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

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2015/12/28/deep-south-4/

Other factors add to the difficulty of the poor finding work. Those who can’t afford to live in city centers often must depend on walking, hitching rides or laborious public transportation commutes. A 2011 Brookings Institution report ranking public transit in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas found that 15 of the weakest 20 systems — judged by coverage and job access — were in the South. They included systems in Birmingham, Ala.; Greenville, S.C.; Baton Rouge; and Atlanta — where, in earlier decades, majority-white suburbs voted against the expansion of a transit system they viewed as being primarily for black residents.

The lack of physical mobility feeds into the deeper but related problem of economic immobility: Areas throughout the South — and Atlanta in particular — provide among the lowest chances that someone born into poverty will move up the income ladder.

Over the past 20 years, Atlanta’s wealthiest areas, spread along the north of the city, have changed little. But formerly middle-class suburbs to the south — areas of modest single-family homes — have been deluged by newcomers who lost homes as city officials dismantled dozens of housing projects in the hopes of reducing concentrated poverty. Experts who have studied Atlanta’s economic geography say the change has been partly successful; class no longer changes so clearly between neighborhoods, but meanwhile, the poor — given modest vouchers to help subsidize their housing costs — must head far from the city to find places they can afford.

http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/president-barack-obama-just-tell-him-you-re-the-president

"centrist" POS Steve Israel, D-NY, not running for House reelection

but don't fuss, Debbie endures

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a41011/debbie-wasserman-schultz-abortion/

I gotta say, Obama was at his best in yesterday's town hall:

"I'm sorry, Cooper, yes," the President laughed. "It is fair to call it a conspiracy. Are you suggesting the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody's guns away so we can impose martial law is not a conspiracy? Yes, that is a conspiracy. I would hope that you would agree with that." President Obama then turned the question back on Cooper, asking, "Is that controversial?" "There are certainly a lot of people who just have a fundamental distrust that you do not want to go further and further and further," Cooper countered. Incredulous, Obama reminded everyone that he's only going to be in office another year. "When would I have started on this enterprise?" he asked.

lol yes

nu thread for a nu year of the s.o.s.

"Debbie endures"? Say rather, The Deb Abides.

paul lepage, everyone. wtf.

what a great wiki

4 Governor of Maine
4.1 2010 election
4.2 2014 election
4.3 Tenure
4.3.1 Overview
4.3.2 Hiring of family members
4.3.3 2011 MLK Day activities
4.3.4 "Little Beards"
4.3.5 Renaming conference rooms and removing murals
4.3.6 Criticism of state employees
4.3.7 Education reform efforts
4.3.8 "The new Gestapo" remark
4.3.9 Jobless benefits work
4.3.10 Alleged censorship and office move
4.3.11 Vaseline comment
4.3.12 Views on newspapers
4.3.13 President Obama
4.3.14 Federal government shutdown response
4.3.15 Meetings with a group alleged to be connected with the "Sovereign Citizen movement"
4.3.16 Good Will-Hinckley funding threat

can we poll those

4.3.11 Vaseline comment

Little Beards are the hot new band out of DC

on calling the IRS the 'New Gestapo':

"On July 12, while at a fundraiser for Vermont gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock, LePage was questioned about his comment. When asked by a reporter if he knew what the Gestapo did, LePage said that he knew they "killed a lot of people" and that he thought the IRS, while not there yet, was headed towards killing many people as well. LePage clarified that he did not think the IRS would intentionally kill anyone, but that he meant the IRS would eventually ration the medical care of Americans, which would result in deaths."

so it would act like republicans?

American politics 2016: Lawyers, Guns, and D-Money