Do you know what time it is?? It is HALF PAST SERIOUS O’CLOCK, right now and forever, on the HuffingtonPost.com. Yeah, you’re goddamn right someone embedded little countdown clocks that correspond to unpunished Congressional ethics violations somehow! “In the public interest, HuffPost is launching a congressional ethics clock to note the number of days (and hours and minutes and seconds) it’s been since a potential ethics violation has been probed or brought to the attention of Congress’s self-appointed watchdogs.” Uhh, and guess what Charlie Rangel? That clock embed is going to continue to tick until there are some big BIG CHANGES around here. Mmhmm. We’ll wait. [HuffPost]

The congressman with the best accent since Jackie Gleason has encountered a number of ethics problems lately, related to his reluctance to pay for basic necessities and his willingness to take money from anyone for anything. Anyhow, he has a 1972 Mercedes Benz, and it has been sitting with an expired registration in some indoor House of Representatives lot, and it got towed. Charlie Rangel is awesome in so, so many ways. [CBS]

Alma Rangel, the wife of Rep. Charlie Rangel — the all-powerful “dean of Harlem politics” and vocal Clinton supporter — has gone against Jesus and the Bible by disobeying her husband’s opinion and endorsing Barack Obama. She says in a statement that “Barack is a man of principle; a man whose faith in the greatness of our nation gives us hope, showing us what’s possible if we work together.” Ha ha, she thinks her husband is a goblin. [City Room]

The House tonight followed the Senate’s lead and approved a tax reduction without a corresponding offset in violation of their own pay-as-you-go rules. The legislation temporarily “patches” the Alternative Minimum Tax by making in inapplicable to those who don’t already pay it. But, since there was no ability to agree on which taxes to permanently increase to offset the temporary decrease for some people, they didn’t bother. In the mean time, while they’re selling it as a “middle class” tax cut, the beneficiaries will be households that make between $75,000 and $200,000. Median income in America today is $48,200. [Yahoo News, Census Bureau]

Remember how the Democrats were, like, all into earmark reform back before the election as part of their rooting-out-corruption appeal? Well, it turns out that what they kinda meant by that is that they just planned to be more transparent about eating from the trough, not that they would stop doing it.

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The Anonymous Lobbyist, who is also the Anonymous Tit-Watcher, is furious about the Democrats’ new tax plan, and we’ve always got space for that. Enjoy.

After nearly a year of dicking around (and being mistaken for the chain-smoking Minority Leader John Boehner on the phone, which totally pisses him off), husky-voiced Ways and Means Committee Chair Charlie Rangel finally unveiled his tax cut package for the masses this morning. Hey, did you know that it’s for the middle class, which includes people that make $200,000/year (even though the median income in this country is actually $48,200)? But, I’ll bet Charlie feels totally middle classes when he’s rubbing shoulders with all his rich donors on his meager pittance of a salary. MORE »

* The “100 hours” plan is dead before it begun, as Democrats will now focus on the “elephantine gorilla” that is Iraq. [WP]
* And by “focus on,” they mean, “do everything possible to stop a troop surge.” [WP]
* With little Wesley Clark doing his part too. [WP]
* Broadly written anti-terror laws are proving disastrous for asylum seekers, even Gary Bauer agrees. [WP]
* Chief Justice John Roberts is deeply troubled about the “constitutional crisis” of federal judges forced to mortgage their mansions. [WP]
* Joe Biden signs on to provide the comic relief for the Democratic Presidential primaries. [NYT]
* Charlie Rangel is all smiles about chairing Ways ‘n Means. [NYT]
* Frothy mouthed hordes of hot-pink fanny packers can’t wait to swarm the half billion-dollar Capitol visitor center. [NYT]

* Harriet Miers looks forward to spending time with her friends Rose, Blanche, and Sophia. [Think Progress]
* Some say “improper social ties.” Others say, “Oil companies get geeky GS-12s laid in exchange for over-lucrative government mineral rights.” [TPM Muckraker]
* Charlie Rangel takes his office back from that “son of a bitch” Dick Cheney. [Raw Story]
* “By next week we must start preparing the nation and our military for war with Iran.” [Blogs for Bush]
* 6,000-year-old remains of world’s first politician discovered. [Q and O]
* CQ in COI! Totally on the take from pro-business CoC! [The Tortellini]
* Tonight’s list of parties you really want to crash and send us pictures from. [National Journal]

* SD Democratic Senator Tim Johnson is in critical condition following emergency brain surgery. Everybody pray panic. [WP
* It was Pentagon day in President Bush's whirlwind "gimmie advice" tour, with the Joint Chiefs backing the "train 'em, don't fight 'em" plan for Iraq. [WP, NYT]
* Nancy Pelosi to satiate Democrats’ lust for overseeing things by announcing creation of a new intelligence spending panel. [WSJ]
* Also, war funding will be made part of the regular budget. [NYT]
* The lone Republican ray of hope: ‘08 hopefuls have reputations independent of “boat anchor” Bush. [WSJ]
* All you gotta know about Charlie Rangel is, “he’s awesome!” [WP]
* The 2006 Midterms put Tom DeLay “in the grave with dirt on top of him.” [WP]
* Subpoena issued for the ACLU to return a memo with information “mildly embarrassing” to the government. [WP, NYT]

* The decider has yet to make any decisions on the raising or lowering of troop numbers in Iraq. [WP, NYT]
* Democrats will allow freshmen to take ownership of individual ethics proposals for maximum benefit in their districts. [WP]
* Sorry, Charlie, no measures to reinstate the draft will be part of the “2007-2008 legislative agenda.” [WP]
* The Iraq study group that almost wasn’t. [WP]
* Hillary Clinton and the mystery of the disappearing $30 million in campaign funds is solved — $13 thousand for flowers, $2,500 for chili half-smokes at Ben’s, and some other stuff. [NYT]
* Antiwar groups are outwardly enraged, inwardly fulfilled by being spied on by antiterror programs. [NYT]
* “Now we got weapons of the chemical dust,” until 2023 when we finally get rid of that shit. [USAT]
* In race for Katherine Harris’s old seat, Republican Vern Buchanan is finally named winner, Democrat Christine Jennings is suing, and Katy is still crying. [NYT]

* At a summit in Vietnam President Bush confronts regional economic realities, North Korean diplomatic complexities, and some goofy, goofy pajamas. [NYT, Time]
* Supreme Court Justices Roberts and Alito do battle over whose mildly amusing dinner party quips are better. [WP]
* Pentagon internal review of Iraq war uses football metaphors for policy options. Typical. [WP]
* Gay-marriage ban may go to a ballot in Massachusetts. [WP]
* Charlie Rangel wants to make politicians “think twice” about starting wars and believes legislation to renew the military draft will do that. Plans to propose the legislation, “as soon as we start the new session.” [WP]
* New pointless coin to celebrate old pointless Presidents. [NYT]