Senate Coverage -- (April '05)

Thomas ^ | 4-04-05 | US Congress

[OXENinFLA]

Since "Free Republic is an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America.", I and others think it's a good idea to centralize what the goes on in the Senate (or House).

So if you see something happening on the Senate/House floor and you don't want to start a new thread to ask if anyone else just heard what you heard, you can leave a short note on who said what and about what and I'll try and find it the next day in THE RECORD. Or if you see a thread that pertains to the Senate, House, or pretty much any GOV'T agency please link your thread here.

If you have any suggestions for this thread please feel free to let me know.

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Here's a few helpful links.

C-SPAN what a great thing. Where you can watch or listen live to most Government happenings.

C-SPAN 1 carries the HOUSE.

C-SPAN 2 carries the SENATE.

C-SPAN 3 (most places web only) carries a variety of committee meetings live or other past programming.

OR FEDNET has online feed also.

A great thing about our Government is they make it really easy for the public to research what the Politicians are doing and saying (on the floor anyway).

THOMAS where you can see a RECORD of what Congress is doing each day. You can also search/read a verbatim text of what each Congressmen/women or Senator has said on the floor or submitted 'for the record.' [This is where the real juicy stuff can be found.]

Also found at Thomas are Monthly Calendars for the Senate Majority and Senate Minority

And Monthly Calendars for the House Majority and Roll Call Votes can be found here.

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OTHER LINKS

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Congress.org

The Founders' Constitution

THE WHITE HOUSE

THE WAR DEPARTMENT (aka The Dept. of Defense)

LIVE DoD Briefings

NEWSEUM: TODAY'S FRONT PAGES

THE HILL

CNSNEWS

Iraqi Blogs

CANADIAN PARLIAMENT

[OXENinFLA]

Dorgan up talking about the WMD report.....

[ken5050]

Since we're all Senate junkies on this thread, two questions for the group...

1. Has the Senate ever considered electronic voting?.....if they didn't have all those long votes..wait, I withdraw that...then they'd have MORE time to bloviate..

2. What's the story behind the puny little gavel the presiding officer uses..unlike the "REAL MAN's" gavel the HOuse uses..?

[OXENinFLA]

2. What's the story behind the puny little gavel the presiding officer uses..unlike the "REAL MAN's" gavel the HOuse uses..?

I've wondered the same thing....

[Bahbah]

Dorgan has apparantly just discovered waste, fraud and abuse in government contracting.

[JFC]

John Cornyn is an upcoming star in the GOP. I have watched him here in Texas for several years. I agree.. he would be excellent SJC Chair.

[deport]

"What is the history of the Senate gavel?

"The original ivory gavel is one of the most precious articles in the Senate's
collection. According to tradition, Vice President John Adams (our first Vice
President and therefore our first President of the Senate) used this gavel to
call the Senate to order in New York in the Spring of 1789. Although we cannot
document that, we know for certain the gavel was used as early as 1831. In the
late 1940s the old gavel began to wear out, so silver tips were added to each
end to strengthen and preserve it. In 1954, as Vice President Richard Nixon
presided over a heated discussion about atomic energy, the precious gavel fell
apart. Senate officials wanted to recreate the original as exactly as
possible. When no ivory of sufficient size could be found commercially, India,
through its embassy, provided the ivory and had the new gavel hand-carved in
exactly the same dimensions as the new one. The new gavel began service on
November 17, 1954, and is still in use today. At the end of each long day of
service, the gavel is placed in a box beside the mended original gavel."

[ken5050]

Thanks..that's fascinating..wonder why Adams used such a small one originally..BTW..whenever the current one cracks..which may well happen during the upcoming embroglio about judges..it won't be PC to use ivory again..

[OXENinFLA]

CHINA'S SPREADING GLOBAL INFLUENCE [Senator INHOFE's floor speech]

[OXENinFLA]

Well isn't that interesting, thanks

[Bahbah]

I just received a news alert that Peter Jennings has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

[Mo1]

1. Has the Senate ever considered electronic voting?.....if they didn't have all those long votes..wait, I withdraw that...then they'd have MORE time to bloviate..

Reminds me of the Ghost voting that happened in PA

[Txsleuth]

I wish both the House and the Senate had electronic voting that shows the congresscritters names and shows the "yea" or "nay" as the vote is being taken...

Then we would know right away who is messing things up! lol

[ken5050]

The House does..there are displays on the chamber wall..you can't see it from the camera angles.

[Txsleuth]

Oh, thanks for the info---convenient that you can't see it on TV, though---

I mean, wouldn't it be nice if the constituents could see how their reps and senators vote-at the time-so they could call/e-mail right away to express their opinions....

I don't know, I guess once a vote is made, it is moot what the "folks" want---actually BEFORE the vote is made is seems that it is moot what the "folks" think, unfortunately!

[OXENinFLA]

Ooooooooooo Steve Forbes is on C-span2 right now talking about Social Security. I caught some of this last night.

[ken5050]

FYI..The cameras and microphones..the camera angles..when they are on or off, etc.. in the House and Senate are controlled by the House and Senate respectively, and NOT C-span. That's so that when, for example, "Sheets" is rambling on..you can't tell that the Senate chamber is empty..The only times that isn't true are when it's a joint session of Congress, like for the SOTU..then C-span puts more cameras in, and they control the shots and the angles..

Here's something I discovered accidentally a few years ago. I was watchig the Senate debate, late at night, on the Iraq war issues, and so as NOT to disturb the wife, I plugged my headphones into the TV..You can pick up hushed, whispered comments..that are not audible over regular TV sound speakers..I heard a muted "son of a bitch"..among others..

[Mo1]

Ooooooooooo Steve Forbes is on C-span2 right now

Oh yea

Well FNC has it's 2nd car case this hour

[OXENinFLA]

2nd car case this hour

Awwwwwwwwwwww.

What states?

[OXENinFLA]

The only times that isn't true are when it's a joint session of Congress, like for the SOTU..then C-span puts more cameras in, and they control the shots and the angles..

Or when they do special order speeches.

[Mo1]

Take 3 guesses

the first two don't count :0)