One problem that the so-called "normal" Republican elected representatives worry about is getting "primaried" by some Tea Party nominee at the local level. The Tea Partiers are strong at the local level.
U.S. government officially shuts down
Sat, 2013-10-05 08:13
#52
Sat, 2013-10-05 08:47
#53
US can't afford to have a WW2 memorial open? Don't worry, they're pushing to make a new Syrial-memorial.
Sat, 2013-10-05 19:14
#54
I do think that Obama will win this round because the House Republicans will start losing their big donors if they keep up with their current actions of paralyzing the House.
The fight is over. In fact it was over before it began. Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid gave the Republicans nearly everything they wanted by agreeing to continue the severe sequester cuts. The Wall Street Journal's article "The GOP’s Unheralded Victory on Spending" summarizes the actual situation:
For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2013, President Obama proposal budget authority (that’s the money that goes into government checkbooks) of $1.147 trillion for annually appropriated domestic and defense programs.Congress OK’ed $1.057 trillion (again, not counting the wars and hurricane relief.)
But in August 2011, Congress passed and President Obama signed into a law a bill that said that if Congress couldn’t find an alternative way to reduce the budget deficit, then across-the-board spending cuts would be triggered. Congress failed to find a deficit-reduction plan so the cuts were triggered.
That brought funding for 2013 down to $1.002 trillion.
That was last year. The fight now is over fiscal 2014, which began Oct. 1.
Mr. Obama’s opening bid in his budget, submitted a few months later in April, was $1.057 billion. The budget outline passed by the Democratic Senate was roughly the same.
The Republican House passed a budget, crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.), that called for much less: $967 billion. But House Republicans couldn’t agree on specifics that would fit under that ceiling.
The House and Senate lately have been talking about stop-gap legislation – known to insiders as a “continuing resolution” or CR – to end the shutdown and fund the government for several weeks. They’ve been bouncing bills between House and Senate that would fund the government, temporarily, at a rate of about $986 billion.
http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-345323/
Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid agreed to the $986 billion figure before the government shutdown - talk about surrendering before the fight begins. Now the gossip is that the Republicans will agree to a clean (no more cuts) Continuing Resolution for spending before the debt ceiling deadline date is hit and Obama will later and of course "totally independently" agree to more government cuts in social service spending later and favours to business. Return favours for the Republicans, according to rumours, possibly include items such as chained CPI (which reduces inflation increases in social security and causes a huge drop in purchasing power of government pensions over the years) and by approving the Keystone pipeline for the fossil fuel industry.
That way the Democrats and Obama can say they saved Obamacare and the Republicans can smile, having won virtually everything.
It is hard to believe that under Reagan and Bush I more than 800 banksters went to jail for 1/20th the financial fraud involved in the 2008 financial crisis thanks in part to Obama appointing Eric Holder, a former Wall Street lawyer, as Attorney General of the U.S. Obamacare is what was the Republican medicare plan of the 1990s with a feast day for private sector for health care corportations. The Democrats and Obama today are at best the Republican Light party. Both parties are under the total control of their corporate patrons.
Sat, 2013-10-05 20:47
#55
President Obama Meets With Head of Goldman Sachs To Talk About 'Payday Loan of Sorts'
http://benswann.com/president-obama-meets-with-head-of-goldman-sachs-to-...
"Sources inside Goldman Sachs have leaked an email indicating that President Obama has had secret meetings with Goldman and Co., 'in order to arrange a new debt ceiling, or more accordingly, a new line of credit.' The email goes on to say that this would be 'almost like a payday loan.'..."
The Real Republican Goal on the Shutdown and Debt Ceiling
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/04/the-real-republican-goal-on-the-s...
"The resistance to the obvious exploitation of the people by this Affordable Care Act shows that the US public is not so easily deluded any longer The ensuing health benefits are a stop-gap to blind the exploited to the real underlying purposes of this 'health' law, which is to guarantee more profits to the large insurance companies.
At the same time it obviates calls for a single payer national health policy at the government's cost like so many of the industrialized countries already provide.
The shutdown provides measures to shrink the government in order to further reduce social benefits and make the government leaner and meaner..
As for understanding these tactics it is good to keep the excellent analysis in mind of 'The Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klein."
The True State of the US Economy - by Mike Whitney
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/04/the-state-of-the-economy/
"...So there is a tradeoff for all the loot Obama's friends have been pilfering from working people, and that tradeoff is trust. Americans no longer have confidence in the government, the market or the justice system.
