I actually thank this congress....we got to see first-hand what happens when these nutbags that wear the three pointed hats are actually in position of authority. We are also able to see how crazy the GOP has gotten over the years and how they shouldn't be anywhere near leadership.

The Tea Party rose and is falling about as quick as any political movement I can remember.....things like the fiscal cliff and upcoming debt ceiling will only hurt these morons even more.....but they don't care. They don't believe in representative government.

Good Riddance to a worthless bunch! Too bad the taxpayers had to pay them $174K per year for nothing - that is the waste of good money!

A do nothing congress and a finger pointing Pesident...what a combo.

Hard to get things done when you have a rank armature as a President surrounded by butt-licking morons.

And idiots that think the press is telling them the truth.

Personally, I would have liked to have seen the republican party have a more cohesive platform and negotiate a little. People knew that they obstructed things, but most people don't have a clue as to why they obstructed policy. We should settle for more singles instead of trying to swing for the fences every at bat. I am still glad they were around. It started us on the path of healing our nation's economy without destroying the future. We still have a long way to go.

Yes - the obstructionist DO NOTHING Congress is finally done for the year. Please go home permanently and take your pointed hats and Grover Norquist masks with you!!!! America deserves better.

Happy New Years....

we people should demand Congress and President pay cut, starting tomorrow!

Vote them out. Vote them all out! Are the Dems. any better representing what is now the majority of registered voters? Our Republican congressmen here in Oklahoma do a great job of supporting their backers which constitute about a hundred rich guys each.

We deserve the politicians we voted for. If you voted for someone who disavows science, thinks women can heal their own unwanted pregnancies resulting from rape, voted for a man whose religion purports God lives on an as yet undiscovered planet in our solar system, you got your money's worth.

If the Republicans cave on taxes their rich supporters will just stop supporting them and they will be out of their jobs. If they don't cave on taxes we will all be out of our jobs.

so, just name a few post offices - and get pension and health benefits for life??? and they bitch about the 'welfare' folks looking for a handout......

I suggest we start hounding EVERY politician in the country for contract performance legislation. Perform - or get shown the door with NOTHING. Miss too many votes - get out. Vote straight party every time - get out.

Yes - we need performance criteria for these free loaders to determine how long they stay - and how much they make.

Good riddance. I wish we never had to deal with this Congress again----ever.

It is important to remember that there were no fiscal cliff showdowns as the GOP was blowing through the surplus left my Clinton and creating the deficit.

Happy New Years.

I wouldn't say it was non-productive. so far this congress ahs passed fewer bills than any in recent history. This is actually a good thing, that means that the Republican house has slowed the ability of the democrats spending more of the money we don't have. I guess it depends on which side of the isle you sit as to where this was a good congress or not. Mt experince is that the fewer Bills passed the less spending that happens. That's a good thing right now. The Fiscal cliff is a joke created by the Democrats in Obamas first two years. Now they want to use it to blame Republicans for standing in the way of eh Progressives progress. The only way we are ging to get any real cuts is to fall off the cliff so I say Jump!.

Nothing will ever get done as long as Harry Reid runs the senate. He blocks every bill passed by the house.

All Republicans should have to return their salaries for the past four years. Republicans said that their sole purpose in 2008 was to insure President Obama was not re-elected. That's treason. They should not get paid again until they begin to work with the Democrats. They can vote down anything they want, just get the ball rolling to the point of a vote.

The problem is that most of the same a**holes are in the next Congress. WE should get rid of them all. What a joke our Congress is.

This Congress may have done little, but it has still done too much. It has still authorized spending 40% more than we have.

and the worst part... we will see much more of the same for years to come... this is modern day scorched earth politics

Kitty Werthmann survived Hitler. (worth the read)

“What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or read in history books,” she likes to tell audiences.

“I am a witness to history.

“I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.

Adolph Hitler

“We voted him in.”

If you remember the plot of the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family escaped over the Alps rather than submit to the Nazis. Kitty wasn’t so lucky. Her family chose to stay in her native Austria. She was 10 years old, but bright and aware. And she was watching.

“We elected him by a landslide – 98 percent of the vote,” she recalls.

She wasn’t old enough to vote in 1938 – approaching her 11th birthday. But she remembers.

“Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.”

Not so.

“In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25 percent inflation and 25 percent bank loan interest rates.

Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs.

“My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily.’

“We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.” she recalls. “We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living.

“Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group – Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone in Germany was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back.

“Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.

“We were overjoyed,” remembers Kitty, “and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.

“After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.

“Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

“Then we lost religious education for kids

“Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school.. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang ‘Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,’ and had physical education.

“Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.”

And then things got worse.

“The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free.

“We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.

“My mother was very unhappy,” remembers Kitty. “When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination.

“I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing.

“Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time, unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.

“It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

“Then food rationing began

“In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death.

“Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.

“Soon after this, the draft was implemented.

“It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps,” remembers Kitty. “During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys.

“They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines.

“When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat.

“Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

“When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.

“You could take your children ages four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, seven days a week, under the total care of the government.

“The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.

“Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna..

“After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything.

“When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full.

“If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.

“As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80 percent of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families.

“All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.

“We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables.

“ Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands.

“Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.

“We had consumer protection, too

“We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

“In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps. The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated.

“So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work.

“I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van.

“I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months.

“They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.

“As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.

“Then they took our guns

“Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long afterwards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.

“No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.

“Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.”

“This is my eye-witness account.

“It’s true. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.

“America is truly is the greatest country in the world.

“Don’t let freedom slip away.

“After America, there is no place to go.”

All this is the result of that terrible Supreme Court decision of January 2010, Citizens United, that gave corporations the same First Amendment rights as individuals. The end result has been that corporations can now donate as much money to political candidates, organizations, and super PACs. This is one of the main reasons we now have the heightened partisanship and political gridlock that cannot get anything done. Many politicians are now beholden (let's face it, they've been bought) to specific special interests and ordered to hold their position "or else." So, now we can safely say that America now has the best politicians that money can buy. Their attitude: To hell with the interests of the American people! Long live the almighty and powerful corporations! Very tragic, and very sad for all of us.

US Government - Part Deux 2013: The blockbuster saga of a failed US Congress and the lackluster leadership of an inept President will start at Midnight tonight! Up to now, this series has heavily competed with the Dumb and Dumber series as well as the movie, Idiocracy.

The selfish bastards in Congress (both houses) are merely occupying their seats (when they actually show up for work) and are soaking the taxpayers for free trips abroad to 'research' stuff in countries where there are expensive resorts and nice golf courses. They ride around in taxpayer paid limousines, get healthcare at a discount, and will also keep their salaries for life once they are no longer in elected office. They wasted nearly three months of the year doing nothing about the fiscal cliff, even though they knew it would happen way back in the spring. Why are we' the citizens, still putting up with their horse manure? Congress is out to help their own pocketbooks, as well as those of all the rich people who helped get them elected. Let's revamp Congress and get some statesmen elected, instead of letting these adolescent rich kids keep bluffing each other to make the first concessions. The public is tired of this sh1t!

So obama gave out raises! That f**n n**ger sure can spend other peoples money.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.