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[B-Dubs]

Rand Paul also said that "if there's a war on women, then women are winning."

I'm sure that line probably sounded better in his staff meeting than it wound up being.

"The Jerk Store called and they're all out of you!" is how I see this comment

 

[zero shift]

Hmm? Indian economy had super strict regulations with communist underpinnigs (government owning big monopolies) since independence. It is not for the past 2 decades.

I wonder why China and (to a lesser but still notable extent) Vietnam had so much success with it and India did not.

 

[speculawyer]

So I think republicans will enter this year through 2016 expecting the same rules on sexism: throw rocks and then blame the victim. I don't think it'll work with sexism, which is more blatant and easier to discuss. Gotta say I was surprised at republicans essentially floating a trial balloon on attacking Hillary with Bill Clinton's affair(s) if she dares discuss the "war on women." It's not only tone deaf but one of the stupidest things I've ever heard; I seriously doubt such an attack polls well.

It is also harder to get away with when more than half the voting population is made up of women.

 

[jamesinclair]

Hmm? Indian economy had super strict regulations with communist underpinnigs (government owning big monopolies) since independence. It is not for the past 2 decades.

Wrong Indian bro.

 

[Chichikov]

Seattle's Socialist councilwoman to accept less than half of $117K salary

Seattle’s only Socialist City Council member announced Monday that she will make good on a campaign pledge and accept only $40,000 a year in salary — bringing her down to the average wage of a worker in the city.
The remainder of the roughly $117,000 salary will go to social justice causes such as strike funds, civil rights and women’s rights, she said in a statement.
"Every Councilmember faces a choice of who they represent and which world they inhabit,” said Kshama Sawant, who took office earlier this month. “My place is with working people and their struggles. I want to give a voice to workers, trade union members, women, and immigrants. As a Councilmember, I re-commit to a fundamentally different political outlook. In line with the principles of the political party I represent, Socialist Alternative, I pledged to stay accountable to working people by taking only average workers' wage.”

She added:
"Seattle City Councilmembers receive over $117,000 a year — the second highest of any city council in the country. Inevitably, such a salary removes Councilmembers from the realities of life for working people. I will only take home $40,000 per year. This amount is roughly the full-time take-home pay of a Seattleite.
"After paying taxes, the remainder of my salary will go to a Solidarity Fund to help build social justice movements. Throughout the year I will be making donations from this Solidarity Fund to causes such as workers' strike funds, and environmental, civil rights, and women's rights campaigns.”
Sawant was the first Socialist to be elected in Seattle in about 100 years, City Council staff told The Associated Press.
She was elected last November largely on income equality issues — a $15/hour minimum wage, affordable housing as well as higher taxes on the wealthy. Her opponent, Richard Conlin, was a 16-year-member of the council and backed by the political establishment.
Sawant was not immediately available for comment.

 

[Black Mamba]

Rand Paul also said that "if there's a war on women, then women are winning."

I'm sure that line probably sounded better in his staff meeting than it wound up being.

Did you see his reasoning?

This whole sort of war on women thing, I'm scratching my head because if there was a war on women, I think they won. You know, the women in my family are incredibly successful.

I have a niece at Cornell vet school, and 85% of the young people there are women. In law school, 60% are women; in med school, 55%. My younger sister's an ob-gyn with six kids and doing great. You know, I don't see so much that women are downtrodden; I see women rising up and doing great things. And, in fact, I worry about our young men sometimes because I think the women really are out-competing the men in our world.

Shocking news: Privileged, rich white man has successful white niece!


I can't believe anyone is afraid of Rand Paul. He's the dream candidate for the Dems. He is the village dunce in the Senate. I generally believe most people in the parties who are successful aren't dumb as some believe (ie George Bush) but Rand Paul comes off as a bumbling idiot. He can't even properly answer questions. And I don't mean he dodges questions which is obvious with nearly every politicians; I actually don't believe he understands what's being asked.

