The Commentariat -- Dec. 12, 2013
CW: It's difficult not to notice that a good portion of today's political news is bad news for Republicans. People thrilled with ObamaCare, people signing up to vote on the ACA Website, Senate confirmation of a "liberal" judge, GOP's women troubles, internecine squabbles battles over the budget deal, no legacies from the Bush era, Staten Island, the Pope dissing their BFFs, & a top aide arrested for distributing child porn.
Health Care Apartheid. David Lieb of the AP: "Newly released federal figures show more people are picking private insurance plans or being routed to Medicaid programs in states with Democratic leaders who have fully embraced the federal health care law than in states where Republican elected officials have derisively rejected what they call 'Obamacare.' ... Even though many conservative states have higher levels of poverty and more people without health coverage, fewer of them may receive new insurance...." CW: This is exactly what one would expect, but it's still depressing. And, yes, I live in one of those "conservative" states. ...
... Why Republicans Hate ObamaCare, Part 1. Maggie Fox of NBC News: "It took two months, weekly visits to the jammed-up federal website and a half-dozen phone calls, but JoAnn Smith finally got health insurance Monday. It'll only cost her $3.19 a month to cover herself and her husband. 'I just instantly burst into tears,' she says.... Smith, a 60-year-old medical transcriptionist in Clearwater, Fla., must use the federal website to buy health insurance because Florida opted not to run its own.... Smith's employer doesn't provide health insurance.... [She] estimates she will earn $23,000 this year for her 40-hour a week job.... 'This morning the most loveliest of helpers answered the phone,' Smith told NBC News later Monday. 'She said there was a mistake on original application.... She re-did the whole thing in record time....' [After yet another Website fail,] her application took just seconds to complete. All she has to do now is confirm her payment and eligibility with Humana, her new insurance provider." ...
... Why Republicans Hate ObamaCare, Part 2.
A page on the Healthcare.gov site.... Anonymous Contributor to Daily Kos: "Right there, on that page, is everything the Republicans hate: a program designed to help people of modest means, run by the government - AND giving those same people an opportunity to exercise their franchise."
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: " The Senate confirmed Cornelia T. L. Pillard to the country's most powerful appeals court in an early-morning vote on Thursday, installing her over the objections of Republicans who, despite their inability to filibuster the nomination, are loudly protesting the way Democrats have stifled opposition." ...
... Alan Fram & Laurie Kellman of the AP: "The Senate began an around-the-clock talkathon Wednesday over some of President Barack Obama's nominees as embittered and outnumbered Republicans refused to let the Senate take a break given new, Democratic-driven curbs on the GOP's power. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., threatened to hold the Senate in session through the night to deal with 11 nominations, most of them non-controversial. If Republicans refuse to give up their allotted debate time, the Senate could be in session continuously into Saturday -- or longer. 'If we have to work through Christmas, we're going to do that,' Reid said, repeating what has become one of his regular holiday season refrains."
** Gail Collins: "While American women have been winning rights and opportunities that were unimaginable only a few decades ago, the one thing that's gone in the opposite direction is the Republican Party, which is willing to train its members in how to talk to the ladies, but not open its doors to candidates who believe in reproductive rights. This is the party that used to be well ahead of the competition when it came to support for women's issues -- from the Equal Rights Amendment to family planning."
Vicki Needham, et al., of the Hill: "Several leading Democrats warned Wednesday that the budget deal worked out by House and Senate negotiators is on the verge of unraveling over the exclusion of federal unemployment benefits. The lawmakers are outraged by a GOP move to add the Medicare 'doc fix' to the deal but not a continuation of unemployment benefits -- a strategy they say could sink the entire package by scaring away Democratic votes." ...
... MEANWHILE. Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "House Republicans appeared Wednesday to be rallying around an $85 billion deal to avert another government shutdown.... GOP leadership aides confidently predicted that the deal ... would sail through the House when it comes to a vote Thursday."...
... For a rational assessment of the budge deal, Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities is the go-to guy: "The budget agreement ... represents an improvement over current law, albeit a modest one. Congress should approve it, but lawmakers should make every effort to accompany it with an extension of federal emergency unemployment benefits that will otherwise expire the week after Christmas." ...
... Charles Pierce on the proposed budget deal: "... the idea that Paul Ryan gave up anything of substance in these talks just because he has decided to be more patient in his long war to dismantle the safety net that coddles the takers is positively laughable." ...
