Now for the Senate's turn:

Democrats Dangle Saturday Night Debt Fever

Get ready for Mr. Smith meets the debt ceiling.

Senate Democrats said Friday that they are prepared for an all-night battle on the Senate floor that could go through the wee hours of Sunday morning unless Republicans begin negotiating on a bipartisan plan to raise the debt ceiling.

With action still uncertain in the House, Senate leaders described a bare-knuckled plan that would culminate in a post-midnight Saturday vote on the debt ceiling plan developed by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader.

“That would be the vote to avoid default,” Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York declared to reporters during a news conference on Capitol Hill Friday morning.

If Republicans filibuster that vote, Democrats say they are prepared to repeatedly require Republicans to object to the bill’s passage, keeping them in their seats for hours and creating a middle-of-the-night legislative spectacle for the cameras.

“It’s hard to imagine the Senate Republicans would actually filibuster the nation into default,” Mr. Schumer said.

I took most of my rantypants out on tommy while he was in Madison last weekend. Thanks, tommy! I find it much to easy to get up on my soapbox these days, especially when Walker claims to have increased the job base by 9000 jobs when GE is moving it's X-ray division out of Waukesha to China. GE paid no taxes last year and is moving a very profitable division overseas. They claim no jobs will be lost, but that they will create 65 jobs for engineers....in China. Yeah, Scotty, there's your 9000 jobs.

::headdesk::

Oh Maria! health-ma to your DH and coping-ma to you.

I took most of my rantypants out on tommy while he was in Madison last weekend. Thanks, tommy!

No prob!

Don't forget Walker's cancelling of the high-speed rail project, losing the federal funding and thousands of jobs....

Thank you, Sue. We're both still in a little shock.

Oh, Maria, and Toddson! Yikes. Health-ma to both of you.

ION, I can't bear to listen to the news right now. I feel like I'm watching my country circle the drain.

Thanks, 'suela. I sincerely hope your job fuckery resolves itself soon. The federal government hiring process is frelled on so many levels.

Much health~ma to your DH, Maria.

Oh man, Maria! Good luck, you guys.

Politics:

what really bothers me and sends me into angry rages now daily, is that so many of the Tea Party assholes don't really seem to be interested in reality. Like if people want to sit down and debate the merits of particular policies armed with data, I can dig that. My politics are pretty left in general, but I believe it is theoretically possible that some conservative policies could work better than my ideals.

That said, insisting on a balanced budget amendment for the U.S. federal government in a time of a recession is some of the most ridiculous bullshit I have ever heard. What some Repub governors are doing in many states (particularly in the midwest), almost makes me spit nails.

It is anti-democratic. It is an attempt to hold on to power and reduce the likelihood that average people will wake up and protest.