All-purpose news and politics thread: One Step Beyond!

[dupersuper]

Toronto mayor Rob ford has been found guilty of conflict of interest and is being removed from office but is allowed to run again.

This Hour has 22 Minutes sure had fun with this...

[Spike-X]

This writer's kind of a dumbass.

First of all, Harry Reid's kind of a dick, but that's beside the point. Yes, he's probably proposing a bunch of draconian stuff with this, but that's just "compromise" fodder. Secondly, "we won't be able to do it when we're not in power" isn't the fucking point! Neither side should be able to hold up legislation in the manner that the Republicans have been doing. It needs to be fixed. Common decency and intelligence is what's held people back from acting like that, but I think we've shown quite clearly that these factors are no longer important to the GOP.



Yeah, Mr. Writer, you're an idiot. It's not petty, it's HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE! It's not intended for "well, we don't want this, so we're going to say no to the majority and then go eat our dinner." You want to hold up legislation for a real reason, you'd better step up and make your case. That's what it's for, not just saying "no".

So basically Republicans are having a tantrum because nobody is going to indulge their tantrums any more. Motherfuckers need to grow up and start acting like fucking adults already.

[king mob]

The Levenson enquiry has landed. It's not the brutal attack on free speech the majority of the press and most of the Tories pretended it would be.

The key points:

New self-regulation body recommended

Independent of serving editors, government and business

No widespread corruption of police by the press found

Politicians and press have been too close

Press behaviour, at times, has been 'outrageous'

Nothing there would infringe freedom of speech but it would mean the press couldn't get away with destroying innocent people like Chris Jeffries, though it doesn't seem to touch on media ownership which misses one huge problem with have with multiple companies owned by the same people. What it has done is cause another huge rift between the Tories and the Lib Dems as Cameron rejects (as he always was going to do) LEvenson's proposals.

[Nick Soapdish]

This writer's kind of a dumbass.

She's with the Moonie Times. It's a requirement. I'm also guessing that she didn't enjoy Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (the James Stewart one) very much either.

First of all, Harry Reid's kind of a dick, but that's beside the point. Yes, he's probably proposing a bunch of draconian stuff with this, but that's just "compromise" fodder. Secondly, "we won't be able to do it when we're not in power" isn't the fucking point! Neither side should be able to hold up legislation in the manner that the Republicans have been doing. It needs to be fixed. Common decency and intelligence is what's held people back from acting like that, but I think we've shown quite clearly that these factors are no longer important to the GOP.

Maybe she's only looking at the issue through partisan glasses. If Harry Reid is only proposing this in order to screw over Republicans, it is shortsighted. If he's doing it to make the Senate something approximating a functioning body, it's not.

She does make a good point by quoting Mr. Gold who said (paraphrased a bit) that main problem is that the Republicans just need to act like adults. But that's not realistic. And it's a good bet that the Democrats would take retaliatory action when they lose the Senate. That has been the subject of speculation since it looked like the Democrats would lose the Senate back in 2010. And then again in 2012. And based on the numbers for 2014 (20 Democratic seats (6 in red states), 13 Republican (1 in a blue state), it looks like they may get the prediction right this time. I'm pretty sure that Harry Reid can count and somebody on his staff has pointed this out to him.

Yeah, Mr. Writer, you're an idiot. It's not petty, it's HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE! It's not intended for "well, we don't want this, so we're going to say no to the majority and then go eat our dinner." You want to hold up legislation for a real reason, you'd better step up and make your case. That's what it's for, not just saying "no".

Here's an article from the WP that highlights why it's a bit of an issue and should be addressed.



It's getting to the point where the Senate can't do anything. Remember Truman's famous Do-Nothing Congress? They passed 5 times as many laws as this one. This Congress just punted legislation down the road for two years, while we're trying (supposedly, at least) to recover from a recession and with high unemployment.

Oh, and one of the side effects of this is (or seems to be) that even more bills get smooshed together into omnibus bills because they can't get passed individually thanks to the filibuster, turning it into a bill that just sucks for everyone. But some of those bills shouldn't be passed anyway and might have failed in a straight-up vote. (It wouldn't address them getting added anyway, but it would stop encouraging it.)

[Nick Soapdish]

Why do you say that?

First, I agree that there isn't enough attention paid to how Palestinians are treated by Arab nations.

However, the situation of those Arab nations and Israel is radically different. Jordan has a population of 6 million and 2 million of those are Palestinian refugees. That would be like the US having 150 million illegal immigrants from Latin America - and we're going batshit insane over a tenth of that. Meanwhile, Israel has 8 million inhabitants instead of 10 million if those in Jordan were back in Israel, many of whom lost their land as a result of their flight. Jordan has recently begun curtailing rights of those Palestinians, supposedly because they don't want Israel to have an excuse to just keep them out forever. I'm not sure how much water that excuse holds.

Egypt is also (supposedly) trying to keep Israel from just dumping their Palestinian problem on them.

Lebanon only has 10% of their population as refugees and treats them terribly. And Syria has even fewer, but everybody acknowledges that Syria and the al-Assad are dicks.

[Spike-X]

Maybe she's only looking at the issue through partisan glasses.

Gee, ya think? That's the most amateurish, biased piece of partisan hack work I've ever read outside of the Murdoch/Fox News empire.

[the4thpip]

Palestinians win implicit U.N. recognition of sovereign state
There were 138 votes in favor, nine against and 41 abstentions.

[inferno]

Several Senators -- Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Mike Lee, R-Utah, Rand Paul, R-Ky., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Chris Coons, D-Del., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill. -- are demanding an amendment to the Defense bill saying that the White House can't arbitrarily declare an American to be an "enemy combatant" and have the military lock them up without a trial.

The totalitarian monster Harry Reid wants to push through the bill without a vote on the amendment. Sen. Paul has a hold on the legislation and is threatening a filibuster unless Reid allows a vote on the amendment.

[carabas]

Several Senators -- Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Mike Lee, R-Utah, Rand Paul, R-Ky., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Chris Coons, D-Del., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill. -- are demanding an amendment to the Defense bill saying that the White House can't arbitrarily declare an American to be an "enemy combatant" and have the military lock them up without a trial.

And you think this is a bad thing for some reason? Why would you think that?

[Paradox]

Why, because it puts us in the power of the filthy commie Queen of England!!!

Did you forget who you were talking to?

[carabas]

Did you forget who you were talking to?

Not really. Just morbidly curious what he's going to say.

[Paradox]

Ah...poking with a stick. Understood. As you were.

[JCAll]

She's with the Moonie Times. It's a requirement. I'm also guessing that she didn't enjoy Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (the James Stewart one) very much either.

I don't really care for that one myself. And I normally like Jimmy Stewart. I mean, the moral of the movie was that the little guy can only win if the big guy randomly grows a soul. And how the hell often does that happen.

[bringthenoise]

The Levenson enquiry has landed. It's not the brutal attack on free speech the majority of the press and most of the Tories pretended it would be.

Not that Cameron let the facts get in the way of his public reasoning...

Also, I'm already sick and fucking tired of the "It's only a few bad apples!" defence. Sorry, when one of those "bad apples" was the editor of the biggest selling newspaper in the country, that doesn't wash.

[Iangould]

Why, because it puts us in the power of the filthy commie Queen of England!!!

Did you forget who you were talking to?

I have to say, I was scrolling through this thread on my mobile earlier today and the phrase "totalitarian monster" caught my eye.

I knew instantly it was an Inferno post.