Senate Rules Kill Bailout, Foil Democracy

[autorank]

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0812/S00255.htm

Senate Rules Kill Bailout, Foil Democracy
Rigged Game Stops Vote on Bill

Michael Collins
"Scoop" Independent News

A look at the Senate vote in terms of population shows that senators representing just 26% of citizens overcame senators whose states account for 64% total U.S. population. The nay saying Senators represent 78 million citizens, while those who wanted to vote on the bill account for 192 million. The remaining 30 million are factored in for the 12 no shows. Snip

Senators and historians come up with all sorts of polite excuses for this tyranny of backwards, bought-and-sold Senators who betray both the nation's interests and those of their constituents on a regular basis. The bottom line is quite simply; nothing much gets done in this ultimate insiders club other than "earmarks" and other enrichment programs for the usual list of suspects.

We can only wonder if, during the comfort of their holiday meal, they will bother to think of the hundreds of thousands of people whose jobs depend on the automakers, people who are just one pay check away from the streets.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0812/S00255.htm

[louis-t]

1. And stupidface knows HE will be blamed.

Another huge failure heaped on the pile of other huge failures. Some 'legacy'.

[autorank]

3. Bush could have paid for this out of TARP and let Obama be in

on the requirements by the automakers. That would have been the smart thing to do and the right thing as well.

But Paulson said, no way, probably knowing that the right wing anti-union creeps would block it in the Senate.

Now it's a mess and they're playing chicken with everyone.

They need to fud the bailout and have input by the government including protecting unions.

[formercia]

2. This may be their last chance in a long time, if ever

to break the back of the unions.

The young people know better. Those who grew up during the darkest part of the Cold War are the most susceptible to the right-wing reactionary propaganda. They have been conditioned over the years to accept the word of the corporate masters, after all, it was GM that coined the phrase: 'What's good for GM, is good for America." and other choice Madison Avenue tidbits. What's good for GM had nothing to do with the UAW. It had to do do with the corporate oligarchs that profited from producing big, gas-guzzling and resource wasting monsters.

They thought they could kill the unions with outsourcing, but now that DC is beginning to listen to the workers of this country, the Right had to make one last stab at the heart of the manufacturing base.

I watched it happen in a corporation where I worked. There was too much liability in the plant, so they sold us, plant and workers to an Alabama based contract manufacturer. They told the workers they couldn't transfer to other jobs in the corporation. We were a commodity to be sold like cattle.

In groups and one at a time they fired the workers and replaced them with temps that were subsidized by the state for 'training'. When their time was up, they fired the temps en-masse and brought in a new group. It was like getting a new train load of inmates at the death camp. It's not surprising. The president of the corporation was a protege of Werner Von Braun. Werner taught him all the tricks he learned building V-2 Ballistic Missiles for the Nazis.

When the State tax and training subsidies dried up, they stripped the plant of anything of value, fired the workers and disappeared into the Sunset.

This is what American workers have to look forward to under the New World Order.

[autorank]

4. NSO - New Serf Order

The contradiction no growth in income reduces the ability to purchase and leads to recession yet the companies hit
hardest by a recession join the "deep" economy firms in the push against unions, worker rights, and an expansion of wealth. If there's a method to the madness, what is it? The downward wage and wealth spiral ruins retail and high ticket enterprises, even those that provide "necessities" like televisions. These clowns are eating themselves and they can't stop.

[formercia]

11. The ogliarchs have theirs. They love poor people.

The UAW is part of the so called 'Middle Class', another corporate code word for those within the realm of a living wage. The only way they can destroy the unions is to destroy the 'Middle Class.'

Gardeners and Domestics make too much anyway. More poor people means more competition.

Back to the 'Good old days.'

Wy hire illegal aliens when you can have white, US citizens to do your shit jobs.

http://bloggingforbryant.blogspot.com/2006/06/ins-case-shows-corker-used-illegal.html


Why should they care about the poor? We won't vote for them and the rich give them what they want. All the 'Middle Class' do is suck up revenue that would otherwise go to the rich.

