MERGED: The Politics Thread

[TheZookie007]

Yahoo! News: "Judge blocks contentious Wisconsin union law"

..."We fully expect an appeals court will find that the Legislature followed the law perfectly and likely find that today's ruling was a significant overreach," Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and his brother, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, said in a joint statement. "We highly doubt a Dane County judge has the authority to tell the Legislature how to carry out its constitutional duty."...

(emphasis mine)

[JJ]

The "Judge" is a left wing nut, again showing the willingness of the Left to legislate from the bench, instead of ruling on the law.  Once again, a liberal judge makes it up as we go. 

============================
Obama misses on the economy but thanks for all the deficit spending on behalf of unionized government workers, putting the country in a bigger hole than ever.

[3deroticer]

The "Judge" is a left wing nut, again showing the willingness of the Left to legislate from the bench, instead of ruling on the law.  Once again, a liberal judge makes it up as we go. 

============================
Obama misses on the economy but thanks for all the deficit spending on behalf of unionized government workers, putting the country in a bigger hole than ever.

Then you must be very upset with the recent ruling allowing corporation to fund campaign with no limits! Union is a corporation of people and thereby should have the same rights that were granted to corporation.

[TheZookie007]

Speaking of corporations being people (no thank you to the right-wing "activist judges" on the Supreme Court), I wonder if a REAL flesh-and-blood human could have gotten away with the bullcrap GE (and others!) got away with last year: not only paying ZERO in federal income taxes, but actually getting billions back from the government in the form of tax credits!

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: "I Give Up!: Pay Anything"

[Real]

As republicans prove once again their only true goal is scapegoating their culture war targets for all of America's problems, the repackaged same old and white far right fringe is starting to lose the luster off the corporatist brand bestowed upon them.

nearly half of americans now see through the tea party.  as time and their nonsensical extremist libertarian views continue that number will only grow..

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/03/tea-party-cnn-poll-negative-views-/1

[pedonbio]

The "Judge" is a left wing nut, again showing the willingness of the Left to legislate from the bench, instead of ruling on the law.  Once again, a liberal judge makes it up as we go. 

This is, I suppose, a Teabagger way of looking at the law: Wisconsin, like many other states, has an "open meetings" law. Wisconsin requires that all publically-elected bodies give 24 hours notice before taking action which affects the public. There are some exceptions, and the burden of proving an exception is on the public body claiming an exemption. In this case the governor didn't even try to prove an exception because he knew he had broken the law.

Therefore, the judge enjoined the enforcement of a law which the governor appears to concede was illegally enacted. That, in right-wing eyes, is "legislating from the bench".

Asshole politicians do this stuff all the time. A few years ago an assessor in my county got into a squabble with the county executive. He issued a press release announcing that he would be in the courtroom of the presiding judge the next day to demand a decision. He showed up, sat around for a couple hours, and left. He then issued a press release blaming the judge for "refusing" to hear his non-existent "case".

As you may know, judges are ethically prohibited from publically defending their decisions. 

[MrsPacman1]

You're right, PB. In this particular case, less than 1 hour was given as notice of a committee meeting wherein fiscal items were taken out of the bill so the senate could pass the legislation. It remains to be seen whether their "loophole jumping" will work. My guess is it won't. It is clearly a violation of the law. If not, then why is this happening? 

The judge placed a restraining order on the Secretary of State last week, making it illegal for him to publish the law, pending further investigation. However, Walker ignored the judges orders and this bill was published online - as law, by the non-partisan Legislative Reference Bureau after being "encouraged" by the senate majority leader. After the judge clarified the ruling, she made sure to remind them that there are ramifications (including sanctions and jeopardizing the financial/governmental stability of WI) when a willful act of defiance was made after the ruling. It was an interesting day in court yesterday, to say the very least.

