it’s eagerly staring at the pony’s butt waiting for the next shit.
gogol's wife
@MikeJ:
Fair enough.
Tom Levenson
@gogol’s wife: Ta, luv.
Fix’t
redshirt
What’s in it for the Republicans to co-operate or compromise? Your answer cannot be based in sane politics, FYI!
Rosie Outlook
@gogol’s wife: Well, not if you know where he’s ticklish.
PaulW
@MikeJ:
Still waiting to see if anyone puts up a Fredo Corleone Memorial along the shores of Lake Tahoe.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@jo6pac: I agree on this; it’s hard to get up and start dancing without knowing just how many concessions the Dems are making. If it’s a good bill that raises taxes on the big-money folk without hammering social services to smithereens, then great.
I only hope that the whole damn thing ends up costing the Repubs big-time in the 2014 election. Much (sadly enough) probably depends upon the MSM doing its job and placing blame where it belongs: with Cantor and Norquist and company.
dmsilev
@hitchhiker:
Maybe. But he’ll be forced to commit seppuku, or the modern equivalent, soon after.
MazeDancer
The President is the sole guest on Meet the Press this Sunday. So looks like the White House means business.
Even if Dancin Dave tries to go all journalistical on Mr. Obama, the President can make it very clear how he’s been working hard for the American people while the GOP has been working hard for the rich.
Unfortunate to have to watch Dancin Dave, but think this well-placed hour of fiscal infotainment sets a new deadline for the GOP.
Roger Moore
@Comrade Jake:
He’s going to get no deal at all, so you can practice getting your emoprog butthurt for his failure to extend unemployment benefits and avoid sequester cuts.
ruemara
I stopped caring. I got an oil change and filled the tank. Thanks Christmas money! Good for at least a month.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@jo6pac:
Given that Dick Durbin said that the chained-CPI proposal was generated by Boehner and the Republicans, I’m not too worried about what’s in the president’s proposal. Especially since most of the hysteria was generated by anonymous reports about what might be in the negotiated proposals.
Sounds like the White House is saying to the Republicans, “Come up with a new proposal or GFY.”
FlipYrWhig
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): For instance, when Social Security and “Chained CPI” were the subject du jour, people were rightly up in arms about the effect of such changes _taken in isolation_. But if you simultaneously introduced a Chained CPI AND a guaranteed minimum benefit, you’d end up with a situation where people at the bottom would have more generous retirement benefits than they do, or will, by keeping the current system intact — on the other hand, it would confound the “social insurance” aspect of Social Security that keeps it from being perceived as Teh Welfare. But instead of kicking around that whole package, we were invited to set our own hair on fire about one onerous aspect — which IMHO is kind of like being all hot and bothered about the individual mandate in HCR without factoring in all the other stuff the law improves. YMMV.\
Shorter me: try to get as many facts and details as possible before, like The Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy in the Poochie episode, jumping to “the internet within minutes registering [your] discontent throughout the world.”
Maude
OT The Indian rape victim died of her injuries in the Singapore hospital.
FlipYrWhig
@Roger Moore: Soon I will have been unable to have believed that he caved like that and/or didn’t get a deal done like that! Either way, it will have to have been an act, or an absence of action, in entirely deliberate sabotage of the whole edifice of contemporary liberalism!
mclaren
C’mon, guys. Where are all the obots dripping with ridicule at the suggestion that Obama can change things “by the pure force of will”? Aren’t you going to shower the news reporters with acid contempt for proposing that the president might actually be able to make a difference by using “the bully pulpit”?
Aren’t you going to laugh and laugh and laugh at the notion that the president of the united states has the power to change peoples’ opinions by making speeches? Aren’t you going to link to that infamous Ezra Klein New Yorker article that “proves” that the president’s bully pulpit is worthless and that the president is actually impotent in the face of congress and the courts?
Where’s your spine, obots? Why don’t you start screaming f-words? Have you lost the capacity to sneer? Can’t you find the intestinal fortitude to continue denying documented facts even in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence?
