Rex Kickass

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 06:09 PM) I love votes that fail with 57 in favor. f***, time for the "nuclear option" just so the terrible Senator rules get fixed. Or a Senate majority leader who is more concerned with breaking the backs of procedural filibuster by calling the bluff. It would be pretty easy to do, IMO. If they are filibustering everything til tax cuts, refuse to advance the calendar and make tax cuts the very last vote of the session.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 10, 2010 -> 10:03 AM) IF there's no electoral penalty and strong electoral rewards for doing so, why not do so? It's a shame that this has become the only way people in politics look at this. In reality, this is nothing but political terrorism - using the American population as hostages for political points.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 10, 2010 -> 09:42 AM) seeing as that affects 300-325 million people, versus what, a thousand? I agree. And I still don't get that first responder bill and why the federal government needs to be involved. I'm assuming it's mostly NY fireman/police officers/medical responders. If that's the case it's NEW YORK'S problem, since they are NEW YORK employees who are paid by the state of NEW YORK. Edit: I guess the report says survivors too. But I still don't know why the federal government should be involved with this. Many of the people who are affected by this don't live in New York and don't work in New York but came from several states around the region, including New Jersey, Connecticut, etc. Many of them also acted after the EPA declared the air to be safe in the Ground Zero area. Turns out the EPA was wrong or lying. So there is a pretty easy case to be made for federal wrongdoing here.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 10:00 PM) I haven't read this whole thread (but I will this weekend...) but I do have to say it's annoying that DADT and that stuff is all tied together with all of this. Ridiculous. So is the DREAM act. So is the Defense Reauthorization Bill. So is any bill not related to tax cuts. The Senate Republicans are holding the chamber hostage and refusing to allow an actual passage vote on anything but tax cuts.

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 04:38 PM) You mean they'll want even more spending and larger deficits and debt? Maybe, or they may want to find some ways to make this a smaller fight that the GOP can come to the table with the next time around. They may even want to do things like have the debt ceiling be part of this agreement, or a guaranteed up or down vote in the senate on DREAM, START and DADT repeal. They want to be part of the process.

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Nov 29, 2010 -> 09:53 PM) He also directed a James Bond movie, Never Say Never Again (being the only American to direct a James Bond movie). It's not really a James Bond movie.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 03:56 PM) The problem is, they're rapidly running into recess deadlines. They need to bring along a large portion of their caucus within a week, without losing the Senate Republicans. The only true recess deadline is January 5.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 03:57 PM) You know, I agree with them taking a stand on this, but the idea that they have done everything Obama has wanted is just silly. Things like the Health Care bill, the Stim bill, were massively different than what Obama had wanted. I want what you're smoking if you think the Democratic leadership had anything to do with that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 04:23 PM) An attempt was made just now to bring the Defense funding bill up for debate in the Senate. The motion to bring the bill to the floor failed to overcome a Republican filibuster, with 57 votes in favor and 40 votes against. Susan Collins was the lone Republican voting in favor of the bill, while 1 Democrat (Manchin, WV) voted to support the filibuster. There are a number of disappointments in there. Manchin for one, but also Lugar and Snowe as well as Brown in MA. Those three GOP senators seem like they would be eminently reasonable in questions like this, and again its a shame that this decision has to hang in the balance of political points by a party whose obstruction essentially equates to political terrorism at this point.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 03:50 PM) Dems show their ferociously cute balls off by rejecting the Obama tax compromise via voice vote in the house - preventing it from going to the floor as-is. Here's something Obama should have learned from previous administrations. You can't assume that the Democrats will fall in line lockstep to anything its leadership asks. Especially if you decide to try to force through a "compromise" without inviting Democratic Congressional leadership. In the eyes of the Dem house caucus it is utterly disrespectful, especially given all the heavy lifting they've done over the past two years to Obama's legislative agenda. They feel punished for doing everything Obama has asked of them in the last two years, and if I was in the house leadership, I could see why I would want to do this too. This will pass, but the House Dems need their fingerprints on some of this too.

Stay class, Christine O'Donnell.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 7, 2010 -> 07:00 PM) Fine. Sorry. I guess we'll all just lie about who she was because we're sad she died even though none of us have ever met her or know her. I know people that knew her personally, and none of them ever had a bad word to say about her. In fact, it was usually "I love her!"

