Two Gripes for the Price of One Post

This is a twofer. These were meant two be two different set of posts, but they are in a way interconnected, all though just barely.

1. Roger Clemens Hearing

Its Baseball. Its a sport. Its not all that important really (besides from the basic entertainment and water cooler chat it provides). As other people have posted and commented on, there are wars going on in SW Asia (or commonly referred to as the Middle East), we have US Veterans who are homeless at night, people without access to quality (or any) health care, people are losing their homes, AT&T is allowing the government to spy on its citizens using AT&T's resources, and much much more important thing than ROGER EFFIN CLEMENS TAKING STEROIDS.

These are the 'fuckwits' who are wasting our money on this irrelevant issue and each deserves their credit for being  a fuckwit (btw i picked up that term while i was living in Australia for two years and I have been waiting to 'bust it out'). These are the members of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. We should all email (or call, write, or just plain contact) them and tell them what a great job they are doing on issue management . (funny thing was, on the house website, all the dems had URL links in their names, the repubs didnt.)

Democrats

Chairman Henry A. Waxman, California

Rep. Tom Lantos, California

Rep. Edolphus Towns, New York

Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, Pennsylvania

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, New York

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio

Rep. Danny K. Davis, Illinois

Rep. John F. Tierney, Massachusetts

Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, Missouri

Rep. Diane E. Watson, California

Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts

Rep. Brian Higgins, New York

Rep. John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky

Rep. Bruce L. Braley, Iowa

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia

Rep. Betty McCollum, Minnesota

Rep. Jim Cooper, Tennessee

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland

Rep. Paul W. Hodes, New Hampshire

Rep. Christopher S. Murphy, Connecticut

Rep. John P. Sarbanes, Maryland

Rep. Peter Welch, Vermont

Republicans

Rep. Tom Davis, Virginia, Ranking Minority Member

Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana

Rep. Christopher Shays, Connecticut

Rep. John M. McHugh, New York

Rep. John L. Mica, Florida

Rep. Mark E. Souder, Indiana

Rep. Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania

Rep. Chris Cannon, Utah

Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee

Rep. Michael Turner, Ohio

Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California

Rep. Kenny Marchant, Texas

Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland, Georgia

Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina

Rep. Virginia Foxx, North Carolina

Rep. Brian Bilbray, California

Rep. Bill Sali, Idaho

Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio

**source was http://oversight.house.gov/about/members.asp**

which now bring me on to my second point

2. Representative's Schedules.

Now, wikipedia confirmed that there are 435 members of the House of Representatives (which i thought but wanted to make sure.) When I was looking at who was wasting their time with Roger 'I took steroids but am lying about it so sue me' Clemens, I wanted to see what the other Reps were up too (I have today off and im pretty bored and have nothing else to do). I found out on their website that they do not post their schedules on line.

I thought that was pretty odd. I want to see what my representative was up too (Jim Walsh, 25th Congressional district). Well, his schedule is not online, just like the other house members I looked at. I want to see what he is up too and who he is meeting with because I have a vested interest in what he is doing (since I am his constituent). If he has a meeting with a lobbyist, I want to know about it. If he is in the house voting, I would like to know about it. I don't think its intrusive (since he does represent me, receives a salary based off my taxes, i would like to know what he is doing). Obviously, a full schedule disclosure is out of the question, but how about at least a partial one, something, anything, i just want to really make sure he is voting.

Which brings me to the Roll Call Votes. Get this, NOT EVERY HOUSE MEMBER VOTES!. I already knew that, but look at the Roll Call History (www.house.gov there is a link on the main page). I was shocked to see that generally, less than 400 of the people voted. What are the other reps up too that they are so busy that they cant vote.

If you look at the Roll Call Voting History, the headings are AYES, NOES, PRES, NV. The first two are self explanatory, the PRES heading means if a Rep shows up and decides not to vote, and the NV means that a Rep isn't even bothering himself to show up to Not Vote. Abstain if you don't plan on voting, i have no problem with that...but show the fuck up. its your job.

Now I can see why they don't post their schedules online. They do not want to make it easy for us to call them out on their laziness. Fine, maybe you have another meeting that takes place on a vote that really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but at least let us know that. If you miss a vote, tell us why you missed it, thats all, and since these Reps are making around $165,000+ a year, i do not think its all too much to ask.