Deal Or No Deal

Incredibly the public somehow doesn't believe that the reason the Government is shut down is Obama. They blame it on Republicans! Imagine that! Plus, the "slimdown" turns out to not be the popular money-saving measure that they were hoping. Which is why even Gallup admits that the GOP favorability rating is at an all time low.

This could explain why a man who said this last week that there was no way he's allow a no-strings attached continuing budget resolution is now offering one.

The measure, which could come up for a vote as soon as Friday, would allow the government to continue borrowing money to pay its bills through November 22.

Without such an extension, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says the United States risked default as soon as October 17, an outcome that economists label as potentially catastrophic.

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney said Obama was "happy that cooler heads at least seem to be prevailing in the House" over the need to avoid a possible default.

However, Obama has said that Congress must increase the debt ceiling and reopen the government -- without attaching partisan side issues to either -- before he would hold talks with Republicans trying to wring concessions on deficit reduction and his signature health care reforms detested by conservatives.

"Without attaching partisan side issues"! Clearly the man WON'T NEGOTIATE! 

My advice is negotiate. Start here: the CR must last until 2016 or no deal. There are good reasons for that, chiefly that it would allow the economy to stabilize a little. It would obviously be better for the country. Even better, it would force Republicans to argue that they need to be able to shut down the government again if they have to, which ensures an historic election year in 2014. 

If Republican leaders walk away the poll numbers can do the negotiating for a while.

**Update** Obama says NO DEAL! No details yet, but I'm sure they involve not enough Mosques on federal lands.

Why Tom Lehrer Got Out Of The Satire Business

Strictly speaking this is a post about why I haven't been blogging about politics lately but I think Tom Lehrer is a little more interesting than me, right? Anyway Lehrer who wrote The Vatican Rag and a lot of other trenchant satirical songs in the early to mid sixties, pretty much stopped around 1967. And in the early seventies he was asked why. He quipped that when Henry Kissinger received the Nobel Peace prize, it rendered political satire unnecessary.

So it has been with me and making fun of Republican talking points. I can't take this stuff farther than the Republicans already are! For example Ted Cruz. Cruz just completed a 22 hour "filibuster" (not an actual filibuster, because it didn't delay a vote and had no parliamentary purpose) in which he warned that voting for cloture on "Obamacare" {I'm putting quotes around the word because Cruz seems to have gone out of his way to avoid referring to an actual law such as the Affordable Care Act) would be a disaster for America. During the speech, he cited Green Eggs and Ham; which he described as a story about someone who simply didn't like something and refused to eat it, much like Americans simply don't like "Obamacare."

How sincere was he, this Ted Cruz fellow? For one thing, at the end of that Dr. Seuss classic, the protagonist tries Green Eggs and Ham and discovers he LOVES IT! IT'S HIS FAVORITE THING! HE'LL NEVER EAT ANYTHING ELSE! And an hour after he was done, Cruz voted for cloture, just like everyone else in the senate. Clearly he wants Obamacare AND he wants to trick you into thinking he doesn't, but he needs wiggle room for later.

Meanwhile, Larry Klayman, the attorney, has decided that the American justice system as conceived by the founding fathers is worthless and formed his own. Don't pay his retainer up front!

Last Wednesday, the great usurper, Barack Hussein Obama, after having been indicted by an Ocala, Florida citizens' grand jury, was convicted by a people's court of defrauding the American people and Floridians by proffering them with a fake birth certificate. See www.citizensgrandjury.com. As readers of this column and www.wnd.com know too well, Obama is not a natural born citizen eligible to be president of the United States, as he was not born in this country to two American citizen parents. However, to justify his fraud and his elections to the highest office in the land, and after years of inquiry, in 2011 the Obama White House posted on its website a birth certificate purporting to show him having been born in Hawaii. The problem is however, according to forensic experts, the birth certificate is altered and forged.

The day of reckoning has come. Obama, having failed to plead in response to the indictment that was served upon him, waived his right to a jury trial. Thumbing his nose at We the People, as the citizens' prosecutor, I appeared before a citizens' court judge and presented evidence from Cold Case Posse investigator Michael Zullo showing that Obama tricked voters into electing him in 2008 and 2012. As a result, the citizens' judge found him guilty on two counts of falsifying information to federal and state election officials. He was thus sentenced to the maximum prison term for these offenses of 10 years, and ordered to immediately surrender himself into the custody of the citizens of the United States and Florida.

