How about a law giving us the right not to take a job if you don't like the terms of the job? (Wait, the constitution already gives us that right)

As I've previously described, work/life balance is accomplished in a number of different ways. Sometimes the worker has the negotiating power to accomplish it, but more often, for Americans, it's something where you have to work around your employer's demands.

Therefore I'm not cherry-picking any particular bill Ryan should have supported as opposed to voting against. I'm, again, pointing out that his actions of the past week, compared to the entirety of his voting record, indicate a disconnect between what he wants for himself and the situation he believes his constituents should have.

You want me to pick a bill so you can nit and pick, but I'm making a broader argument, and one you seem disinclined to engage.

Speaking of work/life balance, guys, this has been super-fun and all, but I have to leave in a bit to pick up my kids, make dinner, and put them to bed. We'll have to continue at a later date.

For your comfort, however, all the time I will be thinking of Paul Ryan and his exhaustive efforts to improve my work/life balance. :D

False equivalence

:devil:

Specific details aren't out yet but I'm glad there's some sort of deal. Nice way to send off Boehner and have the new speaker not worry about a budget crisis for the next 2 years.

Congressional leaders, White House reach two-year budget deal - The Washington Post

I'm really glad they managed to find another $40bn for defense spending as I was concerned that the country wasn't spending enough on its military and might have to resort to investing in infrastructure or something constructive for a change ...

(end sarcasm)

I'm not his biggest fan as a politician because I disagree with his policies - but I respect that he has the guts to stand up and negotiate to try and ensure he has work/life balance at the risk of having to take a different position.

PS - Don't get me wrong I'd love there to be some sort of sensible standard worker protection in Florida, I find it frankly amazing how biased towards corporations the employment laws are here ... its frankly farcical and I think its amazing that so many people are able to tolerate and thrive in a situation which causes them a lot of undue stress.

:thumbsup:

I'm glad that Boehner was able to get this done (also seems to indicate that he had absolutely no desire to engage in those pointless shutdown stareoffs his crazy base wanted). Also, this way, Ryan can jump in for a couple years and not have to worry about dealing with the Tea Party on the budget for a few years.

My Way News - AP-GfK Poll: Use default, shutdown threats to cut spending


That's over 60 percent who want a cut. Even 44% of Ds are willing to close federal agencies to get that spending reduction.

Even WITH the defense component -- which is the only justifiable reason for any increased spending afaic -- it's still an iffy play in terms of doing what voters actually want.

But everyone with sense understands the terrible consequences of default. Voters don't want another great recession, this time without their Social Security and Medicare.

Voters don't want to continue down the same path that Congress chose either.

And I'm not particularly a budget hawk in the real sense of the word. I mean, you haven't heard me screaming about this particular deal have you?
(I haven't screamed horribly about some of the previous ones either).

I think that short-term increases in the debt ceiling are probably inevitable but I do oppose them occurring without spending cuts, I do oppose extending them for this length of time, and I would have been near foaming at the mouth if the latest deal hadn't offered the military component some relief.

edit to add: Didn't really finish my thought there so ... my thing about not being a true budget hawk is that at least I allow for an increase (or the ceiling to be suspended, whatever chicanery is used to render it ineffective) in some fashion & under certain circumstances. The real hawks on the issue won't give that much.

Relief? For the military budget?

There is no part of the overall budget with more fat than the military.

Yes, I know more could be done for the rank-and-file, but that's not a problem with the budget, that's a problem with the prioritization of the money put into the budget.

It could stand reorganization, most definitely.

Ultimately however it's also the only "agency" that I'd like to see remain recognizably intact when all is said & done. Ideally -- and we probably can't ever get to this ideal, I realize that -- it should be the last one standing when they turn out the lights & close the doors on the large majority of DC.

I want their money spent wisely, I want it spent well, I have no problem with the existence of its budget nor even the size of its budget. There's no other entity I can say that about.

Military should be the bulk of a federal budget, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be audited so the money is being spent wisely. Most of the other fat should be trimmed and the states should take over many programs.

The country was founded on the ideal that it was a collection of states ruling themselves together to avoid an overgrown out control beast of a government.

That's a more accurate description of the Articles of Confederation, which was a complete disaster and led to the Constitutional Convention giving more power to the central government.

One of the more surprising bits of that poll is right here

We may be getting close to the one thing both sides can agree on: it's time to cut government spending.

If only where those cuts should be made could be agreed upon as easily. Perhaps that's why we can't get the cuts.

