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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

[Aqizzar]

How many wackos thought Bush was behind 9/11?

Yeah but, how many of those people were actually in Congress?  That's where this is really starting to come off the rails.

I'll say it again -- the uber-rich created a monster and it got away from them. They can kill it (and probably will) November 2014 by starving it of funding. But they can't stop it until then.

I know they're almost old-hat at this point, but I think it is worth remembering that the Koch brothers' political foundations dropped a quarter of a billion so far in 2013, with no actual elections to win, and only started saying they were neither for or against a federal default until last week.  I know we always assume that big money interest are also wholly rational interests, that they'll always go for what makes the most business sense, whatever political bullshit it has to be couched in.  At this point, I think we have to seriously consider the possibility that some of these Tea Party bankrollers actually do believe some of the crazy crap they pay people to say.

If business money in politics is supposed to be an investment, the ten figures they alone have dropped over the past four years is just too much not to see as ideological over fiscal.

[smirk]

I question if they can. The Tea Party may have started as astroturf puppet, but with enough true believers even the most hollow movement can become a real grassroots boy. Especially considering at least some of those true believers are now congressmen.

Unlikely to apply in this case. The "true believers" in the Tea Party generally aren't in it because of deep personal beliefs or prejudices the way the Know Nothings, KKK, and similar movements were. The Tea Party machine is kept fueled by an endless supply of propaganda catered to exploit deep fears (such as the NRA's bullshit machine, the "Death Panels" garbage, or the Birther movement), but the "true believers have fairly loose agreement on basic policies, and there's no One Big Issue to hold them together the way Immigrants and Blacks were in the past. Cut that propaganda lifeline, and the movement will die, particularly since the bulk of the group is in the higher age brackets and is less adept with the use of the internet as an idea machine.

Cutting the propaganda lifeline wouldn't be nearly so easy as the saying of it, though. Media-industrial complex takes care of that. And the fact that they don't have a One Big Issue could actually make them more resilient, in that they can more easily shift shapes and colors when they need to adapt. They don't necessarily need specifics when the simple drumbeat of 'us vs them' has been working so well. I hope this debt fight will be the end of 'em, but somehow I really don't think that'll be the case.

[lue]

Dawn of
The Final Day
-24 Hours Remain-

Requisite Music. I really hope I don't have to share the Final Hours music 18 hours from now...

As an entirely irrelevant aside, I'll just note that when I was in Brazil, I told my biology teacher that I had learned in American public school that the Earth was six thousand years old, and asked why, if all these animals had really existed, nobody had ever found their birth certificates.

I also once gave a presentation on the War of Northern Aggression. I was a terrible person, but nobody ever seemed to pick up on the fact that the American vision I was selling was a half-coherent pastiche of Jack Kerouac and World Net Daily.

You fail to tell us what your teacher's responses were. (I'm guessing from ¶2 they didn't react much to it, but I'm still really interested in their reaction to the 6000 years thing, if it was interesting.)

I personally don't think it'll be enough for the money-people to withdraw support of the Tea Party, they'll have to pump all the money they just saved into moderate Republicans and/or Democrats. Perhaps even a little extra, especially to compensate for any money-people who don't withdraw their support.

I know we always assume that big money interest are also wholly rational interests, that they'll always go for what makes the most business sense, whatever political bullshit it has to be couched in.  At this point, I think we have to seriously consider the possibility that some of these Tea Party bankrollers actually do believe some of the crazy crap they pay people to say.

I at least hope Wall Street has their heads (however far you're able to consider Wall Street as one synchronized whole).

[MetalSlimeHunt]

(And that's how I learned my clock is 10 seconds off from forum time.)

[misko27]

-snip-

Crap, missed it by a millisecond. Well, The Senate has gone to bed for the night; leaving their almost finished compromise waiting one or two minor details to be worked out; and I too shall go to sleep, as the PSAT is tomorrow.

[lue]

-img snip-

(And that's how I learned my clock is 10 seconds off from forum time.)

Funny you should mention that. I got über-paranoid in the last seconds, all of a sudden, that perhaps my system clock is off from the forum's. Fortunately, the timestamps on some new replies told me it wasn't too bad for me.

[misko27]

-img snip-

(And that's how I learned my clock is 10 seconds off from forum time.)

