Watching the show....

Senator Warren of Mass. joins ten other Senators to end the filibuster...

...and suddenly the Senate Minority Leader, the Senior Senator from Kentucky, is a reasonable guy: willing to compromise and avoid the fiscal cliff, raise the debt limit, praise the President for his visiting Burma and Cambodia, etc.

Looks like the President and the Senate Majority Leader should cram everything that need be done for the next two years into the lame duck session while the threat to end the filibuster is still viable.

Or am I just being a cynic?

Agenda 21? Is that the hidden agenda to allow paranoid psychotics a place in government?

Re: A Saint with Sharp Elbows

I just love the fact that Elizabeth Warren is now in Congress. All those Congressmen who refused to accept her for the CFPB now have to deal with her EVERY DAY!!

What a way to take lemons and turn them into lemonade!!!

On the first day of the new session in January, the senators will have a unique opportunity to change the filibuster rule with a majority vote, rather than the normal two-thirds vote.

They need to get this done. I'm not totally against the filibuster, but one person should not be able to have that much power.

Ms. Maddow, You are one of the most honest, brilliant journalist on TV t the moment. Teammates like Alex Wagner, Chris Hayes, Millissa Harris-Perry, Krystal Ball,and a few others like you, put it all out there for us to research and learn for ourselves. I truly appreciate it. I am a white disables Korean War Veteran who voted for Obama twice. More discussion needs to be heard about the still rampant existance of raceism, bigotry and hatred. More needs to be pointed out about code words, and statements by our so called elected officials need to be held more accoountable for their statements and actions. How about the 6 billion the congress steals from USPS every year. We could help the debt and deficiet if congress simply returned that stolen money to the post office. It would save our USPS for the time being. If cuts are coming, how about starting with senate and congressional reductions in salarys? Or 10 year freezes on THEIR pay. Cut some of their perks, and reign in the fraud in our government. Any way, I have a favor. PLease pass this on to Chris Hays. Especially the part about the 6 billion back to the PO. My note to him keeps bouncing back. You are a breath of fresh air in TV journalism. You and your new collegues keep up the brilliant work and stand your ground against the lies and garbage we are bombarded with every day. Good luck to you, and have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Blessings. Don

Who are the Republican Congress representing? Or, are they self serving? How many of them are protecting their own income interests as opposed to how many of their constituents make more than $250K per year. This wound make a good story/study. How much more in taxes would Mitch McConnel pay if taxes were raised on his earned and unearned income compared to the income of his average constituent?

I know I would like to know and I'm sure his constituents would like to know before the next election.

As far as I know, this isn't the first presidential visit to Thailand. I looked up an LBJ viist briefly, and I was witness to a Nixon visit. Summer of 1969, he was probably on the way to Vietnam. He spoke to us in front of the embassy. I remembered it because I never liked him, yet he spoke to embassy staff and whatever armed forces families were gathered there and struck exactly the right tone, said exactly what we wanted to hear.

http://www.politicususa.com/post-election-romney-bain-face-federal-corruption-perjury-hearing.html

Damn, I can set my four year clock by Israel blowing the crap out of Palestine after every American Presidential election.

Just saw "Lincoln". Ohio democrats tried hard to screw things up back then as well.

I know most of you, and rightfully so, are invested in what is happening in the United States. With that said I was disappointed that on the show Rachel Maddow could not figure out how the fighting started. It started because of over a hundred rockets on civilians in two days. It started because Israeli soldiers within undisputed sovereign Israeli territory were patroling the border and they were attacked. One cannot imagine what it is like to live under the random launching of rockets. I thought I understood but until a rocket hit near Jerusalem and I heard the explosion and how it felt I realized I understood nothing. The civilians in Gaza suffer because of Hamas not Israel.

And while it's easy to think this is somehow tied to elections as someone suggested I promise you that Hamas is not interested in helping American or Israeli elections.

Sadly when people talk about land for peace all someone has to do is point to Gaza. Israel left Gaza and did not get peace. The only way to peace is to stop Hamas and to stop the rockets.

I also want to add that many in Israel who supported Romney now see that Obama is not against Israel as the Republicans tried to portray him. I am trying not to say I told you so : D

Religion is intolerant of views that are not handed down by the Church. Southerners are intolerant of those who use logic and Science rather than tradition to solve a problem. This could explain our problem.

(around here they scratch their heads when somebody says that repeating the same process while expecting a different result is madness.Heck fire they know better after all they grew up singing about that Ram that kept head butting the dam)

Hey gang wake the hell up if you want something to really happen its called pressure.The House needs A sea change come the mid-terms 2014. This will prevent 2 full years of lame duckery. Really are there 2 years to waste with the pressing Global issues not to mention our own domestic plight.

For a group that prides itself on its reverence for the Constitution, the Tea Party sure has a lot of proposed changes to the Constitution. In particular, Tea Party members seem to want to repeal amendments 14, 16 and 17 to the Constitution and to add a few more, for good measure.

What kind of “Constitutionalist” party is this? It seems like Tea Party types would rather scrap the whole thing than put the Constitution up on a pedestal. How can a movement say that it wants it government to be “based on the Constitution” when it also wants the Constitution to be changed so fundamentally?

Here is a list of Amendments Tea Party members and conservative Republicans want revised or repealed along with some of the key persons leading the war on these particular Amendments.

14th Amendment

• Jeff Landry: revise

• Mike Lee: Repeal

• Rand Paul: Repeal

Passed in 1866, the portion of the 14th Amendment that has drawn conservative ire is the Citizenship Clause, which defines citizenship as extending to all those who are born in the United States, regardless of the immigration status of the parents. Additionally, Rand Paul wishes to repeal the 14th amendment because it interferes with a private business’s right to ban black people from its premises, and also because it allows anyone born here in America to be American.

16th Amendment

• Sharron Angle

• Paul Broun

• Jeff Landry

All three wants to repeal the 16th amendment. Ratified by Congress in 1913, the 16th Amendment allows the federal government to tax the income of American citizens directly.

17th Amendment

• Paul Broun

• Ken Buck

• Jeff Landry

• Mike Lee

• Joe Miller

• Rick Perry

• Lee Southerland

All want to eliminate the 17th Amendment, although after Democrats made their positions an issue Buck and Southerland reversed themselves (at least publicly…..).The 17th amendment, of course, permits the direct election by the voters of U.S. Senators. Before the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913, state legislatures, not the voters, appointed the senators from a given state.

Several leading Tea Party members and other conservatives have also been pushing for deeper measures to include:

• A Repeal Amendment which would grant Congress the right to overturn Supreme Court opinions with a two-thirds vote

• A States’ Rights Amendment which would amend the Constitution so that a 2/3 vote of the states could overturn any federal law passed by the Congress and signed by the President.

• To abolish lifetime tenure for federal judges by amending Article III, Section I of the Constitution.

• A federal Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

• A Balanced Budget Amendment.

• A National Debt Relief Amendment, which once ratified would prohibit Congress from increasing the federal debt unless a majority of the states approve.

• An Anti-Abortion Amendment.

And if all this is not enough, there is also a push to repeal Congress’ power to spend money. Remember, the Constitution gives Congress power to “provide for the common defense and general welfare,” which grants Congress the authority to create federal spending programs such as Social Security.

H/T: http://samuel-warde.com/2012/06/the-tea-party-conservatives-attack-on-the-constitution/