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

Read a few reviews of the book and some excerpts. It appears the book confirms what we know about inside-the-beltway types and maybe gives one more insider info about them. Thus, I have little interest in reading the book.

like pareene sez i just want to know more precisely whom to hate

— or Mike Allen’s formerly secret John Bircher dad —

lol wut

isn't this part of marxist thought as well

To be clear, this mechanism would work well only if the business owner were racist, against the wealthiest majority element of society and therefore was selecting to serve only an impoverished minority among his potential customers. If such segregation were still legal in the USA, a white racist who wanted to cater only to whites could easily find a genteel way to frame his racism that would allow his white customers to overlook it, because when you get down to it, it's no skin off their noses. Maybe a little sign near the door saying "We practice voluntary segregation."

Nice! http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/mr-takano-grades-little-johnny-boehners.html

http://www.thenation.com/blog/175176/comeys-crickets#axzz2YlFOxBDa

So apparently there's more to our new FBI chief than just his one good deed, but hey it's summer, and who cares what a negative lefty Nation mag columnist thinks

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/11/19418669-rand-paul-defends-secessionist-staffer?lite

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced a bill aimed at re-creating the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era measure that separated commercial and investment banking.

“It will take a lot of tools to get rid of too-big-to-fail, but one of them ought to be that if you want to do high-stakes gambling, good on you, but you do not get access to people’s checking accounts and savings accounts,” Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, told Bloomberg Television’s Peter Cook in an interview today.

The bill sponsored by Warren along with Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, and Angus King, a Maine independent, would separate traditional banks that offer checking and savings accounts insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from “riskier financial institutions.” The latter category includes companies involved in investment banking, insurance, swaps dealing, hedge funds and private equity, according to the lawmakers’ statement released yesterday.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-07-11/warren-joins-mccain-to-push-new-glass-steagall-bill-for-banks

i literally did a dance at my desk

expect McCain to get pissy about something though.

Yeah but he'll get some tv time at least.

I had read that Reid was discussing with Senate Dems whether to end filbusters for agency position nominations and slots on the NLRB, but the discussion of that has led to this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/07/11/mcconnell-nuclear-option-will-be-reids-legacy/

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) engaged in a heated hour-long exchange over filibuster rules on the Senate floor Thursday, and by the end of the day, McConnell said Reid risked becoming the worst Senate leader in history.

If Reid goes through with the so-called nuclear option, McConnell said, “our friend the majority leader is going to be remembered as the worst leader here ever.”

WORST LEADER HERE EVER

He'll at least be remembered for something besides being a human turtle.

if I were Dick Durbin I'd kick Reid in the balls in front of the caucus and go "YEAH BITCH FILIBUSTER OVER"

caucuspunch

http://www.youtube.com/user/thetexastribune?v=2Q8Hr0O20LY

TX Senate debating HB2

I wish HB2 was called 2HB and instead of stripping abortion rights it was about mandatory playing of Roxy Music before repertory film screenings.

From the comments on that livestream:
So Texas DPS is taking away pads and tampons from woman going into the capitol building, but allowing concealed handguns. GOOD JOB TEXAS

The rumor going around on the right, based on a "DPS source," is that women planned to throw their tampons in protest. The people I expect would make up bullshit about protestors throwing things are pushing it; the people I expect would deny such things whether they were true or not are denying them. Awaiting word from my two nonbullshit sources.

@beetasays
Women are chaining themselves to the chamber. Some kicked out of gallery. Capitol is chaos. Amazing. #txlege

Good to see Texas women showing as much moxie as the suffragettes did.

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

"Contrary to popular opinion, Republicans won't get patted on the back or get new votes because of passing amnesty. They're going to get blamed. And it's my prediction that the House Republicans could put themselves in a position where they could actually lose the gavel in 2014, because I think the president, even by executive order, can again wave his magic wand before 2014 [1] and he'd say now all of the new, legal Americans are going to have voting rights.'

"Why do I say that? He did it in 2012. Do you remember? Anyone who was here as a Latina under age 30, he said, 'You get to vote.' [2]

Does she just make this crazy stuff up spontaneously or does she have speechwriters who do so?

i'm amazed this has gotten attention, all the writeups of her deciding not to run again read like obits, 'and that's the last we heard of michele bachmann'. can only figure she's jockeying for a media gig.

What if Trayvon Martin was wearing Google Glasses?

well he'd've been white

wrong thread but didn't belong in that thread anyway

hard to know what she wants, she doesn't show any sign of behind-the-curtain canniness, she's full on all the way.

Yes, full all the way. You can see it in her eyes, like a kind of insanity.

being all o_O and smh over bachmann has been a cottage industry around my way for a looong time now and i don't think we've ever seen the bottom of it, or will. just one of those kinds of people. fwiw my impression of her is that she doesn't really have the gritted-teeth meanness of, say, palin. just one of the lord's servants on earth, concerned, happy, energetic forever...

a pat buchannan for the 21st century

a camera whore of no importance who keeps libs from thinking too long about what scum the Democrats are

So while Reid and Senate Dems are debating whether to get rid of the filibuster for nominations to agency positions and the NLRB(the even scummier Republicans won't let Dems get a vote on a nominee that is necessary to have a voting quorum on the board); the Republicans have already responded that if they take over the Senate they will get rid of the filibuster for legislation including Obamacare. I assume they'll try to find a way to get rid of it if they get majority status in the Senate anyway.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_07/may_cooler_heads_not_prevail045838.php

yeah the funny thing about all the OMG over reid possibly using the nuclear option to slightly curtail use of the filibuster is that everyone know's it's effectively dead as soon as the gop takes the senate back next year.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/nate-silver-predicts-gop-holding-50-51-senate

Following former Gov. Brian Schweitzer's decision not to run for Montana’s open U.S. Senate seat this weekend, New York Times polling guru Nate Silver predicted Monday that Republicans will hold 50 to 51 seats in the upper chamber after all ballots are counted in the 2014 Congressional mid-term elections.

