US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

ahahaha

Clinton then told Ryan that if he ever wanted to talk about it, he should give him a call.

"it" = "forcing the Democrats to abandon their we-have-a-plan-it's-called-Medicare proposal," not "French whores."

are you sure you mean "not" and not "as well as"

is Ryan an expert in French whores or something

French manicures maybe

I am still getting petition emails urging my reps to push for Medicare-for-All. What planet are these libs living on?

Bacteria? Domestic companion animals? Clouds? Intangible concepts? Bad dates? Mets' economical situation?

"a bit of a Republican-on-Republican rumpus"

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/us/politics/26medicare.html

Really could go without ever hearing this phrase again, thnx nytimes

But after a 2010 election that seemed to signal not only a Republican resurgence but also a rejection of big government and a need for bold, Tea Party-type steps to slash spending, the politics now look much more complicated. Both parties are being reminded anew that voters like the idea of budget cuts, but that they often recoil when those cuts threaten the programs that touch their lives.

NO SHIT

Droppin' knowledge.

dang -

http://www.scribd.com/doc/56293824/Patrick-McHenry-330

Obama needs to make Warren a recess appointment. McHenry and company will never let her get an up or down vote.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/joshua_green/santorum_richard.jpg

little bit aero if you ask me

voted most likely to become a euphemism for anal froth

The main target of the Democratic attacks, Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, who authored the GOP Medicare plan, conceded his proposal does give Democrats a political tool to hold up next fall.

"If you're willing to lie and demagogue Medicare and scare seniors, then yeah, they have a political weapon," Ryan told CNN.

awww pobrecito

All he and the Republicans have to do is repeat that often enough and everyone will believe it; the news media think that actually judging statements on their merits is either beneath them or overly "partisan"

/broken record

the media's power has its limits, a whole section of the GOPs constituency is genuinely freaked out by drastic changes to medicare, and that 'message' ie actual real thing has already percolated out there

what ryan is mad about is that his plan is supposed to lock in anyone who is 55 now (i think?) and start taking it away to anyone younger. and democrats are making it out (are they?) like it's going to be shut off next week for everyone.

but then ryan and his defenders are saying that nothing bad is going to happen to medicare, ever! it's just going to be cheaper and better and choicier.

in truth i'm never happy when politics swings on the touchy selfishness of old people but it's working for "us" in this instance i guess /generationalgrievance

in the meantime cornerites et al are making a deal out of how the WH-proposed budget got 100% no votes in the senate. i'm kind of assuming this is a procedural thing, but i don't know? anyone?

total procedural thing AFAIK; the Democrats want to start over so all of them voted no

as an aside, WI is still interesting:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/05/26/wisconsin.collective.bargaining/index.html?hpt=T2

Judge Maryann Sumi

you can find really terrific things written about her on some very informative websites and blogs! especially comments!

Posted this on The Corner thread:

Instead of being intimidated by the demagogues and their compliant MSM, find ways to out-message them. It's time to start explaining how messed-up Medicare already is. Somebody elaborated on this on the comment boards here just the other day. Also, find people over 55 who would rather have Ryancare than Medicare. They definitely exist, and their reasons will be illuminating.

Ron Wyden: more secret shit in the Patriot Act than you're all aware.

x-post re medicare

Karl Rove said the same thing in his Wall Street journal column:

Next year, Republicans must describe their Medicare reforms plainly, set the record straight vigorously when Democrats demagogue, and go on the attack. Congressional Republicans—especially in the House—need a political war college that schools incumbents and challengers in the best way to explain, defend and attack on the issue of Medicare reform. They have to become as comfortable talking about Medicare in the coming year as they did in talking about health-care reform last year.

There needs to be preparation and self-education, followed by extensive town halls, outreach meetings, visits to senior citizen centers, and the use of every available communications tool to get the reform message across.

http://nation.foxnews.com/karl-rove/2011/05/26/rove-op-ed-why-republican-lost-ny-26

Democrats won only because a third-party candidate—self-proclaimed tea partier Jack Davis—spent a reported $3 million of his own money.

