Which will never end:
Senate Democrats delivered a major victory to President Obama on Thursday when they blocked a Republican resolution to reject a six-nation nuclear accord with Iran, ensuring that the landmark deal will take effect without a veto showdown between Congress and the White House.
A procedural vote fell short of the number needed to break a Democratic filibuster. It culminated hours of debate on the Senate floor and capped months of discord since the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China announced the agreement with Iran in July.
The House Republicans will no doubt hold months of pointless votes and hissy fits, but this debate is a dead parrot. I imagine in 30 years or so, this will become for future wingnuts what “JIMMY CARTER GAVE AWAY THE PANAMA CANAL” is for people in their thirties and “THE DEMS LOST VIETNAM” is for people my age- a bunch of afactual jibberish that Republicans spout that makes no sense to the respective generations they are targeting.
One more thing:
Lame duck my ass.
Cervantes
Don’t forget the two Independent votes!
srv
We’ll all be speaking Farsi or Syrian by then. What’s Syrian food taste like?
I’d totally forgotten Carter gave the canal to the Chinese.
Mike in NC
More stupid, puerile bullshit from the GOP. Like voting 75 times to repeal the ACA. Like wasting millions of dollars on Benghazi investigations.
Here’s guessing they pay no price next Election Day.
KG
@srv: Syrian food looks like most Middle Eastern food, from my very brief search – shawarma, falafel, kabobs. so basically, good stuff.
Baud
@Mike in NC:
Both parties. Always the same.
Morzer
i wonder whether the most consequential part of Obama’s legacy will be that he showed that competent, intelligent government can work. Young people will grow up seeing that you can get some important stuff done and I think they’ll remember that and demand it from politicians in the future. It could be that this miserable clusterfuck of bitter old white dead-enders really are the last petulant ragefart of the Reagan deformation.
BillinGlendaleCA
@srv: What color is the sky in your world?
Mike in NC
@srv: Funny how the Turks and Greeks are sworn enemies, yet their food is almost exactly the same. Must be true of Lebanon and Syria, too. Lots of hummus and kebabs and pita bread.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
Baud, 2016.
bk
@srv: Christ, what an asshole.
bystander
They’ve got 15 years to play this tune on the Wingnut Wurlitzer. I’m buying earplugs now.
dedc79
@Mike in NC: Was recently in Greece and was amused to see turkish delight being sold as greek delight and turkish coffee being sold as greek coffee.
MomSense
Lamest. Duck. Ever.
Origuy
@Mike in NC:
Six hundred years of being part of the Ottoman Empire could have something to do with that.
srv
No VP for you:
@bk: IDK, 10,000 is not a big number. Detroit has plenty of room. You should go easier on Obama unless those numbers get a lot bigger.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I pledge to embody the best values of both parties…
If only the GOP had some.
Omnes Omnibus
Beware of attempts to weaken it. Corker-Cardin is a potential problem.
Peale
@KG: had a Syrian boss once. Took me to lunch at a restaurant and complained that the Greeks stole all the Syrian food ideas.
Yankee Buzzard
I’ve been to Damascus. Used to be married into a Lebanese-Syrian family. The food is delicious.
Cervantes
@Mike in NC:
Sounds like Tom Friedman’s taxi-driver after a few drinks.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
What does it do?
jl
I’m sure there is enough of a fake scandal someplace in the negotiations for Congress to hold prolonged investigations with lots of sensational leaks to the NYT and WaPo, which will be faithfully transcribed and printed.
HRC and Sanders will clearly be deeply involved somehow.
(emailghaziiii!!! connection for HRC? Must be!)
Zinsky
@Mike in NC: Nailed it, Mike!
Mandalay
As far as Republicans pointlessly fighting over lost causes go, this one is a doozy. The bus is leaving soon, and Europe, Russia and China are already on the bus.
The bus will leave with everyone else whether we get on or not.
Even if the Republicans could prevent the accord, as a practical matter it wouldn’t really change anything, beyond making the United States look very, very foolish.
Also: It’s heartwarming to see that TPM is trying to get the dirt on the bully who tried to snatch the banner from the Code Pink protestor at Cheney’s speech yesterday. Hopefully some shaming and humiliation will follow soon.
Percysowner
Now John, you underestimate the Republicans. Remember a couple of days ago when a Federal Judge gave the House of Representatives the right to sue about Obamacare, even though the constitution said it couldn’t? Well Boehner has taken that to heart and is “considering” suing to stop this. Just what this country needed, another way for the Republicans to gum up the works.
