An Alabama legislator wants to ban the use of Islamic law in the state’s courts — just in case Muslims take over.

Last month, French President Nicolas Sarkozy became the latest European leader to take the lead in an ongoing fight against Muslim women wearing Islamic garb, specifically the full-face veil, or niqba, and the burqa, in public when he promised to introduce a bill that would ban both items in France. But, it’s not just France [...]

It looks as if the Democrats will muster up the votes to get the Senate health reform bill passed through the House and it’s almost a foregone conclusion that the reconciliation package will easily make it through the Senate.    While some conservative pundits and Republican leaders are now touting a Repeal platform for November, my [...]

While John Cole agrees with the substance of my mild criticism of our food stamp policies, he thinks “we can’t do anything about it.” I’m sure the House could pass a bill containing a small stipend for Americorps volunteers- in fact, I bet it would get a good bit of support. Likewise, I bet almost [...]

My friend and former colleague Steven Taylor offers what he terms “An Extremely Modest Proposal in Regards to the Senate.”  Rather than filibusters and holds, How about if a Senator has a reason to object to a given nominee that said Senator would, oh I don’t know, maybe take the floor and try to, well, [...]

In response to the growing refrains from the Left about Joe Lieberman “holding health care hostage,” Steven Taylor observes that, “Either the votes can be mustered or they can’t. It is the way of legislating.” Or of any close decision-making process, for that matter. Sandra Day O’Connor used to “hold the Constitution hostage.”   Now, Anthony [...]

Progressives are increasingly frustrated that, despite having won the presidency by a comfortable margin and having solid majorities in the House and Senate — where they have a “filibuster-proof” 60 votes — they still can’t enact the policies they want.   Matt Yglesias says “smarter elements in Washington DC are starting to pick up on the [...]

One of my commenters brought to my attention an issue that’s not receiving much attention:  Residents of several U.S. states could have to show their passports for domestic travel — or to enter a federal government building — starting January 1 because of the REAL ID Act.  Chris Strohm for Congress Daily: More than half [...]

With regulation threatening their current business model, credit card companies are responding with new fees, Sandra Block reports for USA Today. Starting next year, Bank of America will charge a small number of customers an annual fee, ranging from $29 to $99. The bank has characterized the fee as experimental. But card holders who have [...]

Taking a page out of Soloman’s playbook, Congressional Democrats have a brand new plan for passing health care reform. The White House and Senate Democratic leaders, seeing little chance of bipartisan support for their health-care overhaul, are considering a strategy shift that would break the legislation into two parts and pass the most expensive provisions [...]

Alex Massie argues that the current inability of the Democrats to pass meaningful health care reform, one of their signature issues, despite overwhelming control of the government shows the system is broken. It’s more difficult than it was in LBJ’s day, mind you. All the horse-trading that once went on in private now takes place [...]

David Keene and the American Conservative Union offered to take sides in an NLRB dispute between rivals UPS and FedEx based on who would pay to play. FedEx refused to pay the bribe of $2 to $3 million, so ACU supported UPS. FedEx went public, turning over the letter outlining ACU’s extortion request to POLITICO’s [...]

In a discussion with Conor Friedersdorf over streamlining legislation, Publius remarks: That’s why I’d like to see a waiting period between the final release of legislation and the vote. The public could then go all “Army of Davids” on the legislation, which would enhance transparency, democratic deliberation, etc. This is one of those ideas that [...]

Federal workers will now get benefits for their “partner” whether they are married or not, Scott Butterworth reports for WaPo’s 44 blog. President Obama will announce tomorrow that he is extending federal benefits to include unmarried domestic partners of federal workers, including same-sex partners, White House officials said tonight. Obama will sign an executive order [...]

We’re in Asheville, North Carolina for a couple of days, the first stop on a road trip to see friends and family. I awoke to find a copy of the Asheville Citizen-Times at the door with a headline I thought I’d never see: “NC approves ban on smoking.” North Carolina, a state built on tobacco, [...]

Congress may finally close the “loophole” that allows people to avoid sales taxes by shopping online, the New York Post reports. While the issue has been bandied about since roughly the advent of the Internet as we know it 15 years ago, the dire straits state and local governments now face may force the issue.  [...]

Nick Gillespie brings out this chart to illustrate that, by the time government gets around to passing legislation to get us out of bad economic times, we’re already out of bad economic times: I can’t vouch for the veracity of the end dates or the completeness of the data (which are “based on recession timelines [...]

Nate Silver argues that we are seeing “The Republican Death Spiral,” as House Republicans vote against issues ranging from the stimulus package to delaying digital TV to a bill encouraging more gender equity lawsuits. As I have opined before, the Democratic message will essentially be one of two things in 2010: Obama’s accomplished X, Y [...]

Glenn Greenwald, reacting to reports that Barack Obama has told Harry Reid that Joe Lieberman should not be stripped of his committee chairmanship and thus making it very difficult for him to do so, has written a long and passionate plea for a return to vigorous separation of powers with strong institutional jealousies. [W]hatever the [...]

A new John McCain ad belittles Barack Obama’s legislative achievements on education reform and includes this gem: Obama’s one accomplishment? Legislation to teach “comprehensive sex education” to kindergartners. Learning about sex before learning to read? TPM’s Greg Sargent finds the charge “false” and “pernicious.”  He cites this passage from the bill, as circulated by  McCain’s [...]

I have neither the time nor inclination to rummage through every bit of every politician’s speech during convention season. That said, this bit really stuck out at me: And there is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has [...]