For fun we threw Michael Dukakis into an iteration of the Democratic field on our national poll this weekend. He beat Martin O'Malley
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) October 5, 2015
Yes that's @MartinOMalley planking and reading his iPad in our Campaign story today pic.twitter.com/m5trJAnJQj
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) October 6, 2015
Okay, back in April I called Doug Hughes a goofball, and his new argument isn’t going to change many minds. As the Washington Post describes it:
The Florida postal worker who landed a gyrocopter at the U.S. Capitol to protest campaign finance laws rejected a new deal to plead guilty to a felony in the incident, he said Thursday, after prosecutors reopened negotiations in the case.
Douglas Hughes, 61, of Ruskin, Fla., faces six felony and misdemeanor counts after flying his low-powered gyrocopter from Gettysburg, Pa., to the District on April 15. He said he was delivering letters to members of Congress, and has pleaded not guilty…
If Hughes were convicted on all counts he would face a sentence of zero to 9 1/2 years in prison . To avoid a trial, prosecutors originally proposed a plea bargain in which Hughes would plead guilty for a recommended sentence of 10 months in prison. Hughes’s defense argued that zero to six months was appropriate…
After the Thursday hearing, Hughes said he rejected prosecutors’ latest offer that he plead guilty to a single felony, saying conviction would restrict his rights, such as his ability to vote or hold office.
“I am not at all optimistic” about reaching a deal, Hughes said…
… But Hughes still has a better grasp of reality (and sense of his own self-worth) than Larry Lessig:
… Mr. Lessig, the Harvard law professor who rails against unfairness in campaign finance, shifted his message to the unfairness in the debate selection process and the fact that he had not been invited to next week’s gathering in Las Vegas…
Mr. Lessig said that his campaign had more “energy” than those of Lincoln Chafee, Jim Webb or Martin O’Malley — who are expected to face off against Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont — and that the fact that he was able to raise $1 million in a month shows that he is a legitimate candidate…
Just not a legitimate Democratic candidate, Professor Lessig. Go scrum with the GOP clowns!
… Hopeful that he will still be asked to join the debate, though he has not been in contact with its officials, Mr. Lessig said he had been brushing up on a range of issues with his campaign consultants and that he was prepared. And he says that he is ready to talk about more than just campaign finance.
“I’m not going to be the ‘rent is too damn high’ candidate,” Mr. Lessig said…
No, you’re not, because Jimmy McMillan actually made it onto the debate platform once or twice.
***********
Apart from tilting at windmills, what’s on the agenda for the day?
redshirt
I’m thinking on how to use micro windmills. Imagine a structure that has embedded wind turbines that generate power whenever able. With a coral like construction, with the micro windmills embedded in the coral.
mclaren
In one of the last polls done during Shrub’s presidency someone threw in Satan as a joke. And he actually outpolled George W. Bush.
Bush’s final approval rating as president was 22 percent.
In other news, the Republican Party continues its work on women’s outreach. Republican Ohio Governor and presidential candidate John Kasich explained that the reason for the gender pay gap (women get 77% as much as men for the same job) was that women are stupid and incompetent.
With that kind of appeal to women voters, how can the Republicans lose?
redshirt
@mclaren: I’d sincerely vote for Satan over any Republican. At least with Satan I assume He knows what He’s doing.
NotMax
@redshirt
Baud/Satan ’16!
“Why the hell not?”
EconWatcher
Say what you will, I could never bring myself to hate Boehner.
Maybe it’s because I went to a blue-collar Catholic high school in the Midwest, just like his. My misspent youth included a lot of beer-drinking with guys just like him. I wouldn’t want any of them to have political power, but on a personal level, they weren’t bad guys.
Wonder what he’ll do now? My guess is, with no votes to rally or events to attend, he’ll deepen his friendship with the bottle.
Woodrow/asim
Y’know, I’m roughly in Lessig’s target demo, and even I forgot the dude was running.
Morzer
@EconWatcher:
I suspect Boehner will be remembered as the permanently embottled Speaker.
Amir Khalid
I’ve always felt that Michael Dukakis was cheated out of the presidency by a cruel stroke of luck. 1988 was the year his cousin Olympia hogged all the Dukakis family’s good fortune when she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Well, that and his “Snoopy in the tank” photo.
redshirt
@Morzer: Orange Julius.
Honestly though I miss Orange Julius at the mall. It was such a refreshing mall beverage.
EconWatcher
@Morzer:
Well played.