... Yes, Paul Ryan Is Still an Ass. New York Times Editors: "... details of the agreement show that Republican loathing of taxes and domestic spending continue to dominate the budget debate. The full domestic and military sequester should have been eliminated, not just part of it. Even more important, a balanced and fair agreement would have compensated for the new domestic spending with tax increases on the wealthiest Americans by closing unnecessary loopholes.... To save money for those at the very top, new federal workers will have to pay more for their pension plan. The cost-of-living increase on pensions for military retirees younger than 62 will be reduced."...
... BUT. Man-Crush. Jonathan Weisman, in a supposedly straight New York Times news report, portrays Ryan as a "conservative wunderkind" who put party "over his own self-interest" to cut the budget deal. Weisman cites Newt Gingrich & others applauding Ryan as brilliant & "marvelous," etc. "... it is a testament to Mr. Ryan's stature with conservatives that even the most vocal opponents of the deal are reluctant to criticize the man who negotiated it." See also today's Presidential Race news below. ...
... Reid Wilson of the Washington Post: "The emerging budget deal announced Tuesday night represents a potentially defining moment for a party [-- the Republican one --] divided between those who believe the party needs to prove it can govern, and those who believe in purity at all costs.... Crafting the bipartisan deal may turn out to be the easy part. The harder row to hoe begins now: Selling the deal to a House Republican caucus that includes members who will see anything short of a total conservative victory as a capitulation, and members for whom voting against their own leadership is in their political interest." ...
... Lori Montgomery: "After a briefing for the GOP rank and file behind closed doors Wednesday morning, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) blasted groups that he said came out in opposition to the deal before having seen what was in it. 'They're using our members, and they're using the American people for their own goals,' Boehner told reporters. 'This is ridiculous. If you're for more deficit reduction, you're for this agreement.'" ...
... Sahil Kapur of TPM: "Moments earlier, during a closed-door meeting, Boehner told House Republicans that the well-funded and influential organizations 'aren't acting out of principle, and they're not trying to enact conservative policies. They're using you to raise money and expand their own organization'" he said, according to a source in the room." ...
... Paul Waldman: "Boehner, who spent the entire period of the shutdown (and the weeks leading up to it) stepping gingerly around his party's right wing..., now feels free to attack the likes of Heritage Action, obviously without concern that they can make him pay for his insolence.... For the moment ... it does appear that the shutdown provided everyone in the GOP a valuable lesson: there's only so far you can follow your extremists before they lead you off the cliff, and once you've plunged to the bottom, you don't much want to climb back up and hurl yourself off again." ...
... Kapur: Outside right-leaning groups are firing back [same story linked above] at Speaker John Boehner after he attacked their intentions and questioned their commitment to conservative principles on Wednesday." ...
... Jake Sherman, et al. of Politico: "The conservative Republican Study Committee, the bastion of right-wing strategy on Capitol Hill, has fired its longtime executive director Paul Teller, accusing him of leaking conversations with lawmakers.... If there were any staffer on Capitol Hill that were nearly as powerful as a member of Congress, it was Teller. He has been involved in conservative strategy for more than a decade, helping drag legislative debates to the right." ...
... Jake Sherman, et al.: "The simmering feud between House Republicans and movement conservatives is finally an all-out war. The tension exploded on Wednesday morning when Speaker John Boehner and outside conservative groups traded sharp barbs over the budget deal.... It only escalated later in the day when the leader of the right-wing Republican Study Committee forced out its long-time executive director...."
Rachel Maddow in the Washington Post: "The unpopular presidency of George W. Bush has proved to be a blackball on the résumés of a generation of Republican leaders. Maybe Cheney's daughter Liz will break the pattern next year with a successful Senate bid in Wyoming, but if you made it through that sentence without spitting coffee out your nose, you're in rare company.... Inside the White House, the task of growing one's own successors must seem like one of the less pressing items on the president's long daily to-do list. But the previous administration's trail of scorched earth and exiles ... is a cautionary tale that Democrats and the Obama White House should heed sooner rather than later. Grow your successors, nurture your legacy."
Ian Austen of the New York Times: "Canada's postal service said Wednesday that it would cease home delivery over the next five years, and substantially increase postal rates.... Canada would become the first Group of 7 country to end all residential mail delivery in cities and older suburbs...." CW: This seems like an omen for U.S. residents.
