The Nuclear Option

You have to give the yammering lipflaps on the right some serious credit for the way they use…exploit…rape language.It’s like the Queen of Hearts in Through the Looking Glass…words mean whatever they choose. But they do take provocative terms and invert them to wicked purpose with the ease of David Blaine pulling off a simple French drop.I think there was a time…I’m almost sure of it…when trying to pervert language like this would have resulting in being called out for it – exposed, humiliated and sent packing as a disingenuous knife in the back of good information. Cronkite sure as shit would never have let this sort of crap slide.Nevertheless, they’re doing it, and it’s apparently effective.As a tactic, it reveals two things very clearly to those with eyes to see and ears to hear:1. They’re amoral fuckers who will do anything to twist the issue and the outcome.2. The people who are listening to them are dumber than stumps and/or angry enough to allow themselves to be manipulated by such shoddy, shameful tactics.I wrote on my blog during the election that the time would come when Obama would have to man up, put on the gloves and start swinging back. That taking the high road, while effective against the slurs emanating from the Clinton camp, and then the yammering imbecility of Palin, would cease to be effective.That time has come. This shit is playing out like The Outlaw Josey Wales. The right wing is whistling Dixie.It’s time to spit and pull them pistols.

It will become the new meme. They can use it effectively to suggest that the Democrats are doing something unfairly, outside the rules, not willing to be “bipartisan”. It doesn’t matter that it was dreamed up by the Republicans for just those reasons.Wait for it. The wingnut talking heads will shortly have prominent/disgraced Republicans on to further propagate this idea. By middle of next week, they’ll all be repeating it, and Democrats will have to waste time refuting it.Hopefully they will ignore it. The only people that believe it is their insane base that hates the “Democrat” Party anyway. Answering it will only distract from the real discussion they don’t want us to have.

It sure is a sad sight to see adults behaving more imaturely than children.

Exactly! When they get back in September, he’d better tell this bullshit gang of six in the Finance Committe that if they haven’t finished their bill by the deadline, we’re going to pass the legislation without them and they can submit their shit through amendments. I saw a quote on TPM this morning from Max Baucus saying that they’re not going to adhere to a deadline. They’re going to take their time to get it right. Fuck that! How long do these fucking geezers think we’re going to allow them to craft their bill? This is complete bullshit. If the dickless Harry Reid doesn’t grow one, these bastards will still be negotiating in November! I’m still annoyed that there are 3 Dems and 3 Republicans. How is it that they get a split when the election was a landslide? If the Dems fuck this up they’re going to regret it! As it is, I’m so glad that one of the unions has pulled it’s financial support from all of the Blue Dogs and are funding ads in their states against them for not supporting the public option. I wasn’t aware of this but, the Blue Dogs get the majority of their contributions from the unions. Good!

What’s worse Rox is that he’s spending so much time negotiating with Republicans when he should know full well they will not vote for the bill when it hits the floor!So why is he wasting so much time with them? Is he clueless? Mad with power? What? I don’t get it.

Josey: Well…that’s always the way it goes. Whenever I get to likin’ someone, they ain’t around long.Lone Wattie: I notice when you get to dislikin’ someone, they ain’t around long neither.

John Stewart smackdownhttp://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-17-2009/exclusive—betsy-mccaughey-extended-interview-pt–1http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-17-2009/exclusive—betsy-mccaughey-extended-interview-pt–2

I wondered the same thing Nano…and then it hit me. I think Obama is playing them. Think about it. He’s been pushing this bipartisan shit since he took office. When they get back I’m assuming that they’ll shut down the Republicans and say, we tried repeatedly to involve them and they never came around. Cue up the numerous clips of Obama saying he wants their support. The praising of Grassley and the stab in the back by Grassley the very next day with the death panel bullshit! I think it’s a trap for the Republicans. This is why I suspect that Grassley is now saying they need to get 75-80 votes. I think he now realizes that this is going to get done – with or without them as the President said yesterday. At least this is my hope. I just can’t believe that the President is stupid or clueless. Perhaps crafty? God, I hope so!

