Woo-hoo! Hey look, everybody, a man named George who gets my vote!
Thanks for all the effort put into this - it was not only very good and very important work, it was a lot of fun to watch.

oh, my...! bush BACKING OFF ANYTHING...?!?!? i don't suppose for one minute that he's really concerned about subsistence level workers being able to make a bare subsistence level wage...it's THE PRESSURE, GEORGE...!! go yell at your staffers some more... you'll feel better...

 http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/2005/10/good-news-bush-is-ba cking-off-davis.html

These are exactly the fight Dems should be picking with the GOP. There are plenty of indefensible acts like this that have gone under the radar because no one had the stomach to go to the mat over them.

"Off-Center" makes the obvious point that the GOP is way out of the administration, and has accomplished this through party unity, and I would add, deception. We can use this fact to our advantage by crafting wedge issues that force the GOP to choose between standing by rediculous policy that appeases an extremist base, and alienating everyone else.

Marginalize, marginalize... 

I think we should also thank and congratulate Josh Marshall for this one.  I believe it was Josh who coined the phrase "Gulf Coast Wage Cut" to describe Bush's action.  That phrase did as much as anything to frame the wage cut in a way that made it very hard for any reasonable person to support.

Excellent job!!

That's exactly the sort of results producing coalition and populism we need. Good, winnable causes.

Hopefully wins like that will build momentum for legislative initiatives.

I think it is great that the White House is reversing the decision.  I have 2 questions on this.  1) How does enforcement work?  If Haliburton decides not to pay the prevailing wage, and continues to pay below market, what happens?  2)  Since Rep. Miler was successful in forcing this vote, can it be replicated?  Can a vote be forced on other issues?  If so, what issues should be pressed?

Now, you can join with Nagin, Blanco, and Landrieu and try to stop companies from using illegal aliens to do the cleanup and rebuilding.

There's even an alleged Halliburton connection.

Thank you Rep. Miller and your allies. I admire creativity in using the rules to get the right results!

I hope that the reversal will get the publicity it deserves.  People along the Gulf Coast should know that politicans from as far away as California care about this issue.  Op Eds and interviews in the Gulf Coast media would be tangible proof to locals that they have not been abandoned by government.

BOOOO YA!

thank you sir!

may I have another?

-Zen Blade

Thank you sir!  More like this please.

THERE IS A GOD!

Lets not get carried away here. But at least there's an opposition worth supporting. Are the Congressional Dems finally finding their backbone??

Kudos Kudos Kudos for the victory, a rare one in this day and age in US politics, for social justice and the Democrats.  I am still concerned about many of the other practices and policies that Bush has been introducing in the Gulf, as well as the remaining plan to truncate NOLA and massively reduce the number and proportion of blacks in the City.   Even if there is no parliamentary way to overcome these things directly, they should be made similarly solid partisan issues for Democrats so that it is drawn out that these are policies foist on the region and the country by the Repuglican (again I call them that as long as they call the Democratic party the "Democrat" party -- something it's high time the Democrats called them on) Party.

First, I understand that the President, using emergency authority, has not only sought to suspend Davis Bacon but has encroached in other ways on rights and prerogatives of ordinary folk.  Jesse Jackson writes (Oct 4, Chicago Sun-Times):

  [Bush] designated Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana an enterprise zone, and, using emergency authority, waived all worker protections in the region -- protections for equal employment, for minority contractors, for health and safety, for environmental protection.

This was apparently in addition to the Davis Bacon stuff.  Have or are these other issues being addressed by Democrats solidly in Congress.  I am sorry if my information on the current decision is incomplete -- I am still fishing around for the complete picture.

Some of the other policies, also geared towards the ultimate program of 'bleaching the Big Easy', and not giving the old residents of the City, such as in the 9th Ward, the central say they deserve in the future of their city, include (also relying on Jesse Jackson's outline summary):

No one could figure out why the Bush administration wouldn't give the evacuees housing vouchers to rent housing in and around New Orleans. Instead, FEMA has ordered tens of thousands of trailers and is struggling to build trailer parks -- Bushvilles -- to shelve Katrina's victims.

   Will Congress follow up on this specific victory to push for an overall re-evaluation, or at least public clash over the plans for the New New Orleans?  It always seems that the nature of political competition on the near-vertical playing field of US politics is that when the rightwing wins a flagship, they get the whole kit and kaboodle, but if progressives win a flagship, the progressives get only the flagship.  This has been the case in the idea of 'elections as mandates' for a bill of goods, usually things that aren't even legal OR genuinely popularly supported, but which are backed by Reaganites or Bushies.  On the other hand, if Democrats win, all there is is a dust-storm of excuses and laundering, with the full participation of the elite Democrats involved.

At any rate, I suppose many of these battles necessarily would involve holding the leading Democrats as well as Repuglicans' feet to the fire.  But at least a much broader front on the Gulf reconstruction issue should be pursued, to the extent it isn't already.  I would be interested in further details to fill in from anyone; it is difficult to find these issues really being fully thrashed out in their particulars anywhere.   Real public debate, as distinct from media justifying of the lying, on this issue as on so many others is kept to a minimum.

Congratulations and thanks, Rep. Miller.  Pass that on to your colleagues in the House.

Some of the other policies, also geared towards the ultimate program of 'bleaching the Big Easy', and not giving the old residents of the City, such as in the 9th Ward, the central say they deserve in the future of their city, include (also relying on Jesse Jackson's outline summary):

No one could figure out why the Bush administration wouldn't give the evacuees housing vouchers to rent housing in and around New Orleans. Instead, FEMA has ordered tens of thousands of trailers and is struggling to build trailer parks -- Bushvilles -- to shelve Katrina's victims.


Sounds like you shouldn't rely on Jesse's outline since HUD vouchers were approved weeks ago

 http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr05-136.cfm

I wouldn't imagine that there were many rental units available in the NOLA area or the towns around.  I imagine if people want to stay near the city that trailer parks may be the only realistic option in the short run

Thank you Congressman Miller. That's one insane inhumane Bush policy overturned. Only about 8 million more to go - starting with the Iraq War.

I don't know any specific list, but if you get a list of Republican Congressmen who won with less than 55% of the vote in 2004, then exclude Tom DeLay, I'll bet you come pretty close. Those are endangered incumbents.

This is the kind of issue that will give them fits.

Congressman Miller:

I've always regretted I didn't live in your district so I could have voted for you all these years and been represented by the best Congressman in California.  With this not-so-litle victory, you've outdone yourself.

Please stay in office till the day you die, sir - and may that be many years from now - we need you more than ever these days.

Thank you for never backing down to these scummy morons. 

Ask and ye shall receive Bryan. Seriously I'd like to know if my Repub congressman sided with the angels on this resolution. I need it for a "pat on the head" lead in when I write him today about some other issues. Can we get a list of Repub supporters?