Senate

Senators asking big spenders at Monsanto to pony upby Gaius PubliusWhile we're waiting for the Fast Track drama to deliver its next non-final event, I thought I'd offer some background. The big money behind the scenes is paying a lot to get this bill past the goal line (but as you'll see, not a whole lot).The Guardian offers this report (my emphasis):

UPDATE: Fast Track fails in the Senate, 52–45 (three senators not voting) U.S. Trade Deficit since 1960. NAFTA was signed in 1993.by Gaius PubliusAs we near critical votes in the House and Senate on Fast Track and TPP, I've been looking for a whip list, a list of who's likely to vote how.

What a bunch! Senators Ernst (IA), Cornyn (TX), McConnell (KY), and Thune (SD) pretend to give a hoot about sex trafficking. No, no, they're pretending to be against it. That's not the problem.by KenRemember back when U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch was nominated to succeed Eric Holder as U.S. attorney general? And President Obama was reamed royally by apologists for the toxic sludge passing for U.S. senators under the Republican banner?

Who gave Ted the pencil?Could the person who gave half-witted anchorman Ted Baxter the pencil be the same person who gave half-witted Arkansas freshman Sen.

Of the three pipelinies that have burst in the last two weeks, the latest was in West Virginia. The state's nominally "Democratic" U.S. senator, Joe Manchin, was one of nine "Democrats" who voted for the Keystone XL Pipeline.by NoahShortly after the November elections that resulted in a disaster for the so-called Democratic Party, I asked Howie if he thought the Democrats in Congress would ever wake up. It was a rhetorical question.

Yeah, theze guyz wuz really gonna do a heapa cooperatin' with Ooh That Damn Obama."[Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell's conciliatory statements are encouraging, but he's about to discover that he cannot persuade Republican Senators and Congressmen to cooperate on anything constructive. We're about to get two years of intense, horrifying stupidity.

Former Clinton administration deputy chief of staff Maria Echaveste was named yesterday by President Obama to be our new ambassador to Mexico. The good news for her is that -- as a nonjudicial appointee, not subject to post-"nuclear option" majority vote -- she shouldn't feel any rush about packing.by KenGoodness knows, most Democratic pols aren't good for much, but set them alongside their Republican counterparts and, well, we're looking into an absolute void.

[We continue our encore presentation of Noah's Idiocracy series.

[Click to enlarge (a little)]by KenI don't know why I'm so uncomfortable now that Garry Trudeau's DC TV-fantasy is, well, not on the air, but in the Intertubes (it's Amazon's debut series). As the master of Doonesbury, Trudeau is a veritable god to me, and as a case in point I offer today's strip, from the "recap" series with which GT is apparently weaning us off the summer's and fall's reruns, while he's been playing with his TV show.

NYT caption: Robert L. Wilkins, left, with President Obama and other nominees in June, was picked to fill one of three vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit."The American people and our judicial system deserve better."-- President Obama"Appointing judges to fill vacant judicial seats is not court-packing.