Kabuki or Kumbaya?

Measured approach to redistricting tried
Could U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat, find herself in the fight of her life in 2012? Is it possible to make a Congressional Seat centered in Republican-red El Paso County truly competitive? Statehouse leaders are hoping to find out. Speaking at the Denver Press Club on Thursday, Democratic and Republican legislative leaders announced a special Bipartisan congressional redistricting committee. The 10-member group, to be composed of five Democratic and five Republican lawmakers, will ...

Why the Census may be bad news for Missouri Democrats
WASHINGTON — The Census will make clear on Tuesday what has been speculated about in Missouri political circles for a while: The state could lose a Congressional Seat effective the 2012 Elections. Democrats could be most at risk. Going into the 2011 Congress, they will hold only three seats in the nine-member House delegation because the party just lost Rep. Ike Skelton's district in the November Midterm Elections. But they might have trouble keeping that many. It depends on how the Rep...

Mass. expected to lose House seat through Census
BOSTON — Massachusetts is expected to lose a Congressional Seat when the new Census figures are released. The U.S. Census Bureau will release the results of its once-a-decade count at 11 a.m. Tuesday, and all signs are toward a population shift from the North to the South — and a shift in U.S. House seats along with it. Massachusetts currently has 10 House seats. If, as expected, it loses one on Tuesday, state lawmakers will have to decide how to get rid of one congressman. Populati...

Mass. expected to lose House seat through Census
BOSTON — Massachusetts is expected to lose a Congressional Seat when the new Census figures are released. The U.S. Census Bureau will release the results of its once-a-decade count at 11 a.m. Tuesday, and all signs are toward a population shift from the North to the South — and a shift in U.S. House seats along with it. Massachusetts currently has 10 House seats. If, as expected, it loses one on Tuesday, state lawmakers will have to decide how to get rid of one congressman. Populati...

Will the media hold the GOP up to their fetish standard for "bipartisanship" too?
Will the media hold the GOP up to their fetish standard for "Bipartisanship" too? Today the Senate tries to get much work done, as the Lame Duck session comes to a close -- which includes Don't Ask Don't Tell, the DREAM Act and the START Treaty. I wonder if the media will hold the GOP up to the same Bipartisan standards as they do the Democratic party? I know Villagers were very happy that Millionaires got their Tax Cuts, thereby raising the national Debt which happens to be the Tea Pa...

South, West expected to pick up House seats after census
WASHINGTON — Sun Belt states and those in the West are expected to gain even more political clout when the Census Bureau announces on Tuesday which states will gain Congressional Seats and which will lose them. Among the likely winners are Washington State, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, South Carolina and Utah. The likely losers are such Rust Belt states as Missouri, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Ohio. While it may be an insider's game, the political st...

Obama Signs Tax Cut Bill, Partisan Debate Rages On
President Barack Obama, joined by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, signs the Bipartisan tax package that extends Tax Cuts for families at all income levels, during a signing ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex, Friday, Dec. 17, 2010. (AP) WASHINGTON -- As President Obama signed into law Friday the massive Bipartisan tax package that delighted most Republicans but divided his own party, the debate over its implications raged on. Obama found himself ...

Budget Brawl Looming In US Congress
(NewsCore) - Even as President Barack Obama signed a broad, Bipartisan tax law, battle lines were being drawn over Spending Cuts and Obama's Health Care law, setting up the likely first big fights in the new Congress, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Senate Republicans, facing an uproar from Tea Party Activists, rose up late Thursday to scuttle a $1.1 Trillion spending bill, turning their backs on billions of dollars in projects that they had championed. In the process, they showed the...

Black segregation in US drops to lowest in century (AP)
WASHINGTON – America's neighborhoods took large strides toward racial integration in the last decade as blacks and whites chose to live near each other at the highest levels in a century. Still, segregation in many parts of the U.S. persisted, with Hispanics in particular turning away from whites. A broad range of 2009 Census data released Tuesday also found a mixed economic picture, with the Poverty rate swinging wildly among counties from 4 percent to more than 40 percent as the nation...

The 11 Republicans on the Powerful House Ways and Means Committee
Veteran fiscal conservative Congressman Peter Roskam (R, IL) has announced the names of the 10 Republicans that are joining him on the House Ways and Means Committee, the powerful committee that has jurisdiction over taxes, trade, and programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Peter Roskam is the Representative for the 6th Illinois Congressional District which is situated just west of Chicago. He is about to begin his third term in Congress and will advance to the position of Chief Deputy Wh...

Obama could cash in on compromised U.S. tax-cut deal
President Barack Obama (3rd-L) flanked by Vice President Joe Biden (L) and members of Congress including Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mc Connell, signs the middle-class Tax Cut bill in the South Court Auditorium December 17, 2010 in Washington, DC. The measure would extend tax cuts for families at every income level, renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and enact a new one-year cut in Social Security taxes that would benefit nearly every worker who earns a wage. Sheldon Alberts, P...

Boehner: No 'majority of majority' rule
Published: Dec. 17, 2010 at 7:54 PM House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, reacts to remarks by U.S. President Barack Obama during his first State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 27, 2010. UPI/Alexis C. Glenn WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. House Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner said Friday he does not want to have "hard rules and hard walls" on what bills get to the floor. Boehner, R-Ohio, said he does not plan to bring back the "majority of the majority" poli...

Man of the Year Finalist No. 14
Over the last two weeks of 2010, I will count down the finalists until I reach the Man of the Year at the Don Surber blog. Last year’s winner was Sarah Palin. Will she repeat? They were called the Gang of Seven, freshmen Republican congressmen who brought the House down by exposing the Corruption brought by nearly 40 years of one-party rule. The House banking Scandal in which members kited millions of dollars in checks and the House Post Office, which members used to launder Money. House Way...

