Two For One Week

LET'S MAKE A DEAL--You’re out to buy a new car. You go to the dealership, pick out the model you want and start bargaining with the salesperson. You affect a tough look and make your opening bid:
    “I’m prepared to pay $2,000 over list price--but, if you insist, I’ll go $5,000 over list.” 
    “No way,” the smiling salesperson answers. “I’ve got a kid in college. The best I can do is $10,000 over list.”
    “OK,” you say. “Will you take $7,000 over list?”
    “It’s a deal!” says the now giggling salesperson.”
    Obama and the Dems in Washington call that hard bargaining. And they’re proud of their skill at it.
    Last year, Ob and the Dees came up with a clever new version of it. They got a sequester bill passed (don’t ask me what that word means in congressional context) that said, in effect, if the Republicans don’t accept our concessions we’ll punish them by drastically reducing government come March 1, 2013.
    “That’s not punishing them,” a wag pops in. “That's giving them exactly what they want. You’re just selling out.”
    “Keep talking like that,” say Ob and the Dems, “and you better start worrying about the objects flying overhead.”

THE GREAT (CON) GAME--The Iranians celebrated the anniversary of their 1979 revolution this month. That means 34 years since our leaders started warning us that, as well as being a threat to the Persian Gulf,  the Persians were on the verge of acquiring a nuke. Meanwhile, it’s 12 years since we started targeting the apparently unlimited top executives of Al Qaeda and tussling with the tenacious Taliban. So far all we have to show for this are the profit margins of our war makers and a couple of juicy ass for brass scandals by our generals.  Given the apathy of Americans. our leaders can keep these con jobs going for at least as long the Crusades. They went on, inconclusively, for two centuries, if I recall.