Isn’t It Ironic – Don’t Ya think?
With apologies to Alanis Morissette.
This particular story ain’t really new, or news. TAH has already covered parts of the debacle that is the ongoing neutering of our country’s defenses. At all levels really – from our back doors to the international arena.
Panetta, Dempsey List Consequences of Sequestration
One paragraph from the link rattled my cage just enough to bring it to your attention:
“This is not something that should be done as a way to blame the other party for what happens,” Panetta said. “This is going to hurt the United States and hurt our defense.”
I’m at a loss here. It seems to be the PC mindset writ large. I reckon both parties in a rape are at fault? The store owner who shoots a robber pointing a gun at him while demanding the money from the register is part of the problem? Shutting down Head Start could save billions, but it is a (failed) well meaning program. The list of PC things that I can’t seem to understand grows everyday.
Folks, I dunno where this will end… Well, I AM kinda old and paranoid so maybe it is just me?
Category: Geezer Alert!
No, it’s not just you.
Anytime you want massive failure, ineptitude, waste, and incompetence, just add Politicians and bureaucrats!!!
Neither age nor paranoia are the answers. It is not just you.
It is the complete lack of common sense on display by people in charge.
Why didn’t Panetta lie like he usually does? It almost seems like he realizes the People recall the Sequestration came from only the White House.
Bipartisan = Democrats are in deep sh*t. McCain, Graham and Rubio will save them.
Standing by for zombie apocalypse …
Notwithstanding Bob Woodward’s attempt to establish Conservative bona fides through a slanted “analysis” of the debt ceiling, the ENTIRE blame for the Budget Contol Act rests solely on the Republicans. For the first time in history the Republicans decided to use what was a routine vote as a means to blackmail the Democrats into getting something they could not obtain through the electoral process. Whether the sequestration was President Obama’s idea or not, the reason it exists is because of Republican hostage taking. Blaming President Obama for the sequestration is like blaming the surgeon for Gabby Giffords condition rather than the gun or the shooter. Oh, wait, i don’t want to give you any ideas!
Wow… Just wow. I feel the blame for this lies on both sides of the field politically, Insipid. And the president is responsible for LETTING this happen. You are telling me that ONE house of congress is responsible for everything that has gone wrong with sequestration? What about the Senate? Oh wait, they’re Democratically controlled, so no blame there! But that’s okay, because you have your ‘juden’ to blame, don’t you Insipid?
Really? Hollocaust comparisons? Really?
First off the entire point of this article, which you seem to have NO PROBLEM WITH is to blame the sequestration ENTIRELY on Obama. That’s the entire point of the rape analogy, to proclaim that the Republican’s are just poor little innocent victims of the black “rapist” (i guess i should be happy that he’s not being compared to OJ as he has in the past- but don’t you DARE suggest anyone is racist!). While the Sequestration may have been President Obama’s idea, the only reason he had it is because the Republican “rapists” had a knife to Obama’s throat.
To carry the “clever” rape analogy further, if the rapists drops the knife, and the intended victim takes the knife and cuts off the rapists pecker whose fault is it that the rapist doesn’t have a pecker? I’d say the rapist, but apparently you folks can’t grasp the concept of cause and effect.
So this “both sides responsible” mantra you have going is just your cynical way of trying to deflect the truth. What I said was entirely factual. Debt ceiling increases have been routine for the past 100 years. It was done 8 times under Reagan and 7 times under George W. Bush. For the first time ever one party decided to use it as a blackmail device. That was the Republicans in the house. Laying responsibility where it belongs is not the same as… I’m not even going to finish that sentence because if makes me sound as stupid as you.
Also, Republicans can’t have it both ways. Right after the bill was passed Boehner got on the TV and proclaimed that he got 98% of what he wanted. Now that the sequestration is beecoming a reality he’s proclaiming the SAME bill is ALL Obama’s fault. Republican bullshitting and finger pointing at its finest.
I look at it this way, sippy–who is the person LEAST inclined to negotiate or compromise?
Now please tell me how getting barely 50 percent of the vote entitles him to get 100 percent of what he wants.
This, dear boy, is exactly what the Founding Fathers were aiming to avoid.
