Aug 31, 2011

ATF Director Reassigned

ATF Head Kenneth Melson Reassigned Amid Gun-Trafficking Probe

The head of the ATF has been reassigned amid an investigation into a controversial U.S. gun-trafficking operation, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Kenneth E. Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, will become a senior advisor on forensic science in the department’s Office of Legal Policy. He will be replaced at ATF by B. Todd Jones, the U.S. attorney in Minnesota.

Read more


Read that again... That's re-assigned. Not resigned. Pitty. Trash has yet to be thrown out. Eric Holder, I'm pointing at you.

Aug 28, 2011

The Week in Review

So, Libya, what's up? Arab Spring was like - you know, in the Spring... Well, after 42 years it looks like Moammar Quadaffy is out and hiding in his spider hole with his porn stash of Condi Rice, but without his hat. Now the fun part, gluing it all back together. Good luck.

Speaking of tyrants...

And with all the talk about Steve Jobs stepping down as CEO to sit in the Director's Chair - you would have thought he died. And Apple with it. Now the real question is, will Apple continue to innovate and push design and experience and premium prices as their driver or will they just coast on what's in the pipeline for a few years and mimmic Microsoft's decline without their strongman Bill Gates? I think it can be summed up with the first thing the new guy Tim Cook said, "Nothing is going to change at Apple." See, I read that as there's no more gas in the tank.

Pastor Rick Perry is in the lead of Pre-season GOP nominees. And that's news to some people. This week he got some flack for a book he wrote last year, Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America From Washington - which says Social Security and child labor laws are unconstitutional. The campaign is trying to distance itself from the book -- which is just nine months from the printing press. "it's a look back, not forward..." it's "not in any way a 2012 blueprint or manifesto!"
Oh, and someone found out that he was a Democrat in the 80's. Which means he eats waffles.

God forgot to check his calendar - he threw an earthquake and a hurricane at Washington DC this week -- but Congress isn't in session. Damn it, God!

And also in DC this week, the hurricane stopped the dedication of the The MLK monument. That monument got a lot of press this week - It's Chinese granite made by a Chinese artist lei Yixin, built by Chinese workers - and it's WHITE granite of a black man. And it cost $120 million bucks. And I might add, isn't very friendly. Looks kind of like a gigantic 29 foot Han Solo trapped in carbonite.

Remember how Dominque Straus-Kahn was raked over the coals for supposedly raping the cleaning woman? Yeah, turns out it was consensual. Charges were dropped. Oops. But, let me be the only one to remind anyone -- he DID have sexual relations with the woman. I sense a George Costanza, "Was that wrong?" moment.

And "Socialist" Warren Buffet bought a pile of BoA for 5 billion.

Let's see if we can't try to meet up here again next week, gang.


I 0 NY


Aug 24, 2011

Texan and the President at Dead Heat - no, the other Texan

Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul earns 38% of the vote to President Obama’s 39% in the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters. Fourteen percent (14%) like some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) remain undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

I would throw in something about 'electability' or something about his age... or the fact there's nothing short of a main stream media black out of this man... but a poll is considered 'news', and he's tied with Obama at this point.

Even if that poll was conducted on land line telephones....

Quote of the Day

My Photo
"The two sides are not only polarized these days, but there are so many media outlets now that there's always one guaranteed to tell you only what you want to hear, regardless of your viewpoint. The political media has become like porn: whatever your particular fetish, there's something to satisfy you. The problem with this is that people meet to discuss politics and each person comes equipped not only with his or her opinion but his or her supposed "facts" -- and that means no one budges on anything. There is no common ground anymore."
From the comment section of the anti-tea party comment from his original post. Yeah, that's probably a feedback loop.

I would retort, "it's the stupid spending." But that's only adding to the false partisan divide that keeps us distracted while 5 shooting wars are being engaged. Each Tomahawk missile aimed at Quadaffy is another couple schools or 60 teacher's salaries... and since three of those wars are kind of illegal, but yet, are still being funded by our broke ass Congress -- I think we CAN come to some common ground, Chez. They're all crooks!

Biden on Tour

Caption these...

