09 August 2007

110th Congress, day 218

Well, now seems like as good a time as any to revive this little blog, no?

I left off resolved to elation after the election of the 110th Congress ended up a sweep for the Democratic Party, which took both houses.

How, then, is the mood today?

Well, this congress has had some notable accomplishments to date, there's no denying. In no particular order:
They exposed Alberto Gonzales for the dissembling, bumbling, torture-defending evildoer he seems to be.

And they also cited Harriet Miers and Joshua B. Bolten for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify regarding the US Attorney firing scandal. (Though of course it's Gonzales who must enforce the citation, so that may go nowhere. . . .)

A particularly serious summary, from the Daily Show:



One more positive before I move on: the Congress also passed an excellent extension of health care coverage for children, and the Senate even did so with a veto-proof margin. Bravo.


On the other hand
The farm bill passed by the House is actually worse than what President Bush suggested, which seems impossibly frustrating and horrible to me. Subsidies for wealthy farmers? Protectionist policies? What the h**l is the point of electing these people if they're just going to repeat their forerunners' idiotic policies?

Support seems strong, also, for this new 'relationship' with India, wherein they are granted access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment. A serious, and seriously harmful strike against non-proliferation. Nice opinion piece in this week's Economist, which explains the foolishness of this plan.

And now just the other day, this newer, better Congress made what should clearly be illegal wiretaps legal. Sheesh.

posted by Unknown @ 11:14 AM   2 comments

2 Comments:

At 10 August, 2007 14:56, Blogger DGL said...

I applaud the rebirth of the blog, but damn you, YHD, with your nuances and caveats. Is the fightin' 110th up to snuff, or not?

I guess I'm inclined to offer a wobbly thumbs-up, when you consider how narrow the majority is. Reid and Pelosi have made some saavy moves, and they're playing the game the only way they know how.

On Iraq, for instance, all the political theater, slumber parties etc., are distasteful and have yielded little in the way of results, but given the fact that they just don't have the votes to override the ever-stubborn Bush, what option do they have but to use the tools at their disposal to register a loud, shrill protest?

More later on your more specific points.

 
At 15 August, 2007 15:07, Blogger Unknown said...

A fair complaint, Mr dgl; and a fair point about the 110th.

You're right that the majority is not large enough to act (dare I say) unilaterally, and they certainly have forced some people (or at least tv personalities) to attend to issues that the administration might rather ignore.

I suppose my own predictable complaint, though, is that the protest has not been more shrill.


Perhaps a nice test will involve the soon-to-be-departed Karl Rove: will Congress compel him to testify despite his resignation? I certainly hope so. . . .

 

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