A Helping Of "I Scream, Alamo"

The nutjobs want their Second Civil War against Obama and what he represents, and they will do anything to get it.

Gun rights activists gathered yesterday at the Alamo to protest any and all laws that would prohibit them from openly carrying firearms. The “Come and Take It San Antonio!” rally broke a longstanding Texas tradition of not using the symbol of its independence as a political prop. 

From 1905 until 2011, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas were the custodians of the Alamo; but in 2011, custodianship was transferred to the state’s General Land office, the commissioner of which, Jerry Patterson, approved of yesterday’s rally. Patterson is currently running for lieutenant governor. 

“I respect the opinions of folks who say this is not the right place,” Patterson told the thousand or so assembled. “But I submit to you there’s one standard we should apply to gatherings here at this sacred cradle of Texas liberty and that is whether our activity and our purpose would be supported by those men who gave it all."

These sentiments were echoed by radio personality Alex Jones, who told the crowd that “I’m not different from my ancestors, and you’re no different from your ancestors. My ancestors on both sides of my family started the Texas revolution, and I’m here to tell you that that revolution was a continuation of human beings fighting against bullies and tyrants in every civilization throughout history, and this is the struggle of the individual.” 

He went on to call Mexico “a countrywide Chicago,” before suggesting that the Second Amendment also applies to citizens of Mexico. “There is a fight worldwide to take your guns. Dianne Feinstein, ‘Handgun Control Incorporated,’ the few dozen Democratic operatives they’re going to have marching here in a little while, these so-called ‘moms,’ they are here to disarm you while Homeland Security buys tens of thousands of armored vehicles and millions of bullets.”

Alex Jones and his gun-toting has the right to call for an open revolution against the US government.  Just like I have to right to call Alex Jones, and every person who supports him, a racist America-hating asshole.  See how free speech works in America?

Tea Party Insanity Can Never Fail...

...it can only be failed, as Ted Cruz declares war on the Squishies who reopened the government and didn't push the economy into collapse.

According to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, it’s his colleagues, more than anyone, who should be blamed for the failure of the defund-Obamacare campaign — and he expects conservatives to remember come primary season. 

“Unfortunately, rather than supporting House Republicans, a significant number of Senate Republicans actively, aggressively, and vocally led the effort to defeat House Republicans, to defeat the effort to defund Obamacare,” Cruz says, in an interview with National Review. “Once Senate Republicans did that, it crippled the chances of this effort, and it caused the lousy deal.” 

When pressed to cite specific Republican senators who may face primary trouble, Cruz refuses — “I’m not interested in a battle of personalities.” But he strongly urges conservatives to hold those lawmakers “accountable.” 

“As with every decision elected officials make, the consequences of those decisions are up to the American people,” Cruz says. “But I will say this: From Day One in office, I’ve urged the American people to hold every elected official accountable, and far too many elected officials are not listening to the American people. . . . when you’ve got 10 to 20 Senate Republicans going on television, day after day after day, saying, ‘we cannot win, this is a fool’s errand, we will lose, nothing will happen, we will surrender,’ and blaming Republicans every step of the way, it eliminates the ability to get a positive outcome. 

“Now, I have publicly said it is likely that I will stay out of all incumbent primaries,” he continues. “But every elected official has to make the case to the grassroots in his or her state on why he or she is effectively fighting for them.” When asked whether using the word “likely” means he’s leaving room to back a challenger, Cruz repeats the line, saying it’s “likely” he’ll stay out.

2014 is going to be brutal on the GOP side.  Already Mississippi GOP Sen. Thad Cochran has drawn a Tea Party primary challenger since the shutdown ended last week and I'm betting a lot more are on the way.  The results are going to be pretty brutal as they continue to eat their own.

If It Wasn't Somehow On The Table Before...

The Tea Party has nothing left but Obama Derangement Syndrome now, and a couple good catches by some liberal blogs tell us what insanity will spring from the forehead of Insane Obama-hating Zeus next.  First, Ed Kilgore:

Well, you gotta hand it to the wordsmiths at Heritage who came up with this line for Jim DeMint responding to the argument that the 2012 presidential election sealed the deal on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act:

I can hear many conservative friends saying to me right around this point: “Jim, we agree with you that ObamaCare is going to wreck the country, but elections have consequences.”

