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[PhoenixDark]

Why is no one pushing back against words like disaster and trainweck Ted Cruz is using to describe Obamacare? I mean we hit the goal AND beyond despite a month's loss. That is a complete opposite of trainwreck/disaster/failure by any metric imaginable. If he were describing the launch then I dont care. But he is saying 9.1 million people having insurance due to Obamacare is a trainwreck. Deadheat.gif, but Sunday talking heads should be holding these assclowns accountable for their words.

Of course not. One side says 9 million people having insurance due to Obamacare is good, one side says 9 million people having insurance due to Obamacare is bad. Why can't Obama bring both sides together in a bipartisan fashion to agree on a middle ground?

 

[thepotatoman]

There is a budget that was passed by Senate Democrats though - and would probably resemble what a Democratic House majority could pass.

This one? It failed in the house and the senate is waiting to amend the Paul Ryan budget to make their first move this year.

Maybe it's just me, but it might just be too boring care about. It's like sitting on a deserted island and dreaming about a chunk of unflavored lettice instead of an amazing 3 course meal. If you're just dreaming anyway, why not dream big.

What does that plan have worth talking about? Immigration reform, minimum wage, tax loopholes, and unemployment benefits already get their due in the media outside of budget negotiations and will probably continue to get it, and most of the rest of the points are just bragging that it's not cutting the things the republicans want to cut. Hell, they don't even take off the sequester for anything but medicare until 2016, thus advocating for across the board spending cuts for this year.

The only things worth mentioning are the $302 billion road repair project and the $76 billion early childhood education initiative, which are too boring to report on without the senate at least passing it first.

And yet even with how mild this plan is, 31 democrats still voted against it, most of which are moderates. There's also the Congressional Black Caucus's plan, which is similar to the democrat plan but adds tax hikes, and only got 60% of democrats on board, which is basically on par with how the Republicans voted for their even more conservative than Paul Ryan budget. And then of course there's the Progressive caucus plan we were talking about that didn't get majority approval from their own party at a 83-103 vote from the democratic party.

 

[KingK]

Her opponent in the primary was Mike Castle, a moderate Republican who was Delaware's sole representative in the House forever. No Democrat in the state wanted to run against him (Beau Biden notably backed down) and he was crushing all of his opponents by double digits in polling. No one expected O'Donnell to actually win the primary until PPP did a poll a couple weeks before the election.

The GOP pissed away a pickup, full stop. They only topped themselves in 2012 when Richard Mourdock edged out Dick Lugar,

As a Hoosier, I still can't believe how badly the GOP fucked that one up. Lugar regularly got a bunch of people I know who almost exclusively vote Democrat to vote for him. He'd been a senator forever and had a great reputation with pretty much everyone, and Donnelly (who used to be my House rep.) was only running against him as a last ditch effort to stay in congress since the 2nd District got gerrymandered out of competition in 2010. But since Lugar had taken trips with Obama and helped him on the START treaty, the base's Obama Derangement Syndrome kicked in.

The sad part is that Mourdock probably still could've won if it weren't for his rape comments.

edit: and yeah, that's pretty shameful that not even a majority of the Democrats would vote for the Progressive budget. If you polled Americans on that budget, point by point, I would bet that nearly all of the proposals in there would be more popular than any of the other budgets, but not even half of the minority party will vote for it.

 

[Aaron Strife]

Let's not forget about Todd Akin either.

Akin wasn't as obvious of a clusterfuck. He was the ideal candidate for McCaskill to go up against even before the rape comments but the general consensus was she was still in for a tough re-election fight.

This one? It failed in the house and the senate is waiting to amend the Paul Ryan budget to make their first move this year.

Maybe it's just me, but it might just be too boring care about. It's like sitting on a deserted island and dreaming about a chunk of unflavored lettice instead of an amazing 3 course meal. If you're just dreaming anyway, why not dream big.

What does that plan have worth talking about? Immigration reform, minimum wage, tax loopholes, and unemployment benefits already get their due in the media outside of budget negotiations and will probably continue to get it, and most of the rest of the points are just bragging that it's not cutting the things the republicans want to cut. Hell, they don't even take off the sequester for anything but medicare until 2016, thus advocating for across the board spending cuts for this year.

