#Pat Toomey

[nosferdoc]

"It's sad to see John Fetterman struggling so much. He should take more time to allow himself to fully recover. "

— Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), on CNN 10/25/2022.

[thenewdemocratus]

Associated Press: U.S. Senate Blocks President Obama's Pick For Civil Rights Post

Source:The New Democrat  Wow, President Obama losing a vote on one of his executive nominations in a Democratic Senate with a clear 55-45 majority, where the minority can no longer block executive nominations by themselves. This loss has to do with the fact that the nominee defended a controversial Philadelphia defendant, Abu Gamal, I believe his name is, who was convicted of murdering a…

[reportwire]

Biden returns to Pittsburgh to see new construction on bridge that collapsed earlier this year

Biden returns to Pittsburgh to see new construction on bridge that collapsed earlier this year

The Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh became a symbol of the country’s troubled infrastructure, collapsing into a ravine earlier this year, hours before President Biden visited the city. At the time, Mr. Biden detoured to survey the scene, where vehicles were stranded on shards of roadway and several people were injured, and pledged that help was on the way. On Thursday, the Democratic president…

[whatbigotspost]

2022 election hope thread

What am I missing?

Add it please.

[mariacallous]

On June 28, 2024, in a 6-3 decision (Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo), the Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference (a 1984 Supreme Court ruling instructing the judiciary to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of ambiguous language in statutes). This ruling sent shock waves across the country, but particularly in Washington, D.C. where the bulk of federal agencies are located. The Brookings Institution’s Katzmann Initiative examines interbranch relations and sought to analyze the decision’s impact on Congress and executive agencies. What might their future hold? In an effort to do so, the Katzmann Initiative co-sponsored a series of panels with the American Enterprise Institute on July 16, 2024. 

The series of panels offered a thorough analysis of the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo comparing it to the historic Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council case. Insights from former Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and experts including Yuval Levin, Molly Reynolds, Kevin Kosar, Philip Wallach, Rachel Augustine Potter, Jonathan Adler, and Tony Mills highlighted the far-reaching implications for Congress and administrative agencies. The panels discussed potential shifts in power dynamics, the historical context of judicial deference, and the anticipated long-term impacts on regulatory oversight and agency authority, underscoring the need for legislative clarity, enhanced congressional capacity, and judicial oversight.

[qqueenofhades]

But if democrats hold a one seat senate majority and a one seat house majority can they really get anything done? *flashbacks to the obama years when he held majorities but was still obstructed*

Democrats have held a FOUR seat House majority and an effectively dead-even Senate, which when you consider Manchin and Sinema's habit of obstructing everything, was oftentimes like a functional minority, and they still got all the accomplishments of the past two years. So.

Also, Obama only held majorities in both houses of Congress until 2010, when he was wiped out in the Tea Party surge. So yeah, for six of the eight years he was president, the Republicans held one or both chambers of Congress. Obama spent his time with control of both houses getting the Affordable Care Act done, and then it was the Obstruction Parade, so yeah, it wasn't that he had majorities the whole time.

Anyway, a one-seat Republican House majority isn't going to be able to do anything either, aside from run a lot of pointless and annoying "investigations." Half of them will run to unseat McCarthy, the mainstream and the MAGA factions will be in full civil war, and since Democrats held the Senate, nothing they pass (if they can even do that) will become law. Meanwhile, Democrats can still confirm judges as fast as Biden can nominate them, especially now that Pat Toomey is gone (Fetterman won his seat in Pennsylvania). So yes, while Democrats will have trouble advancing any new legislation without the House, at least they can still fix the judiciary and eat popcorn while the Republican clown car burns.

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the most influential and hawkish conservatives in the modern Republican Party and a figure reviled by the left, will be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris in November, his daughter Liz Cheney said on Friday.

Former Representative Liz Cheney, the once high-ranking Republican from Wyoming who sacrificed her political career by breaking forcefully with former President Donald J. Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, this week said she would be voting for Ms. Harris.

Speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Texas, on Friday, she revealed that her father, an unapologetic partisan, would be, too.

“Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” Ms. Cheney said, a remarkable statement that the Cheneys themselves could not have foreseen making even four years ago. Mr. Cheney served as White House chief of staff under President Gerald Ford; secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush and vice president under President George W. Bush, when Mr. Cheney was the architect of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He was viewed by Democrats as such a force of darkness that he earned the nickname Darth Vader.

Mr. Cheney has previously broken with Mr. Trump, calling him a “threat to our republic” and a “coward” in an advertisement he starred in for his daughter’s final Republican primary, in 2022, which she lost by 37 points to a Trump-backed challenger.

Ms. Cheney on Friday tried to frame the joint family decision to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee as something beyond party, one that had to do with country and “duty.” She explicitly rejected the idea of not voting at all, as some conservative Republicans have signaled they plan to do.

Earlier this week, Pat Toomey, the former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, said he would not be supporting Mr. Trump in the fall. But, he said, he could not vote for Ms. Harris, either.

The show of support from both Cheneys is significant for the Harris campaign, which has been pouring tens of millions of dollars into a paid media campaign targeting anti-Trump Republicans. It potentially helps create a model for deeply conservative voters reluctant to back Mr. Trump to vote for a Democrat for the first time in their lives.

In her panel discussion with The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich, Ms. Cheney said she would not be acting as an official surrogate of the Harris campaign and said she had not spoken with Ms. Harris since her announcement of support earlier this week.

Ms. Cheney also refused to entertain the speculation that she could be the Republican Ms. Harris has promised to appoint to her cabinet if she is elected.

“I am not focused on that,” she said.

[kwebtv]

From the Golden Age of Television

Premiere Episode / Pilot

The Mickey Rooney Show / Hey Mulligan - Pilot Episode - NBC - August 28, 1954

Sitcom

Running Time: 30 minutes

Written by Blake Edwards and Richard Quine

Produced by Joseph Santley

Directed by Richard Quine

Stars:

Mickey Rooney as Mickey Mulligan

Regis Toomey as Joe Mulligan

Claire Carleton as Nell Mulligan

Patricia Edwards as Pat Harding (as Pat Walker)

John Hubbard as Mr. Brown

Alan Mowbray as Jonathan Swift

William Bakewell as Rogerson P. Hammerstine

Robert Clark as Leading Man (David Lambert)

Joanne Jordan as Leading Lady (Julie)

Michael Fox as Old Man (Julie's Father)

[rabbitcruiser]

National Vietnam War Veterans Day

We commemorate those who fought in the Vietnam War on National Vietnam War Veterans Day, March 29. There’s no doubt that the Vietnam War was one of the most brutal. In fact, there were over three million Vietnam War casualties during the years of battle. It was known as the Second Indochina War to Americans, and considering its long fighting time and brutality, National Vietnam War Veterans Day was created to honor all the Vietnam veterans who fought during its time.

History of National Vietnam War Veterans Day

The Vietnam War has a long history. It was one of the longest wars involving America. Starting in 1955, the war went on until 1975, making it the second-longest war, aside from the ongoing Afghanistan War. Over 2.7 million Americans served during this war In 1973. All combat and support units withdrew from Vietnam following the war, but it continued to have an impact on many of the families and people affected by the war.

National Vietnam War Veterans Day is acknowledged on March 29 every year, honoring anyone who served during its 20-year time. Since respect and combat support wasn’t immediately given to those who served after the war ended because of the number of deaths, the day was founded in 2017 to finally offer that respect to everyone involved.

Understanding that it wasn’t the soldiers’ choices to go to war, U.S. Senators Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., introduced the legislation proposing the anniversary of the withdrawal of military units from South Vietnam as the date. It was President Donald Trump who signed the Act on March 29, calling for U.S. flags to be flown on this day to honor everyone who served during this time, whether they were in Vietnam or not.

