Wired is censored today. So is TBogg’s mini-site. The Google doodle is blacked out. And part of Daily Kos. And a lead story at The Huffington Post. And even right here. Sites like Wikipedia and Reddit and I Can Haz Cheezburger and Raw Story and Informed Comment and thousands more are completely dark today, not [...]

Most Indiana Democratic House members stayed out of session for a second day yesterday to protest a right-to-work bill Republicans want to pass. Today becomes a point of reckoning, because after the third day of missed sessions, the majority Republicans, under a law passed last year when the Democrats went out of state to protest [...]

As I mentioned in yesterday’s roundup, Indiana Democrats stalled the first session for the legislature yesterday and planned to continue that indefinitely, blocking Republicans from moving forward on a right to work bill that would crush private sector unions. Lawmakers from the state House had blocked the bill last year through a five-week boycott during [...]

Let’s define some terms here. The Internet censorship bills have different names depending on which chamber of Congress you’re talking about. The House bill is called SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. That bill is currently in the committee process and has not yet cleared the Judiciary Committee. Observers thought this would happen at the [...]

Republicans successfully filibustered the Rebuild American Jobs Act today, rejecting a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the bill by a count of 51-49. 60 votes were needed for passage. All 47 Republicans voted against cloture, and they were joined by two members of the Democratic caucus – Democrat Ben Nelson and the [...]

After being stymied on the American Jobs Act and a smaller bill on state fiscal aid to hire teachers and first responders, the Senate has come back with another bill, called the Rebuild America Jobs Act. This bill takes the infrastructure pieces out of the AJA, and again pays for them with a small surtax [...]

As expected, Senate Republicans blocked the state fiscal aid bill that would have put as much as 400,000 teachers and public safety officials back to work. All 47 Senate Republicans voted against cloture on the motion to proceed on the bill. In addition, three members of the Democratic caucus said no. We knew that Joe [...]

Senate Democrats held a big rally on Capitol Hill today in support of the first piece of the American Jobs Act, the state fiscal aid bill to support teachers and public safety workers. Vice President Biden joined them for the rally. It had a campaign feel to it. Biden urged Senate Republicans to “think hard” [...]

As expected, the American Jobs Act failed to pass a cloture vote last night. The vote was 50-49. Democrats held the vote open so “New Englander of the Year” Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) could return from Boston and cast the final vote in favor, giving them the talking point that a majority supported the bill. Tom [...]

Harry Reid’s op-ed giving the inside story about the non-nuclear option he accomplished last week is good for the way it shows how Senate Republicans have worked to decay the functioning of the chamber. On Thursday morning, we seemed to be on the brink of passing a bill to curb unfair currency manipulation by the [...]

Later today, Senate Republicans will filibuster the American Jobs Act, the $447 billion bill to add demand into the economy through infrastructure spending, payroll tax cuts, extended unemployment insurance and a variety of other programs, paid for by a 5.6% surtax on millionaires. Republicans are likely to be unanimous in their opposition, while Democrats will [...]