Schwartz created a slight breach of etiquette by skipping the triple dare and going right for the throat!

The news that the GOP Senate minority is the most obstructionist ever is being met by the predictable response that Democratic Senators fillibustered some Bush nominees in the last session and so it's a pot/ kettle situation. It would certainly appear that way, especially if one was laboring under some sort of major head trauma or in the late stages of mad cow disease. Otherwise; not so much.

I've been spending the last several months pretty much taking the Democratic party to task and I stand my resolution that the party, especially the party leaders, are absolutely worthless. That said- the idea that the actions of both parties surrounding fillibusters while in the majority are somehow equivalent makes me want to bang my head against my desk. In fact, hold on a second....

Okay, back.

Just to review yet again- the nuclear option was basically a plan by Republican leaders to break the senate's own rules in order to stop minority Democratic fillibusters of Bush nominees. The Republicans were able to avoid throwing the Senate into disarray by breaking the rules only by the "wise" compromise agreement by the Gang of 14 that the Democrats would stop fillibustering and Bush would get all of his nominees voted on. This led to general unhappiness among the bases of both parties as the Democratic base recognized we'd been shafted once again and the Republican base still wanted blood and to kill the fillibuster forever.

In the current situation the roles are reversed and the base of the Democratic party is again very unhappy that the will of the majority of Americans is being thwarted by the determined radicals on the other side. The difference here - which is hugely telling of what sort of people are attracted in general to both major parties - is that the Democratic base isn't crying for an end to the fillibuster. The Democratic base is screaming because the Democratic leadership is refusing to make anyone but Democratic Senators (Chris Dodd) actually fillibuster.

Republicans were angry with their party because they wouldn't break the rules. Democrats are angry with their party because they won't force the other party to FOLLOW THE RULES. That's the difference.

I don't care about what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about what it CAN do.

It's clear from yesterday's votes that it continues to be business as usual for the weenie Senate Democrats who continue to refuse to fail to use every legislative tool they have at their disposal to fight the Iraq/ Bush/ Republican idiocy.

I won't list out all the solutions progressives are practically SHOUTING at Reid and company (forcing actual fillibusters for a start) because the entire exercise continues to leave me frustrated. The whole D.C. establishment - government and media - are dangerously out of touch with the wishes of the vast majority of this country.

Last week's Petraeus testimony only forced to underline that fact. That does not bode well for the future of this country. It's one thing to have a deaf ear and it's entirely another to pretend that what you're not listening to in the first place doesn't really matter anyway. Especially if this country is governed by any form of a democracy.

Last Saturday we had dinner with a Marine EMT and his wife. He's been over to Iraq on several deployments spending huge chunks of time away from his wife and family. The financial impact has been severe and, at one point, his wife had to involve one of our congressman and the threat of a congressional investigation to work out a payroll issue with the Navy. I suspect that if the Webb amendment had been if effect and he'd been stateside longer, some if not much of this suffering could have been alleviated.

This guy is a super-patriot and a Marine to the core (pardon pun) and he feels after years of this war that the system is broken and we just aren't taking care of those that are serving now and have served. Why are we allowing this to continue and what can we do to change it?

That's the frustrating thing because we really don't have an answer to that last part of the question.

Do you remember things that made sense? Things you could count on? Before we all got so lost? What are we gonna do, Charlie? What am I gonna do?

I think it was don snabalus who first pointed me towards Fark.com. I check that site a couple of times a day and really enjoy the saucy comments, photoshopped pictures of our leaders and smart ass exchanges that make up most of the discourse at Fark. Fark is the perfect site for the permanently sarcastic, terminally hip and nerds-in-denial that make up a good portion of the internet.

What Fark isn't is a site for serious debate and deep discussion of the issues (although I'm at a loss to think of a site on the internet that is.) Showing a little bit of your true self or letting your guard down there will get you burned. Big time.

That's why I was stunned to run into the following post by somebody going by the Fark handle cackylacky this morning-

This made me cry.

I'm so damn sick and tired of feeling like this. I hate that this stupidman has taken a life that I and my family were once proud of and made it conflicted and confusing and painful.

I hate sending my husband off to Iraq and looking at my kids and knowing that, if the worst happens, I can't even look at them and say "Your daddy died doing what was right."

I hate having conversations with him that start over some random snippet of news and end with me sobbing in his arms, begging him to get out, and having him hold me and ask me, "If all the good men leave, who will be left? And what will happen then?"

I hate feeling responsible for this. I hate it.

I was lied to, and I bought it. I couldn't believe that our entire government was lying to us. It seemed so impossible, sooo... tin-foil hattish.

I hate going to Target and seeing boys being pushed around in Naval Hospital-issued wheelchairs by their wives, while holding their babies.

I hate funerals.

How did we get here? He joined when it was all rescuing downed pilots and non-combatant evacs. Saving the world and all that rot.

I think I'm gonna be sick.I hope noone reads this. I'll read it later andbe ashamed. I don't care. It's early in the morning, late in the thread. Screwit.

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2939447

As Republican Senators spend last night and this morning pretending to be bored by the debate taking place in the Senate and the attempt to stop their obstruction I think of cacky, and people like her and I get pissed. Why don't you find her and yawn in her face Senatro Inhoefe?

Yes, it's true. This man has no dick.

Wow! The normally reasonable Josh Marshall sounds so shrill as he talks about Republican Senators rash of recent filibusters.

If anything it's worse than this as Senate Republicans have been filibustering just about everything. Everything on Iraq certainly. And this is the sense of 'filibuster' as it has been used more or less continuously for a decade.

The Dems are idiots on this. Reporters should note it, yes. But it's not really their job.

In the larger sense this is something that worries me in the abstract and I think Democratic Senators are really going to get a handle on for the future of the country and if we hope to get anything done legislatively after the next election.

Most political analysts see real opportunities for the Democrats to pick up as many as eight seats in the Senate in 2008. This would put the Democrats at, what, 58/ 59 Senators? Not enough for cloture.

So we could be facing a situation where we have a Democratic President, a solidly Democratic House and Senate and still aren't able to get a damn thing passed because Democratic Senators haven't got the balls to to stand up to the radical Senators in the Republican party.

Democratic leaders need to get a handle on this now. First step: force real filibusters on these issues and draw the jerks into the public spotlight.

Well, those are the boobs that make our laws. That's the democratic process.

Seems to me that Republican Senators have already successfully filibustered more bills than the democrats were able to in the entire six years they were the minority party. First the ethics bill and now the minimum wage hike.

I'm at a loss as to why senate democrats feel they need to allow for any republican input on a modest hike to the minimum wage. It's not like the bill is controversial or unpopular. They're not trying to keep a terminally braindead patient on life support, for example.

Great principles don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here; you just have to see them again!

Ron Wyden fillibusters. He wants his energy bill considered. Good on him!