• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

PoliGAF 2013 |OT2| Worth 77% of OT1

Status
Not open for further replies.
Guess you missed my point about an "Obama jobs bill" not being able to pass, and why it would make sense for Obama (perhaps through Biden) to go directly to senate republicans in negotiations.
If he did that you would accuse him of caving as soon as he made any concession to the Republicans.

That's exactly what happened with the fiscal cliff agreement.
 

pigeon

Banned
Guess you missed my point about an "Obama jobs bill" not being able to pass, and why it would make sense for Obama (perhaps through Biden) to go directly to senate republicans in negotiations.

Seems like it would be more practical to wait until the debt ceiling crisis and drag Boehner to the left. He'll need a bunch of Democrats to handle the CR and the debt ceiling. Let's get concessions. The fun part is, the more we get, the more Republicans will pull support, which means more Democrats will be necessary, which means more concessions!

At this point, it's pretty much over for Boehner -- all the establishment GOP supporters want him to go ahead and raise the debt ceiling even though he'll lose his gavel. So there's really nothing stopping him from bringing all kinds of moderate bills to the floor. May as well give him the chance!
 
So the guy i was talking to ealier who said liberals are hypocrites for not selling all of their possessions and giving away the proceeds while codemning conservatives for refusing to raise taxes on the rich admitted we businesses should be allowed to have the net operating loss mentioned on the previous page since without it businesses would have to close shop if they had a bad year and taxed the same rate. Dude is a libertarian at heart and basically admits we should subsidize businesses regardless of how big or small they are. Much prefer to stand for subsidizing the poor than the rich.

He's not a libertarian. He's just an asshole.
 
I sort of saw a little bit of Hannity with Cruz and Lee discussing the gov't shutdown and somehow it got mentioned that should the House pass the CR with defunding the ACA that the Senate and Pres not signing that into law exactly as is would be the most unprecedented act of all time (or something to that effect, I was somewhere and busy talking about something else).

So laughable. The Fox News watchers are getting fed into such a horrible feedback loop. They made it seem like if the House passes this bill that Obama and the Dems would take all the blame for the gov't shutdown. ahaha, poor schmoes.
 

cashman

Banned
I haven't really been following politics that closely for the past few months, but I could have sworn Republicans had tried pulling this government shut down shit before. When will they figure out that it's never going to work?
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
I haven't really been following politics that closely for the past few months, but I could have sworn Republicans had tried pulling this government shut down shit before. When will they figure out that it's never going to work?

It got them the sequester.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
I bet HSA expansion and medical liability reform could actually be passed bipartisanly if it was a good idea and they fought hard only for that, but they'll not even offer it unless they take down the whole ACA. If Obama wants to get off his ass and do something good for the country that might possibly get passed the house, maybe something like that is where he should wage his fight, call the republicans out, and say lets do this.

Is there something wrong with liability reform? It always sounded like something that was needed to me. Maybe it's not a huge issue, but man there has to be something for the Democrats to push for that Republicans would look foolish not to support. Something where worse comes to worse, Republicans look bad, and at best gets passed and actually changes the country for the better, even slightly.

Or is Obama just going to hide in a corner and play political defense, constantly afraid of how any aggressive political stance is going to be used against him.

We're not talking about preventing frivolous lawsuits when republicans discuss liability/tort reform, though. We're talking about arbitrarily capping compensations for medical malpractice and making professionals less accountable for fuck ups

If a medical professional fucks up, by all means, they and their insurance should be held fully accountable for their mistakes. Someone shouldn't be limited to $250,000 in compensation because of a medical fuck up that leaves them paralyzed (IIRC, most states with hard caps on malpractice suits have it at $250k, $500k, or $750k, regardless of the extent of the damages)
 
just turned 30, i am so old. going to a wedding in tahoe this weekend so i don't even get to be the center of attention. I can't even say "late 20s" anymore. :(
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
just turned 30, i am so old. going to a wedding in tahoe this weekend so i don't even get to be the center of attention. I can't even say "late 20s" anymore. :(

Wait, you're 30? Dude, your prior posts made it sound like you were in your 40s. :p

In that case, we're not really that far apart. I'm 28....for one month longer, then I step into the big two-nine. :(
 
Poor Boehner
House Republicans are furious with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for conceding that legislation to defund Obamacare would fail in the Senate, and are accusing him of surrendering the fight and undermining their strategy to effectively repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“Gee, thanks for the support,” Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., said Wednesday.

