So far, I'm not impressed with 'Chicago style politics'. Kind of doughy and bloated like their pizza. (Otherwise, Chicago is one of my favorite cities in the U.S. Love that place).
John Conyers Tells Obama: 'Start Knocking Heads':
"'The president could take a few pages from Lyndon Johnson's book... and start knocking heads together,' said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee."
Harold Meyerson - Harold Meyerson on the Senate's sluggish pace - washingtonpost.com:
"While Republicans have become an immovable object, the Democrats have yet to find a way to become an irresistible force. They began the year with a president who had been elected by a substantial majority on a platform of urgent change, and with sizable majorities in both houses of Congress. They had been in this position twice before. The first time around, in 1933, Franklin Roosevelt and Congress had enacted the landmark legislation of the First Hundred Days -- depositor insurance, emergency relief, industrial stabilization, public employment (the Civilian Conservation Corps). The second time around, in 1965, Lyndon Johnson and Congress had created the Great Society, passing more than 80 bills, among them Medicare, the Voting Rights Act and federal aid to education, in six months."
Excellent piece. California is hamstrung b/c of a bill passed by Reagan Repubs in the 70s which essentially eliminates majority rule in California. 1/3 of the Cali Senate can stop anything from happening in the state.
No similar law is in place on the Fed level. Dems are just allowing the same thing to happen.
Never once from 2001-2008 did you hear of 60 votes needed for any damn thing. 60 votes are only needed when Dems are in power.
Jeez.
Steven Pearlstein - Want real reform? Let's start with Congress.
So at the risk of sounding naive, I'd like to offer a novel idea for changing the legislative dynamic, restoring majority rule to the legislative process and keeping health reform alive: Debate it on the Senate floor.
That's right, forget about spending another six weeks searching for those elusive 60 votes to break a filibuster, going back and forth with weak-kneed centrists like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu who can't seem to decide what they really want, or self-righteous egotists like Joe Lieberman, who thinks he can call all the shots. If they have suggestions for improving the bill, let them do it the old-fashioned way: propose an amendment on the floor and see if they can get 49 other senators to agree.
To get things started, it will be necessary to put Vice President Biden in his rightful constitutional place as presiding officer, where he should make clear he'll do whatever is necessary to restore majority rule to the Senate, even as he jealously protects the rights of the minority to blabber on as long as it wants and offer whatever amendments it thinks necessary. And if that means overturning some outmoded precedent laid down by some dead predecessor, so be it.
As a final step, Majority Leader Harry Reid will need to break out the cots and announce that he'll keep the Senate in session day and night until a bill is passed or defeated or Senators agree to give up and go home.
If nothing else, it will be a marvelous civics lesson for Americans who have probably forgotten, if they ever knew, what a real floor fight looks like. They might even be so captivated that they decide to join the battle and let their elected representatives know how they feel. And my hunch is that when it's all over, we'll wind up with a health-care reform bill that is not only better than one negotiated in the backrooms, but is a much better reflection of where the country is on the issue.
Sen. Sanders: If Lieberman filibusters health reform, force it through | Raw Story:
"While congressional Republicans tend to howl at even the threat of such a measure being used to pass legislation they are opposed to, the GOP used reconciliation against Democrats in 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005,"
It is ours to win or fuck up.
Op-Ed Columnist - Paranoia Strikes Deep - NYTimes.com:
"And if Tea Party Republicans do win big next year, what has already happened in California could happen at the national level. In California, the G.O.P. has essentially shrunk down to a rump party with no interest in actually governing — but that rump remains big enough to prevent anyone else from dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis. If this happens to America as a whole, as it all too easily could, the country could become effectively ungovernable in the midst of an ongoing economic disaster.
The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America."
Progressives Threaten To Cut Off Money For Dems Who Oppose Health Care:
With the finish line for health care reform in sight, progressive groups are taking an aggressive approach to make sure that Democrats in Congress vote with their party. They're threatening to stop giving them money.In the past few weeks, several separate groups have announced they will withhold fundraising money and political support from any Democrats who either vote against the bill in the House or support a GOP filibuster of the bill in the Senate.
"A similar effort is being launched on the House side. On Tuesday, Markos Moulitsas, founder of the popular Daily Kos blog, urged readers to simply stop writing checks to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as an explicit message to those '18 most endangered' Democrats who voted against health care legislation.
'It's clear that if you don't want your money to go to bad Democrats, then it's impossible to donate to the party committees,' Moulitsas told the Huffington Post. 'Some of the most endangered Democrats in 2010 are also some of the worst. If you want to contribute to the good ones, it's best to target your money directly to them.'"
The portion of this diary excerpted below is righteously indignant, but the rest of the diary is brutal, albeit kinda inspiring too.
Talk about your Dirt Underneath.
Indeed. Fuck Y'all.
Daily Kos: I'm scared. �And I'm really f@cking angry.:
"Are you gonna sit there and tell me Mr. Gasbag/Mr. Congressman that that little clump of cells is a sacred treasure which must be saved at all costs and then turn around and say that providing healthcare for that clump of cells once the cord is cut is fiscally irresponsible and that the little bastard is now on its own?
Are you really gonna sit there and tell me Mr. Gasbag/Mr. Congressman that driving people into poverty so deep that they don't even have a shitty car to live in while Wall Street thieves, military contractors and environmental rapists grow ever more porcine and gluttonous is GOOD FOR THE COUNTRY and then turn around and LECTURE people driven mad with despair about bootstraps while hucking the occasional chunk of expired government cheese at them?
Are you gonna sit there and tell me Mr. Gasbag/Mr. Congressman that my gay friend's desires to have a legal joining that affords them the rights that the most basic common decency prescribes is somehow a THREAT to the kind of 'TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE' that my granddaughter witnessed last night?
Because if that's where we are at this point in the conversation, then I just have one thing to say to you, Mr. Gasbag/Mr. Congressman.
FUCK YOU."
And the over/under for Dobbs on FAUX announcement is 7 days.
Lou Dobbs announces abrupt departure from CNN | Raw Story
Hurry up with the life extenders, science. We godless bastards have placed our bets on y'all. And no more of the Ted Williams head freezing bs, either.
One Key Found for Living to 100 - Yahoo! News:
"Scientists have zeroed in on one apparent key to long life: an inherited cellular repair mechanism that thwarts aging and perhaps helps prevent disease. Researches say the finding could lead to anti-aging drugs."
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