Rand Paul is the biggest know-nothing I've ever seen attain a position as high as Senator in this country.

edit: And not only is Rand Paul a certified moron, he's completely ignorant of his surroundings as well. Double whammy. He is a clown.

 

[B-Dubs]

I can't believe anyone is afraid of Rand Paul. He's the dream candidate for the Dems. He is the village dunce in the Senate. I generally believe most people in the parties who are successful aren't dumb as some believe (ie George Bush) but Rand Paul comes off as a bumbling idiot. He can't even properly answer questions. And I don't mean he dodges questions which is obvious with nearly every politicians; I actually don't believe he understands what's being asked.

This is what I said when he tried to deal with the plagiarism thing. He basically had no idea what he did wrong or how easy a thing it was to fix. I would pay good money to see him in an actual debate with Hillary or Biden or Cuomo or whoever gets the nod from the Dems come 2016. It would be comedy gold. You wouldn't even need an episode of the Daily Show or Colbert to cover it, all they'd need to do would be to show the debate in it's entirety. He's the dream candidate to run against.

 

[zero shift]

Seattle's Socialist councilwoman to accept less than half of $117K salary

So I looked her up and jesus fuck!

Sawant called for large Seattle companies such as Starbucks and Amazon to be unionized in her most recent campaign.[28] In previous campaigns she has advocated the nationalization of large Washington State corporations such as Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon.com[29] and expressed a desire to see privately owned housing in "Millonaire's Row" in the Capitol Hill neighborhood turned into publically owned shared housing saying, "When things are exquisitely beautiful and rare, they shouldn't be privately owned."[40] During an election victory rally for her City Council campaign Sawant criticized Boeing for saying it would move jobs out of state if it couldn't get wage concessions and tax breaks. She called this "economic terrorism" and said in several speeches if Boeing moved jobs out of state that the workers should take over Boeing facilities and bring them into public ownership. She has said they could be converted into multiple uses, such as production for mass transit.[41][42] She is also a supporter of single-payer health care.[28] Sawant maintains that a socialist economy cannot exist in a single country and must be a global system just as capitalism today is a global system.[43]

 

[Avon Barksdale]

Medical marijuana will be on the ballot in Florida in November.

http://www.abcactionnews.com//dpp/n...ical-marijuana-initiative-for-november-ballot

It needs 60% approval to become law.

 

[fallagin]

Huh. The joke is played out. But, then again, so are conservative talking points.

Oh I get it. This picture is referencing the way that Obamacare has ruined society as we know it. The wrecking ball is a metaphor for Obamacare and the wall that is being crushed portrays american society after it has been destroyed by Obamacare. To get the joke you have to understand the connections of the references. Also Miley Cyrus.

 

[ClassyPenguin]

Seattle's Socialist councilwoman to accept less than half of $117K salary

Old Snake?

Oh I get it. This picture is referencing the way that Obamacare has ruined society as we know it. The wrecking ball is a metaphor for Obamacare and the wall that is being crushed portrays american society after it has been destroyed by Obamacare. To get the joke you have to understand the connections of the references. Also Miley Cyrus.

Conservative "humor" is always behind the times. They might reference gangnam style later on this year, just you watch.

 

[bananas]

Medical marijuana will be on the ballot in Florida in November.

http://www.abcactionnews.com//dpp/n...ical-marijuana-initiative-for-november-ballot

It needs 60% approval to become law.

Personal injury lawyer John Morgan has spent about $4 million to place the issue before voters. He is the chairman of the organization that spearheaded the medical marijuana push in Florida: "United for Care"

Jeff Gerstmann is secretly trying to get medical marijuana legal in my state.

 

[TastyOreoFriend]

Medical marijuana will be on the ballot in Florida in November.

http://www.abcactionnews.com//dpp/n...ical-marijuana-initiative-for-november-ballot

It needs 60% approval to become law.

Yeah they were collecting signatures in Tampa for quite a while. I signed it, but I always felt so bad for the people collecting signatures.

