In the left corner, representing us, we have a true statesperson: Senator Elizabeth Warner:
When was the last time the anarchy gang called for regulators to go easier on companies that put lead in children’s toys? Or for inspectors to stop checking whether the meat in our grocery stores is crawling with deadly bacteria? Or for the FDA to ignore whether morning sickness drugs will cause horrible deformities in our babies?
When? Never. In fact, whenever the anarchists make any headway in their quest and cause damage to our government, the opposite happens.
…
Why do they do this? Because the boogeyman government in the alternate universe of their fiery political speeches isn’t real. It doesn’t exist.
Government is real, and it has three basic functions:
1. Provide for the national defense.
2. Put rules in place rules, like traffic lights and bank regulations, that are fair and transparent.
3. Build the things together that none of us can build alone – roads, schools, power grids – the things that give everyone a chance to succeed.
…
We are alive, we are healthier, we are stronger because of government.
And in the other corner, we have John Boehner and the Tea Party Tizziers:
Elections Matter!
* * *
My thanks to the Stephen D at the Daily Kos for the video link to Senator Warren (my hero).
And my thanks to one of my favorite blogging buddies, Frank of A Frank Angle for Groucho.
Let me preface this post by saying this: I get it.
My Dad, whom I adored, was a WWII vet. I toured European battlefields with him. I read the history and heard the tales. I stood on Omaha Beach and looked up the cliffs that those boys had to scale. I stood on Utah Beach and looked up steeper cliffs and then down them from the top, through the craters left by our bombs. I have been fascinated by the history of WWII, by the battles. By the true contest between good and evil that that war represented in my mind.
I get it. Really. They are, truly, the Greatest Generation
So yesterday when my blood pressure hit the roof, it wasn’t that I wanted to deny veterans, especially WWII vets, anything.
My first impression when I read that vets from a Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight crossed over the barricades erected because of the government shutdown was: Good For YOU!
Until, that is, I learned that it was two GOP Congressmen who were responsible for the “storming.” According to this article, the barricades were moved by a pair of GOP members of Congress, Mississippi Rep. Roger Wicker and Michigan Rep. Bill Huizenga. Congressman Huizenga proclaimed it the “the best civil disobedience we’ve seen in Washington for a long time.”
And THAT is when my blood boiled.
Not because the Vets got in. But because the barricades were opened by the very same folks responsible for them being there in the first place. Once again, GOP members of the House of Representatives were defying the law. Because they don’t believe it applies to them.
The GOP shut down the government over a temper tantrum has voted to shut it down because the Senate and the President won’t defund the Affordable Care Act. Obamacare.
I have said this before:
The Affordable Care Act is a law that went through all three branches of our government as established under the constitution. According to the rules we set up for our Government, adopted in 1791.
Obamacare passed the House of Representatives (Authorized under Article I of the Constitution);
Obamacare passed the Senate. (Also authorized under Article I);
Obamacare was signed into law by the President (Granted that authority under Article II of the very same Constitution); and
Obamacare was upheld by the Supreme Court (Ditto — Article III).
The GOP lost the 2012 election over this issue (in large part).
The very same folks who do not respect the rule of law by accepting the reality of a duly enacted United States Law also do not accept the consequences of their refusal to govern. THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IS THEIR FAULT ENTIRELY.
They have no respect for the rule of law. None. Laws, to them, apparently, should be followed only when they deem it appropriate. Last night, Michelle Bachmann announced that GOP members will be there to open the barricade to all Vets. Because the GOP does not respect the rule of law — but does respect a good PR.
Here, thanks to my blogging buddy, Vickie Lester at Beguiling Hollywood, is a list of a few things that happened on the first day of the government furlough
[Yesterday,] two hundred patients were turned away from the NIH, thirty of them children. Most of whom, because of the severity and difficulty of the disease they faced, had been sent to this research facility as a last resort. [This means, of course, that they will die. And their blood will be on GOP hands.]
Veterans applying for disability benefits could not be helped.
In a week poor women and children will not be fed.
Food safety inspectors have been furloughed.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that fully 16% of ALL workers in the United States work for the Federal Government. Those percentages are highest, actually, in Republican states. How long can a huge percentage of the workforce go without pay because of a GOP tantrum. How long should they?
The list of who is considered “non-essential” goes on and on. Things are only going to get worse. Because many businesses rely on those federal workers to buy their products, to eat in their restaurants.