[But] ObamaCare was not the central fight in 2012, much to the disappointment of conservatives. Republicans hoped that negative economic news would sweep them to victory, and exit polls confirmed that the economy, not health care, was the top issue. The best thing is to declare last year’s election a mistrial on ObamaCare.

A “mistrial.” That’s hilarious.

That would be hilarious, except for the fact that DeMint is advocating the nullification of the 2012 election, and implying the fact that America elected Barack Obama not once but twice is irrelevant.  And what would "declaring last year's election a mistrial" look like?

Ask House GOP nutjob Steve Stockman, as Steve M. points out.  The nutjob Texan is handing out copies of the World Net Daily screed Impeachable Offenses to every Congressperson he can find.

But they wouldn't try to impeach Obama with Democrats controlling the Senate (and thus preventing conviction), would they? Well, Democratic control of the Senate didn't stop them from shutting down the government in order to defund Obamacare, did it? And a futile impeachment attempt wouldn't rattle global financial markets! (It didn't in 1998, right?) So it's a genius plan!

Yes, I think the history of the shutdown, and the fact that the Crazy Caucus would clearly do it all over again despite the fact that it was an utter failure, strongly suggests that the crazies might go for impeachment next. And John Boehner probably will do nothing to stand in their way. And there'll be primary challenges for any doubters. 

Oh yes, if it wasn't somehow on the table before, it is now.  Watch.  We're nowhere near peak ODS.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Blasting the UN Security Council as ineffective and full of "double standards", Saudi Arabia has turned down the invitation to join the council as a rotating member.
• The Kansas Supreme Court has indefinitely suspended the law license of former GOP state AG Phil Kline over conduct violations in office during his crusade to prosecute Planned Parenthood. 
• Former Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley has passed at the age of 84, Foley spent 30 years as a Washington State Congressman and served as Speaker from 1989 to 1995.
• After more than four years of negotiations, Canada and the EU have reached a free trade deal, announced in Brussels this week.
• "Ransomware" in the age of Bitcoin means that hackers that invade your PC to hold your data hostage are finding it easier to get paid.

Last Call For Los Castigadores

The GOP must now exact revenge for its humiliation this week at the hands of President Obama and the American people, so those of you who supported the Democrats have to be put in your respective places.  Today's contestants in "Know your role and shut your mouth!" (the home version) are Latinos and other immigration advocates, as House Republican Raul Labrador makes painfully clear.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) "has said he is committed to advancing immigration legislation in this Congress but there is virtually no interest among GOP lawmakers to vote for the kind of sweeping bill that Democrats are seeking," USA Today reports.

Said Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID): "It's not going to happen this year. After the way the president acted over the last two or three weeks where he would refuse to talk to the speaker of the House... they're not going to get immigration reform. That's done."

Added Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS): "That would really melt down the conference."

So yes, the Punishers are exacting revenge.  No immigration reform now, because that's the price The Punishers are making us pay because Obama made them look bad, rather than, you know, Republicans making themselves look like idiots.

Maybe America should stop voting for them, yes?  Because eventually, the group Republican Punishers will decide to target will include you.   And odds are between killing job bills, the economy, and shutting down the government, you've already been a victim.

The Cuccinelli Cuckoo, Clocked

In Virginia, a state where there are more than a few federal employees who were furloughed this month, Republican AG Ken Cuccinelli is now facing a decidedly uphill battle against Democrat Terry McAuliffe for the Governor's mansion.

A new NBC4/NBC News/Marist poll finds Republican Ken Cuccinelli slipping further behind Democrat Terry McAuliffe, 46 to 38 percent in the race for Virginia governor among likely voters. That’s 3 points wider than McAuliffe’s 43 to 38 percent lead a month ago -- before the shutdown. Libertarian Robert Sarvis gets 9 percent.

Virginia was one of the top states impacted by the shutdown -- with hundreds of thousands of federal workers, contractors, and military service members and retirees in the state. And a majority (54 percent) in the poll blames Republicans for the shutdown. Just 31 percent of likely voters blame President Barack Obama.

Four-in-10 – 39 percent – said either they or a family member has been affected by the shutdown, whether it’s employment, services or benefits.