More balderdash from the master.

The Patriot Act stuff is so depressing. It's pathetic how few senators will support reform. Reid's eagerness to extend it with no changes is incredibly disappointing. Naive me expected a little better.

Harry Reid has been an asshat.

Congress is set to reauthorize three controversial provisions of the surveillance law as early as Thursday. Wyden (D-Oregon) says that powers they grant the government on their face, the government applies a far broader legal interpretation — an interpretation that the government has conveniently classified, so it cannot be publicly assessed or challenged.

thank god they classified that legal interpretation, i'm sure al qaeda could wreak some real havoc with that

what ryan is mad about is that his plan is supposed to lock in anyone who is 55 now (i think?) and start taking it away to anyone younger. and democrats are making it out (are they?) like it's going to be shut off next week for everyone.

but then ryan and his defenders are saying that nothing bad is going to happen to medicare, ever! it's just going to be cheaper and better and choicier.

― goole, Thursday, May 26, 2011 5:07 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

Even on the only-under-55 issue, seems to me Democrats have a nice political argument here -- "You've been paying for Medicare for 20 or 30 years, and now Republicans want to take it away from you!"

It doesn't matter how many years you pay for it - the principle is still the same whether you've been at work 52 weeks or 52 years. And some of us have been paying into Social Security with various jobs since the age of 14.

no, they just want to give it back to you! in the form of small checks that you can give to all those insurers just dying to cover a 65 year old!

Most articles i read today described the Patriot Act bill by it's actuall name. I just pulled up my Google Reader and found the NYTimes extolling

'Senate Votes to Extend Terror-Fighting Bill'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F6sCeptJIM&feature=player_embedded

btw it's the USA PATRIOT Act (yes, it's an acronym)

so it's Hubert Humphrey's 100th birthday. He had his good points, but mostly dud as Hunter Thompaon testified. The Nixonland author has a fawning Op piece on HHH in the NYT (and dumps on McGovern as "self-righteous," so I guess I'll skip that book). Very amusingly, the very first word of the piece is inaccurate (Reagan's birth month).

I accepted Thompson's view of Humphrey for so long that it was a genuine shock to read Caro's LBJ bio and learn his passionate commitment to civil rights.

and, no, I wouldn't skip Nixonland, in which Humphrey comes off worse than McGovern.

Poor, downtrodden Minnesotan white people with mortgages still complain that Humphrey was far too nice to 'minorities'.

didn't HHH stall Fannie Lou Hamer and the integrated Mississippi delegation at the '64 convention while the Dems voted to unseat them? yesssss

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Lou_Hamer#Hamer_at_the_Democratic_National_Convention

"Do you mean to tell me that your position is more important than four hundred thousand black people's lives? Senator Humphrey, I know lots of people in Mississippi who have lost their jobs trying to register to vote. I had to leave the plantation where I worked in Sunflower County, Mississippi. Now if you lose this job of Vice-President because you do what is right, because you help the MFDP, everything will be all right. God will take care of you. But if you take [the nomination] this way, why, you will never be able to do any good for civil rights, for poor people, for peace, or any of those things you talk about. Senator Humphrey, I'm going to pray to Jesus for you."

He was a unionbuster as mayor of Minneapolis too, eh?

Alabama lawmaker switches parties thanks to GOP rhetoric

that's pretty amazing, but the TPM article is typically agit-prop about it. it would be interesting to know if there's some more backstory there (i imagine there is).

I had the same thought.

i don't think morbs would like nixonland, really, but perlman's take on mcgovern is much more nuanced than just calling him "self-righteous." during the period of time nixonland covers, humphrey really was not at his best.

uh perlstein, duh

Caro's LBJ bio

just wanna say that this series was the most important thing i think i ever read to understand politics/power + america

the power broker is even better!