Bob Schieffer sums up Congress pretty well…

 

Bob said this on CBS last Sunday:

There will be three more unemployment reports before the election. Congress has gone on vacation for the next five weeks, leaving work on their desks involving jobs, taxes and the budget deficit.

Congress managed to get through last year without passing one single piece of significant legislation. It would be hard to do worse than that, but this crowd may actually manage to do it.

—

And there’s also a couple of fairly important items that have to be resolved one of these days: whether to let the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year, and whether or not to block a draconian $110 billion across-the-board cut in defense and domestic spending.

No word on what if anything they plan to do about those items. Truth is, no one expects them to do anything until after the election. The way it stands right now, if the U.S. Capitol caught on fire, this Congress could find a way to make it a partisan issue and do everything but call the fire department.

They went on vacation? I expect we’re paying for these yoyos to spin out at the end of the string.

Look at it this way:

 

Related articles

• Bob Schieffer: Do-nothing Congress takes a break (cbsnews.com)
• Fiscal Cliff: What Really Happens If We Go Over It (dailyfinance.com)
• Rep. Jim Himes: Act now on Simpson-Bowles (darientimes.com)
• Headache awaits Obama post election (whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com)
• Congress, With Much Left to Do, Takes 5 Weeks Off (usnews.com)
• Budget office: Obama’s health law reduces deficit (kansas.com)
• Budget office: Obama health law reduces deficit (tbo.com)
• W.H.: ’12 deficit is $116 billion less than expected (politico.com)

 

Attend a National Demonstration Against Fracking in Washington, D.C. — Saturday, July 28

 

I am passing this on to all my readers in the Washington DC area and around here in Shepherdstown and Harper’s Ferry who don’t mind a 90 minute drive. This is very important for West Virginia, already subject to the disaster that is Mountain Top Removal in the coal industry, which is about to be subject to widespread fracking.

This is from the Center for Biological Diversity:

A fossil fuel rush is sweeping the United States — with terrible consequences.  The oil and gas industry is surging into new areas all over the country as quickly and cheaply as possible, largely as a result of advances in fracking technology.
Fracking is a dangerous oil and gas drilling technique that threatens waterfowl, fish and endangered species like the California condor, not to mention human health. In addition to intense local pollution, fracking also emits methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, and represents an increased dependency on fossil fuels when a rapid transition to clean, renewable energy should be our first priority.

“Natural gas” has been marketed as the clean alternative to traditional sources of oil, even though fracking routinely employs toxic chemicals like lead, arsenic, chromium 6 and benzene. This extreme drilling technique is set to explode across the United States, run by a largely unregulated industry.

We must demand that decision makers inside the Beltway take action to stop dangerous oil and gas industry practices before the damage is done. Join us on Saturday, July 28, in Washington, D.C., for a rally at the Capitol to demand a stop to dangerous drilling that hurts public health, water and air.

RSVP here.

What: Stop the Frack Attack: A National Call to Action

When: Saturday, July 28; rally starts at 2 p.m.

Where: The West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol

We’re joining with groups all over the nation for this day of action. Check out this video invite from Josh Fox, producer of the documentary Gasland, and Mark Ruffalo, star of this summer’s action hit The Avengers.

For more information on this and other Center for Biological Diversity activities, visit our events page.

Rose Braz, Climate Campaign Director
rbraz@biologicaldiversity.org
(415) 436-9682, Ext. 319

Related articles

• Stop the Frack Attack (sfgate.com)
• Michael Brune: Stop the Frack Attack (huffingtonpost.com)
• Stop the Frack Attack (ecowatch.org)
• Josh Fox and Mark Ruffalo Invite You to Stop the Frack Attack (ecowatch.org)
• Stop the Frack Attack (sierraclub.typepad.com)
• Celebrities to protest fracking in D.C. this month (bizjournals.com)
• Stop The Frack Attack -Rally In DC (baltidome.wordpress.com)
• House of Representatives trying to stop new fracking rules (switchboard.nrdc.org)

 

“Photo Bombers” bring labor mural back to Maine’s Capitol Building for 2 hours…

A group called BrokeFix in protest of the removal of the Labor Mural from the Maine Capitol in Augusta by the Right Wing Governor did what was called a “Photo Bomb” demonstration to bring the mural back.

Powered by a car battery, they projected the mural on the outside of the Capitol Building for two hours.

Take a look:

The USDoL had put up more than $36,000 to help commission the mural. If it is not put back in actuality, the citizens of Maine will likely have to return the grant money.

Related Articles

• Protesters raise a ruckus at state Capitol building (kitsapsun.com)
• Maine artist hoped labor mural would educate (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Removal of Mural May Cost Maine Taxpayers (politicalwire.com)
• Feds to Maine: Reinstall labor mural or repay funding (via CNN Political Ticker) (richardemanuel.wordpress.com)
• US Labor Dept. steps into Maine mural dispute (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Maine Takes Down Labor Mural (npr.org)