Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Oh, No! They're Coming Back!

Rich Galen

Thursday August 5, 2010

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling the Members of the House of Representatives back from their ~~summer vacation~~ Summer District Work Period early next week to vote on the bill passed by the Senate yesterday to increase taxes on corporations to pay for states to keep teachers on the payroll.

According to Lori Montgomery's reporting in the Washington Post, the bill is a

"$26 billion plan to prevent the layoffs of tens of thousands of teachers and other public workers."

In an earlier edition of Washington Post story, this sentence was included:

"The legislation is scaled back from versions that stalled earlier this summer as part of a larger tax-and-spend measure extending jobless benefits and a variety of expired tax breaks."

It will not surprise you to know that later versions of the story that was replaced with:

"Democrats hailed passage of the bill, which would extend programs enacted in last year's stimulus package to help cash-strapped states avoid layoffs."

Both versions point out that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) only got the votes to break the GOP filibuster when Maine's two Republican Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins broke ranks and voted with the Democrats.

You have to go to the bottom of the piece as it appeared at 4:27 pm yesterday to find this:

"Democrats lured the needed Republican votes only after dropping proposed cuts to Navy shipbuilding, an essential part of the Maine economy."

The House adjourned last Friday for its ~~summer vacation~~ August recess, but you and I will not only foot the bill to keep the public employees' unions happy, but to fly all those Members of Congress to Washington from where ever they are, and then back from Washington to where ever they were.

The only good news about that is the Senate is going out of session tomorrow for its ~~summer vacation~~ August District Work Period and so the House will have to accept the Senate language as is or the Senate would have to come back and vote on any amendments the House adopts.

I only point that out because I would much rather the House and Senate be on an extended ~~summer vacation~~ August break than be in session and do even more damage to the economy.

Speaking of Harry Reid, while official Washington has been chuckling about what was supposed to be a very difficult re-election bid for Reid turned into a laugher when Republicans nominated Tea Party-backed Sharron Angle who was supposed to be a push-over.

Reuters reported the results of its poll of Nevadans yesterday which showed that among registered voters Reid was, indeed, holding onto a 16 percentage point lead: 52-36.

However, Reuters went onto report that

"Among voters who said they are likely to vote, Reid held a 48-44 percent lead over [his] Republican challenger."

Next Topic:

If you're thinking about where to shop for your kids' back-to-school needs, might I recommend Target? While I like Target well enough, I don't like it well enough to be a shill.

The reason I would like you to think about it is because MoveOn.org is urging its members to boycott Target because the corporation - under the rules approved by the Supreme Court of the United States - had the gall to support the Republican, Tom Emmer, in the Minnesota Governor's race.

In the e-mail, MoveOn writes:

"We need to let them know that we want Target-and all corporations-out of our elections."

Does MoveOn.org really think we believe they would be in a projectile sweat about a legal political donation if Target were supporting the Democrat in that race?

So, support the Citizens United decision and shop at Target.

New Topic:

Am I making too much of this? Barack Obama is celebrating his 49th birthday without his wife nor either of his children in attendance. I understand why Democrats running for re-election wouldn't want to be seen with him, but Michelle and the girls?

Last Topic:

My current favorite TV ad is the one in the Geico rotation with R. Lee Ermey as a former Marine Gunnery Sergeant who is now a therapist. I laugh every time I watch it. It's on the SDR.

One the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the Wash Post story, to the Reuters poll and the MoveOn.org letter. Also, you can click on that Geico ad. Then, there's a Mullfoto and a Catchy Caption of the Day. Quite a bit, actually, when you think about it.

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