2014 Election Megathread

[Hansmeister]

If there is going to be a requirement that ordinary Americans read and understand any bill that is passed, then I guess there won't be trade deals after all.  Or tax legislation, or financial institutions legislation, or pretty much anything . .

I would settle for congress understanding the bills it votes on, but that is probably too much to ask for.

[CountDeMoney]

You forgot to bold these parts, Party Animal.

chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein's rule.

from the remnants of long-abandoned programs

And they're still finding munitions in Vietnam and Verdun, too. 

The purpose of that bullshit war wasn't to discover and destroy the WMDs from 1981, but to stop the weapons programs in place identified at the time by faulty intelligence. 
Dubya, Uncle Dick and Uncle Rummy have all copped to it, why can't you?

[KRonn]

Rev. Al says the election was a defeat for the Clintons.

Supposedly it does hurt Hillary, hearing that from other pundits. She campaigned for many candidates and all or most lost, so it probably shows some lack of support for her. Maybe bigger impact is that these candidates who lost won't be able to campaign for her in their states like they could have if they held office. Even Bill didn't fare so well, and all seats in Arkansas are now in Republican hands.

[CountDeMoney]

Didn't hurt Jim Webb. One. Damned. Bit.

[KRonn]

That is fucking priceless.

I know, I know-- too optimistic.  I'm expecting the President to act better than a petulant child.

Well, at least the President wants to meet with Mitch McConnell now, which will only be the third time in six years. It is funny how the Democrats keep pushing the meme that Republicans won't wo with Obama when Obama has refused to meet with GOP leaders for virtually his entire presidency.

Democrat pols have also complained that Obama doesn't even meet with them nearly often enough.

[Hansmeister]

We will now have a "cleaner" separation of powers with a GOP controlled Senate and House, which is why I think there will be more things with this arrangement than there had been.  If Obama can be convinced to play ball (his speech yesterday does not seem to have been a good start), shit may actually get done.

Yes, it's the dawn of a new era of GOP strategy, one that will usher in a new age of OH WAIT

John Boehner, Mitch McConnell vow to kill Obamacare
By JONATHAN TOPAZ | 11/6/14 7:29 AM EST Updated: 11/6/14 8:59 AM EST
POLITICO

House Speaker John Boehner and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, outlining their legislative vision for the last two years of Barack Obama's presidency, are vowing to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Wednesday evening fresh off the Republican Senate takeover and major GOP House gains, the leaders largely maintain their commitment to reaching legislative compromise and cutting through Washington paralysis.

But the Republican House speaker from Ohio and incoming Senate majority leader from Kentucky noted that a commitment to creating jobs "means renewing our commitment to repeal Obamacare, which is hurting the job market along with Americans' health care." The ACA remains a politically divisive issue, and further attempts at repeal would surely be met with significant Democratic opposition and a White House veto.

The GOP leaders also said they would approach governing differently than Democrats did in 2008, when Obama entered the White House with major House and Senate advantages and passed the stimulus bill, financial regulation and health care reform. "[W]e won't repeat the mistakes made when a different majority ran Congress in the first years of Barack Obama's presidency, attempting to reshape large chunks of the nation's economy with massive bills that few Americans have read and fewer understand," Boehner and McConnell wrote.

At a Wednesday press conference to discuss the GOP victory, McConnell appeared to downplay a potential repeal attempt, noting that Republicans would not have 60 votes to override a presidential veto. Still, the senator said that Republicans remain strongly opposed to the law. "If I had the ability, I'd get rid of it," he said.

The op-ed served as a sign of the congressional leaders' legislative wish list as Republicans enter 2015 with strong majorities in both chambers. Other commitments highlighted in the column included authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline and reforming the Tax Code.

A spokesman for current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid slammed the pledge to repeal the ACA, saying that it showed Republicans aren't willing to compromise and are ceding authority to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

"One day after the election Senator McConnell is already letting Senator Cruz set the agenda," Reid communications director Adam Jentleson said in a statement on Thursday. Cruz, a tea party favorite, has remained steadfast in his commitment to trying to repeal Obamacare.

"Conspicuously absent from Senator McConnell's vision for the next Congress: the word 'compromise,'" Jentleson added.

Obamacare is an unpopular train wreck. The damage to date would have been much worse if our God-Emperor had decided he had the power to unilaterally ignore or change portions of the law the cause the most damage.

Say, weren't the exchanges supposed to open on OCT 1?  Why are they now suddenly not opening until next week, contrary to the law? It is as if Obama wanted to wait until after some indeterminable event this week to expose the public to the obamacare exchanges?  I'm sure it is a sign of confidence in the exchanges by Obama 

[Hansmeister]

You forgot to bold these parts, Party Animal.

chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein's rule.

from the remnants of long-abandoned programs

And they're still finding munitions in Vietnam and Verdun, too. 

The purpose of that bullshit war wasn't to discover and destroy the WMDs from 1981, but to stop the weapons programs in place identified at the time by faulty intelligence. 
Dubya, Uncle Dick and Uncle Rummy have all copped to it, why can't you?

