A tidbit from EJ Dionne in his column today pointing to one of many things that are out of whack:
“When our republic was created, the population ratio between the largest and smallest state was 13 to 1. Now, it’s 68 to 1. Because of the abuse of the filibuster, 41 senators representing less than 11 percent of the nation’s population can, in principle, block action supported by 59 senators representing more than 89 percent of our population. And you wonder why it’s so hard to get anything done in Washington?”
Whenever I hear anyone go all rhapsodic about ‘middle america’ and ‘coastal elites’ and ‘real americans’ or when I hear talkers rail against the power of those big states . . . to them, either it doesn’t occur (most likely) or it doesn’t matter that those cities are where a majority of Americans live; those big States are where a majority of Americans live. Just like this Presdident and this congress are who the majority of Americans voted for.
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
Whatever Works 
A colleague of mine once sent me an absurd chain email that compared “facts” about the states that voted for Gore versus the states that voted for Bush.
One of its chief points was that “red states” covered a larger area than “blue states.” I just thought that if certain things aren’t obvious to a person, there is no use explaining.
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omg. Just omg.
Did the email include the statisitics about teen pregnancy and school drop outs and obesity and longevity?
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Why yes, it did. I’m sure it is from 2001 or so, so it was probably lost to the void of numerous computer changes.
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The numbers I’ve seen reflect badly on the red states. But the socialist commie pinko faggot blue states did very well by those measures.
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Off-topic: you see Weiner explode on the floor?
Clip.
They even play blocking-games with helping 9/11 heroes – even with 9/11 heroes.
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He made me want to buy a new dress for the prom just so I could dance with him!
What a guy. Another Grayson maybe?
Yippeee-ki-friggin-yay!
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I’m watching it over and over – he’s so precisely on point even in the midst of spewing raw aggression over those people.
And it’s so cathartic to watch. Finally someone speaks out and screams in the face of this inhumane pettiness and little rats working for pieces of silver.
This “goes viral” – and wakes people up.
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And Grayson is great – another man who’s just fed up and speaks out, with this “there’s nothing to lose anymore” air around him.
The clip about depression the other day was forceful and in place.
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economic depression? medical depression? point me to it; haven’t seen it.
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Clip.
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Yep. Right on.
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Ms. Holland,
Funny how different people look at the same things and do not see the same things. I’ll give Wiener credit for his passion, but I’ve listened to him debate Congressman King and I believe he is not above shading his facts a tad.
Now Grayson is another matter. I have nothing good to say about the gentleman .
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I wish I could see how we can change things. The house and senate rules are now so convoluted that nothing can be passed. And each side has done this to protect it’s interests, and now we are stuck with a non-functional mess. And I see no end in sight. That shit head Nelson is voting no on Kagan because he’s a Dem in name only, and so scared of his constituency he won’t do the right thing, only the expedient thing. They are all pretty much like that now. And that means we get nothing done. They represent only themselves period.
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Sherry, best I can tell, by almost every measure the congress increasingly fails to do its job. They just act as the opposition to each other. And not what we used to call “the loyal opposition” where they differed but agreed they shared a loyalty – and that of course was to the nation.
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Just listened to Ralph Nader on Book TV. The interview will be on CSpan’s site.
He was wonderful. Too many think of him as a Dem or a liberal but he so clearly belongs ot no party – he addressed the matter of the disfunctional government. It was a terrific hour.
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Sherry,
Unfortunately Rinos always outnumber Dinos.
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Ms. Holland,
Does this mean you have forgiven Mr. Nader for throwing the 2000 election to Bush ?
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Nope. Can’t give him a pass for that one.
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Wouldn’t it be great if, someday somewhere, we could stop the partisan insanity and institute just two common sense rules: (1) That states would be split when the exceed a certain population; and (2) That we pre-ordain redistricting rules so that we don’t have to endure crass political manipulation every time the new census comes out?
Yeah, I know. Fantasy.
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Or how about public financing and take re-districting out of the hands of elected officials? Use a commission of some sort – salaried and staffed.
I like the split the state idea – CA is country size, but bound by State laws (like balanced budget), which makes it almost impossible to govern.
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