The obots seem to be losing their mojo…
redshirt
I trust in Obama 100%. I don’t particularly trust the Democratic Party in all occasions. I trust the Republicans to be lying dirtbags at all times. And thus I am an Obot. Only he stands between us and the abyss.
FlipYrWhig
@mclaren: Nobody ever said that Teh Bully Pulpit couldn’t be used to move public opinion. The problem is that it shows little ability to move VOTES. That’s the nature of my skepticism. I know I’ve been consistent about that. And we’ll see what comes of this.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
I’d sincerely love to see Obama read the Riot Act to the whole crazy GOP clan and (somehow) get a reasonable end to the Gentle Fiscal Incline passed.
But you see how many problems there are with that scenario? He’s not the kick ass/take names type. There is no easily salable solution to this invented ‘crisis’ now. And the GOP wants Obama to fail more than they desire any particular outcome.
Obama does appear to have media exposure opportunities on his side. Let’s hope he’s not shy about turning the screws to compel cooperation. Because that’s probably what it will take.
Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)
@redshirt:
Only he stands between us and the abyss.
Hence, my concern….
gwangung
@FlipYrWhig: McLaren the Bigot has as much appreciation for nuance as she does for minorities and their viewpoints; i.e., non.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
CBS News now says Cryin’ John Boehner has ‘taken himself out of it’ and will allow the House to vote on whatever the Senate passes. He’s admitting he’s completely hapless in the face of his party’s loonies. Good.
FlipYrWhig
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: It depends on how badly the Republicans are starting to smart at the idea that people think of them, en masse, as well past unreasonable, verging on clownish. That’s the only way that bully pulpiteering is going to result in anything: if a sense of shame and/or responsibility can be reinvigorated or just plain grafted onto a small number of Republican politicians. That’s what it will take. I’m not holding my breath.
Suzanne
@gwangung: Has anyone ever seen maclaren and matoko_chan in the same room?
Maude
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Obama gave the press conference and talked for a long time about the negotiations. It was a run down of trying to deal with crazies.
Someone said he will be the only guest on MTP.
Reid will bring the bill up in the Senate on Monday.
Unemployment expires tomorrow.
People who yell and scream get ignored after a while. Obama is much better at getting a message across.
His pool rating is 56%.
I agree with you. Hope you’re home for a time.
ETA an earlier press conference. Not today.
Publius39
@mclaren:
Actually, if I’m not mistaken, it was the firebaggers who complained that Obama never uses the bully pulpit and that the retort from Obots was that the influence of the office was largely overrated. Furthermore, they also say that Obama can only use the powers of the presidency, and cannot force the passage of legislation. This post is Orwellian.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@FlipYrWhig:
Perception of the GOP’s intransigence depends almost entirely on media coverage. As long as it’s ‘opposed sides fail to reach an agreement’ instead of ‘GOP makes no proposal, effort’, then people will think both sides do it and why can’t they all get along.
It’s up to the press. This is why I’m not hopeful.
WaterGirl
@MazeDancer: I’d like to have seen President Obama for one or two hours on Up With Chris Hayes on Sunday morning. At a special time, even.
gwangung
@Suzanne: They’re both cracked and both bigoted in different ways.
mclaren
@FlipYrWhig:
Of course they have. Hordes of obots on this forum have screamed over and over and over again, ad nauseum, that the president of the United States is powerless to change things by using the bully pulpit. They’ve gone out of their way to ridicule the notion. Real change, we are told incessantly, comes from votes in congress, which are resistant to public opinion because of gerrymandering.
Of course the obots are ignorant or lying, as the evidence of SOPA and PIPA proves so conclusively.
But equally obviously we do not expect you to admit this. With obots, denialism is fractal. The obots who deny that Obama has any actual power are the same obots who will huffily deny that they ignore the president’s executive powers and his vast array of persuasive technqiues, including the option to call press conferences, the ability to address joint sessions of congress, State of the Union speeches, weekly YouTube videos from the president, massive press coverage from all major media, and so on.
The point of denialism is to lie for their clay-footed idol Obama’s benefit in order to create an imaginary liberal president they can point to with pride when someone asks them why they’ve been betrayed by a bait-and-switch candidate who promised Hope and Change and gave them a third George W. Bush term. Obviously they lie about whether they’re lying. That’s elementary. It’s the veritable first step in creating a true doublespeak alternate reality.
