All-Purpose NuILX thread for American Politics

what would be different?

we would MAYBE be at war with russia tbf

would've bombed Iran by now

Libya would have been an even bigger clusterfuck

don't ask/don't tell still in place

social security/medicare/medicaid totally gutted

7-3 majority of conservative assholes on the supreme court

no stimulus, no ARRA funding = even higher unemployment

probably would've fucked up the handling of the BP oil spill in the gulf somehow

EPA abolished

Bush tax cuts made permanent

Policy driven by intermittent rage.

war in Iraq still going on, probably even heavier presence in Afghanistan

Bin Laden still alive/Al Qaeda still functional

People everywhere prefacing everything they say with, "My friend..."

Sarah Palin in national office

osama bin laden somehow a member of GOP administration

We would never have really gotten to know Herman Cain.

planes do a 180 after take off & before landing, fly upside down in sky, you spend the whole flight only held in your seat by the seatbelt, can't go to bathroom, no peanuts &c

haha, questions not to ask liberals Part 567

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_V5SReiHuxbs/THLBcj7hmhI/AAAAAAAADgc/bSUQupA5MeI/s1600/4+fanta.jpg

EPA abolished

eh, don't know about that one. it's very difficult to abolish a federal agency, despite the easy way that politicians bring it up on the campaign trail. even if you're johnny "mc-no-no" McCain. MCCAIN!

The sight of Ricardo reminds me: the performers who would be invited to a McCain white house would be of a different calibur.

dead?

Or as near as can be.

OBAMA BIDEN 2012
for superlative whitehouse in-house entertainment

I can think of better slogans, but not any that are grounded in reality.

Having spent the last few years studying the Supreme Court in my capacity as a non-lawyer, I've realized that the hot air breathed by whole sides -- if X wins he'll change the Court! -- has little to do with history. Even if eight conservatives sat on the court they would start to fracture in weird, unpredictable ways. Look at FDR's court! He appointed more justices than any since Washington, and no one expected Frankfurter, Reed, and Jackson to become the "conservative" bloc.

so there's a senate deal on the payroll tax extension. a key concession is that the review process for the keystone xl tar sands pipeline will be dramatically sped up - 60 days, rather than the 12+ months that was the previous timeline. i'm sympathizing with shakey's comment (this thread? another thread? don't want to look, sorry) that this could be a good thing for opposers of the pipeline. after all, since there's no way the state department's re-review will be complete in 60 days (and i don't even know if that counts the time for the Inspector General of the State Dept. to complete the review of the corruption-riddled initial review), obama could legitimately refuse to grant the permit on the grounds that the information he needs to make the decision isn't yet available. beyond that, though, this might end up being a good thing for enviros because it moves the deadline for decision from 12+months - after an election, when the momentum from the tar sands action movement would have mostly dissipated - to 2 months from now, when the momentum will only build. in fact, just now all the tar sands people were sent a fist-pumping LET'S FUCKING DO THIS alert, and with a more short-term target of 2 months, i think it's likely we'll be able to raise an even greater fuss than a few weeks ago when we surrounded the white house 5 people deep.

anyway, tl;dr but it's going to be fascinating to see how this plays out.

oh yeah, another key concession for the local DC area:

The bill would prohibit the District of Columbia from using federal or local tax money to pay for abortions for low-income women under Medicaid.

federal OR local tax money. WTF

No local taxes, because D.C. is actually administered by Congress, despite having a mayor and local police force, so they can make laws specific to D.C. if they're feeling pissy.

Having spent the last few years studying the Supreme Court in my capacity as a non-lawyer, I've realized that the hot air breathed by whole sides -- if X wins he'll change the Court! -- has little to do with history. Even if eight conservatives sat on the court they would start to fracture in weird, unpredictable ways. Look at FDR's court! He appointed more justices than any since Washington, and no one expected Frankfurter, Reed, and Jackson to become the "conservative" bloc.

you don't think things have fundamentally changed since then tho? in how we nominate people, in how they're vetted, in what kinds of judges can even make it?

He's an historian!

Having spent the last few years studying the Supreme Court in my capacity as a non-lawyer

Well then.

okay...I'm gonna switch sides just so I don't have to agree w/ gabnebb

you don't think things have fundamentally changed since then tho? in how we nominate people, in how they're vetted, in what kinds of judges can even make it?

Maybe before John Paul Stevens and David Souter die they can tell us how they "disappointed" their supporters (Ford wasn't though).

my point being that things have changed not just since fdr but since stevens and souter even

partly due to them

aw is it really you gabs?

Of course it's changed since FDR's time. It would be impossible for a sitting senator like Hugo Black to join the court; but I insist that no matter how closely nominees are examined they're not machines. It doesn't happen immediately; it may take several years.

you really think there's some chance alito or roberts are not solid conservatives 20 years from now?

Roberts and Alito are not the same kind of conservatives as, say, Thomas, or the Most Important Man in America.

But to answer your question more directly: I'm sure they'll be conservatives of a kind in twenty years, but who the fuck knows what conservatism looks like in twenty years, let alone what kind of country gabbneb or melting ice caps give us.

right but we're talking about a swing to the degree that the republican party would feel regret w/r/t that nomination. whereas I'm gonna say "I'm guessing they're gonna stay pretty content w/ those nominations"

...the Most Self-Important Man in America

fixed

this could be a good thing for opposers of the pipeline. after all, since there's no way the state department's re-review will be complete in 60 days (and i don't even know if that counts the time for the Inspector General of the State Dept. to complete the review of the corruption-riddled initial review), obama could legitimately refuse to grant the permit on the grounds that the information he needs to make the decision isn't yet available

I think it may be more about politics than policy for the other side. They want to point to something to suggest that Obama is standing in the way of job creation.

aw is it really you gabs?

Belay on.

lol tbh i don't get why some itt are so eager to distance themselves from gabbnebism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr_OL-vu-po

"Symmetry"

let's keep conservatives off the Supremes by reelecting the guy who just codified unlimited detention.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/2873125085_239aa74ba2.jpg

just in case C Dexter is gabbneb I'm quitting this sandbox thread.