About congress, I'm with the one who thinks it shouldn't get anything done for who knows how long.
I wish they could do something about the highways and more money for education and head start and do something about health care and raise minimum wage. But since they don't do anything about any of that but instead do some awful something like give more money for Iraq to disappear to who knows where or talk about destroying social security. I think they should not do anything because so far they have done more than enough and I would hate to see what else they will do.
No man's life or property are secure while the legislature is in session.
-- Samuel Clemens
revel, Congress recently passed a transportation bill that is higher than Bush wanted. We may see some improvement on our infrastructure yet... The roads in the US are worse than some third world countries...while we spend billions every month in Iraq and Afghanistan.
cicerone imposter wrote:revel, Congress recently passed a transportation bill that is higher than Bush wanted. We may see some improvement on our infrastructure yet... The roads in the US are worse than some third world countries...while we spend billions every month in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Although, not having read the whole bill, I would venture to guess, that if you took the "pork" out of it, you would still have a worthwhile bill that would do what is intended and be within the amount Bush asked for.
Take the pork out of it. That is like asking congress to cut off their blood supply. It is the fodder that gets them re elected. In a way the American taxpayer is paying for their campaigns.
Yeah, the American taxpayer is pay'n for their campaigns, their good salaries and benefits, their generous retirement, and they end up screwing the very people paying for all that. Now, they have the gall to give offshore businesses American taxpayer paid contracts without bids. And we continue to reelect them back into office to screw us some more.
cicerone imposter wrote:revel, Congress recently passed a transportation bill that is higher than Bush wanted. We may see some improvement on our infrastructure yet... The roads in the US are worse than some third world countries...while we spend billions every month in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Your right the roads here are a disgrace and kind of tricky trying to dodge the holes.
I don't see where the money is going to come from to fund the bill.
Your pockets, my pockets, C.I.'s pockets . . .
Setanta
You could put that to music. Something like old McDonald.
Quote, "Your pockets, my pockets, C.I.'s pockets . . . " But mostly from our chldren's and grandchildren's pockets.
Will DeLay ever pay for his unethical conduct? From the NYT:
"May 26, 2005
Judge Rules Group Tied to DeLay Violated Election Law
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
WASHINGTON, May 26 - In the first major legal decision involving associates of Representative Tom DeLay, a Texas judge ruled today that a political action committee formed by Mr. Delay had broken campaign finance laws as it propelled the Republican Party into power in the Texas House in 2002.
The decision in the civil lawsuit, brought by five defeated Democratic candidates, means the group's treasurer must pay nearly $200,000 to the plaintiffs. It does not directly implicate Mr. DeLay, the majority leader of the United States House of Representatives, of any wrongdoing; he was not named as a defendant in the case.
But the outcome marked an important symbolic victory for Mr. DeLay's critics, lending credence to allegations that his allies used illegal campaign finance tactics to expand the Republican majority.
Judge Joseph H. Hart, the senior district judge in the civil case, said in a letter to lawyers on both sides that Bill Ceverha, the treasurer of Texans for a Republican Majority, should have reported $532,333 in corporate donations that were spent illegally on campaign activities rather than for administrative purposes.
Until recently, Texas law allowed businesses to donate money for administrative expenses without reporting it to elections officials.
Mr. Ceverha will have to pay $196,660 as a result of the ruling, a sum that will be divided among the plaintiffs, all of them Democratic candidates for the legislature who were defeated by Republicans with support from the political committee.
A lawyer for Mr. Ceverha condemned the decision as "wrong" and promised to appeal, while aides to Mr. DeLay said the case offered further proof of his innocence.
"The decision doesn't mention Tom DeLay, which confirms that he really has no involvement in - and has never had any involvement in - that particular litigation," Bobby Burchfield, his outside counselor, said. "The implications are, I would think, fairly limited."
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they were confident that the case laid the groundwork for Mr. DeLay's associates to be found liable in several other pending civil suits, and for them to be convicted in a related criminal trial.
"This was an important first step," said Cris Feldman, a lawyer for the Democratic plaintiffs."
Another impasse. From the NYT:
May 31, 2005
Bush Defends Detainee Treatment and Cites 'Stalling' on Bolton
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
WASHINGTON, May 31 - President Bush denounced Senate Democrats today for "stalling" a vote on John R. Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations, and indicated that he would not grant Democrats access to intelligence documents they want to review before allowing the confirmation to go ahead.
His statements, at a news conference in the Rose Garden, suggested that he was intent on winning the battle over Mr. Bolton on his terms rather than on negotiating a deal with Democrats, as well as some Republicans, who have been advocating a compromise.
Democrats delayed a vote on Mr. Bolton's nomination on Thursday night, saying they wanted access to classified information about Mr. Bolton's conduct that the administration has refused for weeks to provide.
