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

In NC the Republicans are taking vengeance for being effectively shut out of state government for the past 20 years. Now that they control the House, Senate and the Governor's house the gloves have come off and they are trying to undo as much in the way of progressive legislation as they can through any means possible. Unemployment benefits, voter id laws, abortion, even attempting to put in place a new regressive tax code. The legislature has been attempting to further undermine city governments (which are almost always Democratic)by putting various municipal services (the Asheville water system, the Charlotte airport, etc.) under the control of ostensibly "independent authorities" which have boards composed largely of state appointees. The countryside has effectively declared war on the cities. The backlash has already started but a lot of damage has been done and I don't think we'll ever get some of these things back.

This might be too much information for this particular board, but it's really frustrating. I wrote to my state Senator and his reply was basically, well, hopefully the next election goes better for us once the people of the state realize what they really voted for.

Hillary is a tough boss - so tough, my friend's husband who worked for her decided to throw himself behind Obama in '08. However I'd wager that while at SoS she seemed not to be as bad as she used to be, which suggests her First Lady years were probably more stressful.

she's quoted as saying 'fuck the white house correspondents dinner' in a new book so kudos on that front at least

boehner and the hastert rule and how his hand was forced - http://www.nationalreview.com/node/352631/print

The real horrors these days emerge from statehouses.

Yep, people can yuck all they want regarding the aging conservative white men party and their success in presidential elections, but in numerous statehouses they continue to have success

'pro life' people mishear a prochoice chant about 'the state' at tx lege as 'hail satan'

#hailsatan now trending nationally

It's pretty transparent that the NC reps tacked the anti-abortion stuff onto a bill banning sharia law so that they can run ads claiming that anyone who votes against the anti-abortion stuff is secretly wanting to impose sharia law on NC.

I feel compelled to wonder whether sharia law allows for abortion rights. My hunch is that it would be even more restrictive of abortions than the stuff the republicans proposed. Irony?

yeah, i was composing an onion-esque headline in my head: "NC-sen bans, imposes Sharia law in same bill"

'pro life' people mishear a prochoice chant about 'the state' at tx lege as 'hail satan'

Ha, if only, but of course this would never be allowed in Obama's nanny state that wants to stomp out all religious expression.

First they took our Krampus, then they forced us to renounce our satanic overlord....

As a fan of a certain Mr. Tyler my first reaction to the hail satan thing was "oh cool!"

http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/investigations/the_koch_club/story/Koch_climate_pledge_strategy/

So Norquist isn't the only conservative activist requiring a pledge

haha was about to post it!

The longer story is even more chilling.

if only it chilled the earth

http://socioecohistory.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/time-magazine-april-1977.jpg

lol at 'why we can't beat the soviets' on the same front page, suprised they didn't do the usual coy 'have we cured cancer?' hed for the other story, lol at 'if they killed col blake wtf are they gonna do to frank?' speculation

haha that doesn't even attempt to look like a 1970's era magazine cover.

or read like one

51 things!

http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/2007/1101070409_400.jpg

actual cover

hoooooos`

i am right here why are you yelling

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/charlieunicorn.jpg

I'M RIGHT HERE WADDYA WANT

lol

from no climate tax pledge article:

On Feb. 5, Mary Hutzler, senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that research shows America has an abundance of fossil fuel reserves that could power the nation for nearly 600 years.

no. noooooooo. even using really lenient assumptions about the possibilities for future discovery and production, the congressional research service estimates that the proven fossil fuel reserves of the united states are the equivalent of 973.1 billion barrels of oil (or about 5400 quadrillion Btus). the united states consumed about 80 quadrillion Btus in 2011. that works out to about 67 years of "powering the nation" on our domestic fossil fuel reserves, using the most cheerful of assumptions. oh yeah, and that's pretending that global warming doesn't exist, which of course is a prerequisite for working for these shitty institutions.

On Feb. 14, her colleague, Daniel Simmons, director of Regulatory and State Affairs at the Institute for Energy Research, told members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that environmental regulation of the oil industry is to blame for the rising cost of gasoline.

way to fucking go, daniel simmons, you have the mind of a dizzy neanderthal, and literally no one in the world agrees with you except for the people who work with you and the people that they drink white wine with while telling shitty stories and getting rich!

A month later, on March 13, Hutzler testified during a hearing of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology that federal subsidies of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources had failed to make America energy independent. She argued that the fuels receiving the most government money produced the least amount of energy.[ /q]

oh man, another ice burn from hutzler. i can't think of any reason why fossil fuels would be producing more energy than renewables! oh wait,

http://i.imgur.com/zG7qVcu.jpg
that's odd, it looks like oil, coal and natural gas received 70% of federal energy subsidies (about $600 billion) from 1950-2010, while renewables got 9%.

maybe the govt. is interested in funding renewable research because it helps to drive down the cost of renewable production...

http://i.imgur.com/pLZRWW0.gif
(btw in 2013 we're at 50 cents/watt, and by 2017 we'll be at about 36 cents/watt)

...while the price of oil has nowhere to go but up?

i just can't believe that this kind of shit FLIES at a national level when it couldn't pass muster in a discussion section of a graduate level energy/environment class! to hell with these liars and everyone who believes them.

the NC stuff is so heartbreaking - the NC the legislature's trying to create isn't the place that a lot of people have moved to over the past 20 years. Went down to the statehouse today to be seen/heard, chanted "shame!" when the vote went through - 1 of us got arrested, pretty clearly a case of "arrest the young woman in the dress," it was gross.

real good post z s,
sorry you know enough about this that you have to be bummed out by it. maybe you should start a plainspoken globesplaining blog about this stuff? with bullshit in the title? I would read it & it could become a bill o'reilly esque safe space in which to express/understand dissent

heyletmedrunkenlyglobesplainawaysomebullshitin25to60days.tumblr.com

^would read

the guy on Facebook who wishes death and dismemberment on all Republicans (we all have that guy, right?) posted a link to a story on the Evo Morales's plane being grounded and searched, yada yada yada.