This could all stop if Walker and his administration would just have a "do over". Legally. However, I think he knows he's not going to get the support for this bill now that the public knows what it all entails. I could post links and stories ALL day about what's going on here in my beautiful state. If you guys want more info, you can always PM me, too. I actually answer all of them 

Here's an ad that makes me proud to live in WI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQlQWgnMSD0 

Mrs*Holy shit! Can we talk about what's transpiring in Michigan and Ohio?*Pacman

[TheZookie007]

GO WISCONSINITES, GO! Git 'er done.

You know I had earlier mused aloud about whether or not our covert agencies had anything whatsoever to do with the revolts in the North Africa. Well...

Yahoo! News: "How the White House mobilized the CIA’s Libya vanguard"


And in other news...

C-SPAN: "Rep. Anthony Weiner displays comedic stylings at the Congressional Correspondents Dinner"

...After making fun of his own surname and all the campaign slogans it lends itself to ("Vote for Weiner, he'll be frank") he took aim at how Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has studiously embraced a non-salacious pronunciation of his own last name. "Who is Boehner fooling? What am I? Like Anthony 'Way-ner?' ... I'm serious, bro. Just embrace it."

The congressman later noted that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) was likely not in attendance because she's campaigning in Iowa. "She's running for president," Weiner said. "That's really all I have for that joke."

[rtpoe]

There's a great article on the Senate on the New Yorker's website.

The Empty Chamber by George Packer talks about how all the arcane rules left over from the horse and buggy days (e.g. Senate Rule XXVI, Paragraph 5, which requires unanimous consent for committees and subcommittees to hold hearings after two in the afternoon while the Senate is in session) make it too easy to slow up the lawmaking process:

The most pervasive authority over the institution is not the Constitution or the Bible but, rather, an impenetrable sixteen-hundred-page tome, by Floyd M. Riddick, called “Senate Procedure: Precedents and Practices,” which only the late Robert Byrd, of West Virginia, was known to have read in its entirety. The procedures are so abstruse that a parliamentarian must sit below the presiding officer and, essentially, tell him or her what to say.

and why Senators rarely have time to read the bills they are voting on:

While senators are in Washington, their days are scheduled in fifteen-minute intervals: staff meetings, interviews, visits from lobbyists and home-state groups, caucus lunches, committee hearings, briefing books, floor votes, fund-raisers. Each senator sits on three or four committees and even more subcommittees, most of which meet during the same morning hours, which helps explain why committee tables are often nearly empty, and why senators drifting into a hearing can barely sustain a coherent line of questioning. All this activity is crammed into a three-day week, for it’s an unwritten rule of the modern Senate that votes are almost never scheduled for Mondays or Fridays, which allows senators to spend four days away from the capital.

"Sometimes, you're dialing for dollars, you get the call, you've got to get over to vote, you've got fifteen minutes. You don’t have a clue what's on the floor, your staff is whispering in your ears, you’re running onto the floor, then you check with your leader—you double check—but, just to make triple sure, there’s a little sheet of paper on the clerk's table: The leader recommends an aye vote, or a no vote. So you’ve got all these checks just to make sure you don’t screw up, but even then you screw up sometimes. But, if you’re ever pressed, 'Why did you vote that way?'—you just walk out thinking, Oh, my God, I hope nobody asks, because I don’t have a clue." - Tom Daschle

[TheZookie007]

Bill Cosby on whether Donald Trump will run for president in 2012: "The only thing he's running is his mouth."

"Fox News finally cans Glenn Beck": fuckhead.

"Wisconsin progressives fight back against Gov. Walker": go get 'im.

[MrsPacman1]

Pac, myself, and hundreds of thousands are disheartened right now by the news of the HUGE snafu in Waukesha County. Not because it might mean Jo-Klo won't get the seat, as voters showed up en masse to send their message - which set records for voter turnout in this kind of election. It's because of the blatant shadiness of the whole matter.

Fact: Nickolaus worked for 13 years as a "computer specialist/data analyst" for the Assembly Republican caucus, who happens to be under investigation.

Fact: Nickolaus used to be a staffer for Prosser, the incumbent.

