Close readings: With 48 hours to go, Palin spreads misinformation

By Dan Brooks in Close Reading 2 Comments
"And what about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier? I say we dig him up, identify the dental records and give an American hero the recognition he deserves."

“And what about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier? I say we dig him up, identify the dental records and give an American hero the recognition he deserves.”

With approximately 48 hours until we hit the federal debt ceiling and maybe cause dead financiers to rise from their graves and devour the faces of the living, the Senate is working on a deal. If you read down a few paragraphs in that article, you will find a quote that Ben al-Fowlkes described as the kind of thing you’re supposed to talk about with your caucus, not the New York Times. “Anybody who would vote for that in the House as a Republican would virtually guarantee a primary challenger,” says Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R–KS). Not a primary challenger to Tim Huelskamp! How will the Republic survive? In the contest between individual selfishness and collective responsibility that is our legislative October, selfishness is still fighting. Case in point: Sarah Palin’s screed of misinformation and contradictory indictments of the president, posted yesterday on her damn Facebook wall.

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Friday links! So close edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links 1 Comment

so close

For a second there, it looked like the we were out of the woods on this whole shut-down-the-government-and-cause-a-world-economic-crisis thing. The president has rejected House Republicans’ proposal to raise the debt ceiling for six weeks, which would have demanded minimal concessions from Democrats but also would not have ended the shutdown. The government is still closed, and our statutory borrowing authority has a little less than a week. But there is reason for hope: the GOP’s proposal made no mention of Obamacare, and enough GOP moderates are breaking ranks with the ideologically pure that a clean continuing resolution is possible. Today is Friday, and we are so close to having a functional government. Won’t you pine with me?

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Let’s get our nation’s girlfriends back to work!

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized 1 Comment
Chris Cox of South Carolina mows the lawn at the Lincoln Memorial, because he is awesome.

Chris Cox of South Carolina mows the lawn at the Lincoln Memorial, because he is awesome.

I am not as good as this guy, but I do have a column in the Indy this week, in which I lament that the federal shutdown has caused a political stalemate in my household over my “work” habits. I thought that it had been published just in time, as the House GOP is meeting today to discuss a plan to raise the debt limit through November 22 with no strings attached. But that plan would not do anything about the shutdown, presumably so that the Republican Party can complete its metamorphosis into two beautiful butterflies, each with one wing. We’re not out of the woods yet, dear reader. We’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links.

 

For Tea Party faithful, phase one is denial

By Dan Brooks in Politics versus Government 0 Comment
Rand Paul (R–KY) describes to the Senate Roommates Committee how he blew it with a drunk girl.

Rand Paul (R–KY) describes to the Senate Roommates Committee how he blew it with a drunk girl.

We’re in week two of the federal shutdown—which Fox News has taken to calling the slimdown—and default is eight days away. It’s safe to say that some Congressional Republicans are regretting their decision to tie a continuing resolution to defunding Obamacare. That plan didn’t work, in part because it somehow did not include an endgame in which the president called their bluff. An intellectually honest delegation might have admitted defeat and moved forward, but the Republican Party has not. Erick Erickson believes the GOP is winning, for maybe the stupidest reason imaginable. And a growing number of conservative Republicans are telling themselves and the press that—contrary to economists, financiers and the American business community—breaching the debt limit wouldn’t be so bad.

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Close Readings: Michele Bachmann declares End Times

By Dan Brooks in Close Reading 3 Comments
A rare image from Stars Without Makeup catches Michele Bachmann without her prosthetic eyes.

A rare image from Stars Without Makeup catches Michele Bachmann without her prosthetic eyes.

Our fine furloughed friend The Cure sent me a link to this radio interview Michele Bachmann did with a show called Understanding the Times, in which she declares that we are in “God’s end times.” “Maranatha come Lord Jesus,” the Minnesota congresswoman said, “His day is at hand.” You can read a distilled version of her gibbering godspeak here. “Maranatha,” by the way, is an Aramaic expression that either means “our lord has come” or the imperative “come, lord.” It is also a brand of nut butter. Close reading of Bachmann’s particular brand of nut butter after the jump.

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