Quote of the Week: June 25, 2006

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. – Thomas Jefferson

Republican Congress Feasts at Taxpayer Trough, Keeps Scraps for Themselves

For the ninth time in as many years, the GOP-dominated Congress kept Democratic-sponsored legislation intended to raise the minimum wage from coming onto the floor for fear it might pass.

The Republican-controlled Senate smothered a proposed election-year increase in the minimum wage Wednesday, rejecting Democratic claims that it was past time to boost the $5.15 hourly pay floor that has been in effect for nearly a decade.

The 52-46 vote was eight short of the 60 needed for approval under budget rules and came one day after House Republican leaders made clear they do not intend to allow a vote on the issue, fearing it might pass.

Meanwhile, the people who brought you the Contract on with America have raised their own salaries to the tune of $30,000, or twice what is considered to be the poverty line for a family of three.

What else do you expect from a party whose never-earned-a-dollar-in-his-life leader thinks that a single mother working three jobs to support her family is "fantastic" and a "uniquely American thing?"

Gun Nuts Exercise Their Right to Paranoia, Stupidity

Proving that Charlton Heston isn't the only NRA member with compromised mental capacity, Reuters reported this little gem:

Americans mistakenly worried the United Nations is plotting to take away their guns on July 4 — U.S. Independence Day — are flooding the world body with angry letters and postcards, the chairman of a U.N. conference on the illegal small arms trade said on Wednesday.

"I myself have received over 100,000 letters from the U.S. public, criticizing me personally, saying, 'You are having this conference on the 4th of July, you are not going to get our guns on that day,"' said Prasad Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka's U.N. ambassador.

More than 100,000 letters. It kind of makes you wonder what might be possible if Americans were as concerned about the things that the UN actually is involved in, like stopping the spread of AIDS, ensuring that children around the world are vaccinated and have access to clean drinking water, and that women aren't bought, sold, and traded like cattle.