January 30, 2013

Who will Hillary appoint as Secretary of Transportation?

We might as well fill out the cabinet now.

January 26, 2013

All we have to do is lose 10 senate seats in 2014

And then WE can control the Senate!

January 25, 2013

The Senate, the filibuster, and gerrymandering

One of the reasons why there is a Democratic majority in the Senate is that Senators are elected at-large from each of their states, and thus the Senate is immune to gerrymandering. That is one of the reasons why you will occasionally hear R's state they want to repeal the Constitutional Amendment which established direct election of Senators, and go back to having Senators elected by the respective state legislatures.

Should the Senate Republicans continue to obstruct to the degree they have so far, then in the absence of filibuster reform, they have to own their obstruction, and answer to their at-large state electorates. With filibuster reform, their obstruction is blunted, but so are the electoral consequences of obstructing popular legislation.

Which Senate seats are up for election in 2012?

Put another way, which R senators need to have a sign saying "obstructionist" hung around their necks as the next two years proceed?

At present, it looks like this:

Alabama Jeff Sessions Republican Running

Alaska Mark Begich Democratic Running

Arkansas Mark Pryor Democratic Running

Colorado Mark Udall Democratic Running

Delaware Chris Coons Democratic Running

Georgia Saxby Chambliss Republican Retiring

Hawaii Brian Schatz Democratic Running

Idaho Jim Risch Republican Running

Illinois Richard Durbin Democratic Undecided

Iowa Tom Harkin Democratic Undecided

Kansas Pat Roberts Republican Running

Kentucky Mitch McConnell Republican Running

Louisiana Mary Landrieu Democratic Running

Maine Susan Collins Republican Running

Massachusetts (John Kerry) Democratic

Michigan Carl Levin Democratic Undecided

Minnesota Al Franken Democratic Running

Mississippi Thad Cochran Republican Undecided

Montana Max Baucus Democratic Running

Nebraska Mike Johanns Republican Running

New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen Democratic Running

New Jersey Frank Lautenberg Democratic Undecided

New Mexico Tom Udall Democratic Running

North Carolina Kay Hagan Democratic Running

Oklahoma Jim Inhofe Republican Running

Oregon Jeff Merkley Democratic Running

Rhode Island Jack Reed Democratic Running

South Carolina Lindsey Graham Republican Running

South Carolina Tim Scott Republican Running

South Dakota Tim Johnson Democratic Undecided

Tennessee Lamar Alexander Republican Running

Texas John Cornyn Republican Running

Virginia Mark Warner Democratic Running

West Virginia Jay Rockefeller Democratic Retiring

Wyoming Mike Enzi Republican Running

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I note that McTurtle is up in 2014. Is it better, for him, to have been perceived as having continued to make deals with Harry Reid under which Republican ability to obstruct is marginally weakened, or to have something imposed upon him?

January 25, 2013

Is this the Kerry 2016 thread?

Or did someone start one already?

January 24, 2013

But you are just banning "the way it looks"

Just as a thought experiment inspired by a comment in another thread, I'd like to get a sense of what people think about form, function and psychology.

This is a 1973 Dodge Dart:



This is also a 1973 Dodge Dart:



They are the SAME car, with just some differences in styling and and a few parts. Each is capable of exceeding the speed limit or causing general carnage.

If I give you ten million teenagers, and I ask you to give 5 million of them the first car, and 5 million of them the other car, at let them drive around for a year, then at the end of that year, would you expect:

January 24, 2013

When did Mystery Date get a cell phone?

Jeez... Does it dial 911?

Who needs this game when Craigslist is free?

January 23, 2013

LaPierre frothing again - "the criminal class"

He made passing reference to "the criminal class".

I had no idea criminals constituted a "class". Bernie Madoff and my local convicted crack dealer were Facebook friends?

January 21, 2013

K-Pop Phenom Psy Held By Korean, US Authorities

Seoul - Popular Korean rapper PSY was arrested today at his home after US Army signal intelligence discovered that his trademark "Gangnam Style" dance can be used to disarm mine detonators and cross the de-militarized zone, or DMZ, which separates North and South Korea. The two Koreas are still technically at war, having never reached an agreement to end it, and an uneasy ceasefire is kept by a two mile wide zone, filled with landmines, and backed up by 38,000 US troops.

In recent years, the DMZ has seen a resurgence of wildlife due to its status as a literal "no man's land". This caused problems with the defensive minefields, as resurgent herds deer and other animals would often trigger explosions. So researchers at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland developed a seismic trigger for the mines which seismically identify vehicular and human foot traffic, to reduce Monty Pythonesque carnage in the DMZ.

Enter PSY and the Gangnam Dance

An off-duty platoon stationed at Panmunjon decided to make a YouTube parody of the Psy viral video, as has been done by many military units and service academies. A mixup in choreography led to them hopping, side stepping, and cantering about a quarter of the way into the DMZ before they realized the mistake. But it inadvertently led to discovery of what some believe is a hack.

A spokesman for the Korean Defense Ministry said, "At this point we just want to clear up whether this is just an odd coincidence," although privately some US and Korean officials have suggested analysis of the mine system and the dance show that only the specific Gangnam dance sequence is capable of crossing the DMZ. "If you think about it," said one source with knowledge of the investigation, "the only way you could communicate this technique to the media-deprived troops to the North would be to embed it in a massive worldwide media saturation phenomenon." The investigation is expected to learn from Psy just how he came up with the dance, and whether others may have suggested it to him in what may have been an open "Psy-op".

January 21, 2013

Water doesn't drown people

People who fall in water do.

Why do I have to put a fence around my pool?

January 20, 2013

Orly Taitz Leads Hugh Birther Protest Outside White House!

Update: Oh good lord... CSPAN has her as background video at about 1:04:20 and on here....

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Obama2013