John Brademas Center Videos

The John Brademas Center for the Sudy of Congress is part of New York University. It is named after its founder, John Brademas - a member of Congress for 22 years who served as the Majority Whip in 1977-81. On its website are a number of videos made as part of its "Reflections Project" - interviews of retiring members of Congress. These include interviews with Tom DeLay; Tom Daschle and Henry Hyde. There is some very interesting material there and transcripts are also available. The videos can be found at http://www.nyu.edu/brademas/resources/video.archive.html

Minton Tiles

One of the many delights in the Palace of Westminster are the Minton tiles. Herbert Minton was a friend of Pugin, and worked with him on the decoration of the Palace when it was rebuilt after the devastating fire of 1834. These floor tiles, are described by the British Museum -

"The inlaid technique (also misleadingly known as 'encaustic') can be traced back to the Middle Ages: a design is impressed into a clay blank and then filled with liquid clay (slip) of another colour. The colour scheme was usually buff and red.

Pugin worked in collaboration with the Minton factory to successfully revive the inlaid technique, introducing such new colours as blue, white and green. The motifs are taken from medieval sources but Pugin achieved remarkable originality in his clear designs. In the case of 'sandwich' tiles such as these, a layer of coarse clay is sandwiched between two layers of much finer clay, then used as the blank. This method reduced shrinkage in the firing, and was more economical."

Minton tiles can also be found in Congress, Senator Mitch McConnell, when he was Majority Whip, placed on his website a description of the Majority Whip Office Suite - "Each room in the suite also features historic "Minton tile" used throughout the north and south extensions. The richly colored and patterned tiles were made by Minton, Hollins and Company of Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The company made over 1,000 square feet of tile for the Capitol."

A History of Minton tiles - and some wonderful photographs can be found at http://www.tile-heaven.co.uk/mintons-01.htm.

H.R. 811 Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007

As mentioned in yesterday's post, the House of Representatives is due to consider this week H.R. 811. 'mark mywords' has added his comments to this blog, and they are worth reading.

The text of the bill can be found at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h811rh.txt.pdf

The Bill was introduced on 5th February this year, and considered by the Committee on House Administration (Elections Subcommittee). Three hearings were held during which 29 witnesses gave evidence and were questioned. There was also a voting machine forum on March 15, 2007, which gave Members of Congress and their staff an opportunity to learn more about voting systems first-hand.

The Congressional Research Service summary of the Bill says it "Amends the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) to revise requirements for the audit capacity of voting systems, particularly those for a permanent paper record.

Requires the voting system to require the use of or produce an individual, durable, voter-verified paper ballot of the voter's vote, created by or made available for inspection and verification by the voter before the voter's vote is cast and counted. Requires the voting system to provide the voter with an opportunity to correct any system-made error in the voter-verified paper ballot before it is permanently preserved."

The full summary can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR00811:@@@D&summ2=m&

The Bill has its critics - Some argue that it remains a flawed bill -

Voters Unite: http://www.votersunite.org/info/HR811EssentialRevisions.htm

Progressive Democrats of America: http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=9406781&type=CO

A supportive and detailed analysis can be found at the website of Electronic Frontier Foundation: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005308.php

Your comments are welcome here.

After Labor Day

The first Monday in September is Labor Day in the United States, the traditional last day of the summer holidays - after which the new political season begins. On Tuesday Congress will return.

The House of Representatives meets at 2pm for legislative business, which will include 7 bills under the suspension process - one of which (H.Res.552) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of China to remove barriers to United States financial services firms doing business in China. On Wednesday & Thursday the House will meet at 10.00am and on Friday at 9.00 for legislative business. There are a further 14 suspensions bills and the Native American Housing Assistance & Self-Determination Reauthorization Act of 2007 (H.R.2786); Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007 (H.R.811) and the Patent Reform Act of 2007 (H.R.1908) - each of which will be subject to a Rule laid down by the Rules Committee.

In the Senate Chamber at 1pm, the Appropriations Bill for Military Construction; the Department of Veterans Affairs and related Agencies will be considered. At 2.30pm it will proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of Jim Nussle, a former Congressman, to be the Director of the OMB (Office of Management & Budget). Senate committees also return - with a closed hearing of the senate Armed Services Committee examining issues relating to the treatment of detainees. The first hearing on this summers disaster in a Utah mine will begin at 10.30 on Wednesday, and is being conducted bt the Labor, Health & Human Services, Education & Related Agencies subcommittee of Appropriations.

The UK Parliament has another 5 weeks before it returns, but the party conference season is about to begin.

Washminster Returns

Washminster is back! After a pleasant stay in South Devon (where the weather was pleasant - and I enjoyed a few pasties and icecreams), I am back to work and Washminster returns on a daily basis.

During my stay I visited Plymouth and the site from which the Pilgrim Fathers finally left England on the Mayflower. Being the major port on the South West coast many others left from the same spot - including the settlers of the Roanoake colony in 1585 http://www.nationalcenter.org/ColonyofRoanoke.html


So what's being happening during Washminster's absence? I've spent this morning reading the New York Times and Washington Posts of the last week.

Alberto Gonzales has finally announced his resignation as US Attorney General. We have learnt that the Justice Department is to investigate whether his sworn statements to Congress were "intentionally false, misleading or inappropriate".

Larry Craig, Senator for Idaho, has also announced his resignation, after a sex-related arrest. Another champion of family values goes down!

Unrelated to any scandal, Senator John Warner has announced that he will not stand for re-election in 2008. This well liked Senator, who was Navy Secretary, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a Senator for 30 years (and former husband of Elizabeth Taylor) - will be missed. His decision not to stand also opens an interesting contest next year in the Commonwealth of Virginia - no doubt a story Washminster will be returning to.

Concerns about the dates of the primaries and caucuses have increased - with most of the democratic contenders signing a 'Four-State Pledge', promising not to campaign in states holding primaries before the traditional first-states of Iowa; New Hampshire; Nevada and South Carolina. There are threats to cut delegates from Florida & Michigan who are planning to break the 'protected window' which ensures that no other state can select delegates before 5th February (which itself will become 'Super-Duper Tuesday' as states rush to hold their primaries on that date).

A bill to mandate the screening of veterans (sometimes refered to as the suicide prevention bill) is being held up by a single Senator, Tom Coburn (Rep-Oklahoma) because he fears that the medical records might be used by other agencies to deny some veterans from obtaining firearms.

Over 50 members of Congress have visited Iraq over the summer - on Congressional Delegations (known as 'Codels'). For more details visit http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/middleeast/26visits.html?th&emc=th

So now we know!