JUBILANT DEMOCRATS.... vow to FIGHT for bills demanded by American people...!

[note to Nancy and the Democrats: Get a copy of that magnificent 2nd photograph in the Rich Lipski/Washington Post series (click our headline link click then click "next photo"), and PLASTER IT ALL OVER your own websites and PR notices! That Lipski photo, which we can't grab, is far better than the one above.)

Sen. Ted Kennedy: Ten Priorities Of New Dem Agenda… Sen. Charles Schumer: The People Want Us To Go To Work For Them…..Rep. John Murtha: I Will Be Recommending Extensive Hearings On Iraq…..Rep. Jan Schakowsky: Minimum Wage Increase…..Sen. Tom Harkin: Lift Bush’s Restrictions On Stem Cells…..Rep. Jane Harman: Put Iraq War “On Budget”…
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Our Comments: We here at c-dems SALUTE the incoming 110th Congress, and we are so giddy we are shamelessly stealing Huffington Post's lead photo and headlines! (What the heck, HuffPost leading photos vanish in the wind within hours of their posting, HuffPost offering no archives of their front page).

AND we hope the Democrats make good on ALL their pledges, starting with the "BIG 5" or "BIG 10" mentioned immediately below. Not to grouch, but one item is glaringly missing: the call for substantive OVERSIGHT and ACCOUNTABILITY on America's deeply flawed "HAVA Voting Act," which in effect amounts to little more than (what else) no supervision, no oversight concessions to REPUBLICAN VOTING MACHINE COMPANIES to LOOT American voters of their taxes... and more importantly, OF THEIR VOTES. (Which in turn allows the Republican Congressional beneficiaries of those LOOTED VOTES to stick taxpayers with EVEN MORE EGREGIOUS taxation & spending priorities, such as no-bid contracts for Halliburton in both Iraq and New Orleans, as New Orleans residents are effectively "cleansed" from their native city.)

And one other comment: Like many tens of thousands of Democratic activists, we here at c-dems were gnashing our teeth when we heard all that talk about "BIPARTISANSHIP" today, after no less than THREE national elections (2000, 2002, 2004) where Republicans SNEERED at Democratic voters and any concept of fair play, much less bipartisan, reach-across-the-aisle good faith.

Having heard Ms. Pelosi's comments on attaining one of the top most powerful jobs in American government (see below), we will Give SPEAKER Pelosi an "A+" for sounding both Bipartisan... AND firmly determined to honor the intent of MILLIONS of Democratic voters who gave their all (and loaded their credit cards) to demand SOME kind of OPPOSITION to the Bush administration lust for war.

BUT we will note that THE ONLY REASON Ms. Pelosi is Speaker, which is to say THE ONLY reason the Democrats are in the majority, is the Bush administration HAS FOULED SO MUCH UP, and are _SO BLATANTLY, IN-YOUR-FACE arrogant, corrupt, and condescending. We remind yet again, Mr. Bush gave Roman Emperor NERO a run for the money in the "Nero fiddles while Rome BURNS" category, Bush alternately EATING CAKE and STRUMMING GUITAR, on camera at REPUBLICAN PHOTO-OPS, as TWO THOUSAND New Orleans citizens DROWNED when the FEDERAL DIKES FAILED after absorbing rains from THE HURRICANE with the LOWEST RECORDED PRESSURE (closely corresponds to greatest strength) ON RECORD in the Atlantic basin. (Hurricane Katrina set the lowest recorded pressure in the Atlantic basin before it headed north to the American gulf-coast shores and New Orleans.)

Again, it is only MONUMENTAL levels of incompetence, corruption, and arrogance on the part of President Bush that have allowed Democrats to gain their slim majorities in the House and Senate.

And again we remind, it was AN ENTIRE DECADE of Republican PARTISAN ATTACK POLITICS that delivered them the "Super Trifecta" of POWER in American government, control of the 1.) the House; #2.) the Senate; #3.) the White House; #4.) the majority of the federal judiciary; #5.) the majority on the US Supreme Court; #6.) ruthless control of entire swaths of US government that are nominally "nonpolitical," for example SUBORDINATING the EPA and existing LAWS ON THE BOOKS regarding environmental regulations (such as permissible MERCURY and ARSENIC levels in drinking water!) to Republican ANTI-REGULATORY hit-men. (Much as President George H.W. Bush (Sr.) FIRED the San Francisco federal banking district bank examiner, replacing him with S&L super-lobbyist (Republican big-donor) M. DANNY WALLS, thereby allowing Charles Keating's Lincoln S&L to rip-off taxpayers for ANOTHER BILLION DOLLARS, for a TOTAL of TWO-BILLION-DOLLARS that Keating's S&L cost American taxpayers.)

In short, ATTACK POLITICS WORK, even when Republicans conjure up FALSE SCANDALS OUT OF THIN AIR ("Lincoln bedroom scandal," "Vince Foster suicide," the ENTIRELY FABRICATED "White House TRASHING scandal," etc.).... and even Democrats WIN when THEIR ATTACKS are based on the truth.

