Mad_Machine76
Mad_Machine76's JournalUnfortunately, he can't send the "children" to their rooms
but we can, every election until there's none of them left in office!
I guess it's good that only 3K people died first
before the Bush (mis-)administration got their butts in gear and started caring about Al-Queda (at least for awhile) 
I hate how GOP apologists gloss over 9/11 and pretend that Bush did a good job of "protecting America"
This was an idiotic article IMHO
President Obama shouldn't be held responsible for the failure of Republicans to do their jobs, particularly when some of them promised to vote to support expanded background checks and then filibustered the bill anyway (i.e. Jeff Flake). 
What universe is Dowd living in where President Obama has NOT tried to work with Republicans to get votes for his legislation and where the Republicans turned right around and voted against him? How is that HIS failure?
Good
but that, sadly, probably won't stop him from spouting off next time............
The minute that Lindsey opened his mouth the other day about Miranda
I knew that this would be coming- and that McCain would be joining him.
Anybody else even more thankful that it's not President Romney having to make a decision about this?
The question I have is:
how much more grief can Republicans and their NRA masters take before they finally decide that they care about something more than their next election and that something sensible has to be done? But no, all we get are excuses ("it wouldn't have prevented what's already happened anyway"
and defeatism ("criminals are just going to break the law anyway" from them when pressed to act. Talk about pathetic.
I suppose you have a point
and I guess if you thought that putting something up for a vote knowing that it will fail would produce sufficient backlash for its later success it would be a good idea (like say, the gun bill that was procedurally defeated yesterday). However, filibuster reform is not something that most people are all that "plugged into" and why waste the time on a vote that is going nowhere (not saying I necessarily agree with the mindset but just saying what might have been going through their heads)? I do agree with you in principle that we should be putting more things up for votes and letting the chips fall where they may but I suspect that members of Congress aren't much interested in voting on things that they know aren't going to pass. I'm sure that, aside from embarrassing the President and Democrats, one of the chief reasons that the Republicans are busy filibustering stuff is that they know that they're going to be on the wrong side of public opinion on many up-or-down votes, so they make sure that they don't happen in the first place. I'm sure that they also take considerable pleasure in watching us chew out President Obama and the Democrats in the Senate instead of attacking them and their rampant obstructionism. I'm sure that they also don't want the House to feel any heat from the Senate to have to take action on anything the Senate passes since Boehner has adopted a "Let's wait and see what the Senate does" attitude towards taking up highly charged issues.
Betcha
They will be upset unless he proclaims it a "terrorist attack" fast enough, especially if he does not immediately bomb Iran and/or Syria- even if they have nothing to do with it.
I think that all of us would love to see him give a great rallying speech against the Republicans
but that's not really who he is nor what he stands for. He told us what he believed in back in 2004 and it's been pretty consistent since then (no red states, no blue states, bipartisanship). The main problem, of course, is that the Republicans don't want bipartisanship and I don't think he's been able to find a good way of dealing with all of the roadblocks and mines that the Republicans have been laying out since 2009. I'm not really sure that anybody has a satisfactory solution other than defeating Republicans and electing Democrats. The Republican obstructionism and reactionary behavior has been pretty extraordinary even by the standards of Newt Gingrich's "Class of 1994". It hasn't helped that one legislative chamber has been literally controlled by Republicans and the other chamber has been essentially bound and gagged by them via procedural maneuvers for the last 2-4 years. I personally believe that his goals and ambitions are loftier than what he's essentially had to settle for and that we should IMHO be thankful for what he's been able to muscle through. Unfortunately, a lot of potential has been wasted thanks largely to the Republicans. The best thing that could come out of all this would the final destruction of the current Republican Tea Party and, hopefully, the (re-)emergence of a more sensible "other" party that Democrats can work with.
Profile Information
Name: Mara Alis ButlerGender: Female
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
Home country: USA
Current location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Member since: Sat Feb 28, 2004, 01:13 AM
Number of posts: 24,406