All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had a profile of Ben Quayle, the son of former Vice-President Dan Quayle who managed to be elected to a single term in Congress in Arizona's 6th District who in campaign ads but a year into the Obama presidency, declared him the worst president in our history and that he'd go to Washington D.C. and "knock the hell out of the place". Quayle was elected in spite of working as a writer at the website "The Dirty" where he'd make sexist remarks to caption photos of women at Scottsdale nightclubs, and while in office, accomplished little except embarrassing our country as part of a delegation that went to Israel, got wasted in a bar on the taxpayers' dime, and then went skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee. Quayle's Congressional career came to a crashing halt after redistricting left him facing off against fellow Republican David Schweikert in one of the ugliest primaries in politics, and he has not resurfaced in a run for office yet, apparently choosing the life of a lobbyist instead.


In 2015, 2016, and 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled of the U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 2nd Congressional District, Ted Poe, who when he served as a Texas judge, and made the controversial decision (which was thankfully appealed by prosecutors and overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals) to permit the PBS documentary show Frontline to record a jury deliberating a capital murder case thinking that it wouldn't somehow skew the outcome. Ted Poe is also a Birther conspiracy theorist, who on the floor of the House, once quoted Nathan Bedford Forrest by saying, “Get there firstest with the mostest”, then acting surprised when people were offended that he cited the wisdom of the founder of the KKK. Poe also once tried forcing all VA funerals to be Christian by default, and when the maneuver was shut down, tried accusing the Obama administration of having changed the funerals away from Christians (as if he were a secret Muslim, or something). His voting record includes supporting a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, voting against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and Violence Against Women Act, opposing Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, and voting for the 2013 Government Shutdown then voting not to reopen the government. Perhaps his greatest hypocrisy was to vote against disaster relief funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy, and then to whine and complain when additional disaster relief funding was not send to West, Texas, when a fertilizer factory caught fire and exploded (when some had already been sent, and that's sort of not an act of nature, but malfeasance). Ted Poe also made a statement about Syrian refugees, saying that the Obama Administration “won’t take care of our veterans,” but will “open the doors to people we don’t even know.” adding that President Obama was only allowing Syrian refugees to be brought into the United States because "It’s a political maneuver on the part of the president just to get more people in the U.S. so they’ll support the Democratic Party, I think it’s a long-term goal." He also had some ideas about African American outreach efforts being made by Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying that her plan to win over African American voters was “to keep people more on government dependence because then she assumes she’ll get their vote.” Ah, the myth that all African Americans are dying to live free off of welfare. Classic racist dog whistle, I'm sure that will play wonderfully down in Poe's part of Texas.

Ted Poe won re-election in 2016 with 60% of the vote, and in January of 2017, he announced that the leukemia he was battling through the 2016 campaign was in remission, leaving him able to try and strip the medical insurance of millions of Americans so they couldn't do the same. Ted Poe did fight hard for more resources to be pulled into hurricane relief for his own district, but this is only four years after he voted against disaster relief for victims of Superstorm Sandy. Of course, the biggest news about him recently was that he quit the House Freedom Caucus back in May of 2017, and then announced he was retiring from Congress only five months later in November of 2017. We wish him the finest of CSGOPOTD “good riddance” salutes.

[Gray Lensman]

I wanted to thank her, so I made a campaign contribution. I know she might vote for another Gorsuch, if one was nominated, but Kavanaugh crosses all lines.

That's my biggest problem with Kavanaugh. He is going to be a Republican justice, and neither Republicans nor Democrats belong on the Supreme Court. Conservatives and Liberals? Yes, but not people who identify with the party more than the philosophy behind it.

[PaulBullion]

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, a lifelong Republican, told a small crowd in Boca Raton that Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s performance at confirmation hearings should disqualify him. “The Senators should pay attention to this.”

https://twitter.com/luluramadan/stat...16196568453123

[Tami]

A man can cry over important things like the death of a family member, but when a group of white male republicans get all temper tantrum weepy over Kavanaugh, it's just pathetic.

[Jack Dracula]

Hey, a new jackass quote from Graham!

I like Graham's thinking. Maybe we could tie a large rock around his neck beforehand.

[zinderel]

Good grief....the security the GOP placed on this FBI report is ridiculous.

• Only one copy will be available to read, instead of every senator getting a copy to read
• They have one hour shifts to read it in a secure room

I can understand a level of confidentiality must be exercised but it's not like this is a grand jury or something. It's pretty hypocritical for either side to get preachy about leaks to the press because it's been done on both sides over the decades.

It's because they don't want any more damning evidence - and the absence of proper investigation - made public. Which means they know there is more, and are doing damage control. Which means, shock of shocks, that REPUBLICANS are unethical garbage fires.

[Tami]

Good grief....the security the GOP placed on this FBI report is ridiculous.