I think I was at a Hess station when some old guy got into with one of the volunteers pushing for signatures. He basically exclaimed the evils of marjuana and how he and the liberal agenda was destroying the fabric of American life; everyone was just going to get "fucked up" and not go to work or some shits. The guy was shouting so loud that he was escorted off the premises about a block away and stuffed into a police cruiser that showed up out of nowhere.

People like that seem to be in the minority though. Most people I've spoken to support the measure, and state polls show anywhere between 60-80% in favor of, with 20-30% opposed and 10% undecided.

 

[Oblivion]

Just saw this great statistic. So what percentage of Fox's audience is made up of Black people?

Answer:

Spoiler

1.1

%

Did you see his reasoning?



Shocking news: Privileged, rich white man has successful white niece!


I can't believe anyone is afraid of Rand Paul. He's the dream candidate for the Dems. He is the village dunce in the Senate. I generally believe most people in the parties who are successful aren't dumb as some believe (ie George Bush) but Rand Paul comes off as a bumbling idiot. He can't even properly answer questions. And I don't mean he dodges questions which is obvious with nearly every politicians; I actually don't believe he understands what's being asked.

Rand Paul is the biggest know-nothing I've ever seen attain a position as high as Senator in this country.

edit: And not only is Rand Paul a certified moron, he's completely ignorant of his surroundings as well. Double whammy. He is a clown.

Yeah, but personally, I think it's a tossup between Paul and Cruz. The latter's supposed to be a smart guy, but he comes off as just as much of a yokel as Paul does.

 

[Suikoguy]

Jeff Gerstmann is secretly trying to get medical marijuana legal in my state.

Yeah, I've heard the ads, they come across as genuine as possible for a lawyer ad.
It's also a bit antithetical to what a lawyer like that would want.

 

[TomServo]

Yeah, I've heard the ads, they come across as genuine as possible for a lawyer ad.
It's also a bit antithetical to what a lawyer like that would want.

This guy has mastered the art of sounding genuine. He's been all over radio and TV in Orlando for decades, and he's the area's de facto ambulance chaser.

I could go into more detail, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if his motivation isn't simply the hope that with more high people out there, there will be more slip-and-falls and more car wrecks.

 

[RoninChaos]

It must be great to be a Republican. I can't think of any other field where you can routinely say the dumbest shit and take little to no flak for it. Even the pope is held more accountable than these jokers.

Our media doesn't help. I just watched a clip if wolf blitzer letting Michelle Bachman dominate a conversation with Bernie Sanders. She literally interrupted him every five seconds. Wolf wouldn't take her to task and we see this all the time. The media is afraid to tell a conservative to shut up or wait their turn because they'll get labeled as "the liberal media!"

 

[Sirpopopop]

I wonder why China and (to a lesser but still notable extent) Vietnam had so much success with it and India did not.

I remember reading an article when I was ten years old during a visit to India to visit family that highlighted the reasoning for this quite succinctly.

It told the story of building a walkway for disabled folks in India & China. In India it took years to get it done. In China - 6 months.

 

[Chichikov]

I remember reading an article when I was ten years old during a visit to India to visit family that highlighted the reasoning for this quite succinctly.

It told the story of building a walkway for disabled folks in India & China. In India it took years to get it done. In China - 6 months.

Say what you want about China, but they get shit done.
I see the speed in which the subway in Beijing get expended, and it's like magic to my western (and especially Seattleite) eyes.
Now don't get me wrong, some of the slowness you get in the west (and in democracies in general) is for a good reasons, but I think people kinda grown accustomed to such projects going for years and decades so they just think this is as fast as they can go.

 

[Diablos]

Seattle's Socialist councilwoman to accept less than half of $117K salary

Awesome. Too bad it will never happen.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

Jeff Gerstmann is secretly trying to get medical marijuana legal in my state.

He's a huge democratic bundler. Crist worked at his firm after he lost in 2010

The New York Time's even included him in their story on democratic doners

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/us/politics/whistle-blower-lawyers-donate-to-obama-campaign.html

The single biggest fund-raiser is John Morgan, a Florida lawyer. He has collected more than $1.7 million for Mr. Obama’s re-election or for the Democratic National Committee, making him one of the campaign’s biggest bundlers nationwide. He has also raised money for Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat running for the United States Senate. Ms. Warren served as interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, also created as part of the Dodd-Frank law.

