The Fiscal Cliff

[Jacob]

$78,000 goes real far in DC.

I'm sure it does (not facetious). But they are really making closer to $130,000 on average including benefits and that goes even further. The number is even greater when you account for retroactively-paid furlough days. And considering a significant portion of those jobs add no value, its hard to get too worked up.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Good heavens. imanihonjin is an attorney?

Not only that, a Japanese attorney.

[imanihonjin]

The prosecution rests.

Damn, Indy...you'd have it made if only you could get paid to be a professional message boarder or resident douche bag.

[New Mexican Disaster]

I'm sure it does (not facetious). But they are really making closer to $130,000 on average including benefits and that goes even further. The number is even greater when you account for retroactively-paid furlough days. And considering a significant portion of those jobs add no value, its hard to get too worked up.

On what basis do you make the claim that they add no value?

[Clark Addison]

Not only that, a Japanese attorney.

I took Japanese 101 at BYU, so I am probably the most qualified person here to explain this.

IMANIHONJIN = IM-A-NIHON-JIN

IM = I'M (I am)
A = A (Determiner, from Old English word meaning "one")
NIHON = Japanese (Romanized) for Japan (日本, with 日 meaning "Sun" or "Day" and 本 meaning "Origin" or "Half", so, Land of the Rising Sun)
JIN = Japanese for "Person" (人). When attached to "Nihon", means, Person Of or Person From Japan

[Jeff Lebowski]

Very impressive, Clark. Yoku dekimashita.

[imanihonjin]

I took Japanese 101 at BYU, so I am probably the most qualified person here to explain this.

IMANIHONJIN = IM-A-NIHON-JIN
8
IM = I'M (I am)
A = A (Determiner, from Old English word meaning "one")
NIHON = Japanese (Romanized) for Japan (日本, wiing "Sun" ay" and 本 meaning "Origin" or "Half"ese for "Person" (人). When attached to "Nihon", means, Person Of or Person From Japan

Hahla....well done.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

On what basis do you make the claim that they add no value?

It's totally baseless. Someone has to tend to Michelle Obama's "Kitchen Garden."

http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/2013/10/at-white-house-skeletal-staff-during.html

With all of America's National Parks, monuments and historic sites closed as of midnight, it is unclear how the meticulously tended grounds of the 18-acre White House campus will be maintained (OMB did not respond to a query). First Lady Michelle Obama's lush Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn is managed daily by groundskeepers who are Park Service employees, and it is now ripe with autumn crops.

Unfortunately, Joe Biden now only has 12 people to help him in his "discharge of his constitutional duties."

[Uncle Ted]

Very impressive, Clark. Yoku dekimashita.

I got this one...

http://translate.google.com/#ja/en/よく出来ました

"I was able to well"

[Surfah]

Heh, I'm just saying people deal with lost employment every day. Federal employees should not be exempt from this reality.

I'm not rooting for it to happen, but if it does, it does.

Of course it is a reality. And nobody should be exempt from it. My issue was with why how much someone makes matters whether or not they're deserving of our sympathy if they lose employment. And I am not picking on you. I would have responded similarly to anyone who would have posted what you did. You just happened to be the one who did.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I got this one...

http://translate.google.com/#ja/en/よく出来ました

"I was able to well"

No, he was. In this case it simply means "Well done."

[SandYFan]

Of course it is a reality. And nobody should be exempt from it. My issue was with why how much someone makes matters whether or not they're deserving of our sympathy if they lose employment. And I am not picking on you. I would have responded similarly to anyone who would have posted what you did. You just happened to be the one who did.

Losing employment temporarily, and getting the pay they missed out on while not working. Come on. I said it hurts someone living paycheck to paycheck, but for anyone with savings, it's not a big deal.

[Lost Student]

I took Japanese 101 at BYU, so I am probably the most qualified person here to explain this.

IMANIHONJIN = IM-A-NIHON-JIN

IM = I'M (I am)
A = A (Determiner, from Old English word meaning "one")
NIHON = Japanese (Romanized) for Japan (日本, with 日 meaning "Sun" or "Day" and 本 meaning "Origin" or "Half", so, Land of the Rising Sun)
JIN = Japanese for "Person" (人). When attached to "Nihon", means, Person Of or Person From Japan

Domo arigato, Clark. That was helpful. I'll let you guess where I learned all of my Japanese.

[calicoug]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...html?nopager=1

I found this column pretty interesting. It doesn't say much about Obama until the very end.

It appears as if Cheney and Rumsfeld's idea regarding Iraq was to go in, remove Saddam, and replace him with someone that would be friendlier to the US. I can't imagine that would have turned out any better than what actually happened which seems to have been Bush and Rice's idea (hey, let's try to establish a democracy amongst a bunch of people that are basically living in the 10th century!).

What's most interesting however is the part about Bill Clinton. It speaks volumes about why Bill Clinton was able to do what he did with a GOP congress. But it's also an indictment of Obama's inability to forge relationships and, correspondingly, his inability to work with Congress.

Right. Clinton and the Congress got along fantastically. So did Andrew Johnson and his Congress.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Domo arigato, Clark. That was helpful. I'll let you guess where I learned all of my Japanese.

Styx?