American Politics Thread 2013: I'm a cool Rodham grandma in the USA

Yeah.

This title sucks

I am not ok with it

get off the island

ditch the Rodham please

at least do that

if he ditches the rodham then it's not a pun anymore

as Rodham, the asshole would only be running some law firm in Chicago defending corporate polluters right now

FEMINIST ICON

ilx really has got water on its face thanks to this outrageous thread title

it's really what holds the thread title together xp

She is a feminist icon you sexist pig

oink oink

it's been long established that I'm a sexist, racist, neo-Nazi babyeater

tbf i was unaware that u ate babies

I did see a bumper sticker the other day that said "Ready for Hillary 2016"

Also: what can Clinton boast of as an accomplishment as secretary of state? No snark – genuinely looking for a defense cuz looking at Iraq, Afghanistan, Arab Spring, Libya, the Oval Office and NSC exerted pretty strong control.

she follows orders well. #sergeantschultz

oh, here we are

cool title!

Shut up, Ghoul

kinda disappointed that "Shrilary" didn't find its way into the thread title

or Shrillary even...

Maybe we can get Morbs to bring back "Hitlery Clinton."

maybe we can get you to bring back ... naaaaah

bye

naptime already?

yay naptime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbh4u_oA0rk

http://images.politico.com/global/070507_hillary1.jpg

lol @ phil

Hillary strikes me as smart and generally capable. She's probably a demanding boss who has no problem ordering underlings around to do whatever she wants. I don't think she has a natural feeling for power or how to use it in situations where she doesn't have unchallenged authority.

She has so far demonstrated no extraordinary qualities, which is an improvement on many of our presidents.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/rubio-introduce-senate-bill-ban-abortions-after-20-weeks_738579.html

Rubio's getting his conservative bona fides in order for republican presidential primaries in 2016 and not as concerned with closing the gender gap.

More good news: http://www.popjustice.com/interviewsandfeatures/a-lengthy-neil-tennant-interview/116349/

lol and this: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/03/us/politics/obama-administration-to-delay-health-law-requirement-until-2015.html?ref=politics

(Tennant-Lowe thrilled too no doubt)

meanwhile north carolina going all in on crazy today

North Carolina needs to end Sunday voting to stop voter fraud. Uh huh

rubio you fuck

man you aren't kidding about NC

http://www.wral.com/senate-tacks-sweeping-abortion-legislation-onto-sharia-law-bill/12621503/

not the onion

lol

In NC the Republicans are taking vengeance for being effectively shut out of state government for the past 20 years. Now that they control the House, Senate and the Governor's house the gloves have come off and they are trying to undo as much in the way of progressive legislation as they can through any means possible. Unemployment benefits, voter id laws, abortion, even attempting to put in place a new regressive tax code. The legislature has been attempting to further undermine city governments (which are almost always Democratic)by putting various municipal services (the Asheville water system, the Charlotte airport, etc.) under the control of ostensibly "independent authorities" which have boards composed largely of state appointees. The countryside has effectively declared war on the cities. The backlash has already started but a lot of damage has been done and I don't think we'll ever get some of these things back.

This might be too much information for this particular board, but it's really frustrating. I wrote to my state Senator and his reply was basically, well, hopefully the next election goes better for us once the people of the state realize what they really voted for.

Hillary is a tough boss - so tough, my friend's husband who worked for her decided to throw himself behind Obama in '08. However I'd wager that while at SoS she seemed not to be as bad as she used to be, which suggests her First Lady years were probably more stressful.

she's quoted as saying 'fuck the white house correspondents dinner' in a new book so kudos on that front at least

boehner and the hastert rule and how his hand was forced - http://www.nationalreview.com/node/352631/print

The real horrors these days emerge from statehouses.

Yep, people can yuck all they want regarding the aging conservative white men party and their success in presidential elections, but in numerous statehouses they continue to have success

'pro life' people mishear a prochoice chant about 'the state' at tx lege as 'hail satan'

#hailsatan now trending nationally

It's pretty transparent that the NC reps tacked the anti-abortion stuff onto a bill banning sharia law so that they can run ads claiming that anyone who votes against the anti-abortion stuff is secretly wanting to impose sharia law on NC.

I feel compelled to wonder whether sharia law allows for abortion rights. My hunch is that it would be even more restrictive of abortions than the stuff the republicans proposed. Irony?

yeah, i was composing an onion-esque headline in my head: "NC-sen bans, imposes Sharia law in same bill"

'pro life' people mishear a prochoice chant about 'the state' at tx lege as 'hail satan'

Ha, if only, but of course this would never be allowed in Obama's nanny state that wants to stomp out all religious expression.

First they took our Krampus, then they forced us to renounce our satanic overlord....

As a fan of a certain Mr. Tyler my first reaction to the hail satan thing was "oh cool!"

http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/investigations/the_koch_club/story/Koch_climate_pledge_strategy/

So Norquist isn't the only conservative activist requiring a pledge

haha was about to post it!

The longer story is even more chilling.

if only it chilled the earth

http://socioecohistory.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/time-magazine-april-1977.jpg

lol at 'why we can't beat the soviets' on the same front page, suprised they didn't do the usual coy 'have we cured cancer?' hed for the other story, lol at 'if they killed col blake wtf are they gonna do to frank?' speculation

haha that doesn't even attempt to look like a 1970's era magazine cover.

or read like one

51 things!

http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/2007/1101070409_400.jpg

actual cover

hoooooos`

i am right here why are you yelling

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/charlieunicorn.jpg

I'M RIGHT HERE WADDYA WANT

lol

from no climate tax pledge article:

On Feb. 5, Mary Hutzler, senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that research shows America has an abundance of fossil fuel reserves that could power the nation for nearly 600 years.

no. noooooooo. even using really lenient assumptions about the possibilities for future discovery and production, the congressional research service estimates that the proven fossil fuel reserves of the united states are the equivalent of 973.1 billion barrels of oil (or about 5400 quadrillion Btus). the united states consumed about 80 quadrillion Btus in 2011. that works out to about 67 years of "powering the nation" on our domestic fossil fuel reserves, using the most cheerful of assumptions. oh yeah, and that's pretending that global warming doesn't exist, which of course is a prerequisite for working for these shitty institutions.

On Feb. 14, her colleague, Daniel Simmons, director of Regulatory and State Affairs at the Institute for Energy Research, told members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that environmental regulation of the oil industry is to blame for the rising cost of gasoline.

way to fucking go, daniel simmons, you have the mind of a dizzy neanderthal, and literally no one in the world agrees with you except for the people who work with you and the people that they drink white wine with while telling shitty stories and getting rich!

A month later, on March 13, Hutzler testified during a hearing of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology that federal subsidies of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources had failed to make America energy independent. She argued that the fuels receiving the most government money produced the least amount of energy.[ /q]

oh man, another ice burn from hutzler. i can't think of any reason why fossil fuels would be producing more energy than renewables! oh wait,

http://i.imgur.com/zG7qVcu.jpg
that's odd, it looks like oil, coal and natural gas received 70% of federal energy subsidies (about $600 billion) from 1950-2010, while renewables got 9%.

maybe the govt. is interested in funding renewable research because it helps to drive down the cost of renewable production...

http://i.imgur.com/pLZRWW0.gif
(btw in 2013 we're at 50 cents/watt, and by 2017 we'll be at about 36 cents/watt)

...while the price of oil has nowhere to go but up?

i just can't believe that this kind of shit FLIES at a national level when it couldn't pass muster in a discussion section of a graduate level energy/environment class! to hell with these liars and everyone who believes them.

the NC stuff is so heartbreaking - the NC the legislature's trying to create isn't the place that a lot of people have moved to over the past 20 years. Went down to the statehouse today to be seen/heard, chanted "shame!" when the vote went through - 1 of us got arrested, pretty clearly a case of "arrest the young woman in the dress," it was gross.

real good post z s,
sorry you know enough about this that you have to be bummed out by it. maybe you should start a plainspoken globesplaining blog about this stuff? with bullshit in the title? I would read it & it could become a bill o'reilly esque safe space in which to express/understand dissent

heyletmedrunkenlyglobesplainawaysomebullshitin25to60days.tumblr.com

^would read

the guy on Facebook who wishes death and dismemberment on all Republicans (we all have that guy, right?) posted a link to a story on the Evo Morales's plane being grounded and searched, yada yada yada.

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18066-evo-morales-the-president-of-bolivia-accuses-the-white-house-of-kidnapping-him-by-getting-european-allies-to-force-land-his-plane-in-austria

then a second-level comment to someone wanting to boycott the countries involved:
"Let's start with Israeli companies like SodaStream, Sabra, etc before going after countries that have at least a modicum of respect for Palestinian rights."

Guy who brings up Palestinians no matter what should be a square on Internet comment bingo.

man is there already an internet comment bingo

bunch of ilxors on the edge of their seats waiting for that last hit

So, have there been any noticeable sequester effects yet? Besides the occasional curtailing of museum hours or canceling fireworks displays?

A shitload of poor kids have been dropped from Headstart programs.

The annual Cleveland Air Show was cancelled. (Not that I'll miss it, fuck a bunch of supersonic jets doing flybys for a week.)

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-06-30/politics/40292466_1_sequestration-predictions-obama-administration

In 11 cases, sequestration turned out to be as bad as advertised, or worse.

The Labor Department had predicted that emergency unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed would be cut by 9.4 percent. But in some states, the reductions have been larger: 11 percent. For an individual, that could mean $450 less in benefits this year.

At the Pentagon, officials had predicted that they would reduce training for the Army, flying time for the Air Force and ship deployments for the Navy. They did all three. “It’s extremely hard to show a degradation in our readiness, although we feel it deeply across the force,” Pentagon spokeswoman Beth Robbins said.

Across the government, more than 125,000 employees have been furloughed from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Internal Revenue Service, and other agencies. About 650,000 Defense Department civilians will start taking 11 unpaid days next week. Public defenders are losing up to 15 days of pay.

In 24 cases, however, The Post’s review showed that the predictions were wrong — sequestration had not lived up to the administration’s alarms.

So, have there been any noticeable sequester effects yet? Besides the occasional curtailing of museum hours or canceling fireworks displays?

one very noticeable effect for me is that i'm on mandatory furlough today! sadtrombone.wav

I know someone who is on furlough on Monday

Good article in the N&O today about 'what happens next' with the new law in NC—both the House leader & Gov. McCrory (who made a pre-election pledge not to sign any legislation restricting abortion, fwiw) are moderate Republican big-business-types who seem reluctant to dirty their hands with divisive culture-war bullshit. So if you wanna call this the GOP's "revenge", just keep in mind that it's a very poorly-planned revenge.

Of course, McCrory can sit back and let the NC House/Senate overturn his veto, if he stands up to them (and I'm going to take a stab in the dark that he won't protest the end of early voting and voting ID restrictions they're bringing in...)

It seems like the effects are diffuse enough that maybe they're just not overwhelming? I mean, I know people affected by it, most obviously gov workers, but maybe it's just too early to tell how damaging it will be.

