Don't Have a Cow, Man

First I have to share some news from Blogland.  A blogger out there working hard as an underappreciated field biologist has run into some trouble.  Help her out if you can!  In my opinion better than a political contribution any day.  If you decide to help her you can go here to do it.  Best of luck, Jill!

I've got a great mural I spotted in Reno in February for Monday Mural, and some thoughts on recent political goings-on as well.  I think Bart Simpson would approve.  

Image courtesy of the Newseum in Washington D.C. - adding it to my list of museums to visit!

I heard a radio announcer say this weekend that Bart would be 31 years old now if he lived in "real time", by the way.  Wrap your mind around that for a minute.

I haven't been paying attention to national politics at all this year and my eye just caught an "impeach Obama" headline recently.  What now, right?  Obama appointed three members to a Labor Board during a short recess of Congress.  Apparently these spots had needed to be filled for 3 years and the Republican party is in an uproar because the President tried to "go around them".  The Supreme Court ruled the 3 day recess too short to count as constitutional and decided recesses must be at least 10 days long to count.  Okay.  So, Congress can twist the system to drag out approval of appointments, but the President can't try to do the same?  Since when does that make a president a "dictator"?  And some Senators really need to look up what constitutes an impeachable offense and quit throwing that word around all the time.  Lighten up, Dudes.

Scrat from Ice Age made it onto the bus, I see.

However, the Senate recently made changes to how appointments are made which made stall tactics of the past a little more difficult for Congress so the issue of trying to take advantage of "recess" to get appointments through is not much of an issue anymore anyway.  Rules that make sense?  Not taking forever to get things done?  How will we cope?

To put this issue in an historical perspective, Ronald Reagan made 232 recess appointments during his eight years in office. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush each made well more than 100. In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt made more than 160 recess appointments during one short break between congressional sessions.
To date, Obama has made only 32 recess appointments.  Impeachment? Ay, Caramba!  Lighten up, Dudes!

Speaking of lightening up, I'll get off my soapbox tomorrow, I swear.