Philip Pullella of Reuters: "Pope Francis said in the first peace message of his pontificate that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality and called again for nations to narrow the wealth gap. In his message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, marked around the world on January 1, he also called for sharing of wealth and for nations to shrink the gap between rich and poor, more of whom are getting only 'crumbs'." CW: Pope Francis: one conservative Rush Limbaugh can't intimidate.
Congressional Race
** Carl Campanile of the New York Post: "Republicans are so nervous about Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm's re-election chances that they've quietly reached out to former GOP Congressman Vito Fossella -- who quit five years ago after confessing to having a secret second family.... Grimm is currently the subject of an ongoing Justice Department probe that centers on whether his campaign solicited illegal donations from foreigners during his 2010 campaign. Fossella, who is married to childhood sweetheart Mary Pat and has three children, was engulfed in scandal after a DWI arrest in the D.C. area in May 2008." Fossella said he won't run. CW: So the GOP is trying to decide which would be the better candidate: the incumbent being investigated by the DOJ or the former rep who had a secret second family & a DWI arrest. How could Congress possibly be anything but a criminal enterprise with members like these?
Presidential Race 2016
Beth Reinhard of the National Journal: "Unlike some conservative voices, the potential Republican presidential contenders had the courtesy to wait until after the budget deal was unveiled to declare their opposition. But they didn't wait long. Swiftly came the denouncements from Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul. Conservative groups piled on the agreement negotiated for their side by Paul Ryan, calling it 'a huge Republican cave-in' and 'surrender.' Ryan -- also a possible presidential candidate -- now finds himself in the awkward position of trying to sell an agreement blessed by President Obama to a conservative base that reflexively opposes anything with a whiff of bipartisanship. It's a spot Rubio knows all too well...."
Local News
Curt Anderson of the AP: "Prosecutors say they will not file domestic violence charges against George Zimmerman after his girlfriend said in a sworn statement she did not want to pursue the case. State Attorney Phil Archer in Seminole County said in a statement Wednesday that Samantha Scheibe's decision not to cooperate and the lack of other corroborating evidence made a successful prosecution unlikely." ...
... Rebecca Leber of Think Progress: "Because the charges were dropped, there are no legal barriers preventing Zimmerman from getting his firearms back. At the time of his arrest, Zimmerman had five guns and 100 rounds of ammunition. The guns included an AR-15 assault rifle, Keltec shotgun, and three handguns.... In addition, Zimmerman's aggravated assault charge, a felony, meant Florida was required by law to suspend his concealed carry license. If officials suspended his license, Zimmerman can petition for it back now that he does not carry a felony charge."
Sleazy News
Morgan Little of the Los Angeles Times: "A senior aide to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of possessing and distributing child pornography. Law enforcement officials took Ryan Loskarn, chief of staff in Alexander's Washington office, into custody after seizing evidence in his home. Loskarn was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday. Alexander said he was 'stunned, surprised and disappointed.' ... Loskarn was placed on leave without pay. Loskarn, 35, became Alexander's chief of staff last year. He previously had served as communications director for Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and a staff assistant for former Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.)." CW: Yeah, I'm stunned, surprised & disappointed, too. Hard to believe a nice conservative fellow could have a sideline trafficking in disgusting stuff which also happens to be illegal. Blackburn must be having the vapors. ...
... CW: From April 2012 through September 2013, Loskarn earned $84,500; from February 2012 thru February 2013, he received an additional $14,000 for work on a Senate Committee. This is quite modest pay for those working in the D.C. area. Maybe Loskarn needed the extra cash when the Committee gig ended & just couldn't think of a better line of moonlighting.
Tony Perry of the Los Angeles Times: "A second city employee has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against ex-Mayor Bob Filner. The allegations of Stacy McKenzie, 50, a manager in the Park and Recreation Department, are similar to those made by more than 20 women during the frenzied six weeks that led to Filner's Aug. 30 resignation.McKenzie accuses Filner of 'placing her in a headlock, rubbing his body against hers, rubbing his elbow against her breasts, [and] rubbing her arm' after asking for a date. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges two other city employees witnessed the incident at a public event in April at the De Anza Cove on Mission Bay." ...