Please explain to me how a party in charge of 1/2 of 1/3 of the federal government is somehow responsible for 100 percent of your butthurt. Oh, and nice deflection on how you chose to ignore Obama’s own statements regarding raising the debt ceiling when he was a Senator. Do tell, indeed.
The Dem Senate hasn’t passed a budget (which they are required to do by law) for years now, but sure the Republicans are the irresponsible ones.
Insipid #8: Dang… I’m kinda honored that you could read so much into my poor effort. And a bit annoyed as well.
Ya see I pointed NO fingers at any person or group, but was simply talking about how political correct behaviors prevent resolution.
The first step in problem solving is to correctly define the problem.
Bullshit NHsparky. President Obama is a centrist and has governed as one. The reason he hasn’t gotten Republican Votes was because of a strategy the Republcans had, not because of any radicalism on his part. The health care bill was a Republican idea- and a good one. Stimulus was largely tax cuts, the same kind of stimulus that Paul Ryan championed and voted for many times- when Bush was President:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv1yWrAsCAc
Furthermore, let me explain to you how the game is played. We work on the basis of the ELECTORAL COLLEGE. If it went by popular vote he’d of driven up the vote in population centers like California and New York and he’d have a greater percentage than the 51% he actually got. By the way, BOTH percentages of popular vote victories were FAR greater than either victory by George W. Bush. But the game is played by electoral votes and he got 126 more electoral votes than Mitt Romney. When Republicans were predicting a Romney victory they were proclaiming that a 332 margin was a landslide:
http://brobrubel.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/gop-pundits-say-obama-win-was-a-landslide/
Plus where do you get the chutzpah to proclaim that it should be 50/50? You lost the Presidency, you lost Seats in the Senate and you got more than a million less house votes. Even Republicans admit that the only reason your holding on to the house is sequestration.
That’s not to say that I’m buying into your bullshit that President Obama is proclaiming that he should get 100%. He’s willing to talk more spending cuts provided there’s some more revenue. That’s being reasonable. It’s the Republican’s that are digging in their heels.
Either way you’re dodging the truth. The sequestration happened because of Government blackmail.
“President Obama is a centrist…”
Only if you’re left of Ghandhi.
@11- So you lament Panetta going on the TV proclaiming that we shouldn’t “blame the other party” and your response is:
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I’m at a loss here. It seems to be the PC mindset writ large. I reckon both parties in a rape are at fault? The store owner who shoots a robber pointing a gun at him while demanding the money from the register is part of the problem?
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So if you’re likening one side to a rapist or robber how is that NOT proclaiming that one side is to blame? Are you saying that rapists and robbers are not responsible for their actions? That society is to blame? I would never of thought such a profoundly Marxist thought can come from this board? I disagree with this but i’ll have to re-think my views of this as a right-wing site.
Bullshit NHsparky. President Obama is a centrist and has governed as one.
BWWWWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….
(wheeze)
BWWWWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….
Holy fuckin shit, sippy, that’s the funniest shit I ever read right there. Obama’s a centrist but Romney was an “extremist conservative”??? Oh, shit, there’s no fucking possible way you could believe that. NONE.
Insipid #14: Aha… now I understand. Seems my using the word “IRONIC” a part of the title is where you got confused.
Irony: “the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning”
Average cents borrowed per Federal dollar spent, 2001-2008: 10.47
Average cents borrowed per Federal dollar spent, 2009-2013: 37.10
The problem is obvious.
Hondo,
I heard Nancy Pelosi said there is no spending problem…honest. You nailed the problem right on the head, we just weren’t borrowing enough during the Bush years…
/sarc
Old Tanker: Nancy P doesn’t have a spending problem. It’s not her money she’s spending, so for her there aren’t any consequences for overspending.
