I’ve taking the opportunity to photoshop this tweet from the Democrats so that it better reflects life here on earth:
We all know that one of our principled moderates will have major objections.
This post is in: Assholes
I’ve taking the opportunity to photoshop this tweet from the Democrats so that it better reflects life here on earth:
We all know that one of our principled moderates will have major objections.
Comments are closed.
hildebrand
I have many students for whom this would mean everything, please call your Senators and tell them to do the right thing.
Mike Kay (Team America)
This is ALL obama’s fault!
Moses2317
Not to be a broken record, but call your Senators on this also.
Does anyone know who the fence sitters are on this one? If we can come up with a list, I’ll post contact info for them.
Winning Progressive
Hawes
@Mike Kay (Team America): Damn, two comments in and you beat me to it.
Where is the updated version of The Treason of the Senate?
tweez
I haven’t heard Mr. Obama’s take on the DREAM act. What did he say?
Mike Kay (Team America)
The House just passed a resolution congratulating imprisoned Chinese democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo on being awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
the vote was 402 to 1
The one lone vote against was by…… wait for it…. Ron Paul. All hail libertarianism!
Sentient Puddle
The act is good for the economy and reduces the deficit. So clearly it’s not something that moderates and conservatives can support. Think of the budget!
Zam
@Mike Kay (Team America): Democracy is for the poor
Mike Kay (Team America)
@tweez: he said it the suck. he hates wetbacks and why don’t they go back to where they came from.
i mean, what kind of question is that.
scarshapedstar
And it’s all because libruls kept demanding a public option and made them mad.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike Kay (Team America): Can one be a principled asshole if one’s principle is being an asshole?
beltane
You’ve got to have faith. It may very well be that the DREAM Act meets a quick death in the Senate. They are often speedy about failing to come up with 60 votes.
Violet
Gah, that stupid “Democrats” logo, the circle with the D in it. It looks like the Paris Metro logo, except replace the M with the D. I always think I should look for the subway when I see it.
No point in phoning my two wingnut Senators who just want to see brown people live poor, cold lives of misery. Unless they’re mowing their lawns or something.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: They are, by definition, living out the principle of being an asshole, so yes. After that though, they’re still an asshole.
And better for brown people = death in the Senate. We just won’t see who the killer will be.
Suck It Up!
That’s depressingly true.
xochi
And Democrats complain about Pelosi why exactly?
Mike Kay (Team America)
At least the Chinese Communists can always count on their dear friend, comrade Ron Paul.
You’re either with us, or against us, Ron.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: I just wondered if it was one of those situations where the principle of being an asshole and actually just being one chase one another in smaller and smaller circles until Ron Paul disappears up his own ass in a cloud of foul smelling smoke.
Mike Kay (Team America)
@xochi: because she doesn’t use the bully pulpit or something.
Davis X. Machina
@xochi: To those so inclined, Pelosi is hated because she does stuff. Anybody with efficacy is corrupt, because they have efficacy.
In the long run, the ‘professional left’ doesn’t trust, maybe doesn’t even believe in, government — sharing that predilection with the teabag right.
We’re fighting Marx/Kautsky v. Bernstein/Jaurés, all over again.
tweez
@Mike Kay (Team America): You said (I assume sarcastically) “this is all Obama’s fault.”
I figured that you might have been referencing something the president said or did or didn’t do regarding the DREAM act. I’d imagine that he supports it, but I have not myself heard him speak on it.
I’m sorry if I offended your sensibilities.
uila
This post fails to mobilize and/or persuade me. You, sir, are a faulty citizen.
Mike Kay (Team America)
@tweez:
C’mon dude/dudette
u have a keyboard, you have google, it’s not that hard to find out what he’s said on the dream act.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GwNVo7siFA
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@xochi: She makes them look bad.