...Trent Siebert of the San Diego Union-Tribune: "With the lawsuit comes an animated reenactment of her version of events when Filner approached her in a city park and put her in the 'Filner headlock,' as it has come to be known. The video showing the alleged encounter between Filner and veteran park's employee Stacy McKenzie was commissioned by her attorney, Dan Gilleon." CW: Looks like those Taiwanese animated re-enactments of salacious U.S. news events:
Nonsense "News"
Jonathan Capehart explains to wingnuts the context of the "nontroversial" "selfie" photo: British PM David Cameron asked for the photo at the request of former British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. Kinnock is the father-in-law of selfie photographer/Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who took the three-shot. Roberto Schmidt, the professional photographer who took the AFP photo which Getty Images distributed, said, "In reality, just a few seconds earlier the first lady was herself joking with those around her, Cameron and Schmidt included. Her stern look was captured by chance.... I doubt anyone could have remained totally stony faced for the duration of the ceremony, while tens of thousands of people were celebrating in the stadium. For me, the behaviour of these leaders in snapping a selfie seems perfectly natural." ...
... Update. Here's Schmidt's full post on the photo. ...
... CW: In fairness, it ain't only the wingers who need a lesson about context. From Roxane Gay for Salon, who could use a lesson herself, BTW: "At the Washington Post: 'The first lady looks stern -- dare we say disapproving? -- throughout.' In the New York Daily News Michelle Obama 'sat at a distance, as if in disapproval of the digital display.' Someone at Business Insider quipped, 'That stare can kill.' The headline at The Huffington Post boldly declares 'Michelle Obama is having none of it.' Over at D.C. political blog Wonkette, 'Michelle Obama Pissed Y'all.'"
... A Gawker contributor writes, "I refuse to judge until we get the official sign language interpreter's account." See December 11 News Ledes for context.
Arlette Saenz of ABC News: "Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, walked out of former South African President Nelson Mandela's memorial service Tuesday when Cuban President Raul Castro gave a speech, a spokeswoman for Cruz said." ...
... CW: You might think this was an understandable, principled stand by a man whose father was tortured by the Castro regime, as Cruz often suggests in his claims about his heritage. In fact, Rafael Cruz -- who makes Ted look halfway sensible -- fought on Castro's side & fled Cuba after being "imprisoned & tortured" by the U.S.-backed Batista regime before Fidel Castro came to power, or so Ted tells it when pressed. So, principled? My ass. Ted's exit from the grandstands was just grandstanding, literally & figuratively.
News Ledes
Washington Post: "An American man who disappeared in Iran more than six years ago had been working for the CIA in what U.S. intelligence officials describe as a rogue operation that led to a major shake-up in the spy agency. Robert Levinson, a retired-FBI agent, traveled to the Iranian Island of Kish in March 2007 to investigate corruption at a time when he was discussing the renewal of a CIA contract he had held for several years. He also inquired about getting reimbursed for the Iran trip by the agency before he departed...."
Washington Post: "A senior law enforcement agent accused of taking bribes in a Navy corruption scandal has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with investigators, a major break in a case that has ensnared half a dozen Navy officers and threatens to tar more. John B. Beliveau II, a supervisory special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is scheduled to enter a guilty plea Tuesday in federal court in San Diego.... Beliveau was arrested in September and charged with helping a Singapore-based Navy contractor ... dodge multiple criminal investigations by leaking inside information about NCIS probes in exchange for prostitutes, cash and other favors."
AP: "North Korea said Friday that it had executed Kim Jong Un's uncle as a traitor for trying to seize supreme power, a stunning end for the leader's former mentor, long considered the country's No. 2 official."
New York Times: "Chemical weapons were used repeatedly in the Syria conflict this year, not only in a well-documented Aug. 21 attack near Damascus but also in four other instances, including two subsequent attacks that targeted government soldiers, United Nations experts concluded in a report released Thursday."
New York Times: "JPMorgan Chase and federal authorities are nearing settlements over the bank's ties to Bernard L. Madoff, striking tentative deals that would involve roughly $2 billion in penalties and a rare criminal action. The government will use a sizable portion of the money to compensate Mr. Madoff's victims. The settlements, which are coming together on the anniversary of Mr. Madoff's arrest at his Manhattan penthouse five years ago on Wednesday, would fault the bank for turning a blind eye to his huge Ponzi scheme...."
AP: "Allen Nicklasson once recalled the 'euphoria' he felt after fatally shooting a kindly businessman who stopped to help when he saw Nicklasson's car stalled on Interstate 70 near Kingdom City, Mo., in 1994. Late Wednesday night, Nicklasson was put to death for Richard Drummond's killing -- nearly 23 hours after he was originally scheduled to die."