Aug 21, 2011

A Warning to the Left

The Left is so busy making jokes, it has no idea about the tsunami that is about to wipe them out. They're not worried. They're barely aware. "Look, Michelle Bachmann is eating a corn dog! Rick Perry is a Nazi! *giggle*"

This time next year the movement to defeat Obama will reach evangelical proportions. Progressives have no sway, no ideas except "It's All Bush's Fault". Surely enough of the historic Independent, Young and Black Voter Bases will stay home this time. It will not matter if the GOP candidate says something stupid every day for a year or if they have no economic plan or if they get reamed by gotcha journalists or if they constantly get Elvis and Thomas Jefferson mixed up. People are too face-to-face with the reality of... reality. We're in a Depression.

Too many people are ready to do anything, accept anything other than the way things are now. The Fear and Jesus that the GOP is selling is exactly what will get them elected. Anyone who thinks otherwise is lost in some self-delusional Late-Night-Monologue American Apathy.

Right now I see the Left giggling over the oh-so-crazy antics of the GOP candidate until late Election Night when those one or two or three states that made all the difference in 2008 will flip to the other side and about 1:30am, and only then will those still awake at the balloon drop party will realize it's all over.

This is precisely the state of mind that bewilders me: The 'Progressive', "we're so full of our phony moral and intellectual superiority, but at least the other side is even more full of crap than we are..."

This Elizabeth Kubler Ross method of slow acceptance of the decline in quality of life that we twist around in our heads as amusing social insight.

The Rachel-Maddow-boy-isn't-it-funny-that-these-dumb-rightwingers-are-always-kicking-our-political-ass way of thinking. Somewhere Jon Stewart is already trying to pre-write an Election Night Obama Defeat into some self-serving all-night comedy special.

It is this way of thinking that puts people to sleep giggling over Bill Maher's don't-worry-be-happy political uselessness - and wake up the next day to find that the vampires got in and the virgins were handed over to them without as much as a loud fart - and who knows how long it will it take to look back and realize we all have no one to blame but -- wait for it -- ourselves.

How long do they intend to fool ourselves with this belief that the "crazy right-wing opposition" can be just shooed away by making fun of them? They started their re-emergence the day after Obama was nominated and, whether you know it or not or whether Seth Meyers says so or not, they own it all now.

The people who don't think the GOP will win are the same people who get screamingly hostile when you ask them how things are really better now, or how they will be better, or why Obama should win, or why he should want to win, or any real way they can actually change and help him make this a better country instead of treating him like an overworked, undertipped waiter who gives unsatisfactory service.

Aug 20, 2011

Furious over Fast and Furious Scandal


The three BATFE agents who were responsible for the "Fast and Furious" debacle in Phoenix have been promoted. -- Not reprimanded, not demoted and certainly not fired, but given bigger jobs with more responsibility and more pay.

Each of the agents now have high profile positions in D.C. William Newell is now special assistant to the assistant director of the agency's Office of Management, David Voth has been made branch chief for the BATFE's tobacco division.

And if those two promotions seem hard to understand, the third is particularly hard to fathom. William G. McMahon, who had been the BATFE's deputy director of operations in the West, has been made the deputy assistant director of the Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations. That is the division within BATFE that investigates misconduct by agency personnel.

Aug 18, 2011

Jesus Chair

"Come to me all ye who are heavy laden, old, or obese and I will give you rest while the happy, young, and healthy members of your party continue shopping for great wooden conversation pieces." -Jesus... or some one who looked a lot like him.

GOP As Visualized by Simpsons Characters

Found this on the internet - don't know who to give thanks to.

Aug 15, 2011

BREAKING: BACHMANN EATS CORNDOG!

Dear Candidate and 15 second frontrunner of the GOP Presidential race, Don't ever be photographed eating... anything. Ever. Not waffles, and especially not... a foot long...
Sheeeeiiitttt, will you please fire your handler? Why? Because I'm going to be using this as a stock photo of you pretty much here on out. Okay?

It's actually better than this one I found of Rick Perry today...
Right Hand! Damn it.

