Here is Putin's puppet calling for a government shutdown. Update!

Courtesy of CNN: 

The comment, which came during a White House meeting on the violent MS-13 gang, was not well received in the room. Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Virginia Republican who represents a district with thousands of federal workers, confronted Trump about the remark and urged him to avoid another government shutdown. 

"If we don't change it, let's have a shutdown," Trump said of the nation's immigration laws. "We'll do a shutdown and it's worth it for our country. I'd love to see a shutdown if we don't get this stuff taken care of."

He added: "If we have to shut it down because the Democrats don't want safety, and unrelated but still related, they don't want to take care of our military, then shut it down. We'll go with another shutdown." 

The government will run out of funding Thursday if negotiators can't strike a deal.

Just to remind you, NO president has ever called for a government shutdown before.

The guy in the White House is supposed to make sure that the government continues to run smoothly, not turn off like a light switch.

Do you want to know who DOES want to see a dysfunctional American government?

You got it.

Update: When I wrote this post it did not appear that there was a budget deal on the horizon.

While I was at the gym that seems to have changed.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced a deal with Senate Democrats to fund the government and set spending levels for defense and nondefense programs over the next two years. 

The legislation would avert a government shutdown on Friday, when federal funding is due to expire, and boost defense and nondefense programs. 

It also lifts the debt ceiling to March 2019, which White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders hailed as a decision that would move Congress away from "crisis-to-crisis budgeting." 

The deal is backed by McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and will almost certainly be cleared as part of a stopgap funding measure by the Senate before a Feb. 8 deadline to prevent a shutdown.

There are also reports that the House is on board with this as well, which would seem to indicate that it is a done deal. 

Sadly it appears they kicked the DACA can down the road, which is unfortunate, but it looks like Trump has been denied both his wall and the government shutdown that he appeared to be drooling over.

Chuck Schumer withdraws his offer of money for Trump's border wall.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Chuck Schumer is taking his big spending boost for Donald Trump’s border wall off the table. 

The Senate minority leader, through an aide, informed the White House that he was retracting the offer he made last week to give Trump well north of the $1.6 billion in wall funding Trump had asked for this year, according to two Democrats. And now they say Trump will simply not get a better deal than that on his signature campaign promise. 

Schumer “took it off,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “He called the White House yesterday and said it’s over.” 

After the publication of this story, a spokesman clarified that the wall offer was retracted Sunday, rather than Monday. Schumer told reporters that he withdrew his suggestion, offered midday Friday, because it was meant to be part of a broader package that would have averted a government shutdown.

Yeah, makes sense.

Especially since Trump agreed verbally to the deal put forward by the Democrats, only to do a 180 when pressured by the conservative anti-immigration Republicans.

Of course this irritated Trump who took to Twitter to complain.

Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA. We must have safety and security, together with a strong Military, for our great people!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2018

"Cryin' Chuck Scumer?" Seriously?

It is looking more and more as if we are not going to have a deal before this next deadline on February 8th.

Which means this temporary stopgap to avoid a government shutdown may be very temporary indeed.

But hey, at least the Democrats were able to get the CHIP program back up and running.

Good news! Your government is back up and running. Well at least temporarily.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins: "Today is a day to celebrate because we have shown that a determined group of senators working together across the aisle can result in positive action" https://t.co/xXFLArURok

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 22, 2018

Courtesy of CNBC: 

Senators were optimistic they had the votes to end the government shutdown Monday after leaving meetings more confident about a compromise deal to allow Congress to pass a short-term funding bill. 

On Monday afternoon, the chamber advanced a stopgap bill to keep the government open through Feb. 8 by a comfortable 81-18 margin. The chamber still needs to approve its final passage. 

"We will vote today to reopen the government," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. 

Schumer said Democrats have received assurances that the Senate will take on immigration issues, such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he intends to allow debate on immigration before Feb. 8.

Oh Democrats, Democrats, Democrats, when will you ever learn?

Mitch McConnell is never going to keep that promise, and if he does, he is guaranteed to sabotage the process.

Here is the message you hear when you try to reach the public comment line at the White House.

@jaketapper I didn't believe it. So I called. @WhiteHouse comment line recording pic.twitter.com/WxlS9PUrd0

— Favian Quezada (@FavianQuezada) January 20, 2018

Courtesy of The Hill:

The White House's public comment telephone line isn't accepting calls amid the ongoing government shutdown, and its recently updated recorded message blames it on Democrats. 

Upon calling the comment line Sunday morning at (202) 456-1111, a woman's voice reads the following message: 

“Thank you for calling the White House. Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today because congressional Democrats are holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate," she says. 

“Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down," she continues. “In the meantime, you can leave a comment for the president at www.whitehouse.gov/contact. We look forward to taking your calls as soon as the government reopens.” 

The call then disconnects.

