American Politics Thread 2014

i think Karl Malone put that in the climate thread in September

cromnibus passes Senate 56-40

The thinnest of silver linings:

While Republican senators were fuming at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) for holding up a $1.1 trillion spending bill aimed at preventing a government shutdown, Democrats saw a silver lining: the move by Cruz and Lee gave Democrats an opening to move a number of President Barack Obama's nominees for federal judgeships and the executive branch.

What happened was that when Cruz and Lee scuttled a deal between Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that would have allowed lawmakers to leave Washington D.C. for the weekend and come back Monday they gave Democrats a chance to advance Obama's presidential appointees by having to stay in D.C. to deal with the spending bill.

surgeon general too fwiw

Thanks Ted. From the NY Times story on this:

By carving out more legislative time, Mr. Cruz inadvertently enabled the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, to advance two dozen nominations, including several contentious ones that would otherwise have faced a more difficult confirmation process.

“It will have the end result of causing nominees who I think are not well qualified to be confirmed, so I don’t understand the approach that he is taking,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. “And I think it’s very unfortunate and counterproductive.”

nominees who I think are not well qualified

I'd love to hear her opinion on some of dubya's appointments who were duly confirmed by the senate. Head of FEMA comes quickly to mind.

Also buried in the giant spending bill that cleared the Senate on Saturday and is headed to President Obama for his signature were provisions that prohibit the federal government from requiring less salt in school lunches and allow schools to obtain exemptions from whole-grain requirements for pasta and tortillas.

The watered-down standards for school meals were a setback for the first lady, Michelle Obama, who had vowed to fight “until the bitter end” for tougher nutrition standards. But they were a victory for food companies and some local school officials, who had sought changes in regulations that are taking effect over several years

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/us/politics/in-final-spending-bill-salty-food-and-belching-cows-are-winners.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

the earlier we start naturally selecting the children fittest to survive -- in this case, those who know better than to eat unhealthy school lunches -- the better off those future freedom leaders will be

the Art of the Possible According to benbbag

this made me lol unreasonably hard

have a better sense of both the art and the possible than the commenter(s) tbh

^Lonesome Rhodes

let us lol at this activist judge

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-medical-pot-20141216-story.html

Dana Rohrabacher is a horrible douchebag but I guess even horrible douchebags can do good things sometimes

wow that... snuck under the radar

only in effect till next september tho

^Lonesome Rhodes

― things lose meaning over time (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, December 16, 2014 8:28 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A young Lee Remick? Yes, please.

Dana Rohrabacher is a horrible douchebag but I guess even horrible douchebags can do good things sometimes

http://www.azquotes.com/quote/579754

Same sense of entitlement that applies to the money side of privilege; no surprise that easy riders went right-wing.

(n.b. "douchebag" "good things" are umlaut's, not mine)

maybe it's the paucity of good news these days but i found the announcement of changes in cuba policy really moving

finally.

anyone wanna bet obama and the next attorney general, after 14 long, long years, try khalid sheikh mohammed before the supreme court, then cheney and bush for torture, pre-empting whatever republican bullshit showtrials are planned for the next two years? i'll wager 911 WMDs!

that would be a good SNL alt-universe sketch, where Obama turns into Noam Chomsky

he's a socialist muslim though i've heard tell

obama could literally turn into noam chomsky tomorrow and you'd still get ppl calling him worse than cheney

i don't think we need to worry

maybe it's the paucity of good news these days but i found the announcement of changes in cuba policy really moving

surprised there hasn't been more chatter about it here --- seems like kind of a big deal, no?

well people helpfully revived every cuba thread they could find

Rubio looks like a little kid with a combover

obama could literally turn into noam chomsky tomorrow and you'd still get ppl calling him worse than cheney

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, December 17, 2014 2:14 PM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I have to hand it to you, that is one hell of a 1st class, never-to-be-testable conditional hypothetical posing as an obviously verifiable assertion.

but let's look forward not backward

or sideward into alternate dimensions

its too late I guess no one cares about the cigars anymore

sometimes a cigar is just a middle finger to marco rubio

xp: cigars could very well turn into bacon as a result of these events.

Washington Post editorial is against the Cuba change, because creating diplomatic relations with Vietnam has not made that country a democracy or improved its human rights, and they are convinced this ochange won't help either. Plus they throw in some Venezuela comparisons.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-obama-administration-extends-the-castro-regime-in-cuba-a-bailout-it-doesnt-deserve/2014/12/17/a25a15d4-860c-11e4-9534-f79a23c40e6c_story.html

The Vietnam outcome is what the Castros are counting on: a flood of U.S. tourists and business investment that will allow the regime to maintain its totalitarian system indefinitely. Mr. Obama may claim that he has dismantled a 50-year-old failed policy; what he has really done is give a 50-year-old failed regime a new lease on life.

WaPo editorial page is a horrorshow

Mr. Obama may claim that he has dismantled a 50-year-old failed policy; what he has really done is give a 50-year-old failed regime a new lease on life.

we were THIS close to finally crushing the Castros! THIS CLOSE!

good news:

President Barack Obama can thank outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for triggering the "nuclear option" in November 2013 and securing him one of the most robust judicial legacies of any modern president.

In six years, he has appointed a whopping 307 judges, who will shape the law for decades after he leaves office. The final 12 district judges were confirmed in the closing night of the Senate session on Tuesday, Reid's final move before Democrats surrender control of the chamber.

"The Obama Administration and the United States Senate have given Americans the best possible holiday present: the gift of justice," said Nan Aron, the president of the progressive law and policy group Alliance For Justice.

A total of 132 judges were confirmed in the 113th Congress — the most since the 1970s.

Perhaps most significant is his appointment of 53 judges on federal circuit courts, which have the last word on most matters of law. When Obama took office, just one of 13 appeals courts had a majority of Democratic-appointed judges on the active bench. Today, nine of 13 appeals courts have a majority of Democratic appointees.

but:

Research by political scientists Robert Carp and Kenneth Manning finds that Obama's judges are "somewhat more liberal than the Clinton judges but slightly less liberal than the Carter and Johnson jurists," based on an analysis of rulings from 1932 to 2013 by judges appointed by each of the Democratic presidents.

which dovetails with Obama's own politics.

Still. Just the fact that they aren't repub nominees...

This is because he couldn't get any judges through before, right?

so this might be Harry Reid's legacy

I have always wanted to see the empirical facts about all these marvelous Dem-appointed judges

I tend to conclude, based on evidence, that it's in the judiciary where Dems and the GOP appoint their more liberal and conservative rubber stamps.

Quick unrelated question, needed for work: is following the US Congress or Senate debates free in the US? Is that C-Span, and does that come free for every US citizen with a basic telly or cable subscription? Ie. *not* in a package deal you need to pay extra for? Thanks in advance!

nothing is free in the US

You aren't kidding, are you?

it comes for free...with the cable package that you're expected to pay for every month in order to be a true american

I'm not kidding. Cable subscriptions cost money. C-SPAN is part of basic cable though yes. Although it should be noted that C-Span is not just 24-7 congressional proceedings, and there is more than one C-Span channel. Also Congressional and Senate debates/hearings/vote proceedings are typically excruciatingly boring. You do get some instances where people do some ridiculous name calling/grandstanding/hyperbolizing, primarily committee hearings. And then there was Newtie's innovation of speaking to an empty chamber after hours while still making out like you were addressing an assembly - dunno if anyone does that anymore...

you were he was