“I hope they can be a little bit more optimistic, because what we are doing is what the majority of Americans want,” Radel added. “If it’s not a full defunding, it is to, at minimum, delay Obamacare. And right now, instead of talking about how they can’t get votes, what I sure would like to see from these good men is them going out and leaning on the [Senate] Democrats to do the right thing.”

...

“Just a few weeks ago, this was deemed impossible," Cruz said in a statement. "We commend House leadership and House Republicans for listening to the people and for taking decisive action to stop Obamacare, the biggest job-killer in America. Harry Reid will no doubt try to strip the defund language from the continuing resolution, and right now he likely has the votes to do so. At that point, House Republicans must stand firm, hold their ground, and continue to listen to the American people.”​
 

Chichikov

Member
just turned 30, i am so old. going to a wedding in tahoe this weekend so i don't even get to be the center of attention. I can't even say "late 20s" anymore. :(
It's not everyday that I meet a GAFer who is older than me.
For example today, is not such day.

Cheer up mate, almost every person I know was happier in their their 30s than in their 20s (myself included, but I spent much of my 20s in the fucking military, so I don't know if it count).
 
Haha Cruz's shit continues to pile up. After months of bashing republicans for giving up, he is basically admitting he can't do shit in the senate, and demanding the House magically "hold firm" after Reid strips their bullshit out of the CR. People actully believed he had some master plan to turn the tide and get 15+ democrat senators to vote against Obamacare.

The writing is on the wall. If House leadership truly supported this nonsense, Cantor wouldn't have delayed the upcoming recess - which means they can't pass a crazy CR and leave Washington.

Pigeon: I don't think Pelosi will put a price on democrats supporting Boehner. House democrats will ensure the senate CR passes and the next step will be raising the debt ceiling.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Haha Cruz's shit continues to pile up. After months of bashing republicans for giving up, he is basically admitting he can't do shit in the senate, and demanding the House magically "hold firm" after Reid strips their bullshit out of the CR. People actully believed he had some master plan to turn the tide and get 15+ democrat senators to vote against Obamacare.

The writing is on the wall. If House leadership truly supported this nonsense, Cantor wouldn't have delayed the upcoming recess - which means they can't pass a crazy CR and leave Washington.

Pigeon: I don't think Pelosi will put a price on democrats supporting Boehner. House democrats will ensure the senate CR passes and the next step will be raising the debt ceiling.
I loved Josh Marshall's last line on it: "But as the Bible says, the Popcorn shall passeth."
 

pigeon

Banned
So now that the Republican civil war we predicted last year is well underway, it's worth considering who's winning.

As always, when a political coalition loses control, many of its members are cast into the wilderness, and some don't ever really come back. (For Democrats after 1968, unfortunately, this was organized labor, which will not be a meaningful political force for perhaps decades -- which is just another reason why social programs are the critical next step.)

For the Grand Old Party, some forces are already pretty much done -- I think it's clear, with the continuing advances on gay marriage, marijuana legalization, etc., that the social reactionaries are on their way back to being a powerless Southern rump. There are many more battles to fight, but there's not much question about the war. There's also some sizable evidence post-Syria that the interventionist neocons are losing out. Of course, with both these groups removed as national political pressures, Democratic politicians are free to swing left on both topics as well, so I expect that, as a country, we'll be improving on social values and staying out of international conflicts for quite a while.

The biggest groups remaining for the Republicans, to my view, are libertarians, Randians, and corporatists. If trends continue, I'm starting to wonder whether the constant Silicon Valley conflict between liberalism and libertarianism represents the future of American politics.
 

Wilsongt

Member
Poor Boehner
House Republicans are furious with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for conceding that legislation to defund Obamacare would fail in the Senate, and are accusing him of surrendering the fight and undermining their strategy to effectively repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“Gee, thanks for the support,” Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., said Wednesday.

“I hope they can be a little bit more optimistic, because what we are doing is what the majority of Americans want,” Radel added. “If it’s not a full defunding, it is to, at minimum, delay Obamacare. And right now, instead of talking about how they can’t get votes, what I sure would like to see from these good men is them going out and leaning on the [Senate] Democrats to do the right thing.”

...

