Dems decided to restrict the filibuster because extremist judges they confirmed in the spirit of civility when George W. Bush was president ended up being the right wing extremists they said they would be restricting reproductive rights from the bench.

What digby said:

For a long time the Democrats bargained with women’s bodies to try to get votes from people who would never vote for them and it never worked. Some things you just can’t split the difference on and thats assuming the other side isn’t simply playing you for a fool. I’m ever so slightly optimistic that our leaders may have finally learned their lesson.

It’s time Democrats get to staffing the benches and the rest of President Obama’s government. This is so long overdue. The next year better be chock full of nominations and confirmations to remedy the record amount of filibusters of President Obama’s judicial and political nominees.

The royal “us” in “keep us safe”:

Huffington Post has unearthedNSA documents, provided by Edward Snowden, which describe how “personal vulnerabilities” could be learned through electronic surveillance, then exploited to undermine a target’s credibility. Among the vulnerabilities mentioned are “viewing sexually explicit material online” and “using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls.

The document actually discussed six specific targets, and it should be pointed out that none are explicitly referred to as being involved in terror plots. All things considered, though, it seems like a very tangential way of preventing a terrorist attack on the US.

The “us” is clandestine government interests.

The extension of retail bonanza is a travesty for retail workers so it’s encouraging to read in Venture Beat that folks aren’t about The Thanksgiving night “shopping orgy”.

According to a 4,600-person survey by Visa, 49 percent of us are not impressed with the over-commercialization of the Thanksgiving weekend and don’t plan to shop on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Thanksgiving, or any of the other shopping days this weekend.

[…]

Which begs the question: Will we really not shop on the weekend, or do we just want to think of ourselves as people who, on Thanksgiving, are actually giving thanks, rather than reaching out for an ever-bigger piece of the consumer pie that retailers are dangling in front of our faces.

We can make retailers give this day back to their works by not showing up. This is one of the rare times our buying dollars are directly responsible for screwing people who work for a living.

A couple retired generals hate Obama so much they want to defy the constitution and install military rule:

You are in luck, people, because a couple of retired generals — Army Gen. Paul E. Vallely and Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles Jones, who already run a “We Hate Bamz” organization — created something terrifying that they’re calling a “Citizens’ Commission” that purports to exist to give advice to the legislative and executive branches of government but is really just a garden variety demand that Obama resign or else and also, too, taxation is unjust, except, of course, with the added excitement of hoping people will take up arms to accomplish those things.

really.

This sounds so weak:

“I think what we really need is an anti-bullying ordinance in the Senate,” Paul said to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “I mean, now we’ve got a big bully — Harry Reid says he’s just going to break the rules and make new rules. He’s gotta have everything his way; he’s gotta control everything. This is more about them trying to control the agenda, and shift it away from Obamacare, than it is anything else.

via .

It sounds weaker when you consider the fact that this is not some law in the US Code of Law or the constitution, it’s literally rules established under parliamentary order which can be changed just as they were. It’s just called the “Nuclear option” because media horse race/both siders decided that 60 vote threshold to get routine nominations through was sensible.

The Obamacare ‘Fix’ is a punt…and politically that’s a good thing:

“We came away agreeing that there was a lot of difference of opinions as to whether or not we can or should do what he urged us to do last week,” Louisiana Insurance Commissioner and NAIC President Jim Donelon said later.

According to the Washington Post’s Wonkblog,which is tracking state commissioners’ responses to the fix: six states have agreed to it, six states have said they won’t, and seven states have publicly said they’re still deciding. The others haven’t made public statements.

again, this is letting states make Obamacare work or not. Now the Republicans that can say this was so important can be asked: did you compel your state regulator to enact the “keep your junk plan” provision?