Emma
@Mandalay: Hopefully some shaming and humiliation will follow soon. Only works if they have anything to shame and humiliate to begin with. They have no morals, no ethics, and usually lie about their religion.
mai naem mobile
This is good news for John McCain.
patroclus
To me, it’s interesting that Obama moved the goalposts from what I thought the original target vote was – 34 in order to sustain a veto over-ride attempt – to 41 so as to prevent a vote in the Senate entirely. And this was after Schumer went Likud. Obama is always playing eleventy dimensional chess like that…
feebog
Love the timing of the Trump/Cruz/Palin/Beck clusterfuck. Held on the day after Obama clinched 42 votes to assure a filibuster. They are still playing checkers while Obama is playing 11th dimension chess.
Baud
@Percysowner:
I hope they go crazy with the lawsuits. Emphasizes how bad that standing decision could be.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: I actually misspoke there. Not Corker-Cardin, but Cardin’s current plans to “strengthen” the deal.
mai naem mobile
I wonder if the GOP would act better if there was a white male Dem as POTUS in 2017. Is it just an Obama/black man and anything Clinton thing or is it a Dem thing?
kindness
@Mike in NC: Yes but they all claim to have invented baklavah.
celticdragonchick
@dedc79:
A teacher of mine (a grad student in speech therapy) was born on Cyprus on the Greek side of the DMZ. Her folks own a restaurant that used to have riots outside when they ran out of chicken sometimes.
She really loathed Turks.
I got to meet her folks at a Christmas party though, and the whole “Big Fat Greek Wedding” thing on eating was true to life. Holy shit did we get drowned in delicious Greek food. I barely waddled back out the door.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Mike in NC:
And the pie. (I don’t actually use it, but if I did, srv would be right up there)
Baud
@mai naem mobile:
I think it’s a Dem thing. They hate Carter also.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@srv: I don’t think the democratic nominee will pick either of those clowns. Sorry, srv.
gratuitous
To anyone who can count to double digits, the outcome of this Senate vote is completely unsurprising. Which means the Republicans will be in high dudgeon about a betrayal of the American ideal of blowing the living bejesus out of anyone we choose (as if an agreement has ever stopped us before), and how we’re all going to be conquered by Iran just any day now.
The usual piffle parade.
Meanwhile, there’s still no budget agreement, the deadline drew one day closer, and it will take the Republicans at least a week to get over today’s butthurt. But their congressional paychecks will still cash, so they’re not worried.
Uncle Cosmo
@Mike in NC: Something you don’t want to say in a Greek restaurant is that many of the listings on the menu (including the ever-&-deservedly-popular moussaka, baklava, and dolmas) are in fact Turkish names.
Legend has it that the gyro, which is the same thing as the Turkish döner (both words refer to “turning,” i.e., the meat rotating on a vertical spit) was invented by an Anatolian resident of Greek descent:
Bursa’s specialty döner is known as İskender kebap (NB “kebap” just means “meat,” e,g, şiş kebap = “skewered meat”) & every restaurant in that tiny town of 1.8M claims to be the true home of the real thing. (The İskender kebap I’ve had was an openface döner sandwich covered with tomato sauce & then drizzled with melted butter from a small cast-iron skillet carried in from the kitchen to the table. Absolutely delicious if you can keep your coronary arteries from seizing up in sheer terror.)
–Yeah, I know, TMI. Consider yourselves further edjumacated.
C.S.
You mean, other than the fact that Greek food sucks and Turkish food is awesome?
MomSense
@Peale:
I was about to say that about a month ago I spent a lovely evening with some Palestinian friends and the food we cooked together was so similar to Greek/Turkish food. Some of the spices and sauces were a bit different but we all remarked that we could cook together so easily because it was almost the same food.
Gimlet
by John Nolte
The point I want to make is that one of the reasons Trump is currently shellacking Establishment candidates like Jeb Bush with nearly 4 times the support, is simply due to the fact that he fights like Barack Obama and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)
2%
Trump fights like a Leftist.
Another reason Trump’s winning is due to the Republican Establishment’s rampaging and fatal case of fecklessness when it comes to fighting back against pretty much anyone, including the billionaire businessman. Just like their limp-wristed responses to Obama and Reid, the Establishment is too busy running around crying “foul!” over a Marquis of Queensbury violation to understand that they are losing.
