[DustFalcon85]

Well looks like the Republicans are trying to get rid of Obamacare w/ no success. As a result; They shut the whole government down. Lincoln Memorial's closed, Smithsonian's closed, White House closed, Hell, all of DC's closed!


Thankfully. I managed to beat Duke It Out in D.C. and got the The Patriot Act Steam Achievment a couple of days b4 the government shutdown!

[Radar]

According to Wikipedia's front-page news: "The U.S. federal government shuts down non-essential services after Congress fails to pass a budget measure."

I think that's the problem. The government offers too many non-essential services.

[Fox]

Like warfare.

[Mark]

Republicans did not shut down the government. They passed a bill funding ALL government spending except for Obamacare. Democrats in the senate refused to touch it so the partial shutdown started.

All those memorials have never been closed during a shutdown except by Obama who has ordered all sorts of closings not based on cost to the government, but strictly to cause anger and frustration so he and the media can inflict maximum damage by blaming only Republicans for the mess. He has the authority to choose to keep those opened but he won't. He is actually spending lots of extra money for parks workers to install barriers and have police monitor those places. What an ass.

AND, this whole continuing resolution mess would probably never happened if the Democrat controlled Senate would pass a budget as the constitution requires them to. This is year number 5 that they have refused to pass one.

While both parties share the blame IMO the Democrats have the most of it.

[Jimmy]

I think the shutdown is stupid because they didn't actually shutdown the government.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

The "shutdown" is just a political ploy to gin up resentment of the other party. The debt default is a bigger deal.

[Master Fibbles]

Traffic is better in the DC area. I'm not complaining.

Now, when DC runs out of money to pay the garbage man, then I might get a little upset.

[DNSKILL5]

So many people don't understand what the "shutdown" really is, and the media uses that to their advantage.

Seriously, a guy told me how because the government shutdown, terrorist could attack at any moment. I didn't correct him because it was just too funny to hear. Terrorist can attack at any moment no matter what is going on, and the shutdown can't cause us to be more vulnerable to terrorist than we already are. I could've said that, but why bother?

The best thing I've heard about the shutdown is what those WW2 vets did in DC a few days ago.

[Jimmy]

gerolf, on 06 October 2013 - 05:09 PM, said:

Seriously, a guy told me how because the government shutdown, terrorist could attack at any moment. I didn't correct him because it was just to funny to hear. Terrorist can attack at any moment no matter what is going on...

Fucking this! People are so scared of terrorism, yet they forget that our universe is inherently chaos. No matter how many wars, no matter how many soldiers, no matter how many drones, no matter how many cops, no matter how much security, a terrorist will find a way to spread terror if he is so determined.

[Master Fibbles]

It is all a blame game. Both sides want to blame the other and the rest of us get screwed. But, in reality, it isn't that bad. I talked to a guy who works for the NIH (SCIENCE!) and he said that pretty much everyone there has doubts about the grant giving policy. The NIH not giving grants is not a bad thing for science, it is probably a good thing.

[Forge]

the government put non-essential people on furlough (i.e. shutdown)?
didn't notice.
i wonder if it's because there was a computer glitch in Indianapolis. they cut my disabled veteran's pension again and maybe they couldn't figure out where the extra money came from.
on to more news relevant to what i care about, the baby walnut tree i planted in my backyard seems to be doing okay.

[Person of Color]

Mark., on 06 October 2013 - 02:51 PM, said:

Republicans did not shut down the government. They passed a bill funding ALL government spending except for Obamacare. Democrats in the senate refused to touch it so the partial shutdown started.

All those memorials have never been closed during a shutdown except by Obama who has ordered all sorts of closings not based on cost to the government, but strictly to cause anger and frustration so he and the media can inflict maximum damage by blaming only Republicans for the mess. He has the authority to choose to keep those opened but he won't. He is actually spending lots of extra money for parks workers to install barriers and have police monitor those places. What an ass.

AND, this whole continuing resolution mess would probably never happened if the Democrat controlled Senate would pass a budget as the constitution requires them to. This is year number 5 that they have refused to pass one.

While both parties share the blame IMO the Democrats have the most of it.

No way. Those guys continually sent bills to the Senate they knew had no chance of passing. That's not doing your job, that's scoring points.

The Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress, signed by The President, upheld by the Supreme court, and is now going into effect.

These Tea Party guys knew the dynamics of the whole system and chose to crash it because they didn't get their way. The establishment Republicans are livid, and rightfully so, this boneheaded move puts their jobs at stake.

This is the hallmark legislation of the Democratic party. It's nearly five years in the making and is going into effect now. The Supreme Court upheld it - narrowly, but it happened. The Tea Party basically pointed guns to their heads and said "kill it."

That's not negotiation, that's terrorism. I absolutely hate the Democrats, the Republicans even more, and there's very little I like about the Affordable Care Act.

It's a shitty law, but this is not how the system works. These fucking hillbillies don't know their place, it's The South cutting off their nose to spite their face once more. This political move backfired, and outside of The South it's hurting the party. It doesn't even do anything positive for the party because those Southern Tea Party districts are so heavily gerrymandered. On top of all that, there's no way the power brokers who actually run the country will allow a default, and they know that. Obama is being a fucking dick about the whole thing, but these guys really shot themselves in the foot on this one, and now he's capitalizing on it.

This isn't a negotiation, it's a temper tantrum. Even if the Democrats did their job and passed budgets they'd still be pulling this bullshit. A political party's job is to uphold their own ideals and legislation, if they didn't do that the two parties would be even more similar than they are now. If the Republicans gave a shit, they'd be trying to repair what's broken in the law at this point, instead of destroying it. After all, the insurance mandate idea has been their baby for the past three decades.

