2015 American Politics Thread: The 114th Congress Is in the House!

cpac y'all

https://twitter.com/MSignorile/status/571429737266069505

no justice no peace!

walker/palin 2016!

WASHINGTON — In a huge embarrassment for Republican leaders, the House voted down their bill Friday to avert a Homeland Security shutdown hours before the midnight deadline.

The House GOP plan was to pass a three-week stopgap bill to delay the immigration fight against President Barack Obama's executive actions until March 19.

But even that failed to pass, losing conservatives who considered it too much of a surrender to a lawless president as well as Democrats who demanded a yearlong DHS funding bill without any restrictions on Obama's immigration policies.

The vote was 203-224. Fifty-two Republicans voted against it, while 12 Democrats voted for it.

"This was a conscience vote about trying to uphold the Constitution," Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), one of the "no" votes, told TPM. "If you're supposed to cave in because you don't want 30,000 people to lose their paychecks — how do you make a stand if you don't take a stand? ... It's the only option we have."

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/faaaaaaaail

good URL

its the only option we have.. aside from, you know, governing

how do you make a stand if you don't take a stand

i seem to recall those lyrics from the title song to a sly stallone film, can't remember which...

long-forgotten Professor Griff line iirc

http://33.media.tumblr.com/f316d7d2917fe0b9a5a367f66cf6c06e/tumblr_nkgpt1KBMZ1qdmmiqo1_500.gif

Work of art!

he's a goddamned patriot

smooth crotch = perfect touch

A 1 week extension. Will have to wait and see what brilliance the House will come up with by then

data collection forevah

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/nsa-spying-wins-another-rubber-stamp-20150227

Sad.

gonna miss ya: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/us/politics/senator-barbara-mikulski-of-maryland-to-retire.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Gonna be a fabulous week with Bibi in town.

matthew yglesias sees a constitutional crisis coming:

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/2/8120063/american-democracy-doomed

rolls together poli sci stuff about presidential (rather than parliamentary) systems, polarization, the "executivization" of governance and constitutional hardball

The best we can hope for is that when the crisis does come, Americans will have the wisdom to do for ourselves what we did in the past for Germany and Japan and put a better system in place.

Hmmmmm, not sure of the crisis coming or that these other systems are better

I would love to have a parliamentary system

The best we can hope for is that when the crisis does come, Americans will have the wisdom to do for ourselves what we did in the past for Germany and Japan and put a better system in place rising coastal waters swallow every major city.

nearer my God to theeeeeeeeee

so HRC and those emails: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/us/politics/hillary-clintons-use-of-private-email-at-state-department-raises-flags.html

I can't figure out WHY she used personal email for four years and no one brought it to her attention. In Florida Rick Scott has conducted a lot of public business on private emails precisely so he can get around one of the country's fiercest public disclosure/sunshine laws and I'm mad as hell about it. As usual with the Clintons they choose mystery.

I can't figure out WHY she used personal email for four years and no one brought it to her attention. In Florida Rick Scott has conducted a lot of public business on private emails precisely so he can get around one of the country's fiercest public disclosure/sunshine laws and I'm mad as hell about it.

Your second sentence answers your first sentence.

iit's the "and no one brought it to her attention" that's left unanswered. you would hope that one of her handlers would realize it was a problem early on and tell her to quit it. but then again, other agency heads also used personal email over the last few years and endured minor scandals, and i'm sure others are still doing it today.

i am not an HRC fan by any stretch but she could have killed and grilled puppies and i'd still vote D, compared to what i'm hearing out of scott walker/JEB/ben carson/rand paul/ALEC/etc. if/when the yglesias crisis comes i hope that how outnumbered and old fox/gun/KKK nation is affects for the better whatever new set up

if she killed and grilled puppies it would be a misdemeanor in that world

the house finally gave up on the DHS funding/immigration thing.

coincidentally, this was announced just before netanyahu's address, which will probably dominate the news

aren't they smart

tbh even if it was a slow news day, otherwise, i don't have a good feel for how much people care about the GOP/DHS/immigration shutdown thing. the other day I was trying to explain it to someone who hadn't heard anything about it, and unless you're the author of a book on communicating succinctly, it's nearly impossible to explain in a concise manner. and even after the explanation, the person didn't really care at all. it's hard to get a good read of whether anyone cares about this shit at all. the results of the most recent mid-terms suggest that not many people do.

a handy list:

* April 2011: House Republicans threaten a government shutdown unless Democrats accept GOP demands on spending cuts.

* July 2011: Republicans create the first-ever debt-ceiling crisis, threatening to default on the nation’s debts unless Democrats accept GOP demands on spending cuts.

* September 2011: Republicans threaten another shutdown.

* April 2012: Republicans threaten another shutdown.

* December 2012: Republicans spend months refusing to negotiate in the lead up to the so-called “fiscal cliff.”

* January 2013: Republicans raise the specter of another debt-ceiling crisis.

* September 2013: Republicans threaten another shutdown.

* October 2013: Republicans actually shut down the government.

* February 2014: Republicans raise the specter of another debt-ceiling crisis.