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 7, 2010 -> 10:29 AM) I laugh everytime I hear this. Exactly what jobs are we turning down? I have been out for a year and a half now, without a single job offer. ^^ The best part of this deal is the 13 extra months the emergency tiers get. This lets us spend a year blocking votes in the Senate on other important issues. It's also extremely stimulative, because I'm sure as SS2K can attest to, that UI money doesn't magically find its way into a 5 year CD or Money Market account.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 7, 2010 -> 12:18 AM) I really hope that people weren't holding back a yes vote for repealing DADT to get tax cuts. "Gays in the military will be the end of our dominance as we know it, everyone will be distracted by everyone being gay all the time, gay gay, oh tax cuts? They're alright." Given that START support was being held over for the same reason, it wouldn't shock me.

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Dec 6, 2010 -> 10:24 PM) Great! You're already admitting defeat on that debate... He'll win that debate if his argument is still that the richest 1% needs to pay a little more. If not, then it won't resonate with voters. This deal isn't as bad as the liberal Dems want to believe it is. They did get a lot of what they wanted out of it. But it's also not a great deal either. Unless the Senate plans on changing the rules of debate in that chamber, compromises like this are going to be the only way things will get done going forward.

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Dec 6, 2010 -> 03:10 PM) Sec. Gates not optimistic about possibility of repeal. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...3535acf07f3a24c Seriously, wtf... Given that McConnell has indicated he's going to support a McCain block of DADT, and I highly doubt the Boehner House of Representatives will pass a DADT repeal in the new congress.... This is another situation where I wish my party would have the spine it should have and refuse to decouple DADT from the Defense reauth bill.

QUOTE (hawksfan61 @ Dec 6, 2010 -> 08:39 AM) Will the dancing in the streets when you look at the unemployment number jump up after BP goes out of business? Don't get me wrong, BP completely FUBARd the gulf coast and they should have to pay for all of that, and if that happens to put them out of business then those are the consequences of their actions, but I certainly wouldn't feel any happiness from that outcome. Comparing putting BP out of business to killing Bin Laden is laughable and completely over the top. The idea that BP would shutter is laughable at best. What would happen? Someone else would swoop in and pick up the pieces at a discount. BP would just become ExxonMobilBP or BPValero or something like that. There isn't enough excess oil capacity for any big or even medium sized player to just let as big of a petroleum producer as BP to shut its doors.

Jobs number better than it seems? http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/20...ss-350000-jobs/ Read more: http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/20.../#ixzz17G6j4N58

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 3, 2010 -> 02:56 PM) Gay people can't vote, have no rights at work, and regularly get arrested. Hyperbole aside, it should be noted that.... In 29 states, it is still legal to be fired for being gay or suspected of being gay. And it was just last year that a lot of people were arrested in Texas for being in a gay bar. http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Temp...bow-Lounge.html

QUOTE (Soxy @ Dec 3, 2010 -> 02:14 PM) I am pretty shocked that the policy is still on the books, quite frankly. I have been enjoying the Daily Show's coverage of McCain's responses to the incoming data. The only other "developed" countries with this ban would be Greece and South Korea. Even Russia, who won't allow gay men to have a parade, lets them shoot at bad guys.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Dec 3, 2010 -> 02:15 PM) what did he say? Among other things he said that Gates, also a Vietnam veteran of the Air Force, did not serve in the military and told the Joint Chiefs that his opinion shouldn't matter because he doesn't directly supervise troops.

The DoD report came out, and it turns out that most military members support a repeal of DADT, and encouraged by that report, GOP Senator Scott Brown (MA) also supports repeal of DADT. http://scottbrown.senate.gov/public/index....a4-2314e6991fb5

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 3, 2010 -> 08:50 AM) And there ya go. Let's see it happen. We'll find out tomorrow. Reid is forcing a cloture vote on the House bill only tomorrow. This after the Democrats accepted a compromise package that the Republicans suggested, and then refused upon acceptance during Senate negotiations.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 06:25 PM) They'll strike a deal before it ever gets that far. The Senate has other things on its list to get done first. And Reid probably isn't confident that the 2nd package wouldn't win. You could be right, and that's sad. But he should force cloture anyway. Let the Republicans go on record and oppose tax cuts for those making under 250k. Let them hold START hostage to give millionaires another 100 grand. It's just too bad that Democrats are too busy standing in their own way to let the country know that's whats happening.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 05:35 PM) Frankly, he's probably got a point...this bill is likely DOA in the Senate, and it's probably the exact opposite of what the President told him 2 days ago. Chicken crap...though... Word is Reid is planning on forcing a Cloture vote. With a second package on the table to extend tax cuts for non millionaires.