[Vision2020] Missed votes

[Jeff Harkins]

Paul, good post - may help to explain the dismal approval rating of 
the Congress (about 9% recently reported by Rasmussen).

Sorry to have been slow in responding to the responses to the "Missed 
Votes" post.  I had to take a couple of days off and have just 
returned to the fold.

BTW, to all you golfers out there, if you haven't played the new 
Palouse Ridge course at WSU, it is an enjoyable experience and a 
tough course.  Bring a few extra balls, the designer made liberal use 
of the natural areas - which seems to gobble golf balls.  The course 
layout is intriguing - not only demanding accurate shots, but 
challenging the golfer with tricky approaches and blind landing 
zones.  Watch out for the bunkers - deep and unforgiving - with deep 
grass on all green sides of bunker.  Sand is soft and demands 
precision.  The greens are very good - fast and firm.  For us 
golfers, it adds a very different venue to the local golf experience 
(very much links style).  The views of the area are spectacular. High 
demand tee times are a bit spendy, but there are twilight time 
specials available.  Check it out.

Back to the business at hand - I will wade through the many emails 
responding to the "missed votes" and related topics and post as 
warranted.  But I do appreciate the responses.

At 08:00 PM 8/31/2008, you wrote:
>I hope this topic becomes large enough and loud enough of an issue to
>actually shame our Congressmen and women into actually participating
>and/or voting occasionally.  I was on leave for a few days when I was at
>the Naval Academy and toured DC.  This was in '86, I believe.  One of
>the things I did was watch a session of Congress.  I don't remember if
>it was the House of Representatives or the Senate.  It was a surreal
>experience.  There were, literally, a dozen Congressmen there.  Almost
>every one of them was reading the newspaper and paying absolutely no
>attention to the Congressman that was speaking.  The one that was
>speaking was expressing enthusiastic support for something, I don't
>remember what.  Not one of the Congressmen that were there acted as if
>they even heard what was going on.  That one visit trashed my view of
>our legislative branch forever.  I was actually naive enough at one time
>to think that the idiots running this country actually cared about
>something.  If we're not paying these guys and gals to discuss and
>debate the issues, let alone vote on them, then what are we paying them for?
>
>Paul
>
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