Friday, March 27, 2015
Christmas comes early for Lou and America, Harry Reid to retire in 2016
I looked out my window here in Vegas today and was surprised to see it snowing. On closer inspection, it was holy manna falling from heaven. The departure of Harry Reid can only portend to greatness for America as he leaves and takes with him all bad things that are ruining the country. Living here in Vegas, it might be entertaining to watch another round of challenges from some batshit crazy person like Sharon Angle, but I have to admit, I'm not really all that excited to see the gavel passed to either Schumer or my old Senator Dick Durbin. I would like to think that with Reid and McConnell no longer snapping each other in the ass with wet towels in the locker room, we might actually see some business get done. Probably not gonna happen. I'll give Reid credit for working on things that mattered to me, but I'm glad he's going.
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It appears that Charles Shumer is the presumptive heir to the thrown. At least that's what all the news sources are reporting tonight.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's what I've read too and I'm not real excited about it. Him and Durbin, IMO, do nothing but speak in plattitudes. Someday, I'd like to see us return to constitutional rules which means that bills are allowed to be voted on without requiring a supramajority for every-damn-thing. Shumer might do that, but I know McConnell won't if he is ever in the minority again. Still, I'm tired of the pooh bahs.
Delete2016 tomorrow would not be soon enough.
ReplyDeleteGraham, Pelosi, Reid, McConnell, Boehner, Schumer, Durbin, the list of the useless is endless, all poster children for term limits.
I saw a movie once where the house passed a bill sent it to the senate who passed a similar bill. They then agreed to changes and sent it to the president and he vetoed it. Congress then shoved it up his azz.
But that was a very long time ago.
Reid happily eschewed the strictures of process whenever it proved expedient, doing much in the process to diminish the Senate of which he was part. He did not do so singlehandedly. He was able to wreak endless havoc because he had the backing of his party. It would be nice to think that most Democrats held their noses while voting for Reid, but it simply was not so. He served six years as his party’s whip, and will retire having served 12 years as his party’s leader in the Senate. The disreputable methods, the scorched-earth tactics — all was done with the approval of Senate Democrats. Perhaps Reid started that train of abuses and usurpations moving, but eventually his caucus hopped aboard. If he was avant-garde at the beginning, he is now simply the avatar of most of his party’s elected leadership.
DeleteDon't worry, Harry's four lobbyist sons will still haunt DC.
DeleteDon't let that tread mill hit you in the ass Harry.
" It would be nice to think that most Democrats held their noses while voting for Reid, but it simply was not so."
DeleteI'm not sure what this means or why it has any importance. In a landscape where people can only agree with truth uttered by "their people", this has even less relevance. I'm not convinced that all Democrats happily went along with Harry and given the uprising or dipsticks like Ted Cruz, I'm not really sure that McConnell has the support of any Republicans except the old white guys like McCain and Graham. These leadership positions are pooh bah spots, the go to those with seniority whether the rest of the party supports them or not
I suppose you are more than correct with the seniority thing.
DeleteIf the Repub's truly meant what they said, change, they would have elected others to lead the Senate and House but as it turns out like the Dem's, it's more of the same.
At the risk of confusing being busy with actually getting something done, I prefer to see action rather than inaction. On some level, I understand that for conservatives, and those who believe there is no issue in the world that is more important than cutting spending to all programs they hate, Nancy Pelosi is satan. She was not, however, ineffective. Contrary to belief that Democrats are nothing but sand in the gears, I believe they concede quite often and Boehnor could actually get quite a bit done if he wanted to ( I thought this was kind of an interesting article http://www.seattlepi.com/news/medical/article/Pelosi-irks-some-allies-to-help-craft-rare-6162377.php) As I have said countless times, it pisses me off to no end that both senate leaders have chosen to demand that next to nothing get passed unless it has 60 votes. Let the votes happen on majority and let the POTUS veto them if they don't like them. Pelosi was not the worst choice in the world in terms of leadership. Anyone can say she sucks and that everything she passed was freedom destroying bullshit. Regardless, she passed things without having to deal with a group of dysfunctional children who will not accept a bit of compromise on anything.
DeleteI firmly believe there is an opportunity right now for a Republican to show real leadership and get things done. The caveat, however, is that if they are determined they will accept nothing short of full repeal of the ACA, it's not going to change. Again, where others see nothing but facism and communism from Democrats, I see a party who, outside of the ACA, is will to concede a lot of ground on issues they are allegedly supposed to be strong on.
