Energy Source The President wants his energy legislation and he wants it now. While the Senate has yet to take up the measure, the House is putting the finishing touches on a bill that contains most of what the President wants.
But not everything.
And, it includes things that the President doesn't want, like $8 billion dollars of incentives for energy companies to explore new sources of oil.
"With oil at more than $50 a barrel, by the way, energy companies do not need taxpayers'-funded incentives to explore for oil and gas."
He said to the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Conference in Washinton DC. And he wants more mone for tax incentives for energy saving cars.
we've got $2.5 billion in tax credits for the purchase of hybrid vehicles
While the House bill allots only a half billion in such incentives.
It seems to me that as gas prices inch higher the public will find it harder to understand why Congress can not get something done with regards to a national energy policy. What's more, with no alternative plan forthcoming from the Democrats on the issue, they appear, yet again, as simply being obstructionist. And I predict that moniker will not be good for them when '06 rolls around.
Doing it right The state of Connecticut is the first state to legally recognize gay unions the right way: through the state legislature instead of the Courts. And, of course, it was a Republican who got it done, the right way.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican, signed the bill about an hour after it was approved 26-8 by the Democrat-controlled Senate. The law, which takes effect Oct. 1, includes an amendment that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. Civil unions are reserved only for same-sex couples.
No circumventing the laws as written, no bogus "equal protection" challenges just good old fashioned politics.
And if the people of the state don't like it, they can vote people out and undo it.
But my guess is, the legislature passed a law that was expressing the will of the majority of the people of the Connecticut.
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy Senator (Jumpin') James Jeffords has announced his retirement.
Jeffords, who quit the Republican Party to become an independent, made the surprise announcement Wednesday, immediately triggering a scramble for his seat, one of several that will be up for grabs in next year's midterm elections.
Roomah 'roun' heah is that Congressman Bernie Sanders (Socialist - VT) will run for his seat.
The sole independent in the U-S House released a statement praising Jeffords after the senator announced he would not seek re-election.
Sanders has previously said he would run for the Senate if Jeffords did not.
Sanders only said today that he has been clear about his intentions and they have not changed. But he also says today is not the time to talk about the 2006 elections.
I have serious doubts about Sanders being able to win the Senate seat now occupied by Jeffords. Call it wishful thinking, but the potential exists for Vermont to have 2 new members of its Washington delegation after all the votes are counted in 2006.
And it is very possible that none of them will be a Socialist.
PoliticsVT has the details on the political fallout here in Vermont and who the President is calling to run for the Senate seat.
Democracts Delay Just when it looked like we were finally going to get some resolution to the alleged ethics violations of House Majority Whip Tom Delay, Democrats in the house refuse to open an investigation.
The chairman of the House ethics panel pledged Wednesday to begin an investigation into the conduct of Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas if Democrats dropped their opposition to new ethics rules.
"We are all prepared to vote at the earliest opportunity to impanel an investigation subcommittee to review various allegations concerning travel and other actions by Mr. DeLay," said Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), accompanied by three of the four other Republicans on the panel.
Democrats quickly rejected the overture
It seems continued accusations against a person who is arguably (and probably unquestionably) the most effective Whip the House has ever seen suites the Democrats more than an actual investigation.
Deftly shifting the focus they so carefully honed away from Delay's allegded impropriaties, Democrats complained about rules changes to the ethics committee as the reason for the rejection.
"It is a calculated attempt to divert attention from the fact that the Republican majority has neutered the ethics committee in the House by imposing partisan rules that hamstring any meaningful inquiry," said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House.
What rule is that? A rule that says that the evenly split ethics committee must have a majority to move forward on an investigation.
Under the new rules, ethics complaints could be automatically dismissed if the evenly divided committee did not agree on how to proceed after 45 days. In response to Democratic concerns of potential stonewalling of complaints, Hastings offered Wednesday to guarantee that any investigation extend at least three months and that no complaint would be dismissed without a vote. (emphasis mine)
So instead of proceeding and complaining if there was actual stonewalling, they choose not to proceed at all. And, of course, by doing this they imply that Republicans will not prosecute ethics violations of one of their own.
Of course, the other thing that could be driving Democrats may be that if the ethics committe were to actually convene, the problems of other House members might come under scrutiny. Members like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is under fire for an adviser’s nine-day, $4,475 junket to Spain and Germany last April, a trip primarily paid for by a nonprofit transportation-research organization Pelosi had helped to secure Federal Transit Administration monies, according to a report in the Washington Times....
...the Pelosi camp has issued a statement maintaining that the disputed trip was within House rules...
Of course. And so does Tom Delay....
Or maybe Rep Bernie Sanders would be investigated. The lone (avowed) Socialist in Congress who makes a point of wearing his indignation on his sleeve has a Delay thing going for him
Bernie Sanders — the Vermont congressman who has made a career of railing against the injustices of a brutally capitalist system greased by powerful interests — has probably learned this lesson in recent days, as news broke of his showering some $95,000 on his wife and stepdaughter for campaign work they performed over the years.
And, of course, none of this is illegal either.
The Joke BTW, yesterday's report of a Civil War reenactment involving Trekkers was an April Fools joke. I admit I was taken in by it for a while, then after thinking about it and taking a second look discovered the clever deception. Then I decided to wait around and see if anyone else caught it. No one did, except the ever so observent Bill Parker who, if the universe were perfect, would have his own blog.
