Oh My! GOPCons "Thinking Inside the Box"

Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen

President Obama recently explained the intransigence of House Republicans as a result of being trapped by "things they have said in the past."

Probably not particularly interested in starting a "rat fight," with Boehner, Cantor and the rest of them, the President left it with that, concluding that no benefit to be derived from making their final approval of the debt ceiling increase any more politically suicidal than it already will be.  

Obama is not one to "twist the saber" once first blood is drawn.

House GOPCons meet 2 Samuel 14 (image source)

However, even in this dark and dismal GOPCon "self-immolation," an important political reality is revealed.  The Republicans have broken Ronald Reagan's "11th Commandment."  They have attacked each other.

No more of the mindless unanimity we saw in the lockstep of the last decade during the autocracy.  In those days, a Republican who spoke out -- or even so much as quietly murmured -- words not entirely consistent with the "party's thought block," immediately joined FOX News' "Cut and Run" cult.

Further, if there were any whimpering over such an outcome, the GOPCon's meat grinding media enforcer, FOX News, would be sharpening its teeth for "Holy Retribution."  Once inflamed, the dutiful hill billies and bigots of the Republican base would take it from there.

Now, in July of 2011, we see something quite new.  The GOPCon "march to the sea" has created a gigantic box, punctuated by political cemeteries and littered with dead end streets, and the Republicans have rushed right past the edge of the cliff desperately down to the very end of the path that led them to it.

The Box

On one side of the House Republican caucus we find the drooling tea bags.  These seats were won in the 2010 with promises of, you guessed it, tax cuts based on spending reductions.  Although there is no shortage of things which can be said about these tea bags, mindless obsession should be somewhere close to the top of the list.

Existing in a gaseous world devoid of any civics classes or recent history, that is, history newer than what can be found in the Old Testament, consequences mean nothing.  In fact, tea bags are convinced that "boldness" trumps "realism" at every juncture.

This means that, although the House tea bags can see the white faces and the slack jaws of the traditional Republicans still ostensibly in command of the party, any thought which departs from the FOX News style campaigns which placed them in office is to be considered heresy.  Spending cuts will be made along previously discredited ideological lines no matter what the consequences may be.

On the other side of the House Republican caucus sit the oligarchs.  These more sophisticated looters want things to move to their own favor.  When the hedge fund CEO's, banksters and trust fund billionaires pick up the phone, they expect the House Republicans to kneel, then jump.

These fat cats have invested "big money" in the purchase of their House and Senate servants, and the expect their "return on investment" to keep on rolling.  But with the introduction of the essentially uncontrollable tea bags, this scheme has foundered on the FOX News rocks.

This hardly means that they won't keep trying.

So, on one side of the box we find the tea bags mindlessly terrifying the elderly with cuts to Social Security and Medicare, while on the other side of the box, we find the fang like avarice of the Wall Street crowd demanding a continuation of the "looting as usual" scam.  Stranded in the middle of an incomprehensible  combat where winning is losing and losing is losing, traditional House Republican looters like Boehner have no place to go.

As the last grains of sand drop through the nexus of the "credit rating hour glass," we can anticipate growing desperation and panic.  Worse, the causes of the conflict, although not only barely penetrating the news media but also somewhat overly complicated for the American public in general, are emerging, that is, opinion polls are careening through an unprecedented shift against GOPCon obstructionism.

House Republicans now enjoy a cluster of negative 70% approval ratings on how they are handling the situation.  (I.e. Gallup: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/gallup-republicans-approval-congress-sin )

Yet, the suicidal Cantorites, seeing how wretchedly unpopular their previous machinations have been, are reaching for the cyanide laced Kool Aide one last time.  They have doubled down the outrage intensity with the "Cut, Cap and Balance" gyration.

Apparently, they have mislaid their lutes and will have to luxuriate in Rome burning with only a shabby, last minute shambles of token debate.

Good riddance.

Darell Issa's Congressional "To Do" List

MeanMesa would like to take this opportunity to visit the long suffering Patriot from California who has become the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Honorable, Mr. Darrell Issa.  Of course, any MeanMesa visitor might be wondering "Why would I be interested in another dirty shirt neo-con from California?"

Simply because he is creepier than the other denizens of the freak show?

Oh, maybe.  However, Mr. Issa has meticulously set himself even above the grotesque norm when it comes to wing-nut GopCons.  Mr. Issa has been repeatedly promising his BagCon constituents that he intends "investigate the hell out of" all the favorite targets of the right wing once he has the power.  Now, of course, he has the power.

So, in the jobless aftermath of a tanked economy, Mr. Issa has begun his preliminary work on impeaching the President for "high crimes and misdemeanors" just as the process is spelled out in our Constitution.  For those of us who remember the "Kenneth Starr March to the Sea" during the Clinton Presidency, the details of this more modern rehash of the same tired story doesn't bode well for a productive Congress.

