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

[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.

 

[FlickerFade]

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.

Yes, Nancy Pelosi, menopause sucks........... you and 20% of the country feel this way. No one here can change that. We can kick your a@$ out of the speakership though.

 

[MINIME]

You agree with such a divisive statement?!

Pilot unions are nothing like most unions and until you lefties get your heads out of your collective a##es, you'll keep turning off good pilot union members.

Get your leftist politics out of OUR union.

You are correct, that is a divisive statement and I should've known better. For that I apologize.

I do stand by the rest of my comments however. I see this while flying, jumpseating, having a cold one, etc..

While my politics may seem leftist to you, yours seem way too far to the right for me. How you like them apples? Lets agree to disagree. My beef with all this is merely that we as pilots don't always understand how elected officials impact our careers. We focus on other issues and very little on our own.

Just to let you know, I've been a lifelong conservative until now. Not that it matters. Fortunately or unfortunately, I've come to understand who is at least somewhat on our side (labor).

 

[bigtexpilot]

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.

I think all americans would love to have all those things in your list. I don't what a bunch of other Sh!tt shoved down my throat with it. I think the american public deserves to know exactly what they are signing off on. I think the Healthcare Reform Bill is just the tip of the iceberg and I think the reason why it won't go is because the american public finally realized why it was trying to be pushed through so quickly.

 

[DonVerita]

Flicker...you can say what you will about Pelosi, but she IS the speaker of the house. Do you not like her because she is a female? Because she is a liberal? Or because she is from SFO? If she loses her seat in the next election, then someone else from the House Majority will take her place...no big deal. By the way, there is nothing wrong with being a liberal. I'd rather stand next to one of them any day of the week rather than some right wing neo-con nut job. Most liberals that you may meet in your life are good people who care more about helping others, righting injustices, and protecting the environment so as to live in a better world, as opposed to the neo-cons who espouse hate, divisiveness, religious exclusivity, and all non-factual incendiary nonsense spewed forth by the likes of Fox News.

772...thanks for the invite. Yes, I'd be happy to get a beer with you in Omaha if I ever get there. You see, the "Best Management Team in the Industry" (that's what they call themselves everytime they give themselves another bonus) only services that city with RJ's instead of Mainline, but maybe that will change in the future; just one more strike item added to the list. For the record, yes, of course I know Lieberman finally voted for Health Care Reform. But...that was only after Nelson watered it down and then Lieberman watered it down further with all of his nasal whineing. I think the People finally got fed up with the Senate version of the bill being vastly different from the much better House version of the bill and they revolted against this and all the deal making that went on in the Senate, especially amongst the likes of Nelson and Lieberman. Thank you for finally admitting that Republicans hold the record on filibusters. That was the point I was making way back in the first post.

Lear...yes, spending does have to be reigned in. You say in the "next decade or two". I counter that it needs to be reigned in much sooner than that. Spending for the Stimulus was needed. Frankly, I believe it should have been more, but it is what it is. The short term spending that the President is doing now is not because he wants to...it is because he has to. This was the ONLY way to get the economy moving again. Kind of like taking that nasty tasting medicine. It sucks going down but in the end it saves you. The Republicans could offer no better alternative, so the President went with the best option he had. I think the People are sick and tired of hearing Republicans cast stones yet offer up no viable alternatives. What they do offer up is not grounded in fact and completely illogical. When run through the CBO, they say the same thing as well. This was brought to light a number of times when the President met with them last week. Kind of ironic how all the major news stations carried that event Live in its entirety, however when it became crystal clear that the President was clearly winning every challenge thrown at him by the 141 Republicans, Fox News decided to break away and stop broadcasting the event.

I believe that as the economy rebounds, the Bush tax cuts for the rich and the corporations begin to expire, and jobs are created (this is why the President is advocating a major Jobs bill; which guess what, is being obstructed by Republicans just for the sake of trying to derail anything and everything this President does), you will see the money in the Treasury start to come back and the next step of the President's plan will be to start reducing the debt. We can only do that with solid well-paying (hopefully UNION) jobs with a large part of them rooted in the manufacturing sector, sound fiscal and tax policy, and an energy policy that shifts to a green economy via the use (85% or more) of zero emission clean alternative energy.

It took 8 years to get us into this mess. It will take at least 4, and probably more, to get us out. We are 1 year into it. So far, I'd say we're doing pretty good despite all of Mitch McConnell and John Boehner's partisan obstructionism. Just imagine how quickly the country could advance if the Republicans looked at the President as a fellow American trying to do good for the People rather than a political opponent of a different skin color.

 

[Max Powers]

Yes, Nancy Pelosi, menopause sucks........... you and 20% of the country feel this way. No one here can change that. We can kick your a@$ out of the speakership though.

More bills have passed under her tenure than any other speaker in history. Like it or not she is a leader that gets her done.