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December 11, 2013



They're showing 'Mob City' which revisits the Bugzy template, with Ed Burns, first seen in Godfather;


>>>And more mysterious, how did it get there? How are we finding massive shale fields, perhaps around the globe? I think the geology and the paleontology is going to get even more interesting.<<<

astroid and comet impacts is the current theory. It is why explorers want to explore the Chesapeake for oil and gas potential-it is the rim of an ancient impact feature, est to be about 35 million years old and is about 50 miles in diameter.

Captain Hate

Too bad Newt isn't Speaker and could address what Levin is talking about. Boehner is a very poor communicator; I don't think that's even controversial to say. Somebody needs to explain the situation we're in and Noot was able to get his points across no matter what the MFM thought about him. Too bad he was torpedoed by members of his own party who silently laughed as the bogus lawsuits piled up. Term limits? The nerve of that guy...

governing is HARD

Unlimited renewable and eternally cheap fossil fuels served up with easy access.

It's a danged conservative black gold rush of hollow optimism and delusional substance abuse.

Let's just click our heels and murmur ' nothing like Home, nothing like home.'


This is why in my 'tilting at windmills' way, i voted for him in the primary, also I lost a fair bit of respect for Elliot Abrams in the process.


So these folks who insist the House is kept afloat by gerrymander, they miss the whole Hank Johnson, Sheila Jackson Lee and Mel Watt, the third horsemen in the Housing apocalyse.


it must be sophistry is seen as brilliance day in your world.


But he promised he would behave;

Danube on iPad

"--At some point there will be peak oil.--"

And as we approach it the incentives for the development of economically sensible alternatives will increase. The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones.

Jim Miller

On Speaker Boehner:

"Cet animal est tres mechant.
Quand on l'attaque, il se defend."

(You'll have to add your own accent marks.)


I've brought up that proverb before, Jim Miller,


I didn't know this particular detail;


The amazing thing to me so far, is that the revolt in the Senate has not spilled out into public view.

The amazing thing to me is that given the cratering of Dem approval ratings, the Top Men still insist they couldn't possibly do anything to control spending given that they control literally no part of the federal government except the part that controls spending.


'a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,


I have a process question.

Does having a budget passed permit use of different tactical tools or maneuvering powers that a CR does not?

I'm just wondering if even a bad budget opens up different funding/appropriations opportunities than the "clean CR/dirty CR" arsenal did.

Miss Marple


I am beginning to wonder why it is that most exchanges are having problems.

1. The interface with government agencies is messed up (IRS and FBI would be my two main candidates)

2. They are being hacked, possibly by the Chinese.

3. They were simply vehicles for transferring a great deal of money to segments of the tech sector, particularly the ones with Obama cronies. And these Obama cronies are about as smart as the rest of the people in the administration.

Jack is Back!


The House processes spending not controls it. If you don't have the Senate to approve and the WH to sign it into law then how does the GOP control spending?

To think Boehner and the GOP controlled house can somehow reduce spending, deficits and lower the debt ceiling on their own doesn't fit the current makeup of our government. 2 against 1.


Miss Marple: If the dems are recalcitrant on certain points, and you take the best deal you can get, then what do you call it?

Explain first where you want to go and why. Only then call it the best deal you can get.

Start with:

"We need to stop calling smaller increases in future spending a 'cut.' We need to start calling increases in fees 'raising taxes.' We need to stop the oppressive increase in government regulation that strangles the economy, keeping people from finding jobs so we take the pressure off entitlements.

"In short, this may be the best deal we can get because the wrong party is in control of the Senate and the Executive, but because we believe in good government, not big government, we will fund this excessive budget so voters can learn from it before the next election."

governing is HARD

"control literally no part of the federal government except the part that controls spending."

Well crafted, considering there is virtually no pushback on covert budgetary's, such as NSA from your quarter. It's servers squander millions of gallons of water and shut down grids with their megawatt drain using those precious resources to monitor WarCraft on-line PC gamers. What an ROII that is. Imagine the resource pool.

When you start howling about Pentagon boondoggles, someone will begin to take notice. For now, you are hobbled by a self-inflicted ball-gag.


I have no idea what John Boehner believes in, if anything.


All of those are plausible, one has never seen this type of design architecture in any functional site, that one can recall, seconf
note how the revelaton of China's hacking onslaught was quieted by the Snowden revelations, third, this is their Halliburton /Blackwater, al, but with a minimal level of efficiency, of course most of the opposition to the bar was ginned up by the trial bar, including one of John Edward's law partners, and outfits like the Levick Grp


Today I was supposed to deadhead as a passenger on Alaska Airlines, so I arrived on time, did the 2 bloody mary's in the First Class Lounge, then boarded the aircraft.

