Yesterday, the State Senate in Indiana passed right-to-work legislation. Republicans have such an advantage in the state Senate that quorum rules are irrelevant, so Democrats were unable to mount a defense. The final vote was actually 28-22, with nine Republicans voting against the measure, in a self-protective move designed to blunt criticism of them for [...]

The ongoing boycott by House Democrats in Indiana over anti-union right-to-work legislation was theoretically made easier by this ruling from a state judge, blocking the seizing of legislator paychecks to cover the $1,000-a-day fines Republicans have recently imposed. This won’t stop the fines, but it tangles the issue of the fines up in court for [...]

Democratic House lawmakers in Indiana walked out again to protest a right-to-work bill, after there were signs of a deal on a vote this week. Republicans in the House approved $1,000-a-day fines for the lawmakers. Understand that in Indiana, legislators only make about $23,000 a year. The Republicans approved the fines in a voice vote [...]

Election Day 2011 is over, and the victories for Democrats – and more accurately, for liberal values – across the country largely shared a characteristic – they were successful defensive actions to stave off extremely draconian conservative objectives. The most notable of these came in Ohio, where SB 5, the anti-union bill which stripped most [...]

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou faces a confidence vote today, and there’s a lot of confusion over the outcome and the aftermath. One set of reports says that he will lose the confidence vote, and that he’s being urged to resign prior to it. Another set says that there’s a deal in place for Papandreou [...]

There was a lot of confusion coming out of Greece this morning when I wrote my initial post, and there’s still a lot of confusion, amid calls for resignation of the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou. But one thing has become clear: there will be no referendum on the debt deal. Greek PM George Papandreou [...]

European leaders are really trying to put the screws to Greece for daring to let their people decide if they want to shoulder the burden of crushing austerity for the next decade or more. First, the EU and the IMF suspended payments to Greece until the outcome of the referendum (or the collapse of the [...]

It’s still possible that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will lose a confidence vote on Friday and get booted out of office, leading to snap elections, because of his decision to put the debt deal offered by the troika (the IMF, ECB and EU) to a referendum. If the government dissolves, the referendum would be [...]

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s call for a referendum may be a tactical move to offload responsibility, I’m not entirely sure. But there’s no question that the ultimate result, that the people will get to decide on a monumental issue affecting the future of Greece, is the right thing to do. This part from the [...]

Suddenly realizing that he represents the people of Greece and not the IMF, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced that he would take the unusual step of giving the public a say in the working of their government. Papandreou announced that Greece would hold a referendum on the latest austerity terms – and possibly even [...]

As we’ve seen with SB5, in Ohio citizens can gather signatures and put anything that the legislature passes and the Governor signs to a referendum, a kind of “citizens veto.” Until the measure gets a public vote, the law is suspended rather than being enacted. So SB 5 is not yet the law of the [...]