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The Filibuster Redux

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

One of my right wing commenters (I always have one) posted a comment in response to my recommendation that we, one and all, sign Kos’s petition to end the filibuster.

The comment was to the effect that you need 67 votes to change the filibuster rule.

Kos isn’t stupid, and if he thought you needed that many votes to change the rule, he wouldn’t bother to press for it, since it’s pretty clear that you couldn’t get a single Republican vote to change it at this time. As is usual, our right wing friend is wrong.

But the fact is, you don’t need 67 votes to change the rule. You need 51 votes, provided you take the vote at the beginning of the session. We can thank Nelson Rockefeller for that. He was Vice-President in 1975. More importantly, he was president of the Senate at that time, and in that capacity he ruled that it took only a majority of votes to change the rules at the beginning of a session. The filibuster was in danger at that point, because it took 67 votes to break one, and his ruling could have spelled the end of the filibuster at that time. The Senate compromised, and passed a new rule requiring 60 votes to break a filibuster, but Rockefeller’s ruling stood, meaning that in January of 2011 the Senate could, be a mere majority of Senators, change its rules again.

I am beating this dead horse simply because it’s such an important issue, and everyone on our side should know the facts.

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End the Filibuster

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Sign Kos’s Petition.

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Saying the right thing

Sunday, August 15, 2010

I haven’t hesitated to criticize Obama, so it’s only fair that I take note when he does something right. It was good to hear about his statements about the New York Muslim Cultural Center. Being sort of out of circulation, I heard about them somewhat belatedly, and by the time I find an internet connection to post this, his remarks will be several days old, but I can’t let the occasion pass, since it’s so refreshing to see a president defend the Constitution, particularly the good bits. They all seem eager to defend unwritten presidential prerogatives, but it’s always different when mere core constitutional values are at stake.

I read somewhere, can’t remember where, that any president would have had to take the same position that Obama did, since the constitutional question here isn’t even close. You would like to think that’s true, but recall what happened when the Supreme Court ruled that flag burning was protected speech. Bush Sr. led the charge for a constitutional amendment. What was scary about that, beyond the fact that the amendment almost passed the Senate, was the fact that a constitutional question that should not even have been close was decided on a 5 to 4 vote.

From what I gather, there has been some parsing of Obama’s statements because he defended the right of the Muslims to build their facility without taking a position on the advisability of their doing so. Apparently some folks can’t see the distinction. It’s not really his business to decide whether the exercise of a constitutional right is a good or bad thing under any particular set of circumstances; it is his business to defend the right of a person, or in this case a group, to exercise their rights no matter the circumstances. I share Obama’s position, albeit, I’m sure, for different reasons. I look forward to the day when churches, synagogues, temples and mosques throughout this land will close for lack of sufficient numbers of dupes to fill the pews. A forlorn hope, I know, in this land of dupes. But there is no inconsistency in my saying, at the same time, that every dupe should have equal rights with every other dupe, until the hoped for day of deliverance comes. Nor is it inconsistent for Obama to stick up for the Muslims in New York without taking a position favoring or disfavoring construction.

So good for Obama. It would be ever so nice if he would start making principled statements a habit, and even nicer if he would follow up with deeds. For instance, there’s that little matter of Guantanamo.

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Friday Night Music-Early Edition

Friday, August 13, 2010

Since I probably won’t have internet access again today, this is going up early.

Originally I intended to find a good version of Moonlight in Vermont, but the only actual video I could find (as opposed to music with a picture of the artist) was by Frank Sinatra. I realize he was immensely talented, but I’ve never liked the guy, so I was loathe to post anything with him in it.

Then it occurred to me that Phish is from Vermont. Luckily, my son is here as I wasn’t sure what would be a good selection. He suggested Bouncing Around the Room. This version appears to get cut off a bit too soon near the end, but the audio and video quality are both good.


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Vermont miscellany

Friday, August 13, 2010

I don’t know whether this is a blessing or a curse, but we are rather cut off from the outside world up here in Vermont. We have to go out of our way to get access to the internet, and consequently are having a hard time keeping up with what’s going on in the rest of the world. If all goes as planned this will be posted from the Ludlow Public Library, assuming their wireless is working.

Since I don’t know what’s going on out there, all I’m going to do is post some pictures, so if you’re looking for biting political commentary, look elsewhere for awhile. I’ll be back in full rant mode in a couple of weeks.

