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

Already playing Madonna's "Who's That Girl" and making kissy faces.

This is going to take all weekend if every one of these guys ignores the 2 minute limit.

okay now let's party

ok, the actual vote-vote passes 33-29

xp yay!

actually proud of my state legislature for once :)

Empire Shame
June 24, 2011 6:20 P.M.
By Kathryn Jean Lopez

The New York State senate appears to be moving the marriage bill to the floor, with agreement on still-weak religious protections. (You may want to give your representatives a Friday-night holler.)

They also happen to be redefining marriage in it.

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan calls it a “a real David and Goliath battle.”

david & goliath must be wondering now why they've been forced to fuck each other

especially with David's rocks.

maybe someone will propose to k-lo now

when did they pass the bill officially determining the sex of a meatball sub?

http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2009/10/28/description20091028otpkjlobamainsult.jpg

"Well, J0rdan, it depends on the size of said meatballs..."

otm:

Really? Marriage is a civil right? In that case I claim my civil right to marry Halle Barry.

And if she refuses, can I sue her for violating my civil rights?

fth!

http://exit78.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/gay-new-york.jpg

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg734/scaled.php?tn=0&server=734&filename=d8jqr.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640

good stuff NY, congratz.

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnbr1dHW1x1qzr73ro1_500.png

yay something good happened!

meanwhile

http://www.economist.com/node/18867622?

America’s wars continue to account for many of the world’s refugees: 4.7m originate from Iraq and Afghanistan, almost half the world’s total, according to the UNHCR’s annual report.

The countries they end up in will just have to cut back on programs like universal health care and awesome vacations to deal w our mess. Europe getting less liberal will help us in our unending march towards a glorious global corporatist/plutocratic state.

saw grover norquist on tv yesterday. can somehow smash that guy in the fucking face plz?

wtf

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=33921&sid=584b0a9f14023a423dafe5f81a880c73

ironic considering my last comment i guess :)

404!

click it again

amateurist is that 'isthmus' story about the conservative wisconsin chief justice choking his colleague?

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_0eccd0ea-9f33-11e0-b4f1-001cc4c03286.html

prosser and walker should both be in jail

('isthmus' link didn't work for me; sorry for double-posting)

now what in the hell

is wisconsin chief justice david prosser gonna have to choke a bitch?

house votes to reject authorization of us mission in libya, but rejects a bill that would limit funds for that mission - weiiird/lame party breakdown too. ron paul voted against limiting funds, which is confusing me

amateurist is that 'isthmus' story about the conservative wisconsin chief justice choking his colleague?

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_0eccd0ea-9f33-11e0-b4f1-001cc4c03286.html

prosser and walker should both be in jail

― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, June 25, 2011 12:03 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah. holy wtf.

i hate it when people bait me into choking them, they are such a-holes.

he's not chief justice btw

very interesting account of how the votes for the gay marriage bill were gotten

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/nyregion/the-road-to-gay-marriage-in-new-york.html

i'm a bit confused as to how cuomo managed to get those moneyed republican donors to back this issue - i suppose he convinced them that the tax cap was going to happen and asked for a couple votes in return?

not that i'm all that gung-ho about cuomo either, but here's nate silver on how his approach tpo leadership differs from obama's

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/cuomos-presidential-moment-forms-contrast-with-obama/?gwh=1A723B3D51CFAD0874EF51418F24EFEA

I’m generally of the view that individual politicians receive both more credit and more blame than they deserve, with legislative and electoral outcomes usually determined by broad cultural, economic and political undercurrents. But the type of leadership that Mr. Cuomo exercised — setting a lofty goal, refusing to take no for an answer and using every tool at his disposal to achieve it — is reminiscent of the stories sometimes told about with President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had perhaps the most impressive record of legislative accomplishment of any recent president.

It’s also a brand of leadership that many Democrats I speak with feel is lacking in President Obama.

Mr. Obama has some considerable achievements, including his health care bill and the reversal of the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian soldiers. But he often seems to achieve them by outsourcing much of the work to Democrats in Congress or to his various lieutenants. And his considerable speaking abilities sometimes seem to be directed more toward healing the country in times of crisis than toward persuading it to move in a new direction.

I just returned from dinner and drinks with a good liberal friend who agrees with the right wing criticism of Obama we often read: the president is pedantic, hectoring, and unduly defensive when criticized, and his rhetoric overrated. And he's not a guy who follows politics as avidly as some of us. "I just don't know what the guy will STAND for," he said. "He doesn't take any risks."

yeah i dunno, cuomo sold out a couple liberal constituencies and only really ended up with this result by a single vote thanks to the help of rich donors

The trick then is to persuade PACs to hire lobbyists to persuade the Wall Street plutocrats on meaningful social legislation.

maybe im being pessimistic, im incredibly happy that gay marriage was legalized, but id be a lot more impressed if cuomo was able to pass a bill that pissed off rich people

xp

Eliot Spitzer can tell us a thing or two about what happens when you make unpleasant noises in front of Wall Street plutocrats.

yeah. :-/

maybe im being pessimistic, im incredibly happy that gay marriage was legalized, but id be a lot more impressed if cuomo was able to pass a bill that pissed off rich people

xp

― ☂ (max), Saturday, June 25, 2011 10:43 PM (40 minutes ago)

yeah again my understanding is that the tax cap/weak rent rules/etc was pretty much a trade for gay marriage

and it's prob a bad look to be cynical about this already but cuomo just HAD to get this to pass - while this is obviously awesome and huge it's pretty great insurance against crtitism from the left over the rest of his record this session

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/business/global/26bridge.html

we're #1! we're #1! lol

Washington Post is pushing the notion that Republicans will accept defense cuts as long as they get to keep tax breaks for rich oil companies and get to maintain the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

Lets do both. Why can't Obama say "Reagan raised taxes. Republicans who are are you with-- Reagan or Norquist." Yes, Reagan cut taxes initially but then he later raised them a number of times.

By do both I mean--cut defense spending AND get rid of tax breaks and rich folks Bush tax cuts.

Obama just keeps saying "we need revenue" which I guess sounds better politically even if it will not educate anyone on the real facts.

Yglesias re Cuomo's leadership versus Obama and the differences:

if the US Senate operated on a 50 vote rule, then both the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank bill would have gone further in advancing progressive priorities, there would have been more economic stimulus in the 111th Congress, the DREAM Act would have passed, and it’s conceivable that some kind of nationwide carbon pricing scheme would be in place.

Which is just to say that political institutions matter, a lot. Getting concurrent majorities in two legislative houses, as Cuomo did, is very hard. Getting a 60 percent supermajority is harder.

Although nate Silver may have meant that Obama needs to try harder to get 60 and needs to get more involved in the sausage-making details