Elia Isquire tipped me off to this morning and now it’s all but official: Republicans aren’t going to fuck around with the debt ceiling vote because the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t want them to:
Privately, Boehner has been reassuring industry executives that his leadership team believes that raising the debt limit is “the responsible thing to do,” but that any increase must be accompanied by broad spending cuts and budgetary reforms, according to a GOP leadership aide.
[…]Bruce Josten, the Chamber of Commerce’s top government affairs executive, said he has met with dozens of lawmakers on the debt ceiling and brings charts with him.
In this case, our Galtian overlords have a point. If Nick Gillespie cuts a video explaining why we shouldn’t default on our debt, I’ll gladly link and heh-indeed it.
Spaghetti Lee
Aww, couldn’t they have teased us a little first? If it was never going to happen, a little teabagger rage-flecked spittle could have at least been thrown in as a bonus.
Makes me wonder how mad the true believers are going to get over this. I hope good and plenty.
General Stuck
I been listening to wingnuts the past week about to a person, drawing lines in the sand that raising the debt limit without concessions from Obama IZ NOT GONNA HAPPEN.
If they don’t get something from Obama, then they will throw a hissy fit and proceed to destroy civilization as we have known it on planet earth.
I look for another game of shuffle from Obama and Reid, and another round of progressive pearl clutching that Obama is giving away the farm, ranch and the liberal jesus, followed by another pig in a poke obama hands to the wingnuts.
I mean, how many times have we seen this movie run? Everyone should have the script memorized by now. OBAMA SELLING OUT MEDICARE AND SS, henny penny, willy nilly the sky is falling. Then it doesn’t, and the wingers do another newsy about Obama crushing their sour grapes, all over again.
It will be the budget battle for 2012, where the goopers line up and march in unison over the medicare abolishment cliff, with grannies of all stripes giving them a big push.
I don’t know why we even bother to blog about it any more. You can just go back into the archives and pull up the same movie, and just cut and paste it with the current dates.
Omnes Omnibus
So which thing does the Chamber want more, raising the debt ceiling or getting cuts in spending and budgetary changes? I know where I would place my bet.
jonas
The notion that dozens of our federal legislators have to be tutored on some the basic elements of how the federal budget and the national debt work (e.g. “threatening to not pay it back is bad. Very, very bad.”) is just depressing. An IQ over 100 should be a minimal requirement to serve in federal office.
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©
I mean, how many times have we seen this movie run? Everyone should have the script memorized by now. OBAMA SELLING OUT MEDICARE AND SS, henny penny, willy nilly the sky is falling. Then it doesn’t, and the wingers do another newsy about Obama crushing their sour grapes, all over again.
=========================
Sky must be pretty blue where you live, General. Out in the country, unemployment is still well over 8%, but nobody talks about that anymore. It’s not cool.
~
Yutsano
@General Stuck:
And when it does, the teef gnashing is going to be delicious. Obama has them between a rock and a hard place, and I think the AOS fully knows it. All Obama has to do is say no, then Boehner scrambles back to his overlords in a panic, rinse, repeat, until the bill is signed.
Lolis
@General Stuck:
Haha. Yep. That is why I separated myself from the progressive drama. I feel so much better.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Yutsano: May I tell you how happy it makes me to see you use “the AOS” in a post? Thank you ever so much; it makes me feel good that at least one person has adopted the AOS* for use. Thanks again Yutsy (if I may be so familiar).
*Actual Orange Satan, as I call Speaker Boehner.
@Omnes Omnibus: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, In case you need some for the week.
Lolis
Btw, what happened to the Elia who was lifting lines from Andrew Sullivan about Obama’s budget speech? Is that the same person?
suzanne
@General Stuck: Yup. There’s no drama, no suspense in it anymore. It’s like how matoko_chan used to amuse me in some perverse way, and now she’s just a pebble in my mental shoe. Or something.
General Stuck
@ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©:
yes, this is the real problem we face, it’s not cool being sidetracked by crazy tea tards and wingnuts. But somehow is getting better in spite of one of our parties being clinically insane and now holding power in a branch of government. That has nothing to do with the left’s lack of faith and confidence in this president and the angst and drama that befalls us with each new winger created nihilistic crisis we are bouncing one by one from.
And all of it due to their visceral hatred and fear of the ACA, and a mad dash to destroy it before it is implemented.