Every year since it was founded in 2017, this national day has continued to be recognized on March 29. Aside from honoring those who fought, four other parts of this day that are meant to be highlighted are the service of the Armed Forces and support organizations during the war; the wartime contributions at home; the advancements in technology, science, and medicine; and the contributions by American allies.

National Vietnam War Veterans Day  timeline

2007 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War

Congress incorporates language in H.R. 4986 authorizing this, which is then signed into law in 2008.

May 28, 2012 Vietnam War Commemoration on Memorial Day

The commemoration is held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

2012 President Obama Proclaims Vietnam Veterans Day

This leads to the 2017 legislation outlining March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

2016 The Vietnam Veterans Day Coalition Seeks Legislation

They outline the history and timeline to ask for Vietnam War Veterans Day to be one of the first legislations passed during the U.S. 115th Congress.

National Vietnam War Veterans Day FAQs

How many Vietnam War veterans are still alive?

The U.S. estimates that about 610,000 people who fought during the time of the war are still alive today.

How old are the Vietnam War veterans today?

Ages range between 55 and 97, but the median is 68 years old.

Is National Vietnam War Veterans Day a federal holiday?

National Vietnam War Veterans Day is a U.S. holiday observed annually on March 29.

How to Honor National Vietnam War Veterans Day

Donate money to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

Talk to any family members who may have been a part of it

Thank a Vietnam veteran!

Check out their Facebook page on this day where you can watch a live stream and read messages of thanks and, if you can, donate a bit toward the Fund to help those who are still alive after the war and may need support from organizations such as this. If you can’t donate, visit a memorial or volunteer at a commemoration.

Whether they were on the frontline or not, you may have parents or grandparents that served or were directly or indirectly involved in this wartime. Not everyone is comfortable talking about their time in the war, but some people enjoy sharing what they went through as a way to vent and cope. Listen to your parents’ or grandparents’ stories — you may learn something interesting about them.

Not only is this a good way to reach out to someone new and start a positive relationship, but they’ll absolutely appreciate you taking the time to thank them for their effort 50 years ago.

5 Facts About The Vietnam War

The average age of soldiers was 19

The Medal of Honor was awarded 258 times

The U.S. spent over $140 billion on the Vietnam War

500,000 people attended the anti-war rally

It isn’t called the Vietnam War in Vietnam

This is a big difference from the average age of 26 in WWII.

This is the highest military decoration.

In today’s economy, that’s about $1 trillion!

There were many all over the world, but this one took place in Washington, D.C. in 1969.

Instead, it is called the American War.

Why we love National Vietnam War Veterans Day

It recognizes everyone

It altered society’s perception

It gives veterans a chance to share their experience

This day is special because it doesn’t just recognize soldiers who fought in it, it recognizes anyone who was involved. Whether it’s the families who struggled back home, those working the support lines, or even other soldiers stationed elsewhere during the same time, this day is to appreciate everyone.

When soldiers first returned, people were not respectful toward them. War is drastic on the economy, but many who were involved had no choice but to go, and they deserve the respect and recognition for that. This national day changed that negative view.

It’s not easy to talk about the war, especially if you were a soldier. You probably witnessed a lot of terrible things. But a national day like this gives people an opportunity to share their experiences and teach the world a lesson on why wars should be avoided in the future.

Source

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

The Pennsylvania senate race shouldn’t even be as close as it is with Fetternan’s obvious brain damage, but Oz is such a poor Republican candidate who only got the nomination via Trump-endorsement. I’m a Trump supporter but sometimes I feel like some of his followers blindly do whatever he says. He’s human and makes poor choices sometimes as all humans do.

Oz is a much better candidate than I thought he'd be actually. Republicans always have a huge mountain to climb in PA. Even in 2010 Pat Toomey barely won his senate race. It would have been close no matter who ran.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

New data from Pennsylvania's elections agency shows an early November state court decision that barred mail-in ballots without accurate handwritten dates on their exterior envelopes resulted in otherwise valid votes being thrown out.