Just my two cents
Sitting here listening to Chicago sing "Make me smile" on something called ASX TV. Now Colour my world. Realizing the only decent thing to come out of this city was this band. Ah, but I reminise to the time when we had a national debt of about a third of a Trillion dollars, and this being in the middle of the Vietnam war.
DeleteBut I digress. Max and Mick have again lowered themselves to calling their more conservative and libertarian friends children, immature, thoughtless little pricks. This I suppose to mask their support for the political status quo. The big spending swells on both sides who can piss away Trillions while complaining about a few million to investigate those who operate their own shadow government. Operate their own document filing systems. Erase their own patriot killing mistakes.
Was HRC and crew running guns to ISIS to combat Assad? Was Tunisia involved? Was Yemen about to become a lost cause? Are secret letters being exchanged with Iran as their religious leader calls for death to America?"
Children want to know.
I firmly believe there is an opportunity right now for a Republican to show real leadership and get things done.
DeleteGood luck with that as everything remains as it has been.
The difference is Harry's and the kids are now filibustering instead of Mitch and the kids.
"Children want to know."
DeleteThat sums it up pretty well.
Ah lou a place for some agreement I agree that all the above need to go and I agree with term limits. Now if you could just agree to end this citizens united bullshit so we the people not they big business and their money can elect who we want to represent us..... oh you say that's a little too far...........
ReplyDeleteI would love to see Citizens United go away on the same day they eliminate the unions contributions ended.
DeleteThen perhaps we could actually end the sale of our government to the party that collects the most cash.
This thing about union money is becoming a red herring and quite honestly, considering how little that Democrats have done to preserve unions, I think I'd actually be open to calling the bluff on this.
DeleteYeah let's get rid of Citizens United and union contributions. While we're at it let's just cancel the First amendment. Might ad well cancel the Second amendment while we're at it to make our resident Aussie happy. We're already planning military exercises among the general population, so there goes the forth. Anything else you geniuses would like to prune?
Delete2012 Labor spending
DeleteLabor Total: $142,924,172
Democrat: $61,052,343
Republican: $6,113,569
The AFL-CIO, whose president Richard Trumka is orchestrating much of the protests in Madison this week, donated $1.2 million to Democrats in 2008 and $900,000 in 2010.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees donated $2.6 million to the Democrats in 2008 and another $2.6 million in 2010.
The National Education Association donated $2.3 million to Democrats in 2008 and $2.2 million in 2010.
The Teamsters union donated $2.4 million to Democrats in 2008 and $2.3 million in 2010.
The SEIU donated $2.6 million to Democrats in 2008 and $1.7 million in 2010.
The Carpenters and Joiners union donated $2 million to Democrats in 2008 and $2.1 million 2010.
The Laborers union donated $2.6 million to Democrats in 2008 and $2.2 million in 2010.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers donated $3.8 million to Democrats in 2008 and $3.2 million in 2010.
The American Federation of Teachers donated $2.8 million to Democrats in 2008 and $2.7 million in 2010.
The Machinists and Aerospace union donated $2.5 million to Democrats in 2008 and $2.1 million in 2010.
The Communication Workers of America, which includes employees from several television and radio stations and other publishing platforms, donated $2.2 million to Democrats in 2008 and $2.1 million in 2010.
The United Autoworkers union (UAW) donated $2.1 million to Democrats in 2008 and $1.5 million in 2010.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) donated $2.1 million to Democrats in 2008 and $1.9 million in 2010.
Most unions gave a negligible amount, if anything at all, to the Republican Party over the past two election cycles.
Give a little give a lot. No matter how much unions give vs. business, both can sway an election if the other disappears.
William,
DeleteElection spending is out of control.
2012 Obama spent 1 billion dollars to be re-elected. Much of that money came from PAC, business, unions.
It makes no sense as little is brought to the table with that spending. Americans still have no idea of who the real candidate is.
What will we have in 2016? 2 billion?
Why do we allow business and unions to buy our elections?
Because using property to promote whatever party or issue being supported is consistent with the First amendment.
DeleteLou,
DeleteFor all of the money you listed there, which is actually a drop in the bucket to the total spent, can you show me anything those unions allegedly got for the money they spent? Did they get any protection in trade deals? How bout your favorite issue next to the debt, did they get any protection from illegal immigrants? I suppose you can make some argument the autoworkers got something, though they likely would have anyway from inevitable bailouts that would have occurred under a McCain administration.
Seems like in 2012 they got Obama for their money.
Delete2014, they got nothing for their money.
The point is the unions spend, business spends we get what they want like it or not.
And what did getting Obama get them? If they are union, they probably already had healthcare.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteYou’d never know it from the mainstream media puff pieces of Harry Reid’s sudden retirement, but it was a long string of corruption scandals—including a recent one involving his attorney son—that drove the veteran Nevada senator to abruptly leave public office.
