the senate is lame

[ChrisT]

personally I would have loved to have seen a real showdown. The democrats have no balls IMO. Nuclear option? Bring it on. Let's see where these overpaid politicians really stand. Bush just keeps bringing these crazy judges up again and again until they get approved. Never mind that over 40 judges were blocked during the Clinton Administration. Frist himself used the filibuster to block one. Republicans quibble over 10 radical judges. Well there's my rant for the day.

[barjor]

We should reform this country into an Empire instead. That would bring peace and prosperity to the world.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

If there's going to be a filibuster, it had better be a real one, not some fake, procedural chess game. I want to see the opposition talking continuously on CSPAN - that's 24/7 like a filibuster was intended to be.

Edited May 24, 2005 by KaskadskyjKozak

[Winter]

ChrisT you may be right, but the compromise is widely considered a victory by the Dems and a defection by the moderate Republicans from the hard line position of their party leaders.

[ScottP]

Off topic, but something somebody sent to me I found interesting:

Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.

You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.

In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it.

After all, it is a great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.

Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments.

For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand

Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.

This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.

Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH....

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;

”OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"!

From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,-every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)-we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.

Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley's benefits!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Off topic, but something somebody sent to me I found interesting:

Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.

You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.

In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it.

After all, it is a great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.

Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments.

For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand

Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.

This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.

Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH....

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;

”OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"!

From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,-every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)-we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.

Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley's benefits!

 

Some animals are more equal than others.

[ChrisT]

ChrisT you may be right, but the compromise is widely considered a victory by the Dems and a defection by the moderate Republicans from the hard line position of their party leaders.

 

My hats off to Senators Byrd and Warner for spearheading the compromise (and invoking the writings of Hamilton in the process). I guess I just wanted to see a real fight and I don't want to see any of the activist judges that Bush is pushing to make it to the bench. I'd also like to see the dems have a stronger opposition voice but I suppose it's the moderates that really rule.

 

Meanwhile, back at the Michael Jackson trial...

[Dechristo]

... I don't want to see any... activist judges...

 

 

 

[j_b]

part of a speech given in the senate by boxer (dem, CA) about one of the nominees (brown) who will be voted on fairly soon:

 

Janice Rogers Brown--way outside of the mainstream to the extreme. This is one of her comments: "Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates, and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: Families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit."

 

 

This is what she thinks of our great Nation because we have a Government that does build the roads, that does help people out when they are in a bad situation, that may come in and say, yes, it is not a good idea to sell cigarettes to a kid who is 13. This is terrible. This is awful.

 

 

The ``precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption.'' The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity ..... A virtue.

Now, I don't know about you, but I think the minimum wage is a part of America. Colleagues could decide they do not want to raise it for a couple of years. Right now, sadly, it hasn't been raised for a very long time, but I think most Americans think we are protected by the minimum wage.

 

 

This is what she said about the minimum wage, Janice Rogers Brown. I take a minute to say Janice Rogers Brown has served in the California Supreme Court since 1996. Her life story is amazing. It is remarkable. What I don't like is what she is doing to other people's lives. Her story is amazing, but for whatever reason, she is hurting the people of this country, particularly, right now, in my State.

 

 

Of course, the President wants to move her over to Washington, DC, court. She calls Supreme Court decisions upholding protections like the minimum wage and the 40-hour workweek ``the triumph of our own socialist revolution.'' I don't know or understand how anybody could think the 40-hour workweek or the minimum wage is socialism. She obviously does. She obviously would overturn it.

 

 

She accuses senior citizens of--and I hope everyone over the age of 55 will listen to what Janice Rogers Browns thinks of people over 55--she accuses senior citizens of ``blithely cannibalizing their grandchildren because they have a right to get as much free stuff'' as the political system permits them to extract. Free stuff? Is she talking about Social Security? That is not free. People pay into Social Security, and they deserve to get their monthly check. Free stuff. Senior citizens ``blithely cannibalize their grandchildren.'' I resent those comments as a grandmother. I would walk off a bridge for my grandson--and he knows it. I resent her painting of senior citizens.

 

 

That is why we held her up. That is why she is not sitting on the court today. Now, she may get there if my colleagues have their way. Let them explain why she would rule to overturn the minimum wage and the 40-hour workweek and overturn Social Security. It will be on their backs. We have stopped this woman from going further because of her decisions.

