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

Dude...no. You live in one part of it, one kind of it. I live in another, see different stuff, where not even the college towns can muster up enough progressive support to do any real good.

this is true, I'm in a pretty rad bubble & you're way down there. it's true that population centers tend to get more progressive and as things get sparer less so - Birmingham's is fun & cool but I wouldn't wanna live elsewhere down there. MS/AL is basically what Shakey means by "the south" I figure & it's true that its voting patterns are pretty consistant. btw Shakey Mo which was the state that spearheaded all the gay marriage legislation that's finally making its way down here? was it MS? AL? GA? memory fuckin w/me here

massachusetts

loooool is that actually true, was there an MA prop 22/prop 8 that preceded California?

prop 8's been struck down fyi and was financed by out-of-state interests as I'm sure yr aware

it wasn't voted for by out-of-state interests dude, be real w/yourself

things started judicially in MN in 1972

looks like legislatively, things really started in Alaska and Hawaii back in 1998

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States#Timeline_of_major_events

http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=15576

Six months after gay and lesbian couples began legally marring in Massachusetts, opponents of same-sex marriage swept Election Day, with voters in 11 states approving constitutional amendments codifying marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution.

The amendments won in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Utah and even Oregon the one state where gay rights activists had hoped to prevail.

so step the fuck off with that shit

http://andrewgelman.com/2009/06/gay_marriage_a/

what's interesting is actually how reliably places have been fitting the model of which states we'd expect to pass gay marriage

like it's really one of the best issues to isolate the difference between massachusetts and alabama, so, I mean

what's interesting is actually how reliably places have been fitting the model of which states we'd expect to pass gay marriage

legislatively yes! if/when the issue goes to the polls it's a different picture though, right. or not right?

no, the model is based on voters opinions on the subject

lol the voters of CA (twice!) expressed their opinion about it where it actually had consequences & the results were odious!

prop 8 was mostly a timing thing, it was a tad too soon, 4 years later californians have already shifted enough that it wouldn't pass. also old people die.

tend to agree w/you there but it passed in CA twice, once as Prop 22 and again as Prop 8. while your "population density tends to equal greater tolerance" model has some pith to it I think it vastly, vastly overstates the general decency of, y'know, people.

right, but it passed with a large margin in 2000 and a fairly small margin in 2008, it has nothing to do with 'decency of people', its just old people dying and people softening on the issue

anyway just read the article I linked, I have to go

idk man I see the appeal of the "younger people will be more liberal" model, I know a lot of people who subscribe to it & I'm sure there are charts aplenty but put the "right" kind of conservatism in front of young people and they become young Reagan Republicans, I'm a good deal less optimistic about the "history's tending this way" model

no there is also evidence that, contrary to popular belief, people tend to stick w/ the ideology they had at 24 or w/e. but in any case, gay marriage is pretty much the perfect case study of 'history's tending this way", like it is doing so in an incredibly predictably manner.

predictable*

well, I'll drink to that, we're working hard to defeat an amendment here in NC, we'll see what happens

this is true, I'm in a pretty rad bubble & you're way down there. it's true that population centers tend to get more progressive and as things get sparer less so - Birmingham's is fun & cool but I wouldn't wanna live elsewhere down there.

I'm bummed you conceded my point so quickly, I was all ready with a Sarah Palin "I can see Tupelo from my back porch" zing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZUeK7-2n7wQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUeK7-2n7wQ

Typical liberal blah blah blah

Obama and others continue to discuss Ryan's plan:

Ezra Klein tries to be nice and then goes after him--

In other words, Ryan’s budget fails even Ryan’s tests for encouraging social mobility: It focuses its cuts on programs for the poor rather than programs for seniors, and it doesn’t eliminate any tax loopholes. (Ryan’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment on this piece.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/paul-ryan-betrays-his-own-views-on-income-inequality/2012/04/03/gIQAJCv2sS_blog.html?hpid=z2

In a speech to a media luncheon, Obama will call the measure prepared by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and passed by the House a "Trojan Horse" that is disguised as a deficit reduction plan but actually imposes a "radical vision" amounting to "social Darwinism," according to excerpts released by the White House.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/03/politics/obama-republicans/