@13- Here’s a true story that reminds me so much of today’s Republicans. My favorite piece of music of all time is Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (Ode to Joy). Since I’m sure most of your musical development stopped at Hee Haw here’s a truncated version of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBaHPND2QJg Of course you all might HATE that version because it actually reflect the values manifested in the song of coming together in universal brotherhood. I’m sure Wagner would be more your taste in composers (See? I can make stupid Hitler references too!). Here’s a version of the song that today’s GOP could really get behind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpcUxwpOQ_A Now THAT’S a perfect representation of Republican values (ME!) set to music! And of course wrecking the place at the end is a perfect illustration of modern Republican governance! Oh! Story! The thing with that symphony (as the last video demonstrated) is that it is easy to make a jingle out of it. You can pretty much put any one or two syllable word to that tune. About 20 years ago or so there was this Starz TV commercial set to the music of the 9th Symphony in which they sang the word Movies, over and over again to Beethoven’s wonderful tune. At this time my sister and law was visiting us for Passover. I was in the kitchen, cleaning some dishes humming Beethoven’s 9th. My sister heard this and said “I LOVE that Starz commercial.” I said, “That’s not a commercial, that’s Beethoven”. I swear to god, this was her response: “I HATE Beethoven!” And she maintained her hatred of Beethoven through the rest of the evening despite her admission that she loved the commercial. So when the SAME song was done by a stupid, nameless jingle writer, she loved it, but as soon as i applied the name Ludwig Von Beethoven to it she hated it. The modern GOP is acting just like my sister-in-law. There’s a long list of ideas formerly loved by Republicans that they now proclaim to hate once President Obama is for it. These include the dream act (though your ass-kicking… Read more »
@16- I understand irony. The irony you SEEMED to be conveying with the use of the rape analogy is that Panetta, along with his party, is the “rapist” or “robber” saying that no side is to blame. That’s certainly not an unreasonable context to draw from the rape metaphor. In fact, i’m not even sure what other context is there. Unless if you’re confusing “making no sense whatsoever” with irony.
Wow. Just WOW!
Guess I need some schooling somewhere on reading between the lines and a few other things. Zero, somebody just proved that paranoia thing to be well founded.
Insipid #21: Honestly… You seem erudite enough that it must be me that is in error. I will try to learn to be clearer.
With “I’m at a loss here.” I thought I’d established a premise that explained what followed.
Let me leave with YOU one of my favorite quotes from old Willie:
“My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
What day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . .”
@20 Oy. Where to begin, where to begin.
First of all, thanks for the music clips. For what it’s worth, I like classical music, although I prefer Chopin to Beethoven.
I have a tender spot in my heart for Hee Haw, so can’t say anything bad against it.
I’m a conservative who has renounced the Republican Party. My personal opinion is that if they don’t get their act together in time for the next election cycle, they’re done. Will they? I doubt it.
Bottom line. I don’t give a rat’s ass who started what. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, quit pointing fingers and either fix it or get rid of it. I am a realist first. I believe in pragmatics. It will be the political maneuvering and pandering on both sides that’s going to shove this country right over the cliff. We’re headed for another DEPRESSION. Not a recession–that’s where we are now. I’m not an economist, so can’t debate the facts and figures with you, but the end result will be similar to Germany after WWII: a wheelbarrow of money for a loaf of bread. WE’RE SPENDING MORE MONEY THAN WE ARE TAKING IN. WE BORROW A THIRD OF THE MONEY WE SPEND, AT INTEREST. Who did this, and why, is a moot point. When the government takes the last dollar, we will get handed the bag. It’s just that simple. When our nation runs out of money, and it will at the rate it’s going, what then? You don’t think the Chinese lend us money out of the goodness of their heart, do you?
It’s a little like a plane crash. What went wrong is important, but for the people on that plane, it’s a case of analysis not making any of them any less dead. And my point is this: we’re alll on that freakin’ airplane.
Ok, I guess i’ll ask it outright: what was rape/robbery the meaning of the rape/robbery metaphor for if it wasn’t to say that Democrats were the “criminals”? I’m willing to admit i took it the wrong way judging from your reaction, but what is the right way to take it?
I didn’t think it was possible, but I’m even less interested in Sippy’s music criticism than I am in his mendacious political analysis.
P.S.-Sippy, I’m sure your sister’s sainthood is assured given her willingness to withstand your presence for any amount of time.
@24- I like Chopin too! Come together! Right now! Over me! Oh wait that’s Lennon (the Beatle, not the commie).
@26- there was no music criticism. Just a story to illustrate what you guys seem like to me. Along with a little light-hearted ribbing.