Buffett Doesn't Get It

Warren Buffett made a quote today...
"While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks... My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."
~ Warren Buffett in a New York Times op-ed called "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich"

Here's the deal, Warren Buffet is to the Left what Donald Trump is to the Right - nuts. But why not put your money where your mouth is, Warren, and build some libraries ala Andrew Carnegie? Or fund a watchdog group to cut down on government waste?

My contention and gripe here is - if you feed the tumor more money, no matter who's it is or where it was earned - you're not solving the government spending problem. You're feeding the damn tumor.

One Leaves, Another Enters



Tim Pawlenty, sensible candidate - and obvious VP choice for the primary winner, dropped out - sensing that moderates have no place in this race. And proving that point, Rick Perry came into it.

Which means that Mr. Obama got his birthday wish... he gets to run against George W. Bush in the general!

Aug 13, 2011

Straw In Iowa or Needle in a Haystack?

The Iowa straw poll is a vote by attendees of a fundraiser for the Iowa Republican party and dates all the way back to the pioneering days of 1979.

Anyone who can pay the $30 for the ticket and is over 18 can vote.

Participants do not need to be Republicans but they do have to be residents of the state or students attending university in Iowa. Or at least make up a good story first.

It is seen as a good indicator of who is in the lead to win the Republican nomination to become the party's candidate for the presidential election, except that, in fact it's only predicted the outcome in two out of five times. Other than that - this is big news!

So, with that knowledge - Holy Crap, Ron Paul came in Second! Bachmann's 4,823 votes narrowly defeatedt, Ron Paul, who had 4,671!

Oh, and Sarah Palin II got first... but RON PAUL, Dude!

And, George W. Bush, er, sorry, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, officially announced today to take the wind out of Michele's win. And Tim Pawlenty beat Mitt Romney who is playing Iowa like Rudy Giuliani did in 2007 -- meaning he isn't.

Aug 12, 2011

Global Economic Collapse Simply Explained

Do you need a video that will explain everything that is happening in the worldwide economic situation - inflation, stagflation, recession and more, and all in 5 minutes? Even your most uneducated friends or family can follow it.

It was created by paladex77, and can be found on YouTube.

No Confidence

In a new poll [Washington Post] , "Nearly three-quarters of Americans polled said they have little or no confidence in Washington to repair the economy. Confidence is down 21 percentage points from October 2010 and is less than half its 2002 levels. Roughly four in 10 have no confidence at all in the federal government when it comes to dealing with the economy, the poll indicates." So, what? The other 25% in the poll thinks the government will get help from Jesus to fix everything? Or is that only Governor Rick Santorum?

Remember, polls aren't accurate and aren't news. They're only an attempt to see which way the wind is blowing. Right now, that wind is hot and swirling.

Who's this good for? No one. It surly isn't good for Mr. Obama - but I don't think he really wants the job anyway. I wouldn't. And at this point in the game, he can't blame Bush anymore... at least, it's a pretty weak sauce to campaign on for re-election. And the Congressional Democrats should be taken out on a rail -- by the faithful Democrats who elected them! They've turned out to be so completely ineffectual I'm wondering if they are keeping their jobs just for the good health care? And the Republicans aren't any better. I see them getting the Senate in the next election -- but after they are seen as limp and open up new trade routes to create loopholes for corporation donors who use the chance to export more jobs and get a tax break because of it -- the Democrats will be running back in. I see sweeps in the next couple elections. Anger and reactionary sweep back to the other team. Teeter-Totter Ballot Boxes.

And how am I coming to that conclusion -- I look to the past to forecast the future. 2006 - Nancy and Harry come in to neuter Bush. 2008, Democrats sweep and take it all - rack up a huge bill with Stimulus One Slush Fund for Re-election and ObamaCare, and piss off so many people, you birth the Tea Party and get a hard swing to the right with the John Boehner House, and damn near lost the Senate. 2012 -- The Republicans can put anyone up against Mr. Obama right now. The Jimmy Carter comparison whispers aren't coming from the GOP - they're coming from Mr. Obama's biggest supporters!

Let me add a question that is swirling around the internet - "You come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup and you have sewage up to your ceilings. What do you do……raise the ceilings, or pump out the crap?"

