Everything you ever wanted to know about the Federal Government shutdown

And weren't afraid to ask...

And one more thing:

This is and Republican-conceived, Republican-planned and Republican-executed Federal Government shutdown.

And no one else's.

Rep. John Boehner, hypocrite extraordinaire

Channel surfing a few days ago, I saw where Representative John Boehner gave a speech to the National Association of Manufacturers on the economy.  Here's a link to the original:

“We Are A Nation of Builders”: Congressman Boehner Delivers

Her's video for it (if you can stomach it):

Speaker Boehner Remarks on Manufacturing

In it, he complains, at length, repeatedly, in different ways, on how slow and weak our economy is.

Seriously.  He actually does.

When I heard it, when I heard him whining about how poor our economy is, part of me wanted to laugh, sure, but far more of me wanted to scream.

For Rep. Boehner or ANY Republican to complain about a weak US economy and not enough growth or jobs would, in fact, be laughable, if it weren't so tragic and, in the case of the Republicans, hypocritical.

Not once, since 2008, since Democratic Party President Obama took office have any Republicans introduced even ONE bill in our Congress to create jobs. Not one.

Not one jobs bill, not one construction bill, not one bill proposed to update our infrastructure nationwide which, I think it's safe to say we're finding is taking us down a decidedly bad path both for that lack of jobs but also for the highway maintenance and updating and expanding we need.

I say again, we all know all too well how badly Missouri needs our Interstate 70 improved and updated, and that's from Illinois and St. Louis on the East, all the way to Kansas and Kansas City on the West.

And then, of course, there are the two bridges that collapsed in the last year--the first in Minneapolis and the other in Washington State.

Yet he--Mr. Boehner--has the nerve, the unmitigated gall to lament on and complain of a lack of jobs in the country and the weak economy.

What chutzpah.

The putz.

You, me, America and the Congressional "fiscal cliff"

Yes, our own US Congress created this "fiscal cliff" and now they're bringing us closer and closer to it. They created it and they're the only ones who can bring us away from it.

How's that for irony?

And hypocrisy?

Want to know what "uncertainty" is responsible for a lack of growth in our economy? Look no further, this is it. This from the Wall Street Journal yesterday:

Firms Hit Brakes Before Fiscal Cliff

Here is why dozens of chief executives have inserted themselves into the debate over reducing the federal budget deficit: Some say uncertainty over the looming "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts already is hurting their business.

Here is why dozens of chief executives have inserted themselves into the debate over reducing the federal budget deficit: Some say uncertainty over the looming "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts already is hurting their business.

The "fiscal cliff" is shorthand for the double whammy set to take place at the end of the year. That is when spending cuts enacted to end a 2011 standoff over the U.S. debt ceiling are to take effect. At the same time, tax cuts first passed under George W. Bush will expire.

The spending cuts were designed to be so unpopular that they would prompt Congress to adopt a more sophisticated deficit-cutting plan. So far, that hasn't worked and officials of both parties don't expect serious talks until after the Nov. 6 election, which will go a long way to determining the course of negotiations.

The urgency of the situation was underscored Thursday when chief executives of more than 80 big U.S. corporations released a statement urging Congress to reduce the federal deficit with tax-revenue increases as well as spending cuts...

...There is no doubt most companies would suffer if the U.S. goes over the cliff. Economists say the tax increases and spending cuts would slow economic growth, and could push the U.S. back into recession.

Email your representative in the House. Email your senators. Let them know this is completely, totally and utterly unacceptable and that they need to get back to work. They need to get back to Washington and they need to compromise on this most-important of issues right now.

To close, a side note to our Representatives and Senators--get back to work, you slugs.

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203400604578074920349130776.html

A flashback, updated (and tongue-in-cheek)

I'm so old, I remember when this came out.

