Well, yes and no. It is a representative democracy, with voters and constituents. People who pass laws generally aren't doing so without specific pushes and nudges at the ground level. The question is which is more effective: the people doing to pushing, or the people doing the actual voting at their behest.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 28 September 2012 19:06 (eleven years ago) link
doing the pushing, sorry.
speaking of "working in the private sector for some progressive cause" - here's what good nebbocrat evan bayh has been up to!
http://pac.progressivesunited.org/blog/caught-in-the-revolving-door
― la goonies (k3vin k.), Friday, 28 September 2012 19:46 (eleven years ago) link
Fightin' the good fight.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 28 September 2012 20:04 (eleven years ago) link
oh my god fucking ilx politics compulsiveness. stop arguing w/ morbz about shit he will never change his mind he just likes to argue on the internet.
He doesn't argue
― Matt Armstrong, Friday, 28 September 2012 20:18 (eleven years ago) link
Big Bird vs Pakistanis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yMOzvmgVhc&feature=youtu.be
― kizz my hairy irish azz (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 4 October 2012 02:49 (eleven years ago) link
yesterday bradley manning was 900 days in detention. today the afghan war enters its 12th year.
― zvookster, Sunday, 7 October 2012 17:47 (eleven years ago) link
This weekend is the fourteenth anniversary of my not getting Columbus Day off.
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 October 2012 17:55 (eleven years ago) link
wait it's columbus day?
― well if it isn't old 11 cameras simon (gbx), Sunday, 7 October 2012 17:58 (eleven years ago) link
totally office politics
― zvookster, Sunday, 7 October 2012 17:58 (eleven years ago) link
i propose that we postpone the war on christmas and focus our attention on g-d columbus day, arguably the stupidest of american holidays
― well if it isn't old 11 cameras simon (gbx), Sunday, 7 October 2012 18:00 (eleven years ago) link
Most insulting, maybe. We've got a lot of stupid holidays.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 7 October 2012 18:01 (eleven years ago) link
Symmetry requires it!
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 October 2012 18:01 (eleven years ago) link
probably the main obstacle to getting rid of columbus day is federal employee contracts
― www.toilet-guru.com (silby), Sunday, 7 October 2012 18:04 (eleven years ago) link
you'd have to get congress to agree on a new holiday probably
it's the stupidest because it's so thoughtlessly offensive---nat'l accounting day is pretty fucking dumb but at least it doesn't celebrate genocidal conquest
― well if it isn't old 11 cameras simon (gbx), Sunday, 7 October 2012 18:05 (eleven years ago) link
nb i did not know that accounting day existed, i just thought "wouldn't it be moronic for there to be a day for accountants" and lo google provided
apologies to the accountants of ilx of course
― well if it isn't old 11 cameras simon (gbx), Sunday, 7 October 2012 18:06 (eleven years ago) link
at'l accounting day is pretty fucking dumb but at least it doesn't celebrate genocidal conquest
depends on how we define "accounting"
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 October 2012 18:06 (eleven years ago) link
Accounting Day®
― www.toilet-guru.com (silby), Sunday, 7 October 2012 18:07 (eleven years ago) link
the airing of grievances
― well if it isn't old 11 cameras simon (gbx), Sunday, 7 October 2012 18:11 (eleven years ago) link
Thanksgiving is a little more offensive, i think.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 7 October 2012 20:18 (eleven years ago) link
At least Columbus day comes right out and says "Yeah imperialism!", Thanksgiving is based pretty much on the goodwill of the people we destroyed.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 7 October 2012 20:21 (eleven years ago) link
well yeah but I like pumpkin wine and drinking my family's liquor
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 October 2012 20:21 (eleven years ago) link
haha pumpkin PIE but yeah whatever that too
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 October 2012 20:22 (eleven years ago) link
Thanksgiving is like reading a great novel but skipping the last chapter where everyone dies and the bad guys win.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 7 October 2012 20:26 (eleven years ago) link
that's my idea of a great novel!
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 October 2012 20:31 (eleven years ago) link
(Spoiler alert, sorry)
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 7 October 2012 20:33 (eleven years ago) link
Bookmarkable US Politics Thread v3.1: blah blah Big Bird etc
new thread apparently
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 11 October 2012 14:22 (eleven years ago) link
No that's really the part III Elections thread.
Greenwald linkage should probably stay in here.
― Legendary General Cypher Raige (Gukbe), Thursday, 11 October 2012 14:28 (eleven years ago) link
Shouldn't the title of that 3.1 thread say "US Elections" in it and not "US Politics" . Mod should change it.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 11 October 2012 15:49 (eleven years ago) link
yeah it should say "Elections"
not that it really matters
― The Owls of Ja Rule (DJP), Thursday, 11 October 2012 15:59 (eleven years ago) link
The transubstantiation miracle by which the "politics" thread is actually the intended "election" thread is, of course, the ultimate in symmetry.
