American Politics Thread 2013: Bangs, Whimpers and Filibusters

http://image.blingee.com/images18/content/output/000/000/000/784/741856027_566018.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om24vFEStvw

Good title

It’s simply a hostage exchange. The Republicans gave up the fiscal cliff, and will now take the debt limit, the federal budget and automatic across-the-board cuts to discretionary spending (the sequester), and have another standoff in 2-3 months time. The deal wouldn’t have gotten 85 GOP votes in the House without the leadership giving right-wingers ironclad guarantees that they’ll have another hostage soon.

What leverage will the White House have at that point? They’ve already rejected the “constitutional option” to avoid the debt ceiling — and won’t mint a big platinum coin. The Bush tax cuts on high earners will be off the table. That leaves cuts to defense — which Republicans hate — and public opinion, to which the GOP doesn’t seem terribly responsive when its base is screaming murder and threatening primaries (which is always). That’s pretty thin gruel given that the “austerity caucus” thinks it has a good shot at cutting Social Security and Medicare as part of a “grand bargain” with Obama.

Other than that, we’ll only have the Democrats’ legendary iron back-bone on which to rely. Nobody’s ever gotten rich betting on that.

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/the_fiscal_cliff_deal_is_simply_awful/

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1az41TcVJ1qfy2kdo1_r1_500.gif

morbs desperately searches salon for liberal takedown of fiscal cliff deal, finds one that doesnt say anything about the deal, posts, thank god

Meanwhile Peter King i smiffed.

http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/50d137d6ecad046d79000008-900/obama-has-nancy-pelosi-john-boehner-harry-reid-and-mitch-mcconnell-over-for-lunch.jpg

"These sandwiches are mighty tasty."

"Are they as tasty as GO FUCK YOURSELF?"

A good summary of what's in the thing.

I will give Boehner this -- if I worked in Congress I would want to drink constantly and tell everyone to go fuck themselves.

toothbomb

as there's nothin goin on in politics this year -- ta.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om24vFEStvw

http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/gallery/files/6/2/4/1/Cats_Ass_thumb.jpg

one piece of good news in the deal is that it extends the wind energy tax credits for another year. the tax credits have been around for a couple decades now, but every once in a while congress lets them lapse and new wind projects have significantly declined:

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/PTC-Chart.png

(the tax credit lapsed in 2000, 2002 and 2004, as the chart implies but doesn't explicitly say)

really mad that this is "American Politics 2013: Go Fuck Yourself"

yes, the solar tax credits got in too, which is good news for my job. xp to ZS

glad to hear it! i always hear about the renewable energy tax credits in the context of wind, but i don't know as much about how they've affected solar in the past.

it's worth pointing out that romney opposed renewable energy tax credits and the clean energy industry (in america, at least) would be in trouble right now if he had somehow won. i'm sympathetic to the "both parties suck the dollar's d" argument but this is one case where the choice really makes a difference.

anyway, time to start screaming about the debt ceiling again! yaaaaaaaaaaay

this shit right her is shameful beyond shameful
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/nyregion/congressional-members-blast-house-for-ignoring-storm-aid-bill.html

Comment re: King thing in TPM upthread is pretty otm I think.

Yes, how dare the federal government not give my state relief money that would be paid for by the taxes I constantly vote against, and help from the agencies I constantly try to discredit and disband.

our leaders:

Senator Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri, suggested that the aid request was harmed by its size.

“Sometimes when you ask for too much, you don’t get anything,” he told CNN.

cool guy

what a shitty fucking person he is

Gonna be hilar when St. Louis goes underwater again.

blunt might not give a rat's about that either

Boy, hope those tornadoes never come through Missouri again LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO.

When we've managed to shrink the economy, the infrastructure, and the population back down to the levels of 1900, then by gawd, we can get back to the kind of limited, inexpensive government we all deserve and it will be paradise on earth again.