RobertDSC-iPhone 4
I’m glad our President has more Michael. Though going Sonny on the GOP has some appeal to me, cuz I hate the Rethugs something fierce.
WaterGirl
@Maude: I don’t even have words for how angry this makes me. Her rapists must have been like crazed animals. No one should ever have to live through what she lived through.
Roger Moore
@Suzanne:
I think I’ve seen them in the same thread once or twice. And there’s no way they’re the same person. Matoko Chan was weird, crazy, and frequently amusing, while mclaren is only shrill and annoying.
Baud
@mclaren:
You’re not paranoid. We’re really out to get you.
Feudalism Now!
Either something will happen or it won’t. If the GOP only wanted to drag this out to score points (heh) their time is up. But if they want to watch the country burn, nothing is going to convince them to change. We are out of time and there will be consequences. I am just wondering how much fire Obama will bring if they go arsonist.
mclaren
@Publius39:
You need to work on your reading comprehension. This book from amazon, English As A Second Language, may help.
Maude
@WaterGirl:
Thank you. I had followed the story from the beginning. It is heartrending. People in India are enraged. Those rapists are now murderers.
You spoke for me.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I just skip over mclaren’s posts so I don’t have any idea of what she says, but that was really funny!
Publius39
@mclaren: I was asking a simple question; you didn’t have to be a dick about it. Maybe I’m not the one with a reading comprehension problem.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Publius39:
Actually yes he/she did. That’s the MO.
redshirt
@Feudalism Now!: As in, burning a fire line? Or mixed metaphor?
I thin we’re in for flames.
Publius39
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Ah, I get it. And from reading its other posts, temper tantrums seem to be par for the course.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Suzanne:
There was once a thread where they argued with each other. It was freakin’ EPIC.
Johnny Coelacanth
“The point of denialism is to lie for their clay-footed idol Obama’s benefit in order to create an imaginary liberal president they can point to with pride when someone asks them why they’ve been betrayed by a bait-and-switch candidate who promised Hope and Change and gave them a third George W. Bush term.”
Citation needed.
Publius39
@mclaren:
Oh, bills that were never passed, let alone make it out of committee, are evidence of a growing plot? I thought you wanted to be taken seriously, but that’s not the case.
FlipYrWhig
@mclaren: You’re crackers. I’ve been in dozens if not hundreds of Bully Pulpit arguments over the past few years, and the crux of the matter has always been this: one side says that Policy X would have been better if Obama had tried harder to make it better, for instance by using The Bully Pulpit; by contrast, the other side says that Obama gets precisely what a painstakingly piecemeal-assembled majority will allow, irrespective of whatever The Bully Pulpit could have been used for.
The heart of dispute inevitably comes down to the idea that the people who think Obama coulda/shoulda done better have a notion that public support translates readily into votes–importantly, into _Republican_ votes, whereby politicians who want to be reelected will back a Democratic president’s policies if that’s what their constituents say they want when they’re polled. And if you trust in that notion, then, by extension and by retrospection, any failure to get votes can only mean a failure to build public support.
But it’s spectacularly naive to think that some kind of barnstorming campaign by Obama would have a Funniest Joke in the World effect, the precisely right words that overwhelm first the public and then the Republicans that represent a (lamentably large) share of that public. And that’s what true believers in The Bully Pulpit have to commit themselves to. It’s just plain goofy.
dmsilev
mclaren was a much more interesting troll before she sold out and signed a deal with a major label. Now that she’s gone mainstream, it’s just rehashes of her old hits like ‘Obots on the pulpit’ and other classics.
The indie trolls are still the best.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Maude:
Thanks. I’m off the road for a few days. Long enough to recover from this Mexican respiratory infection, I hope. Then it’s back to airports and rental cars until Feb, when I get a couple of weeks in Germany.
I never watch television, so being out of the country doesn’t interfere with my being up to date on current events.