[DNSKILL5]

I'd say I can't wait for the next 3 years to be over, but why bother? The next president will be exactly the same and nothing will change. Congress will be exactly the same, and of course the Supreme Court will be too because they have that job for life dammit. Not a damn thing is going to change around here because most Americans don't know when their rights are being violated or are too scared to stand up for them. It's bullshit.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

There's one good thing that can be said the shutdown - gas prices are tanking.

Bad thing? Park rangers have basically turned into S.S. bully boys, shutting down private businesses just because they happen to be in or near parks.

There's no specific person in government to blame for this idiocy. The blame falls on the shoulders of the entire federal government.

[Jimmy]

Democracy is overrated. It doesn't work in mental institutions.

[Mark]

gerolf, on 07 October 2013 - 05:53 AM, said:

I'd say I can't wait for the next 3 years to be over, but why bother? The next president will be exactly the same and nothing will change. Congress will be exactly the same, and of course the Supreme Court will be too because they have that job for life dammit. Not a damn thing is going to change around here because most Americans don't know when their rights are being violated or are too scared to stand up for them. It's bullshit.

With luck, the Senate, House and Presidency will be Republican controlled and Ginsburg will hold off long enough for the new Rep pres to pick another S.C. Justice.
Eutopia. ( sounds good on paper, but not in real world ) No matter which party it is, full control is never good for the country in the long run.

[Master Fibbles]

The problem with the Supreme Court is that they no longer decide cases based on constitutional law but on politics and partisanship. The "Liberal" Justices are actually worse but both sides are guilty of voting on partisan lines rather than on constitutional lines. They can make up a constitutional reason but they write decisions for constitutional reasons they WOULD NEVER AGREE WITH!
DOMA should have been upheld by Kagen et al because it is federal power. It wasn't because of political/social reasons.

In other news, apparently truckers are going to drive around in circles around the beltway (highway around the city) as a protest against it all. I wouldn't normally care since I don't drive, but my bus does take the beltway for a bit. Fortunately, it is during the weekend when I don't do any driving.

[Jimmy]

inb4 Jello Biafra predicts the future yet again;

[Inspector Lagomorf]

Taking all my money out of my soon-to-be worthless mutual fund and using it to pay off my car loan. I plan to be debt free when this shit goes down.

[Master Fibbles]

I went to college, I'm fucked either way.

[ReaperMan]

We should impeach them all and have TX as emperor.

[Minigunner]

Completely relevant:

Spoiler

(My photography teacher did this while tests were being taken.)

Being a tourist stop on the way to Yosemite, my town is bound to be impacted by the shutdown, or it probably is now.

[ReaperMan]

Is that blob saying "go home" a bear?

[Master Fibbles]

You can't actually close some of these things. The larger parks can kind of be closed because there is a gate entrance and the grounds are basically inaccessible otherwise (unless you want to get eaten by a bear).

I have half a mind to wander around in downtown DC (since I live here, I take the bus to work every day) just to take pictures of closed monuments. They can't really close the monuments. They can prevent you from entering the gift shop but that is really about it. Hip high barriers are not closing things.

[Zaxtor]

Even on the radio news they said the biggest Vibrator website is spicing up the government shutdown, offering 200 free vibrators to federal employees each day!


Also I'm sure this shutdown hurts the economy because if we shut down national parks and other jobs (temporally) it hurts the economy cus no $$$ generated.

I checked in history of shutdowns, In Ronald Reagan era there was 8 shutdowns total.

Total of shutdown in Reagan era.
1981. Nov 20 to Nov 23 (2 days)
1982. Sep 30 to Oct 2 (1 day)
1982. Dec 17 to Dec 21 (3 days)
1983. Nov 10 to Nov 14 (3 days)
1984. Sep 30 to Oct 3 (2 days)
1984. Oct 1 to Oct 3 (1 day)
1986. Oct 16 to Dec 18 (1 day)
1987. Dec 18 to Dec 20 (1 day)


Longest one was during Clinton second term.
Lasted Dec 15 to Jan 6 and lasted 21 days.
Senate and House were all republicans dominating.

So I say the shutdown is dumb and pointless, it does more harm than good.

[Jimmy]

It's just a big dick measuring contest. The left and the right are seeing who can be the bigger dick.

We should convince the Feminazis to castrate them.

[ReaperMan]

Jimmy, on 09 October 2013 - 08:14 PM, said:

It's just a big dick measuring contest. The left and the right are seeing who can be the bigger dick.

In the end.... they will all be disappointed.

[Person of Color]

Here's to anyone saying this isn't the GOP's fault.

These pieces of shit just turned the House of Representatives into a dictatorship run by Eric Cantor. No one can vote for a continuing resolution to re open the government without Cantor's consent. The state representatives YOU elected have been stripped of their power.

Remember, it doesn't matter who wins, as long as they endorse YOUR ideology!

This is exactly why Chris Christie is better than 90% of today's liberals. Give me an honest moderate over a dangerous liberal any day of the week.

I'll disagree with someone like Christie more, but he won't stab me in the back and send me up the river! I wish the Republican firebrands could understand this simple concept.

Take notice guys. If Wall Street can't break these guys necks the GOP is done for.

[DustFalcon85]

Nancy Pelosi has gotta go IMHO. It's time for leadership change for the House Democrats.

[Zaxtor]

DustFalcon85, on 13 October 2013 - 03:42 PM, said:

Nancy Pelosi has gotta go IMHO. It's time for leadership change for the House Democrats.

Isn't Nancy Pelosi right now a minority?

It says "House Minority Leader"
Assumed office
January 3, 2011
Deputy Steny Hoyer
Preceded by John Boehner

She used to be in 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives until Jan 3 2011.

Usually Minority has limited powers.