Amir Khalid
Is another car-industry scandal afoot? The US Treasury department is keen to know why ISIS likes to drive Toyota pickups. (Does Toyota have a clandestine sales rep embedded at ISIS?) As far as I know, the brand has always been popular in the Middle East.
Ziggurat
@redshirt: If height and wind speed are held equal, longer turbine blades are always much better.
And of course, there’s a good reason why windmills are out in open spaces and not attached to buildings.
EconWatcher
@Amir Khalid:
Many people thought his answer to the rather unfair death-penalty question did him in. (“Would you favor it if your wife Kitty were raped and murdered?”)
But I always thought that If Dukakis had been a better politician, it could have been a great opportunity for him. He could have shed his reputation as a cold fish and a bit unmanly right there and then.
My fantasy answer:
“Bernie, if someone did that to my wife, I wouldn’t want the death penalty for him. (Pause.) I’d want to kill him myself. With my bare hands.” (Long, thoughtful pause, with a steely and determined look, while that sinks in.)
“That’s how anyone would feel. But you know, when we get elected to office–when we make laws–we have to consider some other things. Let’s talk about how the death penalty works in our society…..” (Then explain anti-death penalty position.)
Still replaying that one in my head….
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@NotMax: Shouldn’t that be, “Why not the Hell?”
Cervantes
Why not?
Keith G
@EconWatcher: Dukakis had a stilted/wooden affect that is hard to survive if one is running for president. Ironically, GHW Bush was no better in that respect, but he was running as an extension of Reagan and he had the Baker/Atwood brain trust leading his campaign.
Anne Laurie
@Cervantes: Lessig thinks campaign finance reform is the One Big Answer to Everything, and he insists all Democrats stop accepting dirty money (as defined by Lessig) right now, because we’re the “honest” party and the Republicans won’t do it regardless. A guy who insists that *I* disarm in the middle of an all-out war, for “principle”, since my opponent won’t… is not my ally.
He’s asking the Democrats, and only the Democrats, to default this election to the worst angels of the Tehadis and other Repub ids.
IMO, a guy who wants Democrats to commit suicide should be caucusing with the Republicans.
amk
How? Why? Sanders is there not meeting the must-be-a-dem criteria and has the same views on campaign financing.
Kay
I agree with him. They’re all felony-crazed. We over-charge everyone in this country and everything is a felony. Jesus Christ. Charge him with something minor – trespassing or disorderly or something and let him go. He’s no threat to anyone and he’s right, too. There IS too much money in politics and they DO listen to wealthy donors to the exclusion of regular people.
EconWatcher
@amk:
Does Sanders favour unilateral disarmament? If so, I’d tend to agree with Anne that this is suicidal purity, even though I believe campaign finance reform is an existential issue for our democracy.
Cervantes
@Anne Laurie:
Well, what do you make of the following?
Cervantes
@EconWatcher:
What is “suicidal purity”?
And can an “existential issue” be put off? Indefinitely?
EconWatcher
@Cervantes:
No disrespect, but it seems straightforward to me:
Democrats have shown an ability in the past to vote to ban the very sources of money that helped them get elected (because they’re smart enough to see that both sides will be disarmed).
So they should take the same money as the other guys so they don’t get trounced, and then they should vote to ban it. If they don’t follow through on the second part, they should be primaried in the next election.
I don’t view this as “putting off” the issue. It’s putting yourself in a position to do something about it.
EconWatcher
@EconWatcher:
However, based on your quote from Lessig, it sounds like he does not favour unilateral disarmament, so I have no beef with him. I really know nothing about Lessig, and I guess I just proved it.
Cervantes
@EconWatcher:
So how do you differ from Lessig on this issue and why do you say you “tend to agree with Anne that this is suicidal purity”? What is “suicidal purity”?
PS: Scratch these questions. I see your second response.
Baud
@NotMax:
If I could choose a foreign running mate, my first choice would be Amir.
Kay
@Cervantes:
I think Lessig is doing Democrats a favor. It isn’t a top tier issue now but polling like this?
Now, maybe they say that but aren’t willing to do anything about it, but the fact is people know it and at some point some political Party will have to address it. Part of the problem is “campaign finance” puts people to sleep- it puts me to sleep, too- so I think Bernie Sanders will make more progress on it than Lessig because Sanders addresses it in such blunt terms.
Cervantes
@EconWatcher:
On that point, here’s a little more Lessig (if you’ll pardon the expression):
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Obama wasn’t born here, so it really doesn’t matter. Baud!/Amir! 2016!!!