This is a view from the road that passes the Calvin Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth, VT. I took this while I was riding my bicycle to the Long Trail Brewery in Bridgewater Corners, where I met my spouse and our guests. Every year I wonder if this will be the year that the 15% grade from Route 100 to this point will prove to much for me. I’m proud to report that I made it once again, despite the horrible condition of the road surface, which adds immeasurably to the difficulty, not to mention agony, of the ascent. From this point it’s all downhill to the brewery.

We go to the brewery for the free wireless, beer, and food in that order. Unfortunately, this year they decided to make you jump through hoops to connect to the net. We never managed to connect my wife’s computer. The place offers a number of amenities. For instance, while we were relaxing at the outdoor tables, the kids in our party could spend their time wading in the river nearby.

Now for something completely different. My son and his girlfriend just returned from Uganda. She was there for about six weeks interning with a UN Food program. He was there visiting her, for the last two weeks of her stay. He brought this back for my wife. It’s about 4 feet by 3, and I’ve christened it Obama’s Birth Certificate. I don’t know what the legend in Swahili means, and now that I’m actually here at the library, I’ve been unable to access a Swahili translator.

Needless to say they are proud of Obama in Africa. My son’s girlfriend says that when the Ugandans see someone who they recognize as an American they greet them with “Obama, Obama!”

Yesterday we went to Jamaica State Park, where there is a nice flat hiking trail that runs along an abandoned railroad bed, which itself runs alongside a river. When we got there we saw these folks, conducting an archaeological dig next to the ladies room.

Turns out the state is about to install a new septic system, and both federal and state law required an archaeological survey before construction could be done. This survey struck gold, in the form of a treasure trove of Native American artifacts, as the very friendly archeologist explained to us. Here’s an arrowhead that I believe he said was about 3,000 years old.

He told us that nowadays they do not clean the artifacts, because they can now try to find DNA in blood traces on them to determine what, if anything, they were used to kill.

We noticed a number of striking looking fungi along the path.

Finally, some views of the river.


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Looking ahead

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Now we have to hope that Malloy is as good at spreading the truth about Foley as he was at spreading lies about Lamont.

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Greetings from Vermont

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Just keeping my hand in here. While the folks at home are worrying about the primary, we’ve put all that behind us. I’m writing this using WordPress for the Ipad, which is quite primitive. I’ve inserted three pictures (the maximum allowed) but I have no way of previewing to see how they look. Anyway, we’re having fun, and rooting for Ned.

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Friday Night Music-A Summer Song

Friday, August 6, 2010

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that Chad and Jeremy were among my very favorite acts at the start of the British Invasion. I well remember being greatly disappointed when they backed out of headlining a “Big D Big Show” at the Bushnell in 1965 or thereabouts. I bought all their albums. What can I say?

Anyway, it occurred to me that their big hit, a Summer Song, was certainly timely. I searched youtube, and there’s no videos of live performances from the 60s, but, believe it or not, they’ve reunited and have apparently been touring for several years, which just goes to prove that while there may be no second acts for Americans, there must be for Britishers.

Back in the day, their harmonies were tighter, and they could hit the high notes.


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Because I know you’ve been waiting: CTBlue primary endorsements

Friday, August 6, 2010

We shall soon be heading for the Green Mountains, for two blessed weeks away from work. Before I leave I feel it is incumbent upon me to tell everyone out there how to vote.

Let me say first, that we have, for the most part, a fine roster of candidates. Whoever wins will have my support, with the exception of one candidate. See if you can guess which one. By the way, since I’ll be away, I’ve already put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. My absentee ballot is safely ensconced in the Town Clerk’s office.

Governor: Ned Lamont. I support Ned for a number of reasons. One is purely emotional. I feel like we owe Ned big time. He’s the guy who stood up when no one else would. Dick Blumenthal would be senator now if he’d done what Ned did. Ned lost in 2006, but he showed Democrats that they had to deal with the Iraq war issue, and he arguably helped save the party from itself, since before he came along every Democrat in Congress was running from the issue.

