Big Spenders In Congress

Not having worked on Capitol Hill, I won’t comment on the entirety of what is in this article, since I don’t know if some Congressional expenditures are necessary or more efficient than they appear at first glance by an outsider- but I will say that it looks like Members of Congress are continuing to waste our money on unnecessary travel expenses.

Yet another nail in the coffin for the currently elected representatives. This poll doesn’t make things look any better.

Government Responsibilities: Defense, Roads, Treaties…Calories?

It had to happen- Congress wants to force certain restaurants to put caloric intake on their menus. Of course, it’s not just any restaurants- just the evil fast food restaurants. The ones putting a gun to America’s head and making us get fat.

Were our legislators not Democrats intent on taking over every aspect of our lives, this would be a joke. Unfortunately, that is what is required in the two health care reform bills on Capitol Hill. There are also two separate bills requiring the same thing. The goal, you see, is to help Americans lose weight and to overall become healthier. Of course, rather than go after fat Americans, the government is going after yet another business providing a wanted service.

I have a question for the legislators supporting this bill?(actually, a whole bunch, but I’ll limit it to one): do you really think Americans don’t know fast food isn’t healthy? The article linked above does a good job of telling both sides, and one of the critiques of the bill is that price will dictate intake of fast food far more than what’s in it for many people. Perhaps you could concentrate on getting out of the way of the economy so that it can recover and people will have more money to buy healthier food.

Conservatives Must Distance Themselves From Randall Terry

In another embarrassing display of pro-life hypocrisy, ThinkProgress reports that activist Randall Terry is holding demonstrations on Capitol Hill?over health care reform. Some might remember Terry as one of the few (if only) pro-life activists to not outright condemn the killing of abortion doctor George Tiller last spring. Unfortunately,?Terry is probably?going to once again make real?pro-life supporters look bad in his own inimitable way. While we cannot stop him, we can make certain our pro-life actions follow in the Christian, compassionate way the vast majority of pro-life supporters act. Everything happens for a reason- let’s use this opportunity to remind ourselves of why people like?Randall Terry have little or no impact on the legislative process, and why the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Mormon Church and National Right To Life do. The left can get away with Terry-like actions and movements- conservatives and Christians cannot. We must hold ourselves to the proverbial higher standard.

The Lion Rests His Head (1932-2009)

My mornings generally begin with rolling out of bed to Willie Geist (of Morning Joe fame) and his new show Way Too Early.? He was being assisted by the regulars of Morning Joe in breaking the news of the passing of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy; a burden that no one man could carry on his own.? Even as staunch a Conservative as I am, I cannot help be feel the full weight of this somber moment.? Ted Kennedy was an icon; the personification of liberalism as understood today.? To myself, and many other younger Conservatives, he was the opponent.? We would argue in class, not against teachers and later professors and their beliefs; but against Ted Kennedy and the movement of which he was the avant-garde as if we were engaged in some form of transcontinental dialogue.? No matter how much one disagreed with the man?s views, politics, or personal life, you cannot take away his importance from the left and ultimately from America.

I was reminded of a story I heard while on Capitol Hill.? An older gentleman reminisced about a time when he was a mere intern working for then-Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland.? Underneath the House offices and Senate offices are a number of tunnels and a little train system that ferries people between their respective office buildings and the Capitol.? When you are travelling these halls you always run the chance of brushing elbows or exchanging glances with statesmen you see all-too-often on the news.? The makers of history.? This gentleman sat down in one of the carts for the train to head toward the Capitol, and as many people do, stared straight forward in an effort to maintain his invisibility amongst other passerbyers.? His cart quickly filled up with the larger than life Ted Kennedy and his Chief of Staff, which caused the young intern?s heart to jump into his throat.? Senator Kennedy looked at him, smiled and asked who the young intern was, who he was working for, whether he was enjoying DC, et cetera.? The short train ride concluded and both man and young man exchanged farewells, I imagine the Senator?s was more boisterous than the intern being left frozen like a deer in headlights.

Around a month later, the intern was back on the underground train again.? This time only Senator Kennedy sat with him in the cart which rendered the young intern silent again (this gentleman did not go into politics, understandably so).? Senator Kennedy smiled at him, and said, ?I hope you?ll forgive me but I can?t remember your name.? But I would like to know how your internship with Paul [Sarbanes] is going; are you still enjoying it??? You thought the intern was blown away before, now he had a whole new level of admiration for the Massachusetts Senator.

Senator Kennedy was best at that sort of interaction, from what I hear.? He may have met and dined with and drank with over a thousand people between his and the young intern?s two meetings, but he remembered people and their stories.? He was a statesman.? That is all that I have the authority to judge him on.? There will be reminders of his vitriol on the judiciary committee towards Republican Court appointees, his politics and practices, and most of all reminders of that July night in 1969.? I will refrain from speaking ill of the dead for this particular piece, but my hopes are that the man?s death does not become politicized. Ted Kennedy was a symbol after all, so his name and memory will be invoked for years to come.? In the end, he was a statesman and will live in politics long after he lived in our world.

-rj