There is nothing we can do about how the wingnuts are behaving right now, or what they do. We can come together as a party in a show of unity against the crazy right wing to deal with their bullshit, but we don’t. Not under this president, not yet.
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Thanks. Costco was out of stock.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Lolis: I think that’s indeed the same person. I also suspect that person is rather young.
@Omnes Omnibus: You’re quite welcome. Please keep us posted on the WI court count.
And morzer is a genius. Who should be more widely published as SPandT.
SIA
In related news, I loved this memeorandum headline. Rand Paul thinks everyone should compromise. That is, everyone on the left.
Morbo
Get the popcorn ready.
Elia Isquire
@Lolis: Oh, I was just being silly there. I wouldn’t even call it trolling because I figured everyone would notice it right away, considering this was when BJ was at peak-Sully.
Omnes Omnibus
@SIA: The boy ain’t right.
Anya
But Obama was mean to Eddie Munster. How can he expect any cooperation from the Republicans. I think he put AOS (just to make a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q) happy) in a terrible bind. Don’t you think our Galtian overlords will undersand.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
Mrs Sarah Howard
Shady Pines Home for the Violently Senile
17 West Spokane Falls Boulevard
Spokane, WA 99209
Sunday 17 April 2011
Mr Simon F. Jarndyce
692nd Floor
1110 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Dear Mr Simon F. Jarndyce,
I refer to your badly edited letter, dated 17 April 2011, which was delivered to me by hand by a man of most disreputable appearance. The legal profession is obviously very different from the days when Thurgood Marshall and I were gadding about together. Now there was a true gentleman – and one who knew both how to punctuate and not to employ people with tattoos of Pamela Anderson on their neck.
I do hope your “paralegal” Mr Tulkinghorn recovers from those unpleasant squirrel bites.
As I noted on my little blog the other day, when Bitsy and her brood flew back to New York after Donald was born, I stayed in Mexico to enjoy the carnal charms of Keith, Gino and Alberto. Heavens, they kept me busy. Keith was just insatiable for the first two or three years that I knew him, although he was a little too fond of Gino for my liking.
Busy though I was, I did find time to give my lady bits a rest and pop down to the Registro Civil to get Donald’s real birth certificate, a copy of which is attached for your reference.
It is a little crumpled and torn. Keith and I couldn’t help having a little quickie in the registry office toilets and we accidentally crushed it underneath our heaving, sweaty bodies. Twice. Later still, a goat tried to eat it but, despite this incidental damage, I think the relevant parts of the document are still quite clear.
I also have in my possession a nice photo of Bitsy, Donald and me sitting on a park bench in San Miguel de Allende on the day of his birth. Well, it would be a nice photo, except Donald had a crying fit just as it was taken and fell back, so all you can see of Donald is his fat little knee hovering somewhere between Bitsy and I.
I believe that somewhere in my many boxes of documents and keep-safes I also have a copy of the Certificate of Marriage between Fred Trump and Ethel Doyle. I had Keith track it down for me in the early 60s when he was a counter-counter-counter spy in the diplomatic service. The Cold War was so convenient for many purposes. I haven’t been able to track it down yet, but I know it is in there somewhere, almost certainly sandwiched between a pair of Jack Kennedy’s boxer shorts and the map that Keith drew me of where he stuck Jimmy Hoffa.
Given the contents of the Birth Certificate, I decline to remove the relevant article on my blog.
I have no proof of the accuracy of my little anecdote about Ivana giving Donald a face full of fish eggs, but I’m sure if you ask Donald nicely, he will have to admit it happened. Ask Donald whether he remembers the time that Ivana’s little pekinese savaged his testicles in the shower. It was the same week, so that might jog his memory.
I hope this letter and the attached document clears up any little misunderstanding between your client and me.
Sincerely yours,
Sarah Howard
P.S. I do recall meeting a Simon F. Jarndyce before, but I’m sure he must have passed on by now, as it was quite a while ago. Perhaps it was your father? If he is still kicking around, please let him know that his Monkeylumps said to say hello. If he doesn’t remember me, just mention the words “dildo”, “tabasco” and “dominatrix” and I’m sure it will all come rushing back in no time.
P.P.S. – In order to show there are no hard feelings, I have also had couriered, in a separate package, a lovely fruit cake which I made the other day. I hope all at Jarndyce and Jarndyce enjoy it.
dr. bloor
@jonas:
Are you kidding? Anything that will get through to those idiots in the House will necessarily involve a lot of third-grade vocabulary and feature narration by Scrooge McDuck.
