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Congress: Drone Talk
Dark_Side
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Registered User regular
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb-3TCQDkRk(For maximum effect, play this video while reading the op)
In our last episode, a ragtag band of all american bad boys, led by dashing newcomer TED CRUZ, had brought the american government to the very brink of collapse. Only to have the wily democrats, led by senate patriarch HARRY RIED, ram through a last minute deal to save the govt., but only with the help of nefarious enigma, MITCH MCCONNEL.
Will resident bad boy TED CRUZ be able to keep sticking his finger in the eyes of the president and his fellow republicans, or will he find more trouble than he expects?
Will HARRY REID wake up from his coma and choke another man?
Will resident ne-er-do-well of the house, JOHN BOEHNER, turn even more orange? Will he finally lose the gavel to hip, rich boy ERIC CANTOR?
Will PAUL RYAN ever not look like a stupid gomer?
Will we have to do this all over again in two months?
All these questions answered and MORE on the next episode of:
CONGRESS
Dark_Side on
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The thing he said he absolutely doesn't want to do, is the thing his party just did for two weeks that was his idea.
PS - Harry Reid.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Maybe I'm showing my age, but it had more of a "Soap" flavor in my mind.
edit for you kids
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075584/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_(TV_series)
now go watch it. i'll wait.
Damnit! I fixed it now.
And yes, definite old school soap opera theme, because lets be honest, that's exactly what all this stupid mess is.
Same Congeese channel! Same Congeese time!
There have been some interesting moves on this front since the end of the the shutdown. Democrats are talking like now is the time to pursue immigration reform. Obama hit on it in his Executive Scolding the morning after the shutdown, and various congressional Dems are showing signs this will be a big move in the near future.
Now, you all might logically say "How does this seems like a good idea? Just because the shutdown is over doesn't mean congress isn't still consumed by partisan gridlock." And you would be right to do so! However, the point of this move is not to actually achieve immigration reform, though it'd be nice if that happened. No, it seems like this is part of a new democratic strategy to keep pressure on congressional republicans.
Everybody saw how crappy republicans did with Latino voters in the last election, and everybody also saw the data on voting demographic trends. The sane republicans know they need more appeal with Latino voters, but they also know that Latino outreach and immigration reform is anathema to their core base.
Pursuing immigration reform at this time, then, is a way to put the republicans in a tough spot. They'll have to either speak out in favor of reform, or against it, and either way they will alienate crucial votes that will be needed in 2014 to some extent, but even more so in 2016. The Dems want to see them twist in the wind, and given the signs of an imminent republican civil war, this pressure couldn't come at a worse time for them.
The question is, will this work? Can the democrats keep up a united front? Will the republicans find a way to divert the pressure? Will Lou Dobbs explode? We probably won't know for a few months, at least, since early 2014 will have to deal with more debt ceiling nonsense, but it's possible the democrats might try to score some points on immigration during those negotiations. We'll just have to wait and see.
Any solution will be batshit crazy.
Some semblance of normalcy and the ability to get to the millions of dollars lost in the immigration storm would be great for the bottom line
Rubio also stated that it will be unlikely that anything happens in the future because Obama was just so darned unwilling to negotiate in good faith during the shutdown.
Then he excused himself to grab a quick drink.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Problem with this is, if they go left (center?) and come out pro-reform on immigration, they'll probably just get primaried by whacko tea partiers. So depending on how red their district really is, forcing the issue could result in the teahadis picking up even more goddamn seats.
Not without money they won't. Without the monetary backing they may pick up the primary but will die in the general. Now is probably the perfect time to push on immigration reform for the D's because the opposition to it is from the populace portion of the R base, not the business end. The business end is generally pretty fine with immigration. Creating another substantive rift between the two interests is a fine idea.
Like I said, it depends on how red the districts are. If it's one of the myriad gerrymandered uberconservative districts it's not going to matter if the Teaper campaign is financed by wet farts; the base would sooner burn their own houses down with their families inside before voting D.
Gerrymandering makes districts mostly one side or the other. If you have a district that can't be swayed and is uber anything then it was either gerrymandered by the other side or you fucked up your gerrymandering.
Also you're ignoring that vicious primary fights, and it will be bad if this becomes a thing nationwide, don't end at the primary box. I've watched it continually happen in NY-23. Because we had a Tea Party challenger in the primary who either ran in the general or ran and dropped out late we have a D congressman in a seat that was R for something like four decades. Teapers are true believers and won't play nice for party unity. The more we help this fight occur the more traditional R's realize that and also ditch the party unity thing.
That's quite possible, but the Dems might be playing a longer game here. If more hard right Tea Party nutjobs get into power, it might actually be more damaging for them. Teapers winning primaries in more moderate districts may alienate their ostensibly moderate constituents, and an across the board increase in Teapers might mean they get more of a limelight in which to showcase just how crazy they are to the American voter. This might lead to a nationwide shift where people finally overload on and get sick of the Tea Party movement.
