You had one f-ing job.....

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Uh, red team, wtf? You've allowed these tea party freaks drive to the car into a ditch. That's the plan?

“We’re very excited,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). “It’s exactly what we wanted, and we got it.”

Well, yay for hurting people IRL?

TIM MURPHY: Well, the short answer is about 20 percent of the federal government, 800,000 federal workers, will show up to work today and be sent home, and that includes 400,000 civilian workers from the Department of the Defense. That’s the department that probably gets the most cuts from this. The longer answer is, you know, pretty much various things that you use in your everyday life will no longer be open to you. People applying for mortgages will have trouble getting that from the federal government. People trying to fill out their taxes will no longer be able to call the IRS to ask basic questions. The Coast Guard is cutting back some of its navigation assistance. Auto—new automobile inspections will be curtailed. The EPA is closing 94 percent of its responsibilities for the foreseeable future. You know, there’s kind of this perception that the shutdown mostly just affects Washington, D.C., and it really does affect Washington, D.C., but it goes much broader than that.

Yay, shut down the EPA, bring back acid rain!!!. NRC has slashed planned nuke plant inspections! NOAA is slashing. EPA is really fucked. NASA Voyager, fucked. Mars Rover is fucked Kids being kicked out of cancer treatments:

"At the National Institutes of Health, nearly three-quarters of the staff was furloughed. One result: director Francis Collins said about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center into clinical trials each week will be turned away. This includes about 30 children, most of them cancer patients, he said."

Awwww hell yeah! Who needs to regulate pesticides, amirite? No more monitoring beef for ecoli, meat eaters. The CDC wont be able to monitor outbreaks or even create a proper flu vaccine - you could have millions of deaths on your hands. Way to stick it to those sciences, red team! Yee haw for hee haw! Gun sale permits are also going to be hampered, opps!!!! Families of American soldiers slain in Afghanistan will be denied death benefits. You shut down the panda cam too dammit:

the deal with the shutdown is it essentially gets worse the longer it goes on. And in 1995 and 1996 it went on for 28 days and ended up costing the U.S., I think, about $2 billion in economic losses, just because people don’t have money and they’re not spending it. So you have the 800,000 workers who will be furloughed, and they’ll be furloughed without pay. And when the shutdown eventually ends, they’ll get that pay. But in the meantime, you know, they’re trying to make ends meet. The government did pass an emergency measure to continue paying members of the armed services last night, so they’ll still work and they’ll still get their pay. But families whose, you know, loved ones die in Afghanistan will not get death benefits in that period. You know, civilian contractors will not, by and large, be showing up to work. The EPA will shut down almost all of its services. The National Zoo will close. Even the panda cam that lets you watch, you know, the pandas on a live stream 24 hours a day will shut down. NASA, I think, is furloughing about 97 percent of its staff. You know, people who depend on the federal government for funding for WIC food assistance will not get that. It’s up to their state whether they’ll get that going forward. Some states have obligations to do that; some states could probably care less. Heating assistance as the weather gets colder is something that is now up in the air. You know, there’s just kind of this wide range of government programs. Head Start, which is a program that has already been kind of really hammered by the sequestration cuts over the last seven months, is going to get further cuts over the next couple of weeks if the shutdown persists, as grants are now put on hold. So, you know, whether you have kids, whether you’re a college student relying on federal student loans or Pell Grants, whether you’re a senior citizen, whether you’re living in a cold region without heat, this shutdown will affect you.

All these self inflicted wounds because they hate a bill that was passed by congress, signed by a president who basically was elected on the issue, and ruled constitutional by the Supreme court. The bastard child of the Heritage foundation, RomneyObamacare aka the Affordable Care Act. Gawd forbid birth control be covered.



This woman is far more eloquent than I could be on the issue, so here:

I have a pre-existing condition and I stand to lower my premium, my deductible, and my prescription costs. I promise to return the money I save to the economy quite promptly, I'm good at that part. Just lower your gun and stop hurting people. Pretty please?

To quote Lincoln: "What is our present condition? We have just carried an election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now we are told in advance, the government shall be broken up, unless we surrender to those we have beaten, before we take the offices. In this they are either attempting to play upon us, or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of us, and of the government. They will repeat the experiment upon us ad libitum."