Gradually that lack of trust will cross-over into the economy as wary consumers set aside more of their earnings to protect themselves from the government-corporate-racketeer-oligarchy.
You know you've got problems when an industry guy compares the situation to the Titanic."
Sat, 2013-10-05 21:16
#56
Why the Debt Ceiling Is A Distraction - by Paul Craig Roberts
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/04/why-the-debt-ceiling-is-a-distrac...
"The real crisis cannot be addressed unless the jobs are brought back home and the wars have stopped. As powerful organized interests oppose any such measures, Congress will pass a new debt ceiling and the real crisis will continue.
In my opinion, the US economy is not salvageable in its present form.
It is difficult to imagine a more discouraging situation.
At this time, collapse seems the most likely forecast..."
Sat, 2013-10-05 23:35
#57
Who is paid the interest on these trillion US dollar debts? Who is paid the interest on Canada's ballooning debts? How much money in interest alone has been paid in total in decades past?
Sun, 2013-10-06 05:41
#58
Since we can expect a lot of obfuscation from both parties over the next few weeks, a little more history:
Truly there is nothing new under the sun.
Sun, 2013-10-06 08:54
#59
All is good - after all, Obama's golf course is still open for business.
As for the shutdown, apparently 83% of government is still up and running
But it's things like this that I find hilarious - they're going to spend more money and resources trying to shut things down than the did running them
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/05/Feds-Try-to-Close-the-OCEAN-Because-of-Shutdown
It didn't work for King Canute so why should it work now?
Sun, 2013-10-06 08:59
#60
Since we can expect a lot of obfuscation from both parties over the next few weeks, a little more history:
Truly there is nothing new under the sun.
Again, not comparable. Nearly all of the "dirty" ones were mutually agreed upon. And not one contains the repeal or weakening of a president's major legislative achievement. This is as if the Democrats had sought to repeal or reduce Bush's tax cuts in order for them to agree to raise the debt ceiling.
Sun, 2013-10-06 12:02
#61
...not one contains the repeal or weakening of a president's major legislative achievement. This is as if the Democrats had sought to repeal or reduce Bush's tax cuts in order for them to agree to raise the debt ceiling.
If ACA is in fact Obama's major legislative achievement (passed with the support of one party only, BTW) then we can be happy that the damage is limited to healthcare. I my self am not so optimistic. See:
Old and busted: If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.
New hotness: If you like your doctor f**k you!
Sun, 2013-10-06 13:33
#62
The reason that the Republicans have opposed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and all other Democratic legislation has nothing to do with whether it is good or poor legislation. Their plan is to damage the American economy to such an extent through closing down the legislative process on all legislation and the government. As the following article notes, this plan was implemented on the day Obama was inaugurated as President in an attempt to discredit Obama and the Democrats. This is simply a modification of the old Southern strategy employed by southern Democrats until the 1960s and the Republicans since then to stop civil rights and voting rights legislation. Its the same treasonoous approach Nixon took in sabotaging President Johnson led peace talks with the North Vietnamese during the 1968 election and Reagan took with the Iranians in 1980.
On January 20, 2009 Republican Leaders in Congress literally plotted to sabotage and undermine U.S. Economy during President Obama's Inauguration.In Robert Draper's book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives" Draper wrote that during a four hour, "invitation only" meeting with GOP Hate-Propaganda Minister, Frank Luntz, the below listed Senior GOP Law Writers literally plotted to sabotage, undermine and destroy America's Economy.
The Guest List:
Frank Luntz - GOP Minister of Propaganda
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA),
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX),
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX),
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA),
Sen. Jim DeMint (SC-R),
Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ-R),
Sen. Tom Coburn (OK-R),
Sen. John Ensign (NV-R) and
Sen. Bob Corker (TN-R).Non-lawmakers present Newt Gingrich
During the four hour meeting:
The senior GOP members plotted to bring Congress to a standstill regardless how much it would hurt the American Economy by pledging to obstruct and block President Obama on alllegislation.These Republican members of Congress were not simply airing their complaints regarding the other party's political platform for four long hours. No, these Republican Congressional Policymakers, who were elected to do 'the People's work' were literally plotting to sabotage, undermine and destroy the U.S. Economy.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/08/1098434/-Eric-Cantor-Paul-Ryan-...