Many say the shutdown will have an impact on their vote -- 38 percent of registered voters said it would have a major impact on it; 21 percent said it would have a minor one. Among respondents who said it has had a major impact on their vote, McAuliffe is winning them 55-27 percent. Among those who say it is a minor issue, McAuliffe also leads, 52-33 percent.

Cuccinelli only leads with those who say the government shutdown is not an issue, 49-36 percent.

I could have told you Rob Sarvis was going to cost Cooch the race months ago, but Rob Sarvis AND the shutdown means there's a very distinct possibility the guy may not break 40%.  Normally this is the point where the race tightens up (Americans love an underdog) but the shutdown is making that go the opposite direction.  Undecideds are running to McAuliffe and will continue to, is my bet.

McAuliffe may actually break 50% in this 3-way race when all is said and done.  Wouldn't that be something...

Some Cold Hard Reality

Let's keep in mind during the celebration dance here that America still elected the Tea Party nutjobs that shut us down in the first place, and odds remain extremely high that the vast majority of them will remain in power for a long, long time.  Nate Cohn lays it out:

So if the only facts I knew about this election were that it was 1) October of an odd-numbered year; 2) Democrats had an average lead of about 7 points on the generic ballot; and 3) the incumbent Democratic president had an approval rating in the low forties, I would not believe that Democrats were poised to retake the chamber.

And we know more about this election than those three facts. Here’s one fact: The newfound Democratic advantage on the generic ballot comes in at the height of a government shutdown, which could easily be as bad as it gets for the GOP. And yet even now, Democrats aren’t approaching 50 percent of the vote in generic ballot surveys. So if there’s no tsunami now, there’s plenty of cause to be doubtful that one will emerge later. The preponderance of undecided voters are Republican-leaners who voted to reelect their representatives last November; they’ll probably come home by Election Day.

Just consider the last 13 months. The president was reelected, Newtown, the fiscal cliff, gun control failed, the NSA and Snowden, the sequester, immigration reform stalled, Syria, and now a two-week government shutdown. Some of these things benefited the Democrats, others, probably more, benefited the Republicans. We live in interesting times, and memories of the shutdown will fade by November 2014.

They'll go back to the GOP for the same reason "moderate" House Republicans all voted to shut down the government.  They hate Obama and the Democrats more than they hate losing, and if their desire to see Democrats and their supporters punished wasn't white hot before, it's now burning a hole through the ground towards the center of the earth.

Some 95% of House members will be re-elected next year.  That will include the Tea Party, and that's just reality.

StupidiNews!

• Transit workers in San Francisco are on strike for a second time this year as talks between unions and BART management have fallen apart, leaving a quarter million commuters scrambling.
• New figures show that 17 states now have a majority of public school students who are at or below the poverty line, up from just four states a decade ago.
• President Obama is expected to nominate Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson as the nation's new head of Homeland Security, he'd be the first African-American nominated for the position.
• States are bringing fines and penalties against companies that hire employees and call them contractors in order to avoid playing taxes, insurance, and other benefits.
• Streaming video giant Netflix has struck a deal with Samsung for access to new cable set top boxes that can deliver video to customers.

Last Call For The Same Old Nonsense

As I've said, Republicans have learned precisely zero from the last 16 days.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on Oct. 24 to examine the rollout of Obamacare's health insurance marketplaces.

The committee has called for Health and Human Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to testify, though it notes that the Obama administration "has rejected" previous requests to publicly answer questions about the troubled launch. 

The committee has also asked for the input of software contractors. The marketplace's technological infrastructure has reportedly been one of the main causes of problems that website users have faced.

Fred Upton and Marsh Blackburn run that particular bunch for the GOP, so it should make for a not so gentle reminder of why the Tea Party crashed and burned this week.  They just can't help themselves, Obama Derangement Syndrome is all they have.

Mitch's Mouth Writing Checks His Party Can't Cash

Mitch The Turtle promises this time, no more shutdowns.  Nope.  He promises, folks.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says he will not allow another government shutdown as part of a strategy to repeal ObamaCare.

McConnell (Ky.) told The Hill in an interview Thursday afternoon that his party learned a painful political lesson over the past 16 days, as its approval rating dropped while the government was shuttered.

