Anyone got a postage stamp?

Over the weekend, we were told Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to her fellow DEMs asking them to vote for John Murtha. That didn't turn out too well for Pelosi or Murtha.

Today, we are told the Blue Dog DEMs have sent Nancy Pelosi a letter asking her to name Jane Harman to the Intelligence Committee. Also, the Congressional Black Caucus will send Speaker Pelosi a letter that supports their choice, Alcee Hastings.
Blue Dogs back Harman for Intel panel chair The Hill by Josphine Hearn

I would just like to know if any of the Blue Dogs or CBC helped Speaker Pelosi elect her Majority Leader choice.

Hoyer Wins Majority Leader Race

According to C-Span, Congressman Steny Hoyer has been elected to Majority Leader.

The vote was 149 for Hoyer

86 for Murtha.

Ironic final tally isn't it?

and thus 149 Democrats have eighty-sixed the man who gave the Democrats some backbone when he began to speak out about the IRAQ war. And the only known Congressman to ever have been videotaped turning down a bribe. That tape was worth its weight in gold to Democrats if only they would have used it properly.

Congratulations to Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Hoyer.

Post Script on Friday Nov. 17th at 7:22 p.m.
Just checked the headlines on C-Span Capital News page. The poll question asked "Do you think it harms the Democrats that Nancy Pelosi backed John Murtha for majority leader?" Guess what? 83 % said "NO" it didn't hurt Nancy Pelosi.

Earlier today, I got so angry at Ruth Marcus appearing on the C-Span's Washington Journal that I broke a promise I made to myself to not send C-Span more than one e mail every 30 days. Ruth Marcus seemed to base her entire opinion of John Murtha on a 25 year old surveillance tape. And, more importantly, I didn't hear her answer the question she should have asked before she wrote the first word. Did she even think to ask in whose custody that tape has been? And, how can she be so certain the tape wasn't tampered with?

I do not understand why a tape of a man TURNING DOWN a bribe is supposed to convince us that Murtha is unfit to be the Majority Leader. The results prove one thing, NOT being a bribe-taker doesn't sit well with 149 Democrats.

Murtha or Hoyer?

Murtha's Moment
Toledo Blade Editorial supports Nancy Pelosi's pick.
".....Ms. Pelosi, whom Republicans like to paint as San Francisco liberal, needs a plain-speaking warrior Democrat like Mr. Murtha at her side. The nation does too."

Democrats Gain

THANK YOU Howard Dean for your 50 state strategy.

Well, I said Republicans didn't hold other Republicans accountable and

Gosh, it feels good to be wrong.

THANK YOU Republican voters for holding your leaders accountable.

Democrats win House, on brink of Senate power Yahoo News - Reuters By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

How We Can Get Our Congress Back On Track

What did Lyndon Johnson tell us when he used the “Peace Little Girl - Daisy” campaign ad in 1964? This ad depicted a young girl learning to count as she plucked petals from a daisy. A male voice overlaps the childs voice and we hear the count down 10 - 9 - 8- 7..., then an atomic cloud is shown. Johnson’s voice is heard next, telling us “These are the stakes: To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the darkness. We must either love each other, or we must die. “ I wonder if LBJ would use an ad like this today. Would we hear him say “I approve this message” following the announcers last statement?

Some folks thought the ad meant Goldwater might use atomic weapons. After a victorious landslide election favoring Johnson the results were intrepreted as an indication of the public’s scorn for Goldwater’s conservative views.

I guess what Johnson correctly foresaw was the arrogant, Constitution haters who have taken over our Congress. conservatives, whose governing procedures can be described as for members only. The other side of the conservative aisle may as well be the other side of the world for the Democrats.

Under conservative leadership, there is no bi-partisan negotiation on bills. Democrats are often excluded from conference committees. Democrat amendments are rejected without debate by conservative chairmen. Our Congress is broken, and conservatives aren’t interested in fixing it. That is up to us.

When you vote,
Vote against exclusion
Vote against silence
Vote against arrogance,

Vote FOR humble self-respect.
Vote FOR the Constitution of the United States of America.
Vote to make a world in which all of God’s children can live and prosper.

