All-Purpose NuILX thread for American Politics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9njHHyRI7g

I don't know...effective, but too early, looks panicky. And in a poor economy, I think the flip-flop strategy will cause massive shrugging. I also suspect, as unfair as it may be, that for a number of voters, Democratic flip-flopper (i.e., Kerry) = weak, spineless, but Republican flip-flopper = pragmatic, has no choice but to head-fake all the wingnuts.

OK, we need a primary thread in this here sandbox.

seriously, i don't think it's a very effective ad. there are much better clips to highlight romney's flip-flopping, and might tighter -- and tougher -- ways to go about it. i think perry's team did a very good job with their first ad, for instance.

but of course, obama has a top-flight campaign organization. this leads me to believe that they're "holding their powder," and will hammer romney with the better stuff in the general election.

IF ROMNEY IS THE NOMINEE

http://www.mediaite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Newt_Gingrich.jpg

man that's begging for some homophotoshopping

<i>and much tighter -- and tougher -- ways to go about it.</i>

Agree with that. I think the biggest problem with the spot is that it's too jokey--the tone's all wrong.

Hertzberg's elegy to Barney Frank's house career.

...His press conference today, announcing his decision, was a fairly typical performance. He talked in his inimitable manner: fast, deadpan-humorous, lucid, sharp, delivering zingers in that gravelly voice of his, with its characteristic glottal L’s and fugitive R’s. He is a pleasure to listen to. Frank is frank. He does not bore. He does not condescend. He makes the complicated comprehensible. Going out, he’s as outgoing as he was coming in.

Frank may not have been simon-pure, but he was usually living in one of the better neighborhoods of politics and he was a pleasure to hear speak.

yup

In many ways you can judge him by the quality of his enemies.

Reviewing Justice Kagan's performances so far.

Lithwick also agrees with "most legal" experts that SCOTUS will uphold the AHCA by " a 6-3 or a 7-2 margin."

In many ways you can judge him by the quality of his enemies.

Nope. Wouldn't be all that hated if not gay. In the pocket of Wall St.

Frum's article in NYMag is pretty interesting: When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?

Much more honest than Chait's.

yeah, that frum piece was good.

In the aughts, Republicans held more power for longer than at any time since the twenties, yet the result was the weakest and least broadly shared economic expansion since World War II, followed by an economic crash and prolonged slump.

really can't beat this for a damning indictment of the GOP

that was barney frank's fault.

smile when you say that, mate

i am smiling.

http://www.billybobteeth.com/album/images/Barry1_jpg.jpg

obama shops at independent bookstore (albeit one that likely only exists because of its restaurant).

if he hadn't sold out, he'd have gone to politics and prose.

(fwiw bill clinton used to shop at borders)

Obama’s daughters Sasha and Malia picked up picture book Everyone Poops

aaaaaaahahahahahaha, right on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_Republican

Support for Obama from writers afflicted with conservatism

obv belongs in the amazing wiki facts thread but i don't think there's a sandbox version

Ruth Marcus lectures the girl who said Brownback sucked.

I always get the impression that Ruth Marcus gets her news from CNN Headlines and then writes her pieces in one quick draft just before they are due.

It's a shame her editor doesn't shoot her every time.

marcus does sound "alarmingly crotchety here," and utterly wrong. attempting to invoke the limited rights of schools to restrain free-speech is utterly absurd in this instance. and, while i expect civility and propriety in my own 10 year-old daughter, i think it's good to see a teenager motivated enough to tweet about politics at all (even tho it would be better for her to actually discuss, or even participate in, politics).

“Just made mean comments at ruth marcs and told her she sucked, in person. #sheblowsalot.”

i would have spelled "marcus" correctly and in full, but i was just over the 140 character limit.

daniel otm

...and the term "potty-mouthed" is a nauseatingly priggish one, anyway, esp. in reference to two words mild enough to be used on US broadcast TV.

Reviewing Justice Kagan's performances so far.

Lithwick also agrees with "most legal" experts that SCOTUS will uphold the AHCA by " a 6-3 or a 7-2 margin."

― Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, November 29, 2011 4:30 PM (2 days ago)

i usually like lithwick but this kind of dumbed down, isn't it? there's not much analysis of whether kagan's style is, like, worth it, or effective. why is befriending conservative justices a plus, exactly? lithwick herself quotes that these are the "big leagues" and that kind of buttering up won't work here. and whom is she writing to with the second-person narrative? why is that a good thing? why is it necessary to make it easier for ME to read her opinions? the people actually making use of them are jurists and academics, not laypeople like us.

the pertinent cold water, at any rate:

But while Kagan is assuredly a liberal, and likely also a fan of the health-reform law, a close read of her tenure at the Supreme Court suggests that she is in fact the opposite of a progressive zealot. By the end of Kagan’s first term, conservatives like former Bush solicitor general Paul Clement (who will likely argue against the health-care law this coming spring) and Chief Justice John Roberts were giving Kagan high marks as a new justice precisely because she wasn’t a frothing ideologue. The pre-confirmation caricatures of her as a self-serving careerist and party hack are not borne out by her conduct at oral argument, her writing, and her interactions with her colleagues. In fact, if her first term and a half is any indication, she may well madden as many staunch liberals as conservatives in the coming years.

can I just

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj6UX6OyXww&feature=player_embedded

That's some Double Impact special effect going on there, right?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/Double_impact.jpg

whoa, does van damme have a twin brother or something? that's amazing!!

i usually like lithwick but this kind of dumbed down, isn't it? there's not much analysis of whether kagan's style is, like, worth it, or effective. why is befriending conservative justices a plus, exactly?

I frowned at this too. I hadn't expected Lithwick to espouse the Beltway dictum that shitting on your own side guarantees immortality.

Senator Blobfish has ideas about stuff

About that repulsive terrorist detainee bill.

More on that bill. I wonder whether this is more shadowplay: the Senate Dems get to look like robust warriors to voters, while an Obama veto threat burnishes his liberal cred.

who were the dems who voted to defeat that amendment?

http://www.emptywheel.net/2011/11/29/udall-amendment-fails-37-61/

the official roll call is here:

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=1&vote=00210

http://store.barackobama.com/accessories/dog-bandana.html

has timellison found the sandbox?

this could be awesome: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/12/us_supreme_court_to_review_iss.html

Lindsey Graham is a repulsive piece of shit:

One of the proponents of making no exceptions for Americans, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said it would be “crazy” to exempt Qaeda suspects who are Americans and are arrested inside the country from battlefield-style detention. He argued that, to stop other attacks, they must be interrogated without the protections of the civilian criminal justice system.

Citizens who are suspected of joining Al Qaeda are opening themselves up “to imprisonment and death,” Mr. Graham said, adding, “And when they say, ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them: ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer. You are an enemy combatant, and we are going to talk to you about why you joined Al Qaeda.

innocent until proven gu...what was it again? oh well!

Shut up!

-but I believe I'm entitled to a lawye-

this really isn't politics, but it's notable that the newest unemployment figures are much better. it's still a bad picture -- 8.6% unemployment -- but it's trending in the right direction, and since there's no shortage of coverage when the news is bad, it should be noted when the news is good.

also: what would the unemployment rate be today if the public-sector wasn't shedding jobs as the impact of stimulus-funds wear off?

xpost to self

SHUT UP!