The most prevalent stories I've read about the sequester, apart from the Headstart enrollment hit, have been of the nature of -- 'here's this worthwhile program we're having to put in mothballs, but the irony is that keeping it suspended costs money, too, and starting it back up will be even more expensive than if we'd never cut it back.'

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/07/hillary_clinton_wesleyan_commencement_speech_robert_pinsky_on_the_politician.html

Olympic ping-pong team, contestant on Jeopardy, key grip for the next Scorsese film--the options out there are theoretically unlimited.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/rick-perry-2016-is-option

poll

https://twitter.com/ConnieSchultz/status/353923629219721216/photo/1

A woman should give this fat asshole a haircut amirite

mos def gives us a look at what "doctors" at guantanamo are doing to the men who are hunger striking. a warning - it's pretty nauseating, in all seriousness

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jul/08/mos-def-force-fed-guantanamo-bay-video?CMP=twt_gu

this book will be delicious
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/books/this-town-by-mark-leibovich-skewers-washingtons-insiders.html

Rick Perry not seeking reelection

idgi mos def asks to be force fed then hes all begging to stop make up yr mind bro

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/08/florida-banned-computers_n_3561701.html

Ha, Florida accidentally bans smartphones and computers in their quest to stop internet cafes that act as havens for gambling (or something)

Coming this fall (same 'ol, same 'ol):

http://mobile.nationaljournal.com/congress/house-republicans-draft-their-debt-ceiling-playbook-20130707

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/racists-love-ron-and-rand-paul-for-some-reason.html

i don't think chait really 'gets' the Old Right

Segregation was in large part a policy of government, not the free market. But it took intrusive federal power to destroy segregation.

I don't think "but" is the right word here. Wouldn't "consequently" make more sense?

BJSSP
Question: have we ever figured out who wrote those newsletters for Ron Paul? It's a question on the mind of every freedom loving American.

My guess is, Obama knows, but he's keeping it a secret, so he can embarrass Paul and establish the NAFTA superhighway, paid for by confiscating the gold at gun point out right out of every (white) person's home.
11 Minutes Ago Reply|Like

too many syllables for Chait.

"therefore"?

"butthole"

Al do you understand humor

I don't think you can use "butthole" as a conjunction

*waits for it*

what if you shortened it to "butt"

Segregation was in large part a policy of government, not the free market. Butt took intrusive federal power to destroy segregation.

I don't think you can use "butthole" as a conjunction

That's What Steve Said

"Very, very few Rand Paul fans are glad Abraham Lincoln was shot."

u suuuuure about this jc?

they are unhappy he was shot as late as 1865

dunno about rand but i doubt there are even one in a hundred ron paul fans who don't sputter with fury at the mention of lincoln's name.

More sequester damage.

Also, Chuck Todd wises up.

Meanwhile, in Texas...

"The engagement from advocates on both sides of the issue showed that the legislative and electoral process is working, said state Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, a physician."

fuck this dude

Chuck Todd...otm? it feels so fucking weird to say that. i mean, it's nothing original, but for once he seems to have accidentally pulled his head up out of the sand

But he's still naive re some things:

that copycat bullet: And if Republicans are trying to stop Democratic laws from being implemented or preventing executive-branch appointees from being confirmed, then you can bet that Democrats will return the favor the next time there’s a GOP president

Since when have Democrats ever shown that they will play hardball like Republicans? Yea, Dems opposed Bork and a few other people, but they have never done anything to the extent that Republicans in the current Congress have.

Feel like the debt ceiling hostage crisis we deal with every couple months is due to the dems trying to use it to extract concessions from the gwb administration..

obv a little bit apples and oranges there

they have never done anything to the extent that Republicans in the current Congress have.

that's because Dems have fewer beliefs, or are less able to fake having as many.

nobody has every done anything to the extent that republicans in current congress have, so it's a bad comparison

Which is why Chuck Todd should not have phrased his "copycat" bullet the way he did.

the Dems have so few instances of hardball post-LBJ that it's no wonder the GOP yells BORK BORK BORK and MIGUEL ESTRADA ad nauseum

HARRIET MYERS

lol

dems did not take down harriet miers

Charles Krauthammer still happily takes credit.

2nd commenter on that Chait piece makes the obvious point:

davidinnashville
I'd point out that there's another link between libertarianism and segregationism. You claim that "Segregation was in large part a policy of government, not the free market." But, as Gavin Wright has recently reiterated, much of segregation was a matter of custom, practiced by private businesses who did so not because of an economically costly "taste for discrimination" but because their white customers demanded it. Sitters-in were arrested not because they violated segregation laws but because they were regarded as trespassers. The most important, and controversial, federal intervention in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was its ban on discrimination in public accommodations. This was viewed in the South (and I was growing up white in SC at the time) as an unprecedented assault on the rights of businesspeople to run their own businesses. Assaults on job discrimination likewise attacked customary recruitment practices that led whites to regard access to certain jobs as a "right."

(and I'd go a little farther and say that business owners didn't segregate just to suit their customers, but because THEY WERE RACISTS THEMSELVES.)

The (almost certainly incorrect) libertarian argument would run that racist business owners whose customers prefer they not discriminate on race are given such large economic incentives not to discriminate that this will override the inherent racism of the owner.

Progress! Orrin Hatch!

A Senate panel on Wednesday quickly and easily approved a first-of-its-kind anti-discrimination measure that would provide workplace protection to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Three Republicans on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted for the bill, which supporters hope will improve its chances to pass the Senate with the 60 votes it will need.

Four Republican senators — Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, who voted for it in committee, along with Susan Collins of Maine, one of the bill’s sponsors — are now on record supporting the bill, which has been debated in one form or another for more than a decade in Congress but has never passed the Senate.

Supporters said they were emboldened by the 15-to-7 vote on Wednesday and took it as yet another sign, after last month’s Supreme Court decision invalidating the Defense of Marriage Act, that gay rights are on an inexorable climb.

but then there's the House.

The (almost certainly incorrect) libertarian argument would run that racist business owners whose customers prefer they not discriminate on race are given such large economic incentives not to discriminate that this will override the inherent racism of the owner.

― Aimless, Wednesday, July 10, 2013 1:31 PM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

isn't this part of marxist thought as well, ironing out the inefficiencies in capitalism

Pareene reviews This Town.

Read a few reviews of the book and some excerpts. It appears the book confirms what we know about inside-the-beltway types and maybe gives one more insider info about them. Thus, I have little interest in reading the book.

like pareene sez i just want to know more precisely whom to hate

— or Mike Allen’s formerly secret John Bircher dad —

lol wut

isn't this part of marxist thought as well

To be clear, this mechanism would work well only if the business owner were racist, against the wealthiest majority element of society and therefore was selecting to serve only an impoverished minority among his potential customers. If such segregation were still legal in the USA, a white racist who wanted to cater only to whites could easily find a genteel way to frame his racism that would allow his white customers to overlook it, because when you get down to it, it's no skin off their noses. Maybe a little sign near the door saying "We practice voluntary segregation."

Nice! http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/mr-takano-grades-little-johnny-boehners.html

http://www.thenation.com/blog/175176/comeys-crickets#axzz2YlFOxBDa

So apparently there's more to our new FBI chief than just his one good deed, but hey it's summer, and who cares what a negative lefty Nation mag columnist thinks

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/11/19418669-rand-paul-defends-secessionist-staffer?lite

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced a bill aimed at re-creating the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era measure that separated commercial and investment banking.

“It will take a lot of tools to get rid of too-big-to-fail, but one of them ought to be that if you want to do high-stakes gambling, good on you, but you do not get access to people’s checking accounts and savings accounts,” Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, told Bloomberg Television’s Peter Cook in an interview today.

The bill sponsored by Warren along with Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, and Angus King, a Maine independent, would separate traditional banks that offer checking and savings accounts insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from “riskier financial institutions.” The latter category includes companies involved in investment banking, insurance, swaps dealing, hedge funds and private equity, according to the lawmakers’ statement released yesterday.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-07-11/warren-joins-mccain-to-push-new-glass-steagall-bill-for-banks

i literally did a dance at my desk

expect McCain to get pissy about something though.

Yeah but he'll get some tv time at least.

I had read that Reid was discussing with Senate Dems whether to end filbusters for agency position nominations and slots on the NLRB, but the discussion of that has led to this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/07/11/mcconnell-nuclear-option-will-be-reids-legacy/

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) engaged in a heated hour-long exchange over filibuster rules on the Senate floor Thursday, and by the end of the day, McConnell said Reid risked becoming the worst Senate leader in history.

If Reid goes through with the so-called nuclear option, McConnell said, “our friend the majority leader is going to be remembered as the worst leader here ever.”

WORST LEADER HERE EVER

He'll at least be remembered for something besides being a human turtle.

if I were Dick Durbin I'd kick Reid in the balls in front of the caucus and go "YEAH BITCH FILIBUSTER OVER"

caucuspunch

http://www.youtube.com/user/thetexastribune?v=2Q8Hr0O20LY

TX Senate debating HB2

I wish HB2 was called 2HB and instead of stripping abortion rights it was about mandatory playing of Roxy Music before repertory film screenings.

From the comments on that livestream:
So Texas DPS is taking away pads and tampons from woman going into the capitol building, but allowing concealed handguns. GOOD JOB TEXAS

The rumor going around on the right, based on a "DPS source," is that women planned to throw their tampons in protest. The people I expect would make up bullshit about protestors throwing things are pushing it; the people I expect would deny such things whether they were true or not are denying them. Awaiting word from my two nonbullshit sources.

@beetasays
Women are chaining themselves to the chamber. Some kicked out of gallery. Capitol is chaos. Amazing. #txlege

Good to see Texas women showing as much moxie as the suffragettes did.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/15/19487749-bachmann-explains-the-way-we-spank-the-president?lite

"Contrary to popular opinion, Republicans won't get patted on the back or get new votes because of passing amnesty. They're going to get blamed. And it's my prediction that the House Republicans could put themselves in a position where they could actually lose the gavel in 2014, because I think the president, even by executive order, can again wave his magic wand before 2014 [1] and he'd say now all of the new, legal Americans are going to have voting rights.'

"Why do I say that? He did it in 2012. Do you remember? Anyone who was here as a Latina under age 30, he said, 'You get to vote.' [2]

Does she just make this crazy stuff up spontaneously or does she have speechwriters who do so?

i'm amazed this has gotten attention, all the writeups of her deciding not to run again read like obits, 'and that's the last we heard of michele bachmann'. can only figure she's jockeying for a media gig.

What if Trayvon Martin was wearing Google Glasses?

well he'd've been white

wrong thread but didn't belong in that thread anyway

hard to know what she wants, she doesn't show any sign of behind-the-curtain canniness, she's full on all the way.