Fact: Nickolaus was chided for her inadequate and antiquated operating system used to count and store votes, as recently as January. There was one password for the entire staff in her office to use. Anyone could have used her system who had access to her password.

Fact: There were enough votes "found" to keep a recount from being necessary.

The Jo-Klo team are seeking her emails. They aren't laying down, and have begun legal proceedings. At this point, I don't even think it matters to them if it stands in Prosser's favor. They just want the truth.

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/human-error-suddenly-results-7500-new

Mrs*As does the rest of Wisconsin*Pacman

[pedonbio]

The rest of the country would like to know, too, Mrs. P.

Two days ago an "expert" appeared on Faux News to say that the fact there was drop off between the percentage of voters who voted in the statewide court race and the various local races was evidence of fraud. Now, I presume, the fact that a boxful of ballots favoring the incumbent turned up on the desk of one of his former employees will be taken as no evidence of fraud?

Cook County, Illinois, abandoned that kind of stuff fifty years ago because it was just too obvious. Republicans do a lot of vote fraud; they just aren't very good at it, except in Ohio, Indiana, and Florida. In several states (Ohio being the most obvious) Democrats know they have to get 53% of the vote in order to win. Close races go to the Republicans, who have a majority of the local elections offices.

[TheZookie007]

Michael Smerconish, who until February 2010 was a member of the Republican Party, tries his best to show just how absurd the continuing drumbeat of birthers (including their newest convert, Donald Trump) is.

Huffington Post: "Donald Trump, Birthers, and O.J. Simpson"

[SamV]

I think you forgot to include the link in your post Z so here it is:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-smerconish/donald-trump-birthers-and_b_846534.html.

BTW it seems the Donald got some egg on his face recently when he tried to produce his own birth certificate. And I found it especially amusing that it all played out on Faux News, possibly one of the few times they actually acted like a news organization rather than a political mouthpiece.

Fox News: Donald Trump's Birth Certificate(s)

[tommyboyddd]

Heh, this is pretty sweet:

House Democrats attempt to stick Republicans with even more conservative budget.

[pedonbio]

 

[SamV]

In Steinbeck's day that might have been true, but these days anyone who is a millionaire are like a dime a dozen, as now only those who are billionaires aren't viewed as part of the American middle class.

[pedonbio]

In Steinbeck's day that might have been true, but these days anyone who is a millionaire are like a dime a dozen, as now only those who are billionaires aren't viewed as part of the American middle class.

I think his point is still valid--Most Americans believe that hard work will make you rich. If that were the case, Mexicans would be fabulously wealthy. In the 1970s I read a book with a title about the super-rich and how they got that way. The author took a serious look at about fifty people who had started with minimal assets and accumulated $100 million or more. At the end of the book he analyzed his data and realized that the "secret" was gambling. At some point in their lives these guys had taken all their assets and made a huge, 1,000-to-one long-shot crazy bet, and won. What he didn't see, he said, were the 999 guys who lost the bet.

[3deroticer]

Only 5% of the citizen have more wealth then the remaining 95% in the US. This is not good at all and wealthy people should be place on the endanger species protection. That's why it's important to give tax break for them to keep the number of them dwindling as everything else. Do your part vote Republican!

[TheZookie007]

I hope this isn't one of those "What, Me Worry?" moments, but...

PoliticusUSA: "Obama Laughs At Donald Trump and Calls Birthers The GOP's Problem"

And we really have some intelligent members of Congress from the Empire State. Here's one:

YouTube: "Rep. Crowley (D-NY) - Speechless"

[SamV]

Here's my take on Trump and the birthers.

Since this country was founded there have always been anti-government conspiracy nuts who were generally given little credence by most politicians as they were wise enough not to repeat their paranoid ravings so as not to come off to the rest of the voting public at the very least as moronic, or possibly even less than sane too.

