Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

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

[smirk]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/16/meet-serco-the-private-firm-getting-1-2-billion-to-process-your-obamacare-application/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24289650

And these are the kinds of stories the GOP could've been pointing to right now if they had any sense. Important things that should be looked at, sorta thing. It'll likely get rolled over and forgotten though, or at least have its impact severely reduced while everyone on Capitol Hill elects to continue eating paint chips instead.

[alway]

http://behindthewall.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/14/20957509-china-state-media-blasts-us-shutdown-calls-for-a-de-americanized-world?lite

Remember how at the beginning of his term, republicans tried to claim Obama made us lose standing in the world by respecting other countries?

Yeah, no. This shit is how you lose standing in the world.

[smirk]

Before this, if the debt ceiling is breached, the lion's share of blame falls on the Republicans, and polls have backed that. Now....it's an equal-opportunity disaster.

Agreed (though I would personally be all for the sequester rules being heavily reworked). It's quite possible the dems are moving goalposts in an attempt to make a clean CR bill seem like an acceptable compromise - in effect, pulling left to drag the pubs back to center. I'm not at all sure that's a sound strategy, especially at this late date. That moon is leerin' down 0_o

[PTTG??]

Ok, so it's two guys, both of them holding the same hostage, and both of them screaming at the other that they'll shoot her if their demands aren't met.

[da_nang]

Ok, so it's too guys, both of them holding the same hostage, and both of them screaming at the other that they'll shoot her if their demands aren't met.

Meanwhile, the bomb keeps ticking.

[Lord Shonus]

Before this, if the debt ceiling is breached, the lion's share of blame falls on the Republicans, and polls have backed that. Now....it's an equal-opportunity disaster.

Agreed (though I would personally be all for the sequester rules being heavily reworked). It's quite possible the dems are moving goalposts in an attempt to make a clean CR bill seem like an acceptable compromise - in effect, pulling left to drag the pubs back to center. I'm not at all sure that's a sound strategy, especially at this late date. That moon is leerin' down 0_o

That, or giving the moderate Republicans a "fig leaf" (in other words, insisting on something that they don't even want so that they can give it up when asked) to hide behind if they decided to break the deadlock

[misko27]

Ok, so it's too guys, both of them holding the same hostage, and both of them screaming at the other that they'll shoot her if their demands aren't met.

That is one way of putting it, but it's important to recall they are not even remotely one and the same.

First, Polls have always had both parties taking a kick, but the republicans get the kick to the crotch. The GOP is currently losing by a unprecedented 22% margin in a recent poll, and shit like that is not simply ignored by Democrats. They realize they have the upper hand. And frankly, given the most extreme position being removal of a fallen-sword-of-Damocles that sequestration is and essentially putting the government where it was before all these Fiscal cliffs, they are still being far more reasonable.

In News:

• Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, continues his thinly disguised campaigning for President. He has released a ad criticizing dysfunction is Washington, and that Conservative Governors are leading the way to prosperity. I can only wonder who he means by that.
• The Republican House ponders how to stay relevant.
• Veteran GOP reporter says the Republicans are essentially negotiating "terms of surrender".
• Again, while no one was looking, a legitimate proposal occurred. Harry Reid sent McConnell, head of Senate Republicans, his plan, which extends the debt ceiling for 6-9 months, and funds the government till mid-late December at $986 billion, between the $967 temporary sequestration limits republicans demand, and the previous level of government funding at the level of above 1 trillion (can't get exact numbers) Democrats demand. If McConnell accepts, we have our way out.

[Nadaka]

so anyone want to invest in a thunderdome? its the perfect investment, capable of growing in value post apocalypse more than anything else.

[smirk]

• Again, while no one was looking, a legitimate proposal occurred. Harry Reid sent McConnell, head of Senate Republicans, his plan, which extends the debt ceiling for 6-9 months, and funds the government till mid-late December at $986 billion, between the $967 temporary sequestration limits republicans demand, and the previous level of government funding at the level of above 1 trillion (can't get exact numbers) Democrats demand. If McConnell accepts, we have our way out.

Ah, just found it. Linky link.

[lue]

• Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, continues his thinly disguised campaigning for President. He has released a ad criticizing dysfunction is Washington, and that Conservative Governors are leading the way to prosperity. I can only wonder who he means by that.

Quite clearly he is talking about Bob McDonnell.

• Again, while no one was looking, a legitimate proposal occurred. Harry Reid sent McConnell, head of Senate Republicans, his plan, which extends the debt ceiling for 6-9 months, and funds the government till mid-late December at $986 billion, between the $967 temporary sequestration limits republicans demand, and the previous level of government funding at the level of above 1 trillion (can't get exact numbers) Democrats demand. If McConnell accepts, we have our way out.

Ah, just found it. Linky link.

Color me very hopeful. That is a plan I can get behind.

Also, considering recent topics of discussion on this thread, you'll never guess what today's XKCD is.

[RedKing]

For those who think this may have defanged the Tea Partiers....

Exhibit A.

As usual, when they're getting their asses kicked, they just double-down on the crazy.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Well, doubling-down on the crazy does ultimately defang them. While it increases the insane patriotic fervor of their true believers, everybody else is driven away.

[Lord Shonus]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/14/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+Politics%29

The White House meeting on the proposed Senate deal appears to be delayed, although it is unclear if this is a good or bad sign. It could signal a dangerous problem, but could also suggest that negotiations are going too well to interrupt at this time.

[Chaoswizkid]

Damnit, government, I would likely have a job with the DoD if not for all of your shenanigans, and then I'd be in a very good position for my student loans. Instead, I'm not.

Ugh.

[lue]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/14/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+Politics%29

The White House meeting on the proposed Senate deal appears to be delayed, although it is unclear if this is a good or bad sign. It could signal a dangerous problem, but could also suggest that negotiations are going too well to interrupt at this time.

According to that page and this link:

• Again, while no one was looking, a legitimate proposal occurred. Harry Reid sent McConnell, head of Senate Republicans, his plan, which extends the debt ceiling for 6-9 months, and funds the government till mid-late December at $986 billion, between the $967 temporary sequestration limits republicans demand, and the previous level of government funding at the level of above 1 trillion (can't get exact numbers) Democrats demand. If McConnell accepts, we have our way out.

Ah, just found it. Linky link.

it seems that the postponement is just to allow Reid and McConnell more time to work out their deal. There's nothing about this to suggest to me that things are going downhill instead of negotiating taking a while sometimes.

For those who think this may have defanged the Tea Partiers....

I'm pretty sure they have been defanged in the eyes of most of the rest of the country, they're just too crazy to notice the pain of that operation .