For the first time in more than 30 years, House Democrats are considering not making a budget resolution. They’ve decided to give up completely on governing despite having an overwhelming majority. Why should we care about this non-binding budget resolution? Because you need a budget resolution to use reconciliation, which remains the main option to [...]

Glenn Greenwald on the “mindless tribalism” that has deflated meaningful liberal advocacy with regard to Obama’s supreme court nominee: Perhaps most revealing of all: a new article in The Daily Caller reports on growing criticisms of Kagan among “liberal legal scholars and experts” (with a focus on the work I’ve been doing), and it quotes the progressive [...]

President Obama has packed the Debt Commission (also known as the cat food commission) with members who have an overwhelming history of support for both benefit cuts and privatization of Social Security. The “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform” is operating in secret over the objections of both parties. John Boehner and John Conyers [...]

There is nothing inherently good about compromise. The ability to form a good compromise, when it is necessary, is an important skill. But you should compromise only when you can’t completely achieve what you want without it. If you have sufficient votes or support for your position and think it is the best choice of [...]

Documents provided to Congress by several large companies show that they are seriously considering dropping their employer-provided health insurance coverage because the new health care law contains a very weak employer mandate. Companies are doing the math and realizing that paying a per-employee penalty to the government for not providing coverage is substantially less than [...]

In addition to the great response from FDL’s online activists, the press has been all over Firedoglake’s new TV ad taking aim at President Obama’s plans to expand offshore drilling. Here’s a sampling of what media outlets said about our ad, from the Washington Post to USA Today.

While some are celebrating the Sanders’ Audit the Fed compromise as a victory, Ron Paul isn’t one of them. And according to the Matt Hawes of the Campaign for Liberty, David Vitter will be offering up the original Grayson-Paul amendment as a stand-alone amendment. According to the Washington Post, the White House now supports the [...]

It’s difficult to watch the disaster unfolding, knowing there’s little you can do to stop the inevitable destruction. It’s even more difficult to know that President Obama wants to build even more offshore oil rigs and put more of our oceans at risk.

That’s why Firedoglake is launching a TV ad against expanded offshore drilling, featuring images of the destruction in the Gulf and President Obama’s own voice advocating for more offshore oil drilling, even after the BP disaster.

Join us in saying no to expanded offshore drilling. Click here to help put our ad against offshore drilling on the air in DC.

Ron Paul released a video tape tonight in response to Bernie Sanders’ last-minute deal with Chris Dodd on Audit the Fed: RON PAUL:  I’m not a bit surprised that the Federal Reserve got to the Senate. I had expected Bernie Sanders to offer 604, which was the same as 1207, which is Audit the Fed [...]

Ron Paul has released a statement on Bernie Sanders’ decision to gut his Audit the Fed amendment: Bernie Sanders has sold out and sided with Chris Dodd to gut Audit the Fed in the Senate. His “compromise” is what the Adminstration and banking interests want: they’ll allow the TARP and TALF to be audited, but [...]