Clearly responding to pressure from Internet giants and a growing coalition of activists, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) amended his legislation on Internet copyrights yesterday, rolling back some of the more dangerous elements. A HJC markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, will take place this Thursday. The original measure amounted [...]

Let me make some brief thoughts on the President’s address. First of all, it was a somewhat poorly written, bumper-sticker-laden speech. Obama clearly wanted to claim a position of success in Afghanistan, and use the withdrawal as an example of that success. But there were a couple things that can serve as markers for the [...]

Antiwar Rep. John Conyers plans to try to attach an amendment to the continuing resolution that should emerge next week in the House which would “prevent appropriated funds from being used to fund any type of ground troop presence on Libyan territory,” according to a letter sent to colleagues. Conyers has three co-sponsors – California [...]

Just to mop this up, last night around midnight, the House of Representatives gave final passage to the tax cut bill. The final roll call vote on the “Airport and Airway Extension Act,” the name of the shell bill used as a vehicle to move the legislation, was 277-148. Democrats wound up supporting the bill [...]

House and Senate liberals expressed their desire on a conference call that they would vote against any set of recommendations from the Cat Food Commission if they included benefit cuts to Social Security. That included any increases to the retirement age or privatization. “[D]o not send Congress a plan that cuts Social Security benefits, raise [...]

When Raul Grijalva and Lynn Woolsey told the co-chairs of the Cat Food Commission that they would 100% oppose Social Security cuts, it was pitched as the opening salvo in an aggressive pushback against any changes to benefits. There would be plenty of “CPC-wide follow up” in September, particularly when Congress returned to session, I [...]

After months of relative silence, House Democrats have finally begun to assert themselves on the issue of housing and foreclosures, which is directly harming millions of families and threatening economic recovery. Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) are circulating a blistering letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Acting Director of the Federal [...]

Progressive Democrats issued a challenge this morning to their colleagues in the House on the eve of a scheduled vote on the war supplemental: the only fiscally responsible stance is to end the emergency funding. It is disingenuous to say this is an “emergency” supplemental. The only “emergency” is this: In funding the longest war [...]

The Simpson-Bowles Fiscal Commission will hold their first working group meeting tomorrow. They plan once-a-week meetings on discretionary spending, mandatory spending and tax policy, and then a larger, once-a-month meeting to go over the reports of the working groups. But although the White House promised transparency and full public hearings for all fiscal commission activities, [...]

With a Friday night news dump, the Justice Department has released the Office of Professional Responsibility report on the conduct of Bush Administration lawyers in crafting terrorism policy. The House Judiciary Committee has put the report up on its website. Marcy Wheeler has a working thread up; she and her commenters are well-equipped to do [...]

The scene in Haiti is so horrifying I can hardly stand it, so before I say anything else, give what you can to relief efforts. But one of the best ways to help Haiti is by giving their nationals Temporary Protected Status, allowing Haitian immigrants in this country to remain here instead of becoming a [...]