SELL-OUT Sen. Ben Nelson To Back GOP Filibuster Against Craig Becker's NLRB Nomination (tags)
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) announced Monday evening that he will support a Republican-led filibuster over President Barack Obama's nominee to serve on the National Labor Relations Board.
Employee Free Choice Act: "Reconciliation" is One way to Bypass Filibuster Rule (tags)
The "reconciliation" process which allows measures to pass the Senate on simple majority votes is nothing new. The legislative tactic is being considered to push through President Obama's global warming and health care programs, and perhaps his proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy.
Call Sen. Feinstein to Demand Support of Employee Free Choice Act (tags)
Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein(Cal), Harry Reid (NV), Ben Nelson (NEB), Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln (both Arkansas), Mary Landrieu (Louisiana) and Mark Udall (Colorado) are working hard to help the Republicans defeat the labor legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act. Call 1-866-207-2060 to be connected to your Senator free of charge to tell them that to oppose the EFCA as it is now is to be anti-labor, which means they are running for immediate retirement. California ZIP codes will be connected to Sen. Feinstein's office.
KPFK and Free Speech Radio News Censor Obama's Breach of Promise to Filibuster FILSA Bill (tags)
Daily listeners relying on the kpfk 6 p.m. evening news would not known that Obama's vote for Bush FILSA legislation breached a primary campaign promise to filibuster it.
Filibuster Wars Power Grab at the Height of the Empire http://rwor.org/a/004/filibuster-wars.htm The Senate was heading for a major showdown, as the Republican majority and Vice President Cheney conspired to strip the Democrat minority of their ability to even filibuster the most extreme judicial nominees. Then, after playing chicken for two weeks, a "Gang of 14" Senators suddenly announced they had reached a "historic compromise based on mutual trust" -- and they announced that they had saved the Senate from destruction. And the media oohed-and-aaaahed over the last minute development. But it quickly became pretty obvious, that nothing here was an obstacle to the most dangerous plans for remaking the courts. And did the compromise "safe the filibuster" as the media said? In fact, the compromise said "If you don't take the filibuster, we promise not to use it." Which, if you think about it, gives the top reactionaries what they want. Part of this "compromise" is that the Democrats immediately stopped their opposition to Precilla Owen and several other of Bush's judicial nominees -- these are people who are literally monsters of an extreme kind, who had been stalled in the Senate (in some cases for years.) So this "compromise" meant that these vultures are headed for powerful courts. And, it is also clear that huge new showdowns lie just ahead -- as the White House and Senate brace for a struggle over putting extreme rightwing judges on the supreme court. The following article (written just before the "compromise" was announced) lays bare the stakes and dynamics of this whole crisis.
WP: Senate GOP Ends Filibuster Over Judicial Nominations (tags)
After 2 weeks of partisan obstructionism, Senate Republicans abruptly gave up and "decided that the responsible thing for us to do at this time is to focus on those issues that need to be addressed as a result of the events of Sept. 11," according to Minority Leader Trent Lott. [Fortunately for him, the corporate media has totally ignored this prolonged attack on bipartisanship, which delayed the Foreign Aid Bill for 2 weeks.]