House calls

I've become enamored lately with the House Floor Summary page. It's a fascinating look at the "work" of the House if you have the patience to deal with its extreme user unfriendliness.

By user unfriendly, I mean you have to click through multiple pages to get to the information you want and at the same time the page refreshes regularly and kicks you back to a previous screen, whether or not they're actually even in session. And if you try to backtrack, it kicks you to the start page. You also can't link to a sub-page that's say, five clicks deep. But you can learn a lot more than our elite journalists are telling you if you persist.

I did the long version of the House This Week at the DetNews, so click over if you want the details. Short version. After their impressive work in reaffirming that yes, our national motto is still, "In God We Trust," they managed to pass a bill authorizing DHS and State to come up with a program to issue "Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Travel Cards" and another to "facilitate the hosting in the United States of the 34th America's Cup" yacht race.

I'm sure you're as relieved as I am that these urgent matters have been addressed so promptly. Clearly, these people are worth every penny of the $174K+ that we pay them every year. [photo credit ABC News.]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]