Politics '11: Keeping up with the Xornses

[Dark Holy Elf]

US Supreme Court remains a complete fucking joke.

EDIT: For those of you who aren't familiar with my usual rant on the matter, that comment is a response to the "judges divided along partisan lines!" thing. For all that I think the result here sounds like a total joke too, for all that I'm not enough of a legal expert to weigh in on how the decision was reached. The result does stink like little else, though. Second absolutely awful democracy-eroding decision by the USSC in less than a year, impressive.

[Dhyerwolf]

Hahaha oh gods that is just fucked.

[NotMiki]

Rest assured, this decision is as much of a hatchet job as it looks like.

The Federal Arbitration Act forbids courts from discriminating between arbitration clauses and other forms of contracts when they judge the validity of those agreements, so, for example, a state can't have a law that says "arbitration clauses are void."  State judges can declare contracts or parts of contracts void on the basis of the doctrine of unconscionability: the basis that the contract is unfair to one of the parties.

In this case Scalia rules that state judges can't declare a provision that prevents class action arbitration unconscionable and void.  So he expands the idea of judges not being able to discriminate against arbitration clauses into the idea that judges pretty much can't touch any of the TERMS of arbitration clauses.  Even if they could declare the same terms unconscionable if they were not in arbitration clauses.  No, that is not logically consistent.

On the plus side, if anyone ever tells you the conservatives on the court are just textualists doing their principled duty, you can cite this case and tell them to go fuck themselves.

The only good thing about this decision is it's based on an interpretation (if you can even call it that) of a federal statute and not the constitution, and it's really bad for the bottom lines of big law firms, which means an army of lobbyists will be working to get the decision overturned by congress.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

<America> We're not even trying to pretend pretending companies don't own our ass. World, you're next.

EDIT: Ninja'd by the Jims being reasonable human beings.

[NotMiki]

It should tell you something that most infuriating SC decisions are 5-4.  Practically speaking it should tell you that we're one heart attack away from a decent Supreme Court.  There's a good reason a bunch of liberalish but old justices jumped ship the second we got a Democratic president.

[NotMiki]

Oh, America.

"Well, Osama would hate that," one onlooker cracked as a young woman flashed her breasts.

[DomaDragoon]

Well, it's all but official now - for the first time in recent history (can't be bothered to check how long), the Government of Canada is a majority. The Conservatives with PM Harper now have at least the opportunity to do things. Let's hope they don't mess it up.

More importantly, though, even more than the crotch kick to the Liberals, is the near total implosion of the Bloc Quebecois - a party whose primary mandate has been the secession of Quebec from the rest of Canada.

I'm cautiously optimistic at this stage, even if I don't fully agree with the stance of any of the parties.

[Dark Holy Elf]

7 years of minority, for the record, Doma.

Kinda mixed feelings tonight. I'm unhappy with the Conservative majority, not especially because of their policies (except their environmental policy which is an international embarrassment), but because it feels like rewarding them for attack ads and lies about the Canadian constitution, not to mention a government that has a poor track record with being open and democratic (especially sad since a decade ago they campaigned on this).

Also generally kinda unhappy with the suddenly-hundred-seat NDP. To give you an idea, I considered quoting mc's post about "best party replaces worst" and editting "best" to "second worst", although they have snuck past the Conservatives to me of late due to the aforementioned paragraph. They stand for a lot of things I don't like about the left-wing and their leader continues to promise a lot without explaining where it's going to come from.

I'm really scared at the idea of Canada being reduced to two parties. Maybe this is an irrational phobia but I really don't like how it works in the US. I guess I just feel it fosters an "us versus them" attitude and all this visceral hate which does nobody any good. Could be wrong! But yeah.

On the other hand?

The separatist party is down to 2-4 seats oh fuck yes. This is really awesome. It means that if the Conservatives slip up even a little then the NPD/Liberals can reasonably form coalitions against them since coalitions aren't toxic when they don't involve the fucking separatists. Quebec is not a conservative province so their left-leaning votes going to real, national parties can only be a good thing.

And aw yeah Green Party getting a seat. The lack of dialog on environmental issues this election was embarrassing, nice to get that voice in the house.

Finally, even if I don't like the parties who were favoured, I kinda like the general feeling of change and how the electorate this year clearly responded to the campaigns people ran. I can't argue with Jack Layton looking by far the best of the leaders, and do find it heartening while the conservative attack ads were successful at scaring people away from the Liberals, most of those votes did not in fact go to the party which launched said ads.

