Last Call For One For Two In Africa

The Kenyan government response to Al-Shabaab's deadly siege of a Nairobi mall last month has long promised to be swift and deadly, according to President Uhuru Kenyatta.  Now we know why:  he brought his allies in from the United States in a daring double anti-terror operation this weekend, with a raid against Al-Shabaab in Somalia, and the capture of a terrorist suspected in the African US Embassy bombings in 1998 in Libya.

U.S. military forces were involved in two separate operations in Africa -- one of them targeting a member of the group Al-Shabaab, which was behind last month's Kenya mall attack, and the other going after an al Qaeda leader tied to the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies.

The Al-Shabaab raid took place in Somalia, where that terrorist group is based, sometime in the past 24 hours, a senior U.S. official said Saturday evening.

The team of U.S. Navy SEALs had to withdraw before it could confirm whether it killed the target because they came under fire, the official said. The SEALs made the "prudent decision" to withdraw rather than engage in further combat, according to the official.

The other mission ended in the capture of Abu Anas al Libi, who is suspected to have played a significant role in the August 7, 1998, bombings of American embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Nairobi, Kenya, U.S. officials said.

The key al Qaeda operative was captured by U.S. special operations forces in Tripoli, Libya, according to the officials. 

This U.S. operation was conducted with the knowledge of the Libyan government, said one U.S. official.

So one operation confirmed successful, the other may have been, but Navy SEALs pulled out of the other one before it could be confirmed.  We'll see what happens next as Africa remains a prime target for terrorists like this.

Standing Tall

Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington State sums up the last, oh, five years of GOP petulance.

“Dealing with terrorists has taught us some things,” said Washington Rep. Jim McDermott after voting no on one of Thursday’s GOP bills. “You can’t deal with ’em. This mess was created by the Republicans for one purpose, and they lost. People in my district are calling in for Obamacare—affordable health care—in large numbers. These guys have lost, and they can’t figure out how to admit it.” Why would House Democrats give away what the Supreme Court and the 2012 electorate didn’t? “You can’t say, OK, you get half of Obamacare—this isn’t a Solomonic decision,” McDermott said.

And he ends it with this classic quote:

“So we sit here until they figure out they fuckin’ lost.”

Republicans believe they've already won. They believe President Obama and the Democrats will cave on Obamacare, social safety net cuts, voting, the economy, everything.

They have no idea they've already lost.

They're about to find the hell out.

The Same Old Song And Dance

We've seen all of this before:  Republicans start out with the catastrophic (destroy Obamacare or plunge the country into instant depression with a debt default) and then everybody acts relived when their demands drop down to merely ruinous (the hundreds of billions in cuts that slowed down the economy in 2013, aka sequestration).

We're seeing it again now.  NRO's Robert Costa floats yet another House GOP Grand Bargain style round of austerity cuts:

But details are floating to the surface as the leadership reaches out to internal power brokers about what’s within the realm of the possible. What I’m hearing: There will be a “mechanism” for revenue-neutral tax reform, ushered by Ryan and Michigan’s Dave Camp, that will encourage deeper congressional talks in the coming year. There will be entitlement-reform proposals, most likely chained CPI and means testing Medicare; there will also be some health-care provisions, such as a repeal of the medical-device tax, which has bipartisan support in both chambers. Boehner, sources say, is expected to go as far as he can with his offer. Anything too small will earn conservative ire; anything too big will turn off Democrats. 

This in return for not blowing up the country's economy.  Sure it's extortion, but it's not a depression, right? Until the next budget shutdown/debt ceiling fight, that is.  And this will continue forever until somebody stands up to these clowns and says no more.

Will President Obama do it?  Hell, will the Tea Party just scuttle the deal anyway?

We'll see.

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.