AP: After 34 hours, 5 bills down and 1 to go on Democrats' 100-hour House agenda

[DeepModem Mom]

5 down, 1 to go on Dems' House agenda
By KASIE HUNT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Five down, one more on tap as House Democrats sprint through their list of promises, not even in sight of the 100 hours set aside for that goal.

About seven more hours ticked away Wednesday on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 100-hour clock for passing each item on an agenda that Democrats told voters they would enact after sweeping to victory in November.

The final piece was on deck for a vote Thursday: energy legislation that imposes billions in fees, taxes and royalties on oil and gas companies and uses the money to promote renewable fuels.

According to Pelosi's count, it has taken just over 34 hours to pass the first five bills, including a measure approved Wednesday to lower interest rates on some student loans....

The San Francisco Democrat's clock only tracks hours spent on legislation.

The items passed so far would:

_make the government negotiate for lower Medicare prescription drug prices. It passed last Friday.

_expand federally funded stem cell research. It passed Jan. 11.

_raise the federal minimum wage. It passed Jan. 10.

_seek to bolster terrorism-fighting efforts. It passed Jan. 9.

_change rules governing ethics, lobbying and the budget. These changes were passed on Jan. 4-5.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070117/ap_on_go_co/congress100_hours

LINK TO WATCH NANCY'S CLOCK: http://www.house.gov/pelosi/

[Demeter]

1. Good! There's Plenty of Time Left to Defund War, File Articles of Impeachment,

and start public health care and public campaign financing!

[Pacifist Patriot]

27. Agreed!

[glitch]

28. Repeal the Patriot Act, restore the Bill of Rights and Habeas Corpus

hopefully be the end of this month.

[Justyce]

2. I hope the outsourcing problem is

pretty high on the list too. Funny how the "news" channels (and I use that term loosely) got rid of the 100-hour countdown clock I guess when it looked like we were going to actually do what we said....

[BOSSHOG]

3. I must admit

I need time keeping for Dummies. I was thinking a literal 100 hours when she first made the announcement. Damn she's gonna do a lot in 4 days and 4 hours. I was thinking the republicans spend more time getting coffee and hitting on pages, she'll have to do some awesome gop herding to hit that 100 hour deadlines.

Good job Nancy. More in "100 hours" for the people of our country then the gop did in the last 4 fricking years.

And to think the republican party was opposed to all those measures.

[Recursion]

19. It was 100 business hours, like Rove's indictment

Sorry, couldn't resist...

[katsy]

4. What a hero!

Nancy beat the clock!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Now... investigate, impeach.

[fladonkey]

6. Margaret Thatcher was right.....

"If you want something said, ask a man but if you want things done, ask a woman." Go Nancy Go!

[schmuls]

40. Ha ha ha!!! I always used to watch my millwright boyfriend and his

millwright brothers stand around discussing something for about 2 hours, drinking beer the whole time, while my girlfriend and I looked and each other, shook our heads, and went ahead and did it in 15 mins!! And we didn't even have to discuss it much!!!!!!

[llmart]

44. I always called those guys.............

verbal engineers - they never did much real engineering, but boy they could sure stand around and talk about what they would do if they actually did any work.

(I worked in engineering a lot):)

WOMEN GET THINGS DONE!

Go, Nancy.

[schmuls]

50. Women Rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Botany]

5. To all right wing lurkers, Rush staff flunkies, and fox weasels

Suck on it .... how does it taste?

Despite all the fire and big talk by the right that Pelosi wouldn't be able
to meet her 100 hour goal .... looks like she will and with time to spare.

[SoFlaJet]

7. you see John Boener

just tried to adjourn the house a half hour into today's session in protest? It cracks me up to see these hypocrite republicans stand up there and actually have the nerve to complain about the way this house is being run.I watched a lot of the 108 and 109 and how they treated the democrats and with mean spiritedness-I'll never forget Bill Thomas calling the capitol police on dems for trying to get into the room to see what was going on.

[Justyce]

12. Yes, governing ethics and bolstering the terrorism fighting efforts

are sooo bad for our country, you traitors! LOL. I fear for our future and safety with Democrats in control of things (my cousin actually said this to me.....) I find it amazing that the repubs have the balls to be against these things in the first place -- and amazing that any of them got re-elected with their voting records.

[nxylas]

36. It would be amazing

If anybody actually checked congesscritters voting records. Most people just look to see if there's an (R) or a (D) next to a person's name, as Faux News well knows (that D after Mark Foley's name wasn't put there by accident).

[jamesinca]

15. Of course he tried to adjourn it

They have been meeting more this session already then they did last session. So it is time to go on vacation and not talk to constituents.

[Earth_First]

31. While this very well may have been the case...

from the GD about an hour ago:

As he prepares for his State of the Union address next week, President Bush has no public events today or tomorrow. Consequently, the center of the GOP universe shifts a few blocks -- from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to the downtown Grand Hyatt in DC, where Republicans are gathering for the RNC's winter meeting to discuss their lessons learned from the 2006 midterms. There are two big events today: House Minority Leader John Boehner's speech at lunch and outgoing RNC chairman Ken Mehlman's farewell address later in the afternoon. Tomorrow, the party elects its new chair, Florida Sen. Mel Martinez.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3147851

[Botany]

26. Sorry I did not mean to offend weasels

Funny thing now the repug senators will have to go on record
as opposing things that the vast majority of Americans want
and bush's veto of renewable energy & cheaper drugs will make
him all the weaker.