Call your Congressman/woman
or Any Representative you think should hear from you
Tell them to pass an unencumbered budget
Tell them to open up the Government
The US Capitol Switchboard Number
202 244-3121
I am borrowing again from Vickie:
A thought from Andrew Sullivan:
I want to begin with a simple quote, a letter from Abraham Lincoln, facing a very similar constellation of forces as president Obama does with today’s nullification party, and sounding remarkably like his 2008 successor from Illinois:
What is our present condition? We have just carried an election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now we are told in advance, the government shall be broken up, unless we surrender to those we have beaten, before we take the offices. In this they are either attempting to play upon us, or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of us, and of the government. They will repeat the experiment upon us ad libitum.
As I mentioned to Carrie, though, Peter King (R-NY) is on the list. He has been preaching a clean Continuing Resolution for days, but keeps voting with the GOP.
Did you play “Go Fish” as a child? Of course you did. Remember how wonderful it felt when you could shout out:
“I Got What I Asked For!”
How’s it feelin’ long about now? Because many folks got exactly what they asked for by electing folks to government who don’t believe in Government. What did they get?
A Defunct Government.
From Dailykos.com
And now the House GOP, it a temper tantrum has voted to shut it down because the Senate and the President won’t defund the Affordable Care Act. Obamacare.
That is a law that went through all three branches of our government as established under the constitution.
Passed by the House of Representatives (Authorized under Article I of the Constitution);
Passed by the Senate. (Also authorized under Article I);
Signed into law by the President (Granted that authority under Article II of the very same Constitution); and
Upheld by the Supreme Court (Ditto — Article III).
The GOP lost the 2012 election over this issue (in large part). [Yes they did. The House retained the majority because of gerrymandering. They lost the popular vote.]
Parts of Obamacare became effective long ago. The part that allows us to keep our kids on our policies until they’re 26, for example. Great provision, isn’t it?
THE REST OF IT GOES INTO EFFECT TODAY IN SPITE OF THE SHUTDOWN.
So they are doing all of this for nothing. Except for show.
Sums Up the GOP nicely, don’t you think? (Photo: NY Daily News)
I saw the perfect description of what they are doing in a column by Michael Tomasky:
In the summer of 2011, my friend Carol, a nurse, joined a mercy mission to Haiti to treat people still suffering from the January 2010 earthquake. A last minute volunteer, she hadn’t had time to fundraise, but was expected to buy and bring all kinds of medical supplies – bandages, Tylenol, alcohol wipes, rubber gloves. Everything.
To help defray the cost, Carol sent emails to some friends, and we donated to help defray her costs.
A week after she got back, Carol invited me and three women I had never met over for a glass of wine to thank us, celebrate her return and hear about her trip.
One of the women, Mary Grace, rubbed me wrong immediately. The middle-aged bleached blond wore a tight sparkly dress that screamed “I’m still 20!” with gold glitter-encrusted flip flops.
Before we were even introduced, I heard her say,
“Now they’re going after Michelle Bachmann because she has migraines!” I had just the day before posted this blog piece about Michelle’s migraines. Mary Grace and I were clearly not destined to be BFFs.
(Newsweek cover photo)
A minute later, she continued her political commentary:
“I’d push Nancy Pelosi under a truck. I just wish I could keep her clothes …”
“Carol,” I said, looking at the enormous glass of Pinot Grigio she gave me and trying to lighten the mood Mary Grace had struck, “shouldn’t you just pass out the bottles and save hand-washing these glasses?”
Everybody chuckled and we made some small talk. Drinks became dinner; Carol told us all about her trip.
Everybody but me had a few large glasses of wine, I was driving.
“Even after all the attention following the earthquake,” explained Carol, over grilled shrimp salad, “not much has been rebuilt. People still live in tents, with cholera, typhoid, other nasty diseases that poverty and no clean water bring.”
Mary Grace didn’t seem to be at all interested; she kept trying to change the subject. I was getting irritated because we were there, after all, to hear Carol’s story. I certainly was.
Carol described the terrible plight of the Haitians, especially children, and how difficult it is for them. Then Carol said the thing that set Mary Grace — and at least three large glasses of wine — off.
“The most wonderful thing about my trip,” said Carol, “was Sean Penn. He’s my new hero.”
“Ugh!” said Mary Grace with disgust. “No!”
