The BigAss 2nd term thread
A place for politics.
Bunch of stuff happened recently that is pretty interesting politics-wise.
We know have new Secretary of State: John Kerry. Which means there will be a Senate race in Massachusetts. And the last Republican who won a Senate race in MA, doesn't want the job. Scott Brown who won his seat during height of the Tea Party and the probable nadir of the Obama administration, [URL="http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/02/01/170864263/reports-republican-scott-brown-wont-seek-massachusetts-senate-seat"]doesn't want the Job. [/URL] Instead he will join Fox News.
Fox News meanwhile has recognized it needs to make some changes to help support the Republican party better and they have dropped Sarah Palin and Dick Morris who was comically wrong about nearly everything. Fox is still the highest rated news channel,[URL="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/fox-news-ratings-february-oreilly-hannity_n_2768265.html"] but their ratings are down. [/URL] Some have speculated that viewers have tuned them out after they predicted Romney would win and the truth was Obama won by almost 4 percentage points and it was [URL="http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7913306&postcount=9"]wasn't too hard to predict[/URL]. Either way their audience is aging out of the demographic that is the most valuable for advertisers. Talk radio ratings seem to be down as well. Clear Channel has been losing money.
Obama's election has led to what promises to be ongoing fight for control of the Republican Party. [URL="[URL="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-28/a-republican-revolt-against-karl-rove"]Karl Rove[/URL] got compared to a Nazi the other day."]The establishment is trying to kick the Tea Party [/URL]overboard and the Tea Party is riled to vote in another two terrible Senate candidates in Republican primaries....which if they hadn't done in the two previous cyles, they might have controlled the Senate.
How bad is it? Karl Rove got called a Nazi the other day by conservatives. Chris Christie who is possibly [URL="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/27/chris-christie-the-gop-s-most-popular-governor-not-welcome-at-cpac.html"]the most popular Republican in the country[/URL] was not invited to a conservative gathering this month and might have trouble going through republican primaries.
The split in the Republican Party was evident during the confirmation voting for Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense. Hagel, a Republican and a Senator from Nebraska actually had other Republicans filibuster him. We have never had a filibuster over a defense secretary ever.
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
The cia vote happens next week.
The Obama adminstration is trying to prevent Congress from seeing their I-can-kill-Americans-with-drones memos.
Instead they pulled some BS switcheroo where they showed more Benghazi emails and kept the drone memos secret.
[url]http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/02/white-house-benghazi-drones/62371/[/url]
[QUOTE]The White House is refusing to share fully with Congress the legal opinions that justify targeted killings, while maneuvering to make sure its stance does not do anything to endanger the confirmation of John O. Brennan as C.I.A. director.
Rather than agreeing to some Democratic senators’ demands for full access to the classified legal memos on the targeted killing program, Obama administration officials are negotiating with Republicans to provide more information on the lethal attack last year on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, according to three Congressional staff members.
The strategy is intended to produce a bipartisan majority vote for Mr. Brennan in the Senate Intelligence Committee without giving its members seven additional legal opinions on targeted killing sought by senators and while protecting what the White House views as the confidentiality of the Justice Department’s legal advice to the president. [/QUOTE]
There's something about that just shows ****ed up priorities on both sides and it seems that Obama faces more pressure on this from the left than the right.
Has any of the Republicans on the Intelligence Committee put pressure on Obama over drones?
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
[QUOTE=KevinNYC]Chris Christie who is possibly [URL="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/27/chris-christie-the-gop-s-most-popular-governor-not-welcome-at-cpac.html"]the most popular Republican in the country[/URL] was not invited to a conservative gathering this month and might have trouble going through republican primaries.[/QUOTE]
I doubt that. If the Tea Party had united behind one guy early on Romney would have lost. Similarly the Republicans that are mad at Christie for his public appreciation of Obama during the Sandy crisis probably won't have one guy they're unified behind and that could let Christie win while getting 35-40% of republican support. If he gets stopped it will be for something else that happens between now and then.
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
[QUOTE=Real Men Wear Green]I doubt that. If the Tea Party had united behind one guy early on Romney would have lost. Similarly the Republicans that are mad at Christie for his public appreciation of Obama during the Sandy crisis probably won't have one guy they're unified behind and that could let Christie win while getting 35-40% of republican support. If he gets stopped it will be for something else that happens between now and then.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/chris-christie-approval-rating-hits-record-high-152537599--election.html[/url]
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
Also the administration is arguing that [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/us/politics/administration-to-urge-justices-to-overturn-a-gay-marriage-ban.html"]Prop 8 in California is unconstitutional[/URL] which is probably the strongest official support of gay rights ever in the US.
Obama was officially opposed to gay marriage very recently.
Also a lot of prominent Republicans came out [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/us/politics/prominent-republicans-sign-brief-in-support-of-gay-marriage.html?hp"]in support of gay marriage.[/URL]
[QUOTE]Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry, a position that amounts to a direct challenge to Speaker John A. Boehner and reflects the civil war in the party since the November election.[/QUOTE]
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
Also the conservatives on the Supreme Court are hinting [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/us/politics/conservative-justices-voice-skepticism-on-voting-law.html?_r=0"]at overthrowing the Votings Rights Act of 1965.[/URL]
Rachel Maddow called out Antonia Scalia for "trolling" on this issue.
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
Also the sequester that nobody wants seems to be happening.