The President Johnson audiotapes taht were declassified in 2008 show that this Republican strategy of sabotaging the President and American society is not new.
[quote] {The Johnson audio tapes} also shed light on a scandal that, if it had been known at the time, would have sunk the candidacy of Republican presidential nominee, Richard Nixon.
By the time of the election in November 1968, LBJ had evidence Nixon had sabotaged the Vietnam war peace talks - or, as he put it, that Nixon was guilty of treason and had "blood on his hands". ...
Now, for the first time, the whole story can be told. It begins in the summer of 1968. Nixon feared a breakthrough at the Paris Peace talks designed to find a negotiated settlement to the Vietnam war, and he knew this would derail his campaign. He therefore set up a clandestine back-channel involving Anna Chennault, a senior campaign adviser.
At a July meeting in Nixon's New York apartment, the South Vietnamese ambassador was told Chennault represented Nixon and spoke for the campaign. If any message needed to be passed to the South Vietnamese president, Nguyen Van Thieu, it would come via Chennault. In late October 1968 there were major concessions from Hanoi which promised to allow meaningful talks to get underway in Paris - concessions that would justify Johnson calling for a complete bombing halt of North Vietnam. This was exactly what Nixon feared.
The Paris peace talks may have ended years earlier, if it had not been for Nixon's subterfuge. Chennault was despatched to the South Vietnamese embassy with a clear message: the South Vietnamese government should withdraw from the talks, refuse to deal with Johnson, and if Nixon was elected, they would get a much better deal.
So on the eve of his planned announcement of a halt to the bombing, Johnson learned the South Vietnamese were pulling out. He was also told why. The FBI had bugged the ambassador's phone and a transcripts of Anna Chennault's calls were sent to the White House. In one conversation she tells the ambassador to "just hang on through election". Johnson was told by Defence Secretary Clifford that the interference was illegal and threatened the chance for peace.
Nixon went on to become president and eventually signed a Vietnam peace deal in 1973. In a series of remarkable White House recordings we can hear Johnson's reaction to the news. In one call to Senator Richard Russell he says: "We have found that our friend, the Republican nominee, our California friend, has been playing on the outskirts with our enemies and our friends both, he has been doing it through rather subterranean sources. Mrs Chennault is warning the South Vietnamese not to get pulled into this Johnson move."
He orders the Nixon campaign to be placed under FBI surveillance and demands to know if Nixon is personally involved. When he became convinced it was being orchestrated by the Republican candidate, the president called Senator Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader in the Senate to get a message to Nixon. The president knew what was going on, Nixon should back off and the subterfuge amounted to treason.
Publicly Nixon was suggesting he had no idea why the South Vietnamese withdrew from the talks. He even offered to travel to Saigon to get them back to the negotiating table. Johnson felt it was the ultimate expression of political hypocrisy but in calls recorded with Clifford they express the fear that going public would require revealing the FBI were bugging the ambassador's phone and the National Security Agency (NSA) was intercepting his communications with Saigon. So they decided to say nothing.
The president did let Humphrey know and gave him enough information to sink his opponent. But by then, a few days from the election, Humphrey had been told he had closed the gap with Nixon and would win the presidency. So Humphrey decided it would be too disruptive to the country to accuse the Republicans of treason, if the Democrats were going to win anyway. [quote]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21768668
Sun, 2013-10-06 13:45
#63
The Republicans also put their party ahead of American interests during the 1980 election in order to elect Reagan.
In a commentary on “Argo” winning the Best Picture Oscar, former Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr has provided new details about how Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign obstructed resolving the Iranian hostage crisis to prevent President Jimmy Carter’s reelection. ...In the commentary published by the Christian Science Monitor on March 5, 2013, Bani-Sadr, now 79 and living outside Paris, said the movie ignored the fact that most government officials favored freeing all the American personnel quickly. He criticized “Argo” for portraying Iranian officials of that time as radical and irrational. ...
Bani-Sadr said he and all other major candidates for the Iranian presidency supported releasing the hostages. He noted that after taking that position, he won the election with 76 percent of the vote. He added:
“Overall, 96 percent of votes in that election were given to candidates who were against [the hostage-taking]. Hence, the movie misrepresents the Iranian government’s stand in regard to hostage-taking. It also completely misrepresents Iranians by portraying us as irrational people consumed by aggressive emotion.”
