Category: Politics

More on the Weird Bum’s Rush on the Mukasey Vote

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You remember that the vote on Mukasey was rushed, about 1/2 hour’s notice before the start of debate.

Well, now we have a reason. It appears that Reid cut a deal with teh Republicans to allow for a military funding bill to proceed without money for Iraq and Afghanistan.

I guess that they think that this will provide cover while trying to get the troops out of Iraq. It’s won’t. With George W. Bush at 26%, worse than Nixon, the Bush dogs are still going to fold like wet broccoli when he makes vague noises about “not supporting the troops”.

They still don’t get it. Any opposition to Bush on any issue is both the right thing to do and a political win.

Water Wars

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It appears that Floridahas decided that it will not play nice with Georgia regarding water during the ongoing drought.

I’m not sure why, though with rain predicted in the next week, the point may be moot.

That being said, all this is like two kids throwing spitballs, compared to the inevitable water wars in the Western US, these are arid regions to begin with, they have experienced explosive population growth, and the source of much of the water, the Ogallala Aquifer, is largely primeval water, and recharges very slowly, so this will get very, very ugly.

Of course, global warming makes this all a crap shoot.

Weirdness on the Mukasey Vote

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The story here is odd. It appears that Senators received something less than an hour’s notice the the debate prior to the vote was going to start.

According to Senate sources, as the Dem Senate leadership remained in closed-door negotiations with their GOP counterparts over whether to hold the vote, Senators were getting mixed signals throughout the day as to whether the vote would happen by the end of yesterday. The actual notification that there would be a vote didn’t come from leadership until at least 6:30 or 7 PM last night — catching aides on the staffs of the presidential campaigns and on the staffs of other senators off guard.

“I had my coat on and was walking out the door when I first heard about the vote,” one staffer said.

The senators were notified that there would be five hours of debate, and that a vote would be happening at midnight, or possibly before, sources said.

Aides to one of the senators running for President said they were surprised at how adamant the leadership was that a vote would be coming so quickly — with or without them present. One aide to this senator said that his staff told leadership that they couldn’t get back for a vote until later in the night.

This is seriously odd.

Why the proverbial bum’s rush. With the goal of a vote by midnight, and 5 hours of debate, a 6:30 notification is almost no notice. What was Reid trying to do, and why was he trying to do it?

Barack Obama Can Kiss My Shiny Metal Ass

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He’s had a busy past day or so. Not only has he reinforced the Republican meme about killing social security by calling it a “crisis”, he is now in full pander with the mining interests when he says that he is opposing the repeal the 1872 Mining act.

We have had 200 years of bad laws, but the 1872 Mining act is among the worst. Under the 1872 law, a miner stakes a claim, and all they have to do is pay $5/acre, and it removes pretty much all environmental protections from land put to this applications.

Additionally, the law allows the land to be “patented” or transferred to private property for a small fee. This is a bad law. It has resulted in massive losses to the federal government, the pollution of 40% of the watersheds in the west, and continues to harm the delicate ecology of the west.

What’s more, with gold increasing in value, old mining sites will be doubtlessly be scavenged, doing more harm ecological harm.

For just how bad this law that Obama supports is, go here.

Quote of the Day, Anita Esterday

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Ms. Esterday is the waitress who was quoted in that whole “tipgate” story with Clinton.

Well, after being contacted by the gazillionth reporter today, she sais something very wise:

You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.

She is our wise woman of the day.

Another Specter Weasel

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Of course, the Very Serious People™ are claiming that it’s a compromise, but it’s a weasel.

You see, his “compromise” would make the Federal Government, as opposed to the telcos, the defendants. This allows for wholesale classification, foot dragging, sovereign immunity, and all the other tricks which would guarantee that nothing would come out.

Seriously, this sort of crap is why our government is so f*^%ed up.

Signs of the Apocalypse: Hillary Clinton Being Very Funny.

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This is not something I would expect Hillary to do

An Arkansas lawyer recalled a story about Hillary from her days at the Rose Law Firm that demonstrated her sense of humor. Someone at her firm had made off with a slice of pizza she had put aside for later, prompting her to send a firm-wide memo which said, “Who took the evidence she was saving for a poisoning trial?

Funny and sick…A sense of humor after my own heart.

Bush Dogs Move to Block Mortgage Reform

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It now appears that the Bush Dogs are taking the side of abusive mortgage issuers over the people harmed by this fraud. Chris Bowers has it right:

It’s time to understand that Bush Dogs are part of a working conservative majority. They are not our friends, they are not our allies, they are political opponents who want to bail out wealthy investors and hurt people trapped in subprime mortgage markets. Politically, they are also the people hurting Democratic capacity to differentiate ourselves as populists and capture swing areas and exurban Republicans hurt by the housing meltdown.