 

 

She declares: "Big government is ... The drug of choice for multinational corporations and single moms, for ... rugged Midwestern farmers and militants senior citizens". She is back to that again. What is she afraid of--that some senior citizen will attack her? The crime rate among senior citizens is pretty low. Militant senior citizens? Give me a break. And we get accused of holding up decent people? This goes on.

 

 

I will go on with the story of Janice Rogers Brown--way outside the mainstream to the extreme. She argued a law that provided housing assistance to displaced elderly, disabled, and low-income people was unconstitutional. Her dissent said, because the city of San Francisco had a law that helped these disabled, elderly people, she said that "private property ... is now entirely extinct in San Francisco."

 

 

What world does she live in? Has she tried to buy a house in San Francisco? It is the hottest real estate market in the country. But she says private property is entirely extinct. Let her go try to find some private property to buy in San Francisco. This woman is living on another planet, and we were right to stop her from getting on the bench. Whether it takes 60 votes or 51 votes to stop her, we are going to try to stop her.

 

 

Let's go on with more of her record. How about this? She said that a manager could use racial slurs against his Latino employees. Now, I say to every human being out there: What do we know about the workplace? We know people should feel OK about themselves in the workplace, that we work better together when we respect each other. Janice Rogers Brown said a manager could use racial slurs against his Latino employees--extreme in the main.

 

 

She argued that a message sent by an employee to coworkers criticizing a company's employment practices was not protected by the first amendment. In other words, you can't use your e-mail to write anything about your employer to other employees, although she said the corporations can say whatever they want any time of the day.

 

 

You know now why we have stopped Janice Rogers Brown. But we have more reasons, if you are not convinced.

 

 

Even when it comes to protecting shareholders, she is not fair. Anyone who owns a share of stock, listen to this one. She argued that a company could not be held liable for stock fraud by its employees who were offered a stock purchase plan since the stock was traded between third parties on the open market. So she comes out against the shareholders and protecting the companies.

 

 

Here is the amazing thing. Let me reiterate about Janice Rogers Brown. She serves on the California Supreme Court. There are six Republicans on the court--she is a Republican--and one Democrat. She dissented more than a third of the time. You would think she would have been happy to be with colleagues of her own party. She stood alone 31 times. And when you hear these cases, you will be amazed at where she stood. In other words, she went against five Republicans and one Democrat 31 times, and stood alone.

 

 

Let's check those cases out. How about this one: Rape victims; she was the only member of the court to vote to overturn the conviction of a rapist of a 17-year-old girl because she believed the victim gave mixed messages to the rapist. She stood alone on the side of a rapist, alone as a woman on a court that has six Republicans and one Democrat. Here is another case where she voted alone, the only member of the court to oppose an effort to stop the sale of cigarettes to children. It was a case where the supermarkets didn't want to be responsible. If somebody came up, maybe 13, maybe 12, maybe 11, maybe 14, I want a pack of cigarettes, she ruled against an effort to stop the sale of cigarettes to children. What planet is she living on now? If it was in the 1800s and we didn't know about cigarettes and what they do to you is one thing. But now is another thing. She stood alone.

 

 

I talked about senior citizens. I told you she is afraid of militant senior citizens. That is what she calls them. I told you that she said they cannibalize their grandchildren. Well, she was the only member of the court to find that a 60-year-old woman who was fired from her hospital job could not sue. This is the amazing thing she said, as she stood alone in this decision. A 60-year-old woman was fired from her hospital job. She said she has no right to sue based on age discrimination. This is her comment: "[D]iscrimination based on age does not mark its victims with a stigma of inferiority and second class citizenship."

Really? How do you think you would feel if you were fired because you were too old and suddenly that stigma was attached to you and you lost your livelihood because maybe you had to work at age 60, as you waited for your Social Security check, which is a whole other issue. We hope we win that battle, too. But let me tell you, it makes it hard to win the battle of Social Security if you have on the court someone who calls senior citizens militant. It is going to be tough. That is why we have held her up.

 

 

By the way, her position in this case is contrary to both State and Federal law. This is one of the people we have stopped.

 

[...]

 

Here is one. I want us all to remember the Enron case, a case where counties and cities and individuals were ripped off and went into debt--in our State, billions of dollars--by Enron, Enron who said they would deliver electricity and then made believe there was a shortage and jacked up the price billions of dollars. People went bankrupt and counties went bankrupt and the State went in the hole $9 billion. She was the only member of the court to find that a county could not sue a utility company for illegal price fixing that had substantially increased the county's costs for natural gas.

