Wednesday Open Thread
Are we getting another mini-snowpocalypse? Who angered the weather goddess again? While we wait for more snow to come, let’s open this thread.
Ooooh, delicious – rightwing slap fight:
Wow. So, Glenn Beck’s CPAC keynote speech on Friday was apparently so powerful it united Jon Stewart, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin…against him. I’m not sure what that says about Beck except that he really has managed to carve out a place all his own in the media landscape these last few months and he maybe is making some people nervous. Well not Jon Stewart per se (‘gold mine’ might be a better description), but it’s certainly interesting to hear Rush Limbaugh (ever so gently) push back at Beck. Sign of things to come? Is Beck on his way to becoming the Frankenstein of the right? The tone of both Levin and Limbaugh suggest they were less than thrilled at Beck’s conservative bashing/reality check (videos of all three below).
Said Rush:
I would not have said that the only people who can stop Obama should be excoriated for being just as bad…It would never occur to me to say that. I don’t know what the objective would be.
Levin’s tone was equally low key though his criticism had a sharper edge to it. He advised Beck to stop acting like a clown and to “be careful playing footsie with the mainstream media…they will promote so they can destroy you.” Levin also pushed back at Beck’s criticism of the right: “Stop dividing us…Republicans deserve reinforcements.”
Harry Reid seems to have found the vestiges of a spine:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has heard quite a few cries of late from Republicans about how truly awful it is to vote on legislation by majority rule. I get the feeling he’s tired of it.
Reid said reconciliation had been used 21 times since 1981, mostly by Republicans when they were in control of the Senate for the passage of items like the Bush tax cuts. Under reconciliation, Democrats would need a simple majority in the Senate to pass legislation, as opposed to the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.
“They should stop crying about reconciliation as if it’s never been done before,” Reid said.
Following Senate Democrats’ weekly luncheon, Reid said “nothing is off the table” but that “realistically, they should stop crying about this. It’s been done 21 times before.”
Tags: Open Thread
Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo has died
The Real Cuba.com ^ | 02/23/2010 |
“They managed to do what they wanted. They ended the life of a fighter for human rights,” his mother said. BBC
Amnesty prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo ‘unrecognizable’ after 85-day fast over beatings The Guardian
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, of Nebraska, said in his own statement that ”freedom-loving people everywhere should hold the Cuban regime responsible for the fate of Orlando Zapata Tamayo.” The New York Times
and obama
Close gitmo. Send the prisoners home.
Barack Obama 4/25/05: “The President hasn’t gotten his way. And that is now prompting a change in the Senate rules that really I think would change the character of the Senate forever…what I worry about would be that you essentially still have two chambers the House and the Senate but you have simply majoritarian absolute power on either side, and that’s just not what the founders intended.”
Joe Biden 5/23/05: “I say to my friends on the Republican side you may own the field right now buy you won’t own it forever I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don’t make the kind of naked power grab you are doing.”
Harry Reid 5/18/2005: “Mr. President the right to extended debate is never more important than the one party who controls congress and the white house. In these cases the filibuster serves as a check on power and preserves our limited government.”
nice “spine” ya got there Harry.
which they havent done you moron
the democrats have given the republicans every opportunity to participate. but, if the country does well while obama is president, the republicans look bad, so they have decided to put the interests of the American people aside to try and regain power.
Dianne Feinstein 5/18/2005: The nuclear option if successful will turn the Senate into a body that could have its rules broken at any time by a majority of senators unhappy with any position taken by the minority. It begins with judicial nominations. Next will be executive appointments and then legislation.
Republicans used reconciliation as it was intended to pass tax and spending items. Therefore Reid says he can violate the rules and use it for substantive legislation. How does that make sense? I doubt that he will find Democratic votes to do it. They know that they could very well be in the minority by 2013, maybe 2011. They do not want to ruin themselves any more than Republicans did with the so called nuclear option on judicial nominations.