It’s always amusing to see what the ubiquitous traveler’s paper USA Today has to say about politics. Less informative than the comics pages of any decent newspaper, and less interesting.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
As Henry Kissinger famously pointed out, these are not mutually exclusive alternatives. I would not be so hasty to assure mclaren that she’s not paranoid.
TS
Why would you ever think someone else would show up – This is the guy who won 2 elections – despite the billions of $$ and the GOP Number 1 plan to make him a one term president.
Why do his supporters not trust him to “show up” Jeeze but I’m sick of the childish behavior of the GOP and the doubt of the democrats
WaterGirl
@Maude: Just a short step from barbarian to murderer. They were worse than a pack of rabid dogs. Even after what happened to her, she still fought for her life. And family and friends will be haunted by the memory of what happened to her forever.
There are no words.
Maude
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
I had listened to Obama on the radio. It was beautiful You would have like it. The press conference wasn’t touted in the MSM. Of course not.
Glad you’re home. I am just getting over the American plague. Today, I bussed to the store. I at the only tired stage.
I now use that antibacterial hand junk. I hate it, but it just may help.
Germany is a lovely country. You will enjoy it.
FlipYrWhig
@TS:
Because the way to show that you’re a jaded, world-weary, nonconforming political observer is to be utterly convinced that someone’s about to sell you out. That way you can never be any more disillusioned than you already are, and when things go to shit you have the satisfaction of having long since known that things were _already_ shit, like, since forever. Pfft.
Maude
@WaterGirl:
The BBC online account is the best. They have 6 men, I know, it’s a generic term, and one police in custody.
May she be at peace.
mclaren
@Baud:
Naturally. Anyone who cites uncomfortable facts and uses inconvenient logic gets persecuted in early 21st century America.
We live in the United Snakes of Amnesia, and that’s just life.
handsmile
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
“It’s up to the press.”
The epitaph of an informed American electorate.
On Sunday morning Dancin’ Dave will offer an absolutely virtuosic performance of Village media sensibilities. “Both Sides Do It” being his preferred routine, with vaudeville cries to bring back the good ol’ days of “Bipartisanship!”
The only question is how soon he brings up Benghazi.
Johnny Coelacanth
“gets persecuted …. that’s just life” Oh yes, you’re so oppressed (snerk). The sheer burden of your ‘persecution’ must weigh so heavily upon you. People deride you on the Internet. Oh, the pain, the pain!
Baud
@mclaren:
Is this what persecution has come to? Having to deal with the slings and arrows of anonymous commenters on a blog?
FlipYrWhig
@mclaren: Verily such “persecution” is a plight comparable to the worst excesses of the Spanish Inquisition.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@Publius39: Not that it really matters all that much, but is McClaren a male or female? I see some posters refer to McClaren as “she”, but calling her a dick seems to suggest otherwise. (Yeah, I know I guy can be a pussy or a C***, so I suppose a female can be a dick.)
Maude
@Baud:
Sadly, yes. It has come to this.
Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)
@mclaren:
United Snakes of Amnesia
Innertubes Award. Collect your snakeskin boots at the conclusion of the snarking.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Maude:
I spend a lot of time in shared atmosphere on planes. Pretty much gonna get exposed to whatever those 100 other people are breathing out.
I’ll be in Schramberg in the district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg in Feb. I’m told there is a picturesque Ruin, and Cuckoo clocks for sale. They say the food is good and the beer outstanding. And I won’t have to schlep half my weight in tools around in grimy factories for a couple of weeks, so that’s a plus.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Baud:
Being called a dumbass on the Internet is worse than the Holocaust, don’t’cha know. No one in history has suffered as mclaren has suffered on Balloon-Juice.
The Institute For A Meaningful Apocalypse
@mclaren:
Come along now dearie. We have your favorite Friday night desert served with a spanking Thorazine toddy.
PS – Sorry, He gets like this with a waxing moon on top of the disappointment on the whole Mayan thingy.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
You could try wearing one of those disposable infection control masks on the plane like they do in Japan. If nothing else, it will ensure no one comes near you.
mclaren
@FlipYrWhig:
You’re exactly right. The name-calling indulged in by anonymous cowards on this blog represents a minor inconvenience at best.
