"All Dems have to do is swing at the slow hanging curve."

If only they could hit those better than .050 or so....

Simple. Every day in the senate, someone stands up, cites the attack on the Detroit bound aircraft, and then asks why there is no head of the TSA, making sure the statement gets to the press.

Yes, only the Democrats will look at a called third strike, then proceed to throw the bat into their own dugout, injuring the manager.

Why hurry? Collective bargaining represents a bigger threat to our future than terrorists blowing up airplanes, right?

Yes to the GOP mindset, unionization does represent a greater existential threat than does terrorism. After all, some libruls might die if a plane goes down, right?

-Z

DeMint tried to block the car company bailout because he wanted to break the autoworkers union last year; this is nothing new for that jerk.

Reid should bring the Senate back three days early to confirm Southers - and make it crystal clear why it was necessary.

It might just be me, but I am really not hearing any particular concern about the latest terrorist attempt. Most people seem to be more concerned about the likelihood of even sillier 'security' measures at airports and the like than the possibility that they might actually be killed.

"All Dems have to do is swing at the slow hanging curve." Ad miss.

just curious, if anybody knows,
How did that labor dispute involving DHS workers get resolved?

Federal Government unions do not have true collective bargaining capabilities. The Fed unions are the weakest unions in existence. They do not get to bargain on pay, benefits, etc. The most they bargain on is making the immediate working conditions of bargaining unit employees a bit better. They keep the rank and file employees from being pushed around particularly if they are not members of the party in power. Federal Government employees whether with or without a union CANNOT strike--it is illegal; thus, there is no threat. For DeMint to have such a fear shows he does not know the law regarding Federal Government unions, which is the Civil Service Act of 1974.

PHB,
I think it was Nate Silver who did the math. You have a 20X better chance of being killed by lightening than even being on the same flight with a terrorist.
I'll take that chance. Sure, let's do sensible screening. Let's do what we can to prevent another attack. But within limits. I don't want to have to board a plane, and then sit there butt-naked. Where will I keep my pocket change?
The terrorists win every time we fear to do what we did before. That's what they want - for us to be fearful. Bush gave them plenty of that. About the only semi-smart thing that clown ever said, was for American's to continue to go out and do the same things they'd been doing after 9/11. He should have chosen something better than shopping, I'll grant you that...

Most people seem to be more concerned about the likelihood of even sillier 'security' measures at airports and the like than the possibility that they might actually be killed.

Which makes sense, since the chances that they will get held up by ridiculous security measures at airports are far FAR greater than the chances that they will be killed by a terrorist. The fact that everyone is walking around scared to death of something that has an extremely low likelihood of actually happening means the terrorists have already won.

As far as DeMint goes, I heard a rumor that Harry Reid is going to force a vote on Southers some time in January. Anyone know if there is any truth to that?

Sadly, no one in the party with the possible exception of Rep. Grayson realizes they are allowed, much less supposed to, swing at these pitches. Sigh.

As a part of the State of the Union report the President is required to deliver to Congress, I think Senatorial Holds have bearing on the state of the union and should be brought up. The President could at least make a point of asking why, when he is doing everything within his Constitutional Power to protect the nation, members of Congress are not also doing their Constitutional duty to protect and defend.

Has anyone else heard the story about the two that were released from Guantanimo being released in secret by Dick Cheney and so his attack on Obama was pre empting anything critical of him.Also the Bush administration stopped the use of full body scanners at Amsterdam's airport - for passengers coming to the US and these scanners would have detected the explosive?

If someone wants to start a collection to put together just such an ad against DeMint I will gladly throw 20 or 30 bucks into the kitty to help fund it. Guy is a frakking joke who gives the human race a bad name.

Demint is a leader within the C Street Cabal (aka The Fellowship, aka the Family)partially made up of politicians who among many of their strange beliefs are that they are doing gods work by opposing any form of organized labor activities. God for these people is the god for the privileged and the powerful.

There attitude is the working man be dammed.

When will the media start exposing these fools within are government for the hypocrites that they are.

As I pointed out last time by Steve's logic it is Southers who is holding up his own nomination by refusing to state that he does not support TSA employees being unionized.

To paraphrase Mr. Benen:
Protecting the American public from terrorism is a priority, but for Southers, making sure that government workers can unionize is a much higher priority.

Apparently Steve can't truly grasp that conservatives think collective bargaining is evil. Hmmm.

It's hard to swing a bat when--even with the Presidency and a Congressional majority--you're still showing your belly to the alpha male.

Didn't some Republican senator in the middle of the swine flu epidemic put a hold on the nominee to be Surgeon General? There seems to be a pattern here: the safety of the nation is a lot less important than the chance to commit a little bit of legislative vandalism.

It would be fun if someone could do one of those picture morphing things with Jim DeMint/Osama bin Laden.

No one wants to state an obvious reason, probably the main reason, DeMint is blocking the TSA confirmation, so I will.

It makes no sense th hold up an appointment because the TSA workers might, MIGHT consider unionizing.

Come on.

The real reason, and one that fits in with the DeMint and republican ideology is, drum rooooooooooll: the guy is BLACK.

End of story.

Laura -

Are you suggesting that Southers should lie to Congress? Unfortunately that's another one that's only OK if you're a Republican.

Yeah, I have the same question to Laura as Pragmatic. If Southers DOES believe that TSA workers should be able to unionize, and he testifies to Congress to the contrary, that would be perjury. You're cool with that, Laura?

Aren't the regular police unionized? This does not seem to stop them from protecting us.