Not for long....
"Immigration, nominations top agenda for Congress; Parties will test cooperation as disputes loom" by Donna Cassata | Associated Press, July 08, 2013
WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats will put good will to the test when Congress returns this week to potentially incendiary fights over nominations, unresolved disputes over student loans and the farm bill, and uncertainty of whether lawmakers have the political will to rewrite immigration laws.
Related: Caret's Report Card
You see the grade I gave Congress?
House approves farm bill that is stripped of food stamp program
The corporate subsidies are going through though.
Eating Anger For Lunch
Getting to be about that time.
UPDATED: House Close to Comprehensive Immigration Reform
The cooperation evident in the Senate last month with passage of a bipartisan immigration bill could be wiped out immediately if majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, frustrated with GOP delaying tactics on judges and nominations, tries to change the Senate rules by scrapping the current three-fifths majority for a simple majority.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has indicated it’s a decision Reid could regret if the GOP seizes the Senate next year.
‘‘Once the Senate definitively breaks the rules to change the rules, the pressure to respond in kind will be irresistible to future majorities,’’ McConnell said last month, looking ahead to 2014 when Democrats have to defend 21 seats to the GOP’s 14.
Yeah, and with about 4x as many Democrats retiring, that chamber goes Republican next time out. It's the Clinton years all over again!
McConnell envisioned a long list of reversals from the Democratic agenda, from repealing President Obama’s health care law to shipping radioactive nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Reid’s home state of Nevada.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Globe Leaks Galore
Recently elected Democrats have clamored for changes in Senate rules as Obama has faced Republican resistance to his nominations.
Two Cabinet-rank choices — Tom Perez as labor secretary and Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency — could be approved by the Senate this month after a loud debate over administration policies....
This is all fart mist, folks. Political gas to obscure what is really going on.
In the Republican-controlled House, courteous behavior, even within the GOP ranks, has barely been perceptible with the ignominious failure of the farm bill.
Well, parts of it didn't fail.
Some collaboration will be necessary if the House is to move ahead on immigration legislation this month.
Comprehensive bill being written as we speak.
Conservatives from safe, gerrymandered House districts have rebuffed appeals from some national Republicans who argue that embracing immigration overhaul will boost the party’s political standing with an increasingly diverse electorate, especially in the 2016 presidential election. Conservatives strongly oppose any legislation offering legalization to immigrants living here illegally.
I'm sick of political calculations going into every damn decision, and what about "illegal" isn't making sense to you?
Reflecting the will of the rank and file, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and other Republicans have said the comprehensive Senate immigration bill that couples the promise of citizenship for those living here unlawfully with increased border security is a nonstarter in the House.
What about the insourcing wok visas meant to put Americans out of work?
Republicans were assessing the views of their constituents during the weeklong July Fourth break and planned to discuss their next steps at a private meeting Wednesday....
The House Judiciary Committee has adopted a piecemeal approach, approving a series of bills, none with a path to citizenship that Obama and Democrats are seeking. Democrats hope the single-issue bills get them to a conference with the Senate, where the prospects for a far-reaching overhaul improve.
That is where this is headed.
A more pressing concern for some lawmakers was the fate of the five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill. In a surprise last month, the House rejected the bill as 62 Republicans voted no after Boehner had urged support.
House conservatives wanted cuts deeper than $2 billion annually, or about 3 percent, in the almost $80 billion-a-year food stamp program, while Democrats were furious with a last-minute amendment that would have added additional work requirements to food stamps.
Reid has made it clear that an extension of the current farm law, passed in 2008, is unlikely....
That leaves Boehner to figure out the next step before the current policy expires Sept. 30.
Congress also must figure out what to do about interest rates on college student loans, which doubled from 3.4 percent on July 1 because of partisan wrangling in the Senate.
They aren't partisan when it comes to Israel, Wall Street, the wars, corporate welfare, or their taxpayer-funded political perks.
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And about those nominations:
"Senate confirms Obama nominee for court; Appeals court pick had GOP backing" by Henry C. Jackson | Associated Press, July 09, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday confirmed Wyoming’s attorney general, Gregory Alan Phillips, for a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, taking a small step toward breaking the logjam over judicial appointments....