Yutsano
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): If the acronym fits, I feel free in its usage. Plus it’s a rather clever witticism.
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: :: applause::
That was beautiful. Just beautiful.
suzanne
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
LMMFAO.
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
That’s damn funny. Funnier than my term, which was “Speaker Loompa”.
PeakVT
The Republicans are being told to blink? Who (ahem) would have thunk it?
Villago Delenda Est
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
Sarah is on an absolute, 100% certified genius roll.
burnspbesq
Herewith, a concise exposition of the intellectual basis (such as it is, tee hee) of the Ryan plan.
http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/beyond-the-welfare-state
David Frum has blown several large holes in Levin’s arguments. They are taking on water and listing badly.
http://www.frumforum.com/two-cheers-for-the-welfare-state
MikeJ
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: I’m a big fan of Bleak House too.
Uloborus
I propose that talking big, having all the cards on your side, and the media licking you shameless and then blowing everything and failing utterly be hereafter referred to as ‘Pulling A Boehner’.
Goodnight.
George, Short and Sneaky
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
Throw in “cemented coital fluids” and a “jackhammer” and the horny old fart will recite the Sermon On the Mount for ya. And it won’t be the hippy Jesus version neither.
Martin
So, Obama is gonna roll the GOP over the debt limit too? I bet the left still cries wolf over it.
azlib
@Omnes Omnibus:
Even the venal idiots at the Chamber realize a failure to raise the debt limit will immediately tank the global economy.
MikeJ
Didn’t NBC news have a story tonight about how Geithner called teabaggers a buncha pussies, and the teabaggers said, nuh uh, we’re gonna make you pay?
Amir_Khalid
The Republican Tea Party tendency are already smarting after watching AOS get rolled at the White House, and getting punked on that budget vote. They have a heavy emotional investment in not raising the debt ceiling, and up to now have been pooh-poohing the notion that it will be greatly harmful to the US and global economy. What are the chances they’ll put their collective foot down and refuse to play along?
Jay C
Speaker Boehner HAS to be shitting bricks right now: The Great GOP Fiscal Juggernaut he was supposed to be shepherding through Congress has gotten seriously derailed. He’s already been chumped in the first round (the budget); gotten a hollow victory in the second (passing the insane Ryan Plan) which will be a nice millstone around his neck; and looks to be getting chumped again on the third go-round (debt-limit raise). Meanwhile, there has still been no movement on doing anything about jobs, the House Repubs have spent most of their time flogging peripheral, and unpopular, “social agenda” crapola; and the Teatards are royally pissed that the government hasn’t, and won’t, actually “shut down”.
My prediction: Orange Julius works out some sort of deal where the debt-limit-cap gets lifted, but the Teabaggers get some sort of face-saving “out”: probably some sort of parliamentary gimmick, after which the GOP Wurlitzer will then start pumping overtime to try to spin the blame onto President Obama and/or the Democrats.
The Dangerman
Oh, to be a fly on the wall during the debt ceiling negotiations:
AOS: “We’ll need to slash Medicare”.
Obama: “Bite me”.
AOS: “OK, how about we’ll have to cut funds for Planned Parenthood?”
Obama: “Blow me”.
AOS: “OK, how about cutting the budget for White House Christmas Cards?”
Obama: “Go DIAF”.
Will Reks
@burnspbesq:
Wow, maybe I’m more conservative than I thought. I found Frum’s post to be rather eye-opening.
piratedan
@PeakVT: well yes, only if the Dems vote prescent and they may only blink in unison, every quarter of a minute, it helps to keep the NSA from reading their thoughts.
MikeJ
@Jay C:
Watch the vote in the house. Nancy Smash is gonna be squeezing some grapes. It won’t pass with less than 125 republican votes.
Bob Loblaw
@The Dangerman:
AOS: “Man, we’re getting killed here. Can we at least stomp on some poor black people? It’s been a while since we messed with the District.”
Obama: “…Fine.”
Poor Washington D.C.
Corner Stone
@Bob Loblaw: The whole DC thing is still bothering me. I just don’t get it.
SIA
@Omnes Omnibus: Chip off the old block(head)
SIA
I saw what you did there.
Jay C
@MikeJ:
Watch the vote in the house.
Yeah, this is going to be fun: hence my guess on “a parliamentary gimmick” to try to get the Tea Party types corralled while the grownups do the right thing.
