The Mother of All Lame Duck Sessions

We need to make this the most productive Lame Duck Session in the history of Congress. As everyone knows, the 112th Congress is going to be severely hampered by oppressive, criminal activity; namely, republican involvement in the voting process. However, we DO still have the Senate, which will allow us to temper and filter the message with a progressive, constitutional slant to the American Public.



Here is the sequence of what needs to happen:

1. In the senate, we need to enact the Nuclear option. NO REPUBLICAN INVOLVEMENT AT ALL FOR THE NEXT TWO MONTHS.

2. Once we have simple majority status, we enact EVERY Obama initiative. Every single one.

3. We not only let the tax cuts expire, we RAISE the taxes for the rich.

4. We engineer no-repeal measures into the laws so that the next Congress cannot (easily) repeal them.

5. Both houses need to perform the above. EVERYTHING gets passed: All our environmental laws, all our tax laws, all our new stimulus packages. Another three trillion dollars in total.

6. We need to have Nancy Pelosi come out and hit the dems HARD with these proposals to make sure it gets done.

7. With a simple majority in the Senate, we have negated the ability for the criminal repukes to filibuster the needed legislation.

8. NOW, JUST AS IMPORTANT as passing the laws, we need to FAST TRACK...hell, grease the skids...and get EVERY AVAILABLE FEDERAL JUDGE POSTION FILLED WITH A YOUNG, PROGRESSIVE MINDED INDIVIDUAL. Ideally, no judge should be over 35, EVERY ONE should have a background of liberal or progressive decisions and work ethics, and should all be in good health. That will guarantee at least 30, and more probably 40 to 50 years of uninterrupted, progressive decisions at the federal level.

9. Once we have the judges in place, voted upon by simple majority, we then ensure that we have teams of lawyers across the country who internalize the new laws passed by the lame duck congress.

10. On January 1, we remove the Nuclear option and return it to 60 votes so that we can concentrate on conventional legislation in the 112th Congress.

This is a MINIMUM that we should do. Make it so!!

so that every dollar doing to politicians and on behalf of politicians is identified as to its origin.
I would put this above all other items on your list.

Specifically, enact the Nuclear Option for the remainder of the 111st session, which allows for simple 51% majority to pass any initiative, which negates the filibuster. Yes, this will be the first time in Senatorial history, but remember: the REPUKES were the first ones to consider it when THEY had the majority getting THEIR judges passed. And they WOULD have used it, too, if we didn't threaten them with immediate annihilation in the 2006 election cycle.

On January 1, the last day of the session, we reinstate the normal 60 vote cloture rule to ensure no moderates side with the enemy on our side in the future.

so it will not be available in the lame duck

No worries there. Remember, the Repukes were going to do it for Bush to push his Supreme Court scumsuckers on us.

In his weekly "brunch" on Thom Hartmann's show a few weeks back, Sen. Sanders was asked about doing this for legislation in general, and he said it wouldn't be possible, but it could apply to nominations. Apparently, legislation follows a different procedural track.

Of course, considering how many of Obama's nominations are stalled due to republican obstructionism, doing so might be of significant benefit if used for that alone.

A cloture vote is there for the sake of being able to discuss new stuff: Before denying speaking rights to a minority a supermajority has to decree that the minority has nothing new or important to add. Key word: "To add."

Any new amendment offered changes the legislation, and when legislation is 2000 pages or more long changing a paragraph on page 40 can alter what pages 129-432 mean (or not). As the "real world" changes the effects of a piece of legislation, and the more complex the legislation the more the real world alters its import. This means there can essentially be something new to add forever and it's a judgement call as to when to simply end debate, when the number of new amendments is reduced near enough to zero, when the real world is unlikely to change much or the legislation is "ripe" for passage or rejection of pressing legislation.

Talk is often good for reaching "consensus" in the newer, semantically bleached meaning of "majority opinion" as opposed to the older meaning of "unanimous opinion."

Nominees are different. You can't amend a nominee. You can't amend the circumstances of the nominee's appointment. The guy's appointed to a post or not appointed. You can alter the post itself, but that's not part of the nomination process.

The real world isn't going to alter the nominee all that much. It's even unlikely after 6 months that new information will come to light about the nominee. He may make a mis-step, of course, but unless he often makes mis-steps that's always and therefore trivially true; if he often makes mis-steps, then why approve him?

.....Make it so.

unrec'ing this vanity thread

Michael Moore just wrote a column on Alternet, "Hey Dems, You're Still in Charge: Let's Pass Some Key Laws Before the GOP Heads into Town". He essentially writes the the same thing I wrote HERE!