Same Old Same Old
The parties are really showing their stripes.
Obama opens by asking for $40 billion in new spending.
Republicans counter by asking for $32 billion in cuts, almost entirely from programs favored by the left.
The Democrats, naturally, compromise.
The compromise: $38.5 billion in cuts. Defense, where waste is greatest, got increased spending.
After the deal, Republicans whine that it’s not enough.
Why does this all sound so familiar?
Dems caving here gives the House Republicans some skin in the game now.
If they’re wrong about spending cuts helping the economy, and they are, things could very well get worse from here.
Sucks to be a beneficiary of the programs that got cut, but that’s what happens when republicans are elected. Taxes get cut and spending eventually has to follow.
^ . . . so for 2012 the Dems will have a political position to argue from, that the Republican spending jihad is why the economy sucks still.
This reminds me of a famous quote on the dreadnought (supper sized battleships at the turn of the 20th century): “One party wanted six dreadnoughts, the other party wanted eight, in the event we compromised at ten.”
We are living in the age of the vampire.
Vampires, of course, live elite lifestyles, in nice large palaces, behind castle walls. They are sustained by sucking the blood out of ordinary people.
For the last 15 years, art and entertainment seems to have become inordinately fascinated with vampires, the reason for this now seems obvious as art follows and reflects life.
The analogy is even stronger when applied to corporations, because corporations, like Vampire’s, aren’t necessarily subject to a mortal death,though both can be killed. And like vampires, corporations don’t have a virtuous set of values.
Citizens United case, open the gates for Vampirism. We now have government of by and for the vampires (to paraphrase Joseph Stiglitz very important article in Vanity fair: http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105 )
It seems to me that since Citizens United case, the Vampires are just much more openly showing their fangs – that’s what’s happened in Wisconsin. That’s part of what’s up with Senator Kyle not caring about lying. It’s become a frenzied fest of vampires feeding at the trauft.
Coming to a neck near and very dear to you: fangs.
Unlike Vampires, though they are not without their minions, being bitten by our political/economic vampires does not necessarily allow you to become one of them, it merely drains one of ones life blood.