Despicable Reid

As the House and the Senate wrangle about funding for government programs after the Continuing Resolution which also defunded Obamacare failed to pass, there has been lots of politicking.

House Republicans compromised and had a C.R. which asked for a one year delay in Obamacare individual implementation and a repeal of the unpopular 2.3% medical device tax, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) lead that to a 54-46 party line vote rejecting it.

The House then passed a Continuing Resolution which ensured that Congress got no special carve outs or privileges regarding Obamacare.  That too was rejected.

President Obama listed the many programs which would be curtailed by the furlough.  This included closing National Parks and stopping NIH funding.  The Democrats hoped to use a group of 25 children with cancer as political pawns to illustrate their point about the evil shutdown (which they want to pin on Tea Party Republicans).

Well, the House passed individual funding bills for the National Park Service and the NIH in response to the rhetoric.  But Senate Democrats and President Obama are intractably inflexible on finding compromise and passing these particular funding bills.

Part of proficient progressive propaganda is having a compliant press which plays along with the predilections of the partisans.  That's why Senator Harry Reid was surprised on Wednesday during a press availability asked a tough question by CNN's Dana Bash about helping one child with cancer.

In the past, partisan pan the Senate Majority Leader as "Dirty Harry" Reid.  It seems that a more apt analogy is Gru from Despicable Me.

Political Peeps

Now that people in the District of Calamity have recovered from their Easter basket sugar comas as well as the elation over Bryce Harper hitting two homers to secure the opening day win for the Washington Nationals, it is a good time to consider Easter epicurean art in the form of political peeps.

Peeps are a marshmallow confection produced by Just Born candies from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania since 1953.  The Peeps are formed in the shape of chicks and bunnies and are often associated with Easter.

Had the creators of Occupy Peeps have watched Occupied Unmasked, their take on the protest might not have been so sweet. 

Since 2007, the Washington Post has sponsored a contest challenging budding artists to make dioramas with Peeps.  This year a few of the outstanding entries had playful yet poignant political themes.  

Nicholas Burger and  Radga Iyenger honored the heroics of Seal Team Six in administering justice to Osama bin Laden in Diorama of Zero Dark Thirty (with Peeps).

It is unclear what exactly was inside the wrapper. Assuredly, it was not kosher. 

Others took a more whimsical approach to governance in the District of Calamity.  A group from the Siemens Technology Team in Beltsville, Maryland satirized Sequestration by splicing it with imagery inspired by Despicable Me in their creation: DesPEEPable Congress.

Despite the demagoguery of the Obama Administration, Sequestration was not the bomb that the White House expected.  The 2.3% reduction in the rate of growth for the federal government did not not blow up between the beltways.  The White House did hold the annual Easter Egg Roll but decided to cancel school tours of the White House, blaming it on Secret Service funding.  Maybe if the First Family cut down on their jet setting (first daughters surf and ski spring break at Paradise Island, the Bahamas and Sun Valley, Idaho,  the President taking Sunday Golf jaunts to Florida to have a round with Tiger Woods), they could avoid the damage. 

h/t: The Washington Post