phdave wrote:Hamster diarrhea doesn't sound so bad. Giraffe diarrhea would be worse.

Dave, I'm talking sacks of the stuff. Sacks

"Okay Congress, due to the sequester you have to fly commercial (eek) and you'll have to pay for it out of your office budget."




"Except for your extremely critical trip to 'welcome' Pope Francis."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/post/congress-flies-commercial-to-vatican-but-lawmakers-didnt-have-to-pay-their-own-way/2013/03/20/e8333c9e-90ad-11e2-9cfd-36d6c9b5d7ad_blog.html

So who, you ask, was important enough that the State Department should foot the bill to ensure that they welcomed the new Pope despite the fact that the Vice President was already there?

The group was led by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and those attending included Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Sean Duffy (R-Wis.), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), Ruben Hinojosa (D-Texas), Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) and House chaplain Patrick Conroy.

What's funny about that?

I dunno, I just don't see why it's important to have Sean Duffy welcome the new Pope, let alone circumvent sequestration spending guidelines to do so. Or the House chaplain.

OK, gotcha. I agree, in fact it pisses me off. They're welcome to go on their own dime to welcome the Pope but it's nothing to do with the State Department.

Yeah, I probably just picked a confusing emoticon there. I needed more of a smh illustration there.

phatj wrote:OK, gotcha. I agree, in fact it pisses me off. They're welcome to go on their own dime to welcome the Pope but it's nothing to do with the State Department.

Hold on there, partner. The Pope is not only the head of the Catholic religion but also the head of state for Vatican City. Are you really prepared to risk WAR with the Vatican by insulting the new head of state over a few plane tickets?

http://harpers.org/archive/2013/03/a-le ... /?single=1

it's on harpers so idk how long it'll be up

mozartpc27 wrote:

phatj wrote:OK, gotcha. I agree, in fact it pisses me off. They're welcome to go on their own dime to welcome the Pope but it's nothing to do with the State Department.

Hold on there, partner. The Pope is not only the head of the Catholic religion but also the head of state for Vatican City. Are you really prepared to risk WAR with the Vatican by insulting the new head of state over a few plane tickets?

We are at war with the Vatican. We have always been at war with the Vatican.

How many divisions does the Pope have?

Despite what we hear from Republicans, federal spending as a % of GDP has been declining under Obama. This despite an inherited crap economy and an increasing number of retirees. From Wonkblog:

http://wonkwire.rollcall.com/2013/03/20 ... e-day-211/

jerseyhoya wrote:Chemical weapons alleged to have been used in Syria. Unclear if by the government or rebels. Either way if true, shit is going to hit the fan.

One of the students from my faculty family is from Syria and he said the info he's getting from friends and family is that they were not used. He said the rebels were dug into a position and that the gov't took advantage of the rumor that the weapons would be used. The gov't sent helicopters over the rebels and dropped wheat chaff on them. The rebels panicked because they thought it was chemical weapons and many of them left their positions, giving the gov't the upper hand. IOW, it was a trick to get them into the open, leading to 4,000 captured rebels. He said the rebels are now trying to use the rumor of chemical weapons to get other parties, particularly the US, involved.

That's what he's hearing, but I have no idea if it's true. For all I know, the kid in my family is a family member of a Syrian official. He's connected enough to get a fake birth date on his Visa, so it's hard to say where he's coming from with his info. I do think he believes the story, but he may have been fed bad info.

allentown wrote:Despite what we hear from Republicans, federal spending as a % of GDP has been declining under Obama. This despite an inherited crap economy and an increasing number of retirees. From Wonkblog:

http://wonkwire.rollcall.com/2013/03/20 ... e-day-211/

It's still above the baseline as a % of GDP. This despite the wars ending and the stimulus ending. And TARP being a net positive on the balance sheet, not a big expenditure.

what we should do is stop spending so quick and fierce that we shrink our way into prosperity!

pacino wrote:what we should do is stop spending so quick and fierce that we shrink our way into prosperity!

David Brooks' column for yesterday comes to mind reading that

There is a statue outside the Federal Trade Commission of a powerful, rambunctious horse being reined in by an extremely muscular man. This used to be a metaphor for liberalism. The horse was capitalism. The man was government, which was needed sometimes to restrain capitalism’s excesses.

Today, liberalism seems to have changed. Today, many progressives seem to believe that government is the horse, the source of growth, job creation and prosperity. Capitalism is just a feeding trough that government can use to fuel its expansion.

oh christ

pacino wrote:oh christ

How ever will the economy grow if the government doesn't make it?!

rapidly shrinking the percentage of government spending to the 'baseline' percentage of the GDP will plunge us into another recession. that's kind of all there is to it. anything else is strawman attempts to define what economic liberals believe, who have little input or effect in congress/the executive anyway.

Is it fair to say that there are times when it makes sense for the gov't to step in and help and other times that it makes sense for it to get out of the way?

Falling into a near depression strikes me as a time to step in and help. Another good time to step in is when an industry, in this case the financial industry, is running amok and threatening to take us all down, the entire global economy, with their excess and greed and criminal behavior. Unfortunately for us, the financial industry has both parties in their pockets. I guess they used some of that money they stole from regular Americans to buy off politicians in their favor.

mozartpc27 wrote:

phatj wrote:OK, gotcha. I agree, in fact it pisses me off. They're welcome to go on their own dime to welcome the Pope but it's nothing to do with the State Department.

Hold on there, partner. The Pope is not only the head of the Catholic religion but also the head of state for Vatican City. Are you really prepared to risk WAR with the Vatican by insulting the new head of state over a few plane tickets?

Good point. The only thing preventing global catastrophe is Sean Duffy bonding with Pope Francis over their shared love of lumberjacks.