Last Call For The Fire And The Flames

This is a really depressing story even for shutdown crazy Washington DC.

What has already been a strange and scary work week in the nation's capital, came to a close with a shocking incident on the National Mall: For reasons we don't yet know, witnesses say a man doused himself with gasoline and then set himself on fire. 

D.C. fire department spokesman Tim Wilson tells the AP the man suffered life-threatening injures. The wire service reports:

"He was standing by himself at Seventh Street and Madison Drive, in the center portion of the Mall, when he emptied the contents of a red gas can on himself and set himself on fire moments later, said Katy Scheflen, who witnessed it as she walked through the Mall. 

"She said passing joggers took off their shirts in an effort to help douse the flames, and the man was clearly alive as the flames spread. A police department spokesman said he was conscious and breathing at the scene. MedStar Washington Hospital Center tweeted that the man was taken there but had no condition update." 

Images posted on social media sites showed a rescue helicopter landing on the lawn, the iconic Washington Memorial in the background. They showed police descending upon the scene on a clear, sunny day in Washington with the Capitol building in full view.

One of those tragic stories that makes you think about perspective, and how all this affects our basic, daily humanity.  What would drive a person to do this?  It's bizarre as hell.

Then again, so are government shutdowns.

High-Stakes Calvinball

The shutdown mess continues with no end in sight, mainly because John Boehner is trapped in a hell of his own making.  He claims he won't allow the country to default, but that's exactly what will happen if the House doesn't raise the debt ceiling in two weeks.  The White House is tired of his game of Calvinball, according to Ezra Klein.

As the White House sees it, Speaker John Boehner has begun playing politics as game of Calvinball, in which Republicans invent new rules on the fly and then demand the media and the Democrats accept them as reality and find a way to work around them. 

First there was the Hastert rule, which is not an actual rule, but which Boehner uses to say he simply can't bring anything to the floor that doesn't have the support of a majority of his members. 

The shutdown, the White House argues, is now operating under a kind of super-Hastert rule in which a clean CR is supported by a majority of House Republicans but Boehner has given the tea partiers in his conference an effective veto over what he brings to the floor. 

Then there's Boehner's demand for further concessions on the debt limit, which he now says he can't back down on, but which he made knowing that it would make it harder for him to back down. 

The White House has decided that they can't govern effectively if the House Republicans can keep playing Calvinball. The rules and promises Boehner makes are not their problem, they've decided. They're not going to save him. And that also rules out unusual solutions like minting a platinum coin or declaring the debt limit unconstitutional. The White House doesn't want to break the law (and possibly spark a financial crisis) in order to save Boehner from breaking a promise he never should have made.

So no, the White House isn't going to save Boehner.  But will he fall on his sword in order to save the country from economic catastrophe?

He's a Republican.  What do you think's going to happen?  We've got two weeks, then our economy collapses because Republicans are insane, mean, and stupid.

I'm betting long on disaster futures, myself.

The Republican Mask Slips Again...

...and once again Republicans tell the country what they really are worried about during this shutdown silly season.  Behold, my senators, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul caught on live mic here by a Kentucky NBC affiliate.

Senator Paul began, "Do you have a second?" 

"I'm all wired up here, um," Senator McConnell replied. 

"I just did CNN and I just go over and over again 'We're willing to compromise. 'We're willing to negotiate.' I think... I don't think they poll tested we won't negotiate. I think it's awful for them to say that over and over again," Paul said. 

"Yeah, I do too and I, and I just came back from that two hour meeting with them and that, and that was basically the same view privately as it was publicly," McConnell agreed. 

Paul added, "I think if we keep saying 'We wanted to defund it. We fought for that and that we're willing to compromise on this', I think they can't, we're gonna, I think... well I know we don't want to be here, but we're gonna win this I think."

What the Wonder Twins here don't understand is the vast majority of Americans are against the idea of shutting down the government over Obamacare.  They think that America is going to blame the Democrats for this for refusing to scrap a law that passed in 2010, was upheld by SCOTUS in 2012, and topped by President Obama's re-election 11 months ago.

Like Team Romney a year ago, these idiots think they've already won.  They're completely baffled as to how anyone could side with Obama over this.  They think Obama will cave any minute now.

The one person these two morons don't care about?  You.

Keep that in mind.

StupidiNews!