That is an official White House recording. Your tax dollars paid for that.

Blaming the Democrats for this is the current GOP tactic, but unfortunately for them it is hard to make that case when you control the White House, the Senate, and the Congress.

Privately even Trump admits that it is likely HE will be blamed for this shut down.

In case you missed it, Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, completely kneecapped Donald Trump yesterday.

!!@SenDuckworth: "I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft-dodger. And I have a message for cadet bone spurs: If you cared about our military, you'd stop baiting Kim Jong-Un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops .. in danger." pic.twitter.com/BBXVna819m

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) January 20, 2018

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

"Does he even know that there are service members who are in harm's way right now, watching him, looking for their commander-in-chief to show leadership, rather than [trying] to deflect blame?" Duckworth said. "Or that his own Pentagon says that the short-term funding plans he seems intent on pushing is actually harmful to not just the military, but to our national security?"

"I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible," she continued. "Sadly, this is something that the current occupant of the Oval Office does not seem to care to do – and I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft-dodger." 

"And I have a message for cadet bone spurs: If you cared about our military, you'd stop baiting Kim Jong-Un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops, and millions of innocent civilians, in danger."

"Cadet bone spurs." Damn, that was epic!

Women like Senator Duckworth, who does not mince words when it comes to calling Trump out over his hypocrisy, are going to help inspire the blue wave that is coming in 2018 to wash the GOP dead wood out of the House and Senate and replace it with energetic, hard working, and likely female progressives who are going to get this country back on the right track.

Personally I can hardly wait.

Let's make this the final word for the day.

Courtesy of CBS News: 

A Senate attempt to move forward with a short-term spending bill vote failed Friday night, sending the government into a shutdown on the one-year anniversary of President Trump's inauguration.

Tomorrow's Trump tweets should be epic. 

Frustrated at budget which appears to be a huge win for Democrats, Donald Trump advocates for a government shutdown. Update!

The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there! We....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2017

either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good "shutdown" in September to fix mess!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2017

Gee, who pissed in his corn flakes?

Oh here we go, courtesy of McClatchy: 

Democrats are elated over the $1.07 trillion budget deal, which reads almost like an Obama administration blueprint. 

“Early on in this debate, Democrats clearly laid out our principles,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “At the end of the day, this is an agreement that reflects those principles.”

Gone is money for President Donald Trump’s border wall or efforts to deny Obamacare subsidies. There’s billions more for non-defense spending, and no changes to President Barack Obama’s Cuba policy. 

“It’s no different than if Hillary was elected; it’s a huge loss, and I’m livid. Paul Ryan’s House is a not conservative House,” said tea party Republican Art Halvorson, who nearly defeated Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., in the 2016 primary with 49.4 percent of the vote. 

I think Trump is learning the hard way that the job of president is not for stubby fingered man babies.

Still somebody should probably tell Tangerine Hitler that presidents as a rule do NOT call for, nor support, government shutdowns.

After all they ARE the fucking government.

Update: By the way Mitch McConnell just shot down any idea of ending the filibuster:

"There is an overwhelming majority on a bipartisan basis that is not interested in changing the way the Senate operates on the legislative calendar," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters. 

Damn it is just not Donald Trump's day today is it?

Trump goes on Twitter tirade against Democrats for not letting him do whatever the hell he wants.

The Democrats want to shut government if we don't bail out Puerto Rico and give billions to their insurance companies for OCare failure. NO!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017

I want to help our miners while the Democrats are blocking their healthcare.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017

I promise to rebuild our military and secure our border. Democrats want to shut down the government. Politics!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017

What's more important? Rebuilding our military - or bailing out insurance companies? Ask the Democrats.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017

Democrats jeopardizing the safety of our troops to bail out their donors from insurance companies. It is time to put #AmericaFirst🇺🇸

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017

Democrats used to support border security — now they want illegals to pour through our borders.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017

As families prepare for summer vacations in our National Parks - Democrats threaten to close them and shut down the government. Terrible!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017

Damn, somebody got up on the wrong side of their forever empty bed this morning.

Well so much for Trump's plan to include the Democrats in working to pass a revised health care bill.

I think that ship has sailed, hit an iceberg, and sank to the icy depths of "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Oddly enough it appears that these tweets were sent while Trump was hanging out with a bunch of kids.

The president has spent 15 minutes with our kids. He's also tweeted 6 times simultaneously, apparently pic.twitter.com/n5v5WR4pWy

— David Martosko (@dmartosko) April 27, 2017

"Sorry kids I really want to pay attention to whatever you are babbling about, but I have to throw a tantrum on Twitter."

Darrell Issa, you may remember him from the sixth or seventh Benghazi witch hunt, is now threatening to shut down the government if Hillary Clinton is not indicted.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

In an interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily, Issa blasted FBI Director James Comey’s decision as “simply choosing to ignore a law.” 

