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It may be helpful to manage a scorecard to keep track of a list of items with which we agree or disagree with President Bush. The last disagreement mentioned on this blog was the President’s insistence on amnesty and guest worker programs for the out of control immigration situation in the United States.

Now another check mark goes in the ‘we agree’ column for President Bush’s scorecard. Rep John Conyers sponsors a hate crimes bill in the House and an article indicating would veto the bill if passed appears on May 3rd. Conyers introduced the bill on March 20, the veto article appears on May 3rd and Ted Kennedy introduces the same legislation in the Senate on Apr 12. If President Bush plans to veto this legislation, the reasons expressed in the veto article below are generally echoed by this blog. Creating a special category of persons afforded special treatment under the law deprives the rest of the population from equal protection as well as politicizing the determination of what crimes meet this vague definition. And states already have these types of laws. Washington, leave it alone.

How about limiting yourselves to uniquely federal issues rather than distracting attention from your current failures by addressing matters secondary to your primary areas of responsibility. Examples would be victory in Iraq, supporting the troops and issues long overdue for solution such as healthcare, ethics, national security, strict border control and immigration enforcement, etc. Rather than drop the ball on national defense, security and other matters, start doing what is right and let the elections honestly respond to your success or failure without the politics.

All polls show a high degree of dissatisfaction with the White House and Congress. This contradicts the large lie by the Democrats that the midterms gave them a mandate by all Americans to proceed as they have since becoming the current majority party. Stop posturing and focusing on 2008 and get the job done in Iraq and elsewhere. Start governing with the commitment to duty shown by the troops you continue to dishonor with your politics.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Bush Expected to Veto ‘Hate Crimes’ Bill

By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
May 03, 2007
(1st Add: Includes comments from Focus on the Family and Reps. John Conyers and Lamar Smith.)
(CNSNews.com) - President Bush looks likely to veto a “hate crimes” bill under debate in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday if it is approved by Congress. Conservatives quickly responded by thanking the president for upholding “our nation’s constitutional tradition of equal protection under the law.”

H.R.1592
Title: To provide Federal assistance to States, local jurisdictions, and Indian tribes to prosecute hate crimes, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14] (introduced 3/20/2007) Cosponsors (171)
Related Bills: H.RES.364, S.1105
Latest Major Action: 5/7/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
House Reports: 110-113

S.1105
Title: A bill to provide Federal assistance to States, local jurisdictions, and Indian tribes to prosecute hate crimes, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Kennedy, Edward M. [MA] (introduced 4/12/2007) Cosponsors (43)
Related Bills: H.R.1592
Latest Major Action: 4/12/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

H.RES.364
Title: Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1592) to provide Federal assistance to States, local jurisdictions, and Indian tribes to prosecute hate crimes, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep McGovern, James P. [MA-3] (introduced 5/2/2007) Cosponsors (None)
Related Bills: H.R.1592
Latest Major Action: 5/3/2007 Passed/agreed to in House. Status: On agreeing to the resolution Agreed to by recorded vote: 213 - 199 (Roll no. 297).
House Reports: 110-120

So how did the United States Congress do in the first month of the 110th session? You be the judge. First, a little review of the fact that posts here have sometimes asked why we get so focused on what Congress does. After all, they legislate. That’s it. They legislate. The can pass laws. Whatever the House passes must be passed in the Senate also. So both Houses of Congress must pass the same version of a bill before it can become law. Then it goes to the President. He can sign it into law. He can veto it and send it back to Congress. He can pocket-veto at the end of the session. Or he can pretty much ignore it and it becomes law. All you expert legal types out there, feel free to refute this if you must.

Next, Congressional action is either a bill or resolution. Most of the time, resolutions are pretty much useless to the ordinary citizen. There is one example this past month that is not useless. It should not have to come to this but usually does. A joint resolution is similar to a bill. The one last month was for appropriations. You know, to keep the government operating until Congress and the President figure out what they’re doing.

So six bills and one joint resolution have the term “on passage” next to them in the voting record in the House. Being that it is joint and includes the Senate, that’s the only thing showing up on their completed list. Then there are the six bills. You’ll remember them from the daily reminder of the 100 hour agenda. Here’s a take on that.

On January 9, 2007, House of Representatives 1 or HR1 was passed.
This is to implement 9/11 Commission items.
On January 10, 2007, HR2 was passed.
This is for increasing minimum wage over 26 months.
On January 11, 2007, HR3 was passed.
This is to “enhance” stem cell research.
On January 12, 2007, HR4 was passed.
This allows government to negotiate medicare drug prices.
On January 17, 2007, HR5 was passed.
This lowers interest rates on government backed student loans
On January 18, 2007, HR6 was passed.
This is an act for alternative energy creation. That’s quite an act.
On January 19, 2007, HR475 was passed to revise the House Page Board.

The above items are what the House passed. The Senate passed the one joint resolution with the House. And one item became law that was posted here earlier. It is for renaming a National Recreation Area.

One law was passed to rename a park. And the other bills have many hurdles to cross before they can become law. Even if they become law there is no guarantee they will have any positive effects. No one, with any regularity, will follow up on them. So the Congress has done nothing for one month. They have solved nothing. There is only one item as law and it is not critical. 21 Senators are worried about 2008 due to re-election. Other Senators are worried about running for President. And the rest have passed one joint resolution and participated in renaming a park.