They're all crap - and they need to go. All of them! Here's the solution -- You get rid of YOUR incumbent, and I'll get rid of mine. And the bonus is, if you're a Democrat or Republican you can still vote with your heart by voting in something only the AARP crowd does: Vote in the Primary.

Aug 11, 2011

This isn't going to end well

Speaking before parliament, UK PM David Cameron said he has ordered an inquiry into the possibility of banning users from social networks such as Twitter and Facebook if it is determined that they are planning to engage in criminal behavior.
“Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill,” Cameron said. “And when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.”
Cameron added that he asked the police “if they need any other new powers.” No word if the Chief Constable fell out of his chair or immediately started scribbling some ideas. My guess would be that "firearms" would be pretty high on that list.
Home Secretary Theresa May will hold meetings with representatives from Facebbok, Twitter, and RIM to discuss their role in preventing future riots. “All of them should think about their responsibility and about taking down those images,” Cameron said in reference to Facebook and Twitter posts he believes could incite further unrest.

[The Guardian]

Well, you sodding pikers, I hope you're happy with that bottle you nicked out of the off-licence - you just took down the democracy, haven't you? Not even the bloody Nazis were able to pull that off. You did it in just three nights.

Russian Sex Doll Paddle Race


The Bubble Babba 2011 races in St. Petersburg. They swam with pumped-up, plastic females (mostly). More than one duck was given.

Wisconsin Recall Fizzles

The Wisconsin Republicans held control of the Wisconsin Senate, keeping four of six seats against Democratic challengers in the recall election.

If I were a Wisconsin Union worker, which I am not, I would be asking why 30 million dollars of the pension was spent in this Recall effort? Did it save or create jobs? Did it make Wisconsin, and the United States a more pro-Union, pro-worker place?

Richard McEnroe, of Three Beers Later, said this:
Seriously, the entire labor movement of the United Freaking States focused its wrath upon one state and six Republican state senators… and the people of Wisconsin looked at all the money being spent, looked at all the screaming marchers, looked at what their state government had been hiring, looked at the goons harassing vote canvassers, and said, “Yyyyyeah… no.”

Richard might be on to something right there. Maybe holding the Capital hostage, and the Democrats running to Illinois to hide out for a couple weeks wasn't the best thing going for them? Not exactly a good PR move? 30 Million pretty well wasted.

Failure


Aug 10, 2011

Shoulda' Stayed on Holiday, Mate


"I will never turn my back on the problems that plague this city."

The UK Riots Update

Cleanup volunteers at Clapham Junction raise their brooms in counter-protest.

The Met posts CCTV stills of rioters suspected of criminal activity; help identify the London rioters; Google Group using facial recognition tech to identify rioters; Riot Clean Up: How/where to help; cleanup efforts hampered by health and safety rules; residents of Peckham post positive messages on boarded up store struck by looters; after the jump: cleanup volunteers cheer police in Clapham.

Click to see more… »

Aug 7, 2011

You Are Free


Please don't read the fine print.

The Week in Review

Some how we made it to the end of the week.

D.C. strikes a debt deal at last. At the buzzer at the 11th hour, two ticks before the cash machine ran out... Mr. Obama and congressional "leaders" finally agreed on a deal to raise the debt limit, letting the U.S. avoid defaulting on its debt. But they didn't. They instead created a third House of Congress full of Super Congressmen to come up with "the tough" choices. Mr. Mouth, VP Joe Biden called Tea Partiers "terrorists" for strong-arming Obama during negotiations. He's just hurt because he sees the deal as a big loser for Obama. It didn't help Uncle Sam's image abroad, either, with other nations openly questioning America's leadership. And then, after all the doom and gloom about getting downgraded if there WASN'T a deal - happened anyway.

And the reason for the downgrade? As everyone is looking around wondering "why" -- they didn't solve anything. They're still spending Trillions on interest, and there are still 5 shooting wars, The Greatest Generation are still getting health care and drugs from the government, and the Baby Boomers keep coming to the Social Security Office to get theirs. Not one bit of this was solved, but they'll take 2 billion off the base line spending... over 10 years. Yeah, you're getting downgraded.