“We should be willing to shut down the government if the president won’t limit his power,” he said, noting that his party had repeatedly been “willing to shut down the government over ending Obamacare and these other things.” Those things, according to Issa, are “small points compared to the actual balance of our republic.” 

Issa said the leadership would agree to a shutdown only if there was a clear example, like this, where “we cannot enforce criminal charges against a criminal… because the people responsible are simply choosing to ignore a law.”

Always such a reasonable guy isn't he?

But he's not the only Republican in Washington completely overreacting to the news that Hillary will not be charged, get a load of Speaker Ryan: 

House Speaker Paul Ryan sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Wednesday requesting he deny any classified information to Hillary Clinton for the rest of the 2016 campaign. 

After FBI Director James Comey called Clinton's handling of classified material "extremely careless," Ryan argued in an interview on Fox on Tuesday that the Democratic nominee shouldn't be permitted to get top secret briefings, but the letter formalizes that recommendation. 

Ryan cites his own experience receiving classified intelligence briefings as his party's vice presidential nominee in 2012 in his letter, saying he understands Clinton is set to begin getting similar briefings after her party formally nominates her at the Democratic convention later this month. 

"There is no legal requirement for you to provide Secretary Clinton with classified information, and it would send the wrong signal to all those charged with safeguarding our nation's secrets if you choose to provide her access to this information despite the FBI's findings," Ryan writes.

Clearly the Republicans see this is their last best hope of stopping Hillary Clinton before she destroys their disastrously unqualified candidate and ascends to the White House.

But in their furor to destroy this woman they have decided to ignore the facts. There is simply no way that she could have been indicted.

Courtesy of Slate:  

Did she commit a crime? Would anyone else—a lower-ranking official, someone who’s not a presidential candidate, someone who’s not named Clinton—have been charged with a crime? Absolutely not. And Comey said as much. “Our judgment,” he said, “is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.” In the annals of the Justice Department’s history, he went on, “we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts.” 

There are a few federal statutes dealing with the mishandling of classified information. Some are defined as misdemeanors, some as felonies. But all of them require the finding of an “intent” to mishandle information—and most of them involve an intent to share the information with people (usually, but not always, foreign agents) who are not cleared to see it. As Comey said of the Clinton case, “We do not see these things here.”

It is becoming abundantly clear that the Republicans REALLY did pin all of their hopes on Hillary being indicted over her e-mail server.

No charges against Clinton, says @LorettaLynch pic.twitter.com/5fPESOcaIV

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 6, 2016

Now that they no longer have that to cling to they care losing their minds over this, and reacting in a childish and incredibly unprofessional manner.

There is literally NO doubt that if this investigation had been directed at a Republican leader the GOP standard bearers would have poo poo'd  from the very beginning.

But when it involves Hillary Clinton......well for her the rules are always going to be different.

A government shutdown has been averted. At least for now. And only just barely.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

With only hours to spare on the last day of the fiscal year, Congress approved a temporary spending measure to avert a shutdown and keep the federal government operating through Dec. 11. 

In the House, the measure was approved only because of strong support by Democrats — a sign of just how angry rank-and-file Republicans remain over their powerlessness to force policy changes on the Obama administration. 

In one last display of their fury, House Republicans on Tuesday adopted another resolution to cut off government financing to Planned Parenthood. The resolution was to be sent to the Senate, where Democrats were certain to block it.

I just heard on MSNBC that this thing only barely squeaked by, and that the once the time limit is up on this temporary spending measure that the battle over the budget will be long and drawn out.

Tell me what else is new.

In other news, according to Rand Paul, Ted Cruz looks to now be persona non grata among his Senate colleagues:  

Rand Paul on Tuesday had a blunt message for his presidential rival and fellow Republican senator Ted Cruz: You're a hack. 

In no uncertain terms, Paul called out Cruz for trying — and failing — to disrupt GOP leadership's efforts to fund the government without attacking Planned Parenthood, as well as past name-calling from the Texas senator. 

“Ted has chosen to make this really personal and chosen to call people dishonest in leadership and call them names which really goes against the decorum and also against the rules of the Senate, and as a consequence he can’t get anything done legislatively,” Paul said, referring to a spat in July when Cruz called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar. 

Of course as we know Cruz was one of the loudest voices calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood and a shutdown of the government if that did not happen.

However, just as Paul states above, Cruz found virtually no support for even a protest vote from his fellow Senators.

Gee it really could not happen to a more deserving weasel.

Ted Cruz loudly rebuked by fellow Republicans while trying to hijack Senate vote on government funding.

Courtesy of Politico:

Ted Cruz can’t even get a protest vote in the Senate anymore. 

On Monday night, Cruz’s colleagues ignored his attempt to disrupt Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s efforts to fund the government without attacking Planned Parenthood. In an unusual rebuke, even fellow Republicans denied him a “sufficient second” that would have allowed him a roll call vote. 

