Monday, October 14, 2013

Fencing Lesson

obama, obama jokes, hope n' change, hope and change, stilton jarlsberg, cartoon, million vet march, debt ceiling, golf, shutdown

Although Obamacare appears to be no closer to working this week, hope was raised Sunday for an eventual Obamacure.

Specifically, military veterans attending the "Million Vet March" in Washington DC removed the aptly-named "barrycades" preventing access to the World War II memorial, and piled them in front of the White House while chanting "Obama must go!"

Upon hearing which, Obama probably did go - right in his Huggies Pull-Ups.

Unfortunately, it may be too late for Obama to really go in time to avert economic disaster later this week. The president rejected GOP offers to raise the debt limit temporarily in return for serious talks about the budget, raising genuine questions about whether he actually wants America to default on her loan payments.

And why would he want that? Because chaos would work in his favor, allowing him to initiate "extraordinary measures" to control the populace while simultaneously making his "Wet Dreams From My Father" come true as the United States collapses into irrelevancy.

In 2010, the military considered giving medals for "courageous restraint" to soldiers who refrained from responding violently in the face of provocative enemy action.  Hope n' Change thinks that medal should be awarded, with honor, to every veteran who peacefully protested this weekend at the White House.

BONUS CARTOON: Government Gives Away Free Straight Lines!

Yes, that's really the new slogan for Obamacare's entirely non-functional 
"Health Insurance Marketplace" website. They may not have made getting
insurance any easier - but they've made it a breeze to write jokes.

40 comments:

Bruce Bleu said...

I've got a slogan for lamontocare that will pass the "truth in advertising" requirements... "We've had 3 years to get this operating. If we GAVE an 'airborne coitus' if it worked, we would have hired Bruce's SON to do it, and he's already done one more complex for $30,000,000.00, so JAM IT suckers!!!!"

Anonymous said...

Barrycades... good one.

TrickyRicky said...

Sorry Stilton, but you really must stop propagating the myth that failing to raise the debt ceiling means that the U.S. defaults on it's debt payments. There is plenty of tax revenue each and every month to cover the interest on our debt. There would have to be cuts in other areas, and therein lies the rub. The administration's actions in the last few weeks give a direct indication where that road would lead.

Grumpy Curmudgeon said...

@TrickyRicky: It is well documented that there is enough income tax withholding to cover the interest payments on the debt, and enough SS Tax to fund the Ponzi scheme of Social Security - BUT that doesn't make the people hurt. All The One has to do is set spending priorities, something he is legally and morally required to do - oops, I forgot I was talking about Obama, forget legal and moral - not in his/her DNA.

Now they are talking about giving back the sequester cuts - complete cave. Starting a viable third part is difficult - beginning with getting on all the state ballots, but I thinkk it's time to begin the process.

Grumpy Curmudgeon said...

Too Good......

Open Letter To Patty Murray

Reiuxcat said...

That was priceless, seeing the Barrycades piled up in from of the Spitehouse.

gothmog said...

I'm angry today, and this place seems like a decent one to rant.

I'm angry for a lot of reasons, but all of them can be largely summarized in three words: the American public.

For the first time since the Republicans took the House in 2012 they are actually standing firm (sort of) on an issue which, after everything that has happened, should be an obvious disaster for the American people. I say that it should be obvious...but of course nothing is obvious when you're talking about the products of America's public school systems. When large percentages of Michigan high school students can't even read it makes for an easily manipulated demographic, and Michigan isn't the only state in this dire situation.

At this moment the House of Representatives is actually exercising one of its most important Constitutionally authorized powers, controlling the power of the purse to check the authority of the executive branch and the Senate on an issue which the majority of Representatives see as crucial and which a majority of Americans still consider unpopular. In fact, the Supreme Court's decision actually sent the issue of the Affordable Care Act back to Congress.

Yet, the GOP old guard continue to flounder like cows caught in a flood while polls continue to show largely negative numbers for Congress and the Republicans in general. Even many of the talking heads over at Fox have started to bob up and down the with the majority AP opinion. Now, I take polls with a grain of salt given the nature of polling and statistics in general, but this is still depressing.

(to be continued...)

gothmog said...