Yes, full all the way. You can see it in her eyes, like a kind of insanity.

being all o_O and smh over bachmann has been a cottage industry around my way for a looong time now and i don't think we've ever seen the bottom of it, or will. just one of those kinds of people. fwiw my impression of her is that she doesn't really have the gritted-teeth meanness of, say, palin. just one of the lord's servants on earth, concerned, happy, energetic forever...

a pat buchannan for the 21st century

a camera whore of no importance who keeps libs from thinking too long about what scum the Democrats are

So while Reid and Senate Dems are debating whether to get rid of the filibuster for nominations to agency positions and the NLRB(the even scummier Republicans won't let Dems get a vote on a nominee that is necessary to have a voting quorum on the board); the Republicans have already responded that if they take over the Senate they will get rid of the filibuster for legislation including Obamacare. I assume they'll try to find a way to get rid of it if they get majority status in the Senate anyway.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_07/may_cooler_heads_not_prevail045838.php

yeah the funny thing about all the OMG over reid possibly using the nuclear option to slightly curtail use of the filibuster is that everyone know's it's effectively dead as soon as the gop takes the senate back next year.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/nate-silver-predicts-gop-holding-50-51-senate

Following former Gov. Brian Schweitzer's decision not to run for Montana’s open U.S. Senate seat this weekend, New York Times polling guru Nate Silver predicted Monday that Republicans will hold 50 to 51 seats in the upper chamber after all ballots are counted in the 2014 Congressional mid-term elections.

Silver hedges in his prediction by reminding his readers that the outcome will be affected by several factors, namely local variables, the quality of candidates yet chosen by both Democrats and Republicans, economic indicators and President Barack Obama's approval rating.

Meanwhile Reid's gambit looks like it's working

“When McConnell met with Reid, he said we’ll let these guys through if you unilaterally disarm, and Reid rejected the offer,” the Democratic aide said.

“It sounds like an array of options were talked about, but no commitment from Reid to not just keep using the threat of nuclear option over and over again,” the GOP aide said.

It’s a remarkable move by Reid, who issued his threat to nuke the filibuster for executive branch nominations on the basis of whether the seven nominees would receive a vote. Three nominees would serve on the National Labor Relations Board and the rest would lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Labor Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Export-Import Bank. The primary lingering dispute is over the fate of two NLRB nominees whom President Obama appointed while Congress was in recess.

It remains possible the nuclear option will be avoided this time around as a group of Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), are easing up on the stalled nominees. As Reid sees it, he’s calling the shots over McConnell.

“We’re fighting for the principle that executive nominees should get up-or-down votes,” the senior Democratic aide said. “If Republicans will give us that, there’s a chance we won’t go nuclear, but we will maintain the ability to go nuclear if they start filibustering nominees again.”

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) all but admitted that Richard Cordray had the votes to be confirmed to the CFPB. The remaining discussions are about confirming the two NLRB picks — Sharon Block and Richard Griffin. If they go through, Reid will have no incentive to go nuclear this time around, but people close to him say he refuses to give up his right to do what’s needed to make sure the Senate functions in the future.

“This would also be a rebuke to McConnell from his caucus,” the aide continued, “since the group [of Republicans] we’re talking with is so sick of the obstruction themselves that they’re basically willing to give us everything we’re asking for with no conditions on future action.”

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/reid-rejects-mcconnell-offer-nuclear-option.php?ref=fpa

“It sounds like an array of options were talked about, but no commitment from Reid to not just keep using the threat of nuclear option over and over again,” the GOP aide said.

amazing

No surprise how lazily the media is reporting this. On CNN and FOX anchors talk as if Reid wants to eliminate filibuster for judges too.

Not reid's hugest fan obviously but he is a canny motherfucker

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/16/19503136-making-the-transition-from-light-bulbs-to-ceiling-fans?lite

How dare that Obama try to set energy-efficiency standards for ceiling fans! First it was lightbulbs, now this...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/nuclear-option-filibuster-deal-nominations.php

In short, Republicans would confirm nominees to all seven positions, a big concession for the GOP. But in a concession for Democrats, they would replace two recess-appointed nominees to the National Labor Relations Board — Sharon Block and Richard Griffin, pictured below — with new nominees under the following condition: Republicans pledge to confirm any two replacements by President Obama to the board by Aug. 27.

morbs for NLRB?

anybody read NY Mag's Boehner feetch?

http://nymag.com/news/features/john-boehner-2013-7/

nice to see for once a portrait of JB where they don't act like his dad owning just one ohio bar means he grew up disadvantaged. love the bit too about a 'cologne and no jeans' kind of guy -- now there's a rugged conservative american

The deal: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/16/the-senate-didnt-go-nuclear-but-actually-it-kind-of-did/

there’s no way Majority Leader McConnell will permit Democrats to routinely filibuster or otherwise obstruct President Christie’s nominees

Umm?

good lord i hate the whole "nuke" metaphor for this. anyway,

The Senate didn’t actually go nuclear today. But the majority took out a nuke, put it on the table, and made clear they can detonate it whenever they feel like.

It’s clear now that Reid will change the rules if he believes it necessary. But so too will McConnell. If Republicans retake the Senate in 2014 and the presidency in 2016, there’s no way Majority Leader McConnell will permit Democrats to routinely filibuster or otherwise obstruct President Christie’s nominees. If they do, he’ll throw Reid’s words back in their face and make the change Reid threatened to make today.

The result is that the minority's ability to filibuster executive-branch nominees was weakened, even if it wasn’t fully eliminated. The minority can use the filibuster against particularly objectionable nominees that the majority isn’t overly committed to confirming. But they do so with the express indulgence of the majority. If the minority uses it too often, or chooses a nominee the majority really wants to confirm, the privilege of filibustering nominees — and that’s what it is now, a privilege granted by the majority — will be taken away. No majority is going to take that nuke off the table.

i agree with klein's take on this, and i think that it's a good thing. even if when republicans take over the senate, it's fine that democrats won't be able to abuse the filibuster to block nominees. that's how govt. is supposed to work. you're not supposed to gum up the works every time your team isn't in power. you're only supposed to do it the majority nominates someone who is truly an abomination.

why didn't reid pull the trigger on this back in 2009?

xpost

If Republicans retake the Senate in 2014...

even if when republicans take over the senate, it's fine that democrats won't be able to abuse the filibuster to block nominees.

before someone freaks out, i meant that the minority party won't be able to block filibusters routinely, as a default approach, like it is now

xp I know. I just thought it was odd that the forgone conclusion that the next GOP president is Chris Christie.

Supposedly McConnell reneged on a deal he made on nominees with Reid in 2009.. go figure.

how to improve the experience of reading politico by a factor of approximately 50,000:

http://cat.www.politico.com.meowbify.com/

take montana to town

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/311199-tribes-lawsuit-could-decide-who-controls-senate-in-2015

in which Elizabeth Warren kicks ass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONEcoq9pjac&feature=player_embedded

president warren

we get the presidents we deserve

*hangs head*

there was a good article, I forget where, that was talking about whether warren was proposing this stuff in order to 'move the goalposts' (good) or if she actually believed anything she was proposing was more than just a PR stunt at this point (bad)

Check out the Lamar Alexander quote.

wow.

Halle-fuckin-lujah! You election nerds need never think of him again.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/brian-stelter-reports-nate-silver-leaving-new-york-times-to-join-keith-olbermann-at-espn/

Olbermann needs to be left on the side of a highway somewhere

Halle-fuckin-lujah! You election nerds need never think of him again.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/brian-stelter-reports-nate-silver-leaving-new-york-times-to-join-keith-olbermann-at-espn/

― playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, July 19, 2013 10:00 PM (Yesterday)

glad to see that he'll be focusing on the more important things now

Olbermann needs to be left on the side of a highway somewhere

― dude his voice is soooo much more tolerable than danny brown (President Keyes), Friday, July 19, 2013 10:49 PM (Yesterday)

tbf this describes most of connecticut

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2013/07/perry_voodoo_doll.php

i know we must have talked about this somewhere, but this is an amazing thing for the speaker of the house to say:

“We should not be judged on how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal.”

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/21/19596802-boehner-judge-congress-by-how-many-laws-it-repeals-not-passes?lite

not by itself an inflammatory remark. I'd have felt the same if I'd been elected to Congress in 2006.

yeah, maybe. and it's true that for about 1/3 of americans, he IS judged by how many laws he repeals, or how much he can freeze the workings of the government.

That is a horrible thing to say

how many laws have they repealed?

Zero

Well I guess they repealed some stuff that was blocked by the senate

they're doing even worse than we thought

sure would be nice if the GOP had a president signing their legislation!

lol weiner

now that 'thedirty.com' is in the news again, let's look back at the OTHER time a site to talk about banging chicks in scottsdale, ariz. made its mark on the american polity

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/08/ben-quayle-denies-writing-for.html

hi goole!

Obama Seeks to Reset Debate Over Direction of the Economy

In remarks to supporters on Monday night, Mr. Obama acknowledged what the speech wouldn’t do: it would not “change any minds,” he said. And it would not offer any new proposals. The president said the address on Wednesday would be “thematic” rather than prescriptive. Any new ideas will come in a series of other speeches in the weeks to come.

What’s the point?

because everyone is paying attention to political news in the summer

be prepared for my speech on Wednesday in which I will prepare you for later speeches

he should have done this through 15-second SNL ads

haha otm

the point is to continue perpetuating the illusion that there is a point

That remark about 'how many laws we repeal' basically says that every Congress before this one was wrong-headed and passed laws it never should have passed and ought to be repealed. But those Congresses were precisely as legitimate as this one, elected by the voters and sent to DC to legislate. So, I must conclude Boehner is an idiot who can't think his way out of a paper bag, or else he just says stuff he thinks sounds good without thinking at all.

I think in Boehners mind politics is the same thing as governing so burning down the other dudes shit is regular business.

SAC indicted

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/25/us-usa-healthcare-republicans-idUSBRE96O0EJ20130725

FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity, a conservative issue group financed by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, known for funding conservative causes, are planning separate media and grassroots campaigns aimed at adults in their 20s and 30s - the very people Obama needs to have sign up for healthcare coverage in new online insurance exchanges if his reforms are to succeed.

"We're trying to make it socially acceptable to skip the exchange," said Dean Clancy, vice president for public policy at FreedomWorks, which boasts 6 million supporters. The group is designing a symbolic "Obamacare card" that college students can burn during campus protests.

Americans for Prosperity launched a $1 million TV ad campaign against the healthcare law this summer to test its message in swing states of Virginia and Ohio. The 30-second ad presents a young pregnant mother who asks questions that suggest the law will raise premiums, reduce paychecks, prevent people from picking their own doctors and leave her family's healthcare to "the folks in Washington."

freedom works

...just says stuff he thinks sounds good without thinking at all.

^^^ From "welfare queens" to "death panels" to Michele Bachmann's entire political career, GOP have mastered talking loud, saying nothing.

I think they're excellent at it!

They truly are! I've often said I wish progressive causes had spokespeople so adept at tossing red meat and getting their base motivated. I mean, they kinda do, but...