I got curious, so I checked a few other rather well-known eras in the 20th Century to see how much of each Federal dollar spent was borrowed during each:
Great Depression (FDR, 1933-1940): 36.29 cents per Federal dollar spent
World War II and demob (1942-1946): 52.73 cents per Federal dollar spent
Korean War (1950-1953): 2.17 cents per Federal dollar spent
Vietnam War (1965-1972): 6.03 cents per Federal dollar spent
Carter (1977-1980): 11.58 cents per Federal dollar spent
Reagan (1981-1988): 18.88 cents per Federal dollar spent
Bush (41) (1989-1992): 18.29 cents per Federal dollar spent
Clinton (1st term, 1992-1996): 12.27 cents per Federal dollar spent
Bush (43) (2000-2008): 10.47 cents per Federal dollar spent
Method was simple: sum the receipts for the period, divide by sum of outlays. This gives the percentage of each Federal dollar spent that was funded by receipts. Subtract from one to get the percentage borrowed.
A couple of take-aways from the above that I found interesting:
1. The last time we had this level of sustained deficit spending during a peacetime economy was the Great Depression (1933-1940) under FDR. And as Morgenthau noted in 1939: it didn’t work particularly well to get the economy back on track then, either.
2. Proportionally, Bush(43) was actually more fiscally responsible than Carter, Reagan, his father, or Clinton during his first term. Proportionally less of the Federal dollars spent during Bush(43)’s 8 years in office (2001-2008) were borrowed than any of the above.
Source data: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/hist01z1.xls
Kind of ignoring the fact that the deficit has been going down virtually every year of President Obama’s presidency and that it is likely to be under 1 trillion this year if there are no fiscal shenanigans.
Anyway, is this in response to me Hondo? Cause you seem to be going off in left field, here.
Splinky, learn to spell, will you, you smug, overbearing little warthog?
Vladimir the Communist’s last name was spelled LENIN. That’s L-E-N-I-N OKAY???? Geez!!!
And just so you know, John Lennon did NOT steal ‘Come Together’ from anyone. Period. And per Paul’s own statements, Yoko Ono had little or nothing to do with the band breaking up. It was already on its last legs.
Insipid #25: One noteworthy additional item to leave you with: I am a registered Independent. Really!
@31- man, you REALLY need to take a chill pill. The Lennon line was a joke. See, you guys are always accusing me of being a communist, get it? For what it’s worth, i’m aware they’re spelled differently, but since it was a JOKE i didn’t feel the need to explain it. Plus, who the fuck doesn’t know “Come together” is a Beatles song? And i didn’t mention Yoko Ono, but I actually like her as a person. Though her singing sounds like a tortured cat.
@32- Fine, my bad. I appologize. I still don’t get the metaphor.
Uh, Sippy – not really. I never go off in left field. (smile)
Sequestration is a symptom of a larger, structural problem. Arguing who’s responsible for sequestration is merely putting a 3/4″ wide band-aid on an amputation to try and stop the arterial bleeding.
The basic problem is that (as Steve Winwood put it years ago) the percentage we’re paying is too high a price, ’cause we’re living beyond all our means. And we have been for at least 4 decades.
If you weren’t blinded by ideology to the point you’re more interested in scoring transient political points than in fixing the real problem, I wouldn’t have to explain this to you. The fact that you obviously couldn’t figure this out for yourself is rather telling.
Insipd = not very good at making jokes of any kind; has to explain all jokes to be understood.
John Lennon was anti-war. He had a bed-in with Yoko in New York, where the two of them did a video of “Give Peace a Chance”. There is no evidence that he had any political inclinations of any kind, which is why he wrote “Imagine”. So when you mix his name with Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik who founded the Communist party, you’re just making a REALLY, REALLY BAD JOKE.
And dont’ start that crap line of yours that ‘Imagine’ is the epitome of Marxist thought.
It ain’t.
@35- No, i disagree with you in the “large structural problem” i’m a Keynesian. The New Deal was working great until the deficit scolds went to work in 1937 and fucked things up. When Keynesian policies went back into effect after WWII we had unparrallelled sustained economic progress until Ronaldus Reagan came in and fucked up everything.
Either way, the point of the thread (i thought)was laying blame for the sequestration. Now i haven’t a clue.
