Posts Tagged ‘politics’

The Return of “Yes Prime Minister”

Posted: May 9, 2010 by datechguy in fun
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Years and government might change but the intransigence of the government and civil service bureaucracy remain eternal hopeless. Or at least it will be on screen as the original creators of the spectacular British series Yes (Prime) Minister are going to have another go at it.

They say that whoever you vote for the Government always gets in. That was the running joke behind Yes, Prime Minister, the Eighties comedy that did its eloquent bit to undermine our faith in the possibilities of political change. And now, whoever we voted for yesterday, Yes, Prime Minister is itself back, this time as a play receiving its first previews in Chichester next week.

Unfortunately for us in the states this will be unlikely to cross the pond. With the base writing team on the job we know the quality will be there. Will this lead to a new series? Time will tell.

Here is a glimpse of the old one if you haven’t heard of it:

This is a tough act to follow. I wish them luck

Around the blogroll: 3/24/10 Gabriel Iglesias edition

Posted: March 25, 2010 by datechguy in elections, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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While I laugh at the comedy of Gabriel Iglesias on his Fluffy shop tour (a nice Christmas present) other people on the blogroll are hard at work:

No Sheeples here talks about the reconciliation that wasn’t and the Democrats in the senate taking advantage of it:

Democrats Evan Bayh of Indiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Nelson of Nebraska strayed frequently from their party during Wednesday night’s voting. Bayh, who is retiring, crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans 10 times. Lincoln, who faces a tough re-election race, supported Republicans eight times. Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia also bucked his party three times.

Nelson, who has come under fire from his conservative base in Nebraska for his support of the healthcare reform effort, supported the GOP the most—on 20 out of 29 votes as of the 2:55AM adjournment.

Be aware that democrats like Lincoln will use each of these votes to try to paint themselves as more conservative than they are.

Don Surber notes that Stupak isn’t the only “pro life democrat” who is now persona non grata in prolife circles:

Having voted for federal funding of abortion, Democratic Congressmen Allan Mollohan and Nick Joe Rahall lost the support of West Virginians for Life — just as Mollohan and Rahall face their first serious challenges in 20 years each.

Everything costs something, will it cost any of these people their seats?

Camp of the Saints discovers a new Battle Cry via the great Val Prieto guest blogging at Michelle Malkin’s place

Dad’s a Cuban exile, so he knows a little something about the Nationalization of businesses and government intrusion.

There’s a brief moment of silence between us, then the old man sighs again, puts his big welder’s hand on my arm and squeezes just a bit. “Listen to what I’m about to tell you,” he says. “Prevent or lament.”

Have you ever noticed that people who escape totalitarian systems always seem to turn up on the right?

On our heels? What are these people drinking?

Posted: March 25, 2010 by datechguy in elections, opinion/news
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Somehow the daily caller has decided that republicans are on their heels:

If politics were war, Republicans would have just been lured from their walled city to chase a force they thought was retreating, only to find Democrats suddenly turning and attacking them head-on.

Even before the bill passed, President Obama had begun pounding the message that the new legislation would immediately benefit many Americans, and cast Republicans who opposed the bill as on the side of greedy insurers.

As the democrats celebrate their great victory against those feared republicans can we gain some perspective here.

There are 222 days to the midterm elections and Democrats have managed a mere 420 days or so into their term Democrats with a 70+ seat majority in the House and a 18 seat majority in the senate managed to get the administration healthcare bill passed. In fact they are still voting on modifications that might take several days or maybe even weeks more done.

They have also managed to energize not only the normal base of the republican party but get thousands of people who were otherwise uninterested in politics involved and networked. These people are meeting monthly and talking to friends. If democrats think they will not be talking about and voting on this in October they are deluding themselves.

This is a great victory? This is having the Republicans on the run? It sounds a lot like the following story of the last days of the Civil War from Shelby Foote’s Magnum Opus The Civil War a Narrative vol 3.

A squad of well-clad, well-fed bluecoats, for example, descended on a tattered, barefoot North Carolina private who had wandered off, lone and famished, in search of food. “Surrender, surrender! We’ve got you!” they cried as they closed in with leveled weapons. “Yes, you’ve got me,” the Tarheel scarecrow replied, dropping his rifle to raise his hands, “and a hell of a git you got.”

Unlike the tarheel vet the republican party is well supplied, well armed and raring for a fight in the fall. In fact the public wants the GOP to keep fighting

A CBS News poll released Wednesday finds that nearly two in three Americans want Republicans in Congress to continue to challenge parts of the health care reform bill.

Yeah that’s a great victory all right.

If the Democrats had any brains they would have passed this a year ago and managed to get republican votes, it would have been so easy it’s frightening. Instead they democrats and their allies in the media victory celebrate a Pyrrhic victory that will doom them in the fall.

Answer: Because nobody actually knows what the count is

Posted: March 19, 2010 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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Question: DaTechGuy, why aren’t you talking about the various whip counts.

All of the whip counts are guesses, they have been all over the map. You have a better chance of getting your entire bracket correct in March Madness than to get an accurate whip count.

I still don’t think it is going to pass. Until the vote actually takes place that can’t be confirmed, so I’m not going to play guessing games with numbers. However I will point to Robert Stacy McCain’s American spectator article comparing this push to the end of Animal House:

Even then, Scott Brown was driving his Dodge truck through the snow en route to the Jan. 19 Senate victory that most political observers at the time believed was the final death-blow to this unpopular legislation. Could there be a more decisive electoral verdict than for a Republican to be elected in liberal Massachusetts on a promise to stop the health-care bill?

Well, the voters be damned.

He concludes thusly:

At this point, however, the arguments for passage resemble another Animal House scene, with Obama in the role of Otter when he announces, “I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.” It remains to be seen whether House Democrats will supply Bluto’s famous answer: “We’re just the guys to do it.”

It’s an amazing thing to watch people walk off a cliff while insisting that they will fall up.

Who knew that Sen Blutarski was still in Congress?

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