Musings on the daily events in politics and sports as well as some local bar stops along the way in LA.

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Nuclear option? and what the Lakers have in common with Peg Bundy

So the new 'hot topic' of the day in Washington is about the Republicans and what is being referred to as the "nuclear option." It basically gets rid of the filibuster for judicial nominees. A quick history lesson: The Senate has a constitutional duty to advise and consent Presidential appointments and Treaties. That means that those appointments have to be voted on and approved by a majority of the Senate. The one other unique function of the Senate is the filibuster, where a Senator can talk as long as he wants. What ends up happening is a Senator talking for hours at a time and grinding the Senate down to a halt. The most famous example of this is when Senator Strom Thurmond filibustered the Civil Rights Legislation in the '60s. He spoke for over 24 hours straight while reading through the phone book. These days the mere threat of a filibuster causes the leadership to move on and not bring the issue up on the floor of the Senate. So you dont even get to hear them read out of the phone book. The nuclear option would be a ruling on the chair which would then require a simple majority vote and it would get rid of filibusters for judicial nominees.
The Republicans are extremely mad for some reason even though were talking about a total of 10 judges that are being filibustered. During the Clinton administration its not like the Republicans were scheduling votes left and right for his nominees, but once again the Republicans think that theyre going to be in power forever so they might as well strip the minority of its most powerful tool. My idea:
LET THEM SPEAK!
The Republicans should let the Democrats carry out an old school Strom Thurmond style filibuster. Just think of 45 Senators talking for days if not weeks by doing things such as reading out of a phone book and talking nonsense. The Democrats already have an image problem that they dont stand for anything and theyre just obstructionists. Imagine the PR disaster for them when they stop the business of the Senate and instead of trying to figure out how to lower gas prices or prescription drug costs, theyre busy talking themselves to death over a few Federal District Court judges. We're not even talking about Supreme Court judges, that is where the American people might be more tolerant of a filibuster, but stopping the business of the entire Senate just for a few district and appellate court judges would look ridiculous. The lower courts are the places for diverse interpretations of the law and when the Democrats regain the White House (or at least the Senate) they can put their activists up there, but right now they dont have either so it would seem ridiculous for them to block lower court judges while simultaneously stopping the Senate dead in its tracks.
But instead of listening to me the Republicans would rather permanently damage the most respected governmental institution (the Senate) and take away minority party rights forever. Once again its just an abuse of power where the party that has been in power for a while forgets what its like to be in the minority and has no problem running over the minority with not just a win but a show of force that they can do whatever they want.

SPORTS
In an episode of Married With Children Al has a garage sale to sell all the junk that Peg has bought over the years. When the kids ask why is nobody buying this stuff, Al explains to them the 'head idiot' theory. This is the theory where it takes an idiot to buy this crap, but eventually you get to the head idiot who keeps buying everyones crap and theres no idiot to buy it from them. Nobody was buying the crap from Al's garage sale because Peggy was the head idiot who bought everyone elses crap. What does this have to do with the Lakers you ask?
Two words for you: Brian Grant
Brian Grant is currently the starting center for the miserable Lakers who has 2 years left on his contract at roughly 15 million per year. He is easily the most overpaid player in the NBA. He doesnt score, rebound or play defense and the few points and rebounds he does get are usually easy layups or those rebounds when everyone thought the shot was going in so they all ran back for defense and the ball ends up in Grant's hands. The Lakers are now handcuffed by the sallary cap and cant improve the team until his contract expires. Can the Lakers trade Grant? No, because they are the head idiots! They actually traded to get him in all of his $30 million glory. Not only did they trade for him but they traded Shaq the Most Dominant Ever to get him, thus the head idiots of the NBA.

I know both of the above topics arent new but I just started this blog so I need to catch up to get to current events.

As for the drinks portion of this endeavor, I'm currently studying for finals so my drinking days are quite limited in the near future. But hopefully that means when they come back with a vengeance with Summer trips to SF Vegas NY DC and Montreal as well as happy hours gallore. We'll see.

Kris

Friday, April 29, 2005

Maiden postage

Wow I never knew these things were free... there must be a catch somewhere, theres no way that the kind people of blogger.com are simply trying to create an avenue of thoughts and expression throught the world. Well until I find the catch i'll keep posting.

So I'm Kris and this is my blog.

Right now I'm studying for my law school exams. People say that law school is really tough, well thats only true if you plan on graduating at the top of your class. I have basically mastered the art of cramming, and the mere fact that I'm in law school is a strong testament to that. Of course just because I'm cramming in teh librar right now doesn't mean I'm efficient in any way, I end up doing random things like starting a blog. Earlier today I also did the dishes for the first time in about 15 days. Even though its roughly 300 square feet, my studio is really a mess right now but I'm sure it'll be spotless by the time I'm done with finals. No better time to tie up loose ends than when youre supposed to be studying.

What you'll find on this blog. As the name of this site says, my life is cut down to three basic categories: Politics, sports and drinks. My worldy interests are boiled down to politics. I worked on the hill for a couple of years then worked in gov't relations for a short while too. If you want to know, I think the President is an idiot and the Democrats refuse to stand for anything. How the hell is the GOP taking the charge on issues like Social Security and driving up the deficit while the Dems are talking about ethical violations in Congress. As I recall it was the exact opposite in the early 90's when the Dems were in control and the Republicans were talking about the House banking scandal and stuff like that. Basically whichever party has been in control of Congress for a while starts to get drunk with power.
On another political note my friend www.ardyforclerk.com just won the election to be the city clerk of Glendale, CA and my other friend is going to run for parliament in Canada for Bloc Quebecois. As I'm sure almost none of you know or care, the government of Prime Minister Paul Martin up there is having some huge corruption scandal and as a result it looks like the coalition is going to fall apart and theyre going to call for new elections. So if my friend wins in Canada and since my other friend won in Glendale, my plan for world domination has officially begun.

As for sports, it looks like the Dodgers suck again. This is how we thought they would be all year but they shocked us with that random 'best start in dodger history' way to begin the season. Depodesta dismantled the team ala Mitch Kupchak and the Lakers, but it looks like the Dodgers wont be anywhere near as bad as that basketball team in downtown (either one of them). I'll give Depodesta a shot, he just didnt like the players on last years team and decided to use his moneyball tactics in LA, he'll have more money than they had in Oakland so this will be a true test of "moneyball".

As for the drinks portion of the program: The past few months i've been splitting most of my time between Bubsys and the Golden Gopher. Those two bars couldnt be any different from each other if they tried, except for the fact that theyre both places I like to go and drink. Busbys has the hot girls and the Gopher has the artsy intellectual type, both have their benefits.

Dont forget to watch Arrested Development this Sunday, it looks like they might cancel the show and that would be a shame. It's one of those 'its actually embarrasing for people who dont get the jokes because the ones who do are on the floor laughing" type of shows.

Thats it for this introductory episode of my blog. It's highly unlikely that future posts will be this long but you never know, I'll post anything that I think is intersting and worthy of being on my site.

Kris