members of congress

These Tea Party congressmen. They are nothing but common people, just like you and me. Right?

One-fifth of the 50 richest members of Congress are freshman House Republicans sent to Washington last year with strong Tea Party support, according to The Hill’s 50 Wealthiest for 2011.

Ohio’s Rep. Jim Renacci, the wealthiest of the 87 freshman Republicans elected in 2010, has an estimated net worth of $35.9 million and is the 11th richest lawmaker in Congress, according to The Hill’s list.

Like Reps. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.), and Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), who are also numbered among the most wealthy 50 lawmakers in Congress, Renacci had a successful business career before entering Congress.

[SNIP]

Two other new members of the rich list, Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Scott Rigell (R-Va.), made their fortunes with car dealerships. Kelly’s estimated wealth is $11.9 million, while Rigell’s is $10.7 million.

Ah yes, I feel like such a common man, much like these tea party people. Now excuse me while I bath myself in my millions!

At a townhall in Cincinnati, Republican Congressman Steve Chabot decided that people should not be allowed to videotape the event and had a police officer seize the camera of citizens recording the public event of a public figure inside of a public building:

What is even worse is the excuse given by Chabot's spokesman:

Schwartz said that sometimes at the town hall meetings, citizens ask questions about their own personal situations and the Chabot staff did not want them videotaped. The media cameras were allowed to continue to roll, Schwartz said, “because they can be expected to respect people’s privacy.”

They are asking questions at a public townhall and they are pulling the privacy card. How stupid does Chabot's people think we are?

This has to be one of the saddest periods in American history. We have a major political party hellbent on turning us into the Soviet States of America. We can't video public events of public figures. We even have Republicans charging to talk to them now, and this is a Republican who the right was pushing to run for President!

Sen. Al Franken is still on a rampage over the recent news of Apple iOS devices recording their users every moves and now he will be holding a hearing:

Senator Al Franken (D-MN) has stepped up his pressure on Apple CEO Steve Jobs, announcing on Monday that he will hold hearings on the recent revelation that Apple iPhones and iPads are secretly tracking and storing their users' locations.

"The same technology that has given us smartphones, tablets, and cell phones has also allowed these devices to gather extremely sensitive information about users, including detailed records of their daily movements and location," Franken, Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, said in a statement posted on his website.

"This hearing is the first step in making certain that federal laws protecting consumers' privacy-particularly when it comes to mobile devices-keep pace with advances in technology," he added.

Franken said he has invited representatives from Apple and Google to attend the hearing, titled, "Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy." The hearing is scheduled for May 10.

I can’t wait to see who shows up and what they have to say. Hopefully more members of Congress, from both sides of the aisle, will get in on this.

Today is the day that the President’s Debt Commission is supposed to vote on the final recommendations, which includes such things as:

• Raising the retirement age to 69
• Increase taxes by up to $1,700 a year for the average tax payer
• 15% budget decrease for Congress and the White House
• 3 year pay freeze for members of Congress

For the plan to be adopted, a super majority of 14 of the 18 members must vote for it. That now appears to be out of reach as Greg Sargent reports:

Former top labor leader Andy Stern has privately informed deficit-commission co-chair Erskine Bowles that he will vote against the commission's package of proposals, a source close to Stern tells me, effectively ending hopes of getting the desired 14 members to support it.

With the arrest of a Pakistani born, U.S. citizen in connection with the failed car bombing on Times Square, the Republican members of Congress are starting to show that they have absolutely no respect for the Constitution of this land:

The morning after the arrest of 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad at John F. Kennedy airport on Monday evening, the usual suspects in the GOP took to print and the airwaves to whack away at the president and his top lawyer. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) mocked the idea that Attorney General Eric Holder might read the suspect his Miranda rights or consider trying him in a civilian court.

"I hope that [Attorney General Eric] Holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he's an American citizen but still," King said.

Notorious for jumping into the political fray in the wake of attempted or successful terrorist acts, King was quickly joined in the ring by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who called the idea of reading Miranda rights a "serious mistake."

As matter of fact McCain has even gone to the right of Glenn Beck now:

"He is a citizen of the United States, so I say we uphold the laws and the Constitution on citizens," the bombastic Fox News host said to the stunned co-hosts of "Fox and Friends". "If you are a citizen, you obey the law and follow the Constitution. [Shahzad] has all the rights under the Constitution."

"We don't shred the Constitution when it is popular," Beck added. "We do the right thing."

Last night I noticed something rather interesting. Before the breaking news email alerts went out of the suspected “shoe bombing” aboard United Flight 663 the right side of the blogosphere jumped into action. It was like watching a seed turn into a tree in some cartoon where they put some sort of Acme Super Grow on it. Blog posts just bloomed on the right instantly over what turned out to be a very bad joke.

Compare that to two other big stories this week involving separate cases of men being arrested for threatening to kill sitting members of Congress, including the Speaker of the House. There has not been a peep out of the right side of the blogosphere in regards to these stories. I mean not one. I have searched and can’t find a single mention despite these stories getting some big press time nationally. Talk about one organized noise machine.

This exchange between David Shuster and some tea bagger this afternoon on MSNBC pretty much sums up the whole problem; that the tea party refuses to take responsibility for their rhetoric. To make it even more interesting, the tea bagger goes on to blame the rash of vandalism against Democratic members of Congress on Democratic operatives. I would say that MSNBC should do a better job at screening guests, but this guy really made the tea party look bad today and that is a good thing.

(NOTE: YouTube is slow on processing today. The video should be available soon hopefully)

A lot of people in the progressive blogosphere are shocked by the passionate disagreements going on over the uncertain fate of health care reform. I for one am not. We are dealing with an issue that will very much affect every single one of us, so people are going to take a much deeper look at the legislation than usual.

Add to that the very different effects it will have on people and the issue gets that much more confusing. A lot has focused on the average family of four living 250% above the poverty line, but what about that family living at 150% or 100% or even 350%? What about the single people out there at varying levels of income.

We’re all bloggers and all very opinionated, and that is a great thing for our democracy. I would never try to push my views of the bill on someone who opposes it, nor would I question their intentions. That restraint is something we haven’t seen to much of.

What I do have a big problem with is some of the dishonesty coming out of the debate. Rather it be intentional or through a casual omission of facts, the point remains that this is a very bad thing.

I really hate singling people out, but in this case I will – one on each side of the debate.

First we have Ezra Klein. Yesterday Ezra wrote a post saying:

And there are, to be sure, some differences. The public option did not survive the Senate. The individual mandate, which Obama campaigned against, was added after key members of Congress and the administration realized that the plan wouldn’t function in its absence. Drug reimportation was defeated, and a vague effort to have government pick up some catastrophic costs was never really mentioned.

And the summed it up with this: