I get the impression Republicans are convinced the government is finally sitting in the bathtub...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

...and its Mom has gone pick up a phone call.

[DJ13]

1. ..and its Mom has

.......decided to throw the hair dryer into the water.

[Uncle Joe]

2. And Norman Bates...I mean Grover Norquist has a pup tent in his pants.

Thanks for the thread, Commie Pinko Dirtbag.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Attempting to take the economy hostage and imposing a set of demands

before removing the threat of catastrophic destruction to lives and livelihoods is in essence a coup. It is a coup not just against the head of state of the moment, but against the whole way our Constitutional government is supposed to work. If it succeeds and Republicans make good on the threat to return with new demands every 6 months or every year, then we will have a DIFFERENT form of government in the United States from any we have had since 1787. The checks and balances of separate legislative, executive and judicial branches will be replaced by a quasi Parliamentary form of government. The majority party in the lower house, will have ALL the power. And having all the power, they will bear all the responsibility. The Checks and Balances of the Constitution of 1787 will no longer afford any leader the ability to pass the buck and say: We WOULD govern you wisely, but alas the other branch of power is held by the other party and they stubornly prevent us from implementing our plans and reforms!

The British House of Commons took power away from the Monarchy and the House of Lords through a series of confrontations - some of them violent like the English Civil War, others much less violent, like the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832 which was passed over the veto of the Lords by having the King stuff the House of Lords with new peers who agreed to pass these democratic reforms, and the Parliament Act of 1911 which stripped all veto power from the House of the Lords. This present power grab by the Republicans in the House of Representatives can be seen in this light-if one puts aside the stupid and vicious goals of the current Representatives in revolt against the Senate and President. What the House is doing, in essence, is removing the veto power of more elite institutions from the power of the purse and the least filtered vox populi already invested in the House by the Constitution. Needless to say, the move is unConstitutional in spirit and letter. But if no one will try them for unConstitutional usurpation or even accuse them of it, then the old Rochestnut about treason applies: Treason doth never prosper - what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

[aquart]

4. So we speak of this as the attempted tea party coup?

[riverwalker]

5. economic terrorism n/t