Why Obama isn't picking up the phone.
From Mark Mardell on the BBC site:
Conservatives loathe Obamacare and will do anything to wreck it.
They say it will hurt people and the economy. They say opinion polls show a majority are against it.
That's why they have linked what should be a simple matter - funding the government - with a plan to gut the bill.
President Obama is scornful. "Think about it, shutting down the government just because you don't like a law that was passed and found constitutional," he told an audience in Maryland.
The Republicans' ideological fervour has convinced many of them that they are right, and even more that they must look over the shoulder at the Tea Party or risk the next election.
There's little doubt a shutdown would harm the US image and do some damage to the real economy.
So as the hours tick by to a shutdown, the Republican leadership is sounding a little desperate, backed in to a corner. And the Democrats are enjoying watching them squirm.
At a news conference the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, seemed to be pleading with the president to give them something, anything in return for passing a bill.
But the Democrats' leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, had a simple reply to reporters' questions about whether he would negotiate about this, that or the other: "No", "no" and "no".
He said he wouldn't negotiate with a gun pointed at the head of the American people - and talked of Republicans "walking over a cliff", taking "the path to oblivion". One of his colleagues said the impasse was the result of "Tea Party temper tantrums".
They were enjoying themselves, in a rather stern, grim way.
If the Republicans do blink, the war in their ranks will intensify. If they don't they could be seen as putting the obsession of their activists before the needs of the country.
It's little wonder the president isn't picking up the phone.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24289832
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Last edited Mon Sep 30, 2013, 01:40 PM - Edit history (1)
no bargaining with either, which rules out bargaining with anyone in the Tea Party
But that sheepdip in a daiper AND lookin tough with his gun----THAT is perfect!
(Original guy in pic is too cute to be a baggie) 
In the interest of getting along, I have agreed. So they will always be baggers to me. The latest new brand they're selling, is called The Conservative Party©:
That's Cruz, Lee and another meathead. who say they are going to spearhead a new GOP political wing. But they're still baggers.
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
~ Kurt Vonnegut
had a sexual conotation to it and they were offended. Many of us thought.. "that's too bad".
I missed those 2010 online forums where they "demanded" to be called teabaggers! But, it sure has caught on and will never stop.. baggers that they are.
El stupidio rubio is to cruz' right.
can coexist peacefully 
Thank you!
I finally laughed this hour. A real one too. Not that lame internet lol shit, but a firm toothy laugh.
I appreciate the picked nit. 
