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

"The Senator's proboscis did not twitch at all."

Standard Obama day after talk:

Obama called on Congress to resist “pressure from the extremes” and “understand that how business is done in this town has to change.” He urged lawmakers to pursue a “balanced” long-term budget and pass comprehensive immigration reform and a new farm bill.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/government-reopens-thursday-after-congress-passes-budget-deal-raises-debt-limit/2013/10/17/dbe7889a-371b-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html?hpid=z1

yeah i happened to catch a lil piece of that as i was flipping around and i was just like aw dude still

I'm not a big fan of focus groups but...

"FOX is about the middle. (Evangelical man, Roanoke)
[Fox News is] about the only one that gives you both sides. (Evangelical man, Roa- noke)
I don’t think they’re trying to make the news. I think they’re trying to report the news. It seems like everybody else is trying to make the news. (Evangelical man, Roanoke)
"

both sides: right and wrong!

lying and wrong

Same 'ol, same 'ol

The most likely path to replacing part of the sequester is to make cuts to mandatory spending — such as health-care programs. On a practical level, Republicans and Democrats agree that mandatory spending is better to cut because it’s the long-term driver of U.S. debt.

But any discussion of significant changes to mandatory spending usually leads Democrats to insist on new taxes, which has been a deal breaker for the GOP.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/shutdown-deal-averts-catastrophe-but-leaves-the-economy-in-peril/2013/10/16/9734ba18-367d-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story_1.html

interesting that there has been zero chatter about Boehner losing his Speakership. Not sure how he does it, it's kind of remarkable.

TPM makes it sound like we'll be back in this same situation in January.

these people are so fucking stupid I cant handle it

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) threw verbal punches at each other Wednesday night and Thursday morning, respectively, in an ongoing tiff between the two lawmakers.

On Wednesday, McCain said Gohmert had "no intelligence" in response to Gohmert's charge that McCain is an al-Qaeda supporter.

"Sometimes comments like that are made out of malice, but if someone has no intelligence I don't feel it as being a malicious statement," McCain said on NBC News. "But yes, there's polarization here, and there's a lack of civility."

Gohmert responded Thursday, saying that McCain "would be better off with 'no intelligence.'"

"Obviously, Senator McCain would be better off with ‘no intelligence’ since he does not know the Syrian opposition he met with is infested with al-Qaeda and terrorist kidnappers," Gohmert said in a statement to the Daily Beast. "His 'intelligence' even caused him to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt that burned churches and killed Christians, as the senator stood against the will of the massive majority of Egyptians including moderate Muslims, Christians, and secularists who demanded the Muslim Brotherhood extremist persecutions must end."

rawr hiss hiss

it seems like the TP reps blame the moderate reps (and not, say, Boehner himself) for capitulating? I guess Boehner has made them feel secure enough that he's just reflecting the will of the majority of his caucus, allowing him to stay in place.

xp

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2013/10/17/Four-Lessons-GOP-Shutdown-Wars

pretty good rundown

gohmert kinda otm about mccain fraternizing w/ terrorists

the correct term is "palling around with" i believe

http://media.salon.com/2011/03/Picture_8.png

Obama & Netanyahu to thread

I'm sure McCain knows many wealthy ranch owners in Arizona who'd feel right at home with Qadhafi's basic worldview.

It's awesome how we can return to cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits after a 14-day furlough.

xxp I think I understand your point but surely you can't expect Bibi to snub the President of the United States

i hope we repeal the obama partial repeal of the bush tax cuts soon, too. the job creators must be feeling really uncertain after all this

peal everything then repeal everything

repeel obamacare

mmmmmm

peel obamacare, blanche, dry, bread, deep fry

we’re not going to be disrespected. we have to get something out of this. and I don’t know what that even is

#bananapeel

Yeah, that "not going to be disrespected" quote. How else do you expect to be treated when you throw a tantrum?

greeted as liberators?

if Boehner's job wasn't in jeopardy, what was the point of the last two weeks?

Someone deport this guy back to England.

One way out of this would be for Obama to go big, to propose in these new talks a Bowles-Simpson-style deal in which major tax reform and entitlement cuts are exchanged for much higher revenues. If the GOP were a genuinely conservative party, actually interested in long-term government solvency and reform within our current system of government, they would jump at this. They could claim to have reduced tax rates, even if the net result were higher taxes. And the brutal fact is that, given simply our demographics, higher taxes are going to be necessary if we are to avoid gutting our commitments to the seniors of tomorrow. They could concede that and climb down from this impossibly long limb they have constructed for themselves.

