Halloweenies

We've got the "War on Christmas".  We've had a ban on the contribution of baked goods and confectionery treats to school holiday parties and fund raisers.

Now?

No Halloween costumes.  It's insensitive to other cultures.

My goodness, how could I have been so blind?  I never realized that the innocent portrayal of fictional characters, political figures, and Walter Mitty-esque alter egos was symptomatic of hidden attributes of racism and (perhaps) an unconscious desire to denigrate others.

The University of Colorado at Boulder has joined other schools and universities in asking students and attendees of Halloween celebrations on campus to avoid costumes that  "perpetuate racial, cultural and gender stereotypes".

Students at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities have similarly been asked to make sure their Halloween costumes are inoffensive, as well.

Do you, or does your child, have fantasies about being a cowboy in the mold of, say, the Lone Ranger?  That's a problem.  You should nip it in the bud.  After all, the Lone Ranger wasn't a "real" cowboy, was he?  Besides, what happens if someone in the school/at the party happens to be an Indian (excuse me, "Native American")?  You wouldn't want them to be offended, would you?  (Dressing up as an Indian wouldn't be any better.  You'd be demeaning their culture by pretending to a status you don't deserve.  You see?)

Here's an idea, what if two friends, one black and one white, dressed as a stereotype of the other?  That would be hilarious!  Imagine it.  The white guy (in blackface), untied sneakers, jeans hanging half off his ass exposing boxer shorts, gold chains, a hoodie and an oversized "lid" (ball cap); the black guy (in whiteface) "shit kicker" boots, baggy overalls, white t-shirt with a pack of Marlboros rolled into the sleeve, uncombed hair and novelty teeth? 

If nothing else, watching the heads of all the liberal progressives at the party explode would be worth the price of admission.

Included on the list of suggested no-no's this Halloween:
Blackface
Geisha
Squaw
"Ghetto" (either white or black)
"Gansta" (see above)
Crime (officer or criminal)
Sex worker (?! What kind of parties are these?  I guess we can't afford to offend the "culture" of the sex worker)
"White trash" (Blue jeans and white tank tops are outlawed?)
"Hillbilly" (get rid of the novelty teeth, Billy-Bob)

Progressives seem determined to squeeze every bit of laughter, fun and frivolity out of our lives.  It's Halloween!  No mature, rational adult can find offense in a costume innocently donned for a party or trick-or-treating.  It takes some real dedication to find offense in a Caucasian co-worker dressing up in a silk kimono for the office party.  Or a husband/wife team attending a party as a pimp/prostitute.

Oh, well.  At least we've still got Casper, Frankenstein, Dracula, Werewolves, and Zombies.

Wait, I think I hear complaints from the Alliance to Defend the Dignity of Imaginary Creatures.........

<sigh>

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

Back to Work

Well, it's the end of another vacation.  After a typical visit to the Indian run casino (typical = I got "scalped"), it's time to get back to work.  Coincidentally, Washington is also getting back to work.

I wish I could say I was surprised that the GOP caved.  Disappointed?  Absolutely.  Surprised?  Sadly, no.  It was clear from the beginning that the Republican establishment was not interested in doing anything so radical as keeping campaign promises.  Sen. Cruz took more damage from "friendly fire" than he did from the inanities of the Progressive Democrats.

How was the "deal" done?  Follow the money.  In spite of the claims that "earmarks" were a thing of the past, there are several attached to this "clean CR".  Including (surprise, surprise) a huge funding increase for a dam project on the Ohio river which just happens to be located in the jurisdictions of two of the "negotiators", Republican leader Mitch McConnell and the #2 man in the Senate (take that either way) Democrat Richard "Dick" Durbin of Illinois.  Just how large was the increase?  Try $1.125B!  The original amount appropriated was "only" $775M.  The new total of federal (taxpayer) funding is $2.9Billion.  You won't get a thank you card, but I'm sure they appreciate your generosity.

Of course, we can all be reassured  by the statements from their respective spokespeople that they had nothing to do with this additional provision being inserted into the agreement.  No less an authority than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada confirms, "This is not an earmark."

Also included in the "clean CR":  an extra $350M in flood aid through the Federal Highway Administration for damaged roads and bridges to the state of Colorado (the Federal limit is $100M), an extra $294M for the VA, $100M extra to prevent the furlough of air traffic controllers and inspectors and extra money for NOAA, as well as authorization for up to $636M for firefighters.

None of this has anything to do with the "reopening of the government" or "paying America's bills".  Still think "bipartisanship" is such a good thing?  Virtually no one holding office in Washington D.C. today has any commitment to principle.  I have more respect for the ultra Progressive, self-proclaimed Socialist, Bernie Sanders, I-VT than I do for McConnell, Boehner, or any of the other RINO Republicans who failed to keep faith with the people who voted them into office (in part) on their promise to get rid of Obamacare.  While I despise his politics and policies, at least Sanders hasn't lied about his agenda.  He believes in government first, last and always and makes no apologies for that fact.  Too bad there's nobody like that on our side promoting the ideas of self-sufficiency, honesty, integrity, and true self-respect.  You know, "traditional American values"?

Senator Cruz has said that he believes that in the next fight, Senate Republicans will learn from their mistakes in this fight and hold firm in the face of hardball tactics by Senate and Congressional Democrats and that the Republicans in the House will follow suit.  I don't see it happening.

