Monday, September 30, 2013

House GOP: Stand Your Ground | RedState

House GOP: Stand Your Ground | RedState

A short and right to the point piece by Erick Erickson concerning the GOP's handling of the government shutdown debate..

An Iowan's Thoughts on the Shutdown..

For the last few days, the political theater that is the fight over funding the federal government has gotten
interesting enough to finally bring me back to blogging for the first time in several months.

Of course, this all started with Senator Ted Cruz calling for House Republicans to once again pass a bill against President Obama's landmark health care law, nicknamed "Obamacare", in this case attached to the continuing resolution to fund the federal government. When the bill reached the Senate, Cruz performed an impressive 21 hour speech from the Senate floor (though not strictly a "filibuster" in the traditional sense) not only denouncing Obamacare but also, in many ways the Senate/Congress itself.

Breitbart: Top 5 Things That Won't Shut Down on Tuesday



Don't necessarily agree with Breitbart.com on many stories but this is a short and sweet list of major federal agencies/entities that will NOT be shut down with the rest of the federal government..

Sunday, September 29, 2013

More Gallup Geewhiz: Fewer Americans Than Ever Trust Gov't to Handle Problems

Fewer Americans Than Ever Trust Gov't to Handle Problems

Well, this certainly isn't the most surprising headline for a poll but the numbers within are rather surprising. Without getting into too much detail (since while I love the number-crunching of a political poll, I'll leave that to the experts at Gallup to explain), many of the data points in this poll are not only quite interesting, they're a bit predictable.

Most important of all, such polls are actual EVIDENCE of how "the American People" (see previous post) feel about their government on both domestic and international issues, and not the crap that pathetic partisans (both politicians and pundits alike) try to spoon feed the public.

Gallup: In America, Trust in "The American People" at New Low..

In U.S., Political Trust in "American People" at New Low

More or less, this poll is asking folks on how much they trust the WHOLE of the American people to make good political judgement.

Several interesting headlines from this poll:

  • Democrats are the most trusting of the "American People" at 68%
  • Republicans are the least trusting of the "American People" at 57%
  • Independents are slightly more trusting of the "American People" at 59%
  • In 2005, this was largely reversed, with Republicans being the most trusting and the Independents being the least trusting.
IMHO, the biggest headline is how much all three groups' level of trust has fallen in the last 8 years:

  • Democrats- From 78% in 2005 to 68% today.
  • Republicans- From 82% in 2005 to 57% today.
  • Independents- From 74% in 2005 to 59% today.
  • Just to state the obvious, Republicans experiences the greatest loss of "trust" in the American People in the last 8 years. 
While the reasons for this loss of trust could be argued from any political angle, I want to focus for a moment on the phrase, "the American people". The moment I read this poll, I was immediately reminded of an episode of Jon Stewart's The Daily Show from a few years ago in which he mocked the OVER use of this phrase by politicians and pundits..and he words still ring true today: 

"The American people" is a meaningless phrase that should be struck from public utterance along with, "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee." - Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

For your viewing pleasure..

Shutdown Watch: ObamaCare Geewhiz from Bloomberg News

For those you watching the government shutdown/slow-motion train wreck such as myself, you'll have noticed that the debate over "ObamaCare" has become intertwined with the attempts by both parties to pass a continuing resolution (not an actual budget of course..a topic for a different day).

How and why ObamaCare has become a political front-line issue again is a fascinating (and aggravating) debate in its own right but given the renewed interest in arguably the most well-known political "victory" of President Obama's 1st term, it might be a good idea to re-educate folks on the very law that is causing such a fuss.

Thankfully (for me anyway), Megan McArdle of Bloomberg News has summed up many of the major arguing points about ObamaCare for us: 11 Pieces of Obamacare Conventional Wisdom That Shouldn't Be So Conventional

As to the debate over these continuous resolutions to keep the federal government open into the next fiscal year, I will leave that for a later date but I will leave you all with this thought: I've watched politics for quite a while now and unlike all previous government shutdown threats, I have a strong feeling that we WILL see the Federal Government shut down come Tuesday, October 1st. So be prepared folks, we're in for quite a political show the next few days...