 

[...]

 

http://boxer.senate.gov/senate/20050517_print.cfm

 

and there is more, these are just a few examples!

[cj001f]

Some animals are more equal than others.

And you've yet to hear about their health plan.

[bunglehead]

And to make it worse, I saw some blurb on the news a few days ago about how they're closing down one of the thirteen or so secret underground bases for the members of congress and the senate to go if (when?) things get shitty up here.

Fuckheads. I hate politicians. Mostly.

[iceaxedave]

We should reform this country into an Empire instead. That would bring peace and prosperity to the world.

 

I vote for myself for the position of emperor!

[Dru]

Off topic, but something somebody sent to me I found interesting:

Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.

You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.

In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it.

After all, it is a great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.

Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments.

For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand

Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.

This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.

Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH....

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;

”OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"!

From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,-every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)-we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.

Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley's benefits!

 

you can read about this one on snopes.com

[willstrickland]

Dems should have made them go Nook-u-lar. But the effect is the practiaclly the same: The radical right of Frist/Cheney, backed by radical cleric James Dobson aka "SpongeDob Stickypants" has lost it's grip of power over the GOP. And Chimpy is firmly in lame duck territory as he continues spending OUR TAX DOLLARS on this Social Security roadshow SCAM where only loyal kool-aid drinkers are allowed to attend. BTW, the Chimperor is now on day 80-something of his 60 day road show and public support for his "sort of a plan which doesn't address the problem of solvency" is still sinking. But the press still says George is popular, maybe they missed the worst approval ratings ever at this point in a presidency. 43% approval...sounds like a fuckin' mandate to me baby...go ahead and veto the stem cell legislation you fundie nutjob, and finish the destruction of your legacy. WORST. PRESIDENT. EVER.

 

Between Voinovich's (R-OH) move on the Bolton nomination and the 14 moderates' compromise (Voinovich sent a letter to all senators asking them to defeat Bolton's nomination on the floor) the wingnuttia brigade's powergrab is coming to a close. These clowns overreached big time, and the public is none too impressed.

 

I am happy to see the middle reclaiming the Grand Old Party from the fundie lunatics. Now if we could get some fiscal discipline, we'd be getting somewhere. It's appaling that this "compassionate conservativism" Bush was selling is neither. Free trade? Umm we are threatening the Chinese with tariffs. Fiscal responsbility? All time high deficits. Strong military? They can't meet recruiting goals because they may be poor 18 year olds, but they are smart enough to avoid dying in a festering middle eastern shithole in a war based on a pack of lies.

 

This is an administration that is very adept at dodging responsibility for anything. Huge trade deficit...blame China. Iraq fiasco...blame the media for not reporting all the "good" news coming from Iraq. And that cooked up intelligence used to sell the public on the need for war...yeah, ummm well that was really the fault of the CIA, NSA, and FBI.

 

In effect, McCain just sank Frist and his presidential aspirations and sent a strong message to the White House...namely that George is about five minutes from lame duck status and the blind sychophantic deference to the President is all but over. The good doctor Frist thought he was going to ride into the White House on the wings of the religious right, and his early moves have obviously been targeted at securing that sector's support for the primaries. No matter, Frist will get destroyed in the primaries.

 

We still bomb Iran, or back Israel in doing it.

[Ratboy]

I wish all that you say were true, Will. But I fear the social and religious conservative grip on the GOP is just stumbling, not dead. I would not be surprised if they weather this with no problem. They seem to have a knack for sluffing off bad press and potential catastrophes without much damage. Kudos to McCain, Voinovich and all those with them for standing up to the oppressors.

[bunglehead]

Good points, Will and Ratboy. I'm all for fiscal discipline. I don't care if the Carrot Top party does it. And get the GOP away from the nutjobs. I'm waiting for a true centrist third party. I know, I'll be waiting for a loong time.

[ScottP]

Off topic, but something somebody sent to me I found interesting:

Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.

You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.

In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it.

After all, it is a great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.

Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments.

For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand

Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.

This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.

Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH....

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;

”OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"!

From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,-every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)-we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.

Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley's benefits!

 

you can read about this one on snopes.com

 

The wording did seem a little reactionary...