Tell Congress

"...[T]he right of the people...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

It's time to use your voice to tell Congress:

(House Floor Dissolves Into Chaos After Moment Of Silence For Orlando Victims)

#NoMoreThoughtsAndPrayers  #NoMoreMomentsOfSilence

President Obama's Speech

Discuss amongst yourselves.

The text is "EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY" but I'll put up a link to the full text as soon as it's over. (In other words, I already read it but don't want to piss anyone off by printing it prematurely).

UPDATE: HuffPO already has it up so you might as well read along at the google doc I made:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfjzkfgh_4g9prgmg2
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(It's good)
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Congressional Poll Numbers

For months and months, it seemed, teh best troll evah dutifully pointed out to us how, no matter how low President Bush's approval ratings were, the approval ratings of Congress were just as bad, if not worse.

Now we have an explanation: It's the Republicans.

Via Crooks and Liars, I tracked back to this Gallup press release from Mid-December. There's even some art:


And an explanation:

Just one in four Americans approve of the job the Republicans in Congress are doing, an approval rating just below that given to President Bush. Americans are somewhat more charitable in their ratings of the Democrats in Congress.

The 25% approval rating for the Republicans in Congress establishes a new Gallup Poll low, surpassing the 26% measured about this time last year. Gallup first began asking about approval of the Congressional parties in 1999.

Congressional Democrats' approval rating is also low from an historical perspective, but does represent a significant improvement from 30% measured a year ago, their lowest rating to date.

The overall approval rate for the Democrats in Congress? 37%.
For Republicans? 25%.

So while the approval ratings of the Congressional Republicans is at an all time low, there's been a 7% uptick from last year for their Democratic colleagues.

Huh. I wonder how they'll spin this one.

Questions? Comments? Remarks? Drop me an e-mail.

Challenger Steve O'Donnell Alleges Tim Murphy Violating House Ethics Rules (Again)

We've been here before, kiddies. Who can forget two years ago when Rep. Tim Murphy (R, PA-18) snatched away evidence from a KDKA reporter on camera that showed that his congressional staff was engaging in campaign activities and using taxpayer money to do so?

Just in case you missed it, here it is in all its gory glory:


Well, now the O'Donnell campaign says that Murphy is up to his old tricks. From a press release distributed on Friday:

At the Bethel Park Parade and Community Day on September 13th, 2008, Congressman Murphy used the event for both official and campaign purposes. This is a clear violation of House Ethics Rules, and by definition an illegal activity.

According to House ethics rules (page 178 – click on this link), Members of Congress must designate their public appearances as either official or political – but not both. The rule is intended to prevent Members from using taxpayer money to further campaign objectives. The exact text of the relevant statute in the House Ethics Manual can be found below.

At the Bethel Park event, Murphy set up a Congressional tent decorated with the Congressional seal and manned by one of his Congressional staff.

Meanwhile, Murphy marched in the parade, handing out campaign paraphernalia, like “Murphy for Congress” nail files. He was also accompanied by campaign staff. An official-looking black sedan marked with the words “Congressman Tim Murphy” followed closely behind. The sign on the car was ambiguous – it made direct reference to Murphy’s title, but it didn’t contain either the Congressional seal or Murphy’s campaign logo. However, one of the passengers in the car was wearing a “Murphy for Congress” campaign sticker.

Less than twenty minutes later, Murphy appeared at his Congressional tent – which, was located adjacent to the tent of the Bethel Park Republican Committee. As he spoke with party members, he was wearing a blue windbreaker with an official seal with the words “Congressman Tim Murphy.” When one of Murphy’s campaign staffers, who had been standing adjacent to the Congressional tent, saw that Murphy was being photographed, he charged across the street and physically confronted the photographer.

You can see the full press release here and it's chock full of photographs.

You can find out more about Steve O'Donnell here.
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No One Hearts Dubya or Congress

From Reuters:

Deepening unhappiness with President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress soured the mood of Americans and sent Bush's approval rating to another record low this month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

And

Bush's job approval rating fell to 24 percent from last month's record low for a Zogby poll of 29 percent. A paltry 11 percent gave Congress a positive grade, tying last month's record low.

Now we all know why dubya's numbers are in the toilet (his illegal war, the un-American domestic surveillance, and so on), but Congress? Perhaps this is the reason. Yesterday, the FISA bill passed last August (and rushed through Congress with more lies of terrorist threats) was to be voted on again. Congressman Jason Altmire was on Lynn Cullen's radio show to talk about the vote.

The vote never happened.

The GOP effectively threw a wrench into the works late last night. From The Politico:

Democratic leaders in the House were forced to suspend consideration of legislation updating the laws for warrantless wiretapping Wednesday after Republicans threatened to offer a procedural blockade.

Aides to Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) notified Republicans Wednesday evening that the bill, which had been scheduled for a vote that afternoon, would not come to the floor after Republicans advertised their intent to offer a motion that would essentially kill it.

The motion was a simple declaration that nothing in the bill would prevent intelligence officials from conducting surveillance on Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda or "any other terrorist organization" from attacking the United States or its citizens.

The problem is that Republicans wrote the motion in such a way that it would kill the overarching bill if Democrats helped them approve it.

And since most members of Congress would rather not vote for something that could be construed on the campaign trail as a vote to defend bin Laden, al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization, Democratic leaders could not bring the overarching bill to the floor.

TPMElection Central has some more details. Eric Cantor, GOP House member from the New York, posted this on his website:

Today, we will be offering an amendment to the legislation to clarify that nothing in the bill "shall be construed to prohibit the intelligence community from conducting surveillance needed to prevent Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, or any other foreign terrorist organization…from attacking the United States or any United States person."

The only problem is that the FISA bill already had such provisions. Rep Jerry Nadler (D-NY):

It also includes emergency provisions, including the ability to get a warrant after the fact, to ensure that the government will never have to stop listening to a suspected terrorist plotting an attack.

As Greg Sargent writes:

...it would appear to make it very obvious that Cantor's amendment was simply about scuttling the bill and nothing else.

Even the AP said that:

The measure would have allowed unfettered telephone and e-mail surveillance of foreign intelligence targets but would require special authorization if the foreign targets were likely to be in contact with people inside the United States, a provision designed to safeguard Americans' privacy.

The Republicans scuttled a bill that would protect our privacy. But when have they ever believed in the right to privacy?

All this while polls show that voters oppose warrantless wiretaps. Somewhere around 60% of them.

The people are against the war, they voted in a Democratic Congress to stop it. It can't or won't. The people are against warrantless wiretapping, the Democrats in Congress can't stop the minority party in the House from scuttling the bill.

Is there any wonder why the numbers for Congress are so frickin low?