Five years per count? And he's also guilty of... wearing a red tie! I'm a crime! I JUST WROTE THE LAW NOW! 30 YEARS!!!!

I could go on but I got work to do but I think this last one is worthwhile. You know how the CBO keeps dropping the estimated price of the Affordable Care Act (a real law) and conservatives keep saying no no, it's going to be twice as much as you're paying now? I figured out how this is happening - they're not lying. They just don't get the whole Less/More concept. Here's a tip... the lower number is LESS. The HIGHER number is more.

Analogies Are Trouble Part 1

Obamacare is just like the Iraq War!

HOW DARE THE GOVERNMENT SPEND GOVERNMENT MONEY TO PROMOTE A LAW PASSED BY THE GOVERNMENT! They're ENCOURAGING people to sign up for INSURANCE! I haven't been so outraged since Michelle Obama promoted healthy eating!

Rick Santorum, Marxist

Exhibit A:

"Santorum Hopes To Rebuild Middle Class" courtesy his website.

Exhibit B:

Santorum in Iowa, yesterday



This is no fringe player, either. For a while he was the FRONT-RUNNER in the race for a Republican presidential candidate. It's only a matter of time before he starts demanding abortions and Sharia law!

A Little Something You Hadn't Considered, Immigration Wise

...It will bring about the biblical end times!

No seriously. Don't believe me, believe former Texas Republican Party Head Cathie Adams.

Wiles: Do you know where they're taking us with this? Because they said the solution to all these lost foreigners in the country, the solution is biometric scanning. That's where they're taking us Cathy.
Adams: I do understand that. I've seen it. I've heard it. And, of course, we know in biblical prophecy that that is the End Times. That is going to be the brand either on our foreheads or on the back of our hands. That is demonic through and through. That is End Times prophecy. There is no question about that.
But, you know, another group of people that are coming into our country as refugees are others that are mostly from Moozlum, Hindu, and Buddhist cultures. There are people who are not here because they love America but because they are fleeing countries, and yet, what kind of culture are they bringing here? They want sharia law, just like what they left that was causing them to be persecuted.

I'd call her nuts but as she says, there's no question about that. 

It's odd that all these people are fleeing Buddhist and Hindo countries to escape sharia law, yet they want to install it here because there wasn't any.. oh never mind. Why deconstruct this one? Like all comedy it's funnier if you don't analyze.

Godwin's Law Holds!

A week ago I wrote about the theory of "no pregnancy coming from legitimate rape" coming from Nazi scientists. I'm happy to report that I was wrong! Kind of. At least, apparently, the Nazis never conducted the experiment.

As controversial as the subject of abortion is, irrespective of one’s personal opinion, it is important that the evidence supporting an assertion that rape inhibits pregnancy be based on credible evidence. Such evidence does not exist.
The controversial nature of claims about rape and pregnancy are further exacerbated by their supposed reference to research on victims of Nazi terror. The medical crimes of the Hitler period were so horrendous that it is difficult to imagine what they might not have done. Indeed, given what is known about medical practices in Nazi Germany, research on rape and pregnancy is plausible. However, there is no evidence to suggest that it actually happened.

So not only is the theory from Nazis, but even the Nazis never verified it. I regret the innacuracy.

Rough Choice: Who To Hate In The Weiner Scenario?

Well... me personally I'd go with the husband, who is cheating and sexting other women and appears to be so self-involved that he doesn't think it should be considered a problem. But if you're with a party that maybe already has a problem with women, maybe the wife?

...it is amazing, as we speculate about Ms. Abedin’s political future, that the elephant in the room goes unnoticed, or at least studiously unmentioned.
Sorry to interrupt the Best Enabler of a Sociopath Award ceremony but, to recap, Ms. Abedin worked for many years at a journal that promotes Islamic-supremacist ideology that was founded by a top al-Qaeda financier, Abdullah Omar Naseef. Naseef ran the Rabita Trust, a formally designated foreign terrorist organization under American law. Ms. Abedin and Naseef overlapped at the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (JMMA) for at least seven years. Throughout that time (1996–2003), Ms. Abdein worked for Hillary Clinton in various capacities.