Then, his Republican colleagues loudly bellowed “no” when Cruz sought a voice vote, a second repudiation that showed how little support Cruz has: Just one other GOP senator — Utah’s Mike Lee — joined with Cruz as he was overruled by McConnell and his deputies. 

It was the second time that Cruz had been denied a procedural courtesy that’s routinely granted to senators in both parties. The first came after he called McConnell a liar this summer. 

Cruz was incredulous on Monday, calling it an “unprecedented procedural trick." 

“What does denying a second mean? Denying a recorded vote. Why is that important?” Cruz said. “When you are breaking the commitment you’ve made to the men and women who elected you, the most painful thing in the world is accountability.” 

Actually McConnell IS being accountable to all of the Americans who are NOT lunatics fooled by those doctored videos into believing the government should shut down rather than help fund an organization that provides crucial health care services to women. 

In fact recent polling shows that rather than slipping support for Planned Parenthood has in fact gone up. And this came as quite a surprise to Rep. Steve King: 

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) was perplexed. Two long months had passed since the Center for Medical Progress started releasing undercover videos in which current and former Planned Parenthood employees described the grim economics of fetal tissue harvesting. Since then, a long congressional recess had come and gone and Republican-run states had redoubled their efforts to defund the family planning titan. Yet in the most recent poll from Reuters/Ipsos, 54 percent of voters still favored federal funding for Planned Parenthood. 

"Those numbers are news to me," said King. "I haven’t paid any attention to the polls. But am I surprised? Yes. That would explain some of the reasons why the leadership is not committing to defund."

Exactly. Just because there is a very vocal group, with an obvious political agenda, losing their minds over a few doctored videos does not mean that the American people are quite so easily manipulated.

House Republicans vote to defund Planned Parenthood. Government shutdown in 3..2..1

Courtesy of MSNBC:  

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed on Friday the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, 248-177. The bill strips the women’s health provider of its funding for contraception, pap smears, and testing for sexually-transmitted infections, unless it stops performing abortions. 

President Barack Obama has vowed to veto the bill, setting the stage for a possible government shutdown. Some congressional Republicans have vowed not to vote for any budget that includes funding for the organization. 

“Planned Parenthood can get their money back if they fully commit to what they talk about, women’s healthcare, and stop performing abortions for this year,” said Rep. Diane Black. Her fellow Republican of Tennessee, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, also a vocal supporter of the bill, declared, “If there is reason to investigate, there is reason to withhold taxpayer funding during that time.”

Well actually there is no reason to investigate, as evidenced by the five investigations in five different states which found nothing wrong.

According to The Hill the vote went down mostly along party lines:

In a 241-187 vote, nearly all Republicans and two Democrats approved legislation that would block Planned Parenthood's federal funding for one year, giving time for Congress to fully investigate claims of wrongdoing by the provider. 

Lawmakers also passed a bill tightening restrictions on abortion doctors who violate infant protections in a 248-177 vote. 

“What we’ve learned about Planned Parenthood is appalling, barbaric and indefensible,” Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-Pa.) said. 

What "we've learned" is that conservatives are easily manipulated by doctored video and hyperbolic posting on Facebook.

Of course this was the plan all long when that group, Center for Medical Progress, and their conservative backers, created those doctored videos in the first place.

They know full well they are dealing with a bunch of barely literate mouth breathers who will follow the shiny object every time. And so they have. 

Conservatives plan to shut down the government again unless they stop funding Planned Parenthood. What is the definition of insanity again?

Courtesy of Cleveland.com: 

A conservative House of Representatives faction led by Champaign County GOP Rep. Jim Jordan announced Thursday its members will vote against any federal spending bill that contains money for Planned Parenthood, dramatically increasing the chance of an Oct. 1 government shutdown. 

"Given the appalling revelations surrounding Planned Parenthood, we cannot in good moral conscience vote to send taxpayer money to this organization while still fulfilling our duty to represent our constituents," said the statement issued by the House Freedom Caucus, which Jordan heads. 

Jordan and his group are angered by the release of videos that suggest Planned Parenthood profits from selling tissue from aborted fetuses to medical researchers. He and his supporters want to redirect Planned Parenthood's share of federal reproductive health care money to clinics that don't perform abortions. 

The stance by the Freedom Caucus' roughly 40 members will make it harder for Republican leaders who control the House and Senate to a pass a bill to keep the federal government open after current government funding expires on Sept. 30. 

"No one wants to shut down the government, but I believe that Congress should take the money that is currently going to Planned Parenthood and give it to federally qualified clinics that are providing more comprehensive care to women," said Jordan. "If President Obama and Harry Reid want to shut down the government over an allegiance to that one particular organization, instead of funding our troops and funding women's health care, then that's a sad commentary on their priorities."

