The U.S. Senate, Indeed ALL of Congress, is Worthless,

so why the hell make it worse by repealing the 17th Amendment? You know these fascistic clowns in the GOP want to find some way to make it more difficult for Democrats to get into office.

Why don't these fuckers just leave the United States and go to their libertarian paradise in Somalia?

If conservatives want to improve “our federalism,” repealing the 17th Amendment is an absolutely awful way to do it. Instead committed federalists should be looking to erect more—not fewer—boundaries between national and state politics. They should be fighting to banish discussions of federal interests from state elections altogether. So, for example, rather than calling for repeal of the 17th Amendment, pro-federalist groups should seek to segment state elections, using tools like ballot notations that make clear the differences between state and federal parties. Even despite the 17th Amendment, national issues—including things state legislatures have no control over, from the Iraq war to monetary policy—now play a huge role in state elections, meaning that state officials are less accountable on state issues than they should be. The problem with the 17th Amendment is not that it removed too much power from states; it’s that it didn’t do enough to free state elections from the overweening influence of national politics on state contests. For those who care about federalism, and really, for anyone who cares about the quality of our democracy, the real challenge is making state elections work. Repealing the 17th Amendment will do just the opposite.

It's about getting more batshit crazy politicians than there already are infesting Washington.

Dysfunctional, Totally Dysfunctional

I still cannot believe anybody ever voted against the disability rights treaty.

The GOP offenders did it just to spite Obama. I don't even think the dingbat Koch brothers astroturf "tea party" outfit or even the homeschool lobby had anything to do with it. It was "payback" for Obama winning the election, as far as I am concerned.

More than 43 years ago, Dole delivered his first speech on the very same floor — on disability rights. Later, as one of the most powerful members of the Senate, he pushed through the Americans with Disabilities Act, a measure designed to protect citizens grappling with accidents and disease.

Now he had come the Senate floor, perhaps for the last time, to persuade lawmakers to adopt a treaty supporters said would extend disability protections around the world.

“Don’t let Senator Bob Dole down,” Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said, raising his voice, pointing at his former colleague. “Most importantly, don’t let the Senate and the country down. Approve this treaty.”

It wasn’t enough.

This was surely one of the most disgraceful moments in the history of the United States Senate.

Our country is broken, and it is damned near unfixable.

The Disgrace of the United States Senate

You know how far the once Grand Old Party has fallen when they completely disregard old standard bearers like Bob Dole and John McCain in favor of some batshit crazy nobody's paranoid ideas about something. I totally agree with this opinion:

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Perhaps the next Congress can put this up to a vote again.

The GOP's antics prove to all of the world what in the hell is wrong with Washington.

There should not have been a single vote in opposition to such an uncontroversial treaty.

As If We Need Anymore Proof

the United States doesn't give a flying fig about the people who vote them in--only their contributors.

The lopsided vote tells it all, I believe.

If I Were Dictator,

I would abolish the United States Senate as being an absolutely useless body which creates all kinds of arcane rules that do nothing but hinder needed legislation. It is outrageous it ever got to this point where stalemate was the rule rather than the exception.

If the GOP wants a filibuster, return to the old system where they had to talk a bill to death, not this chickenshit stuff they have now.

"The use of the filibuster and the way it's led to backroom deals has created the impression in the heartland that the Senate is dysfunctional," said Jack Conway, a Democratic candidate facing Republican Rand Paul in Kentucky. "They don't understand why Washington can't address the issues people care about. People in Kentucky wanted people focused on jobs -- 14 months [of the health care debate] laid bare how broken the system was."

Conway was joined in his backing of filibuster reform by the three other Senate candidates who HuffPost interviewed for this story: Paul Hodes of New Hampshire, Elaine Marshall of North Carolina and Roxanne Conlin of Iowa. Sitting Senators Al Franken (D-Minn.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) also said they supported reform.

"It's not constitutional. It's not statutory. It's a rule," said Hodes, adding that he wasn't certain what the new rule should look like exactly, but the current ones needed to be reformed. "Everywhere I go, they say, 'Make 'em bring out the cots and the telephone books.' People are eager for real backbone and some toughness from Democrats."

Unfortunately, Democrats have squandered this shit and haven't put the GOP on the defensive. If, God forbid, the GOP gets in the majority next term, it's going to be an even bigger mess.

