Posted on 11/21/2013 9:52:06 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
Edited on 11/21/2013 9:53:53 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
A bitterly divided Senate voted Thursday to ease the confirmation process for most presidential nominees, a momentous and potentially risky step that limits the ability of Republicans to block President Barack Obama's choices for executive-branch and most judicial posts.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) engineered the rules change, over Republican objections, with a complicated parliamentary maneuver that ended up placing new curbs on the use of the filibuster—a move so controversial that it is often called the "nuclear option."
"The American people believe Congress is broken. The American people believe the Senate is broken…It's time to change the Senate before this institution becomes obsolete," Mr. Reid said.
The key vote was 52-48, with all but three Democrats voting for the change and all Republicans opposed. Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Joe Manchin of West Virginia broke from their party and voted against changing the rules.
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1. The filibuster is not in the Constitution.
2. The first US Senate ever did NOT have a filibuster rule — in fact, they had the opposite, a “move the previous motion” rule that required a vote.
3. The possibility of a filibuster didn’t exist until a Senate rule change in 1806 that made the filibuster a possibility. The reason for the rule change was NOT to create the filibuster, but because some considered the “move the motion” requirement to be redundant IN THAT going to a vote was considered logical, natural, obvious.
4. The first abuse of debate with a threatened filibuster didn’t take place until just before 1840.
5. The stories we read that say the filibuster has a 225 year history are simply in error.
Remember when they called it the nuclear option?
So do I.
Your statement presumes that fair elections will be held at some point in the future. I am not so hopeful.
The filibuster is a dinosaur, anyhow. For that matter, the Senate is, to an extent. We’d be better off giving the House (the “people’s body”) the Senate’s unique powers (like confirming judges and cabinet officers) and making the Senate a sort of House of Lords. It’s not a perfect world, so that won’t happen.
Is this true, or am I completely delirious: I know they (at least the GOP) wouldn’t do it, but if Congress can enlarge the courts, they can also shrink or eliminate them. They can then make new courts and pack those.
Exactly. The “we wuz robbed” mantra is getting old.
“”I’ve got quite the civilian weaponry, but it won’t do much good against an Abrams.””
With your attitude, you might as well hand over your “civilian weaponry”, bend over and let Obama do a two finger wave on you just in case you need a second opinion.
People like you need to be in the back of the line with the women from Austin handing out flyers whining why we should surrender before the battle.
And like my tagline says, I have been to the line partner and crap I am dang near tired of being a serf under this regime.
Toss the coin...let’s go.
“1. The filibuster is not in the Constitution.
2. The first US Senate ever did NOT have a filibuster rule — in fact, they had the opposite, a “move the previous motion” rule that required a vote.
3. The possibility of a filibuster didn’t exist until a Senate rule change in 1806 that made the filibuster a possibility. The reason for the rule change was NOT to create the filibuster, but because some considered the “move the motion” requirement to be redundant IN THAT going to a vote was considered logical, natural, obvious.
4. The first abuse of debate with a threatened filibuster didn’t take place until just before 1840.
5. The stories we read that say the filibuster has a 225 year history are simply in error.”
Thank you. We needed that.
You don't use them to take on the Abrams, you use them to take out the facilities that produce the Abrams and the Marxists that try to command them.
And, you use them to confiscate the Abrams.
You’re welcome. The original plan was for the Senate to do its job and not just sit around jawing.
The original plan also called for senators to be chosen by state legislatures to represent their state, so the authors of the Constitution apparently thought that getting the job done was more important than political posturing.
I bet if we ever get the senate back... in the first month, the R’s will change the rules back... ya’know, in an effort to reach across the isle and be all Maverick-like.
Harry Reid is a truly despicable person. He’s power hungry, and he wants Obama’s court appointees in place before the Dems lose the majority in the Senate. This is truly, truly, the most heinous act he’s pulled to date. Me thinks impeachment hearings ought to commence to oust him out of office.
“Those brownshirts have SMG’s, fully armored vehicles and attack helicopters. As a fellow “country boy” I’ve got quite the civilian weaponry, but it won’t do much good against an Abrams.”
Most of the folks driving the really heavy stuff—and their career NCOs and junior officers—are “country boys” themselves. Who knows what they’ll do when the fertilizer hits the fan. And that doesn’t even factor in NG and ANG.
The time of the ballot box is over.
The time of the mail box has passed.
The time of the jury box has had its last hurrah.
The time of the soap box is rapidly ending.
That leaves only one box left.
Get yours, while it’s still legal...
You Are Not Alone.
'Legal' now means whatever the MarxoFascists say 'legal' is.
There is no 'rule of law' any longer. Only the rule of tyrants.
We are already past the point of any 'box' restoring the Republic. We waited too long to rectify this tyranny we now call a government.
What 'box' remains is all that will stand between you and a mass grave given the lessons of history.
Okay.
This is a great development, then. Or not.
I agree with you that we are past the event horizon of restoring order through civil or even Constitutional means; the process has been thoroughly compromised.
I suggest though, that the regime hasn't made the final box illegal. Yet. So though the sands are draining from the hourglass, the hour has not yet rung, though it grows late.
Until that day comes, when the shock troops come boiling out of the urban kraals, and armored vehicles leave their assembly areas, we must prepare. And we must sound the alarm every chance we get.
The "Sons Of Liberty" needs to re-form.
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