Suffern ACE
@xochi: I’m confused. Which democrats are complaining about Nancy Pelosi? I thought the venom was reserved for Obama and Reid?
jcricket
The Senate’s non-represantative by design, coupled with the filibuster, allows the possibility that 40 Senators representing just 13% of the population can thwart the will of the remaining 87%.
Now I’m not a strict populist, but the filibuster, non-representative nature of the Senate combined with the ridiculous rules (endless debate, anonymous holds, motion after motion after motion) basically mean nothing will ever happen in this country as long as the Senate exists.
Yes, I know, that’s by design. But perhaps the founders weren’t thinking of a time when, you know, we’d have to get shit done in less than a fortnight.
Scratch that, a fortnight’s like 2 weeks, right now the Senate’s working at the pace of a glacier. Crap, glaciers are melting fast b/c f global warming.
Hmmm, what moves super slow. Evolution? Can observe that in a lab in fruit flies. Half life of some long-lived element? Help me out here.
mr. whipple
@Suffern ACE:
Obama and Reid have met their daily rage quota, and the excess has to go somewhere.
Mike Kay (Team America)
@Suffern ACE: you must have forgotten the halcyon days of 2007 when Nancy was public enemy No.1 because she took impeachment off the table and didn’t cut off funding to iraq.
remember, she was actually primaried by… wait for it…. cindy sheehan.
Suffern ACE
@jcricket: Shelf life of a Twinkie.
Triassic Sands
@Violet:
Bad plan. If you can afford it, please call/contact them — no matter who your senators are. First, ask yourself — will it hurt anyone or anything if I call my senators? If not, there is no reason or excuse not to call.
There seems to be a very strong impulse among a lot of BJ commenters that says if you aren’t guaranteed victory there is no reason to try. Besides, one should never pass up the opportunity to let Wingnuts know you categorically disagree with them.
MikeJ
@Triassic Sands:
Exactly. Do you think the teabaggers say, “oh it won’t matter, I won’t bother the poor staffers that work for Bernie Sanders because it won’t change his mind.”
Mike Kay (Team America)
o/t
http://tinyurl.com/2fuqfxj (NSFW)
iriedc
@Suffern ACE: also several “K st” Democrats I know really don’t like Pelosi and have long knives out for her. They’d like her to just raise money, but otherwise step aside. It’s not like I know many K streeters, but the one’s I know are usually good for learning the conventional wisdom floating around with inside Beltway operatives.
dr. bloor
@Triassic Sands:
Yeah, all those fundraising thermometers Cole keeps sticking up our collective asses just scream “apathy.”
O/T, but the NY Times now has official Talking Points. Heard two separate radio interviews this evening with two different reporters saying the same thing: The Times was “responsible” in publishing the Wikileaked docs, provided “judgment” and “context”, and Assange is not a journalist because…well, shut up, that’s why. Oh, yeah, the docs prove that the State Department backchannel communications mirror the public posture, and our Ambassadors are the BEST EVAH!
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike Kay (Team America): I will see that, and raise you this.
Villago Delenda Est
My senators will vote the right way.
But then, I’m living in the royal blue state of Oregon.
Suffern ACE
@dr. bloor: Can the Times show me their license to publish that paper? If not, why?
Davis X. Machina
@Mike Kay (Team America):
Whose bona fides were her complete lack of efficacy, demonstrated or potential.
If a statesman is a dead politician, a ‘progressive’ politician is a useless one.
Mark S.
God, it’s been hours since we’ve had a 300 comment flame war.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Davis X. Machina: so you’re saying it was the same movement that will sweep Obama out of office with the Russ Feingold primary challenge?
Cacti
Whatever happens, I’m sure it will be Obama’s fault and that he should be primaried by a yet to be determined
white dudetrue progressive.Oscar Leroy
Thus making it alright for the president to send troops to the Mexico border. The Hispanic community must not be very important.
suzanne
So I’ve been slowly switching my dog’s food over the last couple of weeks, increasing the amount of the new food while reducing the amount of the old. For the last few days, she’s been eating the new food exclusively. And it makes her fart. A lot.
