Let’s Agonize For Weeks About Cutting $30 Billion

So we can raise the debt ceiling by $2 trillion

The Obama administration has been sounding hazard warnings all year on the need to raise the U.S. debt limit, but it has yet to deliver the worst news: Congress may have to raise it by more than $2 trillion.

Neither the administration nor lawmakers in Congress want to talk about it, but an increase of at least $1 trillion is needed to keep the government running through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, an analysis of deficit forecasts and U.S. Treasury borrowing needs shows.

To last until the November 2012 presidential election, the increase would need to be well over $2 trillion.

These people are not serious about the level of what we face.

Now THAT’S a Credit Union!

I knew I loved these guys…

Navy Federal to Advance Direct Deposit Pay for Active Duty Military Members

VIENNA, Va., April 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Navy Federal Credit Union, the world’s largest credit union, announced its plans today for supporting its members in the event of a possible government shutdown as of midnight April 8.

“We’re hopeful that Congress and the White House will come to an agreement to avoid a shutdown,” said Cutler Dawson, Navy Federal President and CEO. “At the same time, we want to support our members—especially our active duty military members—through this potentially challenging time. We want to ensure, to the extent possible, that our military families do not suffer financially in the wake of a political impasse.” Dawson went on to list steps Navy Federal is taking.

One major initiative is to cover the April 15 payroll for those active duty members who have their direct deposit of pay at Navy Federal.

“By covering the mid-month pay, come April 15 our active duty members will not see a difference in their direct deposit amount, as if there were no shutdown,” added Dawson.

Seems Kloppenburg is GUILTY

…of PREMATURE ELECTULATION. (Okay, I can’t do it ~ Bingley came up with that.)

Shoulda held that happy dance, girlfriend.

Computer Error Could Give Prosser 7,381 More Votes, Victory

…Prior to the election, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus was heavily criticized for her decision to keep the county results on an antiquated personal computer, rather than upgrade to a new data system being utilized statewide. Nickolaus cited security concerns for keeping the data herself — yet when she reported the data, it did not include the City of Brookfield, whose residents cast nearly 14,000 votes.

…“Waukesha County officials have announced a press conference for 5:30 CST.”

Ticktickticktick….

UPDATE: Woot! Woot! And the total is…EVEN BIG-GAH!

David Prosser gained about 7,582 votes in Waukesha County, Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announced this afternoon.

UPDATE REDUX: For KathyK, in the comments. {8^P

Soooo…..

Lotsa people at the NAS Pensacola commissary this afternoon, stocking up, just-in-case.

Lots of MAD people, from the checkout clerk to the three neighbors I ran into, to the clueless young bagger (who works only for tips for the bags he packs and carries out), once I explained what the fuss was about. There may be even fewer fading Obama/Biden stickers in that parking lot after this weekend, even if they don’t cut their own throats with this, just for the hate, discontent and stress they’ve caused everyone.

Meanwhile, Ebola called with an update from Davis-Monthan. It seems commanders are already scrambling there to find money just to keep the chowhalls open if the shutdown happens.

So. My kid ~ and lots of other military kids ~ may not get fed because Barack wants it that way…but Michelle’s kids will?

I am snortin’ fire.

Did He Speak “Rainbow-European?”

Dude’s buried like a lady

Archaeologists have unearthed the 5,000-year-old remains of what they believe may have been the world’s oldest known gay caveman.

The male body – said to date back to between 2900-2500BC – was discovered buried in a way normally reserved only for women of the Corded Ware culture in the Copper Age.

The skeleton was found in a Prague suburb in the Czech Republic with its head pointing eastwards and surrounded by domestic jugs, rituals only previously seen in female graves.

“From history and ethnology, we know that people from this period took funeral rites very seriously so it is highly unlikely that this positioning was a mistake,” said lead archaeologist Kamila Remisova Vesinova.

“Far more likely is that he was a man with a different sexual orientation, homosexual or transsexual,” she added.

Grog ask.

Grog tell.

That’s How Much “The Present” Cares About the Troops

They’re part of the CR and “A Distraction”. He’ll veto the Continuing Resolution with the troop funding in it.

Bilious bastard can’t pay the troops fighting his war on time, but he sure can keep a tight social schedule.

(Via Jake Tapper’s Twitter feed.)

Oh Shit: 7.4 In Japan

Maybe two

good god.

Last Night, Gwen Ifill Was a Pseudo “Journalist”

She shocked the hell out of us.
She actually asked Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who was the sole focus of the segment, two pointed questions during the interview. The first was…

GWEN IFILL: Congressman, how did we get to this point? When the Democrats were in the majority, there wasn’t a budget passed either.

…while the second put him on the spot after a diatribe about throwing seniors to the wolves in Ryan’s medicare budget plans.

GWEN IFILL: Aren’t the seniors grandfathered, anyone 55 years and older, grandfathered in under this plan?

Oh, she nailed him nicely, but then lets him tapdance it immediately into Medicaid, which has…nothing to do with nothing in the question. WHIFF!

Of course, he answers not one point: regurgitates demagogic blather, “our plan” this and that, with not a figure, nor fact, nor plan in evidence, and she doesn’t FOLLOW UP on any non-answer (leading to my “pseudo” appellation), but hey! Who woulda ever thunk she’d have asked to begin with? Must be a new openness at PBS, eh?

Thank YOU, James O’Keefe!

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

Vapid, vacuous, vicious television worth watching!

Dear Congress

Right now.

Today.

You pass a special CR to continue paying the troops regardless of what happens with the budget.

Kisses,

Bingley

ths UPDATE: What’s also being lost in the sauce here is that the younger folks hit that commissary ~ trust me, it’s a MOB SCENE ~ on the first and fifteenth, when that paycheck hits. That barely lasts them to the very evening of the next day before the next payday.

Guess what closes with this shutdown?

That commissary. That no tax, stretch-your-dollar-if-you-have-one-left lifeline is GONE.

And if you’re OVERSEAS? That commissary IS your lifeline for your family in a foreign country. Try buying food on the local economy in Japan. That’ll set you back some beaucoup dinero.

Oh, wait!

You have NO MONEY!!

Portugal To EU: Oh Yeah, We Are Boned, Aren’t We

Brother could you spare 70 or 80 billion Euros?

The country’s caretaker prime minister José Sócrates said the measure had been taken after the stricken nation had run out of options.

Economists last night put the UK’s involvement in a Portuguese bail–out at up to a potential £4.4billion.

After months of resisting having to apply for a bail–out from the EU and the International Monetary Fund, Portugal’s cost of borrowing has reached unsustainable levels.

Repeat after me: their “cost of borrowing has reached unsustainable levels.”

Our national debt is currently over $14 trillion dollars.

Our budget deficit for this year alone is going to be somewhere north of 1,500 billion dollars, so the national debt will rise by at least 10%.

And if interest rates increase then the debt will rise dramatically and our cost of borrowing to finance that trillions and trillions of dollars of debt will make the Portuguese situation look like a laughably small amount.

We must decrease our spending or we are totally, completely, horrifically boned.

On World News Tonight Monday Night ~ Just Riveting

Someone tell the President these guys don’t need to worry about how the rent back home’s gonna get paid, capisce?

When he gets back from the party with Al, I mean.

Your “WAKE UP!” Video of the Day

A Bad Case of Vampire Fears

…and crocodile tears.

Fired NPR CEO Vivian Schiller spoke Tuesday at the Paley Center for Media in New York and lashed out at the videographers who exposed the bigotry in her organization, calling the undercover sting an “abomination.” She admitted the rest of the establishment is “terrified” of being the next NPR, Planned Parenthood or ACORN…and speculated that the goal of these stings is to instill fear. “It’s terrifying,” Schiller said, that’s their “objective.”

Looming Government Shutdown, Three Wars Raging, Troops WON’T Get Paid: WHAT’S a PRESIDENT TO DO?

Get the fuck out of Dodge. Duh.

West Wing briefing: Obama headed out of D.C. as shutdown looms

A fiery President Obama insisted Tuesday after that if he and congressional leaders couldn’t reach a deal to avert a government shutdown, “I want a meeting again tomorrow here at the White House.”

“I will invite the same folks that we invited today,” he added. “And if that doesn’t work, we’ll invite them again the day after that. And I will have my entire team available to work through the details of getting a deal done.”

Obama’s team may not include the president himself. Despite the impasse in Washington over federal spending, the president as of early Wednesday was scheduled to give two speeches outside of Washington: one on energy in the Philadelphia suburbs, then another Wednesday evening to a group of black political activists in New York.

True to form, that’s our guy. Skitter out like a cockroach. (Do you know the Post has a “POTUS Tracker” feature? Good luck keeping up with THAT thing.)

But this very same WaPo may have a fix(ative) ~ keep Obama “in the game”, as it were.

Or at least on his Imperial throne the premises long enough to hammer out a deal…

Man stuck to toilet seat in Md. Wal-Mart

Elkton police say a man became stuck to a department store toilet seat after someone spread glue on it.

It happened Thursday evening at the Wal-Mart in Elkton. Officials refused to say how long the man was stuck before he was able to get help.

Come on. How many times have you heard people say, “Somebody needs to glue his ass in the Oval Office!“?

You KNOW they have.

When That Feller Writes in His Manner Most Poetical

Makes me positively weak in the knees, it does.

…I’ll take my chances with blowhard pastors, drearily “transgressive” artists and flag-burning provocateurs. I’m far more worried about a blundering clod like Graham presuming to protect us from them.

Damn! There Goes My Retirement Account

I was counting on sweet returns from this guaranteed low risk investment

Extra sanctions have been imposed on Gbagbo’s regime by the European Union, which banned the purchase of Ivorian government bonds because the administration is “illegitimate”.

Sigh.

Cripple Fight!

Oh, sorry, it’s actually George Monbiot vs Helen Caldicott on NuQueLahr power.

Smart Power!

How do you say “reset” in Quechua?

(CNN) — The Ecuadorian government on Tuesday declared the U.S. ambassador in that country, Heather Hodges, persona non grata and asked her to leave as soon as possible, the state-run Andes news agency reported. The decision was based on a State Department cable made public by WikiLeaks, it said.

Got Some Backyard Action Springtime Shots Sunday

…since everyone was out and about. (Only knucklehead I missed was BeauBeau. He was in the doghouse for rumbling at the fence with the lo-rent SquidTerrorist’s curs.)
Scotties complete with a rare sparkle-eyed Boo.


Mort, fresh from behind the gardenia, posing in the middle of the lawn.


Mort, motoring, with turtle places to go. (Notice front paw blurry.) (Well, it IS!)


Coffee harvest. Again. From the world’s smallest plantation.

We pretty much are the center of the universe here.

Thanks to major dad and a HUGELY PISSY BINGLEY, We Have an Update on the Gauguin “Two Tahitian Women” Attacker

Why, she’s the mayor of Crazy Town!

Gauguin Attacker Angered By “Very Homosexual” Art
Suspect told cops she was from CIA with “a radio in my head”

…Suspect Susan Burns, who turned 53 Friday, also said that the Gauguin painting “Two Tahitian Women,” which is pictured at right and valued at $80 million, is “very homosexual. I was trying to remove it. I think it should be burned,” according to a criminal complaint filed in D.C. Superior Court. “I am from the American CIA and I have a radio in my head. I am going to kill you,” added Burns, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Man, you can get away with just about anything if you have a radio in your head.

End Game In The Ivory Coast?

It looks like it is over for Gbagbo.

A “senior diplomat” has told AP that Outtara forces have now seized the presidential home in Abidjan. Gbagbo and his inner circle are sheltering in a bunker.

In my limited diplomatic experience I’ve found that sheltering in a bunker in your seized presidential home is generally not the strongest position to negotiate from.

But maybe that’s just me.

Update: He’s given up.

Oh, Well

Poop.

Down The Memory Hole

Remember that fact sheet I linked to and quoted from the other day? The “Taking Back America” final fact sheet that so clearly laid out what that dynamic, er, dynamo of changey goodness Obama would do in his amazingly awesome spontaneously generating sort of way?

Guess what’s gone from his website?

A Parable For Our Time

Via Tim here’s what happens when an intrusive meddling force overstays while trying to ensure “fairness”

It’s time for our government to get off the track before further disasters ensue.

To Succeed In Life You Need To Pay Your Dues

And sometimes even after paying your dues, well, things just don’t work out.

Which happens. Life has lots of ups and downs.

The important thing is that you keep paying your dues

In fact, a pernicious lie catalyzes the transmission of this mass malady among union members. Ultimately, that lie robs those infected of crucial awareness and reality testing that could save their bacon.

The lie is that government employee unions actually care about, protect, and work honestly and diligently on behalf of their members.

They don’t.

Not one iota.

And I now have solid proof to back up my assertion.

Now, class, your assignment for tonight is to compare and contrast those union folks getting totally sold-out by their “elected leadership” and the rest of us getting totally sold out by our “elected leadership.”

I’m not seeing much difference.