Sen. Ben Nelson (d) of Nebraska Blocks important nomination.

[Full of LUV]

What you probably meant....

" Whatever happened to a simple majority rules?

You probably meant, whatever happened to a "simpleton majority" rules?

Really, I'm on labor's side, but Obama picking a longtime lawyer for the AFLCIO to be on the NMB would be like Bush picking Frank LORENZO to serve on the NMB. What happened to picking people who weren't so polarizing?

 

[DonVerita]

You do realize that the Democrats did the exact same thing during the Bush years right? They filibustered just about everything in the first 4-6 years of his presidency. In addition until a few weeks ago the democrats had a filibuster proof senate so they can only blame themselves for not getting more things through in President Obama's first year.

Wrong. Read the statistics from the link. The use of the filibuster by the Dems was not even close to what the Repubs did last year. Own up to the facts.

 

[Bigoober]

Thank you so much for drawing a map to what we all already know.

My point was that Filibusters were never meant to be used the way they've been over the past 12 months...in other words, to be obstructionist by the minority party. If the People believed in the minority party, then they wouldn't be the minority party. The election is over, so get over it. No wonder nothing gets done. Good programs, that even many Republicans admit the country needs, are being blocked by their own party's political neo-con ideology of "just say no to everything" and bring the system to a grinding halt.

When Republicans are in power, "filibuster" is a dirty word, but when they're in the minority it's their favorite past time.

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/record-breaking-senate-conservatives-use-filibuster-for-62nd-time-in-this-session-of-congress-58789162.html

Republicans now hold the record for the most filibusters used in a single year...ever! Ben Nelson might as well just be one of them. He and Lieberman can't seem to get enough attention without making bone-head moves. Lieberman-Connecticut-The Hartford Insurance Company in Connecticut. Yeah, it all makes sense now.

The Corporations don't want Health Insurance Reform, just like they don't want Labor rights or the Employee Free Choice Act. The Republican Party are their paid off henchmen; lead by right wing fear mongering, souless bigots and liars like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glen Beck. The last two work for Fox News. That's shouldn't come as any surprise either.

Dude,

That story is not even a current story to back up your point. Republicans hadn't been able to filibuster anything over the last 12 months, up until Scott Brown was sworn in. They didn't have the numbers to filibuster anything. Any inadequacy of the Senate over this time was completely due to the inabilty of Democrats to even agree on the issue let alone try to compromise with a conservative viewpoint. That grinding halt you hear is Madame Speakers gums flapping away!

Nice job losing any credibility you may have had in arguing your point!

 

[pilot772]

Wrong. Read the statistics from the link. The use of the filibuster by the Dems was not even close to what the Repubs did last year. Own up to the facts.

You do realize that your source was for the congress when President Bush was in office right. They also use President Bush's threat of a veto counting as a filibuster. Furthermore, I never said that the democrats did it more, I simply stated that they used the filibuster in the same manner apparently, a record setting amount at the time according to your own source during the 107th congress. Get your facts straight before you want me to "own up to the facts."

I was simply stating that the democrats opened the door to this with their use of the Filibuster during the 107th congress and the republicans are just using the same tactics. Another thing of note, when the the republican majority discussed the option of using reconciliation to pass things. The democrats got on the soap box and stated it would ruin the democracy and called it the Nuclear option. Now that they have the power it is simply, "a viable legislative tool" according to Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer.

 

[ackattacker]

It's called the Constitution. :smash:
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html

Thank you kindly for that informative link. However I must humbly apologize because I can't find a reference to "fillibuster" anywhere in that document. Could you please point me to it?

 

[DonVerita]

Dude,

That story is not even a current story to back up your point. Republicans hadn't been able to filibuster anything over the last 12 months, up until Scott Brown was sworn in. They didn't have the numbers to filibuster anything. Any inadequacy of the Senate over this time was completely due to the inabilty of Democrats to even agree on the issue let alone try to compromise with a conservative viewpoint. That grinding halt you hear is Madame Speakers gums flapping away!

Nice job losing any credibility you may have had in arguing your point!

And this is intended for you too 772...

