US POLITICS: AMERICANS, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR NEW PRESIDENT... SCOTT BROWN!

i would love to see the weird american definition of 'liberal' eliminated from our political discourse

wait, why? which weird definition do you mean?

"liberal" = Communist douche

it just bugs me that 'liberal' means something different in most other english-speaking countries

Hell, "conservative" means something else in England.

really it bugs me that 'liberal' has got a good fairly specific useful meaning on its own thats been co-opted here to essentially mean 'nonspecific left-wing'

"liberal" = Communist douche

i don't think that's the perception. "Communist douche" sounds like a possible tough-guy. i'd say the perception is more "liberal" = bleeding-hearted, weak sissies.

tho i understand that its not really up to me and its not like the european def. of 'liberal' is "correct" or anything

yeah i mean i know what you mean, but at the same time i think the word serves (or has served) a useful purpose in staking out sort of moderate-left ground in the u.s. we don't have "social democrats" or whatever else might apply

i've always self-identified as a liberal, because i don't identify as a socialist (or "a democrat," for that matter), so there's not much else for me to lean on as shorthand.

Yeah in America 'liberal' comes with a silent 'bleeding heart. It is much like the situation with feminism, where someone reflexively against the idea of the hairy armpit is presented with single statements such as 'a paid job done by equally qualified individuals should be equally compensated y/n' which they are all 'y' with and then you tell them they're a feminist whether they want to believe it or not, so please stop complaining about what other women want.

The joke about the Carter/Reagan paradigm, of course, is that Jimmy was just a defense-boondoggle, Central American- and Iranian-dictator-lovin' imperialist who liked to smilingly lie "I'll never tell a lie" -- hence a "liberal."

Why it matters how we talk about abortion coverage in health care, at my local, fucking painful-to-think-about level.

Years of softening the position in order to gain traction/get compromises results in shit like this, and will continue to do so. Thanks, everybody for whom reproductive health is a nifty bargaining chip. I'm sure the women of Wake County appreciate you as much as I do. Please note that I'm linking the article from when they were considering it, but now it's a done deal.

reading that article makes it sound like its pretty unlikely that abortion cov'g will be taken away?

oh sorry missed your last sentence

note the "update" at the top of the article

Wake's Republican commissioners raised the abortion issue after it debuted in Apex. There, a Republican town council led by Mayor Keith Weatherly voted in mid-January to eliminate coverage for abortions, unless they were deemed medically necessary for the health of the mother.

As The Cary News reported, while the issue in Apex "was couched initially as a decision of fiscal responsibility, moral and political undertones loomed large." Weatherly was quoted in the newspaper as saying, "Apex can't actually prohibit abortions, whether it's for an employee or not. But our plan can."

Weatherly, who worked for strident choice foe Jesse Helms years ago, now is an assistant to N.C. House Minority Leader Paul Stam, R-Wake, an opponent of abortion rights throughout his career.

Stam's role in the Apex and Wake County maneuvers isn't clear. He refused to be interviewed by the Indy.

But Stam's Twitter feeds indicate that he's been closely following the national debate on health insurance, so doubtless he's aware of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which would make it illegal for any insurance plan to cover elective abortions if the federal government subsidized the purchase of the plan in any way.

This is why, when the president makes a point of assuring the GOP that abortion won't be included in federal health care, it matters. These are the results of moderate slow-progress Democrats deciding that the right to choose is negotiable within health care.

It makes me angry.

I don't see why the discourse should be restricted to liberal, conservative, and the degrees in between (centrist, left-center, right-center, lukewarmish-center, etc).

Because then it would be less easy to control political discourse. For the most part all those terms work towards describing a remarkably narrow set of political beliefs while giving the inverse impression by polarizing. Note how 'bleeding heart liberals' don't mind continuing the War On Terror, and 'neocons' vote for giant socialist bailouts for banks.

