Indefinite Detention? But I Have Soccer Practice at 4: U.S. Politics 2012

bono thing turns out to be a impersonator

so is the real Bono

As for knucklehead representatives and cable tv news hosts, we have:

CNN's "The Situation Room" ran a segment tonight that showed a potentially "terrifying new reason" to be worried about U.S. tensions with Iran. Rep. Peter King, during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday, said there could be "hundreds" of Iranian-backed Hezbollah agents in the U.S. CNN's clip showed Hezbollah agents marching-- but not in the U.S.

"bono" video here:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/03/bono-impersonator-mattera-breitbart-blaze-video.html?mid=rss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrch66gdjjk

Christian Etelin, a lawyer who has previously acted for Merah, said his client had violent tendencies.

"There was his religious engagement, an increasing hatred against the values of a democratic society and a desire to impose what he believes is truth," Mr Etelin said.

just sayin

Republican congressional salesmanship:

On the day before the budget rollout, top Republicans gathered in Speaker John Boehner’s smoky Capitol conference room with National Republican Congressional Committee officials and went over key phrases. Call the Medicare reform “bipartisan,” they were told. Frame it as helping to “fix Medicare and keep it from going bankrupt.” Be sure to point out that Americans 55 or older would not be affected. And say it gives seniors the choice of “staying in the current Medicare system or using the new one.”

Using this phrasing, 46 percent in an internal GOP poll — conducted in January — would support the Republican argument that Medicare is going bankrupt, Republicans were giving them a choice and the GOP is trying to preserve the program. The Democratic argument that Republicans were ending Medicare registered at 37 percent.

The precise, strategic sales job of the Ryan budget is a far cry from last year’s clunky rollout, and a sign that Republicans have learned some lessons in political strategy on the divisive issues underlying the Ryan vision.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74330.html

lol I think that one can be easily countered with "what about anybody who's 54? 53? 52."

Boehner's conference room was "smoky"? i thought smoking was banned in D.C. govt buildings? or is that just a little of the ol politico novelizin'?

here's the thing that makes me uneasy about the "pshaw Medicare is fine" argument:

the studies that were cited that showed the system running fine right up until I want to retire, at which point it stops paying benefits at its current level

did no one else notice this or do ppl just not care or am I mistaken

Be sure to point out that Americans 55 or older would not be affected... Using this phrasing, 46 percent in an internal GOP poll

all this tells you is that 46% of the GOP is over 55 lol

i think if you're in boehner's presence you're legally in the 8th district of ohio, so light 'em up fellas

does anybody think pshaw medicare's fine? social security yes, but iirc everybody pretty much agrees that medicare is heavily out of whack

yes it is

Almost no one in Congress has yelled louder than Walsh, a onetime American history teacher who is conducting a one-man political science experiment: He vows that he will do nothing to help his constituents and instead focus entirely on his “mission to sorta scream from the mountaintop” to tackle the nearly $16 trillion federal debt.

lol this guy is gonna lose so hard in Illinois

pretty sure boehner smokes like a chimney. just look at him and listen to his voice.

One of my best friends, a reporter for a certain newspaper, said it sucked to have to bum a smoke off Boehner after the '08 election.

Ryand and the Republicans want to effectively turn Medicare into a voucher program and limit the amount of money folks can get under Medicare and Medicaid without addressing the underlying problems of health care and medicine costs that Medicare and Medicaid pay for being higher in the US than in other countries. As they see it, if the US government expenses for Medicare do not go up, then they have solved its problems. Medicare needs to be fixed but it's more complicated than Republicans have discussed.

i think they are following a supply-side kind of logic that the medical industry is charging more and more and more because they know medicare will always foot their bills. there's no "discipline".

i think that has a ring of truth to it (in a very half-assed way) w/r/t university costs, but medicine, i'm not sure.

Most Democrats would probably agree that doctors charge Medicare and Medicaid way more than the procedures actually cost.

and they charge private insurers way more for those same procedures! that's the big mystery.

a friend who worked at a dentist's office once showed me the markup the doctor was pushing on Medicare: a deep cleaning that cost a few hundred dollars was now $1300.

wtf at this bullshit

If confirmed, the decision would seem likely to anger environmentalists
uh, yeah
—and do little to quiet Republican criticisms—
uh, yeah
and is unlikely to lead to an immediate fall in gas prices.
should be "will never lead to", but uh, yeah
But it could reinforce the White House's argument that Obama supports an "all of the above" energy policy, including the exploitation of domestic oil and natural gas deposits.

god this "strategy" is so fucking stupid

I do think it's commendable, though, that Obama shows such a willingness to compromise with the laws of physics

an empty gesture that makes nobody happy! awesome!

my god do I hate the neologism "fast-track"

an empty gesture that makes nobody happy! awesome!

this could practically be the motto for the Obama Administration in general, come to think of it.

