Reason Morning LInks: No Deal, Sexy Hill Staffers, and Fake Budget Cuts

Katherine Mangu-Ward | 7.28.2011 8:00 AM

No debt deal yet. Republicans continue eating their own.

But there's one thing lawmakers can agree on: Now is an excellent time to do some fundraising.

Apparently, a few semi-attractive people work on Capitol Hill.

New fuel standards announcement coming on Friday.

New at Reason.tv: Associate Editor Peter Suderman discusses fake budget cuts on Freedom Watch:

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

NEXT: The Danger of Snap Judgments

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rather 14 years ago

So who is missing this morning?
1. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  Nice part of the country - I wonder if he did much skiing in Telluride?
2. Mr. Obvious 14 years ago
  
  I see he had a grow room and guns - so he must have been a Libertarian.
  1. rather 14 years ago
    
    and a tacky tat
    1. i'm rather fat 14 years ago
      
      Another punk.
      Another cop-out.
      Another notch in my belt.
      
      HUUURRRRR DUUURRRRR
      1. rather 14 years ago
        
        Someone has a tat
        sorry, idiot 🙁
Aqua Buddha 14 years ago

Too many gunwalker links to post directly to H&R

The Science Is Settled Dept:
"Reckless Endangerment"
Fannie Mae did not limit its outreach to politicians in need of photo ops or community organizers in need of money. The company also enlisted the aid of academics whose resarch papers on housing issues helped shape the policy debate that was so crucial to the preservation of Fannie's status quo. ...

Fannie Mae's financing of academic research on such a large scale meant that few housing experts were left to argue the other side of any debate involving the company. ...

One bank lobbyist was interested in hiring academics to write papers that might take a different point of view on housing issues. But most of the experts in the area had been co-opted by Fannie Mae. "I tried to find academics that would do research on these issues and Fannie had bought off all the academics in housing," the lobbyist said. "I had people say to me are you going to give me stipends for the next 20 years like Fannie will?"

The answer was no. The discussion was over....
1. John 14 years ago
  
  But they were PHDs. They had credentials Johnny. MNG tells me that that means anything they said must have been correct, especially since they were getting money from the government.
  1. Fatty Bolger 14 years ago
    
    Who ya gonna trust? My Ph.D., or your lying eyes?
  2. WTF 14 years ago
    
    Well, apparently there was a consensus...
2. MNG 14 years ago
  
  "few housing experts were left to argue the other side of any debate involving the company"
  
  This is (surely unintentionally) hilarious. You guys' conspiracy fantasies have really run amok with your minds.
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    Why? First, how many "housing experts" are there? And second, Fannie had tens of billions of dollars to play with. You are telling me it would be that hard to buy off most of them? No one in the housing industry had any reason to question what was going on. It makes perfect sense that they would pay people to tell them what they wanted to hear.
    
    Human nature doesn't go away when you get a degree and an important job.
    1. Aqua Buddha 14 years ago
      
      John, leave MaNGe alone w/ his fantasies about govt money being less corrupting that, say, tobacco company money.
    2. MiNGe 14 years ago
      
      Sure, John, you know more than dozens of PhD's who study these things. I doubt they would all dance to the same tune just to keep the money flowing. The data is what drove their consensus, not the other way around. You really are dumb.
    3. MNG 14 years ago
      
      I don't doubt that any money source can get academic hired guns. What is funny is the idea that it can be so monolithic. Are you telling me, for example, that the network of conservative think tanks didn't have any housing experts doing contra work? Or the much larger network of academic centers and institutions that get money from a large variety of sources, governmental and private? They were all pushing the same thing?
      
      That's fevered conspiracy theory thinking right there. This is your brain on conspiracy theory.
      1. John 14 years ago
        
        Yes, they were all pushing the same thing. It is called group think. And it is one of the things that causes people to act irrationally and create things like economic bubbles.
        
        MiNGe 14 years ago
        
        People don't act irrationally. You're dumb.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        The experts who work for AEI, Heritage and Cato were in on the group think? WTF John, doesn't your careless generalizations get tiring, however much emotional satisfaction such conspiracy theories engender?
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        AEI and Heritiage and CATO have maybe one housing expert each. And no one was listening to them. They were drown out by the vast majority who were bought out by FANNIE. That is the point of the article.
        
        Doesn't your complete unwillingness not to avoid the arguement ever grow tiresome?
        
        Peter Schiff 14 years ago
        
        "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act" -George Orwell
      2. CrackertyAssCracker 14 years ago
        
        Plenty of us self taught Austrian kook types were saying bad shit was bad. Of course we don't have PhD's, and there was a consensus among the polite coastal elite types, so we must have been wrong.
        
        dmoynihan 14 years ago
        
        If you read The Big Short, it becomes clear that the only people who went against housing (other than Paulson) were crazed basement-dwellers with access to capital.
  2. Fluffy 14 years ago
    
    MNG, during the time period in question, Fannie was a private company.
    
    So essentially in order to defend AGW research, you are now reduced to arguing that vast sponsorship by one of the world's largest corporations had no impact on academic research.
    
    Thanks. We'll remember that. MNG's official position is now that anyone who claims that corporate sponsorship can slant academic research is a crazed conspiracy theorist.
    
    Bookmark it, bitches.
    1. MNG 14 years ago
      
      Anyone who believes that Fannie Mae had all the "housing experts" on payroll preventing any contrary academic research from being done on the subject either doesn't know anything about academic research or is a nutty conspiracy theorist.
      1. Janet Napolitano 14 years ago
        
        or a potential terrorist.
      2. John 14 years ago
        
        Citation please. We have a published article that says otherwise. What do you have beyond wishful thinking?
Aqua Buddha 14 years ago

Big Green blocks an oil pipeline, sacrificing thousands of jobs
What if there was a way President Obama could create more than 100,000 jobs, reduce the price of gasoline at the pump, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil -- all at zero cost to taxpayers? Any sane president would jump at the chance, right? Not Obama. It has been 33 months since TransCanada filed for a permit from the State Department to begin construction on the Keystone XL oil pipeline. They are still awaiting final agency decision.

Normally energy companies do not need to win State Department approval for pipeline construction, but the 1,700-mile Keystone XL project would carry about 700,000 barrels of oil a day -- or 255.5 million barrels a year -- from Alberta, Canada, across the U.S. border, and then south all the way to the Gulf Coast. To put that in perspective, Obama recently released 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over a period of 30 days. The Keystone project would also create 7,000 manufacturing jobs, 13,000 construction jobs, and 118,000 spinoff jobs related to the design and management of the pipeline, all in the United States. With unemployment at 9.2 percent, why isn't Obama putting this project on a fast track? ...
1. WTF 14 years ago
  
  Hope! Change!
2. John 14 years ago
  
  It is all about BANANA for those people Johnny; Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything.
3. MNG 14 years ago
  
  In other libertarian news of the weird, society sometimes cares about values other than economic ones!
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    But then wonders why the unemployment rate is effectively 16%. How could this be?
  2. Fluffy 14 years ago
    
    That's OK, but once you do that, I don't want to hear you bitch about unemployment or about energy prices.
    
    If I went around bitching that there wasn't enough government funded art in my neighborhood, you'd tell me to shut the fuck up. And rightly so.
    1. MNG 14 years ago
      
      Yeah, because when we let other values sometimes trump economc ones in the past unemployment was always high...It's not like those types of things just started occuring when Obama took office.
      1. John 14 years ago
        
        So what if there were environmentalists destroying jobs before Obama? The point is, if you claim to value things beyond economics, then value them. But be honest enough to tell the world how great you think it is to have high unemployment but a better environment.
        
        WTF 14 years ago
        
        But be honest enough to tell the world how great you think it is to have high unemployment but a better environment.
        
        Why are we assuming that this luddite nonsense will actually result in a better environment?
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        Good catch.
        
        BakedPenguin 14 years ago
        
        Our energy needs will be met by harnessing the power of UNICORNS!
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Yes, because one must either be for all possible projects that garner energy or one is for none but unicorns.
        
        MiNGe 14 years ago
        
        Because we currently have all the damn energy we could ever need, so no harm is done by restricting the flow of oil. And this somehow also means Obama's release of some of the strategic oil reserve wasn't really political, but I haven't figured that one out yet. And you guys are all dumb.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        Since the environmental movement is not for any projects, they are quickly going to become irrelevent as the country grows poorer.
        
        Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        You're either FOR unicorns or you're AGAINST unicorns. There is no "moderate" position on this issue.
        
        Spoonman. 14 years ago
        
        It won't. Transporting anything by sea is extremely energy intensive. You have to expend energy to move the tons of steel which contain the oil, the people to keep the steel going the correct direction, food for them, etc. A pipeline only has to move the oil.
        
        From a pure carbon emissions perspective I don't see how consumption of oil produced closer to home isn't miles better than oil transported halfway across the world in slow, inefficient steel behemoths.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        This is absurd. We value things over economic values often and throughout our history. When conservatives banned obscenity, when liberals banned child labor, when we limited working hours, when we set up environmental restrictions, etc., etc., we said "perhaps this would make more money or output but it would harm things we value, so no" we do so. It's not news and it has not always led to economic disaster.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        If you do it enough, it does lead to economic disaster. We are only able to avoid child labor because we are rich enough not to need our children to work. They don't have child labor laws in places like Haiti. That is because if you are poor enough, your kids have to work or starve. We only have environmental laws because we can afford them.
        
        But no matter how rich you are, there comes a point where the laws cost so much, you can no longer afford them. And the pipeline is a good example of this. We are putting thousands of people out of work during an economic depression in return for little if any environmental benefit.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Well of course any individual project may cost too much in terms of economic payoff and too little in payoff in other areas to make blocking it foolish, that doesn't undermine the idea that there will be times where it will be the other way around. We should not always let arguments about (short term at that) economic efficiency always win the day.
        
        Allowing child pornography tomorrow would also undoubtedly create jobs, but those who still oppose this are not crazy luddittes.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        Sure MNG maybe some projects are worth doing, you and everyone else who claims to be an environmentalist has never seen them. Good to know.
        
        Tony 14 years ago
        
        Allowing child pornography tomorrow would also undoubtedly create jobs, but those who still oppose this are not crazy luddittes
        
        A deftly erected and demolished strawman. Well played, sir.
        
        Fluffy 14 years ago
        
        If you admit that, then you should take the next logical step and admit that it means you don't get to complain about unemployment.
        
        Your counterargument is "Sure, we have deliberately chosen these values over jobs and I admit that, but I don't think that means I shouldn't be allowed to complain that now I have lots of intangible values and fewer jobs. How DARE you say that after I squash jobs I don't get to complain that there aren't enough jobs? You bastard!"
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Well, I'm not sure that in the long run basic environmental, educational and familial based restrictions on economic activity have a negative economic effect, I suspect they have a positive effect.
        
        Additionally, we've had these 'lots of intangible things" in the past and more jobs, so I don't think I have to draw the conclusion that the current economic woes are the result of them.
        
        WTF 14 years ago
        
        You suspect that restrictions on economic activity have a positive economic effect? Okay, then.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        I'm not sure that in the long run basic environmental, educational and familial based restrictions on economic activity have a negative economic effect, I suspect they have a positive effect."
        
        Citation please?
      2. Pip 14 years ago
        
        Just shut the fuck up.
  3. Shocked 14 years ago
    
    So you think that the majority of "society" would agree with not doing this? Or just the right society people?
    
    Something tells me if there was a proposal to take the pipeline route and cover it with windmills and solar panels, instead of an underground pipeline, the people who live nearby would like that even less.
  4. cynical 14 years ago
    
    Not jobs or wealth, apparently. Get tired of those fuckers forcing their religion on us.
  5. R C Dean 14 years ago
    
    In other libertarian news of the weird, society sometimes cares about values other than economic ones!
    
    What is this "society" of which you speak, and how do we we know what "its" values are?
    
    At best, we can say that a coterie of bureaucrats and enablers value, well, something, more than they do a crapload of jobs for other people and the benefits of a better energy supply.
    1. MNG 14 years ago
      
      "how do we we know what "its" values are?"
      
      Elections?
      1. WTF 14 years ago
        
        "how do we we know what "its" values are?"
        
        Elections?
        
        Like the one in 2010?
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Yes, but alas for you, our system staggers the elections of its officials. One election rarely gives total control to the elected, because people who won other elections are there.
        
        WTF 14 years ago
        
        But the most recent elections are a proxy indicator of the country's current values, no? Wasn't that sort of your original point?
      2. Fluffy 14 years ago
        
        That tells you the values of the number of voters who selected the winning representatives.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Yes fluffy, that's how our system works. It's an attempt at majority rules. Perfect, not, but I've yet to see a better one.
        
        Barack Obama 14 years ago
        
        I've yet to see a better one.
        
