tvashtarkatena

That's one way to pack your schedule, I guess. The tides, gravity, and weather can all be an annoyance at times as well. Best of luck.

Born in '59, so I grew up with the Cold War, but I've got to say I don't remember those Liberty Through Consumption grocery displays. In any case, all kinds of 'messages' are put out there all the time, as they always have been...most of which are happily ignored by folks like me. Try it sometime. Or not.

I find all the chest puffing about the upcoming national default laughable, considering that only 28 Rs voted to shut the government down - an infinitesimally tinier political risk that, when it came down to it, caused no small amount of shrinkage among that set. This is what happens when the loud and stupid confront reality, I guess. Still, its entertaining to see the rats on Fox bite each other after the Dems electrified their cage, then kicked it across the room. They negotiated and extra 5 whole Billion...out of the original 67 Billion differential proposed. 7% of the way there! Rather than keeping their eyes on the prize, they went after the ever popular but fiscally insignificant NPR and Planned Parenthood. Way to keep your focus, gang. Of course, pushing religiously driven, socially conservative repression IS the real tea bagger agenda, in as far as anyone can cobble together a cohesive agenda at all from that disgruntled clusterfuck of a (bowel?) movement. Yeah, there's gonna be quite a few one termers trying to figure out how they're gonna feed their 10 kids if they keep this 'hard hitting' performance up. If they weren't so stupid they'd cut the military, raise taxes on the wealthy, and drop the religious crap to gain widespread popular support...but they won't, cuz' they are. Stupid, naive, and, in the end, ineffective. Not a good combo when you've got such a psychopathic base. Pact with the Debbil and all that.... Mandate!!!!!!

We've been funding our low tax rate through a ballooning debt. The R's want to have their cake (no increase in debt limit) and eat it (no new taxes through the ever magical and often mythical mechanism of 'economic growth') too.

The attempted link between a grocery promotional display and any meaningful definition of freedom is telling, if just a wee bit of a stretch. Stop me before I brush again?

That's funny. I can never find the 1 foot wide toothpaste display in my grocery store because it seems there's always one or two hotties standing in the way. Guess this corporate slave shops at a different store than you free thinkers.

Oh, and regarding salaries...you generally get what you pay for. If the third world proves anything, its that politicians will seek backsheesh to supplement an inadequate salary. Being a congressman is expensive - lots of suits, travel, an apartment in DC. It's in the national interest to pay them competitively if we want them to focus on doing their job rather than scrounging for a few bucks wherever they can find it.

It's common to mythologize the 'gentile, gentlemen framers' as such, but, even a quick reading of that period reveals that American politics and the people who practice it have changed little over the centuries. The founding era, more than anything, was one long shouting match, conducted by the wealthy (if highly indebted) elite of the day, most of whom openly felt entitled to govern. The themes then would be familiar today: states versus federal rights, how to pay for the national debt (or whether to bother paying for it at all), whether to align with France or England, whether or not to have a national religion. The founders even swept huge issues under the rug - slavery for example. Congress actually passed a law banning the banning of slavery until 1812 - presumably long enough for the union to coalesce. As now, politicians hired journalists to smear their rivals, as Jefferson did against Adams. Jefferson, not the most fiscally responsible person, wound up getting sued and publicly trashed by his factotum when he failed to pay the bill. Adams, for his part, then passed our first Sedition act, at the suggestion of his wife, to exact revenge against his political critics. Nor were the founders immune to pomp - Washington regularly toured around town in a guilded white carriage drawn by six pure white draft horses. At least today, congressmen don't generally shoot each other, as Burr did Hamilton in a then-illegal duel. The idea that people or politics was any different back then is quaint, comforting, and completely unsupported by the copious written history our founders intentionally left behind to polish their historical legacies.

The most effective way to shut a village idiot up is to confuse him, which, by definition, shouldn't be terribly hard.

Medicare? EZ. Most health care is consumed in the last two years of life. Nuff said there, I hope. Bye bye, grandma. You've been a love.

