U.S. Politics, 8

[TerraPrime]

Do continue.

[Shryke]

Wee Voter Suppresion! The GOP's favorite game.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/9/20/903538/-Huge-voter-suppression-plot-exposed-in-Wisconsin

The term for what the right-wing intends to do is called "vote caging,"and involves sending mail to addresses on voter lists and using returned mail to challenge voters at the polls on election day.

The result? Some voters are forced to cast provisional ballots, which require them to follow-up the day after an election for the ballot to be counted. Historically, about 35% of all provisional ballots are never counted.

Voters who have no reason to think their registrations will be challenged at the polling place may not have the required material to complete an Election Day registration, so the voter will be turned away or sent home to get more documents.

The challenges may create long lines at the polling place as the caging operation challenges voter after voter. Long lines discourage voters and many simply leave without casting a ballot.

[lokisnow]

par for the scummy republican course. fuckers.

spinning an idea off the peak oil mention in the previous thread, when the GOP takes control of the house in november it may be worth while for Obama to leverage Peak Oil as his terrorism thing, unlike republicans, democrats don't typically leverage fear, but peak oil offers them a unique opportunity to leverage domestic fear to their advantage since republicans are ill suited to say anything on the matter.

now I know they won't do that, using the presidential bully pulpit to even speak the phrase peak oil would cause global repercussions and either a temporary spike in oil prices or a spike followed by a new normal in oil prices (like how the war on terror bumped us up to a 2$/gallon normal and then katrina bumped us up to 3/gallon normal, I could see the pres saying the phrase peak oil causing a new normal of 3.5/gallon). it could also create a global trend where governments start hording oil and other countries stop exporting as much (and hording themselves) leading to a catastrophic price crisis.

When in doubt, play up fear, it always works like gangbusters for republicans, and then if the president talking about peak oil causes all that, blame it on big oil and their buddies the republicans, and claim innocence saying all you tend was point out the scam they were running. :-p

this is all above a lot of snark to point out that the outrage of lack of presidential movement on peak oil is ill founded. The president of the United States talking about the risks of peak oil could very well cause it to happen sooner than it otherwise would. Whether you're George Bush or Barack Obama it is probably wise for the president not to speculate on a coming supply crisis.

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

I'm sorta torn on oil issues. Given that shite state of the economy, I wouldn't be thrilled about a big spike in oil prices. But if we were in a stronger economy, I'd probably welcome it. I think high oil prices would do wonders to make other energy technologies more competitive and get the momentum that they need to really get entrenched.

You do realize that higher oil prices don't mean squat to rich people, right? Fuel costs are a tiny part of their budgets. But for everyone else, higher fuel costs can be a real burden.

I thought you guys were the party of the middle class?

[lokisnow]

I do realize that.

The RNC just made a move to cock block Palin from building unstoppable momentum in Jan/Feb of 2012

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/09/17/sarah-palin-as-iowa-gop-headliner-passionate-angry-and-crypt/

But that theory exploded when the Republican National Committee recently voted to switch to proportional representation (the system that was used by the Democrats during the protracted Obama-versus-Hillary Clinton battle) for all primaries held during the first two months of the 2012 season. What that means is that it will very difficult for a divisive candidate like Palin to sweep the table before the party establishment (buffeted though it may have been recently) can regroup.

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

I do realize that.

The RNC just made a move to cock block Palin from building unstoppable momentum in Jan/Feb of 2012

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/09/17/sarah-palin-as-iowa-gop-headliner-passionate-angry-and-crypt/

And the President edited a few words out of the most famous line in the Declaration of Independence. I guess that whole "endowed by their Creator" part was just drivel anyway....

http://www.scribd.com/doc/37589908/President-Obama-s-remarks-at-Congressional-Hispanic-Caucus-Gala-2010

[ThinkerX]

Point I was trying to make with the links in the old thread is that we are facing extremely severe crisis's that are either happening now or will happen in the next few years - crises's of the sort that have the potential, at least, to crash civilization as we know it, or at least set things up for a *long* spell of misery for most folks.

We have a local level government budget / econ crisis so severe that cops are being laid off, public schools are being shut down, libraries scaled back or shut down, and roads being allowed to go back to gravel for lack of maintainence funds. This sort of thing falls into the catagory of basic government services - it is what we, as citizens, expect our government to do. This crisis is ongoing and getting worse.