I have a feeling that the actions of the Senate tomorrow (and in the upcoming few days) are going to make me remember the dog’s ass bombs with fondness. Things always look better than you remember when compared to something truly awful.
JasonF
@Mike Kay (Team America):
That can’t be true. The Republicans did away with honorary resolutions on account of they’re a total waste of money.
dr. bloor
@Suffern ACE:
I’m tempted to get the fastest law degree ever so I can be a part of the deposition in which Bill Keller is asked how the Times can claim the capacity to responsibly filter and disseminate information after providing cover for
Leni RiefensthalJudith Miller and leading the country into a bottomless, pointless war.Omnes Omnibus
@Mark S.: Don’t tempt me. I could start one in seconds. Actually, I think I will take this blog hostage; I will start a flame war unless you give me what I want.
Oscar Leroy
@Mike Kay (Team America):
Wow, that’s impressive. Our country holds people prisoner without trial but at least we can condemn other countries for doing the same. I feel warm inside.
Oscar Leroy
@Davis X. Machina:
LOL!
Davis X. Machina
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
We keep nominating the wrong kind of person for President. Someone with no elective experience would be best. But a politician could be acceptable with certain provisos.
Power corrupts, and the more you exercise it, the more corrupt you become. The only legitimate, un-corrupt stand is to not exercise it. Any really progressive President would resign the day they were inaugurated, before they could be made any worse by participating in the process. If they refuse to do so, they are ipso facto complicit in their own corruption.
We should nominate a politician for Vice-President, though. To sign checks, greet the winners of the NCAA tournament, and stuff.
Omnes Omnibus
@suzanne: I am crying with laughter here.
Dennis SGMM
@dr. bloor:
Not to mention sitting on the NSA warrantless wiretapping story back in 2004 because “it might affect the outcome of the election.”
Oscar Leroy
@Suffern ACE:
“I’m confused. Which democrats are complaining about Nancy Pelosi?”
I see you missed the new development: facts are no longer necessary to form opinions.
https://balloon-juice.com/2010/12/06/an-absolute-disaster/#comment-2261435
Corner Stone
@Davis X. Machina: When did you turn into such an unmitigated douchebag?
Oscar Leroy
@Corner Stone:
There’s no need for name-calling. His words speak for themselves. It’s gibberish, but they speak for themselves.
Suffern ACE
@Davis X. Machina: Oh heck, no. We can’t keep nominating people with less and less government executive experience in each successive election. We’ve gone from the 12-year governor of Arkansas, to an 8 year VP, to a 2+ term Senator to a 2 year Senator. Now we need to get rid of that? Can I take a pass and state that I will vote for Gray Davis in a Democratic primary before I will vote for someone who has never won a statewide election.
Angry Black Lady
@xochi: @xochi: Because s/he is Obama in a Pelosi mask. It’s all very Missions Impossible 2 and 3.
Davis X. Machina
@Suffern ACE: I think the ideal we need to strive for, the ultimate progressive solution, is an un-born non-politician. Although the Constitution would seem to rule that out, at least for the present, at least for federal offices, it’s not too soon to crank up the amendment process.
Un-bought. Un-bossed. Un-born.
Hey, it fits on a bumpersticker.
Angry Black Lady
@Mark S.: Oh, I’m fairly certain I could start one if there’s a need. I do have a sixer of Guinness at the ready.
lacp
@suzanne: Maybe we should try feeding what you’re giving the dog to our Senators.
Yutsano
@Angry Black Lady: Or Point Break. Or insert favorite bad movie of your choice that involved masks and Presidents in some fashion.
Oscar Leroy
@Dennis SGMM:
“Not to mention sitting on the NSA warrantless wiretapping story back in 2004 because “it might affect the outcome of the election.” ”
If warrantless wiretapping was wrong then, it’s still wrong now, right?