The only things worth mentioning are the $302 billion road repair project and the $76 billion early childhood education initiative, which are too boring to report on without the senate at least passing it first.

And yet even with how mild this plan is, 31 democrats still voted against it, most of which are moderates. There's also the Congressional Black Caucus's plan, which is similar to the democrat plan but adds tax hikes, and only got 60% of democrats on board, which is basically on par with how the Republicans voted for their even more conservative than Paul Ryan budget. And then of course there's the Progressive caucus plan we were talking about that didn't get majority approval from their own party at a 83-103 vote from the democratic party.

This one:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/23/us-usa-fiscal-budget-idUSBRE92M02D20130323

The Senate passed it by a stunning margin of 50-49.

 

[RustyNails]

Of course not. One side says 9 million people having insurance due to Obamacare is good, one side says 9 million people having insurance due to Obamacare is bad. Why can't Obama bring both sides together in a bipartisan fashion to agree on a middle ground?

Cant wait for this line of questioning to start.

 

[thepotatoman]

Akin wasn't as obvious of a clusterfuck. He was the ideal candidate for McCaskill to go up against even before the rape comments but the general consensus was she was still in for a tough re-election fight.


This one:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/23/us-usa-fiscal-budget-idUSBRE92M02D20130323

The Senate passed it by a stunning margin of 50-49.

Oh, that article is from march 2013.

It happens.

 

[Aaron Strife]

Oh, that article is from march 2013.

It happens.

It didn't get much attention because 1) it didn't really change anything (not "serious" enough unless it guts Social Security i guess) and 2) Ryan and Murray already kind of sort of wrote a budget anyway so any effort over the next two years is just going to be for show really.

 

[benjipwns]

Wait, Condi is on the board of Dropbox? What the fuck?

Her company (with Robert Gates) has been advising them for a while. Related to basically navigating the fucked up system she helped implement:

“As a country, we are having a great national conversation and debate about exactly how to manage privacy concerns,” Rice says about her new position. “I look forward to helping Dropbox navigate it.”

 

[Black Mamba]

WASHINGTON -- What would make House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) support a Senate-passed bill to restore long-term unemployment insurance to more than 2 million Americans? Ask the White House.

It's no secret that Boehner opposes Senate legislation reauthorizing long-term unemployment benefits, as he has previously stated that the bill is "unworkable." But when asked on Thursday whether he would heed calls from the bill's Republican co-sponsors to take up the measure in the House, Boehner said that the next steps were up to Obama.

"Listen, I made clear to the president last December that if he wanted us to consider an extension of emergency unemployment benefits, it would have to be paid for and it would have to include things that would help get our economy going," Boehner told reporters on Capitol Hill. "They have not put forward anything with regard to how we would create more jobs. And so the ball's still in their court."

Pressed further on what specific jobs provisions he would like to see, Boehner again punted to the White House.

"You'll have to ask the administration," he said. "I made it clear what it would take for me to consider it. They've not had any suggestions."

The White House did not immediately respond to The Huffington Post's request for comment.

God this shit pisses me off to no end. I wish we had a real media that would collectively stand up for the unfortunate because these clowns won't.

Why is nobody asking Boehner why it's so important to be deficit neutral with UE benefits? Why is no one asking what's to gain from deficit neutrality when people are literally moving from the homes to their cars because their UE checks are not coming in? Why is nobody asking Boehner how his position is tenable when there are 14 million officially unemployed people and only 4 million job openings.

If we had a halfway decent media, the GOP would never be able to take up such despicable positions as this one. If fucking April and they still haven't passed a UE bill now that 2 million people have lost the benefits.

I'm sorry to say Dax, I was right on this one.

 

[thepotatoman]

It didn't get much attention because 1) it didn't really change anything (not "serious" enough unless it guts Social Security i guess) and 2) Ryan and Murray already kind of sort of wrote a budget anyway so any effort over the next two years is just going to be for show really.

