Haven't Heard Much About the Dems First 100 Hrs. Lately......

[global1]

and they took two Mondays off in a row.

[stonecoldsober]

1. So far the house has passed...

Minimum-wage increase
9/11 Commission recomendations
Stem-Cell funding

Anyone know of any else?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Ethics rules

not a bill, but the rules for how they will do business.

Since Jan 15 was King Day, and a Federal Holiday, I wasn't expecting them to do anything then.

[Greeby]

3. Au Contraire

HR.1-4 have been passed, plus the Ethics package which is part of the House Rules

[Bitwit1234]

4. MLK's birthday was a holiday remember AND

the republicans have what is called a retreat. They do this every year. And then next week the democrats have their retreat. So that will slow them down some.

[brazos121200]

5. I've heard only very little about the 100 hours in the last several days.

I don't know if there is a media boycott on information about it or what. I know minimum wage and stem-cell bill has passed but not with a veto proof majority, and everybody assumes the Bush will veto everything, so I guess the media figures it isn't news. Bush's vetoing of these very popular bills could be problematic for Republican candidates in the next elections, but Bush doesn't seem to care.

[DemReadingDU]

6. probably because Bush

had his surge speech, and it has reflected away from the accomplishments of the Dems.

[Warpy]

7. They've passed a lot despite the studied ignorance

of right wingers (especially from Texas) pretending they have never read "Robert's Rules of Order" and have yammered constantly, trying to run out the clock so they can say Democrats can't pass anything, can't do anything, and are the real "do nothing" Congress, less than 2 weeks after the session started.

Democratic leadership needs to take a stronger stand against these obfuscating shitheads, call order, and have them ejected if they won't shut the fuck up.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. That's how I feel, too. It seems to me that Speaker Pelosi

should be chairing the House all the time during these early days, not allowing others to do so, and not allowing all this talk about football. I don't think the voters who voted the Republicans out would approve of this nonsense, considering that more troops are being sent to Iraq, where 109 people were killed by a bomb today.

I also thinks it sets a bad example to see how few people are on the floor at any given time. I know they have work to do off the floor but are the missing members working in their offices or are they in the gym? Or meeting with lobbyists, perhaps?

Now they're talking about the Sooners, perhaps having run out of things to say about the Gators and the Buckeyes.

I haven't seen Steny Hoyer on the floor, either, and I watched most of the day last Thursday and two hours today.

[Warpy]

12. I know committee meetings are going on

behind the scenes and that those not in committee meetings may be doing a lot of other things, from meeting with consituents to answering correspondence to actually reading at least part of some of the legislation being submitted. I realize the latter may be a fantasy, of course.

The job is a little different from the secretarial pool, and I wouldn't expect them to be chained to their desks in the chamber unless an important vote were coming up.

[harveyc]

13. Indeed, our soldiers dying and the Iraq war must come first. n/t

[DemBones DemBones]

8. No, and I've been watching House "debate" on C-SPAN for nearly two hours.

All they've done is make speeches in memory of MLK (some reference to an extension of a bill, MLK holiday???), in support of the Thomas Alva Edison monument, and about the Mare Island 21ers, a group of black shipyard workers at Mare Island who, in 1961, organized to fight discrimination.


Not that there's anything wrong with any of the above -- it's all very admirable to honor people who've done honorable things -- but we have an administration that's about to escalate the war in Iraq and very likely planning to attack Iran, if they can't provoke Iran into attacking one of our ships in the Persian Gulf (or our troops on the Iraq-Iran border) first. This could lead to war throughout the Middle East, if not WW III.


Oh, hey, now they're presenting a resolution commending the University of Florida Gators for their win last Monday. Wahoo!!! :sarcasm:

Rep. Ric Killer (R-FL) (Orlando, Eustis, Ocala) is now holding up "Sports Illustrated" to show the cover that reads "Gator Raid." Cute.

I'm a native Floridian and my husband did his graduate work at UF but football is not as important as war.

And why is Pelosi never in the chairman's seat? Last Thursday, Barney Frank was filling in for her all afternoon, then someone else, today it's a woman I don't recognize.

Now the Ohio Buckeyes fans are talking about their team. . .

:banghead:

WHY AREN'T THEY TALKING ABOUT THE WAR???

[TlalocW]

9. I think the 100 hours are limited to

When bills are actually being debated and voted on and stuff like that - not the open time when congress-critters can get up and bloviate about whatever they want. The first couple of days were pretty much all pomp and circumstance. The following Monday they had off so Boehnner (sp?) could watch a college football game (at 8:30 pm), but then Nancy outlawed smoking outside the chambers which I'm sure pissed him off (and pissed off republicans are a nice benefit of the first 100 hours), then they've passed two or three pretty good bills concerning veterans and minimum wage, and didn't they also approve one on stem-cells? And then MLK, JR. Day was a fed holiday.

Anyway, they've already done more work than the last congress. :)

TlalocW

[DemBones DemBones]

10. Ha! At least I got a laugh out of a comment by Republican

Rep.Cliff Stearne (6th District, Ocala, Orange Park, Gainesville.) He was touting the research done at UF and he spoke about "veterinarian Dr. Julie Levy, who is one of the worldwide leaders of research into a revolutionary humane drug option for SPRAYING and neutering cats and dogs."

:rofl:

Be sure to have YOUR pets sprayed and neutered!