The mainstream media is pretending that those suggesting we’ve entered into a constitutional crisis — the current administration has decided it won’t follow a district judge’s ruling and continues to implement ObamaCare, despite its having been declared unconstitutional — are quaint and rather a bit silly.
They’re wrong.
I understand that the judiciary is supposed to provide a check on the Executive branch, and that in theory, the Executive is not completely bound by a judicial ruling (the problem with giving the courts too much power is that a politicized court leads to a society ruled by deferential philosopher kings, not a true representative democracy). But I haven’t heard the President stand up and say that the court ruling is invalid — and that he therefore refuses to follow it. Because doing so would be open up a huge constitutional debate — and force the administration to make the legal case publicly for ObamaCare’s constitutionality under the Commerce Clause and under the Necessary and Proper Clause. Which would illustrate that Obama lied about the law not being a tax (as they are now arguing in court) — and that he lied about his having previously believed (when running against Hillary Clinton in the Dem primaries) that such mandates are disallowable by law.
Instead, the Administration is simply ignoring the judge’s ruling. And the mainstream press is, yet again, carrying water for the President. That is, they are complicit in what is a kind of overthrow of our civil society and social compact.
Thankfully, at least one state attorney general has taken note, and is doing something about it.
Force the issue, you states who received a de facto injunction. What’s at stake here is not only important — it’s for all the freakin’ marbles.
Sure as heck doesn’t seem wise to spend money on a thing that’s verging on overturn anyhow, just on prudential grounds if nothing else. Oh hey, taxpayers, we’re sorry we wasted your dough like that, we just didn’t see the end of this thing coming. Yeah, that’ll convince ’em.
The northern Texas!
It’s hard to believe Wisconsin did this. The place is as full of commies as Minnesota.
The Axis of beeves.
the uncertainty president bumblefuck has afflicted on our struggling economy is horrifically damaging
He’s just a goddamn awful president.
I’m thinking all 26 states that brought suit will not be implementing Obamacare. What will be interesting to see is how the other 24 react, whether they will continue to invest in the bureaucracy that may never be used.
[Wisconsin]is as full of commies as Minnesota.
Fewer norwegians and more krauts?
Few other things we’re doing: increasing the legislative majorities required to raise taxes, making voter ID a law and a constitutional amendment (so it’s effective immediately and will be nearly impossible to change back), requiring all regulatory rules to be approved by the Gov, and cutting the budget just about everywhere.
Depending on how the unions play things, decertification might become viable as well.
Obama won here in ’08 by 13 points.
Draw your own conclusions.
Cranky is right, btw. We’re chock full of commies, moderates, and rightist squishes.
That’s what makes me optimistic about the larger project.
As we’re so similar, I really do think there’s a chance that Minn ’12 can mirror Wisco ’10.
I’m going to guess fear of becoming Northeast Minnillisotios.
Either that or fear of catching what ails Michigan.
The way the administration should deal with this is an appeal. But they cannot ignore it.
Alas, Dayton won’t be up until ’14.
Stupid Dayton.
Ernst: Just get Sarah Palin to mention Dayton on facebook. Millions of raving psychopaths will do the rest for you.
It’s true, I heard on the MSNBC.
My friend told me Dayton wants to increase our budget by a billion dollars. Isn’t that wonderful? I expect our taxes will have to go up.
How did we elect a guy who was considered The Worst Senator Ever™ as governor? Too many people here are too forgiving.
Darth, the slavering hoards of Palin zombies won’t get the chance. Were Sarah to mention him, and were Dayton to remain true to form, he’d go into hiding for his own protection.
cranky, I’d blame the Arne Anderson-esque RINO sonofabitch who split the anti-Democrat vote. I’d also blame the Seifert campaign for not having the sense to at least attempt to conciliate the TEA-party people. (Although in fairness, I don’t know if they were conciliable –Tom what’s his name did a really good job of hiding is political insidery-ness while running as an outsider.)
A constitutional crisis is also brewing in Wyoming, where a hospital managed to fend off a state law that sought to prohibit implementation of ObamaCare — just before Judge Vinson’s ruling. And I believe Wyoming is a party to the case Vinson ruled on.