"Now in terms of the requests for the documents, I view that as just another stall tactic," Mr. Bush said. "Another way to delay. Another way not to allow Bolton to get an up or down vote."
Mr. Bush said that when the Senate returns from its Memorial Day recess, it should "stop stalling and give the man a vote." The Senate comes back into session next week.
Democrats gave no indication that they would back down. "Mr. Bolton's fate lies with the president," said Jim Manley, the spokesman for Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader. "If he agrees to turn over the requested information about his nominee, then Mr. Bolton will get his up or down vote. The Senate is entitled to the information. It's really that simple."
Mr. Bush, whose poll numbers have been slipping as he faces difficulties with his agenda at home and abroad, used the news conference to try to regain the initiative and to show that he was effectively deploying what he referred to after his reelection as his political capital. He hailed what he called a strong economy, and called on Congress to act soon to pass his energy bill, approve a free trade agreement with central America, hold down the growth in government spending and move ahead on his call to remake the Social Security system.
"Again, things don't happen instantly in Washington, D.C.," he said, dismissing a question about whether he had lost momentum.
Asked how he would go about selecting a nominee for the Supreme Court, Mr. Bush sounded as if he expects to make such a selection, though he did not allude specifically to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who has been under treatment for thyroid cancer. He said he was "obviously going to spend a lot of time reviewing the records of a variety of people" and that he looked forward "to talking to members of the Senate about the Supreme Court process."
He gave no indication that he had a particular candidate in mind, and he said he was still waiting to see if the bipartisan agreement among 14 senators last week to limit filibusters of his judicial nominees would have any lasting effect. Referring to the agreement's pledge that judicial nominees would only be filibustered in "extraordinary" circumstances, he said his hope was "that extraordinary circumstances means just that - really extraordinary."
On foreign policy, he said he was pleased with the progress being made in Iraq, despite the recent surge of violence there, and that Britain, France and Germany were making progress in convincing Iran to abandon its nuclear program. He reiterated his commitment to seeking a diplomatic solution with North Korea over its nuclear activities, and called "absurd" a new report from Amnesty International, the human rights monitoring organization, that the United States had established a "gulag" at Guantánamo Bay and "thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights."
The United States, he said, "promotes freedom around the world" and fully investigates allegations of improper behavior toward prisoners in a transparent way. The Amnesty International accusations struck him as being based in part on "allegations by people who were held in detention, people who hate America," he said. The Pentagon said last week that it had found five instances in which guards or interrogators at the Guantánamo Bay facility had mishandled the Koran, but no "credible evidence" to substantiate reports that the Muslim holy book was ever flushed down a toilet.
He said the United States would be "watching the ongoing case" of Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the Russian oil company executive who was convicted today and sentenced to nine years in prison in a case that was widely seen as an effort by the Kremlin to intimidate a potential rival to President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Bush offered no criticism of Mr. Putin, and said the focus by the United States would be on "how the appeal will be handled."
Asked about the killings of scores of people this month by government forces in Uzbekistan, an American ally in the fight against terrorism, Mr. Bush said he expected all nations "to honor human rights and protect minority rights." He said he had asked the Red Cross to investigate what had happened there, but stopped short criticizing the government of President Islam A. Karimov.
The 51-minute session with reporters was the latest in a string of monthly news conferences Mr. Bush has held since Election Day, reversing his reluctance in his first term to submit to extended questioning. He dodged or did not directly answer a number of questions, such as whether he would be willing to back off his call for investment accounts in Social Security if doing so would lead to a bipartisan agreement. And he prompted titters in the press corps when he used the word "disassemble" when he meant "dissemble," and then added, "That means not tell the truth."
He deviated little from his standard responses on a variety of issues, including on Iraq. Asked whether the surge in violence meant the insurgency was getting more lethal, and whether the Iraqi government is up to the task of guaranteeing security, he expressed confidence in the ability of the Iraqis to develop their own security and said the insurgents are being driven to greater violence by the prospect of democracy taking root.
"So I'm pleased with the progress," he said. "I'm pleased that in less than a year's time there's a democratically elected government in Iraq, there are thousands of Iraqi soldiers trained and better equipped to fight for their own country, that our strategy is clear and that we will work to get them ready to fight, and when they're ready, we'll come home."
Mr. Bush said the relationship between the United States and China is "very complex" and "Americans ought to view it as such."
He said Americans ought to look at China as "an economic opportunity" that had to be pressed at times to abide by international trade rules and also as a potential partner in efforts to deal with North Korea and battle terrorism. Referring to human rights concerns and freedoms of expression and religion, he said, "I believe we have an obligation to remind the Chinese that any hopeful society is one in which there's more than just economic freedom."