        Let me be clear.
        
        Please be patient just a little longer.
        
        Fluffy 14 years ago
        
        That's fine.
        
        But that still can't tell you what "society's" values are.
        
        You were asked a grammatical and philosophical question and you responded with a political answer (which was therefore nonresponsive).
        
        If you remove the distancing and idolatrous notion that "society" holds certain values, and examine the question in a reductivist way, you discover that what is actually happening is that some number of citizens hold certain values.
        
        Atomizing it into the actions of individuals is important because it makes what's happening more clear.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        fluffy, don't look now but while the cons are in this part of the thread decrying the idea that elections should be used to guide policy downthread the cons are arguing that Obama should give in to the GOP because they won the last election. So since you are the election police and all you might want to check that action out...
        
        What's up with you lately, you're going all conservative. You're not going to be the next Joshua Coming are you?
      3. R C Dean 14 years ago
        
        I wasn't aware that we elected values.
        
        In any event, elections are a stated preference, not a revealed preference. Akin to concluding that a Baptist is a teetotaler because he says so in church, regardless of what he does at home.
    2. Trespassers W 14 years ago
      
      Thank you, RC. We let that kind of talk slide too often. It's metaphor and sloppy thinking.
      
      Individuals value, individuals act, individuals decide. Society doesn't value, it doesn't act, it doesn't decide.
  6. . 14 years ago
    
    MNG|7.28.11 @ 9:12AM|#
    In other libertarian news of the weird, society sometimes cares about values other than economic ones!
    
    Yeah, especially if they already have jobs of their own. Fuck anyone else.
4. Ginger Crotch 14 years ago
  
  Barack Insane Obama, America's #1 Job Killer. Taking food out of the mouths of babies.
Another Isolated Incident 14 years ago

Police arrest man on multiple child molestation allegations

A Tulsa man was arrested Monday on allegations that he sexually abused a minor and possessed child pornography, jail records show.

Tulsa police arrested Richard Reed Clough, 37, on complaints of sexual abuse of a minor, lewd molestation of a minor, possession of child pornography and lewd proposal to a minor, according to jail records.

One of the victims, who is 15, told police that Clough had fondled her and asked her to take the photographs, according to jail records.

The other victim, who is in her late teens, told police that Clough had been molesting her and having intercourse with her since she was 9 years old, according to the arrest report.

According to the jail records, Clough confessed to having sexual intercourse with the second victim.

Area libertarians have created a defense fund for Clough.
Nothing else happened.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/spec.....ulsa178350
1. Aqua Buddha 14 years ago
  
  Nikolai Dzhumagaliev passes woman on street, does not eat her
  1. 14 years ago
    
    Nikolai Dzhumagaliev passes kidney stone on street
    1. ? 14 years ago
      
      Libertarian harms self with sexual gratification device, calls 911, bitches about the government
2. Ray 14 years ago
  
  Police beat homeless, mentally il man to death. Graphic video and photos. Something else happened.
  
  http://www.theblaze.com/storie.....hic-image/
3. Ray 14 years ago
  
  Police beat and tazer unarmed man, breaking ribs. Something else happened.
  
  http://www.theblaze.com/storie.....naked-man/
4. Ray 14 years ago
  
  Oh, and fuck you.
5. Pip 14 years ago
  
  Detroit Police Officer Rapes his Step Daughters? - YouTube
  
  It's another blow to the reputation of the Detroit Police Department. An officer from the Northwestern ...
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er05X1ONGZQ
6. creighton 14 years ago
  
  Kansas City suburb police detective fucks area man's wife, conjures up child molestation charges against said man. Discloses relationship with man's wife to police chief and prosecutors, who do nothing. Man goes to prison for 5 years, before finally being exonerated.
  
  Nothing else happened.
  Oh, except that he won $15.5 million from the city, and those prosecutors and cops are still employed.
  1. cynical 14 years ago
    
    Really, anyone who wants to take a hardass stance on pubsec unions needs to demand that the cop union shoulder 50% of any damages from citizen lawsuits against cops that were union members at the time of the incident that lead to the lawsuit. Should be fucking non-negotiable.
Restoras 14 years ago

Nice and early! Well done, Riggs! You're really bucking for that promotion to Iceland, eh?
1. Ice Nine 14 years ago
  
  Albeit rather anemic.
  1. Rich 14 years ago
    
    And what's up with the "LInks"?
2. Brett L 14 years ago
  
  Check the name of the ML poster. Not Riggs.
  1. Never heard of 14 years ago
    
    nom de plume?
  2. Restoras 14 years ago
    
    Crap! Where's Riggs?? Vacation? Demotion? He got a life?
    1. Brett L 14 years ago
      
      I think they rotate them via some arcane system that involves being the penultimate poster on the previous day except in months whose names contain an 'r'.
3. Cosmotarian Liberty 14 years ago
  
  To say KM-W just "phoned it in" would be far too generous.
  1. Ice Nine 14 years ago
    
    In fairness, I'm guessing that this is not exactly one of their favorite duties at Reason.
    1. Restoras 14 years ago
      
      They really should let one of us do it.
      1. Rich 14 years ago
        
        Have in mind anyone in particular?
        
        Restoras 14 years ago
        
        Aqua has won the job, me thinks.
      2. R C Dean 14 years ago
        
        Fox. Henhouse. You do the math.
        
        T 14 years ago
        
        If you let the inmates pick the links, we'd end up like Fark. And nobody wants that, do they?
        
        Restoras 14 years ago
        
        Um...an obese fox?
rather 14 years ago

I just want to dig for dinosaurs
Joe M 14 years ago

Jenna Gibson, rowr.
1. West Texas 14 years ago
  
  Picking someone from Fox News (even if she's just a producer at the moment) is kind of against the spirit of the rules of that contest, I would think. She's in Washington BECAUSE of her looks, not because she's some kind of policy wonk or young political ladder climber who happens to be more attractive than average.
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    For sure. Any average Hit and Run commentator could get on Fox News and pontificate. Since anyone can do it, why not put on someone who is easy on the eyes?
  2. Clich? Bandit 14 years ago
    
    number 11 was fascinating.
2. rowr 14 years ago
  
  Indeed.
ZekFoo 14 years ago

lol, dont you just love our bought and paid for politics??

http://www.web-privacy.au.tc
1. MNG 14 years ago
  
  Perfect, not, but I've yet to see a better one.
Montani Semper Liberi 14 years ago

Whoever made that most beautiful people list must have an Asian fetish. #2 is waaaaay hotter than #1.
1. sage 14 years ago
  
  I'm not sure there's anything I dislike more than one click per beautiful person. They know full fucking well they can jam all those pics into one long page. Fuck The Hill right in their flabby neck.
  1. MNG 14 years ago
    
    I hate that kind of thing too sage
  2. NeonCat 14 years ago
    
    If you click on the Print icon above the article, it will helpfully show all of them on one long page.
    
    Most of them are, well, okay looking.
2. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  Well, I don't know how much hotter, but I think you're right. I think #25 and #49 trump the both of them.
  1. CoyoteBlue 14 years ago
    
    What!? No Roas DeLauro?
    But she's a fucking hipster!
    http://rosadelauroisafuckinghipster.tumblr.com/
3. sage 14 years ago
  
  And maybe they like grannies too. Lisa Murkowski? Really?
4. Patrick 14 years ago
  
  Reaction #1: Most of these women wouldn't turn heads at your average American university.
  
  Reaction #2: Every smug, masturbatory celebration of DC culture such as this makes me die a little more inside. Fuck every one of these tax parasites raw with Steve Smith's dick.
  
  More coffee, please!
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    ^^This^^ They are all fucking dorks who couldn't have gotten laid in a morgue in college. And the women are totally frustrated because they either can't get a date (there are far more women than men in DC) or when they do it is with some neutered metro sexual guy.
    1. MNG 14 years ago
      
      Where did the DC elites touch you Johnny?
      1. John 14 years ago
        
        I live in DC and live in a better neighborhood and make more money than they do. Most of them make zilch on the Hill and couldn't live here without the monthly check from mommy and daddy.
        
        There are two types of people on the Hill. The committee staff jobs that pay a little something and which are filled with people with some experience and often a fair amount of competence. And there is every other job which is filled with 12 year olds playing save the world on their parents dime.
        
        The sorry fact is that Washington is filled with idiot sons and daughters. The big donors have businesses and lives back home. So they don't want the political jobs for themselves. They can't afford to take them. What they do is buy jobs for their idiot sons. This goes a long ways to explaining why we are in such bad shape. We have a government of idiot sons.
        
        JW 14 years ago
        
        Lou Reed was never more right.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Your entire political rage-filled perspective seems built on resentment for the social circles you travel in.
        
        Where did the bad elites touch you John?
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        No MNG. It is called seeing the beast up close and understanding how it works. Anyone who has lived and worked in Washington understands how corrupt and awful it is. Only people who either like it that way or are too naive or uninformed claim otherwise.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        You hate the people you run with, that's very common. I guess it is also common to use that resentment to create a rage filled bitter political outlook where you see the people you hate as behind every problem in America.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        You are projecting again MNG.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        I'm not the one who gets on here and RAGES about liberal DC elites ruining every facet of the nation, somehow even entrancing their seeming enemies with their wicked yet seemingly wiley, endless charms.
        
        You hate and resent the circles you have to run in, like I said that's common. The sad thing is for it to become your worldview...
        
        smz 14 years ago
        
        another DC dweller here and John is calling it like it is.
        
        Jeffrey 14 years ago
        
        Also live in DC.
        
        This town's culture, especially around capitol hill, is the worst I've ever experienced. Meeting nice people here is possible, but nothing like the midwest where I'm from.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        I agree that in DC I find the most non-friendly climate in the nation in my experience. Not that the people are jerks imo, but they are not overtly friendly. They all seem in a big hurry.
        
        cynical 14 years ago
        
        Hey, I thought we eight years of proof that "We have a government of idiot sons."
        
        Pip 14 years ago
        
        Just shut the fuck up, Minge. You grow soooooooo tiresome.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        What could possibly be more tiresome than your post after post after post saying essentially "oh yeah, well you're stupid" like a 3rd grader?
        
        I guess it's better than the handful of times when you struggled to actually contribute to a discussion.
        
        Fluffy 14 years ago
        
        MNG, I think that John's anger at "elites", as you put it, is based on the fact that his proximity to them has bred contempt for them - but he knows they still wield great power.
        
        In a reductivist way, it's harder to accept the right of anyone to govern when you actually KNOW them or have seen them out at a club or bar. No one from Galilee thought that much of Jesus, because to them he was just some asshole who used to hang out on the corner and pick his nose between carpentry gigs.
        
        I lived in the DC area for a few years - and, yeah, I gotta agree, if you stood in any bar near the MCI Center (or whatever they call it now) and thought to yourself, "These people govern the country" you'd have to shake your head.
        
        Having cutesy little magazine pieces where you actually get to hear the goofy things these people think about themselves makes it that much worse.
        
        Patrick 14 years ago
        
        +1. More eloquent than my screed while managing to say more about the root of the disgust.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 14 years ago
        
        Your entire political rage-filled perspective seems built on resentment for the social circles you travel in.
        
        Are you saying the resentment isn't justified?
        
        Pro Libertate 14 years ago
        
        Actually, I mostly agree with John on this. There are competent people there, of course, but they're not common and are rarely elected or appointed.
        
        And he's also right about the kids. And not just in internships. One of my roommates when I worked at the EOP was a staffer for a Democratic senator, and he regularly talked about some of the idiot-scions he had to deal with. Aside from the elected ones, I mean.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        If you take John's screed about idiot sons and such and change a few words it becomes exactly the sentiment of many a resentful, bitter employee at a big company raging about the nepotism and terrible work climate, and turning that into a worldview of the evils of big business in general.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        MNG my father worked in corporate America for nearly 40 years. And he can tell you how over the course of the 1970s and 80s the culture changed. Many of my complaints about the government absolutely echo his complaints about corporate America.
        
        We live in the age of Dilbert. It is not just government but nearly every big institution in this country. The wrong people are getting ahead and running things. And that is why we are in the trouble we are in.
        
        Pro Libertate 14 years ago
        
        DC is a smelly, fetid swamp. The miasma of venality lingers in air at all times. It's actually appalling how many people have positions there who have nothing more than a connection to someone else. For all the statists' love of technocrats, the implication that merit has anything to do with DC is frightfully na?ve.
        
        The corporate world, for the most part, has its own set of problems, but this isn't usually one of them. Though I imagine government contractors pick up some of the stink themselves.
        
        I think America went astray when we stopped, as a population, distrusting, sneering at, and generally despising our government. It's a necessary evil, not the first refuge for every human ill.
        