• Police are still trying to determine why 34-year old Miriam Carey rammed a White House barricade with her vehicle and led Capitol Police and Secret Service on a chase where eventually she was shot and killed.
• Art experts say a portrait of an Italian noblewoman kept in a Swiss vault for centuries may in fact be a rumored Leonardo da Vinci work of art thought either lost or never to have been finished.
• The National Association of Manufacturers says the country has a shortage of workers trained to operate modern industrial machinery, and with the current workforce retiring, the problem is getting worse.
• President Obama has now completely canceled his trip to Asia to meet with other world leaders in Bali, Indonesia next week as no progress has been made in ending the government shutdown.
• Twitter's stock offering is official as the social media company filed for a $1 billion IPO for trading starting in November.

Last Call For Never Letting A Crisis Go To Waste

Republicans are always the victims, no matter what the situation is.

They will despise Obama until they day they die, and that goes for anyone associated with him or who supports him.  These assholes have shut down the government because their God-given right to not have a black Democrat in the White House has been infringed upon, and they will annihilate our country as a result.

Remember who the bad guys really are here.

Well, THIS Should End The Shutdown...

If there's one thing that will set the GOP scrambling to pass a clean CR and end the shutdown, it's this headline right here:

Shutdown Means No NFL Games for Deployed Troops

Uh-oh.

The government shutdown means deployed troops and sailors cannot get their sports fix, as the Pentagon reduced the civilian staff of its Armed Forces Network Broadcast Center in Riverside, Calif., which normally transmits nine television channels and seven radio channels via satellite worldwide.

In a notice on its website, the center said most of its channels are off the air, except for news channels. AFN Europe said mandatory staff reductions at the broadcast center will reduce television to one service: AFN News. 

The AFN sports channel, which broadcasts professional sports live, went dark yesterday along with the network’s movie, family and children’s channels.

Things just got real, yo.   Enjoy owning this one, GOP.

 

In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

Paul Waldman at the American Prospect asks what will happen when Obamacare survives and the war against it is over.

Ted Cruz admitted to Sean Hannity back in July that "If we don't [defund Obamacare] now, in all likelihood, Obamacare will never, ever be repealed. Why is that? Because on January 1, the exchanges kick in, the subsidies kick in," and they'll be unable to take away something people are benefiting from. And he's surely not the only Republican who gets this, which is part of the explanation for the ferocity with which they're fighting now. But in our future scenario, the fight over the law will be basically over. There might be some debates about adjusting parts of the law, as Democrats will want to do, but that won't concern Republicans too much. Once there's no possibility left that it can be killed, they'll likely lose interest. 

I think that's the most plausible picture of what things will be like in, say, 2015. The question is, if eventually they have no choice but to accept that the argument over the ACA is settled, what on earth will Republicans do with themselves? Because over the last four years, opposition to Obamacare has taken on such an extraordinary power within the movement that all other issues have paled before it. 

Sure, they could revert to the old standbys—Cut taxes! Cut regulations! Strong defense! But those are just positions you can take. Obamacare was a war to be fought. And nothing galvanizes, energizes, and defines us like our wars. That's particularly true of the zealots who are driving the Republican party and form such a key part of its base. And if they aren't fighting Obamacare, who will they be?

In 2015, Barack Obama will still be President.  Obamacare represents the end of the GOP.  Therefore, the war against Obamacare will not end until, minimum, January 20, 2017.  After that, Republicans will do everything they can to "fix" Obamacare and take 100% of the credit.

Will Democrats and the media let them?

There's the real question.

Last Call For Jack Ryan's Boss

Author Tom Clancy has passed at the age of 66, and whether or not you liked his military thrillers, you can't escape the size of the impact he had on fiction, movies, and increasingly, video games.

Seventeen of his novels were No. 1 New York Times best sellers, including his most recent, “Threat Vector,” which was released in December 2012. More than 100 million copies of his books are in print. 

Sales of his books made him a millionaire. His family moved into a five-bedroom house in Calvert County, Md., and acquired an 80-acre farm on the Chesapeake Bay. He became a part owner of the Baltimore Orioles. He even bought a tank. 

Mr. Clancy was an insurance salesman when he sold his first novel, “The Hunt for Red October,” to the Naval Institute Press for only $5,000. 

