Republicans Hate Mom, On The Fence About Apple Pie

There are somethings in life that are unimaginable to the ideas of partisanship. Warm summer days, sitting by the fire on a cold night, things like that, you know? Well leave it to the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives to shatter that idea. This past Wednesday they decided to take their partisan aggressions out on our nation's mothers.

From The Washington Post:

On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day," when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest.

"Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote," he announced.

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who has two young daughters, moved to table Tiahrt's request, setting up a revote. This time, 178 Republicans cast their votes against mothers.

It has long been the custom to compare a popular piece of legislation to motherhood and apple pie. Evidently, that is no longer the standard. Worse, Republicans are now confronted with a John Kerry-esque predicament: They actually voted for motherhood before they voted against it.

Republicans, unhappy with the Democratic majority, have been using such procedural tactics as this all week to bring the House to a standstill, but the assault on mothers may have gone too far. House Minority Leader John Boehner, asked yesterday to explain why he and 177 of his colleagues switched their votes, answered: "Oh, we just wanted to make sure that everyone was on record in support of Mother's Day."

If Boehner's answer confused you, your not alone. Nothing these people do make any sense. The context of their vote was to waste time (paid by the taxpayers) in the House so that Democrats do not pass any type of meaningful legislation to help homeowners who were victimized by predatory lenders. So at least it wasn't about Mother's Day exactly. Still, there are plenty of mothers, fathers and children who could have been helped by Congress who are terrified at the thought...and reality of having their home being foreclosed. That isn't just anti-Mom, its anti-American.

The Resolution is Resolute

This afternoon the House of Representative passed their non-binding resolution condemning the actions of the President in Iraq and specifically against the escalation of the unwinnable conflict. Members gave dozens of speeches for and against. Some spoke forcefully, some talked about their 6yr olds and others slandered Abe Lincoln.

At the end of the day the vote was 246 to 187, with 17 Republicans throwing their party allegiance to the wayside and standing up for what is right. Some Republicans claim the bill has no teeth while fighting against it tooth and nail. The reason for that is because the bark of the bill foretells the bite to come.

From the SF Chronicle:

The House sent President Bush a double-barreled confrontational message today, telling him it opposes his latest buildup of troops in Iraq and in the next few weeks will try to start curtailing military operations in the war zone.

The Democratic-led House approved 246 to 182 a nonbinding resolution expressing the support of Congress for the U.S. troops serving in Iraq while opposing Bush's plan to send 21,500 more combat troops into the war.

We will have to wait for what these curtailments involve in the matter of actual policy and abatement of the President's actions. Ultimately they need to cut the funding of the monstrous and corrupt war machine that is overseen by Republicans, military contractors like Halliburton and the defense industry as a whole that have wasted billions of dollars in the name of greed.

Pelosi bans smoking: Means more than she says

"The days of smoke-filled rooms in the United States Capitol are over."

Nancy Pelosi, quoted by CNN, after she banned smoking in the Speaker's Lobby.