Oh, right. Well, it doesn't help when at that time the president as the defacto leader of the party wanted to gut social security with chained cpi without even a compromise with the other side. So serious cuts seemed a lot more likely to happen. When you have one side starting close too the status quo, and the other side demanding huge changes, of course the media is going to cover the side demanding changes, because any potential change is going to come from that side.

Its not worth anything to be honest, its by the same stupid majority which decided this. The problem is the court.

I hope a future court invalidates this horrible and intentionally naive decisions.

Edit: that's not an attack on your personally. I'm saying Roberts decisions have no value.

Well I can certainly see future courts say this, but doesn't it still require a new law before the court can overturn this? I mean it took the political atmosphere of watergate to get congress to pass aggregate limits the first time. It seems unlikely on the federal level for these things to be reenacted a second time anytime soon.

I mean if these problems really are problems, and dependence corruption exists as theorized, then as more and more campaign finance laws get destroyed it just becomes harder and harder to get a federal politician to say "we need honest campaign finance reform". By the time Roberts is gone as chief justice, it could be too late, if it's not too late already.

 

[Aaron Strife]

God this shit pisses me off to no end. I wish we had a real media that would collectively stand up for the unfortunate because these clowns won't.

Why is nobody asking Boehner why it's so important to be deficit neutral with UE benefits? Why is no one asking what's to gain from deficit neutrality when people are literally moving from the homes to their cars because their UE checks are not coming in? Why is nobody asking Boehner how his position is tenable when there are 14 million officially unemployed people and only 4 million job openings.

If we had a halfway decent media, the GOP would never be able to take up such despicable positions as this one. If fucking April and they still haven't passed a UE bill now that 2 million people have lost the benefits.

I'm sorry to say Dax, I was right on this one.

This is also why it pisses me off when Democrats unilaterally surrender on winning the House elections.

If Pelosi were Speaker or hell even if Democrats had another ten members or so among their ranks this wouldn't be a problem.

A small majority might not be able to pass anything on the scale of healthcare reform but they could at least ensure the government will function the way it should.

Yes the fact that so many Republicans were able to gerrymander themselves into power sucks but there is totally a path to a majority, Democrats just need to commit to finding good candidates in swing districts and supporting them financially and otherwise. They're going to have to compete for these seats eventually unless they want to be locked out of power until 2022 (and even then who knows? 2018 could suck for Democrats and we'd be stuck with another round of GOP-controlled redistricting)

But no it's a better investment to spend all the money protecting Mark Pryor who won't even support raising the minimum wage, the one major policy proposal every other elected Democrat in the country seems to agree on

 

[Oblivion]

Anna Marie Cox was kind of a moron during the discussion of equal pay on Real Time tonight.

 

[The Librarian]

I'm sorry to say Dax, I was right on this one.

Right about what?

 

[kehs]

So apparently Obama paid 20 percent effective tax


and people are getting upset?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obamas-pay-98169-taxes-income-481098-23294175

 

[zargle]

This looks like either the greatest or the worst board game of all time.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thegameofpolitics/the-game-of-politics

Please random guy, expose all of those lies the liberals keep espousing. Prove them wrong with your board game.

 

[WayneMorse]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4arc6oCNr0

THE TRUCK IS BACK

 

[Aaron Strife]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4arc6oCNr0

THE TRUCK IS BACK

bqhatevwr

 

[rocketknight]

This looks like either the greatest or the worst board game of all time.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thegameofpolitics/the-game-of-politics

Please random guy, expose all of those lies the liberals keep espousing. Prove them wrong with your board game.

I did not know there were right wing board game geeks. Now I wish I didn't!

 

[speculawyer]

Wait, Condi is on the board of Dropbox? What the fuck?

This online activism is interesting. Fresh off getting the Mozilla guy to resign they now target Condi. It will be very interesting to see if this grows. Silicon Valley is largely a blue area but there are a lot of libertarian-minded conservative types. But if you notice, these issues are things that both liberal and libertarians should (and generally do) support: Gay marriage, privacy, anti-torture, anti-interventionism, etc.

