Eric Cantor Has No Clue

Sourced From Daily Kos

Eric Cantor on House Republicans: We're not lazy!

by Jed Lewison       Thu Oct 27, 2011

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (center) is working hard—on all the wrong things

If this pushback is any indication of what's going on inside House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's mind, then he doesn't have a clue about why public approval of Congress has fallen to an all-time low of 9% since Republicans took control of the House:

In a 1-page “Dear Colleague” letter, Cantor pointed to several numbers that he said indicated a more deliberative and productive House due to the new schedule. For example, through Oct. 14 of this year, the House has taken 800 roll call votes so far, compared to 565 votes by the same time in 2010.

“I believe this year’s calendar, because of its new design, helped improve the legislative culture of the House,” Cantor wrote in the letter released Thursday.

In his letter, Cantor also noted a “boom of activity” in House committees, with 1,276 hearings and 194 mark-ups held so far in 2011. Like this year, votes in the House in 2012 will be held later in the day between 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. – largely to allow committees sufficient time to do their work in the mornings.

Cantor seems to think that the public is pissed off because they don't think Congress is keeping itself busy. But that's not the problem—nobody keeps themselves up at night worrying how many hours per day members of Congress are on the job. What they care about is whether Congress is actually getting something done. And by that measure, Congress has been an absolute failure, and the blame falls squarely on Republicans.

Nobody doubts that Paul Ryan worked very hard to pass his budget plan that called for the end of Medicare as we know it. Nobody doubts that tea partiers spent countless hours plotting the debt ceiling debacle. Nobody questions whether John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have burned the midnight oil to figure out how to block President Obama's jobs agenda.

The problem isn't how hard House Republicans are working. It's that they are working for the wrong things. They've got their priorities upside down. And the only way to solve the problem is to throw them out next November.

Originally posted to The Jed Report on Thu Oct 27, 2011

Also republished by Daily Kos.

Technorati Tags: House Republicans,Eric Cantor,2012 Election,Current Events,An American Gothic,Politics

Murphy’s Law Strikes Again

   You are all old enough to know what “ Murphy’s Law “ means so I am not going to explain it. I am just going to present the latest incident in order to show you just how crappy things can get in the snap of a finger.

   Here in Tampa, Florida, the jobs prospects are pretty bleak and it does not look as if things will get better any time soon, so I have taken to posting my own ad on Craigslist seeking work. Sometimes this work out pretty good and at other times there are weeks with no work.

   One issue that I have against me is the fact that I have lost my birth certificate so it is impossible for me to get a current Florida driver license, making it impossible for me to fill out any job applications. To make matters even worse, I was born in Germany.

   My father was an American and my mother was German, and I was adopted by both and brought to the United States when I was 3 months old, from what I understand. Trying to wade through all of the red tape for a certificate has been a 3 year pain in the ass, as I have to provide information that I do not have, and am not sure how to get.

   Back to work. I placed an ad on the net seeking work for this past weekend, and I got lucky. A gentleman called needing someone to help with some yard work, such as mowing, weed eating, and some cleanup. I took this job for $8 an hour because I needed the money.

   So, I worked the weekend, which did not include any of the work listed above, and was brought home Sunday night, returning the the job site on Tuesday morning with a $1 an hour raise. That was all well and good and it made my day, as this work was going to continue into the 1st week of November and then other later dates throughout the winter. Things were looking good for a change.  

    Ahhhh, but not so fast!

    I was supposed to work this week from Tuesday through Friday and then be home by 8 or on Friday night.

   My girlfriend, who is an idiot alcoholic, sends me a text on my phone telling me to call her because she has something important to tell me.  When the day is over, I call her only to here that we have an  3-day eviction notice, with the 3 days being up on Friday. Well shit! I can’t work and be in the managers office before he leaves on Friday ( 6 pm ) because I do not get off and back into Tampa before then. The boss gets pissed, I’m already pissed, that I have to leave 2 days early, and I do not drive, so I have to pay to get back to my place. I lose 2.5 days of work, and it costs me $40 to get back into town. All of this over being not even 1 week behind with the rent. I pay by the week ( $100 ) because of the loss of work here, and the thing is that I have been up to 6 weeks behind, one time, and managed to pay the rent all in full. Been living in the same place for a year and a half and up until July of this year, paid by the month and was never late, and now they want to pull this crap?

  My boss did not say as much, but since I was told not to worry about work until next week, it’s a sure bet that the job is lost.

  Probably back to square 1! Murphy’s Law at work.

Technorati Tags: Murphy's Law,Tampa,Florida,Employment,Current Events,An American Gothic