April, 2010 archive

When challenged to make good on their obstructionism, Republicans fold.

A deal to proceed (on debating Financial Reform–ed.) came after Democrats threatened to keep the Senate in session all night to put pressure on Republicans. Minutes after an aide said cots would be set up for senators to sleep on, an agreement was announced.

Formal debate on the bill will begin at 12:15 p.m. (1615 GMT) on Thursday, said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid.

It’s about time the filibusterers were called on to actually filibuster.

Aside:

From the Dept. of Etymology Dept.: “Filibusterer” is a corruption of “freebooter,” a synonym for brigand or pirate. From the Gnome Dictionary, the Webster’s 1913 definition:

A lawless military adventurer, especially one in quest of plunder; a freebooter; — originally applied to buccaneers infesting the Spanish American coasts, but introduced into common English to designate the followers of Lopez in his expedition to Cuba in 1851, and those of Walker in his expedition to Nicaragua, in 1855.

In quest of plunder.

’nuff said.

Republicans pimp voter registrations:

Orange County authorities are launching an investigation into possible voter registration fraud after a local newspaper reported over a hundred cases of voters being tricked into registering as Republicans by petitioners who asked them to sign petitions for, among other causes, legalizing pot.

Unlike ACORN, which paid canvassers an hourly rate, the Republican Party was paying for piecework: $8.00 per registration.

Steve Almond tells of living in El Paso and watching persons from Juarez “commute” to work every day by wading across the Rio Grande in the morning, then wading back home the next day. He contrasts what he observed with harsh rhetoric of the anti-immigration folks and concludes:

Most of all, I’d suggest to those who trumpet the alleged evils of undocumented workers to spend some time in cities like El Paso and Juarez.

What they’d discover is an ancient and enduring truth: immigration is not about spreading evil. It’s about poor people seeking to become less poor. It is about the very human beings whose honest labors built our nation, and whose dreams honor its most sacred tenets.

Cookie Jill points out that

brown skinned people didn’t take away your job

.

John Cole forgets how to mince words.

I’m keeping this at the top of the page, because he said it better than I could.

Read more »

The probabilities are analyzed here.

TerranceDC wonders how far back the Teabaggers actually want to take the country. A nugget:

Years ago, long before I stumbled into blogging, I got into a discussion/argument with a conservative about their penchant for returning to the “good old days,” and pointed out that (borrowing a line from Billy Joel) “the good old days weren’t always good” for everybody. My opponent argued that we could return to those days and “make them good for everybody.” It seemed impossible then, and it seems even more so now.

I guessed that period was probably the 1950s – when (the great, white) father knew best, and everybody else knew their place; women in the kitchen, gays in the closet, blacks in the back of the bus, etc. In my defense, I got that idea from some conservatives.

It turns out I was way off. I didn’t go back far enough. Not nearly.

Follow the link to find out how far back.

Distilled wingnut, by Sara Benincasa:

Via TPM.