34 hours and 5 out of 6 are done. No wonder Rep. Boner of Ohio
wanted to shut it down ..... funny thing he can't do that anymore
he is in the minority and after next election the dem edge will grow
bigger unless they impeach bush.

[Zhade]

43. Surely you mean "after they impeach bush".

A majority of Americans favor that, you know.

[Botany]

45. and when it comes the repugs are going to lead the charge .....

@ least anyone who wants to remain viable.

Not a question of if just a matter of when.

BTW A.G. Gonzales dug their graves a little deeper today.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3150735

[SharonRB]

8. Let's see how many of these actually get through the Senate

and don't get a veto from *. I don't think he'll veto the minimum wage bill or lowering student loan interest rates, and he has no control over the ethics stuff that's internal to the House. I think we'll be working on stem cell funding, the 9/11 recommendations and negotiating drug prices again in the 111th, as I doubt we have enough votes to override a veto on any of them.

Too bad all that work will go to waste.

Since they're getting through these top items so fast, does anyone know what will be next up -- at this rate they'll get a lot more done in 100 hours than they had initially planned, I think.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

9. He'll Veto The Student Loan Interest Bill

Reading the wh comments regarding it, I have little doubt he's going to veto it. They supposedly have their own "wonderful" plan on "helping" these debtors out.

gb Hates All People.

[SharonRB]

14. We may have enough for an override on that one

Only 71 in the House voted against it. I'm not sure about the Senate.

I can't believe he'd veto even that one! What a fucktard.

[jelly]

33. Apparently, they plan to require more disclosure about the cost of education.

I agree that rising tuition costs are a major part of the problem, and I understand that the disclosure measure is intended to put pressure on educational institutions to keep tuition competitive. However, I don't see that lack of information about tuition is the problem. The problem is that educational institutions can charge whatever they want because today prestige plays such a huge role in one's choice of college. There is a perception -- sometimes realistic, sometimes not -- that to get that plum job you have always dreamed about, you simply must go to (e.g.) Harvard, or else forget it. A few thousand dollars' difference -- even tens of thousands -- will simply not entice the average prospective student who wants that job into choosing a less reputable college. Adding to the likelihood that the student will choose to go with the more reputable but much more expensive institution is the role human psychology plays in the decision: AS LONG AS the student successfully graduates, successfully lands the plum job, and successfully manages to survive in the job for x number of years, the decision to go into debt actually makes good financial sense. The human psychology part is where even though most people understand that there is a chance the plan will not work out as imagined (student will not gradutae, will not land the plum job, or will be unable to remain in the occupation x number of years), most people approach the risk with an optimistic attitude, imagining the s/he will certainly be among those that are able to carry out the plan to its end. Administrators of prestigious institutions are all too willing to feed into the idea that without them, you're not getting anywhere.

End result is that kids get themselves into major debt in pursuit of a job they may or may not get -- and if they get it, they may find that they don't even like. I regret to say that I fall into the latter category. I got myself into serious debt attending an Ivy League graduate school, based on the promise that when I graduated, I would be making six figures, an income that just a few years into my career, would dwarf the amount of loans I would have to take out to fund the costs of attending the institution. Well, I burned out three and a half years into said career, and presently find myself unemployed and laden with an obscene amount of remaining student loan debt. I am a survivor at heart so I believe I will find some way out of this mess (there's that good 'ol human psychology again), but regardless I believe that I would have had a much easier time forging an alternate path and paying off the debt had I graduated from that same institution just over a decade beforehand, when tuition was HALF of what it was when I graduated in 2003.

It's too late for me but I hope that more work is done to address the problems of escalating tuition costs, and resulting post-graduate debt -- either by implementing effective tuition-reduction measures, or by providing more grants that would allow lower income people to take out less loans and end up in less debt. Needless to say, I believe HR-5 is a good step in the direction of student debt relief but that much work remains to be done in this area.

[Jackpine Radical]

22. The bright side of any veto--and of any failure to override--

is the ammunition it provides for 2008.

People gotta figure out that if they want socially responsible legislation, they gotta put more Dems in government. Lots more dems. For at least the next 100 years, if we're gonna have a world worth living in by the end of that tme.

[AllegroRondo]

25. Let him veto, let the Repubs in the Senate block it

it just makes people realize how screwed up they are, and vote them out in 2008.

[jelly]

35. It's a win win!

I like it. :thumbsup:

[Selatius]

10. I believe the ethics bill is in trouble in the Senate.

I'm guessing it will fail in the Senate, but I could be wrong.

[Justyce]

13. We must fight to keep ethics out of our Senate!

lol!