Some laws Boehner does not want to repeal:

NYTimes
Top News
House Defeats Effort to Rein In N.S.A. Data Gathering
By JONATHAN WEISMAN
The 217-205 vote was far closer than expected and displayed the shifting allegiances and fierce lobbying on both sides of the issue.

nice to see him working with Obama there

Nancy too.

http://www.squareone-learning.com/cartoons/nancy.jpg

oh man mccain's gonna lose it

https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/360433838339526657

mccain's already visited, kerry and him led the effort toward normalization of relations

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/25/weiner-estimates-he-sexted-three-women-after-resigning/?hpt=hp_t1

my favorite bit: "It's not dozens and dozens," he said. "It's six to ten, I suppose, but I can't tell you absolutely what people are going to consider inappropriate or not."

Obviously having a hard time telling what people consider inappropriate.

a hard time you say

mccain's already visited, kerry and him led the effort toward normalization of relations

― balls, Thursday, July 25, 2013 12:45 PM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah a while after i posted that i remembered that from one of his many many profiles (the DFW one maybe?)

but still, maybe?

Charlie Savage on John Roberts' influence on the FISA court:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/us/politics/robertss-picks-reshaping-secret-surveillance-court.html?ref=politics&_r=0

Congratulations on finding a way to make me more disgusted with politics:

“With the Obama administration poised for a huge public education campaign on healthcare reform, Republicans and their allies are mobilizing a counter-offensive including town hall meetings, protests and media promotions to dissuade uninsured Americans from obtaining health coverage,” Reuters reports. “‘We’re trying to make it socially acceptable to skip the exchange,’ said Dean Clancy, vice president for public policy at FreedomWorks, which boasts 6 million supporters.”

http://washingtonexaminer.com/pelosi-looks-to-assuage-angry-democrats-with-letter-to-obama-questioning-nsa-snooping/article/2533515

ugh fuck her

Seriously..

"I thought that impeachment would be divisive for the country. ... If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story." -- Nancy Pelosi, 2008

https://twitter.com/michaelhayes/status/360839251027431425/photo/1

^ the torn bill of rights

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/28/business/media/nbc-announces-mini-series-on-hillary-clinton.html

can't wait

It's a four-hour miniseries, but since it's on NBC it will be canceled after the second hour.

what a disaster for nbc

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/485119_10151309074333278_1641232265_n.jpg

oh jesus

lol

agl

We all saw the "1998 and after" Shrillary miniseries already.

huh?

The reality show! Can't top that; no actress can reproduce the campaign-trail "gallonagas."

I guess a couple hours dramatizing the healthcare reform screwup just didn't sell in the suites.

You've never touched any one else's genitals before, have you?

yo mama's, right after I heard that in kindergarten

Were you trying to say "gazongas"?

no, that's President Hil folksy talk for a "gallon o' gas"

I'm really not a Hillary fan, but everybody code switches, dude.

The reality show! Can't top that; no actress can reproduce the campaign-trail "gallonagas."

I guess a couple hours dramatizing the healthcare reform screwup just didn't sell in the suites.

http://ionenewsone.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/rushcigar.jpg

dude -- sorry, I mean gabbneb's shriveled dick -- I don't think RL is big on HC reform, or ever was.

Now go crawl back up Jim Carville's asshole.

dude -- sorry, I mean gabbneb's shriveled dick -- I don't think RL is big on HC reform, or ever was.

Now go crawl back up Jim Carville's asshole.

http://deathandtaxesmag.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/rush-limbaugh-793679.jpeg

In other news, I guess Republicans will respond to the below by saying that people aren't trying to get work because they're living the good life on food stamps; and taxes are just too high on job creators....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/poverty-unemployment-rates_n_3666594.html

Nationwide, the count of America's poor remains stuck at a record number: 46.2 million, or 15 percent of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession.

Who Are We at War With? That’s Classified

Now go crawl back up Jim Carville's asshole.

What a dated reference.

don't tell Bill Hader

wawaface & gabbneb are dated

as are these threads

especially with this news:

The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed James B. Comey as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday even as Republicans and Democrats struggled to hold together the fragile deal that preserved the filibuster for executive branch appointees.

After approving Mr. Comey on a 93-to-1 vote — with Rand Paul the lone “no” vote — the Senate was also expected this week to approve Samantha Power as ambassador to the United Nations and the nominees to the National Labor Relations Board who were part of the 11th-hour pact that kept Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, from changing the filibuster rules.

so I offer Obama's and Reid's asses for Dem trolls to crawl up

(warning: crowded)

http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20080513/Happy-Man-Magnifying-Lens-724374.jpg

the fuck is going on in here

what happens on every politics thread

how many ilxors were born after the last moment morbs actually paid attention to politics?

too many obv (this fucker treeship i swear) but still - james carville?

I guess a couple hours dramatizing the healthcare reform screwup just didn't sell in the suites.

― playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Monday, July 29, 2013 8:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

do you mean when HRC refused to settle for the healthcare reform Obama got?

just read a cool thing in Amy Davidson's manning trial column about the prosecution displaying a self-portrait manning took of himself cross-dressing, seems p cool, just dropping this in there for some colour, nbd

Verdict expected today.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-07-26/national/40863033_1_mobile-information-collection-unit-ashden-fein-david-coombs

Coombs also countered one of prosecutor Fein’s arguments that attempted to show Manning was seeking fame: A photo Manning took of himself, smiling in front of a mirror while on leave in Maryland. Fein said it showed a “gleeful, grinning” Manning who was proud to have leaked documents and be “on his way to notoriety” he wanted.

Coombs asked the judge to take a closer look at the photo, pointing out that Manning was wearing makeup and a bra.

“What you see is a young man who is cross-dressing,” Coombs said as Manning’s face tightened slightly in a pained look.“Maybe, just maybe ... he is happy to be himself for that moment,” Coombs said of Manning’s struggle to fit into the military at a time he was confused about his gender identity and serving openly was illegal for gays.

too many obv (this fucker treeship i swear) but still - james carville?

― balls, Tuesday, July 30, 2013 4:58 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You got a problem with me, Mr. Testicles?

Oh wait that says Treeship not Waterface

I'm so used to everyone hating on me I assumed it was about me

I'm So Vain

see, James Carville ref = wawaface is an antiquated DNC fuckface

i'll be on I Love Baseball

Porbably thing tahta post is about me

YAY

Dr Pigface has left the building, oink oink

I should change my name to fuckface

i thought the joke was that waterface watches cnn

That would be funny but no

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/judge-to-announce-verdict-in-bradley-manning-case-today/2013/07/29/e894a75c-f897-11e2-afc1-c850c6ee5af8_story.html?hpid=z1

An Army judge on Tuesday acquitted Pfc. Bradley Manning of aiding the enemy by disclosing a trove of secret U.S. government documents, a striking rebuke to military prosecutors who argued that the largest leak in U.S. history had assisted al-Qaeda.

The judge, Col. Denise Lind, found Manning guilty of most of the more than 20 crimes he was charged with. She also acquitted him of one count of the espionage act that stemmed from his leak of a video that depicted a fatal U.S. military airstrike in Farah, Afghanistan

some good news out of that, strangely.

Had Manning been convicted of aiding the enemy, Manning would have faced a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole. Civil libertarians saw the prospect of a conviction on that charge, which has not been used since the Civil War, as a dangerous precedent that could have would have sent an unmistakable message to would-be government whistle-blowers.

that could have would have

Washington Post writer in a hurry to get this posted

in theory i guess any whistle-blower is 'aiding the enemy' by making anything about america look less than awesome

Prosecutors had to prove Army Pfc. Bradley Manning had "a general evil intent" and knew the classified material would be seen by the terrorist group Al Qaeda.

"shoulda coulda" is the preferred usage, right?

"coulda woulda", sorry

Republicans and the White House both agree on proposals to cut Social Security known as chained CPI, referring to reduced payments to beneficiaries because of how annual cost-of-living adjustments are calculated. And the two sides seem to be on the same page regarding reducing benefits that wealthy seniors now receive from entitlement programs, a proposal known as means testing.

But the White House wants new taxes in exchange for those entitlement cuts, something at which the GOP continues to balk.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/is-the-grand-bargain-out-of-reach-94890.html?hp=f2

Seriously, thank you GOP for killing this bad bargain

our media:

https://twitter.com/BrettLoGiurato/status/362318301382180866

Back In Texas...

damn

that made me so mad i almost went nativist on the motherfucker

http://m.sfgate.com/sfchron/db_41688/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=6ncjpbUu"> yeah that'll work

did not work, as far as I can tell.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/07/gop-feuds/67795/

Toobin and Greenwald go at it (get your mind out of the gutter)

cool buzzfeed/heritage foundation team-up: http://www.buzzfeed.com/heritagefoundation/that-one-time-i-was-really-really-excited-about-o-cteg

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington are getting ready for a four-week break, followed by a September in which House Republicans have only scheduled nine days of work for the entire month, and they're leaving quite a to-do list behind. Four of the 12 appropriations bills that have to pass before the end of the fiscal year are being ignored; the farm bill is stuck; immigration reform is demanding attention; and a debt-ceiling crisis looms.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/31/19797380-what-a-governing-allergy-looks-like

oh they're hella busy fundraising, right?

Of course.

The Senate approved all five NLRB appointments yesterday. That was the good news-- Reid's threats to go nuclear paid off at least in the short-term.

Jesus I thought they were already 'off' the whole summer?

off their meds

August! When not only congress is on vacation, but also most of the rest of DC, leaving the town to deranged tourists who for some reason thought visiting a swamp in August was a good idea. (I'm a bit homesick.)

Its a tad cooler than usual though for some reason

i'll take it

srsly though, this time ... benghazi!!!

i don't get why people are suddenly talking about this CIA gun running thing, we knew this in the spring

Benghazi
Ben-e-e-e-h-ghazzii
no no no no
he only wants to impress youuu

Another Monday with my brother on furlough (every Monday for awhile), Republicans repeating cliches to their constituents and promises to lobbyists, Congressional Dems confused, and the Prez pushing his "moderate" "compromises"

I have been reading "This Town" and Joan Walsh comes away with an obvious (and unsurprising) conclusion about why people might possibly be cynical:

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/05/ka_ching_we_can_believe_in/

Joan Walsh goes very well with "obvious (and unsurprising)"

Why are some folks surprised about Messina, former longtime aide to Max Baucus (before Messina joined the White House) deciding to make big bucks with the Conservative Brits --

2011 article in The Nation

http://www.thenation.com/article/159577/jim-messina-obamas-enforcer#axzz2b7vDKgpM

As a former chief of staff to Baucus and deputy to Emanuel, Messina has clashed with progressive activists and grassroots Obama supporters both inside and outside Washington over political strategy and on issues like healthcare reform and gay rights, alienating parts of the very constituencies that worked so hard for Obama in 2008 and that the campaign needs to reinspire and activate in 2012. Obama’s fixer has arguably created as many problems as he’s solved.

Barry Crimmins ‏@crimmins
Former Obama campaign manager #JimMessia now working for Brit Tories. It's a lateral move.