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
Obama is acting different. In his first term he was more right than Bush. As of today...Obama is more progressive.
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
[QUOTE=longhornfan1234]Obama is acting different. In his first term he was more right than Bush. As of today...Obama is more progressive.[/QUOTE]
In what ways was he to the right of Bush?
Sotomayor vs Alito?
Kagan vs John Roberts?
Hilliary/Kerry vs Powell/Condi?
Eric Holder vs Ashcroft/Gonzales/Mukasey?
Biden vs Cheney?
Gates/Panetta/Hagel vs Rumsfeld/Gates
Hyperbole much? You don't seriously believe that do you? Bush's main goal in the second terms was to privatize social security.
If Obama was so right-wing, what was all the conservative anger about? Was that just racism?
Oh, I get it. You're trying pretend Bush wasn't a conservative, just like all those folks who pretend that Bush wasn't representative of the Republican party. The guy won two terms and [URL="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/29/nation/la-na-bush-20120830"]they still won't have him at the convention.[/URL]
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
[QUOTE=KevinNYC]
Oh, I get it. You're trying pretend Bush wasn't a conservative, just like all those folks who pretend that Bush wasn't representative of the Republican party. The guy won two terms and [URL="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/29/nation/la-na-bush-20120830"]they still won't have him at the convention.[/URL][/QUOTE]
W. I understand being ashamed of, but that's just wrong to do to Sr.
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
H.W. was called weak and a pansy for not going further once we drove Saddam out of Iraq, for the decade after the first Gulf War. Then his son spent the next decade showing us the wisdom of that decision.
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
[QUOTE=KevinNYC]The cia vote happens next week.
The Obama adminstration is trying to prevent Congress from seeing their I-can-kill-Americans-with-drones memos.
Instead they pulled some BS switcheroo where they showed more Benghazi emails and kept the drone memos secret.
[url]http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/02/white-house-benghazi-drones/62371/[/url]
There's something about that just shows ****ed up priorities on both sides and it seems that Obama faces more pressure on this from the left than the right.
Has any of the Republicans on the Intelligence Committee put pressure on Obama over drones?[/QUOTE]
It's absolutely hilarious how terribly illegal this is. And some of the cases they site in the white pages as for how it's "constitutional" by mentioning "citizens"....the word Citizen(s) doesn't even appear on that page, and the case may or may not be related to citizen(s) or terrorism. My professor devoted 30 minutes one class explaining how it was illegal regardless of whatever cases they incorrectly cite.
Hopefully the administration catches shit not only for potentially using drones on Americans but also people overseas.
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
[IMG]http://www.neoabolition.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/barack-drone-bomber-obama.jpg[/IMG]
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
[QUOTE=KevinNYC]In what ways was he to the right of Bush?
Sotomayor vs Alito?
Kagan vs John Roberts?
Hilliary/Kerry vs Powell/Condi?
Eric Holder vs Ashcroft/Gonzales/Mukasey?
Biden vs Cheney?
Gates/Panetta/Hagel vs Rumsfeld/Gates
Hyperbole much? You don't seriously believe that do you? Bush's main goal in the second terms was to privatize social security.
If Obama was so right-wing, what was all the conservative anger about? Was that just racism?
Oh, I get it. You're trying pretend Bush wasn't a conservative, just like all those folks who pretend that Bush wasn't representative of the Republican party. The guy won two terms and [URL="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/29/nation/la-na-bush-20120830"]they still won't have him at the convention.[/URL][/QUOTE]
Libs are constantly denying Obama is really a republican(Obama's first term) :facepalm
Obama signed two extensions of the Patriot Act, signed NDAA into law (allows for indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charges), assassinated an American citizen (Bush didn't even do this), kept Guantanamo open (after promising to close it in his first year), kept Monsanto people high up in the FDA (Christine Escobar), still raids legal medical marijuana facilities (after saying he would stop this practice), tripled the number of troops in Afghanistan (morphed it from an anti-terror campaign to a nation building campaign), kept Bush's guy running the federal reserve , extended the Bush tax cuts, opposed any effort to re-institute Glass-Steagall , mandated all citizens make a purchase from a for-profit company (rehashed REPUB. idea from the early 90s), send more illegal immigrants back to Mexico than Bush, kill lists, pharma deal, Affordable Care act was a 90s repub idea. Also...he doesn't give a fvck about the environment.
Re: The BigAss 2nd term thread
[QUOTE=longhornfan1234]Libs are constantly denying Obama is really a republican(Obama's first term) :facepalm
Obama signed two extensions of the Patriot Act, signed NDAA into law (allows for indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charges), assassinated an American citizen (Bush didn't even do this), kept Guantanamo open (after promising to close it in his first year), kept Monsanto people high up in the FDA (Christine Escobar), still raids legal medical marijuana facilities (after saying he would stop this practice), tripled the number of troops in Afghanistan (morphed it from an anti-terror campaign to a nation building campaign), kept Bush's guy running the federal reserve , extended the Bush tax cuts, opposed any effort to re-institute Glass-Steagall , mandated all citizens make a purchase from a for-profit company (rehashed REPUB. idea from the early 90s), send more illegal immigrants back to Mexico than Bush, kill lists, pharma deal, Affordable Care act was a 90s repub idea. Also...he doesn't give a fvck about the environment.[/QUOTE]
So....If he was a republican, why did you dislike him?