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Ted Cruz

7 (6.5%)

Rick Santorum

16 (14.8%)

Michelle Bachmann

13 (12%)

Chris Christie

23 (21.3%)

Rand Paul

49 (45.4%)

Total Members Voted: 107

[RedKing]

Congress has hit 10% approval in a new CNN Poll, the lowest ever. It makes you wonder, "Who is the 10%?".


Anyway, Obama has actually not had any role in the recent crisis, appearantly preferring negotiating with Iran to dealing with Congress' latest trouble. He actually hasn't spoken to any in the Republican leadership until yesterday.


Anyway, a brief bit of history and news. Since yesterday, after the House decided a new and stupid CR bill to fund the government, the Senate took a recess until this afternoon, opening accusations against Harry Reid (Democrat in charge of Senate) of delaying (to me, it's more likely he wants to force them to make a decision). Now the Senate is swatting away the stream of amendments the House is passing, including the most recent one, "Delay Individual mandate and cut funding for Congressional healthcare", which is expected to die in the Senate very soon.


As it seems increasingly likely, the Shutdown is being looked at more thoroughly, and it would seem the effects will be unlike the Sequestration in that they are swift and immediate, with even more problems continually added onto a already bad situation as time goes on. For example, Veteran's Benefits will slow, continuing until late October, when they stop entirely.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) has openly broken ranks with his party's plan to again pass budget legislation attacking Obamacare, saying he would vote against Republicans' latest iteration of a continuing resolution—and blasting the highest-profile member of the "Defund Obamacare" movement. Chris Moody of Yahoo writes: "King [said] that if the government did shut down, one man would be responsible. 'Ted Cruz should be blamed,' King said. 'And anybody that follows him.'"

tl;dr = Asshole calls asshole an asshole.

I must say I respect anyone, no matter their views, hell, especially if they're a conservative, who is willing to stand up and say "No, wait, I hate Obamacare, but this is fucking stupid". A increasingly large number are doing that. If nothing else, "The enemy of my Enemy is someone who I can manipulate into pursuing my interests for me".

And Hitler was kind to puppies. Sorry, but Pete King has earned himself the title of Grand Poobah Asshat through years of asshattery. One good move (which has more to do with seeing the GOP's electoral chances going down the drain than with any kind of common decency) does not earn him my respect.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

@MSH: Hmm.....which general? Depending on who it was, I'd consider it....

I'm not deeply familiar with the personalities of our Generals, but I'm sure there's one or two Authoritarians, or even worse, Dominionists among them who'd be willing to go for it if they saw an opening.


As for re:Peter King, I'd rather have the pragmatic asshole GOP than the Tea Party, who are now approaching the lower limit for treason.

[Descan]

You know, there's a quote about Obama is more willing to negotiate with the Iranians than his own congress.

Obviously, this means that the Iranians are more open to compromise than his own congress. :v

[RedKing]

@MSH: Hmm.....which general? Depending on who it was, I'd consider it....

I'm not deeply familiar with the personalities of our Generals, but I'm sure there's one or two Authoritarians, or even worse, Dominionists among them who'd be willing to go for it if they saw an opening.

Good point. No Air Force Generals, then.

As for re:Peter King, I'd rather have the pragmatic asshole GOP than the Tea Party, who are now approaching the lower limit for treason.

I'd rather have neither. It's times like this that I think we should build a new capital on a peninsular island with a retractable bridge and shark-infested waters (for "security" reasons). Then when bullshit like this happens, we pull a lever and retract the bridge.

"Okay, have fun guys. We'll airdrop water and basic rations in every couple of days until you decide to get your shit together. Oh wait...the airdrop guys are government employees. Guess you better hurry up on a compromise then."

[misko27]

Well three things:
1: I don't have very high standards.
2: See my comment on Enemy Mine
3: I'm not respecting him by virtue of "he believe in the thing I believe", I respect him in terms of bucking the lure and tide of the Obstructionist Tea Party. It would be very easy to say "fuck sounding sane I'm in it for my crazies", and there is a very powerful current doing just that.

Plus, a pragmatic GOP really can't do as much damage as these guys.

@MSH: Hmm.....which general? Depending on who it was, I'd consider it....

I'm not deeply familiar with the personalities of our Generals, but I'm sure there's one or two Authoritarians, or even worse, Dominionists among them who'd be willing to go for it if they saw an opening.

Good point. No Air Force Generals, then.

As for re:Peter King, I'd rather have the pragmatic asshole GOP than the Tea Party, who are now approaching the lower limit for treason.

I'd rather have neither. It's times like this that I think we should build a new capital on a peninsular island with a retractable bridge and shark-infested waters (for "security" reasons). Then when bullshit like this happens, we pull a lever and retract the bridge.

"Okay, have fun guys. We'll airdrop water and basic rations in every couple of days until you decide to get your shit together. Oh wait...the airdrop guys are government employees. Guess you better hurry up on a compromise then."

Unfortunately Congress and the air-force are essential personnel. [/missingthepoint]

EDIT:Hehe, Obama has apparently up until now not actually thought that Congress would go through with it, and so he is quickly attempting to direct and mitigate fallout. He hasn't exactly been vacationing, but he has kept his distance. And yet everyone talks as if he was still there, spear-heading everything.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Good point. No Air Force Generals, then.