I guess that statement belongs in the "Are Democrats and Republicans The Same?" thread...

it would be best for the democratic party and everyone in general if evan bayh was voted out of office in november, frankly

― max, Tuesday, January 26, 2010 5:48 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

looks like your wish that Bayh leave is about to come true

So long motherfucker.

What an absolute bitchnose.

"Congress is... hard"

Fucking the Democrats twice-over even as he retires:

http://www.swingstateproject.com/diary/6407/insen-bayh-retiring

i wonder why he isn't running. that line about "i can do more meaningful work outside of congress" is a pile of nonsense. he is a bland, robotic political operative. and he's a moderate, so it isn't like he's all for a hard-left agenda that's been frustrated by the gop.

democrats' chances in 2010 must be worse than even the typical midterm election cycle.

He was running as late as last week, so this is sudden and very very fishy. Another IN Dem has to file by Friday to run for that seat. What a selfish douche.

OR MAYBE AN EXCITING SEX SCANDAL IS ON THE HORIZON

EVAN BAYH <3 HOOKERS

hard to tell whether bayh is fucking over the democratic party more when hes in the senate or when hes not in the senate imo

purge all the Bayh types

man it's like that great moderate middle... doesn't even exist. what has david broder been telling me?

purge all the Bayh types

you are either with us or against us

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/02/more_weirdness.php

heckuva job, bahyie

WHO WILL THE INDIANA DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOMINATE?

so does this mean that barring a big swing in public opinion or the economy, GOP is favored to take the senate?

He's the one with a wife running a major health insurance thing, yes?

so does this mean that barring a big swing in public opinion or the economy, GOP is favored to take the senate?

that would take a 20-seat swing for the gop, i believe. not sure how big a swing that is, historically, for the party in power during an off-year election.

oh man, feel the genius here

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjZhNmU5ZjEzMGJkZmQ3ZGE0OWU3YzJjM2FjZDJmZTQ=

One of Goldberg's readers shows as much acumen:

Hi Jonah,

I know things are looking bad for the Dems right now but I would have thought Bayh had a secure seat. Any chance he wants to lay low for this election cycle and then challenge Obama in 2012? As Democrats go, Bayh occasionally shows a bit of common sense (and winning in Indiana suggests the voters think so to).

If 2010 turns out to be a bigger wipeout than 1994 then Obama will face a challenger. Bayh could point to his record of warning fellow Democrats of the mistakes Obama was making and a 2010 debacle would suggest he was right. I don't know if he could defeat Obama in a primary challenge but he could have a shot, especially in states with open primaries and states with a a more moderate (i.e. White) base. Running as the savior of a party must have some appeal to Bayh.

This stuff is better than following sports. I hope you and your family are doing well.

obama v. bayh in 2012, for the lols.

i.e. White base

tbh, i doubt bayh would pander to that base (but he might see it as a natural constituency). he'd be a pretty weak challenger/rallying cry for that base, tho.

Running as the savior of a party must have some appeal to Bayh.

oh, the funny things that right-wingers say ...

now, were hilary clinton to abruptly resign in the next year or two, then i'd wonder about a rematch (which would be ugly).

sorry, hillary clinton.

(alfred, do you read other people's posts? that's the exact thing i linked to, right above yours)

man so the fuck long evan bayh you slimy piece of shit

btw this asshole can make do more meaningful work outside of congress where "meaningful work" means for his bank account not the public

btw this asshole can make do more meaningful work outside of congress where "meaningful work" means for his bank account not the public

yeah, that sounds just about right. even nowadays and wr2 Blue Dogs, it isn't quite kosher for Democratic elected officials to just come right out and say that they're going onto the lucrative lobbying/whoring circuit instead of cutting loose w/ some pious-sounding malarkey about "meaningful work" and "public service" and that kind of shit.

He's the one with a wife running a major health insurance thing, yes?

― extra awesome blossom (suzy), Monday, February 15, 2010 5:34 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

xxxxxp
would be interested to know if this is true - lieberman's wife's involved in a health charity, would be super depressing if they're both so ironically sidekicked.