Friday Open Thread

11 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. I started having difficulty getting on late last night but it would eventually work. This morning, of course, nothing. You guys were down for a long time today. Anything nefarious?

   Log in to Reply

2. Hey, you're back up! Hope this wasn't some kind of hack job…

   Log in to Reply

   1. I was beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms.

      Log in to Reply

3. I blame Obama. Everything is his fault.

   Log in to Reply

4. I believe tech personnel prefer the term "lackeys" or "minions."  "Monkeys" is so 20th century.

   Log in to Reply

   1. 

      Log in to Reply

   2. After this day of technical hell, we'll call them what we want.

      Log in to Reply

5. damn, lost probably my Greatest Comment Ever…….

   Since they finally fed the chipmunks who constitute the firewall, howzabout we show why members of the House and Senate (even the Infallible M. Bennet, despite his phony press release that our Dear Pols decided to highlight) had to fast track Fast Track.

   As current Congresscritter Alan Grayson notes in a post by GP at Digs' digs:

   Why? Well, the superficial explanation is that voters feel that elected officials simply aren't listening. We had a good example of that a few weeks ago on the Fast Track bill. A GOP member of Congress confided in me that his calls and emails were running 100-to-1 against Fast Track. In some Democratic offices, the numbers probably were even more one-sided. (Many of the people reading these very words had something to do with that.) Nevertheless, in the Party of the People, 13 Democratic Senators initially voted against proceeding with Fast Track, and then voted for proceeding with Fast Track. (That's Grayson calling out Bennet, in case you missed it.-z) So that gutless anti-egalitarian bill slipped past a Senate filibuster with no votes to spare. Then, in the House, 28 Democratic Congressmen broke ranks, passing Fast Track by only four extra votes. (Meaning that if four votes had switched, Fast Track would have been halted in its … tracks.) From the voters' perspective, that's a very good example of "you're not listening to me!"

   The bottom line comes next, in the middle (G.P.'s emphasis):
    

   But here is the deeper explanation for all of that anger: For most Americans, life simply is getting harder. … The net worth of the average American household dropped by more than one-third in ten years. The decline from the 2007 peak was almost 50 percent, in just six years. (Most of that loss was in the value of one's home — home is where the heartache is.)

    
   Pretty straightforward. Also, pretty bipartisan. Almost all voters feel this way. And no wonder — look at what causes this reaction. The numbers are these: "median net worth had dropped by 36 percent, from $87,992 to $56,335."

   Of course they had to fast track it. Because they know it's wrong and that their constituents don't support it. But Bennet thinks you're an idiot, and that one press release highlighting one vote in the middle of an extended F.U. to us is enough to get him 6 more years on the job. He'll probably get it……….and he’ll thank you all with another press release dutifully printed up by CPols.  

   Log in to Reply

6. So did we all get lots of other stuff done today? 

   Log in to Reply

7. I'm guessing this isn't something Republican Jesus would do….(in the backwater of Oklahoma of all places.  What's the Biblical equivalent to that hell hole?)

   “Visiting El Reno with President Obama — the first-ever visit to a federal prison by a sitting president — will give our viewers a firsthand look into how the president is thinking about this problem, from the policy level down to one on one conversations with the men and women living this reality,” Smith said.

    

   Log in to Reply

   1. yep. can't wait to read what teabaggers make of this

      Log in to Reply