AP: "Australia's highest court struck down a landmark law on Thursday that had begun allowing the country's first gay marriages, shattering the dreams of more than two dozen same-sex newlyweds whose marriages will now be annulled less than a week after their weddings. The federal government had challenged the validity of the Australian Capital Territory's law that had allowed gay marriages in the nation's capital and its surrounding area starting last Saturday."
AFP: "The sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela's funeral has said a schizophrenic episode was to blame for accusations that he was an imposter who gesticulated nonsense during the entire service.... The interview with The Star did not address the fact that[Thamsanqa] Jantjie's competence had been called into question before the memorial furore erupted."
Share Article
Reader Comments (15)
The link Marie posts describing the actual (as opposed to fantasy wingnut and MSM) context of the Obama photo that has Right Wing World denizens peeing down their legs, provides a textbook example of how amateur, incompetent, solipsistic, teleologically driven hacks, enthralled by their own bogus sense of hermeneutic and semiotic infallability can fabricate the daftest narratives based on nothing more than a need to make themselves more important than an infomercial for halting hair loss.
A single additional frame or two is all that's required to pop their pubescent--and hairless--balloons.
Http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-sequester-cuts-divided-the-winners-from-the-losers--including-head-start-children/2013/12/11/10811dcc-5c34-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html
This is ridiculous. As the woman said "Because of grown-ups fighting, hundreds of miles away,” she remembered saying. “It’s hard to explain to these kids, because that kind of behavior would never be tolerated in a Head Start classroom.”
Winners and losers. Sad.
DoD will devour us. Oh no, we can't cut defense. And just why not?
I'm with Barbarossa: Cut "defense" spending by half and rededicate that money to infrastructure repair and upgrades. Cut welfare to oil companies by half and rededicate that money to clean energy research and construction. Cut welfare to rich farmers by half and rededicate that money to Head Start and nutrition programs for kids.
If Tea Party Republicans are allowed to ask for the moon, why do we have to control ourselves?
Enough of merely begging that the rich pay taxes like the rest of us and that we provide for the unfortunate so we can stop hanging our heads whenever a discussion of socially advanced nations ensues.
Enough of being the bad guys when we suggest that threatening every country that doesn't agree with us is infantile, costly, and will ultimately be suicidal. Yes, we support the kids who the warmongers would rechristen "troops." We would like those kids to live long, productive lives.
Enough of being accommodating.
Thanks. That felt good.
Jack
The hook in Charlie Pierce's weekly ramble through state governments today is the notion of a new constitutional convention.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Cooking_Up_A_New_America_In_The_Labs
Marie,
It's true that much of today's news looks bad for the guys in the black hats but they survive and thrive. Look at all the horrendous shit they've been responsible for over the last 30 years, but they get away, literally, with murder.
They may not be able to win the White House anytime soon (if the Rat couldn't do it, what chance do Cruz and Aqua Buddha Boy have?), but 30 states have far-right to extremely far-right governors who push their Republican controlled legislatures to outlaw democracy. They still control the House (they just don't know what to do with it) and will for the near future what with all the gerrymandering and election hocus pocus. They have innumerable media outlets working without pause to spread GOP lies and misdirection, and have the rest of the media so cowed they're afraid of reporting anything resembling the truth about the GOP unless it comes with the approved "both sides are to blame" caveat.
They've had a generation to dig themselves in like alien ticks and once their poison leaked into the national bloodstream, their DNA morphed into something far more hideous (under the microscope x and y chromosomes at first looked like deformed teabags but now resemble the Koch brothers).
Not being morally or ethically superior enough to forgo reveling in the odd moment of schadenfreude, I am, naturally, thrilled that some of the evil they've been spreading around like e-coli spiked confetti has landed in their own backyards, but it will take many consecutive months, even years of this kind of bad publicity and truth outing before most of the people who vote for these sanctimonious swindlers, against their best interests mind you, wake up and realize they're in the belly of the beast.
I only wish the Democrats had it enough together to make hay while the devil is chasing his tail. Or whatever the hell it is you do when devils run around in circles.
But I suppose we'll take what we can get. Child porn, eh?
Heh-heh.
@James Singer. Boy, you got me on my naive comment yesterday. In fact, I immediately had an eerie oh-no-not-such-a-good-idea as I clicked on Create Post. And, Charlie Pierce sure nails it today. A new constitutional convention...you are absolutely right, what a can of worms this would be. Fuggadabutit (sic)!
So, a new constitutional convention, eh?
That oughta be a barrel of laughs.
Ah yes, can't you just see it now? The Constitution as re-written by Mark Levin, Ted Cruz, the Kochs, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Louie Gohmert, and Ann Coulter?