@35- No, i disagree with you in the “large structural problem” i’m a Keynesian. The New Deal was working great until the deficit scolds went to work in 1937 and fucked things up. When Keynesian policies went back into effect after WWII we had unparrallelled sustained economic progress until Ronaldus Reagan came in and fucked up everything.
Either way, the point of the thread (i thought)was laying blame for the sequestration. Now i haven’t a clue (gosh, i’m putting my chin out for you to make fun of me over and over and you’re NOT taking it at all… I give and i give, Hondo).
Hilarious-Keynes predicated a lot of his thought on the idea that governments should save during good times, which absolutely fails to take into account that politicians have almost no incentive ever to cut off the flow of free stuff in order to save.
“I haven’t a clue” were the truest words in that post.
Honestly ex-ph2, you seem to be a raving lunatic. I didn’t say ANYTHING about Yoko, the song Imagine or anything derogatory about the Beatles. I like the Beatles too! Really. The joke was NOT comparing Lennon to Lenin but to parodize the way many on this board think of me as a commie. If you think it a bad joke, fine. At this point i’m inclined to agree with you simply because i’ve spent WAY more time on it then i think it deserves. But this idea that I was making this full-on attack of the Beatles is just false. I didn’t attack them at all, in fact.
Yo, Insipid #20 “The smarter strategy would of been to play politics”
That should read “would have”. See, it’s a “contraction”…
Thanks for the tip, Curt. Too bad i can’t edit on this blog. There’s a Lennon joke i’d LOVE to delete. By the way ex-ph2 I’m saying i want to delete the joke, NOT John Lennon who absolutely did NOT overthrow the Czars in a blood coup, who protested for peace and had a bed in with Yoko Ono (who is also totally awesome and not AT ALL to blame for breaking up the Beatles) and who wrote many AWESOME songs, including “Instant Karma”.
Which, in keeping with the thread title, IS ironic because “Instant Karma” is exactly what i feel like i’m experiencing right now.
Me? Raving lunatic? Oh, that is rich!
Splinky, I’m so used to your verbal diarrhea and self-important self-promotion, it’s become increasingly difficult to follow your train of thought, or to even find your train of thought. You have a well-known habit of sidetracking if you lose an argument, because you just don’t like to lose…even though you lose on a regular basis.
You can’t even figure out simple prose. I did not say you ‘attacked’ the Beatles. I warned you NOT to attack them. Got that?
Learn to read for content.
Let the games begin.
I think President Truman said it best in that, “The buck stops here.” When you are the leader of the free world and it’s tanking, you should take that responsibility and the blame that goes with it. He could fix this if he wanted to. Don’t blame 1/3 of the branch beacuse someone says something you don’t want to hear or doesn’t agree with you, and you end all talking points on everything. Remember the words, “Sequestration is not gonna happen.”
@44- So your method of preventing an attack on the Beatles that I was never going to make was to imagine (AWESOME song, totally NOT Communist!)an argument that i was not going to put forward and do not believe and then rebut it? And I’m the one who “sidetracks” and has a difficult train of thought to follow?
Fine, i am hereby warning you NOT to attack baby monkey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_sfnQDr1-o
Baby monkey is NOT the monkey responsible for the transmission of the Aids virus. Baby Monkey is a baby, he was not even born when the aids virus came into existence. And do NOT tell me that baby monkey is responsible for tearing that woman’s face off! That was a chimpanzee, this is a baby monkey! And baby monkey is NOT brutalizing the pig! The pig LOVES being ridden as much as baby monkey loves to ride! And baby monkey is NOT scheming to irradiate Fort Knox to increase the price of HIS gold. That’s Gold finger, a James Bond villain that does not even exist! This is baby monkey! And Baby Monkey doesn’t even HAVE any gold! HA! So why the fuck would he want to irradiate Fort Knox anyway? Just leave Baby Monkey alone!
What’s that you say? You were never going to insult baby monkey? Well, Melba, my Ketteh sees through ALL your scheming schemes!
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8096/8396354995_82fe9c40d6_c.jpg
Beware, i am onto you! And so is Melba!
Christ, sippy–meds. You. Dosage. Increase. NOW.
What?!?!?
Whatever you do, splinky, don’t do that stuff at work. Your employer may question your sanity.
Good grief!
Sparky, help! Oh. My. God.