“Please understand, Members, that this extension is not the final word on the PATRIOT Act , and what we will do is use the time between now and the year that will elapse to improve and pass real reform. Now, while I would prefer to do this now, it is not to me strategically wise [...]

Rep. James Sensenbrenner voted against a bill to add federal crimes for assaults and murders on the basis of sexual orientation. Why? He claimed it was a matter of supporting free speech, that criminalizing acts based on the ideas behind them violated the First Amendment. James Sensenbrenner is also the sponsor of H.R. 1772, a [...]

The House Armed Services Committee appears to have a two year backlog in the release of committee hearing transcripts to the public. But these transcripts are not actually transcripts: they are links to WMA audio files, not text files. Furthermore, the links are dead and the audio now removed. The situation is worse than it [...]

We are at CyberWar, our national politicians tell us, and in a CyberWar we must be ever CyberVigilant and on CyberGuard against our CyberEnemies. Usually, showing up is a prerequisite for vigilance. Earlier today, the full House Armed Services Committee was called together for a hearing entitled “U.S. Cyber Command: Organizing for Cyberspace Operations.” There [...]

As a report issued by the U.S. Census bureau this week shows, only the top income bracket in the United States saw its average income rise last year: everybody else’s income in the United States went down. It’s the poor and the middle class who are struggling; America’s rich are doing just fine and even [...]

Can members of the U.S. Congress come together, bridge partisan differences and come to consensus on issues of the day? Of course, you might scoff, they can name Post Offices after one another. But can House and Senate, Democrat and Republican and Independent come together any more and agree on any issue of importance? Yes, [...]

The Des Moines Tea Party is neither registered federally with the FEC or IRS as a political organization, nor at the state level with the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board. This makes the finances of the Des Moines Tea Party somewhat shadowy. Nevertheless, it has come out swinging in the Iowa 3rd District congressional [...]

March 12, 2009: Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona congressional district 6 votes to cut the pay of American construction workers working on government contracts so that they are paid less than the local prevailing wage. July 31, 2009: Jeff Flake votes to deny the right of American shareholders who own a corporation to vote against [...]

Whenever a Democratic member of Congress is running for election, the most common line of attack by Republicans is to label that Representative or Senator as a “hardcore liberal,” or “one of the most liberal members of Congress.” In 2004, Senator John Kerry was unsurprisingly labeled as the “most liberal Senator” by the RNC, and [...]

The activist website Get FISA Right, after working with the ACLU and EFF this month on an unsuccessful campaign to pressure the Senate Judiciary Committee into making significant surveillance reforms, has begun asking whether Congress is the appropriate target of pressure on legislative reforms. Although it may seem like a no-brainer to call Congress when [...]