Congressman Darrell Issa, R-Ca (image source)

  Illustration by Andrew Zbihlyj, 

Source Photo: Louie Palu/Zuma Press

Now, Darrell has already been a busy little guy.  One of the very first items of business on his plate -- even before his boxes had been unpacked -- was a quick letter to every "friend" his lobbyist staff could think of who might be willing to pony up a few "campaign contribution"  bucks to get rid of some regulation or other.  Of course, this skanky little maneuver might look relatively decent to the information challenged voter, but under the relentless, microscopic eye of Short Current Essays, Mr. Issa's "feet of clay" begin to melt instantly.

As our esteemed Mullah Nassr Edin might have said, "Gadzooks!  What a crook!"

My, oh, my.  Where could such a nasty little fellow have come from in the first place?  Rather than ranting on for another six pages, let's take a look at Mr. Issa's background.  You know, his "free market" experience which has prepared him so well for this job.  It won't take much more Googling than a quick trip to Wikipedia.  (Read the entire entry here.)

Long-Suffering Republican Patriot, Darrel Issa

Following the 2010 elections, Issa sent a letter to "more than 150 trade associations, companies and think tanks," including "the oil industry, drug manufacturers and other trade groups and companies" asking them "to tell him which Obama administration regulations to target" in the upcoming Congress.^[34] Critics have charged that Issa was "embracing regulatory capture."^[35] Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said Issa's letters were tantamount to “inviting businesses to tell us what they want us to do as opposed to protecting the American people.”^[36]

Issa dropped out of high school and enlisted for a three-year tour in the Army on his 17th birthday.^[3][4] He served as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technician, defusing bombs, after having been shown a movie about soldiers in that specialty during World War II. He would later claim his unit had provided security for President Richard Nixon, sweeping stadiums for bombs prior to games in the 1971 World Series, and that he had always received the highest approval ratings during his service.^[5] A 1998 investigation by the San Francisco Examiner found that these claims were not true: Nixon did not attend any of that year's World Series games, and at one point Issa was transferred to a supply depot after receiving an unsatisfactory evaluation. According to Issa, the Examiner reporter had misunderstood an anecdote he had related.^[3]

A fellow soldier, Jay Bergey, claimed that Issa stole his Dodge Charger in 1971 while they were serving together and that, the day after he confronted Issa, the car was found abandoned on a nearby expressway. Asked about this charge in 2011, Issa denied it and suggested it was possible that other soldiers stole the car or that Bergey, whom he claims had a drinking problem, had abandoned it himself while intoxicated."^[3]

After receiving a hardship discharge in 1972 following his father's heart attack, Issa earned his General Educational Development (GED) certificate and began taking classes at Siena Heights University, a small Catholic college in Adrian, Michigan. He continued his military service in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC)."^[3]

Twice during that year he was arrested. In March, Issa and his brother William were charged with stealing a Maserati from a dealer's showroom in Cleveland. Issa says it was a matter of mistaken identity by the Cleveland Heights police; the case was later dismissed.^[3]

Before that had happened, in December 1972, police in Adrian pulled Issa over for going the wrong way on a one-way street and, as he was retrieving his registration, saw in the car's glove compartment what turned out to be a .25-caliber Colt automatic handgun inside an ammunition box, along with a military pouch containing 44 rounds, a tear gas gun and two rounds for that. Issa was charged with carrying a concealed weapon

He was sentenced to six months' probation and paid a small fine.^[3].^[6] At the time Issa told police that Ohio law allowed such possession of a handgun with a justification; his was the need to protect the car and himself. Years later, he said that the car and gun were his brother's, which William Issa supported. He had been unaware of the gun's presence when inadvertently driving the car the wrong way down the alley and that, to the extent of his knowledge, there had been no ammunition present. The entire incident, he had believed, had been expunged.^[3]

Issa later transferred to Kent State University, where he completed his studies. His brother William believes this period shaped Issa's conservatism, in contrast to the leftism that prevailed among much of the student body there. After graduating with a degree in business administration in 1976, he returned to active Army service as an officer.^[3]

So, after the onslaught begins and Mr. Issa and his cronies have begun their highest priority Congressional "work" of impeaching the President and indicting every other Democrat standing still long enough to be dragged into a Grand Jury, let's not be confused about the little House member at the helm of the effort.

Thanks!  All you half-wit California tea baggers!

The "Odd Couple:" Boehner and PayGo

Sometimes events arising from the intricacies of raw fate  simply flow together uncontrollably, fabricating grotesque, coincidental situations which are so sinister that we begin to search under every rock and in every crevice for  some comforting evidence of conspiracy or terrorism.  After these "mousetraps" have snapped shut on our unsuspecting fellow travelers, previous areas of disagreement seem to pale as we stare at the difficulties which have emerged to confront our old opponents now trapped and suffering under the fanciful waltz of unconcerned destiny.

It's probably something akin to "outrageous fortune." 