That publisher had never released a novel before, but the editors were taken with Mr. Clancy’s manuscript. They were concerned, however, that there were too many technical descriptions, so they asked him to make cuts. Mr. Clancy made revisions and cut at least 100 pages. 

The book took off when President Ronald Reagan, who had received a copy, called it “my kind of yarn” and said that he couldn’t put it down. 

After the book’s publication in 1985, Mr. Clancy was praised for his mastery of technical details about Soviet submarines and weaponry. Even high-ranking members of the military took notice of the book’s apparent inside knowledge. 

In an interview in 1986, Mr. Clancy said, “When I met Navy Secretary John Lehman last year, the first thing he asked me about the book was, ‘Who the hell cleared it?’ “

I remember CNN's interview with Clancy within the first 24 hours after 9/11, the plot of his novel "Debt of Honor" had an airliner smash into the Capitol building during the President's State of the Union speech.   I remember thinking "Jesus, we're living in a Clancy novel, and the bad guys just won."

Clancy's books spawned a number of video game series, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and HAWX, which are still going today.  The latest Splinter Cell title, Blacklist, pits veteran black ops specialist Sam Fisher and his team against a group of US military "patriots" gone rogue, calling themselves The Engineers.  Much like George Lucas's Star Wars empire, Clancy knew how to leverage his work.

And yeah, I did enjoy his earlier books when I was younger, mainly because Jack Ryan and his friends were nerds saving America, and back then I was okay with that.

It was fun, Tom.

Feeling The Heat, Boys?

More and more increasingly vulnerable House Republicans are looking for the lifeboats to escape from the sinking ship that is the S.S. GOP Shutdown, and I'm thinking it's not going to be too much longer before they team up with Democrats to deliver a clean CR back to the Senate, and throw the Tea Party overboard.

Some House Republicans facing perilous paths to reelection in 2014 are beginning to budge on the government shutdown, calling for the party to compromise and move on from its fight over defunding Obamacare. 

“Republicans fought the good fight. The fight continues but is not advanced by a government shutdown that damages our economy and harms our military,” Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell said in a statement. “The time has come to pass a clean CR to reopen the government.” 

And Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Meehan said: “I came to Washington to fix government, not shut it down. At this point, I believe it’s time for the House to vote for a clean, short-term funding bill to bring the Senate to the table and negotiate a responsible compromise.” 

New Jersey Rep. Jon Runyan said: “Enough is enough. Put a clean (continuing resolution) on the floor and let’s gets on with the business we were sent to do.”

Of course these are the same House Republicans who voted for the shutdown in the first place and voted 40+ times to defund and repeal Obamacare.  They want you to feel sorry for them, and they want your forgiveness.  The only thing these opportunists care about is saving their own asses now that it's quite possible that somebody other than those people might be the ones hurt by the GOP.

Don't fall for it, folks.  All the Republicans have to go.  They own this disaster together, and together, they can be voted out in 2014.

Please Proceed, GOP

The shutdown is already hurting the GOP and will continue to do so.

Republicans in Washington insist they have simply been upholding the wishes of the American people throughout their efforts to block the Affordable Care Act, but a poll released Tuesday tells a very different story. 

In fact, the latest survey from Quinnipiac University contains a ton of bad news for the GOP. For starters, 72 percent of Americans said they are opposed to shutting down the government in an effort to block implemntation of the health care law. A poll last week also showed a wide majority opposed to shutting down the government over Obamacare. 

The federal government shut down for the first time since 1996 on Tuesday morning amid Republican-led efforts to include policy concessions on the health care law in must-pass bills to fund the government. 

While Quinnipiac's poll showed that the Affordable Care Act remains polarizing — 45 percent support it while 47 percent are opposed — 58 percent said they are opposed to Congress cutting off funding for the law. Seventy-four percent said they disapprove of congressional Republicans while only 17 percent said they approve — their lowest score ever in Quinnipiac's polling. 

Democrats in Congress came out marginally better in the poll — 32 percent approve while 60 percent disapprove — but the party may enter next year's midterm elections with an upper-hand over the GOP. 

The poll showed that voters gave the nod to a generic Democrat over a generic Republican ahead of the 2014 congressional races, 43 percent to 34 percent. According to Quinnipiac, that's the widest advantage enjoyed by Democrats on that particular question.

Voters will remember in 2014.  But will they actually vote?   A nine point generic ballot lead for the Dems would be a nightmare for the Republicans, and they know it.  Stay tuned.  Sanity may break out very, very quickly.

