I haven’t really felt like blogging the last few days–nothing’s grabbed my interest, to be honest–but for those of you in the sunnier parts of the world, I thought you’d like to see what the Blizzard of ’09 looks like in the Washington Metro area:
We’ve already got more than the 2-4 inches they were predicting for overnight, and the big fall is still on its way. Personally, I love snow, so I’m enjoying this immensely, but even for those of you who don’t, there’s at least one consolation: with Joe Lieberman having left town last night ahead of the snow, it means that Congress is effectively paralyzed. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
December 19, 2009 at 10:05 am
Snow? Ha, you Americans don’t know real snow. Now, this, this is real snow:
http://hairyeyeball.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snowmake-it-stop-make-it-stop-make-it-stop/
LOL Actually, that was probably our century storm! It was pretty startling to see a city bus stuck in the street, though.
I assume Joe Liberman is Speaker of the house? (Or whatever you folks call the person who is charged with making the congresspeople discuss things in a semi civilized fashion)
December 19, 2009 at 10:21 am
After looking at those pictures, I think I can say that we might reach those levels, but rarely do.
As for Joe L., this is complicated. Joe is just one of 100 senators. But the Senate has a rule that debate on a bill can only be stopped under two conditions: 1) all members agree; or 2) a super-majority (60) agree to end debate and proceed to a vote. The Democrats have 58 senators, Republicans 40, and there are two independents (Lieberman and Bernie Sanders of Vermont). Sanders always votes with the Democrats. The Republicans are amazingly unified (though the two senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, sometimes wander off the reservation). All this means that if the GOP stays together, Lieberman’s absence means the Democrats don’t have enough votes to stop debate, which means they can’t vote on anything.
The House of Representatives, on the other hand, has already done all the damage they are going to do this year.
Got it?
December 19, 2009 at 6:58 pm
You have a very complicated political system….
December 20, 2009 at 4:24 pm
We had two feet of snow by the time it was finished. I dug out one of the cars and husband spent all day with the snow blower (we have a really long circular driveway). There is supposed to be another storm at the end of the week. We are tired!