It was what . . . just one Senator, right? That must have been one damned powerful Senator, that one

[Stinky The Clown]

January of 2008 saw the Democrats come roaring back to power. The White House, House and the Senate. Big time majorities. Still basking in the glow of elections that repudiated so clearly and forcefully the bush years.

This was our time.

We had the Executive Branch.

We had a convincing majority in the House and we had a strong Speaker who had a strong agenda.

We had a big majority in the Senate.





And therein lies the rub. The stopgap fallback of the filibuster. Of course, in this modern age of something for nothing, all one has to do is say "I'm filibustering" and all the others go "Oh, sure. Okay. Rightie-o. We'll be over here." - DOING NOTHING. It takes 60 to stop this nonsense. We had a mere 59. We couldn't get one repub to come over. The net result was that no big liberal ideas got passed. Only stuff that had the approval of Senator 60 got through.






Ya know, if one is a cynical fuck (anyone know any cynics?) one could conclude that it works this way so They (Who is the person named They?) can give us an ongoing illusion of giving a shit. "By gosh, we almost got there." "Damn. Just one vote shy." "Aaaaaalllllllllmost." "Oh Snap! We missed it by thaaaaaat much."






Is it really all just a big scam? Is the system gamed that badly? Is cynicism out of line?

[hulka38]

1. The HCR debacle was

or should be a moment of clarity to all who were paying attention.

[Merlot]

2. It was ONE senator who kept single payer out of HCR

and has the blood on his hands IMO for all the people who die and are ill without insurance.

joe lieberman. health insurance shill. worst person in America.

[pscot]

3. You forgot the sarcasm thingy.

[The Doctor.]

4. To your last three questions;

'Yes'.

'More than likely'.

'No'.

[pacalo]

5. Overall, I've come to wonder if it's all a sham, all the way down to voting.

And the powers-that-be decide everything.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

6. Those "Black Boxes" with their 'secret code'. Maybe Anonymous will read that.

But we already understand what it will say...