The piece is written by Andrew C. McCarthy. I'm not sure if it's the same Andrew McCarthy who was in Weekend At Bernie's (spoiler: no, of course it isn't) but that voice drives me up the wall.

Extra kick-em-when-they're-down credit for the humiliating title, The Huma Unmentionables. That'll teach those chicks to step outta line!

99 Percent of Immigrants Are Drug Mules!

Who knew? Rep. Steve King of Iowa knew!



Rep. King is gracious enough to admit that some Mexicans are valedictorians and not drug mules.

I'm wondering how that works economically - the cartels hire these guys and say, here's some money to haul this backpack full of drugs over the border. Once you get there, you can stay and apply for citizenship; I'll hire another guy and send him over after you. Seems a little counter-productive, this operation. Why not use the same mules again? And why would a guy who's struggling to get to the US take the risk of carrying all those drugs as well, when it would attract drug-sniffing dogs?

And of course, considering how fat and lazy those guys are it seems incredible that so many of them have calves the size of cantaloupes. Another research project for another time.

The RNC and I Agree On Something!

RETWEET if you are tired of more @BarackObama speeches and no progress! #SpeechesDontHire
— RNC (@GOP) July 22, 2013

I demand progress! Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with me.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Any way you cut it, and whoever's fault it is, you have presided over what it perhaps the least-productive and certainly one of the least popular congresses in history. How do you feel about that? 

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: Well, Bob, we should not be judged on how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws that we repeal.

--  Face The Nation, July 21

The RNC oughtta have a word with that guy. And by the way, judging them on how many laws they repeal...

Bills the House Has Repealed So Far This Year:

May 22: the House agreed to an Amendment that would repeal or reduce the estate tax, but only if done in a fiscally responsible way.

June 20: the House voted to repeal an amendment that would establish the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center.

Bills the House Has Tried to Repeal So Far This Year, and Failed at Repealing:

March 22: the House failed to establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to permanently eliminate the Federal estate tax

May 22: the House rejected an amendment HR 1947, which was an attempt to repeal the nutrition entitlement programs and establish a nutrition assistance block grant program.

June 19: the House rejected an amendment to HR 1947, which was attempt to repeal Section 3102, which reauthorizes the Market Access Program (MAP) until 2018

June 19: the House failed to repeal a permanent law from the Agriculture Act of 1949 that pertains to dairy support.

June 20: the House failed to repeal the Biodiesel Fuel Education Program which awards federal grants to educate fleet operators and the public on the benefits of using biodiesel fuels, instead of fossil fuels.

And of course, the House has tried and failed to repeal Obamacare six different times.

So, the Congress is a failure, right?

The Hidden Flaw of Stand Your Ground Laws

Even though it wasn't argued in the George Zimmerman case, apparently Florida's Stand Your Ground law influenced the jury's verdict.The idea that you can shoot first and have questions asked later, in a trial, is as American as an episode of Gunsmoke. But the problem is this: Trayvon Martin, if he had had a gun, would have been justified as well. After all, an armed private citizen was following him in a vehicle at night in the rain. Would Martin have gotten the same treatment in trial? Probably not, but that wouldn't be any comfort to the Zimmerman family.

And African-Americans now feel that they are in danger from armed white men. They could cite the very Stand Your Ground laws that protect innocent citizens from harm as they fire their stolen guns into the viscera of "threatening" white folk.

It's up to Richard Cohen to raise the obvious reason why Stand Your Ground cannot stand:

Where is the politician who will own up to the painful complexity of the problem and acknowledge the widespread fear of crime committed by young black males? This does not mean that raw racism has disappeared, and some judgments are not the product of invidious stereotyping. It does mean, though, that the public knows young black males commit a disproportionate amount of crime. In New York City, blacks make up a quarter of the population, yet they represent 78 percent of all shooting suspects — almost all of them young men. We know them from the nightly news.
Those statistics represent the justification for New York City’s controversial stop-and-frisk program, which amounts to racial profiling writ large. After all, if young black males are your shooters, then it ought to be young black males whom the police stop and frisk. Still, common sense and common decency, not to mention the law, insist on other variables such as suspicious behavior. Even still, race is a factor, without a doubt. It would be senseless for the police to be stopping Danish tourists in Times Square just to make the statistics look good.

