No one has man-dates any more, prop 8 passed.
I don't agree with whoever it was that was saying progressive bloggers won't have anything to do now that the Bush administration is going (no link; just some dumb thing I saw). But I would like it if this next step meant that we stopped giving airtime, attention, or oxygen of any brand to people who write false or hateful things.
No, I have not read the link. Yes, I am making assumptions.
Who needs a mandate when you have a majority in both houses? This is stupid.
no link; just some dumb thing I saw
At LGM, I think.
No more whatevering to Michael Crichton.
"He's not FDR yet" - this is what the GOP has been reduced to?
Besides, if Karl Rove was right about anything it was this - mandates are bunk. You know how you tell if you have a mandate to govern? By winning.
Dies unexpectedly after unpublicized battle with cancer.
I think Crichton was one of those Dave Barry-Dilbert-South Park-style libertarians. I am ashamed that my first thought was "suicide inspired by Obama's election?"
I don't remember who was involved, but there was an amusing exchange on CNN last night that went something like:
Talking Head A: "But will Obama be able to work with House Republicans?"
Talking Head B: "You know, A, it really doesn't matter. There aren't enough of them to make a difference."
The very size of Obama's victory proves how centrist and bipartisan the Democrats must be. Now more than ever. (Also, Tom Brokaw notes that McCain won the majority of counties. This is a center-right country, measured by square footage!)
This is a center-right country, measured by square footage!
Not even that; states like Kentucky and Virginia have a huge number of counties that is not at all in proportion to their size.
Rats. I mean, I hoped he had a mandate, but if Robert Novak says he doesn't, then he doesn't.
Maybe he could have Dick Cheney for Secretary of State + Defense - a kind of Unity Government.
A true unity government would have Dick Cheney as Secretary of State, Dennis Kucinich as Secretary of Defense, George Gilder as Secretary of Energy, and Jeremiah Wright as Secretary of Commerce. We need a big tent, to bring everyone together.
Carp all you want about those Obama foes, but I think this this is damn decent of Joe Lieberman:
Sen. Joe Lieberman, one of Republican John McCain's strongest supporters, is pledging to put partisan considerations aside and work with President-elect Barack Obama.
By "bipartisan," Lieberman of course means he plans to knife Obama in the back on any occasion it's possible and/or politically useful. I think (hope) that Obama will be likewise bipartisan with Lieberman and his ilk.
This is the first W-lfs-n post in as long as I can remember that hasn't been an auto-cock block. Well done, Ben!
Fuck mandates; he's got a congressional majority.
Way to end filibusters: Chloral hydrate in the morning coffee.
1 - you can still have man dates just not man marriage.
Mandates are required only when the president before you didn't suck.
How about they keep the filibuster but drop the cloture threshold to, say, 55 votes?
By "bipartisan," Lieberman of course means he plans to knife Obama in the back on any occasion it's possible and/or politically useful. I think (hope) that Obama will be likewise bipartisan with Lieberman and his ilk.
There was an interview with some Republican this morning where he said, "Obama has pledge to compromise and work with both sides of the aisle. Of course, if I disagree with him, then I will fight him with all of my efforts."
?!??!?!??
(Technically, I think the filibuster will always exist as the principle of unlimited debate in the Senate, and getting rid of it just means making it easier to shut someone(s) up. But I'm no parliamentarian.)
Sen. Joe Lieberman, one of Republican John McCain's strongest supporters, is pledging to put partisan considerations aside and work with President-elect Barack Obama.
in, I hope, a capacity not so much as "valued committee chairman" as "junior sanitizer of shithouses, third class".
Is it possible that McCain's vote total will reach Kerry's? I'm hoping no. I realize this is meaningless.
Lieberman will be up for re-election when Obama is.
(Technically, I think the filibuster will always exist as the principle of unlimited debate in the Senate, and getting rid of it just means making it easier to shut someone(s) up. But I'm no parliamentarian.)
Getting rid of it means adopting rules similar to those of the House, where all debate on a bill must be germane. The Senate has no such rule; hence the telephone book stunts.
It's there in the Constitution, peeps. Article CLVI: "A Mandate shall entitle the President to God-like powers over gravity, the World Series, the price of cornmeal and the cancellation of cult-favorite niche TV series. Mandated Presidents get a place in line for inclusion in Mount Rushmore II when it is carved. A Mandate is defined as winning pretty much everything except no more than two smallish states, including the county sheriff's office in at least 75% of all states where such offices are subject to voting, plus a two-thirds majority of pundits appearing on Sunday morning talk shows". Can't argue with it: it's not a Mandate. Too bad.
all debate on a bill must be germane.
