The Starting Line – Our SNAFU Congress: Stories of Inaction, Reaction and Sperm-Shaped Electric Cars

By Doug Porter Our national sausage making factory rises to the top my morning news heap today with a pile of stories that cry out to be told. We’ll start with the number zero.  That’s how many Republican members of both houses of Congress showed up for a Joint Economic Committee hearing on long term unemployment. And the Democrats didn’t do much better. Long term unemployment represents a huge economic, social and political challenge. In my opinion, it’s ticking time bomb, ripe for developing into a rich recruitment source for extremists and a rich environment for fomenting ‘lone wolves’ bent on acts of mayhem.  The sense of humiliation by forces outside one's control is a powerful and very negative motivator. There were suggestions for policy changes put forwards at these hearings, noted in today’s Wonkblog at the Washington Post. But they all involve some form of government intervention and cash money at a time when the now-disproved mantra of austerity continues to reign supreme in the nation’s capital. INSIDE: CYA = Clear Your Airports, Issa’s Failed Sperm Car Loan Request, Local Protest on Immigration Policy, and It’s Kumbaya Time for Carl & Bonnie