After our mid-terms, the narcotically soothing tragedies of the latest round of such furtive traps are now in place.  Life's inebriated carelessness is now in full advance.  An unhappy marriage has been arranged which shows no compassion for our love torn youngsters.

Who will suffer from this cosmic insult?  What bright faced boy now finds himself chained to the toothy harpy where the heady prospect of marital bliss descends at once to torment and desolation?

Are we talking about Obama and the new Republican House of Representatives?

No.  Actually, things are not that bad on our ship of state.

Instead, we are noting another, somewhat distant, new matrimony.  It is the "shotgun wedding" between Mr. John "the Boner" Boehner and an under publicized "mousetrap" which has been firmly anchored in the House policy by the Democrats who were in charge until last week.  

The groom, Mr. Boehner has, perhaps, just now met his bride, the House policy of "pay as you go" (PayGo).

Under the old management, PayGo has -- in the first budget of the Obama administration -- already reduced the monumental deficits of the last Republican administration by $200 Billion.  That would be the first deficit reduction we have seen in years.  In a world where Fox "News" controls the misinformation flow to "low information voters," most Americans don't know anything about this.

It's as if such facts go quietly into an unopened Birthday Present along with tax cuts for the middle class, newly insured families, material corrections to a long neglected infrastructure, the withdrawal from the murderous W's oil war in Iraq and so on.  The cheap, political pornography in the birthday card which has been "opened" tells a different story -- tax increases, per job costs calculated as if stimulus projects produced nothing else  (not repaired highways) and the "ObamaCare spending bill," all "topped off" with more white sugar frosting and a phoney label claiming that this soiled cake is, actually, "healthy food taken right off the table of our Founding Fathers."

A tide of misinformation may seem like facts and causes, but when the hypnosis of relentless complaints inevitably ends, it reveals itself as no more than the foamy spray careening along the top of actual waves of green water below. 

PayGo says that whatever the House may do, it must also pay for, and the "pay for" part will expose itself as "green water" rather quickly.  The immediate future of John Boehner's House of Representatives literally begs Hamlet for the Dane's dark prognosis.

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry."
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1.3

A few MeanMesa examples may aid in making this posting's point.

Extending the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% will cost an estimated $700 billion before that stinky bill can "sunset" again in 2020.  Obama need only insist that the $700 billion be off set by savings from spending or tax increases before the tax cuts are renewed.

Repealing the health insurance reform will cost $1.3 trillion over the next ten years.  Come on, John, pony up the money.  You know, "Pay as You Go."  Of course your campaign sponsors from the insurance industry are salivating at the prospect of continuing their "profit" extraction schemes, but you'll have to cut something else to actually be able to hand them the cash.  Regardless of what Murdoch's dancing chorus has said, the bill we have right now is, of course, revenue neutral.

Although there are no details just yet, MeanMesa has to assume that Boehner will reinstate a nice collection of expensive Cold War weapons procurement programs.  After all, Boeing and Lockheed were not bashful farm girls at the ball where untraceable, Citizen United campaign donations were being collected like stolen kisses.  Ridiculous re-armament expenditures will be a task which will undoubtedly be made much easier after Fox "News" unleashes its next terror campaign on the geriatric hill billies and the stumbling American Legion bar sots.

Oh dear.  John, where-oh-where will you get all this Treasury "tax and spend" blood money to pay back the loan sharks which delivered the cash for your campaign?

Well, although the new "throw-backs-in-charge" have been very secretive about their plans to free up tax dollars to pay off their debts, a few "great ideas" have slipped through the net thanks to the babbling Senate tea bag girls who talked too much.

Thanks, Sarah, Christine, Lisa, Sharron, Carly and friends.

Abolish the Department of Education.  That thing has just made all sorts of disgruntled tax payers, and the GOP always does better with illiterates for voters.

Privatize Social Security.  That multi-trillion dollar trust fund has been nothing but a constant tease for your Wall Street contributors.

Repealing the banks and brokerage regulation will add untold buckets of pretend  money to the economic growth figures in the GDP.  Never mind the little problem that none of those who will profit the most will actually pay much in taxes.

Charge the Federal Treasury for putting more Mexican Immigrants into contract prisons.  Long the favorite of Arizona's heavily soiled Governor, every day of incarceration adds a few bucks to the GDP and pads the pockets of the prison lobbyists filling her staff offices.

It's not all bad news, John.  You and your House Republicans can start borrowing again, too!  There are still a few billionaires in Russia, Dubai, China and Saudi Arabia anxious to own even more of the country.  The new House "management team" can just continue to reward off shoring jobs and selling domestic real estate until the boat is completely under water.  A few really tasty "Free Enterprise" favors will lubricate the process.

Nothing about this is particularly promising.

If things get overly sticky with too many destitute American voters, there's always the media opportunities of "big show" political tantrums.

This means that MeanMesa has to now suggest to folks who pay their rent with Social Security money should start tucking away as much as possible.  These Republican economic geniuses have also spoken openly about "shutting down the government" in the old Newt "Contract on America" Gingrich style.