August 27, 2013

It’s About Time for a Climate Name Change

August 27, 2013 Buck Banks

Blame the Gear

August 27, 2013 Buck Banks

Getting spied on got the United Nations in a huff.
“Hey,” they said, “already, enough’s enough!”
“What can we say?”
Said the NSA.
“We had to do SOMETHING with all this cool spy stuff.”

After Three Years of Budget Cuts, Federal Government Still About the Same Size

August 27, 2013 Buck Banks

4.1 million

Number of employees in the federal government after nearly three years of budget battles — more than the populations of 24 states, according to the Washington Post. Back in 2010, it had 4.3 million employees — more than the populations of 24 states.

Boehner Pledges to Cut ‘Entitlement’ Spending

August 27, 2013 Buck Banks

I wish I could tell you it was going to be pretty and polite, and it would all be finished a month before we’d ever get to the debt ceiling. Sorry, it just doesn’t work that way.

— Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), quoted by the Idaho Statesman, vowing to Republican supporters that he would cut entitlement spending as part of this fall’s budget fights.

Zimmerman is the Gift that Keeps On Giving in Florida

August 27, 2013 Trish

$200,000 – $300,000

Amount George Zimmerman is asking the state of Florida to reimburse him for hiring expert witnesses, providing depositions, and other trial costs aside from attorney’s fees. Zimmerman was acquitted after he profiled, stalked, and finally shot and killed unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin last year. Since the trial, Zimmerman has been pulled over for speeding in Texas, and forced his lawyers to apologize after he was photographed taking a merry tour of the factory that made the gun he used to kill Martin.

Budget Showdown Looming in Mid-October

August 27, 2013 Buck Banks

Protecting the full faith and credit of the United States is the responsibility of Congress, because only Congress can extend the nation’s borrowing authority. Failure to meet that responsibility would cause irreparable harm to the American economy.

— Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, explaining in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner sent Monday, Aug. 26, the consequences of not extending the debt ceiling.

Day: August 27, 2013

It’s About Time for a Climate Name Change

Blame the Gear

After Three Years of Budget Cuts, Federal Government Still About the Same Size

4.1 million

Number of employees in the federal government after nearly three years of budget battles — more than the populations of 24 states, according to the Washington Post. Back in 2010, it had 4.3 million employees — more than the populations of 24 states.

Boehner Pledges to Cut ‘Entitlement’ Spending

I wish I could tell you it was going to be pretty and polite, and it would all be finished a month before we’d ever get to the debt ceiling. Sorry, it just doesn’t work that way.

— Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), quoted by the Idaho Statesman, vowing to Republican supporters that he would cut entitlement spending as part of this fall’s budget fights.

Zimmerman is the Gift that Keeps On Giving in Florida

$200,000 – $300,000

Budget Showdown Looming in Mid-October

Protecting the full faith and credit of the United States is the responsibility of Congress, because only Congress can extend the nation’s borrowing authority. Failure to meet that responsibility would cause irreparable harm to the American economy.

— Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, explaining in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner sent Monday, Aug. 26, the consequences of not extending the debt ceiling.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“One woman at a rally in New Jersey told me last week that she was ‘nauseously optimistic.’ That may capture a lot of people’s last-minute jitters.”

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), quoted by Axios, on what Democrats feel ahead of the midterm elections.

“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom.”

— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by The Wrap.

“Boy, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. It feels like a real desperation play to me, because it has got zero basis in the law.”

— Republican election law expert Ben Ginsberg, quoted by Politico, on the Trump administration’s effort to invalidate Alaska’s election results.

Numerati

3,824

$1.4 billion

-35 points

31%

63% to 38%

KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”