“Just a few weeks ago, this was deemed impossible," Cruz said in a statement. "We commend House leadership and House Republicans for listening to the people and for taking decisive action to stop Obamacare, the biggest job-killer in America. Harry Reid will no doubt try to strip the defund language from the continuing resolution, and right now he likely has the votes to do so. At that point, House Republicans must stand firm, hold their ground, and continue to listen to the American people.”​

Cruz already crashing and burning and it isn't even primary time yet. I love it.


Uh.................................................................

The things you find when you troll RaptureReady...

1 Million Truckers to Protest Obama by Shutting America Down for 3 Days in October
Read more at http://minutemennews.com/2013/09/1-million-truckers-protest-obama-shutting-america-3-days-october/#GkeYokP7jYL4r1Xm.99


My fellow patriot this effort is to support the truckers in a major shut down of America ion [sic] a 3 day strike October 11th thru 13th. Obamacare will be in effect and most people will be ready to take action. No commerce on those days stock up on items that you will need. No banking no shopping no money transactions.

It does not matter if a million or 50 roll through DC in this effort. Congress will listen to We the People. Which is remove Obama from office for crimes of treason and misdemeanors. We want Congressional hearing on Benghazi and Seal Team 6. Louis Learner [sic] put in jail. No amnesty, remove all Muslims in our government that do not uphold the Constitution. Remove Eric Holder from office for crimes against the people and the Constitution. Last but not least is Fuel prices.

Breaker 1 9 calling on all Trucker to shut America down for three days October 11-13. The American people are bleeding out with no relief in sight. It is time to change the NEWS. Let us show our elected officials that we are 100% fed up with corruption and the blatant disregard of the Constitution that they swore to defend. Bob tail it hammer down to the bull$hit city with flags flying high. One poster had a suggestion for truckers living in the “postage stamp size states:” For you men and women already in the postage stamp sized states. Would not be much for you to “go over miles” especially with company directions and happen to show up in DC. OOPS!

So far, the page has gathered over 10,000 likes. Supporting posts are popping up all over the page. One writes, “If the drivers refuse to move the trucks for that time frame, what are the big companies going to do??? Fire all the drivers? They have to stick together just like the Bikers did. We can do it!”

Another poster suggested that truckers also stop where they were and refuse to start up again until they were heard. “We need to overwhelm the system,” the poster states.

Man, I can't even quote anything correctly from that website. Even their scripting is fucked up.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
"No commerce on those days stock up on items that you will need."

I predict a minor economy boost in the South as fundamentalists stockpile goods and no negative impact when the "1 million trucker protest" turns into a "12 guys who didn't have a run to make those days anyway protest" because everyone else figures out they aren't going to get paid.
 
Cruz backtracks further
Ted Cruz Digs Himself In Further On Obamacare: 'Likely That It Will Take Another Election For A Full Repeal'

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) didn't have much to say Thursday in response to House Republicans fuming at him for conceding that the Democrat-controlled Senate doesn't have the votes to repeal Obamacare and leaving the battle -- and all its political perils -- for House conservatives to fight.

In fact, Cruz, a tea party favorite who has championed an Obamacare repeal, went further and said even some Senate Republicans don't support the latest push for defunding President Barack Obama's signature health care law. He also said a full repeal of Obamacare doesn't have a chance until at least after the 2014 elections.

"Right now, [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid has 54 Democrats and they presumably are going to stand with him ... and a number of Senate Republicans have expressed that they may support the Democrats here," Cruz told a couple of reporters, just after his remarks at an event hosted by the National Auto Dealers Association.

"I think it is likely that it will take another election for a full repeal," he said.


During his NADA speech, Cruz addressed the latest House GOP strategy -- this will be the 42nd repeal vote -- to sink the Affordable Care Act. House Republican leaders on Friday will bring up a measure to permanently defund the law and tie it to a must-pass resolution that keeps the government running.

Cruz hailed House Republican leaders for the strategy, and said it is a "testament" to their commitment to bring down Obamacare. Still, he doubled down on what he said Wednesday: Efforts to sink the law aren't going anywhere in the Senate, or as long as Obama is in the White House.

"We know with an absolute certainty that President Obama and Harry Reid are going to push back, are going to fight to defend Obamacare," Cruz said, emphasizing that the only way repeal can happen is through a sustained grassroots effort. "It's going to depend on making the case to the American people."

Despite coming under fire from House Republicans for throwing up "a white flag" in the repeal effort, as one lawmaker put it, Cruz made the case that people need to keep fighting on the issue.