What is going to happen here, with the communties being put in this bind, is they are either going to suffer some sort of governmental collapse because there is no money to do anything, which means they turn into lawless hellholes with no real services at all; or the services once provided by the government get taken over on an adhoc/volunteer basis by the locals - meaning vigilantism operating completely unchecked and volunteerism for schools and fire departments.

A few years down the road - a decade at most - we have a second whammy hitting hard in the form of oil reserves declining to the point where our current lifestyle becomes impossible, save, perhaps for a few at the top. This will effect everything from the food you eat to where you work to where you live - our society is completely dependant on a near infinite supply of relatively cheap oil. Even a crash program would take *AT LEAST* a decade to impliment, and we are either out of time to impliment such, or very close to it.

In both cases, the response from the federal level has been one of lies and denial. Instead of local governments collapsing from one end of the country to the other, we hear about how the 'recovery is here' and how the 'recession ended a year ago' - proclamations squarely against what the people living in those areas see around them on a day to day basis. Likewise, the DOE has gone out of its way to suppress warnings of a catastrophic near future oil crisis, or commence work on alternatives. Given this - and other fiasco's like the 'Cash for Clunkers' and the Wall Street bailouts why should ordinary citizens, especially those in the afflicted areas have any faith in any national level politician? Because the actions of these national level politicians, republicans and democrats alike, are making matters much, much worse, not better.

[lokisnow]

And the President edited a few words out of the most famous line in the Declaration of Independence. I guess that whole "endowed by their Creator" part was just drivel anyway....

http://www.scribd.com/doc/37589908/President-Obama-s-remarks-at-Congressional-Hispanic-Caucus-Gala-2010

I, for one, am far more furious that he left out, "that among these are" because I love that phrase and its important to me.

***

I think we need to split the definition of recession. There should be Wall Street Recession and Real Americans Recession (ie everyone not working on Wall Street in NYC). The Recession ended for Wall Street a year ago, but for everyone else its still going on (in part because businesses find the recession quite profitable to maintain).

[TrackerNeil]

I do realize that.

The RNC just made a move to cock block Palin from building unstoppable momentum in Jan/Feb of 2012

I wondered if the GOP was going to go that route. Honestly, I think proportional representation made for a better contest in 2008, and made Barack Obama a better candidate. First-past-the-post produces winners quickly, but as we Democrats learned in 2004, finding a candidate quickly is no good if it's the wrong candidate. I sometimes think that's the main reason John McCain got the nomination in 2008.

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

I wondered if the GOP was going to go that route. Honestly, I think proportional representation made for a better contest in 2008, and made Barack Obama a better candidate. First-past-the-post produces winners quickly, but as we Democrats learned in 2004, finding a candidate quickly is no good if it's the wrong candidate. I sometimes think that's the main reason John McCain got the nomination in 2008.

The 2008 GOP nomination was like "Survivor". Nobody really was that excited by any of the candidates, so essentially, candidates were voted off rather than affirmatively chosen. McCain won because he was unacceptable to the smallest number of primary voters.

[lokisnow]

Love, love, love our President:

Five minutes of reasoned awesome.

Now, you know, I have been amused over the last couple years, this sense of somehow me beating up on Wall Street. I think most folks on Main Street feel like they got beat up

there’s a big chunk of the country that thinks that I have been too soft on Wall Street. That’s probably the majority, not the minority.

If you’re making $1 billion a year after a very bad financial crisis where 8 million people lost their jobs and small businesses can’t get loans... then I think that you shouldn’t be feeling put upon.

This quote "this was me acting like Hitler going into Poland" had to do with a proposal to change a rule called carried interest. Which basically allows hedge fund managers to be taxed at fifteen percent on their income. now everyone else is being taxed at a lot more. The secretary of the hedge fund is getting taxed at you know 25, 28 and these guys are getting taxed at 15.

The notion that somehow, me saying "maybe you should be taxed more like your secretary" when you're pulling home a billion dollars or a hundred million dollars a year, I don't think is me being extremist or anti-business.

[TrackerNeil]

The 2008 GOP nomination was like "Survivor". Nobody really was that excited by any of the candidates, so essentially, candidates were voted off rather than affirmatively chosen. McCain won because he was unacceptable to the smallest number of primary voters.

