I'll give'em credit for this move.
― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 02:14 (twelve years ago) link
re: payroll tax cut extension
House leaders are hoping to entice conservative support by packaging the payroll tax extension with other priorities, such as a provision that would make it more likely that construction would begin soon on a controversial oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
hahah oh fuck off you idiots
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 16:35 (twelve years ago) link
leaving and cutting ties just feels so unconscionable to me, like equal investment in rebuilding would ~morally~ be the appropriate coda to being engaged in warfare
the problem is no amount of imperial meddling is going to make Afghanistan a better to place to live. I dunno if you could even say we're leaving it WORSE off than it was before, it's pretty much the same as far as I can tell - riven with sectarian conflict and aggro nutjobs who want to fight among themselves indefinitely, with no interest in being anything resembling a modern nation.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 16:41 (twelve years ago) link
Presidents often outlive us, study shows.
― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 16:45 (twelve years ago) link
it's the socialist healthcare they get
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 16:53 (twelve years ago) link
They all need to eat more pretzels.
― Nicole, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 16:57 (twelve years ago) link
Adams lost teeth but not brains.
― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 16:57 (twelve years ago) link
14 years for blogojevich.
― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 7 December 2011 18:45 (twelve years ago) link
14 years of explaining his complete innocence to the prison guards.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 18:49 (twelve years ago) link
well, he said at sentencing that he was sorry for his "made terrible mistakes," but that he "never intended to break the law." the judge said, "the jury didn't believe you and neither do i."
― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 7 December 2011 18:50 (twelve years ago) link
a provision that would make it more likely that construction would begin soon on a controversial oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, they're so transparently servants of the oil industry
― Z S, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 18:54 (twelve years ago) link
Well, why not? Do you believe this climate change twaddle?
― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 18:56 (twelve years ago) link
totally. it was in the 50s around here recently. you see? it's C-O-L-D-E-R than expected, not h-o-t-t-e-r.
― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 7 December 2011 18:57 (twelve years ago) link
with that alone, you can ignore what you hear from egghead "scientists."
when time magazine sums up the twenty first century it will just be the word scientists in sarcastic quote marks
― Never translate German (schlump), Wednesday, 7 December 2011 18:59 (twelve years ago) link
I like the implication that TIME magazine is run by and written for cockroaches
― OH NOES, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:00 (twelve years ago) link
TIME 2100: They blinded us with "Science."
― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:01 (twelve years ago) link
Maybe it is!
http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/hitler/sources/40s/414-141HitlerTime.jpg
― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:01 (twelve years ago) link
dude! ugh.
― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:02 (twelve years ago) link
blast from the past: 90s icon Mumia taken off death row
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
woah really, I thought he'd already been executed
― OH NOES, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:12 (twelve years ago) link
blago's wife is my landlord -- thankfully my rent being four days late this month is prob the least of her worries now
― v-shasty, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:31 (twelve years ago) link
haha that's awesome jord
― iatee, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:32 (twelve years ago) link
I really need to figure out who's who in this here sandbox.
― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:32 (twelve years ago) link
oh god:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the scientists at the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday and refused to allow emergency contraceptives to be sold as freely as aspirin, setting up just the kind of clash between politics and science that President Obama had promised to avoid.
Under the law, Ms. Sebelius has the authority to overrule the agency, according to an F.D.A. spokeswoman, but no health secretary has ever done so before. Her decision continues a history of political meddling in the agency’s decisions regarding emergency contraceptives that tarnished the drug administration’s credibility during the Bush administration. Ms. Sibelius’s decision to overrule a recommendation by government scientists will also almost certainly reverberate in this presidential election season.
― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:34 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/health/policy/sebelius-overrules-fda-on-freer-sale-of-emergency-contraceptives.html?ref=politics
rust belt catholics, thumbs up to u
― slandblox goole, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:38 (twelve years ago) link
weak. i kinda haven't heard a lot about her since she's been in the admin but sorta remember feeling like she was one of the good guys, blarg
― Never translate German (schlump), Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:38 (twelve years ago) link
This is such bullshit, but it doesn't surprise me.
― Nicole, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 19:40 (twelve years ago) link
Catholic bishops for Obama 2012
― Another Suburbanite, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 20:36 (twelve years ago) link
wow what the fuck at that hhs ruling, fucking shameful
otoh mumia!
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 7 December 2011 21:27 (twelve years ago) link
What devotees of sadomasochism do to their bodies is nothing compared to the torments that those addicted to the news and political commentary inflict on their minds almost every hour of the day.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/dec/05/goodbye-serenity/
― o. nate, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 22:21 (twelve years ago) link
Just noticed these details on this...
The drug, Plan B One-Step, has been sold for several years over the counter to women age 17 and older, but girls under that age need a prescription.
“I have concluded that the data … do not conclusively establish that Plan B One-Step should be made available over the counter for all girls of reproductive age,”
― Another Suburbanite, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 22:27 (twelve years ago) link
loved that, kinda a perfect halfway between a newspaper letter & a sobering memoirxp
― Never translate German (schlump), Wednesday, 7 December 2011 22:30 (twelve years ago) link
btw
“Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut, I will reject,” Obama said. “Everybody should be on notice. The reason is because the payroll tax cut is something House Republicans and Senate Republicans should want to do regardless of any other issues.
The tax cut “shouldn’t be held hostage to any other issues they may be concerned about,” Obama continued. “My warning is not just related to Keystone. Efforts to tie a bunch of other issues to something they should do anyway will be rejected — by me.”
