Thinking Right

By Mid-South Philosopher

January 5, 2009 8:24 AM | Link to this

Good morning, Jim.

Likely, the Congress will be a circus over the next few weeks as they “burrow” around with the Illinois Senate seat in contention, not to mention the coming of Franken…stein!

To top it all, Daddy Bush has the audacity to suggest that Jeb should be President in the future.

The truth is that:

Jeb should have been President instead of Georgie!

Happy New Year, my friend.

By Redneck Convert

January 5, 2009 8:27 AM | Link to this

Well, I’m with Raghead. Long as these tax cuts go to the people making big money, we still have hope for Trickle Down to work. And don’t tax you, don’t tax me, tax Those People behind the tree.

I reckon we’ll see what the librul Democrats do in a few months. I ain’t holding my breath. One good thing about expecting the worst: you are never disappointed. Anyway, I’ll be looking for Wooten to come out breathing fire once librul Democrats start acting like librul Democrats. Till then, he can keep right on getting all excited about finding a big bag of horse doo under the Christmas tree and asking where’s the pony.

Have a good day everybody.

By Dusty's Husbands

January 5, 2009 8:43 AM | Link to this

Advice for Husbands About Aging Wives

It is important for men to remember that as women grow older it becomes harder for them to maintain the same quality of housekeeping they did when they were younger. When men notice this, they should try not to yell. Let me relate how I handle the situation.

When I chucked my job and took early retirement a year ago, it became necessary for Nancy to get a full-time job both for extra income and for health insurance benefits that we need. She was a trained lab tech when we met thirty some years ago and was fortunate to land a job at the local medical center.

It was shortly after she started working at this job that I noticed that she was beginning to show her age. I usually get home from fishing or hunting about the same time she gets home from work. Although she knows how hungry I am, she almost always says that she has to rest for half an hour or so before she starts supper. I try not to yell at her when this happens.

Instead, I tell her to take her time. I understand that she is not as young as she used to be. I just tell her to wake me when she finally does get supper on the table.

She used to wash and dry the dishes as soon as we finished eating. It is now not unusual for them to sit on the table for several hours after supper. I do what I can by reminding her several times each evening that they aren’t cleaning themselves.

I know she appreciates this, as it does seem to help her get them done before she goes to bed.

Our washer and dryer are in the basement. When she was younger, Nancy used to be able to go up and down the stairs all day and not get tired. Now that she is older she seems to get tired so much more quickly. Sometimes she says she just can’t make another trip down those steps. I don’t make a big issue of this. As long as she finishes up the laundry the next evening I am willing to overlook it. Not only that, but unless I need something ironed to wear to the Monday’s lodge meeting or to Wednesday’s or Saturday’s poker club or to Tuesday’s or Thursday’s bowling or something like that, I will tell her to wait until the next evening to do the ironing. This gives her a little more time to do some of those odds and ends things like shampooing the dog, vacuuming, or dusting.

Also, if I have had a really good day fishing, this allows her to gut and scale the fish as a more leisurely pace. Nancy is starting to complain a little occasionally. Not often, mind you, but just enough for me to notice. For example, she will say that it is difficult for her to find time to pay the monthly bills during her lunch hour. In spite of her complaining, I continue to try to offer encouragement. I tell her to stretch it out over two or even three days. That way she won’t have to rush so much.

I also remind her that missing lunch completely now and then wouldn’t hurt her any, if you know what I mean.

When doing simple jobs she seems to think she needs more rest periods than she used to have to take. A couple of weeks ago she said she had to take a break when she was only half finished mowing the yard.

I overlook comments like these because I realize it’s just age talking. In fact, I try to not embarrass her when she needs these little extra rest breaks. I tell her to fix herself a nice, big, cold glass of freshly squeezed lemonade and just sit for a while. I tell her that as long as she is making one for herself, she may as well make one for me and take her break by the hammock so she can talk with me until I fall asleep.

I could go on and on, but I think you know where I’m coming from.

I know that I probably look like a saint in the way I support Nancy on a daily basis. I’m not saying that the ability to show this much consideration is easy. Many men will find it difficult. Some will find it impossible. No one knows better than I do how frustrating women can become as they get older. My purpose in writing this is simply to suggest that you make the effort. I realize that achieving the exemplary level of showing consideration I have attained is out of reach for the average

man. However guys, even if you just yell at your wife a little

less often because of this article, I will consider that writing it was worthwhile.