The October Surprise
However, after becoming president on Feb. 4, 1980, he found his efforts to resolve the hostage crisis thwarted. Bani-Sadr said he discovered that “Ayatollah Khomeini and Ronald Reagan had organized a clandestine negotiation, later known as the ‘October Surprise,’ which prevented the attempts by myself and then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter to free the hostages before the 1980 U.S. presidential election took place. The fact that they were not released tipped the results of the election in favor of Reagan.”
Though Bani-Sadr has talked and written about the Reagan-Khomeini collaboration before, he added in his commentary on “Argo” that “two of my advisors, Hussein Navab Safavi and Sadr-al-Hefazi, were executed by Khomeini’s regime because they had become aware of this secret relationship between Khomeini, his son Ahmad, the Islamic Republican Party, and the Reagan administration.”
Bani-Sadr wrote that after he “was deposed in June 1981 as a result of a coup against me [and] after arriving in France, I told a BBC reporter that I had left Iran to expose the symbiotic relationship between Khomeinism and Reaganism.”
Over the years, Republicans have adamantly denied that Reagan or his campaign struck a deal with Iranian radicals to extend the hostage crisis through the 1980 election. But substantial evidence has built up supporting Bani-Sadr’s account and indicating that the release of the 52 hostages just as Reagan was taking the oath of office on Jan. 20, 1981, was no coincidence, that it was part of the deal. [For the latest summary of the evidence, see Robert Parry’s America’s Stolen Narrative.]
In December 1992, when a House Task Force was examining this so-called October Surprise controversy – and encountering fierce Republican resistance – Bani-Sadr submitted a letter detailing his behind-the-scenes struggle with Khomeini and his son Ahmad over their secret dealings with the Reagan campaign.
Bani-Sadr’s letter was dated Dec. 17, 1992, and was part of a flood of last-minute evidence that implicated the Reagan campaign in delaying the hostage release. However, by the time the letter and the other evidence arrived, the leadership of the House Task Force had decided to simply declare the Reagan campaign innocent.
Lawrence Barcella, who served as Task Force chief counsel, later told me that so much incriminating evidence arrived late that he asked Task Force chairman, Rep. Lee Hamilton, a centrist Democrat from Indiana, to extend the inquiry for three months but that Hamilton said no. (Hamilton told me that he had no recollection of Barcella’s request.)
Burying Bani-Sadr’s Letter
In the Task Force’s final report, issued on Jan. 13, 1993, Barcella’s team simply misrepresented Bani-Sadr’s letter, mentioning it only briefly, claiming that it was hearsay, and then burying its contents in a little-noticed annex to the report along with other incriminating evidence. (I discovered additional evidence of Republican guilt when I gained access to boxes of the Task Force’s unpublished files.)
http://consortiumnews.com/2013/03/07/october-surprise-and-argo/
Sun, 2013-10-06 14:08
#64
US Mandatory Helath Care Leaves 31 Million People Without Medical Treatment
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_66079.shtml
"In the following article, Kate Randall explains more about the 31 million people without health care - left out of Obamacare in the US.
The reality is that the health care overhaul as a whole is skewed toward creating an even more heavily class-based health care system than that which presently exists."
Sun, 2013-10-06 14:18
#65
If anyone needed proof that Obama is both vindictive and petty, they might want to check this out:
Sun, 2013-10-06 15:11
#66
If anyone needed proof that Obama is both vindictive and petty, they might want to check this out:
i don't believe the picture and the outrage match! the picture shows a lane opening to the parking viewpoint at the far end. think his detractors are putting crap up to try and discredit him.
and i say this when i don't care 'bout Obama even. think he's just another part of the ruling class. he's cousin to george w bush and related to 5 other former presidents. oh and cousin to dick cheney too.
Sun, 2013-10-06 16:48
#67
If anyone needed proof that Obama is both vindictive and petty, they might want to check this out:i don't believe the picture and the outrage match! the picture shows a lane opening to the parking viewpoint at the far end. think his detractors are putting crap up to try and discredit him.
and i say this when i don't care 'bout Obama even. think he's just another part of the ruling class. he's cousin to george w bush and related to 5 other former presidents. oh and cousin to dick cheney too.
Well you could read the article, but I'm almost certain that's too much work for you.
Sun, 2013-10-06 17:00
#68
talk down much? i did before and i found the federal employee's statements matched my observation of the pic.
doesn't take much for hyper-biased (putting it politely) people to make shit up.