An hour later we deplaned due to mechanical, so now I am back in the First Class Lounge, have swapped to a Woodbridge Malbec for the duration, and have my crossed my fingers and toes that they fix the jet and get us out of dodge. Otherwise I have to go to Plan 2, which is try to bum a ride on a cargo flight to Memphis at 2 am, to then catch a continuer on to my destination. Oh well, one of those days...but we'll get there when we get there, and not a moment sooner.

Jane on Ipad hi there NSA


A budget puts the spending power back into the House where it belongs and takes it out of the WH, which I believe is a very good thing.

I am so conflicted over this budget. Politically and strategically, I think it is the right thing to do, but it violates my fiscal beliefs horribly.

I think I want us to come back from the tyranny we are facing more than I want less spending. Defanging Obama is my first priority.



Why don't you put that shit in the book? Fascinating stuff.


I'm sure they gave the fellow who leaked to Costa a promotion;


Megyn is pointing out the Medicare reinbursement rates, are brutal to neighborhood doctors and clinics, they are clearly using Sweeney Todd as their template,

Account Deleted

Miss Marple,

#3 with an additional proviso that the permanent government recognized the attempt by brain dead progressives to institute One Bureaucracy to Rule Them All and took appropriate defensive measures to protect their fiefs. It's not as if fooling a prog dope with a smile and a nod is a particularly difficult task. None of them are much brighter than a Pitzer College remedial indoctrination student.

Jack is Back!


Why are you in Alaska? By choice or a Mr. Smith decision?


We are enjoying some good wine tonight. Before dinner is a Boeger Meritage, and with a fish curry dish is an Oyster Bay Sav Blanc.



Danube on iPad

Daddy, I just hope they don't put you in the cockpit of whatever flight you get.


doodlemum of the day:

You will understand if you have cats and Christmas trees with ornaments.

Miss Marple

Rick, I had never considered that, but then I have never worked for the government.

Good point!


well you're used to dealing with concrete things, Miss Marple, not theoretical constructs made of unicorn dust

Take this procrustian rule, that Taranto
unearths re the Hunter Yelton episode,

In April 2011 Russlynn Ali, then assistant education secretary for civil rights, issued a directive in which she threatened to withhold federal money from any educational institution that failed to take a hard enough line against sexual misconduct to ensure "that all students feel safe in their school." The directive's preamble declared: "The sexual harassment of students, including sexual violence, interferes with students' right to receive an education free from discrimination and, in the case of sexual violence, is a crime."


Well after I posted that I find this little nugget dateline today:

Senate Democrats facing tough reelections say President Obama has not done enough to fix the botched rollout of his healthcare law and are vowing to repair it themselves.

The Senate Democratic leadership is not on board with lawmaker plans to begin rewriting ObamaCare and have urged for more time to assess the changes made by Obama and his team, lawmakers say.

Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Mark Udall (Colo.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) are discussing a multi-faceted plan to rework parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Landrieu, Shaheen and Udall face reelection next year.



How so? Honest question. It seems like to get a budget the House has to surrender. The process seems to prevent the House from restraining spending unless the Senate and Prez go along, since otherwise the government shuts down. One might have thought the framers intended to give the House more power than that.


I am going to go out on a limb and predict a cut and run, every man for himself, helter skelter retreat by March. This will of course be great fun to watch the abject panic and of course pain in the reality based community.


He makes short work of a column by a frequent member of my fishwrap's op ed section;

This columnist is inclined to dismiss all discussion of income inequality as simplistic and economically illiterate. (We are, however, highly interested in broader questions of inequality, such as those Charles Murray explored in "Coming Apart.") But Ghitis's argument caught our attention because of that second sentence, which is a wonderful example of fallacious reasoning.

Beasts of England

Speaking of 'The Godfather', my Dad's best friend at West Point was the inspiration for Michael Corleone being shown in the Army as a young adult.

Hint: the guy's Dad was nicknamed 'Three Fingers'.

Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet

Dr.J, you must have the patience of Job to go over the innumerable hurdles erected for government contractors. Congratulations on yet another successful voyage.

I am in the "no distraction" camp as far as the budget is concerned. For all the bluster, our kind of conservative (the fiscal and national security kind) is even now in the minority in the House, and is a minority of the GOP minority in the Senate. As a student of US politics since I was 17, I know deep down that there is no way in our political system to get anything passed now or at the earliest in 2017 that will begin to satisfy me in the long term. I believe that is only possible with a tectonic political shift the likes of which come along in our country once in a generation or two.

