Poster and Tweet of the Day

This looks good, doesn't it:

And capturing the essence of Republican "the mean Democrats won't negotiate" spin strategery:

(2 h/ts to Daily Kos)

When You've Lost...

Bloomberg BusinessWeek:

It’s part of the essential give-and-take of American politics. But the debate hasn’t amounted to much lately, in part because Republicans haven’t been holding up their end of the argument.

Instead, a vocal minority of Tea Party Republicans forced a government shutdown over its opposition to Obamacare, which passed a milestone on Oct. 1 when the first websites offering health insurance went online. It’s worth dwelling, yet again, on the quixotic nature of House Republicans’ demands that the White House and Senate Democrats defund or delay the Affordable Care Act.

And:

If Republican lawmakers were as responsive to business concerns as they once were, the chance of a prolonged shutdown would be slim. But that’s no longer the case. “Republicans are not the party of business anymore,” says Robert Shapiro, chairman of the economic advisory firm Sonecon. “They’re the party of antigovernment.”

 Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Effin' Blankfein:

Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, while stressing that the business leaders who met with Obama represented diverse political views, implicitly criticized Republicans for using their opposition to the healthcare law as a weapon that could lead to a U.S. default.

"You can litigate these policy issues. You can re-litigate these policy issues in a political forum, but they shouldn't use the threat of causing the U.S. to fail on its ... obligations to repay on its debt as a cudgel," Blankfein said.

Affordable Care Act Produces Affordable Insurance

Who'd a thunk it?  Think Progress has a story about an Arkansas man -- a lifelong Republican -- who will save $13,000 per year by signing up to an insurance plan offered under the Affordable Care Act.  Butch Matthews, a 61 year-old retired small businessman, found that by shopping on the Arkansas health insurance exchange, he was able to save $13,000 in his current Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance.

Ah, the socialism of the free market!

Today's Dispatches From The Stupid Party - Government Shutdown Edition

This Very Special Three-Part Episode of "...Dispatches..." is brought to you by every furloughed government employee, their families, creditors, and businesses dependent on the employees' receiving, you know, a salary.

Part I -  The Prideful Yet Confused:

"We're not going to be disrespected," Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) told The Washington Examiner. "We have to get something out of this.  And I don't know what that even is."   (our emphasis)

A hard kick in the ass or punch in the mouth would be what we'd like you to get out of it, Snarlin' Marlin, but we'd settle for an early retirement.

Part II -  The Confused Yet Nasty:

But Mark Segraves, reporting for NBC News' Washington affiliate, managed to capture the howler highlight of the Great World War II Memorial Bleat-n-Repeat -- Rep. Randy Neugebauer's (R-Tex.) Wednesday confrontation of a poor park ranger on the scene -- who was doing nothing more than her job -- blaming her for the closure he voted for and telling her that she should be ashamed of herself.  (our emphasis)

No, no, no, Noogie.  It wasn't the poor lady Park Ranger who shut the memorial down.  Walk a few hundred yards over to the Reflecting Pool and look into it's waters and you'll see who's responsible, you dumbass.

Part III - And Last, The Cowardly:

“Listen,” [Rep. Greg]Walden [R-OR] said, according to several people present. “We have to do this because of the Tea Party. If we don’t, these guys are going to get primaried and they are going to lose their primary.”  (our emphasis)

Capitol Police are still looking for Rep. Walden's nutsack, which was recently reported missing.

Isn't this a proud moment in American democracy?!

Tea Party Loonie Toons of the Day

(click to enlarge)

(top, Mike Luckovich, bottom, Ben Sargent, via Gocomics.com)

Bibi's Bombastic Warnings

While our focus in the past few days has been on the government shutdown and implementation of the Affordable Care Act, we need to note the active attempts of Israel's Likudnik Prime Minister Bibi "Bibi Bomb Bomb" Netanyahu to undermine any negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.  Taking every opportunity with the media to sound the alarm against trusting any Iranian move toward discussions about their nuclear program, Bibi Bomb Bomb would no doubt prefer a military strike against Iran (by proxy by the U.S., preferably) the sooner the better.  However much we have earned the right to be skeptical about Iran's intentions, the economic sanctions have harmed Iran greatly (unemployment high, goods scarce, restrictions on international travel and commerce, etc.) and it's not unreasonable to believe that they have had enough.  We should see where the opening leads.

The Israeli people are growing tired of Likudnik war posturing, as they demonstrated earlier this year in elections by significantly reducing the Likud's power in the Knesset.  The American people want this new, fragile opening with Iran to lead to the elimination of the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation.  Bibi Bomb Bomb might want to hold his fire -- literally -- until Iran's sincerity is tested.

BONUS:  Read Roger Cohen's piece in the New York Times on the hyperventilation that the Likudniks engage in over Iran.

(image:  Bibi Bomb Bomb's message to friend and foe alike)

"Meet The Morons....

