brainrow

A few weeks ago, Cartoonist Ruben Bolling looked at one kind of government shutdown.

Those unintended consequences can be surprising, sometimes.

From a reader question on a blog at the Washington Post:

In one respect, [Sarah Palin] is like Tinkerbell–if you don’t applaud she fades away.

Wish I’d said that.

Expect the same for Donald Trump.

I said that.

CNN has a fairly thorough-looking list of government services that may be affected by the government shutdown. One highlight:

Troops including those fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq will not be paid on time. Troops will continue to earn money but will receive no paychecks.

Good thing all our military personnel are independently wealthy, huh? Otherwise, we’d have to worry that they or their families might not be able to pay the rent or buy groceries or pay the utility bills.

I think most of the Republicans in Congress don’t know anybody who doesn’t have a trust fund. That’s who their policies seem designed to take care of, anyway.

Another tidbit:

The lawmakers who hold the cards will still get paid. Their staffers might be furloughed, though.

I hope the shutdown doesn’t last very long. A long shutdown will deplete a lot of trust, and many members of Congress don’t have any to spare.

For some mysterious reason, this song has been going through my mind for the past couple weeks.

Rachel Maddow mentioned this brilliant explanation of the current situation:

Jennifer Brunner, a lawyer and former Ohio secretary of state, said a post on her Facebook page this week nicely summed up what she believed was happening. “A dozen cookies are put down in front of a C.E.O., a union member and a Tea Partier,” she said. “The C.E.O. takes 11. Then he says to the Tea Partier, ‘That union guy wants yours.’ ”

Well said.

I dug out a button I’ve had for a long time.

Solidarity helped the people get their rights in Poland. Do you think it could work in Ohio?

Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow mines a rich vein of pure American Crazy to bring us 2010: The Year in Crazy.

There’s too much for just one cartoon, so there’s a part two, also.

(You can click the images to see the complete cartoons.)

With so much Crazy these days, he’s done a whole book titled Too Much Crazy, a collection of his weekly cartoons. I like Tom Tomorrow. If you don’t, reading this book may make you crazy.

Republicans don’t believe in coddling 9/11 rescue workers:

Republican senators blocked Democratic legislation on Thursday that sought to provide medical care to rescue workers and others who became ill as a result of breathing in toxic fumes, dust and smoke at the site of the World Trade Center attack in 2001.

So where did the notion come from that Republicans are somehow the stronger party when the nation is attacked?

I thought maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed to me that gas prices have spiked since election day. This chart from GasBuddy.com makes me think something changed on November 2nd. Coincidence?

It’s also interesting to see what happened around the time of the 2008 election:

Update: I just realized that the 2008 drop coincides with the Bush economic meltdown — how quickly we forget. That was probably a more significant factor than the election.

Psychic prediction: if Republicans win 50 Senate seats (a tie, which would be broken in favor of Democrats by Vice-President Biden), look for Joe Lieberman to switch to the Republican party.

(If pundits everywhere have been saying this for months, I haven’t heard it. I stopped listening to them back in early July.)

Cartoonist Clay Bennett illustrates what divides Democrats and Republicans. (Click the image to see the full cartoon.)

Just got back from a Democratic fundraiser where President Obama spoke.

He said (paraphrasing), “When you want to go forward, you put it in D; when you want to go back, you put it in R.”

Gee, do you think he reads this blog?

Political cartoonist Pat Oliphant shows us the Republican election strategy for 2010. (Click on the image to see the whole cartoon.)

I agree with the little guy in the corner: try to snap out of it!

President Obama speaking at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Atlanta on Monday.

Republicans ran the country into the ditch, and did nothing to help get it back out.

Finally, we get this car out of the ditch … we’re about to start driving forward again, they say, “Hold on! We want the keys back!”

You can’t have the keys back! You don’t know how to drive!

And I do want to point out: When you get in your car, when you go forward, what do you do? You put it in “D”. When you want to go back, what do you do? You put it in “R”.

You don’t want to go into reverse, back in the ditch. We want to go forward. We gotta put it in “D”.

What will those darned activist judges say next? Cartoonist Don Asmussen may have the scoop. Some observers predict a massive cootie outbreak.

(Click on the image to see the entire cartoon.)