Baud
@Kay:
Every significant Democratic candidate has come out against Citizens United and unlimited campaign contributions (as has the current president). So one party is already addressing the issue if that 84 percent really care.
Kay
Here’s his charges:
The “national defense” charges are misdemeanors anyway, so he can plead to one of those, but operating a vehicle falsely labeled as a postal carrier is better, IMO :)
NotMax
@Baud
Gasp. You’re saying that Satan isn’t a real ‘merkin? Next you’ll be claiming God isn’t one, either.
:)
Mustang Bobby
I’ve been working on a play and friends and family kept asking “When’s it gonna be done? I want to read it.” So I finally get it to a point where it’s ready to be read. I tell my friends and family, “Okay, it’s done, here it is, take a look.”
[crickets.]
Kay
@Baud:
I saw that “really care”, Baud :)
I agree in a way- I don’t know that people care- obviously I do care. All the big name Democrats have addressed it but outside Sanders (who weaves it thru everything, either directly or indirectly) I don’t think they focus on it and Lessig is a single issue advocate so he could help raise the profile.
He himself is not that great a messenger, I don’t think. He’s not even the best law professor/campaign finance reform advocate- Teachout (who ran against Cuomo) is much better. She’s genuinely talented at politics. She should be the candidate.
BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Satan’s from the USSR, didn’t you learn anything in the 60’s?
PaulW
I think I need to remind everyone – myself included – that it’s
CLOWNS to the LEFT of us and
JOKERS to the RIGHT.
…so then how can we make fun of the GOP clown car if they’re all Jokers?! :(
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: Neither was I. I was born in Texas and as the ad said, “It’s a whole ‘nother country!”
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: I was born in Dallas, but we left when I was six months old, so it didn’t take.
MomSense
@Mustang Bobby:
What is the play about?
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve had the misfortune of having to travel to Texas for bidness pretty often when I was in Satan’s employ. The poor kid had to live there for 4 years by edict of the US Government. Neither of us have any love for Texas.
NotMax
For Amir.
A fiscal catalyst to ending foot-dragging by the money sector?
Mustang Bobby
@MomSense: From the New Play Exchange synopsis of “All Together Now.”
Two acts, single set. I’ve been promised a reading this winter by a theatre company here in Miami.
Kay
@Baud:
I also see the essential lunacy in running against big money in politics while raising big money. The “small donors on the internet” was supposed to solve this dilemma but it has obviously not worked, so someone has to try something else.
I maintain that a lot of people are invested in this system. They don’t just raise a billion dollars, they spend a billion dollars. A lot of people are benefiting from this system, and they aren’t all politicians and wealthy people. I think Ohio tv stations might go out of business without campaigns. I have gotten 11 direct mail pieces from the “legalize pot” people alone- they spent 20 million dollars. One state issue.
different-church-lady
I’ve been on vacation for six days, with no access to political junkie-type news. Not counting Dukakis or Satan, are we down to 32 candidates yet?
BillinGlendaleCA
@different-church-lady: For President or House Speaker?
Kay
I’m glad O’Malley is in the debate, too. He seems naturally combative and those are the fun people to watch. I mean that as a compliment! There are people who like to fight- actually enjoy it- and he’s one of them. I think the O’Malley/Sanders interplay could be really interesting because O’Malley can fill that role for Sanders while Sanders takes the high road.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Texas City, across the bay from Galveston. Left at 4 months of age but I had a Texan for a mother with all the requisite baggage (Texas jokes really pi$$ed her off, no sense of humor at all on the subject)
@BillinGlendaleCA: Well, you do know how to find Texas don’t you? You walk west (or east in your case) until you smell it, than south until you step in it. Since my grandmother’s death, I’ve had very little reason to visit TX and have limited them to the very long drives thru it on the way to and from Mexico or New Mexico, never stopping for anything more than a tank of gas and a burrito.
MomSense
@Mustang Bobby:
That sounds great. I love the idea of a 15 year old boy being one of the main characters. He will definitely bring all the family issues out whether or not anyone is ready.
Elizabelle
Morning Republican Joe is extreme fantasyland this morning. It is most days, but Joe is trying to single-handedly stave off honest appraisal of the GOP condition.
He’s informed his audience that Jeb! or Rubio could beat Hillary easily, and that Christie is strengthening by the day. The GOP has the young bench; Dems are these old 70-somethings.
