Killjoys.

After working tirelessly through the night, the United States senate, with a little prodding from the Vice President, came to a compromise on a deal to save 90% of Americans from having their taxes increased.

But, alas.....

"A hard-fought bipartisan compromise passed in the Senate early Tuesday to spare all but the richest Americans from painful income-tax hikes teetered on the edge of collapse as angry House Republicans denounced its lack of spending cuts.

While House Speaker John Boehner considered whether to bring the Senate-passed measure to the floor for a vote Tuesday, Majority Leader Eric Cantor told fellow Republicans in a closed-door meeting that he opposed the legislation negotiated by Vice President Joe Biden and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and passed by the Senate 89-8 shortly after 2 a.m.

Cantor told the group he could not back the bill in its current form, according to two officials in the room, which could leave open the possibility of an attempt to modify the package and send it back to the upper chamber. But Democrats there have signaled that changing the compromise risks killing it.

A report released by the Congressional Budget Office Tuesday complicated matters further still. The nonpartisan group "scored" the Biden-McConnell compromise as likely adding nearly $4 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years, hardening opposition among many Republicans seeking further spending cuts.

The country technically went over the “fiscal cliff” at midnight, triggering across-the-board income-tax increases and deep, automatic cuts to domestic and defense programs. Taken together, those factors could plunge the still-fragile economy into a fresh recession. Financial markets were closed for New Year’s Day, potentially limiting the damage from the partisan impasse in dysfunctional Washington at least until Wednesday." [Source]

I have a question: Who voted for these people?

 

Hold on!

My fellow Americans, if you find yourselves heading over a "fiscal cliff" as we head into 2013, you can thank the house republicans and the rest of the clowns in Washington for your fall. Still, some folks in Washington gave it the old college try, (I see you Uncle Joe) but old habits die hard. Heck the wingnuts in Congress won't even vote on a deal. And so....

"It’s official. With reports that Congress was close to a deal this morning which would avert the fiscal cliff and the president holding a press conference to bolster support for a last minute fix, reports that that the Senate will not be holding a vote on Monday night on this deal. The House has opted to adjourn for the day. At midnight tonight, the United States will go over the fiscal cliff, ushering in all the across-the-board tax hikes and automatic spending cuts that entails.

CNN Congressional reporter Dana Bash confirmed that there would be no vote tonight on Twitter early this afternoon." [Source] 

Those mother f*****s!!!

Folks, while some of you are popping your Cristal and singing Auld Lang Syne, I will be crying over stocks in my portfolio dropping in earnings and my already high taxes going up even more.

Anyway, while both sides are to blame for this fiasco, I would like to give a special f**k you to wingnuts on the hill. I came to this conclusion after reading Joshua Green's article in Bloomberg Businessweek.

"On Sunday evening, after a long, fruitless day of haggling, talks between Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell to avert the fiscal cliff broke down and the Senate adjourned until Monday. Republicans had spent much of Sunday pushing to get Social Security cuts included in the deal, and when that effort fell apart, momentum toward a resolution disappeared.

If Republicans don’t have a change of heart fast, we’ll go over the cliff, and they’ll waste a huge opportunity—even without the Social Security cuts, Democrats are offering them an incredibly good deal.

With the caveat that no reporter is privy to the details of the offers being swapped, here is the deal that seemed to be emerging: Democrats would get an extension of unemployment benefits for 2.1 million people; they’d patch the alternative minimum tax for a year to protect the middle class from sharp tax hikes; and they’d implement a “doc fix” to ensure that Medicare reimbursement rates to doctors don’t fall precipitously and limit patients’ access to medical care. Republicans would get to preserve Bush-era income tax rates for households making up to $400,000 (rather than the $250,000 limit Democrats prefer). They’d also get a lower tax rate and a much higher threshold for inheritance taxes (set to revert to 55 percent on estates of more than $1 million on Tuesday). And significantly, Republicans would hold onto their greatest point of leverage in upcoming negotiations over entitlement cuts, because the deal wouldn’t raise the debt limit.

Here’s what’s important about everything Democrats would get: It’s temporary; everything expires (presumably) within a year. Here’s what’s important about what Republicans would get: it’s permanent. The tax rates won’t expire.

That means Democrats are offering a huge gift to Republicans and getting almost nothing in return because on Jan. 1, if no deal is struck, Democrats will get even more revenue than they’re asking for without conceding a thing. And if, as polls suggest, voters would blame Republicans for going over the cliff, Democrats are also offering to save Republicans from their worst impulses—which, at least for the time being, since they haven’t yet agreed, is to reject this deal.

I’m amazed liberals aren’t furious." [Source]

Actually, some liberals are furious. But since when did that matter? They are not in the driver's seat. Sadly for America, the guys (and gals) in the driver's seat are going way too fast to stop in time to avoid the cliff up ahead.

 





 

Is this justice?

*

Congrats to my man Lenny McAllister from over at Politic365. Lenny is running for Jesse Jackson, Jr's congressional seat in Illinois.

Lenny seems like good people, and he is exactly the kind of candidate that republicans should be running for public office. Let's hope that they learned their lesson after November 6th. Although, from the looks of things, not much has changed.

Lenny's chances are slim, but at least he is out there helping his party's brand.

There is still no positive word on this looming fiscal cliff. It's Grover and his merry men against the President. Who will blink, first? Hey I have an idea: Why don't we just hold hands and jump off the cliff together? I think that there are a lot of people in America who are secretly hoping that we will all go over the cliff. Some, on the other hand, are not so secretive about it.

