American Politics Thread 2013: I'm a cool Rodham grandma in the USA

http://dealbreaker.com/uploads/2012/02/drudge-siren.gif

so wait, she was having a baby in the car and lost control and drove into the white house and got shot by black ops shock troopers?

m/l

Looks like even Infowars is realizing the false flag shit makes them look like idiots:
http://www.infowars.com/woman-with-baby-rams-gates-near-white-house-america-freaks-out/

this is pretty rich coming from them, though:
What’s certain is that the news media will get to enjoy weaving fanciful narratives about the incident over the next couple of days...

they just know how irresistible it is

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/this-is-everything-we-know-about-the-bro-witness-on-capitol

#Disgusting

all these reps running to twitter to let possible shooters know exactly where they are. amazing. 'no you wont find me in my office . im in the cloakroom standing up, possibly on a chair.'

Thou shalt not bro witness.

from that infowars link...

The urgency and hand-wringing freak out that followed courtesy of the network news media once again underscores how the corporate press thrives on turning comparatively minor criminal incidents into crises of apocalyptic proportions.

and um, you guys wouldnt know a thing about turning minor incidents into apocalyptic crises now would you

I REFUSE TO BE PANICKED BY ALL THIS CONSTANT CRAZINESS AROUND ME!!!!

Welcome back to a new academic year and the fresh energy and new ideas it brings. The good news is that the University has never been more beautiful nor the New York weather more spectacular. The bad news is that the United States seems to have lost its federal government, a situation we hope is resolved soon and one we continue to monitor closely (see below).

lol

Chase From White House To Capitol Ends In Gunfire

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A woman driving a black Infiniti with a young child inside tried to ram through a White House barricade Thursday, then led police on a chase toward the Capitol, where police shot and killed her, witnesses and officials said.

Tourists watched the shooting unfold on Constitution Avenue outside the Capitol as lawmakers inside debated how to end a government shutdown. Police quickly locked down the entire complex temporarily, and both houses of Congress went into recess.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Tex., who said he was briefed by the Homeland Security Department, said the woman was killed. Asked if she was armed, he replied: "I don't think she was. There was no return fire."

Police described it as an isolated event and saw no indications of terrorism.

The pursuit began when a car with Connecticut plates sped onto the driveway leading to the White House, over a set of lowered barricades. When she couldn't get through a second barrier, she spun the car in the opposite direction, flipping a Secret Service officer over the hood of the car as she sped away, said B.J. Campbell, a visiting tourist from Portland, Ore.

A fleet of police and Secret Service cars chased the Infiniti toward Capitol Hill.

"The car was trying to get away. But it was going over the median and over the curb," said Matthew Coursen, who was on his way to a legislative office building when the Infiniti sped by him. "The car got boxed in and that's when I saw an officer of some kind draw his weapon and fire shots into the car."

Coursen watched the shooting from his cab window.

"I thought to myself, 'The car is getting blocked in. The car is going to surrender,'" he said. "Now the cop has his weapon out. The car kept trying to get away. Then he fired shots."

Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer said a child was taken from the car to a hospital but said he knew of no harm to the youngster. Tourist Edmund Ofori-Attah said the child appeared to be about 2 to 3 years old.

A police officer was injured in the traffic accident but Gainer said the injuries were not life threatening.

"We heard three, four, five pops," said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who was walking from the Capitol to an office building across the street. Police ordered Casey and nearby tourists to crouch behind a car for protection, then hustled everyone into the Capitol.

"There were multiple shots fired and the air was filled with gunpowder," said Berin Szoka, whose office at a technology think tank overlooks the shooting scene.

The shooting comes two weeks after a mentally disturbed employee terrorized the Navy Yard with a shotgun, leaving 13 people dead including the gunman.

Before the disruption, lawmakers had been trying to find common ground to end a government shutdown. The House had just finished approving legislation aimed at partly lifting the government shutdown by paying National Guard and Reserve members.

