110th Congress on vacation - what's the difference?

The 110th Congress is now on vacation. You might be asking yourself when they haven’t been. I know I have.

The Democrat led Congress has earned and justified the 14% approval rating it has recently received. And a big cheer should be made that they increased the rating by 3%, from the all-time lowest rating for Congress ever. That includes just before and after the Civil War.

You might ask what has this Congress done?

Well they don’t work longer than any other Congress – though it was a campaign promise. They haven’t achieved any of their major goals. They haven’t even really lived up to their rally call in the 2006 mid-term elections, which was change if you forgot. Well, if you count the numerous Congressional hearings then they did change a few things – how much money was wasted.

This Democrat led Congress boosts the achievements it made, like U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007,. Of course they leave out the fact that this emergency funding was required because their refusal to fund the military in the first place. And the funding, finally passed in May 2007, runs out in September. Also note that the only way the Democrats would allow funds to go to our troops that are actively fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan was by attaching an increase to minimum wages and funds for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

And yes I know that an early funding was vetoed by President Bush, Again the Democrats knew what they were doing, wasting time and money. They knew that President Bush would not give the enemies of our nation (and people fighting our troops are enemies) the means to hurt our soldiers by telegraphing our moves with a timeline. He told the nation as much. But they did it anyway to try to look like I don’t know what.

And of course there was the farm subsidy act, Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. A real brainstorm here. This act increased food stamp benefits which is a good thing since it also increases ethanol production – corn ethanol. Corn based ethanol increases the cost of food. Thus food stamps have to have more benefits just to stay even with the higher price of food. And higher food prices is a leading cause of inflation.

Speaking of energy and Congress, notice that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats will not allow a vote about domestic drilling? So they are pushing corn ethanol, which 96% of the nation cannot buy or use, and is less efficient that gasoline, and is actively increasing the cost of food. And they are really only pushing ethanol. All other alternatives are off the table.

Does that make sense? Considering no one knows what energy source is the best for mass production shouldn’t they want to try everything? Shouldn’t we be ramping up wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass, grass or sugar based ethanol, nuclear, and domestic drilling all at once? Considering none of these will be the answer for at least 5 to 10 years, imagine what the cost of oil will be if we don’t start trying everything now then.

But I detract (and yes I blame Republicans for the energy mess equally, though corn ethanol and refusing to even have a vote is purely Democrat).

The 100th Congress has been very busy though. It takes work to avoid having debates about domestic drilling, and to be in nearly non-stop meetings. There have been Congressional hearing on so many issues that Democrats make sound like absolute importance. They just use the polispeak and obfuscate the facts a bit. Like the massive hearings on the lawyers the President fired (CONTINUING INVESTIGATION INTO THE U.S. ATTORNEYS CONTROVERSY). Democrats were all revved up on this.

What was obfuscated? The fact that each of those lawyers work at the pleasure of the President. Meaning that at any time, for ANY reason the President can fire any of them. It’s not illegal, and every President has done this. But the Democrat led Congress had to find a reason why the President fired these lawyers and tried to find a law that was broken, where no law exists. There went several weeks.

A few other top hearings that resulted in nothing:

WHY DEFICITS MATTER

IMPROVING THE LABORATORY EXPERIENCE FOR AMERICA'S HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

COMPETITION AND THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL MUSIC

AN UPDATE: PIRACY ON UNVERSITY NETWORKS

MEETING TO DISCUSS MATTERS PERTAINING TO THE CONTESTED ELECTION IN THE 13TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

CREDIT CARD PRACTICES: CURRENT

GASOLINE PRICES, OIL COMPANY PROFITS, AND THE AMERICAN CONSUMER

The list goes on and on.

To help out in listing a few more items I found this video



So my overall point is this, there is an election coming up. Not just for the Presidency but also for Congress. When you go to vote consider why this Democrat led Congress has the lowest approval ratings ever. Consider why President Bush, who is not brilliant and has made mistakes, is regarded better than Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the Congress by 10%. Consider that every major policy issue that the Democrats promised to do in the 2006 elections still have not happened, and that they have spent more time looking for people to blame than passing laws to help the nation.

Perhaps it’s me but I expect a Congress to do something. For god sake they couldn’t even get together to pass an Act to apologize for slavery. House voted yes the Senate just let it go by.

In November you can vote to keep the Democrats leading Congress, if not the nation, or you can “vote for change”. Unless you have a perverse desire to see if Congress’ approval rating can reach single digits.

Congress polispeak to Karl Rove spends your tax dollars and wastes time

I hate watching blatant partisan politics. It’s the blatant use of polispeak and opportunism that gets my ire going. Such as the subpoena on Karl Rove.

It’s May 2008 and Karl Rove is getting questions about his involvement in the President firing lawyers around April 2007 and the conviction of former-Alabama governor Don Siegelman in June of 2007. Isn’t it interesting?

