15 thoughts on “Open Line Friday!”

1. Okay, I am not as willing to dismiss Cruze as a joke.  I don't know what is going on and I am waiting to see what happens down the line,  On Wednesday, "you are doing a hellava job brownie" opened up his talk radio show with a long rant attacking Carl Rove personally.  boyles had the activitists who spearheaded the recall election success on his show and they attacked the state republican "elite" party heads. Cruz was on the Limbaugh show and claimed that there were 1.5 million signatures on an online petition to defund Obamacare.  

   As I say, I don't know what this means.  Is the Tea Party making its move to take over the Republican party?  Is the goal to force a real reduction in the provisions and funding ofr Obamacare, to emphasize the implementation problems with a view to the 2014 elections? 

   Rush Limbaugh can still rally his base of upwards of 20 million listerers (the number may be less, now, but those remaining  may be all the more fevered)  to call Congress, flood the switchboard and cause it to shut down.  Obama with OFA can not begin to accomplish anything like that…..

   Cruz is smart, an orator, and I consider him dangerous. Remember, it was just a few years ago that Dems wanted him to be the Republican opponent in Texas because he was going to be so easy "to beat."

   Log in to Reply

   1. Add to that the House leadership wanting to vote on the increase on a debt celing.increase good until Dec 2014, well past their elections.

      Sure, they will load it up with some ridiculous provisions to skip past any environmental requirements to get Keystone built, or require a take over IRan, or eliminate taxes on anonemaking more than $1milion per year or whatever.

      But the strategy is obvious –  mke the debt ceiling a non issue for the midterms.

      Cowards.

      Log in to Reply

2. Oh woe is me!

   Late night TV has some wingnut GOP fundraising scam running to get low-info voters online to 'sign' a petition.  All that means is those people are golden opportunities for bilking more currency out of with threats of UN takeovers, healthcare-for-all, and Kenyan Muslim Mexican Gay Feminists on Welfare from Chicago. 

   Log in to Reply

   1. @CT

      But, you do see, don't you CT, these low-info voters do vote. 

      Log in to Reply

      1. But they won't be voting in the midterms until 2014 and by that time the scare tactics should be swamped by reality just as they were with social security and medicare. And lets not forget that Obamacare/ACA was polling badly in 2012 and one of the pillars of Romney's campaign was that he was going to get rid of it first thing and he still lost decisively.

         We'll see how this plays out. If it goes into effect as scheduled and people see that the sky hasn't fallen and there's actually some stuff in it they like, then anti-ACA hysteria will become a tough sell, just as anti-Medicare very quickly became a tough sell. Hence the desperation to kill it right now or at least delay it a year. 

         Naturally Dems can't be party to any give away the store "compromises" that let that delay happen. Dems have to win this game of chicken. If they do, the hysterical accusations in those ads will be largely defunct by the next election, except among the hardcore wacko base that isn't ever going to vote Dem anyway.

         Even now  at a time when polling shows far from majority public support for Obamacare (although support instantly increases significantly when you call it Affordable Care Act) all polls show strong majority opposition, including among the all important independents, to this game of threatening to shut down the government in order to force the defunding of Obamacare that the far right is imposing on the GOP House.. 

         It's not yet possible to predict how all this all will play out for ACA between the the government shut down threat and the next scenario, the debt ceiling dance. That includes any sure forecast of doom.

         Log in to Reply

         1. Well trained in the silent signal politics of another city, I get that as soon as we elect some non-black other President, the opposition may settle down a bit. I feel ya' dog cat.

            If we had elected McCain in 08, and he adopted the exact same plan, with a tax cut, it would be the GREATEST thing since EVER.

            Log in to Reply

   2. . . . plus, they'll buy the newest Ginsu knife sets, and pay for the whole shebang with money borrowed at 300% from one of America's very first on-line Indian tribes . . . 

      Log in to Reply

      1. If you don’t buy this shamwow LIKE RIGHT NOW, then fuck it, the terrorists have won !

         Log in to Reply

3. We apologize for a few performance hiccups this morning, our tech people decided to make some upgrades in the middle of the day instead of late at night as we prefer them to. Everything should be back to normal now.

   Log in to Reply

   1. So it wasn't me and it didn't just miraculously fix itself! 

      Log in to Reply

4. Chris Matthews has broken out the arithematic  of the House of Representatives and how the radical republicans have such power.  There are 232 Districts that voted against Obama and for Republicans.  Those Districts not only sent Republicans to Congress but due to redistricting in 2010, they are presumed to be pretty safe seats.  Obama won nationally.  His power is in the urban population centers, not in the individual districts.

   National polls don't mean anything in the current fight.  Senator Cruz is calling Republican members of the House urging them to stand firm and not to be afraid to shut down the government.  I don't know what is going to happen.  But, at this point, 

   no one else is sure, either.

    

    

   Log in to Reply

   1. To be sure, the future is hard to predict. (don't know what is going to happen)

      However, the "shutdown" will hurt (if the GOTP is blamed) and national (and statewide) numbers matter. A lot.

      Most Americans support the majority of the features of the Affordable Care Act.

      Until you call it something else. Virtually no one supports death panels (whew! good thing that's a myth).  Almost no one supports gutting Medicare. (whew! good thing that's a myth). There is not majoroty support for socialized medcine (whew! good thing that's a myth).

      So what I am mostly sure of is the voters are not (generally) as dumb as it sometimes seems. When those kitchen table discussions about health care happen starting Tuesday and through the Winter, most Americans are going to wonder what all the hoo-ha was about. 

      And in 2016, when those unimportant national numbers come back, the quesiton won't be repeal or continue. It will be which modification or change do we get behind now.  (I support lowering the Medicare eligiility age to the Social Security eligiblity age.) 

       

      Log in to Reply

5. Well, crap . . . Frackenlooper strikes again!!

   After the Floods in Colorado, a Deluge of Worry About Leaking Oil
   

   “Given the power of this flood, the fact that there hasn’t been that much leakage is incredible,” Mr. Hickenlooper said on a recent tour of the spill area.

   http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/us/after-the-floods-a-deluge-of-worry-about-oil.html?src=recg

   (Interesting NYT article published yesterday on oil spills in the aftermath of Colorado's floods.  Plus, yet one more industry-felating sound-bite comment by our fracker-in-chief — Ef'n thanks, Gov!!)

   Log in to Reply

6.  
   

   My State Needs Obamacare. Now.
   

   http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/opinion/my-state-needs-obamacare-now.html?src=me&ref=general

   The Governor of Kentucky speaks (– using both pesky facts and documented figures) . . .

   Log in to Reply

7. Huge oil tanker spill coming soon.
   Exxon Extends Benefits to Same-Sex Spouses of U.S. Employees (bloomberg)
   The gods' rath to visit Exxon soon.
   Or not.

   Log in to Reply