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Just a short post to highlight something that is going on right now that merits attention.  Courtesy of CSPAN Radio, I (and others) have the opportunity to be listening to the ongoing proceedings of the US Senate.  Why?  Because I wanted to be listening to the debates and discussions on the Senate floor related to the Lieberman-Warner Climate inSecurity Act (CiSA). As with so much of what has been going on in the House of Representatives, the Drill and Kill Republicans, engaged in a coordinated truthiness effort to falsely make it seem too expensive to do anything about Global Warming, are willing to be abusive of the Senate to disrupt legitimate and meaningful discussion of climate change and climate change legislation. What did they do today?  Refused to grant unanimous consent to waive the reading of the bill.  Thus, the poor clerk is reading the entire bill.  A long … long … long bill.  I am striving to listen, at least a little, so that she is not simply speaking into a void as it is hard to believe that a single Republican Senator is actually listening and paying attention to the reading of the bill. The refusal to accept waiving of the bill has nothing to do with good governance, has nothing to do with enabling meaningful discussion and debate about issues critical to the nation, but everything to do with disruptive political activities.

Now, this is a political tactic that is within the governance rules of the Senate.  A question to ask:  how often did Democratic Party minorities due this to the Republicans when they controlled the Senate?  Probably not nearly enough considering what we should expect from Republicans in the face of any and all sensible legislation in the coming years.

It is time to buy a big supply of soothing throat lozenges for the Senate’s clerks as it seems likely that they will be doing quite a bit of reading in the coming months and years.

Note: the relatively new startup Energy and Environment TV stores videos of important Congressional discussions, hearings, and debates in these domains.  The clerk’s reading of the report might be up tomorrow.