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

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!

he still has one volume to go, right? i have been meaning to read it for a long time

must read!

http://www.samefacts.com/2011/05/watching-conservatives/judicial-filibusters-who-started-it-and-why-does-it-matter/

happy memorial day everyone.

Just read the wiki (for what's that worth) piece on the Gang of 14 (the 7 Republicans and 7 Dems) who stopped the filibuster from being used during part of the later George w Bush years. The Dems had filibustered 10 W nominees from 2003 to 2005. Then in 2005 the Republicans threatened to use the nuclear option and get rid of the filibuster. Then the Gang of 14 stepped in:

Three of the filibustered nominees (Estrada, Pickering and Kuhl) having withdrawn, in the 109th Congress, five of the seven filibustered nominees (Owen, McKeague, Griffin, Pryor and Brown) were allowed to be confirmed as a result of the deal brokered by the Gang.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_14

I don't foresee any such deals now

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

this is the zillionth time i've seen you make this accusation about Humphrey, Morbz, and i've yet to see you ever offer any proof. so do you want to do that or are just going to repeat this a zillion more times?

Very amusingly, the very first word of the piece is inaccurate (Reagan's birth month).

Nice catch. For some reason, the only presidential birthdates I know by heart are those of Washington, Lincoln, Obama, and Reagan.

Reagan is going to be incorporated into Presidents Day eventually

Bam signed the USA PATRIOT renewal remotely from Paris, that's how much he loves it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TxCWbTqz9s

zing!

wowz!

shrug!

...wow!

i mean i'm glad to see it

but

the ad's otm but this cuts both ways, like, I teach Nietzsche & point out how Rand developed some of his ideas & my students are like, cool, religion is for the weak, let's go full Rand; iow the ad is appealing to people's basic sympathy for Judeo-Christian religion but that sympathy is obv. on the wane & Rand-type thought is a natural replacement, much much much^1000000000 more natural than some hippie ideal.

cool, religion is for the weak

But it takes a really strong person to worship himself over everyone else?

adam otm

religion is for the weak

It is only so in regard to a particular kind of strength, namely the will to power. But any mature and reflective person soon discovers that power for the sake of power is an empty bowl, unless you are a sociopath or a sadist. For example, babies are weaklings and parasites; so, what do Nietzche and Rand have to say about them? Not freaking much, because their very presence would immediately shoot holes in their world view.

...wow!

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, May 28, 2011 2:28 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

lol <3

ladies and gentlemen, rep. weiner

http://bigjournalism.com/files/2011/05/Screen-shot-2011-05-27-at-11.04.09-PM.png

^ this is a purportedly weiner's weiner fyi

With the exception of Jonathan Allen and Ben Smith of Politico, who both deserve credit for covering the Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) story we broke here at the Bigs on Friday night, the mainstream media’s silence on this objectively important story has been deafening. And now that 24 hours have passed since the story originally broke, there’s simply no way to blame the MSM’s lack of interest on the holiday weekend.
After all, this isn’t just any story. Regardless of how it all eventually breaks, what we have here is either the story of a high profile, recently married New York Congressman who’s seriously considering a Mayoral run in Manhattan, tweeting his “junk” to a young woman two decades his junior — and lying to the media about it. Or we have a story involving a high-profile Congressman’s Facebook and Twitter account being hacked with pornographic pictures.
So ask yourself: how does the MSM justify all but ignoring something so juicy? And then if you’re still not convinced of the story’s newsworthiness, remind yourself that these events are not unfolding in one of those odd, square-shaped states our journalist-class fly over every once in a while. This is a New York story that involves the trifecta of politics, sex, and a rising political star. Furthermore, the icing on the cake is Bill and Hillary Clinton. Last July, in a ceremony officiated by former President Clinton himself, Rep. Weiner married Hillary’s top aide, Huma Abedin.
Now, please don’t bother to answer any of the above questions. They were rhetorical and answered by the “D” after Rep. Weiner’s name. Naturally, the hacking of a Facebook account connected to one of the best known and most outspoken Democrats in Congress is a bonafide story … unless you’re afraid of where that story might lead. And if you’re interested in what a WeinerGate story looks like when a news outlet is terrified afraid of where it might lead,

lol

h8 breitbart so fuckin much but when they get up on the IF THIS WERE A REPUBLICAN thing it's just so gloriously butthurt

The real scandal is that the pic is so tame. If he's gone the whole Favre then maybe there'd be a story here.

So Obama authorized the use of his autopen to sign the damn Patriot Act extension

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/27/136700744/obama-signs-extension-to-terrorism-fighting-bill?ft=1&f=1001

Bam signed the USA PATRIOT renewal remotely from Paris, that's how much he loves it.

― the gay bloggers are onto the faggot tweets (Dr Morbius), Saturday, May 28, 2011 9:19 AM

This is a New York story that involves the trifecta of politics, sex, and a rising political star.

Just like Eliot Spitzer then?

these "they all died for FREEDOM" F'book statuses are an annual test for me.