If a filibuster happens in the forest and no one is told about it, did it really happen?
The GOP is said to be ready to filibuster the bill extending jobless benefits today. Will this be reported as the national emergency that it is? Will this be reported as a filibuster? Will this even be reported?
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“But.” Everything you read about the filibuster talks about how important the filibuster is, allowing a minority to retain some power over abuse by a majority… and then it says, “But.”
For example, the Camden, N.J., Courier Post editorial today, "Alter filibuster rules in Senate," reads:
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Republicans filibustered an appeals court nominee today. This is, of course, not surprising. What is surprising is that news outlets are telling the public!
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It wasn’t so much a vote as a proclamation of ideology last Thursday when Republicans filibustered Obama’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The rebuff had nothing to do with the person, Richard Cordary, who even Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said appeared well qualified. Rather, it was part of the GOP campaign to [...]
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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his crew of country club conservatives this week brutalized the nation’s democratic traditions to secure legislation demanded by big corporations and billionaire conservative financiers like the Koch brothers – legislation stripping workers of collective bargaining rights. Walker & Crew succeeded in terminating workers’ rights – but they achieved that only [...]
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In Wisconsin the Governor and Republican majority are trying to strip state employees of the right to collective bargaining. The are literally trying to “ram through” in a very short time, out of nowhere, a bill that removes employee rights. The Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate had one recourse: just leave. There are not enough [...]
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We all want to see the Senate start working again, and be more democratic. We have all lived through the breakdown of the Senate and the damage this has done to our democracy and the public’s faith in government because of the abuse of the current rules. There is a vote likely tomorrow and we [...]
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The Senate is considering reforming the rules for filibusters. In the last few years the filibuster has been used so frequently that it is now conventional wisdom that “it takes 60 votes to pass a bill in the Senate.” This is because the public, and apparently even much of the news media, does not understand [...]
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The Senate is considering changing the rules for the “filibuster” and this is an opportunity for you to do something that can make a difference. The filibuster has been abused and the Senate is broken. Call your Senators and tell them you want this fixed! “Abuse” does not adequately describe what has happened with the [...]
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Dear Senate Majority Leader, you are letting the public down. We, the People need you to get things done but everything is being blocked by a minority. The public doesn’t understand that everything is being filibustered, so they are not applying the pressure that could break the tactic. That is your fault, not theirs: you [...]
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