Oh, he comes from around Joplin, eh? Yeah, they never need any massive assistance either.

just as long as republicans arent in the throws of a temper tantrum at the time everything should be cool

Biden: most influential veep ever?

both of these are pretty good

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/big-lebowski-explains-the-fiscal-cliff.html

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/336709/left-and-cliff-yuval-levin

i just cant anymore, all these writers who have spent the past month surely predicting outcomes that never happened are suddenly in possession of pristine counterfactuals

im mean chait was cool w/cutting social security but now somehow this deal is obama getting his rug tooken

game theory is where bloggers are vikings

i don't remember chait making strong predictions but i kinda tuned this shit out over the holidays

yeah hes not a huge offender on predictions aside from reviewing rumors as if they were done deals, w/him its more that the deals he was cool with were much worse than this one now hes all *sigh* not that good bamer, overall tho with everyone its just that imaginary dealmaking is way too fun

it hink you can analyze the deal w/o relying on counterfactuals as to what obama couldve gotten if he wasnt such as wimp

not knowing house procedure, was it some kind of 'concession' on the part of the House Crazies to let the senate bill come to the floor as-is in the first place? even thought they all turned around and voted no?

ya they were basically voting yes w/o voting yes, more protecting their right flank than conceding really

i'm trying to imagine my own COUNTERFACTUAL where democrats started with the position of dealing with pelosi + some house GOP breakaways. but doing so probably would have ensured GOP unity against. that, and a Speaker being abandoned by his own majority leader and whip in the final moments probably shouldn't be characterized as 'breakaways' anyway...

i mean even these insane people had to have realized they they were fucked on this one, also they were tired and wanted to go home, tho not w/o fucking over people whose homes got swept into the ocean

the LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO caucus

there aren't enough moderate house gop breakways, is the problem

there were enough the other day! under the circumstances. which could not be reproduced if you were trying to, is my point, i guess.

they supposedly had some unofficial rule in the house that they wouldn't bring a bill to the floor unless they expected a majority of the majority party to vote for it. so this was a kinda break in their party rules.

'the hastert rule' yes

was it some kind of 'concession' on the part of the House Crazies to let the senate bill come to the floor as-is in the first place?

only if the crazies actually wanted to kill the bill, as opposed to voting 'no', while allowing it to pass. it is the difference between symbolic resistance and knifing it to death in a back alley. so, the biggest crazies are probably very sullen today and plotting their revenge on Boehner.

the hastert rule, which is only a rule i guess until its inconvenient

(/when) do we think cantor is gonna make a move? it seems like it is and will continue to be a shitty job

if we let enough people in it could turn into a great for everyone situation long term but thats not exactly on the table at this point

I have no idea what makes a 100% principle-free dronefuck like Shrillary Rodham either a "rock star" or a "cool grandma"

I don't know either but yay celebrity

do we need another thread? Five thousand posts and counting

can the new thread title please include the term 'cool grandma'

if we can work cool grandma into the next title we are virtually guaranteed great success

lol xp

cool grandma's reading my metadata

yay sexism

whats wrong w sexy cool grandmas

I meant calling her by her maiden name like it's some kind of insult, seems like the kind of thing Rush Limbuagh does

waterface, morbs; morbs, waterface

It's the kind of thing you do for ppl who are nepotist rock stars.

like julian lennon

More like Julian OhNo

i glanced at the frank thing, it's kinda the mickey kaus take minus the paranoia and hysterical racism (which admittedly is 90% of the kaus take). it's kinda ignoring the facts on the ground also, the negative economic impact of immigration (depression of low skilled workers wages) has already been absorbed right? this effect would be more likely to be diminished than amplified by amnesty right? not being rhetorical w/ these questions btw, anyone w/ some data chime in. i can totally get a progressive argument against immigration, it's just taking the libertarian argument for open borders and applying a liberal filter to it, but i think the cow has left the barn here so to speak and the effects that would come w/ legalization would be positive for the economy from what i understand nevermind millions of peoples lives. anyone who's actually read the frank piece: does he actually tear into the senate bill or just the general amnesty argument or just against open borders in principle? does he deal w/ border security issue, i'd actually like to read a smart take on that instead of the usual rightwing using it as smoke and mirrors. even if you accept that the bill doesn't 'solve' the problem of illegal immigration, that it doesn't go far enough to prevent or disincentivize illegal immigration, i don't really buy that it incentivizes it; if illegal immigration spikes after passage of this bill it will be becuz the economy has fully bounced back, not becuz 'hey maybe in 30 years they'll do it again'.

open all boarders in the whole world imho

mr everyone tear down these walls!