Mr. Morgan said his support for Mr. Obama and Ms. Warren was entirely motivated by his admiration for their leadership. But his fund-raising blitz occurred just as he was expanding his personal injury and trial law practice into the whistle-blower field, with a television advertising campaign and new Web site.

“America is full of crooks who are defrauding the government and investors every day,” Mr. Morgan said. “We are talking about billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. We win one case and it will pay for our entire national advertising budget.”

He's also one of Obama's top Fundraisers
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/09/13/us/politics/obamas-top-fund-raisers.html

And involved with Ready of Hillary

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...2b3c7c-d9ee-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html

“It’s hard to even know what’s what any more,” said John Morgan, an Orlando lawyer who served on Bill Clinton’s 1996 national finance committee. “It’s become a cottage industry. It’s like, ‘Who are you?’ Just because you put the name ‘Hillary’ at the end of your PAC — it could be a bait and switch. I want to make sure I can get the biggest bang for my buck.”

 

[jamesinclair]

No. Seriously folks, weren't native American cultures essentially communist?

They survived for centuries.

 

[WayneMorse]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...16e-e01534b1e132_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboPN

For anyone who now works for a federal contractor, you min. wage is now $10.10

 

[NYCmetsfan]

No. Seriously folks, weren't native American cultures essentially communist?

They survived for centuries.

Why do people have to group things into categories and ideologies that share superficial similarities to advance their political preferences? I don't understand the logic or purpose.

You could use historical groups to justify so much
The Indians didn't have tariffs! They had a proto-NAFTA!

What people did a few centuries ago really doesn't have much practical use today. What does your comment prove? That people 400 years didn't have private property... And?

 

[jamesinclair]

Why do people have to group things into categories and ideologies that share superficial similarities to advance their political preferences? I don't understand the logic or purpose.

You could use historical groups to justify so much
The Indians didn't have tariffs! They had a proto-NAFTA!

What people did a few centuries ago really doesn't have much practical use today. What does your comment prove? That people 400 years didn't have private property... And?

If your going to declare communism a failure, don't limit yourself to 80 years of greedy white people

 

[Mike M]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...16e-e01534b1e132_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboPN

For anyone who now works for a federal contractor, you min. wage is now $10.10

Only new contracts going forward.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

If your going to declare communism a failure, don't limit yourself to 80 years of greedy white people

Native American's weren't communist. Not having private property doesn't translate into communism.

They also were often tribal, anti-democratic, monarchical, had no industrial base, were more ethnically monolithic, had much smaller populations, more more war prone (not saying any more than Europeans but much more so than the world today), highly religious and superstitious, rural, sexist, relative to today. How does any of this translate into policy prescriptions today?

Also which native American's are you talking about?

 

[teiresias]

So Democrats essentially "take back" the Virginia Senate, but WAIT, there's a twist:

Richmond Times Dispatch: Win gives Democrats edge in Virginia Senate

Shortly afterward, Democrats are expected to make motions to take control of the evenly divided chamber, using Northam as the tiebreaking vote and setting up a floor fight with their GOP counterparts.

It is similar to how the chamber came under Republican control in 2012. Then, GOP leaders used the tiebreaking vote of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, to reorganize the chamber and install GOP majorities on nearly every committee.

Republicans then also controlled the governor’s office and the Attorney General’s Office. That control, coupled with Republican dominance in the House of Delegates, enabled the party to push through measures that relaxed gun laws and placed greater restrictions on voting, abortion and adoption.

Democrats objected at the time to the use of the lieutenant governor to vote on organizational matters, but a court declined to intervene.

Republicans now contend that their organization of the chamber is in force for the duration of the current Senate term that lasts through 2015. They say Democrats will need a two-thirds vote of the members to change the rules in the middle of the Senate term.