"You lose 100 percent of the battles that you start out by surrendering," Cruz said.

He initially ignored questions by The Huffington Post about his response to House Republicans who say he's blown GOP messaging on the issue and unfairly punted the fight into their court. He finally bit, saying they are the ones who will ultimately decide how the debate carries on.

"I salute the House Republicans for their fight on this," he said, adding later, "the House of Representatives, where Republicans have the majority -- the House has to drive this process."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/ted-cruz-government-shutdown-2013_n_3953754.html?1379606850

Surrendering and throwing senate republicans under the bush. This guy is very good at making friends.

Honestly, much of the outrage against Cruz seems to be the extremists realizing their anti-Obamacare money train will soon end, but being pissed Cruz is ending it early.
 

Wilsongt

Member
Cruz backtracks further

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/ted-cruz-government-shutdown-2013_n_3953754.html?1379606850

Surrendering and throwing senate republicans under the bush. This guy is very good at making friends.

Honestly, much of the outrage against Cruz seems to be the extremists realizing their anti-Obamacare money train will soon end, but being pissed Cruz is ending it early.

Cruz is being amazingly optimistic that Republicans will somehow manage to regain the Senate.
 
A creepy "opt-out" Obamacare ad has been making the rounds.

a_560x375.jpg


Here's Matt Yglesias, Cohn, and Beutler talking about the same, creepy advertisement.

Edit: And Chait.
 

bonercop

Member
12/13 woohoo!

...and that puts you in the top 5% of the country as far as being informed goes :(

(i'm a 1%er , btw, so bow you peasant!)

It can be a little soon to draw such conclusions is all I'm saying. We don't even know who is running yet.

Sure. I don't dispute that! But for now at least, it does look like Republicans are in a pretty good place to -- if nothing else -- keep their filibuster-capable minority.

Hopefully things will change.
 

Crisco

Banned
...and that puts you in the top 5% of the country as far as being informed goes :(

(i'm a 1%er , btw, so bow you peasant!)

Hahaha I did find the percentages pretty staggering, especially the Dow Jones one. You'd literally have to be living under a rock to not know how the stock market's gone the past few years, yet it had one of the worst rates. The only one I got wrong was women in congress, gave us 10% more credit :(
 

Wilsongt

Member
Hahaha I did find the percentages pretty staggering, especially the Dow Jones one. You'd literally have to be living under a rock to not know how the stock market's gone the past few years, yet it had one of the worst rates. The only one I got wrong was women in congress, gave us 10% more credit :(

Or watching fox news all day. But, yeah. That one was sort of common sense. The only one I had trouble with was the Yahoo! CEO.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
...and that puts you in the top 5% of the country as far as being informed goes :(

(i'm a 1%er , btw, so bow you peasant!)



Sure. I don't dispute that! But for now at least, it does look like Republicans are in a pretty good place to -- if nothing else -- keep their filibuster-capable minority.

Hopefully things will change.

I sort of feel like it's pointless to even think about that sort of thing until we have actual candidates. In the lead up to 2012 a generic republican always led Obama in polling, but Obama always beat his prospective opponents in said polling.
 
Haha Cruz is exposed. It's obvious what his game here was. He wanted the house to fold initially so he could blame then for not giving him a chance to right. Instead, boehner got fed up with him and his cohorts in the house and decided to give them what they want which in the end would get them embarrassed. Cruz bluffed and got called of for it and doesn't want to take the blame back home.

I'm starting to think this was partially a power play by boehner. Now, when it fails he will be able to tell his constituents that their way doesn't work. They probably are too stubborn to listen to reason, of course.
 

zargle

Member
Hahaha I did find the percentages pretty staggering, especially the Dow Jones one. You'd literally have to be living under a rock to not know how the stock market's gone the past few years, yet it had one of the worst rates. The only one I got wrong was women in congress, gave us 10% more credit :(

I didnt know the women in Congress one, so I just guessed the lowest amount and figured I would be correct. Sigh.

But hey, 13/13!

Cruz was born in Canada, correct? Why do I sometimes read that he is a Presidential hopeful of sorts...

I think what happened was he was born in Canada to American parents, so he could have had dual citizenship since Canada grants it to anyone born in Canada. But he renounced it formally a little while ago, so he is cleared to run if he so desires.
 
