Ed Pastor was one of only six Democrats to vote against adopting the rules for the 111th Congress. All of Arizona’s other Dems voted for it.
Maybe in the new rules they stopped giving trophies for perfect attendance?
The top two appropriators in the House and Senate are imposing new transparency requirements for members who request earmarks in spending bills, the latest response to the controversial practice.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) and incoming Senate Appropriations panel Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) on Tuesday announced new steps to be implemented in this year’s appropriations process. They will require members to post their request online at the time it is made, explaining the purpose of the earmark and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds.
…
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a leading critic of the earmark process, was skeptical.
“Well, it’s a start,” he said. “I have to remind myself, whenever I get excited about reforms being announced, that they are only as good as your willingness to enforce them later.”
Phoenix Business Journal reports that John McCain introduced these bills today:
• Lifting restrictions on long-haul flights at Washington Reagan National Airport and New York LaGuardia Airport. McCain has long sought to lift regulations that restrict West Coast flights out of those two airports.
• Expanding federal powers to investigate knock-off Native American crafts and art. That bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., would increase federal penalties for fraudulent sales of the counterfeit items.
• Establishing a national board to regulate boxing in the U.S. McCain has sought previously to impose federal oversight on the sport.
• Making the federal research and development tax credit permanent. The federal R&D tax break is temporary and requires congressional extensions.
The Stump, a New Republic blog:
By agreeing to channel up to 40 percent of the stimulus through tax cuts, Obama is essentially calling the GOP’s bluff. He’s saying, “You guys are making a principled argument that tax cuts can be a more efficient way to stimulate the economy. I’m accepting that argument in large part. So rather than spend a lot of money helping low- and middle-income people, I’m going to get that money to them via tax cuts.”
At which point he’s kind of backed them into a corner. If the GOP accepts, then great. If they turn around and say, “Well, when we said tax cuts, we actually meant tax cuts for wealthy people, not for low- and middle-income people,” then it becomes blindingly obvious that they weren’t making a principled argument at all. They were trying to shake Obama down on behalf of their rich cronies.
And, indeed, it looks like the GOP, while momentarily torn, can’t resist the taking the bait. According to today’s Post, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl is responding by pushing for permanent cuts in corporate and capital gains taxes–neither of which is likely to have much short-term stimulative effect. (See here for an explanation of the faulty capital gains logic.) Something tells me Obama won’t have trouble winning a debate between tax cuts for working people and tax cuts for big business and wealthy investors.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office has announced committee assignments for freshmen. Our own newly elected Ann Kirkpatrick has been assigned to the Homeland Security committee, along with the newly elected Ben Lujan of New Mexico.
The article also notes that Kirkpatrick’s website is up. It has four RSS feeds, but you’ll probably be most interested in this one.
Though fellow Democrats control Congress, Obama wants Republican cooperation, which would greatly ease the final legislation’s passage, said Senate GOP Whip Jon Kyl, the only Arizonan to attend the meeting.
“It’s still totally vague. There is no plan yet,” Kyl said. “To get [an economic stimulus package] done by the end of the first or second week of February, which is what they’re talking about, is going to be a lift.”
AZCentral takes a parting look at the tenure of outgoing Rep. Rick Renzi, including:
Over the last three years, Renzi’s effectiveness as a legislator declined dramatically, according to Congress.org, a public-service Web site that said Renzi’s power ranking among fellow congressmen plunged from 84th in 2005 to 435th, or least influential in the House, during 2008.
The week before Christmas, Camp Verde Mayor Tony Gioia received a call from incoming District 1 Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick asking for a list of Camp Verde projects that she could include in her request for infrastructure funding.
Gioia was more than happy to oblige.
In a face-to-face meeting with Kirkpatrick last week, Gioia submitted the Town’s list, prepared by Town staff and including suggestions from Gioia and the Town Council.
“Rep. Kirkpatrick said she was interested in submitting projects that would be specific to Camp Verde,” Gioia said. “Therefore, I used the opportunity to push the library and the park project, including a new access road, plus a new animal shelter and equipment yard for the Street Department.”
Gioia said he also asked for funding to complete State Route 260 to Cottonwood, something he said Kirkpatrick was going to look into.
Jon Kyl has been writing up a storm lately. His editorial in the National Ledger:
The fundamental obligation of any government is to protect its citizens. It is for that reason that, having exhausted every other option, Israel launched a military operation against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza strip. Israel is justified in taking action against the terrorists who have been attacking its citizens with impunity for years. While we wish to see the violence come to an end, Israel must be allowed to protect itself.
…
Americans must support Israel because we understand since 9/11 that terrorism anywhere is a threat to free people everywhere.
Jon Kyl writes a column for the Arizona Daily Star:
Congress must stop enacting massive “stimulus” bills — spending billions of taxpayer dollars so politicians can be seen as “doing something.”
Last year, Congress sent out $600 rebate checks to individuals, adding more than $115 billion to the federal deficit. Supporters of the rebates argued that people would spend these checks, injecting money into the economy, thereby preventing a recession. But respected economist Martin Feldstein (who initially supported the rebate idea) recently wrote, “[T]he evidence is now in and that optimism was unwarranted. Recent government statistics show that only between 10 and 20 [percent] of the rebate dollars were spent. The rebates added nearly $80 billion to the permanent national debt but less than $20 billion to consumer spending. This experience confirms earlier studies showing that one-time tax rebates are not a cost-effective way to increase economic activity.”