We the only Real Americans worth Anything, in Order to kick the living shit out of a Union we detest, make sure that liberal "justice" for blah people, mooslims, immigrants, and other mongrel races is disestablished permanently, insure domestic upheaval, provide for guns, guns, and more guns, and to promote the general Welfare of white Christians by allowing us to mow down anyone who pisses us off, and to secure the Blessings of Our Lord God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and Wall Street in doing this righteous Ass Kicking, do entirely re-draw the boundaries of what is good for us and to hell with everyone else.
ARTICLE 1
Section 1
All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a group comprised of god fearing, liberal-hating capitalists we trust to make sure we win. That means all you Mandela-loving commie bastards are shit out of luck and might as emigrate back to whatever A-rab, fascist, socialist hell hole you came from before we deport your asses or lock you up.
And just wait until they get to the Bill of Right(wing) Rights!
Holy Moly Mr. Madison. Does Dolly still have that picture of George Washington? She better keep it hidden, here come the pitchforks.
Regarding the earlier comment about the perfidious actions of states controlled by the Republican Party, I offer, as evidence to the court, exhibit A, a Times article from the other day:
Whose kids will be slaughtered next, courtesy of the NRA and the GOP?
In order to honor the children murdered at the Newtown massacre a year ago, Republican legislatures have been dealing with the problem of guns in American. Yesirree Bob, they sure have. And what are they doing? Why, making guns more available, even in schools! Whadaya think they've been doin'?
109 laws have been passed nationwide since Sandy Hook became the NRA's Area 51 (no one talks about it or even suggests vaguely that it exists or that anything ever happened there).
Of those 109 laws 39 offer some modest restrictions on gun purchases, nearly all passed by Democratically controlled legislatures. 70 laws increase the already ridiculous nimiety of guns and loosen restrictions on gun sales, background checks, ability to bring weapons into schools.....nearly all passed by...yup, you guessed it.
Murder, Inc. aka the GOP.
Way to go, guys. How to demonstrate your moral clarity.
Children are massacred by guns in schools. The Republican solution? Make more guns available and bring them to schools.
Those aliens who have been observing us from afar for signs of intelligent life? They just left the galaxy.
Fucking eejits.
What Pierce doesn't tell you, partly because it's been done only once, is that there is another way to amend the Constitution which bypasses state legislatures.
This would work only if a super-super-majority in both houses of Congress wanted to amend the Constitution. Congress could pass the amendment, & then -- rather than send it to the state legislatures for ratification -- call for state conventions to ratify it. This has been done only once. The "rules" are pretty iffy as to how the delegates to these conventions are chosen.
What Pierce is absolutely right about is that amending the Constitution by the method that bypasses Congress is fairly horrible. The latest, most successful attempt to do that was the effort to pass a balanced-budget amendment. Thirty-two states signed onto that (34 are required & I'm of the impression -- which may be wrote -- that if another two states passed it, the balanced budget amendment would be good to go). We would all be out scratching for food today if that had passed. Other bright ideas that gained traction thru state petitions to Congress (but never got close to 34 state petitions) were for allowing school prayer, prohibiting busing & making abortions illegal.
Anyway, this is why Scalia often says with a merry chuckle that if people don't like his rulings, they can just change the Constitution.
Marie
"Nimiety?" That's just too much.
Just because you have a word doesn't entitle you to use it on innocent readers!
But I tergiversate ... I really do like learning new $5 words. But I'm not allowed to use them where I work -- our motto is "Eschew Obfuscation" here at Word Producers Global.
Flashmob tribute to Mandela. Via Daily Kos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHHjP7XrBq0
Patrick,
I certainly hope you refrain from tergiversating in front of small children. Young minds are easily transmogrified, and stuff.
Interesting short AP take on the Farm Bill (aka SNAP v Conagra) extension.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/12/12/us/politics/ap-us-farm-bill.html?hp
Time to hunt for explication.
Marie, hate to spoil the party but I wasn't feeling so good about the news today after learning that Michigan now has a law that demands that you buy a separate insurance rider should you ever want to have insurance cover any kind of abortion. This law includes both public or private insurance. They're calling it Rape Insurance.
Haley: It's like telling me because I live in Michigan that I should
have extra insurance for Prostate problems because of my sex and age. WTF.
Men trying to control womens bodies and lives. Vote! Vote! Vote!
At least, our Republican governor didn't support it.