I think the main thing now (assuming that the debt-limit-raise won’t be blocked) will be how to spin the result for maximum political gain. And here, I’m guessing, The Annoying Orange will probably end up behind the 8-ball again .
burnspbesq
@Will Reks:
Frum was mostly worthless-to-evil when he worked in the Bush White House, but he had some sort of Road-to-Damascus moment a few years ago. He’s still a Republican, but he is very often appalled by what his party has become. Quite oddly for a Republican, he believes that data should trump ideology when making policy. Surprising that he hasn’t been burned at the stake at CPAC.
dogwood
@Will Reks:
Frum is a different sort of Republican. He actually cares about policy and policy outcomes. He’s almost always been dead wrong, but I don’t think he pimps a policy because he likes the politics of it; he actually thinks it will work to make lives better. And to give him credit, he’s been screaming to the Republicans for 4-5 years now, that stagnant middle class wages need to be addressed.
Ecks
This is going to be interesting.
The corporate end of the republican party is used to getting their way on all the important stuff, and they don’t want to flirt at all with setting off this keg of dynamite because they know what damage it would do to them.
The wingnut end have been their useful chumps for years, but are all of a sudden starting to get a taste for actual power and are quite drunk with the possibilities.
Guess we’re going to get a chance to see where the actual balance of power is currently sitting. My guess is the corporate guys take it and this dies with a whimper and a fig leaf… but we’ll see.
TenguPhule
Considering how stupid the teabaggers are and how little control the Orange Boner has over them, the passage remains questionable.
Never forget, the 2007 bailout almost didn’t pass, and we had saner reps then.
Villago Delenda Est
Frum cites Bismarck as an example of an actual conservative, and I think he’s right on target here. Bismarck understood that the alternative to a social safety net was outright socialism. So, being a pragmatic sort of guy, he coopted the German Social Democrats’ own agenda and made much of it his own…as the price of preserving the German class system as it existed in the latter half of the 19th Century. Fredrick the Great started them on this path, all because he couldn’t win wars with an army of peasants…his soldiers needed to have some education, and even under the Nazis, German soldiers were not expected to be automatons in combat..they were expected to show initiative and improvise tactically. Bismarck recognized the trend that decision of Fredrick’s represented for German society as a whole.
Actual conservatives should be worried, first and foremost, about maintaining social stability. The problem with no holds barred capitalism is that it eats itself by destroying social stability. Marx recognized this and saw the opening. Randroids are so lost in the fantasy that they can’t see what no holds barred capitalism does to the social fabric. This is why the unholy alliance between the corporatists and holy rollers can’t last.
And, again, I used the dreaded boner string in a political context. I’ll go stand in the corner now.
Anne Laurie
@Corner Stone:
As “Team Fuck Yeah” keeps telling us — where are the DC voters gonna go, to the Republicans? President Obama is a very smart man, more than smart enough to realize that he doesn’t have to negotiate with those of us in the not-batshite-crazy community. TFY choses to believe that he’s got their best interests in the front of his mind regardless; the rest of us can only hope for the best.
Yutsano
@Anne Laurie: DC has been a political football for pretty much its entire existence, by virtue of it not being its own state or being part of a state and therefore not having its own voting representation. The original idea was to keep the capital above the biases that divided the North and South since the founding. The end result is the people in DC get screwed every year with very little recourse. And of course they have to pay taxes just like everyone else.
Ija
@Elia Isquire:
Especially since you are already quoted the same phrase in another thread and identified it as being from Sully.
Of all people to plagiarize, why would people think anyone would want to plagiarize Sully? The hysterical tone of his quotes would make it clear in a jiffy where the post originated.
joeyess
So, we know that the GOoPers aren’t going to cross that rubicon? If so, then there’s nothing to negotiate.
The administration and the progressives in congress should give up nothing. FUCKING. NOTHING.
And yes, the last two words were in caps. Bold and italics weren’t loud enough.
There should be no negotiations on further cuts now that we know their bluff is even less than a bluff. It’s horseshit disguised as leverage.
Force them to show how cowardly they are. Force them to duct-tape the mouths of the teatards in their caucus.
Tell ’em to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down.
DPirate
@General Stuck:
/boggle
Life as we’ve known it? You mean life as we’ve known it in America for less than 60 years, right? Less than one man’s lifetime, or roughly equal to a generation, I guess. We can sustain it, at least in parts of the country, maybe, for awhile longer, but even two generations worth is still a tiny drop in the bucket of “life as we’ve known it”.