Great article from the UK on money in our politics

This article has been out for at least a week and it's a good and important one: Time to get corporate cash out of Congress It is on this one issue that I think all average Americans can agree, regardless of political party or affiliation: "...the US Chamber of Commerce, front outfit for a consortium of corporations, has bragged on its website about outspending everyone in Washington, which is easy to do when Chevron, Goldman Sachs and News Corp are writing you seven-figure checks. This really matters. The Chamber of Commerce spent more money on the 2010 elections than the Republican and Democratic National Committees combined, and 94% of those dollars went to climate-change deniers. That helps explain why the House voted last year to say that global warming isn't real. It also explains why 'our' representatives vote, year in and year out, for billions of dollars' worth of subsidies for fossil-fuel companies. If there was ever an industry that didn't need subsidies, it would be this one: they make more money each year than any enterprise in the history of money. Not only that, but we've known how to burn coal for 300 years and oil for 200. Those subsidies are simply payoffs. Companies give small gifts to legislators, and in return get large ones back – and we're the ones who are actually paying." The fact is, folks, we need to get the big, ugly, corrupting influence of the wealthy's and corporations money out of our election system and so, our government. We need tough, strict, accountable, verifiable, prosecutable campaign finance reform. If we don't do this, we'll never get our government back for us, the people. It will remain as it is, for the wealthy and corporations. Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/05/time-to-get-corporate-cash-out-of-congress

John Boehner & the Republican leadership, once again the tail wags the dog

Once more, John Boehner, his office and the Republican leadership make a deal with the Democrats in Congress, take it back to his people--the rest of the political party--and the extreme right wingers kill it: Boehner Says Two-Month Tax Cut Bill 'Just Kicking Can Down the Road' A day after the Senatevoted 89-10 to extend the payroll tax cut by two months, Republicans in the House are signaling their displeasure with the short-term fix, saying action should have been taken to resolve the issue for the whole year. It's difficult, at least, if not impossible, to work with these people. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/boehner-says-two-month-tax-cut-bill-just-202122428.html

Let's see if Mr. Boehner says the same thing tomorrow

This evening, after President Obama's speech about jobs and creating them, Speaker (R-Ohio) of the House John Boehner was quoted as saying "The proposals the President outlined tonight merit consideration." The plans "merit consideration." Well, we'll see. Let's see what happens tomorrow, after Speaker Boehner has spoken to the Tea Partiers and other extremists in the Right Wing of the Republican Party. So frequently in the past, Mr. Boehner has given positive signs that something or other would--or even might--work, only to have a conversation with those lunatic extremists who tell him to say "No, that won't work." Here's hoping this will go through. We need the United States to be successful. And cohesive and cooperating. Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/08/jobs-speech-obama_n_954916.html

HOORAY for these Catholics!!

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

Good on you, Catholics!

Speaking truth--and fairness and sheer decency--to power!

Great news out today from the Think Progress blog:

Catholic Scholars To Boehner: Your Agenda Defies ‘Church’s Most Ancient Moral Teachings’ On Helping Poor

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will give the commencement address at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. this weekend. Ahead of the visit, dozens of faculty members from the school and other other Catholic universities are writing to Boehner — who is himself an observant Catholic — challenging his willingness to “gut” social programs while protecting “new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.” “Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings” of caring for the poor, they write:

Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.

The 2012 budget you shepherded to passage in the House of Representatives guts long-established protections for the most vulnerable members of society. It is particularly cruel to pregnant women and children, gutting Maternal and Child Health grants and slashing $500 million from the highly successful Women Infants and Children nutrition program. When they graduate from WIC at age 5, these children will face a 20% cut in food stamps. The House budget radically cuts Medicaid and effectively ends Medicare. It invokes the deficit to justify visiting such hardship upon the vulnerable, while it carves out $3 trillion in new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

The letter goes on to cite a separate letter from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, written last month, which also raised moral issues with the GOP budget. “A just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons,” the bishops wrote, adding:

Converting Medicare into a voucher program could shift rising health care costs to vulnerable seniors and those who are poor without controlling these costs. We also fear the human and social costs of substantial cuts to programs that serve families working to escape poverty, especially food and nutrition, child development and education, and affordable housing.

Indeed, according to official Vatican doctrine, “The responsibility for attaining the common good, besides falling to individual persons, belongs also to the State.” “Tax revenues and public spending take on crucial economic importance,” the Vatican guidance continues, because “[j]ust, efficient and effective public financing will havevery positive effects.”

“Speaker Boehner’s budget eviscerates vital programs that protect the poor, the elderly, the homeless and at-risk pregnant women and children. This is not pro-life,” Stephen Schneck, Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at Catholic and a signatory of the letter, said in press release.

