Braised Lambchop
a nurse trying to work while suffering with chronic pain - she rambles a bit

Currently playing in iTunes: Such Great Heights, from Give Up by The Postal Service

Do not miss Matt Taibbi's article in Rolling Stone on the morass that is the United States House of Representatives.

Taibbi spent a month with Representative Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who agreed to show him why a congressman can't just stick an amendment on a bill to affect that ground-breaking change he promised his constituents in his last election campaign. If you're still under the illusion that being in Congress isn't a full-time job, just follow Representative Sanders around for a while, and listen to him tell you exactly why nothing gets done in Washington.

Schoolhouse Rock's I'm Just A Bill, as catchy as it is, doesn't even scratch the surface of the swamp that Congress has become. When I was in college, a House member's 'enemy' wasn't another House member of the other party -- it was the Senate, and vice versa. House and Senate rules for debate and for committee structure are very different, and it's near impossible to get anything the majority party dislikes done under those rules. Now that the enemies are in the same room instead of just in the same building, the Rules Committee (and the Senate Rules Committee isn't much better) has truly become a horror chamber the likes of which our founders couldn't have imagined.

If you're unfamiliar with the real manner in which legislation is considered and voted upon, Taibbi will open your newborn eyes to the blinding inferno that the U. S. Capitol has become. And when your eyes are open, they'll soon become accustomed to seeing reality instead of the praise heaped upon the Republican majority by The Oklahoman, the Wall Street Journal, and their '101st Fighting Keyboarder' sycophants.