Handsmile definitely wins the thread with this one:
And cue Tom “Clueless asshole” Friedman to lament Obama’s imaginary lack of “willingness to compromise” (Obama bent over backwards to compromise, probably farther than the Democrats in congress would be willing to support, but the Tea Partiers are so insane it didn’t make any difference).
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
That makes a great deal of sense, and I’m ready to try something like that. I’m not paranoid about germs, but my risk exposure is huge the way I’m living these days. I just can’t afford to get knocked out for another week.
muddy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/28/obama-fiscal-cliff-meeting-live#block-50de289bb579a9dd79231dab
The caption says, “modestly optimistic”. Doesn’t match the face. That face is what my kid calls The Look.
Linda Featheringill
I get so confused about the “Cliff” stuff.
If Boehner says he’ll bring up for a vote any bill that the Senate passes, why doesn’t he bring up the bill that the Senate has already passed? The one that Nancy is agitating about?
And how can a money bill originate in the Senate? Why is it up to Reid to introduce a bill?
I don’t understand.
greenergood
@Maude: @Maude: People need to contact the Indian Gov’t, tell them: Your country is aspiring, and succeeding, to be an industrial powerhouse in the world, and you’re proud of your democratic process, but you need to get hold of how women are perceived in your country, because something is seriously wrong.
Some of this is due to the growing gap between the number of males and females in India, and advances in accessibility to medical practice, so that people can have scans: girl pregnancies are aborted, because a girl is regarded as a burden (must accumulate a dowry), while a son is regarded as a treasure. This pattern has been in place for nearly 25 years. Result: lots of men (10% or +), less women. Industrialization: means lots more women go to cities looking for work, while men stay home to work dwindling farmlands. The gender imbalances are not good, and lead to the horrific act like the one that’s been in the news this week. This scenario is replicated dozens of times every week – it’s just that this one took place in Delhi, near a major Indian news outlet.
General Stuck
@muddy:
That’s the look that says, you know, the people made me president, twice, and these assholes still won’t accept that, nor let me run the country.
WaterGirl
@Maude: May she be at peace is exactly right.
Do you have a link to the BBC article?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Still stuck watching Fox News with my dad (who had a small setback this morning but sleeping most of the day seems to have helped) and they are telling us that the president and Democrats haven’t even spoken to the Republicans until yesterday.
Also, Juan Williams is being presented as a Democratic strategist. Seriously.
General Stuck
@Linda Featheringill:
I don’t understand that either. Unless it is just Boehner losing his grip on reality, and just blurting out nonsense to divert attention from what a failure he has been as Speaker.
He has only one honorable course right now, and that is bring that senate bill up for a vote in the House, no strings attached on the Bush tax cut issue going forward. It’s a tough hand to draw at this point in time, and I hope he gets the draw on the fickle finger of fate for the history books. I am not confident he will.
Maude
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Get one of those clocks. Also a beer stein.
Take pictures. Other than that, when you aren’t working, enjoy. And eat.
The reason for the hand stuff is because it’s easy to touch your face and spread germs to yourself.
I want to hear all about the German trip.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@muddy:
Thanks for linking to that Richard Adams blog/timeline/article. It’s informative and funny. Pretty up to date as well.
Maude
@WaterGirl:
I can’t link because I am ignorant. It will come up in a search for BBC News Online. It’s a front page article. I have Yahoo news and BBC news on My Yahoo home page.
I failed html 101.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
I presume she meant this one: “Delhi Gang-Rape Victim Dies in Hospital in Singapore.”
Maude
@greenergood:
It seems the Indian people are pressuring their government in a serious manner.
It’s time for the old ways to die.
Baud
@Linda Featheringill: @General Stuck:
I’m with you on the confusion. The info from the news (and blogs) on this whole thing has been abysmal.
I think, however, that the Senate bill that’s in the House doesn’t include extension of unemployment, only tax cuts for the middle class. That might be why they’re starting over.
Also, politically, the first Senate bill didn’t have GOP votes, and Boehner wants the Senate Republicans to hold his hand.