Sun, 2013-10-06 17:35
#69
Under the faux veneer of reasonableness, ygtbk is nothing but a right-wing troll. Wall Street Journal, now Forbes. What's next, Human Events?
Sun, 2013-10-06 17:42
#70
Under the faux veneer of reasonableness, ygtbk is nothing but a right-wing troll. Wall Street Journal, now Forbes. What's next, Human Events?
Yes, shoot the messenger, definitely. Absolutely beat up on the source - for the win!
If you don't like reality, blame the person who's telling you about it. That is for sure a great strategy.
Sun, 2013-10-06 17:46
#71
No, you shoot the hostage.
You're obviously not fully on board with the Republican
gameplan.
Sun, 2013-10-06 18:43
#72
messenger of what? the source of what? what reality?
'cause what you're selling isn't a source of much if anything. reality is in the eye of the beholder
Sun, 2013-10-06 19:26
#73
If anyone needed proof that Obama is both vindictive and petty, they might want to check this out:
I didn't know that Obama had vetted every single part of this shutdown. The man is truly amazing, to be able to deal with that kind of minutia and run amok in the world at the same time must take an extraordinary kind of guy.
Sun, 2013-10-06 19:37
#74
“Obamacare” is meant to ossify the current system, anybody who says it will lead to further reform is a clueless tool."
(from the comments at this article).
another usefull article about the shutdown, with lots of big numbers.
-
http://www.ianwelsh.net/the-individual-mandate-the-government-shutdown/
The Individual Mandate and the Government Shutdown
Let’s get specific. The House spending bill linked continued funding to a one year delay of the individual mandate—the requirement that everyone buy insurance. This is not the same thing as delaying Obamacare, everyone who wanted a policy could still buy one. While there are subsidies for buying insurance, for many of the working poor they don’t cover most of the cost, and the insurance they buy is very high deductible, meaning that they are forced to either pay a fine, or buy insurance that they can’t afford to use.
Straight up the individual mandate is a transfer of money from the working poor and the young and healthy to insurance companies and older sicker individuals. It forces people who can’t afford an extra expense every month (and if you have never lived paycheck to paycheck you should shut your mouth, you have no idea what it’s like) to buy something they can’t afford: to choose between food or rent or insurance.
<snip>
Let us speak, next, to the details of the shutdown: if you do not like that most of the NSA, say, is still operational, but food and airline safety inspectors are furloughed, that is a decision made by the executive. It exactly reflects Obama’s priorities, it is not a decision made by Republicans. You can blame Republicans for the shutdown, you cannot blame them for the specifics of how it is carried out, that is entirely Obama’s decision. Spying on Americans and killing brown people with drones is vastly important to Obama and always has been. Making sure you don’t die of e-coli, apparently not so much.
-
Mon, 2013-10-07 08:12
#75
If anyone needed proof that Obama is both vindictive and petty, they might want to check this out:
I didn't know that Obama had vetted every single part of this shutdown. The man is truly amazing, to be able to deal with that kind of minutia and run amok in the world at the same time must take an extraordinary kind of guy.
Well he did win a Nobel peace prize for doing exactly squat, and he single-handedly stopped global warming over the last 15 years, so I'm not sure where you're going by implying that his abilities are bounded...
Mon, 2013-10-07 14:59
#76
'Congress All Bribed, Has Zero Confidence in Eyes of American People' - World Bank Whistleblower (and vid)
http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/world-bank-us-shutdown-820/
"The US government shutdown - a temporary ailment or a symptom of a grave disease? Who gains from the shutdown turmoil?
Our guest today is whistleblower Karen Hudes, former senior counsel at the World Bank..."
Mon, 2013-10-07 15:03
#77
Mon, 2013-10-07 21:31
#78
ygtbk, you seem to be part of the following well-funded billionaire plan to completely discredit Obama and anyone, including Republicans, who stand in the way of accomplishing that.
Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan.Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed “blueprint to defunding Obamacare,” signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups.
It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans — including their cautious leaders — into cutting off financing for the entire federal government. ...
Last week the country witnessed the fallout from that strategy: a standoff that has shuttered much of the federal bureaucracy and unsettled the nation.
To many Americans, the shutdown came out of nowhere. But interviews with a wide array of conservatives show that the confrontation that precipitated the crisis was the outgrowth of a long-running effort to undo the law, the Affordable Care Act, since its passage in 2010 — waged by a galaxy of conservative groups with more money, organized tactics and interconnections than is commonly known.
