The Widdershins

Here we go again

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Ah yes, that’s the one.  Was it only yesterday (yes, it was) that I was posting about how some pols were lamenting the inability of our august leaders to c-o-m-p-r-o-m-i-s-e ?  Well it seems they gripe one day about their inability to accomplish anything and then go back to the same ole games the next.  And here some examples:

The House acted today to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994.  However, they did not pass the same version that the Senate passed.  Instead, the House version did not include language that would cover LGBT folks who are in a domestic relationship where some type of violent behavior has occurred.  The Senate version also would have given tribal authorities on Indian lands the ability to pursue a non-Native American who inflicted violence against a Native American that happened on tribal lands.  Specifically:

Under a 1978 Supreme Court decision, non-Indians cannot be prosecuted by tribal courts for crimes committed on tribal land. Last July, the Justice Department recommended that Congress give tribes local authority to prosecute non-Indians in misdemeanor domestic and dating violence cases.

The Republicans did offer another way to handle such cases, “the Republican version allows a battered Native American woman or a tribe on her behalf to file in U.S. District Court for a protection order against an alleged abuser, whether Indian or not, who committed the abuse on Indian land. But the White House and other Democrats want tribal courts to be able to prosecute the offenders.”.   I know to file a protective order is not the same as allowing prosecution.  And I also know how little “protection orders” have done on the state level in many cases.  But is it possible that having a Federal protection order might be just as good or better than allowing tribal prosecution?  Honestly, I don’t know.

Also, the House took out a portion that had been in the House version that “would have compromised the confidentiality of battered illegal immigrants who break from their partners, cooperate with law enforcement and apply for their own citizenship. ”  I did a post on this, here so you can read the particulars on it and decide for yourself whether this was a killer on the entire bill.  My personal opinion is this:  Pass the damned bill!  I have to give credit to the Repubs here.  In the House they did offer some changes but not enough for some Dems.  Okay, we know it’s an election year but don’t use this bill for one of your pissing contests.  Just pass the bill now and later you can add amendments to it and attach those to one of the  “have to pass” bills that no one is going to vote against just because of it.  Show some statesmanship here folks, hmmm?  Moving along…

It’s Debt Ceiling Time Again

Oh Gawd, that thing we love as much as a root canal.  What will it be this time?  Government shutdown?  Another downgrade of our credit rating by S&P?  Way too soon to tell, but the “battle lines” are being drawn.  Obama says the Repubs must include some revenue raising and Boehner says nope gotta have more cuts to the budget.  What he actually said was :

“This is the only avenue I see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance,” Boehner says, according to highlights of the speech provided to the Post. “If that means we have to do a series of stop-gap measures, so be it. But that’s not the ideal. Let’s start solving the problem.”

One of his aides also told WaPo that “Higher taxes, however, are still off the table.”
Alrighty then.  Seems like an impasse will be forthcoming.  The only way this *might* change is if the 2nd half of the deal worked out last year comes to pass this year.  That’s the part where, if they can’t get their collective shit together, then $1.2 trillion in cuts will come into play and those will be across the board, including Defense. No winners here, neither Repub nor Dem.  Instead, golden showers for everyone because that’s exactly what they are doing with this little bit of election year politicking.

A little tidbit I ran across

In regard to the $2 billion dollar loss that J.P. Morgan-Chase sustained (it was their own fault by the way), Obama had this to say:

“JPMorgan is one of the best managed banks there is. Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we got and they still lost $2 billion and counting,” Obama said yesterday in an interview with the ABC program “The View” scheduled for broadcast today.

I should hope you feel that way Mr. President because what you didn’t say was that

U.S. President Barack Obama has $500,001 to $1 million in a JPMorgan Chase private client asset management checking account, according to financial disclosures released by the White House on Tuesday.

Gee Mr. President, I hope none of your one half to one mill was invested in those J.P. Morgan derivatives things that just cost them a bundle.  🙄

On a lighter note

This little guy is a Humboldt penguin who was in a Toyko aquarium but he make a break for it.  He/she scaled a rock wall four meters (13 ft) high and squeezed through a barbed wire fence to escape its harborside aquarium in March.  Well they spied him/her (it’s called Penguin 377) swimming around in Toyko Bay.  The deputy director of the park said:

“It didn’t look like it has gotten thinner over the past two months, or been without food. It doesn’t seem to be any weaker. So it looks as if it’s been living quite happily in the middle of Tokyo Bay.”

Rocky on Pengy, rock on!  😆

It’s an open thread, have at it folks.