Both of you appear to belong to a Republican Party that does nothing to advance the people of this country. The agenda of your Repubs in Congress is to kill time by Obstructing and Lieing their way to the mid-term elections. They use fear and hate because they've got....NOTHING. Nothing at all to give to the people. No ideas that make sense for the People. No ideas that are rooted in facts. No ideas that hold any logic. It's the same tired old line from them - "We need less spending and more tax cuts." Yeah, and where was their less spending with an un-needed war in Iraq or all their Cheney/Halliburton no-bid contracts? Where was the money to pay for their unfunded massive tax cuts under Bush for the wealthy and all the corporations including Exxon? They are only interested in winning the next election. So they get their cronies on Fox News to spew forth their tirades of lies and distortions. They are bought off by the Corporations. Why do you think every single Repub. in both sides of Congress (save one lone progressive) voted against Health Care Reform? If that isn't an out and out conspiracy then I don't know what is. And this comes even AFTER the President included many items that you Repubs. wanted or thought of. Oh, but because it is President Obama's agenda item, you all just fold your arms like little brats, make up more lies (Death Panels anyone?) and continue to grind government to a halt. Then you point at Dems and say nothing gets done. Wake up and stop acting like a bunch of little 5 yr. olds. You LOST the election and you LOST it bigtime. Why? Because the People don't believe in your right wing ideology. So now you go back to your usual Carl Rove playbook of spreading more lies and hate in an attempt to get your numbers back up. You cater to the racists, to the bigots, to the ill-informed, to the non-compassionate.

Just a few things the People want:
1. A level playing field.
2. To be treated with respect.
3. To have their needs met before those of Corporations.
4. Health Reform that includes:
a. Lower premiums
b. Better care and options
c. No more caps
d. No denial for pre-existing conditions
e. No taking away health care if a person loses his/her job
f. A real Public Option to keep Insurance companies in check
5. A healthy environment with clean air and clean water
6. The right to unionize if they want to and not be intimidated in the process

Can you honestly argue against any of the above items?

President Obama took the fight right into your own backyard last week. It was him against 141 of yours. And yours got schooled big time. He debunked all of your myths and lies with hard *verifiable* facts. So now, when he invites your Repub. elected officials to a bi-partisan summit to further get the facts on the table, you guys all of a sudden don't want to go and instead come up with B.S. excuses in a further attempt to waste time. Well guess what? The tide is turning. The President has the Repubs by the ball$. They know it and now they are afraid of him.

You, Scott Brown, so-called "Independent" Joe Lieberman, and the rest of the Republican Obstructionists have a nice rest of the term. Everyday the People see more and more into your souls. Your tactics are about to explode in your faces.

 

[FR8dognit]

Thank you kindly for that informative link. However I must humbly apologize because I can't find a reference to "fillibuster" anywhere in that document. Could you please point me to it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster

It is now time to retire for the evening gentlemen. I bid all my fellow FI friends a good night.

:beer:

 

[pilot772]

And this is intended for you too 772...

Both of you appear to belong to a Republican Party that does nothing to advance the people of this country. The agenda of your Repubs in Congress is to kill time by Obstructing and Lieing their way to the mid-term elections. They use fear and hate because they've got....NOTHING. Nothing at all to give to the people. No ideas that make sense for the People. No ideas that are rooted in facts. No ideas that hold any logic. It's the same tired old line from them - "We need less spending and more tax cuts." Yeah, and where was their less spending with an un-needed war in Iraq or all their Cheney/Halliburton no-bid contracts? Where was the money to pay for their unfunded massive tax cuts under Bush for the wealthy and all the corporations including Exxon? They are only interested in winning the next election. So they get their cronies on Fox News to spew forth their tirades of lies and distortions. They are bought off by the Corporations. Why do you think every single Repub. in both sides of Congress (save one lone progressive) voted against Health Care Reform? If that isn't an out and out conspiracy then I don't know what is. And this comes even AFTER the President included many items that you Repubs. wanted or thought of. Oh, but because it is President Obama's agenda item, you all just fold your arms like little brats, make up more lies (Death Panels anyone?) and continue to grind government to a halt. Then you point at Dems and say nothing gets done. Wake up and stop acting like a bunch of little 5 yr. olds. You LOST the election and you LOST it bigtime. Why? Because the People don't believe in your right wing ideology. So now you go back to your usual Carl Rove playbook of spreading more lies and hate in an attempt to get your numbers back up. You cater to the racists, to the bigots, to the ill-informed, to the non-compassionate.

Just a few things the People want:
1. A level playing field.
2. To be treated with respect.
3. To have their needs met before those of Corporations.
4. Health Reform that includes:
a. Lower premiums
b. Better care and options
c. No more caps
d. No denial for pre-existing conditions
e. No taking away health care if a person loses his/her job
f. A real Public Option to keep Insurance companies in check
5. A healthy environment with clean air and clean water
6. The right to unionize if they want to and not be intimidated in the process

Can you honestly argue against any of the above items?