Mustang Bobby
@MomSense: Thank you. The tough part will be finding an actor to play him; kids these days…
JPL
@Mustang Bobby: I met someone whose partner gained custody of his teenage daughter. That was over a decade ago and I often wondered how it turned out. Good Luck to you with your play.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I can’t watch so thanks for the report. I’d rather they push Christie than Kasich. The crush on Chris Christie is a good thing.
Elizabelle
Have to catch up with the thread, but does anyone think Biden would actually run? I don’t see it, unless HRC is incapacitated.
Bernie, thank Dog, is dragging the party’s rhetoric back to middle and working class issues. Is there space for a 70-something guy who was Mr. MBNA and pro-creditor bankruptcy law? I don’t see it.
Biden is there so Republicans and our elite media (but I repeat myself) don’t have to address Hillary or what the Democrats are talking about honestly.
Look! Another horse! And it’s a really nice one, with a tragic backstory!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: Joe loves his Florida men.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: I agree.
NotMax
Give the judge a cookie. In fact, two cookies.
MomSense
@Mustang Bobby:
Tell me about it!
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Oooooh oooooh oooooh me! Pick MEEEE!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Lessig lost me when his PAC supported at least one Teabagger candidate. He seems to think that lobbying people like Darryl Issa is the way to change Washington. His PAC is trying to give money to David Brat for crying out loud. (Yes, he wants to convince elected officials to support his “reform” ideas with the promise of campaign donations. That’s the whole point of the PAC.)
The people he’s lobbying aren’t allies for “reform”. They’re dangerous and need to be voted out of office.
The fact that he, and his organization, doesn’t see that is very troubling.
He’s a vanity candidate. Without some sort of evidence that he’s serious about winning elections (polling numbers; having held significant elective office somewhere before; endorsements; something concrete) he has no business being part of the Democratic debates.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: Have your agent send in a bio and headshot.
JPL
Dave Weigel retweeted this
Music blaring in House gym “Another one bites the dust” as some of my GOP colleagues exercise. I suggested they consider another song.
It’s from Rep. Earl Blumenauer, from Portland, Oregon.
boatboy_srq
@Mustang Bobby: Well, you haven’t sent it to me yet…
NotMax
Rather surprised no front pager has yet to mention something on the privacy front of far-ranging import snippeted a few days ago. Some follow-up on that:
Mustang Bobby
@boatboy_srq: Check your e-mail tonight.
Iowa Old Lady
So Boehner was right all those times he thought they’ll all be sorry when I’m gone.
Patrick
@Elizabelle:
Joe Scarborough is making predictions again, eh? He is about as credible as Bill Kristol when it comes to making good predictions. Here’s what Scarborough said about the 2008 election.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/when-joe-scarborough-pred_b_141380.html
Why does he have a show with such low credibility?
NotMax
@Iowa Old Lady
So ineffectual he can’t even resign properly.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
I agree. I don’t think Biden will run.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady:
John Boehner is the key to saving Western Civilization.
Baud
@Kay:
Small donors without voter turnout is always going to be ineffectual.
NotMax
@Patrick
A show which MSNBC just this week announced they want to air even more of, to inflict it on those in the Pacific Time Zone.
Sigh.
Baud
I mean, it’s not like the GOP is ambivalent about campaign finance reform. They actively and vehemently amd vocally oppose it. The politics are not too complicated to understand.
Baud
@NotMax:
Yesterday afternoon, MSNBC had a McCainite on to talk about how Obama sucks on Syria.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: Morning Republican Joe has Joe Lieberman on now, to tell us how people get along non-partisanly. Jon Huntsman’s on there too. The phrase “No Labels” just came up.
Morning Republican Joe is the Republican fantasy hour. With better music segues. (Bruce Springsteen! Elvis Costello! We’re cool, kids.)
Joe’s talking about what a hard worker and wizard he was in Congress. All that working across the aisle. Um, not what most remember about Bill Clinton’s experience with Republicans in Congress.
They’re talking earnestly about compromise right now.
Morzer
@Baud:
Just once it would be nice to see a McAbelite. Just once…..
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Have been saying it for years: Morning Joe is the world’s longest circle jerk.
mclaren
@Cervantes:
Saying things like “the president of the united states has to obey the constitution” and “without campaign finance reform, democracy in America will be hopelessly corrupted.”
You know…if you assert that the rule of law should apply in these United States. You’re a “purity fanatic” who wants “magic ponies.”
Morzer
@Elizabelle:
Hell, the GOP can’t even manage to compromise with themselves. Why would anyone imagine they can compromise with sane people?
NotMax
May we live interesting times, indeed.
