PSA: Boehner cuts off C-SPAN cameras when he doesn't like what you say

[Thump553]

P&N thread readership tip #1: By the time a thread reaches three or more pages, chances are 90% that two participants are involved in a juvenile name calling spat (that is of absolutely no interest to anyone but the two involved).

 

[Ausm]

Breaking news: Republicans are douchebags. More at 11.

I guess I'll vote for... Democrats? Riiiiight.

This country is truly fucked.

BoberWelfare Queen it's in your best interest to vote D to extend your UI.

 

[yuppiejr]

Negotiations are way different than floor proceedings. Floor proceedings are designed to be public, negotiations most certainly are not. There are really good reasons to keep negotiations secret a lot of the time too.

Bullshit.

What about the health care debate other than the overt display of political gamesmanship swapping gimmies/favors for votes justified having ANY of the negotiations or floor proceedings happen behind closed doors? These people work for us, if you haven't forgotten. Unless it involves classified military secrets EVERYTHING they do on our dime should be front and center even including the slimy dealings they make with one another and their corporate-union-PAC lobbyists.

 

[JSt0rm]

BoberWelfare Queen it's in your best interest to vote D to extend your UI.

He has a job now. This means he doesn't care about other people on unemployment anymore. This is how those on the right work.

 

[woolfe9999]

Bullshit.

What about the health care debate other than the overt display of political gamesmanship swapping gimmies/favors for votes justified having ANY of the negotiations or floor proceedings happen behind closed doors? These people work for us, if you haven't forgotten. Unless it involves classified military secrets EVERYTHING they do on our dime should be front and center even including the slimy dealings they make with one another and their corporate-union-PAC lobbyists.

Obama deserved heavy criticism for that, but for entirely different reason than the criticism that Boehner deserves for this. Boehner actively censored negative opinions of his caucus that were offered on the House floor from public view.

Negotiations in Congress have never been televised. People can't speak freely in a negotiation if the camera is on them. Floor debates are a different matter. Those WERE televised.

The trouble with Obama is that he promised the negotiations would be televised and then couldn't deliver. It was a totally unrealistic and foolish promise and he should never have made it to begin with, and he deserved to be derided for breaking the promise. However, he wasn't guilty of censorship. You can't censor something that has never been in public view in 220 years of Congress. If he was guilty of censorship, then so has all of Congress since the inception of radio and television.

- wolf

 

[xj0hnx]

Negotiations are way different than floor proceedings. Floor proceedings are designed to be public, negotiations most certainly are not. There are really good reasons to keep negotiations secret a lot of the time too.

Yea, you totally don't want the public to see you pandering to big pharma and see how much influence the insurance companies had in the process.

 

[UberNeuman]

Partisan hack alert! We refuse to say it is wrong for dems to do it, but we will scream bloody murder when reps do it!

Let me know when a Democrat shuts down the live C-SPAN feed.....

\and keep conflating... it's just darling...

 

[hal2kilo]

I admit to my partisanship. This is nothing new under the sun. Have a drink. It's almost Christmas. I know I'm enjoying mine!

 

[UberNeuman]

Breaking news: Republicans are douchebags. More at 11.

I guess I'll vote for... Democrats? Riiiiight.

This country is truly fucked.

Then Sir - bring it up a level. Who would you find a person worth voting for?

 

[JSt0rm]

Looks like boener gas back tracked and is looking to do the2 month extension. What a idiot. The GOP is a mess.

 

[cybrsage]

Let me know when a Democrat shuts down the live C-SPAN feed.....

\and keep conflating... it's just darling...

That is what I thought. Past actions by dems must be forgotten...

 

[UberNeuman]

That is what I thought. Past actions by dems must be forgotten...

When has a Democrat shut down the live C-SPAN feed?

 

[RampantAndroid]

Let me know when a Democrat shuts down the live C-SPAN feed.....

\and keep conflating... it's just darling...

Does Obama claiming that the health care debates would be visible for all...then hid them behind closed doors count?

 

[nonlnear]

Let me know when a Democrat shuts down the live C-SPAN feed.....

\and keep conflating... it's just darling...

Adfmittedly it's a move that's in bad form but the Speaker adjourned the House. It's not the first time that House proceedings weren't televised due to a forced adjournment. Would you like me to post the link you seem to be implying doesn't exist?

(And no, just because Pelosi did something similar doesn't make it OK. I'm not jsut drawing equivalencies to justify it. I still think Boehner is a reprehensible slimebag for what he did.)

 

[nonlnear]

UberNeuman,

The crickets are deafening.

 

[Ninjahedge]

Bottom line:

Censorship is bad, m'kay?

Telling them to shut the cams off on a public, and (as someone here pointed out) supposedly documented floor session is an attempt at obfuscation.

This whole tax break thing is a load of BS. The actual savings is minimal, and the effects equally so. What needs be done at this point is a realistic way to keep funding for programs that can keep people in their homes and offer an opportunity to find work. This tax break amounts to VERY LITTLE to the majority of people out there.

It is simply the chocolate coating on the polished turd that is being slipped into our candy box.

Crunchy frog anyone?