Overworked and Underpaid

Yes, our fine Congressmen are severely overworked and underpaid; can someone get them a union to fight the oppression? Word out of the Hill is that when the 110th Congress begins session in January, the House will actually be holding meaningful session for five days each week. This is such a travesty! Outrageous! Who actually works five days a week? Oh, everyone else does? Well, then.
The second session of the 109th Congress was only in session for 103 days, according to the Washington Post. And we wonder why nothing gets done in Washington? Maybe working more than a third of the year would help? The article is actually a fairly good one, since it provides some of these great quotes:

Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston (R):
"Keeping us up here eats away at families. Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says."

Right, Jack. Working five days a week is all about destroying the family. Didn't you know you would spend long periods away from family when you ran for Congress in the first place?

Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt (R):
"They've got a lot more freshmen then we do. That schedule will make it incredibly difficult for those freshmen to establish themselves in their districts. So we're all for it."

Blunt makes a good point, but I think getting things done would do wonders for establishing oneself in their district.

California Rep. Mike Thompson (D):
"It's long overdue. I didn't come here to turn around and go back home."

Now that is what I like to hear from a Congressman, a little work ethic. One has to wonder, though, how much money can they spend in two more days each week? Maybe we don't want them in session after all! On the plus side, being in session should keep them away from lobbyists and bribes 24 hours a day (although the two extra days in DC will make up for that).

A couple of other stories worth mentioning:
-One in seven Mexicans now works in the United States and a full five percent of our work force are illegal immigrants from south of our border. No wonder the unions are pushing for amnesty. Adding 5 percent of the work force to their ranks would make them relevant again (well not relevant, but it would make them a lot of money in union dues). One of the researchers actually has the gall to say that more illegals are here because we are policing (at least somewhat) the border. What, would an open border slow the flow?

-Let's have a conference with the Middle Eastern states, and not invite Israel. So says James Baker, who also would like to see us start buddying up with Iran and Syria. He thinks they should be a part of stabilizing Iraq, and that we could actually get somewhere in the region without Israel at the table. Newsflash: Iran and Syria are already in Iraq, except that they are helping to destabilize it. Sure, let us just give the fox the key to the henhouse now. No word on whether a summit without Israel would recommend concentration camps for Israelis or nuclear weapons dropped on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as the top option for fixing the problem.

-Looks like the Democrats are dealing backroom style with Hamas, which is great news for Israel. Even more incentive for Joe Lieberman to be truly independent on foreign policy. Also, in the same article, the Palestinian government has been able to pay 69% of the salaries for their public servants. This is what I call a success story.