There is now at least one domestic program (Obamacare) and one international security threat (Iran) that have the potential to allow us to move towards such a tectonic shift. ISTM that concentration on those two issues offer the best opportunity to pry control of our government from the cold, dead hands of the lefties. I wish I could say I saw a potential leader on our side who can get us there.

Jim Miller

DrJ - It's good to hear about your NSF proposal.

(You may be amused to learn that I began decoding NSF as "not safe for . . ")

One of my friends is really hoping that we get a budget this year, instead of a continuing resolution. He works at an outfit that does research for the Navy, and they have a project that they can't start unless there is a actual budget. If there isn't then they will have to lay off a bunch of people.

Account Deleted


Take a look at the Landreau ad calling BOzo a liar by demanding he keep his word. Lousiana is 31% black. She just chewed off one leg and she's still in the trap.

Carol Herman

What's extremely sad is that the social extremists in the republican party keep wanting their agenda, and it's provoked a large segment of the voting public to hate the GOP more than they do the dems.

Did you know lots of Americans have had issues with their health insurance carriers? When Hillary tried taking over health care, back around 1992, she failed. Then, in 1994, Bill Clinton saw Newt Gingrich's "The Wave" ... which was disguised as "Contract With America."

It's so sad that the conservatives beat war drums over this budget, when they've lost the voters who don't want social engineering, and pro-life candidates to win.

As to Mitch McConnell, he's running for re-election. And, he's worried. So he mouths whatever slogans thinks will help him in 2014.

Captain Hate

We're in the best of hands:


That needed a flaming Admiral Ackbar 'It's a Trap'

Danube on iPad

"...the inspiration for Michael Corleone being shown in the Army as a young adult."

Michael wadn't in the Army, Beasts, he was a Marine Captain. And in the movie he was shown with hair that no WWII Marine ever had.

Captain Hate

Even the usual suspects aren't defending that.

Beasts of England

Should have said in uniform, DoT.

I've mangled about every damned comment I've made the last few days. Maybe I need to take a break from this place...


Landrieu chewed off the wrong leg? Well no one, and I mean NO ONE, ever confused her with a Rhodes Scholar...


Rick the Powerline crew says that Ms Louisiana Purchase is trying to have it both ways:

her campaign is running the anti-Obama ad in most of the state, but not in New Orleans.

Are Louisiana blacks so dense they wont figure that out? Apparently at least Landrieu thinks so...


Thanks, Jim and Jim. Fortunately grants are easier to close in than contracts.

hit always has had fund with the NSF acronym. rse agrees that they are not safe for work, though my area is apolitical.

Account Deleted

"Are Louisiana blacks so dense they wont figure that out?"

Dunno. I'd just like to write ad copy for her opponent, using the "keep his word" bit, and see it play on the Chocolate City plantation.


You're dealing with people, on the other side, who not only throw a 'spanner in the works' but wrAp it in plastic, and attach a timer.


Too many typos. Too little wine!

Jane on Ipad hi there NSA


As I understand it (and I may not) under a CR the president determines where the money goes. Under a budget the House does. I was about to give an example and realized I have no idea if it would be a correct example - but I think we are talking about discretionary spending.


plastique, but you get the metaphor, there was talk about the nuclear option, they did it, and will install Mel Watt, and katey bar the door.

But let's pretend that Ted Cruz was the problem,
at any time here, they are tearing this country apart in bloody chunks, so much so we won't recognize it in five years,

Jane on Ipad hi there NSA

Congrats Dr J!

Miss Marple

Jane, That is what Ryan just explained to Hannity, who just kept mouthing the talking points from whoever.

I would like some realism from the conservatives in the media, who seem to think Obama can be forced to do a budget which Harry Reid would be forced to pass.

It isn't going to happen.

Miss Marple

Congrats from me, too, DrJ!

Now I am heading to bed.

Good night, all!


Congrats Dr, J, I didn't mean to raid on your parade,

They get practically everything, and we get nothing, are we are told to be grateful.


Excellent comments at Captain Hate's link, including: "I wouldn't be surprised at all if this hypothetical coming GOP majority immediately restored all the minority powers Reid has taken away. You know, because bipartisanship."

jimmyk on iPhone

Congrats, DrJ.


Stop bitching and win the senate. Give money to candidates and pacs you support and if you are in or near states where voter fraud could swing elections, volunteer to poll watch and Challenge vote counts. Gawd.