Who Caused the Shutdown" is a new post on Esquire.com's Charles P. Pierce's blog.  The first Congresscritter focused on is Rethuglican nutbag Vicky "Commie Toasters" Hartzler of Missouri, who believes, among other things, that the ChiComs are tracking us through the appliances they sell us.  We're not kidding.

Be sure to click the "NEXT" button at the bottom of each screen to see a sampling of the buffoonish menagerie of right-wing looniedom, and despair of our future as a democracy.

When You've Lost The Chamber of Commerce....

The Federal Government shutdown and the upcoming debt ceiling vote have motivated the business community to abandon their traditional Rethuglican puppets and align with President Obama, who at least represents sanity to them.  Worried that the teabagger radicals have hijacked the Rethuglican / New Confederate Party (see: chickens coming home to roost), the Chamber of Commerce is urging an end to the teabagger minority's demand that the Government shut down in return for repealing the Affordable Care Act.  Some 250 business leaders have written House Rethugs to urge them to get real, and to stop using extortion as a tactic to undermine President Obama.

(image: "Keep the Gummint outta my Federal disability checks!")

Mid-Week Birthday Song

Happy 62nd (!) birthday to Sting, who evolved from a member of Police, to a solo artist, to a philanthropist and activist.  Here's the wistful acoustic song "Shape of My Heart."

Vandalism, Extortion, and the Rethuglican Way

Traditional conservative Andrew Sullivan is not mincing words when he observes what the Rethuglican extremists are doing:

"Obama has played punctiliously by the constitutional rules – two elections, one court case – while the GOP has decided that the rules are for dummies and suckers, and throws over the board game as soon as it looks as if it is going to lose by the rules as they have always applied. The president must therefore hold absolutely firm. This time, there can be no compromise because the GOP isn’t offering any. They’re offering the kind of constitutional surrender that would effectively end any routine operation of the American government. If we cave to their madness, we may unravel our system of government, something one might have thought conservatives would have opposed. Except these people are not conservatives. They’re vandals. This time, the elephant must go down. And if possible, it must be so wounded it does not get up for a long time to come."

Happy Obamacare Day!

With everyone distracted over the government shutdown, it's nice to report that there's been a great deal of activity this first day to sign up under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Over a million visitors in the first 3 hours on the national website (www.healthcare.gov) and big numbers for many state sites.

Meanwhile, check out Andy Borowitz, who's monitoring border crossings as the wingnuts flee the tyranny of affordable health care from private insurers!

Today's Cartoon - Boom Goes The Government

(click to enlarge)

(Chris Britt, via gocomics.com)

Obama Spanks Rethugs Again Over Shutdown

President Obama spoke from the White House Rose Garden at noon today to again call on the nihilist Rethuglicans in the House to pass a clean continuing resolution to fund the Government.  Obama made it clear who was causing the problem, calling it a "Republican shutdown."  With opinion polls showing the public is wise to Rethuglican attempts to spin the blame back on Dems, Obama has been aggressive in pointing out their cynical attempts to undo last November's elections and to do the bidding of those in the private sector that like the broken health care system like it was, today saying:

"They've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health care to millions of Americans."

This should be an everyday appointment with the public, as should stories about the impacts being felt from the shutdown as well as stories about the newly-opened health insurance exchanges.

"The Reign of Morons"

From the estimable Charles P. Pierce:

We have elected an ungovernable collection of snake-handlers, Bible-bangers, ignorami, bagmen and outright frauds, a collection so ungovernable that it insists the nation be ungovernable, too. We have elected people to govern us who do not believe in government.

We have elected a national legislature in which Louie Gohmert and Michele Bachmann have more power than does the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who has been made a piteous spectacle in the eyes of the country and doesn't seem to mind that at all. We have elected a national legislature in which the true power resides in a cabal of vandals, a nihilistic brigade that believes that its opposition to a bill directing millions of new customers to the nation's insurance companies is the equivalent of standing up the the Nazis in 1938, to the bravery of the passengers on Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, and to Mel Gibson's account of the Scottish Wars of Independence in the 13th Century. We have elected a national legislature that looks into the mirror and sees itself already cast in marble.

We did this. We looked at our great legacy of self-government and we handed ourselves over to the reign of morons.

As Pierce goes on to say, don't expect any of this to change in an electoral tsunami any time soon.   It's taken 50 years to get us to this point and it may take another 50 to get us out.  We have too many people invested in making sure dots aren't connected and blame is evenly distributed =cough= mainstream media =cough= for fingers to be pointed in the right direction.  It's going to be a long struggle against the ungovernable collection noted above, and to restore the notion that government can work in the public interest once "the reign of morons" is ended.

Headline of the Week

Today's front page of the New York Daily News, as the Federal Government shuts down due to the teabagger caucus' radicalism.

When the Rethugs say they represent the "voice of the people" -- despite having lost the last election badly -- the latest polling shows that 72% of the public disagrees with their extortion tactics.