The Government Has Shut Down [01OCT2013]

Absolutely...and everyone else caught in the middle too!

How about you, Don Diego? Do you think everyone affected by the shutdown should be funded? Or have you prepared a priotritized list for us to see which victims are more important than others?

Grocery stores on Army bases closed, Obama's golf course open...

What in the Wide, Wide, World Of Sports is this infatuation with Obama playing golf ?

You right wingers that keep harping on this......you do realize that prior Republican presidents played golf......sometimes a hell of a lot of golf ! While in office !!

Does it not bother anyone else when the term "ransom" keeps getting thrown around? I dont see it as fitting at allbut Igues I can see how the left does to some degree. The dems definitely want to make it sound as extreme as possible.

I like this one:

Golf is the new teleprompter.

Oh, . . . Goodness !

As DonDiego doesn't consider the options offered by pjstroh to be exhaustive he will merely address his thoughts, . . . and not answer pjstroh's "loaded" yes-or-no questions. [ "victims", . . . c'mon!]
[See, if DonDiego had to answer the questions he'd have to say "do the things that are for the children" first. And that's just silly.]

DonDiego would like to see a calm reasonable discussion every year concerning funding anything the Government is doing or proposes doing, . . . to include addressing the proper functions of Government. In fact that was the intent of the Founding Fathers in requiring funding be renewed/not renewed every year, . . . and the Chief executive deliver a budget.

So there's lots of things DonDiego would like to see unfunded.

With specific regard to the present shutdown, DonDiego opines the funding bills being passed by the Republicans and a few Democrats in the House, pretty much funding things everyone thinks should be funded are at least a start.
But Senator Reid refuses to allow the Senate to vote on even these "mini-CR" bills. [After all one simply cannot "negotiate" with "terrorists" "holding a gun to one's head". See words do matter. Some lead to compromise and beneficial results, some do not.]

So DonDiego expects the standoff to continue. And with no prospect for any discussion/compromise on the horizon, maybe to continue for some time. And that'd be OK for a while longer, . . . except, . . .

. . . as the debt ceiling debate approaches, . . . well, things could get a mite more serious. US debt is ubiquitous. If the US-debt-thing is not resolved by some drop-dead-date in October markets could fall here and around the world. And banks could fail. And economies of some countries could seize up and fail. Even in the United States. Such things are not unprecedented.
Maybe even an inflationary depression, . . . or, more likely, . . . a deflationary depression. Practically it won't matter to most folks as there won't be enough stuff to buy under either circumstance once economic production is sufficiently interrupted.

DonDiego's been expecting some sorta collapse sometime anyway. Maybe the sooner the better, while poor old DonDiego retains some physical and mental capacities, . . . and canned food to get him through a few weeks at least.

But DonDiego digresses, . . . .

The current problem is, . . . and DonDiego includes most members of Congress and the Executive Branch of both parties, . . . that there's not much legislating going on or governing either. What there is going on is electioneering and fundraising and catering to the sources of those votes and those funds, . . . 365 days per year, . . . so those in power can remain in power. That's not how the Founding Fathers thought things would work out.

There are no men like Cincinnatus any more, . . . or his nearest American counterpart George Washington.

And the Country is the worse for it.

Republican House member Marlin Stutzman:

"We’re not going to be disrespected,” said Congressman Stutzman during an interview with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”

So it's all about saving face?

So how about the Republicans end the shutdown on the condition that everyone pretends they won.

Well, isn't that special. Republicans cant have a meaningful negotiation because Democrats are using harsh words like "ransom" and "hostages" to describe the people being denied pay, services, and medicine as a result of a Republican imposed government shutdown.

And Republicans have hurt feelings...awe, their so sensitive.....you know, the people who've called the president everything from a "communist", "terrorist", "illegal alien", "Kenyan", "elitist", etc, etc.
And spend 2 minutes reflecting on all the language they've used to describe the Affordable Care Act (the thing they want to address in this negotiation).

AND... AND we get the privilege of having this "words matter" lecture coming from Don Diego whose favorite way of poking fun at the president is to type sentences in German as some kind of metaphor for a him being a Third Reich dictator...and usually thats coupled with some hyperbolized connection to the society in Orwell's "1984". Perhaps some words matter more than others?

I conclude this:
1) Any politician of any party who is so selfish as to make the country suffer on account of their hurt feelings isn't cut out for his/her job.

2) There is a proper budgeting procedure for Democrats and Republicans to work out their partisan differences as a means of governing the country. Republicans have boycotted that process this year, choosing instead to use workers, sick people, chidlren, parks as leverage to get what they want in demands that have absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH THE BUDGET.
I'm pretty sure thats an uninflated example of the word "ransom"....but if Don DIego doesn't like it perhaps we can swap it out for another word....what's German for "ransom"?

Saving face? Thats exactly what the WH spokesman said about Obama and every time the debt ceiling issuebeing raised. Funny its now the reps being accused of trying to "save face"? Did they really say that? I wouldnt be surprise, more of the he said,she said shit.