The hospital’s argument was that the new law would put it in a bind because federal officials had instructed the hospital to implement rules mandated by ObamaCare, so if the state law went into effect they’d have to choose between breaking state law or federal law.
I wonder what their administrators are thinking now.
The mainstream media is pretending that those suggesting we’ve entered into a constitutional crisis… are quaint and rather a bit silly.
The term “MBM” (Make-Believe Media) is catching on as a descriptor of the contrafactual and fantastical reporting that’s going on.
Nobody knows what color the sky is in their world.
If I have any particulars wrong, somebody bring Swen in to correct me — I’ve only seen a very sketchy report myself and am very interested in further details as well as an update.
I was trying to remember that new appellation for the media last night. Thanks, dicentra. I plan on using it from now on.
A kaleidascopic panaroma of vividly psychadelic hues?
Oh, this is cute:
Honestly, they’re not even trying to hide it any more.
Hmph. Politico doesn’t say whether Sen. Paul was biting the heads off minority babies or pulling the legs off seeing-eye dogs. So it’s an objective article. Much appreciated.
In other news, “global warming” meets renewable energy with predictable results. Hilarity ensues.
Hmm, okay — the hospital didn’t fend off the proposed state constitutional amendment, which will almost certainly go to voters (second article says the state Senate approved it but doesn’t say whether the House already had). Rather, they convinced legislators to remove criminal penalties before approving the bill.
The state House has passed a bill declaring ObamaCare null and void, which goes to the Senate next. Given Vinson’s ruling, and the fact
Wyoming got into the Florida lawsuit at the direction of its brand-new Republican governor, I think this one has an excellent chance of getting signed into law, though I’m thinking if Vinson is overturned these kinds of nullification bills may lead to a federalism crisis.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) stood on the far right side of the Senate chamber…
…having a snort from the Ted Kennedy Memorial Scotch dispenser stolen from the left side of the Senate Chamber.
Heh.
Whaapp faawwhompp.
Hey! He started it!
Faawwhompp whaapp.
Who me? Oh hells no, it was him!
A Kentucky Senator drinking a dead Irishman’s Scotch Whisky?
Outrageous!
Touche Ernst.
Let me fix that headline.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) stood on the far right side of the Senate chamber…having a snort from the Ted Kennedy Memorial Scotch dispenser, stolen from the far left side of the Senate Chamber, and now filled with Woodford Reserve and winning Derby trifectas.
Better?
Truth be told Lamont, I’m not a bourbon fan.
Ace is having serious issues today. First he’s back on the “electability” mantra buying right into the narrative of the MBM. Now he’s advocating for governmental help in creating salons and book clubs to help us further our education.
Yea. Let’s replace college educational budgets at the Ed Dept with book club budgets so we can educate ourselves. Has this fucker not realized what the internet is and what most people use it for?
He must believe someone funded the tea parties setting up their websites and facebooks and such.
God spare us the idiots. He’s really gone over the bend.
You sure he ain’t funning you, Stephanie? About the salon thing, at least?
…I’m not a bourbon fan
Outrageous!
Re: the electability thing.
We should nominate who best represents us, then have that person tell the country, “the choice is now stark. Fuck up this time — after watching what the left is and how it plans to govern — and its on you.”
I like my corn likker filtered through 12 feet of sugar-maple charcoal.
“over the bend”?
Are you prepositioning me?
pr0n?
Who the fuck knows, Jeff. My irony meter is pegged and I’m about to the point that I’m Madcowing on what is snark and what is serious. Ace has been so squishy lately that I. Just. Can’t. Tell. And that’s saying something. Once you go squish, everything is subject to WTF?
Ace:
It’s likely that that is precisely why the internet and blogs and discussion fora have taken off — because this is an easy way (no driving, no scheduled meetings, etc.) to have a sort of salon-type thing going on. We do it here with politics, and of course pretty much every single possible area of interest has its discussion fora, from model railroading to wannabe physics geeks.
So, I guess, to some extent, the internet has facilitated exactly what I’m talking about. But it’s not a physical-presence thing so that maybe people don’t consider it to be a sort of salon.
I read, forget when, that the Germans were just queer for clubs, and every German belonged to several of them, from professional type clubs to intellectual interest clubs to hobbyist clubs to boardgame clubs. Americans I don’t think ever matched the Germans for club-joiningness, and certainly since the 60s, when that sort of structured community society seemed to become passe or reactionary or Ozzie and Harriet or whatever, it’s declined further.