Haha, Republicans wanting to ignore election results until 2015!! Amazing.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...16e-e01534b1e132_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboPN

For anyone who now works for a federal contractor, you min. wage is now $10.10

Imagine that! Progressives organize and demand concrete specific proposals and pressures the president to act, progressive things happen!

 

[Aaron Strife]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...16e-e01534b1e132_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboPN

For anyone who now works for a federal contractor, you min. wage is now $10.10

JEEZ WHY WOULD OBAMA FOCUS ON THE MINIMUM WAGE WHEN HE CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT WHAT AN IDIOT HE SHOULD JUST RESIGN NOW

So Democrats essentially "take back" the Virginia Senate, but WAIT, there's a twist:

Richmond Times Dispatch: Win gives Democrats edge in Virginia Senate

Haha, Republicans wanting to ignore election results until 2015!! Amazing.

It only takes a simple majority to rewrite the rules though, which Democrats have said they'll do.

 

[PhoenixDark]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...16e-e01534b1e132_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboPN

For anyone who now works for a federal contractor, you min. wage is now $10.10

But won't this create resentment amongst non-government workers? *wrings hands*

 

[bonercop]

good article/interview

Your “Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone” research – what does that suggest about the limits of education and productivity as ways for workers broadly to make it into the “middle class,” so to speak, or as solutions to these problems?

Workers today are a lot older than they were in the 1960s or the 1970s, and they are enormously better-educated than they were in the 1960s or 1970s. The fact that most workers are doing barely better, and some workers are doing worse than their counterparts from 40 or 50 years ago … suggest that the problem is that the way the economy converts people’s skills, people’s experience, people’s education and their training, into good jobs is what has deteriorated over this period. Not people’s underlying skills, or work experience, or education.

And I think it points to something completely different — and I think it’s absent from a lot of the discussion as [to] the reasons why we have economic inequality, and the reasons why we have these continuous problems with mobility and opportunity.And that has to do with bargaining power of workers. And you know, that I think is a piece that’s unfortunately missing from the president’s discussion of economic inequality, and it’s absent from his discussion of mobility and opportunity.

The way the economy has been restructured over the last three or four decades has removed the bargaining power of workers at the middle and the bottom. And it’s done that in a very systematic way.

The president’s rightly focused on the question of the minimum wage because I think it’s kind of a core example of where we’ve used public policy in a way to reduce the bargaining power of workers at the bottom. Because we’ve just allowed the minimum wage to fall far below its historic value, no matter how you measure it. … It’s definitely below where it was four or five decades ago, even though we’re much richer than we used to be. That’s a conscious or semi-conscious decision that we’ve made …

That’s just one example. Another is this big decline in unionization in the private sector that we’ve seen over the last four or five decades … We have a labor law that is completely unresponsive to workers’ desires to form a union in the private sector … That undermines the power very much of workers, in particular in the middle of the wage distribution …

We pretty regularly keep the unemployment rate too high, much higher than even economists, who are pretty conservative about these things, think is the level of full employment. And that goes directly to workers’ bargaining power … If you have a job and the unemployment rate is 10 percent, you are much less likely to go to your employer and ask for a pay increase, or improvement in benefits, or a better schedule, than if the unemployment rate is 4 percent …

We have this kind of systematic setup where the minimum wage is down, unions are down, the unemployment rate is too high.

It doesn’t stop there … Immigrant workers have almost no rights under our labor law … Because their position is so weak, it undermines the power of low-wage workers who were born here and have — barely — more rights … It creates a perfect set of circumstances for low-wage employers, because they can play immigrant workers against U.S.-born workers, in an environment where neither of them has very many rights. So businesses don’t have a big incentive to try and fix that situation …

We’ve had trade deals such as [the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership], which we’re discussing right now, which are basically organized to increase the power, economic power of corporations, and to undermine the power of their workers and consumers.

You know, we privatized state and local government functions at quite an alarming rate … The main advantage that the private sector has over the public sector is not that they’re more efficient at organizing school buses. It’s that they pay their workers less and they don’t give them benefits …

That discussion of bargaining power, and the politics and the policies around it, is firstly what’s going to be missing from the State of the Union address. And broadly from the discussion of economic inequality. From, you know, even the Democratic Party, for the most part.