AP:
Democratic leaders plan to grant few if any privileges next week to Roland Burris, the man picked by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate, even if he arrives on Capitol Hill with the right credentials. Senate officials involved in the tangle of legal and logistical planning said Friday that a Democrat will object to Burris being duly sworn with the rest of his class, and propose that his credentials be reviewed for a period of time by the Rules Committee.
The only way Burris will be allowed on the floor is if he possesses a certification of appointment signed personally by his embattled patron, Blagojevich, and Ill. Secretary of State Jesse White. Burris would then be treated as a senator-elect, which by tradition means he’ll be allowed on the Senate floor without voting or speaking privileges - and he wouldn’t be granted a desk, according to these officials. They demanded anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
…
Whatever the drama, Burris will not be seated when the new Senate convenes on Tuesday, Democrats have said all week.
Republicans have been wary about commenting, pleased to see Democrats mucking through a political mess of their own party’s making.
Bur Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona said Friday that he wants to review state and federal law before opining on whether Burris should be seated. Still, he questioned whether the legal status of the patron is enough reason to block the appointee.
“The Senate has to be very careful of setting a precedent that just because it doesn’t like the governor that appointed (Burris) we therefore refuse to seat a qualified appointee,” Kyl said in a telephone interview.
Continuing to promote renewable energy, Giffords said she would focus on solar power.
“We have eight years to make Arizona a national leader in solar industry. We have the sun, we have the land and we have the infrastructure, and now all we have to do is make it happen,” she said.
Among Arizona’s 10-member congressional delegation, Sen. John McCain and U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi — both for different reasons — missed the most votes in the 110th Congress, according to a report by Congressional Quarterly.
Renzi, who has spent much of his time with attorneys fighting various felony charges of corruption, voted 83 percent of the time and supported President Bush-backed legislation 61 percent of the time.
The last Democrat to represent Prescott in Congress was… get ready for it…
Bob Stump.
He was a Democrat who became a Republican when Reagan was in office.
Flake is taking on a more prominent role in statewide politics, partly because he is dismayed by the single-minded obsession some of his fellow Republicans continue to have toward illegal immigration. Like McCain, Flake is a strong supporter of a comprehensive reform approach that would include a temporary-worker program and the legalization of undocumented workers already in the country. That stance has drawn Flake the enmity of GOP immigration restrictionists.
“I’ve been concerned about where the state is going and our inability to attract votes statewide. My fear is the tone, particularly on immigration, is relegating us to minority status for a long time unless we change it,” Flake said. “Unless we get off that kick, we’re doomed as a party statewide. .”
Of the reasons someone might choose to support Israel, “God says so” would obviously count among the most irrational.
Yet Trent Franks, a Republican Congressman from Arizona, espoused this kind of rank superstition last night on KTAR (620 a.m.) radio in reference to the Jewish state’s current war with Hamas:
“There’s an old Abrahamic covenant that says, ‘I will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse it,’ and so I feel pretty confident it’s a good idea to be on Israel’s side,” Franks said Sunday night on News/Talk 92-3 KTAR’s “Jay Lawrence Show.”
Franks, a Republican, added that Israel “is very much like we are and, if we turn our back on Israel, I believe that the equation will be so bad for America, so bad for the world, that we simply don’t understand.”
Franks has been a prominent supporter of Israel — and now we know why. It’s his religion, first and foremost.
Thanks to your emails and calls, Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s resolution against pardons and for a Special Prosecutor (H.Res. 1531) now has 9 co-sponsors:
Tammy Baldwin (WI02), Steve Cohen (TN09), Barney Frank (MA04), Barbara Lee (CA09), John Lewis (GA05), Carolyn Maloney (NY14), Ed Pastor (AZ04), Pete Stark (CA13), and Robert Wexler (FL19).
If one of them represents you, please call their office at 202-224-3121 to say thanks. Otherwise call your Representative and ask why they have not co-sponsored H.Res. 1531, and (politely) demand that they do.
Sign the petition online and it will go to your Senator and Congressperson: http://www.democrats.com/nadler-pardons
Read the resolution:
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ny08_nadler/PreEmptPardons_112108.html
BEGINNING JAN. 9, and based on new rules coming from the Justice Department, immigration detainees and others arrested for federal crimes will be forced to provide DNA samples. Clearly, the Justice Department forgot about the concept of innocent until proven guilty.
Currently, the government collects DNA samples only from those convicted of federal crimes, where more than 6.2 million analyses have been added to a national database. But under the new rules, even the accused are subjected to this violation of privacy rights.
The lawmaker behind this legislation is Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona.
Kyl is certain this law will help prevent violent crimes from deportees who return illegally or those who commit heinous acts while in this country. That may sound good on the surface, but sounds more like profiling than crime prevention.
Can’t beat this, from a blogger named DemonDoug:
Any time I hear a leader get on TV and speak (save for Ron Paul and Jeff Flake), I want to throw something at the tv…
Read the rest of the rant, it’s entertaining.
It is time for perp walks. I want ALL of them arrested. They are ALL guilty of massive fraud against the American people, and not just Americans, but the system they have in place has allowed for economic disasters all over the world.