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Man, I didn’t even realize this was still going on. Note to Bravo: please start putting a political news ticker at the bottom of Real Housewives. From the AP:
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state’s long-running Senate race.
The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.
Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office. With Franken and the usual backing of two independents, Democrats will have a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibuster.
Yay!
Of course:
Coleman hasn’t ruled out seeking federal court intervention.
That guy. Totally one of the best guys. Cafe Press is actually sold out of “World’s Best Guy” mousepads because Norm Coleman’s friends made a run on the place.
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So wait a minute. It’s good that one political party could go unchecked? I don’t get it.
Hahahah. Oh please, come on now. That is some of the laziest reactionary politics I have ever heard. This has been dragged through the courts for eight months. It is one of the least “unchecked” elections in history. It has now passed through the highest possible State Court. Enough.
Gabe! I’m not crying sham here or anything. An election is an election, fine. If I wanted to amuse myself, I’d think about how strange reality can get when a guy can go from sketch comedy to being the finishing touch on a party’s filibuster-proof senate presence. But that’s not even my point. I suppose my reaction comes from seeing “overcome filibuster” and “Yay!” We don’t have a ton of room for partisan errors here, because the road the led to here is paved with that shit. Expecting the current republican party to come through with a genius counter to a possible democrat-sponsored blunder is quite unlikely, I get it, but I don’t like not having that as some kind of last-resort.
That’s ignoring the fact that the filibuster has gone from a legislative rarity to a standard of practice. Votes on bills only require a simple majority to pass, but the constant threat of filibuster has ensured that either side needs 60+ votes to get just about anything done.
Yeah but when you have massive bills, loaded with all sorts of appropriations and secondary, tertiary, ad infinitum provisions attached to them, running through votes at the political versions of light-speed, you need to have the threat of halting everything available. If our lawmakers want to quit voting through shit without reading what they’re voting on, then the filibuster COULD go back to a rarity. As it stands, the gun’s gotta stay cocked.
not unchecked. just…unencumbered for a bit. just enough time to get some stuff done to even out the playing field after 6 years of the other side calling the shots and the last 2 years of nothing getting done. after a bit things will be deadlocked again. it’s how the system works.
getting back on topic, Norm Coleman needs to SHUT UP AND TAKE IT LIKE A MAN. you lost, buddy. go home.
Well, I guess I just find that kind of scary. Because lots of things happened before the last 8 years that have a lot to do with the nation’s problems. The only difference is, the people doing the damage in the past are now more powerful. So.
my point was that generally things go in progressive political waves. one side pursues it’s agenda, then the other side pursues it’s agenda, and generally things get done that reasonably reflects what society wants. don’t be scared…it’s the nature of politics/nations.
I hear you. I just rewatched the 2012 trailer, because I hate myself, and something about the Saint Peter’s Dome falling on a crowd of people makes me all panicky.
You know what, you are probably right, but being a liberal, I’m fine with it. Yes, that’s hypocritical, but that’s just the way things are. The only time people care about one side holding too much power is when they aren’t on that side. Conservatives weren’t worried about too much power from 2000-2006, when Congress stopped just short of building a gold statue of George Bush on the Senate floor. Plus, you actually think that this is scarier than all of Bush’s executive orders and such? At least here, the checks and balances are out of wack because we as a democracy voted them that way. The Bush Administration basically said, “these checks and balances are getting in our way, so we are just going to ignore them, what are you going to do about it?” for 8 years. Dick Cheney said that the Vice Presidency wasn’t a part of any branch, so he didn’t have to listen to anybody. Democrats now have a supermajority because the American people voted them into office. How can you even compare the two in terms of frightening amounts of power?
Well when it is the democrats, yeah!
Relax, Moop. That is ridiculous.
Oh I was just joking! But aside from that Moop is my cat’s name-so it was cool to read-*relax moop*!
not to be a sourpuss, but al franken already thought he was like the bestest thing since oxi-clean (norm coleman is awful too, but who cares about him?), and now al’s been given a reason to start work on that statue of himself in the black hills.
i miss funny al.
Give it up, Coleman. It’s not going to happen.
Talk about a stolen election. This is some seriously shady shit.
Down vote me all you want, but if it were Republicans pulling this shit, Gabe wouldn’t have forgotten it was still going on.
Not necessarily true, it’s just that Videogum wasn’t around in 2000 and 2004.
and when the federal court rules in favor of Franken, Coleman is going to call Ghostbusters.
We should all be thanking Becca for bringing the discourse back into the pop culture gutter where it belongs. Boo to political banter!
also, since the dems control the country now, the next 4 years BETTER be productive because there’ll be no blaming on The GOP in 2012.
get on your shit, donkeys!
