From the New York Times:
Also behind closed doors in the Capitol, House Republican leaders laid out their demands for a debt-ceiling increase to the Republican rank and file.
They include a one-year delay of the president’s health care law, fast-track authority to overhaul the tax code, construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, offshore oil and gas production, more permitting of energy exploration on federal lands, a rollback of regulations on coal ash, blocking new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on greenhouse gas production, eliminating a $23 billion fund to ensure the orderly dissolution of failed major banks, eliminating mandatory contributions to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and an increase in means testing for Medicare, among other provisions.[…]
Economists of all political persuasions have warned that a failure to raise the debt ceiling by the Treasury’s deadline of Oct. 17 could be catastrophic.
I’ve got a four-part plan for how the GOP can get all that made into law. Ready?
1) Persuade most voters that the GOP is best able to govern.
2) Win lots of elections, until the GOP controls the House (already done!), the Senate, and the Presidency.
3) Pass laws in the Congress, and have those laws signed by the President.
4) Party!
But I guess the idea of governing through persuasion and winning elections is just too implausible. Threatening to destroy the economy makes much more sense.
* * *
Why not demand President Obama’s resignation while they’re at it?
The debt ceiling: Two can play at that suicidal game! | The Economist
Mr Obama ought to counter the Republican threat not to raise the debt ceiling, with a threat of his own to veto a raise in the debt ceiling. Republicans may demand the postponement of Obamacare in exchange for a debt-ceiling hike. Mr Obama can demand passage of an immigration-reform bill including a path to citizenship in exchange for a debt-ceiling hike. … [T]he whole idea that Mr Obama would threaten to tank America’s credit rating and the global economy in order to achieve his legislative agenda is just nuts. Whereas Republicans, well, you just have to expect them to pull that sort of stunt, because… because why again?
“I’ve got a four-part plan for how the GOP can get all that made into law.”
They tried that in 2000, didn’t work so well!
Okay, isn’t someone at LEAST going to comment on the graphic? I was very pleased with the graphic.
Nice graphic. The Henson estate’s legal team will be in touch.
I’m ALWAYS impressed with the graphics here.
I keep asking, and you keep telling, but walk me through this one more time: How do you find shit like that? I gather someone catalogues images to make them text-searchable. And the search term you entered to find this image was… torture? Republicans? What?
Or is this image one of your own making?
That would be Google. :-p And also Flickr.
In this case, the search term I used was “hostage.” It’s not an image of my own making, alas. After coming across this image, I looked up the cost of the dolls, and they’re like $50 each. Yipes.
Amp, do you use Creative Commons licensed images only? I ask because I used an image on my tiny blog that I thought was CC licensed but apparently was wrongly included in a CC archive, and I’ve got some Canadian image management company trying to come after me for thousands of dollars. I’m trying to learn more about what bigger bloggers do.
Ok, now walk me through that.
You come across this disturbing image. And across your mind flashes the thought, “Gosh, that’s disturbing: Some people are torturing poor Beaker — and I’m not one of them. Clearly I gotta get my own Beaker doll so I can get in on the fun, too!”
There are things you just don’t want to know about your favorite authors….
Elusis, I use Creative Commons images about 90% of the time, but if I can’t find a good CC image or create an image myself, I sometimes take from the web.
I really wish I could give you some helpful advice, but the truth is I’ve never faced a situation like that and I don’t know what the right way to deal with it is. It sounds like a shakedown to me, and I’d definitely email someone at EFF (electronic frontier foundation) to ask if they have advice, or know where you could get knowledgeable advice, before paying anything. If you can’t get help there, I’d definitely try to find a lawyer before paying thousands of dollars to an image management company.
I’m so sorry that’s happening to you – that really sucks!
By the way, did I know you blogged? I’d definitely check out your blog.