We would be better off paying more attention to the remainder of government. At the federal level at least, nothing productive is happening in the legislative branch. Ask anyone from the House or Senate if they care to dispute this. The new Democratic majority are developing disharmony among themselves as are the GOP members. If any of you still hold out optimism for the 110th Congress, good for you. Currently, the chances of Congress contributing to the overall good of the country are slim. That is unless they change their ways. And they will not.
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Check the Beltway Traffic Jam 

SENATE DEMOCRATS HIGHLIGHT COMMITMENT TO TOUGH NEW ETHICS REFORM

Washington, DC — With the Senate moving forward on the American people’s call for change, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Barack Obama, Senator Ben Cardin, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Robert Casey, Senator Claire McCaskill, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and Senator Jon Tester today praised the new Democratic Congress for swiftly moving forward on the toughest ethics and lobbying reform in a generation. The new measure, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007, will open for debate this week on the Floor of the United States Senate cosponsored by Majority Leader Reid and by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

If nothing else, and it’s probably nothing else, you can call the Dems consistent so far in the 110th Congress if this is any indication. Pelosi called the ethics reform in the House the toughest ethics reform in years and the Senate is echoing that sentiment. But saying it doesn’t make it right. As mentioned here more than once, what passes for ethics reform in Congress, tough or otherwise, has so many holes in it, an elementary school student could break these rules and never spend a day in detention. If they have that any more. All the names above and anyone who agrees with them on ethics reform are not being honest. Sad, considering we’re discussing ethics reform. Congress should be ashamed.

Ok, a little Jeopardy here. The answer is: when their lips are moving.

LOL
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

There are already indications that the Democratic majority in
Congress will be no better than any of the previous impotent
legislatures residing in Washington. With terrorism, border
security, immigration, health care, social security, oversight,
ethics, campaign and general political corruption the current
partial list of significant issues to address, Pelosi and the other
Democrats do not seem prepared to offer solutions.

After their 100 hour agenda, Dems will attack tax cuts for the
wealthy and the Bush fast track for trade agreements. One tired
old argument designed to appeal to the most liberal among us
and an empty gesture for damage already done. On top of this
the Dems will proclaim all new spending must be paid for. Nice
idea but impossible. All spending to date has this country so far
in the red that no other spending can be paid for.



With Steny Hoyer being characterized by lobbyists as someone
you can talk to and Pelosi meeting with labor unions, reasonable
expectations of any changes in politics as usual in Washington
appear dead. Other rumors that Republicans will give President
Bush nothing throughout the lame duck session only serves to
confirm the likelihood of pure politics and no solutions.



After a gap in legislative matters due to “district work periods”,
a record breaking lack of workdays and the midterm elections.
the House has passed six resolutions and rejected one since Sept
30th, all in November after the midterms. The rejected item was
related to trade with Viet Nam. The following is what they passed
since September between November 13th and 15th:


HR 3085 to amend the National Trail System Act
S 819 Pactola Resevoir Reallocation Authorization Act
HR6314 Survivors and Dependents Educational Assistance
HR 864 Program to Prevent Underage Drinking
HR5585 Financial Netting Improvements Act
HR 1078 Congratulate winners of the Baseball World Series


The Senate pass/fail ratio is nearly the inverse of the House. They
passed two and rejected five. The Senate passed appropriations
for the military and an act to provide nuclear technology to India.
The following is what the Senate rejected most recently in their
short work year:


Sen Amdt 5174 to limit the President’s waiver authority
Sen Amdt 5178 in support of UN Resolution 1172
Sen Amdt 5181 to ensure IAEA eqp not used for espionage
Sen Amdt 5183 to dissuade India from nuclear weapons
Sen Amdt 5187 to limit Presdent’s waiver authority on India deal
all the above related to S 3709, modifying the Atomic Energy Act
of 1954 to allow the nuke deal with India.



With all the rhetoric suggesting terrorism, national security, border
security, immigration and foreign policy as primary issues, passing
legislation to supply India with nuclear power technology confirms
the President and Congress have lost their collective minds. Of all
the issues they could take action on, this is totally absurd. Outrage
expressed by countries not friendly to the United States is difficult to
defend against when the Federal government acts irresponsibly.



The Democratic majority offers little hope thus far. If minimum wage,
prescription drug prices, Big Oil tax breaks and student loan interest
are the 100 hour agenda of the Dems, we’re all screwed. The Dems
have an opportunity and they will blow it. The Republicans had an
opportunity and they blew it. And a term-limited President without
a default nominee for 2008 (the VP won’t run) leaves the American
public with a federal government that doesn’t give a damn.


If the American public does not bring to bear the only weapon we
have in response to this, nothing will change. Most of you will opt
to ignore it or merely dismiss public outcry as ineffective. Public
displeasure expressed in sufficient quantities and directed to elected
representatives is effective. Even if you do not get involved with an
organized effort to lobby your representative, your individual contact
to express a complaint or applaud a favorable action does matter. A
contact with your elected representatives gets translated into public
opinion. Enough public opinion is translated into votes and does get
the attention of politicians. How do you think the NEA or other well
known organizations get what they want? It’s not only contributions
to campaigns, it is votes represented by expressed public opinion.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

‘Old Bulls’ taking over House

The most powerful committees will soon be run by veteran
Democrats, perhaps mindful of fickle voters
BY MAURA REYNOLDS
LOS ANGELES TIMES

WASHINGTON — When Rep. John D. Dingell was new to Congress,
Buddy Holly ruled the charts, Rosa Parks refused to budge from her
seat on a segregated bus and Dwight D. Eisenhower occupied the
White House.

And on Capitol Hill, congressional committee chairmen ruled like feudal
lords over federal policy, pursuing pet causes and waging vendettas.

Not that age should matter all that much. Long resumes and history
within Congress may on its own be more important but the fact does
remain that these politicians will wield much more power beginning
with the 110th Congress. You have to ask yourself if that is a good
thing.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com