Okay when this jerkwad talks about "federally qualified clinics that are providing more comprehensive care to women," what he really means is "Religious based anti-choice clinics that push abstinence only education, adoption as the only alternative to an unwanted pregnancy, and of course offer numerous pamphlets that shame women for being such sluts."

I don't think I still need to point out that those Planned Parenthood videos were heavily edited in order to smear Planned Parenthood, but for anybody still on the fence here you go.

If these idiots go through with their threat this will be the second government shutdown under Barack Obama, and like the third or fourth time the conservatives have threatened to do so since he took office back in 2008.

I seriously doubt that the administration is going to buckle under to this kind of hostage taking, especially since their reasons for doing it are based on ignorance and ideology.

How President Obama's immigration move has derailed the Republican agenda and forced them into a conversation they were desperate to avoid.

"Goddammit, we have things we want to get done here."

Courtesy of LA Times: 

House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio says the president's executive action — expected to be announced Thursday — will "poison the well" for cooperation with the upcoming Republican-controlled Congress. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky compared it to "waving a red flag in front of a bull." Tea party conservatives have renewed talk of censuring or impeaching the president. 

But the strong reaction by Republican leaders has less to do with opposition to the nuts and bolts of the president's immigration policy and more to do with fear and anger that the issue will derail the agenda of the new Republican majority before the next Congress even convenes. 

Republican leaders who had hoped to focus on corporate tax reform, fast-track trade pacts, repealing the president's healthcare law and loosening environmental restrictions on coal are instead being dragged into an immigration skirmish that they've tried studiously to avoid for most of the last year. 

That's largely because the question of how to handle the estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S. bitterly divides Republicans, and the party has been unable to agree on an alternative to the president's plan.

The President's plan to use executive action to push through an immigration plan has the Right Wing demanding impeachment and threatening another government shutdown, which are two things that Boehner and McConnell are desperate to avoid.

With nothing left to lose, and everything to gain, the President is essentially double dog daring the Republicans to use up these last two years of this presidency in a battle that will waste their time and demonstrate to the American people that the only thing that they can focus their attention on for more than a few minutes is destroying this President.

In the meantime the focus has been taken off of dismantling Obamacare, or introducing bills that the President and the Democrats do not want passed.

All in all it is a rather brilliant strategy, and I have to imagine that after this one plays itself out that Obama has more tricks up his sleeve to keep the Republicans off balance until 2016 when many more voters will turn out to vote, and the Republicans will be at a political disadvantage.

With Kathleen Sebelius resigning the Right Wing's most rabid attack dog goes after her replacement.

Courtesy of the Tundra Twattle's Facebook page:

You just can't make this stuff up. 

President Obama just appointed Sylvia Burwell to take over Obamacare, the disastrous beast under which our entire health care system and 1/6 of our nation's economy is forever fundamentally transformed. (Yeah, let's not bother to mention the millions of people who now have access to health care.)

Remember last year when America's war memorials, national parks, patriotic amenities, student White House tours, etc. were shut down because the Obama administration's spending priorities are so out of whack?  (Okay is she talking about when Ted Cruz and the Republicans refused to vote to raise the debt ceiling and forced a government shutdown?) Americans were told the Federal government didn't have enough of our tax dollars to allow WWII vets to walk across a public sidewalk to visit a statue honoring these heroes. This, during the "shutdown" when crony capitalism, earmarks, and waste and fraud continued to fill the swamp. This, while the first family continued to live elaborately large and some in Congress had the gall to whine that they aren't paid enough. This, while the people's will continued to be arrogantly ignored. 

What a cold and callous bureaucrat it was who'd direct that quite revealing fiasco, an episode over which the Obama Administration never recovered in the court of public opinion. (Actually this is only true in Palin-world, in the real world the administration suffered virtually no backlash, and the blame was laid squarely where it belongs. At the feet of Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, and the Right Wing agitators.)

Who would do such a thing? Who would punish patriotic Americans? (Oooh, ooh, I know, I know. The Teabaggers.) Who sent the email initiating all this? 

The political operative Sylvia Burwell. 

It's Sylvia's stain on the ash heap of history. And along with Sylvia's stain comes her disturbing, punitive priorities as she takes over our health care coverage. Yeah, nothing can go wrong with that. 

You can't make this stuff up.

 - Sarah Palin

I like how she says, "you just can't make this stuff up" right before she essentially makes this stuff up.

Salon referred to this attack as  "The dumbest thing the right is saying about Sebelius’ replacement," which kind of makes sense considering who it taking point on this.

Of course the Republicans are not even close to unified on this scurrilous and desperate attack.  Here is what John McCain tweeted after Burwell was selected.

Sylvia Burwell is an excellent choice to be the next #HHS Secretary
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) April 11, 2014

At this point the attacks from the rabid Right Wing have become so infantile and immature that you almost think that they would all benefit from a diaper change and a good nap.

