The douchebags elected representatives in Congress have once again failed miserably at their jobs..
You will notice the Countdown clock to your left, counting down the days till my furlough and or layoff-whichever comes first.
One of my favorite writers, Charles Pierce has summed up the situation quite well:
Whatever happens tomorrow, the utter failure of sequestration to do what it is designed to do is of a piece with the previous failures of the Gang Of Six, the Gang Of 12, and the king of all revered utter failures, Simpson-Bowles, which still has most of official Washington feeding Vaal at every turn in service to a commission that couldn't even muster a majority of its own membership, Whatever happens tomorrow, the utter failure of sequestration to do what it was supposed to do — namely, to be so utterly horrifying that it would force a deal — should bring an end to government by gimmick.
Government by gimmick is a dodge. Government by gimmick is a way for politicians to protect their status as politicians without actually doing the jobs they were elected to do. Government by gimmick depends vitally on the fundamental Beltway anti-democratic heresy — that the system as designed is inadequate to present circumstances and that the only way out of this is to go put together the proper group of bipartisan Very Important People to apply common sense to the problem. It was government by gimmick — the Tower Commission — that probably bought Ronald Reagan out of the Iran-Contra scandal because the gathering of wise men determined from the start that holding the president responsible by constitutional means would scare the children and disturb the horses. This is the principle that was applied to the useless Gang Of 14 solution to the "problem" of judicial filibusters. And, ever since the American people elected a Congress full of right-wing chew toys in 2010, government-by-gimmick has been the way the American economy has been directed, and now all the duct tape is failing, and the balsa's cracking, and the whole thing is coming apart, and the people in charge are spending long hours talking about how they couldn't have foreseen any of this.
The great thing about Pierce is that he does not succumb to all the nonsense about "both sides do it". He puts the blame squarely where it belongs-on the selfish children who inhabit the tea party crazed GOP.
My only complaint about Pierce's Esquire gig is it deprives me of his usual pith and cogent columns on sports in the Boston Globe.
As usual, Skippy, both of you nailed it.
Oh, and I have the same clock running in my organization as well.
Enjoy your time off…
I don't think it is just a "right wing" thing that led us to this point, but the entire status of politics both local and Federal that has led us to this point.
Local example: The CA "Board of Equalization" a non elected bunch of termed out political hacks just raised the gas tax in CA by 3.5 cents per gallon. So on average it will cost the average driver in CA about $26 additional in gas taxes per year. They did this bypassing the state legislature (the majority votes all happened to be Dems) and not letting the people of CA decide by a general vote to raise the tax as required by the CA constitution. So now, the state of CA has the highest gas tax in the nation, 70cents on each gallon of gas goes to taxes. The money is supposedly being used to fix roads. Have you driven in CA lately? Some streets of LA and SF and other major cities look worse than the dirt roads I used to drive on back in AR visiting my grandparents. Also, one of the reasons they went ahead with it was because they said that since the government mandate of selling more fuel efficient cars has been strictly enforced in CA, more cars are getting better gas milage, and thus the sales of gas are going down, but that also means a reduction in revenues, so they decided to raise the tax to make up the lost revenue, tax income that was lost due to their own nanny regulations.
Federally: Back in Sep 2012, OMB issued a report that listed line item by line item on what the sequester cuts would look like for each department. One of interest was the DEA was going to cut 10% or $2 million from their Drug Enforcement Intelligence Data Center from their $20 million budget. But a funny thing happened on the way to the sequester, that data center was closed in June 2012. So where is the rest of the $18 million going that was supposedly earmarked for it, and where ever it is, why are they just cutting 10%?
Is tricks like these along with these so called "commissions" and panels that are screwing people over. Both Dems and GOP are to blame. All I see coming from this is that the Dems are just setting themselves up to be the "victims" after 2016 when the handshake is given and more of the same tricks are done when the so called "GOP" is put back in office. Take a look at the upcoming CPAC convention, all the GOP is doing is bringing out the loosers like Romney, Gingrich, Ryan, Palin, etc, but bypassing GOv. CHristie of NJ. That's a guy that has had to work with a Dem State Senate, but has been able to stop the tax increases in NJ, and get a balanced budget by making some hard choices but working with the other party.
All Rove and the rest of the gangsters want to do is just drum up a scare, so that they can get more donations and get rich all the way to the bank. The Dems are going to do the same. Just look at how "Code Pink" was all ways in the news during "W's" term, but now we are still in some of the same places, but where's Code Pink when you need them.
Both parties have figured out, it is better to be perceived as a victim, that way you can get more money to pour in, and you can seel more tickets to concerts and other items on your radio shows, than actually working across party lines and getting things done. There's no money in having a thriving economy with people not too dependent on some politican to show them the way.
Just think about this, those elected politicans in DC and other state capitals are supposed to be public servants looking out for the regular people. Why is it then that in DC and other state capitals, some of the most expensive resturants are located, supposedly catering to people who are not in government to get rich but to serve the people. Just think about that.
Maurice, sadly you are correct. Unfortunately I don't see a solution other than to make them all pay for their sins-but I don't want to wait for 2014. I want them to start suffering right now. Maybe if these fuckers actually felt some real fear for their lives and livelihoods, they might actually do something.