Maude
@Steeplejack:
Thank you. I am hanging my head in shame.
General Stuck
@Baud:
This makes sense. Especially the hand holding part. The GOP is like Romper Room for grown men and women.
Roger Moore
@Maude:
You don’t need to know HTML to add links here on Balloon-Juice. Copy the address you want to link. Highlight the text you want to convert into the link, then push the “link” button on the row above the text entry box. It will pop up a dialog box with a text entry field. Paste the link address into the text field and click OK. Tada! You’ve just added a link.
Lojasmo
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
What? Wait! BUT OBAMA SOLD US OUT!!
Lojasmo
@mclaren:
We are indeed sneering and laughing.
At you, fucktard.
Maude
Hope this works
I get html code. I’ll hit submit.
Wrote down the instructions
ETA, Ha!
Maude
@Lojasmo:
Ridicule is our favorite pastime.
Linda Featheringill
@Baud: #86
I agree with Stuck. The hand holding point makes a certain amount of sense.
I guess I’ll wait and see.
WaterGirl
@Maude: @Steeplejack: Thanks.
Edit: deleted my other instructions because you have already done it!
Linda Featheringill
I think that Obama said that if the Senate doesn’t agree on something this weekend, he’ll ask Reid to submit a bill that says pretty much the same thing as the last one did, with perhaps the addition of unemployment.
And if the Senate Republicans actually vote for the bill, Boehner will bring it up in the house for a vote. And then the Democrats will vote for it and hopefully a few Republicans.
Does all of that sound about right?
FlipYrWhig
@WaterGirl: Problem is if you do it that way and accidentally delete an angle-bracket or something because you’re unfamiliar with HTML, you might bollix up the whole thread. Using the “link” button above the comment box guards against that.
amk
@mclaren: You seriously need some medical help. This 24×7 poutrage can’t be good for those around you.
Feudalism Now!
@redshirt: Fighting fire with fire, yes, but it is a muddled metaphor. Obama is not known for bringing the thunder down, more lofty and inspiring than political drubbing and browbeating.
Maude
@WaterGirl:
Wrote it down and thank you. I’ll be able to link from now on and then go into moderation when I get carried away.
I don’t mind asking when I don’t know something. It’s fun to learn new things. Well, new things for me.
Baud
@Linda Featheringill:
Sounds right to me.
Maude
@FlipYrWhig:
Thanks. I’ll use the method I used the first time.
Gwangung
@mclaren: as usual, insulting and patronizing to the folks who’ve faced actual persecution and oppression. Bigot’s privilege.
Maude
@Linda Featheringill:
Yes. This is all about the Republicans being all about themselves and too bad about the rest of us.
FlipYrWhig
@Maude: You figured it out… nicely done. I sometimes find that my browser (or my iPad) tries too hard to “help” me in edit mode by highlighting nearby stuff I’m actually trying hard NOT to highlight. So even though I’m pretty solid with HTML code, the “link” button comes in handy to avoid typos and other gaffes.
Linda Featheringill
@Baud:
Thanks. I can live out my latter days in peace. :-)
Linda Featheringill
@Maude:
And thanks to you, too.
Maude
@FlipYrWhig:
It was easier than I thought. I have FF 17 and had no trouble. I hate auto anything in browsers.
I asked because I was sure I could foul up the thread and then have everyone email John about that idiot who fouled up the thread.
Thanks you.
Lojasmo
@Maude:
The key is to never touch anything. No doorknobs, no elevator buttons, no telephones, no faucets…nothing.
eclare
@Linda Featheringill: That’s true, I’d forgotten, don’t all tax bills have to originate in the House?
Maude
@Linda Featheringill:
I’m glad you’re one state west of me. I’m in west NJ, somewhere. They call it different areas and I get a bit confused.
We are going to get a bit of snow tomorrow.
Lojasmo
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):
I consider her to be a bag of salted dicks.
Baud
@Linda Featheringill:
@eclare:
I think there is a House wingnut fantasy tax bill that was passed that the Senate will use as a vehicle.
chopper
@mclaren:
you poor, poor thing.