[autorank]

25. Why not pay them with Confederate money

It would match the values that prevail in this decision and it's not hard to print up tons of it.

I remember seeing pictures of Germans in the 20's shoving shopping baskets full of paper bills around.

Deflation is one of the ultimate horrors.

That's an excellent point, though, the right wing must love the poor, they want so many more to join that class.

But who will buy those Benz's produced in SC?

[HCE SuiGeneris]

26. You just described Texas Instruments' modus operandi

to a tee.

[Me.]

5. As i See It

Either way the ReCon goose is cooked. Workers all over the country know they just kicked sand in the faces of workers. Oddly two people are trying to speak truth to them but they are so ideologically delusional the warnings can't penetrate. Cheney of all people went to the hill and said 'Herbert Hoover' to them. It was a warning, reminding them that after Hoover it took a generation for their party to even start coming back, They as good as laughed in Cheney's face as he has no credibility with anyone. Buchanan has been saying the same thing. If they throw this country into a depression they are done.

[autorank]

6. Thanks for that.

When Cheney is your voice of wisdom, damn, and in behalf of workers. But he's right.

I've never seen such an absurd site as Sen. Corker, a complete fool, talking about industrial policy. He was a damn
mayor and before that in commercial real estate. But now he's a genius, a leader in screwing up the bailout.

Even Sam Brownback voted for this bill.

But the bill would have passed but for the stupidity of the "rule" on cloture.

[ihavenobias]

7. To the greatest Autorank. n/t

[autorank]

16. Thanks! You! You're only bias is for the truth!

[bleever]

8. This time, they're going to make secession the new normal,

and make everyone else catch up.

But cheap moves backfire.

[autorank]

17. If that ever becomes a topic of discussion for a state that

could do it, it will blow some minds. I hope its soon. Having a bunch of know-nothings running the country
whild the majority stands by and PRETENDS to be helpless is totally unacceptable.

[Hawkowl]

9. Strip them of all funding

There is no discipline in the Senate anymore because Harry Reid is the biggest spineless piece of shit ever to "run" the senate. These miserable Rethuglican bastards should simply have every one of their pet projects strangled to death. Filibuster threats used to be very rare and now they are simply used every, single, fucking vote.

The Dems should simply single out one or two rethuglican senators and simply make them political lepers. No voice in committees, no funding for projects, no access to the president or any of the leadership. That is the way hardball politics is played.

[autorank]

18. And Reid voted with the Republicans

That's amazing. Reid actually voted with them, along with Tester, Baucus, &

The good news is, instead of 20 so Dems voting with the Republicans, it was only 4.

I'm sure Obama is watching and developing a plan to "modify" their behavior. I hope they're listening to the
people, like you, with common sense contributions.

[Lithos]

20. Not to defend Reid completely

But the rules state that the measure can only be brought back if, and only if, someone who voted against cloture raises it back up. Basically he shifted his vote to "nay" in order to be able to force the issue back up for a vote. In otherwords, once he saw it was going to fail, he fell back on rule technicality in order to preserve the maximum number of options.

L-

[autorank]

22. You're right and that's another reason why this is so absurd

It's more of 'I had to vote against the bill before I voted for it.' People just can't stand that and I don't blame them. They're right.

"Then the bill went to the august and arcane United States Senate where sometimes, in order to pass a bill, you have to pass a bill before the bill you want to pass is even considered. " I mean, doesn't it give you a headache;)

It would have been better, imho, for Reid to vote Yea and then throw down on the filibuster threat. I didn't want to get readers' eyes too glazed over so I didn't reference the grand compromise on filibusters that Reid helped broker. Why not say, OK, let's have some democracy here. You clowns can vote on the whole bill and have it recorded before a national audience.

The good news out of this for Obama is this - instead of 20 or so Dem Senators going to the other side (FISA etc.), only four went and we got 10 Republicans including Kit Bond! I fell over when I saw that name under the Yeas.

