Flashermac Posted October 17, 2013 Report Share Posted October 17, 2013 US debt ceiling crisis – Barack Obama has won the shutdown. His prize is a lame duck presidency The shutdown is basically over and the President has won. Or, at least, he's won because the Republicans have definitely lost. Not only did they not get what they wanted – that "life or death" delay on Obamacare implementation – but they've given the impression of dragging partisanship to new lows. Obamacare had been passed already, the Supreme Court had okayed it and Obama had won an election on it, yet the GOP was still prepared to bring the country to the brink of ruin to cripple it. When Grover Norquist is saying that the Right went too far (he of the "drown government in the bath tub" fame) then the Right probably went a bit too far. But there are caveats to that narrative. First, the Republicans aren't the only ones who ought to hang their heads in shame. It was the Democrat-controlled Senate that first rejected the House's bill and so sparked the crisis. It was the President who refused to talk to anyone about it (and went campaigning instead). It was the federal government – even when in shutdown – that behaved like a spoiled child, covering war memorials in fences and trying to stop military priests from saying Mass. And it was the mainstream media that took the side of the President and helped foster the impression that the GOP is run by a bunch of blowhard crazy people. For example, Dave Weigel points out that, contrary to reports, wild child Ted Cruz actually had "no intention" of delaying the critical final vote in the Senate. His image of being Sarah Palin 2.0 is entirely a media myth. Second, what has Obama really won? He keeps his precious healthcare reform and he gets government open again – but tomorrow morning he'll still have the same gridlocked political system that he had the night before. The shutdown is a rare example of him winning, but remember that this lame duck president has not only had a very simple (and, frankly, inoffensive) gun control bill killed in the Senate but was so spooked by bad poll numbers that he tried to dump responsibility for military action in Syria onto the Congress – before quietly dropping the idea altogether. Any thought that the shutdown payoff will be that he can sail an immigration reform package comfortably through Congress is pure fantasy. This is a broken presidency living out its last few years either holding off Republican attacks or lazily cruising the country on some pointless, endless, fatuous campaign trail. Obama's administration is politically bankrupt. The talk for the next week will be about how the Tea Party is dead and Republicans must elect a politically correct, middle-of-the-road, unimaginative, establishment, compromising candidate in 2016 (preferably a singing sloth, cos the polls show that Americans just love those). But the reality is that US politics right now is a mess for both Left and Right, and the country is stuck in partisan limbo until the 2014 midterms or even the 2016 presidential election. This is not a Republican problem, it is an American problem. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100241757/us-debt-ceiling-crisis-barack-obama-has-won-the-shutdown-his-prize-is-a-lame-duck-presidency/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted October 17, 2013 Report Share Posted October 17, 2013 What...me worry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted October 17, 2013 Report Share Posted October 17, 2013 Fuck it - images giving me the aaaaarrrgggghhh shits ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dean Posted October 17, 2013 Report Share Posted October 17, 2013 All of this talk about the inept US Congress is going to drive me to drink more beer. Unfortunately, it probably won't be KC's local beer, Boulevard. It was bought today by a Belgium Brewery, Duvel Moor that. I've never heard of this beer before. Is it any good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dean Posted October 17, 2013 Report Share Posted October 17, 2013 Does BB know anything about Duvel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 A special beer served at the No Name Bar. A bit expensive. For me, taste is OK but not WOW like German beers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 Ted Cruz's Shameful Betrayal Of Texas ... While people can disagree on how one goes about creating a successful formula for being effective in a United States Senate filled with one hundred ego driven, elected officials with a wide variety of goals, agendas and intentions, there is one critical feature for success that is incontrovertible—nobody gets very far in the United States Senate without the support of their colleagues. ... On Wednesday, in what is now being described as a “lynching†by his fellow Senate Republicans, Ted Cruz found out just how incredibly unpopular and disrespected he is by his peers. The New York Times, citing two GOP Senators who were present at the Wednesday, Republican Caucus luncheon but asked not to have their identities revealed, reports on the severity of the beating Cruz was treated to by his colleagues. Among the revelations reported by the Times, we learn that Senator Kelly Ayotte was particularly upset with her colleague, as she “waived a printout from a conservative group friendly to Mr. Cruz attacking 25 of his fellow Republican senators for supporting a procedural vote that the group counted as support of the health law.†Who else participated in the Cruz-bashing fest? None other than Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who joined the others in expressing his displeasure that Cruz had walked his party down the dead end alley that is the government shutdown without any strategy whatsoever for finding an exit that could lead them back into sunlight. ... http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/10/04/ted-cruzs-shameful-betrayal-of-texas/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 Does BB know anything about Duvel? BB knows all about Duvel, one of the best beers in the world what you want to know.....? Its a unique beer, takes 90 days to make and a unique final gestation in the bottle. Needs to be drunk with respect. Cheers. BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 A special beer served at the No Name Bar. A bit expensive. For me, taste is OK but not WOW like German beers... Belgian beers are the bomb, but i thought no-name bar met the wrecking ball months ago ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 Negative. NNB still having some great foods served during the week. With all the rain and floods lately, I expect biz slow at NNB but they are still there. Like the there boss says...stop in and bring a friend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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