By boot

January 5, 2009 8:47 AM | Link to this

Bush is President, not Obama. What R U saying, Wooten? “Never mind the man behind the certainty?”

The certainty. The divine right of king george. Iraq? God said it was okay. Al Queda? Bush did the american thing of turning them into McTerrorists, with franchises on every sleepy corner.

Bush is president. The Christian Right still has a few days to destroy the world, and be sure, they’re thinking it over, they’re thinking it over….

The times are so frightening that I have to keep reminding myself, “It’s only a pirate movie…it’s only a pirate movie…”

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 5, 2009 9:06 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. Al Franken and his henchmen learned how to play from hometown hero Kent Hrbek; so long as the umpire is not looking… Otherwise the world is looking much better than any of us feared in November.

The “Employee Free Choice Act” looks dead on arrival – Obama must have talked to an economist, and even the less intelligent members of Congress – all democrats, of course - are backing off a proposal with 80% opposition from the public. Nobody is now talking about repeating the economic mistakes of Herbert Hoover (constricting free trade, tax increases on business and “the wealthy.”) If Obama really wants to stimulate business, tax cuts aimed at businesses would be a smart start. Regulatory inactivity would a second smart move, but I don’t think they have absorbed that truth yet. Nevertheless, true job formation seems to be driving most of the talk in DC. The only silly thing so far is a suggestion of an increase in nondefense employment in the range of 600,000 bodies. While there surely are that many idle and otherwise hopeless democrats laying around, such a welfare program will do little to stimulate true productivity. Nevertheless, all in all, looking good so far.

By ron

January 5, 2009 9:14 AM | Link to this

Good morning,Like you,Jim,I wait to see what’s going to happen.I know all of this bailout money and all of the coming tax cuts and more bailout money has to be paid back.The bill is going to be huge.I’m starting to hear rumors as to how this payback is going to be accomplished and I can’t say I like any of them.They will be bitter pills.

I like Bill Richardson’s version of what happened.He didn’t do it.He will be exonerated.He resigned voluntarily.I wiil keep this in mind as events unfold.I will check each bullet point against future facts.

Dear Dusty’s Husbands,——- That which you pen makes for very interesting reading.Do you know the date of your funeral yet,or is your wife going to keep it a surprise? I like living on the edge as far as the bride is concerned,but I try to stop short of committing suicide.Good luck in the future.

Jeb Bush for President?I think I’m Bushed out.I think the memory of George will negate that thought.

By boot

January 5, 2009 9:24 AM | Link to this

Not only that, Wooten, but we aint nebah gonna git moutta Pinaq. Obama’s campaign rhetoric should have been exaggerations to get votes. That’s how you get elected.

We are stuck in Iraq for the same reasons that the Iraqis are stuck in Iraq: We are imbedded into their 10K year old rivalries as chaperones, referees, and sugar daddies.

If we try to leave Iraq, cause we’re broke, or it looks like the Iraqis will elect, democratically, an Al Queda terrorist as their president, and I mention that because we have no control, and no idea what the possible combinations of ethno-sectarian radicalism the Iraqis will eventually adopt. It could be anything from a oligarchy to a shia superstate.

We dont know. We’re just there, bribing for peace, allowing whatever lunacy that evolves to survive.

What is the mission of US troops in Iraq? What is it? What constitutionally derived strategic objective that matches our Country’s interests and defensive posture does the presense of US troops in Iraq fulfill?

Any mission of an army, must necessarily match the strategic vision of the country who fields the army.

Otherwise you get a smoldering ember of unpredictable superflares of international crisis which can only end in catastrophe.

There was no justification for Iraq’s invasion. Now, we’re stuck there waiting for god knows what to happen to us and the world.

Supreme Folly.

By Disgusted

January 5, 2009 9:35 AM | Link to this

The only silly thing so far is a suggestion of an increase in nondefense employment in the range of 600,000 bodies.

The proposed “increase” in government jobs will not be an increase at all. Currently, the taxpayer is on the hook for paying that many government contracting employees—i.e., employees of Lockheed-Martin, Perot Systems, etc.—who owe their government jobs to the campaign contributions of their employers.