I think everyone is deluding themselves if they think Obama is NOT going to approve this pipeline.. When/if there's any ecological disaster everyone will blame the oil companies and not Obama for approving it.. Whats there to lose! hehe

Relevant article from David Roberts:

As Politico says, the U.S. president has virtually no control over gas prices. Time’s Bryan Walsh lays it out clearly here (in an entirely factual piece that is nonetheless labeled “viewpoint”). Gas prices are tightly linked to oil prices, which are set by forces over which the U.S. has little control.

This is something that energy experts and analysts are more or less unanimous on. The Initiative on Global Markets gathered a panel of economic experts, from across the professional and ideological spectrum, and asked them to react to this thesis: “Changes in U.S. gasoline prices over the past 10 years have predominantly been due to market factors rather than U.S. federal economic or energy policies.” Some 92 percent agreed. Eight percent were “uncertain.” Not a single one disagreed.

So, just to be clear: Anyone who says the president is responsible for gas prices is either lying or woefully ignorant. This category includes all of the Republican candidates for president, virtually every GOP elected official, many conservative Democrats, legions of conservative and centrist pundits, and occasionally Obama himself.

Can't wait to see the right wing cheering the very same sort of eminent domain land grabs they denounced in Kelo when they're performed for this pipeline.

I doubt that they'll be cheering anything, it'll just bring attention back to the rest of the permit that wasn't "fast-tracked". they'll just focus on that.

actually, the article shakey linked to includes the typical response:

Republicans immediately mocked the plan, with a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, Brendan Buck, comparing it to "a governor personally issuing a fishing license." "There is only a minor, routine permit needed for this leg of the project. Only a desperate administration would inject the President of the United States into this trivial matter. The President's attempt to take credit for a pipeline he blocked and personally lobbied Congress against is staggering in its disingenuousness. This portion of the pipeline is being built in spite of the President, not because of him," Buck said in a statement.

i think there was a krugman article this week saying pretty much the same thing about keystone having little or no effect on gas prices

not that anyone really pays attention to paul krugman anymore

There were several dozen great facebook status updates by me over the last year making the point that keystone will little to no effect on domestic gas prices (same with offshore drilling, and drilling in ANWR for that matter). but for some reason the lamestream media doesn't pay much attention to my facebook status updates

that was supposed to be really sarcastic and humorous, but as usual, didn't come across that way.

anyway, my point was just that no one that knows anything about energy believes that keystone would reduce U.S. gas prices, especially in the short-term. to see "debates" on this issue between politicians, and pundits/politicians talking about it on tv, watching half of america get infected by this onslaught of idiocy...it's just fucking sad, and infuriating.

i thought it was pretty funny.

I saw on a CNN morning show this morning footage of Obama, on his current "energy" tour out west somewhere, boasting about how much more drilling is going on under his administration. With the Republicans and the lamestream media pushing the notion that the Prez can affect gas prices, Obama is out there pushing his I am for drilling and for solar energy and for everything energy policy. I saw on a conservative website someone claiming that drilling on private land is up but not public land. A Republican congressman was on that CNN morning show and was pushing for Keystone and complaining that Artic/Anwar drilling wasn't approved years ago, and suggesting that it could have pushed gas prices down.

guys can we not use 'lamestream media' non-ironically?

let's fast-track your ire.

lol

I recommend incentivizing throwing that term under the bus

make no mistake about it

let's move this conversation forward and innovate

I recommend incentivizing throwing that term under the bus

I would prefer that term be sunsetted.

we've done a good job synergizing here!

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00055

The Senate passed the JOBS Act today 73 to 26, seeking to ease government red tape on small and start-up businesses.

Some economists have said the "red tape" here was necessary regulation, and the more liberal Senate Dems voted against this bill.

Most of the below issues were not remedied in the bill that passed the Seante.

Mary Schapiro, chairman of the SEC, listed a number of concerns, including that the bill would remove the firewall between research analysts who are supposed to provide objective information about investments and investment bankers in the same firm whose main function is to encourage people to invest. AARP said the elderly are disproportionately the victims of investment fraud and said it agreed with Schapiro that, absent safeguards, the House bill "may well open the floodgates to a repeat of the kind of penny stock and other frauds that ensnared financially unsophisticated and other vulnerable investors in the past."

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_20215510/senate-moves-toward-vote-small-business-bill

from Obama's inspiring speech on his 'energy policy' today in Oklahoma:

So today, I’ve come to Cushing, an oil town -- (applause) -- because producing more oil and gas here at home has been, and will continue to be, a critical part of an all-of-the-above energy strategy. (Applause.)

Now, under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. (Applause.) That's important to know. Over the last three years, I’ve directed my administration to open up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states. We’re opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We’ve added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.