Senator Richard Shelby really likes air tankers. Shelby reportedly is blocking 70 nominations in a dispute over the long-controversial Air Force tanker deal. This contract has been criticized for years as wasteful and unnecessary. Shelby is supporting the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company against Boeing in the dispute because the Europeans are promising to build the tankers in his state.
Putting aside the merits of the tanker deal, Shelby’s “hold” on all nominees renews the controversy over the ability of senators to hold up nominees unilaterally. I have long been a critic of this tradition called “blue slipping” and holds. For a recent article, click here. This tradition is notorious for allowing senators to engage in hold ups of the Senate and the White House — demanding favors for friends or simply opposing nominees for personal reasons. There is little public benefit from blue slipping. If a senator has a problem with a nominee, he or she should state the objection in public and oppose confirmation. Blue slipping was traditional confined to judicial nominees from a senator’s state. He or she would literally send a blue slip with a written objection. The Shelby controversy involves a broader use of a “hold” by a senator.
For a prior column criticizing blue slipping, click here.
For the full story, click here.
” … we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish.”
~ Cicero (The Extremes of Good and Evil)
LottaK,
See how Nebraska handles the unicameral legislature. It works good when the area to be represented in totality is small. However, with the population size of this country would we result into a People Republic of America? China does this well.
It is my understanding that the main weakness of the unicameral system is the lack of restraint on the majority. Especially where the leaders of the legislature and the executive are of the same party. Another consideration is how the seats are drawn. Depending on how seats are allocated people may be underrepresented.
Can you imagine when the republicans had control of all three, the House, Senate and Executive how much more the US citizens would have been screwed?
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group,”
http://jonathanturley.org/2010/02/07/sen-shelby-accused-of-blocking-70-nominations-over-air-force-tanker-deal/#comment-110816
It Appears that major corporations have taken heed in this sage advice:
“No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country”
I might ask what the hell JFK was thinking when he said this:
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.”
rcampbell: Excellent, the level of hypocrisy dwarfs the depth of yesterdays snowfall.
Johnolan, I’m with you on this one. Personally I’d like to see the Senate dissolved and the House allowed to evolve into the Parliament it so closely reflects. I haven’t been a fan of the Senate for years.
GOP=modern day Armageddon
http://www.evilgopbastards.com/http:/
“It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.” (Josef Stalin)
The above caught my attention…..
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Bush, Cheney and the Great Escape
Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Bush-Cheney-and-the-Great-by-William-Rivers-Pit-100206-265.html
Dredd:
“Gosh, does he ever let anyone feel his big muscles?”
****************
Some lassie in Buenos Aires I think has had the pleasure. I find it comforting somehow that fascists still enjoy some measure of comfort south of the Border.
Gosh, does he ever let anyone feel his big muscles?
rcampbell,
Thank you.
“But say this Health Care Bill passes. What would it do to medicare and/or Medicade”?
The answer is simple: Nothing happens to Medicare, Medicade, nor to any person’s existing coverage. As Obama said during the campaign, if you like your policy’s coverage, keep it.
The bill does these basic things:
* Requires everyone to have inurance and requires insurers to insure (no pre-existing condition exclusions). No limit was placed on pricing of pre-existing conditions.
* No annual or life-of-policy limits on coverage.
* Those who can’t afford coverage (pre-existing pricing, insufficient income, etc), can join an exchange which groups individuals to amass a size large enough to shop insurers and command large company rates from them.
* Those with incomes still too low to afford the exchange rates can receive federal assistance.
Interesting commentary from the LA Times that touches on Shelby:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten6-2010feb06,0,1034960.column
I don’t know the answer to this nor how to properly formulate the question. But say this Health Care Bill passes. What would it do to medicare and/or Medicade? These are programs that the GOP have been trying to do away with for years.
SS by the way was at one time fiscally sound. So sound that the government could not touch the principal so took loans against it until the first Bush years and then the corpus has been raided and exhausted.
The GOP screeches about pork and then we see this. The GOP says the admin. must concentrate on jobs then decries the President’s jobs bill. That plan calls for working through banks to enable more small business lending to lead to job creation rather than direct government employment. Do they prefer the latter?
They moan (read that as lie) they aren’t in the loop, but the tax credit for hiring was originally a GOP idea. There were also 161 GOP sponsored amendments made to the Health Care Reform bill during committee hearings. The GOP’s collective head spins over the debt and deficits they created and then they voted en masse against pay-as-you-go. They voted 100% against the stimulus package, but clamor to get their picture taken with the big cardboard check to get credit for it. Hypocrites is far too kind a name.
They also voted unnanimously against their own suggestion of a deficit reduction commission. That one is particularly galling as, again, this has been one of their party’s rallying issues and a big fundraising item. That is, of course, only after passing $1.7T in tax cuts and the Medicare Part D, both without any funding, added taxes or program cuts.
Why would anyone listen to a Republican on any issue? These are the folks who assailed life and injury saving seat belts as the ruination of the auto industry 40 years ago. They still abhor OSHA. One wonders how many lives and limbs have been saved from these two pieces of legislation the GOP so adamantly opposed. And what are their solutions to the mess they got us into? More of the same of what bruught us to the brink.
I may get angry at the administration from time to time, but at least they’re trying to DO something instead of trying to prevent an economic recovery from happening.
mespo,
I’m not particularly a fan of oligarchies, but I’ll take them over a singular autocrat any day of the week.
I AM STILL CONSULTING SO FAR “B” “R” “B” HAS COME UP.
LET ME MAKE A CONTRIBUTORY CONSULT. NOT TO INSULT THE WISDOM THAT ABOUT WITHIN THESE FOUR WALLS.
jonoloan:
I see you are an oligarchy fan.
Yes, mespo. In fact a 100 quarreling dictators would be better than one. The less power is concentrated, the less it can be unilaterally abused and the easier it is to wrest it from any individual tyrant. 😉
Are 100 quarreling dictators any more desirable than one?
Give me my Pork and I will raise you 2 Tarps. If I don’t get my Pork you don’t have your tarp.