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 22:36 (twelve years ago) link
mad ups to obama for this
― Z S, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 22:37 (twelve years ago) link
I'm still worried that he'll just approve it 2013 but who knows...
re: payroll tax cut, he knows he's got the GOP backed into a corner so he can afford to be a dick about it
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 22:39 (twelve years ago) link
Backed into a corner... Reid and company keep watering down the Dems proposal and nobody mentions that the Republicans never insisted that the Bush tax cuts be paid for
― Another Suburbanite, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 22:41 (twelve years ago) link
nobody mentions that the Republicans never insisted that the Bush tax cuts be paid for
uh Obama and Reid have both said this iirc
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
also I don't know how it's been watered down...? Bill in the Senate sets the payroll tax cut even higher than it currently is now, unless I've misread something.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 22:46 (twelve years ago) link
has this been posted? the boy boy young ratigan went ham
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=G4yDCUJJm_U
― v-shasty, Thursday, 8 December 2011 00:57 (twelve years ago) link
yeah that's relatively old i think - ratigan is pretty awesome
― k3vin k., Thursday, 8 December 2011 01:05 (twelve years ago) link
yeah i think that happened 2 or 3 months ago. i'm pretty bummed that it doesn't have 3 million views and my idiot facebook feed wasn't saturated with it for a solid week following
― (will), Thursday, 8 December 2011 01:10 (twelve years ago) link
this plan b no longer OTC bullshit has me exactly as fucking pissed off as y'all might imagine
― undervalued aerosmith tchotchkes sold in bulk, Thursday, 8 December 2011 02:06 (twelve years ago) link
this kind of has to go here too btwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2fKmeFR_ko
― Dranke, the German Drake Impersonator (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 8 December 2011 02:08 (twelve years ago) link
― undervalued aerosmith tchotchkes sold in bulk, Wednesday, December 7, 2011 9:06 PM (5 minutes ago)
it still will be available w/o a prescription to 17+; nothing's changed, but the FDA had voted to make it available OTC for anyone
this woman: not a doctor, not a pharmacist, no background in medical or outcomes research i can find, no prior public health experience other than her work at the HHS. but she knew better than the scientists on the FDA panel. she does have a pretty strong pro-choice background though
this is complete bullshit, there is truly nothing else to be said
― k3vin k., Thursday, 8 December 2011 02:26 (twelve years ago) link
the thing is back when she was a veep possible I really thought she seemed ok, she was strong pro-choice. this is such a bullshit next-year's-an-election-year move (at the expense of pregnant teenagers) - politicians second-guessing the fda is up on some "global warming? it snowed today, ya morons!"
― undervalued aerosmith tchotchkes sold in bulk, Thursday, 8 December 2011 02:37 (twelve years ago) link
otm
― k3vin k., Thursday, 8 December 2011 02:45 (twelve years ago) link
see man, one of the things i thought i liked about obama - and a point in his favor over any GOP prez - was that i thought in some ways he was at least could be a pretty good and effective bureaucrat - cf his administration's decision to require all insurers to provide OCs without copay. but fuck them for this
― k3vin k., Thursday, 8 December 2011 02:54 (twelve years ago) link
(i know this doesn't fit squarely into a u.s. politics thread, but the underlying reasons are very closely intertwined with u.s. politics, and also i don't feel like creating a climate change/energy sandbox thread)
at the UN Climate Talks in Durban, the U.S. is pushing a proposal to delay significant action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions until at least 2020. for those that don't follow climate science, delaying action until 2020 is essentially a guarantee that temperatures will rise at least 2 degrees Celsius, which is more than enough to absolutely alter life as we know it. And delaying action until 2020 makes it even more likely that we'll approach utterly catastrophic scenarios (4, 5, 6+ degrees celsius increase). David Roberts writes:
It might seem that, given the extraordinary difficulty of hitting 2 degrees C, we ought to lower our sights a bit and accept that we're going to hit 4 degrees C. It won't be ideal, but hitting anything lower than that is just too difficult and expensive.It's seductive logic. After all, to hit 4 degrees C we would "only" have to peak global emissions in 2020 and decline thereafter at the relatively leisurely rate (ha ha) of around 3.5 percent per year.Sadly, even that cold comfort is not available to us. The thing is, if 2 degrees C is extremely dangerous, 4 degrees C is absolutely catastrophic. In fact, according to the latest science, says Anderson, "a 4 degrees C future is incompatible with an organized global community, is likely to be beyond 'adaptation', is devastating to the majority of ecosystems, and has a high probability of not being stable."
It's seductive logic. After all, to hit 4 degrees C we would "only" have to peak global emissions in 2020 and decline thereafter at the relatively leisurely rate (ha ha) of around 3.5 percent per year.
Sadly, even that cold comfort is not available to us. The thing is, if 2 degrees C is extremely dangerous, 4 degrees C is absolutely catastrophic. In fact, according to the latest science, says Anderson, "a 4 degrees C future is incompatible with an organized global community, is likely to be beyond 'adaptation', is devastating to the majority of ecosystems, and has a high probability of not being stable."
anyway, tying it back to "U.S. Politics", what a fucking disappointment. the fact that the U.S. negotiating team is pushing this indicates that the people in the Administration who actually knew what they're talking about (Holdren, Browner, Chu, Jackson, Van Jones (RIP)) didn't really get through to Obama.
― Z S, Thursday, 8 December 2011 04:51 (twelve years ago) link