“WHITEHOUSE: Gentlemen, we’re in the middle of a near total mortgage system meltdown in this country. We have a health care system that burns 16 percent of our GDP, in which the Medicare liability alone has been estimated at $34 trillion. We’re burning $10 billion a month in Iraq. This administration has run up $7.7 trillion in national debt, by our calculation. And there is worsening evidence every day of global warming, with worsening environmental and national security ramifications.

In light of those conditions, do any of you seriously contend that drilling for more oil is the number one issue facing the American people today?

[NINE-SECOND SILENCE]

WHITEHOUSE: No, it doesn’t seem so.”

From Dana Milbanks at the Washington Post:

Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, KittensBy Dana Milbank
Friday, May 9, 2008; A03

It was already shaping up to be a difficult year for congressional Republicans. Now, on the cusp of Mother’s Day, comes this: A majority of the House GOP has voted against motherhood.

On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, “Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother’s Day,” when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest.

“Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote,” he announced.

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who has two young daughters, moved to table Tiahrt’s request, setting up a revote. This time, 178 Republicans cast their votes against mothers.

It has long been the custom to compare a popular piece of legislation to motherhood and apple pie. Evidently, that is no longer the standard. Worse, Republicans are now confronted with a John Kerry-esque predicament: They actually voted for motherhood before they voted against it.

Republicans, unhappy with the Democratic majority, have been using such procedural tactics as this all week to bring the House to a standstill, but the assault on mothers may have gone too far. House Minority Leader John Boehner, asked yesterday to explain why he and 177 of his colleagues switched their votes, answered: “Oh, we just wanted to make sure that everyone was on record in support of Mother’s Day.”

By voting against it?

If Boehner’s explanation doesn’t make much sense, he’s been under a great deal of stress lately.

You can’t make this stuff up!

Photo by Steve Justad

Hoppy got his name because he had a limp ever since a fight he was in as a pup. Unfortunately, he’s no longer with us, since the Bush administration issued a rule permitting states to kill wolves affecting elk herds in any way in the northern Rockies. Hoppy was one of the first casualties as the federal government stripped Endangered Species protections for gray wolves in the northern Rockies at the end of March.

See a slide show of Hoppy and other wolves at Yellowstone and find out what you can do to help here.

Best of all, “Of the identified payments to deceased farmers’ estates or businesses, 40 percent went to those who had been dead more than three years, and 19 percent went to those who had been dead for seven or more years.” Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee had this to say: “It’s unconscionable that the Department of Agriculture would think that a dead person was actively engaged in the business of farming.”

Ya think?

Full story here.

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.

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