Blacks are just criminals, people! You can scoff and say that they're arrested more often because of racial prejudice but the truth is that race is just predisposed to crime. IT'S ON THE NEWS.

In the coming election, it's vitally important that anyone who supports the Stand Your Ground laws also calls for, DEMANDS, that there be an exemption to keep black folk from citing it. Otherwise, they'll rise up and kill us all in our sleep. Insist that your Senatorial and Congressional candidates make this a big issue in 2014!

Also, maybe it's finally time to get those Jews out of financial services. We are a Christian Nation after all!

At Last, A Workable Model for Border Security

Why can't congress be as smart as Bryan Fischer?

Yes, we can secure the border. We have 30,000 troops on the border between S. and N. Korea. Sealed up tighter than a drum.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 29, 2013

So we just have to scale it up a little. The Korean border is 160 miles, and the one along Mexico is 1954 miles and the side on the North shoots to kill. So we just have to go ten times bigger and be willing to act like the North Koreans and we got ourselves a REAL border.

You Know Who Else Put Faith In Nazi Scientists... **Updated**

Okay, I know I'm opening with something that violates Godwin's Law here, but COME ON PEOPLE.

At a congressional hearing Wednesday, Rep. Trent Franks, a Republican from Arizona, argued against an exception for rape and incest victims from a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. He said, “Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject—because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.” He is of course following in the footsteps of former Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, who said that women can stave off pregnancy after a “legitimate rape.” (He apologized but that didn’t save him from losing his next election.)These claims are false, of course, or as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists puts it, “medically inaccurate, offensive, and dangerous.” That is not all that’s wrong with the claims. They originate with Nazi experiments on women in concentration camps.

...“In the aftermath of Akin’s statement, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on a 1972 essay by an obstetrician named Fred Mecklenburg, who cited a Nazi experiment in which women were told they were on their way to die in the gas chambers—and then were allowed to live, so that doctors could check whether they would still ovulate. Since few did, Mecklenburg claimed that women exposed to the emotional trauma of rape wouldn’t be able to become pregnant, either. 

Most OB-GYNs say that it's just as likely to get pregnant from rape as from consensual sex, but Republicans seem to think it's important enough to dispute that that they'll quote Nazi science. Obviously nobody is Pro-Rape; but they're desperate to avoid a loophole in their anti-abortion position. I suppose also they'd prefer that rape is treated like any other violent assault, which they feel has enough laws on the books already. It's like hate crime. They're not pro-hate, they're against extra laws.

I can see that point of view; but for pete's sake, why make it easier for violent criminals to avoid further prosecution? Does society have no incentive to discourage prejudice? Most people think it does.

**Update** see further up the timeline for a kind of correction - Meckleberg was wrong, the Nazis never even did the experiment.

IRS Only Reviewed Half As Many Liberal Groups! IMPEACH!

I'm going to have remember to give any right wing "scandal" story about a month before I comment on it, because as the details come out,  they all become non-scandals which make the right look worse than the left. So it is with the IRS bias scandal. First of all, the IRS reviewed applications for tax exempt status but hasn't yet denied any conservative groups. If this squelched their political speech, well, the status in question is afforded to non-political groups. They should be paying taxes anyway.

Simple searches on Google, Facebook, Twitter and other news engines point to plenty of political activities that are the essence of what the IRS looks for when deciding who gets an exemption from Uncle Sam.

The group leaders attended rallies to stop Obama administration priorities and ripped into the president’s work on health care and missile defense. They spoke openly about defeating President Barack Obama in the 2012 election. They pushed for winners in state and local election races.

Their activities might not have run afoul of the rules. But for the murky world of charitable exemptions now under heightened political scrutiny, their backgrounds underscore the gray area the IRS was in as it posed questions to the groups.