 

[Aaron Strife]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/11/klobuchar-headed-back-to-iowa/

I would love if Klobuchar ran for president, but I could see her angling for a VP pick. And why not? She's immensely popular, she won reelection in 2012 with 65% of the vote compared to Obama's 53% while barely lifting a finger. She's very personable and funny as well as progressive - basically everything Republicans were hoping Sarah Palin would be. I don't know if Hillary would want another woman on the ticket, but if the nominee were O'Malley or Biden I could totally see it.

And then Keith Ellison can run for her Senate seat.

 

[speculawyer]

Jeez . . . conservatives, I just don't get them.

GM Doubles Down on Chevy Volt's Failure
Michael Schaus | Apr 10, 2014

Chevrolet’s firebrand electric-hybrid vehicle, the Chevy Volt, has so far seen a dramatically disappointing sales record. Government Motors, however, is prepared to shovel hundreds of millions of dollars into the continued production of one of America’s least favorite automobiles… Oh, and they’re also going to introduce a new version of the Volt, with a lower price point and significantly fewer options.

According to Reuters:

Chevrolet has sold just 58,158 Volts since the car went on sale 39 months ago, despite price cuts and heavy discounting. In comparison, the best-selling Ford F-series pickup last month sold more than 70,000.​

Wow… That almost makes Obamacare enrollments look like a rousing success. (Almost.) Of course, the two vehicles are drastically different – making the comparison is kinda like comparing apples to spontaneously-combusting oranges. According to sales figures, the biggest difference between the two vehicles seems to be that people actually like Ford pickups.

But let’s not let little business realities (like no one wanting to purchase a heavily subsidized, and overpriced, electric hybrid) get in the way of throwing some more money at the problem. Despite the fact that selling the Chevy Volt has proven to be more difficult than selling overpriced “brosurance” to “young invincibles”, GM is taking a page from Team Obama’s style of management: They decided to invest roughly $384 million dollars to expand production of a “new generation Volt”.

http://finance.townhall.com/columni...nt-motors-doubles-down-on-chevy-volt-n1822542

Such mean-spirited scorn for people getting healthcare and driving cars that pollute less and can run on 100% domestic electricity.

They are so short-sighted. Like with civil rights and gay marriage, they are ultimately going to look really stupid on their Obamacare and plug-in car hatred as they once again end up on the wrong side of history. Both Obamacare and plug-in cars are still in their early days and they are both long-term things. Social Security, Medicare, and hybrid cars also had difficult roll-outs with severe critics. But even GOPers now shy away from trying to kill SS & Medicare and the Prius is the #1 selling car in California.

Oh . . . and for the record, the Volt has had the highest customer satisfaction for like 3 years in a row and they sell nearly twice as many Volts as they do Corvettes. Granted, it has not met some goals of selling like 40K of them per year but those predictions were made when they thought the car was going to cost $30K at release and before ANY mainstream plug-in hybrid existed on the market. It is not easy to predict how well an entirely new type of product will sell.

 

[Aaron Strife]

Jeez . . . conservatives, I just don't get them.


http://finance.townhall.com/columni...nt-motors-doubles-down-on-chevy-volt-n1822542

Such mean-spirited scorn for people getting healthcare and driving cars that pollute less and can run on 100% domestic electricity.

They are so short-sighted. Like with civil rights and gay marriage, they are ultimately going to look really stupid on their Obamacare and plug-in car hatred as they once again end up on the wrong side of history. Both Obamacare and plug-in cars are still in their early days and they are both long-term things. Social Security, Medicare, and hybrid cars also had difficult roll-outs with severe critics. But even GOPers now shy away from trying to kill SS & Medicare and the Prius is the #1 selling car in California.

Conservatives whine about the dumbest shit. Just let liberals drive their damn automobiles.

Damn stonecutters

 

[WayneMorse]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/11/klobuchar-headed-back-to-iowa/

I would love if Klobuchar ran for president, but I could see her angling for a VP pick. And why not? She's immensely popular, she won reelection in 2012 with 65% of the vote compared to Obama's 53% while barely lifting a finger. She's very personable and funny as well as progressive - basically everything Republicans were hoping Sarah Palin would be. I don't know if Hillary would want another woman on the ticket, but if the nominee were O'Malley or Biden I could totally see it.