While Obama was hitting below the belt calling everyone racist and sexist; while he called Palin a pig; while he was rabbit punching accusing Romney of murder; while Reid was beating our guy over the head with a metal folding chair with lies about paying taxes — what were we doing?
We were losing.
Uncle Cosmo
Great. Just spent significant time drafting a comment re Greek vs Turkish food, hit “submit”–& it vanished down the maw of the editor. FYWP!
Turgidson
@Mike in NC:
They’ve already succeeded in turning public opinion against the deal. While I bet, just like with the ACA, the component parts of the Iran deal would poll pretty well if explained, the polls are basically measuring whether voters approve of “that deal the GOP is claiming in unison will lead to NYC getting nuked next week while the Democrats mostly hide under their desks”
Obama’s team has done as well as can be expected on the PR front, but there’s a ceiling to how much he can do and it doesn’t help that he has scumbag “allies” like Schumer parroting GOP nonsense about it while even the Democrats who support him have to preface everything they say with “well, the deal certainly isn’t perfect…”
Pretty depressing, but in the end, peace and sanity is winning and that’s worth being grateful for.
MattF
It says in the news reports that 42 Democratic Senators killed the resolution, but I thought there were 41. Did I miss someone?
Peale
@Percysowner: if i were Iran, I’d just offer to make deals with the U.S. At the negotiating table until the U.S. government completely isolated itself from all the other powers and the government completely collapsed. If Iran would, say, offer to let the U.S. Keep all of the assets frozen since 1979 in exchange for allowing it to sell us pistachios, our supposedly strong government would be gone in a fortnight.
Schlemazel
@celticdragonchick:
There was a teen dance club in St. Paul when I was a teen. It stood midway between a Greek neighborhood and aTurkish one. Most Saturday nights were risky with small shoving matches. But if a mixed couple danced together you just got the hell out because it was gonna get ugly. I thought West Side Story was a joke because I had seen the real deal.
redshirt
@Gimlet: Some hard truths there, Wingnuts.
Don’t you get it? You’ve got to hit below the belt!
BillinGlendaleCA
@celticdragonchick: I had a Greek macro econ prof in grad school who had an end of the quarter party for us. Great food and lots of drink.
Mandalay
@Emma:
I’d agree with that in general, but in this case the bully lost a tug of war to a woman. I think that particular failure will cause the bully considerable embarrassment once he is identified.
ETA: It looks like he has been identified by TPM, but they are not quite 100% certain yet.
Bobby Thomson
@srv: optimist. We won’t survive the Syrian blockade.
SatanicPanic
@srv:
Lol, couldn’t have said it better myself. If I were a GOPer, I’d worry about the guy making fools of most of my candidates though
Gimlet
@redshirt:
Marlon Brando did it better in “Apocalypse Now”.
gf120581
@MattF: Chris Coons from DE, perhaps? He had made noise about not supporting a filibuster, but in the end, looks like he went along with it.
msdc
Love the pic.
I was hoping for more good news from the article, but it perfectly sums up everything that is wrong with political journalism (or hell, just journalism) in this country:
Yeah, where does Obama get off, measuring success by the policies he has achieved and not the number of Ds and Rs who voted for them?
redshirt
Fun anecdote! I almost rented the former Iranian Embassy as an apartment complex in 1993 but couldn’t pull the deal together with my idiot friends. It was only 5K a month and was spectacular. 8 bay garage, rooftop bbqs, huge pool, so many rooms, so many windows. Huge lawn with a giant iron fence.
Damn it.
Cervantes
@MattF:
Forty Democratic Senators and two Independents!
Schlemazel
@MomSense:
My mom was a caterer who cooked international foods. We also belonged to the International Institute so I got exposed to foods from every country on earth as a kid. I tend to think in terms of regions not countries when it comes to food. Sure there are variations but there are even inside counties. Trade, particularly before the religious hostility, and conquest combine with local ingredients to produce very similar results.
Baud
@msdc:
It’s why Lincoln is considering such a middling president.
trollhattan
@Gimlet:
Wow, somebody pissed in John Nolte’s cornflakes. (Who’s John Nolte?)
Baud
@Cervantes:
What’s with the independents obsession with you? I thought the current zeitgeist says to blur such distinctions.
trollhattan
@Bobby Thomson:
Jello Biafra’s touring again, so maybe he could pen “Barrel Bombs over Baltimore.”
Tom
@srv: I can’t believe I’m feeding the troll…Syrian food is delicious.
There’s a place down the street from us that makes the best hummus I’ve ever tasted.
msdc
@Baud: And who can forget the rousing bipartisan success that was the invasion of Iraq?
Baud
@Tom:
But your feeding it Syrian food, which is delicious.
TriassicSands
Apart from the fact that the deal with Iran is a quadrillion times worse than “Munich,” and will inevitably lead to Armageddon, it’s a pretty good arrangement. What I don’t understand is why Dick Cheney, through the sheer force of his satanic will, doesn’t simply make the Iranians drop to their bellies and beg for mercy. I mean, he and W did such a splendid job of crushing Iran when they were in office, what’s the problem now?
Lame duck, my ass. (Sorry, John, but “lame duck my ass” — without the comma — sounds too much like an invitation to perform some kind of bizarre sex act on your butt. I’ve never heard of “lame-ducking,” if there is such a thing, but, if there is, I don’t want to do it. To you or anyone else.)
As for Obama’s lame duckness, I think four years of being much too accommodating toward the Republicans, along with the fact that there are no more elections for the president, has given him a very different outlook. He is being surprisingly successful in his second term, at least in part thanks to the Senate rules that allow filibusters, but he’s also acting with the kind of resolve that seemed to be lacking in the first term. Given the unfortunate choices for president we have in 2016, this would be a great time to repeal the 22nd Amendment and let Obama run for a third term. That would have numerous advantages, not least of which would be he’s a far better president than any of the current contenders is likely to be.
But let’s be honest, the best thing about it would be what it would do to Republicans. I’d expect the stroke and MI rates to blast through the roof should the Kenyan Usurper get to destroy the country for another four years.
redshirt
Isn’t Israeli food the same as Syrian food which is the same as Turkish and Greek food, for the most part? Hummus, falafel, olives, grape leaves, etc?
Baud
@msdc:
In the media’s mind, it was successful when it was bipartisan, but then the Democrats had to go and ruin all the fun.
Schlemazel
@Tom:
No, it’s OK when they are not trolling. Maybe they can be trained to behave like a decent person.
There is a place run by Palestinians here that makes out of this world babaganoush, smoky and creamy with garlic. I make my own sometimes but theirs is so good I often don’t bother, rather buy theirs
mdblanche
@trollhattan:
The guy whose cornflakes Obama and Reid pissed in!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: If those DemocRats would just agree with what those nice Republicans want, we could all live in bi-partisan paradise.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Dems are so divisive.
Chris
@Gimlet:
Yes, this is a common theme I remember reading on Republican blogs right after 2008. “We lose because we’re just too noble and gentlemanly to behave like those craven leftists who hit below the belt, or too noble to believe that they’ll do something like that.”
MomSense
@Schlemazel:
Sounds like you ate well growing up. I make lamb kofta with yogurt (tzatziki) and my Palestinian friends made almost the exact same kofta but with tahini sauce which had a lot of yogurt in it. I tend to group foods regionally, too.
RK
Isn’t “lame duck” more a reference to domestic policy.
Sanders is tied with Clinton in Iowa and ahead in NH. Could the Bern do this?
Trump/Triumph the Insult Dog 2016!! Wow, America is pathetic.
Archon
@TriassicSands:
Obama wouldn’t have enough 2nd term political capital to do this without Republican antics from the first term.
Unprecedented Republican obstruction gave Obama a lot of space with the media and the public at-large to go it alone without the usual bleating about consensus. Consensus with the current Republican Party and Obama is impossible, everyone knows that.
Now I can’t speak to the long-term consequences of a President empowered enough to basically do an end around Congress with really, really big policies but here we are, and I don’t have a problem with it.
Baud
@Archon:
Agree.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Oh, just me reminding myself that the Democrats in the Senate could not have done — and did not do — this by themselves.
And that, in fact, two Independents were better Democrats on this question than some “real” Democrats were.
trollhattan
Okie dokie, time to ride home at the hottest part of the day [checks] yup, 105 and time enough to get even hotter. The great part is the air is thick enough to bag and sell to BBQ joints who want even more smoke. Hasten autumn.
Shaun Appleby
@srv: Why not? Their carriers won’t fit through it either.
redshirt
@Chris: They really don’t see this world like we do. Kinda scary when you consider the implications.
And I mean see logically and rationally – at least most of the time!
Baud
@Cervantes:
Ok. That’s pretty lame.
Baud
@redshirt:
We don’t enforce our world-view through the franchise, so this is the result.
Schlemazel
@MomSense:
I ate well that’s for sure! It taught me a lot about the world.
I have had that both ways and also with a lemon-yogurt sauce. Like my kids is love them all in their own way
Patricia Kayden
President Obama did well given that only 4 Democratic Senators voted against the Iran Deal. Wasn’t surprised at Manchin who never votes with the Democrats for anything (or so it seems) but was shocked at Cardin. The media should ask Republicans for their alternate deal suggestions, which I’m sure are as feasible as their alternate healthcare laws.
Roger Moore
And now the Republicans are trying to claim Obama didn’t provide them with all the terms of the agreement, so the 60 day consideration period never started. It’s a lie- the original Corker-Cardin bill listed exactly what the President had to provide, and the “secret side deal” between Iran and IAEA was not part of it- but that has never stopped the Republicans in the past.
Baud
@Roger Moore:
Don’t really matter. They can’t get the votes before the election anyway.
the Conster
@feebog:
You only have to play 3 dimensional chess if everyone else is eating paste.
ThresherK
@msdc: I don’t even believe our Beltway Inbreds who would posit this from the link:
What? Since when, and by who, NYT? This reads as another one of those incredible assumed (but never illustrated) knowns, akin to the opinions held by every Adam Smith- and Burke-quoting cabbie that David Brooks or Tom Friedman keep running into.
msdc
@ThresherK: No, really, that’s how people outside Washington think, as reported by this New York Times story filed in Washington.
I mean, it’s all the commoners talk about at the Applebee’s salad bar.
Geeno
@Cervantes: I love how a line like that would be meaningless to most audiences, but everyone here knows exactly what you’re saying.
LOL – btw
beltane
@ThresherK: George Carlin famously “celebrated” bipartisan victories by saying they were a sign that “a bigger deception than usual” had taken place. Maybe this is what the Villagers had in mind?
Mr Stagger Lee
@srv: I thought he gave the canal to Pablo Escobar? Anyway the GOP can’t deal with the fact that America can no longer act the big guy swinging his big (st)ick in the bar anymore. Sorry Cruz, America can no longer give orders but has to live with the world. Thank You President Obama, you may have saved this country if not the planet.
Turgidson
@Roger Moore:
Yep, and they’ll keep trotting out that talking point until Sasha Obama’s second term is over and Iran goes another 40 years without nuking Israel or anyone else (or ever developing a nuke, though I’m sure 100 year old Bibi will still be hysterically ranting about red lines and such) and is a totally different place than it is now.
It always seemed like the “vote to disapprove, and either Dems filibuster or Obama vetoes it, then we move on, other than GOP presidential candidates spewing warmongering bullshit about it from time to time” agenda was too…simple. I mean for fuck’s sake, they’re still pretending to be outraged about and investigating Benghazi. They can keep the ragegasm going over a nuclear agreement for way longer.
RK
Wow. Jindal with a great line: We know Trump never read the bible because he isn’t in the bible. LOL
Baud
@RK:
I read that he was going to come out strong against Trump. Desperate times call for desperate actions.
Cacti
Big Kudos to President Obama also for calling Likud’s bluff, and showing that Israeli interests are neither the reflexive interests of Jewish Americans, nor of Americans as a whole.
How many of the P5+1 would have come to the table on Iran sanctions if Bibi was given a seat there?
BillinGlendaleCA
@RK: Joke’s on Jindal, Trump thinks he wrote the Bible.
Chris
@Cacti:
Yes. I really hope this is followed up on, and that the notion that it’s our obligation in the Middle East to follow Israel’s lead gets further demolished.
Turgidson
@Mr Stagger Lee:
The weird part was that it was never as simple as America “giving the orders”. Just as culture warrior dipshits like Huck and Santorum want to go back to a “simpler time” that never existed where no one had sexy time and women stayed in the damn kitchen and those people knew their place, the GOP’s warmongering nitwits want to go back to a fictitious past when America could bend the world to its will just by staring down an adversary.
The Bush Crime Syndicate acted like this was the way the world worked, tried to swagger around expecting the world to fall in line, and got us stuck in two intractable wars, a nuclear-threshold Iran, and a fully nuclear North Korea. Also drove our allies away so that they wouldn’t instinctively have our backs when problems arose.