Why is anyone surprised that anyone in the Obama administration would reneg on their "no ego, no glory" memo?

some of my dyed in the wool OFA buddies are just so backstabbed about messina and it's sort of frustrating to watch

Obama Cancels Meeting With Putin Amid Tension Over Snowden
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324522504578653791984020314.html

Not sure I think this is a good move.

hey at least he waited til his 2nd term to be Jimmy Carter after doing Dubya in his 1st.

oh shit i missed it are we boycotting sochi?

I'd go with 65-70% likely now, howbout you?

i trust the Olympics-industrial machine will crush this issue before it comes to that

Things are looking -- very slightly -- optimistic:

When White House aides talk up Summers, it is usually in the context of his relationship with Obama during the darkest days of the Great Recession, shaping policies Obama believes saved the country from another depression. That relationship is real and meaningful. But Summers did not anticipate the Great Recession, and some believe his advocacy for an end to Glass-Steagall helped set it in motion. Top administration officials disagree, but Obama’s criteria appears clear: seeing a crisis before it strikes and dealing with Fed policy outside of its historically abstract sandbox. If you place the Summers-versus-Yellen campaigning aside, and take Obama's own words at face value, he's leaning toward Yellen.

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/08/1229930/-Campaign-Finance-Complaint-Filed-Against-Scott-Walker?showAll=yes

Oh yeaaaah

god let us dream he's leaning towards yellen

Mitch McConnel's chief negotiator is leaving his post.

“If you have to do business with the dark side, it’s better to negotiate with an evil genius than with someone who only knows how to say no and doesn’t understand the details,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment.

Kumar is “negotiating on behalf of an irrational, unpredictable crowd, and he likes to run out the clock, which is a dangerous combination. But to his credit, he never wanted to let the clock strike midnight and the world to blow up,” the official said.

no lie the howls from the goldbug alpha zerohedge bro zone at seeing a woman in charge of the cental bank would carry me through another 3 administrations at least

lol otm

TPM worries McConnell's primary and election woes could shut the gubbmint down again. He overstates McConnell's sanity.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/08/how_mcconnells_woes_could_blow_up_washington.php?ref=fpblg

mcconnell even being in trouble is still amazing to me

goldbug alpha zerohedge bro zone

perfect

so even if turtlemang gets primaried, there's absolutely no way Grimes takes this, right? iirc KY has a blue streak that TN, MS, SC , AL et al don't, but that's cold comfort these days

hard not to feel schaudenfreude for blobfish

hopefully these 'gop gains seats in 2014' memes will be reversed by the candidates being total fucking nutjobs courtesy of the primaries

xps just from an outsider's pov, Grimes looks like a formidable candidate. Blobfish gets primaried, she get an opponent that's even more of a loon, and she could squeak out a victory.

and then who would be minority leader?

Looking at the minority hierarchy right now, if Mitch loses, it seems Cornyn is next in line.

from what little i've read via a lol huffpo piece from a while back McConnel's challenger doesn't appear to be total whackjob (relatively speaking, of course). he seemed to be positioning himself more as a 'new blood' alternative rather than a rabid tea party revolutionary. this may not actually reflect reality though

cornyn didn't sign on to the lee scheme, base would have a fit if he got majority leader though tbf 2015 is so far off that they may not mind by then. lot of tea party heroes have betrayed the party/america (rubio, toomey, christie) and eventually been welcomed back. there was talk cornyn would get primaried even.

fun fact: both Rand Paul & Grimes did undergrad at Rhodes College, a couple of blocks over from my crib

Still talk of Cormyn being primaried by ... Louie Gohmert!

lol was just reminded of this when I looked at his wiki page:

"On January 3, 2013, Gohmert broke ranks with the House leadership to nominate outspoken Florida Representative Allen West for Speaker of the House, even though West lost his bid for re-election in November 2012 and was no longer a member of Congress.

lol lol

Whoa, how did I miss Gohmert's "aspersions on my asparagus" line?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/holder-seeks-to-avert-mandatory-minimum-sentences-for-some-low-level-drug-offenders/2013/08/11/343850c2-012c-11e3-96a8-d3b921c0924a_story.html

^just came to post that. great start

OTM

First good thing this Holder man has done in years.

and we finally (fingers crossed) got rid of the soft aparthied of "stop and frisk" in nyc....a good day

The attorney general can make some changes to drug policy on his own. He is giving new instructions to federal prosecutors on how they should write their criminal complaints when charging low-level drug offenders, to avoid triggering the mandatory minimum sentences. Under certain statutes, inflexible sentences for drug crimes are mandated regardless of the facts or conduct in the case, reducing the discretion of prosecutors, judges and juries.

as the times writes this, holder is instructing prosecutors to omit the drug amount. which is the kind of executive-centric act that drives me a little nuts tbh.

there's no chance of getting rid of those federal mandatory minimums, is there

Between this story and the story on civil forfeitures that ran in this week's New Yorker I'm ready to become a Steely Dan character and hide blinds drawn in my condo.

Civil forfeitures are crazy. I did some stories on drug seizure stuff years ago that really opened my eyes on that. Cops just telling people, "Tell you what, give us your truck, you walk away, no harm no foul," that kind of thing. I interviewed a lawyer who represented a Mexican scrap metal dealer who had $10,000 cash just taken from him during a traffic stop. They didn't charge him with anything, just took the money. He had to sue to get it back.

oh dear:

In another setback for President Obama’s health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care.

The limit on out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles and co-payments, was not supposed to exceed $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family. But under a little-noticed ruling, federal officials have granted a one-year grace period to some insurers, allowing them to set higher limits, or no limit at all on some costs, in 2014.

The grace period has been outlined on the Labor Department’s Web site since February, but was obscured in a maze of legal and bureaucratic language that went largely unnoticed. When asked in recent days about the language — which appeared as an answer to one of 137 “frequently asked questions about Affordable Care Act implementation” — department officials confirmed the policy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/13/us/a-limit-on-consumer-costs-is-delayed-in-health-care-law.html?smid=tw-nytimeshealth&seid=auto&_r=0&pagewanted=all

ugh, sneaking that in a FAQ is awful. the maze of legal and bureaucratic language...well. that can't really be helped. every piece of language published by the federal govt must be reviewed at least 300 times in order to ensure that it's completely incomprehensible to normal human beings.

x-post to Goole re Holder and sentencing

http://www.samefacts.com/2013/08/drug-policy/eric-holder-does-the-right-think-on-drug-sentencing/

It doesn’t go as far as I might have gone, by requiring that a prosecutor who wants to ask for more than five years in a case not involving violence specifically justify that decision and have it approved in Washington. But in principle it’s the right thing to do, and the fact that Holder now thinks he can do it safely (unlike the situation with five-year crack mandatory, a problem that also could have been fixed administratively without waiting for legislation) suggests that some aspects of drug policy, and criminal-justice policy more generally, are – slowly and belatedly – recovering from their forty years of agitated delerium.

If you like your health insurance plan, you can keep it. Except when you probably can't.

there's nothing there that wasn't widely known 2 years ago. people who are avoiding paying into the system are going to be the ones adjusting

shit, 4 years ago. how old am i?

FYI, I have paid into the private insurance system for myself and family for the last six years on my own for a plan similarly described in that article. That plan did not face likely elimination two years ago.

is there any evidence to support the idea that people with skimpy high deductible plans increase costs in the long run, by deferring care or preventive medicine routines?

Are you insinuating that I defer care or preventive medicine routines because I have high deductible plans?

Just checking.

lol, no.

also, i have an hdhp myself, tho it is subsidized via employer hsa contributions. the whole thing is annoying and time consuming but i'm glad the administrative burdens have been shifted where they belong, the consumer. this causes me to call various "help" lines full of vitriolic anger make rational market based decisions in my rational self-interest.

totally rational, that's me apparently

The whole thing is indeed totally annoying, especially if you want to pretend to "shop around" and "find the best rates" like a good little consumer.

I'm unhappy that my healthcare costs will continue to rise but that's just sort of reality and I fully expected that. I just didn't expect the president to be so disingenuous when he was lying saying things like, "If you like your plan, you get to keep it."

Califorrnia, as an early joiner to the exchanges, will see rates go down. Fight the real enemy.

Also, as a voluntarist, I'd like to see jury duty disappear along with military service. If God and our national will won't protect us, I don't see why we shouldn't do away with the innovations of the 12th Century.

u sure you're coming from a voluntarist position or do you just really hate having to do jury duty? I mean, it totally sucks I agree, but like -- the only people who would volunteer for juries would be self-employed libertarian dads and grandmas who watch Nancy Grace.

lol I had no idea about this shit

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/08/cory_booker_waywire.php

I wonder if this is the first Senate race where both nominees have documentaries about them running for mayor

The url for Pareene's story says it all: http://www.salon.com/2013/08/13/dont_vote_for_cory_booker/

what Booker has going for him: he's not Lonegan (who combines the worst traits of Chris Christie, Rand Paul and ... well, stereotypical Jersey assholishness).

i voted for Pallone.

got standard fundraising spam "from" Sen Gillibrand with the subject line "Cory." Count the annoying buzzwords!

Cory will be a great partner who will work with me to bolster New York and New Jersey families so that we can overcome the challenges our states face. Our values are Cory’s values....

As mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Cory has reduced crime, created jobs and revitalized the city’s downtown. He has a track record of getting results.

want to destroy the Democratic Party so so much

so Booker is as disgusting as Schumer and Harold Ford, Jr, right

Ed Kilgore in Washington Monthly:

To detractors, he’s an unholy combination of Harold Ford, Jr. and Joe Lieberman, beholden to Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

In a financial disclosure filed last month, Booker revealed that his stake in Waywire was worth between $1 million and $5 million, making it his biggest asset.

“Cory is the inspiration architect,” Ross told the Times. “He really is the thought-leader soul part of the business.”

corporate governance by way of oprah and the secret

Oprah, thought-leader of the millennium.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_08/first_glimpse_of_the_struggle046379.php

I’d guess that before the day is out it’s going to occur to some news-starved Gotham-centric scribbler to do a piece contrasting de Blasio and Cory Booker as the twin poles of debate in this upcoming Struggle for the Soul of the Democratic Party. Or maybe it won’t be written until such time as de Blasio actually wins. Or maybe another New York figure named Hillary Clinton will manage to put off the Struggle for the Soul once again. It’s hard to say right now. But at some point internal differences, real and symbolic, sharp and focused or vague yet pervasive, will boil over into public. After all, conservatives can’t have all the factional fun.

I have no caveats about voting for de Blasio as the "most liberal" of the mayoral options here, given that his rivals are some combo of corporatists, phonies, and crooks, but since BdB was HRC's campaign manager in her Senate election in 2000 I'm not exactly counting on him being some left-wing savior.

personally, i don't know why either Holt or Pallone couldn't have dropped out and endorsed the other since they essentially split the liberal vote. maybe there's some rivalry b/w them to which i'm not privy -- and it might not have mattered anyway, given Booker's Wall Street- and Silicon Valley-funded war chest large campaign funds and media-whoring name recognition.

still, better him than a bona fide Teabagger/asshole like Lonegan.

