juppiter

Most likely. Though they're many Democrats down here, the gerrymandering of the past has us f*cked.

Gerrymandering has nothing to do with Senate seats

The controversies over Koch and the AIDS crisis are something that the liberal media didn't go into (shocker), but anyway:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/172620/ed-koch-and-cost-closet#

I love this. Ed Koch was an awful person. Just like Benjamin Netanyahu and the entire Israeli government are.

The thing is I kinda like Sarah Palin. I believe she is a brilliant career woman who knew exactly what she wanted, exactly what she was getting herself into, and believed nary a word she ever said. She is an entertainer, and she has entertained. She never had plans to run for president in 2012 and has no plans to run in 2016, but she will milk it for the money it's worth and I can't hate her for it. She never has had any clue what she's talking about, and she knows that, but that's beside the point, and she knows that as well.

I don't know how old you are, but as someone who remembers the Koch administration, that is not how I remember it all. Jesse Jackson would show up in NY on a semi regular basis to protest, seek political gain and try to cause trouble for the city he called "Hymietown". He refused even on camera to shake Koch's hand, and he was open about using the death of a african american boy to gain city hall for David Dinkins. Now he was no Al Sharpton, the con artist who still does not apologize for the Tawana Brawley scam, I'll give him that.

I was a kid at the time but I don't think of it as troublemaking when trouble needs to be made. NYC was ground zero for the crack epidemic and the AIDS epidemic.

RIP Ed Koch. He was a great Mayor, often very funny, and a perfect fit for NY. He had political foes as varied as Jesse Jackson and Rudy Guiliani.

I dunno if Jesse Jackson was so much a foe as someone Ed Koch ruthlessly attacked for no reason... Ed Koch definitely had a sense of humor I find appealing but I find he is being whitewashed to an annoying extent now that he's dead.

Georgia senator Saxby Chambliss is retiring. This was a surprise, but the seat will likely stay Republican.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/saxby-chambliss-to-reitre-86720.html?hp=f3

I'll always remember him for the ugly ads he ran against Max Cleland.

An era of politics that is bizarrely so recent but seems so long ago. When war-crippled Democrats and people who actually served could be easily swift-boated as un-American by Republicans who did not serve and refused to defend themselves. I am happy that era has passed.

It was a mockery of the character.

Anyway, thanks. I'm glad that their favorite Knots moments in their tenure were also some of my favorite moments. (no comment on the awful, awful Danny Woleska - bad, heavy-handed, and most of all, boring storyline).

I agreed with you on the awful Pollyanna speech but I loved Jill almost getting away with killing Val and Val trying everything to prove the truth. It actually is probably my favorite thing the Lechowicks did in their time on KL... I think their work in season 10 in general was good and season 10 in many ways is the last hurrah of Knots for me.

But yeah, "The Perfect Crime" was just an incredibly creative episode and went against multiple TV conventions to create an unforgettable hour of TV. And the plot then dragged on well into season 10 which was a relief for me after how quickly the season 8 cliffhanger ("Cement the Relationship") was dropped in season 9. Funny, the Lechowicks kept up the Knots tradition of great cliffhanger but didn't always have the follow through.

But I thought Val's never-ending quest to prove the truth in season 10 even as Gary and Karen doubted her was great, and a real throwback to the Val with a backbone of the earlier years. It was almost as if she was setting out to disprove Jill's thesis of "Poor Val." So a really original season finale followed by a fun, true-to-character storyline, I loved it. Definitely the best storyline the Lechowicks wrote IMO.

The thing about Michele Lee as an actress is she can go over-the-top very easily. I love her to death and she is one of a kind but I don't think moments like the Pollyanna speech are written to her strengths.

I completely agree, I just don't think that it's why Knots was a success. I don't think of it as any type of social issues show. But then I disliked Karen's "Pollyana" speech, so I am probably just far off from where Michele Lee is.