The Senate voted unanimously — 88 to 0 — to confirm Phillips.
That's more like a vote for something Israel wants.
Phillips is a Democrat but had the strong backing of Wyoming’s two Republican senators. He has served as Wyoming’s attorney general since 2011....
In the Republican-controlled House, some collaboration will be necessary if the chamber wants to move ahead on immigration legislation this month. Some national Republicans argue that embracing immigration overhaul will boost the party’s political standing in the 2016 presidential election.
In a surprise last month, the House rejected the five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill. House conservatives wanted cuts deeper than $2 billion annually in the almost $80 billion-a-year food stamp program while Democrats were furious with a last-minute amendment that would have added additional work requirements to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Congress also must figure out what to do about interest rates on college student loans, which doubled from 3.4 percent last Monday because of partisan wrangling in the Senate. Lawmakers promised to restore lower rates when they return this week, retroactively and before students start signing loan documents later this summer.
Ever notice when it comes to the THINGS American taxpayers NEED there is always parti$an gridlock?
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More bipartisanship:
"FBI nominee defends US intelligence gathering; Would advocate transparency as director, he says" by Sari Horwitz | Washington Post, July 10, 2013
James Comey, President Obama’s nominee to be director of the FBI, defended the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs as a critical tool for counterterrorism but said he would be open to more transparency about the secret court that oversees the government’ s collection operations....
That's a bipartisan program! They both seem to always agree on the tyranny.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Obama's New FBI Guy
Oh, worked for a hedge fund, did he?
Comey, who appeared relaxed and well-versed in law enforcement issues, answered a wide range of questions about civilian drones, the Boston Marathon bombings, legal issues, and his role in writing legal opinions that sanctioned interrogation techniques used during the George W. Bush administration that have been condemned as torture.
(Blog editor's chin slumps to chest)
Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, asked Comey whether he would support releasing declassified summaries of opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court so that the public can better understand the workings of the secret court that oversees domestic surveillance programs.
Comey replied he thought that was largely a question for the director of national intelligence....
Passed the buck to the liar Clapper.
‘‘Transparency is a key value, especially when it helps the American people understand what the government is doing to try to keep them safe,’’ Comey said....
Then why is this government so secretive, and why is everything Congress is doing lately behind closed doors?
The nomination of Comey, who was the deputy attorney general in the Bush administration, has received strong bipartisan support, and his confirmation is all but assured.
Just wondering if you are tired of the fooleys?
But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, pressed Comey on his role in approving some Bush-era “enhanced interrogation” techniques, such as waterboarding.
‘‘Do you agree that waterboarding is torture and is illegal?’’ Leahy asked.
‘‘Yes,’’ Comey replied, ‘‘I said this is torture; it’s still what I think. If I were FBI director, we would never have anything to do with that.”
Comey said he tried to stop the techniques, but that the law was ‘‘very vague.’’
‘‘I objected to it and took that directly to the attorney general and made my case that [it] was wrong. He disagreed with me and overruled me.’’
If confirmed, Comey would replace Robert Mueller, who is retiring in September after 12 years and who led the FBI through the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the transformation of the Bureau in the years afterward.
In his opening statement, Comey said that when he was first approached about the job this year, his wife, Patrice, gave him two reasons to say yes.
‘‘She said, ‘This is who you are. You’ve always been happiest when you’re in government service. This is what you love.’ And second, ‘They’re not going to pick you, anyway.’’’
But on June 21, Obama nominated Comey to head the Bureau, saying the former prosecutor and senior Justice Department official has ‘‘law enforcement in his blood.’’ Obama praised his independence, integrity, and dedication.
With his wife and five children seated behind him, Comey acknowledged how tough the FBI director job is and said mistakes are inevitable....
Translation: he won't step in the way of the next false flag operation.
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"A Senate divided, even concerning its own rules; Nominees’ plight prompts review" by Philip Elliott | Associated Press, July 15, 2013
WASHINGTON — Proposed changes to Senate rules would either ease the way for President Obama to assemble his second-term team or permanently threaten the body’s deliberative style, the chamber’s top Democratic and Republican lawmakers said Sunday.
