Charles Pierce asks "Please explain democracy to me"

[n2doc]

...because I am a little slow.

In the Congress, Mel Watt can't get an up-or-down vote on his nomination to be the head of the (ahem) Federal Housing Finance Agency.

However...

Sometime very soon, the Congress is likely to pass -- with limited, if any debate and no amendments possible -- a massive trade deal that was negotiated in secret, and the terms of which remain largely secret, and which, if the past is any kind of prologue, will drop a thousand-pound stink bomb on American jobs.

Debate (theoretically) cannot ever end on Mel Watt and his middling level federal job.

Debate cannot even begin on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Check the umpire because somebody's screwing us.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/quandries-of-democracy-110813-xlg

[Laelth]

1. That's about the size of it, yes. n/t

-Laelth

[octoberlib]

2. k&r

[randome]

3. Interesting he used the umpire metaphor.

For a real challenge, pretend you are explaining the rules of baseball to an alien.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]