Kevin Drum is on a roll today. Here’s the money point:

That’s about the size of it. Today’s New York Times explains Mitch McConnell’s “nyet” strategy for making sure that nothing gets done

…

But why does the media have to play along? It’s nice that the Times ran this story, but it would be nicer if the media simply reported what was happening on a regular basis. I’m not asking for special treatment, just headlines that tell us what’s really going on. If Republicans have adopted a strategy of simply blocking every piece of legislation that makes it to the floor of the Senate — and everyone agrees that they have — then we should be regularly seeing headlines that say “Republicans Block ______ ” There’s nothing partisan about this, it’s just a description of what’s happening. If Democrats block things, they can say that too. But unless the press reports this stuff accurately on a regular basis, the public simply has no idea why nothing is getting done.

The Times story relates the tale of one bill where the Democrats gave up and gave the Republicans what they wanted on that legislation and the Republicans reflexively blocked it before realizing what they did. That’s the state we’re in, but you wouldn’t know that from watching the news or reading the paper.

This is, quite frankly, amazing. I can’t believe someone could stand in front of a microphone as the spokesperson for the President of the United States and simply lie continuously. He is literally stating the opposite of the truth in EVERY statement. Snow is getting close to the reality denial of Saddam’s old spokesman.

McClatchy puts Republican tactics in pictures:

Read the article, and read Kevin Drum’s post, where I found this:

It’s also worth noting why Republicans are filibustering everything in sight. It’s not because it’s the only way they have of blocking legislation they dislike. After all, a Republican is president. The real reason is a desperate desire to kill popular legislation quietly (the press doesn’t spend much time reporting on routine filibusters) rather than force President Bush to kill popular legislation in full public view (the press does report on presidential vetoes). The problem is that the public tends to be on the side of Democrats when domestic issues actually get some attention, so Republicans benefit by keeping their disagreements as low key as possible. The last thing they need is a bunch of high-profile vetoes that would make it crystal clear exactly what they’re fighting against.

In fact, the only way Democrats could get the press to report the obstruction tactics was to hold that all night session. This has been going on for months and that session was the first thing that prompted stories like this. It’s worse than you realize, because this stuff WILL be campaign rhetoric come next November. A typical example comes from my home state, where Republicans used a threat of filibuster to kill a bill by freshman Rep. Joe Courtney because it might’ve helped his re-election chances come 2008.

This is dysfunctional government and it’s the result of Republicans more interested in keeping their jobs and making money than the health of the nation and good policy. They have to be punished for this, and the only way to do that is to put a few more Dem senators in Congress.

I think a small version of this image will become a permanent addition to FM.

The Republicans are filibustering nearly everything that comes up in the Senate. Not just some things, but everything. So, while the house has passed some 293 separate bills, the Senate hasn’t moved on most of them.

A year ago, Republicans and the media that parrots their talking points would’ve been up in arms about obstructionist Democrats and the evils of procedural delays and/or ‘filibusters’ to obeying the will of the people. Now the Republicans are in the minority, are doing the same thing, but there’s not even a peep of this out of the major media outlets.

And they say that the media is liberal. Bullshit. They’re Republican through and through.

It comes as no surprise how Joe Lieberman voted on the Gonzales motion yesterday, but I was surprised to read this on CTLP:

Despite co-sponsoring the resolution Dodd missed the vote entirely.

Sen. Dodd, you have some explaining to do. I hope you had a good reason for missing this vote, as it is one of the key issues of the day.

Now that the Democrats have taken control of the House and Senate, their leadership needs to pause before celebration.

I won’t argue that this change of power isn’t a good thing; it is a fantastic thing. Bush, and his attack on civil rights, will at least get more than a cursory evaluation. The shady dealings of the executive branch will finally see a spot light and maybe some of the secrecy of the administration will be lifted. The blindfolded driver of the Iraq war has quit and maybe someone will be able to steer the car out of the ditch. There in lies the rub.

I think it is quite clear this election was a referendum on the Iraq war. The voters spoke…Iraq is very unpopular. The problem is that the Democrats are now in control of the Iraq conflict…except they aren’t. Bush is still Commander in Chief and he believes in the war. Iraq is a mess of sectarian violence with multiple sides and multiple agendas. We can’t pull out without the whole thing erupting and we can’t stay without a huge cost in money and lives. The Dems have two years to “fix” Iraq. I’m not sure it is possible at this point, and certainly not without committing MORE troops to the conflict.