[tridim]

11. Was it Wolfie who had the 100 hour countdown clock up for a few days?

Seems like he took it down now that it's clear the Dems are delivering on their promise. Suck it Wolfie.

[gasperc]

16. damn 5 day work week

we set our sites too low? what matters is the Dems got in. great we got 50 extra hours to start investigating the crap out of the Bush administration

[IronLionZion]

17. I like the right-wing sites that had the 100 hour clock in real time

:rofl: That stuff cracked me up.

But even in legislative time, this is an impressive feat. Please God let this pass the Senate and force * to sign them into laws.

[Roland99]

20. Or let America see how horrible he is if/when he vetoes them.

[progressoid]

18. COOL! I'm sure the media will give them credit for following through..

:sarcasm:

[Fly by night]

21. Plenty of time to demand voter-verified paper ballots and mandatory audits ...

... of op-scan-counted ballots. This issue should have been at the top of the list in the original 100 hour agenda. Since it was not, now's the time to put it on the calendar.

I would also add investigative hearings (with subpoena power) by Conyers, Boxer et al to shed long-overdue light on the last several stolen elections at the local, state and national levels. It may not be too late to get Bob Ney to roll over on his Republi-Nazi brethren (and sistern) about the real motives behind HAVA (the Hoodwink America's Voters Act). Might help get ole Bob assigned a bottom bunk in federal prison and a decade's worth of soap-on-a-roap.

[bookman]

23. Rush

Someone send Nancy's link to Rush! Poor Rushie said yesterday that no one knows what hour we're in and what the Democrats have done.

[crispini]

24. Well, shit, let's do some more stuff!

Are there any more no-brainers out there we could crank out in the last 50 hours before we get to the HARD stuff?

[southernleftylady]

29. all the while the repugs are just whining away.. we treated yall so much better than yall are ..

treating us..
lol its hysterical

[OKIsItJustMe]

30. Add the clock to your web page

Simply insert this code where you think it will look best:


<link
href="http://majorityleader.house.gov/virtualapplicationResources/clock/pelosiclock.css"
rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<table width="360">
<tr>
<td>
	<script
src="http://majorityleader.house.gov/clock.cfm"></script>
	<script
src="http://majorityleader.house.gov/virtualapplicationResources/clock/100_hours.js"></script>

</td>
</tr>
</table>

[Vidar]

32. Good. Now that the PR is done, let't bring the troops home

& overthrow our dictator (impeach bush/cheney).

[hippiechick]

34. The line item recision amendment to S1 is a real pisser.

I was watching the Senate on Cspan2 last night and McConnell is doing everything in his power to be a ROYAL pain in the arse to the Dems on the ethics legislation.

Shitwad.

[trogdor]

37. Mitch McConnell - Money equals speech.

He's easily the most corrupt member of the U.S. Senate. Campaign finance reform? Ethics reform? No matter; you might as well be suggesting he saw his own left arm off at the elbow.

[johndwilli]

38. Yep...

... this should be recquired reading:

Lexington Herald-Ledger: The McConnell Machine
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/special_packages/mcconnell

[Vinca]

39. I'd like to propose one more bill:

henceforth, it will be illegal for Republican members of Congress to piss, moan and whine every ten seconds because they are - their words - being "shut out." It will also be illegal for said Republicans to make false claims of previous bipartisanship over these last few years. All Republican members will be required to carry large boxes of Kleenex under each arm. Penalties to be determined when my blood pressure goes back to normal levels.

[Liberty Belle]

41. Rate this 5 stars! And what happened to Yahoo's discussion option?

I doubt it's coincidence that they took this down right when Democrats are passing all sorts of positive legislation. Please email yahoo and demand that the public be given a chance to talk about the 100 hours agenda of the Democrats!

[bluedog]

42. Lawyer filed lawsuit against them

Reuters, 29 September 2006


A California lawyer is attempting to launch a class-action lawsuit against Yahoo over personal attacks posted on message boards
A California lawyer who has waged an ongoing battle with Yahoo over personal attacks made against him on Yahoo message boards has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the company.




The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday by associates of corporate attorney Stephen Galton, claims Yahoo has unfairly protected people who post negative messages on its bulletin boards and falsely advertised that it prevents such abusive messages.
http://uk.builder.com/0,39026540,39336679,00.htm

[BlueStorm]

46. I am so proud of our Dem congresscritters

And especially of Nancy. At least they are getting some REAL legislation going through.

Blue

[AtLiberty]

47. Does anyone know the vote break-down today?

I can't find it on Roll Call.

I want to know who those 123 reps are. Names, I want names...

[ananda]

48. The House is doing well..

.. the Senate, however, like the law is acting like a ass.

Reeps are not playing nice... as usual.

[coznfx]

49. After years of being utterly disgusted & outraged

with damn near EVERY act of Congress and Congress-people, I find myself dealing with some strangely familiar feelings these first 30-odd hours. I vaguely remember - wait - it's coming back now, ... yes, I'm sure of it! I'm feeling PROUD of our elected leaders! Maybe even a little hopeful for our children's America!

Great, GREAT job folks! Keep it up, and

Investigate. Impeach. Imprison. All of them!