* December 2014: Republicans threaten another shutdown.

* February 2015: Republicans threaten a Department of Homeland Security shutdown.

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/05/the_right_has_fked_up_minds_meet_the_researcher_who_terrifies_gop_congress/

does anyone read much in this vein of "political psychology"? this was a very interesting interview, but my inclination is to think that the types of analyses the interviewee advocates underplay the role of clannishness or group affinity in determining political affiliation.

maybe this has been discussed on (an)other thread(s)

it's hard not to conclude -- even being generous -- that "conservatives" are a bit touched

case in point

http://news.yahoo.com/conservative-case-against-enforcing-immigration-law-120000524.html

"Removing all 11.2 million undocumented immigrants, both forcibly and through Mitt Romney's infamous "self-deportation" policy, would take about 20 years and cost the government between $400 billion and $600 billion. The impact on the economy would be even larger, according to the study: Real GDP would drop by nearly $1.6 trillion and the policy would shave 5.7 percent off economic growth."

and still they won't shut the fuck about it

that's not really what the interview is about, though -- it's a misleading headline, because the interviewee pointedly disclaims that he's talking about social pathology.

although i think it might be relevant insofar as maybe "conservatism" isn't about the sort of quasi-libertarian principles its exponents claim it is about.

nothing much on ile about John Jost, from that Salon article.

the Tom Schweich suicide story is fucked up on so many levels.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/joe-biden-on-ben-carsons-gay-choice-comments-i-mean-jesus-god/

might as well enjoy this

"Removing all 11.2 million undocumented immigrants, both forcibly and through Mitt Romney's infamous "self-deportation" policy, would take about 20 years and cost the government between $400 billion and $600 billion. The impact on the economy would be even larger, according to the study: Real GDP would drop by nearly $1.6 trillion and the policy would shave 5.7 percent off economic growth."

and still they won't shut the fuck about it

they'd probably spout some bullshit about the massive savings generated by these mooching freeloaders being deported or all that 1.6 trillion being redistributed to all the hard working white people who will take the jobs in the fast food restaurants, janitorial services, picking produce in fields and meat processing plants that are vacated........

it's Crooked Dem Fucker Indictment time

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/03/06/391255700/source-justice-department-prepares-to-charge-sen-menendez-with-corruption

heeeyyy sup

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/mark-dayton-minnesota-governor-profile-scott-walker

turns out a depressed loser who doesn't want anything can't be cowed and can't be hurt (that's always been my read on the guy) (helps to be rich as shit to begin with too)

i always thought herb kohl was a litle like that, only he was also kind of ineffectual

did dayton ever have anything to do with running the target corp? unfortunately like a lot of big-box chains they are known for union-busting, which would seem to cut against dayton's political agenda.

no i don't think so. he's an heir to the original family. the dayton's name isn't on anything anymore (except a parking ramp downtown, in my heart)

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/bob-menendez-theory-iran-feds

this is p funny (BUT THEN WHAT IF)

great moments in liberal website photo editing:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/texas-gop-sign-former-fetus

tbf he looks like a fetus

he also looks like a grown up donkey lips from salute your shorts.

http://www.fanpop.com/images/polls/2127_3_full.jpg

If you had to pinpoint the moment this worldview began to crystallize, it would probably be around the first debt-ceiling showdown, in 2011, when Obama tried repeatedly and desperately to cut a budget deal with House Speaker John Boehner only to realize, eventually, that Boehner did not have the power to negotiate. The administration has now decided that in many cases, even adversarial bargaining fails because the Republican leadership is not capable of planning tactically. “You have to be careful not to presume a lot of strategy for this group,” Pfeiffer said. “I’ve always believed that the fundamental, driving strategic ethos of the Republican House leadership has been, What do we do to get through the next caucus or conference without getting yelled at? We should never assume they have a long game. We used to spend a lot of time thinking that maybe Boehner is saying this to get himself some more room. And it’s like, no, that’s not actually the case. Usually he’s just saying it because he just said it or it’s the easiest thing to solve his immediate problem.”

This analysis puts the administration at odds with the reading of American politics that still dominates much of Washington reporting. Many political journalists imagine that the basic tension for the White House lies between Obama’s liberal base and appealing to Americans at the center, who will be crucial for tipping elections.

Pfeiffer believes the dynamic is, in fact, the opposite: “The incentive structure moves from going after the diminishing middle to motivating the base.” Ever since Republicans took control of the House four years ago, attempts to court Republicans have mostly failed while simultaneously dividing Democratic voters. Obama’s most politically successful maneuvers, by contrast, have all been unilateral and liberal. “Whenever we contemplate bold progressive action,” Pfeiffer said, “whether that’s the president’s endorsement of marriage equality, or coming out strong on power-plant rules to reduce current pollution, on immigration, on net neutrality, you get a lot of hemming and hawing in advance about what this is going to mean: Is this going to alienate people? Is this going to hurt the president’s approval ratings? What will this mean in red states?” And yet this hesitation has always proved overblown: “There’s never been a time when we’ve taken progressive action and regretted it.”

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/03/dan-pfeiffer-exit-interview.html