Obama Sides With Bush in Spy Case
Suffern ACE
@Davis X. Machina: I think that candidate comes in the later chapters of Revelation. A lot of really bad stuff happens before then, if I remember right.
dr. bloor
@lacp:
I’m pretty sure our Senators don’t need anything to produce even more flatulence than they’re already turning out.
Davis X. Machina
@Suffern ACE: Think of it as a wedge issue. We can peel off some of the anti-abortion vote with it. A pre-born candidate pulls in Reagan Democrats and ethnic Catholics…. Pennsylvania is no longer a swing state, ditto Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin.
Cuts the birthers off at the knees, too. There’s no birth, there’s no birth certificate to have to present.
lacp
@dr. bloor: Hey, lefties like me are always being asked, “So what’s your solution?” I’m just trying to be constructive – y’know, there might be some sustainable energy possibilities here….
lacp
@Davis X. Machina: This sounds like a winner all the way around.
Angry Black Lady
@Yutsano: Oh man, now I want to watch Hot Fuzz. Maybe Obama should shoot his gun in the air and scream “AAAAARGH” because he’s too much of a pussy to shoot the hostage.
I’m mixing my Keanu movie metaphors.
Anne Laurie
@Mike Kay (Team America): If those guys live with you, please send me a jpeg and a story so’s I can front-page it for everyone to enjoy.
If you don’t want to ruin your Angry Blogger cred, pick a pseudonym and I’ll keep your secret…
Cronin
@Violet: Be fair, they want brown people to live cold, miserable lives while mowing their lawns.
lacp
@Cronin: Yeah, what the fuck’s the matter with them? Don’t they know how to multitask?
Anne Laurie
@suzanne: Is there a reason you’re switching the dog’s food? A certain amount of… intestinal flora re-adjustment… can be expected with any such switch. But if it doesn’t improve within a week or two, she might be allergic to something in the new food. Especially if there’s a different kind of grain in the new stuff. And most high-grade pet foods have stopped using artificial dyes (which caused even more problems for dogs than they do for toddlers), but there’s still various preservatives that some dogs’ digestive tracks don’t handle very well.
Suffern ACE
@dr. bloor: Now I am daydreaming of a Capitol building, dome filled with flatulence, arising from it’s foundations and floating away. I know it wouldn’t solve all of the problems. Is there anything in the Constitution that deals with the crisis resulting from that situation?
Dennis SGMM
@Davis X. Machina:
I just want to congratulate you for creating one of the most fully realized straw men that it’s ever been my privilege to witness here.
The increasing chorus to demonize progressives/liberals/the left is right on the money though. Without them, the Democratic party would be so much nicer. Any suggestion that most all Democratic pols, with the exception of Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer, are toadies to the financial services industry as well as suffering near total Stockholm Syndrome vis a vis the Republicans would be drowned in the general applause for the fact that they’re not Sarah Palin.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Watching Letterman with Barbara Walters, who says that Sarah Palin has made her “most fascinating people” list for the third year in a row. The Great Not Hunter is on the list with Justin Bieber and the Jersey Shore cretins. I’d feel better if I thought BW got why that’s such an apt grouping, but I doubt she does.
Yutsano
@Angry Black Lady:
It’s like Blazing Saddles, only it shows more Obama fail! I LURVE IT!
mr. whipple
@Anne Laurie:
Ruin his cred? For crying out loud, HE’S DROWNING CATS IN THE SINK!
suzanne
@Anne Laurie: I’m switching b/c the food she was used to from the shelter was (a) expensive and (b) according to the vet, not very good. The farting is getting better. The first week of the switch was absolutely godawful. So I’m gonna hang in there.
Yutsano
Halp! I r being oppressed! Moderated comment on the DREAM thread!
Dennis SGMM
@Yutsano:
The fact that your comment contained vowels and consonants led to your disgrace. Eschew them and you’ll be fine.
billgerat
@Yutsano: You reminded me of the kids that wore president masks while robbing banks around these parts years ago.
suzanne
@Yutsano: That was a little too matoko-esque for comfort. Step it up, cudlip. ;)
Mnemosyne
@Dennis SGMM:
Given that Boxer was, to my shame as a Californian, one of the senators who insisted that they not hold a tax cut vote before the election, I think you can drop her off the “approved” list.