The Department of State said this week more than 16,000 mail-in ballots were disqualified by county officials because they lacked secrecy envelopes or proper signatures or dates. Democratic voters, who are much more likely to vote by mail, made up more than two-thirds of the total canceled ballots. The agency said 8,250 Pennsylvania mail-in ballots were rejected because they were sent in without being contained within a secrecy envelope, making it impossible for them to be tabulated without putting voter privacy at risk.

The remaining 7,904 invalidated ballots were tossed out because the exterior envelopes used to send in those ballots did not have the voters' signatures, or because those exterior envelopes were either undated or improperly dated. Many counties, but not all, worked with voters to “cure” undated ballots. Those fixed ballots were counted and are not among the number of rejected ballots now being reported by the Department of State.

Some people whose mail-in ballots were thrown out in the high-stakes November election may not be aware that happened.

“In many counties, voters who provide their email address when applying for a mail ballot automatically receive email notifications with status updates on their ballot, including whether their ballot was canceled,” Department of State spokesperson Ellen Lyon said in an email. “There is no similar automatic notification system for voters who do not provide an email address when applying for a mail ballot.”

Pennsylvania Democrats flipped Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey's seat this fall, elected Attorney General Josh Shapiro as Governor and won just enough state House races to retake majority control by one vote.

But the Democrats' much greater use of mail-in voting also meant they saw far more of their votes disqualified than did Republicans, independents and third party voters combined. Democrats had 10,920 votes thrown out, about half for lacking secrecy envelopes. Republicans saw 3,503 ballots forfeited. Independents and third parties amounted to 1,731 votes that did not count in the fall election.

Negotiations between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican legislative leaders about ending the exterior envelope date requirement failed because the sides could not reach agreement on a wider bill to address a host of election procedures and policy changes. The exterior envelope dates are not needed to ensure ballots arrive in time — that occurs when they are received and clocked in by county elections workers.

Republican lawmakers have defended the need for the requirements, saying they are important for security and secrecy.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in May that the dates were not required — calling them “immaterial” — but the U.S. Supreme Court then ruled that decision moot.

Other federal litigation against the secretary of state and county elections boards over the inaccurate or missing envelope dates remains pending. It claims enforcing the date requirement has a larger impact on voters who are "significantly older than both other Pennsylvanians who voted by mail and all registered Pennsylvania voters.”

In the Governor's race, Shapiro collected just over 1 million mail-in votes, about a third of his total, on his way to a nearly 15-point win over Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano, whose received more than 187,000 mail-in ballots. There were fewer than 19,000 third-party or independent mail-in votes in the gubernatorial race.

Marian Schneider, senior voting rights policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said state law needs more clarity about the process of curing flawed ballots so more voters’ choices will count. The total number may be a small portion of total votes cast, but they could determine the winner of a close race.

“It's still 16,000 people whose votes didn't count,” Schneider said. “It would be good to avoid that, right?”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled a week before the November election that mail-in votes may not count if they are “contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes." Ballots without properly dated envelopes have been the topic of litigation since mail-in voting was greatly expanded in Pennsylvania under a 2019 state law.

The justices had split 3-3 on whether making the envelope dates mandatory under state law would violate provisions of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that immaterial errors or omissions should not be used to prevent voting. The tie meant the date mandate has remained in place. The court has yet to issue a written opinion laying out its reasoning and explaining why it ordered county officials to “segregate and preserve” the canceled ballots.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