So there's that. What's more:

Non-conservative advocacy groups given special scrutiny by the IRS in or after 2010 included the Coffee Party USA, the alternative to the Tea Party movement that got a bunch of press in 2010, as well as such explicitly progressive groups as the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada; Rebuild the Dream, founded by former Obama administration official Van Jones; and Progressives United Inc., which was founded by former Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold.

Also included in the special scrutiny were Progress Texas and Progress Missouri Inc.; Tie the Knot, which sells bow ties to raise money to promote same-sex marriage; and ProgressNow, which describes itself as "a year-round never-ending progressive campaign."

The targeting also rolled up centrist groups, such as the Across the Aisle Foundation -- the educational and cultural arm of No Labels, which worked to build momentum for an independent ticket for the presidency -- and politically neutral ones, such as The East Hampton Group for Good Government Inc., formed to encourage better leadership and management of the New York vacation town, and the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.

So it's great that they have spent so much time on hearings for this, because they clear the name of the IRS. But sadly, like the other hearings, Darryl Issa won't publish any conclusions. They don't look so good.

PATRIOT Games

I covered this a couple weeks ago, but since WAMK brings this up on his blog:

You guys on the Left keep telling us how different he is though, ok? I recall you being pissed when Bush did this on a much smaller scale. I'm interested to see your reactions to this by Obama.

My reaction is I hate it. I want it to stop. But it's legal under the PATRIOT act. If the legislative branch makes it illegal again, it will stop; or at least there will be grounds for impeachment. Repeal the PATRIOT act!

Now what I'm wondering is, why was this no big deal under Bush but is an enormous scandal now that a bla Democrat is running things? You guys keep telling me he's the same as Bush. 

What Did They Know, And When Did They Know It

It's not the crime, it's the cover-up.

So these people in the government knew about the investigation A YEAR AGO! And they kept it to themselves, probably because they didn't want to ruin Obummer's chances of being re-elected!

WHO IS GOING TO JAIL FOR THIS?

iDodge

(This is beside the subject but people affected by tornadoes - my heart goes out to you. People unaffected, send food, blankets and money now.)

I don't make an awful lot of money compared to most. I'm self-sufficient but I'm not rolling in cash, God knows. So you may be surprised that I have the latest iMac, the latest iPhone and a 2nd Generation iPad. The 2nd generation is said to get better battery life and doesn't heat up to egg-frying levels. I bought all this stuff new, and I paid full sales tax, state and local, on every one of them.

Distressingly, Apple itself wasn't quite so ingenuous. Tim Cook testified in the Senate about the taxes his company hasn't paid.
 

"We pay all the taxes we owe — every single dollar," Cook told the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

"We not only comply with the laws but we comply with the spirit of the laws," he said. "We don't depend on tax gimmicks."

Cook said the tax code "has not kept up with the digital age" and restricts the free movement of capital in comparison to the codes of other countries. He called for a "dramatic simplification of the corporate tax code," including lower tax rates and a "reasonable tax on foreign earnings."

Rand Paul, quoted later in the same piece:

"Frankly, I’m offended by the tone and tenor of this hearing," Paul said, calling the session a "show trial." He noted that Corning makes the Gorilla Glass for Apple products in Kentucky.

"I’m offended by a $4-trillion government bullying, berating and badgering one of America’s greatest success stories," he said. "Tell me what Apple’s done that is illegal."

Congress should apologize for creating a "bizarre and byzantine tax code" and should compliment Apple for its job creation, he said.

"They’re doing what their shareholders ask, which is to maximize profit," Paul said.

"A show trial?" Does Rand Paul understand how Senate hearings work?  They're show trials by definition, babe.

The thing is,  it's great that Apple is doing so well and that they employ so many people. But their success could be doing you and me a lot more good than it is. They're so well-known for employing Chinese labor to assemble their beautiful iPads, and as far as I can see their American employment is limited to Apple Store employees (minimum wage) code-monkeys and very very VERY well-compensated executives. Who can also dodge taxes legally.

WAMK had this mildly incoherent observation to make: 

Will the Left show as much "outrage" against Big Apple as it does against Big Oil?