He said there’s no reason to go through the political wringer again in January, when the stopgap measure Congress passed late Wednesday is set to expire.

“One of my favorite old Kentucky sayings is there’s no education in the second kick of a mule. The first kick of a mule was when we shut the government down in the mid-1990s and the second kick was over the last 16 days,” he said. “There is no education in the second kick of a mule. There will not be a government shutdown. 

“I think we have fully now acquainted our new members with what a losing strategy that is,” he added.

I've got another Kentucky saying for you, Mitch.  There's no educating a Tea Party Republican.  Because Ted Cruz isn't going to make that promise, and neither are his buddies in the House.   In fact, Cruz is already back to the same old hostage-taking tactics, and it hasn't even been 24 hours since the last crisis ended.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has placed a hold on President Barack Obama's nominee for Federal Communications Commission chief, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. 

Cruz will hold the nomination until Tom Wheeler states that he will not push for disclosures from political ad sponsors, Sean Ruston, a spokesman for Cruz told the Journal. 

Cruz asked Wheeler about his stance on the Disclose Act, which would require tax-exempt groups that run political ads to reveal their top donors, in June, and is waiting for a detailed response. When asked about the bill in June, Wheeler, a former telecomm lobbyist, said he needed to look at the issue more closely.

Looks like Ted Cruz hasn't learned a goddamn thing, Mitch.  He especially doesn't want people finding out who his donors are, as he's immediately blocking yet another federal job.

And on and on it goes.

The Crying Game

The blogs on the right are pretty depressed after last night's humiliating defeat, and deservedly so:  America now knows that the Tea Party is basically only capable of ineffectual tantrums that do nothing to achieve their stated goals and instead only harm voters in both parties.  Republicans won precisely nothing, other than a lesson to be learned about how irrelevant they really are right now.

Some are learning this.  Jonah Goldberg has thrown in the towel over at NRO:

The core promise of Ted Cruz and Mike Lee wasn’t “We’re going to fill the leadership vacuum in a branch of Congress we weren’t elected to!” Nor was it, “We will educate the public on how bad Obamacare is!” Their core promise was that they were going to defund Obamacare (without needing Democratic votes!) and that their legislative brinksmanship was worth the risks because after October 1, there was no chance of getting rid of it. I bring this up not to relitigate the fight, but to be simply honest about where I am coming from.

Paul Mirengoff at Power Line notes that while Goldberg wants to move on (and I think the concept of Goldberg being honest about anything is nearly hysterical, personally) the question of the shutdown will loom large in 2014 and especially 2016:

But in 2015, campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination will begin in earnest. Most, if not all, of the candidates will have taken a position on the CR/shutdown. Some who were front-and-center in this controversy will probably be candidates.

At that point, the question of who was right and who was wrong about the shutdown will not be academic. If, for example, the shutdown turns out to have been a win in the fight against Obamacare, big government, and/or Democrats, this outcome will weigh heavily in favor of Ted Cruz’s candidacy (if it materializes). And vice versa. 

Until then, it would be nice to move. But with a high-stakes debate looming over who was right and who was wrong, there’s probably no way it will be deferred.

On the other hand, there's a lot of outright rage at the losers right now to go around, as Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom states:

I won’t live as a subject. So if I’m forced to, I plan to make some of those who forced us into accepting such a fate my own personal prison bitches.

Bryan Preston at Pajamas Media blames the squishy RINOs who sold out Ted Cruz:

In the Republicans’ case, the divisions within their ranks didn’t help. “Wacko bird” didn’t help. Peter King spending more time assaulting Republicans than Democrats didn’t help. It also didn’t help to rant “you support Obamacare!” if you didn’t happen to agree with the strategy to stop Obamacare. A divided force will just about always lose to a unified force. The Republicans failed to divide the Democrats, while they went into the fight divided themselves.

And William "Col. Mustard" Jacobson at Legal Insurrection?  Well, he's still Col. Mustard.

At least some Republicans are on record as being willing to do just about anything to stop Obamacare although not as much as Obama and Democrats were willing to do to save it. If there were hostage-takers and suicide bombers, they weren’t Ted Cruz and Mike Lee or the conservatives in the House.

