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

otoh if ppl were just competing to purchase votes, that could drive up the price of individual votes in close races. probably smart to hold onto yr vote until the last week in a real toss-up state. might be able to cash in.

this is what i was thinking of

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/swing-vote

bobby jindalmao

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/01/exclusive-bobby-jindal-block-obama-trade-deal-to-stop-him-from-doing-more-harm-to-america/

Wow, this guy is in the House?!!

http://boingboing.net/2015/05/01/computer-scientistcongressman.html

https://twitter.com/RepTedLieu

those internal 'liberty score' ranks on breitbart are something... not sure what to think..

Breaking: Hillary Clinton Gains Favor, Times/CBS Poll Says

looking like she's gonna adopt a lot of leftist/populist talking points, as this is the expedient thing to do to unify her party. seems to me the big question is going to be coattails - can the Dems take back Congress on the back of her presidential campaign - which seems like a big "if" given current gerrymandering of House seats. If that does actually happen there may be a brief window where some decent legislation gets passed, maybe a climate change bill, or an immigration bill. I'm not particularly hopeful though.

Im not gonna believe anything Hillary says in light of the 08 Obama list of promises of which he delivered like 5%

idk why you have to bring Obama into it, Hillary is plenty untrustworthy on her own

That poll confirms the Beltway chatter of the last three months matters fuck all to voters, as do her chances to ruin those voters.

Normal people do not give the slightest squeeze about who to vote for in 2016 now.

Hillary is a fucking piece of shit, piss on her and the Fellated War Criminal.

(that's for Mordy and his highly evolved moral sense)

u kno what tho i can take it. it seems like yr much more miserable than i am. maybe bc hillary is going to be the next POTUS.

perhaps, she'd fit nicely in that gallery of assholes

yeah looking at the Clintons some more in my dying years will make me even more miserable, get your popcorn.

http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/president-barack-obama-eats-popcorn-everett.jpg

but back to Congress:

when does Bibi speak again?

former speaker Jim Wright dies: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/us/politics/jim-wright-house-speaker-who-resigned-amid-ethics-charges-dies-at-92.html?ref=politics&_r=0&gwh=2AE6B4C1BCD62365697D74DCF184AB4D&gwt=pay

nice to see the courts starting to do their job re: the Patriot Act and the NSA: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/appeals-court-rules-nsa-record-collection-violates-patriot-act/2015/05/07/c4fabfb8-f4bf-11e4-bcc4-e8141e5eb0c9_story.html

Yes. Not gonna think about possible appeal or Congressional action.

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--1HILRGV8--/o5u63o3xrktxcvrjoifq.jpg

newt

oculus rift

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/why-obama-is-happy-to-fight-elizabeth-warren-on-118537612596.html

Hersh story have potential to credibly damage anyone? Seems... a bit tinfoil hat.

A link, sure there's more

It's nice to see that Matt Bai is still perpetrating the unreadable Beltway brownnosing that was his signature at the NYTimes, so thx Mordy.

fyi unreadable does not mean the same thing as "I can't read."

...right to left

don't you accuse us of going the other way most of the time?

holy fuuuuu

http://i.gyazo.com/58fdbf5dac8201cf423a2da5dfb84b22.png

The fate of the bill was further in question when eight pro-trade Senate Democrats emerged from a strategy meeting to declare their opposition to the motion to take up the bill.

“This is a group that is thoroughly committed to getting this bill passed,” declared Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee. But he criticized “a lack of a commitment to trade enforcement.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/business/senate-vote-obama-fast-track-trade-deal.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

did

did wyden just piledrive his tag team partner

http://i.imgur.com/hURWMXb.jpg

You know, I hate Harry Reid, but I'm going to miss him all the same.

DELICIOUS IRONING

“If there are senators with concerns about particular details of the trade agenda before us, that’s all the more reason to vote to debate it,” Mr. McConnell said. “Let’s have those conversations in an open and transparent way. But we can’t debate any of the provisions senators want to consider if they vote to filibuster even getting on this bill.”

wow

cloture vote failed

two weeks ago this thing was supposed to sail through the senate and we were just fighting to make it a close vote

this is blowing my mind

senator turtleman speaking now really sounding like he's ready to bring this back around asap but we just knocked a leg off this tripod

at least Bam can console himself with the drilling off Alaska he signed off on this week.

on the Trade Adjustment Assistance bill - just curious, but how do they define "workers displaced by trade agreements"?

obviously it's a good idea, but wondering how it works logistically. it's one thing when an auto manufacturer in the U.S. gets bought out by an overseas company, which then shuts down the plant. but what about situations where the connection isn't so obvious?

xpost yeah, it's gonna be a ton of fun when there's a Deepwater Horizon in the Arctic Ocean. i swear our collective memory span is about 14 seconds

social security birth to the earth, or no deal

maybe repeatedly kicking your own party in the balls to get this passed was a bad route to take for our boy barry.. when mitch mcconnell is your ally in getting something passed ur fucked.

bbbut 'bipartisanship'

on the Trade Adjustment Assistance bill - just curious, but how do they define "workers displaced by trade agreements"?

a group of workers have to file a petition and the petition is investigated by DOL to see if trade 'contributed notably' to the layoffs, basically looking for a shift in the company's production to some country where we have a trade deal

that's about 102% of what i know about TAA tbh

this is encouraging!

incredible

"This is about trying to accomplish something important for the country that happens to be the president’s No. 1 domestic priority,” Mr. McConnell said.

lol how does he say this with a straight blobfishface

very slowly

I like how the implication is that Obama's no. 1 domestic priority is just, y'know totally coincidentally, important for the country

This take on it makes it just sound like a slight delay

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_05/fasttrack_sidestepped_by_senat055516.php

Democratic fast-track supporters, including original cosponsor of the TPA bill in question, Ron Wyden, refused to let the bill go because Republicans would not agree to schedule voters on two related bills, one on currency manipulation and another on trade preferences for African countries.