Kudos to USA Today for yesterday's editorial laying out in simple terms the lack of real committment to reform from this Congress.  They count them off - Cunningham, Abramoff, Jefferson, Ney...and who knows how many others brewing?

What they're selling, the American public better not buy.  There's no ban on the privately-funded travel that got Abramoff, DeLay and Ney in trouble, and other "reforms" are off the weakest possible sort.

Well-stated, and hopefully well-heeded.

The 109th Congress promised ethics reform in response to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, and has responded by steadily eroding the core values of the promises - travel bans and stronger ethics enforcement. Now, the House and Senate have the audacity to scale back the weak lobbyist disclosure measures that were passed in place of substantive reform. The House lobbyist disclosure bill passed May 3 and the House has yet to name negotiators to work on a compromise with the Senate. Therefore, Congress may adjourn this year without tightening restrictions on the dealings of lobbyists' with lawmakers. So much for lobbying reform in 2006.

The two chambers disagree on a number of provisions. For example, House Republicans contend that 527s, independent interest groups that run political ads, should be curbed. Senate Democrats, and a handful of Senate Republicans, have opposed these changes while failing to offer a tangible reform plan as an alternative.

If lobbyists are happy then Congress has failed. The bicameral impasse can be blamed on the House and Senate's lack of sincerity when promising reform measures. It is appalling that the most likely way to return reform to the negotiating table is another scandal. Lawmakers' proclivity is to respond to public demand. Maybe the public is not shouting loudly enough.

Update: Now we're hearing the bill, HR 9, is scheduled for the House floor next week. It's urgent to get calls into the House to tell your Representative to vote for the bill.

The Voting Rights Act has been stalled in Congress by lawmakers unwilling to acknowledge that voter discrimination and voter suppression still exist. Millions of voters, or potential voters, are prevented or discouraged from voting. We need to renew and strengthen the Voting Rights Act. Sign our petition to push Congress to act now.

Here's an excerpt from an op-ed in today's NY Times by the daughters of President Lyndon Johnson, who signed the original, groundbreaking Voting Rights Act of 1965:

That's it -- we here at Common Cause are fed up with the delay in renewing the Voting Rights Act.  While most of Congress, including the leadership of both parties in both the House and the Senate, supports renewal, there are a few who seem to want to block renewal entirely.  

Unacceptable.  That's what we think.

If that's what you think, as well, then join Common Cause and other civil rights and public interest groups in petitioning Congress to renew the Voting Rights Act when they return from the July 4th recess.  Go here and sign our petition.

Then, pass it along to friends and family -- the more names we deliver to Congress, the more they will know that the public won't allow them to play political games with the most important civil rights law in our nation's history.

Sign today:  http://www.commoncause.org/VRApetition

Yesterday the Committee of House Administration met to discuss H.R. 4844, the Federal Election Integrity Act. The Act, proposed by Henry Hyde (R-IL), would nationally mandate that photo IDs must be presented when voting in a federal election. Chairman Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) oversaw a lively panel discussion with five panelists supporting photos IDs and five panelists in opposition.

Update: See Rep. John Lewis' (D-GA) statement in "read more"

To paraphrase FDR, this was a day that will live in infamy in the US House. A band of right-wing Republicans, complaining about 'states rights', has stopped a scheduled vote on legislation renewing and strengthening the landmark Voting Rights Act. Rep. Lynne Westmoreland (R-GA), Charles Norwood (R-GA) and others forced the leadership to block a vote on a bill that has broad bipartisan, bicameral support -- including the House Speaker.

We need to counter the pressure from the right-wing. Call your representative NOW at (202) 224-3121. Tell your representative: Congress must get the Voting Rights Act renewal back on track, and should not recess until it gets the job done. I urge you to fully support H.R. 9 and oppose any harmful amendments.

It's that time of year again, when Senators and Representatives across the country file their annual financial disclosure forms, and the world gets to see what goes on beyond their $162,100 salary.

There are some interesting items in the reports, as detailed by the Washington Post here and the New York Times here.  Check inside for all the details.

When the recording industry was faced with Napster, it sued it's own customers. That was a good idea.

Now, the US House of Representatives, the People's House, is blocking communication from the people who vote them into office. In a move of staggering wrongheadednes, the House administrator has offered to each office technology that sets up a "logic puzzle" obstacle to incoming email. You might, for instance, have to answer the quesiton "What is sum of 2 and 1?" before your email will be allowed to enter your representatives office.

I used to work in the House, so I have some sympathy with overwhelmed staff, but as one consultant said "E-mail should be their best friend and they haven't figured out how to make it their best friend." Yes, spam is a problem, but mass emails from groups of constituents is NOT a problem. It's democracy. Members of the House have no problem sending mass email TO their constituents -- why are they afraid to receive it?

Mail to Congress has become a useless means of communicating, since it's slowed down by inspection since the anthrax incident. Fax machines pile up letters. And phone calls work, but many offices can barely handle the calls on a hot issue. Visiting offices is not possible for some -- and not as easy as it used to be anyway with the (necessary) security measures.

Check out Jeffrey Birnbaums's piece in the Washington Post today.

Got any idea how we can creatively protest?