US POLITICS election/post-election edition: your country will improve immediately.

Assuming Harry Reid loses (I won't miss him a bit), who will be the new majority/minority leader? Schumer? Levin?

Schumer is angling for it, alas.

Schumer vs Durbin

only one to vote nay at the time, a few more voted nay on the re-up

right but...I mean...it's not like it was a secret that the patriot act was bullshit -- the ones who voted "yea": what do you imagine motivated that bullshit vote?

yeah my money would be on schumer probably. Reid is terrible but Angle will be so much worse (albeit less powerful)

on the plus side she will be first Asian legislator in the Senate

aero did you live in this country in 2001?

all the votes for the patriot act and the iraq invasion are unforgiveable sins imho

I would like to know why Wellstone voted for it.

closet fascist

not making any defense of the act itself, but the idea that it was bullshit on its face would have been a very rare opinion in those days

xp wellstone 'put a suit on' as you'll all recall...

on the forgiveness scale:

Iraq War >>>>>> Patriot Act

i owed my prior job to the Patriot Act ... just sayin'

aero did you live in this country in 2001?

yeah I did. there were millions of people writing their elected representatives to urge opposition to USA Patriot. the notion that nobody could have voted against it and survived politically is total bullshit of the make-excuses-for-asshole-voting-records variety. that shit was a stake through the heart of democracy and "but the political climate!" is the best you can muster? please.

ok, here's another question, can you tell the difference between explaining behavior and excusing it? why the patriot act sailed through congress in october of 2001 seems as obvious a political question as there has ever been

Wellstone also voted for DOMA.

I'd like a citation on the "millions" of letters.

"they had to vote for it...otherwise they risked getting reelected!" well ok yeah with reelection on the table I can see how erasing several centuries of settled constitutional law via congressional fiat would be totally understandable

xp yeah that explains it, all right...what remains inexplicable is how one could support any politician whose values & ethics are so clearly not just flexible but completely on the block depending on how the winds of reelection are blowing

Dammit, all these Brangelina pix coming up in my GIS for "Mr. Smith".

can you tell the difference between explaining behavior and excusing it? why the patriot act sailed through congress in october of 2001 seems as obvious a political question as there has ever been

I was about to say: from the Alien and Sedition Acts to the Espionage Act to Truman's loyalty oaths, American history is replete with assaults on free speech after a good scare. I totally understand why these guys voted for it.

The Iraq war vote certainly makes less sense.

aero i don't think many of those dems were (mostly) afraid of not getting reelected, i think the lion's share of them, or the overwhelming number of their constituents, were really and genuinely afraid of being killed by arabs and wanted Someone to Do Something.

Yes. This was the time when the entire Congress recited the Pledge on the steps of the Capitol, remember?

cryingeagle.gif

radical orgs like the american booksellers association were coordinating letter-writing campaigns

over 200 individual municipalities protested it, and this is well-documented

the idea that the political climate of post-9/11 excuses, explains, or otherwise justifies support for the total undermining of basic liberties assured by the constitution is ridiculous -- if these guys were suffering post-attack shock they might have maybe used their brains and said, jeez, you don't go fucking up 200 years of settled law just because your feeling of immunity from attack took a hit? like, otherwise, we're basically saying "the difference between our elected officials and some random hysterical asshole is...our elected officials ran for office"

honestly 99% of the actions of our elected officials immediately following 9/11 made me embarassed/ashamed for our country

You overrate the intelligence of your average legislator.

lol not any more I don't!

yes i am basically saying that

and again: we know from russ feingold that it didn't take some fuckin' einstein/superman hybrid to oppose this shit. it just took the teeniest tiniest bit of spine.

I'm confused by your reverence for Feingold above all others.

Name the senators who voted against the USA PATRIOT Act.

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, November 2, 2010 9:25 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark

Bernie Sanders voted against it as a congressman and surely would have as a Senator.

Yes. This was the time when the entire Congress recited the Pledge on the steps of the Capitol, remember?

― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, November 2, 2010 9:50 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

god, so much crazy shit that is easy to forget.

Apparently also easy to forget just how scaredy-cat your average U.S. citizen was immediately thereafter.

Never Forget.

the GOP dudes who voted nay are a weird group

Ney
Otter
Paul

isn't bob ney in jail?

bob ney also the guy behind "freedom fries", lol i never knew that.

Ugly guy too.

He looks like his blood is made of Hunt's Ketchup.

i still remember the friday following sept 11 in l.a., everywhere i drove people were out on the streets flashing peace signs and/or holding kill osama signs or and generally Rallying for America.

in that climate it was totally easy for people to get swept up onto the "kill everyone!" train

He looks like his blood is made of Hunt's Ketchup.

― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, November 2, 2010 10:02 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

probably related to the freedom fries decision.

His hair's the color of a cheese omelet.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/photos/uncategorized/bob_ney_red_nr.jpg

in that climate it was totally easy for people to get swept up onto the "kill everyone!" train

...right...one thing that theoretically sets an elected representative apart from you or me is the notion that they won't vote away our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms because of some bad shit that went down last week

so have we assigned someone on K-Lo watch tonight?

it's all you dog

aaaaaand it looks like Coats and Paul win.

welcome back to Congress, Dan Burton!

write in aqua buddha everybody

d'oh! I wrote-in Xenu for one of the races on my ballot. I wish I would've remembered Aqua Buddha.

aqua buddha is by FAR my favorite thing that's happened throughout the whole campaign.

At the very least, I am very curious how a Rand Paul - let alone someone like Angle - will fare in the public eye, as opposed to the periphery where they've been hanging. I reckon neither will be able to successfully push, let alone achieve, anything close to their agenda, yet each seems the sort whose constituency would take compromise ... let's just say personally. Wonder if they'll regret all their pro-gun posturing when the angry shouters start showing up at their own functions.