Democratic leader Harry Reid and Republican leader Mitch McConnell once again strongly disagreed during separate television segments on the eve of a rare closed-door summit that could reduce the Senate’s reputation as deliberative to the point of inaction.
Reid and McConnell — along with their rank-and-file members — have been trading barbs over just what the proposed changes would be, both for Obama’s current slate of nominees who are awaiting confirmation and for future senators who prize their ability to delay action.
Democrats, who are the majority in the Senate, are pushing to erode the rights of minority Republicans to block confirmation of Obama’s picks for posts on a labor rights board and a consumer protection bureau.
Be careful what you wish for, lest you soon find yourselves in the minority.
Republicans previously stalled confirmation votes for Obama’s pick for labor secretary and chiefs of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Export-Import Bank, but last week GOP lawmakers stepped aside and said they would allow those nominees to move forward.
In other words, these articles I am analyzing about filibuster reform is just a lot of fart mist!
Reid said the changes were not about the appointment of judges or passing legislation. ‘‘This is allowing the people of America to have a president who can have his team,’’ he said.
McConnell called Democrats’ proposed changes contrary to Senate tradition, which typically requires 60 votes to end debate and move forward on nominations or legislation.
‘‘I hope that we’ll come to our senses and not change the core of the Senate. We’ve never changed the rules of the Senate by breaking the rules of the Senate,’’ McConnell said.
The Constitution says you make your own rules, Mitch. Maybe you ought to give the thing a read.
Reid and McConnell spoke during separate interviews Sunday on NBC’s ‘‘Meet the Press.’’
I'm so glad I no longer watch those programs.
All 100 senators — but not reporters or the public — have been invited to a meeting Monday evening to seek a compromise that a handful of lawmakers are now exploring....
You expected something else from our "democracy?"
In particular, Republicans have objected to a pair of union-backed members, Richard Griffin and Sharon Block, on the National Labor Relations Board, who were appointed by Obama when he said the Senate was in recess. An appeals court has ruled that Obama exceeded his authority, and the board’s actions are in legal limbo.
See: Supreme Court Takes a Recess
Republicans also have objected to Obama’s pick to lead the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, which was created as part of Wall Street overhaul legislation and which the GOP opposed. Obama nominated former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray more than two years ago.
‘‘I think a president should have the right to put their team out there,’’ said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota. ‘‘Why we can’t just do 51 votes is beyond me.’’
The depth of the discord between Reid and McConnell was apparent on Thursday, when the two leaders had several sharp exchanges on the Senate floor....
Under the current Senate rules, Republicans at least have the power to delay action through filibusters, which is partly why they strongly oppose the Democrats’ plan to change the rules. In the House, where the Republicans rule, the Democrats are largely powerless to do anything but protest.
It looks to me like Democrats are pretty powerless anyway.
Before his reelection, Obama liked to tell supporters that a second term would ‘‘break the fever’’ with Republicans, arguing that they no longer would need to routinely block his agenda because he wouldn’t be seeking election again. By last month, that optimism was gone.
Yup, Democrats MISCALCULATE AGAIN!
‘‘When it comes to doing the things that need to get done, we’re just not getting a lot of cooperation from the other side,’’ Obama told donors at a June fund-raiser in Palo Alto, Calif.
The White House has already had two major legislative letdowns earlier this year — a gun control measure that Republicans blocked in the Senate and the failure to avoid automatic spending cuts that further trimmed the budget.
Dems fuck up again, or on purpose scenario so they can play the political blame game when responding to complaints from their constituents??
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"Senator Harry Reid pushes to limit filibuster; Senators meet to discuss rules shift" by Paul Kane and Ed O’Keefe | Washington Post, July 16, 2013
My printed paper carried a NYT pos, but whatever(?).
WASHINGTON — The Senate inched closer to an eleventh-hour deal late Monday night in a bid to avert an unprecedented maneuver to change the chamber’s rules governing presidential appointees, with nearly all 100 senators spending more than three hours huddled in a rare bipartisan, closed-door caucus.
That's all it is? It's just about blocking executive nominations?
And what is this DEMOCRACY(?) BEHIND CLOSED DOORS we are seeing ALL OVER THE PLACE here in AmeriKa?