And here might be my favorite part of this of all:

In January, the Pope personally wrote to Boehner regarding the new Speaker’s opposition to health care reform, saying, “I have been scandalized that a great and religious country like yours has taken so long to guarantee health care as a right.” The Church has also voiced support for labor unions.

This, to me, is the kind of things churches should be standing up for and haven't, particularly the Right-wing, "Conservative" arms of churches which have  also aligned themselves so closely and shamelessly with the Republicans, while all the while these same Rethugs are handing out tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations and, as said above, eviscerating services to the lowest classes.


It seems there may be some shame left in the world after all.


How does that saying go from their Bible about "the wealthy man" and that "eye of the needle", anyway?

Oh, yeah, here it is:  

"And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."     

King James Bible

Everyone seems to have totally forgotten that one, haven't they?  Hell, we don't just envy the rich, we worship them now.

They just quote and repeat Groucho Marx

If the president says anything, they know their response--

"Whatever it is, I'm against it." 
— Groucho Marx

A giveaway to the rich, from the Republicans and Right Wing

Republicans and the Republican Party:   For the wealthy in America

Political campaigns: good news/bad news

The good news? It's against John Boehner. The bad news? This is the beginning, I think, of ugly advertising attacks that will be unleashed this Fall, before the election, particularly since the Supreme Court ruled corporations and organizations can spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns. Get ready, folks. Ugly political campaigning is about to get a LOT worse.

Quote of the day--"Other than the ones that want to kill us, Tea Party members are just 'average...Americans'"

Rep. John Boehner: I’ve been to my share of tea party events. … Let me tell you about these events. Yeah, there’s some disaffected Republicans there. There are always some Democrats there. Always a couple of anarchists who want to kill all of us in public office. But I’ll tell you this: 75 percent of the people who show up at these events are the most average, everyday Americans you’ve ever met. … As I said earlier this year, we should listen to them, we should work with them, and we should walk amongst them. Link to original post: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/07/22/boehner-tea-party-violent-anarchist/

This is it for the Dems, I think

There was a terrific article in The New York Times by columnist David Brooks this week, with a fictional account of how the Democrats seemed to make a "deal with the devil" to get the banks to collapse and a big oil company to have an environmental disaster, etc., all so it could prove to the American people we need government. And regulation. As it turned out, it all happened but the American people still didn't end up believing in government for solutions. Not big government, anyway. It turns out polls of late are telling of Americans turning away from Democrats. Now, news out today tells of a new, additonal twist in this ongoing story: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said in a speech Tuesday that Democrats would have to consider passing only a short-term extension of the middle-class tax breaks, which expire at the end of this year. In the longer term, taxes likely will be going up, at least for some people, he suggested. Okay, so if Democrats are seen as not having solutions AND spending like crazy (like Geo. W. Bush on steroids) AND they want or need to up a middle-class tax hike, well, ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you, it may be the responsible thing to do, what with our big Federal Deficit, but it won't win the Democrats any friends. Far from it. People will jump their ship even more than they already are, I'll wager. People are "mad as hell" and "not going to take it anymore." However they themselves mean it and whatever that means. Link to original story: http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/109897/middle-class-tax-boost-is-broached?mod=taxes-advice_strategy

Three sides of three prominent Republican mouths

First up, Rep. John "Get Outta My Sunlight" Boehner:

Boehner Claims He’s Said ‘From The Beginning’ That BP Should Pay For All Oil Clean Up

Click here to read about this beauty.

"Boehner the Bonehead" first says BP and the government are both responsible for the oil spill and clean up, then he says only BP is, then he goes back to saying both of them. It becomes clear he isn't sure what he himself means. Crazy.

Next, from Texas Governor Rick "Don't Make Me Think" Perry:

After Balancing His Budget With The Stimulus, Perry Again Says He’ll Reject Federal Funding

You can read all about that here.

Keep in mind, the good Governor has done this before--taking Federal money for Texas but claiming it was all so horrible, virtually simultaneously.

And lastly, from Karl "I'll Just Shout Over You" Rove:

Rove Says Obama Should Hear From Academics On Oil Spill, Then Complains He Is Surrounded By Academics

Check that out here.

And some of the American electorate believe this crap. Or they profess to, anyway. They're comfortable with it all and the Party and these people.

Yikes.

If you weren't familiar with the phrase "talking out of both sides of one's mouth", you should be now.