With polls showing Americans deeply divided over the law, conservatives believe that the public is behind them. Although the law’s opponents say that shutting down the government was not their objective, the activists anticipated that a shutdown could occur — and worked with members of the Tea Party caucus in Congress who were excited about drawing a red line against a law they despise.
A defunding “tool kit” created in early September included talking points for the question, “What happens when you shut down the government and you are blamed for it?” The suggested answer was the one House Republicans give today: “We are simply calling to fund the entire government except for the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare.”
The current budget brinkmanship is just the latest development in a well-financed, broad-based assault on the health law, Mr. Obama’s signature legislative initiative. Groups like Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks are all immersed in the fight, as is Club for Growth, a business-backed nonprofit organization. Some, like Generation Opportunity and Young Americans for Liberty, both aimed at young adults, are upstarts. Heritage Action is new, too, founded in 2010 to advance the policy prescriptions of its sister group, the Heritage Foundation.
The billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, have been deeply involved with financing the overall effort. A group linked to the Kochs, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, disbursed more than $200 million last year to nonprofit organizations involved in the fight. Included was $5 million to Generation Opportunity, which created a buzz last month with an Internet advertisement showing a menacing Uncle Sam figure popping up between a woman’s legs during a gynecological exam.
The groups have also sought to pressure vulnerable Republican members of Congress with scorecards keeping track of their health care votes; have burned faux “Obamacare cards” on college campuses; and have distributed scripts for phone calls to Congressional offices, sample letters to editors and Twitter and Facebook offerings for followers to present as their own. ...
As the defunding movement picked up steam among outside advocates, Republicans who sounded tepid became targets. The Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee dedicated to “electing true conservatives,” ran radio advertisements against three Republican incumbents.
Heritage Action ran critical Internet advertisements in the districts of 100 Republican lawmakers who had failed to sign a letter by a North Carolina freshman, Representative Mark Meadows, urging Mr. Boehner to take up the defunding cause.
“They’ve been hugely influential,” said David Wasserman, who tracks House races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “When else in our history has a freshman member of Congress from North Carolina been able to round up a gang of 80 that’s essentially ground the government to a halt?”
On Capitol Hill, the advocates found willing partners in Tea Party conservatives, who have repeatedly threatened to shut down the government if they do not get their way on spending issues. This time they said they were so alarmed by the health law that they were willing to risk a shutdown over it. (“This is exactly what the public wants,” Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, said on the eve of the shutdown.) ...
The largest recipient of Freedom Partners cash — about $115 million — was the Center to Protect Patient Rights, according to the groups’ latest tax filings. Run by a political consultant with ties to the Kochs and listing an Arizona post office box for its address, the center appears to be little more than a clearinghouse for donations to still more groups, including American Commitment and the 60 Plus Association, both ardent foes of the health care law. ...
While conservatives believe that the public will back them on defunding, a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that a majority — 57 percent — disapproves of cutting off funding as a way to stop the law.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-t...
Mon, 2013-10-07 21:44
#79
Tue, 2013-10-08 03:56
#80
China Says US Has 'Responsibility' To Resolve Debt Ceiling Row
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/07/china-us-responsibility-deb...
"Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao outlines concerns over 'safety of Chinese investments in the United States.
'The United Stetes is totally clear about China's concerns about the fiscal cliff. We ask that the United States earnestly take steps to resolve in a timely way before 17 October the political issues around the debt ceiling and prevent a US debt default to ensure the safety of Chinese investments in the United States and the global economic recovery.
This is the United States' responsibility."
The Radical Christian Right and the War on Government - by Chris Hedges
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article363445.htm
"Their ideology, which is the driving force behind the shutdown of the government, calls for the eradication of social 'deviants'..."
hardly the 'driving force' - useful idiots and brownshirts of a corrupt ruling class bent on 'shock doctrine' detonation and demolition perhaps...
Tue, 2013-10-08 07:12
#81
Boom Boom
Bernie Sanders Terrifies the Koch Brothers By Outting Their Role In the Government Shutdown
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is standing up the Koch brothers attempted takeover of the United States government by outing the conservative billionaires' role in causing the government shutdown.
Tue, 2013-10-08 08:36
#82
Bernstein applauded the "Morning Joe" crew for highlighting a memo from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), who echoed President Barack Obama in saying that Democrats have already made concessions by agreeing to funding the government at sequestration levels.
