Uh, remember that Sugar-Coated Satan Sandwich?

Fist Dap Flick River Photography

Looks like the Sugar-Coated Satan Sandwich is back for a second course...

The phony debt ceiling crisis was, from beginning to end, a con. It was an elaborate and successful hoax in which the nation's first black president, the Democratic and Republican parties, Wall Street and corporate media all played indispensable parts. The object of the supposed “crisis” was to short circuit public opinion, existing law, democratic process and traditions of public oversight, in order to deal fatal blows to Medicaid, Medicare, social security, job growth and public expenditures for the common good. It worked. We've been conned.

The result was painful and predictable then, and it's painful and predictable now.....

 If nothing else, the debt ceiling crisis provided what Barack Obama is so fond of calling a "teachable moment." Hopefully, that extends to the President himself. After seeing his nominees blocked, his legislation filibustered and popular upper-income tax increases delayed by Republicans who withheld their support from his watered down stimulus and health care programs, President Obama nevertheless continued to seek common ground with those whose only goal remains his political destruction. 

Some of us tried to tell y'all the deal sucked, but did you listen?  Nooooo, that would have been too much like right (pun intended). You keep smashing an economy over the head with the austerity is good for you meme and you end up with a bloodied economy.

The American people made it perfectly clear we want to preserve the social safety net while raising taxes on the rich in November. Since republicans got 98% of what they wanted in the debt deal by holding America hostage,  they are doing it again. Who cares what we want? 

 Here’s how it happened: Republicans engaged in unprecedented hostage-taking, threatening to push America into default by refusing to raise the debt ceiling unless President Obama agreed to a grand bargain on their terms. Mr. Obama, alas, didn’t stand firm; instead, he tried to buy time. And, somehow, both sides decided that the way to buy time was to create a fiscal doomsday machine that would inflict gratuitous damage on the nation through spending cuts unless a grand bargain was reached. Sure enough, there is no bargain, and the doomsday machine will go off at the end of next week.

This is what is on the menu IMHO...... Republicans want the Sequester to go into effect.

 The 2013 sequester includes:

• $42.7 billion in defense cuts (a 7.9 percent cut).
• $28.7 billion in domestic discretionary cuts (a 5.3 percent cut).
• $9.9 billion in Medicare cuts (a 2 percent cut).
• $4 billion in other mandatory cuts (a 5.8 percent cut to non-defense programs, and a 7.8 percent cut to mandatory defense programs).

Republicans control the House ( thanks to gerrymandering), have a filibuster-proof Senate (thanks to Harry Reid), defense spending will be restored, the rich will keep their tax cuts, so-called entitlements will be cut.

It's a win-win for the GOP,  another Sugar-Coated Satan Sandwich for the majority of the America people.

Bon appetite!

I have to give it to republicans, they have gonads of steele

 

Thanks to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.NV), who we practically begged to stand up to the right wing  Bullies three weeks ago, Senate republicans put President Obama in his place and  filibustered former Senator Chuck Hagel's nomination as Secretary of Defense.

The time to go to the mattresses, to go to full out civil war in the senate is right now. Shut it down. Destroy the GOP. Go for their throat. Hold press conferences every day and call them out. Leak secrets about their conduct and their votes, destroy the illusion of collegiality. The time for what I commonly call a blood war is right now. (A blood war is a term from Steve Miller and Sharon Lee’s Sci Fi Series where one group fights to the extermination of the other)
It didn’t have to come to this. The GOP could have acted like they had some sense. But that was always a sort of grand dream. The GOP has Obama Mania. They are a dying party with dying ideas and they feel like taking the entire country down with them. They despise the President. You know why, I know why, everyone who is honest about it knows why.
Let me make several clear statements. There is no Benghazi scandal. It is a GOP conspiracy theory. The President isn’t nominating a sleeper agent to be Sec Def., no matter what Sen. Cruz implies. There is no precedent for undermining the tenure of a Sec Def. the way the GOP is attempting. There is no precedent for the GOP’s conduct in general.

 Unlike President Obama and democrats, republicans, enabled by the media, are not afraid to play hardball.

   If the Bush Mob were sending unmanned drones into places like Pakistan, targeting certain terrorists but killing a whole lot of innocent people in the process, would we really be taking this lying down? And don't forget that someday there may be (but probably won't be) another neocon neanderthal living in the White House who will abuse this drone technology to even more extreme ends. If that unfortunate turn-of-events ever transpires, we won't be in a position to self-righteously condemn anybody. In fact we will be exposed as hypocrites. Honestly, we really need to rethink this one, kids. It's high time for a serious reality check.

If only the democrats had the gonads to filibuster some of George W. Bush's cabinet nominations.

With democrats like Harry Reid who needs republicans?

 Maddow Slams Reid for Failing on Filibuster Reform: 60 is the new 60

Wouldn't it be nice if the Senate Majority  Leader actually represented the democratic wing of the democratic party?  Sometimes I wonder if the democratic party is afraid to win.  How can President Obama even HOPE to be successful when the democratic leadership works against him? 

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Harry Reid screwed up again. This time it was, once again, allowing the minority party in the Senate to have a free hand to gum up the works.
Reid refused to reform filibuster rules in the Senate in any meaningful way, because the election season’s over, his position is secure and screw you.

Harry Reid gives likes to give em hell at the wrong time. and to the wrong people.

Who says there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans?
When Republicans take power, they band together and fight Democrats. When Democrats take power, they split apart and eat their own.

 What good is electing democrats if they govern like republicans?