As long as taxpayers like paying such contractors $120,000 (including benefits and employer profit) to do jobs that regular civil service employees would do for $80,000 (including benefits), nothing will happen.

If Obama decides to replace these yellow-striped-badge employees with regular civil service employees, there will be no new government jobs created in any case. The taxpayers may save around $3 billion per year, but the jobs are already there.

It’s a neat game of smoke and mirrors. Politicians can talk about “cutting the size of government.” Clinton did it. Bush did it. In reality, the government work force remains the same size. Every civil service job eliminated gets awarded to a campaign-contributing government contractor, and the job gets paid 30% more. The only loser in the game is the taxpayer. Welcome to the game, losers.

By boot

January 5, 2009 9:40 AM | Link to this

Israel’s constitution evolved from a match between it’s theo-social contracts and it’s geo-political ones. They’ve always been herded and driven by the same populations that pushed the Kurds around.

The difference is that the Kurds had no god. They aren’t even arabs. They were willing to live without borders, or ethno-sectarian alliances between their factions. That’s why, until 1990, they were squatters.

Isreal’s mission in Gaza is dictated by the strategic vision of their country, which is defined by the geo-political arena in which it exists.

While our army has no strategic mission aligned with our constitution’s vision, Israel’s constitution and their geo-political mission are one.

So both history and military necessity justify Israel’s mission into Gaza.

No justification like that exists for US troops in Iraq, other than now it’s too late to leave.

We’re stuck in Mesopotamia on Tulsa Time agains.

By Copyleft

January 5, 2009 9:45 AM | Link to this

I see Mr. Wooten is already hard at work rewriting history. The current claim of the fascist right, which Wooten proudly serves, is that “Obama is a huge disappointment to the leftists who thought he was a far-left loony.”

Wrong on all counts, of course. Only the feeble minds on the far RIGHT were calling Obama names like “socialist” and “commie” and “far-left loony.” The folks on the ACTUAL left knew that Obama was another centrist, hardly liberal at all… but shrugged and accepted that at least he’d be better than Bush III.

So no, the far left isn’t disappointed that Obama is turning out to be as centrist-sorta-liberal as we always knew he was. We’d have been delighted with a TRULY liberal president, of course—but we knew we’d have to settle for a Democrat instead.

The right’s really trying hard to come up with some sort of a win out of their humiliating defeat, aren’t they? They’ll fail, of course, because the fascist mind is incapable of creative or logical thought. But it’s still amusing to watch.

By Sam

January 5, 2009 9:46 AM | Link to this

Spot on Disgusted. And don’t forget the biggest boondogle of them all. Blackwater. Who in their right mind would allow what is basically a mercenary force to pick off military talent, pay them 3 and 4 times what they were being payed in the military and then allow them to run amuck amongst a civilian populace that we claim to have “liberated” and put it on the tax payer’s dime? So much for winning hearts and minds when those thugs are on the loose. Blackwater must have used Salvadoran Army training manuals from the 70s and 80s to school those guys.

By RetCol

January 5, 2009 9:58 AM | Link to this

Sam, Blackwater’s sole function in Iraq was to serve as a tool that provided deniability and a mechanism by which to attempt to avoid accountability by DOD and the present administration. A clear indication of this are all the machinations to absolve them of any penalty under existing law for violations that were clearly expected to occur. Organizations such as Blackwater should never ever be used as an entity representing this nation. Military and security functions belong in official branches of our government where they can beheld accountable and adhere to existing standards of conduct.

Organizations like Blackwater always do more harm than good when the final score is tallied.

By boot

January 5, 2009 10:33 AM | Link to this

U will C blackwater patrolling our streets, my friends.

Cheney created a hell from which we may never free ourselves.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 5, 2009 10:41 AM | Link to this

Three quotations:

Wisdom from Lord Keynes: “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas.”