Jane on Ipad hi there NSA


Did you ever try Gascon Malbec?


A Republican Majority in the Senate without a clear mandate to cut spending and hold the line on taxes will do neither. Tactics are well and good and yes, little or nothing can be accomplished without a majority, but a majority that isn't prepared to act in the face of historic levels of wailing and gnashing of teeth (and that will come when the Dems are out of power) will take the political easy road. Now is the time to take advantage of a public prepared to listen, to state your principles and educate. Waiting for the other side to fail is a loser's game. The bottom line for me is that right now I don't trust the Republican "establishment" to do much of anything beyond the type of minimal measures typified by this budget deal. I am no radical. I frankly don't see how the average voter, who trusts the Republicans as a party even less than I do, would have any reason for enthusiasm about the Republican message, if that's what it can be called. They may not vote Republican, but they may not vote at all.


I'm not sanguine, his rating are close to where they should be, who am I kidding he should be in the single digits, W had them in the midst of a roaring boom.


OK maybe I am a radical. But like the political evolution of Mr. Tonto (a speaker of truth and a wonderful writer) it came about by accident.

Rob Crawford



Shove off, Carol.


Test the premise; elect a repub senate majority watch what they do, if they fail, or worse betray, move on to other options. Unless sitting and bitching is more rewarding, in which case be my guest.


Everybody wants THEIR own agenda. Winners adapt, improvise and overcome While staying true to their principles. Tough, but winning is so rewarding it makes the fight worth it.

Rob Crawford

Has anyone heard of a charity forming, or an existing one gearing up, to help people hurt by Obamacare? We have Joan Carrico (story linked from patterico) and Jim Hoft facing serious health issues and being forced to buy crap policies by the (long, tedious string of obscenities deleted) Democrats.

I'm willing to help people like this out -- who had insurance until the (ltsood) Democrats decided to punish them for being responsible.

Beasts of England

Class act: GWB (#43) sent a letter of support to the Alabama kicker (Cade Foster - #43) who missed three field goals against Auburn. He signed it 'Another 43'.


Danube on iPad

"Maybe I need to take a break from this place..."

Please don't, Beasts.

The News 4 Tucson Investigators discovered that officer, Carmen Figueroa, has actually been working for DPS for about 13 years, possibly by using a fake or forged birth certificate.

One of Figueroa's past duties was Public Information Officer or spokesperson for the department.

The News 4 Tucson Investigators wanted to find out: how could something like this happen?

Bart Graves, DPS spokesperson tells the News 4 Tucson Investigators "We believe the affidavit and information she gave us at the time. And, she was under the impression that she herself was an American citizen."

Have fun.


if it was forged, then she likely, as a law enforcement officer, knew. That's one of those important documents one takes an interest in. A Mel's Copy Shop BC is a dead giveaway.

Tucson is pretty messed up anyway, politically. They are the first stop for the illegals on the gravy train and the counties surrounding them are the ones most deeply impacted. A nice leftist sheriff, and the PD are nice, but nice and liberal.

Have to love that GWB and Laura hitched a ride with the Obamas and spent 90 minutes with the press corpse while The Emperor and Princess Shopping Cart hid in their suite.

Holder apparently stuck his head out and immediately ran away when he saw a reporter, and Rice never came out of her rathole. F these people.

A NYC streetwalker has more class than the rat finks in the White House.


Santelli and David Stockman are not so sanguine about the budget deal.

Stockman: Budget deal a 'joke and betrayal'

I'm not fully convinced that there is nothing Rs can do, at least in principle. But in practice doing more does require the effectively using bully pulpit, take-no-prisoners negotiating skills, and maybe some trickery. Our Top Men don't seem strong in those areas.


The Top Men in the Republican Party are second raters all. They would do the French proud in their ability to retreat. The conflict of values and of ideas is existential and they haven't got an original nor a positive idea among them.

And they don't get this. Obama has bitch slapped the Constitution and they quiver in the Capitol cloakroom. Issa plods along with his investigations and yet Obama, Sebelius, Holder, and the IRS have given him the great big middle digit.

The Republicans have the righteousness of history and the Constitution and the Founders on their side and they are demonizing Cruz and Paul and Gowdy as hypocrites and pharisees.

The leftists are playing for all the marbles, friends. We need to burn them to the ground just like Sherman and Ryan just lost his credibility.

What next?

Marcia in Phoenix


That is fantastic news about the NSF funding.

Congratulations, so well deserved!


