Time’s up: Obama and GOP scramble to halt shutdown

Good morning, all, and greetings on this brink of federal shutdown. Without a budget accord by midnight, the IRS will vanish, the Capitol will be converted to luxury lofts, and Obama will buy a one-way ticket to Mombasa—or so believe the protesters shouting “Shut it down.” That the reality looked different after the government did shut down in 1995 is no matter.

We’re nearing an endgame in certain conservatives’ long-term plan to “starve the beast,” a strategy whereby the insane fiscal policy we’ve lived under for years—massive tax cuts, gigantic deficits, expensive foreign wars—brings about the outcome they’ve desired all along: abolishing Medicare and Medicaid and even Social Security, simply to get us out of the quagmire they helped create. Which is exactly what Rep. Paul Ryan’s much-discussed budget does: eliminate Medicare, an overwhelmingly popular program.

Lest you deem this a conspiracy theory, right-wing economists have been quite open for decades about the strategy. The idea was expressed in famous succinctness by Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

The throngs in protest at the Capitol appear to believe that’s what they’re doing: drowning government, or, rather, drowning the parts they dislike. Planned Parenthood doesn’t blatantly lie about reproductive health; ergo, drown the government! Acorn registered a bunch of poor people to vote in 2008. Drown the government! Someone at NPR called the Tea Party racist. Drown the government! And indeed Talking Points Memo is reporting as of 8:30 AM that the budget talks have “come down to abortion.”

In Teju Cole’s excellent new novel Open City, the protagonist, Julius, tries in a Brussels café to explain American politics to some Muslim immigrants to Belgium: “What are the important issues there? Khalil asked. What do left and right disagree on? As I began to answer him, as I enumerated the divisive issues, I felt faintly embarrassed at how tawdry they were: abortion, homosexuality, gun control.” Yes, tawdry is a good word for a budget battle in which a majority of Republicans nationwide prefer a shutdown to a compromise.

Williamsburg area attractions ready for President Obama and the First Family

One real consequence to the shutdown already looms for Hampton Roads: only with a budget accord will the Obamas visit Colonial Williamsburg tomorrow. (The FAA has a no-fly zone in place already.) The First lady has been inquiring about shopping at Binns; in a shutdown she’ll have to shop on their website.

IRS Commissioner discusses major political changes to tax system

I joked above that a shutdown will destroy the IRS, but in fact it will destroy only the part that speedily processes your returns. The rest will be fine, which apparently is vexing to Republicans who would cut the deficit by defunding the IRS. That’s right: to preserve revenue, they’ll deny money to the IRS that it now uses to collect taxes.

Here’s a link to Wikipedia’s list of fallacies, and here’s one to their list of cognitive biases. Each list contains 100 items—too many for me to read this morning. The first reader to find the fallacy or bias that best defines the Republicans’ reasoning will win a framed, limited-edition print of today’s If You Read the Paper.

Republicans threaten end of religious group adoptions in Virginia over same sex and unmarried adoptions

From the A Pox on Both Their Houses Department: If gays can adopt children, ALL children should be orphans! say Virginia Republicans. Here’s that link again to Wikipedia’s list of fallacies, and here’s the list of cognitive biases. The first reader to find [et al].

Senate rejects McDonnell bid to cut PBS funds

As Dick Dastardly used to say in Hanna-Barbera cartoons, “Curses, foiled again! Drat, drat, and double drat!”

Citizen views of taxes, energy, the environment, and possible Allen-Kaine campaign

Yesterday Roanoke College released a poll showing “a plurality of Virginia residents (44%) think they should pay less than 20 percent of their income in taxes.” The same percentage say there’s no evidence of global warming. Exactly 50% “strongly agree” or “agree” with the Tea Party. Most staggering: more than 20% think “lower-income people” are paying “too little of their fair share in federal income taxes.”

You know where to find the fallacy list—except there aren’t enough limited-edition prints to keep up with today’s fallacies. For instance, only 12.2% of Virginians think offshore oil drilling should be banned, yet 5% think we should ban wind turbines. My only guess here is people misheard turbines as turbans. Or else they simply adore big government regulations. Two respondents even advocated banning solar power. To them I say, good luck. When I consider how these two will feel about the future, I feel a poignant sadness on their behalf.

George ‘Macaca’ Allen stereotypes black journalist: ‘What position did you play?’

This is the same George Allen who leads Tim Kaine by twelve points in the Roanoke College poll. One of the cognitive biases is the mere exposure effect, “by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.” Allen and Kaine both are well-known statewide, but Allen’s been running for weeks, whereas Kaine just announced. When we’re deep enough in that one of them comes out against turbines, the polls will grow more usefully predictable.

Quantico blocks officials visits by UN, Amnesty, and Kucinich to Bradley Manning

When they took Bradley Manning’s sheets and pillows away and made him stand naked for hours at a time, the government said they were preventing his suicide, so maybe blocking visits from Dennis Kucinich also prevents suicide. But I’m only joking to keep from crying.

Va. House OKs redistricting plan cutting Norfolk district

Del. Paula Miller’s seat (D-Norfolk) will “be moved to the north” due to population shifts.

Dulles Airport to get underground Metro station

This Metro extension is needed to accommodate the influx of new delegates soon to flood Northern Virginia.

Citing funding cuts, ODU to raise tuition by 7 percent

I recuse myself from comment.

Bear reported running at Virginia Beach Oceanfront

I’ll recuse myself here too.

Heart in Your Heartbreak

If you’re heartbroken by any of today’s news, click here and turn your volume up to let The Pains of Being Pure at Heart help put the heart in your heartbreak.