Although it’s a FACT that Germans Are Weird, I always wonder if Americans wouldn’t be better off if that sort of institutional, formal parallel civil society weren’t in existence here.
If it means being more like Germans than we already are, the easy answer is no.
…and now I just cannot get that Sprockets skit the hell out of my head.
Win The Future, y’all?
Hm. Don’t see the governmental push there. Also, it’s clear Ace isn’t married and doesn’t have kids. Structured activities are legion. And in fact, I’d argue that the reason many adults aren’t so interested in clubs and such is that they’ve gotten their fill of regimented activity by way of their children.
Also, didn’t the Germans hold their meetings in pubs?
We do the same thing. We just foreground the drinking rather than the hobbying or the boardgame playing or the book reading.
Oh. And my disagreement with Ace (below) should not be construed in any way as a call for him to lose his job, nor is it a death threat, nor is it an attempt to destroy his honor or to call into question his manhood, either literally or metaphorically.
Ace is having serious issues today
The biggest irritant in that Mitch Daniels post:
It’s banal in it’s obviousness: “The key to winning the game is to outscore the other team” obvious, without offering any insight into how to appeal to those “moderates” or showing any awareness that the whole point of seeking to marginalize conservatives with popular appeal is because they’re popular.
I read it as a call for the government to help us figure out how to form book clubs cause we can’t do shit without our betters showing us the way. More spendings, yeah!
It’s the footnote to a discussion on a study by Harvard that “hmm. Maybe we have too many college grads and vo-tech might be what some of these folks should do instead of getting a college degree” discussion. Add a spicy layer of “is college really educating folks” and that maybe there should be other alternatives to get your smarts on and voila he ended with the above. And it was added as a supplement to the post. After he was lamenting the need for a place to discuss ideas in a blog post at a place to discuss stuff.
The dissonance had me reeling is all. Looked like he realized the dissonance and tried to mitigate with the followup, but that just came off as WTF are you smoking that you went there to begin with? At least to me. But still part and parcel of the squish mode he’s been in lately.
Ernst —
To repeat, We should nominate who best represents us, then have that person tell the country, “the choice is now stark. Fuck up this time — after watching what the left is and how it plans to govern — and its on you.”
I mean, who exactly was McCain appealing to?
The fact is, the “‘gettable’ moderates/independents” we want were already picked up by the TEA Party. And that led to an electoral landslide in November, despite the continued unpopularity of the GOP as a party.
yeah there’s lots of Team R candidates what are unelectable out of the gate. We should make a point of not picking one of those ones.
I can help but we’ll need to make it a team effort.
You know who’s unelectable? A moderate GOP candidate. Because people like me won’t vote for him or her this time around.
Why is it the GOP thinks it has to appeal to the “moderates and the independents” and not to actual conservatives and classical liberals? Because that just assume we’ll keep selecting the best of two evils?
If we’re going to run a big government, statist nannystate, I’d just as soon the left enact and support it without the veneer of bi-partisanship. And yes, I understand that the GOP can blackmail me by appealing to the appointment of judges. But if they are going to run a big government nannystate anyway — and that’s what it means to be “moderate” these days — what does it matter what judges they appoint?
We know. Every day we ask you to stop.
Any Team R candidate who is positioned as the “electable’ candidate, isn’t worth voting for.I take that back, what I meant to say was, there will be no “electable” Team R candidates. Except for the one guy they’ll find who agrees with nearly everything that that dickhead on Morning Joe says. You know, the guy who watches that show? I know there is one.Agreed Jeff. What I was trying to get at is this idea that we need to nominate someone who won’t scare the middle is a foolish one. The only time the Left doesn’t portray conservative politicians as extremists frightening to the Moderate Masses in the Middle is when they’re already sure losers. We’ve already got a giant slate full of acceptable “conservatives”. I want to know where the MBM bowel-loosening conservatives are.
who are the moderates though? Huntsman and Romney and Pawlenty and sorta kinda Huckabee and sorta kinda Gingrich. All five of which are in the unelectable column.