Maude
@Lojasmo:
111
And no touch self in public. From my mom when I was three.
Lojasmo
@Maude:
Here on Native reservations, rapists regularly go unpunished. State police have no jursidiction over criimes committed by tribal members on the Res. Reservation police have no jurisdiction over crimes committed on the Res. by non-natives.
Rape rates of natives is three times rape rates among non-native American women, and this is after avereaging the discrepancies among non-native races.
It’s a terrible scourge.
Maude
@Lojasmo:
How awful. It’s so screwed up. You would think they’d find a way to straighten this out.
snuzy mandrake
@MazeDancer: Isn’t Dancing’ Dave on “vacation” this week after the illegal gun magazine kerfuffle?
Just sayin’.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@Lojasmo: Reminds me of Garth describing Rob Lowe’s character in Wayne’s World: “If he were an ice cream flavor, he’d be pralines and dick.”
I don’t know, the whole damn thing feels a bit like theater to me: we’re all watching with semi-bated breath, waiting to see if we’ll go over the cliff or get some last-minute deal. I think the MSM is sort of hoping we’ll go over (if only to generate lots of sexy copy). Feeling powerless, there’s not much else for such as us to do but to find humor in matters or gripe.
Darkrose
@Lojasmo: But of course, we can’t pass the Violence Against Women Act because Eric Cantor’s afraid some poor white guys might possibly be held to account by tribal courts if they’re given jurisdiction.
I’m too tired to get enraged about much these days, but I’m infuriated by this bullshit, even more than the fiscal cliff/curb/slope/incline/whatever. I think Democrats need to start telling anyone who’ll listen (yeah, I know) that Eric Cantor wants to allow non-Native men who rape Native women to get away with it. The GOP wants to be the Rape Caucus, then lets hang a big sign around their necks so everyone knows it.
Lojasmo
@Darkrose:
More and better democrats will fix errrrything.
/snark
LAC
@mclaren: Maybe the Obote are bored by bitchass emoprogs. I know I am. Ask yourself : if an emoprog pisses in the woods about something Obama has done, does zzzzzzzz….
Fucking fuck off, you useless fucktard
Ted & Hellen
Four years into his presidency.
About time.
Ted & Hellen
@hitchhiker:
@MazeDancer:
And man oh man, isn’t THAT something for old Nancy Impeachment Is Off the Table Smash to be proud of?
Ted & Hellen
hmmmm…bully pulpit?
O must not know there is no such thing? Wonder why he waited four years to get around to using one?
So many things that make one wonder….
Cassidy
@Ted & Hellen:
You know what I wonder? If you’re a pedophile. You would think that only another pedophile would give full-throated defense of Jerry Sandusky; something, maybe, to justify your own actions.
Ted & Hellen
@mclaren:
Wow, Mclaren you are rocking it out.
Kudos.
Cassidy
@Ted & Hellen: Such a cute little circle jerk of stupid. Remind me how much your principles cost again?
Ted & Hellen
@mclaren:
Mclaren, I do believe many of the BJ Obots believe that they are not lying when they lie.
The SELF delusion is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Obotulism.
Cassidy
@Ted & Hellen: Hey pedophile. Nice to see you. Does your “art” website allow for discussion. Do your customers know you defend pedophiles?
Ted & Hellen
@Linda Featheringill:
Starting to catch on that it’s largely smoke/mirrors and bullshit?
LAC
@Ted & Hellen: like how you and your sister get away with incest?
Cassidy
@Ted & Hellen: Man, lots of friends and followers on your FB page. Think they know how much you admire Jerry Sandusky?
LAC
@Ted & Hellen: you two working on a threesome?
LAC
@Ted & Hellen: what does your bedroom have to do with this?
John Cole
@Cassidy: You are being really fucking creepy and stalkerish.
Cassidy
@John Cole: Really? You find that creepy and stalkerish? It doesn’t bother you for one second, not one bleeding nanosecond, that you gave money to a guy who tried to defend the raping of young boys, all for a shitty picture of a shitty band? Here’s the deal, the little fuck, your little artist, is noting but a hypocritical piece of shit who threw his business’s website out there hoping that your endorsement would put more money in his wallet. Then he proceeds to be a shit to everyone. So, life has consequences. You can defend him if you want, but it makes you less of a person than I figured. Fuck him and fuck you.