I'd just as soon see the Senate done away with.

I Wrote About Senator Bunning Last Night

and his obstructionist tactics regarding extended unemployment compensation. Nobody should be allowed to hold up much needed legislation because of some nonsense, similar nonsense that held up the EUI last fall.

And when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: "Tough shit."

Bunning says he doesn't oppose extending benefits -- he just doesn't want the money that's required added to the deficit. He proposes paying for the 30-day extension with stimulus funds. The Senate's GOP leadership did not support him in his objections.

I think he has been hit in the head by too many baseballs.

Paul Krugman

believes the health care "reform" bill is a significant achievement although terribly flawed, but the most notable thing about it is it passed at all, given the fact the U.S. Senate has some stupid rules that make significant change almost impossible.

This goes to the filibuster/cloture bullshit where a minority can sandbag almost all legislation because there isn't sixty votes to cut off any threat of a filibuster.

Krugman:

Back in the mid-1990s two senators — Tom Harkin and, believe it or not, Joe Lieberman — introduced a bill to reform Senate procedures. (Management wants me to make it clear that in my last column I wasn’t endorsing inappropriate threats against Mr. Lieberman.) Sixty votes would still be needed to end a filibuster at the beginning of debate, but if that vote failed, another vote could be held a couple of days later requiring only 57 senators, then another, and eventually a simple majority could end debate. Mr. Harkin says that he’s considering reintroducing that proposal, and he should.

But if such legislation is itself blocked by a filibuster — which it almost surely would be — reformers should turn to other options. Remember, the Constitution sets up the Senate as a body with majority — not supermajority — rule. So the rule of 60 can be changed. A Congressional Research Service report from 2005, when a Republican majority was threatening to abolish the filibuster so it could push through Bush judicial nominees, suggests several ways this could happen — for example, through a majority vote changing Senate rules on the first day of a new session.

Nobody should meddle lightly with long-established parliamentary procedure. But our current situation is unprecedented: America is caught between severe problems that must be addressed and a minority party determined to block action on every front. Doing nothing is not an option — not unless you want the nation to sit motionless, with an effectively paralyzed government, waiting for financial, environmental and fiscal crises to strike.

This is one of Krugman's best editorials. The Senate, along with the utter corruption of politicians because of no public financing of elections, is why our government is in such a hell of a fix and our country's problems are not being fixed.

Paul Krugman Asks a Good Question

about reining in Wall Street excesses, but remember, we are dealing with this worthless piece of shit called the United States Senate, so don't expect any miracles coming out of that body.

Speaking of the Senate, it appears Senator Lieberman has succeeded in hijacking what little reform there is in the proposed health care legislation.

More about him here.

The Health Care Mess

It's very comforting to know that basically six senators, all from mostly rural states, are holding real health care reform hostage.

We are screwed. Period.
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More Stimulus

After a lot of cutting out of the stimulus bill, senators have reached a deal on a $780 billion package.

If it's watered down, it's better than nothing, and some of the things cut out can be put in future bills. But I am so sick of the GOP I can scream.

They don't care about this country; all they care about is seeing Obama fail.

More:

The fine print was not immediately available, and the numbers were shifting. But in essence, the Democratic leadership and two centrist Republicans announced that they had struck a deal on about $110 billion in cuts to the roughly $900 billion legislation — a deal expected to provide at least the 60 votes needed to send the bill out of the Senate and into negotiations with the House, which has passed its own version.

The pact, which is expected to be approved in the next few days, was concluded just hours after the Labor Department announced that 598,000 jobs were lost in January. The contraction in jobs is already steeper than in any other recession since at least the early 1980s. And economists warn that several more shoes are about to drop, a message that added urgency to the Senate deliberations.

Ben Nelson of Nebraska is about as much use as tits on a boar. He's a so-called Democrat in a state which is almost totally Republican.

Miscellaneous Political Articles

With the latest Senate contests or controversies, it is clear there is more than one way to become a senator, and not all of the paths are becoming. But sometimes senators who were ridiculed upon taking their seats end up leaving them with newfound respect.
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Speaking of respect or lack of it, only time will tell how history judges our dictator. Will he go from being the worst president in American history to the most inept leader in the history of the world?
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