There are quotes, and then there are quotes. Tonight, in the debate between Democratic candidate John Fetterman and Republican candidate Mehmet Oz as part of their campaigns to replace Republican Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey, who is retiring, Oz said he wanted abortion decisions to be made by “women, doctors, local political leaders, letting the democracy that’s always allowed our nation to thrive to put the best ideas forward so that states can decide for themselves.” His answer seems likely to have been carefully crafted to lead with women and doctors—a signal to pro-choice constituencies—before pivoting to the state’s rights argument at the heart of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. He might have hoped that both sides would hear what they wanted to in his answer. But hoo, boy, was that sentence a mistake. The idea that “local political leaders” should be participating in decisions about a woman’s most fundamental health care is not going to play well with… well, virtually anyone. Pennsylvania is a crucial state for Republican hopes to take control of the Senate. Groups linked to the Republican Senate Leadership Fund political action committee just slashed their New Hampshire advertising to pour another $6 million into the Pennsylvania Senate race to help Oz, but that quotation is going to hurt their efforts. There is very little else of great consequence that must be dealt with tonight, but here are two general observations: First of all, Kurt Bardella hit the nail on the head today when he wrote in the Los Angeles Times that no one really has any idea what is going to happen on Election Day, “especially the pollsters who routinely get things wrong.” Those telling us the outcome is clear are doing us a disservice. Bardella reminded readers of the 2020 headline from Vanderbilt University: “Preelection polls in 2020 had the largest errors in 40 years.” Second, there has been much public discussion today of the idea that Democrats are in disarray after yesterday’s letter from the Progressive Democratic Caucus asking President Joe Biden to consider negotiations with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. This seems to me an odd interpretation of this political moment. The Democrats have just finished an 18-month stint in which, with squeaky thin majorities, they have managed to hammer together coalitions that have passed an astonishing number of major pieces of legislation. The letter was too clever by half, it seemed to me, in what looked like an attempt to reach out to those constituencies concerned about the financial costs of supporting Ukraine. It fueled the narrative of those Republicans eager to defund Ukraine, and walking it back today looked weak, even though their statements enabled the signatories to reiterate their support for the party and for democracy. Meanwhile, few pundits are talking about the extraordinary disarray among the Republicans, who could not even agree on a program to put before the voters this year, and who have swung back and forth on the major questions of abortion and whether they believe the 2020 election was legitimate. The splits between establishment Republicans and MAGA Republicans are so deep that the Alaska Republican Party voted yesterday to censure Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). McConnell’s super PAC has spent more than $5 million on ads attacking the Trump-backed Republican in Alaska’s Senate race. The attacks are designed to help Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski, who won Trump’s hatred by voting to convict him of inciting the January 6 insurrection. The Trump-backed candidate said that “the Alaska Republican party has just told [McConnell]”—who is a leader of the national party, after all—“to butt out of our state.” This strikes me as a disarray deeper than that shown by a misguided and quickly recalled letter, especially since this latest split in the Republican Party comes on top of the loss of supporters ever since the party turned to Trump as a leader. And before that, of course, beginning in the 1990s, the party purged anyone the right wing thought was insufficiently committed to tax cuts, calling them “RINOs” for “Republicans In Name Only.” Indeed, if the Republicans today look like they’re in lockstep, that seems less like legislative discipline than like the takeover of a broad-tent party by radicals and incendiaries whose interest in actually governing appears to be limited: when he was elected to the Senate in 2020, Republican Tommy Tuberville of Alabama revealed that he did not know the three branches of the U.S. government. Since the ideology of the modern party was, until recently, to gut the federal government, there was no need to argue about how to do anything: Republican lawmakers simply had to stop Democrats from legislating. In the same interview in which he mischaracterized the structure of the government, Senator-elect Tuberville told Todd Stacy of the Alabama Daily News that, once in office, he would focus on learning “[t]he filibuster rules and stuff like that of how you can really slow the progress of something that you don’t like.” But just saying no is not, ultimately, a governing strategy for the twenty-first century. The Republican Party’s diminished base has now shifted toward backing a strong government that will impose its will on the rest of us, while for all their disagreements—or perhaps because of them—Democrats have demonstrated that lawmakers across a wide spectrum of political beliefs really can work together to pass popular legislation. Which vision will prevail in the U.S. will play out over the next two years.

