The Government Shutdown Countdown Lowdown MEGATHREAD

[Grey Fox]

This part in the previously linked Salon article is pretty telling on the Why of all this.

If you're pre-disposed to accept the leftist tripe published by Salon, I guess.

I am a lefty liberal. There's BS tripe from your side of the fence too.

[KRonn]

I think chopping the election season down would help immeasurably.  About a full year of presidential election nonsense is way too much, during which hardly anything useful is done by any politician. 

Have the first primary in the first week of July, with the three smallest non-adjacent states by population (screw the Iowa/New Hampshire automatic right to be first).  Two weeks later do the next 10 smallest, followed two weeks later by the next 20 smallest, then two weeks later by the final 17.  Primaries will be done by mid-August leaving time for the party conventions and the debates.

I agree with something like this kind of change! Elections used to be a lot shorter duration, and that was probably only about the 70s or 80s, not talking a century ago.

[Valmy]

This part in the previously linked Salon article is pretty telling on the Why of all this.

If you're pre-disposed to accept the leftist tripe published by Salon, I guess.

I am a lefty liberal. There's BS tripe from your side of the fence too.

Wait so you just admitted the article you recommended I read is BS tripe?  Poor salesmanship GF.

[KRonn]

I'd argue you are barking up the wrong tree.  It isn't that the super-wealthy are able to buy incredible influence (like Sheldon Adelson did by bankrolling Newt Gingrich into the White House), the problem is that businesses are able to buy congressmen for the purpose of supporting businesses big enough to buy congressmen.

Yep, agreed. I'm sure this has a lot of people becoming more and more annoyed with politics, feeling alienated.

The donation rules should be simple:  neither the parties nor the candidates should be eligible to take money from anyone unable to vote for them (except that candidates can take money from the party they belong to, and give money to the party), and other than that rule, there are no rules.  Anyone can spend as much money as they want to on any candidate, but non-citizens and non-human persons can give nothing.

Rules need some serious changing, but look at who makes the rules! Congress! They're not too likely to make changes too significant that it will affect them so much. Enough maybe to make a show to the voters like something has been done.

[Kleves]

Wasnt that in the wings sometime around 1900? I´m not really well versed in early american 20th century history but I seem to recall it was more than just a suggestion.

Some people really tried to get 6-year presidential terms in the 1860s, but it didn't go so well.

[Valmy]

Wasnt that in the wings sometime around 1900? I´m not really well versed in early american 20th century history but I seem to recall it was more than just a suggestion.

Some people really tried to get 6-year presidential terms in the 1860s, but it didn't go so well.

I do sort of wish that line item veto could have worked out.

[Maximus]

Wasnt that in the wings sometime around 1900? I´m not really well versed in early american 20th century history but I seem to recall it was more than just a suggestion.

Some people really tried to get 6-year presidential terms in the 1860s, but it didn't go so well.

[crazy canuck]

That is one of the weaknesses of a consutitional system of absolute rights.  How do you rank absolute rights in priority to themselves?

That's probably why no one has a constitutional system of absolute rights.

No, that is why no one should.

[Cecil]

Wasnt that in the wings sometime around 1900? I´m not really well versed in early american 20th century history but I seem to recall it was more than just a suggestion.

Some people really tried to get 6-year presidential terms in the 1860s, but it didn't go so well.

Yeah no shit but this is around 1910ish.

[Jacob]

Wait so you just admitted the article you recommended I read is BS tripe?  Poor salesmanship GF.

He's not the one who posted it, I was.

You can judge for yourself whether it's tripe based on the excerpts I posted

[Valmy]

Wait so you just admitted the article you recommended I read is BS tripe?  Poor salesmanship GF.

He's not the one who posted it, I was.

You can judge for yourself whether it's tripe based on the excerpts I posted

I didn't say he posted it.

And I was just giving him a hard time. 

[Grey Fox]

This part in the previously linked Salon article is pretty telling on the Why of all this.

If you're pre-disposed to accept the leftist tripe published by Salon, I guess.

I am a lefty liberal. There's BS tripe from your side of the fence too.

Wait so you just admitted the article you recommended I read is BS tripe?  Poor salesmanship GF.

All journalism, especially commentary joursnalism is BS tripe. There is no such thing has objectivity.

[lustindarkness]

I'm liking some of these reform ideas.

[sbr]

http://www.kgw.com/news/Fed-workers-in-Ore-to-get-back-pay-plus-unemployment-after-shutdown-228258611.html

Some federal workers in Ore. to get back pay plus unemployment

PORTLAND --In Oregon, federal workers who applied for and received state unemployment during the shutdown will not have to pay that money back even though they'll also get back pay.

There are roughly 27,000 federal employees in Oregon with many of them returning to work Thursday for the first time since the government shutdown on Oct. 1.

The state employment department says roughly 4,400 federal employees in the state applied for unemployment during that time and the state is still working to calculate the total dollar amount that will be paid out to the furloughed workers.

Tom Fuller, Communications Director for the Oregon Employment Depeartment, told KGW that federal employees won't have to repay their state unemployment because there was never any guarantee furloughed workers would get back pay after the shutdown.

"There's a rule in place. It was designed to protect private employees who had no guarantee of returning to their job," Fuller told KGW. "We have to apply it. We don't have a choice in this case."

"(I feel) fantastic, very fantastic. In fact, it was cool to see everybody just immediately get on their computers, hitting their emails. All I see is people trying to catch up. It's really cool," said Todd Curtis who works with the Bureau of Land Management in downtown Portland.

"Oh God, I'm glad to be back at work because it's so hard to just sit around and do nothing going like, 'OK, what's going to happen today? Do I go to work? Do I not go to work?" Louisa Evers said.

Washington estimates roughly 3,400 federal workers applied for unemployment during the shutdown. But, unlike Oregon, those workers will have to pay back the benefits they collected.

[Sheilbh]

Here's a shocker: Republican who tries to make government work, treats black people with respect and appeals to the electorate polls well

Christie won 21% of the African-American vote and 56% of the Hispanic vote - both more than double what he won last time. There's a lesson for Republicans there, if they want it.