Cocksuckers Ball: Finally, Some Good News

The Senate has gone nuclear. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Today, the Senate voted 52-48 to no longer allow filibusters to block the nominations of cabinet nominees and federal judges (though not Supreme Court Justices). A simple majority rules vote, this has been referred to as the ‘nuclear option’ because political rhetoric is a broken mess. But, using the option is very disruptive. As the New York Times put it, this vote represents “the most fundamental shift in the way the Senate functions in more than a generation.” Continue readingCocksuckers Ball: Finally, Some Good News”

Cocksuckers Ball: Constitutional Crisis

They almost did it. The Republicans almost plunged not just the United States, but the world, into economic chaos because they don’t want people to be able to purchase affordable health insurance. The deal announced today in Congress will reopen the shuttered government, and raise the debt ceiling for the next couple of months, without gutting the Affordable Care Act. That’s good, but the crisis in Washington is not over. That’s not just because today’s deal is only a short-term solution, destined to become a fight once more around Christmas. Or because this type of government-by-crisis seems to be the new normal. Rather, it’s because, after over 200 years of Constitutional governance, an extreme minority of one party has found a way to manipulate the lawful actions of Congress to shut down the government and threaten world stability because it disagrees with settled law. This is a big deal, because it means that the way in which we govern has been shown to be fundamentally flawed. That is the very definition of a Constitutional crisis. Continue readingCocksuckers Ball: Constitutional Crisis”

The Potomac Vortex

Politics is disheartening to follow, and spiritually draining to care about, because it never ends. Like professional wrestling, no conflict ever has resolution, because the lifeblood of the activity is keeping viewers engaged. In the case of politics, it’s the voters. American voters are the American public, and decades of the entertainment industry have taught politicians (and the news media that exist in a symbiotic relationship with politics) how to raise hackles among the electorate, thus today’s politics is wrought with drama. Continue reading “The Potomac Vortex”

Cocksuckers Ball: Are You Fucking Kidding Me?

Gun control looks to be dead. Whatever hopes people had that something positive could come out of the Newtown massacre have been dashed. Assault weapons ban? Dead. Magazine size limit? Dead. National gun registry? Dead. Universal background checks, the most popular of all gun control proposals? Dead. Continue readingCocksuckers Ball: Are You Fucking Kidding Me?”

Cocksuckers Ball: Do These Assholes Even Believe in Running the Country?

What I can’t do is force Congress to do the right thing...The American people may have the capacity to do that.

— President Obama, March 1, 2013

It’s the beginning of March, barely a month and a half into President Obama’s second term, and it appears serious governance is done for the next two years. The Washington Post reported this past Sunday that the president, confronted once again by an obstructionist Congress, is already looking ahead to 2014, hoping that the Democrats can capture the House in the midterm elections. Continue readingCocksuckers Ball: Do These Assholes Even Believe in Running the Country?”

Cocksuckers Ball: What A Bunch of Clowns

Part of the debt deal that was enacted this year requires that a Congressional committee has to find $1.2 trillion to cut from the federal budget over ten years. If the committee cannot come to an agreement by November 23rd, and both houses can’t pass the recommendations by December 23rd, then $1 trillion worth of cuts are automatically implemented. Half of that amount would come from the Pentagon. Fearing that their organizations are about to take a healthy hit in their pocketbooks, a whole host of generals, admirals, secretaries, and under secretaries have been testifying on Capitol Hill recently about the dire consequences which would result from any cuts to military budgets. Congressmen, but especially Republicans, are listening, and a few are preparing legislation that would exempt the Pentagon from the automatic cuts should the debt committee fail in their task. This is just too damned rich. Continue readingCocksuckers Ball: What A Bunch of Clowns”

Elephant Dung and the Final Defeat of Liberalism

The Republican Party and the Democratic Party are engaged in quite the game of brinksmanship of late. Amid warnings from leadership on both sides that a default of the US Government is imminent in a little over a week unless the debt ceiling is raised, no one on either side seems willing to get a deal done, despite the fact that all the compromise deals that have been offered by both sides, and rogue elements within their parties, are similar to the point of being indistinguishable to anyone who sees little difference between two and three trillion dollars. (That’s where we’ve come to in our debt and deficit debates, where our leaders are quibbling over numbers so vast that they enter into the abstract. It’s not the number ‘trillion’ that catches the eye in this mess, it’s the numbers ‘two’ and ‘three,’ and even ‘3.2.’) Continue reading “Elephant Dung and the Final Defeat of Liberalism”

Cocksuckers Ball: Let Them Die

This afternoon, the Senate held a cloture vote on the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, a $7.4 billion bill to provide healthcare to first responders and others sickened in New York by the 9/11 attacks. It failed, with the final tally at 57 votes for, 42 against. The vote was almost straight along party lines, with only one Democrat (Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a legislative maneuver that has no need of being explained here) voting against cloture. In the twisted world of the United States Senate, a fifteen-vote majority was not enough to end debate and send the bill to a floor vote. Yet another instance when the upper house of Congress shows just how broken it is. Continue readingCocksuckers Ball: Let Them Die”