—

Notes:

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-10-25/midterms-polls-predictions

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/25/alaska-senate-murkowski-mcconnell-trump/

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/25/gop-pennsylvania-senate-race-oz-00063319

https://www.aldailynews.com/in-the-weeds-w-tommy-tuberville-alabamas-next-senator/

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[From comments] J L Graham

"Second, there has been much public discussion today of the idea that Democrats are in disarray after yesterday’s letter from the Progressive Democratic Caucus asking President Joe Biden to consider negotiations with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. "

Functioning democracy not only handles controversy, it ultimately requires it. The scientific method, which has much to do with modern Enlightenment Era philosophies woven into the Constitution, progresses on constant cross-examination in good faith. Good Faith implies acceptance of certain ground rules of responsible behavior withing which diverse ideas and innovations vie for favor and confirmation. Disarray is more likely where good faith is lacking.

[wordpimp]

Even in dreams, miata is always the answer

A leader in antifa became a real radical. We moved from town to town, guns in the woods, always a step ahead of the dumb fucks, the war machine en masse. April had come and gone, you were still my girl. I was your girl too, so was every girl. It was a damn glorious girl guerrilla campaign. Henry darger talked to me in paintings, I missed someone that I mischaracterized. Have to tell you about this, it's important, then you'll know. The station wagon, our blimp, was manufactured from 1970s wood paneling. We called it the ark of the covenant. It got larger at night, and became a bedroom. Not like doctor who, we still just had one heart, it got passed around, no it was more like a hookah, all sharing. Then we were no longer stopping in towns, we found alaska, and colonized it. In anchorage, as today, you still needed a gun on account of the grizzlies.

Micah flipped the miata trying to do some stupid trick. Don't remember being in the air just heading up the big green ramp, then back on solid ground, elsewhere, in a forest. Like a video game reset. Zane lost his retainer but otherwise we were fine. I was somehow both in the car and not in the car, because a miata only has two seats. A blonde, blue eyed child carried a shepherd's crook or candy cane pounding the senate floor as the new world leaders were installed, we kept clamoring woke woke, like it wasn't an insult. Pat toomey was still a senator, I remember that, they were celebrating his retirement. The georgia contingent brought bbq. Finally, someone locked the doors of the church, from the outside.

[mariacallous]

Retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey was sharply critical of Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano on Thursday, blaming him for dragging down the candidacy of Mehmet Oz in the race to replace Toomey in the Senate.

The outgoing senator made the remarks in an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett.

Toomey started by saying that he thought Oz "ran a very good campaign."

"So the question that I think arises is, 'Why did a good candidate, running a good race, in what should be a very good environment, not prevail in a state like Pennsylvania — which is very, very competitive?" Toomey said.

"I think a big part of the reason was that at the top of the ticket, in the gubernatorial race, we had an ultra-MAGA candidate who never appeared to even attempt to expand beyond a hardcore base that was very, very committed to him. But he ended up losing in an epic beatdown."

Toomey said it's "very, very hard" for a Republican down-ballot to win with someone so unpopular at the top of the ticket. He pointed out that Oz's loss to Democrat John Fetterman was relatively narrow when compared with Mastriano's margin against Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro.

Toomey, who has been sharply critical of former President Donald Trump and the Republican party's shift under his leadership, blamed the former president for involving himself in the selection of candidates across the country.

"This is a huge problem, and I think my party needs to face the fact that if fealty to Donald Trump is the primary criteria for selecting candidates, we're probably not going to do really well," he told Burnett.

Some background: The Trump-endorsed Mastriano came to national attention for his vehement election denialism and his presence in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

As the election went on, he did little to hedge his far-right positions or reach out to groups beyond his base of supporters, CNN's Chris Cillizza wrote.

Oz, meanwhile, focused on bringing “balance” to the Senate in the final days of the race – casting himself a moderate voice who could navigate between extremes within the two parties.