How can they be unelectable out of the gate if there hasn’t been an election? Oh, that’s right. There’s all that superdeduper polling floating around that is ever so awesome in its models and such.
Unelectable out of the gate means keep em off the primary ballot, so we have fewer choices to be choosy about. Cause it’s not like 12 unfiltered choices is better than 2 or 3 appropriately filtered ones. Cause I’m all for the subrosa election process of the rosa primaries by some guys in a smoke filled room…
Damnit! Karl Rove stole my close italics tag!
Don’t knock smoke filled rooms Stephanie, Reagan got his start in a smoke-filled room.
I hope Mr. Trump runs Drudge had this article where he was telling this interviewer guy how the cow ate the cabbage and it was a good read
Exactly, Ernst.
It’s like trying to avoid certain language that is “unhelpful.” You can try — and at times you should, for rhetorical effect, and based on your audience, and what you’re trying to accomplish — but the idea that such a plan is a remedy to dealing with the left’s attacks is silly (as, of late, the Michele Bachmann “armed and dangerous” bite proves). Instead, we should be attacking the premise that allows for such usurpation of language as illegitimate and incoherent.
Same with candidates. I mean, the compassionate conservatism and amnesty programs adopted by the last GOP President didn’t prevent him from being framed as a dim nativist bigot and Nazi.
True, Stephanie. It’s the “let us who are more in the know decide who runs and who doesn’t.”
When such an attitude is limited, by the party, to proper vetting — eligibility, skeletons in the closet, etc. — okay. Let the primary voters know such things. But it’s grown beyond that, and now is all about fashioning image and creating the a candidate for focus group-tested public consumption. Which never seems to grok that public opinion is fickle and can often pivot on a dime.
Let the market decide. That sort of thing.
Something I’d like the “moderates” (scare quotes because it’s so nebulous) to realize is that the middle might have moved a couple steps to the right since Obama took office.
Beyond the current center of gravity, where’s the political energy in the country right now?
If you’re a squish, the right will primary you and, if you survive, the middle will wonder why they shouldn’t just vote for the pure feel good version on the left. They (the pols) should act appropriately. We should keep reminding them to act appropriately.
Per the observation regarding the Ace of Clubs: there’s this little thing called meetup.com that he might want to try out. Its effectiveness is debatable, but let’s not pretend that there are no people out there looking to get together, nor that there’s a dearth of tools available to help them.
And let’s not even get started on the Lions and Elks and Moose and Kiwanis and the VFW and the Rotary and the KoC and the Evil Chamber of
RacistsCommerce and the Men’s Club and the Book Club and the Needlework Guild and International ANSWER and the Anarchist Quilting Circle and the Settlers of Catan Club and the Doctor Who Appreciation Club &c &c &c…At least two of the above have monthly meetings in my local pub. Two others are groups I can claim membership in, and I’m a fairly antisocial misanthrope. Methinks perhaps Ace isn’t looking very hard.
I’m just afraid we’re gonna nominate someone and I’m gonna be all OMG THAT’S RETARDED
Is it just me, or is there an attention whore workin’ it hard?
You, hamster? I shudder to think!
Actually Jeff, the primary process was designed for all comers and the process of the primary in action should bring crap to light. It’s just that teh narrative demands that one kiddy diddler on the right smears the right and one kiddie diddler on the left is an aberration. Plus the left just moves their diddlers to czarland and the right moves theirs to jail. So yeah, we are kinda stuck with some level of initial vetting cause the party can’t handle a little spooge.
Maybe Italy is the role model. Pron actresses for congress… cause a good spooging is the money shot.
Towards clubs, people probably tend to extrapolate too much from their own experience and local environment.
People are always on my ass to join all kinds of shit. Professional organizations. Committee for More Trees In the Sub-Division. Political groups. Advisory boards for the school district. Charity groups.
If I was to generalize from that, I’d come to the exact opposite conclusion as Ace.
At least two of the above have monthly meetings in my local pub. Two others are groups I can claim membership in, and I’m a fairly antisocial misanthrope. Methinks perhaps Ace isn’t looking very hard.
Methinks Ace swims in the shallow end of the pool. A sudden call for “hey maybe we need” is usually followed up by some idiot in congress attempting to fulfill your wish. Actions/Consequences.