U.S. Capitol Police on the plaza around the Capitol said they were working without pay as the result of the shutdown.

have seen directly contradictory statements as to whether the woman was armed, shot back, and even wounded a cop doing so

or shot first, rather

hate to be crass when there's a casualty, but very curious how the fact that capitol po-lice were working for free due to shutdown will play out

It means we won't ever have to pay Capitol salaries from this point on.

Yeah, seriously, secret-secret service funding should be cut ASAP.

they are working w/o pay

at least that's how i understand it. payroll is stopped but they are not furloughed as they are essential.

the GOP will say their bravery proves the cops can work w/out pay from now on

similar question: how did the fbi pop silk road while gov shut down

obv they'll be he first in line for back pay etc but even so it's like hey assholes govt employees do real live shit everyday

Campaign not off to a great start, design-wise:

http://store.wendydavistexas.com/images/layout/logo-2x.png

does she even have a prayer, or is this a pipe dream?

The number of pieces I've seen/read in the last month along the lines of "here's how Davis MIGHT win" make it seem like a hugely uphill battle. Mainly, the gist of the articles is that Abbott has to fuck up his campaign.

I would say it's highly unlikely unless a large block of voters turn up who don't usually vote.

It looks like the big red Wendy block crashed into the blue Davis block like a downed UFO. Really, it should be the other way around, symbolically speaking.

Wendy Davis for Texas for Governor

Oh no, woman who crashed her car into the White House reportedly dead, we will never know the truth.

Unless ... it was the kid all along!

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs24/i/2008/019/1/3/Maggie_shooting__by_leif_j.png

Seriously, I hope the kid in the back is OK.

So, I looked up Greg Abbott. You might remember a guy saying a few years ago that carbon dioxide can't be harmful because it's naturally produced? That was him. He also thinks the Americans With Disabilities Act is unconstitutional, even though he's a paraplegic who's wheelchair-bound. Der.

That does worry me, though. How will Wendy Davis look beating up a guy in a wheelchair?

Erick Erickson: "Democrats keep talking about our refusal to compromise. They don’t realize our compromise is defunding Obamacare. We actually want to repeal it."

haha

Here's what the grande dame, George Will, wrote today:

“If Reince Priebus from Kenosha, Wisconsin, is the Republican ‘establishment,’ God help us,” says the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus. His physical presence is almost as unprepossessing as James Madison’s was, and his demeanor is self-deprecating. But with meticulous — Madisonian, actually — subtlety, he is working to ameliorate a difficulty that has existed for two centuries and in 2012 wounded the GOP.

will is the weirdest guy

Cool that we shut down the government when it tries to give people health care but torture? Too Big To Fail Bank bailouts? indefinite detention? the NSA? the TSA? killing American citizens wo due process? Yeah those things are cool just go w it.

http://i.imgur.com/SCkmQG5.png

lawl

lol, bourbon just out of frame

Ross Douthat ‏@DouthatNYT 17m
So per @robertCostaNRO, current GOP strategy is: Shut down govt for almost 3 weeks to obtain ... repeal of medical device tax.

heh

It appears Charlie keeps the bottle at the office.

One would hope so

important ongoing shift imho http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-03/republicans-are-no-longer-the-party-of-business

^ yeah, my current hope is that business interests will force moderate republicans to stop backing the madmen. or at least that the indulgence of lunatics will hurt the party's voter and $$$ draw as time goes on.

the latter cold comfort if they manage to re-tank the economy along the way

The saddest aspect of this whole fiasco is that any "solution" will likely really just mean, per the last few similar battles, that yet another repeat of the exact scenario merely gets pushed back a few months. And then here we go again.

we don't have government, just elections and shutdowns

if the gop doesnt get anything and takes a hit in public opinion the chances they'll try it again soon are p low - last shutdown was 17 years ago - but the debt ceiling def needs to be eliminated, that is a for sure time bomb