Obama's minions continue to "enforce" sequestration and the "shut-down" by paying goons to blockade open air monuments and state parks. Do people get mad at the people running this sinister circus? Apparently not. Harry Reid (i.e The Voice of the Senate since 2008) refuses any and all negotiations, any and all efforts to alleviate the situation for the American people, and generally conducts himself like a monarch while decrying the Republicans as stubborn and unwilling to negotiate. Are Reid, Obama, and the Democrats called to task for any of this? Of course not. Rather, the bobbing heads are talking about how the Democrats obviously would never let the Republicans touch Obamacare, pointing this as if it were damning evidence. Frankly, the bobbing heads are right. The Democrats are never going to let the GOP touch Obamacare while they still control the Senate and the Presidency, and the GOP has done little enough over the past few years in the way of effective resistance. Still, the problems with Obamacare, the prophesied problems, impossibilities, and painful rate increases and lowered coverage are all coming to pass, the Democrats continue to shield themselves and their cronies from the effects of the law, and the American public still can't seem to get its collective head out of its own ass (pardon the language). Is this fight somehow not worth having because the Dems are in charge? Should we simply give up and get in line for the slaughter house like good little sheep?

Maybe the GOP is fighting an impossible fight, and maybe the old guard GOP are more interested in their own political skins than in protecting the American public, but I find myself more and more discouraged by the general apathy and misplaced anger I am seeing in the American people. I met an old friend from middle school a few days ago (a liberal who strangely sees himself as conservative) and was subjected to an angry tirade against Ted Cruz and any politician who supported the shut down. Why? "Because there are better ways." He wasn't sure what those better ways were, nor was he sure how those better ways would have stood up any better against the Reid-Obama team, but there it was: a simplistic and unsubstantiated belief that the Republicans in the House were wrong and the Dems were somehow...not wrong?

You have to know that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are just laughing and laughing and laughing. Shoot, Saul Alinsky is probably laughing in hell. I could go on, but I won't. Rant over.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Bruce Bleu- I've read quite a few articles at this point that completely destroy the administration's claim that their website doesn't work because it's so stinking popular. No, actually it's just rotten code on the front end, connecting with a nightmarish collection of bad software systems on the back end.

Maybe they can hire your son to work on the software for actual healthcare, and save a few hundred thousand lives. Oops - never mind. That's not what their goal is.

@Anonymous- I can't take credit for Barrycades, but the word is too good (and too accurate) not to use.

@TrickyRicky- I sort of cheated by oversimplifying matters; I know that we shouldn't be able to default - but I'm starting to wonder if Obama and his minions might actually screw with things so that we would anyway (in the same vein that he's twisted rules to make the sequester and shutdown hurt as many people - needlessly - as possible).

@Grumpy Curmudgeon- Well said. And Mrs. Jarlsberg greeted me this morning with the news that the GOP is talking about dropping the sequester cuts. Sadly, I think you're right that we may be on the verge of seeing a cave-in that causes people to finally give up on the Republicans and the horse they rode in on. More sadly, I can't envision a third party which would ever stand a chance of changing anything.

Also, I couldn't follow the link to the Patty Murray letter because it wants a password to your site.

@Reiuxcat- I'm starting to have great fondness for acts of civil disobedience. My question - why did Barry deploy SWAT teams for the veterans, but praise Occupy Wall Street? (I know, I know - the question answers itself).

@gothmog- Wow, what you call a "rant," I call an eloquent and incisive commentary on the current dismal state of affairs. I agree with every point you made - and hope you'll "rant" here more often.

txGreg said...

Try this link for Grumpy C's open letter. I removed the "edit" bit from the URL and that seems to work.

Rufus T Firefly said...

Good two-part Rant, well said.
It's now obvious the Obamacare rollout was intended to fail. They seem to be going for upfront negative conditioning of the cattle--train them from the git-go that anything to do with healthcare is now slow, ponderous, inefficient, and train them to resign themselves to being hapless supplicants in a dehumanized system they can't affect, can't escape and can't opt out of. Exactly what the NHS has done to the Brits, although with NHS it took longer for the socialist idealism to reveal the iron fist of bureacracy.
The polls showing people blaming the GOP is just more leftist agitprop, and doesn't resonate with what I hear every day.
Archliberal academic friends last night at dinner were aghast after receiving their 2014 rate increases of 270%--they'll be paying $900/month, up from $350 now. They're at Stage One Cognitive Dissonance, not ready to blame Obama, but they're certainly not blaming the GOP.



KyudoNV said...

My local ABC news affiliate reported on the million vet march over the weekend. They called the protesters who moved Barrycades out of the way to visit our national monuments "Conservative Military Activists".
That really chafes my ass, they didn't have the balls to call them Veterans.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@txGreg- Thanks for the updated link! Readers, I highly recommend reading the letter on Grumpy Curmudgeon's blog. The writer speaks for a lot of us.