Bryan Fischer, Earth-God liaison, on the events leading up to the photoshopping of obama into the photo of the situation room on the night of the bin laden raid:

"Frankly I think that got photoshopped in after deal. I think Obama's approach was, 'Hey, if this thing goes south, I don't want to be in the room. I don't want to be anywhere near this thing if it blows up. If it succeeds, if it's an outstanding success, then photoshop me in there.'"

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/bryan-fischer-obama-was-photo-shopped-into-bin?ref=fpb

i love the idea of obama actually saying that

I am puzzled as to who he would trust with such a photoshopping mission. It would be like handing that person a key to your presidency.

now we know why Sean C hasn't been around lately

http://www.progressive.org/alec-nation
http://billmoyers.com/2013/08/15/a-dem-adrift-in-alec-land/

haven't read these yet, but, awesome

Sequester:

Head Start programs across the country eliminated services for 57,000 children in the coming school year to balance budgets diminished by the federal sequester, cutting 1.3 million days from Head Start center calendars and laying off or reducing pay for more than 18,000 employees, according to federal government data scheduled for release Monday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/head-start-eliminated-services-to-57000-children-in-us-as-a-result-of-sequester/2013/08/18/e1181810-06d9-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html?hpid=z2

aaaand:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/us/us-workers-are-grounded-by-deep-cuts.html?ref=politics&_r=0

x-post--interesting stuff re ALEC but does she have ideas re how progressives can better organize

lol @ under educated hungry children

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/revoking-ted-cruzs-canadian-citizenship-may-take-8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-l5FyA3pgo

cruz is one of those dudes who looks 15 years older than he is

It's the hair. Look to the hair, Orwell always said.

I love "Please Don't Go," but looking at that video, I think KC is just entering his coked-out, Dirk Diggler "You Got the Touch" phase.

i think it's the droopy face. he looks awful - wasn't he supposed to be like a handsome, smooth-talking debating genius who was going to save the GOP?

I don't know--I've never seen KC debate.

Pretty sure m first step running for federal office in USA would be to renounce any other citizenship but I guess he needed to keep those options open.

he'd make a great Canadian Senator

can i sublet cruz's canadian citizenship?

what an exciting 8 months you would have

seriously, i'd be interested to hear his rationale for maintaining his canadian citizenship to this point. he has a legit interesting family backstory that logically would bear upon his decision. or, he could simply say "forget my backstory, why WOULDN'T you want dual citizenship?" which i think is legit, too.

he literally didn't know he had dual citizenship until reporters pointed it out to him the other day

I love "Please Don't Go," but looking at that video, I think KC is just entering his coked-out, Dirk Diggler "You Got the Touch" phase.

― clemenza, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 1:02 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so otm

Is there a thread for drones?

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/09/the-killing-machines-how-to-think-about-drones/309434/

Heathcare is awesome
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2013/08/ups-to-drop-15000-spouses-from.html

in my fantasy universe this strengthens the argument for single-payer!

xxp Rolling Drone Thread

Heathcare is awesome
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2013/08/ups-to-drop-15000-spouses-from.html

― the rofflestomper (dandydonweiner), Thursday, August 22, 2013 3:05 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Seems from reading the article that this has nothing to do with Obamacare and is just UPS cutting costs.

I don't really get the big deal, apparently they're only revoking coverage if the spouse works somewhere else that also provides similar coverage?

I guess it's only a big deal to those spouses who whose family insurance costs will go up when they have to purchase "similar" coverage that costs more.

UPS says it's related directly to Obamacare: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/business/ups-to-end-health-benefits-for-spouses-of-some-workers.html

Let's please stop pretending that Obamacare is not directly raising costs for some families, because it is for me.

Several health care experts, however, said they believed the company was motivated by a desire to hold down health care costs, rather than because of cost increases under the law.

We should trust the unnamed experts and not UPS? And that "cost increases under the new law" are should simply be absorbed by UPS as if they are inconsequential?

Seems to me that if we want to take the cynical route on this, we should think that UPS is only using Obamacare as a scapegoat to cut costs. Pretty sure I can find a health care expert out there who thinks that UPS wants to cut costs simply to enrich its shareholder masters.

Pretty sure that health care expert would be right, too.

This -- ACA implementation -- is the point in the musical chairs game where the music stops and somebody gets hip-checked out of the game. It doesn't fucking have to be that way, it shouldn't be that way. This is artificially engineered chaos from the right, from state legislatures and governors, from John Fucking Schnatter and Hobby Fucking Lobby. Chaos is always an opportunity to improve one's position at the expense of others.

Or, as Rahm Emmanuel likes to say, "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

Savings from denying coverage to 15000 spouses are like what? $100mm? Anyway are we supposed to understand that the direct costs of aca to ups for expanded benes to adult children and cadillac plans in 2018 and certain fees are commensurate?

The upshot, though, is that the ACA itself is not the real villain here. xp

Why would anyone think it could be?

After all, any unintended consequences not previously imagined should be blamed on anything opposing ACA and not its implementation or design.

We should trust the unnamed experts and not UPS?

I guess it's only a big deal to those spouses who whose family insurance costs will go up when they have to purchase "similar" coverage that costs more.

But do they have to purchase it? Isn't this only occurring with working spouses who can get insurance through their employer?

any unintended consequences not previously imagined should be blamed on anything opposing ACA and not its implementation or design

if they are bad faith exercises in cost shifting rather than rational business decisions to address actual costs , then yes. what this is, i can't tell.

But do they have to purchase it?

"purchase it" is one way to look at it. it is effectively a pay cut for the ups employee depending upon the level of spousal subsidy, i should think.

anyway it turns out the best deal for me and my family is to split coverage, so i'm used to this coverage arrangement. but, it is not forced, it is the best option. i assume that if both spouses are under one ups plan, it's because that's the best deal for them, too. if one is forced out by ups, then logically the other plan is either more expensive, less generous, more administratively burdensome, or any combination of the above.

i haven't seen any language that the plan should be "similar," as quoted above, the summary articles just say that if the spouse could be covered elsewhere, they get cut.

"Let's please stop pretending that Obamacare is not directly raising costs for some families, because it is for me."

Yeah remember that wonderful time pre-ACA when healthcare costs were not rising at all.

We should trust the unnamed experts and not UPS?

No, we should always trust the corporate executives, because they never ever lie about this kind of thing.

UPS is a fantastic company! never had a complaint!

"Let's please stop pretending that Obamacare is not directly raising costs for some families, because it is for me."

Yeah remember that wonderful time pre-ACA when healthcare costs were not rising at all.

I'll trade the increase in premiums that I paid each year (which rose) for the past five years in exchange for what the ACA is going to cost me in 2014. Oh, and the ACA won't let me keep my plan, either. Oh, and I'm far from rich.

I'm one of the unintended consequences who is unlucky under the ACA. Or maybe I'm just the villain for pointing it out.

i haven't seen any language that the plan should be "similar," as quoted above, the summary articles just say that if the spouse could be covered elsewhere, they get cut.

― you're better off in a supersonic jet (Hunt3r), Thursday, August 22, 2013 1:20 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah and even if there was that language it would probably just be spin from UPS.

xp You're not a villain for pointing it out, you just aren't a terribly credible person.

I'll trade the increase in premiums that I paid each year (which rose) for the past five years in exchange for what the ACA is going to cost me in 2014. Oh, and the ACA won't let me keep my plan, either. Oh, and I'm far from rich.

I'm one of the unintended consequences who is unlucky under the ACA. Or maybe I'm just the villain for pointing it out.

― the rofflestomper (dandydonweiner), Thursday, August 22, 2013 7:41 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

IIRC based on what you've told us, you're going to be paying more because you'll no longer have an insurance plan that just has catastrophic coverage with a massive deductible. And I understand that it sucks because this was the insurance you wanted but...

That's right Matt. Sucks to be me and assuming my family is healthy, it will cost me thousands right out of my pocket upfront in premiums. If we're not healthy, then it will still cost me thousands--around a 22% increase, which is greater than anything my provider ever hit me with on an annual basis.

Thanks for the tip, Alex. I'm just glad I'm not the guy who ran around campaigning that, "If you like your plan, you get to keep your current plan."

Really? His life seems pretty awesome to me. Fuck not getting a shelter dog though.

it's true that Obama should have said "if you somehow like your horrible insurance that doesn't meet any kind of sensible standard, you can't keep it"

What part of my plan isn't sensible, Matt? Even in the two years when my plan covered major surgeries, my out of pocket expense was around $13k. That's less than I would have paid with comparable high premium, low deductible insurance.

What Obama should have said is, "Your insurance might change but the reality is we're gonna address the major shortfalls of the current system so that it's more fair for everyone."

To be fair to don, that's what the administration has done an execrable job of explaining: if you've got shitty insurance now, it's going to be more expensive to keep."

But I'd argue and will argue that my insurance is NOT shitty. In the three years where we didn't have any major health issues in my house, my out of pocket was HALF of what it will be next year. And I started this plan with a 2, 5, and 7 year old...lots of fun trips to the pediatrician.

I don't hate Obama for this and some of the changes via the ACA are great. I just don't like the way it was sold to me.

$13K total across two years or $13K in a single year, for two years? Because if you mean the latter, you're being taken in the worst way.

What part of my plan isn't sensible, Matt? Even in the two years when my plan covered major surgeries, my out of pocket expense was around $13k. That's less than I would have paid with comparable high premium, low deductible insurance.

― the rofflestomper (dandydonweiner), Thursday, August 22, 2013 8:55 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I have a friend who won 20k on roulette once.

And I'm saying this from the standpoint of someone who discovered that his allegedly great insurance plan had no coverage for vital things his wife needed and ended up paying $7500 one year out of pocket for things that would have been covered had our provider been based in MA rather than CA; we switched to my wife's insurance and paid maybe $2000 at most for a year of similar treatments?

yeah on the one hand i think there are benefits to letting people go OOP/catastrophic, but on the other hand that would be a dumping ground for a lot of poor & chronic patients

$13 in a single year (it happened twice) when a kid had invasive surgery. Otherwise it's $340 per month premium ($10k deductible per annum.)

You never know how good your insurance is until it gets put to the test and you have to navigate the whole bullshit. Would my current plan survive an ugly bout with some disease or other calamity? I don't know. But parts of the ACA will hopefully rectify that.

also, you're right goole, it could easily be a dumping ground for poor patients...not sure about the chronic ones...aren't there provisions in ACA for chronic and pre-existing conditions?

i think so, but i'm not the person to ask on how that works. the relatively high bar for minimum coverage WAS part of the sale, your situation is the downside of that (sorry, truly!)

my baseline thought on ACA is: a lot of it is going to be a huge clusterfuck; extending coverage to millions more people doesn't happen with a snap of the fingers, and reallocating those resources is going to make some losers. i think doing all this was a real moral & fiscal imperative (same thing really) and since the GOP decided and continues to decide to not play ball at all with this thing, we get the 'median democrat' idea for all of it. funny how that works. it'd be nice to be able to tweak things as we go congressionally, but that's not the nation we have. it's possible that something like a carve-out for people like you would work somehow but we'll never see it until ted cruz goes back to canada.