(Thanks, Google)
Carol continued. “Right after the earthquake, he raised millions of dollars to build a hospital. A few months later, though, his money was still in the US. They couldn’t get it to Haiti.”
“Didn’t he have some crap Hollywood movie to make?” slurred Mary Grace. The rest of us rolled our eyes.
“Well,” Carol continued. “Sean managed to get the money, architects and skilled workmen there – he brought them over. They designed a hospital, hired a whole lot of previously unskilled unemployed Haitians, and taught them the skills to build it. They did it! They built the hospital! It’s not done, but I treated patients there!”
Mary Grace rudely burst out “Sean Penn is scum,” she said. “What good’s he ever done? He just trades on his Hollywood connections. Hero, my ass.”
Now I am not a huge Sean Penn fan. But we weren’t talking about that; we were talking about Haiti. We were talking about someone who’d helped over there. We were talking about Carol and her incredible experience. And we were doing it inCarol’shouse.
“He’s an alcoholic, drug abuser,” she said, holding up her enormous glass for a fourth refill.
“Drink up,” I said to her to stifled laughter from everybody else at the table.
I couldn’t believe her rudeness. Still, I was thinking I am a guest here, so I clenched my teeth, bit my tongue. But my heart raced and my blood pressure skyrocketed. I didn’t want to offend Carol, but I did want to throttle Mary Grace. Clearly, she didn’t care about offending Carol.
Kelly, one of the other women, said “Ooh, Carol, where did you get that sculpture?” in a transparent effort to change the subject.
But Mary Grace wouldn’t drop it.
“He just trades on his celebrity. Those liberals in Hollywood, they just trade on their names. What does he really do? People like Carol do the real work.”
“Carol did a great job. As a nurse, she has a skill that she can use to help people. It is great.” I said with more reserve than I felt. “But other people have different skills, abilities. If Sean Penn can manage to build a hospital, why are you putting him down? What’s wrong with using what you can to help people?”
“He does nothing good. Sean Penn hasn’t done anything good. Other people do good things.”
“Well,” I said, “you’re a person. What good things have you done lately?”
Without hesitation she told me:
She held up one finger. “I am a nice person. I don’t flip people off in traffic. I am always polite when I drive.”
She had me there. I have been known to raise a finger now and then.
Holding up her middle finger, she went on, “When somebody asks me how they look, I always tell them that they look nice. Even if they don’t.”
The rest of us sat in stunned silence, mouths gaping.
She held up a third finger: “And I was in Chipotle yesterday. Behind me in line were three soldiers. And I said to the cashier ‘their dinner is on me.‘”
For a minute, I expected her to continue. But she didn’t.
“Let me see,” I said, holding out my hands. I held up my right hand, palm up, weighing things: “On the right: Lunch at Chipotle.” I held up my left: “On the left: building a hospital for the poor people of Haiti. Yes, Mary Grace, you’re by far the better person.”
The table was silent. Everybody, including me, was watching Mary Grace to see what she would say.
She said nothing.
“Carol,” I said, rising from the table and fearing I’d just lost a friend, “I think it’s time for me to leave.” I grabbed my purse and headed for the door. Carol was mortified.
“I’m so sorry,” I told her as she walked me out to my car. “I tried to not be rude, but it was your trip and your hero!”
“You know,” Carol said in her lovely British accent, “Mary Grace wasn’t even invited tonight. She’s always crashing along with Kelly and Kate.” She grabbed my arm to make sure I heard the next part. “When I sent that email asking for donations? I got an email back from Mary Grace telling me ‘no’ and saying ‘Charity begins at home.’”
I was relieved that I wasn’t the only one to think Mary Grace a rude bore.
“Mary Grace has been rude to me every time I’ve seen her. She’s not my friend, yet she always just shows up.” she said, laughing. “But until tonight, nobody has ever managed to shut her up.”
Carol told me the next day that Mary Grace was insulting Bono along with Penn when she got back in.
“Apparently,” Mary Grace sneered as Carol sat back down, “your friend just couldn’t take it.”-.
Carol closed her eyes. “Mary Grace, please leave. You’re no longer welcome here.”
* * *
This piece is from my memoir class. I had to recount a memorable argument. I thought I’d post it tonight to celebrate two things:
Michelle Bachmann’s Retirement!
My 2nd Blogging Anniversary! Thanks, everybody. It’s been a blast!
This is long but it is taken from just about the view I have from my office!
FiftyFourandAHalf 