But these days we now have people who seem intelligent, articulate and rational, but as potential candidates they cynically mouth the most ludicrous ideas from the extreme fringe in hopes of garnering the support of these people while also stirring up attention from the mainstream media. They have no problem being seen as the fool as long as they can score some political points for it. Nor do they show any shame whatsoever in how they are using people to achieve their goals. Then if they should win office it is little wonder these same people will usually turn their backs on their "supporters"; at least until the next election.

Now one can make the argument that all pols do that to a certain extent, but it seems some of those now in the Repub party have raised it to a form of high art. It is these political types who have perhaps done the worst in denigrating the respect that once came to anyone who served in a public office in the minds of the American public. So it is understandable that so many of the electorate have grown so disgusted they don't even bother to vote. And when voters don't show up at the polls can a representative democracy work at all? 

[TheZookie007]

Huffington Post: "Marilyn Davenport's Racist Email Denounced By OC GOP"

Asked to defend her actions, Marilyn Davenport responds in classic form:

"Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people--mostly people I didn't think would be upset by it."

Here's the thing: she is a Tea Partier and represents the Orange Count branch of the Republican Party. Hence, she is in effect speaking for the OC GOP. On the basis of this alone, unless you want us to believe that her views and the views of her party are congruent, she should resign, effective immediately.

[TheZookie007]

I had to look at this headline twice to make sure I hadn't misread it:

CNN: "'Birther bill' vetoed by Arizona governor"

[SamV]

Given the huge media mess Brewer got in over the idea of the state of Arizona usurping control and regulation of immigration from the Federal government, one can imagine how she must have had a moment of sanity and realized the bigger mess her state would be in if it was left up to some Arizona state governmental authority to determine who is and isn't an American citizen. 

Plus even if such a piece of crap bill was signed in to law one challenge in a Federal court and the whole thing would be overturned anyway. This is possibly why several other states in which similar citizenship bills were introduced either didn't make it though the state legislatures, or were veto by their governors.

But then since all these bills are coming from the freshman morons the Tea Party managed to get in to state office it's understandable that as self-appointed "experts" on the US Constitution it shows that they and their representatives really have little understanding of it.

Sam "hopes someone explains to the TP morons what an 'enumerated power of the Congress' is" V

[MrsPacman1]

It was vetoed, thankfully. The fact that it made it that far -- is enough cause for concern. 

In other old and still relevant news: WTF is going ON in Michigan? I keep hearing about the financial martial law that was passed. Now it appears that Democracy is being snubbed out by the heel of some very fancy-shmancy versace alligator belly cowboy boots (funded by our favorite brothers and their band of poor people robbers). This is an outrage! This is ludicrous! But this is what we have come down to, folks.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/04/16/under-new-emergency-financial-manager-law-they-start-dissolving-governments-in-michigan/

The only positive I can see coming from this (hopefully), is that these Nu-Conservatives are shooting themselves in the foot. The polls are showing that people aren't for this kind of malarkey. It almost doesn't matter...we've grown wool over our ears, and can only say, "baaaaaaaa". We have lost the ability to critically think. Instead, we seem to just follow whatever dog is barking the loudest.

Where is this going to end? Are they going to start gating off large cities or capitol buildings and governors mansions, so they can build a mote around them to keep the "peasants" out? Are they going to gut medicare and medicaid to the point where the sick, disabled and kids can't get the services they need and chalk it up to "survival of the fittest (meaning wealthiest )"? Are they going to open up tent cities for the people who are poor, homeless and regardless of situation, are considered a "burden on society"; a society that created those very classes and kept the profits from reaching them? Then what, hope that disease or hunger will wipe us out? Why, so there can be another tax break? Community is communism - society is socialism. 