Comments

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

People often say there is no real difference between the Republicans and Democrats (so that we should vote Libertarian or something), but I think this conflict belies that nostrum.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Anti government extremists and failed lawyers do not make good bedfellows in a government body. Go figure.

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

One of my co-workers posted on his facebook: "Anyone who thinks both parties are not equally to blame for the last decade, much less the last 48 hours, is a moron. Just my opinion. But you know I'm right."

I just couldn't even.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Colbert was a genius with this. And boy, that NBC News Special Report theme music (composed by John Williams) has been getting some heavy use the last few days, with more to come no doubt with the impending debt crisis.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Could be Bill Conti, hard to say.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

I have yet to get to the Stewart/Colbert take. I hope its scathing.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

That sucking sound you hear is the sound of >30% of GOP voters leaving the party for parts unknown. Probably looking for a blanket.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

except for the states where they're always guaranteed votes of course.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the spin machine is already at work. The House passed so many budgets! It's the Senate who keeps rejecting them! Why does the Senate want government shutdowns? ;____________;

Actually, this is great for hardcore libertarians. Nearly all the programs without funding are ones they wanted to slash anyway. No government? No problem. I mean military's already covered.

Hell, they probably want this to continue as long as possible. Anyone want to enjoy libertopia with me?

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

This exactly sentiment is on display right as we speak. They are saying only "non-essential" services are being cut and that "should give me a hint".

And when show the evidence of the cancer kids being denied treatment, they blame Francis Collins without an ounce of shame. They actually claim, sans evidence, and Francis Collins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Collins) is making it up and "using those kids as props".

Its insanity.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Imagine someone throwing a brick up in the air and catching it with their forehead, successfully mind you.

Imagine a room full of people doing it.

If you ask me I think the tea party republicans are traitors to the American people. They are willing to hurt the country's citizenry just to get their way.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Pain was their aim.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

But I'd like to remind that it doesn't affect them. Oh no, they're too rich to be affected by anything. They could probably just retire back to their cozy lifestyle while the rest of the world burns for them.

[notmrgarrison.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the dems in Washington aren't on vacation, and they've seen all the monuments.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Ugh, so we're not the only ones whose parliament is totally fucked up, stalemated, blocked, impassed and sunken in the bog.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Also, could you use lj cut please? Thx in advance.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

http://calmingmanatee.com/

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

This was a rant. I'm upset about it.

I need those manatee's on google glass stapled to my head!

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

And in some good news:

http://nyti.ms/16FmVrh

There are growing signs that more level headed conservatives in the GOP are getting fed up with around two dozen extremists running the entire party. This is good because John Boehner has been looking more and more like Von Hindenburg, only without the willingness to occasionally stand up to Hitler.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Just to be clear: I mean in the use of procedure to bully leadership, not ideology.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Checks and balances, man. It's all about checks and balances. If a faction within a faction doesn't like what's going on, they're granted the power to stall all of it. FOR DEMOCRACY! Right?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

They hope to deposit more checks from the Koch brothers to their own banking account balances.

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

Charles P. Pierce writes a piece for Salon: "The Reign of Morons is Here."

Tidbit:

"We have elected an ungovernable collection of snake-handlers, Bible-bangers, ignorami, bagmen and outright frauds, a collection so ungovernable that it insists the nation be ungovernable, too. We have elected people to govern us who do not believe in government.

We have elected a national legislature in which Louie Gohmert and Michele Bachmann have more power than does the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who has been made a piteous spectacle in the eyes of the country and doesn't seem to mind that at all. We have elected a national legislature in which the true power resides in a cabal of vandals, a nihilistic brigade that believes that its opposition to a bill directing millions of new customers to the nation's insurance companies is the equivalent of standing up the the Nazis in 1938, to the bravery of the passengers on Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, and to Mel Gibson's account of the Scottish Wars of Independence in the 13th Century. We have elected a national legislature that looks into the mirror and sees itself already cast in marble.