I hate it too. It was so scripted, so affected, so very Latham/Lechowick. Michelle Lee liked those years -- and why wouldn't she? All of Karen's imperfections were washed away and she became a Renaissance woman. Give me early seasons Karen any day. She was an opionated loudmouth but at the same time a good wife/mother. Both modern and traditional and truly unique. In the later seasons she becomes the antithesis of what she was -- she becomes a judgmental pollyanna reactionary shrew instead of the progressive force to behold that she was in the first 5 seasons. The pure perfect Karen/Mack of the Lechowick years are at best boring and at worst gag-worthy for me.

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Oh, I would love it! I want Valene to be a biker grandma! The same way as in Sons of Anarchy! I want Valene in black leather and studs. I want Valene to be so different; either the head of a studio like Sherry Lansing, or I want her to be a biker grandma.

omg I love JVA. She's such a psychopath, and I mean that in the most endearing way.

Christie is looking very sympathetic here - and he has effectively turned down his blustering rhetoric. From the moment he "switched sides" and praised Obama during Sandy people started looking at him differently. By withholding relief money (which he will eventually get)he's coming off as someone who cares for the people and endorses bipartisanship which will no doubt make him a major contender in 2016. He's playing all his cards right.

Agreed, he has become much more likable to me ever since Sandy and has played everything perfectly. He has risen above where the current Republican party stands and realized what he has do to position himself for 2016 when the political rhetoric will be completely different. He is the type of Republican I could vote for if the Democrats ever nominated a Joe Lieberman type.

Mitt Romney didn't want to be president? Please. A sad version of "you can't fire me I quit" because he's embarrassed to be beaten by a black guy.

lol @ making an issue of Obama referring to Burma as "Myanmar." There are actually two ways to call Burma in the Burmese language -- one is Burma the other is Myanmar. So the country renamed itself... big deal. This is not the "Polish Death Camps" issue that WAS a gaffe that I backed you up on earlier in this thread, Brian. It's a non-issue.

Nobody is saying Burma/Myanmar -- not offensive to call it either -- should be treated as a Jeffersonian democracy. BUT should we start lifting sanctions, and continue lifting them as it improves? I say yes. That shows other countries like North Korea that if you improve your human rights situation the same will be done with you.

It's a way to effect change without invading a country and having a costly decade long war, not "amateurish."

Tongue in cheek, but well written article by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, but us letting the Takers secede: http://www.washingto...ry.html?hpid=z2

Nevermind that the "takers" overwhelmingly trend Republican, they are just "useful idiots" who don't realize they are the ones Republicans are talking about alol.

At least Texas could secede and be relatively successful. Louisiana, and indeed most states with secession movements, would be a basketcase if it seceded.

I just looked it up, and the Australian medicare is funded by a 1.5% income tax. 1.5 effing percent? And we can't manage this? And their statistics show better results than us. But no, conservatives only harp on Canada, how their system is on the brink of collapse (It was supposedly on the brink 4 years ago) they harp about shortages of doctors...if there is a shortage of Doctors in Canada, it's for one reason... NOBODY WANTS TO LIVE ON THE TUNDRA.

Well, we have a shortage in the US as well with our non-socialized system so clearly socialized medicine is not the problem.

Romney's loss kind of reminds me of the failure of "Life with Lucy." The audience laughed at everything she did just because she was Lucille Ball and Lucille Ball was a goddess. But when the show actually went on air audiences didn't find it funny at all. The Romney campaign was so insulated by pundits saying that the polls were wrong and biased toward Obama that he never saw the inevitable coming. I almost, ALMOST, feel bad for him. In the slightest. Like in Precious when Mary beat her daughter for years and years and allowed her boyfriend to rape Precious repeatedly, but when Monique gives that amazing performance and says, "Who was gonna love me?" and you ALMOST kinda feel for her... that is how I feel.

Right but look at Kirsten Gillibrand winning with 70+% of the vote in New York. She has gotten more popular in the past couple years because she fought for the bill to give health coverage to 9/11 rescue workers, but she went from nobody to Senator in 2009. There was talk of her getting a primary challenge in 2010. Now she gets 70% of the vote? It's because of the D next to her name. My thought (and likely, Rick Berg's thought as well) was that Rick Berg did not have to be remarkable because he had an R next to his name. Heidi Heitkamp's feat is remarkable.