That there was bad intelligence on this is of course true.  But it is also true that Hussein did not destroy his arsenal as required by the cease fire agreement, which justified the invasion.

It is also true that he kept his old chemical weapons manufacturing capabilities, which had been tagged by the UN inspectors are were supposed to be destroyed but Hussein blocked that from happening.  (After the war much of the machinery started popping up in Beirut, where looters had sold it as scrap metal with the UN tags still attached.

The intelligence on new WMD programs proved to be mostly wrong, but the critics leave out that he never fully dismantled his old capabilities. Sorry, having to get rid of all WMD means all of it, not just some parts.

[CountDeMoney]

That there was bad intelligence on this is of course true.  But it is also true that Hussein did not destroy his arsenal as required by the cease fire agreement, which justified the invasion.

It is also true that he kept his old chemical weapons manufacturing capabilities, which had been tagged by the UN inspectors are were supposed to be destroyed but Hussein blocked that from happening.  (After the war much of the machinery started popping up in Beirut, where looters had sold it as scrap metal with the UN tags still attached.

The intelligence on new WMD programs proved to be mostly wrong, but the critics leave out that he never fully dismantled his old capabilities. Sorry, having to get rid of all WMD means all of it, not just some parts.

You're dealing with a despotic government that was a mess of organizational structure with a rank hierarchy operating on a basis of fear and corruption.  Between the IIW, GW1, Northern Watch/Southern Watch, Operation Don't Mess With Texas and all the little bombings in between, they were a basket case.  Even they didn't know what they had.  You give the Iraqis' ability of keeping tabs of canisters here and there far too much credit.  More incompetence than intent was at play.

[KRonn]

Apparently ISIL has found some of the old caches of WMDs but likely the stuff isn't very useable, at least not as intended. It's old and much degraded. Maybe they can get some of the chems out of artillery shells or bombs to try and use it otherwise but the stuff isn't likely to be very toxic anymore.

[11B4V]

They will not be able to repeal it (ACA). They will squander 2014 by losing big in 2016 if they try.

[KRonn]

They will not be able to repeal it (ACA). They will squander 2014 by losing big in 2016 if they try.

It'll be a dumbass move if the Repubs put much effort into repeal, but they should have some good luck with modifying some parts of it that will sit well with Dems and Repubs, like maybe the medical devices tax, and other parts. I think it's too big and too ingrained to be just repealed. It is still a mess though and needs some serious overhaul.

[Hansmeister]

They will not be able to repeal it (ACA). They will squander 2014 by losing big in 2016 if they try.

It'll be a dumbass move if the Repubs put much effort into repeal, but they should have some good luck with modifying some parts of it that will sit well with Dems and Repubs, like maybe the medical devices tax, and other parts. I think it's too big and too ingrained to be just repealed. It is still a mess though and needs some serious overhaul.

Obamacare will die in time for three reasons: it is deeply unpopular, it is an unworkable frankensteinian construction, and the GOP will amend it piecemeal with popular measures that will accelerate the collapse.

[Valmy]

Chemical warheads are bulky and difficult to use and certainly were no threat at all to the US.

[Hansmeister]

Chemical warheads are bulky and difficult to use and certainly were no threat at all to the US.

Of course the threat was that Hussein might give it to a group like al Qaeda to use in a terrorist attack.  You don't think that wouldn't have been a threat?

After the fall of Afghanistan the surviving al Qaeda members were streaming into Iraq to set up shop there.  Indeed, the next big al Qaeda plot foiled after 9-11 was an attempt to youse ricin poison in London and Paris, a plot that was hatched by al Qaeda in Iraq.

I'm sure it was pure coincidence that the U.S. found large quantities of castor beans(used to make ricin) in Iraqi ammo bunkers.

But I'm sure it was all because Hussein just didn't have any real control over what was goin on in Iraq, him being known for his laissez faire government principles.  Saddam Husein was really kind of a proto-liberatarian who didn't reall keep close tabs on what went on in his country, the poor sap.

A lot of conservatives wondered why Bush never fought back on this issue, but I know that he understood that the Democrats will just keep changing their rationale since they weren't interested in an honest debate, so there was no point to argue.

[jimmy olsen]

Fine.  Jodi's from the Mid Midwest, then.  Enjoy your new batshit Senator.

Am I safe in assuming she's batshit because she opposes abortion?

She believes in a whole bunch of black helicopter type conspiracy theories.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/joni-ernst-bruce-braley-agenda-21-conspiracy-theory

◾Ernst has alleged that the federal government is partnering with the United Nations to force Iowans off their land and into urban cores as part of a conspiracy called Agenda 21. At a campaign event last November, she said:



All of us agreed that Agenda 21 is a horrible idea. One of those implications to Americans, again, going back to what did it does do to the individual family here in the state of Iowa, and what I've seen, the implications that it has here is moving people off of their agricultural land and consolidating them into city centers, and then telling them that you don't have property rights anymore. These are all things that the UN is behind, and it's bad for the United States and bad for families here in the state of Iowa.