I'm not sure anyone really knows how it works Goole but a lot of people sure have opinions about it.

The moral imperative has always been the strongest selling point of ACA to me; actually I think connecting the fiscal imperative is what got Obama into the most trouble politically. It just doesn't make sense to most people that more healthcare goodies for more millions of people will somehow result in less expensive healthcare. The reality is that our government (and virtually all large private organizations) has had a really hard time making accurate long range or even wide range projections, and an even harder time with implementations. As you note, big changes don't come quickly and as I note, the unintended consequences can be hurtful (especially in the short term.)

I always knew my healthcare costs would go up with ACA so I'm not expecting a carve out. I just wish our leaders would be honest in telling the country what a long, hard, expensive...and morally worthwhile initiative it would be.

Matt's ongoing "fuck you, ACA is awesome" condescension toward a guy who's kid needed invasive surgery is so fuckin' gross. I know a great party for you, Matt - the Republican party. You'll be lauded for your ability to turn a blind eye to actual human costs there.

the cost being discussed is paying more for better insurance, wtf are you talking about

My kid is fine and I'm one of the lucky ones because on that particular issue, I didn't have to fight the insurance company at all over the $70k in bills. I was surprised at that. Then again, they were fuckfaces about rehab...

Paying more--someone paying more, anyway--for better insurance sounds like a good idea. That's certainly what I'm expecting.

My partner has had 4 invasive surgeries and 10 extended hospital stays in the past 6 years, and she also will soon be able to buy insurance for the first time in her life, so I know a little bit about the costs of the American health care system. And that's why I like the ACA and don't think Don having to buy better insurance is anything to cry about. Sorry if I was "gross" about it.

My wife's health is a complete nightmare and the ACA is going to allow her to have (hopefully) something resembling insurance and ideally, something that will never get dropped. That's a huge benefit for me, so I feel you on that one Matt. I'm dubious but hopeful that 2014 will be a good year for us in that regard; if my outlay doubles under the ACA but my wife is healthy (and I'm not bankrupt) then I'm sure it will seem worth it.

Having to pay 13k a year in healthcare costs is the original sin here

And really, I don't think it's too shocking or even abhorrent for Obama not to stress that some will be hurt in the short term considering we live in a country where there's a significant-enough portion of the population who view healthcare as a privilege and not a right. It'd be great if we lived in a country where a politician could be honest about the downsides and the benefits, but this is America.

best lawsuit ever?
http://volokh.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/FitchvRepublicanParty.pdf

Does 1-150,000,000

Phyllis Schlafly: yes, it IS about voter suppression.

Holy shit, fuck this 'bomb Syria' drumbeat.

John Kerry "killing innocent bystanders" soundbite... What a fucking monster.

has no idea Phyllis was still alive

xxp

there's a thread about syria btw

Chris Christie's 2016 tightrope walk

I'm never gonna be able to read a headline about this guy without thinking about his weight, am I?

The Civil Rights movement is “intellectually bankrupt,” Charles Krauthammer charged Monday night.

During his regular appearance on the panel segment of Special Report, Krauthammer argued that the movement is subsisting on the nostalgia from fifty years ago when it battles voter ID laws.

“Is the biggest issue in African-American life today the voter ID law? Is that going to alter the course of society in black America, the inner cities? The terrible standard in the schools? The breakdown of the family and all that?” Krauthammer asked.

“It’s nostalgia of a movement that’s intellectually bankrupt,” he said, and predicted that the voter ID laws the movement is challenging will stand up in court.

"Do you know what would help black America and its poverty and its schools and its broken homes? DISENFRANCHISEMENT. It's a fact."

Where do you vote against the breakdown of the family?

church

the breakdown of the family and all that

to an extent

lol @ use of "inner cities"

Krauthammer is such a clown

a clown who cheerfully strangles kittens

that "nostalgia" line comes from the same desperately frustrated place as that training video target shows you where they're like "unions have made many important contributions to our nation's history. but those battles are over."

except with extra hostility cuz yknow racism

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/27/another-day-another-sign-that-larry-summers-will-get-the-fed-job/

ugh

yeah for once i wish the republicans were being proactively obstructionist

fuckin nast yo

https://www.nsfwcorp.com/scribble/5713/bc9021a7a1d25627178bffcd164963d497995ae1/

(link good for like a day i guess)

jesus the description of her show

Mitch McConnell speaking glowingly of MLK at US Capitol March on Washington anniversary event, on Cspan. Uh ok.

Now Boehner. Politicians

really running their left huh

they must realize he'd be protesting Obama if he was alive, eh

Now John Lewis

One speaker at the March just said King would not want to go war in Syria

Bill O'Reilly said yesterday evening that King would not like gangsta rap.

King would also not like Bill O'Reilly nor his plans for falafel usage.

a homeless person i saw yesterday told me he was King of the world

Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey had Trayvon Martin's parents onstage with them singing "Blowin' in the Wind." I am sure Rush and O'Reilly will have fun with that

@TPM Obama: Martin Luther King would like Obamacare bit.ly/1aPxuIK

Mr. Bush was invited to attend the event, but he declined because he recently underwent surgery to place a stent in a blocked heart artery.

Wall Street Journal and some online commenters are obsessed with the absence of Republican speakers at the March. McConnell just spoke at the US Capitol event.

Obama talking now

Man, I hope he chooses right now to launch his secretly-planned race war.

did he read MLK's FBI file as part of the most transparent Admin ever?

death penalty for nidal hasan

Hardly shocking

I don't totally understand why there's even a trial - he wants to the death penalty, the military wants to give it to him... what's the problem?

The system isnt Burger King, bro.

Actually...

I mean why didn't he just get plead out or something

He fully admits the crime and wants the maximum punishment

had no defense, didn't testify

onward to glorious martyrdom I guess

Good point. They should sentence him to death and keep forgetting to execute the sentence.

"sorry buddy, chair's on the fritz again. repair guy said he would be here between 10 and 4 whadayagonna do"

The system isnt Burger King, bro.

― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, August 28, 2013 3:03 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Obviously doesn't realize where Whoppers come from

i'm not in favor of the death penalty. but my sense of justice also means that the wishes of the guilty are irrelevant at sentencing.

and wants the maximum punishment

He asked to be sentenced to work at Walmart?!

lol u dumbshit

http://gawker.com/did-cory-booker-make-up-a-newark-drug-dealer-1222369131

Incidentally, this isn’t the only famous anecdote to be questioned during Booker’s showy Senate run. Last year Booker told Du Jour magazine that, in order to escape critics, he patronized a 24-hour salon in order to obtain manicures and pedicures. Today Booker’s Republican opponent, Steve Lonegan, said his campaign staff looked all over Newark for such a 24-hour salon and came up empty. (When asked, a Booker campaign spokesman declined to immediately provide the name of the candidate’s salon to Gawker.)

LOL who the fuck cares

people from the new jersey, the internet. maybe.

Nope

I just checked and I don't give a fuck about Booker's salon, that's pretty desperate

i like ur style, water face

We need more Bill Magills in the politics thread

fun White House negotiating ahead:

You can be sure that congressional Republicans, and probably congressional Democrats as well, will be pressing the White House for concessions and assurances on fiscal issues in exchange for votes on Syria. Much of this horse-trading will be in private because of its unseemly nature, though Republicans may publicly link support for a Syria strike to more money for the Pentagon. And it will be difficult for the White House to refuse to negotiate on the debt limit and on Syria. With at best tepid public support for direct U.S. intervention in Syria, and with the administration struggling to rebut suggestions from critics left and right that we’re going to launch a risky military action because the president screwed up by using the term “red line” for the deployment of chemical weapons by Syria, Obama is not in the strongest position to make or reject demands.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_09/fun_month046696.php

‏@FearDept
"The 9/11 anniversary is this Wednesday, should Americans expect some sort of an attack?"
- Wolf Blitzer to President Obama

Wolf as bad always.

same ol', same ol'

The House Republican caucus may be crazy and its leadership may be weak. But they’re laying the foundation for a debate that will end with spending cuts that further weaken the economic recovery—and continue to undermine vital government services.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114672/boehner-cantor-spending-keep-sequester-cuts-or-face-shutdown

Jonathan Cohn is a senior editor at the New Republic.

Dunno about Jonathan Bernstein's point here.

I don't get it. Inside the beltway dreams

this is a really good piece re demographic shifts left http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/12/the-rise-of-the-new-new-left.html

he thinks warren shd run

yeah i've got that article bookmarked. probably'd be a little better than HRC so bring it on imo

interesting article, feels like a bold prediction; not convinced that's how the chips will fall

one thing id like to see explored in these kind of pieces is how the crazy drop in crime has contributed to the generational leftward shift, tough on crime used to be a major republican selling point

our democracy could not possible be improved!!

An almost completely unknown group with strong ties to the Koch brothers has identified itself as the secret source of almost a quarter of a billion dollars received by conservative political groups in 2012.

The group, Freedom Partners, raised $256 million in the year following its creation in November 2011, and made grants totaling $236 million to conservative groups, according to Politico, which was shown a draft of an IRS document the group plans to file shortly. As Politico put it, the upshot of Freedom Partners’ revelation is that “a totally unknown group was the largest sugar daddy for conservative groups in the last election, second in total spending only to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS.”

my sentence grammar and typo make one nice combo today mistake!!

does anyone edit pieces at the daily beast

idk didnt u use to work there

interesting article, feels like a bold prediction; not convinced that's how the chips will fall

yeah me neither, but he makes a good case. I would vote for Warren over Hillary in a heartbeat.

maybe max was the editor and they forgot to replace him when he left

read all about it, daily beast realizes it doesn't even have an editor, extra extra, "it was a goof"

bevare, bevare seeing de Blasio as an avatar of anything (esp leftism).

as for E Warren, she was getting ready to vote to bomb Syria, maybe?

she confused Syria and Wall Street iirc

as long as neoliberals are running the show, Occupy-type lefties are going to have to shed (their own) blood to change anything.

de blasio being historically centrist and winnng from the left makes him maybe even a better avatar for a changing eletorate

same as Obama? who is governing from the Bush.

de blasio ran well to the left of obamas campiagn, ha i do appreciate yr pun tho

i think also obvs these shifts take time to play out and politicians are usually well behind the curve

we are going to drown before they catch up.

possible

drowning is for poors

personally I plan to get promoted high enough to be invited onto Jeff Bezos' generation ship

Lawrence Summers withdraws name from consideration to lead Federal Reserve.

satisfying

amazing

good enough news to make me forget that the Eagles lost ... YAY

otm

I'm sure Bam will pick someone just as bad.

He's never more natural than when he quotes Raygun btw.

who are these people youre talking about

morbs you really think he's more likely to pick geithner than yellen?

this is unabashed evidence that libs pissed him off, Morbs. Savor small victories.

morbz probably doesn't like Yellin, either.