It's going to be a pretty interesting four years. A lot of people here are unsure just how right-wing Harper will be with a majority (which for the non-Americans, majority governments wield a heck of a lot of power). If he panders to his base too much he will scare Ontario voters riiight back into the hands of the Liberals or NDP. If he governs like he has so far he will likely become one of the very rare non-Liberal PMs in history to actually win consecutive majorities. And the Liberals/NDP... I just don't know. I doubt the Liberals will roll over, so I imagine they'll be back, but who knows? And the NDP will definitely need to prove their current election is more than a fluke. I see a lot of things that can go wrong with them (their very popular leader is in questionable health, Quebec support is always volatile, etc.). "Unite the left" is pretty much my worst-case fear but I don't think the Liberals are beaten so badly as to turn to a union with the NDP where the latter is stronger. Not to mention I don't think the Liberals are especially left anyway (and their greatest historical success over the past half century has come from being seen as the party of the centre) so I hope they don't let themselves get painted that way.

We'll see! Weird night.

Oh yeah and the candidate I voted for won, so I am happy about that. Yay Liberal with a decent track record on environmental issues. My streak of never voting for a loser continues~

[Excal]

Hmm, my thoughts on all this are actually pretty similar to the Elf's, with the exception that I'm less worried about Harper and the Tories.  Though that's less because I'm worried about how they operate, and more because Canada has a habit of there being a deal of support that washes from the Liberals to the Tories like a Tide, and the successive minorities had broken that tide.  Hopefully this'll get our government out of stasis.  Especially since this time, when people look at Harper it'll only be on what he's done, and not on speculations on how much of his policy was determined by being in a Minority  (a concern that oddly, both helped and hurt him since those supporting and opposing him entrenched further from this belief).

And, yeah.  My only real worry about this election should go away if the Liberals manage a comeback, as opposed to fading away.  Though given how long the PCs held on after they got an even worse crushing, and how they were caught inbetween a tougher rock and a hard place, the Liberals will definately get their shot.

[metroid composite]

Definitely jazzed about the results.

My biggest complaint about this election is that it looks pretty much like what should have happened last election.  The Liberals seriously screwed up in 2008...and most of the country went NDP over them, but they still managed to get more seats than the NDP primarily because of Toronto.  Elizabeth May is awesome enough that she should have gotten a seat in 2008.  The Bloc is long overdue to crash and burn.  Harper honestly, probably should have gotten a majority government last time.  And just in general it's nice to see real proof that this is a three-party system now; all three major parties have spent some time in third place now.

I agree that a unite the left movement would be an absolute disaster, but I really don't see it happening.  The Liberals aren't going to roll over to the NDP the first moment in history they've ever had fewer seats in parliament.  And the NDP is similarly unlikely to make such a move when they're the smaller party in the future--the NDP has shown for 50 years that it's happy to chill out at 10-40 seats.

And also yeah: the Liberals are not exactly left wing.  I can easily see a scenario where the Conservatives get involved in a big scandal, and so the Liberals position themselves to the right, and the next election becomes Liberals (right wing) vs NDP (left wing).  Also: they're the go-to coalition/ally party--if either of the other main parties win a minority government, Liberals become their obvious ally to get things done.  It almost doesn't matter which party wins (outside of a majority) Liberals are going to have power.  It's a pretty sweet position to be in--why give that up just to lend strength to the NDP?

(And really, doomsaying at 34 seats?  34 is close to the NDP's previous all-time high.  Progressive Conservative went 2->20->12).

Sure, the unite the Right thing happened, but that's because the Reform party realized it couldn't win a seat east of Manitoba, and therefore could never form the government.  Neither the NDP nor the Liberals have this problem.  They can realistically threaten to win an election on their own, without merging with another party.

[Excal]

The Doomsaying is more because the Anyone But Harper (also works as Anyone But Tories) crowd is making noises about how the other parties should pool so the not-Tory majority coukd rule inder the hand of Comrad Jack.

[Dark Holy Elf]

and most of the country went NDP over them, but they still managed to get more seats than the NDP primarily because of Toronto

The Liberals had 26% of the popular vote in 2008, while the NDP had 18%. Seats reflected this quite well.

