Doing away with the do-nothing congress

    Soon to be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that he plans to keep senators working long hours and the he is doing away with the current "do-nothing" congress.

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By NEDRA PICKLER
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 29, 2006; 7:59 AM

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid said Tuesday he's doing away with the "do-nothing Congress" that Democrats campaigned against and plans to keep senators working long hours _ focusing first on ethics, the minimum wage and stem cell research.

The Nevada Democrat said he would tackle those priorities after cleaning up the "financial mess" the outgoing Republican Congress is leaving behind, a reference to nine long-overdue spending bills covering 13 Cabinet departments for the budget year that began Oct. 1.

"They're just leaving town, it appears," Reid said during an interview with The Associated Press in his Capitol office. "And so we're going to have to find a way to fund the government for the next year."

The must-pass legislation totals more than $460 billion and could divert time from other items on the Democratic agenda. "It's certainly not going to help it," Reid said.

He is wrapping up his final days as Senate minority leader. He will assume control of the Senate's agenda on Jan. 4, when the next Congress convenes with 10 new senators, at least 52 new House members and Democrats holding majorities in both houses for the first time since 1994.

"We're going to put in some hours here that haven't been put in in a long time," Reid said. That means "being here more days in the week, and we start off this year with seven weeks without a break. That hasn't been done in many, many years here.   MORE HERE

Fl-13 B.S. test showed serious problems

Crossposted from Dailykos

FL-13: B.S. test still showed serious problems
by kos
Wed Nov 29, 2006

It's amazing that even the most cursory test of these machines show that they don't work.

This was mentioned in the BeTheMedia diary promoted earlier by Georgia10, but this is local media confirmation:

An audit of the county's touch-screen voting machines Tuesday found several discrepancies, most prominently in the disputed 13th Congressional District race, but state elections officials said it is unclear whether the problems were the result of human or machine error.

All four voting machines that officials used to simulate the Nov. 7 election had miscounts, and three of them had miscounts in the District 13 race [...]

The voting machines tested Tuesday were among those that the state programmed for the county, but were not used in the Nov. 7 election.

State officials selected four precincts, and had their workers vote to reflect proportionately how votes were cast in the actual election [...]

Of the 251 ballots cast, five additional votes were counted for Jennings, including three extra votes in one precinct. There were also miscounts in five other races.

"Most likely it's human error," said Jenny Nash, spokesperson for the State Division of Elections.

If election workers can't get their votes to properly register, how the hell are regular voters supposed to ensure their votes are properly counted? Human error? These are elections professionals. And knowing their job performance was on the line, you can bet they were concentrating extra-hard on making sure they voted correctly.

More HERE