Thursday, January 24, 2013

Harry Reid's Filibuster Fail

Over the last four years, Nevada Senator Harry Reid (Senate Majority Leader) mentioned numerous times that senate filibuster rules needed to be changed.

He said in an interview with Rachelle Maddow on October 27, 2010: "This has to change. It's wrong what they (senate republicans) are doing. The republicans have abused the system and it's going to have to change. There should not be a sixty vote requirement in the senate."

He said on the senate floor May 10, 2012: "if there ever were a time, that Senator's Merkley & Udall were right, that the senate should change the filibuster rules."

On December 4, 2012 Reid said: "We have to change the rules. We can not continue in this way. So I hope we can get something the republicans will work with us on, but it won't be a hand shake deal."

Right after the November elections on November 7, 2012, Reid, at a press conference said: Reporter question: Do you plan to make changes to the filibuster rules? "Yes I do. I've said so publicly & I continue to think that way, the republicans have abused the rule"

So what happens? Harry Reid does a 180 degree turn on filibuster reform in a matter of a few months.

So Reid was all over the media saying that filibuster reform was a HIGH priority.

But today, Reid & McConnell reached a "deal" on filibuster reform that is basically a handshake agreement (the handshake that Reid said was not going to happen in earlier comments)  and now the country faces two more years of republican abuse of the filibuster because for whatever reason Harry Reid caved on his filibuster stance.

This "handshake" just asks that senators politely ask if they are going to filibuster any bills coming for a vote!!!

For whatever reason, Reid backed away from meaningful filibuster reform and took a handshake deal where Reid hopes the republicans won't return to business as usual, and filibuster everything President Obama and the democrats in the senate try to get done.

Maybe Reid has something on McConnell & the republicans where he thinks they will play nice in the next two years, but if the last four years is the new republican strategy, then expect more gridlock in the senate.

Big opportunity missed today on filibuster reform, and lot's of progressives, democrats and liberals are scratching their heads and saying "WHAT THE F*#K:?!?!?!

Friday, January 18, 2013

Friday thoughts

Not major pontification in this post, just some thoughts and facts to pass along!
                                                                                                                                                                   
Do the republicans have an image problem? According to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll (Jan 12-15) it seems that they do.

Opinion of..........
GOP  - 26% Positive 49% Negative
Dems - 44% Positive 38% Negative
Obama - 52% Positive 37% Negative

One might think, that after the election results, the GOP might get a clue........but it appears the GOP leadership is too dense to grasp reality & they continue on their path of idiocy.
                                                                                                                                                                    

Now that the "Fiscal Cliff" issue has been put to rest (until next time!) the attention turns to the "Debt Ceiling" - With the way the GOP is going, bumbling their way along, I honestly think there's a segment of the republican party that would willingly tank the US & world economy, just to make a point.

Aren't the republicans the party of big business? How can business work and plan ahead when the GOP might stab the economy in the back & take corporate investments down with them?!?!
                                                                                                                                                                     

The GOP majority & led House of Representatives worked a whopping 109 days in 2012! Nice work Mr. Cantor & Mr. Boehner!!
                                                                                                                                                                   

Corporate leaders say Obama policies are holding them back.........not where corporate profits are concerned: 

U.S. corporations’ after-tax profits have grown by 171 percent under Obama, more than under any president since World War II, and are now at their highest level relative to the size of the economy since the government began keeping records in 1947, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Profits are more than twice as high as their peak during President Ronald Reagan’s administration and more than 50 percent greater than during the late-1990s Internet boom, measured by the size of the economy.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-17/corporate-profits-soar-as-executives-attack-obama-policy.html
                                                                                                                                                                  
     
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has morphed into an lunatic managed mouthpiece for the lunatic fringe.