I didn't know you were so pro-surgery on ppl who rent rooms

hah well i feel like thats a gross oversimplification of my platform

by platform i mean the operating table installed in every apartment under my plan

i thought you mean meant open in the sales sense.

see a renter, make that pitch son

you pict them a price for their organs is what i was getting at

and hillary rock stardom sorta mystifies me also (it's not just she's the first woman w/ a shot at the presidency this strong), i think the disconnect between who she actually is and who her fans have somehow convinced themselves she is is much greater than there was for obama in 08 or even between conservatives' present day myth of reagan vs the actual reagan. some real schlesinger on jfk type beer goggles. nevertheless it's real, texts from hillary was a real thing for better or worse.

ya i wonder how much hillary has learned from being around team obama cause i always found her a visionless politician who surrounded herself w hacks, feel like who she picks for her campaign team will tell us a lot

the disconnect between who she actually is and who her fans have somehow convinced themselves she is is much greater than there was for obama in 08

I dunno! that's like surpassing Cy Young's 511 wins.

btw gabbneb jr, I'm tot willing to use "Mrs Clinton."

oink oink

my grandma's pretty cool, i'd vote for her

hrc is no ted kennedy

My grandma is top three people in my life and she'd be a horrible president.

is she ahead of or behind Timberlake?

I'm always behind Timberlake

yeah she's always seemed a much less charismatic and less canny version of her husband (ie al gore w/o the pet causes and weird combo of smugness and insecurity)(and ok more charisma), i can totally buy the reports of the clintons' calling obama an 'amateur' and while i like winning (scotus natch) and i like the idea of a woman winning the presidency finally i'm really not crazy about the turn toward the ghost of the dlc clinton back in the white house would represent, would really prefer the party keep moving forward. at the same time moving forward sure as fuck doesn't equal andrew cuomo. would love for her to get a serious progressive challenger, and not a token kucinich type, someone she'd have to take seriously, somone who could win delegates. not that they'd beat her, but it might force her to tack left some and maybe establish for future dem hopefuls that this is turf they're gonna have to consider, the same way gop hopefuls have to weigh exactly which issues they're gonna be batshit insane on.

mods, lock thread!

No the new one sucks

Oh wait this one sucks too

would love for her to get a serious progressive challenger, and not a token kucinich type

500-lb gorilla effect probably means that's all she'd get

lol, what's she wearing to the inaug, guys?

A pelt made of dead Iraqi children.

nothing, right? #metaphor

pantsuit

also morbs have you seen 'the spectacular now'? it was shot in town here by some local schmuck, bob odenkirk stayed at the hotel my sister works at, a package came for him one day so she actually had to call saul. jennifer jason leigh was apparently in town also which i wish i'd known cuz i totally would've consoled the fuck out of her on the breakup of her marriage. anyhow dude who directed it is doing the hillary biopic which amuses the fuck out of me, i don't know if the right just isn't aware of it yet or are just so depressed by it they can't even muster up the outrage yet.

haven't, i think it came/went in nyc in a week

that movie isn't coming out til '15/16, why get outraged now?

cf benghazi

slow summer season for outrage

i dunno, i hear the new yorker put bert and ernie on the cover this week

I don't know about other people here from NC, but this completely blindsided me... this morning the state Senate covertly amended legislation banning Sharia law to include some pretty draconian restrictions on abortion rights. Insurance coverage restrictions, new limits on abortion clinics, etc.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/07/03/4145432/opponents-of-nc-abortion-bill.html

talkin about it in the other thread

American Politics Thread 2013: I'm a cool Rodham grandma in the USA

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/15/19487749-bachmann-explains-the-way-we-spank-the-president?lite

she might wanna share tips w/ Michelle O IMO