Dennis SGMM
@Mnemosyne:
Ouch! True, that.
Davis X. Machina
@Dennis SGMM: You don’t get over to DemocraticUnderground.com much, do you?
Marx/Kautsky non-participatory anti-ministerialism is not just winning over there, it’s covering the spread. Get on the Feingold/Grayson train, feel the early-adopter glow.
Mike Kay (Team America)
@mr. whipple: Win!
mr. whipple
@Mike Kay (Team America):
That was back when you sent that ransom note to Obama: GIVE ME THE PO OR THE KITTIES DIE.
Yutsano
@suzanne: lawl U shallz be making me. And remember: you cannot stop the signal. She was this close to ruining that movie for me. Almost as bad as FOX ruined the series.
suzanne
@Yutsano: LOL!
I posted this clip from “The Wonder Years” the other day, but it’s so funny, it’s worth sharing again. Every time she blathers on and on about cudlips, this is what I think of.
Angry Black Lady
@mr. whipple: this reminds me of that nutjob who threatened to kill and eat his cat if miley cyrus didn’t rejoin the twitters. i think he ended up doing it.
Angry Black Lady
@Yutsano: i gotchu.
FlipYrWhig
@Corner Stone:
Don’t worry, sweetie, I’m sure it happened to you first.
Dennis SGMM
@Davis X. Machina:
You have me there. Over the years I’ve reduced my blog reading and commenting from a lot, to a few, to Balloon Juice. I have no idea whether or not Democratic Underground is representative of any widely held beliefs among Democrats in general or of progressives in particular. For all I know, or care to know, it’s the present day equivalent of Hillary is 44.
At this point, I feel that the Democratic party is so unable to take a firm stand on even one or two core issues that no candidate for president is able to make much of a difference. That said, I will neither withhold my vote nor my labor in GOTV efforts come the next election. Hope springs eternal.
Yutsano
@Angry Black Lady: Liberate mea! Grazie mia amica!
@suzanne: It always blows my mind when an actor gets a role on a series and then shows up in earlier works like that. I really wanted that hat to come off, I wanted to see if Robert Picardo ever had hair. Though I guess that delivery is his trademark, I figured he hammed it up because he was playing a computer program.
suzanne
@Yutsano: The Coach Cutlip character showed up in quite a few episodes, and I believe that he did indeed at one point have hair.
I love Picardo’s cameo in “First Contact”: “According to Starfleet medical records, Borg implants are supposed to irritate the skin. Would you like an analgesic cream?”
Davis X. Machina
@Corner Stone: The day I stopped dreaming of a politics without politicians. At that point you have to embrace your inner douchebag, because that’s whom you’re going to be dealing with from that point on.
Dennis SGMM
OT: I just read that on Tuesday the administration dropped its demand that Israel freeze settlement construction.
This is good news for Hamas.
Yutsano
@suzanne: That cameo caused quite a few in the Trekkie fanbase to squee. It managed to neatly tie in all three of the shows rather well. Plus Picardo does pretty damn awesome as the doctor who just doesn’t give a shit.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@FlipYrWhig:
You’re mixing the bags up, you know, colostomy and douche. Just remember that CS is twenty pounds of shit in a five pound bag and you won’t get them mixed up.
Oh, it’s a leaky five pound bag.
Uriel
@Oscar Leroy:
Even as snark, this is idiotic and wildly unaware. You really have no basis in reality at all, do you?
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
In other news, GOP blocks legislation to award seniors $250 (there have been no social security cost of living increases for two years). How do Republicans get away with shit like this? They are concerned that the nation can’t afford the $14 billion cost of the one-time payment but totally unconcerned that the nation can’t afford tax cuts for the rich. And it is pretty much seniors that voted the new crop of Repubs in.