.....
What would be the dream State of the Union speech on these issues?

One that recognizes the political constraints that are operating on the president and on progressive forces … but would spell out an alternative story to why we’re in the mess we’re in, and an alternative set of solutions …

Instead of focusing on how kind of abstract forces of technology, and you know, abstract forces of globalization are dragging down the American workforce, and creating all sorts of inequality, it would focus instead on how, you know, very clear politics, and very clear policy decisions are undermining the bargaining power of workers at the middle and the bottom.

And that is the cause of economic inequality. And that the solutions involve restructuring the economy in ways that give power to workers at the middle and the bottom …

It tells us a different story about why we’re in the circumstances we’re in, and gives us a set of recipes that are focused on the present, and on dealing with economic inequality in the present, as a way toward improving economic mobility and economic opportunity. Rather than offering us, you know, the opportunity to change things 15 or 20 years down the line if all goes well.

 

[Aaron Strife]

But won't this create resentment amongst non-government workers? *wrings hands*

Or it'll inspire non-government workers to fight for a minimum wage increase to be applied evenly across all workers?

I know it never works that way, no one wants to think of themselves as the leech.

 

[RustyNails]

I wonder why China and (to a lesser but still notable extent) Vietnam had so much success with it and India did not.

China is as laissez faire as they come. India has always been a Soviet proto nation, from the economy to the political parties (Communist party is a powerful entity in India), to military. Since the independence, India was Russia's proxy and (ironically) Pakistan was USA's proxy. There were lot of dirty deals cut behind closed doors during the Sino-Indian war and India-Pakistan wars.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

@DRUDGE Ran a mile in 7-minutes this morning, imagining Michelle Obama was chasing me with a long needle and syringe...

Conservatives have really become deranged.

 

[Aaron Strife]

Conservatives have really become deranged.

You're missing

(2/2) Then I woke up and felt a little like Monica Lewinsky's dress down there.

 

[ivysaur12]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...16e-e01534b1e132_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboPN

For anyone who now works for a federal contractor, you min. wage is now $10.10

You know who was a federal contractor? Edward Snowden.

Great job, Obama.

 

[ivysaur12]

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2014/01/americans-strongly-back-broncos.html

And now for the political notes from our national poll:

-The overall climate continues to not be great for Democrats. For a second month in a row Barack Obama's approval rating is 41%, matching his all time low in our polling. 53% of voters disapprove of him. Republicans have moved into a slight lead on the generic Congressional ballot at 42/40, representing a 7 point shift in their direction from our polling at the height of the shutdown. Obamacare continues to be a big part of the problem for Democrats. Only 38% of voters support it overall, to 52% who are opposed. And 62% think its implementation has been unsuccessful to just 32% that believe it's gone well.

-There are a couple issues coming down the pike that might play to Democrats' advantage though. 55% of voters support increasing the minimum wage to $10 an hour, compared to only 36% who are opposed. In addition to support from 85% of Democrats, it also meets with favor from 28% of Republicans. Democrats are even more on the right side of public opinion when it comes to extended unemployment benefits. 63% of voters think they should be continued to only 32% who support cutting them off, and that includes 85% of Democrats, 57% of independents, and 44% of Republicans.

-Mitt Romney's been in the news a lot lately but Americans don't like him any more now than they did when they voted against him in November 2012. On our last poll before the election he had a 47/50 favorability rating. Now that's dipped to a 39/48 spread. A big part of that decline has been with Republicans- he was at 85% then but is down to 75% now, suggesting that a lot of GOP voters might have only said they liked him because they felt like they had to.

-Donald Trump's been making his cyclical noise about potentially running for public office lately, and Americans really hate him. Only 22% see him favorably to 61% with a negative opinion. Even Republicans narrowly dislike him (37/41) and with Democrats (10/82) and independents (19/58) his numbers are particularly awful.