Iraqi Official: Baghdad May Request Russian Air Strikes On IS
Afghanistan’s Dostum Turns To Old Ally Russia For Help
Elizabelle
@Morzer: Exactly. Also, I’m not sure they’ve had a Democrat on all morning, except Mr. Lieberman.
mclaren
@Elizabelle:
Biden’s imaginary run for the presidency is a confection of the media. As Nate Silver has pointed out, the media are desperate to create a horse-race narrative for this presidential cycle so they can rope in viewers. In reality, this is going to be a very dull campaign. Jeb will be the nominee, Hillary will beat him, and it’s going to be a giant snooze. But that doesn’t keep your news ratings up, so the media have to tart up the facts with all this bullshit about Biden and Trump.
Morzer
@Elizabelle:
Wasn’t Lieberman an Independent the last time he shambled out of his crypt?
Cervantes
@Baud:
You’re right — it’s not the Republicans who are ambivalent on this issue.
Mustang Bobby
Joe Lieberman always reminded me of the dad on ALF.
mclaren
@EconWatcher:
Lessig is a fool and a clown. He made such a disastrously bad argument before the Supreme Court against that atrocity of a copyright extension bill that he blew the case. Now Lessig is trying to do for campaign reform what he tried to do for copyright reform — namely, fuck it all up ten ways to Sunday.
Lessig needs to go away and stop annoying the grown-ups. He’s a Ralph Nader wannabe in a Democratic party that has learned better than to tolerate spoilers like Nader. (Without whom we would not have had to suffer through eight years of a Drunk-Driving C-Student presidency.)
OzarkHillbilly
The head of the FBI has said it is “ridiculous [and] embarrassing” that the federal government has no better information on police shootings than databases compiled by the Guardian US and the Washington Post.
The money quote comes at the very end:
At the violence summit, mayors, police chiefs and state attorneys general said the lack of data was contributing to a dangerous trend in which police officers shunned aggressive tactics for fear of becoming the next officer to be caught on camera in a compromising situation.
Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, said although most officers did the right thing, authorities lacked the data to prove it, the Washington Post reported.
“Unless we deal with backing them up, the gang members know [police] are not putting their hands on them because they don’t want to be prosecuted, whether it be by public opinion or by the court,” he said.
Head? Meet desk. They just don’t get it. Some of them never will. They need to go.
Baud
@Cervantes:
Right. Partisan lines are clear. People ignore them at their own peril.
JPL
Frank Luntz is on CBS and seems upset about the developments on the hill. He’s begging Paul Ryan to take control.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
For sweeps month, maybe they can bring on Zell Miller and his dueling pistols.
FlipYrWhig
@Mustang Bobby: Yes! All the shambling and whining.
JPL
@NotMax: Please no.
debbie
@JPL:
I blame Denny Hastert.
Cervantes
@JPL:
Is he crying?
Not that there’d be anything wrong with that.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: He used to be a Democrat.
Iowa Old Lady
@mclaren: From your mouth to the FSM’s ear.
JPL
@Cervantes: He certainly was flush and he probably was crying earlier.
What he didn’t say is that these jerks are going to put the full faith and credit in the U.S. at risk.
Jay C
@Baud: @NotMax:
Heh. “Foreign” probably wouldn’t apply to having The Adversary for a running mate: as was so ably articulated by Stephen Vincent Benet in his classic tale The Devil and Daniel Webster. If you recall, Webster initially tries to void the validity of the contact for his client’s soul on the grounds that “Mr. Scratch” isn’t an American citizen. Scratch, however, points out that he has been resident in America, and working hard (and productively) here, for a very long time: so that if not a formal “citizen”, he’s at least a sort of resident alien, and thus jurisdiction would apply.
Great campaign slogan, though: “Baud/Satan 2016! The Devil you know!!”
Mike E
@Mustang Bobby: Can’t blame em for being distracted these days, plus, their hands are prolly greasy from all the popcorn they’re eating lately, also. Too.
Cervantes
@Baud:
If you had to choose one, would you expect useful change to come first through a new Congress or a new Court?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: I turned it off when Joe started whining about Obama “allowing” the Russians into Syria. The Russians(Soviets) have been in Syria most or all of Joe Scar’s life. They’ve increased their involvement, but they’ve been there for a long time.
Elizabelle
TV’s off now, but this is the longest I was ever able to watch Morning Republican Joe in the background. Because Joe is chastened and wasn’t egregiously snarling today. He needs to show his softer, get along side, because the mask fell off the Republicans in Congress yesterday.