Let’s see, there is a Democratic Congress in place now. Karl Rove is seen as a dark evil figure that was instrumental in the Bush Presidency. This is an election year and the Democratic Congress has achieved none of the goals they were elected for in 2006. Does it sound like Congress is trying to give the Democratic Presidential candidate a boost with the public by attacking the Republican Party sideways?

You might think this polispeak bluster is just that since we know a few things. First that there was nothing illegal about the President firing the lawyers in 2007. After multiple Congressional meetings, and untold numbers looking through the laws it was confirmed that the lawyers in question worked at the pleasure of the President. That means, at any time, for any reason, the President can fire these individuals – which he did. No surprises there, everyone knew this. And for all the bluster and all your taxes spent that’s all that happened. But because of the polispeak and accusations Alberto Gonzalez resigned his position.

And in the case of Governor Siegelman, an investigation was long in place tracking his acceptance of bribes and conspiracy. The former-governor was a criminal, and he was caught. Some Democrats want to place blame with Republicans and I have to ask why? Because Seigelman didn’t win his re-election bid, or because he was a criminal that got caught? Some question if the investigation was politically motivated, I question why a criminal was shielded from the law as long as he was. Remember, Seigelman was convicted – that’s not political so no matter the cause of the investigation (which could be just good work by the FBI and other law enforcement groups) the man was point blank a criminal.

So where in all this does Karl Rove need to speak to Congress. Over half a year after the facts, in cases where there is no law broken, Congress wants to spend your money to ask him questions. And the only hope that Congress can have for justifying this is if, while being questioned, Rove says anything that hasn’t been said before – or exactly the same way. That would lead to perjury charges. That’s the best case Congress can get.

So considering that Congress is wasting your money, and making an obvious political push to elect a candidate, how do you feel? Do you think your taxes are being spent well? Because some tens of thousands of dollars (if not more) are going to be spent to question Karl Rove about old useless factual events, instead of getting a better law regarding your children’s education, or getting more oil from non-Middle East sources, or lowering the cost of healthcare, or getting our soldiers home from Iraq (whichever you may think is important).

No wonder Congress has a lower approval rating than President Bush.

What is an important focus for legislators part 2 - 3.28.2007.2

Continued from Where is the attention focused - 3.28.2007.1 Part 1...

But there is the real supposition that this wasted time is being done to distract from real issues. The more time spent creating laws to correct obvious idiocy (in my view) the less focus is placed on real issues. Sensitive subjects like the huge illiteracy rate (for a first world nation) or the apparent increase in crimes against children (such as the arrest of the husband of Mrs. Wynnona Judd) or offenses by police officers and law enforcement agencies against minorities (as the Sean Bell case exemplifies) are untouched and unspoken. Even the media at large tends to address these issues beyond a cursory manner.

The Sean Bell matter is a great example, using Fox News as one media source. Rather than discussing what lead to this overkill shooting, what the repercussions of it are, or why there seems to be a trend of shootings that involve double digit shots made by multiple officers against unarmed Black American men and possibly other minorities exclusively Fox News just forgot about it. I say exclusively as I am unaware of any White males that have been killed by police or law enforcement officers in a similar manner, ever. When I say they forgot about it I mean that there was the initial day of coverage and then nothing. Not a word. There was no comment on the indictment of 3 of the officers involved. No comment on why a supposed 4th individual that was believed to have a gun was allowed to escape the area. No comment on how an individual in a car, presumed armed and dangerous, left the vehicle as it was being shot – unhurt – and was not pursued by the officers that surrounded the vehicle.

So where is the research on this? The committees to discuss the causes and remedies to such events? The media coverage on the repercussions. The involvement in the nation on an issue affecting millions of citizens, directly and indirectly. It doesn’t happen because of distractions, notably a week of coverage on a mindless argument between 2 celebrities (Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump) or 3+ months of coverage on a cute blonde (Anna Nicole Smith). And of course discussion on the obvious.

Legislators, and the media at large, seem obtuse when it comes to a matter of importance. So much energy has been focused on creating stories out of non-events (like the current Mr. Alberto Gonzales ‘controversy’) that real events are obscured. That is not to say that certain events are unspoken. The war in Iraq continues to be discussed, with a bias on both sides. But that is not the only issue of consequence in the nation. It is not the only matter that will affect us for generations.

A law against obvious idiocy should take 5 minutes, and should have a penalty that actually qualifies as a deterrent and punishment. Attention to name calling and legal battles over the death of a celebrity in name only (with due respect Ms. Smith provided no more to the sum total of the nation than any other cute buxom blonde in the nation. In fact I would say she provided less than many that have not had the luck to have a camera on them) or time consuming controversies that have no more impact than allowing one political body the chance to snipe at the other are insulting. Cut out a half hour of coverage of these non-events and congressional time and maybe we can protect our children, or create fairer protection for all the citizens domestically, or educate our kids well enough that we don’t need to create stupid laws in the first place.

This is what I think, what do you think?