Of course Sarah Palin's immaturity is part of her brand, so I don't expect that to change any time soon.

Ted Cruz shocks reporter by declaring that he is "not paying attention to politics," and refuses to accept responsibility for the shutdown. Blames it on the President.

Here is a transcript of the exchange:

"This is a city where it's all politics all the time," Cruz told Karl in an interview that aired on Sunday. "And I'm trying to do my best not to pay attention to the politics, to focus on fixing the problems." 

"Really?" Karl exclaimed, clearly not buying that the Texas Republican was not paying attention to politics.

"I know that's hard to believe because no one in this town does that," Cruz explained. "This is a time for people to step up and do the right thing. And that's what I'm trying to do." 

And when it came to the government shutdown over President Barack Obama's health care reform law — that even House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) blamed on tea party-backed Republicans — Cruz insisted that his hands were clean. 

"You have had a couple of months to think about this whole government shutdown strategy," Karl said. "Now that it's over in hindsight, are you prepared to say that it was a mistake, it wasn't the right tactic?" 

"I think it was absolutely a mistake for President Obama and Harry Reid to force a government shutdown," replied a defiant Cruz. 

"No, I mean, but come on," Karl shot back. "I mean we're a couple months away from this, the only reason why this happened is because you insisted, Republicans insisted that Obamacare be defunded as a condition of funding the government. If you didn't — if you took away that insistence, there would be no shutdown. I mean, really." 

But Cruz refused to accept responsibility: "You've got conservatives who stood strong and said let's stop the train wreck that is Obamacare, and you've got Democrats in the middle of the shutdown, President Obama called every Senate Republican to the White House, sat us in a room and said, 'I called you to tell you, we're not going to negotiate, we're not going to compromise on anything.'" 

"Repeatedly Republicans were compromising, trying to find a middle ground. And repeatedly Democrats said, no compromise, shut it down," he said.

You know if Darrell Issa was the slipperiest POS in the House, and he is, then Cruz certainly deserves that designation in the Senate.

The fact that this asshole has the temerity to blame the government shutdown on the President and the Democrats, for refusing to allow him into bullying them into dropping the Affordable Care Act, should serve as an embarrassment to any reasonable Republicans.

If in fact any of those still exist.

Mitch McConnell braces his jowls for a fight with the tea Party.

Courtesy of Washington Examiner:

 For Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, enough was enough. 

The Senate's top Republican had watched a Tea Party-driven government shutdown sink the GOP's already-weak brand and jeopardize McConnell's own chances of ever becoming majority leader. The solution, he concluded, was that the party's so-called Establishment had to start fighting back against its most conservative wing. 

McConnell, an ardent Obamacare opponent, and other Republican pragmatists in Congress, supported the conservatives' mission to defund Obamacare during budget negotiations, which led to the 16-day shutdown. But the pragmatists also accepted that their odds of success were virtually nil. Democrats ruled the Senate and White House, those lawmakers argued, and Obama was never going to allow his signature legislative achievement to be scrapped just because the political opposition demanded it. 

Yet, Republicans who wanted to avoid a shutdown watched it happen anyway. Tea Party-aligned Republicans, backed by outside groups that threatened any GOP lawmakers who didn't go along, had prevailed despite the widespread concern that such a shutdown would be politically disastrous for the party. 

Dismayed Establishment Republicans, frustrated again by an increasingly influential community of conservative insurgents, reasserted themselves in the wake of the shutdown and demonstrated a new resolve to fight back -- something they were once reluctant to do. 

“There were people who were basically afraid of [conservatives], frankly,” McConnell told the Washington Examiner. “It’s time for people to stand up to this sort of thing.” 

McConnell worries that the Senate Conservatives Fund and other insurgent groups are pursuing a confrontational, uncompromising strategy that makes it impossible for conservatives to govern. 

“The Senate Conservatives Fund is giving conservatism a bad name. They’re participating in ruining the [Republican] brand,” McConnell said. “What they do is mislead their donors into believing the reason that we can’t get as good an outcome as we’d like to get is not because of a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president, but because Republicans are insufficiently committed to the cause — which is utter nonsense.”

"Utter nonsense." That is essentially a slap in the face of Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Sarah Palin, who believe that REAL conservatives, ie conservatives who refuse to work with the Democrats, could kill Obamacare and repair the reputation of the Republican party if only the establishment Republicans would get out of the damn way.

The truth of course is that while Mitch McConell is one of the sleaziest opportunists in the Senate, he is a sleazy opportunist who understands how politics works, and that the politician who compromises today lives to fight again, while the ideologues may burn much brighter but eventually flame out in the end. (Joe McCarthy anyone?)

