Watched a few minutes of NBC Nightly News for July 31st and was stunned by this piece with Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell. This was a few hours before the President's announcement. Things were moving fast - Brian and Andrea were reading from a script so a bit of the veil came off.

Here's a link to the newscast but it probably won't be there 24 hours from now. They change it every day.

W Brian Williams
M Andrea Mitchell
... I left some stuff out.

They're talking about the debt mess.

W Andrea, you've seen 'em come and seen 'em go. This has hardly been a profile in courage. Have you ever seen anything like this?

M ... Now its stalemate, its gridlock. And I've never seen anything where there has been so little leadership and where people are angry, disgusted and, I think, really rebellious out there. People are wanting change and they don't know how to get it.

W And a new dynamic, Andrea, in Washington - at least in the time you and I have been watching things. Some members have come to town and they don't care if they get re-elected. That is a whole new dynamic. They are here for a single issue and are willing to go down in flames at the polls if they achieve it or don't.

M There has always been anger and animus in among leaders and among the followers - the rank and file, the caucus. But these new members really are willing to tear the place down. And they not only don't care whether or not are re-elected - they don't want pork (laughs). There are no inducements to get them to follow the speaker or the other leaders. So they don't want the traditional methods of buying loyalty here and that was a reform that now has changed the dynamic.

W Alright, Andrea Mitchell from our Washington newsroom. Wish there was better news to report to folks especially about our era in Govt.

I could spend hours fisking this conversation - but let's focus on the last 2 paragraphs. Tea Party Congressmen refuse to take pork - Brian and Andrea are dismayed. I Don't Have To Say Anything Else.

The bolded text is an unintentional shot at Obama that made me laugh.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:52 PM | Comments (151)
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End of the weekend for some, just another day for others, but all are welcome at the ONT party.

So Who Loves America?

The Japanese do - a lot - with 85% having a positive view of us according to a recent Pew poll. In fact they like the US even more than Americans do (79%). Which isn't all that surprising given that a substantial proportion of Americans (primarily on the left) just don't like the Unites States all that much -m although they do still "love" her in the Ike Turner sense.

Other interesting results are that the French are slightly more fond of the US than the Israelis are. After all the crap we've gone through on their behalf you'd think they'd like us a bit more.

And of course all the Muslim majority countries dislike us - despite our having elected a president named Hussein. But apparently Hussein did get us some Kenyan love.

Positive views aside I still say that if the chips ever were truly down for the US, the only countries we could absolutely count on to stand with us to the end are Japan and Australia and possibly Israel and Canada.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:39 PM | Comments (749)
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Above the post update:

Obama say leaders have agreed to $1 trillion in cuts, which were agreed to weeks ago. Cuts "won't be so" abrupt. Yeah, out years are for suckers.

Bi-partisan committee that reports by November. "Everything will be on the table"... there's the tax trap? I don't see how House GOP votes for that if the choice will be the possibility of taxes or slash defense. Unless there's some guarantee that won't happen, I don't see how this gets enough GOP votes in the House.

Via Andy...here's the PDF of the PowerPoint Boehner used to explain the plan to his conference.

Or not? From Boehner PP.

Requires baseline to be current law, effectively making it impossible for Joint Committee to increase taxes.

That from TendStl on Twitter.

The only person who is going to like this deal is Obama because he desperately wants to put off another debt hike debate beyond the '12 elections.

Via Hot Air, James Pethokoukis explains why insisting that current law be the baseline the joint committee uses makes it almost impossible for them to raise taxes.

Original Post:
For the love of God man...SHUT UP.

Reid is on Senate floor now (8:32pm edt) saying there's a deal to avoid default. McConnell says he'll be holding a Senate GOP caucus tomorrow to go over "the framework".

Obama will no doubt be out to start to take credit.

Meanwhile, Boehner is on a conference call right now with House GOP members. I bet that's a fun call.

I really hope Obama uses his speech tonight to reach out and repair relations with corporate jet owners.

Posted by: DrewM at 04:30 PM | Comments (345)
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Ok I am all up inside politics and stuff, all week long.

But daaaamn, we need a break.

So who wants to talk some football? The NFL owners and players seem theeeeees close to inking a deal.

Don't care? College football is coming regardless of this titanic struggle over monies.

Open football thread for idiots like me.

One way or another, we get some ball. My team is poised to shed some deadweight and I'm not even bothered about their choices.

Other teams may get idiots that shoot themselves in the leg.

They're welcome to em.

ALSO: I hear rumblings from Ben and CDR M that there are pickem leagues forming, so stay tuned for... ok basically me getting my shit together. more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 02:00 PM | Comments (230)
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Here's something: The FBI thinks they have a good suspect in the famed "DB Cooper" hijacking.

'The credible lead is somebody whose possible connection to the hijacker is strong,' she told the Daily Telegraph. 'And the suspect is not a name that's come up before.'

The FBI said that an item belonging to the suspect has been sent for testing at a forensics lab in Quantico, Virginia.

'We're hoping there are fingerprints they can take off of it,' she said. 'It would be a significant lead.