And here we are. Other than the Amazing, Disappearing Rand Paul, they all want to give that utterly useless faux-macho bullshit another ride around the track.
Turgidson
@Cacti:
Agreed. In related, I find it infuriating that the braindead dolts who oppose the Iran deal are referred to as “pro-Israel” in the reporting on this. No, they’re pro-Likud and pro-AIPAC. But that doesn’t make them pro-Israel. Obama is doing what’s right for Israel in spite of its leadership’s short-sighted idiocy. He’s more pro-Israel than all of the deal opponents put together.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Don’t worry if you still don’t get it. It was not intended for you.
As for what’s truly “lame,” try this: using a term for a physical disability to denote weakness.
Patricia Kayden
@Mandalay: “Hopefully some shaming and humiliation will follow soon.” Can Rightwingers be shamed and humiliated? I would assume that whoever tried to grab the banner from the Code Pink lady would be applauded by Conservatives if he is outed. They love their bullies — look at Trump’s soaring ratings as he attacks his opponents.
Cervantes
@Cacti:
[Added one word.]
Baud
@Cervantes:
Dude, my usage is dictionary accepted. Your criticism is lame.
Immanentize
OK, I know this will start world war eleven or whatever, but Israeli food is often identical to Arab food and Arab hummus is better. At least in Jerusalem. And I am not talking about Eastern European Jewish culinary offerings. I make my own pastrami and I care about this stuff.
raven
Hey Cole, you puttin up a thread for dese bums?
Turgidson
@Baud:
I think this is his last-ditch bid for attention before he owns up to reality that he’s more likely to be named King of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros than he is of winning the presidency. And I also think he’ll try to leverage his kamikaze effort on Trump into a posh wingnut welfare gig or a Cabinet post if the GOP wins, perish the thought.
If he actually lands some blows, it might even work out for ol’ Kenneth the Page. But I don’t see why he’s any more likely to succeed in bloodying Trump when numerous candidates and media figures with far more clout than he has have failed spectacularly.
RK
@Immanentize: Do you know the key to creamy hummus, and I mean like Sabra brand creamy? I’ve read warm chickpeas, shelled chickpeas, blending the tahini and lemon first. Thanks.
Baud
@Turgidson:
I’m interested in seeing Trump’s response. I wonder if he’ll go full on racist in his insult.
Immanentize
@RK:
When I make it at home, I like it a bit textury. So I don’t process the chick peas, I chop and mash. But if you want that smooth hummus thing, cook the chick peas well, remove the skins that float off!! use more tahini and make use of that food processor in the cupboard. The tahini evens out the grit of the garbanzos.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: How about this? twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/642082978861031424
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Pretty tame for Trump, but about what I would have expected.
RK
@Immanentize: Okay. Do you have any good recipes for tzatziki?
BruceFromOhio
I am proud to be a Democrat. And I tell anyone who has the brass to ask.
OK, Cole, I want to hear you say you are not watching Stillers-Pats. C’mon. Say it.
schrodinger's cat
Pretty impressive foreign policy success by the President, first Cuba and now Iran. Wish he could run for a third term.
BruceFromOhio
@gratuitous: This is why I read the comments on this site. Thank you.
RK
@schrodinger’s cat: Sanders 2016 my man.
SFAW
@BillinGlendaleCA:
No, No, NO! He didn’t write it – he DICTATED it to some loser flunky. Actually WRITING is for LOSERS who can’t hire someone to do it for them!
ETA: Of course, it’s OBVIOUS that he only dictated the OT. If he had done the NT, Jesus would have been a back-bencher, and Trump would have done a deal between God and … himself, I guess.
Mike J
@RK: Rally pic.
catclub
@srv:
Baba Ganoush? Yum.
They say that Iranian Pistachios are really better, too.
schrodinger's cat
@RK: I like the issues Sanders is raising but he is no Obama.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: That’s cold.
Schlemazel
@RK:
3 cups of good Greek yogurt
3 tblsp lemon juice
1 medium cuke, diced fine
2 garlic clove crushed
1 tblsp dill
Salt to taste
Blend. I try to make it a day ahead as it seems to improve as it sets
RK
@Mike J: Sanders isn’t Dean.
RK
@Schlemazel: Thanks. I’ll try that and any others forthcoming.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Baud: Yup.
It seems to me that it’s mostly a post-Nixon thing. There seems to be something that wormed its way into the GOP DNA after Nixon resigned. No Democratic president was legitimate in their eyes after that.