Of course they will raise the debt ceiling. There is zero doubt in my mind. Some theatre will be engaged in is all. Obama/democrats will “concede” stuff they campaign on but don’t really want to pursue; stuff none of them want. I’ll write another letter to Murkowski and she’ll tell me how she got money for some stupid shit in Adak and isn’t that wonderful?
So, since we are all pussies, we’ll push the reckoning off for another while. Glad I don’t have kids.
Valdivia
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
OMG, triple points for the Bleak House references!
Your ever loving fan,
Valdivia
joes527
@jonas:
I’ve come to the conclusion that the constitution should be amended to require a test on the constitution before senators/representatives can be seated.
100 questions. No interpretation, just simple stuff like:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of _________, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
Let them bring in their pocket constitutions for reference. Anyone who can’t score 90% gets sent home.
It would still weed out the dullest of the dull.
kay
@General Stuck:
Funny. I love those two words together.
You’re getting better and better, Stuck :)
BOSS BITCH
@Anne Laurie:
oh look another issue the left rarely ever showed any concern for until it was gone. I don’t know who you’ve been talking to but I have not seen one Obama supporter say that about DC. Prior to the deal all any of you hoped for was that Obama didn’t gut the EPA and PP now DC voting rights is your new pet? Good, I’m actually glad to hear it. I hope going further to see all of you joining up with the DC Mayor and its people to lobby congress – yes CONGRESS – to give them their rights. Or are we just going to be treated to divisive bull shit posts like yours for the next several months?
lol
@Bob Loblaw:
You know, these sorts of remarks would have more credibility if the Professional Left hadn’t been demanding Obama shoot the hostage and force a government shutdown because that’s what a President with balls would do.
DC, more than anywhere else, would’ve been in a world of shit during a shutdown so that the Left could validate their fee fees and pretend to be tough.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: Would you have shut down the government over the DC funding issues?
General Stuck
@DPirate:
The US defaulting on its debt would have far greater consequences than just the US. It would be a world wild calamity. Of course, my little riff was somewhat hyperbole snark licensed, but not out in left field kind of hyperbole.
@Anne Laurie:
LOL, fuck yeah.
R-Jud
@joes527:
I’ve often said that anyone who wants to run for national office needs to take and pass the AP US History and AP US Government exams. This way we’d have some proof that our Congressional representatives are at least as aware of things as a reasonably bright high school junior.
But upon consideration, your test is probably more realistic.
Glen Tomkins
I’m confused
The item you cite has “a GOP leadership aide” saying they are going to fuck around with the debt ceiling, “that any increase must be accompanied by broad spending cuts and budgetary reforms.” This aide, who is quoted right after Boehner, and with no implication that he and Boenher are at all at odds, is saying that the Rs do plan to hold the debt ceiling hostage, just like they did with the budget bills. Sure, Boehner says that ‘raising the debt limit is “the responsible thing to do,”’, but that’s just what they said about the budget bills and avoidng a govt shutdown. Of course a hostage taker would say that it would be irresponsible of the Ds to not give in to R demands and force a govt default.
Maybe the Rs aren’t going to threaten a default as strongly and credibly as they threatened a shutdown. The default is indeed a much bigger deal, much more serious in its consequences. But if that’s true, you wouldn’t know it from this item, which quotes Rs saying that they will too go there, they will too use default as a hostage.
The default hostage-taking crisis isn’t going to be any different than the one over a shutdown because of any difference in the R approach. It will be different only insofar as the D response is different, only if the Ds refuse to negotiate with hostage-takers. If they fail to do this, if they do let themselves be trapped into negotiating, the results will be far worse because default is a far more valuable hostage. The Rs will be able to extort an immeasurably higher ransom to rescue this hostage.
chopper
@joes527:
doesn’t article VI of the constitution say “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States”? hahaha
WaterGirl
@Lolis: And the same person, I believe, who included a link a few days ago that I thought would be the news article that was the source of the information in her comment. Instead, it was a post on her own blog. Typically people say something like “you can read more about it at my blog”. It’s starting to look like a pattern…
Joseph Nobles
Ned Beatty is readying himself for a wide shot now.
Bob Loblaw
@lol:
Do you think I really care about D.C. that bad? It’s the expendable city, always has been. I’m just needling you guys. It’s 50% of what I do around here.
