Tick, tick. August 2nd is the Debt Limit Armageddon. Or Not.

Put your head in the line of a bullet for representing her constituency like she did and we'll talk.

If her own constituents aren't complaining, or calling for a temporary replacement appointee, or for a by-election, what business is it of yours?!

Ideally she would now be forced out after failing to do the right thing but I have read that there is little hope that the Supremes would go along with that.

The supreme court can prevent the House from expelling one of its own members? Really? Are you sure about that?

Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member.

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Democrats were despondent about the deal, which split their caucus precisely down the middle as it easily cleared the House on Monday night. Liberals complained that the White House had, for the third time in eight months, squandered its leverage, capitulated to the opposition and presented Democrats with a done deal that they had no choice but to accept.

“It’s a Trojan Horse with Scylla and Charybdis inside!” Rep. Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat, said as he walked out of Vice President Biden’s presentation to the House Democratic caucus. “It’s evil, or more evil.”

Progressives knew they couldn’t block the big spending cuts the president agreed to, because they weren’t willing to throw the government into default. That left liberals, Cohen said, to pursue two activities: “venting and kvetching.”

They did both with gusto on Monday. “It’s robbing Peter and Paul,” protested Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), going on about “terminal bleeding” of government programs.

“I don’t think it’s fair!” thundered Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.).

And what did D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton think? “I don’t think,” she replied. “I cry.”

In his private sessions with House and Senate Democrats, Biden reportedly likened dealing with the Republicans to negotiating with terrorists and said GOP leaders had “put guns to their heads.”

I am thinking back to around the time of the Wisconsin fight where teachers were deeply demoralized to be forced to face how lowly they are held in esteem by the citizens, when a huge chunk of the citizens said directly that they think teachers are over paid. I think that Liberals are about to feel that same kick to the gut, when they can no longer ignore how despised government is by a lot of the citizens. Liberals can no longer rationalize away and ignore claims that government is too big and has too much power because in a democracy numbers count, liberals can piss and moan about those who dont agree with them, but they cant ignore them any longer. The liberals continually losing political battles will at some point be a wake up call.

When it comes to Murphy's Law—the idea that anything that can go wrong, will—we Irish have our corollary: Murphy was an optimist.

Even from this sunny perspective, it's hard to look at the debt-ceiling compromise and see it as anything but a conservative victory. It's not just that Speaker of the House John Boehner succeeded in imposing some conditions in exchange for an increase in the debt ceiling. It's that the deal has Democrats, including the president, essentially signing on to the Republican framework for defining the Beltway's budget problem: spending that is too high rather than taxes that are too low.

For the moment, the press focus remains on the intra-conservative spat between Republicans who favor Mr. Boehner's deal and tea partiers who largely oppose it. These disagreements will fade, however. And come the 2012 elections this deal will help force the debate that all conservatives have wanted all along—about the size, scope, and proper mission of our federal government

Huge win for Obama.

The republicans and the American people got played.

Although all sides conceded some ground to secure a deal, the final bill represented a triumph for the Tea Party camp in the Republican Party, which dug in its heels against any tax hikes and pushed for spending cuts.

Many congressional Democrats were dismayed that Obama and their party leadership did not do more to include some tax increases and provide more protection for social programs.

....Obamageddon is just around the corner now and there is nothing standing up to stop it.

Jul 29th 2011, 12:37 by The Economist online

How the recovery in the United States compares with previous ones

THE great recession hit America even harder than previously thought. The GDP data released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) show that output rose by an annualised 1.3% over the second quarter of 2011, worse than had been expected. But the department's annual revisions to previous figures contained still worse news. Annual GDP growth for 2008 and 2009 was revised down by 0.3 and 0.9 percentage points; the 2010 figure was revised up, but not by enough to compensate. The release means that output in America is still at a lower level than its peak before the recession, a point earlier numbers said had been passed at the end of last year. When compared to the three other slowest post-war recoveries, the current “jobless recovery” has been thought unique in its lack of employment growth. After previous recessions an acceleration in output had helped the employment recover to its initial level. The BEA's new figures show that with output having grown less than previously thought, America's jobless may have longer to wait for a similar boost.