obstructionist Republicans

Will the real Ron Johnson please stand up, please stand upWhen the worst of the Republican crackpot extremists in the Senate tried to filibuster John Walsh's Bring Jobs Home Act (S.2569) even Ted Cruz looked at them like they were crazy.

The sick and obstructionist Republican peanut gallery-- largely driven by the vile racist neo-Confederates in their caucus-- seems to be incapable of accepting the reality that the American people elected Barack Obama, an African-American, to the presidency… twice.

There were three votes in the Senate yesterday confirming President Obama's Fed nominees. Stanley Fischer was confirmed to be Vice Chairman of the Fed's Board of Governors and Jerome Powell and Lael Lael Brainard were both confirmed as members of the Board of Governors. The nominations were not considered "controversial" and all three sailed through the Senate, with no one opposing them except a handful of Republican obstructionists who, basically, oppose everything and anything. Oh, and Bernie Sanders. His perspective is that foxes were being hired to guard the chicken coop.

This week, Harry Reid says he's bringing the Energy Savings and Industrial and Competitiveness Act (S. 2262), sponsored by Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) to the floor for a vote. Support for a bill that should be the height of uncontroversial is widespread... on both sides of the aisle. But Republican obstructionists, content with nothing less than the complete disruption of an orderly functioning of government have vowed to prevent passage.

Just before adjourning for another vacation on Friday, the Senate finally voted to end the obstructionist right-wing filibuster against Michelle Friedland, who had been nominated for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on August 1, 2013. She was rated unanimously "well qualified" by the American Bar Association.

Although the successful 61-35 cloture vote last week to break the Republican filibuster on extending unemployment benefits was the real test, yesterday the Senate officially passed the bill, 59-38, and sent it to the

In 2011, the Washington Post's Wonkblog brought some clarity to the much-used term, "doc-fix." They made it sound so easy.

This afternoon we took a look at the dystopian vision encompassed in the growing American Deep State. I know it was long-- apologies-- but, well… it's important and I cut it in half several times before publishing it.

Boehner and Cantor have a song they want to sing you about jobsThis week, a slightly inebriated Boehner was whining about some hostage crisis he's cooking up-- for the national debut, if I remember correctly-- and demanded the price of not driving the U.S. government into default on the debts Congress had run up would be… job creation. Job creation? Everyone likes job creation, right? Well, no, actually.

Monday there were two votes in the Senate on Presdient Obama's nomination of Jeh Johnson to be Secretary of Homeland Security. First came a cloture vote. There were 57 ayes and 37 nays, with 6 Republicans not voting.