There were few surprises for me because I was following Nate Silver and he went 50 for 50 this time. The biggest shocker for me-- the one that NOBODY predicted-- was Heidi Heitkamp winning in North Dakota. I knew she was running an amazing campaign there and she was making it closer than anybody else could have, but I thought the narrative would be that as well as she was doing it was just too far a reach for any Democrat to win that seat. She is proof that even in today's hyper-polarized electorate, "all politics is local" can still be true when you've got the right candidate. She related to the voters and made them like her in a year that everyone said a Democrat could not be elected in North Dakota. Wow.

I am ecstatic Obama was able to win, but it sucks he does not have the popular vote.

Are you serious? That's my favorite thing of the whole night. Payback for Bush. I love that FoxNews has suddenly decided it does not like the electoral vote. I have been watching Fox all night and it is great.

The meltdowns on FoxNews have been even sweeter than I ever pictured them being. Someone just complained about the popular vote not mattering. No, really. LOL.

Y'all forget that in the age of twitter and facebook the media cannot unilaterally draw this out. Sure they did in the past month or so but on Tuesday they cannot. What I see, as a Democrat, is cautious Democrats who have been put through the ringer and have learned to expect the Democratic Party to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

I condemn Maher's remarks, Brian, as I'm sure you condemn birtherism. Both are equally ugly.

As for your question, I don't foresee an Obama loss. If he does lose, it's because he failed to articulate his message in the past four years. He failed to walk the American people through what he was doing. The fact that some Republicans are now calling the pending sequester the "Obama sequester" shows how this administration from day 1 has failed to frame the message correctly. If and when Obama wins he owes a big thank you to Bill Clinton for framing his message in Charlotte better than he ever did.

I think the Middle East has just become a big blur for Americans to be honest. And while its perhaps a little cynical to say this, I think many see anyone serving there by their choices, that their fate is in their own hands, since it is a less safe part of the world. Im not excusing it, i just think its a pretty common mentality. It doesnt mean people dont grieve or feel sorrow when something tragic happens, but its all become relative. Service men and women are different, as they are perceived as more of the "common man", with limited control over where they are sent to serve and what "wars" this country chooses to participate in.

Agreed, and it is the reason I don't think we should ever go to war again without a draft. No way Iraq would've lasted 8 years and Afghanistan 11+ years if we had a draft.

If you say it enough times, it MUST be true.

It IS true though. Why are these laws coming out in an election year after the Repugs were swept into power into various state houses in 2010? Why are states limiting early voting days? You never heard about widespread voter fraud and suddenly this is a huge issue in a number of states? Does not compute unless you reach the reasonable conclusion that it is being done to keep likely Democratic voters from the polls. They stole Florida in 2000 with the purge and aborted recount there and they are trying to steal even more states this time.

It's interesting how you will read novels and encylopedias into Barack Obama's motivations, Brian, but not for one second question alterior motives about the Voter ID Law trend.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Juppiter! I read some really wild, extreme leftist rants here that make my eyes pop out... Then I come across a post by Wales, Q-Fan... and now you... and I appreciate it. I remember being here posting exactly four years ago and this forum was actually more moderate than it appears to be today. Oh, there were so really huge arguments and partisan rants... but some of the posts I've seen recently, particulary the last couple of days, have been some of the most extreme stuff I've ever seen here.

But I admit I'd be bored at some Conservative Circle Jerk board. I don't want to discuss things with people I agree with... I want to engage in intelligent conversation with those I don't agree with and share ideas. Some of the coolest people I've chatted with on here aren't of the same political persuasion and I'm grateful and happy to have met them... :-) They know who they are...

That is why I post here and at my other website. I get the liberal circle jerk here and the fight against the conservative circle jerk there. If there is a moderate msg board I haven't found it.