GOP Strategy: Bleed Reconciliation Fix To Death With Byrd Rule

Greg gets the damn scoop, again. Something, anything needs to be done to stop this crap.

Senior GOP aides have been studying the rule book in recent days, and they think they have a game plan. Here’s how they hope it will work.

At risk of oversimplification, the Byrd rule is designed to ensure that reconciliation is used to only make budgetary fixes, not policy ones, to existing legislation. Presuming the House passes the Senate bill, the House will then pass a reconciliation fix to the bill, after which the Senate will then try to pass that fix, too.

At this point Senate GOPers will repeatedly invoke the Byrd rule to ask the parliamentarian to strip individual provisions (ones fixing this or that in the original bill) out of the fix, on the grounds that they are policy fixes. If individual provisions are stripped, it would change the Senate’s version of the overall fix.

That would force the House to vote on it again and again, stalling the process further.

The Obama Coup: The Online Game

Seems someone had the H1N1 and mistook the fever dream for a "vision". Not that the crazies haven't thrown this stuff around before.

In the game's scenario, 20 million armed American "patriots" begin seizing local and federal government offices. These are the same people whose earlier Tea Party protests had been ignored and dismissed by the mainstream media. Now, they post bounties for government employees. There's fighting in every state. Meanwhile, Lou Dobbs has been disappeared, and Glenn Beck has been found dead of an "aspirin overdose." Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly have been rounded up, and Fox News forcibly shut down.

(snip)

The website notes that this rudimentary World of Warcraft-type multiplayer game—titled "2011 Obama's Coup Fails"—is merely "an action-packed, satire-filled" entertainment. But it does say, "If current events keep transpiring as they are, then 2011 Obama's Coup may in fact become a dark chapter in American History."

Give Bush the boot, literally

By GottaLaff

Throw boots (and other things) at Georgie Bush. Hear him say, "Ow!" And then do it again. Follow the link. And click on WMD. That's an order.

H/t: Eve

Political Games For Everyone!!!

These look interesting, but I think I'm already too immersed in politics.

In the mail: The Political Machine 2008 allows you to be the campaign manager for Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain. If you don't like those choices, you can work for Sen. Hillary Clinton, historical candidates or even design the perfect candidate from scratch.

Players then choose their campaign battlegrounds and are off on the campaign trail to face a host of challenges including fundraising, talk show appearances, hiring spin doctors and winning endorsements. Play against the computer or against real people across the Internet.

The game is won on Election Day by the player who gets the necessary 270 electoral votes to become President.

Or how about this?

Game puts you in control of federal budget- $3.3 trillion in tax money at your command

Hey there, arm-chair presidents. Think you could handle the federal budget better than our elected officials in Washington?

Give it a shot.

American Public Media, which produces public radio's daily business show "Marketplace," among other programs, produced an online game that puts your budgeting skills to the test.

(snip)

In the game, players are given a series of options under various budget categories. Bring troops home now or gradually.

Fund the federal No Child Left Behind program, or not. Repeal tax cuts promoted by President Bush or continue them indefinitely.

Double click on each option and you'll get an explanation of its pros, cons and consequences. Select an option and see how the national debt would be affected.

The entire federal budget is at your command, and you don't even have to answer to Congress (a president's dream come true).