I’ve long favored a Grand Bargain, but recognize its huge political liabilities without the leadership of both parties genuinely wanting to get there. But for Obama, it seems to me, re-stating such a possibility and embracing it more than he has ever done, is a win-win.

It's awesome how we can return to cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits after a 14-day furlough.

The most irritating thing to me is how systemic, ruthless, single-minded warfare on the poor and meek consistently gets portrayed as somehow embodying the ideals of Jesus Christ.

Mcconnell's shorthand phrase for cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security: "mandatory spending reductions"

“There is an openness on our side for trading mandatory spending reductions for sequester spending relief. So far, the Democrats’ view is no mandatory changes without taxes,” McConnell said.

Inside the Beltway and in mainstream and right-wing media everywhere one is not allowed to suggest that there are alternatives to cuts for addressing federal government expenditures for Medicare, Medicaid and Socila Security. Also, if cut supporters were asked how cutting government spending on these programs will address the problem of rising US healthcare costs what would they say? Just the standard cliche that promoting competition between private insurers across state lines and tort & malpractice law changes will somehow improve things (or that people just have to work harder and pay the higher bills)?

tax hikes pay for themselves. say it majority leader reid

Pobrecitos

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/us/from-the-right-despair-anger-and-disillusion.html

Give'em hell, Harry!

I liked that NYT piece, showing how out of touch the conservative rantosphere is even with many hardcore Republicans. The sheer lunacy of still thinking this could ever have been a winning strategy.

I try to be sympathetic for them somehow and you know, no.

Meantime, this'll be entertaining

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/senate-conservatives-fund-endorses-mcconnell-primary-challenger

All of this helps Alison Lundergan Grimes, right?

I also just saw a headline that said Palin was going to involve herself in the KY race, in support of Bevin I'd imagine.

Pretty sure she won the KY race in "Who's Nailin' Palin."

"Ted Cruz is smart," Reid said. "He has always been able to talk down to people. He is now in the Senate. People are as smart as he is. He can't talk down to anyone anymore. But he has still not accepted that in his own head. He still thinks he's smarter than everybody else. He might be able to work a calculus problem better than I can. But he can't legislate better than I can."

reid gettin salty

What's up with all these smug Republicans with some mysterious reputation as super geniuses? Cruz, Ryan, Gingrich ... it's like the party is one part chumps like them and several parts chumps like Issa or Vitter, who are outright morons but don't give a fuck.

well, "brilliant" is the Beltway's favorite adjective

well, 'brilliance' can imply either genius or a shining glory, or a combination of the two.

fluency with received ideas

cruz s universally described as super intelligent by everyone whos ever met him starting way before he became a politician, he was the youngest person to ever argue before the supreme court and hes been generally just immensely successful even tho pretty much everyone whos ever met him hates him too

i imagine hes got an incredibly quick and logical mind, the sort that makes a super impressive debater, even if hes nowheresville on the self awareness scale, theres all sort different intelligences out there

if you look at the failure of the shutdown in legislative terms he doesnt seem too bright, but if you look at it as an attempt to brand himself as the last true conservative and seize political power based on that he was wildly successful, not to mention that his meal ticket is punched from here to infinity on the conservative think tank speaking fox news etc circut if he ever feels like retiring into a life of luxury and adulation

But really, aren't there like a hundred different ways to get on the nutty circuit. Surely, this was not one of the smartest ways...

...OR WAS IT?

i'd say it was a pretty good calculation on his part. we've all seen so much heinous shit go down that has destroyed peoples lives and hurt our entire society, and people got rich from it, and absolutely nothing happened to them... except that person getting to live a life of luxury. and, that's probably what's going to happen with him. fame and luxury after nearly wrecking the world economy ... not a bad deal all around.

But he's a us senator, fame and luxury is hardly scarce commodities? Just seems dumb to me to wreck the economy to get something he could have easily gotten without making such a fuzz.

A PARLIAMENT OF WHORES AND TRAITORS

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/did-the-gop-establishment-just-curb-stomp-liberty/280680/