And then Keith Ellison can run for her Senate seat.

I wouldn't, she's a corporate Democrat through and through.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

constitutional conservatism

 

[Aaron Strife]

I wouldn't, she's a corporate Democrat through and through.

I guess you're not supporting Hillary then.

constitutional conservatism

Can you imangine though?

 

[Joe Molotov]

Can you imangine though?

I imagined once that there was something in the constitution about being able to refuse to answer questions. I have a crazy imagination!

 

[NYCmetsfan]

I imagined once that there was something in the constitution about being able to refuse to answer questions. I have a crazy imagination!

you must of imangined it

I... what?

Oh. Benghazibenghazibenghazi?

IRS

 

[Metaphoreus]

I imagined once that there was something in the constitution about being able to refuse to answer questions. I have a crazy imagination!

The Republicans argue that Lerner has waived her right to remain silent. Hence, Gowdy's analogy to a criminal defendant who "takes the stand."

EDIT: Remember, Lerner has reportedly given a lengthy interview to the DOJ behind closed doors. If there's a criminal prosecution to be had, the DOJ are the ones who will prosecute it. Her invocation of her right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress seems clearly disingenuous, regardless of whether it's been waived.

 

[delirium]

It looks like the BLM is backing down against Cliven Bundy and his "militia".

http://www.latimes.com/nation/natio...er-blm-20140412,0,1159016.story#axzz2yiGwCSFE

I'm kind of happy that the situation didn't escalate to violence but its sad about the outcome.

 

[speculawyer]

constitutional conservatism

They do realize that by this logic then a lot of Chris Christie's administration should be in jail. OK, maybe these are the wingnuts that don't like Christie (though Ann Coulter was supposedly a big fan of his). It would also implicate all times the Bush administration asserted executive privilege.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

The Republicans argue that Lerner has waived her right to remain silent. Hence, Gowdy's analogy to a criminal defendant who "takes the stand."

EDIT: Remember, Lerner has reportedly given a lengthy interview to the DOJ behind closed doors. If there's a criminal prosecution to be had, the DOJ are the ones who will prosecute it. Her invocation of her right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress seems clearly disingenuous, regardless of whether it's been waived.

Why do you go through such lengths to defend these peoples quixotic search for 'the truth.' She has no obligation answer their questions. They're looking to get a clip of them yelling at her for their campaign.

 

[Wilsongt]

"Both sides do it" is the most ignorant argument ever. Both sides do certain things. Democrats don't block stuff just because a name is involved.

 

[Metaphoreus]

Why do you go through such lengths to defend these peoples quixotic search for 'the truth.' She has no obligation answer their questions. They're looking to get a clip of them yelling at her for their campaign.

I'm not sure a thirty-second post on a video game forum deserves to be described as "such lengths." And I'm not defending anything. I'm explaining their argument to a person who clearly was unaware of it.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

I'm not sure a thirty-second post on a video game forum deserves to be described as "such lengths." And I'm not defending anything. I'm explaining their argument to a person who clearly was unaware of it.

Explaining gives it credence.

 

[Aaron Strife]

"Both sides do it" is the most ignorant argument ever. Both sides do certain things. Democrats don't block stuff just because a name is involved.

I like that thread too!

 

[TacticalFox88]

"Both sides do it" is the most ignorant argument ever. Both sides do certain things. Democrats don't block stuff just because a name is involved.

I still want to know why people try to perpetuate the bullshit of both parties are the same.

How the fuck can anyone paying attention to politics come to that asinine conclusion.

 

[dabig2]

I still want to know why people try to perpetuate the bullshit of both parties are the same.

How the fuck can anyone paying attention to politics come to that asinine conclusion.

You try to bring the other side down to your level. Pure FUD and concern trolling. It also makes the other person have to defend instead of letting them go on the attack.

I mean, the Democrats today are center-right at this point, we all know that, but to argue that the Dems are anywhere near current Republicans who have been co-opted by Tea party assholes is insane and people who come out and say that have zero interest in any kind of debating on the actual issues.

