December 2011: Already Under The Tree

This week's done deals:

Continued congressional hostage taking; over basics like unemployment compensation, and with the obligatory "compromise" to be made by Democrats.

"Even a liberal Democrat" endorses pushing Granny and her Medicare over a cliff.

And this development ininstitutionalizing the police state—on the 220th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, no less.

Ebeneezer Scrooge 2011 has the face of Gingrich, Limbaugh, or any prominent Republican. But such greed and sociopathy will not be hindered by a paltry Ghost of Marley. Instead, Idea Man Gingrich can breezily propose child labor for the poor, and Limbaugh can deem hungry children in need of school meals year-round "wanton little waifs and serfs dependent on the state."

And the other team? They went all out, on what Charles Pierce called "National Sellout Day"—

The Democratic party certainly has gone to great lengths... They have made great preparation. They have cooked the goose (their own, naturellement, and ours) and placed it on the table in the traditional manner, with a knife stuck in its back... They have filled the wassail bowl to overflowing with the customary holiday libation, Hot Mulled Blood of Constituent. And later, we will all gather around the fire while our party elders read the famous story. I particularly like the part at the end when Scrooge realizes that reformation has its limits and sells the Cratchit children into indentured servitude so that the other men of the Exchange won't think him weak, or mired in the past.

Pierce also says it: what Americans really want are only the most basic protections—items Not On The Table, much less under the tree—

The American people are not angry at government because people yell at each other and nothing ever gets done. The American people are angry because people yell at each other and nothing the American people really want ever gets done. They want higher taxes on billionnaires. They want Medicare kept out of the hands of the vandals. If they think about it a little, they even like their jurisprudence with a little habeas corpus sprinkled on top. Instead, they get endless platitudes, and the steady, futile placating of an insatiable political opposition.