March Madness, Georgia-style
One by one, the field gets smaller. Some advance, while others don’t. Long-shot dreams are realized, while some sure-fire bets fall by the wayside.
Yes, the Georgia legislative session is winding down.
Hey, I couldn’t have been talking about basketball in Georgia this time of year. (Thanks for nothing, Bulldogs, Yellow Jackets, Panthers, Eagles, Bears, and any other Division I schools I left out.) But if you read the foregoing and thought of the usual kind of March Madness, feel free to discuss how your brackets are doing in the thread below. I hope they’re doing better than mine; they almost have to be.
Or use the thread below to talk about whatever else is on your mind.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
273 comments Add your comment
Stephenson Billings
March 23rd, 2013
11:55 am
Obama Has Lost Advantage Over G.O.P. on Economy
“During the debate over the so-called fiscal cliff in December, public opinion surveys showed more Americans trusted President Obama than trusted Republicans in Congress when it came to handling the nation’s economy. The New Year’s Day deal to avoid going over the cliff, which included higher marginal tax rates on high earners — something Mr. Obama had campaigned on and lobbied for — was largely seen as a victory for the president.
But with more budget battles approaching, over raising the nation’s borrowing limit and perhaps reaching a grand bargain, Mr. Obama’s advantage over Congressional Republicans has all but vanished. Public approval of his handling of the economy has slipped, according to polls, and surveys now show that a roughly equal number of Americans favor Mr. Obama as favor Congressional Republicans on economic matters.
In December 2012 and January 2013, polls found that roughly half of Americans had more faith in Mr. Obama’s economic stewardship, while just over a third of respondents said they had more faith in the economic stewardship of Congressional Republicans. Since December, however, Mr. Obama’s standing has declined by roughly 10 percentage points, while Republicans in Congress have gained 4 or 5 percentage points.”
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/obama-has-lost-advantage-over-g-o-p-on-economy/
bluecoat
March 23rd, 2013
11:55 am
Curious-I would like to add,President Obama ran and won a second term as President of the USA.
curious
March 23rd, 2013
11:58 am
Stephenson Billings
“The Senate budget passed with a 50-49 vote. I’d say it as pretty much party-line with a few defectors.”
How does that square with Rafe’s list? Were there 2 votes?
Just Saying..
March 23rd, 2013
12:02 pm
“Obama’s job approval measure has fallen eight points since December, from 55% to 47%. His rating is comparable to George W. Bush’s (45%) at the same point early in his second term and is much lower than Bill Clinton’s 60% rating in February 1997.”
Good thing he knew to peak in November, huh?
Stephenson Billings
March 23rd, 2013
12:03 pm
curious @ 11:58:
I don’t know what Rafe is talking about. Must have been a different vote or something.
“Baucus, Begich, Hagan and Pryor joined the entire GOP caucus in voting against the budget resolution. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) missed the vote.”
curious
March 23rd, 2013
12:04 pm
Our conservative posters remind me of the UGA men’s basketball team:
Win one, proclaim the season has turned around, then lose the next five.
Stephenson Billings
March 23rd, 2013
12:04 pm
Might have been the cloture vote or something.
Stephenson Billings
March 23rd, 2013
12:05 pm
Senate Budget ‘Has Zero Real Deficit Reduction … Never Balances’
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/senate-budget-has-zero-real-deficit-reduction-never-balances_708873.html
Just Saying..
March 23rd, 2013
12:10 pm
“It doesn’t matter anyway, y’all, in November 2014, after ten months of obozocare wrecking finances and destroying their health care provider, anything with a D behind it’s name will be gone, with extreme prejudice.”
And America will be perfect again…
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 23rd, 2013
12:11 pm
Obamacare
Reduced dependence on foreign oil
Car industry in the US
obozocare – epic failure. Will cost dummycrats the majority in the Senate in 2014 and the presidency in 2016. Low information voters understand pain.
Reduced dependence on foreign oil – Thanks to GW Bush and Big Oil for moving ahead with fracking before the bleeding heart pinkos took over in 2006 and started gumming it all up.
Car industry in the US – Typical liberal “success.” Taxpayers are out over 30 billion so that the dummycrats could turn automakers over to the unions and foreigners.
Next?
Just Saying..
March 23rd, 2013
12:13 pm
Stephenson Billings: “Obama Has Lost Advantage Over G.O.P. on Economy…etc”
NOW you listen to Nate Silver…
bluecoat
March 23rd, 2013
12:19 pm
So Elmer Fudd is alive and well again.xxxxxxxxxxxxElmer Fudd: Oh, Mr. Game Warden, I hope you can help me. I’ve been told I can shoot wabbits, and goats, and pigeons, and mongooses, and dirty skunks, and ducks. Can you tell me what season it weawy is?
Bugs Bunny: Why certainly, my boy.