Rank-and-file senators came out of the meeting reporting progress on the confirmation prospects of President Obama’s selections to head low-profile but influential agencies. Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, echoed that sentiment but said no resolution had been reached, leaving in place a critical 10 a.m. Tuesday vote that would set up the historic clash over changing the Senate rules on a raw party-line vote so that Cabinet- and agency-level nominees could be confirmed without having to overcome a filibuster.
Republicans have threatened to retaliate on a host of other legislative matters, creating the possibility that the already toxic tensions in the chamber would hit new heights because of the move that some call ‘‘the nuclear option.’’
Invoking the spirit of early-19th-century deals that delayed the onset of the Civil War, senators met in the Old Senate Chamber, which until 1859 served as the meeting room for such key pacts as the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
‘‘There’s no deal but there’s a much better understanding,’’ said Senator Jay Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, one of his party’s most senior senators. Rockefeller said there was a framework for a possible deal before the showdown votes on Obama’s current picks to run the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Some exited more grim, including Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, who spent the previous week in shuttle diplomacy with Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, and the White House.
Asked whether Reid had come around, McCain said simply: ‘‘Yes, sort of.’’ He said the talks were now firmly between Reid and McConnell, predicting a long night ahead.
I've got a long day of going through unread Globes ahead.
McConnell did not speak after the meeting, issuing a statement declaring ‘‘a clear bipartisan majority’’ supported finding a solution.
Only two of the 100 senators missed the marathon meeting, because of personal commitments, and roughly three dozen senators spoke during the closed-door session. ‘‘I think everybody in there came away with a better appreciation for how the other side feels,’’ Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, a freshman who sat alongside two Democrats, said afterward.
At the outset, Reid remained defiant Monday, saying that Republicans can avoid a showdown by backing off threats to block seven nominees slated for consideration.
‘‘I love the Senate, but right now the Senate is broken and needs to be fixed. It’s time for course correction,’’ Reid said at the Center for American Progress, a think tank closely aligned with the Obama administration and Democrats.
Don't worry; in 2014 the chamber will be turned over to Republicans.
White House officials said the president had played a behind-the-scenes role in the messy procedural fight, adding that Obama supported Reid in whatever decision he made. At Reid’s urging, Obama has made calls to wavering senators asking them to back Reid if he makes the move.
Wow, he really cares about this issue!
The dispute centers on Republican treatment of Obama’s nominees, particularly selections for the NLRB, the new finanical bureau, and a couple of Cabinet posts. Republicans, holding 45 seats and enough to filibuster any nominee, have been refusing to confirm the selections for the NLRB and the bureau because they were given interim appointments by Obama that have since been ruled unconstitutional by federal appellate courts. The case is heading for a Supreme Court ruling likely next year.
They just went into recess.
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Also see: Senate filibusters rarely follow Hollywood script
How can you tell the difference considering everything we see and read is staged and scripted bulls*** or framed feces?
The issue upon which the next election will be decided:
"Abortion battles loom in upcoming elections" by Bill Barrow | Associated Press, July 15, 2013
ATLANTA — With no immediate hope of overturning the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing abortion, Republicans around the country are increasingly pushing legislation to restrict the procedure, and Democrats say they’ll make the GOP pay in coming elections....
Of course, when gay rights activists take it to the states it is a good thing.
God, I'm so sick of the divisive, agenda-pushing wedge issues being pushed at us with the false left-right paradigm constantly being presented by the AmeriKan media.
Some Republicans say more moderate voters will support their agenda in the wake of the murder conviction against Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor who jurors determined killed babies who had survived the procedure.
See: Globe Offers Excuses For Gosnell
But Democrats and abortion-rights advocates say Republicans have overreached....
‘‘Defense workers are being furloughed, student loan interest rates have doubled, and these Republicans insist on a relentless pursuit of more restrictions on women’s freedoms,’’ said Representative Steve Israel, chair of the Democrats’ national congressional campaign for 2014. ‘‘Swing voters are by their very nature moderate; they want solutions, not ideological warfare.’’
**********************
North Carolina’s newfound legislative supermajority wants to regulate clinics more heavily....
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Carving Up North Carolina
Also see: The Birth of the Perry Presidency
Abort! Abort!
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