Posted on 6/13/2007, 6:21:24 PM by jazusamo
June 13, 2007
* Remember the other day when, to demonstrate how long five months can be in politics, I suggested that five months ago Nancy Pelosi had been speaker of the House for less than two weeks?
* Pelosi got off to a rough start even before she started when she backed former mentor Jack Murtha (D-Pa.) to be Caucus Chairman.
* Murtha got hammered by Maryland's Steny Hoyer, and Pelosi got her first lesson in being the head of an organization made up of 435 Type-A, self-absorbed, independently elected, intellectually-gifted members of Congress.
* That might have been the high point of her speakership to date.
* While Democrats nationally were swooning over taking control of the House and Senate, things have gone from bad to worse.
* A poll taken on behalf of the LA Times and Bloomberg News Service asked how Nancy Pelosi's Congress is doing its job. Approve: 27 percent. Disapprove: 65 percent.
* The clue to this was in the next question: "Do you think Democrats are working hard to bring fundamental change" to the way Congress works or is it "business as usual?" The answer was 29 percent thought the Dems were trying to bring change, but 63 percent thought it is business as usual.
* The principal business of Congress usually involves spending our money -- whether it is run by Republicans or Democrats. The spending process was supposed to be -- in the current vernacular -- transparent, which is to say, we are supposed to know what kinds of things they are spending our money on.
* There are some things, of course, we are not allowed to know about: how much they are spending on intelligence matters; how much on double secret military units; how much on the Congressional Visitors' Center; and like that.
* But for the most part, there are things and services which the government buys with our money, and we're supposed to be allowed to see what they are.
* There is this thing known as an "earmark." According to testimony in the U.S. Senate last year, an earmark is defined as "the practice of including legislative provisions that specific certain projects or entities to receive federal funding."
* Otherwise known as "pork."
* The Library of Congress estimates that in appropriations bills for fiscal year 1994, there were about 4,126 earmarks. Ten years later, that number had grown to 15,877.
* But that was when the GOP controlled the Congress. Fiscal responsibility. Less government is better. Remember all that?
* Yeah, well, elections have consequences. The other day, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, David Obey (D-Wis.) announced that there were now some 30,000 earmarks piling up in the back rooms of the Capitol that would be smoke-filled if smoking in them were still allowed.
* Last year, in a desperate effort to convince voters they were cleaning up their act, the GOP-controlled House rewrote the rules to, according to the AP, "require that earmark requests and their sponsors be publicized during a bill's drafting and debate." * You want a couple of million for a water slide in your district? No prob. You just have to defend it in public.
* The Democrats -- elected because they promised to clean up the system -- have struck that rule and decided that earmarks and earmarkers would not be make public during debate where they might be struck by a vote of other members of the House, or the earmarker might just decide that the water slide isn't worth the public ridicule which would accompany the debate.
* So, they have decided to go to the good old days when folks like Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Cellblock E) were riding high. Earmarks now will be dropped in during the conferences between House and Senate appropriators.
* Why is this important? Because (a) conferences are very often closed to the press, and (b) the output of the conference -- a conference report -- is not amendable on the floor of either the House or the Senate.
* So, what will happen is the water ride will be slid into the appropriations bill literally in the dead of night and will simply show up on the doorstep of the Interior Department for implementation, and no one will ever know.
* That's why the Democratic-led Congress is held in such low regard by American voters.
* Nice going, Nancy.
Who woulda thought 435 congressmen had that many relatives?!! ;-)
Why am I not surprised at this? Ethical? Hardly. So much for Pelosi promises.
Don’t look for these numbers to receive anything more than cursory coverage on the MSM.
Pelosi Sees Impact of Global Warming
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) joined a delegation of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, chaired by Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass) took a trip to Greenland, Germany, England, and Belgium to investigate the effects of climate change.
“The purpose of our visit was to see firsthand the adverse environmental and economic impacts of global warming and to meet with foreign leaders who are taking action to address one of the greatest challenges of our time,” Pelosi said. “It was pointed out to me that since January alone, average daily temperatures have risen by over 30 degrees. If this trend continues, the seas will be boiling by this time next year. The urgency with which we must act should be readily apparent to everyone.”
“It is far worse than you think,” Pelosi continued. “In England, global warming has gotten so bad that the beer is served warm. In Greenland, cases of frostbite have declined precipitously in just the last month. In Germany it has been over 60 years since they stopped burning Jews, but average temperatures still show no sign of heading downwards. We are running out of options and time. Unless a global climate czar with total power over all economies is established soon life as we know it will cease to exist.”
read more...
http://www.azconservative.org/Semmens1.htm
So much for here global warming stance.
My Grandfather used to say that the only thing missing at the Capital was iron bars.
Her face is still tighter than a snare drum.
“intellectually-gifted” members of congress is an oxymoron. this must be satire.
“It is far worse than you think,” Pelosi continued. “In England, global warming has gotten so bad that the beer is served warm.”
Please if you can provide a link other than your blog to her statement of this and the other remarks about the Burnings, and Frostbite. I’d appreciate it. I believe it, but would like to have something more about it.
This is incredible!.
Is that for the start of the year 2007?
I’ll be surprised if they give it cursory coverage.
San Fran Nan should stop her globe trotting and get our own House in order but like most of the dems she’s corrupt and inept.
That was my same thought when reading the article. No idea.
That’s what I took it to mean, it boggles the mind.
Since when does ruthless ambition = intellect?
What a crock of sh!t.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.