Mika the battered wife was not there today.
I think NBC/MSNBC are complicit in polluting our politics by presenting this “influential” morning show. Because it is fantasy land. Today Morning Republican Joe really was the boy’s club house. Saw a few questions from one young female reporter, something Kucinich (?) Donald Trump called in and, as always, he was genial, entertaining, and self-absorbed.
Media gives us the boys club of politics. It’s Daddy party messaging. On Fox, it’s delivered by mean blonde girls in cocktail dresses. Mommy party is a scold and NOT FUN and cool. She doesn’t have cool new wave-ish music for the segues.
Paul Ryan is the young daddy that’s going to come in and save them.
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA: I was probably downstairs making coffee when that segment ran. Selective attention, too.
Elizabelle
@mclaren: I so hope you are right. Good assessment.
Baud
@Cervantes:
The Court can’t generate change. All the Court can do is decide is what they will stop.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: Oh Russians. I was watching a show the other day and they were all speaking in Russian. I am like you get this is fucked up right.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: And only if it actually gets to them.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I’d love to see them all (Scarborough, O’Reilly, Wallace, etc.) get together and “discuss” which one’s the most influential.
NotMax
@Jay C
Made into a darn good film. Clip referencing the “American” bit. Quite possibly my favorite among Walter Huston’s many stunning performances, especially so during the very last frames of the movie (not included in linked clip).
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yep.
Tommy
@Baud: Yes just a little Dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaQ1vXdf1Q0
raven
@Tommy: I think I’ve shown you the pix my buddy took of the Dead in the Assembly Hall in 73?
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7411/9418448642_b377a541fd_o.jpg
Patricia Kayden
@mclaren: Agree with everything you wrote, except that Jeb! will be the Repub nominee. That would require a major shake up. But whoever it is will be easily beaten by Secretary Clinton.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Well, conventionally “true,” perhaps, but there are any number of Supreme Court cases that can muddy that assessment, some very recent.
Anyhow, if you’re saying that getting a new Congress is the key, that’s not too far from what Lessig is saying — and also why he’s been willing to back candidates on this issue whom he otherwise might not support.
Peale
@BillinGlendaleCA: thems the breaks, Joe. The Russians aren’t invading Syria. They were invited in by the recognized government. I guess we could help by participating in an illegal blockade. But we only do that in countries like Yemen where we can create famines out of the view of media concern.
raven
A shooter opened fire on Friday at Northern Arizona University’s Flagstaff campus, the school said. One person was killed and three people were injured.
The shooting took place around 1:20 a.m. pacific near the Mountain View Hall, a building that houses most of the university’s 23 fraternities and sororities. The Delta Chi fraternity confirmed that some of its members were involved in the attack.
The suspect was in custody early Friday, the university said. The wounded are being treated at Flagstaff Medical Center.
“My thoughts are prayers are with the families,” of the victims, Arizona Senator John McCain (R) said in a statement provided to ABC 15.
NAU will hold a press conference at 6 a.m. pacific.
Ayn Randy
Dave Weigel is one of the best journalists in DC and easily one of the most even-handed, but mocking the press corps for noting that the House is in chaos is lost on me. How could anyone deny that this is a big deal? The party in charge is such a mess they can’t even find someone to be Speaker.
bystander
The best part of Moanin’ Joe today was his aria, “We’re losing the Supreme Court and the Federal bureaucracy for a generation.” His tessitura was shaky but effective.
Who said “no labels” is just another way of saying “I’m embarrassed to be a repub”?
Elizabelle
@raven: It’s Friday, Joe.
Not enough of a death toll to break into Morning Republican Joe programming. It got mentioned in passing.
Today is President Obama’s visit to Roseburg. Godspeed and keep him safe.
Kay
@Baud:
Well, except small donors was supposed to solve the turnout issue too, because “donors” (of any kind) are the most politically engaged people- they are the base. They would be engaged because they had “skin in the game” and they would bring others along with them. That was the plan.
I think if Democrats really wanted to commit to small donors, short term, they’d have to approach it completely differently. Rather than plus/and (small donors make up what they don’t get in large donors) they’d have to commit to finding a way to spend less because small donors will always lose eventually if we’re going to play the Sanders/Clinton game, where Sanders equals Clinton, which were the blaring headlines last week. What if they said we’re going to find a way to spend half a billion dollars and win because we cannot compete dollar for dollar on small donors? Who says it costs a billion dollars? What if it doesn’t?
