So they want to get through a $34 billion homeland security bill, a $more billions fence between America and Mexico, a “compromise” torture bill that compromises America’s principles, and I don’t know how many pending reauthorizations… and they’ve got, what, six weeks to do this before the election? How many of the days between now and the election is the Congress going to be in session?

Are they going to be able to get ANY of this stuff finished in time?

yea, they overpower the democrats. I’ve been watching c-span. they might as well not even be there they are barely even allowed a voice.

That’s not entirely true. Republicans outnumber the Democrats by actually a pretty small margin. All it takes is a few moderates on either side to really swing the vote.

Meanwhile back in reality, the mechanisms by which Congress run are not based around straight up or down votes on every individual issue, and their outcomes only rarely have anything to do with margins. Congress could be split 50/50 with the tiebreaker vote to the Republicans, and the Democrats would still be essentially irrelivant under the systems erected in the last ten years.

But even this isn’t enough to get legislation passed if the Republicans can’t agree with themselves, and that appears to be a bit of a problem lately.

man I so hate that term, up or down vote, makes them sound like romans. live or die!! how about a left of right vote. yes or no vote, right or wrong vote.

not a bad comment on you Ancon, just tired of all the double speak and how it is so easily assimilated.

The N.I.E. leaked reports are totally taken out of context and misrepresented here. The “mechanisms erected” concerning congress were done so around two hundred years ago, not ten. Democrats controlled both houses and these “mechanisms” for fifty years. “Torture” bill compromises American principles? I thought (according to you all) American principles consisted of hegemony, imperialism, greed and oppression of all brown skinned people. Oh, and oil imports from the middle east only make up 13% of our total oil usage. Facts can really be a wet blanket. But, hey, the torches are lit and the pitchforks are in the air… don’t let me spoil your good time.

I don’t know what your talking about pal, but I’ve been following congress since c-span was released. It’s a bit boring at times, but quite informative.
At no time since the 80’s have I seen how the rules have been changed and the increase in earmarks and etc. etc. in the last 10 yrs or so. you give the wolves the keys to the chicken coop, how can you not expect they won’t stop till all the chickens are gone?

So true Jed, for a poor mountaineer you are quite a tuned-in guy. Definition of democracy: “A pack of wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner.”