Ah, the elderly will be dead in short order. Being that old sucks ballz anyway; being that old and a wee bit poorer won't make much difference. It's one more Hormal Compleats and one less trip to the Royal Fork a week for most of them. Great way to drop a size in the powder blue stretchies, ya know? We need to pay the deficit down cuz...well, no one will EVER force us to pay it so I'm not sure why, but let's just say we do. We won't tax the rich but we sure as hell can gang up on the old, which might skim some cream from some fatcats' bowls along the way. We'd better do it soon, cuz' the blue haired herd is only gettin' bigger.

Yeah right, like he pre-emptively coopted the GOPer's tax cuts for the rich reform by giving them everything they wanted. Just watch him take a hack at Medicare and Social Security next to preempt the tea party extremists. I'm good with that. Rich people tend to be old. I think Social Security is one obvious place to redistribute some wealth right about now. Check it out, now.

It's impossible to tell the diff between a troll and a Bush dead-ender. Who cares if he's a troll? spray has to have a village idiot to pick on. If he wants to take that roll, suits me. He's undoubtedly the biggest village idiot in the history of the United States. When we gonna burn one down, biatch?

I don't really care much about the national budget and all the puffery. It's like a Broadway production of Cats. Just try making it stop. There are just too many other things that are way more fun. Just took a road trip to remind myself what an incredible country we live in. I'm not proud to be an American, pride's a sin, or so I hear, and one shouldn't necessarily puff up cuz their folks fucked bareback here instead of some place else, but I am damn glad to be one. What a cool place.

I don't have a democratic party membership, so I'm allowed to criticize Dear Leader. It's pretty nice, you should try it! I was referring how you're going after the trashy new decoy.

I'm for more high per bowl mesel'.

In this case, it would be from a Mickey's.

If you guys were fish you'd be choking on a pull tab.

Regarding the 'budget battle': Despite all the chest puffing, the Tea Party knows that deflation...of their mandate, that is, has set in. The R's know that Obama will be re-elected, even if the Tea Party hasn't gotten the word, so that's not really at stake. The Wisconsin clusterfuck, an improving economy, Middle Eastern reform movements, a thin but wide roster of some highly mutated Presidential candidates, and an embarrassing array of bizarre Bagger sponsored initiatives aimed at trashing Hispanics, women, and a whole raft of other huge voting populations are rapidly shifting the momentum towards the D side of the legislative ballot next time around. Meanwhile, Obama, being the savvy politico he is, is pre-emptively co-opting the Bagger's deficit reform message...as if that was what this was ever about. Overshoot often leads to a turkey shoot, and this latest budgetary street theater seems to be no exception. The public doesn't seem to view the budgetary cock fight in a kind light. At all. Clearly, one side has been more verbally stalwart (while predictably caving), pushed by a more politically naive, poorly informed, and uncompromising base. Payback's a bitch. Get a bunch of angry, self centered jerks to vote for you and that's who you're stuck with, I guess. Reap what you sow and all that....

I'd guess this is supposed to be a hard hitting domestic version of the famous Haiti/Dominican Republic satellite photo, but I'd bet its just another meaningless, out of context tidbit from a guy who cobbles his world view from the titillating, highly filtered freak show that is digital media. Man bites dog and all that....

...bet they hid ThermaRests inside those sleeping bags....

Only in America would a day of fasting (or however many hours you can take it...thanks for all you do!) be considered a viable substitute for a hunger strike. Well, a few thousand 'highly committed' people just lost an ounce, for a day, anyway, a few million more are rolling their eyes, while the vast majority remain unaware of this dramatic, symbolic display of self sacrifice.

No, it means that you will get a regressive corporate shill no matter what you do. Predestined and preordained. At least the Obama tax cuts for the richest 1% will not be in jeopardy. It's one of those rare things jb and I agree on. I've been considering paying myself only capitol gains, and not salary so I can join the "Free Ride" party and stop getting fucked royally in the ass sans happy jelly. Have a nice day. The 'Obama tax cuts'? And here, all along, I was duped into thinking they were the Bush tax cuts, extended by Congress, not the President. I'm glad I can check in here periodically to refresh my basic knowledge of civics.

Tunisia seems so cool. Why is Libya so lame?

The one on the left seems to be saying "I'm gonna FUCK YOU UP...just as soon as I can get this other horned thing extracted from my chest."