noses

This is absolutely priceless:

Two House Republicans have cast votes as members of the 112th Congress, but were not sworn in on Wednesday, a violation of the Constitution on the same day that the GOP had the document read from the podium.

The Republicans, incumbent Pete Sessions of Texas and freshman Mike Fitzpatrick, missed the swearing in because they were at a fundraiser in the Capitol Visitors Center. The pair watched the swearing-in on television from the Capitol Visitors Center with their hands raised.

Not only is this a violation of the Constitution, but the fundraising on Capital grounds is also a violation of House Rules. Think that’s enough? Well wait…there’s more! Pete Sessions sits on the House Rules Committee.

But it gets even better than that. Now the GOP leadership is trying to change the rules after the fact:

Republicans, led by Rules Committee chairman David Dreier, are now looking to draft a rule to allow the pair's TV oath to count, but it would have to be approved by unanimous consent, and there's no sign Democrats, who are looking to slow down next week's planned vote on a repeal of President Obama's health-care plan, are willing to play ball.

The Washington Post is reporting that it is:

Democratic political committees have seen a decline in their fundraising fortunes this year, a result of complacency among their rank-and-file donors and a de facto boycott by many of their wealthiest givers, who have been put off by the party's harsh rhetoric about big business.

The trend is a marked reversal from recent history, in which Democrats have erased the GOP's long-standing fundraising advantage. In the first six months of 2009, Democratic campaign committees' receipts have dropped compared with the same period two years earlier.

There very well could be some frustration by Democratic donors that they feel “left out” in Washington. We worked to bring our party back to power, only to see them bow to the very people we worked to defeat.

Speaking for a personal point, I used to be one to donate. I haven’t done that in awhile, and have no plans to. I feel like the Democrats are snubbing their noses at their base for one, but another big reason is the economic down turn. I don’t have that additional $25 or $50 laying around to give. That alone could be another reason for the downturn.

Overall I highly doubt that fundraising will be what it was a couple of years ago, but I also believe that the Democrats will have to work a lot harder to sell themselves to their donors and attempt to regain some trust that has been lost lately.

John McCain has received a damming indictment from a predominant Evangelical leader:

Richard Cizik is one of the country’s most powerful and outspoken Christian evangelical leaders. He happens to be a Republican, and he has known the GOP’s presidential nominee for many years. “I thought John McCain was a principled person,” Cizik says. “But John McCain has backed off, not just on climate change but on torture and a sensible tax policy — in other words, he’s not the John McCain of 2000. … He seems to be waffling on issue after issue.

It’s not illogical for someone to conclude that John McCain is going to be more like George Bush than John McCain is going to be like John McCain in 2000.”

I have a sneaking suspicion that other religious leaders are feeling the exact same thing. Hopefully they will speak up about it in the coming weeks and that will sedate the Republican base.

Of course I don't like religious leaders sticking their noses into our political debate - the United States was created to avoid such invasions, but since the GOP loves using them so much to their advantage, it's nice to see some come out and speak what they truly feel in order to thwart disaster. I just wonder how long before the wingnuts start crying about separation of church and state if this become a larger pattern.

Congress is debating rather or not to extended day light
savings time by three weeks a year. This is the answer to the energy crisis in
our nation.

Polls show that a majority of Americans are concerned about
not only energy conservation, but also the environment. It is true that both of
these issues go hand in hand. Our oil dependent nation is causing a decrease in
our ozone. We are the largest consumer of oil in the world and we are starting
to pay for it.

The question is; why is Bush President when so many people
are concerned about these issues. Our government is being run by a bunch of
people who come from the oil industry. People in the oil industry wanting fuel
efficiency are the same as drug dealers supporting rehab. It is not going to
happen.

We are in a new technological age. We are a world connected
by computers and networks. We see new technologies coming out every day. We have
the knowledge in our nation to wean us from the dependency of oil. Our
administration does not want that. They want to see us burn gas so that their
wallets get fatter, and at what cost. The cost of our lives and the lives of our
children and their children. The greatest crime against humanity is being
committed right under our noses and it needs to be stopped.

The truth is, we have an abundance of renewable energy
sources. Our oceans provide it by the ways of tidal power. We can harness power
from the wind and even our sun. So why don’t we see more of this natural power
being harvested. Because it will have one victim and that victim is the oil
industry.