Silver hedges in his prediction by reminding his readers that the outcome will be affected by several factors, namely local variables, the quality of candidates yet chosen by both Democrats and Republicans, economic indicators and President Barack Obama's approval rating.

Meanwhile Reid's gambit looks like it's working

“When McConnell met with Reid, he said we’ll let these guys through if you unilaterally disarm, and Reid rejected the offer,” the Democratic aide said.

“It sounds like an array of options were talked about, but no commitment from Reid to not just keep using the threat of nuclear option over and over again,” the GOP aide said.

It’s a remarkable move by Reid, who issued his threat to nuke the filibuster for executive branch nominations on the basis of whether the seven nominees would receive a vote. Three nominees would serve on the National Labor Relations Board and the rest would lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Labor Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Export-Import Bank. The primary lingering dispute is over the fate of two NLRB nominees whom President Obama appointed while Congress was in recess.

It remains possible the nuclear option will be avoided this time around as a group of Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), are easing up on the stalled nominees. As Reid sees it, he’s calling the shots over McConnell.

“We’re fighting for the principle that executive nominees should get up-or-down votes,” the senior Democratic aide said. “If Republicans will give us that, there’s a chance we won’t go nuclear, but we will maintain the ability to go nuclear if they start filibustering nominees again.”

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) all but admitted that Richard Cordray had the votes to be confirmed to the CFPB. The remaining discussions are about confirming the two NLRB picks — Sharon Block and Richard Griffin. If they go through, Reid will have no incentive to go nuclear this time around, but people close to him say he refuses to give up his right to do what’s needed to make sure the Senate functions in the future.

“This would also be a rebuke to McConnell from his caucus,” the aide continued, “since the group [of Republicans] we’re talking with is so sick of the obstruction themselves that they’re basically willing to give us everything we’re asking for with no conditions on future action.”

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/reid-rejects-mcconnell-offer-nuclear-option.php?ref=fpa

“It sounds like an array of options were talked about, but no commitment from Reid to not just keep using the threat of nuclear option over and over again,” the GOP aide said.

amazing

No surprise how lazily the media is reporting this. On CNN and FOX anchors talk as if Reid wants to eliminate filibuster for judges too.

Not reid's hugest fan obviously but he is a canny motherfucker

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/16/19503136-making-the-transition-from-light-bulbs-to-ceiling-fans?lite

How dare that Obama try to set energy-efficiency standards for ceiling fans! First it was lightbulbs, now this...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/nuclear-option-filibuster-deal-nominations.php

In short, Republicans would confirm nominees to all seven positions, a big concession for the GOP. But in a concession for Democrats, they would replace two recess-appointed nominees to the National Labor Relations Board — Sharon Block and Richard Griffin, pictured below — with new nominees under the following condition: Republicans pledge to confirm any two replacements by President Obama to the board by Aug. 27.

morbs for NLRB?

anybody read NY Mag's Boehner feetch?

http://nymag.com/news/features/john-boehner-2013-7/

nice to see for once a portrait of JB where they don't act like his dad owning just one ohio bar means he grew up disadvantaged. love the bit too about a 'cologne and no jeans' kind of guy -- now there's a rugged conservative american

The deal: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/16/the-senate-didnt-go-nuclear-but-actually-it-kind-of-did/

there’s no way Majority Leader McConnell will permit Democrats to routinely filibuster or otherwise obstruct President Christie’s nominees

Umm?

good lord i hate the whole "nuke" metaphor for this. anyway,

The Senate didn’t actually go nuclear today. But the majority took out a nuke, put it on the table, and made clear they can detonate it whenever they feel like.

It’s clear now that Reid will change the rules if he believes it necessary. But so too will McConnell. If Republicans retake the Senate in 2014 and the presidency in 2016, there’s no way Majority Leader McConnell will permit Democrats to routinely filibuster or otherwise obstruct President Christie’s nominees. If they do, he’ll throw Reid’s words back in their face and make the change Reid threatened to make today.

The result is that the minority's ability to filibuster executive-branch nominees was weakened, even if it wasn’t fully eliminated. The minority can use the filibuster against particularly objectionable nominees that the majority isn’t overly committed to confirming. But they do so with the express indulgence of the majority. If the minority uses it too often, or chooses a nominee the majority really wants to confirm, the privilege of filibustering nominees — and that’s what it is now, a privilege granted by the majority — will be taken away. No majority is going to take that nuke off the table.

i agree with klein's take on this, and i think that it's a good thing. even if when republicans take over the senate, it's fine that democrats won't be able to abuse the filibuster to block nominees. that's how govt. is supposed to work. you're not supposed to gum up the works every time your team isn't in power. you're only supposed to do it the majority nominates someone who is truly an abomination.

why didn't reid pull the trigger on this back in 2009?

xpost

If Republicans retake the Senate in 2014...

even if when republicans take over the senate, it's fine that democrats won't be able to abuse the filibuster to block nominees.

before someone freaks out, i meant that the minority party won't be able to block filibusters routinely, as a default approach, like it is now

xp I know. I just thought it was odd that the forgone conclusion that the next GOP president is Chris Christie.