the Garvey

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Comment by malik seneferu on June 15, 2009 at 3:38pm

Comment by Kwame Binta on April 7, 2009 at 11:47pm

Comment by Kwame Binta on April 7, 2009 at 10:51pm

How do we shut it down

NY Post Article that calls Rangel's Garvey Bill Silly Priority
By MEGHAN CLYNE

Offbase: Reps. Charlie Rangel (above), John McHugh and Carolyn McCarthy are devoting time and energy to the most trivial of issues.


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Last updated: 6:08 am
April 6, 2009
Posted: 12:50 am
April 6, 2009
THE economy is in crisis, the federal deficit is balloon ing out of control, North Korea is launching missiles and US troops are still fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. But New York's congressional delegation has other priorities.
Social Security and Medicare are stretched thin -- but don't tell Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-Ulster County). He's introduced a bill "To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for coverage of qualified acupuncturist services under part B of the Medicare Program."

Guess that's his agenda for health-care reform.
Gary Ackerman (D-Queens) is a senior member of the Financial Services Committee. You'd think the financial crisis would keep him busy -- yet he still found time to sponsor HR 615 -- a bill "To amend the Federal Hazardous Substances Act to require engine coolant and antifreeze to contain a bittering agent so as to render it unpalatable." (Yes, he's on a crusade to save us from drinking antifreeze.)
Rep. Peter King (R-Long Island) also sits on the Financial Services Committee, and is the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee. In other words, he deals with a lot of serious legislation. But then there's HR 414 -- the bill King introduced "To require mobile phones containing digital cameras to make a sound when a photograph is taken."

Smile -- your congressman doesn't like "candid camera."
What's urgent in the eyes of Rep. John McHugh (R-Watertown)? He's introduced HR 1399 -- legislation "To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to . . . encourage owners and operators of privately held farm, ranch and forest land containing maple trees to make their land available for access by the public for maple-tapping activities." New York's senior senator, Charles Schumer, sponsored the Mrs. Butterworth Fan Club's companion bill in the Senate.

Don't Schumer and McHugh have anything more important to do? McHugh's safety-conscious colleague, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), does. She's introduced HR 193 -- "Expressing support for National Facial Protection Month." The bill begins "Whereas 5,000,000 teeth are knocked out each year during sports activities," and at the end "requests the president to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe National Facial Protection Month with appropriate ceremonies and activities."
Appropriate ceremonies and activities? Don't even want to imagine. Then there's Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem). His job as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee is one of the most important in the House. Yet of the 31 bills he's sponsored, only a handful pertain to his Ways and Means duties. The rest propose everything from an Adam Clayton Powell postage stamp to making "Dominican" its own category of ethnic identification for the Census. He's also got several bills to honor musicians Lena Horne, Lionel Hampton, James Brown and Ray Charles.

And don't miss Rangel's bill "Expressing the sense of the Congress that the president should grant a pardon to Marcus Mosiah Garvey to clear his name and affirm his innocence of crimes for which he was unjustly prosecuted and convicted."
The Obama administration has nothing better to do than go through the pardon process for the 1923 mail-fraud conviction of a man who's been dead since 1940? (Requests for comment from Rep. Rangel's office did not receive a response.) Of course, lunatic legislation is hardly a novelty in the hallowed halls of the US Capitol. Nor does New York have a monopoly on silly bills: Maryland's Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, pushed through legislation whose sole purpose was "Authorizing the use of the Capitol Grounds for the Greater Washington Soap Box Derby."
Indeed, it's sometimes tempting to be grateful for Washington's Keystone congressmen. After all, if they weren't squandering their energy on crusades against palatable anti-freeze, imagine the real damage they could do.
Still, it's one thing for our taxpayer-paid representatives to dither in a time of peace and prosperity. When all's going well, it's easier to give Congress a pass when they waste money and man-hours drafting dumb bills, reviewing them, printing them, distributing them, and voting on them -- all at taxpayer expense.
But what's especially maddening is that now -- when Congress is guzzling up trillions of our tax dollars in the name of various "urgent" crises that have to be resolved immediately -- this is the best they can do with their time. No wonder everything in Washington is such a mess.
Meghan Clyne is a Washington writer

Comment by Kwame Binta on March 31, 2009 at 11:02pm

Why should we want to be sonebody else? MG

Comment by malik seneferu on October 17, 2008 at 5:12pm

IT TIME TO BUILD