View the ad
Recommended reading: The Broken Branch by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein Review by publisher

2006 my picks for Ohio

Governor - Ted Strickland
Secretary of State - Jennifer Brunner
Treasurer - Richard Cordray
Auditor - Barbara Sykes
Ohio 31st State Senator - Dennis Lupher
Ohio 5th State Representative - R. Kelly Kirk
U. S. Congressman Ohio 7th District - Bill Conner
U. S. Senator - Sherrod Brown

Where lawmakers come to blog

At the top of the page the banner reads:
The Hill's Congress Blog Where lawmakers come to blog.

Look for your legislator's comment......
Congress Blog

National Atlas

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What you can do in the National Atlas of the United States®
Maps for topics like Congressional boundries, Agriculture, Geologic, Environment, Census / Population
Customize a map for printing or viewing, mix and match layers when making your own map.
Print pre-formatted maps on a variety of topics.
Printable Maps

and more.

go to National Atlas of the United States

Do you need a crystal ball to see what's coming?

If the House and Senate produce an immigration bill can a signing statement be far behind? Which begs the question, what the heck does it matter what this quasi-congress does? Except that President Bush has to keep up the appearance of democracy.

from the CQ Today Midday Update:
President Bush urged House and Senate leaders on Thursday to put aside their differences and work together on comprehensive immigration overhaul legislation that he can sign into law.
“It’s a difficult task. Yet the difficulty of this task is no excuse for avoiding it,” Bush said in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“The American people expect us to meet our responsibility and deliver immigration reform that fixes the problems in the current system, that upholds our ideals and provides a fair and practical way forward.”
So far lawmakers facing a tough House-Senate conference to resolve differences in the bills passed by each chamber have shown little interest in compromise.
The Senate bill (S 2611), passed 62-36 on May 25, would beef up border security but also offer a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. It would create a guest worker program to accommodate 200,000 immigrants a year.
The House passed a bill (HR 4437) in December that takes the opposite approach, treating anyone in the country without a valid visa as a felon and severely punishing those caught helping them. The bill has neither guest worker provisions nor a path to citizenship.
find out more about CQ products

from the San Francisco Chronicle Bush urges compromise on immigration bill he backs Senate on legalization but not on temporary work

Does it even make sense that an illegal immigrant can give birth to a legal citizen? There ought to be some refinement to that law, like when the illegal immigrant becomes a naturalized citizen, their child born in the USA, will be granted citizenship. Can President Bush change that statute with a retroactive signing statement?

Anyone keeping score? 125 bills and 750 statutes reviewed and parsed by the Cheney first, then Bush team. According to the Boston Globe $earch re$ults $ Cheney reviews the bills Congress sends to the WH and Cheney defines the infringement of WH power.
Do I have to tell you who is Yang and who is Yin?

Sebelius announces Parkinson as running mate

Parkinson, a former state House and Senate member from Olathe, has served as chairman of the state Republican Party. A political moderate, he said he was increasingly alienated from his own party after conservatives increasingly focused on “wedge issues” rather than solutions to the state’s problems.

Kansas City Star

The Hutchinson News


Two ideas that ought to be more popular: moderate Republicans switching parties and "wedge issues" becoming a thing of the past.

The Reason

NPR Politics & Society Hastert Challenges FBI on Capitol Office Search

So Congressman/House Speaker Dennis Hastert is demanding the FBI return all papers seized during a raid on Congressman Jefferson’s congressional office.

How’s that again?

A Republican going to bat for a Democrat?

Wait, it gets better.

Guess who else came out for the return of the papers?

Soon to be Ex Congressman Tom DeLay.

Tom DeLay never had his congressional office raided by the FBI. But I guess he can imagine Jefferson’s pain.

Has Duke Cunningham weighed in on this controversy? I'll bet Cunningham is glad that didn't happen to him. His office was never raided by the FBI either.

Wait a minute, does the FBI have a double standard for Republicans and Democrats?

Senator DeWine has not signed the pledge

Y'all know by now I don't like the anti-tax pledge that Legislators around America signed. A Legislators main responsibility is to his constituents not a Washington DC based anti tax organization. It seems to me, these men who have signed the pledge are hurting America. They are being held to a promise they made in the dark. And we all know about those kind of promises don't we? When, in the light of day, buildings are knocked down by airplanes, wars are begun, and hurricanes cause billions of dollars in damages, the Legislators have to run up a lot of debt to pay for everything.

What if your boss told you he would never give you another raise? This pledge is close to the same thing.

