Unfortunatly, the only thing we can do is vote against these congresscritters when we can . . and hope at some point things change.

I'm reminded of a Tom Clancey book where a plane hits capitol hill the House and Senate are decimated.  The president requests that the govenors appioint people like you and I, people that don't care about re-election to fill the slots and get things working again.

God forbid something like that happen . . but wouldn't it be nice to hit the reset button?

it sure would. 

I remember that one. Executive Orders.  There are no jack Ryans around, just a bunch of Ted Matthews.

And probably never happen.  Pelois and Reid did change things - for the worse.

They haven't "voted" for their pay raise in some time.  They passed legilslation a few years ago that makes the pay raise automatic unless someone actually proposes legislation to stop it.  Their reasoning was that it took time away from doing other business to debate on their annual pay raise.

I still maintain that their pay raise ought to be put on a ballot every election year where you rate your representatives by giving them a good or bad vote (maybe add a couple other levels if necessary).  If the bad out number the good then they get a pay cut of 5%, if the good out number the bad then they get a 3-5% raise, and if the good equal the bad then they get no raise.  Now there may need to a range for each of the three, but you get the general idea.

Funny how they keep this information on the DL. Must have been one of those late night, squeeze it it when nobody's looking deals. Well at least they can agree and pass one thing with little problem.

There are few things that the members of congress can all mostly agree on no matter what letter follows their name.  One of those things is that they always deserve a pay raise every single year, the other is that they should constantly redistrict their home states so that they can keep their jobs and keep the third parties out of the running.

If only that were possible.  I tried to do that this year, unfortunately too many of the candidates running for re-election were doing so unopposed.  I put in a lot of write-in votes on my ballot but it didn't do any good.  I just have to hope that next time around more people will hear my plea to vote out all the incumbents.

I guess they changed the law.  At one time, they could not get a pay raise unless they voted for it, and there was an intervening election before it took effect.  Cowards.

They should vote to adjourn - they do more good when not in session.

I find it ironic they are the standard bearers of the CEO pay mob.  They are the worst offenders. But they dont vote on the redistricting.  The state legislatures do (and as long as your party is in Washington, your district is safe).

I never vote for a candidate that is unopposed - even if I agree with them.

me either.  Why give them the satisfaction of a higher number? 

I just got off the phone with my very liberal senile grandmother.  I held my breath.  She tried to start something.  She started in on all the rich cats sitting in office while the poor people are getting kicked out of their homes. 

I interjected with "did you hear that Congress just voted themselves a raise?" 

She laughed and said they did it in the dark of night when nobody was watching.  She couldn't deny it.  I don't think she exactly got where I was heading with my question.  Either that or, more likely, she was ignoring my not so subtle hint that she's the one who voted in these fat cats. 

She ignored it.  The ends justify the means.

That is usually my policy, although this year I felt it was my duty to specifically vote against all incumbents so I did a lot of write-in votes.  Although I got the feeling that the write-in votes were ignored for the most part because as far as I'm aware they are still reporting that all unopposed candidates received 100% of the votes, which is simply impossible (assuming anyone counted my e-ballot).