Corner Stone and Anne Laurie seem to be genuine about it though, so take it up with them.
Kristine
@Omnes Omnibus: And the market opens on the waaay down side because of a lowered US sovereign debt outlook, and the articles I’ve read all blame the deficit.
If I were a cynic (::halo::), I would read this as a tug on some leashes. Maybe butt-hurt response to a speech given last week. I would like the cynic in me to be wrong, wrong, wrong.
WaterGirl
@Elia Isquire:
What you did with Sully’s comments is not kosher. It would be better to say you’re sorry or that you didn’t know any better. The lame excuse you just gave digs you in deeper.
WaterGirl
@suzanne: Maybe we need to have a thread devoted to our favorite nicknames for The Orange B. Everyone seems to have one.
New Yorker
I still haven’t gotten the will to panic about the debt ceiling up because it’s the one time that I’m on the same side as the Koch brothers, Goldman Sachs, and GE. None of these puppet masters are going to allow their stooges in Congress to destroy the global economy in a hissy fit.
@burnspbesq:
I don’t agree with David Frum on much, but he at least lives on the same planet I do, and I’m hoping once the teabagging Palinites burn themselves out, a more sane right can develop from people like Frum and Bruce Bartlett.
Legalize
@WaterGirl:
Wanna see your winger co-workers get really pissy? Refer to Boehner as “Bag-Man,” because after the budget vote, he essentially proved himself to be just that – for Obama and Reid.
jrg
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
Oh, lord. Dougj read “A Confederacy of Dunces” again.
Uloborus
@Glen Tomkins:
We are not interpreting that the GOP won’t try to use the debt ceiling as a hostage crisis. We’re saying that unlike shutting down the government, this time they don’t have a credible threat and everyone knows it. The Tea Jerks wouldn’t mind the debt default, but they’re heavily outnumbered by mainstream Republicans whose corporate masters have spoken. There will be political theater, but they’ve ALREADY blinked.
@jrg:
I could not hate that book more. Unspeakably dull and ugly. I dropped it when I got to the first scene about the care and pride the main character takes in his techniques of self pleasure while fantasizing about his dog. Ugh.
@DPirate:
Misunderstanding. Stuck was using hyperbole to suggest that the Tea Jerkers will get furious and weird when the debt ceiling is raised and they get nothing for it.
rikryah
there are never any doubt, IMO.
Orange Julius tried asking if he could allow his Teabagging clowns to clown on the debt ceiling issue, and they told his ass HELL NO
Shoemaker-Levy 9
Let’s see, the President of the United States, GOP leadership, and the entire financial oligarchy on one side, the Tea Party on the other. I can’t wait to see how this plays out.
jrg
@Uloborus:
I thought that book was hilarious. To each his own, I guess.
eemom
@jrg:
not clear how this thread got into Confederacy of Dunces, but I agree it was hilarious. Tragic story behind it though — the author committed suicide before it was published.
Also too — are you suggesting SP&T is really…..DougJ??
Uloborus
@jrg:
I’m not 100% surprised. I suspect it’s somehow like The Graduate. A famously funny movie, I didn’t think it was funny. It wasn’t even that I didn’t like the humor. I didn’t SEE any humor, good or bad or otherwise. There’s some particular brand of comedy I just don’t share.
It may have something to do with the other reason I didn’t like the book – I don’t like human failure. Pathetic, worthless people evoke pity and disgust rather than laughter. I basically hate sitcoms, but at least I can identify the jokes.
mclaren
This was a no-brainer. I predicted this from the git-go.
General Crackpot Fake Name as usual got it 100% completely totally wrong. He screeched at us in tones of punitive hysteria that the teahadists would create havoc in world markets.
No, no, utterly WRONG. These jerkoffs are puppets of the billionaires, and if there’s one thing the billionaires are terrified of, it’s havoc in world markets.
That’s why Obama and the Democrats should’ve been the ones to use the threat not to raise the debt ceiling to force max marginal tax rates back up to Eisenhower levels (90%) and a massive cut in U.S. military spending.
Obama and the Democrats should’ve explained to the billionaires what happens when a country defaults on its debt and everyone’s bank accounts get frozen. Obama and the Demos should’ve re-enacted that Joe Pesci scene from the movie Casino:
“I got your head in a vise! Huh, tough guy? Whaddaya think about that? I got your head in a vise!”