One of the few things we know about what happened in Niger a few weeks ago is that four American soldiers died. We don’t know why those soldiers were there, what mistakes were made that led to their deaths, why one body was left behind (requiring it to be retrieved). We also don’t know why […]
It is often said that passing bills in Congress is like making sausage. You don’t really want to see it being done. And the way the Republicans are trying to strong-arm their repeal of Obamacare is a prime example. The current focus is on the MacArthur amendment, which would allow states to opt out of […]
Even though Donald Trump promised to release his tax returns that were not under audit, he never did. We can easily surmise that they are full of conflicts of interest, or worse. But what we didn’t realize is that legally, Congress actually has the power to obtain individual tax returns and even disclose them publicly, […]
This is simple enough that almost anyone should be able to understand it. And it comes from a politician who is fighting for redistricting reform.
Republicans have been passing laws to require drug testing of welfare recipients. Florida tested food stamp recipients for four months in 2012 (until it was halted by a court on constitutional grounds), they found that less than 3% tested positive. In Arizona they tested 87,000 – how many tested positive? One. So the approx $2.76 […]
NBC has an interesting article “A New Kind of Gridlock: Why Congress Is More Broken Than Ever“. I’m usually skeptical about articles like this, because we are always seeing people claim that things are getting worse, when in general, things are actually getting mostly better. The number of wars is going down, tolerance for other […]
© Steve Kelley I keep seeing headlines that the approval of Congress is at an all time low. And yet the last time it was at an all time low we kicked out a bunch of them and elected Tea Party candidates, and things got worse. Far worse. What’s a voter to do? Answer: the […]
© Ben Sargent The real scandal is that Congress doesn’t seem capable of doing anything about the issues that really matter. Instead, we get distraction after distraction and obstruction after obstruction. And it looks like this is being done on purpose. Well, at least I guess we can feel better since Congress has its top […]
Finally, someone in Congress, Peter DeFazio (D-OR), is doing something right to save the Post Office from its incipient and completely unnecessary bankruptcy. He has introduced legislation, but he will need our help to overcome the special interests who have largely succeeded in crippling the postal service. DeFazio has set up a petition on the […]
I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen Jon Stewart this angry.
The Atlantic has a fascinating (and short) interview with former Ohio GOP Congressman Steve LaTourette, who just resigned after 18 years. He answers questions about what’s going on with the extremist Republicans in the house and how John Boehner is attempting to deal with them (and largely failing). My favorite answer is the very last […]
We are on track to have a record breaking 112th Congress. What record are they breaking? The record for least productive Congress since WWII. In 2012 so far, only 61 bills have become law. And in all of 2011 (right after the Republicans took control of the House) only 90 bills became law. The previous […]
Today on Fox News, Karl Rove complained about Obama’s use of executive privilege over a set of Department of Justice internal documents, calling it an “overreach” and saying “I’m not certain that that’s what the Founders thought about when they talked about executive privilege.” Rove conveniently forgot that the very first time Bush invoked executive […]
Emmet Bondurant is one of the best business lawyers in the country, but now he’s suing to change the country. Bondurant is convinced that the filibuster is unconstitutional, and along with Common Cause, he wants the Supreme Court to abolish it. In fact, the filibuster was a mistake that has grown like a cancer. Proof […]
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