Of course, Kennedy and Truman faced similar unhinged opposition, but it seemed to be restricted to a small fringe compared to what Carter, Clinton and Obama have faced. (I don’t know about Johnson – I was too young to remember how the opposition treated him at the time.)
Yeah, the Democrats could run a modern Benjamin Franklin or Rosalynn Carter for President – it wouldn’t matter. Today’s TeaBaggers would say they were an anti-American moocher who would kill us in our beds.
Cheers,
Scott.
Schlemazel
@RK:
Some people put olive oil in too but I think that thins it and doesn’t improve it but that’s one of those differences between people.
gelfling545
@Cervantes: Isn’t that a rather archaic usage when applied to anybody but horses? When was the last time you heard someone’s actual physical disability described using “lame”.
Immanentize
@RK: I have one I love. I got it from my Lebanese friend’s mother. First, I gotta tell you that cucumbers generally, as my grandma would say, repeat on me. But I find that fresh mint (I use peppermint, not spearmint) seems to stop that effect in the recipe. Or maybe it’s the yogurt I use? So — 1 cup finely chopped cucumber (I peel and seed it for above reason). Of course the courseness is in the eye of the beholder. At least a cup of yogurt ( I use low fat organic because ponies). 2 cloves garlic pressed fine ( again YMMV). Juice of a half of a juicy lemon plus a teaspoon of zest (this last was not in the original recipe but it really adds a nice bitterness). Pinch of salt, pinch of pepper, pinch of coriander. 3T finely chopped peppermint (as I said, spearmint is fine and that is what you get fresh in most stores, but I from peppermint) Mix it up. CHILL FOR A. HOUR! Yum it up.
Schlemazel
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
The dems could run a Christ-Washinton ticket and the goopers would say the same thing
Immanentize
@Schlemazel: mmmm. Dill too? I’m going to try that. I like the herbiness of these dishes.
RK
@Immanentize: Thanks. And thanks to any more that come my way.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Baud:
Okay, so here’s my question: if the executive starts spending money that wasn’t appropriated, and no one has standing to sue over it, then how do you stop it?
I’m okay with this ruling. I think Boehner’s going to get spanked in the lawsuit he’s now allowed to bring, but this ruling is okay. And he’s going to get totally laughed out of the place if he tries filing a similar lawsuit over the Iran deal, because that’s not within the narrow scope of what this ruling will allow, which is pretty much just spending without an appropriation.
Baud
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Lots of executive actions can’t be stopped by the courts. Politics and impeachment are the only alternative.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Have you read the standing decision? It is pretty limited.
SFAW
@Schlemazel:
Of course – neither of those two was born here.
That “Jesus” guy – he was born in the Middle East, how do we know he isn’t a radical Islamist? Plus, with a name like Hay-soos, how do we know he isn’t coming across the Messican border to steal jobs from hard-working white people?
And that Washington guy: one of those Limey elitists who wants us all to start drinking tea, and turn us into even more of a welfare state, with that National Health Service (or whatever they call it) crap that’s just a giveaway to the poors.
See how easy it is? And my remaining three functioning brain cells didn’t even break a sweat coming up with that.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
I have. I don’t think appropriation clause challenges are all that limited. And I can’t see a principled reason why Congress can challenge alleged appropriation clause violations and not every alleged violation of a statutory grant of authority.
Mandalay
It’s turning into kick-a-fellow-Republican week for Republicans:
– Chris Wallace called Dick Cheney on his bullshit.
– Ben Carson called Trump on his bullshit
And now Glen Beck is throwing haymakers. On Donald Trump…
And on Sarah Palin…
Palin and Cheney (and even Trump) have generally been above direct attacks from other Republicans for a long time, but now it all seems to be falling apart for them. It’s so very sad to see them tearing each other apart – why can’t they all just get along?
Joel
It’s almost like the Republicans wanted to simply accomplish plausible deniability; “the Democrats are at fault for everything that happened in Iran from 2015 onwards!” but forgot that we’re not living in 1990 anymore. That shit is way too nuanced for today’s politics.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
a well-known centrist voice speaks
Somewhere Ron Fournier is nodding slowly and, he thinks, wisely.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This man is a physician, by all accounts a gifted one, and a noisy “Christian”
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He is partisan because the GOP has elected to oppose him at every turn. That’s how it works in their world.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Perhaps I am a victim of my expectations. I expected a piece of world class hackery something I don’t agree with but didn’t find completely hackish.