And I admit that I'm writing this partially in response. My response to both is the same - no protests, but I'd like to see both paying more taxes because the United States needs the money. Howzabout we simplify the tax code so this kind of dodging is not legal? Congress could work on that, THEN repeal Obamacare. 

"Ah Wish Ah Cu'd Quit Yew"

The duck in the previous post and I feel the same way: I'm gonna miss these guys. Pro tip, start reading around comment 9 and remember that I'm "DaFonz" a nickname given to me by WAMK, because my twitter avatar is a thumbs up. As you can see, the exchange goes from mildly sarcastic to awfully ugly. Since I lack perspective, I invite you guys to advise me to whether I gave as good as I got.

I'm kind of at a loose end now because, where am I going to go for my shrill, ill-sourced arguments? I refuse to get married again just for THAT.  Still, when one door closes another one opens - maybe this is my chance to move on to the big leagues, and troll Glenn Beck for a while.

While I'm at it, I miss Warner Todd Huston as well. But these guys and I have breaking points: mine is childish insults, and theirs is people who question their beliefs. I shrug, I move on. I wish I could say I gave up Where Are My Keys completely, but if history is any indication I'll be back because we all was made for each other.

Oblahblah's Goose Is Cooked!

I'll miss you guys!

All these scandals with the administration this week!

Well, he'll surely be found out for the Marxist muslim that he is and promptly impeached. Republicans will hold hearings, and they will prove he is at the top of it, just like they did with Fast and Furious and Benghazi.  And they way they did before with Whitewater, and Vince Foster's murder at the hands of Hillary Clinton.

You can say these hearings are fruitless and a waste of taxpayer money but without them how would we have proven that Obummer isn't even an American citizen? When will the totally biased MSM come around to giving this stuff the attention it deserves? They're not even REPORTING the very real danger posed by Agenda 21 and Sharia Law!

The whole media, and the majority of Americans, is ANTI-AMERICAN!

(Not to put too fine a point on it, I'm thinking the IRS scandal will go nowhere along with the Benghazi scandal and the other scandals, perhaps because no one can even name the illegal thing that they THINK was done. But in case I'm wrong, take the above for what I really think.)

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

This can't end well for me or the other side, but I'm callin' hypocrisy.

In a March 22, 2007 Time Magazine piece co-bylined with Massimo Calabresi, then-Washington Bureau Chief Jay Carney attacked the Bush administration for “its deliberate and aggressive efforts to expand and protect Executive power.” 

In the piece, Carney and Calabresi charged that “[President George W.] Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have spent six years expanding presidential powers at the expense of Congress and the judiciary, from authorizing domestic wiretapping to limiting habeas corpus and changing bills through signing statements.” 

Carney also complained about the resistance from Bush administration officials to testify on those matters, which at the time included then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove. 

Thanks for that, Daily Caller! What was your opinion about big intrusive government at the time? Fir or agin'?

I can't vouch for the DC folks, but I did get this fundraising letter back in 2007 that might be illustrative. Among other things, it addressed the PATRIOT Act: If Democrats try to gut the USA Patriot Act and other important laws that promote the safety and security of all Americans, should Republicans in Congress fight back? The PATRIOT Act, you see, is the thing that authorizes all this expansion of executive power. Nearly everybody in Congress voted for it, to their discredit. I worried about it then and I worry about it now. But for the moment it's the ill-defined law of the land, which is why any attempt to impeach Obama over it are doomed to failure.

And sure I'd rather Obama ran the country without dipping into that cesspool of executive privilege, but so far no President has been able to resist it's oh-so-convenient charms. If Congress is going to spend all it's time trying to repeal laws it voted for, why not start with that one?

Finally the Benghazi Scandal Explained

These terrorists got in, but they didn’t say they were terrorists until AFTER, and they said it was because of a video but it turns out it wasn’t, and someone said Obama had a drone in the air that could EASILY have taken out the insurgents, but he watched them die, and someone said SOMEONE called off the reinforcements, and why was the guard there so light? There had been memos about the security. MEMOS!

Read more at http://wonkette.com/515950/stop-hitting-yourself-and-other-advice-for-benghazi-obsessed-wingnuts#vSe4t7qrom2jp6cf.99