I also think that Ned would actually be more capable of dealing with the legislature than Malloy, though I think it will be a daunting task for either. He also seems prepared to make the hard choices that need to be made, some of which I know I may not like, to get this state moving in another direction. It’s an unfortunate fact of modern political life that after the Republicans destroy a governmental entity-and make no mistake, in this state it’s the governor that rules- a Democrat (or independent, e.g., Lowell Weicker) has to come in and clean things up, at the risk of being a one term governor (or president, or what have you). It’s an unfair world out there. I think Ned is more willing to follow in Lowell’s footsteps and do what needs to be done.

One final point: I had hoped that both candidates would operate on the premise that the need to get a Democratic governor was more important than that they personally get the nomination. I had hoped, but of course knew better, that they could keep the debate positive. Malloy was the guy that turned it negative, forcing Lamont to do the same. That’s a strike against him in my book.

Lieutenant Governor: Mary Glassman. Strictly because I think the governor should have the lieutenant governor of his or her choice.

Secretary of State: I voted for Gerry Garcia on the first ballot at the convention, but switched to Denise Merrill on the second. Something about Garcia’s attempt to switch his supporters to Jonathan Harris didn’t sit well with me. Only later did I realize that there had been an even more objectionable part of the deal, which gave New Haven’s delegate block to the loathsome, repulsive, Jarjura of Waterbury. I like Garcia personally, but anyone who had a part in easing Jarjura’s path to the primary should have to pay a price, if not in this life, then in the hereafter. Since I don’t believe in the hereafter, I’m going with Merrill here below.

Comptroller: Kevin Lembo. Kevin is a decent, honest and honorable guy. He would make an excellent comptroller.

Being no Shakespeare and incapable of adequately expressing my contempt for the guy, I will leave it to the bard to describe his opponent. He is:

A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir to a mongrel bitch: one whom I [would] beat into clamorous whining if [he] deni’st the least syllable of [his] addition.

Gosh, that guy could write, couldn’t he? (The foregoing, by the way, is merely an expression of opinion, no factual assertions are either expressed or implied, and of course it’s all in the spirit of constructive criticism.)

I understand that negative campaigning is a feature of political campaigns, but any decent person knows some limits, however difficult they may be to define. This is especially true in a primary. Jarjura’s fact free slime leaped over that line in a single bound. Besides, the guy is not even a real Democrat, given that he’s holding those tea-partiers so close (among other things).

Finally, there’s the fact that 1) he’s Mayor of Waterbury, and 2) he saw fit to hire John Rowland for a cushy job. Neither fact is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but either would constitute probable cause to believe that he’s not someone you want anywhere near your money.

So, there you have it. Now, go out and vote for the candidates of your choice, so long as you are voting for the candidates of my choice. Or, at least, don’t vote for the person I can’t support in November, if you can figure out which one that is.


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Nit-picky

Thursday, August 5, 2010

As a long suffering Town Committee treasurer, who tries to go by the book, I want to second Representative Tim O’Brien’s (New Britain and Newington) complaints about the State Election Enforcement Commission. He takes issue, justifiably in my opinion, with the Commission’s assertion that he has to put a “Paid for by ” disclaimer on his blog or facebook page, despite the fact that he isn’t paying anyone for either the blog or the facebook nor is he getting any kind of deal, since blogspot and facebook are free to anyone.

My wife ran into a situation where she was trying to send a mass email for a fundraiser, and was told that the email would be considered a contribution, on the theory that she pays for internet service and she was giving some of it away to the candidate in question. This sort of stuff gets a little absurd, and, as O’Brien points out, is so de minimus that it should properly be ignored.

Our town committee stopped doing tag sales because I concluded that it was literally impossible to hold one and comply with the law, because I would have to have accounted for every piece of junk that someone donated, give it a value, and keep track of what was paid for it. Easy enough if you’re doing a high priced auction; not so easy if you’re selling hundreds of donated items for a few bucks apiece.

If you start out with the proposition that no one in their right mind would be interested in bribing town committees (okay, except for Linda McMahon) and that most of them are low budget affairs, you might very well conclude that it would make sense to exempt them from disclosure requirements altogether, so long as their total expenditures/contributions in a year don’t exceed some reasonable figure. That would make life easier for a lot of people, without undermining the law’s purpose at all. That would be a legislative solution of course.

On the plus side, I must say the folks at the Commission are helpful, in that they will give you an answer to any questions you might have very quickly. I may not always like the answers, but at least I get them.


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