As residents of New Orleans were fleeing Hurricane Gustav, top Republican Party officials donned pink boas and swigged vodka shots at a wild whirl of corporate and lobbyist-paid parties this weekend in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Sunday night lobbyists with ties to criminally indicted lawmaker Tom DeLay, put on a raucous six-hour party at a downtown bar featuring music by the band “Hookers and Blow.” There was no evidence of any actual prostitutes or cocaine.

Congressman Bill Shuster (R-PA), a GOP House deputy whip, was seen meeting with a group of lobbyists, who bemoaned McCain’s call to tone down the parties which had already been paid for.  read more »

Bill Shuster has spent the last couple of days being driven around the 9th District talking up his “Energy Independence act”. Flashy title aside, HR 6421 is quite probably deader than fried chicken. The Bill was introduced to the floor of Congress on June 29th without a single co-sponsor. That means that no one in Congress, not even any republicans, would attach their name to it. The last energy-related bill that got out of Committee had some 198 co-sponsors.  read more »

The American heritage dictionary defines the word evil as causing ruin, injury, or pain; harmful. How else but evil would one characterize a member of congress who willfully disregards the expressed will of his constituents? What other word but evil would describe the following:

voting against The Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act,
voting against overtime protection for American workers
voting against housing assistance for Native Amercians,
voting against creating long term energy alternatives,
voting against tax incentives for clean renewable energy
voting against raising the minimum wage,
voting against the prosecution of hate crimes,
Voting against expanding healthcare coverage to National Guard members and reservists who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan  read more »