Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

The weird thing with Romney is I think he'd make an okay benevolent dictator. Maybe even an okay president with both houses of congress firmly in Democratic control.

But waffling in the White House with Cantor and Paul Ryan among the House leadership sounds like a nightmare.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

He was a wretched governor. Played (poorly) to the press, ignored the business of governing, treated everyone as his flunky. People thought they were getting more Weld when they voted for him.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Coming from you, this is a hellova endorcement. I may have to take another look at him.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

If you've paid attention, you've seen me say good things about a number of Massachusetts Republicans, including our current Senator. Romney was simply not competant as a Governor.

If you pay attention to him, trust your instincts and take a good shower afterwards. He is your party's John Edwards.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Not my party.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I can see how you'd be disappointed.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Mitt Romney's gritty, hands-on experience of the "real world" is about as convincingly authentic as the MTV show of the same name, or yours.

Confidential to Hank: the funny part?

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

How do you know a party is truly out there?

When even it's strongest supporters, the people who support flat-tax-crazy notions (and the deductions that make them impossible), distance themselves from it.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Anyone that is a member of a party these days is pretty much out of their mind.

Stuff
 

For Club, on the effectiveness of the stimulus (mostly offered tongue in cheek).

For Hank, 11th Cir. strikes down the individual mandate.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Apropos of the conversation we were having leading up to August 2 about the likelihood of default, etc.:

Politico

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

The republican douchebags in my office keep my finger on the pulse of contemporary GOP thought, and without exception they express bafflement as to how "the people who just wanted to bring down the debt" could possibly be blamed by anyone for the downgrade. It's, like, so unfair.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I don't remember what the score is, but 11th Circuit rules HCA unenforceable. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/appeals-cou...171829777.html

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

If President Romney had signed HCR into law with an individual mandate, the few people calling it an unprecedented expansion of government power would be seen as a whacko fringe. Amazing how opposition to Obama has moved so-called "conservatives" to adopt legal theories that were recently marginal.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

do you have dems that thought it okay that a former Grand Kleagle was the senate majority leader?

I think what you should have done is go to a better law school. Why did you pass on the U?

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Off my corner, ho.

Two appellate decisions so far. 6th Cir. went 2-1 for the individual mandate, with a key part of the decision written by a W appointee.

11th Cir. went the other way, with the decision written by a Clinton appointee.

ETA: I guess jointly written with an H.W. appointee. Decisions is here, which I thought I might read, but 300+ pages is too much. Call me when Kennedy has reached his decision.

Well, they now have one Clinton appointee on their side.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

you are off your fucking rocker. a HCR bill was forded through w/o explaining to people what it meant and with numerous outright simplification-lies. of course half the country hates it and wants it dead.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

True. FWIW, because I was just reading this:

link

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I was talking about lawyers and legal theory. You are not.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Hold up here. Frank M. Hull is a woman??

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I love the mental gymnastics the left goes through when one of their own disagree with the dogma.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

smh

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I'm a lawyer too! when an issue comes before me I don't decide what side has the best argument. I look for the best argument my side has. Is it different in California?

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

According to Wikipedia, she was a Clinton appointee to the district court in 1994, so she was appointed by a Democratic to the federal bench not just once but twice. As I said, FWIW.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I thought you placed yourself very carefully right in the middle of the two sides.

For Hank too
 

Obviously, it's very, very early, and this is not candidate-specific, but at the moment voters don't seem to be holding the HCR against the generic Dem:
http://dailydish.typepad.com/.a/6a00...0dbf970b-550wi

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I hate to tell you this, but I think you are doing it wrong.

Your clients really never want to know what their chances of success are?

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

hank, this is a layup.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Wow, this is digging deep.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I think I help you, because I make you read while thinking, instead of reading while accepting or reading while rejecting.

Yes, I read up on issues w/o a preconceived opinion (e.g. the ATC issue). On the HCR bill I read up, glad we could cover the uncovered but once I realized that the bill will ruin the HC the great bulk of the covered public received, then I reluctantly realized I must oppose the bill.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

How did you reach the conclusion that Judge Hull is a leftist?

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Let's be precise: he follows his conscience.

Unfortunately, his conscience was stunned into an outraged paralysis by Senator Byrd about 40 years ago, and has been unable to process any new tasks since that time. So what he does is just tell the people who are paying him what they want to hear, which works fine as a business model.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

he can't be meeting with clients, can he? careful about arguing with adder. It's like playing basketball in a midget's league. your skills can lapse.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

That's what lawyers do when they are acting as advocates on behalf of clients. When not doing that, some lawyers actually exercise independent thought.

But thanks for clarifying, and confirming, that every time you say "HCR is unconstitutional!" what you mean is "I don't know if it's unconstitutional but I don't like it so I'm just doing my best to argue that it is!"

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

thanks

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

He didn't say that he was a good lawyer.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

I will tell a client the most honest evaluation of its case anyone could provide. but that doesn't mean I don't frame its best case and that I am not ready to push it forward. I've had instances where a client's case is poor but the client wants to go forward based upon sheer hate. I do try to reason with them but will cash the checks if I am instructed to go.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

Must be nice never to have clients ask you the hard questions. I guess life's different if you only handle routine matters and/or only work for domestic clients.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

That must be hard to do without deciding which side has the best argument.

Re: My God, you are an idiot.
 

do you tell a client its "chances of success?" really? do you have a formula that calculates the % chance? I feel providing a "% chance of success" is one of the most unethical thing one can do. It is complete bullshit. Plus, when there's a bad dep answer do you call the client, "Umm, Mr Moneybags, you may recall I told you there was a 71% chance we'll win. Well, now I have reevaluated and based upon our manager's last dep answer I must downgrade that to 63%."

One should lay out em's case and the opponent's answer. one should characterize em's case as poor good or strong.

when em wants you to put a percentage on it, one must say, "to put a % on it would require me to make up a number. plus there are too many things that could change, both pro and con. And even if you only have a 10% chance of losing, if you lose you lose 100%."

I give each of you the license to use this. namaste