The US government shutdown which won't happen now

With all the criticism of that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Obama debt limit deal, there is one aspect that the critics seem to be missing.
The deal that Obama signed included a "deem and pass" for the 2012 federal budget.
So let's speculate -- if the debt limit had been raised in December, or if Obama had implemented the 14th Amendment option, then what would have happened in September?
Instead of taking the debt limit hostage, the Tea Party Republicans would have taken the federal budget hostage. They would have refused to pass anything and the federal government would have had to shut down.
At least with the debt limit issue, their Wall Street supporters and the conservative pundits were screaming at these guys to get off their butts. Even with that pressure, look how juiced they were to indulge in soap-opera brinksmanship and look how difficult it was to convince them to take yes for an answer and raise the limit.
If this bunch had had the opportunity to grandstand on refusing to approve a federal budget, they would have jumped at the chance. They would have thrown tens of thousands of federal civil servants out of work without a minute of hesitation. And I'm not sure how that would have ended.

Paranoid

It's creepy.
A while ago I ordered some shoes over the Internet.
few days ago, I was looking up various table lamps and lighting fixtures.
And I also checked out some new knobs for the kitchen cabinets.
Now when I check my usual websites, I am constantly seeing ads for shoes. And lamps. And cabinet hardware.
Somebody really is watching me.

Shooting themselves in the foot?

Steve is right that the Nycole Turmel story speaks to the emerging media narrative that the NDP are cynically trying to be popular in Quebec by pandering to separatists.
By letting this story blindside them, the party has also reinforced the other emerging media narrative about how the NDP is an "immature" political party -- just a bunch of amateur do-gooders and looney leftists who aren't ready to take on the role of Official Opposition.
I think both narratives are profoundly incorrect, but this won't stop the Conservatives and the press from promoting them -- though I would change my mind if it turns out that Turmel was so naive about Ottawa politics that she didn't make sure the NDP caucus was aware of her Bloc membership before they selected her as interim leader.

Yay, Sheepdogs!

They're on the cover of the Rolling Stone

Congrats, boys.

Cover your ears

Sounds like the US Congress is working on a debt ceiling bill that might actually pass their disfunctional political system.
Cue the right-wing hysteria and the left-wing flip-out in three, two, one...

Well, that was weird

I posted a little item about an elderly woman in Ontario who needs to get the governor general's office to award her the Order of Canada, and the rest of the posts in my blog disappeared!
So I deleted the item, and everything else came back.
Noblesse oblige, I guess.

Shorter

Shorter ethical oil campaign

Canada: we're not as bad as those guys

Black Friday?

Oh, dear
I suspect that today's the day that the big investors will sell, sell, sell, and the stock market will tank.
And the Republicans will blame Obama.

Picking leaders

Steve is right. All the sturm and drang about whether the NDP will "survive" without Jack Layton is just silly. Over the years, the NDP has done a pretty good job picking leaders and I have no doubt they will continue to do so.
That said, I hope they don't have to.

Boom goes the dynamite?

So the Republicans have screwed the pooch on raising the debt ceiling and Obama is speaking to the nation tonight.
With any luck, he'll tell the Republicans to sit on it and rotate.
I'm hoping he'll announce he is using the 14th amendment to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally, and let the Republicans impeach him if they dare.
UPDATE: Piffle.

Triple Putz-Lutz

At the Mahablog, commenter gulag describes how right-wingers are greeting the news that the Norway terror attacker was right-wing extremist:

They perform what I call “A Triple Putz-Lutz.”
This maneuver is not as difficult as it sounds, and happens pretty frequently.
“A Triple Putz-Lutz" is where some Conservative individual or group blames someone or something they hate (which is pretty much everyone except for themselves) for something that happens, find out it’s actually someone who is also a right wing nut (usually Christian), and then try to blame it on Liberals who are trying to discredit Conservatism – because, as we all know, Conservatism is perfect, and can only be discredited by Conservatives being insufficiently Conservative, or by Liberal infamy.

See Small Dead Animals (Socialists are even worse!), Powerline (Just goes to show that concealed carry laws are the answer!), the Other McCain (Just goes to show that Andrew Sullivan needs to apologize for slandering Sarah Palin!), Bruce Bawer (What a tragedy that Muslims aren't to blame!) -- and meanwhile, Little Green Footballs traces the connections between European, English and American anti-Muslim hate groups.

Owling

Owling is the new planking:

Great line of the day

Carolyn Hax replies to a question about whether to tell the child that their parent didn't want the pregnancy:

Don’t succumb to the temptation of making your origin your destiny.
Don’t read too much into your childhood, either, for that matter, and whether your parents were or weren’t over the moon. Your parents decide whether you exist and whether they’ll do right by you, but they don’t get to decide whether you matter. That’s something every one of us, pampered or buffeted, gets to decide for ourselves.

Emphasis mine.

Woody ‪

Woody Allen was The Onion before there was The Onion.

Shorter

News flash -- Neanderthals interbred with early humans:

Conservatives explained at last!