“The reign of morons began with the triumph of bullshit.”  Charles Pierce, Esquire Magazine

By Doug Porter

Over the last few days the conservative pundit class has been preaching the message that the government shutdown was much ado about nothing. A ‘slim down’ became the Fox news codeword meant to belittle the ever-growing cumulative effects of the Congressional Republican’s efforts to hold the country hostage.

Word came out this morning that this weekend’s Miramar Air Show, already truncated by sequester mandated cutbacks in military spending, would now be cancelled.  I have no doubt that the local Tea Party set will soon be announcing the closure was personally ordered by President Obama.

From UT-San Diego:

 The Marine Corps hoped to fly in one of its vertically landing F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets for the event, to allow San Diegans to see it up close for the first time parked on the flight line. The Yuma-based F-35 squadron learned late last night that the trip was canceled pending congressional action as the country moved into its third day of a partial government shutdown.

Congressman Darrell Issa has already indicated to Politico that he’s looking to investigate the closure of various memorials in the nation’s capital especially by the World War II Memorial. Predictably, Issa and his GOP cohorts are prepared to spend more time and energy investigating why the memorials are closed than attempting to reopen the whole government and the monuments right along with it.

Nor it is important to the minority bloc within the GOP holding country hostage that their crusade will soon (2-3 weeks) result in the very veterans that are supposed to be honored by the memorials not getting their pension checks.  However, it is apparently important that the House gym has now run out of clean towels.

San Diego Delegation Gets a Close Up View

A 150+ person delegation from San Diego led by former Mayor and now Chamber of Commerce honcho Jerry Sanders has returned from a three day visit to Washington DC designed to make sure lawmakers keep America’s Finest City in mind when it comes to federal goodies. Included in the delegation were iMayor (the ‘i’ stands for interim) Todd Gloria and City Council members Lori Zapf and Mark Kersey.

Although it certainly wasn’t planned that way, the delegation got an up close and personal look at a city and Congress under siege.

From The Daily Transcript:

But for many, one of the primary messages was to drive home to Congressional and administration officials how painful a prolonged federal shutdown could be in San Diego, where more than a fifth of the local economy is tied directly or indirectly to the government.

 “One of the things that really stood out to me is how quiet the city got and how much less traffic there was between Monday and Tuesday [when the shutdown began],” said Peter Callstrom, head of the San Diego Workforce Partnership, who was one of the 130 or so participants in the delegation.

 Callstrom said seeing that impact “really drove home the idea that not only were these people not at work, they were also not eating at restaurants or shopping at stores, which made me think of the impact on local businesses in San Diego, which has 46,000 federal civilian employees.”

The GOP’s Full Employment Program

Full employment for House Speaker John Boehner, that is.  From today’s Washington Post:

 There are currently 19 House Republicans on the record in support of a “clean” continuing resolution, meaning one without any other extraneous measures — like the defunding or delaying of Obamcare — attached. Combine those nineteen with the 200 Democrats who would almost certainly vote as a bloc in support of such a clean CR and you get 219 votes — a majority of the House. The bill has already been passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, so it would go to straight to President Obama who would sign it. Shutdown over. Easy.

 Except one little thing, which is that the only way for that scenario to happen is for Boehner to allow a piece of legislation supported by roughly 7 percent of his conference to come to the House floor for a vote. And, doing that on something as high-profile as a government shutdown/Obamacare, would almost certainly signal either the symbolic (or maybe even practical) end of his speakership.

Looking at the Bigger Shutdown Picture

The cost to the economy caused by 800,000 furloughed workers and delayed paychecks to the more than one million “essential” employees still on the job is estimated at $300 million a day in lost output.

Current estimates of the length of the shutdown are averaging out at 18 days. Moody’s Analytics estimates  a shutdown of three or four weeks will slice 1.4 percentage points from fourth-quarter economic growth.

From today’s New York Times:

Many Republicans seem to be celebrating the government shutdown as an opportunity to show that less spending isn’t really so bad. “People are probably going to realize they can live with a lot less government than what they thought they needed,” said Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee on Fox News. Her upbeat attitude helps explain why so many in her party thought nothing of shutting down a government they distrust, all to dismantle a health care law they oppose.

What these lawmakers aren’t telling Americans is that the shutdown will actually be very expensive and will wind up costing the taxpayers and the economy far more than the regular operations of government. The same people who have built their careers on railing about the deficit are actually increasing it.

Via Media Matters we learn about the October 1 edition of Lou Dobbs’ Fox ‘Business’ show, wherein the host of show dismissed the effects of a shutdown on the economy, asking, “Do you want to hear any more bull about what a dangerous, disastrous thing a shutdown of our government is?” He added: “Maybe we need to shut it down every couple of years under this administration.”

Fox’s head Tea Party cheerleader Sean Hannity says he’s unconcerned by the shoutdown, as it “doesn’t impact [him] mentally.”

House Republican Negotiating Script

Best I’ve seen in the Twitterverse:

Can I burn down your house?

No

Just the 2nd floor?