Predictably, the market finally kind of figured this all out too, and "corrected" itself. Meaning it nosedived. It's also possible that some folks are just getting out because of the higher interest rates that the Fed will probably have to push because of the rate downgrade? All I know is that I'm glad I'm not shopping for a house this minute.

Meanwhile, you thought America had some cool show trials? Check Egypt. Mubarak stands trial. 83 year old Hosni Mubarack was wheeled in a hospital bed to a Cairo courtroom to face trial for corruption, giving the order to kill protesters. Mubarak's lawyer reportedly wants to call 1,631 witnesses in the despot's defense. Pick your top two. Wife and children don't count.

And the "New" Planet of the Apes movie seems to be the Sleeper Blockbuster movie of the summer. It has some nice reviews, and folks kind of seem surprised there was another ape movie out. Well, folks like monkeys. And the golem is the head monkey, so there's geek street cred in that.

Let's try to make it back here next week gang.

Aug 6, 2011

Unicorns in the Bible

Hey, did you know that the bible mentions Unicorns, not once but eight times!? That's about as often as it mentions love! Okay, so I'm over reaching, it's 310. Know how many times it mentions blood? 447 times. Money? 63,294 times.

"God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn."—Numbers 23:22

"God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn."—Numbers 24:8

"His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth."—Deuteronomy 33:17

"Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?"—Job 39:9–12

"Save me from the lion's mouth; for thou hast heard me from the horns of unicorns."—Psalms 22:21

"He maketh them [the cedars of Lebanon] also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn."—Psalms 29:6

"But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of the unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil."—Psalms 92:10

"And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with their bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness."—Isaiah 34:7


Just a useful key for all those times that you are asked to take the bible literally.

Aug 4, 2011

Now the Chinese Are Beating Us In Corruption

In a story about Chinese corruption -
SCHMITZ: No, corruption's nothing new, [In China] but people talking about corruption all the time on the street with each other; journalists challenging officials, state-run press running with stories about this -- that is new. Two nights ago, I was chatting with a Chinese friend and he told me he just read the news that the chief engineer for China's high-speed rail embezzled 2.8 billion. I said, 'How? Well 2.8 billion renminbi -- that's about $400 million, boy that's a lot of money.' He corrected me, he tells me, 'No, it was $2.8 billion.' That's incredible. Later on, I saw it was reported this guy had just stashed the money into Swiss and U.S. bank accounts. And this Chinese official reportedly has run off with the amount of money equal to the GDP of Fiji. So this type of corruption is really unprecedented.
(Context)

Come on Chicago! Come on New Orleans! You're totally falling behind in the Corruption Gap!

Mitt Has Mysterious Donors

Earlier this year, a "mystery company" appeared just long enough to donate $1 million remarkably untracable dollars to the Mitt Romney campaign. Almost as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared, leaving hardly a clue that it ever existed in the first place.
The company, W Spann LLC, was formed in March by a Boston lawyer who specializes in estate tax planning for “high net worth individuals,” according to corporate records and the lawyer’s bio on her firm’s website.

The corporate records provide no information about the owner of the firm, its address or its type of business.

Six weeks later, W Spann LLC made its million-dollar donation to Restore Our Future — a new so-called “super PAC” started by a group of former Romney political aides to boost the former Massachusetts governor’s presidential bid. It listed its address as being in a midtown Manhattan office building that has no record of such a tenant. (LINK)
Before you say a ghost or Jesus - I'm just going to say that the LDS Church had a lot of practice with Prop 8 in California and then I'm going to run behind the tree to see if you get what I'm saying?

Do You See The Light?!

Nihilists, Dude?

Who Are the Nihilists?

From the National Review

Excerpt: A common charge is that the tea party was terrorist-like in its willingness to bring the fiscal system to a halt to enforce some sort of limits on new debt. I say ‘common’ since the vice president of the United States purportedly put his own brand on that slur. But tea-party efforts to control the spending were belated and reactive; the real nihilism comes from those who apparently wanted no limits on the debt they might run up and had no plan to pay it back.