But will there be a limit to the time allowed for germane debate? I don't see why filibusters couldn't just get more boring and repetitive if there's no limit to the time.
The next few weeks will be all about the right putting together a narrative that minimizes Obama's win and tries to neuter the Democrats before he's sworn in. They'll also be working balls-out to find ways to blame Democrats or core Democratic party constituencies for the financial crisis. On the latter they've made pretty good progress, with the current narrative trending towards something involving ACORN getting NINJA loans for illegal immigrants.
Talking Head A: "But will Obama be able to work with House Republicans?"
Talking Head B: "You know, A, it really doesn't matter. There aren't enough of them to make a difference."
That's great. I often play the 'what would I say if I were the pundit' game. Q- How do you think Obama is thinking right now after being declared President. A- I don't know for sure, but I bet he's really happy and having fun with his campaign staff and family.
I wouldn't make a very good pundit.
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NYT currently has a really cool interactive graphic on the front page showing, among other things, that McCain gained support vs. Bush-2004 primarily in Arkansas, Tennessee and Appalachia, and Obama gained support vs. Kerry-2004 pretty much everywhere else.
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Was the "mandate" shibboleth the brainchild of the Nixon Administration? Kennedy? Roosevelt? One of the forgotten 19th century types?
28: I caught a snippet on NPR saying that illegal immigrants had a lower default rate on mortgages than citizens.
No wonder people are afraid of them. They work harder, pay their debts, and devote more time to church and family. The immigrants are making our people look bad!
SO WHO WILL BE THE NEW SENATOR FROM ILLINOIS?
Jesse Jackson?
Bill Ayers?
Jeremiah Wright?
Ed Vrdolyak?
Adam Kotsko?
I would vote for Adam if I lived in IL.
Because there is no Wikipedia entry about him, it is unclear whether Adam Kotsko is old enough to be made a senator.
What I would like to see is Michelle Obama named to the seat vacated by Barack. Think what Bob McManus would say!
30: Why the hell would southern Louisiana shift more Republican? Does race trump Katrina?
Why the hell would southern Louisiana shift more Republican?
Most of the African-American population lives elsewhere now.
30: Why the hell would southern Louisiana shift more Republican? Does race trump Katrina?
Ummm....yes, I think white people in Louisiana are still more Republican than black people in Louisiana. And there are a whole lot fewer black people in Louisiana now.
Does race trump Katrina?
It's Louisiana. Of course it does.
What's with Novak's email address—novakevans@aol.com? Didn't Evans die years ago? And more importantly, why is Novak still using AOL?
26 the cancellation of cult-favorite niche TV series
President Obama would never have let the CW cancel Veronica Mars.
IIRC FDR used his margin of victory in his 1933 inaugural/SOTU as a promise & threat.
My guess would be that the idea of the "mandate" was important in 1964, and then repeated in 1980.
It would have been used by the minority, losing party to justify their capitulation, an excuse to defy their base. Dirksen Republicans would have told the wingnuts of their time that they had to pass civil rights/great society and Democrats in the first Reagan term used the mandate as a reason to pass the tax cuts and defense buildup.
I doubt that it will apply in 2009, but Obama and the Republicans could surprise me.
If he had a mandate, he could have prevented it. But you have to win Nebraska, Idaho, Utah and Kansas to get a mandate, sadly.
36:Good Grief, how quickly the Bushco ethnic cleansing has been forgotten.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, is strongly considering an offer from President-elect Barack Obama to serve as White House chief of staff, according to Democratic sources.
So the President of the United States offers a position, you consider it?
46, 39, 37: Ok, I get it. I wasn't thinking.
Lost in the hubbub has been the fact that Omaba may have won the electoral vote in his namesake city.
#41. Possibly a symbol of their mandate ...?
OT: This clip of Gore Vidal yelling at a BBC newscaster is all kinds of awesome. Awesome because Vidal is even crankier than he usually is in it and awesome because I can't imagine an American news show ever asking Gore Vidal for a comment on anything.
Since a mandate can never really be taken, but must be surrendered by the losing party, it makes the Bush strategy of claiming a mandate in 2001 & 2002 kinda interesting.
A truly gross insult to the Democrats.
Now FDR in 1933 did publicly say that if Congress did not give him the power he sought he would take it anyway. And FDR certainly far overstepped the Constitutional understandings of his time.