I admire the guy.  Both he and Mike Lee have not wavered in their convictions; have not wavered in their determination to see Obamacare stopped, defunded and dismantled.  But I don't see how they can hope to engineer a different outcome when faced with the same fight again next year in January and February.  It might've been different if they had managed to force any real concessions out of Obama and the Democrats, but they quite literally "gave away the farm" last week.  For crissakes, they couldn't even force the passage of an amendment requiring Congress to abide by the same law as the general public, ie, the 75% taxpayer-funded subsidy of their Obamacare premium payments.  If they couldn't even manage to get THAT through, what makes them believe that it'll be any different next time?  The victory the Republicans have just given the administration will, and should, convince Obama that there will never be any significant opposition to his/their agenda.  All they have to do is refuse to "negotiate" and blame any resulting shutdown or economic/political upheaval on the other side. 

The Republican "leadership" has woven the noose(s) for their own hanging.

Taking the Day Off



As the stalemate in Washington continues, I'm not wasting any of my time.  There's no need for me to relate the obvious proofs that Obama and the Democrats are more than willing to see Americans suffer, if they can see some potential political gain for themselves.  The only ones who can't see that are the ones who either also see some gain for themselves or have accepted the propaganda whole; who have "drunk the Kool-Aid", and neither of these groups can be helped or reasoned with.

 

I'm not going to belabor the obvious and I'm not going to beat my head against the wall.  Besides,  IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!  Fuck'em all.  I'm taking the weekend off from relating the dirty side of life in America.  I'm taking some money out of the bank and heading down to a local Indian resort/casino for some much-needed R&R. 

 

 

 

 



If you need me, I'll be in the poker room.

 

 

They Jumped

And it's about time, too.

It may be too early to tell for sure, but it's beginning to look like the Republicans may have found their spine.  The Republicans in the House, anyway.

The caucus stood together in their insistence that Obama and the Senate Democrats negotiate on the issue of Obamacare implementation and the issues of the CR and upcoming debt ceiling debate.  Predictably, Obama and the Dems are shrilly denouncing "heartless" Republicans for shutting down the government and "hurting millions of regular Americans".

Setting aside, for now, the fact that the much-anticipated roll out of the ACA has thus far been an unmitigated disaster, it has become clear that it is, in fact, the Obama administration that has actively sought out ways to make sure that their "regular Americans" feel the maximum pain and encounter the most inconvenience the government can possibly inflict.  Keep in mind, this is the same government that actually instructed bureaucratic officials to make the impact of sequestration as painful as possible and actually refused attempts by department managers to lessen the impact of the mandated budget cuts.

The Republicans in the House have sent several appropriations bills over to the Senate since the beginning of this fight.  Democrat Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate, has refused to bring any of these proposals to the floor for a debate, much less a vote.  He has said, when challenged, that he's not going to get "trapped" into doing things piecemeal.  He has said that he doesn't know where the House Republicans get the idea that they can "pick and choose" what parts of the government to fund.  It's called the Constitution, Harry.  The Separation of Powers specifically vests the power of the purse in the hands of the House of Representatives.  There is nothing in the Constitution about "clean CR's".  If we still had a government and a Congress that followed the rules of the Constitution, we'd have a general budget proposal generated by the House and the Senate.  The competing budgets would go to committees made up of representatives of each body and a compromise would be worked out.  Once that was done (usually well before the budget deadline) it would be the responsibility of the House of Representatives to write up and pass individual appropriations bills dealing with specific aspects of the budget, detailing the funding levels and sources.  It would then be up to the Senate to pass the appropriation bill as written or to insert amendments of their own and send it back to the House.  At that point the appropriation would go to a similar conference to have a compromise worked out before it was presented to both chambers for a final vote.  That's the way it works, Harry.  At least, that's the way it would work, if your side had done it's job once in the past 5+ years and passed a budget.  But then, you'd have to go officially on record as to how much you want to spend and on what.  A never-ending series of CR's conveniently obscures all of those details, doesn't it?

To put pressure on Republicans, the Obama administration went public with the story that sick children with cancer were being turned away from clinical trials funded through the National Institute of Health, saying that Republicans would rather see sick kids suffer and die.  The Republicans responded by passing an appropriation bill to fund the NIH.  Not only did the Senate refuse to take up the legislation, Obama himself  vowed to veto any legislation other than a "clean CR".  The same for the national parks and memorials.  80 and 90+ year old WWII vets were barred from visiting the WWII Memorial on the Mall in Washington.  This is an open air memorial that is not regularly staffed.  The Obama administration order barricades set up and guards posted to close access to these vets.  Some Republican Congressmen who were accompanying this particular Honor Flight wouldn't stand for this and took the barricades down and invited the vets to proceed.  The reaction of the Obama administration was to import higher fences and additional guards.  The WWII Memorial is now more secure and has more guards than the Consulate in Benghazi, Libya!  All to prevent octogenarians access to the memorial honoring their service and sacrifice.  If he is willing to show such disrespect to "the greatest generation", there is no limit to what he'll do to the rest of us to force compliance and obedience to his dictates.

This administration has made a political calculation that they can succeed in the implementation of their agenda by making the people as uncomfortable as possible and blaming the Republicans for being "obstructionist".  We, The People, are nothing more than that.  Political calculations.  Pieces on a game board to be manipulated according to the whims of the party in power in furtherance of their social engineering agenda.

For now, House Republicans are keeping faith with their constituents and with the promises they made in the last election to do what they could to impede Obama's march "forward".  If they can stick to their guns until the 17th (the expiration of the current "debt ceiling") we may finally have a chance at the real "fundamental transformation" of the culture in Washington, D.C. back to a true Constitutional Republic and a government that stays within it's Constitutional limits.  At the least, people may finally realize, just as they did with the predicted disaster that would result from sequestration (odd, isn't it, how that's not even mentioned in the news anymore?), that a government shutdown isn't the end of the world as we know it and that maybe, just maybe, we can stand on our own two feet.

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For those who don't understand the referent of this blog's title, it refers back to a comment I made in an earlier blog post about the previous debt ceiling debacle:  Geronimooooo.  You can find it in the archives, if you're interested.