The following is from a blogger who styles him/herself "Liberal Anthropologist":

"There has been much talk recently about how one side or another should deal with the fiscal cliff. The Democrats are a lost cause (at the moment) when it comes to fiscal matters. This is most evidenced by the absolutely ridiculous proposal made by Obama’s team.

So this is my suggestion to the Republicans. Just announce now that if the president’s people do not put forward a serious proposal that involves massive spending cuts that the fiscal cliff will be gone over.
And it is a good thing.

Why? Because we need to cut all of that spending anyway. It is not even enough. It is a down payment on the spending cuts that are really needed. So the automatic spending cuts are a good thing." [Source]

Now that's tough talk. And, to be fair, O and his peeps are talking just as tough.

"The White House is "absolutely" prepared to go over the so-called "fiscal cliff" should negotiations with Republicans fail to muster a deal that would prevent a devastating series of tax hikes and spending cuts from triggering Jan. 1, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said today.

Geithner, whom President Obama assigned to be the point person on his "fiscal cliff" proposal, told CNBC in an interview that an agreement won't be reached by year's end unless the GOP concedes an increase in tax rates for the top two percent of wealthiest Americans. Disparity over whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans or only those making less than $250,000 a year has barricaded any headway on a plan for months." [Source]

Folks, it's time to start saving. I think that you are going to need every penny.

Finally, I am going to leave you with a story. I don't want to give my opinion, because there are some folks out there who just out of GP will say black if I say white. Rather, I will let you read and decide for yourself.

"In October of 2006, the Jackson family of Solomons, Md., would be rocked, when their 21-year-old son, *Brandon (pictured), was reportedly jumped by 7 to 8 White males. Six years later, Brandon would be sentenced by a nearly all-White jury to 12 years in prison for attempted murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a weapon for defending himself against one of the “victims.” Struck down but buoyed by faith, Brandon’s mother, Gloria Fisher, spoke with NewsOne about how she won’t stop until she gets justice for Brandon.

While Brandon helped his employer move furniture at her house in Jackson, N.J., he allegedly noticed that a fight had broken out at a party across the street. After walking toward the altercation to investigate the melee, one of the individuals involved, who is said to have been visibly intoxicated along with the raucous group, began fighting with him.

According to Gloria, Brandon quickly shut the aggressor down and attempted to return to the house he came from.

But that would be just the beginning.

The aggressor — now allegedly armed with 7 to 8 other White males in tow — followed Brandon and then reportedly began stomping and kicking him while yelling, “Kill the n*gger!”

According to Gloria, Brandon pulled out his 3-inch work pocket knife in self-defense, forcing the group back, but it was the homeowner’s call to police that would finally force the motley group to stand down.

On the police report, even though the officer would list the incident as a “racial offense” and Brandon would sustain injuries to the back of his head and knees and even had a fingernail bitten off, he would later be the only one charged with aggravated assault and illegal weapons possession.

It wasn’t until April of 2009 that Brandon’s case would go to a grand jury. By then, the charges would somehow be trumped up to include attempted murder.
Even though Brandon’s lawyer would manage to get a statement from the homeowner, proving that he had indeed been attacked by the group of White teens, the prosecutor’s office reportedly refused to give this vital information to the defense attorney. Brandon’s trial would then be postponed yet again before finally taking place in September 2011 — almost 5 years after the trial first began." [Read more here]

For the record, the young man in this story was found guilty by an all white jury and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

But read the story for yourself. Something about the prosecution's case convinced those jurors that this violent young black man did the crime.

*Pic from Newsone.com

O in Philly and "true negroes" in Minnesota.

His Oness was at a toy factory just outside of Philly today, and he was telling the workers that if the republicans in Washington don't come around to seeing things his way we could be heading for a long fall over a very steep cliff.

Mitch McConnell was laughing at Obama's offer, but most of us do not think that there is anything funny about this standoff. Just thirty two days to go before we might have to march on Washington and "throw the bums out".

And finally, we have this:

"In something straight from the “this-is-too-foolish-to-be-offensive files,” we take a look at two college girls who had quite the time during a recent homemade spa treatment.

University of Minnesota Duluth students Rachel Cooper and Jessica Heid (both pictured) decided the dark facial masks they’d put on made them instantly Black.

So they posted a YouTube video calling themselves “true negroes” who “come from the Black hood.” A few seconds before that, though, they chose to wax poetic about their newfound “ghetto” roots.

Yo, what up homie!” one of the girls say. “I’m from the 421!” Not to be outdone, her friend quickly adds, “I’m from the 612, b*tch. N*gga, I beez [sic] from Brooklyn, New York!”

Other golden nuggets of true, authentic Blackness include: 1. “We need some “f*ckin fried chicken. I need some fried f*ckin chicken.” 2. “Girl, you know mama’s makin’ some fried chicken tonight!” and 3.”We got some f*ckin backup n*ggas for us, you n*ggas!”

Oddly enough, when asked about the clip, both girls seemingly rejected their “Black” debut, “We were doing facials and it happened to have been a brown facial mask,” Rachel Cooper told a reporter, according to The Root. We had to leave it on for 12 minutes. During that 12 minutes, we horribly decided to make a video that we regret and are not happy about.” [Source]

*Yawn*. Frankly, this has become so commonplace that I don't even know why I am posting about it.

Apparently we are still a long way to go before we get over ignorant stereotypes in America. Is what two young clueless girls from Minnesota post on You Tube *symptomatic of a larger problem here in America? That was a rhetorical question. of course it is.

But hey, they are "not happy about it". That should count for something.