        CrackertyAssCracker 14 years ago
        
        Yo, Dr Freud, sometime an incompetent asshole is just an incompetent asshole.
      2. John 14 years ago
        
        I live in DC and live in a better neighborhood and make more money than they do. Most of them make zilch on the Hill and couldn't live here without the monthly check from mommy and daddy.
        
        There are two types of people on the Hill. The committee staff jobs that pay a little something and which are filled with people with some experience and often a fair amount of competence. And there is every other job which is filled with 12 year olds playing save the world on their parents dime.
        
        The sorry fact is that Washington is filled with idiot sons and daughters. The big donors have businesses and lives back home. So they don't want the political jobs for themselves. They can't afford to take them. What they do is buy jobs for their idiot sons. This goes a long ways to explaining why we are in such bad shape. We have a government of idiot sons.
        
        Mr. Obvious 14 years ago
        
        two Johns live in DC?
        
        Patrick 14 years ago
        
        I know David Vitter, but who is the other?
        
        DC hooker 14 years ago
        
        Way more than two.
      3. wylie 14 years ago
        
        Where did the DC elites touch you Johnny?
        
        *sob* *sob* It was *sob* right *sob* here
        
        *points at wallet*
        
        *uncontrollable sobbing*
        
        Pro Libertate 14 years ago
        
        Say, I just remembered--my wallet was molested by the government, too!
        
        cynical 14 years ago
        
        I was too afraid to come forward before, but the courage of you two inspired me. The government also inappropriately touched me in my wallet area.
  2. Virginia 14 years ago
    
    I stopped clicking after the first two. #1 and #2 are ugly. It's not their fault, I went to JMU.
  3. dunkel 14 years ago
    
    Steven Smith is #45 on the list.
  4. Spoonman. 14 years ago
    
    Shit, most of them wouldn't have turned heads at Cornell, and I'd never seen so many ugly people in one place before.
5. Tym 14 years ago
  
  Agreed
  
  I like 2 the best of all.
  
  All these are OK: 1, 2, 7, 10, 20, 24, 25, 29, 33
Joe M 14 years ago

House GOP leaders mounted a furious bid Wednesday to win support for legislation designed to ease the nation's debt crisis...

Why do you guy even link to this bullshit? WaPo reports this with a straight face.
1. Joe M 14 years ago
  
  Oh, and according to that article, the Boehner number has dropped to $850 billion now. WTF?
  
  My mind is breaking trying to comprehend the fact that these sleazy imbeciles are pretending to be competent enough to write multi-trillion dollar budgets. Seriously, is anyone in the world capable of doing such a thing?
  1. Restoras 14 years ago
    
    What would 20% off the top get us? Or how about 10% this year and 10% next year? In the end, this is how simple it will end up being.
    1. Atanarjuat 14 years ago
      
      There's actually a plan something like that (but more timid) which would cut federal spending 1% a year for six years, and cap federal spending at 18% of GDP, Connie Mack's "Penny Plan", which Rand Paul has endorsed.
  2. Rich 14 years ago
    
    these sleazy imbeciles are pretending to be competent enough to write multi-trillion dollar budgets
    
    I submit that the country would benefit immensely from live broadcasts of their "discussions".
  3. Mike M. 14 years ago
    
    Boehner is such a worthless piece of crap. I'd like to punch that guy right in his ridiculous orange kisser.
    1. wylie 14 years ago
      
      Boehner is such a worthless piece of crap. I'd like to punch that guy right in his ridiculous orange kisser.
      
      $5/swing, and we'll have the national debt paid off in a few weeks.
2. Nancy Pelosi 14 years ago
  
  House GOP leaders mounted a furious bid biddy Wednesday to win support
  
  FTFY
Lord Humungus 14 years ago

Jerry Pournelle on the budget 'cuts'
http://jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/?p=909

White 20-somethingers are swinging to the GOP, though I see more of a Libertarian streak.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....gop-column
1. Cosmotarian Liberty 14 years ago
  
  In the wake of the 2008 election, I argued that there was a tension between the way Millennials lived their lives -- creating their own iPod playlists, designing their own Facebook pages -- and the one-size-fits-all, industrial-era welfare-state policies of the Obama Democrats.
  
  lol
  1. Mr. Obvious 14 years ago
    
    Kids these days with their loud rock music and hula-hoops.
    1. sloopyinca 14 years ago
      
      What about their Dan Fogleberg records and their Zima?
      1. Mr. Obvious 14 years ago
        
        Love that Movie.
  2. deified 14 years ago
    
    I think Michael Barone may literally be retarded.
2. Rich 14 years ago
  
  We could try liberty. Leave the money to those who make it and get out of the way.
  
  Heh. Spoken like a science fiction writer.
3. Virginia 14 years ago
  
  nice letter to the editor summing up your sentiment...
  
  http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....ly-28-2011
  1. BakedPenguin 14 years ago
    
    For Repo Man fans, there was also a "John Wayne was a fag" letter.
    1. Pro Libertate 14 years ago
      
      Wow, what a convoluted way of saying it! Miller was much more succinct.
Aqua Buddha 14 years ago

MSNBC Contributor Goldie Taylor Says Corporate America Is "Literally Raping" Minorities (VIDEO)
..."Corporate America happened to them. People who are, you know, literally raping these people over medical costs, exorbitant medical costs and then to turn around and swipe the homes that they worked their lives to build, you know, over some subprime lending issues. So I think that we ought to re-examine our priorities as a country and re-examine how to go forward. I don't think that's the america we're banking on, the America we all believe in."...

One in eight small businesses get insurance cancellations after ObamaCare passage
Let's take a breather from Barack Obama's failure to lead on the debt crisis to his failed signature policy of ObamaCare. Despite his promise that passage of the health-insurance overhaul bill would allow people to keep their current health insurance, a new report from the National Federation of Independent Business shows that one in eight small businesses have had to stop offering insurance to their employees. The Daily Caller notes that the change has not been voluntary...
1. Mr. Obvious 14 years ago
  
  I thought STEVE SMITH was doing all the raping.
  1. Steve Smith 14 years ago
    
    NO, STEVE OUTSOURCE RAPE FROM TIME TO TIME. ASIAN YETI COUNTERPART CAN RAPE TWICE AS MANY HIKER IN HALF THE TIME.
    1. wylie 14 years ago
      
      I prefer quality, lead-free, rape.
      1. rather 14 years ago
        
        Lol, Is cadmium exposure OK?
  2. Restoras 14 years ago
    
    Only STEVE SMITH does the raping.
2. John 14 years ago
  
  I hope some of the people who lost their coverage were among the dimwits who were crying with joy at the passage of the historic bill.
3. Fluffy 14 years ago
  
  You know the funny thing about urban minority housing losses due to subprime lending?
  
  It's almost all the result of cashout refis, and not purchases that went south.
  
  In other words, urban minority homeowners took out all their equity AT THE TOP OF THE MARKET.
  
  So we're supposed to believe that corporate America "raped" minorities by giving them lots of cash, which the borrowers got to spend on shit, taking nothing in exchange but the titles to properties that are now worthless.
  
  It sounds to me like urban minorities raped lenders, and not the other way around.
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    Yeah. I was flipping by CSPAN last summer and there was some guy from the NYT whose name I forget and had written a book on this giving a talk on his book. I watched it and it was fairly interesting and informative until he gave his horror story about minorities being taken advantage of by big banks.
    
    His horror story was about an El Salvadoran family in suburban DC. They had bought a small house at the beginning of the boom for like 75K and flipped it a few years later for $300K. They had then bought a $650K mcmansion with the equity. And were now of course underwater on it and losing their home.
    
    This guy was convinced they were these unsophisticated immigrants who had been swindled. A rational person would say they rolled the dice on the housing market one too many times. No one made them sell their smaller house and cash out their equity and reinvest in a bigger one. And they sure as hell were not going to give me any of the money they made. But now I am supposed to pay taxes to keep them in their house.
  2. Pip 14 years ago
    
    "It sounds to me like urban minorities raped lenders"
    
    Yes. Many bought houses (which came with $5-10G pocket money, with no intention of ever paying the mortgage, the heating bill, the water bill, the electricity bill and then trashed the places when they were finally forced out.
4. Jeffrey 14 years ago
  
  So this is gonna piss off the jezebel crowd, right?
  1. CaptainSmartass 14 years ago
    
    What doesn't?
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.ammoland.com/2011/0.....ntroduced/

WAT ABOUT THA CHULDRIN??????

http://www.examiner.com/gun-ri.....op-critics

"FURY: Canton, OH council president lashes out at cop critics"
1. Aqua Buddha 14 years ago
  
  Let me know when you can link to "Furry Canton, OH council president lashes out at cop critics".
  1. Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
    
    Maybe David Wu is planning to relocate now that he can't show his face in his hometown.
2. Michael Bloomberg 14 years ago
  
  I fucking hate when some out-of-town asshole wants to comment about other people's gun policies.
John 14 years ago

From Best of the Web Yesterday a rundown of liberal pundits' dictatorial daydreams. What makes this even more disturbing is how mild the Republicans in Congress actually are. None of their plans solve the problem or do anything radical. They just delay the inevitable longer than doing nothing. Yet, liberals have convinced themselves this is some radical threat to the Republic and are totally okay with Obama ignoring Congress and the Constitution. This is what destroys Democracies; when one side refuses to recognize the desires of the electorate. The Republicans won the election in 2010 in no small part because of the budget. Now liberals want Obama to tell the country "I can borrow as much money in your name as I want and there is nothing you or your elected representatives can do about".

But he was unquestionably right that "some people" want him to "bypass Congress"--to impose his will in a dictatorial fashion. These calls are coming not from the fringes but from the "mainstream" left--from people who would be considered entirely respectable in the newsroom of the New York Times.

A Times news story the other day raised the idea (which we discussed July 8) that the president could instruct the Treasury to borrow money without congressional authorization on the basis of the 14th Amendment's provision that "the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law . . . shall not be questioned." The news story notes that Obama has rejected the idea (albeit "not in categorical terms"). Well he should, for it is absurd on its face to suggest that a provision guaranteeing the payment of debts "authorized by law" would permit the incurring of more debts without legal authorization.

The shocking thing in this Times story, though, is this quote from Jack Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School, on what would happen if Obama did assert this authority: "At the point at which the economy is melting down, who cares what the Supreme Court is going to say?" Balkin told the Times. "It's the president's duty to save the republic."

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson expressly endorses the idea: "It seems to me that definitive action--unilateral, if necessary--to prevent the nation from suffering obvious, imminent, grievous harm is one of the duties any president must perform":

Who knows how the courts--ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court--would react? With outrage? With deference toward presidential power? With traditional reluctance to intervene in political disputes between the two elected branches of government? It would matter, eventually. But while legal briefs were being prepared and arguments honed, Obama would have raised the debt ceiling on his own authority--and the crisis would have been averted.

As some left-liberals urge Obama to grab power now and worry about the Constitution later, others seek to delegitimize congressional Republicans--duly elected representatives of the American people--by describing them as enemies of the state.

"Wake up to the national security threat," New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof exhorted his readers on Sunday. "Only it's not coming from abroad, but from our own domestic extremists," whom Kristof compares to "Iran and al Qaeda." Kristof's colleague Thomas Friedman echoes Kristof today, writing: "If sane Republicans do not stand up to this Hezbollah faction in their midst, the Tea Party will take the G.O.P. on a suicide mission." (As an aside, remember earlier this year when the Times fretfully lectured us about the urgency of promoting "civility" for about six weeks?)

Similar comparisons come from academia. Here's Geoffrey Stone, a law professor from the University of Chicago, writing at the Puffington Host:

By threatening to wreak havoc with the national interest, [Republicans in Congress] are attempting to terrorize rather than persuade the nation into doing what they want. . . .

Of course, the President could temporarily avert disaster by giving in to the terrorists. . . . Those Republicans who are pursuing this course may be honoring their pledge not to raise taxes, but they are also dishonoring the very spirit of their oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

In a Times op-ed today, David Barash, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, likens congressmen to bull elephants who have become "temporarily 'crazy' " because they are in musth (sexual arousal, which the Times spells "must"):

Huge bulls, oozing a weird, foul-smelling, greenish glop from glands near their eyes, behave with violent abandon, taking risks and defying the basic rules of pachyderm propriety (and also giving rise to the term "rogue elephant"). . . .

It's fair to conclude that Mr. Obama is facing the political equivalent of an elephant in must--a player who simply won't play the game.

In the 1983 movie "WarGames," an errant military supercomputer has a final moment of lucidity in which it notes, "The only winning move is not to play." The president is best advised to do the same: declare that the other side has foregone all pretense at rational legitimacy, and simply proceed to govern as best he can for the good of the country.