I have some, very small, hopes that Obama will go past even FDR in his compassion, responsibility and courage to eztrelegality.
For instance, even if Congress, the Military, and the Courts refuse him permission Obama, in Full Violation of the LAW, might find a way to set the Gitmo Uighars free.
Stuff like that. The scumbag Roberts Court and quisling Congress might get in Obama's way, but the Patriot Act and Bush precedents provide legal cover.
They are small hopes, I admit.
How can anything Robert Novak says be taken seriously? How can anyone react to him with anything but derisive laughter?
How can anyone react to him with anything but derisive laughter?
Nausea is also considered an acceptable response. Also, murderous rage.
How can anyone react to him with anything but derisive laughter rolling off the hood of the 'Vette ?
Latest sign that I'm a bad person: thinking "yay! Crichton's dead! one less persuasive-sounding global warming denier to mislead people!"
Indeed, essear. Were you a good person, you would be thinking that there is now one fewer such person.
Oh, fuck off. "Fewer" for continuous quantities is wrong; "less" for discrete ones is not.
He is smart and tough. But he has been, in both positions, a vicious graceless partisan: narrow, hectic, unremittingly aggressive, vulgar, and impatient. Those who have worked for and with him come away impressed but not inspired....
So far so good.
But I would like it if this next step meant that we stopped giving airtime, attention, or oxygen of any brand to people who write .... hateful things.
Besides the discomfort and death part, when an old friend proposing to suffocate you it's sort of discouraging.
I see someone else is succumbing to peaking at The Corner. If I were writing a want-ad for CoS in a Democratic White House, it would read like that quote.
21: I've proposed creating a special one-man Committee of Slag, Sumps, and Middens.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, one of Republican John McCain's strongest supporters, is pledging to put partisan considerations aside and work [on this new pig farm] President-elect Barack Obama [keeps telling him about].
Last night, Harry Reid was quoted by the Politico as saying:Asked if Tuesday's election results give his party a mandate, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just told Politico:"This is a mandate to get along, to get something done in a bipartisan way. This is not a mandate for a political party or an ideology."
To the hog farm with him.
I see someone else is succumbing to peaking at The Corner.
Peeking, Walt, peeking. Peaking just sounds nasty.
For this at 2:
I don't agree with whoever it was that was saying progressive bloggers won't have anything to do now that the Bush administration is going (no link; just some dumb thing I saw). But I would like it if this next step meant that we stopped giving airtime, attention, or oxygen of any brand to people who write false or hateful things.
We've talked before here about the advisability of ignoring the contrarian voice, as opposed to mocking or actually answering it. I believe the jury is still out. Also, a bunch of idiots have been saying that liberals won't have anything to whine talk about now.
"Yes, Joe, I know that your religion forbids you to eat pork. This isn't about eating pork at all. Quite the opposite."
51 -- The DC Circuit will first get a chance to totally fuck the Uighurs. This week's Basardh opinion shows the cards.
The DC Circuit will first get a chance to totally fuck the Uighurs
Do they have the time?
To the hog farm with him.
Harry Reid is frustrating, like unto something extremely frustrating.
The Juror Speaks:
And to [Stevens'] lawyers I'd like to say: "Shakira's hips don't lie and neither do the facts. [Stevens] was found guilty based on the facts, and beyond reasonable doubt."
"What are five books you have read in the last year" (if you are interested: Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman; The Watchmen, Alan Moore; Artemis Fowl, Eoin Coffer; I, Claudius and Claudius the God, Robert Graves. I didn't mention the whole Twilight Series, Stephanie Meyers, because I would not even mention that I read them and somehow enjoyed them against my better judgement under oath. Even though I just mentioned that here. damn. there goes my credibility. They grated against my soul, but I couldn't stop reading them.)
Harry Reid reminds me of Will Forte's SNL character Sen. Tim Calhoun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLGivS7rcWc
(fake)
Harry Reid is frustrating, like unto something extremely frustrating.
Like a night out with an agoraphobic!
67 -- Yep. Argument on the 24th.
Shorter Robert Novak: "I'm not dead yet."
Further to 72 -- and the renewed Bismullah argument is Nov. 20. It's a very interesting situation, too complicated to get into here.
The Antichrist don't need no stinkin' mandate.
Also, murderous rage.
I once walked by him on the street, and was astonished (and appalled) at the visceral, spontaneous rage that I felt.
Besides being Republican operatives planted in the media, in their younger days both Novak pretty thuggish. Buchanan was busted at least once for assaulting a policeman.
They're white, though.