And this is looking like our most promising one to date.'

Oh, and Reid has apparently agreed to whatever deal they've worked out. I'll put up details when they're out.

Posted by: Ace at 01:30 PM | Comments (116)
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Look at this photo. They tried to make Obama seem bigger by placing the camera very low and using a wide angle lens with the camera moved in closer. This has the effect of making the background recede behind him more sharply. Things closer to the camera appear larger. That's also a problem, though, as mere fractions of an inch count for a lot. Notice how large the podium appears. It's enormous. It looks like the podium is the most important thing. And look at his hand. His hand is just a few inches closer to the lens, yet it appears larger than his head.

This shot is the visual equivalent of the infamous Newt Gingrich press release:

The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment's cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip . . . .

For this shot to work, they needed to construct a small podium just for the occasion. Also, with all the visual hocus pocus going on, the touch of moving the camera down somewhere around his belly button was way over the top. Flat-out stupid, really. Finally, they needed to tell him to keep his hands down. Instead, they wound up with a kitschy, distorted-looking mess, like a shot you'd see in a horror film--a shot of the monster.

Below the fold, John Lithgow's dramatic reading of the Gingrich press release. more...

Posted by: rdbrewer at 11:08 AM | Comments (186)
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The Republicans have demonstrated that they will not shut down the government under any circumstances. So the Democrats continue to hold the trump card, because there is a step they will take which Republicans will not.

This "compromise," which isn't even agreed to, but is being negotiated as to its major details, simply delays the timing of Republican capitulation until closer to the elections.

Jen Rubin explains the triggers and the sticking points on them:

The second tranche works like this: If a new congressional commission introduces a plan totaling at least $1.5 trillion in cuts by Thanksgiving and it’s passed by Christmas there are no across-the-board cuts. Or, if a balanced budget amendment is passed and sent to the states, then across-the-board cuts are avoided. However, if there is no commission package passed AND the BBA is not passed and sent to the states, then across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion including Medicare and defense (the details of which aren’t final) go into effect. If the across-the board-cuts go into effect, the debt ceiling is only raised $1.2 trillion (likely insufficient to keep the government operating for long), meaning “we could do this all over again, depending on economic growth.” In other words, if we went to sequestration the total debt ceiling increase would be $2.1 trillion in two doses.

...

GOP leaders are convinced that the triggers are so scary that it will in fact force the commission to reach agreement. The president at that point will be rooting for a deal as well, since the alternative across-the-board cuts would yield only $1.2 trillion in a debt ceiling hike and would set up another round of this insanity depending on economic growth.

The threat of drastically slashing Defense will cause Republicans to vote for tax increases. Democrats will not identify additional money to be cut, because they don't want to, and they don't need to -- Republicans will cave, as they have caved since the 2011 budget fight, and will agree to tax increases to avert devastating cuts in Defense.

So they're just pushing this off to closer to the election.

If they're going to capitulate, why not do it now?

Without the willingness to shut the government down, they have no leverage. Most of them don't even pretend at the fiction that they're willing to do that.

So Democrats continue dictating the terms of "negotiation." Furthermore, Republicans are simply trading an early capitulation for one closer to the elections, which doesn't even make sense to me.

And: I am still hearing nothing at all about a bill to dictate the procedure and priority of bill-paying in the event of a shutdown -- something that could greatly increase the Republicans' leverage in such an event.

But they don't even want to seem to want the leverage, because they don't even want to contemplate that option.

Another Possibility: Republicans let the automatic cuts happen, but then immediately propose reinstating most of the money to Defense.

This winds up causing automatic cuts to domestic discretionary, but no big cuts to Defense; most Democrats would probably have to vote for this.

But it has a bad effect: We'd have approved $2.1 trillion in debt ceiling increase while only (guestimating) cutting, say, $1.6 - $1.7 trillion in cuts.

Who knows, maybe that's a decent deal. Doesn't seem that decent, though.

Posted by: Ace at 09:12 AM | Comments (497)
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Whoops... Andy posted this last night. I took the day off to... assemble furniture.

Um, Open Thread, then?

Beginning around 6:00, Rubio begins reading letters and statements expressing "extremist" views on not raising the debt limit.

He reveals that the statements were made, in order, by President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Senate Majority Leader Reid in 2007.

At this point, John Kerry asks to yield for a question. A preview, maybe, of how Rubio would fare in a vice presidential debate. Via Red State, but embedded below.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:49 AM | Comments (69)
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Based on a recommendation in last week's book thread, I picked up all four volumes of Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet: The Jewel in the Crown, The Day of the Scorpion, The Towers of Silence, and A Division of Spoils. I also picked up the fifth "coda" book of this series, called Staying On. (I bought all the books used for a buck apiece from Amazon's used book store. They arrived within two days with no problems at all. Win!)

This should fill my fiction docket for the rest of the summer.

What's everyone else reading?

Posted by: Monty at 05:24 AM | Comments (124)
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"For my own part I think no innocent species of wit or pleasantry should be suppressed: and that a good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation." -- James Boswell

Posted by: Monty at 05:12 AM | Comments (230)
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