No

Garage?

No

Let’s talk about what I can burn down.

No

YOU AREN’T COMPROMISING!

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) October 2, 2013

What’s in a Name?

Now, to get to the root of all this: the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

CBS late night host Jimmy Kimmel sent a crew out to interview passers-by to ask the question: What’s better, Obamacare or the ACA?

This isn’t about just the people Kimmel found on the street. When asked about the specifics of the health care plan by the Kaiser Foundation in a national poll, there was strong public support for its provisions:

Oh, and, by the way, during the first 24 hours of the insurance exchange marketplaces being open for business, Healthcare.gov (the national website) was visited by 4.7 million unique visitors. More than 190,000 people called 800-318-2596, and more than 104,000 web chats were requested on the site.

GOP: Trade Seniors’ Coverage for Obamacare

The House GOP has backed themselves into a corner.  So now Plan B, in the form of a “Grand Bargain” is being bandied about Washington—The Republicans will pass a budget predicated on cuts to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for agreeing to a later conversation about killing Obamacare. That doesn’t sound like much of a deal to me.

From Salon.com:

…President Obama told CNBC Wednesday that that until there was “a clean piece of legislation that reopens the government,” and “Congress allows treasury to pay for things that Congress itself already authorized, we are not going to engage in a series of negotiations.” Obama said he was “prepared to negotiate on anything,” and that it was “important for us to deal with our long-term entitlement spending.”

In a media call Wednesday morning, Congressman Deutch predicted “a drumbeat in some parts of Capitol Hill that says that the path to a budget deal has to include cuts to Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.” Max Richtman, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, told reporters, “Millions of citizens around the country are focused on the high probability that we’ll see a backroom deal sometime soon that would really cut their lifeline benefits.” Richtman noted that chained CPI “keeps surfacing, despite widespread public opposition…”

DeMaio’s War Chest Grows

From Roll Call:

Former San Diego City Council Member Carl DeMaio, a Republican challenging freshman Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., raised more than $325,000 in the third quarter, his campaign announced Wednesday.

DeMaio now has more than $700,000 in the bank more than a year from the election, when the 52nd District is expected to host one of the most competitive contests of the cycle.

His haul is also remarkable because DeMaio had toyed with running for mayor of San Diego instead for much of the third quarter. There is currently a special election to replace former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who resigned in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal. DeMaio lost to Filner in the 2012 mayoral contest by a slim margin.

Save the Food Trucks Petition Underway

Supporters of San Diego Food Truck industry have launched an online petition aimed at urging iMayor Todd Gloria to reverse course on an early promise made by Bob Filner.

Here’s their justification for the petition, which can be signed here:

“New Mayor, New Rules,” at least that’s what the city of San Diego has to say when it announced that the city of San Diego will be shutting down any and all food trucks that operate on private property in the city, which accounts for over 75% of all food truck operations in San Diego.  

In late 2012, the the City of San Diego Code Enforcement Division made an attempt to shut down any and all food trucks operating on any piece of private property.  The division stated they were getting a lot of pressure from restaurants complaining about the trucks and were going to view food trucks as a non-approved use of private property.  For a short while the Enforement Officers went on a Witch hunt to shut down any food truck operating on private property until a group of food trucks banned together and threatened a lawsuit for anti-competitive business practices and targeting minority owned businesses.  

Once threatened with a lawsuit, the previous Mayor met with food truck owners and Code Enforcement to put any closures on hold until the City amended its food truck regulations to allow food trucks to operate on private property just as they have been allowed to do for over 20 years. 

Unfortunately, since Interim Mayor Todd Gloria took office, the City has decided to turn its back on their previous promise and shut down small businesses run by San Diego locals and minorities who operate food trucks throughout the city.   We believe the city needs to be held accountable to their promise and needs to stop trying to destroy an industry that consumers love.   Rather, we ask that they support local small business growth in San Diego.  We believe consumers have a right to eat the food they love.  Show your support for your favorite neighborhood food truck by signing this petition.  From gourmet food trucks you’ve seen on your favorite Food Network shows to your favorite taco truck, we need your support to keep serving local fresh food.  

By signing this petition you are letting the mayor’s office and all City Council know that food trucks have a right to operate on private property within the city.  You are also supporting the idea that the city needs to be held accountable to promises they have made to small business owners within the city of San Diego.

On This Day: 1945 – Elvis Presley appeared in a talent show at the age of 10. It was his first public appearance. He won 2nd place and $5.  1974 – Frank Robinson took over management of the Cleveland Indians. He was the first Black manager in major league baseball.  1989 – Art Shell became the first Black head coach in the modern NFL when he took over the Los Angeles Raiders

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Doug Porter

Doug Porter was active in the early days of the alternative press in San Diego, contributing to the OB Liberator, the print version of the OB Rag, the San Diego Door, and the San Diego Street Journal. He went on to have a 35-year career in the Hospitality business and decided to go back into raising hell when he retired. He won numerous awards for his columns from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Doug is a cancer survivor (sans vocal chords) and lives in North Park.

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