(Yes, you can thank me for the bit of enlightenment later, just send 'em in care of Captain Obvious)

Hey, Democrats can be idiots too, Jon. :p

If anything it was about putting a check on an overgrown, out of control federal military.

Targeted, scattered, and temporary full or partial agency shut-downs can save a lot of money really quickly. But you don't get your best value savings when it happens involuntarily as a result of threats and stand-offs.

If that's the only way to bring the issue to a head ...

Not that I disagree with the concept but timing is screwed up. It looks as if he was willing to do this, it should have been done before Russia joined the party.

Pentagon weighs ground strategy against ISIS - CNNPolitics.com

Ah, Ramadi.

The airline company in Russia is now saying that the Russian plane that crashed in Egypt was brought down by an "external impact."

Flight recorders show crashed Russian jet not struck from outside - investigator - Yahoo News

My gut said bombed when I heard how wide the debris field was. It just reminded me of Lockerbie.

The precious tail strike incident plus how quickly they denied that was the cause and the stellar safety record of Russian airlines that popped up in the 90s makes me think it wasn't a bomb, but the timing with Russia going into Syria is mighty suspicious. I'm not sure if it's a good thing for Putin or not if it turns out to be a bomb. It's almost certainly terrible new for Egypt who really need the tourism dollars.

Business as usual:

White House Calls Ryan's Immigration Remarks 'Preposterous' - ABC News

Yep, GOP leadership will use any means necessary to avoid working with the other side on legislation.

Will anyone call out Ryan for the faulty logic of, the President is lawless regarding immigration, therefore, we won't write any laws about immigration.

Is Bevin really going to take away Medicaid from almost ten percent of the KY population?

Fuck Bevin. I can't believe that mf got elected.

Drew Curtis is an internet friend of mine. It seems like he did really well in the first KY governor's debate, but afterwards got zero press coverage and was then excluded from subsequent debates.

Oh now, "got elected" understates it a bit, don't you think?


And more tellingly ...

And joined by the first black ever elected to statewide office, Republican Lt. Gov elect Jenean Hampton.

Yep, just goes to show you how fucked up the state is. Kentucky is one of the best states for social services around. Something that we've had to use over the years, and I can see this going like the Iranian revolution where years and years of progress are rolled back to the stone age.

The current Gov had been very good for the state and a leader in the push for the expansion of medicare. The state was a shining star during the rollout of ACA because we had our own well functioning site. So now what, all that's going away?

It's hard to understate the level of poverty in some areas of this state. That's only going to get much worse under Bevin.

If it gets any worse, then people should move like they did when Detroit got much worse.

The UK is saying a bomb set by ISIS was the cause of the Russian crash.

That seems like a potentially really big deal. Will flights to the mid-East end? Will Egypt do anything? And of course the big question, what will Putin do?

I thought the Brits were simply saying that a bomb was the likely cause. I haven't seen anything that mentioned them commenting on the source of the bomb. (not saying that isn't out there somewhere, I just haven't seen it)

I saw a headline that said "US Intel thinks it was ISIS" or something along those lines.

There's a storm comin, ISIS.

I'm watching CNN. It certainly wouldn't be the first time they got ahead of facts.

CNN is whipping up a frenzy. Either they feel they've got some really strong sources, or they're taking a huge risk right now.

Not an Obama item but I guess related since he is dealing with the ramifications.

Bush 41 hits 43's aides in new biography - CNNPolitics.com

classy

They're claiming to have killed that Jihadi John guy via a drone strike.

awesome! well as much awesome as it can be to kill a person...

I'm guessing someone sold him as he had a 6 million pounds bounty on him. Circumstances seem to suggest that amyways

Maybe. We'll never know, I guess.

Sounds like they've been tracking him for awhile and just waiting for an opportunity to hit. I guess he likes to surround himself with civilians to avoid being hit with a drone strike.

That moment when the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee goes on the most liberal of the major networks right after you've said "ISIL is contained" and says "I've never been more concerned. I read the intelligence faithfully. ISIL is not contained. ISIL is expanding."

Feinstein: ‘I’ve never been more concerned’ | MSNBC

Message Control, thy name is not Democrat.

Wait, Turkey shot down a Russian plane? This isn't going to end well.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/24/middle...der/index.html

With today's NATO air-defense technology, it's highly unlikely that the Russian plane was NOT in Turkish air space if the result was the Turks shooting it down.

The Russians are known for shooting down anything for trespassing. I'm sure the Russians won't be overly upset by this...they at least know the game. They need to be more vigilant in their flight paths though.