DeleteA July 30, 2012, headline in the Las Vegas Review-Journal alerted Nevadans to Sen. Harry Reid’s latest influence-peddling scandal – this one involving ENN Energy Group, a Chinese “green energy” client of the Nevada law firm of which Reid’s son, Rory, is a principal.
As Reuter’s reported on August 31, 2012, “Reid has been one of the project’s most prominent advocates, helping recruit the company during a 2011 trip to China and applying his political muscle on behalf of the project in Nevada. His son, a lawyer with a prominent Las Vegas firm that is representing ENN, helped it locate a 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) desert site that it is buying well below appraised value from Clark County, where Rory Reid formerly chaired the county commission.”
“Well below appraised value” is a considerable understatement. The deal Rory Reid put together for the firm his dad brought to town saw ENN purchase the site for just $4.5 million – a mere fraction of separate appraisals that valued the property at $29.6 million and $38.6 million. Even with all of that, however, the project has failed to move forward as rapidly as Harry and Rory Reid would like – for the simple reason that there is currently no market in Nevada for the green energy ENN claims it could produce.
But, of course, funneling money to the Reid family is nothing new for the Senate Majority Leader. As the Washington Post reported in a February 7, 2012, story titled “Public projects, private interests:”
In 2004 and 2005, the Senate majority leader secured $21.5 million to build a bridge over the Colorado River, linking the gambling resort town of Laughlin, Nev., with Bullhead City, Ariz. Reid owns 160 acres of undeveloped land in Bullhead City.
And according to Peter Schweizer, writing for Fox News on December 12, 2012, “Sen. Reid has sponsored at least $47 million in earmarks that directly benefitted organizations that one of his sons, Key Reid, either lobbies for or is affiliated with.
The union assisted in getting their guy re-elected is what they got.
ReplyDeleteFound this interview which prove Reid to be the despicable person I thought he was. Lied to the American people with no remorse.
During the height of the 2012 presidential campaign, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who announced last week that he was retiring at the end of his current term, made several outlandish claims regarding Republican nominee Mitt Romney that became the focus of a media firestorm. It all began in late July of that year, when Reid claimed in an interview that a source he would not name had contacted him out of the blue and claimed that Mitt Romney had not paid any federal income taxes at all over the previous 10 years. As I noted at the time, even though Romney had not yet released his 2011 taxes or other information regarding previous tax years, the claim itself was outlandish on its face. For one thing, as one CNN Money analyst noted, it simply was not possible that anyone who might have been inclined to release information like this to Reid would have had access to Romney’s tax information for the previous decade. More importantly, the entire tale that Reid was telling sounded so utterly absurd that there was no reason to believe it was true and that either Reid was letting himself get duped by a source who was telling him what he wanted to hear, or there never really was a source at all and Reid was making the whole thing up. Despite these questions about his claims, though, Reid persisted in making the arguments and it wasn’t until Romney finally released a more detailed tax report that we learned, not surprisingly, that the claims Reid was making were utterly false.
Despite the fact that it was essentially proven that Reid was lying, the senator from Nevada tells a CNN reporter that he has no regrets:
“Romney didn’t win, did he?” Reid said in response to Bash’s question of whether he regretted what he had said about Romney.
Think about that logic for a minute. What Reid is saying is that it’s entirely immaterial whether what he said about Romney and his taxes was true. All that mattered was that Romney didn’t win.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/03/31/harry-reids-appalling-defense-of-his-attack-on-mitt-romneys-tax-record/
Not to mention good ole Harry and the Yucca Mountain deal. Greg Jaczko.
DeleteMax the latest from the daily KOS.
ReplyDeleteHillary Clinton announced today at SpaceX Headquarters in Hawthorne, CA that she has decided not to run for president in 2016. "I've given enough to the mushheads of this country", she told the crowd of reporters assembled to question her about rumors she uses an iPad. "I've decided to set my personal goals a bit higher than the White House, so I have signed up with Elon Musk to be one of the first Mars colonists. And no, you won't be able to vote for Elizabeth Warren either, because she's coming with me."
In other news, a NASA probe has crashed on Mercury, discovering that it, not Venus, is the location of hell.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—In an unusual press conference here today, NASA released a batch of bizarre sound recordings and video from the Messenger spacecraft moments before it impacted the surface of Mercury. Scientists are struggling to decipher what the data mean, but some contend they sound like human voices crying out in agony.
lhttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/01/1374900/-Hillary-is-not-running#