Republicans claim victory over some odd $38 billion in spending cuts for the remainder of FY '11. And relatively speaking, $38 billion is a lot of money. In Congressional terms, especially the way the GOP elephants spend money, $38 billion is peanuts.
I'm looking at my expenses for this month. My budget for rent, food, restaurants, concerts, expenses, etc. is $4,200. I realized that was a bit steep... so I looked for ways to cut out some of the fat. Did I really need to eat out as much? Do I need to go to 930 Club again?
So I stayed up all night looking at the details of my $4,200 monthly budget... and at the end of dramatic, detailed study and statements to the press, I managed to cut out $38 dollars. I'm down to $4,162. Who's patting me on the back for the great work...eh? Who's the man?!?!
And this juvenile analogy doesn't even include the debt. Nor does it mention that I only make about $3,300 a month and that I'm still going in the hole for this month. "Savings"?? Can I really talk about saving anything?
Seriously? How can we look honestly at Republicans for savings or at Democrats for complaining about these cuts? The whole thing is a joke.
Show me $400 billion for FY '11 and $1.3 trillion for FY '12... then I'll cheer. Until then it's all a joke and lies. And I don't see anyone honest enough to tell the truth.
Except Michelle Bachman and Jim Jordan. And I thank them for their honesty.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
What's the difference between a "shut down" and a "snow day"?
A paycheck.
It's not supposed to be funny because it's not a joke. Last year when DC was walloped by "snowmageddon", the Federal Government shut down for 4 consecutive days. I wrote about it here.
Yet, satellites did not fall from the sky. Doctors delivered babies. Chickens laid eggs. We survived. Despite the fact that millions of people did nothing for 4 straight days, we survived. (I'd even argue that we prospered! 4 days of a bunch of morons not sticking their noses into our business or watching online porn).
So now we face this looming "shut down" of the government and everyone, left, right and Obama, is blaming someone else for the impending doom. What's going to happen?
Nothing. Except they will not get paid for doing nothing- unlike the snowstorms of yesteryear. Well... unlike most days of the year. This time the bloated federal government, union protected, step increase assured, pension guaranteed with health benefits for life loafers... this time they don't get paid.
That's probably not a bad thing.
It's not supposed to be funny because it's not a joke. Last year when DC was walloped by "snowmageddon", the Federal Government shut down for 4 consecutive days. I wrote about it here.
Yet, satellites did not fall from the sky. Doctors delivered babies. Chickens laid eggs. We survived. Despite the fact that millions of people did nothing for 4 straight days, we survived. (I'd even argue that we prospered! 4 days of a bunch of morons not sticking their noses into our business or watching online porn).
So now we face this looming "shut down" of the government and everyone, left, right and Obama, is blaming someone else for the impending doom. What's going to happen?
Nothing. Except they will not get paid for doing nothing- unlike the snowstorms of yesteryear. Well... unlike most days of the year. This time the bloated federal government, union protected, step increase assured, pension guaranteed with health benefits for life loafers... this time they don't get paid.
That's probably not a bad thing.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
My Cognitive Ethnic Pachyderm
I have the memory of a sicilian elephant.
The relentless, scathing attacks on President Bush have lingered like the taste of bile after a night of vomiting. I admit- I haven't moved on. For 8 years President Bush was attacked without thought or reason. It was an emotional and illogical motivation, a frenzy whipped up without much substance.
Substance never really mattered. What ruled was passion and rage.
I remember the disrespect they showed in the 2005 inaugural parade. There was no desire to "come together as Americans". There was no unity. It was too much fun to be righteously opposed.
From 2005 - 2008 endless parades of protests marched up and down DC's main Avenues- aged hippies and self proclaimed activists with signs and masks and American flags emblazoned with the swastika over the blue field of stars.
I remember the blood stained hands waved in Condi Rice's face as she tried to testify on the Hill.
Code Pink. Cindy Sheehan. Farenheit 9-11. Cries of war criminals, illigimatcy, Bush's War, war of choice. It become a ringtone.
