Republicans have the House. Let's see what they will do with it.

 

The economics of abortion bans

Abortion bans, low wages, and public underinvestment are interconnected economic policy tools to disempower and control workers

House Finance Committee actually did something!

The Washington establishment suffers a serious defeat
By Glenn Greenwald

Something quite amazing happened yesterday in Congress: the House Finance Committee -- in a truly bipartisan and even trans-ideological vote -- defied the banking industry, the Federal Reserve, the Democratic leadership, and mainstream Beltway opinion in order to pass an amendment, sponsored by GOP Rep. Ron Paul and Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson, mandating a genuine and probing audit of the Fed. The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim has the best account of what took place, noting:

In an unprecedented defeat for the Federal Reserve, an amendment to audit the multi-trillion dollar institution was approved by the House Finance Committee with an overwhelming and bipartisan 43-26 vote on Thursday afternoon despite harried last-minute lobbying from top Fed officials and the surprise opposition of Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who had previously been a supporter.

No, WE object.

To your assholic behavior, Republicans. And boy, we will play these YouTubes over and over again when you run for reelection.

Media Matters:



And another variation from TPM:

Listen to the man!

Think Progress: (my bold)

This afternoon, the House passed the U.S. Troops Readiness, Veterans’ Health and Iraq Accountability Act. The bill expands funding for veterans health care, requires the Iraqi government to meet certain benchmarks of progress, and calls for the strategic redeployment of all U.S. troops out of Iraq by 2008.

This morning, the Washington Post editorial board, who in 2003 called the Iraq War “an operation essential to American security,” smeared the House plan as “an unconditional retreat.”

Rep. Dave Obey (D-WI) responded on the House floor. “Let me submit to you the problem we have today is not that we didn’t listen enough to people like the Washington Post,” Obey said. “It’s that we listened too much.” Obey concluded, “And I would say one thing, those of us who voted against the war in the first place wouldn’t have nearly as hard a time getting us out of the war if people like The Washington Post … hadn’t supported going into that stupid war in the first place.”

Until chainsaw do us part...

Just be glad there weren't children involved:

BERLIN: A disgruntled divorcee decided to speed up the property settlement by taking a chainsaw to the marital home before making off with his half in a pick-up truck.

Police in the eastern town of Sonneberg said the man, a trained mason, measured up the single-storey summer house - which was 8m long and 6m wide - before chainsawing through the wooden roof and walls.

"The man said he was just taking his due," said a police spokesman. "But I don't think his wife was too pleased."

After finishing the job, the man picked up his half with the forklift truck and drove to his brother's house where he has since been staying.

You can't take away my warfighters!!

Georgie was heard shrieking:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - President George W. Bush is likely to veto any legislation that proposes a timetable to leave Iraq, administration officials said Thursday. That was after Democrats in the House and Senate pushed legislation that would do just that along with re-focusing military efforts.

The legislation includes provisions for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq by August 2008, or sooner, if specified progress benchmarks remain unmet. Those provisions are in the Senate and House versions of appropriations bills that also provide money to give troops better equipment, training, and care when they are wounded as well as money to expand military operations in Afghanistan.

Democrats hope to have the legislation ready for a floor debate and vote in two weeks.

Republicans focus on what is important.

MyDD's Jonathan Singer:
"Congressional Republicans, led by GOP Rep. Tom Davis of Northern Virginia, are pushing a plan to hand the District of Columbia a seat in the House of Representatives in exchange for also giving Utah another seat, temporarily pushing the size of the House to 437 seats. In theory, this plan would be party-neutral, as DC would elect an extra Democrat and Utah would elect an extra Republican. But according to Glen Warchol of The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah Republicans are attempting to shut the state's Democrats out of the redistricting process with, perhaps, the intention of making it impossible for Democratic Congressman Jim Matheson to win reelection."