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Behind Closed Doors; Off to a Secret Start
Topic Started: Dec 9 2006, 07:51 AM (79 Views)
George K
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Finally
Harry Reid has called for a closed-door session of the entire Senate to kick off the 110th Congress, excluding the press and the public:

Quote:
 
Senate Democrats, who campaigned on a pledge of more openness in government, will kick off the 110th Congress with a closed meeting of all 100 senators in the Capitol.
Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who will be the majority leader when the new Congress convenes Jan. 4, announced yesterday "a joint caucus meeting" for senators only, to be held that morning in the old Senate chamber, a cozy, seldom-used room. ...

Reid's staff said that the planned joint caucus will not amount to a legislative session because no business will be conducted and that it will probably occur before the new Congress officially opens. But Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, called it a bad precedent.

"When you get all 100 members of the Senate in a room, that's no longer a caucus. That's the Senate," she said. "I think the American people will see through that. I think the only way to restore public trust in what the Congress is up to is to have more transparency than less."


It's interesting that the party that ran on openness and clean government thinks that its first priority is to meet out of sight of the people who elected them. Reid himself talked about the need for sunlight shortly after winning the majority, ironically on Face The Nation. He said it meant "finding out what government is doing."
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David Burton
Senior Carp
I presume that the powers that be have decided to give the newest residents in Siberia the US Congress its orders, or its boundaries. And as usual, no one in particular is going to take much notice. For the more idealistically and ideologically minded on the Left all they'll care about is that the "correct" party is at least in charge of legislation as well as rule from the benches.

There was some profit taking on Wall Street over the past two sessions, but over all the green light has been given American industry to keep doing what it does best under conditions that are expected to produce a "gridlock" for most of the next two years. Already the shriller voices are being advised to hush it up and go it slower on a pull back from Iraq, which is sure to come anyway as North America is further prepared for the next step, the lockdown process, the reformation of our consciousness to the certainty of union with our continental neighbors as early as 2050 if not driven to do so by the impact of coming world events, "letting nature take its course," etc.

Expect Hillary, who is already the leading Democrat, to extend her lead as the months go by. The country will be so damn tired of the GOP by 2008 (and who are they going to run against her?) that Hillary will win even if its by the slimmest of majorities, as it will be. Meanwhile I watch the attempts by certain Democrats to get into a race that is hopelessly locked up against them; Richardson, Oboma - a nice guy like Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, his father really did come from Africa so he's a second generation African immigrant. He's done - not too bad for himself, a tribute to his own good sense and being at the right place at the right time - plus the record of a father who tried it once and failed - that's certainly good incentive in some cases. Obama delivers great speeches, even speaks so well that he could get all the sentimental granny votes from both sides of the aisle anytime he wants. But what policies - other than continuing affirmative action - does he stand for? Does Obama even stand a chance of winning? A recent survey showed that even against Condi Rice, Obama would pull only his own state, Illinois, possibly Washington state and believe it or not Connecticut - see that sentimental granny vote really counts in some places - even so in a match up as weak as that Obama gets trounced. Obama hasn't either the pull or the clout that Hillary has, sorry, he's a nobody and nobodies don't get to be President anymore. That probably went out with Lincoln.

We'll continue to see other changes including more tampering with the way our money looks and feels until it too like all the other currencies is a bunch of non uniform bills that will no longer fold up neatly in a common American billfold, etc., because ironically of the blind.
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