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Where oh where is that beautiful Florida weather at? It was sorely missed last night at Cape Canaveral where a friend and I had went to watch the launch of STS-116. When we left Tampa it was extremely overcast but I was hopeful (he wasn’t! LOL) that it would be less so over near the Cape.

So we got over to the Cape and it didn’t look so bad — see hoping really does help. We went to dinner at Cracker Barrel (Mmm…) and headed over to the Visitor Complex. We got there around 6PM and it was pretty cool out, almost cold, definately jacket weather though.

We had a good time exploring the rocket garden, checking out the Magnificent Desolation movie narrated by Tom Hanks in the IMAX theatre and checking out all the other touristy type things.

Well it got to launch time and we picked out a prime spot (with some strange guy who kept tailing us) and the countdown resumed at T-9 minutes. When the count resumed the Weather Officer called a No-Go due to cloud ceiling constraints but they were going to count down to T-5 minutes and hold in the hopes that the clouds would clear. Unfortunately, just a few short minutes later it was announced that we had gone outside of the launch window and that the launch was to be scrubbed.

Oh well — we had a good time although the car ride back to Tampa sucked. It’s funny though how the shuttle somehow seems to find a good launch day throughout the Spring/Summer/Fall rains, hurricane, thunderstorms, etc… it’s something as simple as cloud cover on this cool Winter night in December.

NASA is going to try again on Saturday & Sunday so hopefully they will be able to get it off one of those days. I have some pictures that I’ll put up in the next day or two of the rocket garden, the memorial, etc…, and a real good one of me getting frisked because of my steel toe shoes! LOL

An article in the Washington Times reports that the incoming House Majority Leader, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D – MD), has told House members that starting in January they will be required to work a 5 day work week, 6:30 PM Monday thru 2 PM Friday, as opposed to the current 3 day work week. Oh, the horrors!

The departing House has managed to work a total of only 107 days during the entire session. Currently the House starts their week on Tuesday and convenes on Thursday. With many representatives arriving in D.C. on Tuesday and leaving on Thursday that leaves a total of 1 full work day. Wish I had that kind of work schedule.

Rep. Hoyer has also stated that the long Memorial Day weekend will be no longer and the House will convene on the 4th of January as opposed to normally waiting until after the State of the Union. This is a start but there are numerous other extended holiday weekends and long recess’ that hopefully will be addressed by Rep. Hoyer.

However, Rep. Jack Kingston (R – GA) is quoted as saying, “Keeping us up here eats away at families” … “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families – that’s what this says.” I say to Rep. Kingston — stop your whining. There are countless American’s who not only have to work a full work week but sometimes have to work two or more jobs just to support their families. Also, let’s not forget our military who are away from their families for extremely long periods of time and get paid far less than our representatives do.

Now, I understand that the work of a representative is not only in D.C. but also in their districts. So, it’s understandable that from time to time that a member would take a few days off to spend time working in their home districts as well as spending some quality time with their family. However, remember, you signed up for this job — you knew what was coming when you ran for office. So do your job and be in D.C. the majority of time so you can properly represent your constituents in the House.

Thank you Rep. Hoyer for this decision. It is a welcome change that will hopefully carry over to the rest of Congress as well as allow our elected officials to more properly represent and work for us in the House.

Source: Washington Times

Nope, this isn’t a trick question. We’ve already seen some of the policies the new Democrat controlled Congress plan to roll out including a possible reinstatement of the draft by Rep. Charlie Rangel (D – NY). Now on the table is a bill to give the District of Columbia (a.k.a. Washington, D.C.) a vote in the House of Representatives supported by none other than soon be to Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D – CA)

WHAT?!? Who next? Puerto Rico? The Virgin Islands?

For those who don’t know the full text of the Constitution of the United States, Article I., Section 2 states:

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

I’ve bolded the important section, STATE! Since when is Washington D.C. a State? Yes I understand that District of Columbia has residents that pay taxes, serve in our military, vote in federal and local elections, etc… but they are not a State of the Union. Without being a State, Washington D.C. does not deserve the right of representation in the United States Congress. Forget the fact that once we open this door how long does anyone think it will be before the various Territories of the United States of America ask for a voting Representative?

One last comment — why only a voting Representative in the House? If the supporters of this bill truly believe the District deserves representation give them full representation in our United States; both in the House and Senate.

Welcome To My Blog! Yes, the geek in me put the title of my first blog posting as ‘Hello World’. LOL

I’m not really sure where this blog is going to go but it will probably be centered around politics, world events, sometimes my life (maybe). As I see things on TV, newspaper, etc… that make me scream when no one is around you’ll probably end up seeing it here. My friend, Anthony (http://checksnbalances.blogspot.com), started his blog a while back and it made me want to start mine. However I wanted to finish up my website design before I did and as you can see it is mostly completed. It is a design that has been years in the making — just needed to sit down and complete it.

So sit back and relax. I’ll try to keep this blog updated and hopefully entertaining and interesting at the same time. Please feel free to leave comments whether good or bad.

Oh and for those that visit the blog posted above for my friend Anthony — don’t ask. We’re great friends but we’re on the exact opposite ends of the spectrum. It’s confusing. hehe

Talk to you again soon…