I came across this a couple of days ago. NPR is holding its first craft contest! (The story is near the bottom of the page.)
I have an idea for an ornament and I think I might enter this – especially since you just basically have to take a picture of our work and post it at flickr. There are only a few days left as the contest ends on December 11th! I should be able to get my ornament done on time since I think I’ll be using polymer clay – that is unless I get too lazy.
December 7th, 2006
103 Days – that’s how many days the 109th Congress will have worked this session. Your average worker with 2 weeks off a year works about 245 days a year with holidays.
Now, the Democratic leaders in Congress want to change their work schedule and work 5 days a week – up from their current 3 and from the looks of things, it seems like it’s about damn time.
For much of this election year, the legislative week started late Tuesday and ended by Thursday afternoon — and that was during the relatively few weeks the House wasn’t in recess.
Next year, members of the House will be expected in the Capitol for votes each week by 6:30 p.m. Monday and will finish their business about 2 p.m. Friday, Hoyer said.
This is pretty surprising to me. I really had no idea that those people in Congress only worked, they say 3 days a week, but it really looks more like 2 to me. What pissed me off the most though was this -
“Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families — that’s what this says.”
Okay, so making an elected official work 5 days a week means that Democrats hate families. Bullshit. If working a typical work week is too difficult for this guy, I would highly recommend that he resign his position and try to find another job where he would get paid over $150,000 a year, get great benefits, and work 2 days a week. Then again, he could always become a lobbyist I guess. Or maybe this guy is just so out of touch with America that he fails to realize that most people work 5 days a week – some even 6 or 7 to make ends meet. Has he also forgotten about all of the service men and women who currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and aren’t able to see their families for a year or more sometimes? Yea, working 5 days a week is a big sacrifice.
It also makes me wonder what Kingston does on Fridays and Mondays? Does he go to his office and work from there? Or does he spend that time with his family?
From this article, it also makes me wonder how many Congresspeople fly home when Congress is not in session and most importantly, who pays for that travel? Do the tax payers pay for those trips?
December 7th, 2006