Also I feel the need to point out that outside Quebec (which the NDP took by an amount which I find just mind-boggling. In a good way because it's not the Bloc, but still), the Liberals and NDP were actually quite close across the rest of the country. NDP won, mind, but only by ~10 seats and a relatively small amount of popular vote (too lazy to calculate it precisely, have to go to work). So yeah, really a bit too early with death knells!

[Luther Lansfeld]

I am not freaking out too much about this unlike most of my friends, but I am quite concerned about the environmental policies (or lack of) from the Conservatives. We'll see, I guess.

[Clear Tranquil]

My turn for mixed feelings as the people of Scotland have voted in a majority government  for the Scottish  Parliament to Alex Salmond and his Scottish Nationalist party but the UK says no to voting reform~

[Luther Lansfeld]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ianmcowie/100010127/a-tax-based-alternative-to-the-alternative-vote/ <-- Tax-based voting. Um~

[Dark Holy Elf]

That's satire.

... I think.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I thought so too, but apparently it is a right wing newspaper in Britain and from what I can find it seems legitimate.

[metroid composite]

Ok, I can sort-of see why (even if I strongly disagree) someone would want to take away the vote from those on welfare and those on old-age pensions.  And he does say that allowances would be made for stay-at-home parents.  What I take big issue with, that he doesn't address, is that this excludes students.  If, say, a political science student in university can't vote, then there's something wrong with the system.  There are very few better-informed voters.  (Oh wait, he wants to allow pensioners on the basis that they probably used to contribute to society.  So...why not allow people who probably will contribute to society in the future?)

[Dark Holy Elf]

And he does say that allowances would be made for stay-at-home parents

Nooo, he says "mothers" (EDIT: not even "stay-at-home mothers", which is a significant difference). That line was so blatantly misogynist that it was one of the things I keyed in on to thinking the whole thing was satire.

I'm still going to choose to believe it is. The alternative is that this guy is a worthless human being who hates democracy. Which is possible, but I'm a perennial optimist.

[superaielman]

Nope, he's dead serious. Having had the displeasure of reading far right newspapers in the UK before, I can assure you that it's not parody in any sense of the word. That may or may  not top the BRING BACK THE WHIPPING POST that I read over there in 09, though!

[Pyro]

Sounds like someone needs to put put down Atlas Shrugged and go play Bioshock.

Proposals have come up in Congress to restrict aid to Pakistan until answers come out about whether their intelligence services were hiding bin Laden. This would not be surprising, since Pakistan's government/IS has been doing the "right hand bashes terrorists/insurgents/rebels, left hand raises them" game. That really is a horrible policy for everyone involved (including the US Hooray for giving weapons to the Taliban and everyone else ever)

[metroid composite]

Nooo, he says "mothers" (EDIT: not even "stay-at-home mothers", which is a significant difference). That line was so blatantly misogynist that it was one of the things I keyed in on to thinking the whole thing was satire.

Maybe living in Georgia for a year has made me jaded, but blatant misogyny is something I don't find out-of-the-ordinary for a politician these days.

[Grefter]

Maybe living in Georgia for a year has made me jaded, but blatant misogyny is something I don't find out-of-the-ordinary for a politician these days.

Blatant mysoginy is the new closet homosexual.

Why don’t we restrict votes to people who actually pay something into the system? No, I am not suggesting a return to property-based eligibility; although that system worked quite well when Parliament administered not just Britain but most of the world.

Yeah the good old days of the East India Company where everything was run perfectly and fairly and sanely by good people you could trust.

Edit -

“From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy.”

Hard to believe? The credit crisis afflicting democracies around the world demonstrates the truth of this observation.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Edit 2 -

Bullshit about buying beer

Yes because the rich around the world pay a disproportionate amount of the world's taxes with their massively disproportionate wages right? Not to mention that there is just as many rich people as there is poor (or MORE poor than rich like this anecdote) OH WAIT THAT IS TOTAL BULLSHIT I FORGOT STATISTICS IN MY QUAINT ANALOGY WHICH IS FULL OF SELF DELUSIONAL TRIPE.

[Hunter Sopko]

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-05-11/news/os-legislature-unemployment-benefits-20110511_1_jobless-benefits-unemployment-laws-state-jobless-rate

I forgot how much I hate Florida.

[superaielman]

That fucking *sucks*, and I hope it gets destroyed in court.