@Rufus T Firefly- When I hear of liberals seeing their insurance costs skyrocket, I'm deeply grateful to the Germans for giving us the word "schadenfreude."

@KyudoNV- Damn straight they're "activists," just like they were when they were fighting for this country against external enemies. That being said, it does twist my tail to hear the media trying to characterize these veterans as kooks.

Grumpy Curmudgeon said...

Corrected Link:

Too Good....

Open Letter To Patty Murray

Sorry 'bout that

gothmog said...

@Rufus:
I deeply and sincerely hope that a strong conservative grass-roots platform still exists and still actively supports the GOP stance, but it's getting more difficult for me to believe when even many of the GOP can't get their crap together. To be fair, this is all much easier for the Democrats to pull off. It's not so hard to present a unified front when your politicians are chosen for their fanatical ideology and loyalty to the party line, most of constituency has never finished high school, and the academia and media largely support your position in spite of all the historical evidence which would suggest that this is all just one big Lie and the American public school system is actually just a factory building "useful idiots"---mindless servitors programmed to toil for the Great Dream. The political fallout over Obamacare largely got rid of any of the older generation of Democrats in Congress. Now we're left with only the true believers, the ones who have offered up their souls to the altar of the Progressive Movement, and the true politicians, the vampires willing to do anything to maintain their grip on power. It all really amounts to the same thing though: blind-men and blind-women leading a largely blind country out into the metaphorical wasteland, promising utopia and insisting that they are the only ones who can really see. It might be funny if it weren't so sad. Still, I AM laughing at all those people who voted Democrat and are now wondering how they're going to pay for the increases in their healthcare.

Hmmm...I guess my rant wasn't really over.

gothmog said...

And then I find this, and I feel a little better:
http://www.caintv.com/its-been-two-weeks-and-cnn-is

But the question still remains if any of this is ever going to translate into widespread anger directed at the guilty parties (or Party), shoring up support for what's left of the Republican position? I certainly hope so.

Colby said...

Too funny Stilton! And why do I have no problem believing that Barry's hardest moments in his pathetic life are the ones that require him to perform some pseudo-presidential rabbit-in-a-hat trick to look good for his press corps in between tee times. I will submit that Boehner et al are approaching Barry with the wrong incentives. They are trying to appeal to his "American-ness" by offering to fund this and that pet projects or give up the sequester, when they should be offering unlimited rounds of golf and free beer & cigarettes.

@Grumpy,
Very nice and well written letter! It is sad but true that Senators such as Murray ignore such passionate pleas, but will gladly embrace anything unholy like abortion, trampling The Constitution, or running our country off the cliff just to make Republicans look bad. I have written many thoughtful (or so I thought) letters to Senator Kay Hagan, and have received the BS ridden form letters in response. These people are deaf to us; their ears are too full of Obama's lies and propoganda, and they are hungry to stay in the lap of luxury at our expense. I even wrote one to my other Senator, Richard Burr (who I thought was on our side) asking him to join the fight to defund obama-scare. I got a letter back listing all the reasons it couldn't be done. So he's lost my vote now, too!

That being said, do you have a problem with us sharing your letter to your Senators, as long as we give credit where credit is due?

Freddie Sykes said...

RE: whether he actually wants America to DEFAULT on her loan payments.

You are allowing them to define the vocabulary. Cutting up your credit cards is not default. Start referring to reaching the the debt ceiling as a de facto balance budget amendment,

Grumpy Curmudgeon said...

@Colby and all: The letter is not mine, but a Washington State patriot's plea to Patty Murray. It's an open letter, so I think that changes specific to your situation/view would be appropriate. I know I plan to send it Cornyn, since my Representative is doing what she was elected to do, and same for Ted Cruz, but Cornyn seems (at this date) to be wimping out toward RINO status.

@Colby: Having lived in NC for a short while, I can appreciate the frustration with Burr - it's like he forgot what got him there after he was elected. Hagan, like Bev Perdue is a Schumer clone - therefore, no hope. My one lasting memory is when Hagan visited Afghanistan, she left her Marine guard out in the heat and dust to enjoy MRE's while she and the other senators on that tax-payer paid jaunt enjoyed a full course dinner.

John the Econ said...

The last time I wrote my representative, I got a thank you response for supporting "heath care reform".

I gave up after that.

Bruce Bleu said...

