According to the Whispering Reid, The Reid that blows in the wind…or the Reid that just simply blows, Sen. Reid will block the efforts by Dem Senators to reform the filibuster. You see, this human tribute to invertebrates everywhere wants to make sure that the tyranny of democracy will never [...]

We need to start a movement, a splinter group from the Democratic Party. I am not talking about “media” or “profits” but am talking about starting a movement that somehow forms and takes off. Heck, I think we’ll even get folks that consider themselves Teabaggers, because not all Teabaggers are [...]

With the growing abuse of the filibuster and Democrats unwilling to take the strong action necessary to fix the economy and regain the public trust, with the airwaves and cable increasingly dominated by the demagogic likes of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, and with the ever-growing influence of corporate money [...]

Tonight, Bill Moyers had a marvelous episode which I can’t recommend enough. The first segment was about the SCOTUS decision and the impact on our democracy. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02052010/watch.html With pro and con voices. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02052010/watch2.html The second segment I found the most intriguing, with a doctor who had been working for single [...]

This morning I happened upon an article dated January 21st, 2010 from the East Valley Tribune about a meeting of religious leaders regarding immigration. The Arizona Interfaith Network is hosting the event, which will begin with a prayer service, followed by a press conference and panel discussion. The intent is [...]

In an unprecedented way President Obama has taken on the GOP face to face. The best part is it was caught on camera. Obama schooled the GOP calling out their nihilist political strategy and ridiculous rhetoric on issues from the stimulus to healthcare reform. So much for the carrots Obama [...]

Taking Action Against The SCOTUS Decision! A couple of weeks ago I posted in the Time Out..O/T post an alert from CREDO Action Alert and asked everyone to sign the petition.  The petition was on for a FCC hearing. The hearing was on internet freedom.  According to CREDO and another [...]

The long debate over health care reform has now reached the end game, but there are still some obstacles to overcome before they can get a bill to President Obama’s desk. The question now becomes how the two houses of Congress can reconcile their differences. The House and Senate versions [...]

As I review the comments over at other “liberal” blogs, I see a pattern of commentary from those that I think of as Puritans. There is a prescriptive trifecta to “cure all our ills” in the body politic: 1) More parties.   (We have discussed this in some depth, but will [...]

Whether Obama bashing, teeth gnashing, tea party crashing, or GOP trashing—it’s time for progressives to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk. There be elections here! (Yes, I’m a trekkie.) And we have a chance to create a REAL 60 vote majority in the senate. One-third of the [...]

We have come far enough from the Christmas attack to start to draw some conclusions.   For this discussion, I will not assume that there was any deliberate effort to stitch up Obama.    I am coming to the conclusion that this was a classic and not amazing example of turf warfare [...]

In perusing the headlines at HP, I stumbled upon a very interesting article by Congressman Eric Massa of New York. Apparently, the most recent personal attack on President Obama by a certain former vice-president has finally provoked a strong response from a Democrat. In the article, he also cites Senator [...]

Thanks to a discussion on NPR yesterday, I became aware of a little provision in tax law that in the age of the wealthy consolidating greater wealth, is an abomination. Due to the Bush changes to the Estate Tax(or as the Repub propagandists call it, the “Death” Tax) and because [...]

WASHINGTON DC — On a cold Christmas Eve morning the United States Senate met for one last vote on H.R. 3590. With Vice President Joe Biden presiding the voting concluded with a 60-39 party-line vote. The vote follows 25 days of debate and negotiation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) [...]

Talking Points Memo has just put out this sobering article: Fragile Health Care Agreement Fraying? Whispers, But Not Yet Some Democrats are popping champagne and already writing campaign talking points for how to champion a health care bill they believe President Obama will sign early next year, but today several [...]

From Talking Points Memo: Senate Votes Again And Just One Vote Left On Health Care The Senate just cleared its next-to-last procedural hurdle before passing its version of the health care bill. In a predictable 60-39 vote, senators invoked cloture on final passage of the bill, allowing for a final [...]

  It would seem that while railing about “Socialism”, “Marxism”, or just plain old “Obamanism”, some of our hypocritical Senators and Representatives have themselves been feeding from the trough of national welfare.  Blanche Lincoln D(AR), Max Baucas D(MT), Chuck Grassely R(IA) and wouldn’t you just know it, Michelle Bachman R(MN) [...]

Amidst a DC blizzard Senators arrived for a cloture vote that began at 1:01am EST to determine whether or not to end the debate on major amendments for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The result was a 60-40 party-line vote. Bitter words were on the lips of Senators [...]

The battle over Health Care Reform, the Stimulus Bill, global warming legislation, etc. has brought one thing clearly into focus. The filibuster has transformed The Senate into an undemocratic, unrepresentative body of The People. Imagine if our Presidential elections had the following rule, unless a President was elected by at [...]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is now confident that he has the sixty votes needed to proceed with cloture for H.R.3590. The Senate has met every day since November 30th in the hopes of getting the needed sixty votes to break a Republican filibuster. After thirteen hours of closed [...]

Rachel Maddow just mentioned and the AP feed here at The Planet also presents the story that the Senate Dems meeting on health care that just ended, the Medicare buy-in and the Public Option will be killed to get the bill passed before the end of the year and bring [...]

From the time we are in grade school and then go onto high school, we all learn that sports is big business. You’re either one of the ‘cool’ kids that belong to a clique for sports, and if you’re not a male and part of the teams, you’re a cheerleader, [...]

Hey fellow members, here is the latest bitingly satirical piece by AntiChrist (I’m going to have to add a gallery to The Planet to hang all these masterpieces!), created in response to The House’s vote against women’s right to choose. May I ask that any of you visiting that other [...]

I put together some charts/stats based on a table in the Washington Post. My charts and conclusions are based on all of the reps who received at least $1 million or more from the health care industry. I am not very good at this sort of thing, so please do [...]