Harold Ambler, the owner of TalkingAboutTheWeather.com, writing at HuffingtonPost.com, quoted in today’s WSJ: [T]he theory that carbon dioxide “drives” climate in any meaningful way is simply wrong… . Carbon dioxide cannot absorb an unlimited amount of infrared radiation. Why not? Because it only absorbs heat along limited bandwidths, and is already absorbing just about everything it can. That is why plotted on a graph, C02’s ability to capture heat follows a logarithmic curve. We are already very near the maximum absorption level. Further, the IPCC Fourth Assessment, like all the ones before it, is based on computer models that presume a positive feedback of atmospheric warming via increased water vapor… . This mechanism has never been shown to exist. Indeed, increased temperature leads to increased evaporation of the oceans, which leads to increased cloud cover (one cooling effect) and increased precipitation (a bigger cooling effect). Within certain bounds, in other words, the ocean-atmosphere system has a very effective self-regulating tendency. By the way, water vapor is far more prevalent, and relevant, in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide — a trace gas. Water vapor’s absorption spectrum also overlays that of carbon dioxide. They cannot both absorb the same energy! The relative might of water vapor and relative weakness of carbon dioxide is exemplified by the extraordinary cooling experienced each night in desert regions, where water in the atmosphere is nearly non-existent.

Perspective, from Dr. Sowell: “The idea of a spontaneously self-equilibrating system – the market economy – first developed by the physiocrats and later made part of the tradition of classical economics by Adam Smith, represented a radical departure, not only in analysis of causation but also in seeing a reduced role for political, intellectual, or other leaders as guides or controllers of the masses. Even today, may have not yet grasped the full implications of self-equilibrating interactions or have not been able to accept the humbling thought that their own presumably superior wisdom and virtue might be superfluous, if not damaging.”

By mm

January 5, 2009 10:42 AM | Link to this

Ragnar,

There are easily 600,000 working Americans currently out of work due to the failed Republican falacy known as trickle down economics.

Stop your BS.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 5, 2009 10:47 AM | Link to this

Apologies, typo in Dr. Sowell quote: “Even today, MANY have not yet grasped…”

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 5, 2009 10:49 AM | Link to this

Dear MM @ 10:42, you implicitly – and falsely – suggest that putting 600,000 leftists on government payrolls will equate to putting 600,000 “to work.” The distinction is that in the case of government “employment” one has finaancial outlay with no productivity.

By morons

January 5, 2009 10:56 AM | Link to this

Oh, NOW it makes sense!

Okay Ragnar. I’ve finally got you. Summarize your tri-fectika-ka comment in 25 words or less before I do, or this blog will know what a munch wad you truly are.

I’m going to word and start my 25 words, then I’ll copy and paste. That gives you plenty of time to prove you’re not a moron.

By morons

January 5, 2009 10:56 AM | Link to this

Oh, NOW it makes sense!

Okay Ragnar. I’ve finally got you. Summarize your tri-fectika-ka comment in 25 words or less before I do, or this blog will know what a munch wad you truly are.

I’m going to word and start my 25 words, then I’ll copy and paste. That gives you plenty of time to prove you’re not a moron.

By THANK YOU EVIL GOP

January 5, 2009 11:00 AM | Link to this

THANK YOU RED NECKS NEO-NAZI REPUBLICANS FOR POINTING OUT THAT THE DEMOCRAPS WERE IN OFFICE 2 YEARS AND DID NOTHING, BUT YOU EVIL TWISTED RED NECKS NEVER POINT OUT THAT THE GOP WAS IN OFFICE FOR 6 YEARS BEFORE THE DEMOCRAPS GOT IN OFFICE.

P.S. THANK YOU FOR HELPING SHIP JOBS OVER SEAS BY VOTING FOR BUSH PERDONT SUXBY JOHNNY BOY AND PHIL GINGREY,GLAD TO SEE YOU GUYS GETTING YOUR MUD SLINGING 4X4 REPOED,LOOK AT YOU FOOLS IN COBB BARTOW AND DOUGLAS COUNTIES LOCKHEED IS GOING TO LOSE 3/4 OF ITS WORK FORCE,GLAD THAT OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS NOT GOING TO GIVE YOU NEO-NAZIS ANY FUNDING SINCE THIS IS A GOP STRONG HOLD, SO HOLD ON TO YOUR HILLBILLY BROKE IMBRED WAYS CAUSE THE WORLD IS MOVING ON WITHOUT YOU UNEDUCATED GEORGIA REDNECKS WHO ARE 50TH IN EDUCATION IN THE U.S.A NUMBERS DONT LIE REDNECKS DO!

By morons

January 5, 2009 11:00 AM | Link to this

Dusty’s Husbands: Couldn’t you have just blogged, “no fat chicks” and been done with it.