Juan the Econ, (thought I'd better get used to it),
I wrote to Bennet and Udall (my "taxation without vertebrate representation") and got some "Unicorn smooch" boilerplate bullsh*t "thanks for kissing the NIC's bony ass and embracing the healthcare screw-job you're receiving" response too.
I'd get more involved in visiting their offices PERSONALLY, but my blood pressure is already 94,864/247,986, so to allay a stroke, I'm gonna pass.

John the Econ said...

Well @Bruce Bleu, since liberals in Washington now openly consider citizens with Tea Party sympathies as more dangerous as Islamic terrorists...

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/14/confirme-the-obama-dhs-hit-job-on-conservatives-is-real/

...I hesitate to show up in person for fear of being thrown in jail, subjected to tax audits, or worse.

Grumpy Curmudgeon said...

Lets see how many of these the Obama Administration as used:

Alinsky's Rules For Radicals

Bruce Bleu said...

Grumpy Curmudgeon,
Hey, you BLEW it, buddy... and put the Democrap Party Mission Statement instead of... oh, wait... my bad!

Grumpy Curmudgeon said...

A report from Susan Katz Keating on the taking back of the memorials:

Veterans Take Back Memorials

The most moving was when the WWII vets got out of their wheel chairs and walked to the WWII Memorial.

God bless them all and Semper Fi!

John the Econ said...

Meanwhile as the shutdown continues, the Administration is still at work finding new and absurd ways to waste your money while saving you and your children from yourselves. This time, it's Michelle Obama's time to contribute:

Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” Stamps Destroyed for Pic of Unsafe Headstand w/o Helmet

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/michelle-obamas-lets-move-stamps-ordered-destroyed-for-depicting-unsafe-headstand-without-helmet/

That's right. The biggest threat to America's youth isn't a future of social, economic, and international decline, but the idea that America's lethargic kids just might get the idea to do a headstand without a helmet based upon what they see on a postage stamp. We must take a stand against ill-advised cannonball mishaps! Our kids will be much safer locked in their homes with the latest edition of Grand Theft Auto, where all potential injury is only hypothetical and psychological.

These are the morons who we are letting dictate how we shall live our lives! Wake Up America!

PRY said...

wake up, Americans, INDEED!

So much is happening it is difficult to keep up on a daily basis! At the same time, NOTHING is being done! In one sense, I am so proud of the Repubs in the house for taking a stand, as painful as it is...but I feel it is the right thing to do!

Good to see some states reopening parks at their expense (be sure and bill the fed later!) Things get done right more of the time when the feds are not involved!

The veterans, bless'em, bought ALL of us this right to be where we are today, and of course they deserve better, but loved the stack of metal guards! What a shameful era for an American administration, but we all know too well by now, THEY HAVE NO SHAME, and are the picture of evil, all following Obama's lead!

Some news programs reported the vets' plight pretty good, but many took the low ground again, one actually commenting that the rally was actually because there was a BLACK MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE! Unreal! Obama's supporters, though, probably do not pay much attention to hard news, preferring wrestling, game shows, computer games and ransacking the shelves of a Wal-Mart with their screwed-up EBT cards!

Great comments and artwork today!!! Take care!

PRY AGAIN said...

One think I keep in mind, folks, is....if Obama thinks it's a good idea, IT AIN'T! Don't change your name, Washington Redskins!

Grumpy Curmudgeon said...

@PRY: You forgot Honey Boo Boo!

Colby said...

@PRY,
I watched The Cowboys / Redskins game Sunday, and that baboon turd, Bob Costas came on at half time quacking about how horrible the Redskins name is, and how the owners should change it. Hey Bob... You are an alleged sportscaster; leave the left wing editorializing to Rachael Madcow and Whoopie Goldberg. If YOUR skin was red, then you'd have a right to an opinion on this subject; but since you skin is pretty darn white, why don't you go have your little hissy at the Chicago White Sox? And why weren't you pissing and moaning about the OTHER team? Don't you find the name "Cowboys" more than a little sexist? Shouldn't they change it to Bovinepersons?

A note to NBC: Did you NOT learn you lesson with that moron Keith Olbermann? Us football fans watch football for one reason. We like football (I'd think this obvious, but realize your management types are somewhat less than in touch with us common rabble). If we want your socialist political opinions (which we don't, by the way), we'll change the channel to MSNBC or CNN. We NEVER get this crap from ESPN, Fox, or even CBS. The ONLY reason we watch football on NBC is you somehow outbid networks that value OUR opinions over their own, so we are stuck with you. You should also know that from now on, I will Tivo games on NBC so I can skip over your commercials and political tripe.