Marriage Equality comes to Maryland (sort of) – http://voices.washingtonpost.com/annapolis/2010/02/gansler_marylands_high_court_l.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/24/reid-spars-with-ceos-walk_n_475313.html
did harry reid grow a pair? im really diggin the new democratic party. not sure where they all found their balls (or thatchers) but it is good to see the finally have em.
RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Northeast Braces for a *Super Storm* Thursday, Friday
Accuweather ^ | Feb 23rd, 2010
The same storm that brought a gentle snowfall across Texas on Tuesday will reach the Northeast in the form of an atmospheric monster with damaging winds, blinding snow, torrential rain, huge waves and flooding. In the hardest-hit areas, it will seem more like a “snowacane,” as a mere blizzard may not adequately describe conditions of this soon-to-be powerful nor’easter. Wind Wind gusts can reach 70 mph in some areas, just shy of hurricane force. Many locations in the mid-Atlantic and New England will endure gusts topping 50 mph at some point Thursday to Friday. Winds of this strength will down…
What’s worse? Prosecuting somebody for a rape they didn’t commit or botching a rape prosecution so badly that the jury only takes 40 minutes to find the accused “not guilty”?
And why doesn’t the News Journal reveal the name of the accuser?
Either way, Baby Biden blew another one.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100224/NEWS01/2240308/Teacher-acquitted-in-rape-case
@chucktodd:
They are putting their biggest moron talking-point machines front and center. This is going to be awesome.
Rep. Anthony Weiner will be liveblogging the event on dKos. Too bad he won’t be there asking Obama why no public option.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOQ2GEGm3v0&feature=player_embedded anthony weiner = teh awesome!
If the GOP wants to filibuster, then MAKE THEM FILIBUSTER. Make them stand up there on the Senate floor and speak and speak and speak and block a vote. Turn that CSPAN footage into campaign ads, with a clock running in the bottom corner of the screen showing how long they spoke to hold up health care reform.
Make them put their balls on the block and then chop them off.
I think they changed the rule so you only have to say “Filibuster on.” The Mr. Smith Goes to Washington filibuster is no more.
So bring it back.
Also, via Wikipedia:
“A filibuster can be defeated by the majority party if they leave the debated issue on the agenda indefinitely, without adding anything else. Indeed, Strom Thurmond’s own attempt to filibuster the Civil Rights Act was defeated when Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield refused to refer any further business to the Senate, which required the filibuster to be kept up indefinitely. Instead, the opponents were all given a chance to speak, and the matter eventually was forced to a vote.”
So do that! Put them on the spot, holding up the rest of the business of government, including the corporate tax cuts they so love, until they vote on health care and LOSE. We have 50+ votes. That’s all we need. Grow a pair, Harry.
Mr. Smith today would be going after the GOP with brass knuckles and steel-toed boots. Fuck the fucking fuckers before they fuck us!
Chris Dodd 5/18/2005: “I’ve never passed a single bill worth talking about that didn’t have a lead co sponsor that was a Republican. And I don’t know of a single piece of legislation that’s ever been adopted here that didn’t have a Republican and Democrat in the lead. That’s because we need to sit down and work with each other. The rules of this institution have required that. That’s why we exist. Why have a bicameral legislative body? Why have two chambers? What were the framers thinking about 218 years ago? They understood Mr. President that there is a tyranny of the majority.
Hillary Clinton 5/23/2005: “The Senate is being asked to turn itself inside out, to ignore the precedent to ignore the way our system has work, the delicate balance that we have obtain that has kept this constitution system going, for immediate gratification of the present President.”
Max Baucus 5/19/2005: “This is the way Democracy ends. Not with a bomb but with a gavel.”
I’m glad romeo is throwing up those quotes showing Democrats opposed changing the filibuster rules in the middle of a session. I’m not sure what that has to do with using existing budget reconciliation.
Try this one, then :
“Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.”
-Thomas Jefferson
As this is an open thread, and I know state employees visit here often, I have a question … do newly hired state workers get medical benefits right away, or is there that pesky 60- and 90-day waiting/probationary period during which you have to go on COBRA from your old job?
Depends which “state employee” job you are. I have seen it both ways. Call HR, it really isn’t an unusual question.