Speaking of McCain and unacceptable things, that contemptible tool is threatening to filibuster the repeal of DADT. Most Americans support the repeal, but this f*cker...oh, what does it matter?

[The Progressive]

local governments collapsing from one end of the country to the other

Which is actually quite fair and preferrable. A lot of these boony towns don't have the tax bases to support the infrastructure to sustain them and has been leeching of the teats of other taxpayers. With looming resources shortage issues, it's best that they collapse ...... wouldn't you say so, ThinkerX?

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

Which is actually quite fair and preferrable. A lot of these boony towns don't have the tax bases to support the infrastructure to sustain them and has been leeching of the teats of other taxpayers. With looming resources shortage issues, it's best that they collapse ...... wouldn't you say so, ThinkerX?

Despite my preference for local government, I agree here. I have lived in many small towns in this country, and unless they have a dedicated farm base...most have no real reason for being there. They are bedroom communities to larger cities nearby. No real industry, no finance, and no production of any kind...there is simply no reason to put a town there. Shut the thing down, bulldoze it, and plant some pretty trees.

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

Speaking of McCain and unacceptable things, that contemptible tool is threatening to filibuster the repeal of DADT. Most Americans support the repeal, but this f*cker...oh, what does it matter?

Democrats handled that issue very badly. They tried to rush it through on another bill and alienated the one GOP senator who might have supported it. I know what the polls say, but I think this was intentional.

[TrackerNeil]

Well, once again the Republican supermajority of 41 has defied public sentiment and supported bigotry. Even worse, they found a few Democrats to go along. Well, at least I can take petty satisfaction that this will be one of Blanche Lincoln's last Senate votes.

[Guest Raidne]

Democrats handled that issue very badly. They tried to rush it through on another bill and alienated the one GOP senator who might have supported it. I know what the polls say, but I think this was intentional.

You know, I actually believed you (I know!) until I read, well, anything about it and saw that it was attached to the annual bill that authorizes military programs after the language was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

I'm pretty sure that's the appropriate bill.

Susan Collins switched her vote because Harry Reid "apparently intends to shut down the debate and exclude Republicans from offering a number of amendments." Note, however, that it was the Republicans who shut down debate.

This is hard to untangle, but apparently Reid said that if debate was opened for Republicans to add whatever shlock they wanted, he try to add the Dream Act, which would allow a path to citizenship for illegal immigrant children (which would have failed, as there's no way it had the 60 votes required).

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

You know, I actually believed you (I know!) until I read, well, anything about it and saw that it was attached to the annual bill that authorizes military programs after the language was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

I'm pretty sure that's the appropriate bill.

Susan Collins switched her vote because Harry Reid "apparently intends to shut down the debate and exclude Republicans from offering a number of amendments." Note, however, that it was the Republicans who shut down debate. This is hard to untangle, but apparently Reid said that if debate was opened for Republicans to add whatever shlock they wanted, he try to add the Dream Ac....

That doesn't make sense. A filibuster is the opposite of closing off debate. And Reid saying "if debate was opened for Republicans...." just confirms that the vote was about ending debate. and just going to a vote on the whole bill. And voting on a bill that huge without permitting amendments is nuts.

Obama has the power to stop military enforcement of DADT, even if it remains on the books. He hasn't chosen to exercise that authority. And the Dems could have done a straight up or down vote on DADT, but chose not to. I also can't quite figure out why they waited so long to do it. I mean, before Brown, they had the 60 votes. It woudl have been a clean passage.

On a completely unrelated note, the ever-popular Daily Show just took apart the union picketing Walmart. Or rather, the the union that hired non-union workers to do the picketing for them.

http://www.writeonnevada.com/2010/09/watch-this-daily-show-destroys-ufcw-of.html

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

Not if the only intention is to keep it from being actually debated.

Reid wanted to cut off debate on amendments, and proceed to debating only the final bill, without any amendments premitted. That's what Collins opposed.

Of course, the defection of two Democrats means it would have failed anyway.

[sToNED_CAT]

Well, once again the Republican supermajority of 41 has defied public sentiment and supported bigotry. Even worse, they found a few Democrats to go along. Well, at least I can take petty satisfaction that this will be one of Blanche Lincoln's last Senate votes.

You realize that the bill included other controversial things, like partial amnesty for illegals? There's NO WAY republicans vote for such law in todays political climate. Dems KNEW they had no chance to pass it, the whole thing was just a show.