 

[bonercop]

wonderful news, everybody. democrats are already living up to their promise of focusing on income inequality in 2014:

in a wonderful ~*post-partisan*~ display of concern for the poor, they're passing a bill that cuts 8 billion in foodstamps and puts money in the pocket of large agricultural corporations.

truly, champions of the working class.

 

[bonercop]

also:

Antihunger advocates criticized the agreement.

lol

 

[NYCmetsfan]

wonderful news, everybody. democrats are already living up to their promise of focusing on income inequality in 2014:

in a wonderful ~*post-partisan*~ display of concern for the poor, they're passing a bill that cuts 8 billion in foodstamps and puts money in the pocket of large agricultural corporations.

truly, champions of the working class.

If that's the best concession they can get out the GOP than it sucks but its not like they can do much. It has to pass the house and they're demanding cuts. It sucks. Most dems should vote against it in the house but its not like its what they wanted. Would you rather they pass no bill?

You should be mad the GOP. The dems expanded foodstamps in 2009.

 

[KingGondo]

I'm pro-hunger. Nothing motivates poors like a rumbling stomach!

 

[rocketknight]

It sucks that the farm bill compromise is pretty much a normal Republican bill.

 

[bonercop]

If that's the best concession they can get out the GOP than it sucks but its not like they can do much. It has to pass the house and they're demanding cuts. It sucks. Most dems should vote against it in the house but its not like its what they wanted.

You should be mad the GOP. The dems expanded foodstamps in 2009.

what, exactly, is forcing the dems to accept the proposal here? the farm bill is(supposed to be) a Republican priority. The democrats should be the ones demanding concessions here.

A few weeks back, there were rumblings that they'd hold this bill up in exchange for unemployment benefits extension -- they've given it away and all they got in return was austerity.

Would you rather they pass no bill?

Uh...yes? Foodstamps don't have to be renewed.

 

[Fenderputty]

wonderful news, everybody. democrats are already living up to their promise of focusing on income inequality in 2014:

in a wonderful ~*post-partisan*~ display of concern for the poor, they're passing a bill that cuts 8 billion in foodstamps and puts money in the pocket of large agricultural corporations.

truly, champions of the working class.

Well that's shitty news.

 

[CHEEZMO™]

I'm pro-hunger. Nothing motivates poors like a rumbling stomach!

". . . whereas hunger is not only a peaceable, silent, unremitted pressure, but as the most natural motive to industry, it calls forth the most powerful exertions. . . . Hunger will tame the fiercest animals, it will teach decency and civility, obedience and subjugation to the most brutish, the most obstinate, and the most perverse.”

 

[Incognito]

barack h obama resorting to rule by fiat? LOL!

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Anyone else find SOTU completely useless and boring?

 

[NYCmetsfan]

Anyone else find SOTU completely useless and boring?

No, its fun. And it has lead to and contributed to lasting ideas in American Politics. Just because certain concrete proposals don't happen its a chance for the president to talk to millions 33 last year who don't really care about politics and set forth his ideas.

War on Poverty, Four Freedoms, Axis of Evil, "significant quantities of uranium from Africa," "era of big government is over," obama boxing himself in in 2011, etc.

 

[speculawyer]

So Democrats essentially "take back" the Virginia Senate, but WAIT, there's a twist:

Richmond Times Dispatch: Win gives Democrats edge in Virginia Senate


Haha, Republicans wanting to ignore election results until 2015!! Amazing.

The GOP has been quite brazen about using every possible lever of power and every trick in the book in the past few years. Filibuster everything, government shut-down, reducing polling hours, voice votes without actually counting votes, gerrymandering, voter ID laws, etc.

I guess they know that their base doesn't mind them doing everything possible, even when it is on its face pretty sleazy stuff. And they often accidentally (or like that guy in the Daily show interview brazenly) admit to it. Perhaps it is a last hurrah to do what they can before the inevitable big fall from power happens as the demographic forces really reduce their popularity?

At some point, this type of behavior has got to back-fire on them.