Barash goes much further than to say that the president is right and the Republicans wrong on the merits of the policies at issue. He goes much further even than to accuse GOP congressmen of employing a dangerous tactic in threatening not to raise the debt ceiling. (The president, it should be noted, is using this tactic as well when he threatens to veto ceiling-raising legislation that does not suit his policy and political priorities.)

No, Barash is describing those of whose politics he disapproves as less than human--as wild animals who must be controlled. Using that ugly metaphor, he calls for a dictatorial power grab by President Obama, which he describes in the benign terms of governing "as best he can for the good of the country."
1. Aqua Buddha 14 years ago
  
  If power is based on nothing more than "this is good" or "this needs to be done", then why not a dictatorship as long as the dictator is sufficiently progressive? If Congress can mandate you buying health insurance, why not let the President do it also w/ an executive order?
  
  Who will buy the ObamaBonds? Anyone w/ enough exposure to govt that it can force them to.
2. Copy 'n' Paste Awards 14 years ago
  
  First Prize!
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    It is behind a paywall or I would have just put the link. Sorry.
    1. Cosmotarian Liberty 14 years ago
      
      Former Reason intern James Taranto isn't behind the pay wall.
      1. John 14 years ago
        
        I have a subscription so see it all. I assumed everything at WSJ.com is. I will remember that.
      2. Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        Was he really a reason intern?
        
        SIV 14 years ago
        
        Their most successful, I think
        
        Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        I knew there was a reason that I like him!
        Although he was a jerk to Balko a few months ago... almost unforgivable.
    2. MNG 14 years ago
      
      John's 1500 page manifesto is coming next.
      1. Mr. Obvious 14 years ago
        
        Esposito: From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. Silence! In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check. Furthermore, all children under 16 years old are now... 16 years old!
        
        Fielding Mellish: What's the Spanish word for straitjacket?
      2. John 14 years ago
        
        I will be sure to include your 3000 page response as an apendix.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        I'm not the one who just posted a running screed and then double posted above.
        
        Computers, how do they work? Or tool of the liberal elites in DC who have snubbed poor John.
        
        Restoras 14 years ago
        
        F. For just being a douche.
      3. T 14 years ago
        
        Will it be new content, or 1450 pages copied from someone else?
      4. Pip 14 years ago
        
        STFU, MNG.
      5. Anonymous Coward 14 years ago
        
        John's 1500 page manifesto is coming next.
        
        Either rent a room and hatefuck each other or rent a boxing ring and beat each other to death.
3. Ice Nine 14 years ago
  
  The fact that the Dems' bill's prime objective - and the crux of Obama's veto threat - is to get this all past the 2012 election tells you everything you need to know about them and the popularity of their goals on this legislation. Why this particular point isn't being flogged incessantly by the Repubs is inexplicable. Oh yeah, I forgot, the Repubs don't know diddly about bare knuckles.
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    No they don't. The Republicans have no balls. They really want liberals to like them. Liberals in contrast hate anyone who doesn't agree with them. That gives them certain advantages in political fights.
    1. Restoras 14 years ago
      
      I'd say it gives them complete advantage in a political fight. Otherwise, everything is well said, John.
      
      ynoT is going to go ballistic on you. In fact, I bet that right now he's busy preparing all manner of links/facts/strawmen to bludgeon you with.
    2. MNG 14 years ago
      
      John sees enemies everywhere. Liberal elites in his closet, spineless RINO's who just want the liberals to like them under the bed.
      1. Restoras 14 years ago
        
        D-. Very sub-par trolling for you MaNGy. Try harder.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        See, it goes without saying that liberal Democrats are evil and ruining the nation. But for John the GOP are really under the thumb of those liberal Democrats. Only true patriots, keyboard kommandoes like him are actually with enough integrity to fight the good and lonely fight...
        
        Mr. Obvious 14 years ago
        
        MNG seems to be losing his "touch" - outsourcing or sock-puppetry?
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Yes, because you've been such a big fan of my past comments.
        
        Sheesh.
        
        Mr. Obvious 14 years ago
        
        It's a study in stupidity, that's for sure. A role model for all disingenuous "men".
        
        Spoonman. 14 years ago
        
        Are you actually claiming there are people in government who have integrity?
4. WTF 14 years ago
  
  Damn - the left sure does seem to love the idea of totalitarianism, as long as the 'right people' are in charge.
  1. West Texas 14 years ago
    
    They always have.
    1. WTF 14 years ago
      
      Although I suppose if a republican gets elected president in 2012 they'll discover the Constitution again.
      1. John 14 years ago
        
        And worse, the Republicans will play by the new rules. Every action has a reaction. The more radical one side gets, the more radical the other side is likely to become. They are going to keep fucking around until we really do have a radical party in this country. And when that happens it will be everyone's fault but theirs.
        
        cynical 14 years ago
        
        That's the more destructive form of moral relativism -- the "as long as I am better than I imagine my enemies to be, I am good" version.
        
        Particularly since, as people tend to overestimate the vileness of their opponents, it leads to a downward spiral.
    2. Restoras 14 years ago
      
      That's why they loved Mussolini so much. And Stalin. And even you-know-who before he went all Aryan on them.
      1. Red Rocks Rockin 14 years ago
        
        And even you-know-who before he went all Aryan on them.
        
        It wasn't even the Aryan stuff--it was only after he invaded the Soviet Union that the left began despising That Man. Before then, he was peachy-keen.
5. West Texas 14 years ago
  
  The scary thing is indeed the Supreme Court backing out more and more because of "political disputes." That's basically what happened in Rome: Caesar got more and more popular and more and more brash and the rest of the Republic basically rolled over for him. (I am speaking very broadly here...)
  
  Not to mention that other guy and that other guy and that other guy and that other guy in modern times who all got elected dutifully and then just started being more and more powerful and became de facto dictators because no one would stop them and certain segments of the public loved them so fanatically.
  1. West Texas 14 years ago
    
    I guess I forgot one other guy (an American, actually) who did as much as he could before he died. And then there was another guy who would have done it too, but he had a stroke.
  2. Fluffy 14 years ago
    
    Actually, it's the reverse.
    
    Caesar refused to lay down his command because his political enemies controlled the legal process via corrupt juries, and had announced in advance their intention to convict him of trumped-up charges as soon as he left his army.
    
    I still think that the collapse of the Roman Republic is a good analogy here, though: we have a group of men who are willing to break the law rather than give ground to opponents who have a temporary advantage. Because losing is unthinkable to these men, for one reason or another.
    1. John 14 years ago
      
      Yup. Caesar was actually a Republican. It was the Optimates who were the tyrants. They had already destroyed the Republic and planned to destroy him. So Caesar made the rational choice of returning to Rome and taking back the Republic and hoping he could clean up the mess later.
  3. CrackertyAssCracker 14 years ago
    
    If Obama did decide to borrow more money in plain contravention to the debt ceiling law, we shouldn't really give a crap about the Supreme court any way. Because impeachment proceedings would need startin right away. Go ahead and throw in the whole starting a war on your own in Libya thing too.
6. Joe Biden 14 years ago
  
  "The only winning move is not to play." The president is best advised to do the same
  
  ** pumps fist **
  
  Yes!
7. Fluffy 14 years ago
  
  It's funny to me that mere economic damage (assuming the worst predictions about debt default are true) is worth dictatorship to these people.
  
  There would be another recession. Oh noes! We must have a dictatorship!
  
  The refusal to accept the prospect of ever having a recession is what led to the current situation.
  
  Also, it's striking to me that the one absolutely unthinkable prospect here is...for a budget with significant cuts to be passed.
  
  So not only is it worth dictatorship to avert a recession, it's apparently also worth a dictatorship to avert entitlement cuts.
  
  "We could pass budget cuts the GOP freshmen will accept...or we could impose a dictatorship. Hmmmmmm...which should we do?"
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    That is the thing. They are acting like there is some radical threat to the country that requires drastic unconstitutional measures to avert when there isn't a single radical in all of Washington. Seriously, if you think avoiding the Boehner plan justifies a dictatorship, you are just want a dictatorship.
  2. MNG 14 years ago
    
    The debate about the 14th has been going on in liberal circles for a few weeks now. I'd say 85% of the big names have come down against authority under the 14th to issue new debt regardless of Congress.
    
    Now, I'm no friend of perogative powers as argued by neocons like John, but if one believed in that sort of thing, why would not an economic disaster be their target as much as an attack or something?
    1. John 14 years ago
      
      You could avoid economic disaster by just agreeing to the Republican bill. Basically, they are saying a dictatorship is better than giving into the Republicans. If you think the Boehner plan is worse than dictatorship, you just want a dictatorship.
      1. Barack Obama 14 years ago
        
        Let me be clear.
        
        The American People want a balanced dictatorship.
      2. MNG 14 years ago
        
        Er, if you are right then the GOP is actually holding the nation hostage as Obama claims...
        
        Of course we're not talking some full blown dictatorship, they are talking about a use of perogative power, something your side has been pushing for the past few decades with glee.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        Again, call it what you will. But if you think the Boehner plan is worse than telling the country "We can run up as much debt as we want in your name and there is nothing you or your representatives can do about it", you just want power.
        
        Sometimes there are no good options. And the Democrats lost control of the House. Their choices are work with the Republicans in the House or ignore the Constitution. Which is the worst option? If you think working with Republicans and giving the party that won a landslide election in 2010 some of what they want is worse than ignoring the Constitution and creating the worst Constitutional crisis since Watergate, you really don't give a shit about anything beyond getting your way.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Wow, John is just admitting flat out Obama's hostage scenario is not as far-fetched as has been claimed...Wow.
        
        "You can prevent all this from happening, just give us what we want."
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        MNG,
        
        Is it your position that the party that won the last election should be ignored? Is that how we run a Democracy? By telling the country to go fuck itself every time it doesn't vote the way you want it to?
        
        MiNGe 14 years ago
        
        Is it your position that the party that won the last election should be ignored? Is that how we run a Democracy? By telling the country to go fuck itself every time it doesn't vote the way you want it to?
        
        Yes
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        The President and the Senate won their elections too John, this is how our democracy works. If we had a parlimentary system you might have some kind of point.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        Sure they did. Compromise. It is not like the Boehner plan is radical. If Ron Paul had written the Boehner plan you would have a point. But there has got to be some correction after the 2010 elections. And the Boehner plan barely even qualifies as a start. And the Dems are willing to create a Constitutional crisis to avoid that. And the Republicans are the radicals?
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        What compromise is the GOP offering? They have said they will not compromise on taxes one iota while Obama has compromised on cuts in the figure of billions. As Paul pointed out the GOP has also failed to compromise by cowardly taking all of their beloved programs off the table in the cut, cap and balance legislation.
        
        It's hilarious for any conservative to say they are pushing for a compromise. Hilarious.
        
        Mr. Obvious 14 years ago
        
        What again are these specific cuts that Obama has agreed to?
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Boehner himself in his address the other night pointed to the concessions he got from Obama; he's almost as stupid as you are, yes.
        
        Lord Humungus 14 years ago
        
        I was asking for specifics, not for your little harpy attacks.
        
        Pip 14 years ago
        
        Christ you are stupid. The Boehner INCLUDES revenue increases. That is why the freshman don't like it.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        The Boehner plan doesn't give you everything you want. And it will absolute not avoid the pending bankruptcy of the country that liberals seem to want. So, lets have a Constitutional crisis to avoid a bunch of middling cuts.
        
        Yeah, that makes sense MNG. There is no reasoning with you people.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        And you give away the game anyway. The plan all along was to explode governmetn in 2009 and 2010 and then tell the country "we need to be responsible and pay for this" after there was hell to pay in the off year elections.
        
        It is so dishonest. You can't treat the electorate that way and still have a Democracy. People like you are going to keep fucking around pissing on the public until finally you really will get a radical Congress or movement in this country you selfish shortsighed ignorant bastard.
        
        Lord Humungus 14 years ago
        
        Posted below -
        43 Dems promise to reject Boehner plan
        http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.....&seid=auto
        
        Fluffy 14 years ago
        
        "You can prevent all this from happening, just give us what we want."
        
        What does this have to do with anything?
        
        So what if this is what's happening?
        
        Last time I checked, House members had complete control of their votes and could not be compelled to vote in any particular way.
        
        Not only do I heartily admit that this is what the Tea Party caucus is doing, I say, "It's about damn time."
        
        The response of these authors is, "A group of House members won't vote the way we want. Therefore, WE NEED A DICTATORSHIP!"
        
        cynical 14 years ago
        
        Yes, for example, when I go to the grocery store and say I want groceries, they're pretty much unwilling to negotiate with me, they say "pay the price here".
        
        Crazy hostage taking bastards! Someone should call a SWAT team on they ass.
    2. R C Dean 14 years ago
      
      I'd say 85% of the big names have come down against authority under the 14th to issue new debt regardless of Congress.
      