. . . .
"It's about truth. It's about fact. It's about a wing in [the GOP] that has no interest in truth or governing or fact and it's bringing the country down," he continued. "It might not bring the party down. Like McCarthy, it might work. That's the terrible thing."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/carl-bernstein-slams-media-s-50-50...
Tue, 2013-10-08 09:00
#83
ygtbk, you seem to be part of the following well-funded billionaire plan to completely discredit Obama and anyone, including Republicans, who stand in the way of accomplishing that.
jerrym, I am not receiving any funding from the Koch brothers (or George Soros, for that matter). As a Canadian I do not vote in U.S. elections, either. As for a plan to discredit Obama, you may be overthinking this.
Tue, 2013-10-08 10:15
#84
Food inspections grind to halt.
“The current shutdown also means that FDA does not have personnel available to investigate outbreaks and perform tracebacks through the supply chain on foods suspected of sickening people.”
Government Executive says this means that “more than 90 percent of the foreign seafood Americans eat is coming through unchecked, as well as half the fruit and one-fifth of the vegetables.”
http://wonkwire.rollcall.com/2013/10/08/food-inspections-come-halt/
Tue, 2013-10-08 12:39
#85
'Federal Reserve Nightmare Must End' (and vid)
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/10/08/328259/federal-reserve-nightmare...
"Press TV has conducted an interview with Mike Harris, finance editor of Veterans Today from Oregon to discuss the US economic perspective following the shutdown of the federal government."
Tue, 2013-10-08 12:55
#86
Tue, 2013-10-08 13:25
#87
ya GWB and his cronies created quite the little police errr....security state before they office didn't they?!!! it's not surprising his cousin continued it on .....
Tue, 2013-10-08 13:56
#88
ya GWB and his cronies created quite the little police errr....security state before they office didn't they?!!! it's not surprising his cousin continued it on .....
Is this what you're referring to?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7313789.stm
I didn't know that.
Tue, 2013-10-08 14:10
#89
they're closer than your article states they are...he's related to Cheney too!!!!
Tue, 2013-10-08 14:30
#90
Biggest drop in consumer confidence since Lehman Brothers collapse.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/165287/weekly-drop-economic-confidence-largest-2008.aspx
And a number of Republicans don't think a failure to raise the debt ceiling is a big deal.
"I would dispel the rumor that is going around that you hear on every newscast, that if we don’t raise the debt ceiling, we will default on our debt," says Sen.Tom Coburn, R-Okla. “We won’t. We’ll continue to pay our interest.”
This is crazy talk. While the Treasury Department could prioritize interest payments after October 17 – the day the Treasury Department says it no longer has legal authority to pay the nation’s debts – and not pay Social Security and Medicare, this would buy a few days at most. Meanwhile, interest rates will soar, stock prices will plummet, the global economy will begin spiraling downward, and millions of Americans wouldn’t receive their Social Security and Medicare. So why are Republicans talking like this? Because they want to sound as if they’re willing to blow up the economy if they don’t get their way. A crazy person with a bomb is much scarier than someone holding a bomb who looks and acts reasonable. Sounding crazy is part of the Republican bargaining strategy.
Tue, 2013-10-08 20:10
#91
Three years to get it right and still FUBAR'd. So surprised.
Wed, 2013-10-09 03:50
#92
The 'Debt Ceiling' Smokescreen - by Mike Whitney
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/08/the-debt-ceiling-smokescreen/
"Obama's stealth attack on Social Security and Medicare.
The two-party duopoly is using the faux 'government shutdown' crisis to set the stage for a 'compromise' on slashing vital safety net programs during upcoming debt ceiling negotiations.
Obama will use GOP 'hostage taking' as the proximate cause for caving in.."
Shootout At the APEC Free-Trade Corral - by Pepe Escobar
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-03-081013.html
"Just as Asia Pacific gathered to discuss the messier points of economic cooperation at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bali, what everybody was worried about is the scary possibility of the US government defaulting on its colossal debts next week."
Wed, 2013-10-09 08:07
#93
Other right-wingers seeking a second D.C. shutdown:
A group billing itself as the "Independent Truckers of America" has vowed to flood the nation's roadways this weekend with a "Ride For The Constitution" in order to "save our nation" from "domestic enemies such as Barack Obama, John Kerry, Lindsay Graham and John McCain."