President Obama took the fight right into your own backyard last week. It was him against 141 of yours. And yours got schooled big time. He debunked all of your myths and lies with hard *verifiable* facts. So now, when he invites your Repub. elected officials to a bi-partisan summit to further get the facts on the table, you guys all of a sudden don't want to go and instead come up with B.S. excuses in a further attempt to waste time. Well guess what? The tide is turning. The President has the Repubs by the ball$. They know it and now they are afraid of him.

You, Scott Brown, so-called "Independent" Joe Lieberman, and the rest of the Republican Obstructionists have a nice rest of the term. Everyday the People see more and more into your souls. Your tactics are about to explode in your faces.

typical liberal: when your facts are debunked you turn to name calling, talking points, blame it on Bush, and scare tactics. Some of my best friends are liberal and we have enjoyable debate and they know that neither I or most of the republican party resemble the picture you painted above. For the record I am for meaningful healthcare reform but it must be paid for. The public option is a decent idea and has worked to some degree in other countries mostly in Europe. Those countries have much higher personal taxes and much smaller population bases to cover. Remember a large portion of our citizens don't pay any income tax at all. The wife is finishing up Medical school and quite frankly there just aren't enough doctors to cover 37 million more patients. Furthermore when they see a Medicare or Medicaid patient they are only reimbursed for about half of what the actual care costs. Thats right the government can't even pay enough so that doctors can cover their costs (0 profit) With regard to the Iraq War I agree that the Iraq war has put us behind the 8 ball with regards to the budget. Bush did this country no favors by racking up the deficit that he did. That being said President Obama has tripled the deficit in the span of 1 year and unfortunately the economy nor the job market (currently furloughed) are showing any signs of rebounding. Healthy debate is positive but name calling is small and you should be above that. When did having differing views become wrong or worthy of the name calling you used above.

Last time I checked that is the beauty of this country.

Have a good night
:beer:

 

[Mama's Boy]

What does the NLRB have to do with pilots?

 

[Lear70]

I am not. I expect the goverment to work for the betterment of the American people, repubicans and democrats alike, not to sit around on their thumbs doing nothing.

Agreed.

Our Constitution is a fabulous document. Too bad it has been amended so much that it's barely a shell of its former self.

We desperately need term limits, Tort reform, and a whole laundry list of other items. Among those is a more labor-friendly NLRB. While we certainly don't need to go overboard, a middle-ground would be nice.

Of course, as mentioned above, a middle ground in the House AND Senate for the good of the American People is how the system was designed to work. The system hasn't worked properly in a long time. The lobbying machine is entirely too entrenched for anything even remotely approaching bipartisanship to be successful.

 

[pilot772]

Agreed.

Our Constitution is a fabulous document. Too bad it has been amended so much that it's barely a shell of its former self.

We desperately need term limits, Tort reform, and a whole laundry list of other items. Among those is a more labor-friendly NLRB. While we certainly don't need to go overboard, a middle-ground would be nice.

Of course, as mentioned above, a middle ground in the House AND Senate for the good of the American People is how the system was designed to work. The system hasn't worked properly in a long time. The lobbying machine is entirely too entrenched for anything even remotely approaching bipartisanship to be successful.

Agree Whole-heartily Lear

 

[Bigoober]

And this is intended for you too 772...

Both of you appear to belong to a Republican Party

Strike Two!

Care to go for the strike out?

I'm was just waiting to see your explanation of how the work of Congress has been ruined over the last 12 months by Republican filibusters as quoted in my original post. Just looking for you to man up and admit you didn't really know what you were talking about and now realize that health care reform didn't pass because Democrats couldn't come to an agreement within their own party. Last I looked, there was nothing in the way to stop this work except for the egos of both houses.

Again, loss of credibility- even moreso when you can't admit the simple fact.

 

[DonVerita]

typical liberal: when your facts are debunked you turn to name calling, talking points, blame it on Bush, and scare tactics.
:beer:

Man...go back and read your own full post. You are agreeing with me on a number of items. My facts are intact.

Look at each thing I listed. Are you "debunking" any of them? If not, care to try?

Our economy was headed over Niagra Falls with no life jacket. The banking system was about to go with it, or you could say, was the cause of it, but we know it to be deeper than that. Unchecked greed, total lack of regulation in the housing lending market, 8 years of out of control spending by Bush & Co.
Iraq war: Not paid for
Tax cuts: Not paid for
Patriot Act: Completely unconstitutional

What ever happened to Pay As You Go? Oh, I almost forgot, the Repubs. voted to get rid of that.

