Russellings

Miscellaneous musings from the perspective of a lefty (both senses) atheist with a warped sense of humor.

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Location: Madison, WI, United States

I am a geek, but I do have some redeeming social skills. I love other people's dogs, cats, and kids. Snow sucks, but I'm willing to put up with it just to live in Madison.

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Fix the Filibuster!

Campaign-finance reform, preventing stolen elections, and rolling back Citizens United are admirable long-term goals, but if you're looking for a desperately needed reform where you've got about a 2-month window of opportunity to get it done, FIX THE FILIBUSTER!

The new US Senate will take office on January 3, but the first thing they do, before dealing with the business of the nation, is dealing with the business of their own internal working rules. There's a very short period of time during which a simple majority can make or break the Senate's ability to overcome Republican intransigence during the next 2 years by placing sensible limits on their twin obstructionist powers to filibuster and to place indefinite anonymous holds on presidential nominations. Courtesy was all well and good when the Senate was dealing with gentlemen of honor, but clearly that's not the case any more and hasn't been for years.

Newly elected Senators Tammy Baldwin (WI), Sherrod Brown (OH), Bob Casey (PA), Joe Donnelly (IN), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Tim Kaine (VA), Angus King (ME), Chris Murphy (CT), Jon Tester (MT), and Elizabeth Warren (MA) should finish their introductory tour of the Capitol by backing Harry Reid into a corner and making him swear a blood oath to finally deal with this roadblock to democracy or stand down as majority leader.

I urge my fellow Wisconsinites to join me in peppering our newly elected senator, Tammy Baldwin, with this message.

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