[Holds up a baseball]
Bugs Bunny: It’s baseball season!
[Elmer laughs dementedly]
Bugs Bunny: [Throws the baseball] Here, boy! Here, boy! Go get it! Go get it!
[Elmer runs after the baseball, shooting it repeatedly]
@@
March 23rd, 2013
12:22 pm
The Senate late Friday backed withholding the White House budget director’s pay if the president is late delivering a budget.
The budget amendment, which has no force of law, was sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas.). It was passed by voice vote.
The amendment would also withhold the pay of the deputy director and deputy director for management of the Office of Management and Budget.
President Obama was supposed to deliver his budget by the first Monday of February under the law, but his 2014 budget is now slated to come out in April.
Cornyn told the Senate that “the president has rendered himself entirely irrelevant,” in the budget process since the House and Senate will have acted first.
He noted that after Congress enacted a “No Budget, No Pay” law this year, the Senate brought a budget to the floor for the first time in four years.
No Democrats rose to defend Obama.
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/289985-senate-backs-withholding-obama-budget-directors-pay
Bruno
March 23rd, 2013
12:25 pm
obozocare – epic failure. Will cost dummycrats the majority in the Senate in 2014 and the presidency in 2016. Low information voters understand pain.
According to this WSJ article, that pain isn’t far away:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324557804578374761054496682.html#printMode?KEYWORDS=health+overhaul
From the article: “In a private presentation to brokers late last month, UnitedHealth Group Inc., the nation’s largest carrier, said premiums for some consumers buying their own plans could go up as much as 116%, and small-business rates as much as 25% to 50%. The company said the estimates were driven in part by growing medical costs not directly tied to the law. It also cited the law’s requirements that health status not affect rates and that plans include certain minimum benefits and limits to out-of-pocket charges, among other things.”
Just Saying..
March 23rd, 2013
12:32 pm
“obozocare – epic failure. Will cost dummycrats the majority in the Senate in 2014 and the presidency in 2016.”
Bet your house on that, Bruno?
Oh, right, November 4. Sorry, man…
indigo
March 23rd, 2013
12:45 pm
Aesop – 11:09
Don’t bother trying to understand that as it’s clearly beyond your comprehension.
Bruno
March 23rd, 2013
12:46 pm
Not betting on anything, JS. That was Aesop’s quote. I was responding to the pain part of it.
Just Saying..
March 23rd, 2013
12:52 pm
“Not betting on anything, JS. That was Aesop’s quote. I was responding to the pain part of it.”
My bad. Hard to keep focus. In the Madness, you know…
breckenridge
March 23rd, 2013
12:54 pm
Aesop – Does the Constitution actually say one must be born in America to become president?
southpaw
March 23rd, 2013
1:12 pm
breckenridge
March 23rd, 2013
12:54 pm
From Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.
The only way someone born outside America could become President is if “natural born Citizen” doesn’t mean the same as “born in America.” That, or someone who is at least in his/her 220s came to America before the Constitution was adopted, and now wants to run for President.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
1:35 pm
Our President is heading home after planting the seed for an Iranian peace plan and reconciling Israel and Turkey’s relationship.
A very successful trip.
All we need is a budget passed and return to full employment to cement his legacy as one of our best Presidents.
Bow down cons.
bluecoat
March 23rd, 2013
1:52 pm
wish he could get enough majority to repeal the 22nd amend.
southpaw
March 23rd, 2013
1:57 pm
“Bow down cons.”
To the king or to the Messiah? Palm Sunday IS tomorrow, come to think of it.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
2:06 pm
Bow down means let the Obama Derangement Syndrome go.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
2:08 pm
Get over it.
Our President is serving his last term and saved our country.
Let it go cons.
southpaw
March 23rd, 2013
2:17 pm
Getalife @2:06
Bow –
to bend the knee or body or incline the head
Down -
from higher to lower; in descending direction or order; toward, into, or in a lower position
“Obama Derangement Syndrome” is nowhere to be found among those definitions.
A day or two ago, somebody said “cons” and didn’t mean “conservatives,” and now this. Maybe I need a scorecard to keep track of liberal definitions. It’s like trying to talk in an echo chamber full of Humpty Dumptys.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.”
Cherokee
March 23rd, 2013
2:21 pm
“So we prop up an inefficient organization because it will cost us more to mail something that is going out of style, Cherokee?”
sorry I’m so late Tib.
Not what I said at all. First, the post office isn’t ‘inefficient’. They deliver a letter anywhere in the US for one small price. That’s the hallmark of efficiency.
And if that competition goes away, are you really silly enough to think that UPS will do that for you?
Sometimes – and I know this is heresy to cons – the government does things more cheaply and efficiently than private enterprise.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
2:23 pm
con is short for conservative like lib is short for liberal.