Matt, Feb 17 2009, 3 weeks into office, Obama signs the PORK-U-LUS bill. Graft and paybacks to all the various and sundry groups that Libtards OWE. That PORK-U-LUS bill has been spent for 5 years in a row via CONTINUING RESOLUTION. The GOP has never POINTED this fact out. The PORK-U-LUS money has been continued each and every year by CONTINUING RESOLUTION. NOT ONE GOP LAWMAKER VOTED YES.
Dec 24 2009, the LIBTARDS AGAIN used their MAJORITY without a SINGLE GOP VOTE to force Obamacare on US/U.S.. November 2013, Harry Reid changes the SENATE RULES to make cloture a simple MAJORITY. Never before has that been done.
MY POINT? Why do dogs lick their balls?? BECAUSE THEY CAN. Why do LIBTARDS force shit down AMERICANS THROATS?? Because they can.
We know what the to us. Yet we don't fight back? Jesus turned the OTHER CHEEK, not the other TESTICLE.


Very hot and lovely and beautiful.


This is a bit creepy:

The mirror image of death panels.


Jimmy K-

Legalized eugenics. Pretty soon we will see government sanctioned promo's about the benefits of sterilization and child control.


Looks like Sriracha is in the CA crosshairs:


For the early birds and those of us who sleep intermittently Rep Paul Ryan will be on CNBC's Squawk Box at 7:45 Eastern.

Wonder if they'll have Santelli on to question the congressman referring to Narc's earlier link from Zerohedge.

The bureaucracy tasked with Obamacare implementation may be violating a law that requires government agencies to keep private information safe.

Under the the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is required to have an “Authority to Operate,” or ATO. In order to receive an ATO, new information tech systems must perform a set of tests, including “Security Control Assessments” (SCA).

But according to CMS’s 2014 budget request, no such security assessment took place. The Federal Healthcare Marketplace website was rolled out without full end­-to­-end testing.

... Cue Judas Priest .. "Breaking The Law"

So much for the golden future, I can't even start
I've had every promise broken, there's anger in my heart
You don't know what its like, you don't have a clue
If you did you'd find yourselves doing the same thing too

Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law

You don't know what its like


big surprise there Neo. Sebelius will just deem it passed. Problem solved.


Congratulations on the funding DrJ.


but you probably have a hangover and won't see it...

morning everyone, where did everyone go?

Miss Marple

Good morning! It's 3 degrees here and the coldest it has been in central Indiana in 3 years.

I am not impressed, because I remember winters back in the late 70's and early 80's where it got down to -20.

Is that correct about the Porkulus Bill being spent every year for the last 5, Gus? If it is then I wholeheartedly support Ryan's compromise! This has to stop!


clever, I thought at the ... LUN


You notice how everything they do is a given, everything we do is controversial'


Mornin', earlybirds and congrats, DrJ.

Speaking of Landrieux et al, LA's primary filing deadline is August 22, the latest in the nation by far. She's got lots of time and money to fool the sheeple, but it's heartening that RR won LA and Holder is venal and stupid enough to sue LA over vouchers for poor kids.

Other tidbits about 2014 senate hopefuls:

Miss Marple

narciso, MY question is why is this marathon different from that of Ted Cruz?

If it's a stunt for Cruz, why isn't it a stunt for these guys? (Talking about some of the GOP senator comments regarding Cruz.)

I don't mind that they are doing it as I like anything that makes Reid upset. I just note that they are a little inconsistent. (Looking at YOU, John McCain.)

Miss Marple

Pete Rouse supposedly leaving the White House. Looks like some are trying to make him the fall guy for all of the problems.


Morning, -2 here. More snow tomorrow. I get the impression here in Ryan's district that he has presidentitis (vis immigration), so have no idea what to think about the budget deal.


3 degrees, burr, and I'm complaining that it is a balmy 23 outside this morning.

>>>You notice how everything they do is a given, everything we do is controversial<<<

it is a given they have really, really good intentions. so what if a few million people get harmed along the way.

and with that, off for my final.


Bte, McCain's former good friend, General Idris is back in Doha, because he was so popular in the first place.

Captain Hate


This is rich coming from the guy who never missed an opportunity to complain about Ted Cruz.



At the risk of repeating myself a little more boldly. This is a "No sh*t" remark and not enough. Say it briefly, but after you bullet point what needs to be passed and why.

This just says to the public, I'm powerless and whiny. Wringling hands doesn't win elections, convincing them what needs to be done and why does.

Miss Marple


Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself

That pic is good, peter @ 7:17! hah! Couldn't post late yesterday (Typepad,UGH)...but there was another funny line with that pic about Obama "reaching for the Danish."

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