So in comes Obama. He inherits a king sized mess on Day 1. A mess that took 8 years to create. He immediately goes about putting programs in motion to pull us back from the brink of disaster - the 2nd Great Depression. Job losses begin to lessen, the banking industry is put back together, the world markets regain confidence in the U.S., the stock market rebounds. A pretty good list of accomplishments by anyone's standards; and all in 1 year. Yet despite all of this, radical ill-informed and I believe bottom line racists, dance around their false prophet (Glen Beck) and rail against the President for spending money to save us from disaster, accusing him of being a Socialist (nevermind that all his programs are working), and another right wing wack job group - The Birthers, have the audacity to challenge his citizenship.

Now we have 41 Senators who are oh so happy to go before their constituents back home and accept Federal Stimulus Program money for their home states and declare how so many of these projects wouldn't be possible without that program, while at the same time blasting the President for the Stimulus program and saying how the program is a waste of money and doesn't work. Hypocrisy defined.

These 41 need to stop holding up the progress that the President is making to lift us out of this deep recession. Just about every program he proposes to help the People do just that, is met by obstructionism out of pure spite. He holds his hand out in bi-partisanship, they slap it away.

So if you want to falsely accuse me of "name calling, talking points, blame it on Bush, and scare tactics", then I guess my response is:

I learned it from the best in the business --> Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and the entire corporate controlled Republican mouthpiece --> Fox News - Unfair & Unbalanced

 

[ackattacker]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster

It is now time to retire for the evening gentlemen. I bid all my fellow FI friends a good night.

:beer:

Oh, I see, the filibuster is a byproduct of the evolution of senate procedural rules which are not spelled out in the constitution at all.

And a simple majority vote of the senate will change the senate rules, much the same way that the filibuster was eliminated in the House in 1842.

Interesting.

 

[DonVerita]

Strike Two!

Care to go for the strike out?

I'm was just waiting to see your explanation of how the work of Congress has been ruined over the last 12 months by Republican filibusters as quoted in my original post. Just looking for you to man up and admit you didn't really know what you were talking about and now realize that health care reform didn't pass because Democrats couldn't come to an agreement within their own party. Last I looked, there was nothing in the way to stop this work except for the egos of both houses.

Again, loss of credibility- even moreso when you can't admit the simple fact.

Hmmm...let's see about that.

1. Health Care Reform passed the House, with a public option intact. Try to talk your way out of that one Sparky.

2. Lieberman is an Independent, but claims to caucus with the Democrats, even while he was on the campaign trail for McCain, so I think it's safe to say he's not in that camp. So there goes your super-majority.

3. The Senate had a watered down but still doable version of Health Care Reform that had enough votes to pass, even after Lieberman's suckup to Big Insurance in his home state of CT, where...guess what - The Hartford Insurance Co. is based.

4. Harry Reid could have brought this to a floor vote even before Brown was sworn in, but wisely chose not to because it would have looked like a strong arm move.

So, you were saying...

As for the filibusters, go back into the record and check for yourself the number of filibusters that have been used by the Republicans in 2009.
Note to yourself: You don't need to have 41 Repubs to do a filibuster. 40 +1 so-called Independent from CT will work just fine, or maybe 1 Dem whose name appears in the title of this thread.

 

[sweptback]

What does the NLRB have to do with pilots?

Not a single thing.

 

[pilot772]

Man...go back and read your own full post. You are agreeing with me on a number of items. My facts are intact.

Look at each thing I listed. Are you "debunking" any of them? If not, care to try?

Our economy was headed over Niagra Falls with no life jacket. The banking system was about to go with it, or you could say, was the cause of it, but we know it to be deeper than that. Unchecked greed, total lack of regulation in the housing lending market, 8 years of out of control spending by Bush & Co.
Iraq war: Not paid for
Tax cuts: Not paid for
Patriot Act: Completely unconstitutional

What ever happened to Pay As You Go? Oh, I almost forgot, the Repubs. voted to get rid of that.

So in comes Obama. He inherits a king sized mess on Day 1. A mess that took 8 years to create. He immediately goes about putting programs in motion to pull us back from the brink of disaster - the 2nd Great Depression. Job losses begin to lessen, the banking industry is put back together, the world markets regain confidence in the U.S., the stock market rebounds. A pretty good list of accomplishments by anyone's standards; and all in 1 year. Yet despite all of this, radical ill-informed and I believe bottom line racists, dance around their false prophet (Glen Beck) and rail against the President for spending money to save us from disaster, accusing him of being a Socialist (nevermind that all his programs are working), and another right wing wack job group - The Birthers, have the audacity to challenge his citizenship.