Mrs*Okay, I may be reaching here - but even I didn't see our country going THIS far* Pacman

[pedonbio]

First, I have no idea what happens inside Jan Brewer's head, and I have little desire to find out. But those of us who consider ourselves to be leftish try to avoid exclusionary politics. A big part of the mouth-foaming on the right comes from the extreme vulnerability of many of their candidates. For example, one of the unspoken non-issues of the past few years is that John McCain is probably not a U.S. citizen. He was born in the Canal Zone of Panama the year before Congress passed a bill making the offspring of U.S. military stationed in the Zone U.S. citizens. The problem for McCain in that the bill was not retroactive, and it was generally conceded at the time that children born in the Zone, including McCain, were Panamanian citizens.

It gets a bit stickier with Trump, who was asking for it by raising the issue. Despite being so stupid that he didn't know what a birth certificate was, Trump has very dubious citizenship. He was born in the U.S. but, unlike McCain, his mother was British. At that time U.S. law provided for "dual citizenship" for children, provided that the chi1d made a decision within a reasonable time after his 21st birthday. There is no evidence Trump ever made the decision (by filing a one-page document with the State Department), in which case he would, under British law, become British.

So far the lineup of Republican presidential contenders looks like the people who would show up if I announced on Craigslist that I was giving away an old sofa.

[MrsPacman1]

So far the lineup of Republican presidential contenders looks like the people who would show up if I announced on Craigslist that I was giving away an old sofa.

And you say that like it's a bad thing? Well, yes, in truth...it is. 

My favorite, so far, is Rick Santorum.  Langston Hughes must me doing cartwheels in his grave right about now.

Mrs*Good 'ole Rick...not a poetry guy, he says*Pacman

[pedonbio]

And you say that like it's a bad thing? Well, yes, in truth...it is.  

My favorite, so far, is Rick Santorum.   Langston Hughes must me doing cartwheels in his grave right about now.

Mrs*Good 'ole Rick...not a poetry guy, he says*Pacman

I know what you mean! How many Republicans would take as their slogan a line from a Black gay communist poet?

<Sniff>What's that smell?</Sniff>

[tommyboyddd]

Santorum has already dropped that slogan:  http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/15/santorum_hughes_slogan

Whoops.

[SamV]

Sad to say Santorum was my US Senator for 12 years.

How Ricky ever managed that trick is one I haven't figured out to this very day.

The only thing I could ever come up with was at one time Ricky worked for Senator John Heinz, who a lot of people (and I include myself) in this state, including many in the Dem party, had a lot of respect for. Too bad Ricky never managed to garner much of it for himself during his time in the Senate.

The only thing I think Ricky ever seemed to garner was embarrassment for everyone in this state whenever he opened his mouth, so this new flub of his does not surprise me in the least.

Sam "and people wonder why I call my state the Land of PA (not "P-A")" V

[pedonbio]

Sad to say Santorum was my US Senator for 12 years.

Well, I followed him because I live in the land of the anti-Santorum, Dan Savage.

A lot of us worked hard here to give the former senator his "google problem". Of course, in the earliest polls he was running behind Obama for the Republican nomination.

[JJ]

 

[sidewalkpsycho]

Sweet, I was starting to think this thread wasn't worth visiting anymore since Q_BE's forced leave.

[pedonbio]

 

[3deroticer]

It was vetoed, thankfully. The fact that it made it that far -- is enough cause for concern. 

In other old and still relevant news: WTF is going ON in Michigan? I keep hearing about the financial martial law that was passed. Now it appears that Democracy is being snubbed out by the heel of some very fancy-shmancy versace alligator belly cowboy boots (funded by our favorite brothers and their band of poor people robbers). This is an outrage! This is ludicrous! But this is what we have come down to, folks.

Mrs*Okay, I may be reaching here - but even I didn't see our country going THIS far* Pacman

I just watch this brutal film called "A film unfinish" about how the Nazi overtook control of Warsaw a 3 square mile of a Jewish community. Benton Harbor is comprise mostly of lower income people and blacks. They are not the only town suffering, but they are the largest minority that got pick. This should be a huge wake-up call! dismantling the public school and switching to charter school would place even more burden on those that can't afford it. This to me is a blatant attack on the poor and the minority!