No Grand Bargain conversation here

Ryan and conservative response yesterday was basically if you're not for slashing entitlements, you are not taking the deficit seriously and you just want to coddle people who don't work hard. I think Obama would be wise to also mention the right-wing attack from that one foundation that the Ryan plan cuts domestic spending but does not address the deficit well, or quickly enough because he has so many tax cuts and so much increased defense spending.

ryan's lashing out at the pentagon and then subsequent 'walk back' was interesting to see

http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/03/reid-senate-will-not-pass-a-budget-this-year/

Senate Democratic leaders do not plan to propose a budget this year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Friday, saying that they had already done so with the debt-ceiling agreement.

One of the current memes of Republicans from Romney to Ryan to anonymous commentators online is that the Dems can't criticize the Ryan budget when they don't have one (or have not voted for one--I think there is an Obama one and a Democratic rep from Maryland Van Hollen one). Is this anything to worry about? Is this Republican spin that should be ignored? And/or do I not have all the facts?

it's my understanding that the debt ceiling deal WAS the budget, the fact that the GOP wants to weasel out of it doesn't mean the Dems have to play along

GOP just wants to fight the same fight over and over, with no actual legislation passed

I keep seeing stuff like this, but often without the explanation that the debt deal serves as the budget. Thus, Republicans like to crow that even Dems won't vote for Obama's budget, when this is just procedural games.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/74801.html

But a version of President Barack Obama’s own $3.6 trillion budget proposal, which the House unanimously rejected last week, also could come to the Senate floor, ensuring an embarrassing replay of last year when not a single senator voted for the president’s budget.

The MacDonough ruling essentially means any senator can place a budget proposal on the Senate calendar. Reid still controls the floor and could choose not to bring them to a vote, though the political optics of such a move could be damaging.

Democratic aides have dismissed the ruling as irrelevant, arguing that the historic debt deal already serves as a legally binding budget.

how did the Justice Department advocate to the Supremes on the minor-offense strip search case? That's riiiiight:

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/03/the_obama_doj_and_strip_searches/singleton/

lol these police state assholes suck so bad imo

Not a good look, and it has been overlooked by many in the press. Eric Holder has not impressed me at all at Justice.

kind of irony-lolling that the first black President's overarching domestic mission appears to be "show everyone what it feels like to be black in America"

Holder's been kind of a disaster imho

Maybe infuriating the left and the right is exactly what Obama wants from an attorney general.

It would certainly be consistent with his record

Lots of the Dem cheerleader blogs like the Washington Monthly are only covering the fact that Holder turned in his homework to that 5th Circuit judge who wanted a 3 page single-spaced explanation that Obama still believes the judiciary interprets the law. But no mention of this other item

The Washington Monthly's latest cover story: The Incomplete Greatness of Barack Obama.

About that torture memo...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/07/wisconsin-s-repeal-of-equal-pay-rights-adds-to-battles-for-women.html

Still, even if the law isn’t an outlier, it’s not surprising that Grothman would see it as unjust, because he believes that the whole idea of pay discrimination against women is fraudulent.

Whatever gaps exist, he insists, stem from women’s decision to prioritize childrearing over their careers. “Take a hypothetical husband and wife who are both lawyers,” he says. “But the husband is working 50 or 60 hours a week, going all out, making 200 grand a year. The woman takes time off, raises kids, is not go go go. Now they’re 50 years old. The husband is making 200 grand a year, the woman is making 40 grand a year. It wasn’t discrimination. There was a different sense of urgency in each person.”

amazing

I try to think of stories like this whenever tempted to send NPR a dime:

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/06/149975915/obama-is-the-best-and-the-worst-president-discuss?ps=cprs

Xp especially amazing that Walker would sign that bill knowing a recall election is coming up. Like, he knows he's going to lose, so why not shit the bed on the way out?

Fritz Striker (alda_marbles) wrote:

I don't know about best or worst, but he's definately the most african-american president since Grover Cleveland.

Someone's forgetting Bill Clinton...

speaking of clinton, not sure where to post this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/us/welfare-limits-left-poor-adrift-as-recession-hit.html