Peale
@NotMax: please, please, please. Let Russia become the guaranteer for the Iraqi government. We get so much out of that relationship. I’d be so sorry to lose it.
Elizabelle
@bystander: Yeah. I loved that part about losing the White House and the Supreme Court for a generation. It kept me from hitting the remote.
Karma, bitchez.
Although I really do wonder what unstable rightwinger citizens might do to interrupt or affect the elections, since their candidates are so lame. Scary time.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven:
“My actions on the other hand are always with the shooter as we must make sure they have access to plenty of guns and ammo.”
MattF
@Elizabelle: Krugman sayeth what needs to be said about Ryan.
mclaren
@Cervantes:
New congress. Specifically, a new House of representatives. We desperately need to change funding priorities and stop urinating away a trillion dollars per year on military + national “security” and instead spend that money on jobs creation programs like nationwide high-speed rail, green energy, rebuilding U.S. infrastructure, knocking down and rebuilding our cities to accommodate transportation by light rail + bicycles + buses instead of cars, ramping up scientific basic research to epochal levels, kick-starting huge numbers of apprenticeship programs in fields like numerically controlled machining, and so on.
The supreme court can’t do any of that. Congress can.
Elizabelle
@MattF: Saw that. Flimflam, but buff.
Morning Republican Joe was so funny about Ryan today too. Talking about he’s a parent with young children. How they’re going to have to give him a deputy to do all the travel and another deputy to do all the fundraising required of Speaker.
Because he is a parent! With young children! What a burden for him to assume the most powerful position in the House, and nationally third in line for the Presidency.
I think one journalist pointed out Ryan didn’t want to be Speaker because he wants to run for President himself in 2020 or ’24. That was the only time that inconvenient fact was aired, and it never passed the lips of Morning Republican Joe or his Republican (male) political guests.
But it was so amusing. Would they be saying that “___ is a parent!” about women, and mean it as “she’s got HER priorities in order.”
Punchy
@OzarkHillbilly: Concealed carry weapons coming to University of Kansas campus in 2017, thanks to the KS legy. Being a librarian, professor, or bouncer will require mandatory health and GSW insurance.
Cant wait to see how many lockdowns per week the campus suffers as students unfamilair and/or uncomfortable with seeing weapons start calling them in….I’m guessing it will paralyze the campus.
Elizabelle
@mclaren: I think we need to press hard, in the states, to get rid of political gerrymandering.
Don’t let the Democrats do it either. Get rid of it. Independent commission, and make the districts contiguous. Make them convenient for the voters, not the incumbent.
That would unseat a lot of the extremists.
mclaren
@Ayn Randy:
Also, the mainstream media is missing the really big story — why the House is in a mess.
The House is in chaos because the Republican party has moved so far to the right that a large group of representatives (the Freedom Caucus) is now literally making insane demands. (Like the demand that the Speaker repeal Obamacare.) That’s crazy stuff. Not gonna happen. The Republican party is now out there where the busses don’t run with the anti-fluoridationists and the people who claim the gubmint is beaming mind-control rays into their heads. As a result, the Repubs in the House are making demands that are impossible to satisfy — period.
But the mainstream media refuses to report on this. Instead, they’re trying to make it into a procedural or an internal partisan power struggle issue. No. Republicans in the House are demanding things that are impossible to accomplish, like the repeal of the ACA and the defunding of Planned Parenthood and nationally banning vaccinations. Planned Parenthood has 60% support nationally across both political parties. The ACA is hugely popular. Vaccinations have 70+ percent support. It is not physically possible to get enough votes in congress to shut down policies that popular. It would be like demanding that your party puts an end in this congressional term to public libraries or compulsory K-12 schooling.
The mere effort to enact such policies is crazy. But the mainstream media shies away from reporting that. Instead, they call it a “controversy.” No, one political party has gone nuts. That’s the big issue in 2015. And no MSM outlet is reporting it that way.
JPL
So students get in a fight and one dead and three injured but classes will go on as scheduled. Arizona must be a great place to go to school.
Arizona law says guns can be locked in car on campus.
mclaren
@Elizabelle:
You’re absolutely right. Gerrymandering is one of the single biggest problems with our political system. It has encouraged the growth of incredible extremism by artificially creating perpetually safe congressional seats for politicians who are batshit insane.
Not sure how we get rid of gerrymandering, since both parties benefit from it.
Elizabelle
@mclaren: Well said. I wish our First Amendment protected press would say that in public.
There are worse outcomes than ticking off some readers and advertisers.