More importantly, it could result in fractured districts where the republican infighting could give a democratic challenger an edge.
This is, obviously, a rather big risk.
It won't last though. As much as I'd love to see this get blown into a full blown schism and transform the US (at least temporarily) into a 3 party system the teapers aren't wide spread enough to really challenge the financial backing of the "moderate" republicans. Odds are they'll be loud and irritable until at least the next election but they'll cave or be primaried into oblivion if they try to represent anything more then token resistance to the GOP.
I felt the same way.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I mean poor rubio, way to hurt his feelings right?
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
But... your name... is Dark_Side....
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
1) The loser just submits the paperwork to run in the general against the primary victor and the other party's candidate. DevoutlyApathetic gave a pretty good example here.
2) The loser finds a way to be a thorn in the side of the primary victory and their supporters rally around the other party's candidate. The VA gubernatorial race has a great example of this. Bolling refuses to endorse anyone for the race, but it doesn't stop him from sniping at Cuccinelli and providing occasional ammo for McAuliffe's to use in their ads. Some of Bolling's campaign people went and joined the McAuliffe campaign.
Of course, just about every primary fight between a teapublican and an establishment republican. Means that the victor will end up in worse shape for the general, then they would have otherwise. The teapublican now has more of their fuck awful views out in the open, allowing for a competent campaign to bring them to people's attention. The establishment republican ends up having to take more far-right and toxic views on issues and then gets stuck in the position of "damned if you do and damned if you don't." The establishment republican either risks looking inauthentic to people that pay attention, if they decide they most shed the toxic views they picked up in the primary or they risk alienating moderates if they keep those views.
Anyways, I think people are severely underestimating how damaging the tea party is going to be to the republican party in the party's civil war. The tea party is now established and entrenched. They have formed networks and been put in touch with the wealthy, that are quite willing to fund them. I strongly suspect that Foxnews will still support the crazy fuckers because that's their viewership. It'll be nice if most of the business community follows suit and starts not funding these guys in favor of more rational candidates, but the crazy will still show up and vote for their tea party guy. Look it how the 2012 GOP primary went, Romney only won because the crazies couldn't sustain someone more to their liking throughout the whole race. Plus, Congressional and Senatorial primaries don't have the built in safeguards that the Presidential primaries have, there is only one race and it doesn't get much attention. So the crazy candidate just has to sustain their campaign long enough to win the primary, in a scenario where most of the voters are batshit crazy.
I mean.. I guess star wars is kind of a soap opera right, all with brothers kissing sisters, evil father figures, and glorious plot twists...
Anyway,
Rubio is going to have to buck up and take a side, he can't keep trying to play the middle here, both sides are going to eat him alive.
I imagine that the budget talks could also divide the party. Still waiting on responses from my Senators to the last letters they sent (I figure I'll get form letters). If I don't see anything next week, I'll probably sent out new ones urging them not to touch the social safety net. Look into areas where they can raise additional revenue (new taxes on the wealthy, closing bullshit loopholes). Look at how best to deal with fraud that is costing the US money. Look at ways to make sensible cost saving decisions, in areas where we spend too much money for too little return (coughGovernmentContractingcough).
At least we know he'll never be parched doing it.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Well, Star Wars is generally referred to as Space Opera.
This needs to be in the OP.
Every OP. Of every thread.
I fear you will be disappointed. The Speaker won't bring any bill to the floor, so the only time it will ever become an issue is for a week or two of headlines when the President speaks about it and then it will fade to nothing without much more than some slightly unkind words on Sunday shows.
And then Boehner will be on TV saying, "The President's talking a big game about immigration; where's his plan?"
"Immigration isn't some damn game!"
Yes it is. It's called "Red Rover"
Oh my g.... my childhood.... you just ruined it.... POLITICS!!!!!!!!
I'm almost convinced he was secretly replaced by a robot back in the early 90's, but he was never supposed to be in service this long so his programming is malfunctioning. Also would explain why his skin keeps turning that awful color. But it actually looks like Boner is going to survive the shutdown debacle with his speakership intact, so I suppose wonders never cease.
Anyway one good thing about pushing immigration reform right now, beyond a weakened GOP not at all prepared to fight it, is that it will take everyone's focus off of the spending bullshittery of late and hopefully we can actually pass a god damn budget.
It's safe to say that anything the House can draft will not make it through the Senate because anything the House GOP is willing to back will be fucking awful. Boner doesn't have the spine to keep the shit caucus in line and he is too much of a coward to go to Pelosi before the 11th hour.
How dare he not allow the gutting of his metaphorical child!
Edit: What are the odds that this is someone who can be linked to Cruz?
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Because I'm sure she is an expert on website design and deployment.
There also seems to be a "She has time to go on The Daily Show, why can't she appear before congress!" theme.
I'd link an article, but the only ones I could find so far are places I don't want to give traffic.