I don’t get Ace. When he’s on a tear he’s funny as shit and rather insightful, but it’s never long before he posts something so fucking dimwitted that I find myself wondering why I ever give him so much as 5 minutes of my time.
bh: it’s just a short hop from the CFMTITSD to fines for leaving your trash bin on the curb past 6. So, yeah, I’m kinda down on the joinings. They get all organized and then the power trips start.
Point taken.
Plus, the CFMTITSD should really do something about their acronym. TITS I could possibly seeing as a worthy group.
ever since they gave Ace that award – was that CPAC? – he’s been a bit squishy I think
Maybe that’s why Obama is floundering on Egypt so bad.
There’s nothing I find more sad than a petty tyrant.
I always want to give them a hug, right before I bitch slap them.
could possibly see
Damn. Double vision.
Yeah, they turn crazy pretty damn quickly.
Primaries are progressive. Give me a good ol’ fashioned caucus-convention system any day.
whoa movie-star good looks AND more authentic than Romney that’s like the total package
Open primaries are progressive. Just another example of thievery in action.
Another Republican strategist who has met privately with Huntsman about a possible White House bid said his impressive private sector resume and movie-star good looks called to mind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, but the strategist said Huntsman is “more authentic than Romney.”*
Sounds like Huntsman is already gaffing. He interviewed with Marketing instead of Product and Sales Development. Fail.
Open primaries are progressive. Just another example of thievery in action.
Closed primaries don’t eliminate the potential for burglary.
The problem with primaries is that they’re democratic. Caucuses are more republican (note the lower cases).
I will grant you that caucuses have the bossism liability, but primaries have king-makers as well. Machine politics remains the same regardless of electoral forms.
This is some subtle Wisconsin bashing, I think. Stupid La Follette.
You can get away with that in a primary system. [grin]
True, Ernst. But in a caucus system, the back room deals are just further removed from the people’s view. Witness the wheeling and dealing at the RNC elections for chairman. Who drops out is central to who got what concessions out of view of the voting public. That sux.
Evidently, repeal went down to defeat 47 – 51. Looks like straight party line, but I don’t have details yet.
Yep, party line it was.
Keep at it, McConnell. We’re still paying attention.
Okay. Means the GOP has to take the Senate AND the White House in 2012. Has to be sold as a package deal — unless Obama promises not to veto.
George Allen is gonna make Jim Webb eat this vote with a side of macaca
“The vote to repeal healthcare is largely symbolic because the Supreme Court is going to have to be the one to decide this matter,” Nelson said Wednesday. “We ought to do the right thing and ask the high court to rule quickly so we don’t keep arguing over this for the next several years.”
This Senator has to go. There is no excuse to necessitate the Supreme Court deciding this issue. The people can voice their opinion of it, the various representatives of the people in Government can affirm the people’s view and vote the damn thing gone in an afternoon. Calling on the Supreme Court is chickenshittery of the highest order.
I don’t care how ObamaCare goes down, as long as it goes down. If Congress renders the court case moot, fine. In fact, that would be quicker.
Nelson ought to think it through: if Congress leaves it to the courts, it will still be an irritant to the electorate going into the 2012 election, meaning that his party will suffer a lot more than otherwise.
And it’s not as if voting against repeal is improving his own chances at re-election.
I see what you did there.
I think.
Ben Nelson is done. Herb Kohl is done. McCaskill is done.
And we’ll take Kent Conrad’s seat.
That’s the Senate. Thanks for playing, Dems. Enjoy the desert.
Means Obama can be as popular as ever, and unless he throws what’s left of his party under the bus, he’s through.
If this thing is overturned by the court and eventually ruled constitutional, and people still hate it, I mean.
Which we all know he isn’t smart enough to do.
I think more to the point though, we all know even if he promised not to veto, there’s that whole “expiration date” thing.
I like everything about Wisconsin not having anything to do with Greenbay Packers football. I bleed Royal Purple.
This year it gave me anemia.
Might be worse than anemia. I’d go to a doctor.
It’s a seasonal condition safely ignorable until September rolls around again.
You know how hard it was for me to not refer to it as a monthly condition?
[insert smiley emoticon here]
ha!
I think of it as a seasonal disaffective order. It’s a chronic condition.
Having a period has to be far more pleasant than cheering for the Vikings.