Your comment was the reason we have no fat chick rules in this country, man.

Just because you dont respect the law, doesn’t mean none of us do.

But thanx for reminding us why laws exist in the first place.

word out peace in

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 5, 2009 11:17 AM | Link to this

Dear PoFo @ 10:56, “leftist overlords are so last-century, and always wrong.”

By Carbon Footprint

January 5, 2009 11:21 AM | Link to this

D’OH!

Curses. You live to blog another day, Ragnar. But get this: not all pirate movies end with a yo-ho-ho or a bottle of rum.

By Mr Snarky

January 5, 2009 12:22 PM | Link to this

Al Franken is not the winner in Minnesota.

Haheh…(Simpsons laugh)

By Mr Snarky

January 5, 2009 12:33 PM | Link to this

Even today, may have not yet grasped the full implications of self-equilibrating interactions or have not been able to accept the humbling thought that their own presumably superior wisdom and virtue might be superfluous, if not damaging.

Observation: Anyone posting a comment with quotes like this on a blog has to be full of crap.

By Dusty

January 5, 2009 12:49 PM | Link to this

Well, whatdoyano, some phony fat old geezer @ 8:43 is dreaming ‘bout what he wishes he had or could get ‘cause he aint got it!! And he’s NOT my one-an-only. No way!

Keep looking for your dreamboat, Bub! Good luck! Even you might find one.

(Aint love grand? It sure is!!)

As to *Jim Wooten’s fine and friendly piece this morning, we get the rock throwing response from libs. They are never satisfied.

Jim suggests that the outlook for Obama looks favorable so libs start with the “Not Jeb! Why are we in Iraq! We’re stuck in Mesopotamia! Evil GOP! Blackwater patrolling our streets! Bush lost our jobs! NeoNazis! Uneducated Georgia Rednecks!” Even PoFo runs the gamut of his IDs.

Democrats couldn’t show bi-partisanship if the streets were paved with gold. What biased opinions, unadulterated lies, crooked info and lack of foresight. All that BEFORE Obama even gets to open his mouth officially. The man has a wild herd to tame and they all belong to him.

Unfortunately, Obama has little experience except with the Chicago/Il crime club of government and Pelosi and Reid. But that might help. We will see.

By Minnesota Fats

January 5, 2009 12:50 PM | Link to this

It appears that the former SNL comic hack & failed Air America talk show host has successfully stolen a senate seat thanks to incompetent election boards in heavy Dimcrat areas. Congratulations Minnesota! How foolish do you people look. If Republicant’s can’r fight this ridiculous monstrosity of an election, then they deserve to be out of power for a long time to come..at least until some competent Republicans come to power.

Regarding more Dimcrat shenanigans, take note how they hollered and wailed at Republican spending and said that the deficit needs to be brought back in check. Now what are they doing? Upping the ante for a trillion dollar spending package and claiming, in Harry Reid’s words, that the deficit doesn’t matter now. You truly can’t make this stuff up from the minds of liberals.

By Maniac is accurate

January 5, 2009 1:06 PM | Link to this

First a pro wrestler and now a Saturday Night Live character. What are Minnesotans going to elect next, a farm animal or a sugar plum fairy? Any bets?

By beamer

January 5, 2009 1:10 PM | Link to this

Mr. Franken started the recount 215 votes behind Senator Coleman, but he now claims a 225-vote lead and suddenly the man who was insisting on “counting every vote” wants to shut the process down. He’s getting help from Mr. Ritchie and his four fellow Canvassing Board members, who have delivered inconsistent rulings and are ignoring glaring problems with the tallies.

Is that a replay of Florida in 2000 or what? Team Bush offered to recount the entire state, and Team Gore only wanted to cherry pick and recount heavy Dem counties. Maybe this is the way all future elections will be handled - by lawyers. It makes sense if you think about it since so many Dems in congress are former lawyers. All they know and understand are lawsuits. Just ask Breckboy Edwards about ambulance chasing. That brings up another point: since libs and Dems say that white collar workers, especially executives, who make a lot of money don’t really earn it, where does that leave rich lawyers in their hypocritical minds? But we already know that answer, don’t we?

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

January 5, 2009 1:16 PM | Link to this

Dear Snarky @ 12:33. I corrected the typo. Now correct your ideology.

