Yet another take on the bad-juju zeitgeist..

http://www.salon.com...source=newsletter

This time, some referents beginning in 1978.

Partisan death jam
The two parties aren't just making progress impossible, they're destroying our political system. An expert explains
BY LUCY MCKEON

If you thought the debates over the debt ceiling last year Â one of the most striking examples of political dysfunction and gridlock in recent memory Â were over, think again. Although Republicans agreed to a small raise and to put off discussion of the issue until after the upcoming 2012 elections, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox, ÂWeÂll be doing it all overÂ in 2013. Clearly, the partisan rupture thatÂs dividing Washington is not going to heal any time soon, but how did things get so dire to begin with?

When congressional scholars Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein say ÂItÂs Even Worse Than It LooksÂ Â the title of their book Â theyÂre being serious (subtitle: ÂHow the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of ExtremismÂ). Mann, the W. Averell Harriman chair and senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, and Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, began the Congress Project in the midst of the 1978 midterm campaign to track the institution as it evolved. What theyÂve found since hasnÂt been encouraging.

[. . .]

Brahma, on his lotus leaf, opens his eye:
A universe is created.

Brahma closes his eye:
A universe disappears.

Oh well..

and since the authors take sides (Truthiness VS Chaos--which should Win?) it won't be read by those who might benefit. The p o l a r i z a t i o n
is about set-in-concrete for The Duration (perhaps of: the whole Banana Republic??)

The whole Problem is about the Moderates (in religion, politics or what have you) VS
the irascible possessors of personal-Certainty, aka I KNOW _____ [and you DON'T]

The species is Such a toddler :-/
We must Hope that time still remains-??- for *US* to ^Grow Up^, face our (especially Male..) ingrained ugly violence-love, listen to more articulate females
and maybe ... ... save the planet from the unConscious multitudes, spoiled-brat Greedheads everywhere.

Simple, eh? (My riposte to NikeÂ's Just Do It! doggerel)

Post #357,221 by Ashton 5/8/12 3:40:51 AM Reply	Yet another take on the bad-juju zeitgeist.. http://www.salon.com...source=newsletter This time, some referents beginning in 1978. Partisan death jam The two parties aren't just making progress impossible, they're destroying our political system. An expert explains BY LUCY MCKEON If you thought the debates over the debt ceiling last year Â one of the most striking examples of political dysfunction and gridlock in recent memory Â were over, think again. Although Republicans agreed to a small raise and to put off discussion of the issue until after the upcoming 2012 elections, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox, ÂWeÂll be doing it all overÂ in 2013. Clearly, the partisan rupture thatÂs dividing Washington is not going to heal any time soon, but how did things get so dire to begin with? When congressional scholars Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein say ÂItÂs Even Worse Than It LooksÂ Â the title of their book Â theyÂre being serious (subtitle: ÂHow the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of ExtremismÂ). Mann, the W. Averell Harriman chair and senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, and Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, began the Congress Project in the midst of the 1978 midterm campaign to track the institution as it evolved. What theyÂve found since hasnÂt been encouraging. [. . .] Brahma, on his lotus leaf, opens his eye: A universe is created. Brahma closes his eye: A universe disappears. Oh well..
Post #357,223 by boxley 5/8/12 7:58:51 AM Reply	what happens when the turtle farts? Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
Post #357,225 by lincoln 5/8/12 8:12:31 AM Reply	more of the "But both sides do it" BS It's totally the fault of the Republicans who want to obey Grover Norquist and make the federal government so small that it could be "drowned in a bathtub" by starving it of revenue. "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #357,230 by folkert 5/8/12 11:09:46 AM Reply	Except... They want a Military that is SO HUGE is dwarfs the next 17 Countries military budgets... COMBINED Noooo NEVER cut the Military. Lets cut all the other things.
Post #357,234 by mmoffitt 5/8/12 2:25:52 PM Reply	They have to do that lest a spectre haunt them.
Post #357,259 by lincoln 5/9/12 9:31:07 AM Reply	along with NOT cutting the Petnagon budget let's refuse to cut, in fact, let's INCREASE the budgets of: - the FBI - the CIA - the Secret Service - the US Marshals - the NSA gotta keep people AFRAID of those "scary people" over "there". "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #357,262 by boxley 5/9/12 9:42:58 AM Reply	Dont worry. Obama already took care of that Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
Post #357,267 by lincoln 5/9/12 12:27:03 PM Reply	Nobody sells "fear" like Republicans and that's all they've had to run on in the past 2 years. "Be very afraid of that scary black man in the White House: He's a Muslim, he was born in Kenya, he's a socialist, he'll take away all your guns, he wants the government to take over all of the health care in the country, etc." "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #357,272 by boxley 5/9/12 1:20:21 PM Reply	so he has removed shrubs invasion of the constitution or has he gleefuly expanded those intrusions knowing full well that people like yourself will go, "that all right as long as he is better than the republicans" Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
Post #357,275 by folkert 5/9/12 2:03:18 PM Reply	See... this is what I mean. You are Grating. I'm not saying your wrong. Just grating. Its pervading everything you type... everything you are posting. If you could work on NOT being abrasive... that'd help your position out a lot.
Post #357,276 by hnick 5/9/12 2:13:50 PM Reply	Re: See... this is what I mean. He's being a troll. If you let him annoy you, you're losing and he's winning. Don't let him annoy you.
Post #357,295 by folkert 5/9/12 10:26:38 PM Reply	I ignore him... Its just that is hits my annoy meter... Not that I really care if he isn't or not... If I don't say something, he will just try harder. The stuff he is now trying harder to do the" Greg no cliky" quips and the "where is my grater" thing... just means he is trying and its laughable. Its more annoying when he is not TRYING and he does it out of habit and his true colors. than when he IS trying to do it. Get what I'm saying? It has the proper effect. Making him less grating... ya know?
Post #357,250 by dmcarls 5/8/12 11:49:57 PM Reply	Good Salon article I ran across this book via NPR: http://www.npr.org/2...emism-in-congress A good, but short, interview (7-8 minutes) with the authors, plus a book review. What more could one ask?
Post #357,282 by Ashton 5/9/12 4:35:14 PM Reply	Noted that, and since the authors take sides (Truthiness VS Chaos--which should Win?) it won't be read by those who might benefit. The p o l a r i z a t i o n is about set-in-concrete for The Duration (perhaps of: the whole Banana Republic??) The whole Problem is about the Moderates (in religion, politics or what have you) VS the irascible possessors of personal-Certainty, aka I KNOW _____ [and you DON'T] The species is Such a toddler :-/ We must Hope that time still remains-??- for US to ^Grow Up^, face our (especially Male..) ingrained ugly violence-love, listen to more articulate females and maybe ... ... save the planet from the unConscious multitudes, spoiled-brat Greedheads everywhere. Simple, eh? (My riposte to NikeÂ's Just Do It! doggerel) .hr Law above fear, justice above law, mercy above justice, love above all.

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