The 2008 Democrat candidates capitalized on this mood. I was more against the war than you were. Why Barack Obama was always opposed to the war... as a community organizer. He voted against it... in his head. But that's how he ran.
Patriot Act. Renditions. Predator drones. Wire tapping. These were all evils of a shameful Presidency and needed to be abolished. AQI was using Gunatanamo as a recruiting tool... it all needed to go "to restore our image around the world".
I remember all these speeches and promises and subtle (and not so subtle) condescensions towards the then sitting President.- and the way the media whipped this frenzy till it overflowed with sanctimony and feigned indignation. My sicilian elephant remembers it all.
And here we are. Here we friggin are... in what should be an end of innocence for the once gushing lefties, there is silence. In what should be hilighted contradiction after broken promise after hypocracy the media is quiet. In what should be a Code Pink frenzy of war crime photos there is a collection head-in-sand.
Where have the activists and hippies gone? Where is the anger? Where is the cry over an open guantanamo and an expanded Patriot Act? The withdrawl deadlines predicated with surges, the coalition of unwilling now attacking Libya... it's as if Oscar Wilde and Christopher Buckley teamed up to write a satire.
Cindy Sheehan must not have cared THAT much about the war. Or her son. And the peace activists who hated war must now be too busy with underwater mortgages to read the newspaper. That must be the reason for the painful silence the last few weeks have wrought on my sicilian elephant in search of equanimity of outrage.
Surely those activists believed in their cause from 2005 - 2008. Surely their cause lives on.
It does. In my memory alone.
The relentless, scathing attacks on President Bush have lingered like the taste of bile after a night of vomiting. I admit- I haven't moved on. For 8 years President Bush was attacked without thought or reason. It was an emotional and illogical motivation, a frenzy whipped up without much substance.
Substance never really mattered. What ruled was passion and rage.
I remember the disrespect they showed in the 2005 inaugural parade. There was no desire to "come together as Americans". There was no unity. It was too much fun to be righteously opposed.
From 2005 - 2008 endless parades of protests marched up and down DC's main Avenues- aged hippies and self proclaimed activists with signs and masks and American flags emblazoned with the swastika over the blue field of stars.
I remember the blood stained hands waved in Condi Rice's face as she tried to testify on the Hill.
Code Pink. Cindy Sheehan. Farenheit 9-11. Cries of war criminals, illigimatcy, Bush's War, war of choice. It become a ringtone.
The 2008 Democrat candidates capitalized on this mood. I was more against the war than you were. Why Barack Obama was always opposed to the war... as a community organizer. He voted against it... in his head. But that's how he ran.
Patriot Act. Renditions. Predator drones. Wire tapping. These were all evils of a shameful Presidency and needed to be abolished. AQI was using Gunatanamo as a recruiting tool... it all needed to go "to restore our image around the world".
I remember all these speeches and promises and subtle (and not so subtle) condescensions towards the then sitting President.- and the way the media whipped this frenzy till it overflowed with sanctimony and feigned indignation. My sicilian elephant remembers it all.
And here we are. Here we friggin are... in what should be an end of innocence for the once gushing lefties, there is silence. In what should be hilighted contradiction after broken promise after hypocracy the media is quiet. In what should be a Code Pink frenzy of war crime photos there is a collection head-in-sand.
Where have the activists and hippies gone? Where is the anger? Where is the cry over an open guantanamo and an expanded Patriot Act? The withdrawl deadlines predicated with surges, the coalition of unwilling now attacking Libya... it's as if Oscar Wilde and Christopher Buckley teamed up to write a satire.
Cindy Sheehan must not have cared THAT much about the war. Or her son. And the peace activists who hated war must now be too busy with underwater mortgages to read the newspaper. That must be the reason for the painful silence the last few weeks have wrought on my sicilian elephant in search of equanimity of outrage.
Surely those activists believed in their cause from 2005 - 2008. Surely their cause lives on.
It does. In my memory alone.
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