Quote Of The Day

May 31st, 2012

"For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery."

-- Jonathan Swift

Who Elected The Idiots

Jan 18th, 2012
by Bill McCormick
reprinted from his terrific blog, nudehipponews

A little history for those playing along at home. In 1996 Tom Clancy wrote a book called Executive Orders. It had three very eerie story arcs that concerns us today. The first was that terrorists would use airplanes to wipe out the U.S. Government. Second was that the US Government, what there was of it, would target an individual leader in the Middle East for execution and, third, that the people would rise up and elect “common people” to public office so that real Americans could finally get represented. Before I get to those arcs I’d like to point out that while Clancy’s politics are to the right of mine he is no idiot. He is careful in his assertions and thorough in his research. He also tells one hell of a good story when he sets his mind to it. His mistake is the same as William F. Buckley’s was in the 70′s when he eviscerated Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision of civil disobedience by comparing it to rioting and looting. Both men assumed that everyone got the point, and – when required – the joke. In other words both men assumed that every conservative was similar to them.

They were wrong.

The Onion Covers The Debt Deal

August 1st, 2011

And they do so splendidly:

"WASHINGTON—Following Sunday’s pathetic excuse for an agreement on raising the government’s borrowing limit, Democrats and Republicans took time to celebrate the meager, ineffective deal, calling it “a testament to the not-so-great things that can happen in Washington when both parties barely come together and agree to not really accomplish anything.” “It took months of phone calls, negotiations, and meetings, but finally we created a pretty sad version of a framework that, we’re happy to say, none of us is really proud of, and that doesn’t really do much to solve our country’s fiscal problems at all,” said House Speaker John Boehner, who gave a cheerful thumbs up and added that the sorry piece of legislation was expected to pass both houses of Congress with a really pitiful display of bipartisan support. “Once again, Democrats and Republicans have demonstrated why our mangled, fractured, barely functioning democracy is the greatest in the world.” At press time, members of both parties were trying to explain to their supporters how the budget agreement could in any possible way be construed as a victory for them."

Quote Of The Day

June 12th, 2011

"A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy."
-- Benjamin Disraeli

Quote Of The Day

April 21st, 2011

"Dishonesty in government is the business of every citizen. It is not enough to do your own job. There's no particular virtue in that. Democracy isn't a gift. It's a responsibility." -- Dalton Trumbo

Ending "Duplicative" Spending?

March 22nd, 2011

Where did all that Republican zeal To End "Duplicitave" Spending Go? Gosh, it was everywhere right up through last week. The "non-partisan" Heritage blog, The Foundry, even ran a piece lionizing Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) under the banner "Lawmakers Form House-Senate Effort To Eliminate Duplicitive Government Programs." Sounds good to me. Seriously. As a progressive I have always argued for better government, not less.

Then came the weekend. Suddenly, there is a lot less chatter around this initiative. I suspect it is because a certain piece of data from the GAO has been picked up more widely. We'll be watching this one closely.