In one formula, we are borrowing $4 billion a day and have run up nearly $5 trillion in the first three years of this administration. To define questioning a debt of $16 trillion as heartless cutting is unhinged. The country is now in a surreal cycle of borrowing gargantuan amounts of money, and then almost automatically going ballistic should anyone suggest that we trim any of the new borrowing.

Every new dollar borrowed instinctively becomes ossified and sacrosanct; as the hysteria arises not over the old baseline figures, but trimming the proposed rate of new borrowing.

At what point would Obama and his team, if unchallenged, have stopped borrowing on their own? And at what point would they be happy with increasing taxes? If some in a New York or California are currently paying 45–50 percent in local, state, and federal income taxes, aside from payroll taxes, should they pay 60 percent or 70 percent — or should 5 percent of households begin to pay 70, 80, or 90 percent of the aggregate tax burden?

Aug 2, 2011

First You've Got To Get Mad

Senator Mark Kirk (r-IL) went on TV today, and said "The Right and Left Fringe hate it -- that's why I love it!"
Time to get mad. The window is closing, folks.


The Vote Tally

PELOSI voted yes!

VAN HOLLEN voted yes!

CLYBURN voted yes!

HOYER voted yes!

WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ - The Chairman Of The Party - voted yes!

JACKSON-LEE voted yes!

DINGELL voted yes!

Even CLIFFORDS voted yes - and she get's slack only because she got shot in the head!

The so-called die-hard Liberal Left put up a phony front and then folded like a wet napkin!

What is the use of the Democratic Caucus in the Congress to Obama if they only bend over like a $10 hooker?

The Progressive Caucus complains about the control of the Tea Party Caucus on Congress and tie up the works - why don't THEY have the balls to assume control and tie up the works?

The Democrat solution is to turn Congress back over to the Republicans. Well, why not crank up the momentum for the clean sweep?

The Democrat Party song should be Adele's "We Could'a Had It All.... Rolling in the Deep!"

Aug 1, 2011

Underwhelming Sugar Coated Satan Sandwich


$2 trillion appears to be the "sweet spot" for spending cuts in order to negotiate a debt limit increase. Rather than cut wasteful and unconstitutional spending, Congress and the President are prepared to trim around the edges to strike a deal.

Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Austin Bragg.

Happy Ramadan!


I'm surrounded by assholes

Sugar Coated Satan Sandwich

Emanuel Cleaver, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, who described today’s debt compromise as a “sugar-coated Satan sandwich,” by which I assume he meant he planned to vote against it.

The Democrats just had their asses handed to them, and they're still bitching that there aren't any tax increases.

The Republicans took a stand - probably at the wrong time, and framed the debate incorrectly, and put the country in a self-imposed crisis that they created. They got the sausage made, but let the nation look into the process. The intestine casing isn't going to win them any friends. Especially when they took it out of the living calf. That was brutal.

Is it a perfect compromise - because everyone's pissed? No, it's not leadership. They STILL haven't solved any problems -- they're letting some "Super Committee" come up with some cuts before November. Oh, that's a good idea. They have to come up with "up or down" votable super proposal - or some kind of secret guillotine comes down on the budget. How'd that work out this week? You think that kind of threat is going to work around Thanksgiving?

Remember, they're only talking about 3 Trillion total in 10 years. That's the same number crunching and accounting tricks that says that Bill Clinton had a surplus. And you get the Bush Tax Cuts -- because Clinton was OVERTAXING the citizens to get a damn surplus. Five wars later, a shrinking tax base, rising fuel costs and underwater mortgages, and suddenly - the U.S. is broke. Just like most of the cities, and States in the Union. Especially those that tend to vote Blue.

And what are the Democrats getting out of the deal? I haven't seen any reason for any of them to back this new compromise... which makes me wonder what the hell their problem was back in April when this process started? If you're going to fold, fold early. Maybe none of the Democrats have ever played poker? Obama said "Don't call my bluff" and the Congressional Dems proved they didn't have a hand in the first place ... And remember, this was all a hangover from Reid and Pelosi refusing to pass a budget for this year in the first place! They were kicking the can in November and didn't even pass it in the lame duck session.

No cash + no leadership = no more Pax Americana.