Slate Political Gabfest

Couldn't get clearance from Right Said Fred?

Maybe they wrote lyrics to the intro music.

Reconciliation is a parliamentary procedure that is only used for items affecting the budget. It's there to ensure that no party can shut down the government by filibustering the fiscal year budget. However, you can't just stuff health care reform into a budget act. Some parts of health care reform don't have any clear impact on the federal ... Read Moregovernment's budget. Does banning rescission and discrimination for pre-existing conditions affect the national deficit? Even if you could make the case that it does, you'd have to get 60 senators to vote and say that it does.

There are more complications still like a requirement that the legislation has to be deficit neutral and some other things. The bottom line is much as liberals like me might like him to, Harry Reid can't just jam health care reform through reconciliation. And if he tries, it will probably gum up the works for the next two years.

p.s. So there's no confusion, I fully support laws that provide for legal, safe abortions, and I am against laws that unreasonably restrict abortion.

ok, semantics. Still confused how anti choice people could ever be ok with abortion of people conceived during rape. So odd. Still a person, right?

Just get some good Junie B. Jones or Magic Tree House stories. The Junie B. will make YOU laugh, too.
Magic Tree House teaches you all about random subjects, while still providing a suspenseful little story that's a good length for a 5-year-old's attention span.

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall :)

Unfortunately, the whole "drones are immoral" trope has become a stalking horse for the CO-IN "add 40,000 troops" crowd. Is there a controversy about whether the drone strikes are criminal under the UN charter? I doubt it. More controversial is the extent to which this line serves as justification for escalation in the McChrystal strategy. How ... Read Moreabout the idea that we shouldn't really be militarily occupying nations in central/south Asia any more? The Brits and Spaniards don't seem to feel it necessary... Let alone the Saudi regime, which has a MUCH more active domestic and international terrorist threat to deal with.

Quite a while ago Emily referred in passing to a philosophical or moral approach that defined a "good war" or a "just war" and David responded by saying something resembling "No, there are lots of problems with that approach." Perhaps they could expand on that at the live gabfest.

I'll be there live (all the way from SF). Can Emily share a bit more of her "experiment" on XX, drinking a la Mad Men? My impression is that much of Washington does the same thing all day. Are their faculties and decision-making abilities as impaired as Emily's that crazy afternoon?

John is so good at making us all our more reasonable selves.

Can I assume that the unsigned comments are by David? I am certain it is difficult to remember to sign these gabfest contributions but your colleagues in the Slate Culture Gabfest are so conscientious about it that they have established an extremely high standard. Blame them. Or better yet, consider it a competition with them to see which Facebook ... Read Morepage can achieve the higher level of "official" comment attribution. As much as everyone tries to hide it, I think I can detect a little bit of healthy competitiveness in most of the personalities in the two gabfests. :)

I think Slate PG was agreeing that Emily does NEED a fan page.

Sorry, I forgot to sign the above post. It came from me. John

I had totally forgotten about that. It exists out there. Here it is: http://johndickerson.com/website/media/Big%20Bad%20John.mp3

Really? Okay, I'm heading over like the sheep I am and joining ;)

This may be a case of where you stand depends on where you sit. I was making my claim based on the fact that Obama won the district and the previous Congressman John McHugh was considered a moderate.

The other night Laurence O'ddonell, said the 23 was going to be redistricted and go permanently Dem. controlled. Everyone seems to saying it's business as usual and the Rep. will come back. I wonder what is the truth? Oddonnel usually has his finger on things.

@Mark Emily said that she got off the train at Boston in order to call in. Train stations are always located in the middle of cities, Wal-Marts never are. Also upscale dep't stores offer dramatically larger and more comfortable dressing rooms for women than less expensive stores do. Plus those upscale stores have staff that will tolerate a shopper using one to make a lengthy phone call (unless the store is busy). It was a practical choice.

Pam, I was just teasing Emily .. she gets her share of ribbing on here for her grad school vocab; the Neiman Marcus choice was absolutely perfect! That said, she did a great job under difficult circumstances!

There's no question that the strategy of organized groups opposing gay marriage measures across the U.S. have adopted a strategy of promoting misleading and false arguments that appeal to people's basest fears and prejudices. This strategy has been quite effective. I don't really know what legitimate arguments there are against gay marriage apart... Read More from religious arguments (which really should have nothing to do with civil marriage). The messages of the anti-gay-marriage groups based on fear and emotion are clearly having their intended effect. I'm sure the voters of Maine would like to think otherwise but that's the reality.

@Jay, are you suggesting that there are a significant number of people in Maine (or anywhere else for that matter) who didn't have preexisting beliefs about gay marriage and were swayed to vote against gay marriage based on these television ads?

As Ken alluded to above, who are these people who think gay marriage isn't that bad but would freak out... Read More about it being taught to children? I would suggest that anyone who responds to one of these ads was never considering voting in favor of gay marriage in the first place.