 

[Metaphoreus]

Explaining gives it credence.

Nonsense. Exposing yourself to your political opponents' arguments is always a good idea. It helps make sure you can argue effectively against them. If your argument assumes that Republicans are ignorant of the Fifth Amendment, but the Republicans' argument addresses the Fifth Amendment, then you're making a bad argument.

 

[benjipwns]

Anna Marie Cox was kind of a moron during the discussion of equal pay on Real Time tonight.

You didn't need the second half of this.

 

[Metaphoreus]

They do realize that by this logic then a lot of Chris Christie's administration should be in jail. OK, maybe these are the wingnuts that don't like Christie (though Ann Coulter was supposedly a big fan of his). It would also implicate all times the Bush administration asserted executive privilege.

You're confusing the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination with executive privilege. In this case, nobody's claiming executive privilege.

 

[speculawyer]

You're confusing the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination with executive privilege. In this case, nobody's claiming executive privilege.

I'm not confusing them. I'm pointing out that the same brain-dead logic can apply . . . Why won't they talk?!?! They are obviously guilty then!

 

[NYCmetsfan]

It looks like the BLM is backing down against Cliven Bundy and his "militia".

http://www.latimes.com/nation/natio...er-blm-20140412,0,1159016.story#axzz2yiGwCSFE

I'm kind of happy that the situation didn't escalate to violence but its sad about the outcome.

This is ridiculous. you break the law but threaten violence against the government, you win?

 

[Hobbestetrician]

I still want to know why people try to perpetuate the bullshit of both parties are the same.

How the fuck can anyone paying attention to politics come to that asinine conclusion.

I blame South Park's Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich line of reasoning.

 

[Diablos]

Can't wait for Sylvia Matthews Burwell's confirmation to be a manufactured crisis thanks to the GOP.

 

[empty vessel]

The Republicans argue that Lerner has waived her right to remain silent. Hence, Gowdy's analogy to a criminal defendant who "takes the stand."

EDIT: Remember, Lerner has reportedly given a lengthy interview to the DOJ behind closed doors. If there's a criminal prosecution to be had, the DOJ are the ones who will prosecute it. Her invocation of her right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress seems clearly disingenuous, regardless of whether it's been waived.

As you well know, speaking voluntarily (even to the government) and under compulsion are two different things. By this standard, nearly every criminal defendant's invocation of the Fifth Amendment would be "clearly disingenuous," because many trials contain both "voluntary" statements by the defendant to law enforcement and invocation of the Fifth Amendment. I don't think any negative implication can or should be drawn. Lerner's most criminal behavior was likely related to her trying to appease conservatives by claiming the IRS engaged in "absolutely inappropriate" activities in response to a planted question.

This is the IRS scandal that wasn't.

 

[Aaron Strife]

I blame South Park's Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich line of reasoning.

I blame South Park for a lot of things.

 

[Mario]

This looks like either the greatest or the worst board game of all time.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thegameofpolitics/the-game-of-politics

Please random guy, expose all of those lies the liberals keep espousing. Prove them wrong with your board game.

Wow at those reward tiers.

Keep aiming for the stars buddy.

 

[Particle Physicist]

Wow at those reward tiers.

Keep aiming for the stars buddy.

Look at the pledge amount so far... $666 haha.

 

[benjipwns]

I still want to know why people try to perpetuate the bullshit of both parties are the same.

How the fuck can anyone paying attention to politics come to that asinine conclusion.

Depends on how you look at it.

 

[The Technomancer]

This looks like either the greatest or the worst board game of all time.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thegameofpolitics/the-game-of-politics

Please random guy, expose all of those lies the liberals keep espousing. Prove them wrong with your board game.

1. A majority of Americans love their country.

2. A majority of Americans are realizing that their country is NOT being run in a prudent and wise manner.

3. A majority of Americans are realizing that the arrogant, self-serving, leftist, liberal, socialists who are governing our nation has led to less freedom and liberty, less prosperity, more government bureacracy, a lower standard of living, a higher national debt and the destruction of our moral foundation.