Posts by BizzyBee

369

So are Republicans now openly terrorists?

by Simon in

they seem determined to undermine the us democracy and shut the government down hurting employees and veterans.. what a despicable bunch, hope they get their asses kicked for what they are doing..

BizzyBee

http://www.dailykos.com/

Good commentary from Bill Moyers.

13

Movie - "Gravity" is a must see

by Comatose in

it was fantastic in imax 3d.

not a cheap fake computer fake 3d.

this was real 3d.

BizzyBee

Just saw it this afternoon in 3-D. Awesome! By the end, I was wrung out.

12

39 years down the road (pictures)

by JeffT in

jw
friends

october 6, 1974, outside the kingdom hall in pullman, wa.

good grief, we look like children.

friday afternoon on our way to celebrate on whidbey island.

A small observation from the AGM...

by sir82 in

jw
friends

...but it struck me as significant anyway.. i attended at a jw assembly hall, and was sitting behind a pretty typical jw family.

2 kids about ages 8 & 5, frazzled hen-pecked husband, and....the mom.

the lady of the house.

So are Republicans now openly terrorists?

by Simon in

they seem determined to undermine the us democracy and shut the government down hurting employees and veterans.. what a despicable bunch, hope they get their asses kicked for what they are doing..

BizzyBee

is there any actual person who feels terrorized by something that is exclusive to Republicans?

Shut down of the US government?

369

So are Republicans now openly terrorists?

by Simon in

they seem determined to undermine the us democracy and shut the government down hurting employees and veterans.. what a despicable bunch, hope they get their asses kicked for what they are doing..

BizzyBee

Whatever opinions on the rights and wrongs of ACA is immaterial - it's law, it needs to be respected because it became law through the democratic processes in place.

The real issue is that the republican party has pandered to a small group of extremists and the result is that they have been able to shutdown the government and now threaten the US defaulting on it's debts.

They are extremists - they think their views and opinions are the only truth worth following and everything can and will be sacrificed for them to have their own way. They think that their beliefs should override everyone elses democratic rights. They don't care if they bring the country to its knees or send the economy down the toilet, in fact it wouldn't surprise me if they delighted in doing this as part of their revolutionary attitude and reckless approach to politics.

There is no negotiating with people like this. They need to fail, they need to fail hard and they need to be wiped off the poitical map because of it or at least put there they belong - as an isolated, unelectable extremist faction.

This recent article by Andrew Sullivan addresses this so well:

How does one party that has lost two presidential elections and a Supreme Court case – as well as two Senate elections - think it has the right to shut down the entire government and destroy the full faith and credit of the United States Treasury to get its way on universal healthcare now? I see no quid pro quo even. Just pure blackmail, resting on understandable and predictable public concern whenever a major reform is enacted. But what has to be resisted is any idea that this is government or politics as usual. It is an attack on the governance and the constitutional order of the United States.

When ideologies become as calcified, as cocooned and as extremist as those galvanizing the GOP, the American system of government cannot work. But I fear this nullification of the last two elections is a deliberate attempt to ensure that the American system of government as we have known it cannot work. It cannot, must not work, in the mindset of these radicals, because they simply do not accept the legitimacy of a President and Congress of the opposing party. The GOP does not regard the president as merely wrong – but as illegitimate. Not misguided – illegitimate. This is not about ending Obamacare as such (although that is a preliminary scalp); it is about nullifying this presidency, the way the GOP attempted to nullify the last Democratic presidency by impeachment.

Except this time, of course, we cannot deny that race too is an added factor to the fathomless sense of entitlement felt among the GOP far right. You saw it in birtherism; in the Southern GOP’s constant outrageous claims of Obama’s alleged treason and alliance with Islamist enemies; in providing zero votes for a stimulus that was the only thing that prevented a global depression of far worse proportions; in the endless race-baiting from Fox News and the talk radio right. And in this racially-charged atmosphere, providing access to private healthcare insurance to the working poor is obviously the point of no return.

Even though the law is almost identical to that of their last presidential nominee’s in Massachusetts, the GOP is prepared to destroy both the American government and the global economy to stop it. They see it, it seems to me, as both some kind of profound attack on the Constitution (something even Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts viewed as a step too far) and, in some inchoate way, as a racial hand-out, however preposterous that is. And that is at the core of the recklessness behind this attack on the US – or at least my best attempt to understand something that has long since gone beyond reason. This is the point of no return – a black president doing something for black citizens (even though the vast majority of beneficiaries of Obamacare will be non-black).

I regard this development as one of the more insidious and anti-constitutional acts of racist vandalism against the American republic in my adult lifetime. Those who keep talking as if there are two sides to this, when there are not, are as much a part of the vandalism as Ted Cruz. Obama has played punctiliously by the constitutional rules – two elections, one court case – while the GOP has decided that the rules are for dummies and suckers, and throws over the board game as soon as it looks as if it is going to lose by the rules as they have always applied.

The president must therefore hold absolutely firm. This time, there can be no compromise because the GOP isn’t offering any. They’re offering the kind of constitutional surrender that would effectively end any routine operation of the American government. If we cave to their madness, we may unravel our system of government, something one might have thought conservatives would have opposed. Except these people are not conservatives. They’re vandals.

This time, the elephant must go down. And if possible, it must be so wounded it does not get up for a long time to come.

http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/10/01/the-nullification-party/

369

So are Republicans now openly terrorists?

by Simon in

they seem determined to undermine the us democracy and shut the government down hurting employees and veterans.. what a despicable bunch, hope they get their asses kicked for what they are doing..

BizzyBee

What is the point of having a debt ceiling, if you're just going to raise it?

It is high time we abolished the hostage-taking over the debt-ceiling. It is also high time we educated the public about what the debt ceiling means. Jaysus!

369

So are Republicans now openly terrorists?

by Simon in

they seem determined to undermine the us democracy and shut the government down hurting employees and veterans.. what a despicable bunch, hope they get their asses kicked for what they are doing..

BizzyBee

Cutting through the dogmatism and derisiveness, you both make some good points.

My remarks were in the context of home-schooling (of which I am not a fan), but I also question the glaring omission of the fact that the democratic party of Lincoln's day is not the democratic party of today. In fact, the two parties began a complete ideological switch starting around the turn of the century.* If you don't know this, political history can be difficult to argue.

And to the issue, I recognise the boundries were along mostly state lines, but not all. It was not a geographical issue, it was a state's rights issue and that issue was within the political parties.

njws, could you elaborate on this point?

*http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rich-rubino/democratic-and-republican-ideologies_b_3432210.html

369

So are Republicans now openly terrorists?

by Simon in

they seem determined to undermine the us democracy and shut the government down hurting employees and veterans.. what a despicable bunch, hope they get their asses kicked for what they are doing..

BizzyBee

You two with your tired liberal clap traps, and silly technical spelling and grammar corrections.

Surely you see the irony of nonjwspouse touting her homeschooling capabilities and then demonstrating - well - her ignorance of some of the fundamental principles of history and communication?

369

So are Republicans now openly terrorists?

by Simon in

they seem determined to undermine the us democracy and shut the government down hurting employees and veterans.. what a despicable bunch, hope they get their asses kicked for what they are doing..

BizzyBee

The democrats succeeded.

Hmmmmm.....yes and no......

This is why I take charge of my own childrens history lessons.

I hope you leave their spelling and grammar lessons to a competent teacher.