      Proving that 15% of the big names are idiots.
      1. MNG 14 years ago
        
        Interestingly enough the debate on the left sometimes refers to the argument that the 14th would allow the Prez to bypass Congress on the debt the "Heller of the Left" as it has one plurality opinion and a particular reading of the text of the 14th alone going for it.
        
        Jeffrey 14 years ago
        
        A particaular misreading.
        
        There is no default crisis, as tax revenues are higher than debt payments.
        
        There may be an SS, military pay, medicaid crisis however... too bad those payments aren't constitutionally guaranteed
        
        cynical 14 years ago
        
        Either way, there's no reason to assume that the 14th amendment gives the president any additional authority. SCOTUS, maybe.
  3. robc 14 years ago
    
    And Boehner isnt helping any:
    
    He and his lieutenants repeatedly warned rank-and-file Republicans that Boehner's plan was their only alternative to a Democratic option
    
    Bullshit.
8. cynical 14 years ago
  
  Dude, I think they might actually try it. He's already usurped the war power without consequence, he may as well go after the power of the purse. The Republic is toast.
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....10909.html

""All Americans join the world community in mourning the horrific loss of life from the Norway terrorist attacks. We can only imagine the void left in the lives of the victims' families. The staggering toll of young lives taken by a gunman at the Utoya youth camp reminds us all, once again, that guns are the enablers of mass killers."

PROHIBISHUN IS DA SOLUSHUN LOLOLOLOLOL

What about this article: "History repeats itself. Monster commits mass murder in the most cowardly ways. Bomb in building, because there might have been armed police and security nearby if he had tried to kill the innocent one on one. THEN goes to an island where he knows there are no armed police OR armed citizens, and shoots helpless young people like the proverbial fish in a barrel?and surrenders as soon as armed protectors arrive, even though they're too late to stop the horror."

"Proving once again that 'gun free zones' are places where only those who laugh at the law will be armed?'zones' that might better be called hunting preserves for psychopathic killers." ...

I'm sure nobody's going to listen to that second one, since it's probably written by a neo-Confederate with bad teeth who hates Obama, or something.

--------

http://www.washingtontimes.com.....d-the-atf/

"By its own admission, the [ATF] allowed dozens of gun smugglers to supply Mexican criminal cartels with thousands of firearms. Drug thugs used one of these weapons to assassinate U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry."

"The former ATF special agent in charge of the Phoenix Field Division testified to Congress that the White House and at least four other federal agencies had direct knowledge of 'Operation Fast and Furious.' Despite - or because of - the Nixonian cover-up following Terry's murder, the simmering scandal could topple the Obama administration. Regardless of the president's fate, it's the ATF that needs to go."

"The 'Gunwalker' scandal brings the ATF's ideological corruption into sharp focus. ..." ...
1. Ice Nine 14 years ago
  
  Monster commits mass murder in the most cowardly ways. Bomb in building, because there might have been armed police and security nearby if he had tried to kill the innocent one on one. THEN goes to an island where he knows there are no armed police OR armed citizens, and shoots helpless young people
  
  "Cowardly"? Looks more like "tactically adroit" to me. What would have been uncowardly, requesting that all the SWAT teams in Norway meet him at the two venues at high noon?
  1. Res Publica Americana 14 years ago
    
    I think it was meant to denote dishonor, or cowardice in that he specifically targeted a place guaranteed to be a gun-free haven for him
    1. Ice Nine 14 years ago
      
      Dishonor is glaringly implicit. But, yes to the rest of what you said, as it is precisely what the article said and exactly to what I was referring. Semantics, of course.
    2. Fluffy 14 years ago
      
      And naturally this author thinks the solution is to create vast new gun-free havens.
      1. MNG 14 years ago
        
        I'm not sure people are irrational to note that seemingly weekly people go on sprees with guns leaving multiple people, and in this case dozens of people, dead, and that maybe gun availibility is a problem...
        
        You guys read about a union member that commits violence and want all kinds of restrictions on unions in general, but gun owners can commit massacre after massacre and gun control people are supposed to not suggest restrictions on gun owners...
        
        Fluffy 14 years ago
        
        What restrictions do I want on unions?
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        So you want card check fluffy? Managment can already invokve Gisell certification. The folks here argue against it because, you know, we can't trust those union people, they tend to be violent.
        
        The gun owner-gun control analogy writes itself here...
        
        Fluffy 14 years ago
        
        So you want card check fluffy? Managment can already invokve Gisell certification. The folks here argue against it because, you know, we can't trust those union people, they tend to be violent.
        
        I think you should be able to form a union and hold an election for it any damn way you want. Card check, show of hands, Masonic temple meeting with skulls and torches, whatever.
        
        But the only people in that union would be the people who showed up to be part of your voluntary association. Unless you could obtain a closed shop via bargaining.
        
        The only reason "card check" is an issue is because under current law union organizers can compel other employees to join their organization involuntarily. The union election system is an attempt to put a gloss of respectability on what is inherently an unfair process.
        
        So, having been granted the ability to tyrannize their fellow workers, union organizers face the procedural requirement that they hold a secret ballot election prior to doing so. Oh noes! What a horrible restriction!
        
        Anonymous Coward 14 years ago
        
        The folks here argue against it because, you know, we can't trust those union people, they tend to be violent.
        
        No, MNG. I don't like unions because I don't like cartels and I'm not sure why a cartel of labor is holy and sanctified when other cartels get the ax.
        
        Res Publica Americana 14 years ago
        
        F-
        
        Restoras 14 years ago
        
        Weekly?
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        I support gun rights, but if you think it would be hard to find a weekly event in which someone with a gun shoots two or more people your living in a cave dude.
        
        Old Mexican 14 years ago
        
        Re: MNG,
        
        I support gun rights, but if you think it would be hard to find a weekly event in which someone with a gun shoots two or more people your living in a cave dude.
        
        That is entirely true. It IS a big world, there ARE 6+ billion people, there HAS to be at least ONE different guy shooting at least TWO different people every week, SOMEWHERE.
        
        Massacres like the one in Norway are, instead, extraordinarily rare, MNG. Besides, Norway heavily restricts the ownership of guns - how about them apples, you totally-defenseless-and-now-dead people?
        
        Restoras 14 years ago
        
        I will move out of my house and into a cave if you can post 52 links that prove the mass shootings you are talking about. Gang bangers and wise guys don't count.
        
        Oh, and Dude! or something equally eloquent.
        
        CrackertyAssCracker 14 years ago
        
        I support gun rights, but if you think it would be hard to find a weekly event in which someone with a gun shoots two or more people your living in a cave dude.
        
        Do we get to include police?
        
        R C Dean 14 years ago
        
        I'm not sure people are irrational to note that seemingly weekly people go on sprees with guns leaving multiple people, and in this case dozens of people, dead, and that maybe gun availibility is a problem...
        
        What is irrational is (a) ignoring the correlation between gun-free zones and mass shootings and (b) fantasizing that mass murderers won't obtain guns regardless of legal restrictions.
        
        For starters.
        
        Old Mexican 14 years ago
        
        Re: MNG,
        
        I'm not sure people are irrational to note that seemingly weekly people go on sprees with guns leaving multiple people, and in this case dozens of people, dead, and that maybe gun availibility is a problem...
        
        Thousands die in car accidents, and maybe availability of cars is a problem.
        
        Talk about red herrings.
        
        You guys read about a union member that commits violence and want all kinds of restrictions on unions in general,
        
        Nobody wants restrictions on unions in general or particular - where the fuck do you think you're posting?
        
        What most of us want is the repeal of the special privileges unions enjoy. That's all.
        
        but gun owners can commit massacre after massacre and gun control people are supposed to not suggest restrictions on gun owners...
        
        They can suggest it, MNG. They can do whatever they want, as long as their ridiculous and point-missing suggestions are not converted into law. That's all.
    3. cynical 14 years ago
      
      Yes, if you're going to murder a bunch of people, it's important to do so in an honorable fashion.
      1. Yeah, 14 years ago
        
        like wiping out an entire wedding party with a predator drone?
  2. Brett L 14 years ago
    
    Yeah. I'm not big on this "cowardly" meme. People who believe they are in a war use tactics that maximize their ability to harm the enemy. This is no more cowardly than firebombing Dresden in WWII.
    1. MNG 14 years ago
      
      It's not cowardly to shoot children on island where they cannot escape and when armed persons show up to get you immediately surrender?
      
      Dude, you need to revise your concept of cowardly.
      1. Brett L 14 years ago
        
        Its not cowardly to drop an atomic bomb on a civilian populous rather than spend 500,000 soldiers' lives fighting on the beaches? I'm not saying its moral, but for people actually waging war, removing their ability and will to make war is the only way to win. It is rational and consistent with his world view. As pointed out above, calling out the Norwegian army to a shootout at high noon is brave, but foolish. Mistaking people who are waging an asymmetrical war on us for cowards because we haven't acknowledged the war with us is how we got blindsided on 9/11.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        I don't think dropping the atom bomb was an act of bravery. In fact much of the military brass thought it horrific, iirc it was civilian brass that pushed for it.
        
        We really have reached the height of crazy when we can't call shooting children on an island and then immediately surrendering when encountering armed resistance cowardly...Only on the internet.
        
        Fluffy 14 years ago
        
        Sorry, man, it's just a pet peeve of mine.
        
        Like when people insist on calling the 9/11 terrorists "cowardly". It's stupid.
        
        It's a "unity of the virtues" thing. People want to think courage is a virtue, so they insist on denying the adjective to anyone who's a "bad person". It was dumbassery in Socrates' time and it's dumbassery now.
        
        I have a really simple test for whether something is cowardly: would I be too scared to do it? If the answer is "yes", then doing it is not cowardly.
        
        So: would I be too scared to engage in a years'-long campaign to secretly build a couple of car bombs, use them to attack the government, and then take a bunch of weapons and attack a youth camp, and then stay here for almost two hours waiting for the cops to come get me? Yeah, I'd be way too scared to do that.
        
        Leaving all the moral reasons why I wouldn't do these things to one side, I'd still be too scared to do them. If you hyponotized me to make me think it was moral to do all that shit, I'd still decline. "No way! The cops would shoot me! I'd go to jail! They'd send me to Guantanamo!" Etc.
        
        Restoras 14 years ago
        
        Dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, fircing the Japanese to surrender, saved more Japanese lives than America. For some reason, this is always conveniently forgotten.
      2. Ice Nine 14 years ago
        
        Apparently then, so does Merriam-Webster.
        
        COWARD: one who shows disgraceful fear or timidity
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        I think when waging a war, picking a youth camp, of all the many targets one could pick, to attack, does indeed show some disgraceful fear. He picked one of the most helpless targets he could.
        
        Ice Nine 14 years ago
        
        Yes, he did, because his goal was to kill a lot of these people. Yes, it was disgraceful. There was no apparent element of fear on his part, however. But, if you want to create this element out of whole cloth to shoehorn that into this definition to fit your purpose, have at it. No one will be listening to that nonsense though.
        
        cynical 14 years ago
        
        Fear? If his goal was to maximize the death toll, then attacking those least likely to stop his attack early, in an out of the way place where armed authorities would not be able to reach, and while said authorities would be distracted with an earlier attack, is just simple logic. Fear is an emotion, this was coldly rational.
        
        MJ 14 years ago
        
        Shooting up a youth camp also seems to be a pointless target. The attack does not seem to have any rational connection to the supposed political goals of the shooter.
        
        Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        Well, he was angry at the Labour Party for supposedly appeasing Muslims and allowing them to "take over" society, etc. So he wanted to eliminate most of their future political candidates. The kids he murdered were the future PM candidates for this party, so he did hurt them pretty badly.
        
        cynical 14 years ago
        
        Perhaps.
        
        However, he considered the multiculturalist Labor party to be the enemy that he needed to fight. There's no way that right-wing terrorists could actually drive Muslims out of Europe. That sort of effort would take a state. So, the more important goal was weakening the multiculturalist movement enough politically that the anti-Muslim faction could push through its anti-immigration, anti-Muslim agenda.
        
        Now, it would be insane to think that killing even 100 people would make any dent on Labor voting power. But perhaps he was motivated by the belief that some of the pro-Muslim (or anti-anti-Muslim) sentiment was not rooted in tolerance, but in fear.
        
        That is, if he believed that many people were supportive of Muslims not because they were deeply committed to liberalism, but instead because they thought it would reduce the risk of terrorist attacks, then it would make sense to execute a horrific terrorist attack against them for supporting Muslims. That way, the question of terrorism, the risk of terrorism would be the same for both sides of the political equation. So, people would deal with the terrorism issue, and deal with the immigration/Muslim issue based on their true feeling about right or wrong, rather than the consequences.
      3. Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        It would have been more cowardly if he had become a shut-in and just kept writing manifestos.
        
        Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        I should probably clarify that it would also have been, as Understandment of the Year, preferable.
        
        Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        Statement. UnderSTATEMENT.
        
        rather 14 years ago
        
        I'm starting to think your deity label is an exaggeration
        
        Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        I find your lack of faith disturbing.
Brett L 14 years ago

Long term, universal flu vaccine on horizion, but only if NIH budget isn't cut. How fucking convenient.

"Collins cited the long-term flu shot in a wide-ranging discussion of many advances coming from NIH research. Amid budget debates now underway in Washington, D.C. that could also trim NIH's $31billion budget, he made the case for research investments that improve the nation's health."
1. John 14 years ago
  
  OF course they have to keep their 10 GS 15 diversity consultants.
2. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  Easy solution. Sell the research to a big phrama co. and collect a royalty. Dumbasses.
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2.....64240.html

"The Mount Rainier officer who allegedly lured a 20-year-old man to his home to be in a pornographic video then shot him when he tried to flee was being investigated for a similar incident, authorities confirm."

"Gene Gillette, 27, a 3 and ? year veteran with the police, faces 12 counts of attempted second-degree murder, attempted voluntary manslaughter and multiple counts of assault and sexual offenses. A grand jury indicted Gillette Tuesday on multiple charges, including attempted murder and sexual offense, in connection with a July 2 shooting in Capitol Heights." ..."

And nothing else happened, as you might have expected!
1. cynical 14 years ago
  
  Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.
2. wylie 14 years ago
  
  a 3 and ? year veteran with the police
  
  3.5yrs? Is that really enough to be tossing around the veteran label? I'd say 5yrs at least. "A 7 and a half week veteran of the force"...there's gotta be a cutoff somewhere.
3. B.P. 14 years ago
  
  Wait... isn't there a sasquatch living on Mt. Rainier?
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.gazette.com/article.....ctims.html

"A former Colorado Springs police officer facing allegations of abusing children is now accused of sexually assaulting 22 victims ? up from six."

"Prosecutors added new victims and more than doubled the felony sex assault counts against Joshua Carrier, 30, at a Tuesday hearing in 4th Judicial District Court, raising the the number of charges from 78 to 189." ...
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.mcall.com/news/brea.....9051.story

"Plainfield Township and former police officer Christopher Young have settled a lawsuit by a woman who claimed Young used his badge to coerce her into a sexual relationship when she was a teenager."

"The settlements came Tuesday morning as attorneys prepared for what was expected to be the last day of testimony in the trial before U.S. District Judge Berle M. Schiller."
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.freep.com/article/2.....dyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

"A Detroit police officer has been ordered to stand trial on charges that he pointed a gun at a gas station clerk."

"Officer Brian James is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, filing a false report of a felony and using a firearm to commit a felony stemming from the Jan. 6 incident." ...
1. WTF 14 years ago
  
  Don't forget - nothing else happened.
  1. Res Publica Americana 14 years ago
    
    Oh, we don't need to say that -- Dipshit McFuckhead will be along soon to post another one of those Nothing Else Happened articles and remind us anyway.
    1. Hmmm 14 years ago
      
      Anarchist yanks off own dick, blames The Man
      1. Res Publica Americana 14 years ago
        
        There's about, what, three of four anarchists here? You're better off sticking to the hillbilly, nigger-hating slavedriver Republican meme
        
        Big Fan 14 years ago
        
        Whaaaaaa!
      2. pedant 14 years ago
        
        HTML is hard!
2. Mr. Obvious 14 years ago
  
  Didn't you ever watch Robocop? It's Detroit!
  1. Res Publica Americana 14 years ago
    
    One of the other stories I posted had a cop with 189 charges. Now THAT'S something only a select few people, mostly agents of the state, could possibly rack up, I imagine.
    1. dumbfuckphy 14 years ago
      
      as usual, the bad apples are held accountable so i don't see why you question the honor and integrity of brave public servants such as me
      1. Sockpuppet 14 years ago
        
        Libertarian pees in own mouth, blames The Government
        
        pedant 14 years ago
        
        HTML is hard!
Fatty Bolger 14 years ago

If the Government Patched World of Warcraft

One of the winners in the Powerline contest. They did about 50 very short monologues as part of their entry, and some are really good. Much more libertarian than conservative, no social con stuff.
1. wylie 14 years ago
  
  "...when has competition ever improved anything...hang on lemme answer this call on this amazing piece of technology..."
  
  Nice.
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

Unusually interesting cop stories today, and who would have guessed?!

Nothing else ever happens, after all
1. capitol l 14 years ago
  
  Here's one for you. Father and son robbery team arrested, dad allegedly kills 92 year old woman. Son, a police officer, faces related charges.
  1. capitol l 14 years ago
    
    Oh, and nothing else happened.
    1. Sockpuppet 14 years ago
      
      Libertarians whine about Another Isolated Incident Guy. Nothing else happens.
      1. pedant 14 years ago
        
        HTML is hard!
The Footlands 14 years ago

Apparently, a few semi-attractive people comment on H&R.
1. Sockpuppet 14 years ago
  
  SugarFree outed. Anarchists riot.
  1. pedant 14 years ago
    
    HTML is hard!
John 14 years ago

And of course when the job of morning links is given to Mangu Ward, as opposed to the intern waking up with a case of the stupids after a night Doritos and hydroponic, they actually go up at decent hour.
1. MNG 14 years ago
  
  All the interns have been bought up by liberal foundations John, didn't you know?
  1. Jeffrey 14 years ago
    
    You are turning into a stalker.
    1. Res Publica Americana 14 years ago
      
      Hey, I'm the stalker here!
  2. Moe19 14 years ago
    
    Jesus, dude. Obsess much?
Kristen 14 years ago

Those Hill people are everything wrong with being young and single in DC. At least I ain't young anymore!
1. John 14 years ago
  
  I deal with those people. They are all 12, have never done anything except go to college on mommy and daddy's checkbook. They know absolutely nothing about how the world works and have received D- educations and have no experience doing anything. Yet, they have incredible control and influence over millions of people's lives.
  1. Rich 14 years ago
    
    they have incredible control and influence over millions of people's lives
    
    John, didn't you read their subtitles?
    1. John 14 years ago
      
      No. Aren't they all Hill Rats? Meaning they write legislation about subjects they know nothing about controlling vast swaths of the economy?
2. Anthony Weiner 14 years ago
  
  Me neither. How ya doin'?
3. Al Gore 14 years ago
  
  Take care of this!
4. NoVAHockey 14 years ago
  
  Note they didn't have one career bureaucrat.
5. David Wu 14 years ago
  
  Come bounce on Tigger.
  1. Wu 14 years ago
    
    COCKSUCKA!
6. Res Publica Americana 14 years ago
  
  Anarcho-libertarian whines, shits pants.
  
  Nothing else happens.
  
  http://reason.com/blog/2011/07.....nt_2420325
  1. pedant 14 years ago
    
    Spelling is hard!
7. Ted S. 14 years ago
  
  Anybody else remember The Round Table?
AdamJ 14 years ago

Watching Morning Joe and upon mention of the word "constitution," Lawrence O'Donnell looked like he wanted to vomit. David Walker went on to say the in the constitution the main job of the congress is to budget spending. Whatever Walker was going to say, the fact that the word "constitution" was so repulsive to Larry, is fairly disgusting. These are the folks that the left now idolizes. It was all worth is though, because then I saw that Rachel Maddow commercial of her by a dam in her brown hoodie pointing her finger at me. "We HAVE to spend more and continue to bankrupt our country. We HaVE to!" Speaking of constitutional....
1. John 14 years ago
  
  They don't call him Crazy Larry for nothing. And he is actually measured and thoughtful compared to Special Ed Shultz.
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.examiner.com/la-in-.....y-incident

... "The Plaintiffs, Christopher Hacopian and Scott Gibb were peacefully handing out Second Amendment informational fliers while openly carrying firearms when confronted by police officers employed by the Upland Police Department who then forced them to their knees, handcuffed them, conducted a search of their persons absent a warrant, probable cause or even reasonable suspicion that the Plaintiffs had committed a crime."

"The police officers then proceeded to unlawfully remove the Plaintiff's wallets and remove their identification; over the verbal objection of the Plaintiff's who clearly stated that they did not consent to the search." ...
1. robc 14 years ago
  
  And nothing else happened.
  1. Sockpuppet 14 years ago
    
    Libertarians wet selves, blame cops.
    1. pedant 14 years ago
      
      HTML is really, really hard!
John 14 years ago

From one of the random attractive hill people linked above.

Age: 25
Hometown: Cherry Hill, N.J.
Political party: Democratic
Relationship status: Boyfriend

Ever tasted a Brie cheese, dark chocolate and fresh basil Panini? It's one of Kate Bluhm's many specialties.

She also grills watermelon, freezes her own ice cream in exotic flavors and joined her office kickball team just to be "snack mom."

I swear to God, I felt my morning coffee come back up to the top of my throat when I read that.
1. Rich 14 years ago
  
  Top. Men.
2. Fluffy 14 years ago
  
  Now, be fair.
  
  If we could just fix it so she loses her job, with her culinary skills she'd make a nice little wife for somebody out there.
  1. Rich 14 years ago
    
    She can capitalize on having played house.
    1. Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
      
      I think you mean "played House".
      
      Err... not House(tm).
      1. Rich 14 years ago
        
        I think I mean "Capitolize". 😎
        
        Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        Haha, +1
  2. Restoras 14 years ago
    
    I doubt it. She sounds way to uptight to get her freak on in the way necessary to make a good little wife.
    
    Now, a bitchy, entitled-to-everything, control-freak nightmare, yeah I could see that.
  3. Brett L 14 years ago
    
    Would rather put my dick in a blender.
    1. Pip 14 years ago
      
      Why yes, yes she would.
      1. Rather 14 years ago
        
        Mmmmm...cockshake....
  4. wylie 14 years ago
    
    with her culinary skills she'd make a nice little wife for somebody out there.
    
    Ever tasted a Brie cheese, dark chocolate and fresh basil Panini?
    
    Pass.
Nipplemancer 14 years ago

TURCKNUTZ!!!!
1. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  Funny, initially I thought this was a new nic for Krugnuts.
Warty 14 years ago

So this happened around the corner from me. Stay for the extra-extra retarded comments.
1. Brandon Cartellone's Ghost 14 years ago
  
  He is described by friends, who did not want to be identified, as a talented artist and a really good person who cared about everyone.
  
  Gee, thanks, guys!
2. Brett L 14 years ago
  
  Another awesome Cleveland story.
  
  "The biggest U.S. mortgage servicer will donate 100 foreclosed houses in the Cleveland area and in some cases contribute to their demolition in partnership with a local agency that manages blighted property. The bank has similar plans in Detroit and Chicago, with more cities to come, and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Fannie Mae are conducting or considering their own programs."
  1. Warty 14 years ago
    
    Demolishing all of Cleveland's foreclosed and abandoned properties might cost $250 million, Frangos said. There are as many as 13,000, according to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Neighborhood Progress Inc., a nonprofit organization working to counter the effects of foreclosures in six Cleveland areas, according to its website. The Cuyahoga County land bank owns about 899 properties and will demolish about 700 in the next six to seven months, Frangos said.
    
    Ahh, what a nice place I live in.
    1. T 14 years ago
      
      So I gotta ask, Warty. Why live there?
      1. Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        He's helping reason and Drew Carey.
      2. Warty 14 years ago
        
        It's as tolerable as any shitty Rust Belt city. I'll be gone soon enough.
3. Solanum 14 years ago
  
  DEALER WAS ASSAINATED
  1. Warty 14 years ago
    
    My favorite:
    
    Brian Wolf
    Ahhh...a NORMAL guy brings the fall back argument out early, but then again this is no suprise as it is the only one he has. OH WAIT...Capone used to kill people for Alcohol and they made it legal so it would stop! OF COURSE!! We do the same with Pot and everything will be better!! BRILLIANT!!! Blah Blah Blah....zero points for originality, please enlighten me with your "Apparently Superior" logic , I wait with baited breath.
    1. R C Dean 14 years ago
      
      Capone used to kill people for Alcohol and they made it legal so it would stop!
      
      Hang on. You mean gang killings over alcohol didn't stop after Prohibition was repealed?
      1. alan 14 years ago
        
        Watch out, he is going to pummel you with an overload of internet cliches for making that oft repeated argument.
4. John 14 years ago
  
  Damn Warty it is almost as if making something illegal attracts really bad people into the business of making it.
  1. Warty 14 years ago
    
    I dunno. There's not enough money in a small-time hydroponic setup to get murdered over, is there?
    1. John 14 years ago
      
      In this economy?
      1. cynical 14 years ago
        
        Too bad, he was running one of the last 5 businesses in Cleveland.
5. Timon19 14 years ago
  
  Hi, Warty! Did you see the collection of meth addicts and douchebags on the tee-vee last night spouting uneducated hilarities about the airship incident last night?
  