• Only one copy will be available to read, instead of every senator getting a copy to read
• They have one hour shifts to read it in a secure room

I can understand a level of confidentiality must be exercised but it's not like this is a grand jury or something. It's pretty hypocritical for either side to get preachy about leaks to the press because it's been done on both sides over the decades.

It's the same security they placed over Kavaugh's documents that they are hiding.

[worstblogever]

I'm actually hoping one of the Democrats says, "F*** it", and takes cell phone photos of the documents and makes them public. Corey Booker already released info that Senate Republicans wanted to not make public, at risk of being expelled. The Republicans still don't have 67 votes to punish anyone who would do that in such a manner.

[Iron Maiden]

Sen Orrin Hatch almost gets Flaked in an elevator by a group of protesters and he waves the off and tells them to "Grow up". Looks like security has been told to prevent another incident

And a more damning development, retired Supreme Court Justice Stevens says Kavanaugh should not be on the Supreme Court. Rare for a Justice of the court to speak out like that about the process.

coke to Paul Bullion for linking this story a few post up

[JCAll]

I'm actually hoping one of the Democrats says, "F*** it", and takes cell phone photos of the documents and makes them public. Corey Booker already released info that Senate Republicans wanted to not make public, at risk of being expelled. The Republicans still don't have 67 votes to punish anyone who would do that in such a manner.

It's just a blank sheet of paper with the whatever-emoticon on it.

[Hyperzoanoid]

(Apologies if all these points have been previously addressed here. This thread moves quite rapidly and I'm only here once a day - I'm just getting this off my chest).

How awful the appointment of Kavanaugh might be... (according to emails from a conservative PAC who somehow found one of my e-mail addresses, he will apparently not only be instrumental in overthrowing Roe v Wade, it will be just the start of creating something akin to a hardline conservative's wet dream as many other conservatives like him will be put into power)

I'm mostly disappointed in what got us here. That Republicans sink to new lows in order to get what they want if they can't get it in normal fashion has been a constant in my lifetime, that's nothing new. That many (mostly white) voters are fickle in regards to overall progression of the US society and can be swayed be Republicans if they just hear the right buzzwords, same thing. People often don't learn from history, privilege is a hell of a drug, one issue voters that don't care about anything else, etc. We're all familiar with this.

Thing is, we're supposed to move beyond this. We grew from cavemen that clubbed our fellow man to death if we didn't like them to a democracy guided by a set of laws that are intended to make things as possible. But laws can change, and as with the nomination for the Supreme Court, even for the worse.

Like Brexit, it's just one of many instances where it's proven that a threshold of >50% is a recipe for disaster that at an inevitable point will cause for a grand political divide. After such a situation partisanship and distrust will only build up, with a greater risk for important deadlocks or at the very least annoying obstructions that block important decisions. More importantly, it makes it easier for possible ugly conservative regulations and the people that enabled them to slide back in - when in many cases years have been spent to get rid of them.

Especially in these times when Populism is on the rise it is simply too dangerous to give conservatives that opening. We can't allow the prejudice/hate and economic egotism of yesteryear to come back again. This seems hyperbolic, but many in this thread have noted the things that the GOP has already gotten away with because enough people didn't care or actively supported it based on misinformation.

So, for the love of God, raise that threshold. We will have to rely on the Dems to do it, because there's no way the Republicans will be able get people like Kavanaugh through again if that happens. With people that can actually have an objective view on things, there's a bigger chance that the ugliest parts of history will not resurface. Ok, the SC is not perfect (what happened to the VRA was terrible) - but that only proves we have to minimize the risk of things like that happening ever again.

The first hurdle will be the midterms of course, and then 2020. If successful, I hope that the Dems realize that they need to fix this ASAP.

[Carabas]

So, for the love of God, raise that threshold. We will have to rely on the Dems to do it, because there's no way the Republicans will be able get people like Kavanaugh through again if that happens...

If Democrats get into power again, and they raise the threshold back up, they won't be able to do anything relevant. And once they're out of power (which will be two years later because they just made themselves impotent), the Republicans will just lower it again on their first day back in power.

[numberthirty]

If Democrats get into power again, and they raise the threshold back up, they won't be able to do anything relevant. And once they're out of power (which will be two years later because they just made themselves impotent), the Republicans will just lower it again on their first day back in power.

Never mind that changing the number needed would be a non-issue in any year/term where the makeup of the court would not change.

If you need to make a change? Just do so in the manner that you pointed out.

[InformationGeek]

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) loses patience with protesters in basement of Dirksen: “Would you please leave me alone!”

What? Not a fan of unwanted advances or something?

[numberthirty]

Confirmation vote is probably less than a week out. Factoring that in, Kamala Harris needs to pick up the tempo if there is actually anything to this...