dagblog - Comments for "This is how it works..."

Dear Mr. Day:(So mush more

Barth — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 21:32:00 +0000

In reply to As usual great essay.104

Dear Mr. Day:

(So mush more fun to say than "Dickster" although I keep thinking of Dennis Day and "gosh, Mr. Benny").

What you say. Nice link, too. Sadly, more useful than these pipedreams about how to get rid of the filibuster.

I really love this site. You

Barth — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 21:30:45 +0000

In reply to First, awesome piece. I

I really love this site. You post something, and then get more insight on the same subject. Evry word is perfect, but "The senate has basically bored its potential critics to death. For the most part people just look at this crap and say 'I told you government can't do anything.' This, of course, serves the right wing agenda quite nicely" is almost musical and absolutely so.

As usual great essay.104

Richard Day — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 20:42:37 +0000

In reply to This is how it works...

As usual great essay.

104 'filibusters' this year alone. And the Maine Sisters participated in almost every one of them.

Mederates my ass!!

Any honor among repubs has gone by the wayside.

Great material on cloiture here:

http://www.ourfuture.org/obstruction

First, awesome piece. I

Michael Maiello — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 20:35:52 +0000

In reply to This is how it works...

First, awesome piece. I suppose it's easy for me to say since I agree with it so much but this would be great even if I took issue with your conclusions. Once upon a time, people would allow bills to come for a vote even if they would later vote against the bill. The pretty simple and I think pretty understandable thought behind that is that you should not assume it's your right to stop the full senate from having its say. Sadly, I think the last time this happened was when Joe Lieberman voted for cloture on the bankruptcy reform bill, which he then voted against. At the time I recall that I and others argued that Joe was really voting for the bill which was sure to pass once it got its vote. But this shouldn't be a debate about outcomes, it should be a debate about proper process. We now have bills that are popular with the public not even getting to go before the Senate. That's a problem.

Of course, the public doesn't care. I suspect this is because the public is generally not interested in parliamentary procedure debates. I know I'm not. I'm only writing and reading about it because it sadly seems to have become important. But, honestly, I'm no more interested in this than I am about how school board meetings are run in Ontario. The senate has basically bored its potential critics to death. For the most part people just look at this crap and say "I told you government can't do anything." This, of course, serves the right wing agenda quite nicely. But I also suspect is serves all of the entrenched interests. Government itself is now subject to the "soft bigotry of low expectations," which, by the way, I think is the smartest thing W. ever said though he misapplied it.