Last Call For The Big "L" On Your Forehead

The GOP is now distinctly losing the shutdown fight in the court of public opinion.

Disapproval of congressional Republicans’ budget wrangling after a weeklong shutdown has shot up to 70 percent, with 51 percent disapproving “strongly,” according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. 

At the same time, President Obama’s approval rating has ticked up due to improved marks among moderate Democrats and independents. No group, however, earns positive marks for their handling of budget negotiations overall.

President Obama is holding steady, if not doing slightly better.  But Congress is definitely doing worse, especially Republicans.  Disapproval of the GOP is now at a massive 70%.  Here's the interesting part:

The poll finds Democrats and Republicans have become convinced that the opposite party is in the wrong on budget negotiations, but are far less united in support of their own leaders. Just 52 percent of Republicans, for instance, approve of how Republicans in Congress are handling budget negotiations. Fully 89 percent of Republicans disapprove of Obama, with 74 percent disapproving strongly. An identical 89 percent of Democrats disapprove of Republicans. 

The wide unpopularity of Republicans in Congress in budget talks is in large part due to a schism within Republicans themselves. By 59 to 39 percent, conservative Republicans approve of the way their party’s members of congress have handled budget negotiations in combined interviews over two weeks. But Republicans who identify as moderate or liberal split narrowly: 44 percent approval to 49 percent disapproval. 

This ideological split within the Republican party comes into sharper focus when looking at the most conservative party members. Republicans who describe themselves as “very conservative” approve of Republicans in Congress by 68 to 32 percent. Those who are just “somewhat conservative” split 51 to 45 percent in two weeks of combined poll results. 

By contrast, Obama wins wider approval from his fellow partisans that spans Democrats’ ideological wings. Fully 77 percent of Democrats approve of Obama’s handling of budget negotiations, including 84 percent of liberals within the party. Among moderate and conservative Democrats, three quarters approve of Obama, up 11 points from last week.

Democrats are rallying around the President's refusal to give in to GOP economic terrorism.  Republicans on the other hand are coming apart.  A majority of moderate Republicans (what few are left) are revolting against the GOP tactics because they realize they're being held hostage too by the Tea Party nutjobs.

So when will these Republicans demand an end to the insanity?  The time to speak up is now, guys...or you're going to go down with the rest of the Republican losers.

We've Got Ourselves A Great Big Con(Men)voy

The latest Tea Party anarchist fantasy?  Heroic right-wing truckers will surround Washington DC and cart off all the evil Democrats or else they'll blockade the city and starve out all those people.  Or something. Because FREEDOM and EAGLES.

Earl Conlon, a Georgia trucker who is handling logistics for the protest, told U.S. News tractor-trailer drivers will circle the beltway "three lanes deep" as he rides with other participants to Congress to seek the arrest of congressmen for allegedly disregarding the Constitution. 

The truckers circling I-495 will keep the left lane open for emergency vehicles, Conlon said, but "everybody that doesn't have a supporter sticker on their window, good luck: Nobody in, nobody out." The trucks will be going the 55 mile-per-hour speed limit. 

D.C. commuters who wish to be allowed past the convoy must have "T2SDA" – an acronym for the event's original name, "Truckers to Shut Down America" – written on their vehicle, he said. 

"It's going to be real fun for anyone who is not a supporter," Conlon said, "[and] if cops decide to give us a hard time, we're going to lock the brakes up, we're going to stop right there, we're going to be a three lane roadblock."

OK Conlon, how many people are you willing to main, injure, or kill to blockade DC and its people? How many of your trucker buddies are willing to go up against the Secret Service, DC Police, Capitol Police, and even the US Army? Because I guarantee you the first time you and your redneck asshole buddies flip over a minivan with an Obama/Biden sticker on it, you're going to have hell descend upon you.

Zeeda Andrews, a former country music singer helping promote the protest, said last week participants would present demands to congressmen – including the impeachment of President Barack Obama – and give the congressmen an opportunity to agree to the demands in exchange for canceling the ride. 

But Conlon says that's not quite right. 

"We are not going to ask for impeachment," Conlon said. "We are coming whether they like it or not. We're not asking for impeachment, we're asking for the arrest of everyone in government who has violated their oath of office."

OK, you do that.  And the people whose sworn duty it is to protect our elected men and women of office will do their sworn duty and end you.  You're coming whether thy like it or not?

They'll be ready.  Because if you think America's just going to roll over and let you clodhoppers say "Well, we didn't win the election so we're just going to destroy your country" you've got another thing coming to you.

And by "another thing" I mean most likely people with heavy ordnance.

I hope you keep on truckin', buddy.  Right to federal prison.

The Honey Badger Rises

With the House going nowhere, Harry Reid and Senate Democrats are going to try to pass a clean debt ceiling hike in order to call the GOP out, and they believe they have enough Republican votes to beat a filibuster.

Senate Democrats are planning to start the process this week for a Senate vote on a clean debt limit increase, sources tell me – a move that could call the bluff of Republicans in both chambers and force them to take a stand on whether they will allow default and economic destruction if Dems don’t accept their unilateral demands. 

The move has the backing of the White House, according to a source familiar with discussions. 

The idea is that Senate Dems will move their own clean debt limit bill, rather than wait for the House GOP to hold its own vote on either a clean CR funding the government (which Senate Dems have already passed with broad bipartisan support) or on a debt limit hike. Dems would be challenging Senate GOP moderates to vote for or against averting default and economic havoc outside of any set of conditions House Republicans insist must be attached to any measure raising the debt limit. 

Senator John Cornyn is claiming no clean debt limit hike can pass the Senate, but Dems believe there may be at least half a dozen GOP Senators who would be willing to support one. A vote would put that to the test.

So we'll soon see if indeed Harry Reid can pull this off.  He'll have to at some point for the Democrats to stop GOP extortion politics, but I'm getting more and more afraid that it's going to take a multi-trillion dollar economic catastrophe caused by a GOP default before this will all end.

StupidiNews!

• The new US $100 bill finally reaches banks starting today, with redesigned anti-counterfeit features and a larger picture of Benjamin Franklin, after a more than two-year delay.
• The American co-winners of this years Nobel Prize in Medicine warn that federal cuts to science and research are jeopardizing the country's place as a leader in biotechnology.
• The White House says it's open to a short-term debt ceiling raise in order to avoid a default, but Republicans continue to insist deep cuts to Obamacare and social spending must come first.
• French telecom manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent says it will need to cut 10,000 jobs across its global workforce in order to turn around losses.
• Korean chipmaker LG is ramping up production of its AMOLED flexible display screens that could end up in smartphones in 2014.