But Don't Take OUR word for it! -
(See our Pelosi links at bottom of this post)

Pelosi Becomes Speaker, Preparing to Confront Bush
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20070104/pl_bloomberg/alnutnzmtq6k_1

<< Pelosi's ATTACK ON BUSH WHILE MINORITY LEADER _ARE CREDITED BY MANY Democrats WITH HELPING THEM WIN CONTROL of Congress for the first time since 1994_. >>

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Magnificent RIch Lipski/WashPost photograph of Nancy Pelosi immediately after being sworn in on Speaker's diaz, go to this WP series and click second photo:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2007/01/04/GA2007010401438_index_frames.htm?startat=1


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Put the Iraq War "On Budget"
Rep. Jane Harman
01.04.2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-jane-harman/put-the-iraq-war-on-budg_b_37861.html

No issue is more pressing than Iraq. The voters made that clear last November, and Democrats got the message. The war must be at the top of the to-do list.
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[We, the new Democratic majority, will institute] Extensive Hearings on Iraq
by Rep. John Murtha
01.03.2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-john-murtha/extensive-hearings-on-ira_b_37732.html

I will be recommending to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that we begin extensive hearings starting on January 17, 2007 that will address accountability, military readiness, intelligence oversight and the activities of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We will be demanding substantive answers to questions that have gone unanswered for far too long.

The war in Iraq and its effect on our military and our nation's future remains the most crucial issue facing the new Congress. I will be recommending an aggressive pursuit of action that will allow us to reduce our military presence in Iraq at the soonest practicable date.
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Priorities for the 110th Congress
by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy
01.04.2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-edward-m-kennedy-/priorities-for-the-110th-_b_37870.html
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Bringing the Hopes of Stem Cell Research One Giant Step Closer to Reality
Sen. Tom Harkin
01.04.2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-tom-harkin/bringing-the-hopes-of-ste_b_37833.htm
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Back to Work on the Issues that Matter
Sen. Charles E. Schumer
01.04.2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-charles-e-schumer/back-to-work-on-the-issue_b_37811.html

From strengthening our homeland security to making college more affordable, this is what we're all here to do and must get done, starting right now. Take, for example; the War in Iraq.
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Minimum Wage Increase in the First Hundred Hours
Rep. Jan Schakowsky
01.04.2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-jan-schakowsky/minimum-wage-increase-in-_b_37795.html

Nearly 15 million Americans go to their jobs every day caring for our children and frail old people, cleaning other people's mess, serving us food in restaurants, and for their efforts receive $5.15 an hour, the Federal minimum wage. If they work 52 forty-hour weeks, their annual income adds up to $10,712 -- $4,367 under the poverty level for a family of three.
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FIRST DAY OF NEW Democratic Congress
Pelosi Elected First Female Speaker
By John Aloysius Farrell
Denver Post Washington Bureau Chief
 01/04/2007
http://www.currentargus.com/ci_4951313

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) smiles and flexes her muscles after being elected as the first female Speaker at a swearing in ceremony for the 110th Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 4, 2007 in Washington, D.C. (photo by Getty / Chip Somodevilla)

Washington - On a day that even her Republican colleagues called welcome and overdue, the U.S. House of Representatives elected Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California as the first female speaker Thursday on the opening day of the new Democratic Congress.

Claiming the speaker's gavel after 12 years of Republican rule, Pelosi PROMISED TO WORK "IN THE SPIRT OF PARTNERSHIP, NOT PARTISANSHIP..... _BUT_ SHE QUICKLY CHALLENGED President Bush to "COME UP WITH A NEW PLAN FOR IRAQ" that will allow the U.S. to "responsibly redeploy our troops."
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Pelosi Becomes Speaker, Preparing to Confront Bush
(Bloomberg) Jan. 4 2006
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20070104/pl_bloomberg/alnutnzmtq6k_1
-- Nancy Pelosi, making history today as the first female speaker of the House, is taking office with two goals: becoming an effective counterweight to President Bush and proving that a woman can thrive at the summit of U.S. political power.

Pelosi's ATTACK ON BUSH WHILE MINORITY LEADER _ARE CREDITED BY MANY Democrats WITH HELPING THEM WIN CONTROL of Congress for the first time since 1994_. As speaker, she'll be dealing with a narrow majority and a president with veto power, making decisions about when to work with Bush and when to confront him.
Pelosi won election as speaker today by a vote of 233-202.
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Democrats Take Control on Hill
New Speaker Pelosi Shepherds Ethics Bills To Passage in House
By Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 5, 2007; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/04/AR2007010400802.html?sub=AR

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was elected America's first female speaker of the House yesterday in a raucous, bipartisan celebration of a historic breakthrough, and hours later she presided over passage of the broadest ethics and lobbying revision since the Watergate era.