Punchy
@JPL: But many students ride bikes. What about bikes? Can you strap a TEC-9 on a Trek 9000 in Tempe? Can you get a Gat from a Giant at Grand Canyon U?
MomSense
@BillinGlendaleCA:
They have a major naval base there. He’s a doofus.
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy: What’s fucked up about Russians speaking Russian?
David Koch
Are there any articles on how Baud is preparing for the debate?
Baud
@Kay:
We’ll find out soon enough. Neither Clinton nor Sanders will be able to raise or spend as much as the GOP nominee.
Elizabelle
@bystander:
That’s what it is, too.
@Baud:
I hope Carly Fiorina’s well funded and nonsuccessful campaign in the 2010 Senate race, and Meg Whitman’s even more $$ spent and worse a percentage against Jerry Brown in the governor’s race that year, illustrate that massive ad buys can’t pull a poor candidate over the finish line. People tune them out.
What gives me pause is Cory Gardner being elected to the Senate in Colorado last year, an empty suit if ever there was one.
It takes complicity of major news too. The Denver Post endorsed Gardner. The national press licked up what Joni Ernst, that downhome pig castrator, was serving.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
rant:
It would be nice if stories about the debt limit would mention that the US hit the limit on March 16, 2015 and the only reason why we haven’t defaulted yet is that the Treasury Secretary has put off things like investing in the G Fund for federal employees, etc., etc.
The date those measures will be too little to prevent default is estimated to be between November 10 and 19, 2015.
/rant:
I don’t expect the US to default, at least not in any meaningful way (we have “technically” defaulted for a few hours/days in the past). If it gets bad enough, I would expect Obama to make some emergency statement about the 14th Amendment rather than having the US and world economy dissolve into chaos.
Cheers,
Scott.
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
Why is it legal in some parts of America to leave a gun unattended in a parked car? Cars can get stolen.
catclub
@Amir Khalid:
I was thinking about that recently. I wish he had come out with a statement that he would rather look foolish on a tank than send
real tank drivers into some fool war.
JPL
@Amir Khalid: According to the NRA, the second amendment allows States to decide gun laws. Don’t bother looking for it though, it’s in magic ink.
Paul in KY
@EconWatcher: That sure would have been a better answer.
catclub
@mclaren:
The safest seats that GOP gerrymandering creates are Democratic seats ( 80% democratic).
I will continue to bring this up.
The GOP seats are 55-60% GOP and there are MORE of them, but they are much less safe than the Democratic 80% seats.
catclub
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
The G fund is a very interesting beast.
catclub
@mclaren:
I think the very inside baseball insane demands are actually rolling back a lot of the power that Newt Gingrich rolled into the Speakership, and making the leadership promise to support teaparty incumbents when they get primaried.
(Stacking the deck in their favor)
benw
@mclaren: K-thug feels your pain this morning. He’s basically calling out the US political coverage of his own paper.
Paul in KY
@catclub: Wish he’d said that too!
catclub
@benw: Yes. This looks aimed right at NYT reporting.
Chris
@mclaren:
@benw:
Not the New York Times, but the other big National Paper Of Note; some academic-related research last night made me stumble across a Krauthammer article from a few years ago ranting about Obama’s “leading from behind” foreign policy. His conclusion was that Obama’s policy must stem from the fact that he comes from a world of liberal elites who “revile the American colossus and want to see it cut down to size” (Ayers! Wright!)
No, he couldn’t even be bothered with the Elder Statesman routine of how Obama is a naive Chamberlain type who means well but doesn’t understand how dangerous the world is. He just hopped right into the whole “Obama is an America-hating radical Manchurian Candidate who just wants to hurt America because he’s an America-hating America hater.”
This is the Washington Post, not Breitbart.com. Garden variety John Bircher conspiracy theories have become so accepted that you can now find them in the op-ed columns of “mainstream” newspapers, and these newspapers will still be hated and condemned as “liberally biased.”
Cervantes
@mclaren:
Thanks. I was talking specifically about useful change in the area of campaign finance, but your list is interesting enough in its own right.
Paul in KY
@Chris: That POS Krautsucker has been writing insane things for years. It’s his speciality.
Chris
@Paul in KY:
Yeah. It’s just that it had been years since I came across one of his columns, and I’d forgotten not only how ridiculous that guy is, but how ridiculous it is that his Bircher word-vomiting was actually taken seriously enough to be granted a soapbox on one of the nation’s premiere Very Serious Newspapers (with a “moderate” or “liberal” reputation).