What do civil unions, a plywood cow and daylight saving have in time? Read on
Rep. Jeanne Faatz back in 1988. A Colorado congressman in 1988 introduced a bill to give states the authority to stay on daylight saving time, but the bill didn’t go anywhere. “It never saw the time of day,” said the sponsor, Republican Hank Brown, then a congressman from the 4th Congressional District. “I thought it was a matter of state control, but that was not a widely shared view.” Brown, who went on to become a U.S

Analysis: With tax bill, Dems pick political fight (AP)
WASHINGTON – In the year-end tax debate of 2010, President Barack Obama got the economic stimulus he sought while Democrats in Congress settled for picking a political fight. Far more quietly, Republicans pocketed a two-year extension of George W. Bush-era Tax Cuts at all income levels and a sweetened Estate Tax to go with it, without having to swallow billions in Public Works spending that would have inflamed their Tea Party supporters. By the time Obama had signed the bill on Friday, h...

NHL: Colorado 6, Ottawa 5 (OT)
Published: Dec. 17, 2010 at 11:58 PM Denver, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Matt Duchene scored on a slapshot from the left circle with 2:24 to go in overtime Friday, giving the Colorado Avalanche a 6-5 victory over Ottawa. Duchene was the only player with more than one goal in the high-scoring affair but 23 players had at least one point. Duchene's other goal came late in the second period to forge a 3-3 tie. Kevin Porter put Colorado in front 2:08 into the third period but scores from Jason Spezza and Danie...

Thompson Creek Metals Company Announces Application Filed Relating to the Approval of Terrane Acquisition
DENVER, CO, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. ("Thompson Creek" or "Company") (NYSE:TC and TSX:TCM), announced that on December 16, 2010, it received a copy of a Notice of Application filed in the Federal Court of Canada by the Nak'azdli First Nation ("Nak'azdli") seeking a judicial review of the decision of the Canadian Minister of Industry approving the Company's acquisition of Terrane Metals Corp. ("Terrane").  The acquisition was com...

Boehner, Bachmann, and a reckless committee assignment
BOEHNER, BACHMANN, AND A RECKLESS COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT.... As the start of the 112th Congress draws closer, House Republican leaders are making committee assignments for their new majority Caucus. One assignment, in particular, appears inexplicable. In a Press Release yesterday, incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) explained, "The members of the House Intelligence Committee are charged with one of the most significant responsibilities of Congress -- keeping the American People safe by ...

DREAM Act Fails in Senate
By a vote of 55 to 41, the DREAM Act failed a procedural vote in the Senate today, ending the push for the Legislation until Congress convenes under GOP leadership January 5. The DREAM Act seeks to provide legal status to Illegal Immigrants who came to the US before they turned sixteen and served in the Military or earned college degrees. As expected, mostly Republicans voted against it, though DREAM was a Bipartisan bill when it was introduced in 2007. Today, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham...

As era nears end, Patrick Kennedy embraces new opportunities
WASHINGTON — Representative Patrick Kennedy stepped carefully around a clutter of half-packed cardboard boxes, overstuffed luggage, and several open bags of Potato Chips at his Capitol Hill apartment. It seemed more like a scene of a College Student heading home than the end of a 64-year political legacy. But Kennedy’s upcoming Retirement will break a bond between the nation’s capital and Camelot. When the new House is seated in January, it will mark the first time since 1947 ...

Patrick Kennedy leaves public life, and an era ends
WASHINGTON — Representative Patrick Kennedy stepped carefully around a clutter of half-packed cardboard boxes, overstuffed luggage, and several open bags of Potato Chips at his Capitol Hill apartment. It seemed more like a scene of a College Student heading home than the end of a 64-year political legacy. But Kennedy’s upcoming Retirement will break a bond between the nation’s capital and Camelot. When the new House is seated in January, it will mark the first time since 1947 ...

LAST TICKET: Wyden has prostate cancer; congressman tweets in Morse code (The Ticket)
Here are the stories we took note of today but didn't give the full blog treatment: • Senator Ron Wyden has early-stage Prostate Cancer. (The Oregonian) • Sarah Palin's poll numbers are worse than Nancy Pelosi's. (First Read) • Greg Walden announced his House telecom subcommittee chairmanship by posting a Twitter message in Morse code. (Daily Intel) • Could "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" save Joe Lieberman? (The Fix) • Rob Simmons thinks the National Republican Senatorial Committee

Reid Drops Omnibus Spending Bill
(NewsCore) - In a surprise move, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced on the Senate floor Thursday that he does not have the necessary votes to file for Cloture on a $1.1 Trillion omnibus spending bill and will therefore not bring it to the Senate floor for a vote. Reid said nine Republicans, who he refused to name, had previously assured him of their support for the bill but had walked away from it in the last few days. Instead, Reid said he will now work with Senate Minority Le...

Redistricting panel's work questioned
by Mary Jo Pitzl - Dec. 14, 2010 06:08 PM Republican lawmakers are challenging some of the early decisions of the political redistricting process - a process that was designed to exclude legislative influence. On Tuesday, the lawmakers reiterated their call for reconsideration of three nominees to the Independent Redistricting Commission. And they worried about the "chilling effect" of a Tucson man being dropped from the list, for what the lawmakers say were concerns about his Christian faith. T...

Arizona Republicans Claim Religious Discrimination In Redistricting Panel
Republican lawmakers are challenging some of the early decisions of the political redistricting process - a process that was designed to exclude legislative influence. On Tuesday, the lawmakers reiterated their call for reconsideration of three nominees to the Independent Redistricting Commission. And they worried about the "chilling effect" of a Tucson man being dropped from the list, for what the lawmakers say were concerns about his Christian faith. The redistricting commission, created by th...