I would take it further. These people are so damaging to the party, and to the country, that liberals shoule provide significant opposition to them in both the primaries and the general election.

The Democrats are going to pick up seats in 2008. If alle of these seats are foregone in order to excise Bush Dogs from the party, it would be a good thing.

There Still Might be a Filibuster on Mukasey

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It appears that there may be a filibuster on Mukasey. FWIW, I’m hoping that there is one.

I don’t expect it to stick, but this should be a defining issue for any Democrat: Do you support, or oppose torture? If you do, I, and you, should work towards defeating these people in the primaries, and yes, that means you Schumer and Feinstein.*

*Full disclosure, my great grandfather, Harry Goldman, and her grandfather, Sam Goldman were brothers.

Kevin Drum is Correct, of Course

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He was wondering as to what arguments would be made by the blogosphere might make to explain the Democratic Party successes in Virginia.

He list 9 alternatives, and finishes with this bon mot, which is one of the wisest things I’ve read this year:

Whatever the consensus turns out to be, I’m declaring right now that I think it’s wrong. And somewhere in my archives there will be a post to prove that I thought this all along.

This man is a Regular Nostradamus. I gotta make more predictions like this. Curmudgeons get all the prognostic props, you know.

Worse than Nixon

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In an otherwise completely conventional story from USA Today, I found this little gem at the end:

Meanwhile, Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they “strongly disapprove” of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.

I must resist urge to rub hands together and say, “Excellent”, like Monty Burns.”

Too late….

Bush Water Bill Veto Overriden

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The vote was 361-54, and the Senate is expected to override too.

This bill has broad bipartisan support, and big spender Bush vetoed it because he is having to pretend that he gives a damn about the budget to reinforce his own delusions of manhood.

Why this is significant is because once he is overridden, it will become progressively easier for it to happen in the future.

There are already reports that there is an S-Chip bill that will get a veto proof majority in the works. It gets much harder for the Republicans to whip the vote when they have already helped override a veto.

Yesterday’s Election Results

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Great Smackdown of Tim Russert: Stop the Inanity | The American Prospect

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Paul Waldman has the same fantasy that I do:

I have a fantasy that at one of these moments, a candidate will say, “You know what, Tim, I’m not going to answer that question. This is serious business. And you, sir, are a disgrace. You have in front of you a group of accomplished, talented leaders, one of whom will in all likelihood be the next president of the United States. You can ask them whatever you want. And you choose to engage in this ridiculous gotcha game, thinking up inane questions you hope will trick us into saying something controversial or stupid. Your fondest hope is that the answer to your question will destroy someone’s campaign. You’re not a journalist, you’re the worst kind of hack, someone whose efforts not only don’t contribute to a better informed electorate, they make everyone dumber. So no, I’m not going to stand here and try to come up with the most politically safe Bible verse to cite. Is that the best you can do?”

It is a mark of the hacktacular nature of the Washington Punditocracy* that this man is treated with any respect.

*Which might be better described as a Kakistocracy.

What Chris Bowers Says

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The media in general, and the Washington punditocracy* protray the “Blue Dog Democrats” as brave people standing up to the extremists in their party. Chris Bowers makes a convincing argument that the opposite is true, that these are folks who are the most extreme sort of hysterical fear.

The concluding ‘graph:

Blue Dogs actually seem like the most scared people in all of Washington, D.C. as a result of this article. They are afraid of Republican attacks. They are afraid of conservative pundits. They are afraid of their constituents. They are afraid of motions to recommit that are meaningless in terms of actual policy. And they are protected by Emanuel and Hoyer, who seem petrified of all the same things. They seem to all operate in a perpetual state of fear, despite their surface machismo. And yes, it does seem like fear, rather than simply conservative beliefs in this case, because otherwise why would they be in favor of a meaningless procedural motion that has nothing to do with policy? The widespread fear in the tough guy wing of the Democratic Party is one of the great ironies of modern American politics.

I would add that not only does this make it more difficult to accomplish things, their behavior reinforces Republican attacks against the Democrats as without principle, or guts, and never willing to take a step to do the right thing.

It is a tragedy of the commons. By acting in their own perceived (and only perceived, look at Ron Paul, whose support is driven by his forthrightness, not the policies involved) best interest, they destroy the common resource of productive political discourse.

*Which might be better described as a Kakistocracy.

Fred Thompson Clown Show: This One Should Win an Oscar™

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OK, this one takes the cake. Philip J. Martin’s until, his resignation the chairman of Thompson’s “First Day Founders” team, has felony convictions on drug charges.

Martin pleaded guilty to the sale of 11 pounds of marijuana in 1979, the Washington Post reported Sunday. In 1983, Martin was charged with cocaine trafficking and conspiracy stemming from a plan to sell $30,000 worth of the drug, the newspaper reported. He pleaded no contest.

It’s one for a contributor to have a record, but this guy was a major public player.