Monthly Archives: July 2009

The Economic Barometer is Getting Weird

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The measuring stick by which most Americans measure the state of the state is whether or not they have a job. If for example, you go to bed hungry day after day, you might say to yourself "This is lousy, I wish I had a job." You wouldn’t give a hoot about the GNP, or the latest G8, G9, or International Moneychangers Fraternity news.

I recently became gainfully unemployed, and continued building my house with ferver, a little bit of money, and my kids and wife. The prospect of going back to my job was beginning to fade, and I thought that I might become just another nameless face in a sea of workless fathers. That is, until recently.

I was "on call" for my most recent job. Then I was contacted by a local man a few minutes after changing the baby’s diaper on the tailgate of our ’88 Suburban during a church service because my wife was playing the piano, and the baby began crying so I took him outside, only to find that as I was finished diapering and pulling up his little pants I was standing in a big pile of angry ants.

After I dusted most of the ants off of me, I was standing by the road and a "man of local fame" pulled up and told me that he needed me to help him with a job and that I would be "on call". Now I was "on call" for 2 jobs.

The following days (this past week) I was working on my house. Low and behold, a stranger walked up to me, talked about my house project, and asked if I was willing to do work on his new house. Not only that, he wanted me to come and consult about wind and solar energy for him because of the success of our family’s off-the-grid building project. Of course he wasn’t going to have me start right now, but I was to be "on call". Cool. Things are really picking up around here. Now I’m on standby for 3 jobs!

But wait. I was contacted by another gentleman and put "on call" for delivering mattresses. This is getting a little strange…

Oh. Even as I write this post, I’m supposed to call another guy about building a deck. I’ll be "on call".

So, to tie this all together, I guess that I’m a really lucky guy.  Never in my life have I been "on call" for so many jobs. The economy really is starting to turn around. Hang on. The phone’s ringing…

How to Pass a Bill With 300 Missing Pages…

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Watch how our congresscritters are running the country. This is absolutely unbelievable:

"AMERICAN CLEAN ENERGY AND SECURITY ACT OF 2009 — (House of Representatives – June 26, 2009)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will state his parliamentary inquiry.

[Page: H7649]  GPO’s PDF

Mr. BARTON of Texas. If a bill for which there is no copy were to actually pass this body, could the bill without a copy be sent to the Senate for its consideration, having no copy?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The official copy will be at the desk. The Chair cannot comment about extra copies.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. The official copy will be at the desk. Could I inquire as to when that copy will be at the desk? Is it necessary that the official copy be at the desk in order for final passage to occur?

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The official copy is always at the desk during consideration of the bill.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Then where is it, Madam Speaker?

The SPEAKER pro tempore. At the desk.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Is it now at the desk? Is it now–I appreciate the Congressman who brought it in. Oh, that is not it. That is not at the desk.
Well, while we research whether the official copy is at the desk, I’m going to yield 1 minute to the gentle lady from Oklahoma, Congresswoman Fallin, for 1 minute.

Ms. FALLIN. Madam Speaker, I have to say that I am outraged. Here we are getting ready to vote on a piece of legislation, and we haven’t even seen 300 pieces of this legislation. No one can even find the bill or even knows where it is at. And here we are talking about major policy that could change the face of America, that will certainly be a large tax increase to our taxpayers. And here we don’t even know where the bill is. I’m just shocked at the way we are running this House today before we leave to go on our Independence Day holiday."

The congressional record can be found at:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r111:FLD001:H07472

This excerpt can be found at:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2009_record&page=H7649&position=all