Now we have 41 Senators who are oh so happy to go before their constituents back home and accept Federal Stimulus Program money for their home states and declare how so many of these projects wouldn't be possible without that program, while at the same time blasting the President for the Stimulus program and saying how the program is a waste of money and doesn't work. Hypocrisy defined.

These 41 need to stop holding up the progress that the President is making to lift us out of this deep recession. Just about every program he proposes to help the People do just that, is met by obstructionism out of pure spite. He holds his hand out in bi-partisanship, they slap it away.

So if you want to falsely accuse me of "name calling, talking points, blame it on Bush, and scare tactics", then I guess my response is:

I learned it from the best in the business --> Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and the entire corporate controlled Republican mouthpiece --> Fox News - Unfair & Unbalanced

wow falsely accuse really? "little brats", "make up more lies", "stop acting like a bunch of little 5 yr. olds", "their Cheney/Halliburton no-bid contracts?" These quotes were taken from your last post. The fact that you bring up the birthers is laughable and quite honestly sad. Do you really think that if people believed that President Obama wasn't born here that the Clinton Political machine wouldn't have figured that out? Birthers are about as fringe as the people that believe that Bush was behind 9-11, Is that what you believe?

The only facts that I challenged you on were the notion that Filibuster was some new tactic that only the republicans were the ones that used it. Furthermore you made it sound as if these filibusters were taking place in the current congress. I will admit the republicans have the record of Filibusters. But thats like saying that Mark McGwire broke the home run record and Barry Bonds than beat it a few years later.

Don you are correct we do believe in some of the same things. I am a fiscal conservative socially liberal. you and I aren't that far off politically for the most part. There are just a few issues that divide us. I am almost embarrassed to admit this in this thread but I live in Omaha. I have voted for Ben Nelson every chance I get because I appreciate his middle of the road point of view. I am surprised you posted in a thread calling him out because he was the 60th vote for healthcare reform. I have met him on several occasions and had some nice conversations with the man. He Is a middle of the road politicians, but he has a lot of work to do to earn my vote again.

Don if you ever make to OMA for an overnight send me a PM. I will buy you a beer I would bet we would get along better than you think.

 

[Lear70]

The only problem with that, Don, is that the exorbitant amount of spending included so much fat that didn't need to be in there, that it pi$$ed a lot of people off. Mainly those who know how long it's going to take us to pay for it.

Did it head off disaster? Maybe, I'm not an economist. I do know, however, that unless we take steps to reign in spending over the next decade or two, we're going to have a heck of a debt problem, even more so than now...

 

[pilot772]

Hmmm...let's see about that.

1. Health Care Reform passed the House, with a public option intact. Try to talk your way out of that one Sparky.

2. Lieberman is an Independent, but claims to caucus with the Democrats, even while he was on the campaign trail for McCain, so I think it's safe to say he's not in that camp. So there goes your super-majority.

3. The Senate had a watered down but still doable version of Health Care Reform that had enough votes to pass, even after Lieberman's suckup to Big Insurance in his home state of CT, where...guess what - The Hartford Insurance Co. is based.

4. Harry Reid could have brought this to a floor vote even before Brown was sworn in, but wisely chose not to because it would have looked like a strong arm move.

So, you were saying...

As for the filibusters, go back into the record and check for yourself the number of filibusters that have been used by the Republicans in 2009.
Note to yourself: You don't need to have 41 Repubs to do a filibuster. 40 +1 so-called Independent from CT will work just fine, or maybe 1 Dem whose name appears in the title of this thread.

Again I hate to call you out because I believe you mean well. But you do realize that the healthcare package did in fact pass the senate with all 60 Democrats voting for the measure. (Lieberman included) Say what you will about Lieberman but he does caucus with the democrats and votes with them a majority of the time. As far as Nelson I believe we have crossed that bridge already this evening.

 

[swa737-700]

Love it another "Pilot against pilots" - Your a Scab in waiting.

It's you're, not your. Your scab comment is typical of someone making a knee jerk comment w/o looking at the whole picture. Like it or not, the NLRB is supposed to be NEUTRAL. This dude is not even close to being neutral. There is no room for someone this radical on the board, unless you want to unfairly slant potential decisions w/o regard for others. The unions have way to much influence with this administration as it is. No need to worry though, your boy obama is planning on appointing this fella' during recess.