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Because only a (non-recovering) drug addict would consider voting for a Republican?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I couldn’t bring myself to read the replies (the first one was from Ed Morrissey who is now praying for a Shi’ite terror group to make some headlines) I’m sure that has been pointed out several times, with links to various news accounts, and I’m sure that Joe Scarborough and most of the cast of his reality show will not care
sparrow
@Mike in NC: THey both got a lot of it from the arabs, actually. The names are the same in both languages frequently too, but usually it’s a turkish name which suggests Greeks borrowed more from the turks (or from asia minor greeks who were expelled).
Enhanced Voting Techniques
What a wimp, a REAL president (like Dick Cheny) would be stripped to the waist with an American flag headband PERSONALLY leading the Rangers in an assault against the Iranian bomb factory.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Agreed. Not hackish. But it opens the door to suits that courts historically did not want to hear. But we’re now in a world of black presidents, so it’s possible Republican judges, who have typically been sticklers for standing, are rethinking their views.
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Always heartwarming to see wingnuts actively wishing for death and destruction visited on anyone not like them, just to score political points.
I could probably extrapolate that to posit that they were happy when 9/11 occurred, because it only took 3000 New York Jews [sic] to lead America out of its meek acceptance of all things Islam. (or whatever)
Germy Shoemangler
@SFAW: Wait… is Ben saying the democrats will bring back prohibition? Or is he telling supporters to threaten their alcoholic uncles with interventions?
SFAW
@Germy Shoemangler:
Why not both? Whatever works to scare someone into voting for them – it’s all they have.
sparrow
@Schlemazel: Though shalt not put lemon in the tatziki (says the greek). Real greek yogurt is tart enough.
catclub
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Somebody else who just read Kevin Drum?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SFAW: to be fair, he didn’t explicitly say that, but I feel pretty safe in making the leap
Germy Shoemangler
What is this Ted Cruz poster?
Germy Shoemangler
@SFAW: Ben is a strange man. He’s so… sleepy. His eyes barely open. Reminds me of Wimpy, the hamburger fancier from the Popeye the Sailorman saga.
Does he self-medicate before TV appearances? Does he suffer from crippling stage fright, and benzos are the only way he can get through the ordeal?
Baud
@catclub:
It is the type of ruling that a liberal Democratic Congress would love to be able to invoke against the Executive.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Personally, I would call it a political question and punt.
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
To be fair, it would be somewhat out of character for that asshole NOT to say something like that. It’s kinda like expecting Jim Hoft NOT to say something really fucking stupid.
So, as you hipster kiddies say, it’s all good. (Or whatever it is hipster kiddies would say.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Somebody else noticed Joe’s tweet (which I got from Jamelle Bouie), Kevin Kruse, an actual historian
and fifteen tweets (based on actual history) later
his book has been on my to-read list, I’m gonna buy it right fucking now
catclub
@Baud: I do not remember what happened when Nixon refused to spend money that had been appropriated. Did the House sue?
SFAW
@Germy Shoemangler:
From what I understand surgeons are generally strange, and neurosurgeons more so.
Baud
@catclub:
I don’t remember. But refusing to spend money is different from spending money that hasn’t been appropriated, so it’s not necessarily an analogous situation.
Kerry Reid
@Morzer: One can hope!
Omnes Omnibus
@catclub: @Baud: They passed a law.
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks!
TOBAL
Bill Arnold
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Depends. What do liberals say about the color of the sky?
Jeffro
@Mandalay: This is the beginning of the end for the GOP. They’re Wile E. Coyote, just about to realize that they walked off the cliff and are holding an Acme anvil.
amk
@srv:
They taste much better and are healthier than murkan food. Ignorant idjit.
Cain
@redshirt:
I suspect that we are eating middle eastern fast food or street food.
Iranian home food is awesome and is similar to north Indian food.
RaflW
@Turgidson: Relatedly:
Well, yeah, since most of them threw in with the deranged GOP, they have diminished their power. Huh.
RaflW
@Morzer:
Would that it could, Morzer. Their ragefarting sure has been stinking up the place.
SFAW
@Jeffro:
“Hey, Rock! Watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat!”
“Bullwinkle, that trick NEVER works!”
“This time for sure!”
AxelFoley
@Morzer:
That is my hope.
AxelFoley
@Archon:
Co-signeth