Hahaha I did find the percentages pretty staggering, especially the Dow Jones one. You'd literally have to be living under a rock to not know how the stock market's gone the past few years, yet it had one of the worst rates. The only one I got wrong was women in congress, gave us 10% more credit :(

I got the stock market one wrong. I knew that the market was way up in the last year which narrowed it down to two choices, but I thought the stock market had bottomed out mostly by 2008 so I chose the wrong one. To my credit I didn't start paying attention to the news until 2010 and I did get 11/13 correct.

Edit: how in the hell does 50% of the population not know where Egypt is!
 

bonercop

Member
The retreat by Cruz has led to public questioning from House Republicans about his motives and political acumen, not to mention joking speculation that he may be part of a vast and devious liberal conspiracy to undermine conservatives.

"Cruz is the leader of a secret cabal of leftists that are seeking control of the conservative movement," quipped one senior House Republican leadership source. "Their aim is to force the party to take on suicidal missions to destroy the movement from within."

im dying
 
It's not everyday that I meet a GAFer who is older than me.
For example today, is not such day.

Cheer up mate, almost every person I know was happier in their their 30s than in their 20s (myself included, but I spent much of my 20s in the fucking military, so I don't know if it count).
This is something old people tell themselves to make them feel better. Since I'm now one of them, I agree with your sentiment.

Aha. You are so old!

Fucking hipster teens. Get off my lawn!


I just turned 30 too! *hifive*

Nice. We should go to an early bird special at Denny's before an aarp meeting.
 

Diablos

Member
I think what happened was he was born in Canada to American parents, so he could have had dual citizenship since Canada grants it to anyone born in Canada. But he renounced it formally a little while ago, so he is cleared to run if he so desires.

Because he's also a US citizen, so he can run. He'd get absolutely crushed by whoever ran against him, but he could run.
Oh, I see.

This guy went to Princeton and Harvard...? He acts like a high school dropout half the time... how in the world did he make it through those schools? omg

cfYGOAZ.jpg


Nice. We should go to an early bird special at Denny's before an aarp meeting.
We're not really old. It's just that your 30's is when you legitimately do start to look, feel and get older at some point... unlike your 20's where you remain forever young. It's a tragic, scary thing.

lol, AARP meetings and Denny's sounds like a grand old time. Nix the AARP, we aren't THAT old yet... nearly halfway there though haha.
 

pigeon

Banned

Nate's great and all, but that article's two months old. Since then:

* Georgia: the safest Republican candidate, Jack Kingston, still has to get past Gingrey and Broun, who are actually leading the primary polls. Meanwhile, the Democrats got the solid candidate they needed in Michelle Nunn. At the moment Nunn is running even with every GOP candidate: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/08/georgia-senate-starts-as-toss-up.html
* Kentucky: Mitch McConnell does have structural advantages, but he's also being pincered here by a Tea Party primary challenge, and he faces a year of sausage making, as he really has to find some way to get a CR and debt ceiling increase through. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ow-much-trouble-is-mitch-mcconnell-really-in/

And, of course, Nate can only work off of the current data, as he notes. Before Obamacare rolls out, it's really too early to make any real political predictions -- most elections aren't preceded by enormous new social programs. We can't judge much of anything until January or February.
 
Nate's great and all, but that article's two months old. Since then:

* Georgia: the safest Republican candidate, Jack Kingston, still has to get past Gingrey and Broun, who are actually leading the primary polls. Meanwhile, the Democrats got the solid candidate they needed in Michelle Nunn. At the moment Nunn is running even with every GOP candidate: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/08/georgia-senate-starts-as-toss-up.html
* Virginia: Mitch McConnell does have structural advantages, but he's also being pincered here by a Tea Party primary challenge, and he faces a year of sausage making, as he really has to find some way to get a CR and debt ceiling increase through. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ow-much-trouble-is-mitch-mcconnell-really-in/

And, of course, Nate can only work off of the current data, as he notes. Before Obamacare rolls out, it's really too early to make any real political predictions -- most elections aren't preceded by enormous new social programs. We can't judge much of anything until January or February.
Kentucky.

Also the polling has been fairly positive in states like North Carolina, Louisiana and Alaska. Democrats finally landed a decent candidate in West Virginia and might soon in Montana. Pryor in Arkansas is moneyed and liked, though it'll probably be a close one. South Dakota's a lost cause.

Of the blue states, only Iowa and Michigan would be worth worrying about. And Democrats got their best candidates.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom