So, when the Dems support something they need 60 votes.

But when the Republicans support something (like Mukasey) they only need 51 votes.
I think this needs to be pointed out.

the Mukasey confirmation (that old gang-of-fourteener!). Gotta love my Senator, old Helmet-Head.

same way, obviously.

We don't think she's going to be around much longer so just as soon as the dreadful event happens, I plan to pack all my shit and head up to Oregon.

They call this place the 'Heartland'. I beg to differ. It's more like the asshole of the Universe.

You're moving from Nebraska to Oregon because the Dems don't have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate? But only after your mom's demise.

party in Nebraska. And Ben Nelson bragged during his re-election about how often he supported bush** in all his crimes.

Nebraska is on a level all its own.

Hope you're holding up OK. Sometimes having a dream to look forward to can really help get you through some dark times--Oregon does sound good. Mountains, ocean...an actual viable Democratic party...yep. I'm headed for the mountains (Colorado) next myself, when this Offutt tour is up. BTW, did you hear that Mike Fahey isn't going to run? I thought I heard that on KFAB.

constant pain because she needed hip replacement surgery (on both sides) but they said no because she couldn't survive it.

Colorado? Isn't Colorado a pretty mixed up place itself? I know Denver is pretty 'liberal' but I have two daughters who live down there and they say they're surrounded by bush** supporting idiots. And they live in Denver.

Fahey isn't running for Hagel's seat? He must think that the taxpayers of the City of Omaha have more money left that he can fleece them out of. (I know, I know, ended the sentence with a preposition.) I surely hope that downtown ballpark shit fails. That's just one of many of Fahey's idiot ideas that I wish he'd shove where the sun never shines.

We'd be going to CO Springs, which is even worse than Nebraskee, but I'm hoping the landscape makes up for the Republican Fundie asshattery. I could be wrong...and I'm pretty sure I heard that Fahey won't run for Hagel's seat, because he's got oh-so-much left to do as mayor (yep, including your ballpark, LOL!). That leaves us with Scott Kleeb, I guess--it's like David going up against Goliath without a slingshot--if he even runs at all. It's going to be a grim campaign year.

Or perhaps you'd rather have a Coburn or Brownback clone?

Because those are your alternatives in Nebraska.

I like him better than Nelson.

...but we do have an opposition party, it's the Republic party. The Democratic Party is the majority party, so they no longer need to be an opposition party.

Well, except for the part that now, having gone from being a totally ineffective opposition party, they have now become a totally ineffective majority party. While the Republics are a very effective opposition party, in spite of the numerous scandals that include sex, corruption and criminal malfeasance in office.

Me, I'm still trying to figure out how that works.

The party in power is the Corporate Kleptocracy and War Party. There is no organized opposition party in Congress to CK&WP. It explains most of what has transpired over the last 30 years or so.

And that's just to gain cloture in the Senate. We need 2/3 to override the veto.

It ain't easy in a highly partisan atmosphere.

In the case of the Mukasey nomination all it took was 41 votes against cloture. There was no filibuster. There is no opposition party.

It's certainly possible for the majority party to filibuster itself, but that would simply put even a hotter spotlight on the Senate Democrats' impotence.

This case was a done deal the second it happened. Keep in mind who suggest Mukasey to Bush in the first place.

Yes I would have preferred that the people's representatives stood up against torture.

and they didn't.

However, it's far more complex than that, and you're doing everyone a disservice by pulling a Bush and watering it down to the point of irrelevance just to score a political point.

Any item brought to the vote can be protested if they get 60 votes to hold it back, I think it is called colture....

Then it couldn't be brought to the floor for an up and down vote.

If they get an up and down vote a majority rules.

I didn't check as to the filbuster. But I think you can block the cloture if you filbuster or something like that.

but I haven't been through all of the threads yet..:shrug:

A vote can be blocked if 60 votes for cloture cannot be found. Thus 41 votes against cloture are enough to kill a nomination or a bill. Filibusters, in the 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' sense, never happen anymore, as the rules allow for killing a bill by simply failing on a cloture vote.

Which is to say, not very much...