Jon Stewart: A Majority of 100 is 60?

This is one of the better clips The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has done in a while. How Democrats got cowed into believing that they need 60 votes to get anything done--and still can't manage to do anything without watering it down--is one of the most baffling political facts around. Jon puts all of our frustrations (and by "our" I mean we "far left liberals") into a very funny, and very true rant. Excellent.

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First They End Gay Marriage, Next Stop. . .Yours?

Here's a brilliant video that puts the whole "majority rules/the people have spoken" argument in a new light. So, the California Supreme Court has decreed that the people can vote to remove marriage rights for same-sex couples? What else could the majority rule? What other rights could be voted on and taken away? This video presents only the possibilities for marriage, but I'm sure you can think of others.

Filibustering the Budget: Hypocrisy or Business as Usual?

Photo of Sen. Kit Bond from source, Think Progress

Typically, a bill in the Senate requires a simple majority, and if there is a tie, the Vice President breaks it. In extraordinary circumstances, minority Senators can filibuster, and force a 60-vote threshold for passage. But these days, the Republican minority is threatening a filibuster routinely, making it an "ordinary" circumstance.

Now, I suppose it is true that when parties change places, hypocrisy is routine. Flat statements of "fact" in one year are ignored when the shoe is on the other foot. Not being a poli-sci expert, I really don't know if one party is worse than the other. But I do know that in the case of the filibuster, the current GOP has used it much, much more than at any other time in history. This from the same party that threatened to invoke the "nuclear option," and remove the filibuster rule, if the then minority Democrats didn't play along.

I guess my question is, why do we as a public continue to play along? We've seen certain politicians declare that the other side is wrong, and then turn around and do the same thing they previously decried. We just shrug and say "well, that's politics." Hypocrisy and deceit have become commonplace, even expected. Why do we put up with it?

[Excerpt]

GOP Senators Who Used Budget Reconciliation To Pass Bush Agenda Items Now Calling It ‘Chicago Style Politics’

Today, Politico reported that Republican senators are prepared to go “nuclear” — essentially shutting down the Senate through the use of parliamentary maneuvers — if President Obama attempts to use budget reconciliation to pass key parts of his legislative agenda, such as health care reform and and cap-and-trade. Reconciliation allows some legislation to be protected from filibusters and passed by a simple majority. On NPR this morning, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) repeated a now familiar attack on budget reconciliation. . .

Read more at: Think Progress