Rufus T Firefly said...

Re: the Costas leftist editorializing being so unwanted by the viewers, my working assumption for years now has been that both NBC and MSNBC (and CNBC for that matter) have been pledged to Obama as propaganda organs in exchange for reciprocal advantages to the Mother Company from the Administration.

That's the only excuse for continuing editorial policies that have brought such terrible, literally public-access-local-cable-show level ratings to MSNBC.
CNBC's ratings have nosedived astonishingly in the last several years, in part because they are wiping out their middle-class-investor-day-trader viewership, and in large part because their leftist slant is such an anathema to their target demographic.
Put another way, NBC uber-management is perfectly fine with lousy ratings and outrageously offensive demagogues like Sharpton. They expect lousy ratings for this agit-babble, and they've already written off ratings as a necessary loss-leader to keep the Administration happy.
One consolation would be that on any given night the entire viewership of MSNBC--ALL of it--is outnumbered by the population of Duval County, Florida (metro Jacksonville).

txGreg said...

As the campaign season for the 2016 elections kick off soon, the media and the establishment GOP will start trying to sell us all on Chris Christie's "conservative credentials." When that happens, and some of your friends are led astray, keep this story handy. Also perhaps, this related follow-up.

Either there is some very different information from the other side of this story, and Christie should not have stuck his political nose in at all, or the facts given are essentially accurate and he should have given Mr. Aitken a full pardon (and put some cops under investigation). Instead, he once again tried to burnish his imaginary conservative credentials with a meaningless gesture that did nothing to address the actual problem. (note: this is even before he signed new legislation to enforce even stiffer penalties on unregistered gun owners in NJ)

We don't need another "go along to get along" squishy Republican in Washington D.C. Congress is already full of them. We sure as heck don't need the GOP trying to put yet another of them in the White House.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Readers- Outstanding comments above! I'm strapped for time at the moment (happily, I'm working on something business oriented - not fighting demons) so haven't been able to post much in this thread, though it probably would amount to 20 variations of "I agree!"

I'll note, however, that while I'm not much of a football fan, if Bob Costas wants to be a whiny, self-righteous little prig about the Redskins name, why doesn't he also do some editorializing about the lack of Asians, women, and disabled Americans on the field? In for a penny, in for a pound, Bob.

It's No Gouda said...

Rethe Costas/Redskins BS
I'll contribute a questiion I saw/heard somewhere else.
When are "minorities" going to tell pasty white people to stop telling them what they should be "offended" by.

Rufus T Firefly said...

@Stilton, that's pure genius!

What this nation needs is an all-disabled, all-female, all-Asian, all-LBGT and/orUndecided- Awaiting-Reassignment professional allstar NFL team!

Let the competition for the best PC team name begin here.

Rufus T Firefly said...

And to start the discussion rolling I suggest:

The 'Washington Whiny Self-Righteous Little Prigs'

Anonymous said...

Its over.

You lost.

YOU GET NOTHING.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/361336/stunned-republicans-react-canceled-vote-jonathan-strong



Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Anonymous- If it is over, then you've lost too. Lost access to both workable health insurance and actual health care, lost another trillion dollars that your progeny will have to repay, and lost the privilege in living in a country that is not ruled by a dictatorial maniac. Because, if you didn't know, you can't "share the wealth" without sharing the pain.

Pete (Detroit) said...

I love, and I DO mean *love* the lefties echoing twin cries of "it's the Law of the Land" and "you LOST, get OVER it." Because slavery, and White Male Franchise *used* to be "The Law of the Land" until Republicans w/ stiff spines and testicular fortitude changed things (w/in my Grandmother's lifetime, one of them). And so sorry, but The Law of the Land remains "all spending bills originate in the House" and in re the 2010 midterms? "You LOST." In mother humping droves. beyond landslide, it was a slaughter. And just wait until next year, when we start taking out the establishment RINO eff-tards...
Buuuhhwwahhahahhahah!!!!

Grumpy Curmudgeon said...

Too much serious discussion here, so time for a little OT

1997 Jeep Cherokee

I'd like to buy this thing just to meet the owner!

And as far as Anonymous - to think he had to fill out the Recaptcha to have his/her/it's spit bubble blowing rant, only proves that some still have too much time on their hands sitting in their parent's basement, eating Cheetos and staring at fading Obama posters.