As frustration with a stalled Senate grows on Capitol Hill—punctuated by moderate Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh's surprise announcement last week that he would not be running for re-election because of his deep disappointment with the body—Democrats are stepping up calls for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to invite Republicans to make good on their threats to block upcoming legislation by forcing them to actually filibuster the bills.

"It's not only good policy but good politics to call them out now," says Rep. Raul Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who cochairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. "The American people need to see who really is the roadblock here." He, like many House Democrats, believes that letting the GOP filibuster rather than retreating in the face of filibuster threats would send a powerful political message. Up until now, "we've been playing into the hands of people who don't want to get anything done," says Grijalva.

Repeatedly we were told by the Obama administration, when dealing with the issue of health care, not to allow 'the perfect' to become the enemy of 'the good'.

Unfortunately what's happened is 'bipartisanship' has become the enemy of 'doing what's right'. It has become abundantly clear that the path to health care was botched during the first year of the Obama Administration and they continue not to understand the consequences of this path they have chosen.

When Obama was elected and was given Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate, it was like they finally captured lightning in a bottle.  Instead of using it, they threw it aside to go off chasing fireflies (bipartisanship). 

This hurts because I did vote for the guy and his policies, or what I thought was his system-changing attitude.

whisperDispatch is back after an extended hiatus!

You will see archive data from 2007,2008 until more news and written smackdowns will be added.

Welcome back as well to all of you.

The prospects for healthcare reform legislation in Washington are cloudy, but Anthem Blue Cross apparently isn't taking any chances. The company recently informed many of the approximately 800,000 Californians who buy its individual policies that premiums will rise sharply March 1.

Although Anthem provided no details, insurance brokers say they're already seeing increases of up to 39%. That's on top of even larger rate hikes last year.

Despite recent bipartisan overtures by President Obama, Republicans have refused to attend a proposed “summit meeting” on healthcare unless Democrats drop their pending reform legislation and start from scratch. So how good are the Republicans’ bright ideas for saving the healthcare system, and how much would they actually help?

The short answer: Not very good, and not very much.

Taken as a whole, these proposals show that the GOP has not faced the fact that, without concerted government action, our system is headed for disaster.

Jim Letten, the United States attorney for New Orleans, recused himself from the case involving four men arrested last week on charges of interfering with the phones in Senator Mary L. Landrieu’s office.

Mr. Letten said that after consulting with Justice Department officials, and “in consideration of various relevant factors,” he was allowing his first assistant attorney to handle the case.

A decision by Google to hold a party in the middle of an eBay conference has prompted a furious dust-up between the two technology companies.