The only question remaining is will the fall of the Teabagger movement happen before, or after, they oust Mitch McConnell from his position as the perennial GOP candidate from Kentucky, and allow his seat to be taken by the Democrats?

Well regardless of what happens all I know is that it will be a hell of a lot of fun to watch the establishment Republicans fighting it out with the Tea Party Libertarians/Republicans.

After having run out of "Lamestream media" outlets to pimp her book, Sarah Palin starts crawling through the sewers of the Right Wing propaganda merchants.

So this interview is with Newsmax, which many of you may remember used to offer free issues of her "Going Rogue" book with a subscription back in the day.

So of course you know they are completely non-biased.

The interviewer is some guy named Joe Concha, who I have never heard of, and he starts off asking her about Chris Christie.

Palin: "I think what the suggested question here is 'How would he do in a presidential race,' 'How would he do nation wide?' That remains to be seen. Because so many Americans, me included, me being a proud participant in that grassroots movement that is referred to as the Tea Party. We are tired of politicians kind of vacillating on some very fundamental issues. Say..um..amnesty for one, let's talk one specific issue. When we are a pro-immigration nation we want people to come in recognizing how exceptional America is, we want them to work hard for the awesome benefits and blessings of America. But we want, right out of the shoot, them not to break our law. Because we are governed by laws."

(Apparently as opposed to wherever these dirty non-Americans come from which is probably governed by nothing more than games of rock, paper, scissors.)

Concha tries to get some kind of rational response from Palin instead of this chaotic word sausage, so he suggests that perhaps it is on cultural issues, like gay marriage or immigraion that she disagrees with Christie.

Palin: "I just absolutely want to make sure that the next GOP candidate can so excite, and encourage, and empower the American people, that we want to get out there and vote FOR that person, and FOR their message, and FOR their agenda, instead of just voting against the statist, big government, socialized policies that now doubt the far left Democrat will be representing. I want, we want something to vote FOR not just AGAINST." 

(It seems to escape Palin's notice that she is only speaking for a tiny part of the Republican party, and that a candidate who she would eagerly vote FOR would NEVER get the nomination, and if they did would suffer a crushing defeat in the 2016 election.)

Concha then reminds Palin that she accused Christie of "going along just to get along."

Palin: " Too often that is what we see, and not just necessarily Chris Christie, but so many politicians think that this is the time to compromise with the Left. Take Obamacare, politicians ran on the idea of replacing Obamacare with something that is market centered, patient centered, something that allows competition in the marketplace of health care coverage. (Does she not realize that she just described The Affordable Care Act?) And yet when it came time to stand up and defund it, which is the legislative tool that Congress holds to get rid of a policy that is absolutely a train wreck for this country, too many politicians waved the white flag instead and did not stand with Senators like Tex Cruz and Mike Lee who were fulfilling their campaign promise to do all that they could to defund, to replace Obamacare. So that's a disappointment."

Concha then reminds her that the government was partially shutdown, and that she referred to it as a "slimdown."

Palin: "Oh yeah a slimdown, oh yeah what? Sixteen days of 17% of the government kinda turning down the volume of its expenditures and its activities, that was not a shutdown."

Palin then went on to blame the "Lamestram media for not reporting that the shutdown was the fault of President Obama and Harry Reid, and instead blamed it on the Republicans. (You know, the ones who actually shut down the government.) Palin also said that if it were up to her she would do the same thing, with "better" messaging" this time.

Concha then returns to Chris Christie and asks if she would support him if he got the nomination.

Palin: "It depends on who else is out there at the time. I’m not so anti-Chris Christie that, certainly, it’s not like I wouldn’t give him a chance to make sure that what it is that he stands for, and his record would have tor reflect, this recognition that America's going bankrupt and we can;t rely on the federal government to continue to bail out businesses and communities (Super storm Sandy anyone?), and...um..that..then making our freedoms fade and making our free market be stifled. I would want to make sure that any candidate, not just Chris Christie, understands the import of empowering the people, individuals, our own businesses, our own families to make decisions for ourselves, not big government."

Okay that is enough for me. That last statement may have broken my brain.

I will add however that Palin is asked if she would support one of her kids running for public office, and surprise, surprise, she would. 

Do you hear that Trig? You're going to be the Mayor!

(H/T to Mediaite.)

How Republicans continue to hold onto power even though everybody hates them now.

Courtesy of Rolling Stone:  

As the nation recovers from the Republican shutdown of government, the question Americans should be asking is not "Why did the GOP do that to us?" but "Why were they even relevant in the first place?" So dramatically have the demographic and electoral tides in this country turned against the Republican Party that, in a representative democracy worthy of the designation, the Grand Old Party should be watching from the sidelines and licking its wounds. Not only did Barack Obama win a second term in an electoral landslide in 2012, but he is also just the fourth president in a century to have won two elections with more than 50 percent of the popular vote. What's more, the party controls 55 seats in the Senate, and Democratic candidates for the House received well over a million more votes than their Republican counterparts in the election last year. And yet, John Boehner still wields the gavel in the House and Republican resistance remains a defining force in the Senate, frustrating Obama's ambitious agenda. 