I wondered the same thing Nano…and then it hit me. I think Obama is playing them. Think about it. He’s been pushing this bipartisan shit since he took office. When they get back I’m assuming that they’ll shut down the Republicans and say, we tried repeatedly to involve them and they never came around. Cue up the numerous clips of Obama saying he wants their support. The praising of Grassley and the stab in the back by Grassley the very next day with the death panel bullshit! I think it’s a trap for the Republicans. This is why I suspect that Grassley is now saying they need to get 75-80 votes. I think he now realizes that this is going to get done – with or without them as the President said yesterday. At least this is my hope. I just can’t believe that the President is stupid or clueless. Perhaps crafty? God, I hope so!

Sorry for the double post!

Here you go, what more do you need?”Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Thursday dared Democrats to try a one-party push to overhaul the nation’s health care system.”"Steele told reporters that he thinks if Democratic senators think they have the votes, they should try a tactic that would allow them to get around a bill-killing filibuster without the 60 votes usually needed.”“Get it to the floor. Up or down, baby,” Steele said at a news conference at the state GOP headquarters. “Put it on the table. And if you don’t think you’ve got enough votes to get to 60, you’ve got the nuclear option. You’ve got 51.”From the link at thinkprogress-”Most legislation in the Senate requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, but certain budget-related measures can pass with 51 votes through a parliamentary maneuver called reconciliation.”And-”We will not make a decision to pursue reconciliation until we have exhausted efforts to produce a bipartisan bill,” said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Mr. Reid. “However, patience is not unlimited, and we are determined to get something done this year by any legislative means necessary.”This would seem to support the fact that reconciliation is indeed the nuclear option, and that in fact a spokesmam for Reid IS talking about it, at least for possible use in the future.

I hope that he’s got some game going on, and I love the idea of hammering their tits after the break. It’ll take their breath away. But I think that strategy would work better if the Republicans were negotiating in good faith. They’re not. Their entire strategy is “Oppose Obama- Make Him Fail.” They’re not even really trying to hide it anymore. No one will think more of Obama for trying to include the Republicans in the discussion when they don’t want to be part of it. I mean, they’re not even offering ideas. I watched the Besty clip from The Daily Show and she kept referring to those lines in the legislation that she misleadingly interpreted as “mandatory.” In her mind, that was dangerous. Really? Then how ’bout working to have the language changed? But they don’t want the language changed, or even the provision removed. They want the legislation to fail entirely. (If you haven’t watched the clip, you have too. She was so transparently obvious in her opposition to the bill solely as a shill for the insurance companies. She would quote some draconian provision from a bill that was sitting right in front of her, then fail to find the draconian provision in the bill sitting right in front of her.)Maybe there is some wickedly subtle and beautifully crafted strategy at work here, but I’ll be damned if I can figure it out. I haven’t lost hope, though. I still think this thing has a strong chance.

Steele is an idiot! He’s been Tomming for the party of racists since they hired his dumb ass. As an African American I can’t begin to tell you just how offensive we find him but, we’re actually glad that they picked someone like him and not someone who is the complete package like….Obama. If they had found someone like that I’d be worried because I know that there are some African Americans who would support him just because he’s African American but, since he’s such an ignorant asshole, he has zero support from most of us. He’s nothing but a tool. He needs to take his hip hop bullshit and stuff it! Whites aren’t buying it. You know they’re not thrilled. Sadly it’s the same concept the GOP used to try and get Hillary voters by drafting that queen of the ignorant, from Wasilla, Sarah Palin and look how well that turned out!

You’re so right Nano! I saw the show last night and it was hilarious! I loved how she kept turning page after page trying to find her bullshit! My sister said “Hasn’t this bitch every heard of post-it notes”? When she finally found what she was looking for Stewart cut off her bullshit and began to take her apart for her lies and duplicity! By the way, is it just me who thinks she looks like Ron Perlman from that TV show Beauty And The Beast? I hate to say this considering what many racists say about people of my race but she looks like a monkey. Her mouth is frightening. She looks like a cast member from Planet of the Apes who never got her prosthetic make up removed. Ugh!

Nano and Rox: I’ve just had a conversation with a lady that works with Marty Nesbitt — Obama’s good friend. According to him, Obama is strong and the public option is not in jeopardy.

“…In other words, the Republicans had contemplated breaking Democratic filibusters by circumventing the rule calling for 60 votes. That’s the nuclear option. It sucked when the Republicans made it up, and no one is proposing it now.”

Maybe someone should propose it. Majority rules. Watch Rachel Maddow from last night. And I’m fucking tired of having senators who represent .03% of the population screwing it up for the 15% of the population that needs affordable health care and another 15% who are underinsured.