If these ignorant fools who lack any qualification, like Corker, want to bloviate and destroy vital legislation, it ought to become a huge issue, center stage. They can't prevail against the stimulus package and neither side can be allowed to shove pork in it either.

[charlie]

10. Two decades ago

a bunch of idiot Congressmen gathered on the Capitol steps to smash Toshiba appliances with sledgehammers. The ostensible reason was because Toshiba had sold the Soviets military grade milling machines. But Norwegian companies were just as thick in the deal and no one gave them shit for it. The zeitgeist at the time was that the Japanese were on the brink of stealing the country and our rightful worldwide industrial hegemony out from under us.

What a difference a generation of Reagonomics has made. Senators telling Detroit to go suck eggs cuz-we-gots-good-Toyoter-jobz is an astounding inversion of the Nihonphobia those clowns used to use for guaranteed votes.

[pampango]

14. We still seem able to generate some "Nihonphobia" since you hear many more compaints about Japanese

auto manufacturers (Honda, Toyota, Nissan) in the US than you do about the Germans (Volkswagen, Mercedes) and the Swedes (Saab, Volvo). That is similar to the Toshiba bashing (but Norway acceptance) that you referred to.

[earth mom]

12. I want to know where in the hell were Kerry, Kennedy & Wyden-because they did NOT vote.

:argh:

[MH1]

15. Kerry - international trip including Poznan, Georgia, India

Kennedy - um, you know he's ill, right?

Wyden - no clue.


Edit to add: their votes were not needed for passage. And there were enough republicans voting against cloture to block it.

[autorank]

19. Isn't that something.

Kennedy always has a good reason to be absent given his condition.

But the rest of them, good grief!

[earth mom]

21. True, I will give Kennedy the benefit of the doubt. But Kerry & Wyden? No. nt

[autorank]

24. If any of us missed THE big meeting for the big sale, we'd be fired.

But, hey, we're "the little people," we wouldn't understand;)

[earth mom]

27. Yep-we could never get away with the kind of stuff they all pull.

And what gets me is that it's not like they were voting on something of little consequence.

They all should have made every effort to be there.

[MH1]

30. I think you should have made every effort to read the post that pointed out where Kerry was

But hey I'm just "little people" around here.

[MH1]

29. Maybe you should FIND OUT WHERE THEY WERE before bashing?

No, of course not, this is DU. :eyes:

[MH1]

28. KERRY WAS IN POZNAN.

The trip was planned for awhile, ya think?

Sheesh.

[autorank]

32. It's just 2,500,000 jobs lost

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a6eGk_t1Tin0&refer=home

No big deal, right. Unless it's your job, or unless you live here and have work for a living.

[MH1]

33. Well yeah, and climate change is no big deal.

And the place of the US in international agreements is of course unimportant.

And the fact that Kerry was sent to Poznan by Obama as part of the US delegation is irrelevant, of course.

:sarcasm:

And hey, why aren't you getting on Biden for not showing? He's still a Senator, you know. And actually, Obama could have voted too, if he hadn't resigned.

And let's not even talk about the abject failure of Harry Reid to manage this thing.

[autorank]

34. Thanks for helping to kick this post. Were they voting on climate change

in where ever they were.

You're the one out to get some. But keep kicking it. It's very helpful and gets the post more exposure.

:hi:

[autorank]

13. Thank you BuzzFlash.com (& .net)

BuzzFlash.Com

and the buzzflash.net crew!

[autorank]

23. Will they think of us?

We can only wonder if, during the comfort of their holiday meal, they will bother to think of the hundreds of thousands of people whose jobs depend on the automakers, people who are just one pay check away from the streets. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0812/S00255.htm

[MasonJar]

31. The dems in the Congress no longer have an excuse beginning in January; they

either shape up or we will begin to ship them out, beginning in 2010.

[autorank]

35. They have no idea what's coming

They got away with being namby pamby in 2006, partially because of the new candidate selection and funding.

The house passed this right down the line, almost. The Senate did it's normal thing of falling back on rules
that are the excuse for misfeasance. Won't work in this environment and you're right. 2010 may be a ripe time
for a correction.