Funny you should mention that. I got über-paranoid in the last seconds, all of a sudden, that perhaps my system clock is off from the forum's. Fortunately, the timestamps on some new replies told me it wasn't too bad for me.

I pressed the button right as your's was in the system. I pressed it before your timestamp, but that millisecond makes all the difference.

I will totally do the moon crashing onethough. Or the town being saved, whichever.

[Lagslayer]

they have been essentially in a different world then us, one where Obama pushed aside weak-willed Republicans and Democrats and established his own personal dynasty, and imposes his vision of the world more firmly with each passing day.

I was already thinking about Kurgan because of what I just posted in the sad thread.  Then I read this, and immediately began associating this song with Obama... somehow I'm stuck on this now and having way too much fun with it.

I was thinking something more along the lines of this song.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I pressed the button right as your's was in the system. I pressed it before your timestamp, but that millisecond makes all the difference.

Yeah well, my video was better, so there.

[PTTG??]

It would be so wonderful if maybe, just maybe, someone besides a democrat or a republican was seriously considered as a president. The last time this happened, we got Theodore Roosevelt.

[etgfrog]

I generally dislike politics for this reason, too much extreme views and hating others just because they don't agree with you. I'm now sad that not even a year after I decide to go to college that this happens which means no more GI Bill to pay for it.

[lue]

I pressed the button right as your's was in the system. I pressed it before your timestamp, but that millisecond makes all the difference.

Yeah well, my video was better, so there.

For what it's worth I'm imagining my generic looming danger music: Judas' Death, specifically the final organ/electric guitar melody ("My mind is in darkness now...")

And in the interests of returning to the topic at hand, and to exemplify the fact that I should probably set up a Google News Alert for political polls, the whole debacle is, perhaps unsurprisingly, affecting the upcoming Virgina governor's race. Also unsurprisingly, it's hurting the GOP candidate more than the Dem candidate.

It would be so wonderful if maybe, just maybe, someone besides a democrat or a republican was seriously considered as a president. The last time this happened, we got Theodore Roosevelt.

We need to make some changes to the whole election business before a third party has any hope of a chance, realistically. The shutdown is causing far more blame for the GOP than the Dems, so the outcome will likely be more Democrats instead of a third prominent party. (Were the blame on the Dems equally harsh, however...)

[RedKing]

-snip-

Crap, missed it by a millisecond. Well, The Senate has gone to bed for the night; leaving their almost finished compromise waiting one or two minor details to be worked out; and I too shall go to sleep, as the PSAT is tomorrow.

You forgot to mention that the Senate compromise, so lovingly crafted by the elder statesmen of the upper chamber....will meet a horrible flaming death when it gets to the House (also known as the "Short Bus" Chamber of Congress).

We are so utterly fucked.

[alway]

-snip-

Crap, missed it by a millisecond. Well, The Senate has gone to bed for the night; leaving their almost finished compromise waiting one or two minor details to be worked out; and I too shall go to sleep, as the PSAT is tomorrow.

You forgot to mention that the Senate compromise, so lovingly crafted by the elder statesmen of the upper chamber....will meet a horrible flaming death when it gets to the House (also known as the "Short Bus" Chamber of Congress).

We are so utterly fucked.

Na, the house would have no other choice but to pass it. If they didn't McCain would probably ride into the House on the back of McConnell, running up and down the aisle, whacking people on the back of the head as he passed, all the while rambling about how things were harder back in his day and how you kids shouldn't be screwing it up because you have things so easy because back in our day we.... Or at least that's what would happen if there was any sanity left in Congress.

[Chaoswizkid]

It would be so wonderful if maybe, just maybe, someone besides a democrat or a republican was seriously considered as a president. The last time this happened, we got Theodore Roosevelt.

I think with the political unrest felt by the younger generations, coupled with more attention to a multi-party system (actually broadcasted by RT and advertised in mass using social media), as well as independents recently gaining government positions (I think a couple senators or representatives are classified as independent? If not senators or representatives, then just some position), there will be some hope of seeing that in the future. Unfortunately, the candidate that will be able to take advantage of those feelings will probably be from this generation, meaning we likely won't see anything for another 20-30 years. Hope I'm wrong and its sooner, though.