Geithner has about as much chance of any of us here at becoming the next Fed chairman.

http://www.stansewitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/titanic-deck-chairs.jpg

how droll

man theyre not even rearranging the chairs

today's lib amirite

is tomorrow's Heritage Foundation grad

i'm just glad i can bring some joy after some asshole team lost at the asshole sport.

actually the mets won in extra innings

all my fave posters brought their peashooters

I do think The Clinton Hangover should enter the lexicon.

Obama isn’t suddenly facing tough liberal opposition, opposition that rarely phased Clinton, because Clinton was a better politician. He’s facing it because Clinton didn’t, and now we’re living with the consequences. Clinton’s foreign interventions inadvertently paved the way for Bush’s horrific misadventures — which were sold to the public with the full-throated support of the Clinton-era Tough Liberal elite. Clinton’s economic “committee to save the world” eventually nearly destroyed it when their supposedly self-regulating interconnected global finance machine proved to be more dangerous and unstable than they ever imagined. This is the long-delayed Clinton hangover, and the Democratic president to follow Clinton was probably going to have to deal with it no matter what.

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/16/larry_summers_finally_acknowledges_that_everyone_hates_him_and_he_should_go_away/

this is a good point

Summers's candidacy is a rare opportunity for liberals to stymie Obama without committing political suicide. Withholding their votes on legislation simply allows Republicans to prevent any bill at all from being passed – that’s why liberals never had any leverage to push bills like the stimulus or Obamacare leftward. Likewise, if liberals joined with Republicans to block contested nominees for the cabinet or other posts, it would simply help the GOP keep those posts vacant.

But Republicans aren’t willing to completely obstruct the workings of the Fed – business wouldn’t allow it. The collapse of Summers’s nomination is thus the rare case where liberal opposition can result in a more liberal outcome. The Summers saga may look messy. (“Maybe Republicans don't have a monopoly on disarray after all,” jeers David Graham.) It is actually a well-conceived and perfectly targeted use of liberal counter-organizing.

tho i dont agree w the contention in the rest of it that summers was a reasonable candidate http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/09/how-larry-summers-paid-for-obamas-sins.html

"political suicide" by gas or rope, exercise your choice

this narrative of liberals gutting summers only makes sense in context of a senate run by its minority leader.

i have no idea if a fed chair appointment would, in the past, be subject to a filibuster threat, but everybody now is accustomed to a 60-vote threshold.

all it took was a handful of no votes from the left -- really, like 3 or 4 i think? -- which means reid would have to ask around for more on the right.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/09/how-a-small-team-of-democrats-defeated-larry-summers-and-obama/279688/

Warren so far is acting like she campaigned. Shocking!

in an evenly split senate that also ran its business appropriately, a few left-defections would not have been seen as a kick in the jimmies because it wouldn't have stalled anything. funny, right?

Jeezus, get a bed, you two!

lol

what the FUCK is meep meep

roadrunner dude

it means 'fuck me' in Provincetown

the Roadrunner said beep beep

Roadrunner cartoon updated for 2013

x-post

Surprised and glad that Montana's Jon Tester had announced he would not support Summers

Washington Post says that other than Janet Yellen: Obama has mentioned only one other candidate as possibly being under consideration: Donald Kohn, a former Fed vice chair. But Kohn, 70, has been considered a long shot.

meep meep is the weird new shorthand for when, like wile e coyote, you thought you were getting away with something, but then an unexpected event happens, and roadrunner wins yet again. meep meep!

it is terrible

God, why did we let Sullivan into this country?

earlier on syria, the meep meep was apparently when all of the world was talking about how soon to bomb syria, and where to strike and all of that. but then when all of a sudden a diplomatic option opened up and it appeared that russia saved the day, everyone was like whoa look at russia, meep meep.

but now sullivan is saying no, meep meep, you guys all think obama got hardsonned but he's actually getting everything he wants, meep meep obama.

god i want to die

God, why did we let Sullivan into this country?

how could we turn away this sad little abandoned child

http://sta✧✧✧.g✧✧✧.c✧.uk/Guardian/music/gallery/2008/jul/30/mado✧✧✧.popandrock/PD1524✧✧✧@U-4✧✧✧.j✧✧

MEEP MEEP MUTHAFUCKAS!

the etymological origins are pretty interesting. i believe it went something like

Caesar: Et tu, Brute?
Brutus: Fuck yeah I did it
Brutus' co-conspirators in the Senate: meep meep

http://img2-1.timeinc.net/ew/img/daily/605/mad_l.jpg

Then there's the mainstream annoying commenters-- Sunday at the gym I noticed on a tv the following: Peggy Noonan, David Gergen, Michael Gerson and Susan Page discussing Syria with Bob Schieffer. I walked away.

God, why did we let Sullivan into this country?

― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Monday, September 16, 2013 11:09 AM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i demand an investigation at the highest levels

Summers's candidacy is a rare opportunity for liberals to stymie Obama without committing political suicide. Withholding their votes on legislation simply allows Republicans to prevent any bill at all from being passed – that’s why liberals never had any leverage to push bills like the stimulus or Obamacare leftward. Likewise, if liberals joined with Republicans to block contested nominees for the cabinet or other posts, it would simply help the GOP keep those posts vacant.

uh, the makeup of congress was a wee bit different when the original stimulus and obamacare were being debated

i really have an irrepressible hatred of chait. he's wrong a lot, but the whole "hey, i'm a liberal too, i'm just trying to be objective here" schtick is like, hey, go fuck yourself maybe

eh, some cold water

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/17/janet-yellen-backed-the-repeal-of-glass-steagall-in-1997-thats-not-such-a-big-deal/

Which isn't such a surprise. Another way of saying that is Clinton chose a chief economist who supported his economic policies.

lol otm

damn, just when I was going to look up this Yellen person that has all the MoveOn types so excited.

(some of you follow guvmint-embedded economists lol)

Chris Hayes beat them all last night: he actually, like, looked at her resumé. She's just better than "Larry" Summers.

blogosphere hot for romer now

morbs what economists do you follow?

besides ron paul

lol

the guy who "manages" yo mama

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L4

"You're a Fourierist?"

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2v9orY17c1qhtknmo1_500.png

crut, geography is NOT destiny; you don't have to laugh at Larry the Cable Guy OR balls.

i don't really know much about larry the cable guy.. is he the guy in that video u posted?

i hadn't been following this really at all but like, was everyone all team yellin basically because she was a woman and also not larry summers?

that's the Modern Dem Playbook -- what are you, a starry-eyed Naderite?

Liberal stalwart The Economist endorsed her in last week's issue (which had the wonderful cover image of Assad with the words "MAKE HIM PAY")

she had a good record as a dove and as a manager of the SF fed, i think

but really all of these people are going to be orthodox and of the establishment

yeah i mean, monetary policy isn't the same as economic policy, not sure what she thinks about NAFTA really matters (maybe it does and someone can school me), but did literally NO ONE do their homework for the past however many months? this is just coming up now?

well she's seen as supporting a more expansionary monetary policy than summers though there doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence that summers would've pursued a tight monetary policy beyond market tea leaves and vague cw that third way clintonista might be sympathetic to austerity. i think joe piscopo might've written something on it the other day, morbs could tell you more.

a major argument against summers aside from his historic bad decisions and everyone hating him is that monetary policy is really not his area of expertise, he has no track record of like even having opinions on it so why pick him

yeah that's the thing; not known as a monetary economist at all, fed chair requires significant subtle persuasion skills and summers is a huge asshole, fed has under-remarked-upon regulatory role over banking and summers has a shitty record on regulation as a whole.

i mean, idk what a civilian really has to go on, but c'mon.

I am against Summers being in charge of anything because he was once a dick to me

dish

We tagged along with friends to a party during the 2004 Democratic Convention at the Kennedy School; they were doing some light networking but also we were all looking to get our drink on. Anyway, they do online fundraising and were looking to meet folks and Summers was there, not really talking to anyone or doing anything, and we all said "hey, we're alumni, let's introduce ourselves" so we walked over and said, "Hello President Summers, we are college alumni, it's nice to meet you" and he basically gave us a "whatever" look and turned his back on us. It was incredibly rude.

We spent the rest of the evening getting loaded and helping the provost of Northeastern University keep the Editor in Chief of the Improper Bostonian from starting a brawl with Bill O'Reilly.

He wasn't very nice to the Winkelvoss twins either

lol, I am glad he didn't retroactively yank my diploma for having the temerity to say hello to him at a cocktail party

in retrospect, the one thing I would have changed is I would have totally egged on the brawl

hah glad he lived up to his reputation

I mean, the thing that killed me is how long would it taken to have smiled and shake hands? Like three seconds! And we were the only people interested in talking to him; he kept scanning the room trying to catch ppl's eyes and everyone was actively shunning him (it was actually pretty funny once we all were pissed at him).

amazing he couldve gotten so far being that anti social, guessing he prob has a pretty fine tuned sense of who its ok to piss off and who not career advancement wise

fuck his views on monetary policy – what is his tipping policy?

i'm prob not remembering this right. some econ blog posted a detail from... well i don't remember... another economist's memoir?

anyway, the point is, summers, relatively early in his career, critiqued a slightly-younger academic's paper. one of his margin notes at the end was "very good, i think you should work for me" which he had crossed out and rewritten as "we should work together sometime". like he just cannot help being who he is.

A lot of surly assholes are excellent flatterers; I'm sure he would've offered Clinton a cee-gar if it'd have gotten him into Treasury.

worth reading:

http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/12/will-disillusioned-millennials-bring-an-end-to-the-reagan-clinton-era/

lol boehner apparently to bring house cr that defunds obamacare to a vote. we might be heading toward a shutdown in two weeks.

BRING IT

please don't bring it

come on disillusioned millennials, let's bring this fucking idiotic era to an end

lost in all this is that eventually, whether it's sept 30th or a week into october or 5 years from now in a mad max post-apocalyptic wasteland, the house conservatives will be coerced into finally passing a CR that leaves obamacare alone - WITH SEQUESTRATION LEVELS OF FUNDING. and that'll pass. the media will be too busy shitting their pants over the political battle and will lose sight of the actual funding level. democrats will be unable to veto the bill sequestration levels of funding (or below that, even - there's no limit to how shitty this congress is) because the public and the media will have viewed the republicans as already "compromising" given their generous offer to not torpedo a program that will save tons of lives.

or the gov't will shut down, and the republicans will get a black eye and then the dems will let them regroup like they did right after 2008..

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/this-is-not-a-crisis/?_r=0

I agree about the sequester unfortunately, that was a bad deal. otoh excited to see GOP marginalized even further, hopefully so much so that they lose control of the house in the next election.

or the gov't will shut down, and the republicans will get a black eye and then the dems will let them regroup like they did right after 2008.. - no way this happens again. not on the millenials' watch.

nd then the dems will let them regroup like they did right after 2008..

and the country is well and truly fucked because the sequestration is now the norm

Ugh. I do not want Elizabeth Warren to run for president. Let her stay in the Senate where she belons.

where she's one vote out of 100?