Air Force? We're in more danger of being taken over by the Commandant of the Coast Guard. Have you seen how Airmen train?

I do see your point about extreme Christians in the Air Force's leadership, though. When I first read JAGS Wonderland I was confused as to why they made Project Pagan an Air Force thing. Some research later...

I'd rather have neither. It's times like this that I think we should build a new capital on a peninsular island with a retractable bridge and shark-infested waters (for "security" reasons). Then when bullshit like this happens, we pull a lever and retract the bridge.

"Okay, have fun guys. We'll airdrop water and basic rations in every couple of days until you decide to get your shit together. Oh wait...the airdrop guys are government employees. Guess you better hurry up on a compromise then."

I'd also rather have neither, but until the GOP takes a permanent vacation in Away I'd rather deal with the pragmatists. The only advantage of the Tea Party is that they're crashing the party quicker than the pragmatists.

I have not forgotten about Operation Flying Vampire Squid. We're just combining two different species of squid, so it can't be that difficult. If they can put jellyfish bioluminescence in pigs, it can't be that difficult to make Flying Vampire Squid and imbue them with a pathological hatred of humans wearing formal clothing.

[Sheb]

What is this Project Pagan you're speaking of? Google only redirect me to your post.

[Descan]

I figured it out by looking up JAGS Wonderland's TVTropes page.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

What is this Project Pagan you're speaking of? Google only redirect me to your post.

Not a real thing. It's the Air Force's attempt in JAGS Wonderland to twist humanity into eldritch literary horrors in order to appease the actual eldritch literary horrors that exist in the other levels of reality so that they don't destroy us all out of disgust.

EDIT:Hehe, Obama has apparently up until now not actually thought that Congress would go through with it, and so he is quickly attempting to direct and mitigate fallout. He hasn't exactly been vacationing, but he has kept his distance. And yet everyone talks as if he was still there, spear-heading everything.

You leave Obama alone! He's been very busy trying to appease the voices in the walls.

[FearfulJesuit]

In the real world, Obama has in fact just signed a bill to keep the military funded. John Cornyn called shutdown inevitable 45 minutes ago, but a quarter hour ago, a bipartisan group of Senators met to try a last-minute attempt at a bill to send to the House. Keep yer fingers crossed.

[Aqizzar]

In the real world, Obama has in fact just signed a bill to keep the military funded. John Cornyn called shutdown inevitable 45 minutes ago, but a quarter hour ago, a bipartisan group of Senators met to try a last-minute attempt at a bill to send to the House. Keep yer fingers crossed.

Failed, by the way.  The Office of Management and Budget has issued the order for federal offices to begin implementing standing furlough plans, and the Senate will reconvene in the morning.  Supposedly, the blockage is the House, which has refused to take a vote on the resolution that the Senate passed in the last hour.

[misko27]

In the real world, Obama has in fact just signed a bill to keep the military funded. John Cornyn called shutdown inevitable 45 minutes ago, but a quarter hour ago, a bipartisan group of Senators met to try a last-minute attempt at a bill to send to the House. Keep yer fingers crossed.

Failed, by the way.  The Office of Management and Budget has issued the order for federal offices to begin implementing standing furlough plans, and the Senate will reconvene in the morning.  Supposedly, the blockage is the House, which has refused to take a vote on the resolution that the Senate passed in the last hour.

Happy Shutdown folks. As of 11:53, we are officially shut. Predictions for length by senior Republicans are hovering around a week. Obama making a speech. I will be up through the night for unrelated reasons, so I will keep people updated.


Actually, this last afternoon has been a ping-pong fight, with 3 separate attempts by the house to pass a bill defunding Obamacare.

[FearfulJesuit]

A week is, I think, generous. Maybe two. I'm loathe to make big predictions twenty minutes after the news breaks.

What is certain is that over the next week or two weeks or however long it takes for a deal to be reached (or, heaven forbid, not reached), the schism that has been brewing in the GOP since the crash in 2008 will be on full display. The party's hardly been a coherent group for the past five years, but so far Boehner has been able to keep the loons in line to avert crises at the very last minute. This is no longer the case. I wouldn't be surprised if a move to depose him as Speaker is proposed and succeeds- which is the very last thing we need, since whoever replaces him will have less than two weeks to corral a band of screaming madmen into a workable solution that a) doesn't crash the world economy and b) doesn't gut every piece of legislation the Democrats have succeeded in enacting over the past half-decade. Remember what Bachmann said tonight: there is a group of Republican congressmen who see even a mere delay in Obamacare's enactment, rather than its total repeal, as an admission of defeat, and they are doing a damn good job of making Boehner and the rest of the GOP their bitch.

Hang on to your seats, and God bless America. Or its shattered remnants, whatever's left after this blows over.

(On the title change: I was desperately hoping that "furlough" rhymed with "ow", but it didn't, so we have no Apocalypse Furloughs. I also was unable to find some suitably brimstony passage from Revelation that sounded good, so this ominous-sounding Latin phrase will suffice until I can come up with something better.) That sounds suitably apocalyptic.

[Descan]

On the other hand, you guys can't have a civil war over this!

There isn't a government to war with!

You're now, literally, a Divided States of America.

More like an alliance with a shared military than an actual country.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

We still have a government, the lights are just off and the switches taped down by raving lunatics.

So, anybody want to make a countdown timer for World Economy Annihilation?