John Cole
@Cassidy: No, it doesn’t. I pay people for products when they make quality products. I also maintain the ability to disagree with people and find good in them despite their flaws. And a lot of the time, I think he is just fucking with you guys to get a reaction.
And I put his website out there because I think he is talented. Not because his opinions are ones I agree with or even in the mainstream.
This is the kind of thinking that happens on wingnut blogs, when anyone says something that someone finds offensive is used to destroy the person. I know Tim. He’s not a child rapist. He’s not pedophile. He may have different opinions or said obnoxious things (actually, there is no maybe about it- he intentionally says obnoxious things). But what makes me wonder is why you continue to go after him and call him things he is not.
Step back. Look at your own behavior. Are you really so appalled by disparate opinions that you need to constantly attack someone?
Cassidy
@John Cole: I don’t care for sanctimonious, hypocritical purity trolls. And no, I’m not gonna do that dumbass “well, you have a valuable opinion, we just disagree” bullshit. His opinions are wrong and full of shit and he routinely attacks people for not being pure, even though his bullshit principles were on sale to you for, I think it was, $450. I got tired of it. So yes, I’m going to remind that piece of shit, every time he comes on here with his purity bullshit, that he offered a very full-throated defense of raping children and doubled down when called on it. So he either 1) was just being an obnoxious shit, or 2) trying to justify his own beliefs.
As for his business, you didn’t put his website up, he did. He also put his FB page up hoping that your endorsement would bring some more income. That’s a two way street. When you advertise your business, then go and act like a shit, don’t be surprised if people start being vocal about how much of a shitty person you are.
Shorter version: I realize you feel the need to defend him because you paid him some money and bought some piece of shit sketch from him, but get the fuck over it.
John Cole
@Cassidy: Have another drink. You are winning the internet. Thanks to your vigilance against someone who has never molested anyone, the world is much safer. The bonus is your ad hominems and bizarre accusations against me.
Well played, Mr. Internet Warrior.
General Stuck
@John Cole:
Never seen you defend anyone so vigorously , let alone hands down the biggest creep stalker smear artist that has ever commented on this blog. Stalking a stalker is more like justice in my book, double so on a wide open comment forum the blog owner rarely bothers to deal with. Tim the Troll has no lines he wouldn’t and hasn’t crossed to attack other commenters here, and you draw the line where you did tonight without at least a response. I don’t think so.
Or maybe it’s just that the Obama fellators got your goat?
Cassidy
@John Cole: Whatever dude. That $450 was well spent.
Ted & Hellen
@Cassidy:
Assidy: I will briefly recognize your sad little existence just long enough to tell you that should you persist in these libelous, and I use that term because of its precise legal meaning, claims against me I will see you taken all the way down.
You are publicly accusing me, as an identifiable individual, of vile and criminal acts. If you do it ONE more time I will have my attorney (a good friend and client; a buyer of multiple pieces of my horrendously bad velvet paintings) go after your sad ass, no holds barred.
Don’t think it’s impossible to verify your identity behind your chicken shit nym; it’s done every day.
Cole made my real life identity public here and I verified it with my own postings. That changes the ramifications of the disgusting epithets and accusations you are carelessly tossing around here.
Again: Persist and I will sue the living shit out of you.
xian
@Cassidy: the Dead aren’t a shitty band, but that mirror / van-art portrait was kinda creepy
xian
@Ted & Hellen: troll away… the dew
General Stuck
@Ted & Hellen:
Aren’t we feeling froggy. Threats of libel suits on a political snark blog, from the blog sewer trout no less. I’m sure the jury would come to your defense after reading your commentary on this blog, or they could decide to give you life for your sins.
Some day this blog will go Supernova from a critical mass of irony. I plan to duck and cover.
Cassidy
@Ted & Hellen: I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over your defense of pedophilia. Tell us again how rapid a child might be justified.
Cassidy
Damn phone…. How raping a child is justifiable.