  That was fun. Even better is the concentrated stupid in the ohio.com article comments about the whole thing. I guess the good thing about it is that no one reads the ABJ anymore, much less the online version, so the stupidity was limited.
  1. Warty 14 years ago
    
    Duename
    "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward".
    Thomas A. Edison, inventor of the lightbulb whom married an Akron woman named Mina Miller.
    
    More than halfway and it wasn't a NASA disaster.(Rest in peace Judith Resnik of Akron)
    
    What?
    1. Timon19 14 years ago
      
      Let me translate from Akronese (it's actually a reasonable sentiment):
      
      "Successful people fail more often than they succeed. The airship got more than halfway to its goal (not REALLY, but still...), and it wasn't a government fuck-up like Challenger, which took a beloved Akron daughter with it in 1986."
      1. Timon19 14 years ago
        
        Forgot to add this to my translation:
        
        "New technology goes through many failures (most unseen) before succeeding."
      2. Warty 14 years ago
        
        The best part is the misuse of "whom".
        
        Timon19 14 years ago
        
        Yeah. I was half-expecting a "yinz" to pop in there somewhere, or possibly "n'at" at the end.
        
        "Whom" really isn't that hard to use. If it sounds completely fucking dumb, use "who" instead.
        
        At least the person correcting you will sound like an overeducated ass instead of you sounding like an imbecile trying too hard.
        
        wylie 14 years ago
        
        At least the person correcting you will sound like an overeducated ass instead of you sounding like an imbecile trying too hard.
        
        Rule #1 of Grammar Club.
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/38882

Good article
Warty 14 years ago

Apparently, it never gets old to mock Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's "cankles" and pantsuits

Well, fuckin' duh.
1. Old Mexican 14 years ago
  
  Ahh, pantsuits... Lovely.
  
  She can also add burqa as part of her wardrobe.
sloopyinca 14 years ago

Ladies and Gentlemen! I give you the TRUCKNUTZ thread that could make a Jezzie blow a fuze.

Either way, WTF ever happened to freedom of speech? I guess in South Curlina it ends when you go out in public.
1. CrackertyAssCracker 14 years ago
  
  Wow, this, and the barking thing from the other day.
  
  Police dogs really have more rights than I do.
TRAINS! 14 years ago

Chinese riot after killing of fruit vendor; Disabled man dies in beating by officials.

Hundreds of rioters in a southern Chinese city battled with police into the early hours of Wednesday morning after a disabled fruit vendor died while being beaten by Chinese officials on the street in broad daylight.

The man, identified by the government as 52-year-old Deng Qiguo, died on Tuesday afternoon after a "dispute with city management staff" in the city of Anshun, in southern China's Guizhou province, according to state media reports.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0.....z1TPDCpybR
1. TRAINS! 14 years ago
  
  Please respect FT.com's ts&cs; and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9532.....z1TPE27C00
  
  Local residents and numerous internet accounts from self-professed eyewitnesses said the one-legged man was beaten to death on the street outside a fruit and vegetable market by a group of China's notorious chengguan or "city management" officials.
  
  This quasi-police force mostly enforces laws against beggars, street vendors and other petty offenders and has a reputation for brutality and corruption.
  
  Such cases are relatively common
  1. dun phu 14 years ago
    
    based on the story, the chengguan had RS to stop and question the vendor, and then when the incident escalated they were within their rights kill him, but all you knee-jerk chengguan haters will use this to try to justify rioting. pathetic
    1. R C Dean 14 years ago
      
      Hey, but nothing else happened, right?
    2. Some Internet Lurker 14 years ago
      
      Were the cops yelling ???? while beating the one legged man
    3. bosty 14 years ago
      
      lol
    4. Clich? Bandit 14 years ago
      
      Indisputably a Terry Beating.
      1. WTF 14 years ago
        
        I think you mean 'Telly' beating.
2. Cosmotarian Liberty 14 years ago
  
  They just won't leave the food trucks alone.
3. cynical 14 years ago
  
  At least he didn't set himself on fire in protest, then they'd have real problems.
Aqua Buddha 14 years ago

I can't get iTunes to fucking exit. It responds to other UI requests (scrolling, menu display) but just won't fucking close.
1. Steve Jobs 9000 14 years ago
  
  I can't let you do that, Aqua.
2. Bill Gates 14 years ago
  
  Ctrl+Alt+Delete dumbass
3. T 14 years ago
  
  Fuck iTunes. It exists only to provide the dlls MediaMonkey needs to access my iPod.
4. Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
  
  Feature, not a bug.
Fluffy 14 years ago

Doesn't the TRUCKNUTZ case mean that it would be illegal in SC for me to make a bumper sticker with a picture of Michaelangelo's "David" on it?
1. John 14 years ago
  
  TRUCKNUTZ are the tackiest most wonderfully American thing to come out in the last ten years. Fuck those barbarians who want to ban them.
  1. SugarFree 14 years ago
    
    There's a lot of blue TRUCKNUTZ around here... Are they supporting our basketball team or complaining about their wives?
  2. Warty 14 years ago
    
    I'm putting a TRUCKVAG on my truck the second they come out.
    1. SugarFree 14 years ago
      
      NSFW
      1. Restoras 14 years ago
        
        Whole new meaning to camel toe.
      2. Warty 14 years ago
        
        Oh, I finally get it. Beetle hood. Heh.
      3. wylie 14 years ago
        
        Sexiest Car Ever.
    2. sloopyinca 14 years ago
      
      Couldn't you just put a Browns sticker on there and convey the same message?
      1. Warty 14 years ago
        
        Orange is an unattractive color for vaginas.
        
        Snooki 14 years ago
        
        Screw you.
        
        Snookie 14 years ago
        
        Is not!
        
        JEP 14 years ago
        
        Damn it!
    3. db 14 years ago
      
      There's a reason that thing's called a hitch receiver.
  3. Tony 14 years ago
    
    I've got TRUCKGOATSE on my Prius. It's also the fuel filler!
Fluffy 14 years ago

And/or that statue of Justice that used to give Ashcroft such issues?

"That guy has a picture of the goddess Justice on his car! $500 fine!"

Yeah, that's about right for South Carolina.
1. John 14 years ago
  
  South Carolina; too small to be a country, too big to be an insane asylum.
Brett L 14 years ago

I think we can all agree that this meets even the strictest definition of hillbilly.

"Principal Keith Phipps and teacher Jack Turley of the Boone County Career and Technical Center are accused of manufacturing and purchasing material used to make methamphetamine last spring, and both were suspended, said Jeff Huffman, assistant superintendent of Boone County, West Virginia, schools.

Huffman said the methamphetamine traces were a result of the illegal stimulant, which is frequently homemade, being smoked at school, and authorities do not believe the drug was manufactured at the school"
1. BakedPenguin 14 years ago
  
  Did either of them have cancer?
2. CaptainSmartass 14 years ago
  
  Someone thought Breaking Bad was a howto.
3. cynical 14 years ago
  
  See what you have driven our teachers to with your reckless cuts, Republicans!
Pip 14 years ago

NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-dat.....34971.html
1. Pip 14 years ago
  
  "The satellite observations suggest there is much more energy lost to space during and after warming than the climate models show," Spencer said in a July 26 University of Alabama press release. "There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans."
  
  In addition to finding that far less heat is being trapped than alarmist computer models have predicted, the NASA satellite data show the atmosphere begins shedding heat into space long before United Nations computer models predicted.
  
  The new findings are extremely important and should dramatically alter the global warming debate.
  1. Brett L 14 years ago
    
    This is my surprised face to find that global climate, like every other natural system, has negative feedback mechanisms to oscillate in limited but chaotic ways. Positive feedback in natural systems should make anyone's skeptic meter go off.
    1. Restoras 14 years ago
      
      Unless you have a poltical agenda that involves grabbing power and subjugating the masses...for their own good, of course.
      1. Al Gore 14 years ago
        
        We are not grabbing power, nor subjugating anyone
        
        We are just going to control all energy use on the planet, if does not involve the use of energy then you are totally free to do anything you want.
        
        CrackertyAssCracker 14 years ago
        
        Don't forget about the indulgences you need to buy from Pope Gore for the original sin in us all (you know ... breathing). If you do that, then you are cleansed.
        
        wylie 14 years ago
        
        if does not involve the use of energy then you are totally free to do anything you want.
        
        Ignoring the law of physics that states that "anything fun costs at least $8."
2. MiNGe 14 years ago
  
  Sure, you know more than all the tousands of climate scientist whose models disagree with you, you have one puny little article and you think it negates all of the consensus that is the hallmark of true science. You're dumb.
  1. R C Dean 14 years ago
    
    If its a puny little article that introduces new data that invalidates existing models, then, yes, I would say it negates the consensus based on those models.
    
    Data > models.
    1. DanD 14 years ago
      
      Word. If the map does not agree with the terrain, then the map is wrong.
    2. cynical 14 years ago
      
      Why you are seriously responding to an obvious parody?
SugarFree 14 years ago

How did you guys miss this one?

Steven Smith
Age: 23
Hometown: Cincinnati
Political party: Republican
Relationship status: Single

Steven Smith arrived in Washington just four months ago and he's already fallen in love with the city.
1. John 14 years ago
  
  Hobbies include hiking in the George Washington National Forrest and meeting new friends while doing so.
  
  Hiking the Blue Ridge recently became a contact sport.
2. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  I can see why Steve Smith likes DC, what with all the raping of the electorate going on 24/7
  1. SugarFree 14 years ago
    
    And the whole city reeks of bullshit. STEVE SMITH finds the stink of shit very erotic.
    
    EROTIC!
3. Rich 14 years ago
  
  ** wipes tears of laughter from eyes in order to find keyboard **
  
  Nice link.
4. Tim 14 years ago
  
  Heh.
5. Montani Semper Liberi 14 years ago
  
  Smith majored in marketing at the University of Indiana and thought he would go into advertising after college but couldn't find a job in the field.
  
  If you're too incompetent to get a real job, the government is always hiring.
  1. SugarFree 14 years ago
    
    In that way, DC is much like library school.
    1. Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
      
      Really? Are libraries always hiring?
      1. SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        School. Library school. You can always get in there.
        
        Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        Do they teach you how to alphabetize?
        
        Brett L 14 years ago
        
        Nah, they use Dewey's fascist decimal system or something.
        
        Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        Also: any thoughts on this?
        Why we need free public libraries more than ever
        
        SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        Public libraries are awful and I hope I never have to work in one again.
        
        la-la-la-can't-hear-you 14 years ago
        
        hi
        
        cynical 14 years ago
        
        Just bring copyright terms back down to 28 years, and task LoC with digitizing and digitally distributing all out-of-copyright works it holds.
6. Rock Action, Editor 14 years ago
  
  "We're called the Mastodons," Smith said, but "I've always been a runner." On weekends he runs from his apartment to the Lincoln Memorial and back ? about 6 miles ? and he prefers to run in the heat of the day. "It's pretty hard to not love running down the Mall."
  
  STEVE SMITH NO LONGER JUST PEOPLE RAPIST IN THIS ECONOMY. STEVE SMITH NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURSUIT AND RAPING OF VARIOUS NATIONAL LANDMARKS!
Pip 14 years ago

APNewsBreak: Arctic scientist under investigation

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) ? A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article.

Charles Monnett, an Anchorage-based scientist with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, or BOEMRE, was told July 18 that he was being put on leave, pending results of an investigation into "integrity issues." But he has not yet been informed by the inspector general's office of specific charges or questions related to the scientific integrity of his work, said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbr.....17993.html
1. John 14 years ago
  
  Just because they have been caught lying dozens of times is no reason to doubt the consensus.
2. Old Mexican 14 years ago
  
  The scam is unraveling in front of our very eyes. This is indeed a historical moment.
3. MiNGe 14 years ago
  
  Just one scientist who may or may not have made some errors does not disprove all of the other evidence for climate catastrophe according to the models. You guys are dumb.
  1. Old Mexican 14 years ago
    
    Re: MiNGe,
    
    Just one scientist who may or may not have made some errors does not disprove all of the other evidence for climate catastrophe according to the models.
    
    "Climate catastrophe"?
    
    Keep talking, oh great exaggerator. The models are actually the Mann model, which was DEBUNKED.
    1. WTF 14 years ago
      
      OM, 'MiNGe' is just someone (or maybe multiple someones)doing a spoof and making fun of MNG.
      1. Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        I'm not sure OM cares.
OO 14 years ago

Weapons debate
Perhaps the single hottest topic of debate among necro-warfare experts is what makes the ideal weapon against the undead.