My point is you can’t beat him so join the majority to get things done like a budget.
southpaw
March 23rd, 2013
2:32 pm
“con is short for conservative”
Sounds OK. I wish one of your cohorts had thought the same thing a day or two ago.
“you can’t beat him so join the majority to get things done like a budget.”
We’ll see. But if that’s the point you want to make, the instruction to “bow down” isn’t the way to go about making it.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
2:36 pm
Yeah, tell that to rush freaking out about a Beyonce song called Bow down.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
2:40 pm
Any comment on the baby getting shot in Brunswick cons?
southpaw
March 23rd, 2013
2:44 pm
So Rush thought that Beyonce was telling people to get over Obama Derangement Syndrome? Wow. I missed that. Serves me right for not listening to his show.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
2:46 pm
Yes, you are not a real con unless you believe every word from rw media like rush,
@@
March 23rd, 2013
2:54 pm
getalife:
Any comment on the baby getting shot in Brunswick cons?
We’ve got Rafe’s comment at 7:05 p.m. last night and my question to indigo at 11:36 a.m. this morning.
Is there something you’d like to add?
southpaw
March 23rd, 2013
2:54 pm
Finn, where are you when I need some help? You do a great big belly laugh better than I do, and the 2:46 post definitely merits that.
As for the baby getting shot, here’s an idea: EVERYBODY shut up and let the law enforcement folks do their jobs.
Wait a minute. I’m not supposed to talk about that, because I don’t fit getalife’s description of “con.”
breckenridge
March 23rd, 2013
3:02 pm
“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
Yes, southpaw, I was aware of that. I was actually trying to set a trap for Aesop so I would have a reason to hurl a bit of abuse his way.
I suspect, but have never been able to verify, the “or a citizen of the United States” clause contained therein was a concession to Alexander Hamilton, who was born somewhere in the Caribbean. Madison makes no mention of it in his Notes on the Constitutional Convention. Hamilton was positively brilliant, he had a genius level IQ. Actually 3 other Founding Fathers had genius level IQs as well – Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. I would estimate that each of them had an IQ at least…….oh let’s call it 75 points higher than that of Sarah Palin. She does a nice job reading speeches that others write but that aside she is a dumb bunny.
Always Remember: Never vote for someone that isn’t smarter than you are.
southpaw
March 23rd, 2013
3:06 pm
“Never vote for someone that isn’t smarter than you are.”
But that’s practically everybody!
southpaw
March 23rd, 2013
3:15 pm
Further thought about Presidential eligibility-
The way it was taught in my American History class, the concession was more to reality than to Hamilton. Apparently the phrase “natural born Citizen” implied “natural born Citizen of the United States.” No adult of that time, including George Washington himself, fit that description, since there was no such thing as the United States at the times of their respective births.
Of course, your history class was probably a tad different from mine.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
3:25 pm
Law enforcement did their job and caught them.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 23rd, 2013
3:29 pm
obozo is a trojan horse sent by al qaeda to the dummycrats because they couldn’t beat GW Bush or the Republicans without the liberals help.
So far, their plan is working better than they could have ever hoped for.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
3:30 pm
aq is defeated .
Cyber security is the new threat and hackers are the new targets.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
3:32 pm
obl is still dead.
GM is still alive.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 23rd, 2013
3:33 pm
Tell that to assad and morsi.
obozo now consorts with the iranians, he sure is cementing his legacy.
Many, many Americans will perish because of his actions.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
3:36 pm
assad will be dead soon and morsi is finding out that governing is a tough job.
He will lose the next election.
We will have a peace deal with Iran to open up the global markets in that region.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 23rd, 2013
3:36 pm
America is strong so in 2017 we will eliminate the iranian threat to the world and beat back the savages in egypt, lybia and syria but many brave US soldiers will die bacause of it. The iranians will, in the meantime, launch nuclear missiles at us and Israel but will hit China instead, this will buy the Republicans enough time to get elected.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 23rd, 2013
3:39 pm
obozo probably gave them some blueprints for one of our better missile systems but they are savages after all, so building it correctly will be too big of a hurdle to overcome.
southpaw
March 23rd, 2013
3:40 pm
getalife @3:25
Law enforcement isn’t done yet. The District Attorney still has to see about prosecuting the case. A grand jury hasn’t indicted him yet. Which leads me to a question–serious, not snarky. What do you make of Sabrina Elkins’ protestation of De’Marquis’ innocence?
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
3:40 pm
Clinton will win for 8 more years.
getalife
March 23rd, 2013
3:43 pm
southpaw,
I robbery in broad daylight produces eyewitnesses.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 23rd, 2013
3:44 pm
clinton hasn’t a chance, we will explain to the low information voters that someone who says “what difference does it make” about 4 brave dead Americans will one day say the same thing about their corpses, and that will enrage them.