Posts by jason330

This Red State diary departs from the usual GOP talking points about this shutdown being the President's fault due to his unwillingness to compromise.

This is About Shutting Down Obamacare By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | October 2nd, 2013 at 11:42 PM | 2 Congressmen, this is about shutting down Obamacare. Democrats keep talking about our refusal to compromise. They don’t realize our compromise is defunding Obamacare. We actually want to repeal it. This is it. Our endgame is to leave the whole thing shut down until the President defunds Obamacare. And if he does not defund Obamacare, we leave the whole thing shut down. After all, if the government is not spending any money, when we collide with the debt ceiling in two weeks, we should not have to worry since the government is spending so little money. This shutdown is about Obamacare. Congressmen, do not take your eyes off the ball. This is not about a grand bargain to restructure the tax code, reform entitlements, or raise revenue. This is about shutting down Obamacare.

Just as Republicans live in a Fox News bubble of dis-reality, John carney has his own DC bi-partisan bubble which the simple fact that Republicans are fucking shit up cannot penetrate. As you read this bullshit, keep in mind the fact that John Carney's "Republican friends" all voted for John Boehner to be speaker and continue to support Boehner in his quest to fuck shit up.

For the record, I'm not at all swayed by the "if this had been a Republican Governor" appeal below. The fact is I don't know much about this issue, but trust the DL community to bring the pertinent facts to light.

This is not so much of a tip as it is as a request for DL to air the issues of The Data Centers, LLC. that is proposing to build a 248MW power plant at the old Chrysler site in Newark. I feel that if this had been Ruth Ann Minner or a Republican governor, the governor's support for this project at this early stage would have been addressed on this site. Plus, Markell is supporting something with such a specious premise: TDC can't make enough money running a data center so they also want to be a power plant? Huh? And without PSC review (and public process) because its a cogen facility. Nice. What I think needs to be aired are the real issues behind why TDC is building the power plant. Its not because they need the power (there are 3 high voltage transmission lines that serve the site), but because they are depending on revenue from power sales. Yet Markell tries to sell the proposal as "necessary" for the data center. All in the name of jobs. Same arguments he trotted out to reopen the Delaware City Refinery Corp (PBF). Unsurprising considering that TDC is being represented by Markell's former Deputy Chief of Staff who was point person on PBF. Its a bad plan for Newark and its hard to understand why there doesn't seem to be much on this site about it. Thanks for considering.

That's going to be the headline on Politico in two hours if things continue on the track that they are on now.

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans will soon present a third proposal to keep the federal government funded, but it seems all but certain to be rejected by the Senate, just like the two that came before it. With just hours to go before the government shuts down, the office of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) confirmed that it will put together a new continuing resolution with amendments attached to it that will delay Obamacare's individual mandate for one year and end the employer healthcare contribution for members of Congress and their staff.

Whatever happens in congress over the next 24-48 hours, it is clear that we've entered a new phase of American democracy. In this phase, the notion that we can have rational debates and honest policy disagreements that are settled reasonably has flown out the window. Instead we have one party that is determined to fuck shit up in order to cleanse the country by fire. That means they should lose elections, but they have billions on their side, a willingness to flat out lie, and a committed core of ovine followers, so they are competitive in every election in spite of themselves. All that raises the question, What next? Think 123 does a great job imagining what life will be like before it gets any better:

In a way, New Age Conservative extremism is no different than the Old Age Communist extremism. It’s based on absolute self-certitude centered around a manifesto. It took the USSR seventy years to finally prove that manifestos and theories are not a fit way to govern. A few years of Ayn Rand manifesto based government, dismantling the safety nets, destroying Federal agencies, America will see the folly of trying to govern by ideology. Communism died by it’s own hand. Aynrandism might have to find that way to the ash heap of history too.

When Walt confessed to Skylar that he wasn't doing it for his family, but for himself he was confessing for all of us middle aged guys with daily secret Walter Mitty fantasies of wealth, power and a life free of the bourgeoisie clutter that comes along with a life lived according to expectations. Many marriages end because someone in the relationship can't continue to suck it up looking at that ceramic crying clown on the sideboard, and not flake out. Walt flaked out on a grand scale and in doing so brought guys like myself along to glimpse the "what if" possibilities of just saying "fuck it" and letting our Id take the wheel. In the end Walt paid dearly for his folly and most of us know that the price for letting go is far too high. But that doesn't stop us from imagining what different choices would mean to us on a daily basis. Science says that the difference between humans and animals is that we are tool users. If that is true the tool that defines us is our imagination. Animals are locked into a practical day to day existence that never dwells on the past or imagines a different future. We, as humans, do both. Was the misery and death Walt left in his wake worth his few moments of "feeling alive" and being on top? By any objective measure it was not. And yet, he seemed to die with a gleam in his eye. He had lived a horribly, destructive, selfish life. But in the end he killed Nazis and freed Jesse. Not bad for a chemistry teacher.

Just as I called it early and correctly for Rick Perry*, I'm calling it for Cruz. Nobody is going to be able to get between him and the teabags who control the GOP nomination. The more I read about the right's new diabolical craze-bag idol, the more convinced I am that he will be the next Romney.