Florida State Seminoles

[Bklyn]

Nah, that's the way it used to be...which is why you could get some things done.

Now, the cameras are ALWAYS rolling (or someone is blogging about it) and Congress is getting filled with people who REFUSE to drink and socialize with one another, let alone work on any real legislative compromise. You can ask Dick Lugar if being chummy with other people across the aisle has any consequences.

It was right around halfway into Clinton's first term (where Freshman Rick Santorum repeatedly referred to him as "Bill" on the Floor of the Senate) when cats on the Hill got more ferocious against each other...and, I hate to say it, moreso the Repubs than the Dems (which holds true to this day).

[hedge]

It was right around halfway into Clinton's first term (where Freshman Rick Santorum repeatedly referred to him as "Bill" on the Floor of the Senate) when cats on the Hill got more ferocious against each other....

From Blood Meridian:

"Did you know that when Colonel Doniphan took Chihuahua City he inflicted over a
thousand casualties on the enemy and lost only one man and him all but a suicide?
With an army of unpaid irregulars that called him Bill, were half naked, and had walked
to the battlefield from Missouri?"

[Gator by God's Grace]

Dooley case- defendant's Motion to dismiss based on stand your ground, apparently has been denied...

[Bklyn]

How it all started to end for us...

When Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was first argued before the Supreme Court, on March 24, 2009, it seemed like a case of modest importance. The issue before the Justices was a narrow one. The McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law prohibited corporations from running television commercials for or against Presidential candidates for thirty days before primaries. During that period, Citizens United, a nonprofit corporation, had wanted to run a documentary, as a cable video on demand, called “Hillary: The Movie,” which was critical of Hillary Clinton. The F.E.C. had prohibited the broadcast under McCain-Feingold, and Citizens United had challenged the decision. There did not seem to be a lot riding on the outcome. After all, how many nonprofits wanted to run documentaries about Presidential candidates, using relatively obscure technologies, just before elections?

“This sort of communication was not something that Congress intended to prohibit,” Olson said. This view made the case even more straightforward. Olson’s argument indicated that there was no need for the Court to declare any part of the law unconstitutional, or even to address the First Amendment implications of the case. Olson simply sought a judgment that McCain-Feingold did not apply to documentaries shown through video on demand.

The Justices settled into their usual positions. The diminutive Ruth Bader Ginsburg was barely visible above the bench. Stephen Breyer was twitchy, his expressions changing based on whether or not he agreed with the lawyer’s answers. As ever, Clarence Thomas was silent. (He was in year three of his now six-year streak of not asking questions.)

Then Antonin Scalia spoke up. More than anyone, Scalia was responsible for transforming the dynamics of oral arguments at the Supreme Court. When Scalia became a Justice, in 1986, the Court sessions were often somnolent affairs, but his rapid-fire questioning spurred his colleagues to try to keep pace, and, as Roberts said, in a tribute to Scalia on his twenty-fifth anniversary as a Justice, “the place hasn’t been the same since.” Alternately witty and fierce, Scalia invariably made clear where he stood.

He had long detested campaign-spending restrictions, frequently voting to invalidate such statutes as violations of the First Amendment. For this reason, it seemed, Scalia was disappointed by the limited nature of Olson’s claim.

“So you’re making a statutory argument now?” Scalia said.

“I’m making a—” Olson began.

“You’re saying this isn’t covered by it,” Scalia continued.

That’s right, Olson responded. All he was asking for was a ruling that the law did not prohibit this particular documentary by this nonprofit corporation during those thirty days. If the Justices had resolved the case as Olson had suggested, today Citizens United might well be forgotten—a narrow ruling on a remote aspect of campaign-finance law.

Instead, the oral arguments were about to take the case—and the law—in an entirely new direction.



Read more

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012 ... z1us3OW4DF

[sardis]

Yeah, but watching Oprama having to go hat in hand to Wall Street for donations is kinda entertaining...

[Bklyn]

I think Schwartzman (or however it's spelled) hosted him up. Romney will get the preponderance of Wall Street money, for sure, and they both will have an insane amount of money to spend come September. Obama will get Finance cash, too, because any good financier understands the benefits of a good hedging program.

Congratulations Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Iowa...ad buys are coming your way.

[sardis]

We also have the convention. Stupid move by Dems in my opinion, but hey, we'll take the stimulus...

[Gator by God's Grace]

Congratulations Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Iowa...ad buys are coming your way.

you mean having to explain to my kids that the statements in the incessant political commercials are complete bullshit? the endless spam phone calls? gee, thanks...

[Bklyn]

Yep. Like I said, Congrats. It's promoting family interaction and communication! Family values! Apple pie, blue jeans, guns and tobacco!

America.

[eCat]

Just read up on the Treaty of Tripoli.

funny it was never mentioned growing up in church.

I suspect it gives the Evangelicals plenty of heartburn.

[Bklyn]

Never did read it...actually don't even know what it is.

[eCat]

"Authored by American diplomat Joel Barlow in 1796, the following treaty was sent to the floor of the Senate, June 7, 1797, where it was read aloud in its entirety and unanimously approved. John Adams, having seen the treaty, signed it and proudly proclaimed it to the Nation."

Article 11 is the one that gets some play

"Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

[sardis]

Reading the background of that treaty kind of waters down the impact of that statement a bit, IMO.

The most interesting thing about this treaty is that we were basically negotiating with terrorists, bribing them not to kill our citizens...

[eCat]

Reading the background of that treaty kind of waters down the impact of that statement a bit, IMO.

The most interesting thing about this treaty is that we were basically negotiating with terrorists, bribing them not to kill our citizens...

maybe but it gives pretty good context to the mindset of the founding fathers and it totally blows out the horseshit the evangelicals have been pushing on us in their revisionist thinking. Especially when you start picking up tidbits likes "In God We Trust" was written into the Star Spangled Banner around 1812 and added into currency and our nations vernacular around the civil war, then dropped on some coins and re-added in the 1950's as a result of rising communism.

[Gator by God's Grace]

from reports re the Dooley case, I would expect something similar will transpire in the Zimolito case:

A minitrial hearing was held before Circuit Judge Ashley Moody on a motion to dismiss the case based on the state's Stand Your Ground law that grants immunity from prosecution to people who use deadly force if they feel their life is in danger or are about to be seriously hurt.

But Moody's ruling said that Dooley had gone to the park in an aggressive manner and that he flashed the weapon threateningly and that James was actually protecting himself, his daughter and the handful of other people in the park. She denied the motion, opening the way for a trial.

[Dave23]

www.drudgereport.com

[Bklyn]

It always surprises me who shoddy Matt Drudge lays out his website...sensational, outrageous and/or inaccurate headlines notwithstanding.

[eCat]

I'm more interested in the Greeks run on the banks right now

[sardis]

Good time to refinance your mortgage. All the Europeans are flocking to Treasuries.

[Bklyn]

The Greek run has been going on for 3 years. They've lost about 30% of deposits over that time.

If Greece leaves the EU, it will be Argentina in the 80s or Zimbabwe. A total inflationary shit show.