There has been a lot of talk about Al Franken giving the Democrats a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. This will not allow Democrats to push through a liberal agenda. The reason is that the Democratic party is no longer even remotely liberal.

What we’ve seen happen over the past decade is the polarization of the Republican party. They keep moving right. They’ve thought they were moving the country right. But what they’ve actually been doing is leaving people behind with no party. I don’t think this is the same thing as the traditional “swing-voter”. These are people who might be anti-union and pro-business, but feel that a reasonable level of taxation is required to keep the government providing the sorts of infrastructure that business needs to run efficiently. They might be very traditionally conservative, but had a falling out with the party because they’ve had an abortion. Or a gay son or daughter.

So in effect the Republican party is made up of people who are either

1. Batshit-insane
2. Unable to quit the party. Probably because they are small-‘c’ conservative and change doesn’t come easily to them

So basically the Democrats may have a majority, but it’s just a majority made up of the non batshit-insane. Which means that we’ll continue to see these extremely moderate bills that one might expect to see when there’s a very balanced congress, rather than this one where one party has a clear majority.

I’d still love to see a truly liberal majority in Congress. But this isn’t it. And that’s probably ok. The center needs to get drug back a little closer to center, so we can start talking reasonably again.

The one thing that makes me optimistic is that the Democrats in Congress are doing a really good job of compromising. It’s really a reflection on the American public at large, that once you cut out the crazy right there’s a lot of good discussion and compromise going on about the role of organized labor, business taxes, and healthcare.

So let’s just ignore the crazies and they’ll go away (or get put in prison for blowing things up or shooting people). Eventually the Democrats will probably have to split into two parties, and that’s for the best.

There are a lot of car dealerships that are very angry right now. A large number of Chrysler and GM dealerships are being cut loose. The general sentiment is “poor car dealership”, but I don’t buy it.

The dealers did it to themselves. GM didn’t build the cars that the American public wanted. They didn’t build the cars GM wanted. They built the cars GM dealers wanted.

I worked for 5 years, getting information out of dealer’s mainframes and onto websites. Something that a large number of dealers resisted. Mainly because they didn’t want to expose their prices. On the one hand they obviously wanted people to come into their dealership where they could play hardball. But they also didn’t want consumers to be able to compare prices.

So according to this CNN article, it’s getting very hard to buy gun ammunition:

“In the last two months it’s gotten very, very difficult to find ammunition,” says Richard Taylor, manager of The Firing Line, a gun shop and shooting range in the Denver, Colorado, suburbs.

“There are a lot of rumors floating around that the present government would like to increase taxes on ammunition. I think [there is] just a lot of panicked buying going on

Of course, the federal government has not floated any of these rumors. If you read the news agendas on the actual white house sites, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Obama administration hasn’t actually given gun controll or otherwise a second thought.

But on the NRA’s front page you can find quotes like this:

On ABC’s “Good Morning America,” when pressed about her goals for gun legislation, Pelosi said the following: “… the Supreme Court has ruled in a direction that gives more opportunity for people to have guns. We never denied that right. We don’t want to take their guns away. We want them registered … and we have to rid the debate of the misconceptions that people have about what gun safety means.”

…

Pelosi’s idea of “gun safety” is every gun ban, ammunition ban and licensing scheme that has come across her desk. She’s spent an entire congressional career voting to deny the rights of lawful gun owners.

So apparently it’s actually Nancy Pelosi who’s creating a run on ammunition. Republican lawmakers better watch out though, lest their campaign contributions dry up completely. Why would Winchester Ammunition give money to Republicans when keeping Democrats in power is much better business? This administration has been such a boon to talk radio advertisers that I can’t imagine they’ll give Republicans another cent.

Recession? What recession? Ammunition suppliers are working overtime to supply our nation’s need for ammunition. Thanks Democrats!

Another teabagger on CNN. The best part:

Commentary: Next generation won’t have a Bill Gates

If we cannot borrow money…The next generation won’t have a Bill Gates, a Steve Jobs or a Mark Zuckerberg because the budding American entrepreneur won’t be able to secure the financing to create the next dynamic technology company that would have energized the economy.

Why? Because kids with super rich parents will no longer get massive amounts of money from their parents with which they can startup a business? While I understand where this guys coming from, Venture Capital is actually one of the few places that is in no way impacted by the banks having trouble loaning. And Microsoft was hardly started by poor kids with no means, securing standard small business loans with a brilliant business plan.

The US’s spending is in a scary place. The bailouts are scary. But if anything we should be talking about how we regulate these markets so that no single bank can fail in the future and take out the rest of the banking system. If a company is being watched for being too big to fail, it should be broken up. Trust busting is essential to keeping the free market moving.