― Doctor Casino, Thursday, 11 October 2012 16:11 (eleven years ago) link
Republicans were aiming to embarrass the Obama administration over State Department security lapses. But they inadvertently caused a different picture to emerge than the one that has been publicly known: that the victims may have been let down not by the State Department but by the CIA. If the CIA was playing such a major role in these events, which was the unmistakable impression left by Wednesday’s hearing, having a televised probe of the matter was absurd.
The chairman, attempting to close his can of worms, finally suggested that “the entire committee have a classified briefing as to any and all other assets that were not drawn upon but could have been drawn upon” in Benghazi.
Good idea. Too bad he didn’t think of that before putting the CIA on C-SPAN.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-letting-us-in-on-a-secret/2012/10/10/ba3136ca-132b-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_story.html
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 11 October 2012 17:58 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/11/wisconsin_goper_some_girls_rape_easy/
I have no coherent words to say about this
― The Owls of Ja Rule (DJP), Thursday, 11 October 2012 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
“Just remember, Roger, some girls, they rape so easy.
isn't this a Rolling Stones lyric
― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 11 October 2012 18:14 (eleven years ago) link
I think you're confusing it with Mick's line about "some Puerto Rican girls that are just dying to rape you."
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 11 October 2012 18:44 (eleven years ago) link
It's incredible to contrast the tone of his original quote with that of his official statement.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 11 October 2012 18:45 (eleven years ago) link
Rahm Emanuel pretends that Obama didn't speak out against Bush detention/ surveillance policy in 2008:
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/16/rahm_emanuel_takes_liberal_base_bashing_to_a_whole_new_level/
― cancer, kizz my hairy irish azz (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 16 October 2012 15:28 (eleven years ago) link
http://nymag.com/news/politics/elections-2012/tea-party-2012-10/
Frank Rich has the blues:
This is a nation that loathes government and always has. Liberals should not be deluded: The Goldwater revolution will ultimately triumph, regardless of what happens in November.
Sorry if this is already been linked to or discussed on one of the many other US politics threads
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 16 October 2012 16:50 (eleven years ago) link
The Goldwater revolution will ultimately triumph
http://blog.timesunion.com/running/files/2010/08/knight3.jpg
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 16 October 2012 16:52 (eleven years ago) link
frank rich needs to calm down
― there is no dana, only (goole), Tuesday, 16 October 2012 16:54 (eleven years ago) link
frank rich will NOT calm down!
― down w/ obana...he is the reson were in dept (Z S), Tuesday, 16 October 2012 16:54 (eleven years ago) link
Brookings blogdick upset that the new NY Times public editor wants to "challenge" the righteousness of the US drone campaign:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/15/drones-brookings-media
― cancer, kizz my hairy irish azz (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 16 October 2012 16:55 (eleven years ago) link
During that Republican electoral debacle, Richard Hofstadter, the historian who would famously stigmatize the right as embodying “the paranoid style in American politics,” wrote in The New York Review of Books that Goldwater represented “a very special minority point of view which is not even preponderant in his own party.” He added: “When, in all our history, has anyone with ideas so bizarre, so archaic, so self-confounding, so remote from the basic American consensus, ever gone so far?” As it happened, Ronald Reagan, the most enthusiastic and eloquent of Goldwater exponents, would be elected governor of California just two years later.
two uneventful years
― a hauntingly unemployed american (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, 16 October 2012 16:56 (eleven years ago) link
especially in california
"as it happened"
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 16 October 2012 17:32 (eleven years ago) link
on answering tough questions, or How Paul Ryan Is Like Madeleine Albright and John Brennan (also, Saddam Hussein)
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/003641.html
― cancer, kizz my hairy irish azz (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 16 October 2012 21:03 (eleven years ago) link
joe klein, brave defender of american 4-year-olds:
SCARBOROUGH: "This is offensive to me, though. Because you do it with a joystick in California - and it seems so antiseptic - it seems so clean - and yet you have 4-year-old girls being blown to bits because we have a policy that now says: 'you know what? Instead of trying to go in and take the risk and get the terrorists out of hiding in a Karachi suburb, we're just going to blow up everyone around them.'...KLEIN: "If it is misused, and there is a really major possibility of abuse if you have the wrong people running the government. But: the bottom line in the end is - whose 4-year-old get killed? What we're doing is limiting the possibility that 4-year-olds here will get killed by indiscriminate acts of terror."
...
KLEIN: "If it is misused, and there is a really major possibility of abuse if you have the wrong people running the government. But: the bottom line in the end is - whose 4-year-old get killed? What we're doing is limiting the possibility that 4-year-olds here will get killed by indiscriminate acts of terror."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/23/klein-drones-morning-joe
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 21:20 (eleven years ago) link
no chance a drone can destroy a TV studio eh
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 21:21 (eleven years ago) link
wow, what a piece of shit
scarborough is tacking left for the election or he's always been not so cool w/ drones?
― all mods con (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 21:23 (eleven years ago) link