Recently in Congress Category

This just what we need. A mob of Bachmann-inspired teabaggers and  town hall screamers roaming the halls of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. From Crooks and Liars:"I'd love to have every one of your viewers to join me so we can go up and down through the halls, find members of Congress, look at the whites of their eyes and say, 'Don't take away my healthcare.'"Interesting phrasing by Congresswoman Bachmann. Google the words "the whites...

Rep. Tom Price, that good ol' boy from Jawjah, introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives recently expressing "gratitude and appreciation" to the Teabaggers who assembled in Washington on September 12, the text of which can be seen here. It was co-sponsored by the usual Republican bigots suspects like Bachmann, Broun, Gohmert, and Gingrey, among others. I made a few minor modifications and corrections and came up with something much more appropriate."Whereas, on September...

In the latest episode of our national soap opera, As the Health Care Reform Turns, Senator Joe Lieberman said that he would support a filibuster of a bill that contains a public option. Sort of, kinda, maybe: "Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) told reporters today that he would in fact filibuster any health care bill he doesn't agree with--and right now, he doesn't agree with the public option proposal making its way through the Senate."I told...

A lot has been made of the Republican's drop in membership/identification. Apparently, only 20 percent of the voting public identifies themselves as Republicans. First, we should get a firm handle on what that means. Tell that to some people and they would immediately assume that the other 80 percent are Democrats. This has never been the case and is certainly not the case now. When you look at the Democratic numbers, you see that they...

During the markup process of a bill before the Committee on Science and Technology, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) proposed the following amendment:"Adds a new section at the end of the billstating that "[n]one of the funds madeavailable under this Act or theamendments made by the Act" (1) may beused for lobbying the legislative orexecutive branches of the Federal, State,or local governments; or (2) may beawarded to any entity if that entity or anyemployee has been...

As some of you may know, I write another post about the Houston Astros. Baseball has always been my first love with politics coming in a close second. Yet, baseball is not the only sport I pay attention to. I enjoy watching football and basketball as well and I try to hit the golf ball around when I get the time. One of the things that grabs my attention is when sports and politics collide....

As our politicians in Washington dicker and bicker over the details of health care reform--over how the CBO will score this, or how many votes can we get for that, or how can we deal the president a political blow on this, or what can we vote for and still keep the campaign contributions flowing on that--here's what happening to REAL people in the REAL world. A husband and father in Wisconsin, Bill Caudle,  has...

I found this at Firedoglake, and thought it was a great take on how the hundreds of millions spent by lobbyists trying to influence legislators in order to maintain the status quo could have been put to much better use:"In an article at CNN.com we learn how much money is being spent in an attempt to prevent real health care reform:"The health care sector has spent $263 million this year lobbying Congress for changes to...

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the 45th president of the United States. I'm not sure when the election took place (silly me, I thought the ballot read Obama/Biden, my bad) but this is now the most powerful person in Washington, D.C.:Don't believe it? Who was the person former President Obama singled out for praise the day the Senate Finance Committee passed its version of health care reform? Olympia Snowe: "I want to...

All you need to know about why the deck is stacked against us in the battle for health care reform. From Bill Moyers via Crooks and Liars:"Take a close look at that woman sitting behind Montana Senator Max Baucus. He's the Democrat who's the Chairman of the Finance Committee. Liz Fowler is her name. And now get this. She used to work for WellPoint, the largest health insurer in the country. She was Vice President...