StupidiNews!

• Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has expelled top US diplomats from the country, claiming that by meeting with opposition groups they are part of a conspiracy against the Maduro government.
• Japanese officials say radioactive water being pumped from the Fukushima Diichi nuclear disaster leaked into the surrounding soil, causing further contamination around the plant site.
• Bond ratings agency Standard & Poor's says for now, a debt ceiling fight is unlikely to do further damage to America's sovereign debt rating unless an October 17th default deadline passes with no action.
• The continued shutdown may cut as much as tenth of a percent from US GDP growth per week according to economist's estimates.
• The FCC is fining five wireless providers nearly $15 billion over allegedly obtaining tens of billions in duplicate payments from the government's Lifeline cell phone program for America's poor.

Last Call For Shutdown Winners & Losers

Michele Bachmann thinks the GOP are all winners in the shutdown.

“We’re very excited,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). “It’s exactly what we wanted, and we got it.”

Her colleagues think they won too.

“It’s wonderful,” said Rep. John Abney Culberson (R-Tex.), clapping his hands to emphasize the point. “We’re 100 percent united!”

So who are the losers?  Why, the rest of us, of course.

At the National Institutes of Health, nearly three-quarters of the staff was furloughed. One result: director Francis Collins said about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center into clinical trials each week will be turned away. This includes about 30 children, most of them cancer patients, he said.

Remember, this is exactly what the GOP wanted.

Keep that in mind.

There's That Number Again

The percentage of crazy people in America, given a large enough sample size, always seems to come up to be twenty-seven.

A new CNN/ORC poll shows that Americans are not happy about the prospect of a shutdown, which is happening because Congress has been unable to pass a budget for the new fiscal year that begins Tuesday. 

According to the poll, 68% of Americans think shutting down the government for even a few days is a bad idea, while 27% think it's a good idea. 

And it appears most Americans would blame congressional Republicans for a shutdown: Sixty-nine percent said they agreed with the statement that the party's elected officials were acting like "spoiled children." 

Democrats, however, weren't far behind: Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they too were acting like spoiled kids. 

A poll later showed public support for Congress at record low levels.

I wonder how long the GOP will be able to get away with their current position of  "completely destroying a law passed to offer tens of millions of Americans affordable health insurance is a totally reasonable idea". Everything the GOP has done points to their belief that the President will give in and dismantle Obamacare.

Who among our Village "liberal" media will start agreeing with them that the "responsible" thing to do is accede to the GOP's hostage demands "for the good of the country" and that President Obama really should stop being so "arrogant" as to wanting to see Obamacare survive?

We're about to find out.  Bet it's close to 27%.

The GOP Is Already Losing The Shutdown Battle

Guess who the public blames for the shutdown?  Here's a hint:  it's not the Democrats.

If the federal government shuts down starting Tuesday because of a bitter partisan battle over the new health care law, more people say congressional Republicans rather than President Barack Obama would be responsible, according to a new national survey. 

A CNN/ORC International poll released Monday morning, hours before funding for the government is scheduled to run out, also indicates that most Americans think Republicans in Congress are acting like spoiled children in this fiscal fight, with the public divided on whether the president is acting like a spoiled child or a responsible adult. 

And six in 10 questioned in the survey say they want Congress to approve a budget agreement to avoid a government shutdown, and if it happens, most people say a shutdown would be a bad thing for the country.

Some 46% of voters blame the GOP, 36% President Obama, 13% both sides, so right off the bat 59% of America blames the GOP in some way.

Please proceed, gentlemen.

StupidiNews,Happy Obamacare Day Edition!

• With Senate Democrats rejecting three House GOP attempts to delay, defund, and cripple Obamacare as demands for keeping the government running, a partial government shutdown is now in effect.
• President Obama did sign into law a bill to keep the military running and paid during the shutdown, but some 800,000 federal employees are out of work until further notice.
• Despite the shutdown, Obamacare exchanges nationwide open for enrollment today as Americans without health insurance can start signing up for coverage.
• Retailer IKEA will sell home solar panel kits in its UK stores for the first time this month, at the cost of 5,700 pounds, or about $9,200.
• Scientists say the eruption of Indonesia's Samalas volcano in 1257 may have been the event that kicked off the "Little Ice Age" for the following 600 years.