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18066-evo-morales-the-president-of-bolivia-accuses-the-white-house-of-kidnapping-him-by-getting-european-allies-to-force-land-his-plane-in-austria

then a second-level comment to someone wanting to boycott the countries involved:
"Let's start with Israeli companies like SodaStream, Sabra, etc before going after countries that have at least a modicum of respect for Palestinian rights."

Guy who brings up Palestinians no matter what should be a square on Internet comment bingo.

man is there already an internet comment bingo

bunch of ilxors on the edge of their seats waiting for that last hit

So, have there been any noticeable sequester effects yet? Besides the occasional curtailing of museum hours or canceling fireworks displays?

A shitload of poor kids have been dropped from Headstart programs.

The annual Cleveland Air Show was cancelled. (Not that I'll miss it, fuck a bunch of supersonic jets doing flybys for a week.)

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-06-30/politics/40292466_1_sequestration-predictions-obama-administration

In 11 cases, sequestration turned out to be as bad as advertised, or worse.

The Labor Department had predicted that emergency unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed would be cut by 9.4 percent. But in some states, the reductions have been larger: 11 percent. For an individual, that could mean $450 less in benefits this year.

At the Pentagon, officials had predicted that they would reduce training for the Army, flying time for the Air Force and ship deployments for the Navy. They did all three. “It’s extremely hard to show a degradation in our readiness, although we feel it deeply across the force,” Pentagon spokeswoman Beth Robbins said.

Across the government, more than 125,000 employees have been furloughed from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Internal Revenue Service, and other agencies. About 650,000 Defense Department civilians will start taking 11 unpaid days next week. Public defenders are losing up to 15 days of pay.

In 24 cases, however, The Post’s review showed that the predictions were wrong — sequestration had not lived up to the administration’s alarms.

So, have there been any noticeable sequester effects yet? Besides the occasional curtailing of museum hours or canceling fireworks displays?

one very noticeable effect for me is that i'm on mandatory furlough today! sadtrombone.wav

I know someone who is on furlough on Monday

Good article in the N&O today about 'what happens next' with the new law in NC—both the House leader & Gov. McCrory (who made a pre-election pledge not to sign any legislation restricting abortion, fwiw) are moderate Republican big-business-types who seem reluctant to dirty their hands with divisive culture-war bullshit. So if you wanna call this the GOP's "revenge", just keep in mind that it's a very poorly-planned revenge.

Of course, McCrory can sit back and let the NC House/Senate overturn his veto, if he stands up to them (and I'm going to take a stab in the dark that he won't protest the end of early voting and voting ID restrictions they're bringing in...)

It seems like the effects are diffuse enough that maybe they're just not overwhelming? I mean, I know people affected by it, most obviously gov workers, but maybe it's just too early to tell how damaging it will be.

The most prevalent stories I've read about the sequester, apart from the Headstart enrollment hit, have been of the nature of -- 'here's this worthwhile program we're having to put in mothballs, but the irony is that keeping it suspended costs money, too, and starting it back up will be even more expensive than if we'd never cut it back.'

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/07/hillary_clinton_wesleyan_commencement_speech_robert_pinsky_on_the_politician.html

Olympic ping-pong team, contestant on Jeopardy, key grip for the next Scorsese film--the options out there are theoretically unlimited.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/rick-perry-2016-is-option

poll

https://twitter.com/ConnieSchultz/status/353923629219721216/photo/1

A woman should give this fat asshole a haircut amirite

mos def gives us a look at what "doctors" at guantanamo are doing to the men who are hunger striking. a warning - it's pretty nauseating, in all seriousness

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jul/08/mos-def-force-fed-guantanamo-bay-video?CMP=twt_gu

this book will be delicious
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/books/this-town-by-mark-leibovich-skewers-washingtons-insiders.html

Rick Perry not seeking reelection

idgi mos def asks to be force fed then hes all begging to stop make up yr mind bro

right now i'm wondering what's taking them death panels so long

What does where I went to college (or parody of same) have to do with your basic reflexive misogyny?

the gates 'revelations' seem like classic beltway disconnect - obama was skeptical the surge would work in afghanistan! - the kinda thinking that the al qaeda flareups in iraq recently are a disaster for obama cuz they show he shouldn't have cut and run in iraq. this isn't quite directly tied into that but the neocon revisionism and pushback on iraq recently has been out of control.

misanthropy, dear, misanthropy xp

(you might look at who chimed in with "bitch" above; one speaks gutter to gutter)

also bye thread

see you tomorrow

or IN HELL?

Time has possibly come to leave the board, bullshit is at an all-time high

Ssh! Quiet, unless you have something to say relevant to the thread. Just take a break.

Morbs, my post was about your conduct. Whining that other kids did it too doesn't cut it with me; you're the one reaching for the misogynist imagery at the slightest provocation.

The reaction to Gates here in the UK is basically "...", everyone's like 'of course Obama wanted to leave, didn't he campaign on that, stupid Republican is stupid...'

I didn't call anyone a bitch

Time has possibly come to leave the board, bullshit is at an all-time high

― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, January 8, 2014 10:36 AM (2 minutes ago)

Huh. Seems at an all-time low to me.

American Politics Thread 2014