We did this. We looked at our great legacy of self-government and we handed ourselves over to the reign of morons."


http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Shutdown_Blues?src=soc_fcbks

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

LOL Is 'ignorami' even a word? If not, I guess it will be now. Though, I don't know if I like it better than 'ignoramuses'. Or just 'Republicans' to keep it simple.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

It seems as though some of the members of Congress are still sore over Galileo's jabs at Simplicio's bone headed view of the Earth.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Those flat-e member of congress just don't care about your opinion (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+2%3A12&version=NIV)! Now cross your legs (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/30/republicans-birth-control-amendment_n_4017597.html).

[paft.livejournal.com]

Nothing from the red team here?

Not a peep?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Victory party in Mr.Garrisons bunker!

[oportet.livejournal.com]

EPA is really fucked. NASA Voyager, fucked. Mars Rover is fucked Kids being kicked out of cancer treatments:

Also in jeopardy of being fucked, Air Force +11.5. They didn't think this through at all...

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Astronomy Picture of the Day is down. Argh.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Well, I am now firmly convinced that this entire thing is hung up because of one man, the speaker of the house.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/house-republicans-clean-cr_n_4024755.html?1380739351

Put a clean CR to a vote. Let democracy happen.
But NOOOO, Boehner can't let the house of reps actually vote on a bill he doesn't like. What if they should pass it?!

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for Louie "Goober" Gohmert to wear an explosive vest in the House, and blame Democrats for forcing him to wear it.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for the Capital to burn down and the Democrats to blame it on the tea-party. ;)

[vehemencet-t.livejournal.com]

Ugh what a farce.

Bureaucrat squabbling over the budget. All of them will still receive their pay. The President will still receive his pay. Secret service personnel, homeland security, border patrol, coast guard and the TSA will all continue. U.S. military forces will remain in a slough of countries they shouldn't be in. The CIA's budgets are not threatened. The NSA can still work on its $2b facility out in the Utah desert. Taxes will still be collected.

They will not allow anything critical in their regime to go down over something petty like this. We're not that lucky.

But, instead, they are going to make people in the lowest rungs suffer as much as possible for it, even though they bear zero responsibility for it. People who aren't responsible for the squabble in the first place. This will motivate them to outcry and demand capitulation to the easiest and quickest solution.

That's what it seems like anyway.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

...and pat themselves on the back for it.

Pretty much.

RED TEAM

[major-dallas.livejournal.com]

If you think this is fun, you ain't seen nothing yet:


The World Ends III: The Debt Ceiling Debtate

Prepare To Get Your Hyperbole On!


yeah, 2 weeks and let's face it, this partial shut down will be nothing compared to the lead up to this...

...oh and what the hell?! Second day I've tried signing up and getting some quotes and they're not even verifying IDs and Incomes yet? They've had 4 years to be ready for yesterday and the best explanation is that Apple and Google have issues on their launches? Sorry Mr. President, those companies actually turn a profit and operate in a budget, not a budget deficit, I think you wish the people running Healthcare.gov were as competent as the folks at Apple and Google.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Apparently all those people who we've been told hate, hate, HATE Obamacare are flooding the website.

Kind of expected on the first day of a rollout.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Okay, I get it. Republicans want to defund Obamacare. Good for you.

Then propose a bill that defunds Obamacare! Oh, you did a million times and it didn't pass? I guess you'll have to wait until the next election cycle.

Oh wait, no, I got a better idea, let's tack on the Obamacare defunding to something completely unrelated, to force the Democrats either to accept defunding Obamacare, or have the government shut down!

Really, guys? The conservative side of this community doesn't see how lopsided this is? This is why we need legislation that restricts bills to one topic. If this shit gets through, then what will happen? They'll do the same thing over the debt ceiling. Or worse, they'll start tacking on even more in addition to the Obamacare defunding, they don't give a fuck.

It's negotiating with fucking terrorists.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Blue team wants stuff they didn't get too, but they don't refuse to do their jobs over it.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

This, all of this, is why we cannot have nice things.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

So here is a question I meant to ask a while ago. Is the birth control mandate part of the ACA, and if so, is that part of the employers part of the mandate and therefore delayed for a year?