Although, it isn't mentioned in this article, Ohio Senator George Voinovich has not signed the pledge.

The Columbus Dispatch has this by Jim Siegel April 14, 2006 Despite incentive, DeWine won't sign anti-tax pledge In this article Sen. DeWine tells why he won't sign the pledge

Congressman Mollohan part II

Congressman Alan Mollohan D-WVA-1st has responded to accusations about his assets and business dealings.

Washington Post by Thomas B. Edsall April 14, 2006 Ethics Panel Democrat Defends Rise In Assets

Also in the Washington Post by Larry Margasak April 14, 2006 Rep. Mollohan Says He's Unaware of Errors

From CQ Today Midday Update April 14, 2006:
    House ethics committee ranking member Alan B. Mollohan, D-W.Va., is vigorously defending his financial disclosure statements and the appreciation in his real estate holdings a week after a conservative watchdog group accused him of hiding assets through 250 errors and omissions in his reports over the past decade. Republicans are pressing him to resign from the ethics committee because of the allegations.
    Mollohan said he and his accountant have reviewed his annual financial disclosure statements dating back to 1996. “My review confirms my initial reaction to these serious charges — they are entirely and demonstrably false,” Mollohan said in a statement. “More to the point, these charges are outrageous and irresponsible.”
    The congressman said the reports he has filed during his 12 terms in office may contain “inadvertent” mistakes, but not serious ones. The Virginia-based National Legal and Policy Center has refused to disclose the research it says documents its allegations. But it has sent a 500-page report to the Justice Department. Justice officials have declined to comment on whether an investigation is under way. An official at the center said Mollohan’s rebuttal does not stand up to close scrutiny.

Congressman Mollohan from WVA - First District

C-Span usually makes good on their attempt to keep the playing field level. But, today, they tilted right. In fact, I think they might have tore up the turf when they spoke with the Chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, Kenneth Boehm.

Chairman Boehm alleges in a complaint filed with the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia that Congressman Alan Mollohan D-WVA-1st hid assets and improperly funded business partners. NLPC Press Release the NLPC has refused to make public the details of the complaint BTW.

The NLPC claims to be 'strictly non partisan' that they have filed complaints against Democrats and Republicans. In my opinion, the only reason they can say that without it being an outright lie is because the NLPC is a conservative organization. If you look at the list of their recent projects you won't find any complaint against Duke Cunningham or Jack Abramoff though. Doesn't say much for their investigative techniques that they missed those two.

C-Span has posted a letter written by Congressman Mollohan to Tom Reynolds, Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. In his letter Congressman Mollohan states:

The reason is, quite clearly, that I strongly opposed efforts by the Republican leadership that would have seriously undermined the ability of the Ethics Committee to perform its basic function of enforcing House rules and standards. What your statement cavalierly refers to as my "stall[ing] for so long in getting the Ethics Committee up and running" was, in fact, my opposition to those efforts to make unilateral, highly destructive changes both in the House rules governing the Committee and in the Committee staff.

You can read the letter at C-Span I copied and saved the letter, if you can't find it at C-Span I'll e mail it to you.

The Intelligencer Wheeling News Register Mollohan Stands Behind His Financial Disclosures

The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza has background WVA: 12 Term Democrat at Center of Ethics Storm

He knew who leaked

Why did President Bush order a special investigation when he knew all the time who leaked the name of CIA agent, Valerie Plame?

He claims he is authorized to declassify information.

President Bush didn't do anything wrong, pundits say.

Well, he did one thing wrong, he wasted taxpayers money on this investigation.

Line item veto and things a President ought to do

An item in CQ midday update mentions resistance to a line item veto for President Bush from Congressman Jerry Lewis R-CA-41st Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Also, Congressman Joe Knollenberg, R-MI-9th Chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee with oversight on the White House Office of Management and Budget expressed uncertainity about handing so much power to the President.

March 31st I sent an LTE to the Columbus Dispatch pointing out that Ohio Gov. candidate Ken Blackwell has signed Americans for Tax Reform Pledge, something he has in common with President Bush and 1500 other legislators around the country. I asked voters to think about the consequence of signing a pledge to do something before you know the full circumstance of a situation. Ken Blackwell signed the pledge, but we Ohio citizens will live with the consequence if he is our next governor.