Fortunately, as anyone who has seen the "Living Dead" movies knows, the possibilities are infinite ? anything that will take out a zombie's brain will do the trick.

Former Marine and "Top Shot Season 2" champ Chris Reed says he would keep it simple.

"A good Ruger .22 is hard to beat for your typical zombie killing," Reed says. (His perfect deadpan delivery inspired our take on this story.)

Others worry that a .22 round just won't have the stopping power needed for zombie headshots. "The .22 won't get skull penetration beyond 100 yards," Bourne says. Instead, he'd grab an M4 carbine or ? better yet ? an AK47 for drag-through-the-mud-and-still-shoot reliability.

Outdoor Life shooting editor John Snow's top pick: Lauer Custom Weaponry's LCW15 Zombie Eliminator with the arrow gun attachment and Beta-C 100-round ammunition drum. For backups, he says he'd add the Remington Model 870 Shotgun and Para Super Hawg .45-caliber pistol. All that might seem like overkill for something that's not even alive ? or real ? but among the ranks of zombie hunters, you can never be too careful.

http://www.armytimes.com/offdu.....de-072611/
1. NoVAHockey 14 years ago
  
  The story quotes JL Bourne, author of the "Day by Day Armageddon" series. Just finished those. they're pretty good if you're into that sort of thing.
2. Old Mexican 14 years ago
  
  Re: OO,
  
  "A good Ruger .22 is hard to beat for your typical zombie killing,"
  
  No, too light a bullet. You would have to riddle the zombie with bullets.
  
  12-gauge, buckshot.
  1. db 14 years ago
    
    That's why I have an LM7 belt-fed .22 upper for my M16. High reliability, no recoil, massive magazine capacity, and 1100 rounds per minute...zombies don't stand a chance, especially with a sound suppressor mounted.
3. R C Dean 14 years ago
  
  Somebody's actually making a "Zombie Eliminator" model? With an arrow gun attachment?
  
  My faith in humanity just went up a notch.
  1. BakedPenguin 14 years ago
    
    There are also targets for that gun.
    1. Pip 14 years ago
      
      When did Homey the Clown go zombie?
      1. wylie 14 years ago
        
        1994.
4. SFC B 14 years ago
  
  While the .22 lacks power, it is light enough to carry oodles of it, and it is common. Any superstore will likely have reams of it available in their sporting goods section.
  
  No anti-zombie armory is complete without a healthy supply of .22 ammo and weapons. It really is the backbone of your survival.
5. KWebb 14 years ago
  
  Forget firearms. Swords and polearms are the way to go. Why poke 9 mm holes in the undead when you can cut them in half with a naginata?
Tim 14 years ago

Have we won in Libya yet?
1. Yoda 14 years ago
  
  There is no "win". There is only "do".
Todd Frye 14 years ago

GMAC forges document
1. Fluffy 14 years ago
  
  Unimpressed.
  
  I'll bet that buried somewhere in GMAC's Ameriquest correspondent agreement is a clause giving officers of GMAC limited power of attorney to correct errors and omissions in loans sold under the agreement.
  
  Assignments and endorsements have to be fixed all the time. It would be suicidal to buy mortgages if you could lose the whole par+1 if some dumbass put a typo on the original assignment.
  1. R C Dean 14 years ago
    
    Apparently, though, there wasn't an assignment at all. And the company that was supposed to assign it no longer existed. And GMAC admits that it had no signing authority for the post facto assignment.
    
    The problem goes deeper than that, though. The odds are very good that this mortgage wound up in a pool backing a bond. Or was supposed to. But if it wasn't in that pool when the bond closed, then somebody committed additional fraud in connection with the bond offering. Fraud that can't be fixed with post facto assignments, valid or not.
    1. Fluffy 14 years ago
      
      I don't think that's what the email trail here indicates at all.
      
      Even after admitting to ProPublica that the employee had no authority to sign on behalf of Ameriquest...
      
      I'd like to see the exact question and exact answer.
      
      Because that's what I doubt.
      
      My reading of the email trail is that the GMAC employee asked up the chain of command, "Do we have signing authority?" and someone found a limited power of attorney lying around and told him "Yes, you do."
      
      That's why the same guy who asked the question later ended up being the guy who signed the assignment.
      
      Basically in a correspondent agreement there will be language saying, "If you cash our check, we can sign the note endorsement or allonge and execute and record an assignment if you forget to do it or do it wrong."
      
      Since the signing authority came into being when Ameriquest cashed GMAC's check, GMAC would be able to complete the assignment whenever they wanted, whether Ameriquest continued as a corporate entity or not.
Another Isolated Incident 14 years ago

"Another Isolated Incident" commentator gets under anarchist's skin. Anarchist whines, posts crude imitations. Libertarian lapdogs lick anarchist's face in approval.

Nothing else happens.

http://reason.com/blog/2011/07.....nt_2419858
1. Another Isolated Incident 14 years ago
  
  Reason commentator gets under "Another Isolated Incident" troll's skin. Troll whines, continues to post spam. Troll licks his own ass in approval.
  
  Nothing else happens.
  
  http://reason.com/blog/2011/07.....nt_2420174
  1. BakedPenguin 14 years ago
    
    Jesus, we need a better class of troll around here.
    1. SugarFree 14 years ago
      
      They need to make me a moderator.
    2. Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
      
      Maybe he's the troll H&R deserves, but not the one it needs right now.
      1. Rummy 14 years ago
        
        You comment with the trolls you have, not the trolls you want to have.
    3. Moe19 14 years ago
      
      Jobs created or saved.
  2. Big Fan 14 years ago
    
    F
Lord Humungus 14 years ago

43 Dem Senators promise to vote against the Boehner plan.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.....&seid=auto
1. John 14 years ago
  
  But will they vote for cloture? They could vote for cloture and still vote against it on the floor and it would still pass.
  1. The American People? 14 years ago
    
    But will they vote for cloture?
    
    I sure hope so. I need some new socks and a hoodie!
    1. Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
      
      That's couture.
2. R C Dean 14 years ago
  
  If the Boehner plan gets out of the House and dies in the Senate, with the Senate never having actually introduced any plan of its own, then I think we have a pretty good idea where the blame should lay, no?
  
  And let's not forget, this is actually the second plan the House has sent over.
3. Mike M. 14 years ago
  
  When is the Senate suppossed to vote on Reid's plan?
  
  Both the Boehner plan and the Reid plan are a joke, but they're very similar and the CBO seems to think the Reid plan is marginally better.
  1. NoVAHockey 14 years ago
    
    I've heard after the house votes. and that it won't get cloture.
    1. R C Dean 14 years ago
      
      The Senate Repubs are holding the line on filibustering the Reid plan.
      
      The Senate Dems may well filibuster the Boehner plan.
      
      Probably both votes will just be a setup for amending the Boehner plan so that a few nervous Dems (exposed in Red states next year) can get cover to vote for it.
      
      Then, of course, its back to the House, to see if the political cover for the Senate Dems is too much for a razor-thin House majority to stand.
      
      If not, then its off to Obama, who has promised, repeatedly to veto it. But he's such a lying pussy, you know he'll sign any goddam thing that lands on his desk. Especially since he has been whinging non-stop about the complete, utter, irretrievable disaster that will engulf the nation if the debt ceiling isn't raised. The genius-in-chief has really managed to box himself in on this one.
      1. NoVAHockey 14 years ago
        
        it's really unclear if the House will pass anything the senate amends. i think the dems might say they agree to the "crazy house plan with no new revenues" now and will try to appease their base by noting that the bush tax cuts expire next year if nothing happens and they'll have leverage then.
        
        I agree that Obama will sign whatever hits his desk.
        
        R C Stalin 14 years ago
        
        I think the game in the House with the Senate markup will be finding Dem votes to replace the Repub votes that are lost.
Mike M. 14 years ago

Murderer who escaped Florida prison nearly 32 years ago captured in Colorado by U.S. Marshals.
CH 14 years ago

Funny, I didn't see a singe LP affiliation on the Most Beautiful list.
When is the "Most Likely To Be in a Star Wars Cantina Tribute Band" list scheduled for release?
1. Clich? Bandit 14 years ago
  
  look at #11
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.jacksonsun.com/arti...../110719047

"U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III and Jackson Police Chief Gill Kendrick announced this afternoon the indictment of Jackson police officers Marvent Brooks and David Dreblow on federal charges. Brooks and Dreblow are accused of violating the civil rights of a robbery and shooting victim ..." ...

"... While [the officers] searched the residence during the investigation, Brooks found $1,256 under the victim's bed, the release said."

"Brooks asked the other two officers if they wanted some of the money. Officer Dreblow agreed, and the third officer refused, according to the indictment."

"The indictment charges that Brooks and Dreblow later divided the money between themselves ..." ...
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.kansascity.com/2011.....ittle.html

... "Lapp, 48, of Liberty, was heading home Friday from a Boy Scout scuba trip when the .32-caliber bullet turned up inside his fanny pack in Freeport, Bahamas. He was arrested, charged with possessing ammunition and sent to a jail in Nassau."

"'I was flabbergasted,' Lapp said."

"He thinks he must have left the round in the pack after a hunting trip."

"'I broke the law, and it was very, very unfortunate. I had no plans to do that,' Lapp said. 'I would have never done that intentionally.'"

"The bullet passed undetected through security checkpoints when he flew out of Kansas City International Airport and when he stopped in Nassau." ...
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.syracuse.com/news/i.....nts_p.html

"Undercover ATF agents in Virginia have funneled more than 250 million cigarettes onto the nation's streets in the past three years through black market sales targeting smugglers, an Associated Press review has found. Authorities say the flood of government-provided smokes ? a pack and a half for every man, woman and child in New York City, the smugglers' main destination ? leads them to organized crime rings and can even cut off financing for terrorists."

Lmfao
1. Clich? Bandit 14 years ago
  
  Wasnt that the mcguffin of Beverly Hills Cop?
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ening.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ening.html

Dumbshits are dumb
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.orlandosentinel.com.....2485.story

"Investigators say a Haines City police officer repeatedly received oral sex from a teenage prostitute ? while in uniform ? and agreed to give her pimp 'special favors' in return."

"The officer, 25-year-old Demetrius Lamar Condry was arrested on Thursday. He resigned from the police department upon his arrest, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office." ...

http://wtop.com/?nid=41&sid=2457468

"A D.C. police officer has been indicted on sexual abuse charges."

"A nine-count grand jury indictment charges Larry W. Seay with second-degree sexual abuse while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and fourth-degree sexual abuse."

"Seay, 37, is accused of using a gun while forcing sex acts upon three women in 2006 and last year. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer." ...
Nipplemancer 14 years ago

What an unfortunate name
1. Rock Action 14 years ago
  
  Indeed. She has a kid. Tell me the guy didn't laugh repeatedly thinking of her name while in the act.
grrizzly 14 years ago

Is it about a kindergarten?

Age: 23

Hometown: Wheaton, Ill.
Political party: Republican
Relationship status: Single

Another new goal: daily flossing. His dentist gave him a study showing that flossing every day strengthens the immune system.

"I have scratched in Sharpie in my mirror, 'floss everyday,' " Thompson said.

To get his well-styled hair, Thompson uses Goldwell wax, which comes in a tube dangerously similar to a stick of deodorant.

"One time I put deodorant in my hair instead of the hair product," he said. "So if you get hair gel that looks like deodorant, make sure that you know what you're using when you put it in your hair in the morning."
1. WTF 14 years ago
  
  I can't imagine why he's single.
  1. Pip 14 years ago
    
    lol
  2. oldtimer 14 years ago
    
    And working for the government...
2. cynical 14 years ago
  
  This guy sounds like presidential material.
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

Where's that "Another Isolated Incident" fuckhead? I thought he would have trolled the living fuck out of our links by now.
1. Brother_Mullet 14 years ago
  
  I think he got tired of your DICK in his face so he took his links, and went home.
PantsFan 14 years ago

Morrissey compares fast food to Norway Massacre
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....sacre.html
1. Warty 14 years ago
  
  MEAT IS MURDER
Au H20 14 years ago

Okay, HnR, my damn cellphone alarm didn't go off this morning. Stupid vibrate mode. Anyway...prepare for a morning links invasion tomorrow. I mean 30+ links. And I mean to do them in less than 30 minutes.

I want you Aqua Budha! I WANT THE STALLION!!!
1. R C Dean 14 years ago
  
  my damn cellphone alarm didn't go off this morning. Stupid vibrate mode.
  
  Yer doin' it wrong?
  1. Brett L 14 years ago
    
    Maybe just forgot to position it correctly before falling asleep.
Res Publican Americana 14 years ago

I just wet myself.
Chammp 14 years ago

nice really fun video. 🙂

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