I've been watching the House convening lately, and paying attention to the One-Minute Addresses.  Each morning when the House of Representatives convenes there is an opening prayer and each side of the aisle is then allowed to offer One-Minute Addresses on any topic of each speaker's choosing - usually ten speakers are allowed from each side.  I haven't been able to find a record of these addresses, so I've decided to offer highlights here. 

I don't type fast enough to transcribe the addresses in their entirety, but I will give a brief statement to the topic of each address.  I'll make every attempt to offer just a synopsis of what each speaker said without offering any opinion on their comments.  If I do offer comments, I will do so at the bottom of the post rather than mixing my comments or opinions with their statements.

This Morning, Friday September 26th, 2008,  the House convened at 9am, and Speaker Pelosi limited the One-Minute Addresses to five from each side of the aisle.

1.  John Yarmuth, D-KY
Congressman Yarmuth say's the current financial crisis is the fault of the current administration, specifically George Bush, for allowing a game of monopoly to be played on Wall Street.  He said the only goal of Republicans is "to end up with the most money", and they don't care how it affects people or neighborhoods.

2. Ralph Regula, R-OH
Congressman Regula congratulated the body for supporting the expiration of the moratorium on OCS drilling.

3.  Peter DeFazio, D-OR
DeFazio say's we should make Wall Street pay to bail out itself.

4.  Joe Wilson, R-SC
For the second time this week, Joe Wilson spoke about the need to pass an "all of the above" energy plan, including increased oil extraction & production, solar, wind, clean coal, and other sources of domestic energy.

5.  Jim McDermott, D-WA
Rep. McDermott opened by calling the current financial crisis "The Administration's financial crisis", then want on to explain how Republicans pushed for a greedy plan to hand social security over to Wall Street and that Wall Street would somehow wave it's magic wand and everything would be okay.  He say's that the current crisis shows us how Wall Street's magic wand really works, and said, "It's time to declare the magic-wand solution officially off the table".

6.  Judy Biggert, R-IL
Congresswoman Biggert say's we need a plan that offers Wall Street a "work out, not a bail out".

7.  Brad Sherman, D-CA
Congressman Sherman stated that the House had passed over $500 billion in bail-outs so far and that so far they have had no impact.  He went further to say that George Bush "wants us to hand Wall Street $700 billion in unmarked bills", and say's that there is no evidence that the $700B would have any impact either.

8.  Virgina Foxx, R-NC
Virgina Foxx say's it's time to work together accross the aisle and come up with a bipartisan solution to the financial crisis.  She said, "There is blame on both sides of the aisle, but most of the blame lies with the current Majority for their years of spend, spend, spend...".

9.  Sorry, I didn't see his name - D
McCain is part of the Washington gang that caused this financial crisis, and McCain should not be president.

Well, there you have it - do you notice something?  There were only 9 people who stood up; five Democrats and four Republicans.  This is typical, unfortunately.  Democrats usually fill all their available slots, and most of them offer speaches about how whatever current problem is at hand is entirely the Republicans' fault.  Very few offer solutions.  The Republicans who do stand up and speak usually promote a new solution - like Joe Wilson continues to do with regard to energy - or honor someone from their home district.  Every day that I've watched, the Republicans have not filled all their available slots, but the Democrats have.

Please, call or write your Republican Congressman and urge - nay, insist - that he or she stand up and fill these slots, using this time to offer some truth to the floor.  These addresses are entered into the Congressional Record, and it's important that all viewpoints are offered.