The American Politics thread

[Top_Cat]

Ah ****, I haven't done that in years. Remember having to do it when trying to view sites which were fine in IE but **** in Firefox in FF's early days.

Works. Sucks that you have to do it, though.

[silentstriker]

Hahahaha: News - philly.com

19000 for Obama to 0 for Romney. That's my city for ya.

Where I lived, its not quite that lopsided but growing up, I seriously don't think I met a single person who admitted to being a Republican. In general, for all practical purposes, the candidates are elected during the democratic primary.

[Top_Cat]

Mitt Romney: A good man. The right fight. - The Washington Post

Hilarious article from Romney's chief strategist. Loved this bit most of all.

There was a time not so long ago when the problems of the Democratic Party revolved around being too liberal and too dependent on minorities. Obama turned those problems into advantages and rode that strategy to victory. But he was a charismatic African American president with a billion dollars, no primary and media that often felt morally conflicted about being critical. How easy is that to replicate?

Of course. Joan Walsh sums it up better than I could, tbh.

Earth to Stuart? Those “minorities” are about to be the majority.

Essentially Stevens advises Republicans to stick to their elitist, plutocratic guns, because the Democrats won’t have a charismatic black guy fronting for them in 2016. Go ahead, GOP, listen to him. Please.

[silentstriker]

Boehner's fiscal cliff offer under friendly fire from right - NBC Politics
Boehner removes conservatives from committees | Times 247

Thus begins the circular firing squad.

[Spikey]

Disability community shocked and hurt by last-minute GOP treaty reversal | The Cable

this is pretty awful. like, if everyone had opposed it ok, but to **** them at the last minute...

[Spikey]

actually any opposition to treaty probably isn't ok

[vic_orthdox]

That a man called "Coats" rocked up to the Bob Dole function and then voted in the opposite manner is just beautiful.

From two perspectives, I guess.

[silentstriker]

McConnell

Having to filibuster your own bill: glorious.

[Spikey]

Supreme Court To Hear Cases Determining Whether Human Beings Deserve Equal Rights





Supreme Court Will Take Up Two Cases on Gay Marriage

[silentstriker]

I think prop 9 won't be overturned. But it'll be close re: DOMA since it'd be a narrow ruling.

[Fusion]

Supreme Court To Hear Cases Determining Whether Human Beings Deserve Equal Rights





Supreme Court Will Take Up Two Cases on Gay Marriage

This is why Bush winning re-election in 2004 is such a monumental tragedy for progressives. Instead of a solid 6-4 liberal majority, the progressives are down 5-4 thanks to the John Roberts and Samuel Alito appointments. The only hope is the so called "swing vote" in Anthony Stevens. The problem is that he's not really a moderate in the mold of Sandra Day O'Conner. He has only occasionally sided with the liberal wing (hell he led the opposition to Obamacare).

Maybe the libertarian instincts in Scalia/Thomas/Alito will kick in. All the progressives need is for one of them to vote with the liberal wing and the gay rights movement can take a giant leap forward.

[silentstriker]

And I think Ginsburg and Breyer are the ones likely to retire in the next couple years so I don't think Obama will get the chance to reshape the court much.

[Fusion]

Yup. The two oldest conservative justices are Scalia and Kennedy (both 76). They sure won't retire during the Obama term and they seemingly are in good health and can be reasonably expected to serve the next 4 years. Obama will not get a chance to swing the court's ideology back towards the progressives.

[Spark]

This is why Bush winning re-election in 2004 is such a monumental tragedy for progressives. Instead of a solid 6-4 liberal majority, the progressives are down 5-4 thanks to the John Roberts and Samuel Alito appointments. The only hope is the so called "swing vote" in Anthony Stevens. The problem is that he's not really a moderate in the mold of Sandra Day O'Conner. He has only occasionally sided with the liberal wing (hell he led the opposition to Obamacare).

Maybe the libertarian instincts in Scalia/Thomas/Alito will kick in. All the progressives need is for one of them to vote with the liberal wing and the gay rights movement can take a giant leap forward.

To me this is more evidence that America's judicial system has deep structural flaws, but OK

[Spikey]

To me this is more evidence that America's judicial system has deep structural flaws, but OK

hahaha yeah