According to the Ride For The Constitution website, this "Truckers Shutdown" will feature "potentially hundreds of thousands of truckers and millions of citizens" converging Friday through Sunday on the nation's capital. There will also be affiliated rallies at rest areas and displays on highway overpasses. The faces of this event are a right wing radio host, outspoken gun activist and "libtard" hater Mark Kessler, as well as a former trucker who believes President Barack Obama is "a radical Islamist."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/constitution-truckers-plan-to-shu...
Wed, 2013-10-09 12:44
#94
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2013/PPP_Release_CONGRESS_108.pdf
Americans currently have a higher opinion of witches (46/32), jury duty (73/18) and hemorrhoids (53/31) than Congress. Republicans seem much more accepting of Congress over hemorrhoids compared to other voters -- 41% favored Congress more than the diseases, as oppose to only 25% of Democrats and 27% of Independents. Even government institutions like the DMV and the IRS are seen as more favorable than Congress currently, at 58/24 and 42/33 respectively. Almost twice as many Republicans still support Congress over the IRS (48/25), while only 23% of Democrats do (23/59). Half of registered voters have a higher opinion of Congress than of Anthony Weiner right now (50/23). In fact, public figures are some of the only people that registered voters dislike more than the legislature. Americans thought higher of Congress when asked about Vladimir Putin (49/28), Charles Manson (56/18), Honey Boo Boo (42/33) and Miley Cyrus (36/31) – with ‘twerking’ also four points below Congress at 37/33.
Thu, 2013-10-10 01:14
#95
Thu, 2013-10-10 03:01
#96
Is Homeland Security Preparing For the Next Wall Street Collapse?
http://truth-out.org/news/item/19314-is-homeland-security-preparing-for-...
"Reports are the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is engaged in a massive, covert military buildup. An article in the Associated Press in February confirmed an open purchase order by DHS for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition.
According to an op-ed in Forbes, that's enough to sustain an Iraq-sized war for over twenty years. DHS has also acquired heavily armored tanks, which have been seen roaming the streets.
Evidently somebody in government is expecting some serious civil unrest.
The question is why?
Thu, 2013-10-10 03:19
#97
US Billionaire Suggests 'Collusion' Between Canada, Republican Lawmakers over Keystone (and vid)
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/u-s-billionaire-suggests-collusion-betwee...
"A billionaire Democratic fundraiser continues to press the Canadian government over whether it is working with Republican lawmakers to exploit the US budget crisis to get the Keystone XL pipeline project approved, wondering Wednesday if there wasn't 'some collusion' between the two sides.
'So our question was and remains: Was there some collusion here?' Steyer asked. 'Did the Canadian government take advantage of the crisis in the United States to get something that they desperately want, which is approval of the Keystone XL pipeline...?"
Thu, 2013-10-10 12:39
#98
Debt Ceiling Can Kicking: Where We Stand Now
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-10/debt-ceiling-can-kicking-where-...
"...and the rumors of a proposal were confirmed..."
Fri, 2013-10-11 03:23
#99
Obamacare Sites Cost More Than Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
http://rt.com/usa/obamacare-websites-cost-millions-002/
"An array of issues surrounding the recently launched websites for President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act have rendered them largely unavailable during the last week, and a lack of funding might not be to blame..."
Fri, 2013-10-11 15:47
#100
There doesn't seem to me to be much comparison. The Obamacare sites are a series of web sites, different by state, tracking private medical information, and ensuring that a) everyone is included and b) people have a way to securely authenticate as themselves. Additionally, they have to roll out from 0 users to hundreds of millions of users in one shot.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn ramped up gradually and were never obligated to support certain features. Remember when Facebook didn't even support https? Those sites still get hacked all the time.
As a software developer, this does not seem like an informed comparison to me.
Additionally, if Obamacare sites are crashing due to huge amounts of traffic, don't take that as a fail for Obamacare. It means people are signing up now even though they have months to do so.
And they are seeing their insurance rates go down.
Sat, 2013-10-12 08:52
#101
A Repo Implosion: The Nighmare Scenario - by Mike Whitney
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article36502.htm
"That is what this is all about, the banks. Because banks are still-up-to-their-eyeballs in red ink.
This is why the media is pushing so hard to end the debt ceiling standoff;
to preserve the moutainous stinkpile of larceny, greed and corruption run by a criminal bank Mafia and their political lackeys on Capital Hill.
That's what this is all about."