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

Well that was some total word-salad from Abe.

pass social security from cradle to grave before you sell us any more 'trade deals', rich people

now now, that's class warfare can't have that

class warfare's only ok when the rich do it do u see

UBI A-OK

Steny Hoyer

The Bryce Harlow Foundation awards dinner, a party thrown by lobbyists as a “celebration within the lobbying community in Washington, D.C.” brings together senior lawmakers and lobbyists for a night of self-congratulation.

At last week’s gala, when Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the second ranking Democrat in the House, introduced Steve Elmendorf, a lobbyist for Goldman Sachs, Verizon, and other corporate interests, Hoyer was effusive in thanking his hosts. The Politico Influence newsletter quoted Hoyer as saying:

“I’m thankful to all of you for what you do because I think what you do is critically important to what I do and to what our people expect us to do, and that is to understand the issues that confront us and them and make the decisions that help them.”

The event serves as annual opportunity for lawmaker to single out a lobbyist for an award, and vice versa. Elmendorf was the lawmakers’ pick. Lobbyists gave their award to Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.

;_;

"let's not all start sucking each other's dicks just yet"

hell might have just frozen over

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/nevada-sandoval-republicans-largest-tax-hike-state-history

suck it, norquist

N.D. legislator who voted against gay rights bill caught sending pics on Grindr

“I’m sure I’ve talked to this person before,” Smith remembers thinking to himself, as he told The Washington Post in a telephone interview from his home in Bismarck, N.D. “Suddenly it dawned on me: I think I’ve seen this guy on Grindr!”

Smith started going through his conversations on Grindr — “an all-male location-based social network“— searching for the round, bespectacled face and bushy eyebrows. And there he was: Top Man!, a.k.a. Randy Boehning, the Republican state representative from Fargo . . .

Grindr-gate, however, has plunged Boehning into an existential crisis. Confronted with the photos he had sent Smith, the lawmaker admitted that he was gay. (His Grindr bio reads: “Seems I haven’t found mister right yet, so need to keep looking for and having fun on the way! Hit me up boys.”)

Boehning, 49, also defended sending the younger man a picture of his private parts and pickup lines such as “What’s up tonight sexy?”

eh I told him to be careful

MENENDEZ U WILD MOTHERFUCKER

http://i.imgur.com/E9377zal.jpg

haha nice gamesmanship

I think the Nevada GOP can minimize the damage if they levy 90% of the new taxes on the lazy poors

xpost

would be kind of cool if there was some new minority trend in the GOP like "We're the party of fiscal responsibility - when did that get to mean no taxes, ever, for anything?" but I'm not holding my breath.

Unions have succeeded in persuading some Republicans not to support Fast Track for the TPP. "For example, reliable allies of GOP leadership like New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo and Ohio Rep. Dave Joyce are unlikely to support the measure because of local union concerns, aides said." Just last week Morning Shift was voicing strong skepticism that organized labor would exert any significant influence over fast track. That judgment may have been, uh, hasty.

http://media.giphy.com/media/W9WSk4tEU1aJW/giphy.gif

Boehner fail:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/house-yanks-first-spending-bill-off-the-floor-117497.html

Bohener yanks

Did not enjoy the DNC email with the subject line 'Boehner CRUSHED'

lel

Boehner deflated

http://33.media.tumblr.com/1a20a0358f42f7fe0e8575ddb4f6747e/tumblr_nnneg62Bk01qdmmiqo1_400.gif

some americans are just so crazy

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/have-obama-hang-himself-death-national-tv

creator
R. M.
Davenport, FL
April 22, 2015
Signature # 1

when the fed's call about this it'll be just more socialist government hates our freedoms

We need to just scrap representative democracy and have everyone vote on the internet.

http://i.imgur.com/WfJMAAd.png

i'm telling you, if there's a way to vote online, and also a way to make Doritos an official nominee for president of the United States, get ready for President Cheesyfingers

that just makes me think of the performance artist who ran for mayor of Vancouver as Mr Peanut

http://artdaily.com/news/14622/The-Mr--Peanut-Mayorality-Campaign-of-1974#.VUegwvlViko

(clips of the debates are really worth watching)

i want to know what brand icon i should be costumed as when i run against Schumer

With his motto of "elect a nut for mayor," it also captured the public's imagination and, remarkably, Mr. Peanut drew 3.4 per cent of the vote.

i honestly believe that doritos could capture a minimum of 10% of the vote

I wonder what it would be like to have this country run by PepsiCo rather than Goldman Sachs.

Delicious, probably.

Speed up your internet connection by sharing Doritos status updates with your friends to earn Frito Lay Buxx which can be spent on extra votes in the upcoming Pepsi Presidential Sierra Mist Election Bowl!

See, it's only slightly more absurd than the way things currently are.

imagine if things went a little haywire and the supreme court decided it should be legal to officially sell your vote - some PAC would contact you and offer you money to vote a certain way. how much do you think the going rate would be for a single vote in a presidential election?

I believe that was almost part of a terrible Kevin Costner movie

$200 maybe? this chart suggests much less but that's for a non-presidential year:

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Blogs/FixGov/2014/11/table2014.png?la=en

also that money goes thru third parties + stuff. just a simple payment per vote would bring costs down probably.

otoh if ppl were just competing to purchase votes, that could drive up the price of individual votes in close races. probably smart to hold onto yr vote until the last week in a real toss-up state. might be able to cash in.

this is what i was thinking of

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/swing-vote

bobby jindalmao

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/01/exclusive-bobby-jindal-block-obama-trade-deal-to-stop-him-from-doing-more-harm-to-america/

Wow, this guy is in the House?!!

http://boingboing.net/2015/05/01/computer-scientistcongressman.html

https://twitter.com/RepTedLieu

those internal 'liberty score' ranks on breitbart are something... not sure what to think..

Breaking: Hillary Clinton Gains Favor, Times/CBS Poll Says

looking like she's gonna adopt a lot of leftist/populist talking points, as this is the expedient thing to do to unify her party. seems to me the big question is going to be coattails - can the Dems take back Congress on the back of her presidential campaign - which seems like a big "if" given current gerrymandering of House seats. If that does actually happen there may be a brief window where some decent legislation gets passed, maybe a climate change bill, or an immigration bill. I'm not particularly hopeful though.

Im not gonna believe anything Hillary says in light of the 08 Obama list of promises of which he delivered like 5%

idk why you have to bring Obama into it, Hillary is plenty untrustworthy on her own

That poll confirms the Beltway chatter of the last three months matters fuck all to voters, as do her chances to ruin those voters.

Normal people do not give the slightest squeeze about who to vote for in 2016 now.