I now have two senators. My life is average.
Remember what it was like with 1 senator though? That shit was B-A-N-A-N-A-S
OK fine, Coleman should let it go. But there were lot’s of shenanigans in this “recount.” There’s tons of votes that appeared mysteriously for Franken, yeh yeh whatever. It’s time to move on. But if you think things are automatically great think again. Unemployment is way higher than Obama told us it would be. Lot’s of stuff is still screwed and you can only Blame Bush!! for so long. I hope the Dems will get their shit together and be responsible but I’m not holding my breath.
They just crammed through a cap and trade bill in the House that nobody ever read. They have no idea what is in the bill. There was no actual copy of the bill at the time of passage. They added a 300 page amendment at 3:00 am on the day of the vote. So if they want to reduce carbon emissions fine. More power to them. However the bill as passed will not do that. We could actually be producing MORE carbon until 2020 if you believe the proponents.
So let’s take a breath and keep an eye on the Dems too. They won they deserve to push for their agenda. They should at least know what they are passing before they vote on it.
Oh, and now Franken can be a joke instead of not telling them anymore. Yeh I said it. I don’t like the guy I have never met in my life.
wait is that a vote that should’ve been for lizard people but was changed?
in case you can’t tell… this is a vote for “Flying Spaghetti Monster”
i can’t tell if the people of minnesota are The Best or The Worst.
“Lot’s” of big problems like having “lot’s” of people unable to secure employment aren’t going to be fix’d in such a short period of time.
(‘)
This is true. That is not what my point was though. The Admin claimed unemployment would not get as high as it has and it is still rising. There are no indicators pointing to a decrease any time soon. I would love to be wrong about this so if you know of some info to prove otherwise please tell us.
Obama based his unemployment projections on numbers were objectively wildly optimistic and not even OMB thought it was realistic. The administration told us that the figure would be around 8% by this time that we are in now. They were at 9.4% last I checked and still rising.
I only picked unemployment off the top of my head as an example of the fact that things are not getting better right now.
Color me impressed. I was merely trying to pick a cheap grammar-related internet fight and you still responded to me in a completely measured, reasonable tone. Kudos.
If only I were a lonely billionaire that spent all his time testing blog commenters with half-insults just to reward those that respond in genuinely decent ways with large sums of cash. There could be a “life affirming” movie made about me.
Well thank you sir. You are a scholar and a gentleman.
you need to lay off the AM radio. you’re leaking talking points.
I’m living in Czech Republic right now so I don’t have access to am radio. Facts are facts no matter who is saying it. I don’t think it’s really a partisan issue to want your elected representatives to actually know the content of what they are voting for. I’ve got huge problems with the GOP too. If you disagree with what I’m saying prove me wrong. I’d love to hear what you think. But your reply is unresponsive to my argument. I’m aware it’s not politicsgum.com so whatever. I’m here for the funny anyway.
Here’s the video of Coleman conceding. Finally!
http://www.gotchamediablog.com/2009/06/norm-coleman-concedes-to-al-franken.html
And it only took about 8 months to have our allotted two senators! A triumph for democracy. Especially since during those eight months we were stuck with Michele Bachmann, who is clinically insane.
Yeah. I was beginning to pine for the halcyon days of Ventura. That is bad. This, however, is good!
I just hope that Franken doesn’t embarrass the Democratic Party too much. He’s real over the top sometimes, and says outrageous things more for attention than because anyone really believes him. We don’t need another Cynthia McKinney making us all look like fools. I hope the Democratic leadership in the Senate sits him down and has a long talk with him about the differences between being a Senator and a comic buffoon.
And “Lizard People” and “Flying Spaghetti Monster”? Damnit…why can’t we get quality candidates like that here in Alabama?
I don’t think you have to worry. The general consensus I’ve seen says that Senator Franken (never going to get old) will be on his best behavior now that he’s elected. He knows he’s going to have to if he wants to be taken seriously. Plus he knows that the greatest way to kick conservatives in the mouth now is to remain professional and dignified. They want badly to display him as some hatemongering clown whose just there for another joke. If he shows that he is a serious politician, it will provide a greater punch to the Rushs of the country than any book title or joke could.
I hear ya. I’m just nervous is all, and you know what happens when people get nervous! Posts that are not 100% relevant are made! And yeah, filibusters are depressing, and really just a tradition, but the way the current legislative bodies have been cramming HUGE bills through without clarifying them, I’d like some tools to exist in case of emergency.
But yeah, I think our election system is relatively decent, but with enough glitches to make some people on the losing end always cry foul. I mean, you can basically bet that there will be some kind of Ahmedinejad-Franken rips made soon. I’m ashamed of myself for even predicting it.