By ron

January 5, 2009 1:30 PM | Link to this

after thinking about it for a while,I believe Franken will lend some credibility to the comedy that currently passes for The Senate.

By Jason

January 5, 2009 1:43 PM | Link to this

Dr. Sowell certainly doesn’t economize his words, does he? He sounds like a feminist theory professor.

By @@

January 5, 2009 2:13 PM | Link to this

President-elect Barack Obama, is upbeat, positive, optimistic and filled with the aforementioned good cheer.

Hmmmm…..aren’t those conservative characteristics, Jim?

I, too have a dream! That one day, the far-left wing of the democratic party will find itself out in the cold.

Can Obama fulfill my dream? MAYBE HE CAN!

but I’m not holding my breath. To do so would cause me to “turn blue”.

By Maniac is accurate

January 5, 2009 2:15 PM | Link to this

Following the year-end double whammy of Christmas and property taxes, there was the New Year double whammy of a $500 emergency vet bill and a $1,200 brake job.

I’m in need of a bailout and an economic stimulus.

By Muhammed Ali

January 5, 2009 2:33 PM | Link to this

I’m still a pretty man.

By deegee

January 5, 2009 2:44 PM | Link to this

I love to say “I told you so.” When congress conducts it’s “How did this Ponzi scheme happen?” dog and pony show within the next 10 years, let’s not let them get away with feigning ignorance. We have known for at least 20 years that there aren’t going to be enough workers in the workforce to pay a reasonable Social Security benefit to all the retirees. So don’t say we didn’t tell you so!

By Dusty

January 5, 2009 2:51 PM | Link to this

Dear Maniac is accurate@1:06

Now don’t be too hard on those MinnieSoties from the frozen north. They have been chewing on blubber too long and their greasy fingers slip all over their ballots. Hard to read and can only be deciphered by liberals who understand anything slippery only too well.

But I am pleased over the curious output of the MinnieSoties. No longer will we hear jokes about ignorant Southern rednecks. Now the joke will be on the Frozen Fools of MinnieMuckUps when Funny Franken comes to fruition.

As ron implies: one more comedian in Congress. Yes! I love it. RedNeck will humor us as Frosty the Foolish SnowMan while Franken fools around in Congress. What a snow job!!

By The Way

January 5, 2009 2:55 PM | Link to this

How about all those endzone celebration penalties on wildcard weekend. The players were out of conTROL!

By Curious Observer

January 5, 2009 3:12 PM | Link to this

More power to me! That extra $41 in my monthly paycheck from Obama’s tax cut is going to make the economy soar! Store owners, recognizing their salvation in my approach, will bow down to me. Kids may eat again. The streets will be gridlocked with newly purchased cars. Corporations will bring jobs back from overseas to provide products for purchase.

Or maybe not.

By Dusty

January 5, 2009 3:21 PM | Link to this

Aww COME ONE, Curious Observer.

We know you’ll be over at Target buying a new outfit for Easter, new patent leather pumps imcluded in that $41 tax break.

Then there will be the new hubcaps.

And, come spring, there will be a big wide screen TV on the back porch with the defunct refrigerator and washing machine. You’ll be throwing kisses to Obama. Show a little appreciation, honey!!

By 401k

January 5, 2009 3:45 PM | Link to this

I cannot understand why anyone that has not and will probably never make over $250k has a problem with paying less taxes. You folks need to stop listening to FOX and wake up.And DUSTBOWL I thought you were still on that oxygen machine at Grady. LOL.

By Dusty

January 5, 2009 4:07 PM | Link to this

Dear 401K, 3:45

When they brought you into Grady for the overdose, that wasn’t me you saw with oxygen. That was you going nuts, probably talking about your $250K/mo pay check!!

Grady is a good place but I don’t work there. Hope your treatments helped. Sorry you couldn’t pay for any of it.

By The Way

January 5, 2009 4:19 PM | Link to this

Tune into Oprah now. She is one obnoxious woman.

We all end up the same schlempf, you know?

By John A. Boehner

January 5, 2009 4:34 PM | Link to this

The “post-partisan” era in the House might not survive Day One.

Republican leaders, led by Ohio Rep. John A. Boehner, are protesting a move by Democrats to end the six-year term limits on committee chairmen and roll back other protections for the minority party.

Democrats are expected to include these changes – which would rewrite reforms first established by the GOP in 1995 — in a biennial rules package that will be among the first measures the House takes up later this week.

In a letter to be sent to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Monday, Boehner and colleagues in the GOP House leadership promise that “Republicans will vigorously oppose repealing these reforms if they are brought to a vote on the House floor.”

But the Democrats’ expanded majority means Republicans have almost no hope of blocking these changes.

Republicans first established the six-year term limits in 1995 after storming to power for the first time in 40 years. The new rules helped then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Calif.) consolidate power by ending the era of all-powerful chairmen. Pelosi has continued to consolidate power in the speaker’s office by regularly circumventing the committee process on priority bills.

In their letter, Boehner and his colleagues say the imposition of term limits on chairmanships “was intended to help restore the faith and trust of the American people in their government – a theme central to President-elect Obama’s campaign last year.”

Boehner and his colleagues invoke Obama’s “change” mantra repeatedly in their letter, arguing that the Democrats’ efforts to re-write House rules break from the president-elect’s pledge to “lead a government that is open and transparent.”

“Abolishing term limit reform is the opposite of ‘change,’” the Republicans say in the letter. “Instead, it will entrench a handful of members of the House in positions of permanent power, with little regard for its impact on the American people.”

Repealing the term limits on chairmen won’t have much, if any, impact on Republicans until they return to the majority. Practically speaking, the more important change in the Democrats’ plan is a move to limit the motion to recommit, a procedural tool that allows members of the minority to tweak legislation on the House floor.

According to Republicans aides familiar with the rules package, the change being considered would prevent members of the minority from effectively killing legislation by sending it back to the committee of jurisdiction.

Republicans used this tool repeatedly over the last two years to stymie Democrats on the floor, particularly during an extended debate over domestic oil drilling, when the GOP embarrassed the majority week after week and forced Democrats to suspend the annual spending process by threatening to offer a measure repealing a 27-year ban on offshore oil and gas drilling.

Given that dynamic, GOP leaders expected Democrats to make these changes to limit their ability to engage in these political stunts. Still, Boehner and his colleagues insist in their letter that Democrats are already failing to deliver on “the kind of openness and transparency that President-elect Obama promised.”

“This change,” they say, “would deprive tens of millions of Americans the opportunity to have a voice in the most important policy decisions facing our country

By Dusty

January 5, 2009 5:27 PM | Link to this

John Boehner @4:34

If John Boehner wrote that long spiel why would he say “Boehner did that…” and “Boehner said this…”. Is he talking to himself or about himself?

I smell a rat here and I think it is a liberal rat using the name of a leading Republican as his ID. I thought that was illegal in many ways. ISN’T IT?

By Glenn

January 5, 2009 6:03 PM | Link to this

Happy New Year, Mr. Wooten and friends,

I read this piece at the top o’ the morn’, and have thought about it throughout a busy day. The numbers involved in the fiscal stimulus package are so big that I wish I could dig my Macroeconomics textbook out of storage. (Microeconomics would dictate that I not do.)

But the idea of a split between spending and tax relief, that’s very interesting and even attractive. I’ve some idea how DC would arrive politically at respective 60/40 split, but it stirs me to wonder: why not 50/50? Why not 40/60? How about a five-year plan to move it from 60/40 to 40/60, in annual increments? See what I mean? Fascinating.

I could see Georgia mirroring something like this split approach, but my native California never would do. They cannot conceive of serious cost-cutting in a time of massive deficits — only of finding new revenue sources to feed the problem of official overspending and myopia.

By GayGrayGeek

January 5, 2009 6:15 PM | Link to this

DustBuster - the only thing around here that should be illegal is you having access to a computer while adamantly refusing to serve your country. AFEES is still waiting on you, dear.

Esquire - OnAndOn Anon is still waiting on you, too.

By Dusty

January 6, 2009 9:22 AM | Link to this

GGGeek,6:15pm

You certainly served the USA well. You moved to Canada. We are eternally grateful.

By mike the plumber

January 6, 2009 12:48 PM | Link to this

Hey they managed to keep one homeboy out the senate today, now if we could just do something with the trash thats moving into the White House on the 20th, America could get back to being America again and not a bunch of bleeding heart white people feeling guilty over slaves they never owned to start with.