How is this possible? National Republicans have waged an unrelenting campaign to exploit every weakness and anachronism in our electoral system. Through a combination of hyperpartisan redistricting of the House, unprecedented obstructionism in the Senate and racist voter suppression in the states, today's GOP has locked in political power that it could never have secured on a level playing field. 

Despite the fact that Republican Congressional can didates received nearly 1.4 million fewer votes than Democratic candidates last November, the Republicans lost only eight seats from their historic 2010 romp, allowing them to preserve a fat 33-seat edge in the House. Unscrupulous Republican gerrymandering following the 2010 census made the difference, according to a statistical analysis conducted by the Princeton Election Consortium. Under historically typical redistricting, House Republicans would now likely be clinging to a reedy five-seat majority. "There's the normal tug of war of American politics," says Sam Wang, founder of the consortium. "Trying to protect one congressman here, or unseat another one there." The Princeton model was built, he says, to detect "whether something got pulled off-kilter on top of that." 

Did it ever. In Pennsylvania, Democratic candidates took 51 percent of the vote across the state's 18 districts, but only five of the seats. In Wang's model, the odds against Democrats emerging at an eight-seat disadvantage are 1,000-to-1. And Pennsylvania was not alone. According to the Election Consortium analysis, gerrymandering helped Republicans secure 13 seats in just six states – including Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina – that, under normal rules of engagement, Democrats would have won. 

This tilting of the electoral playing field was the result of a sophisticated campaign coordinated at the highest levels of Republican politics through a group called the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) – a Super-PAC-like entity chaired by Bush-era RNC chairman Ed Gillespie and backed by Karl Rove. Shortly after President Obama's first election, the RSLC launched the Redistricting Majority Project (REDMAP) with an explicit strategy to "keep or win Republican control of state legislatures with the largest impact on congressional redistricting." The logic was simple. Every decade following the census, the task of redrawing federal congressional-district boundaries falls (with some exceptions) to the state legislatures. If Republicans could seize control of statehouses – and, where necessary, have GOP governors in place to rubber-stamp their redistricting maps – the party could lock in new districts that would favor Republican candidates for a decade. As Rove wrote in a Wall Street Journal column in early 2010: "He who controls redistricting can control Congress."

You know the problem with Democrats, as well as our President, is that they thought, until recently of course, that they were dealing with public servants of a slightly different ideological bent who were simply trying to serve their constituents in the best way that they could.

Instead they are dealing with power mad terrorists who will stop at nothing to win elections, and undermine their opposition at every turn.

What was it Alfred Pennyworth said in "The Dark Knight??

"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

Hey remember how the Koch brothers denied they had lobbied to defund Obamacare and were behind the government shutdown? Yeah, well they lied.

Do you remember this letter?  

“Koch has not taken a position on the legislative tact of tying the continuing resolution to defunding Obamacare nor have we lobbied on legislative provisions defunding Obamacare,” Philip Ellender, president of government and public affairs at Koch wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to senators. “Instead, Koch has focused on educating the public about reducing our nation’s debt and controlling runaway government spending.” 

Well it was all bullshit.

This from Open Secrets:

But new reports show that the company did lobby Congress to tie an increase in the debt ceiling to a 10-year debt reduction plan -- a concept developed and championed earlier this year by libertarian and tea party groups like the Heritage Action, Family Research Council and Club for Growth; those are some of the same groups that pushed the Obamacare-shutdown linkage. 

According to its third quarter report, Koch Industries, which spent $2.1 million lobbying from July 1 through Sept. 30, disclosed that it lobbied Congress "to increase the debt ceiling in conjunction with reducing government spending consistent with a 10 year path to a balanced budget." 

That's exactly the language used by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) in his budget proposal. And the idea that the debt ceiling should be raised only with the acceptance of a 10-year budget plan, was first floated last winter by several conservative groups, including the libertarian-oriented Heritage Action, which has its own ties to the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who control Koch Industries. The Kochs, through a 501(c)(6) group they spearheaded, Freedom Partners, have given $500,000 to Heritage Action. 

The plan is likely what Koch meant when, in its Oct. 9 letter, it said that "We believe that Congress should, at a minimum, keep to sequester-level spending guidelines, and develop a plan for more significant and widespread spending reductions in the future."

So much for the idea that the anti-Obamacare movement was driven by grass roots support. 

This thing was thought up by the Heritage Action, paid for by Koch brother money, and implemented by their paid operatives in Washington.

NOTHING about the government shutdown had anything to do with helping the American people or getting spending under control. It was ALL about sabotaging the government and proving that it, and our President, were ineffective.