Category: Congress

Lynn Westmoreland Someone Who Bigots Can Point At And Say

No Comments

See, I’m no bigot, Congressman Lynn Westmorland of Georgia, now there’s a bigot:

“Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity,” Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

Needless to say, if he had said this just two weeks earlier, he’d be the vice presidential nominee right now.

I guess we should be grateful that he didn’t use the term n*gg*r.

Talk Harriet, Talk

No Comments

A federal judge has denied a stay on the House Judiciary Committee’s subpoena to Harriet Miers.

I still say that they should send out the House sergeant at arms, and take her to the House basement prison cell in handcuffs, and let her sit there until she testifies.

Truth be told, there is a part of me that wouldn’t be averse to water boarding, temperature extremes, stress positions, and sleep deprivation either, but that would be wrong, that’s for sure.

Big Three Welfare Queens

No Comments

They are looking for $25 billion in federal loans…..at 4.25%……about 1/3 of what they are paying now….with the government having an option to defer any payments 5 years.

In 1980, Ronald Wilson Reagan rode into the white house on the story of a welfare mother who drove a Cadillac.

Now it appears that the welfare recipient is Cadillac, with John Dingell and the rest of the whores in Michigan backing it.

If they want a bailout, then shareholders and senior management need to lose, and lose big.

Banks Object to Credit Card Regulation

No Comments

There’s a big surprise, they want to continue to treat their customers like garbage.

This bill is pretty mild:

  • Requires 45 days’ notice of interest rate increases
  • prohibits companies from changing the terms of the contract at any time for any reason, so called “Universal Default”.
  • Makes issuers mail billing statements 25 days before the due date, instead of the current 14-day minimum.
  • Require that payments be applied to all balances proportionally, as opposed to the lowest (often introductory) rate first.

But even this very weak tea is too much for the banks.

Ratings Agencies Begin to Upgrade Government Bonds

No Comments

At least Moody’s is.

For years, corporate debt has been rated higher than equivalent government debt, and once the monoliner insurers started to implode, municipalities realized how much of a racket it was, with the ratings agencies using a stricter standard, so that the government debt had to use insurers where the rater’s brother-in-law worked.

Took long enough, and I’m sure that the fact that various Attorneys General were looking into this, and that there was a bill in congress, had nothing to do with the change.

What Chris Bowers Said

No Comments

In reswsponse to the news that Lieberman would speak at the Republican convention, Mr. Bowers noted:

I believe this is what some Senate Democrats were waiting for before deciding to strip Lieberman of his committee chair next year. I still remain skeptical that they will actually strip him of his committee chair, since it will demonstrate self-respect and a willingness to stand up to conservative Democrats. This just isn’t something you see much of from our representatives in Congress, particularly the latter.

I agree. If I would argue that not only should he be stripped of his committee chairmanship, but of his seniority too.

Of course, that would require a spine, an unlikely event.

Missing the Point

No Comments

The Wall Street Journal discusses the netroots campaign against Representative Chris Carney (D-PA 10), but they miss a big point: in 2006 Chris Carney lied though his teeth to get the support of Blue America, Moveon, etc. on any number of issues (the example that springs to mind is that he flipped flopped completely on sexual orientation based hate crimes legislation).

Carney has welded himself to George W. Bush in Congress, despite protestations to the contrary in 2006, and I approve of Blue America welding him to George W. Bush, “Mr. 29%,” back in his district.

Norm Coleman Certainly Has Chutzpah Down

No Comments

In response to the fact that his apartment rental in DC is at well below market rates, and does not include utilities from a lobbyist, he is saying that, “I gotta tell you, people of Minnesota actually appreciate the fact that I live humbly as a senator — that I’m not living the way some people think senators live.”

The classic definition of Chutzpah is killing your parents and asking for mercy as an orphan. Norm Coleman may very well have beat that classic out.

What a bloody weasel.

How Magnanimous of Him

No Comments

The department of defense has been refusing to allow Dr. Kaye Whitley to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which had previously been refused

She had been ordered not to testify, even though the committee had subpoenaed her.

This isn’t national security though, she’s the Pentagon’s expert on sexual abuse and sexual assault in the military, the director of the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.