I think it is time for the US to introduce mandatory voting. Seriously.
Anne Laurie
@suzanne: Gotcha. Best of luck to both of you, then!
Dennis SGMM
@Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people):
Speaking as an SS-collecting senior, I demand that the government keep its damned hands off of my Social Security!
That’s how the GOP gets away with shit like that. Being aided and abetted by a supine media that plays to a populace with attention span of a rabid skunk doesn’t hurt either.
Yutsano
@Dennis SGMM:
As a great lover of the scented much maligned weaseloid, I take offense to this comment good sir. Plus they’re freaking adorable when they’re kits.
suzanne
@Anne Laurie: Thank you. I had to burn a load of candles last week, I don’t mind saying, but it’s getting better—less frequency!
Bnut
Last final tonight. Dont know how I did. Dont care atm. +18, yes(18). Pita chips. Pandora. BJ (the blog kind, too bad)_.
Dennis SGMM
@Yutsano:
My apologies. We have a ton of the occasionally odoriferous rascals around here (Glendora, in the San Gabriel foothills). Our neighbor town, Azusa, derives its name from a Gabriellino Indian phrase that translates as “skunk hill” – not, as the Chamber of Commerce would have it “Everything from A to Z in the USA.” The skunks are pretty easy to get along with although their inquisitiveness can lead to some interesting moments – as well as great practice in holding completely still.
Uriel
This is the thing that pisses me off to no end. On every piece of major legislation that has come down the pike in the past two years, we’ve had a open-minded front end on the house side, a ready pen in the executive, and a bunch of fucking prima donnas in the middle, twisting rubber bands over the pipeline of the process- and doing so in the boldest, “hey, look at me, I’m fucking over everyone i can!” manner possible.
And the person who gets all the blame? The guy who has made it clear he’ll sign off on pretty much any god damned thing that gets to his desk on the progressive side. I mean really, does anyone here think that, had the senate not fucked the whole thing up, Obama would have vetoed the public option, or closing gitmo, the DREAM act, canceling DADT, or a whole host of other issues?
But, no, the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania is the one guy who is fucking everything up. According to our progressive betters. And in the meanwhile, all these mid status bureaucrats get a pass, ’cause- fuck, I don’t know.
All I do know is that when the right got pissed at Snow, they spammed her mail box with salt shipments. When they were mad about immigration reform, they shut down the congressional switch boards.
But when the left is irritated about some specific policy that is clearly getting held up in the senate, by senators, and nowhere else-, they start forming partnerships with Grover Nordquist, babbling about presidential primaries, and mimicking right wing talking points about “empty suits” and “but that’s racist”” (hi cleek!) every god damn place they can.
And the target? The fucking president who has threatened to veto exactly NOT ONE FUCKING THING from the left side, as long as the people responsible do the only thing required and get it to his fucking desk. Let me repeat- he has vowed to veto exactly NONE OF YOUR FUCKING PET ISSUES. But he’s the fucking problem, because…. bully pulpit or something.
I’m really beginning to think I’ve thrown my chips in supporting the single stupidest party mankind has ever known.
That said, +4, or so.
Yutsano
@Dennis SGMM: If your skunks have a high scare tolerance (not much exposure to humans/dogs etc) stock up on the tomato juice because you’ll need it. If they roll with the flow they’re good to keep around because like most weasels they hunt small rodents. Ironically enough they love maters too.
Dennis SGMM
@Uriel:
Although American history isn’t my area of focus (I’m a student of Roman history from the Gracchi brothers on) my understanding is that the Senate was created by the Founders to protect the nation from “the tyranny of the majority.” In that the present-day Senate has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The Senate has digressed to a gaggle of pompous, self-important, gasbags whose goal in life is to take anything good that comes from the House and whittle away at it until it’s mush.
NR
@Uriel: Obama didn’t hesitate to twist arms to kill drug reimportation.
But go on thinking he’s on our side!
Dennis SGMM
@Yutsano:
We have lots of skunks in our part of town because there are plenty of old homes with nice foundations and some missing or rusted away screens on the ventilation openings. The skunks are pretty calm. We’ve had them pop out of the greenery less than five feet away from us and as long as everyone holds still no one gets stunk up. Our dog knows only one command, “Sit!” and he’s very good at it.
My experience with deodorizing people or pets who’ve been sprayed is that tomato juice just makes you smell like skunk+tomato juice. What has worked is a mixture of:
1 quart 3 percent hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
1 teaspoon liquid soap or dish detergent
Carol
@Davis X. Machina: I remember that now. They wanted to show Nancy a lesson by running against her in an 80% Democratic district. Sheehan had no roots or support in the district, no bona fides whatsoever, but they wanted to make Nancy suffer because of the war.
Never mind that it was Bush’s war to begin with, or that foreign policy is largely a Senate function, Nancy was bad because she didn’t immediately enter office and demand Bush be impeached.
ChrisNBama
“To die a slow death.”
This legislation has zero chance of passage in the Upper Chamber. As with all things in the Senate, sixty votes are needed to even allow debate on any particular measure.
I now understand why filibuster reform will not be on the docket. Come 2013, it will be the tool that the democrats use to stymie the republican controlled Senate.
dr. bloor
@Suffern ACE:
Perhaps it’s just me, but the thought of a fully-occupied Capitol building floating away on the power of occupant-generated methane does not evoke the word “crisis” in my mind.
Michael
OT, sort of (but fitting with the “assholes” tag), over at the Daily Slinkerwink (fka GOS), criticizing slinkerwink is discrimination against the deaf or something.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/12/8/927140/-What-Is-Bigotry-Against-Deaf-People-Audism.-
It looks like I’ve gotten another username banned yet again for criticizing her.
Guess I’ll have to get a new one and pick on the twit some more.
kay
@Uriel:
It’s true, as far as it goes, but I think it’s not specific enough.
Sometimes, Senators are acting on behalf of their state. I think that should always be in the analysis, not because I love them and want to be generous to them, but because it’s true, and looking at all their motives is helpful when you want to move one or two off a position.
UI extension is one example. The whole country doesn’t have a high unemployment rate. Thirty states do, but 10 are middling-bad and 10 don’t have a bad rate at all. It’s useless to expect a Senator from a state with a low unemployment rate to go to bat for UI extension. They won’t. Arguably, they are representing their state’s interests. UI isn’t an issue in those states.
Climate change is another. Very liberal Senators from rust belt states opposed movement on climate change. Michigan, Ohio, Illinois. Manufacturing and agriculture use a lot of energy, and those states have high heating costs (and the coal issue). That has to be addressed, if there’s any hope of movement on climate change, ever. We’re going to have to offer them something so they can do the right thing for their country and their state. If we don’t, if we assume they’re always acting in bad faith, we’ll fail.
I think you have to factor the legit state interests in, or you’re spinning your wheels in terms of the Senate.
Mike Lamb
@jcricket: That assumes, of course, that the 40 senators are actually representing their constituents’ interest within that 13% of the population.
Cain
@Villago Delenda Est:
They always have. Wu, and the others are already signaling “no tax cuts for the rich” so 3 out of the 4 reps in OR are voting the right way. Greg Walden will always vote the opposite of the rest. But then he’s a republican. (although not particularly objectional one.. at least he is not a demagogue)
Go Oregon! Fuck it is awesome to live in a state when the only thing we can do is bitch at every one else for not doing the right thing. :-)
OH yeah, apparently the city of portland ended up with a budget surplus, proving liberal people are more fiscally conservative than fiscal conservatives) Yay.
cain
Bulworth
Yeah but Get Off My Lawn McCain doesn’t like it now so that means all the very serious moderates in the Senate and the press will have to be against it too. Obama just wants to ram this bill down our throats and bipartisanship, etc. Freedom!