For proof, just look at how bad a shape the U.S. budget is in these days. We are in debt to the third generation to pay for things that happened on our watch. President Bush has to borrow from Social Security funds, foreign countries, and sell off valuable infrastructure to pay for the war on terrorism, the war in Iraq, fund health and education programs, he wants to find a new energy source but there isn't any money to pay for the research so we borrow, he has promised to give states money for upgrading the voting system but where will the money come from he gives the states, probably Japan. The levees in Louisiana will cost who knows how much and Homeland Security.... the airport runways need revamped, highways, railroads need repair the list of necessary costs grows and grows and the legislators won't do anything to raise money the old fashioned way to pay for these items. Their hands are tied on account of the pledge they signed.

This is nuts. I'm no lawyer but if it isn't illegal it ought to be. The only pledge an elected legislator should honor is their" Oath of Office" and their marriage vows.

Now to get back to that line item veto request, it seems to me if President Bush wants more power he can take back that ATR pledge and get on with the business of governing the USA with a full set of tools.

RE: New Orleans Mardi Gras

Well, it didn't turn into a pity party and that says a lot about your spirit and determination.

Can't we do better?

Feb. 16, 2006 update
See the Feb. 13, 2006 Tom Toles Cartoon

Feb. 10, 2006 I wrote:
I was disappointed to read that the Democrats will continue using the phrase "we can do better" as in, "Bush lied, we can do better".

This phrase is devoid of substance and meaning, I have heard it too too often for it to mean anything anymore. It lacks serious purpose, it is just an empty phrase Democrats haul out at the end of their ever growing list of Republican flaws.

Maybe those fellas who say the Democrats don't have any new ideas are correct.

on Nov. 28, 2005 I wrote this"
My 300 foot walk to the mailbox yielded a 'Dear Friend' letter from Senator Harry Reid. I first thought the letter was from HRC, which, had it been, would have went straight to the trash can. When I saw Reid's name in the upper left corner I thought I'd like to see what he had to say. Turned out that Senator Reid has a lot of complaints. About the numerous Republicans under indictment these days. The price of gasoline. The Harriet Miers nomination.

Reid tells me he thinks American people deserve better.

On page 2 Reid actually suggests that Karl Rove should be history. If its true KR is Bush's brain that is a dangerous thing to demand. Going into his windup, Reid asks me to help take away the Republican majority in the Senate so the Democrats can stop Bush from "doing even more damage to our country".... with a gift of $50 - $75, or more.

Reid closes his letter with the phrase, "Together, America can do better."

Thank you for the letter Senator Reid, but I can't send you the money right now, I will, however, give you something better. Retire the phrase "America can do better" Stop telling me something I've been hearing since Howard Dean began his Presidential campaign. I've heard it so often it has become an annoying complaint. Which makes you and all the other Democrats who say that and the more common, "we can do better," nagging scolds.

I know America can do better.

You know America can do better.

We all know America can do better.

Tell me something I don't know.

Tell me this: "WE WILL DO BETTER"

and sound like you mean it.

RE: Fuming Over Mining Rule

How did we get to this? How did it happen that American corporate leaders and our elected leaders plot to ignore worker safety? Corporations hire $$$ lawyers and fight regulations that if put in place would protect their workers. Why don't the corporate owners care about their employees health? I heard in one report a worker said that working in some mines was like working in the tailpipe of a city bus. Workers are the backbone of American life. We should NOT have to go to work every day with an ax over the back of our necks.


What in the world is wrong with us American voters? Why have WE elected men and women who are willing to pull this kind of stuff on us? And why do WE keep voting for them even when we have seen what they are up to?

WVA Mine Tragedies

Heart wrenching testimony of ......
Family members of miners killed in mining disasters in West Virginia in January 2006, and in Alabama in 2001 will testify at a Congressional forum on Monday about the tragedies. Miners who previously worked at the Sago Mine in West Virginia will also testify. House Democrats are sponsoring the forum in order to ensure that the voices of miners and miners' families are heard in Congress.

On C-Span today 10:00 AM EST February 13, 2006
2:30 (est.) LIVE
Forum
Mine Safety
House Democratic Caucus

Mine Safety

Forum
Mine Safety
House Democratic Caucus
Washington, District of Columbia (United States)
ID: 191171 - 02/13/2006 - 2:30 - No Sale