Domestically, Americans still have a fear of terrorism. The Bush administration has used the threat of terrorist attacks in the US as a powerful motivator to convince Americans to back the war. Even mentions of scaling back the War in Iraq yield accusations of being “soft on terror.” I fear that one domestic terrorism incident, something that is all too likely to occur eventually, regardless of Iraq war, will become a backlash against the Democrats in power, resulting in huge losses in Congress and worse, huges losses of civil liberties.

Finally with all the calls of “bipartisanship” I’ve heard over the last few days, I can’t help but laugh. Days ago there were accusations and name calling from both sides. Today, everyone just wants to get along. The problem for the Democratic leadership is that most of the Republicans who were replaced were moderate, left leaning Republicans. Some who replaced them were more conservative, right leaning Democrats…the so called “Blue Dog” Democrats. While the leadership may have the majority by the numbers, they may find that they don’t have the votes when push comes to shove. Not to mention that President Bush still has the golden power of veto.

These are interesting times and I hope, for the sake of our civil liberties, the Democrats are able to fulfill their agenda. I also hope that for the sake of bipartisanship and keeping a hold of Congress, they don’t fall in line behind President’s simple minded view of security and the world.

The Democrats need to take action. I just fear that there is no action that won’t spell disaster. I also hope that I’m just being pessimistic. Fortunately, world events change moment by moment. Tomorrow will likely bring some new event or issue that will be the hot button topic for the next election.

I've been meaning to write more about this issue, but it's complicated and the sheer volume of crap from both sides makes writing a simple explanation tough. Lots of fear from the blog side of the debate. Lots of hollow claims and more fear from the telecom industries.

Whenever a tough issue like this surfaces, though, you can count on Jon Stewart to clear it up for you. And make fun of everyone.

You can read more about Net Neutrality at Wikipedia. More on the bill passed by the House to ban online gambling (except for horseracing) at MSNBC.

Who would’ve imagined that a Republican congress, the supposed party of “small government” and federalism would so wantonly embrace social engineering via federal mandate? If I have a major disappointment with the modern Republican party, it’s that they no longer offer a consistent policy alternative to the Democrats, at least not on policy principles. We’re reduced to ideology.

See, liberals and/or supporters of the federal government also want healthy marriages and aid for the poor. Now it’s not a debate about whether we should do these things, but of what particular constituency we’ll “please” with a particular policy proposal. Republicans like Santorum want to please their faux-religious arch-conservative supporters like the AFA. Liberals want to… well, I dunno, since the people they tend to please on these marriage things don’t write big campaign checks. They do make people like Heidi happy, so I know there’s a constituency there…

Used to be that one party would oppose a program on the principle that the federal government shouldn’t be interfering in social policy. The other would support it and we’d get a robust debate (even if it was just in the magazines and policy papers) about balancing those fundamental principles. Now, that discussion is useless because we know that big government lies at the end of all possible roads. Sad, really.

From the article:

HOUSTON — Calling the Bowl Championship Series “deeply flawed,” the chairman of a congressional committee has called a hearing on the controversial system used to determine college football’s national champion.

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, charged with regulating America’s sports industry, announced Friday it will conduct a hearing on the BCS next week, after this season’s bowl matchups are determined.

“College football is not just an exhilarating sport, but a billion-dollar business that Congress cannot ignore,” said committee Chairman Joe Barton, a Texas Republican. Barton’s panel is separate from the House Government Reform panel that tackled steroids in baseball.

You might remember Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) as the same House Chairman who decided to intimidate the scientists behind a peer-reviewed global warming study released by the UN IPCC because he didn’t like the conclusions.

You’d think we had nothing important going on right now worth debate or investigation. Between the steroid hearings (useless), Sen. Specter advocating for T.O. (Congress intervening for the labor rights of millionaires, woo hoo!), and this, clearly things must be super-rosy right now that entertainment is the top issue of the day.

GRRR.

(Found via Atrios, though he linked to the article at CNN/SI (boo!))