Congress: 14% Say Doing a Good Job June 21, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a comment(Gallup) In the latest Gallup poll, only 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress. This 14% Congressional confidence rating is the all-time low for this measure, which Gallup initiated in 1973. The previous low point for Congress was 18% at several points in the period of time 1991 to 1994. What does this say? Will we see great change in 2008 if no one is happy with their politicians? Will the disgruntled public change out their elected reps? What should our response be if so many are not happy with the decisions being made by Congress?
It’s worth remembering that Congress is basically nothing more than a mechanism for the representation of the people’s wishes. We all can’t go to Washington. So we elect men and women and send them off in our stead. It’s not an optimal situation, it seems to me, when such a low percentage of average Americans have confidence in this system. Generally speaking, Americans have been skeptical about Congress for decades now. But the current 14% confidence rating for Congress is down from 19% last year and is the lowest in Gallup’s history, surpassing the 18% confidence in Congress measured in 1991, 1993 and 1994.
Congress is now nestled at the bottom of the list of Gallup’s annual Confidence in Institutions rankings, along with HMOs. Just 15% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in HMOs. (By way of contrast, 69% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military, which tops the list. More on this at galluppoll.com on Thursday).
An Extra Month of Daylight Savings March 1, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentIn August of 2005, the United States Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which changes the dates of both the start and end of daylight saving time (DST). When this law goes into effect in 2007, DST will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday in March - March 11 in 2007) and will end one week later (2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November) than what had traditionally occurred.
Why do we do this? One of the biggest reasons we change our clocks to Daylight Saving Time (DST) is that (more…)