The awesome whirlwind of blame will continue for a while, but it's important to remember that Democrats still have a lot of work to do, and December 15th most likely means we're going to go through all of this again soon.   Whether or not Dems will go to the polls and start tossing out Republicans remains to be seen.

StupidiNews, Back In Business Edition!

• IT'S OVER:  With an 81-18 vote in the Senate and the tally 285-144 in the House, Congress has passed and President Obama has signed a bill to reopen the government through January 15 and raise the debt ceiling through February 7th. 

Last Call For Steve Lonegan

Oh look, in a result that surprised precisely nobody, Cory Booker has beaten Steve Lonegan in today's special election for New Jersey Senate.

Can't imagine why voters would be angry at Republicans on today of all days, now can you.

Crisis Of Faith (And Credit)

Reuters economist Felix Salmon argues that if the negative consequences of a debt default would be lasting damage to the "full faith and credit of the United States of America" well, thanks to the GOP shutdown, we're already well into that scenario regardless of how this week turns out.

Right now, with the shutdown, we’ve already reached the point at which the government is breaking very important promises indeed: we promised to pay hundreds of thousands of government employees a certain amount on certain dates, in return for their honest work. We have broken that promise. Indeed, by Treasury’s own definition, it’s reasonable to say that we have already defaulted: surely, by any sensible conception, the salaries of government employees constitute “legal obligations of the US“.

Conversely, if you really do expect zombies to start roaming the streets the minute that the US misses a payment on its Treasury obligations, you’re likely to be disappointed. Yes, the stock market would fall. But the price of Treasury bonds would remain in the general vicinity of par, and it might even go up if Treasury announced that past-due interest would be paid on all debt at a statutory rate of 8% per annum. Even when it’s Treasury bonds themselves which are the instruments in default, Treasury bonds remain the world’s flight-to-quality trade, and the expected recovery on all defaulted Treasury obligations would be 100 cents on the dollar — or more.

The harm done to the global financial system by a Treasury debt default would not be caused by cash losses to bond investors. If you needed that interest payment, you could always just sell your Treasury bill instead, for an amount extremely close to the total principal and interest due. Rather, the harm done would be a function of the way in which the Treasury market is the risk-free vaseline which greases the entire financial system. If Treasury payments can’t be trusted entirely, then not only do all risk instruments need to be repriced, but so does the most basic counterparty risk of all. The US government, in one form or another, is a counterparty to every single financial player in the world. Its payments have to be certain, or else the whole house of cards risks collapsing — starting with the multi-trillion-dollar interest-rate derivatives market, and moving rapidly from there.

And here’s the problem: we’re already well past the point at which that certainty has been called into question.

So yes, you can make the argument that we're already into a "default" situation.  Right now Wall Street is counting on the situation getting fixed at near relativistic speeds.  Should that confidence run out, then the real damage begins.

How This All Shakes Out

Steve M. has a theory on the debt-o-rama endgame, and it's basically "this is only the beginning".  Ted Cruz will exact his pound of flesh by delaying a Senate vote into Thursday or Friday, and we have one of those "international economic whoopsie" things:

Somewhere in the period of Cruz's delay and the House GOP's threat to block the deal in that chamber, U.S. and global stock markets are going to go into free fall. These won't be irreversible plummets -- they'll just be a warning shot across Boehner's bow.

I think he'll respond then -- but I'm not sure. He's put his Speakership above all else so far. It may take more pressure from the business mainstream, either against Crazy Caucus members or on behalf of non-crazies. That kind of pressure seems slow in coming, but I think the prospect of default will concentrate minds.

So I think this will end -- for a few months. This is a short-term deal, after all. We'll be back in crisis again in a few months.

I'd like to think President Obama's demands that the hostage-taking stop, but the GOP is now fully vested in Obama Derangement Syndrome, so Steve is most likely correct.  There will be a "default" and Friday is going to be a miserable day for the markets, with the understanding that this will be "resolved" before Monday, one way or the other.

The practical upshot however is that barring a total meltdown by the GOP position, in January we'll most likely be right back at square one with the additional factor of more scheduled Pentagon sequestration cuts happening in the middle of the month.

Won't that be fun?