Soapbox

Dear GOP members of congress-

    I have been hearing a lot of talk from many of you lately about federal food assistance to hungry people, and frankly, it has me amazed. It may seem presumptuous for someone like me to lecture a member of congress about a federal program, but you seem to have a lot of crazy ideas that need to be set straight.

    After the GOP first reduced the amount of money budgeted for the SNAP program, then cut it entirely from the Agriculture bill,  those of us who believe feeding hungry people is a good thing for a wealthy nation to do were understandably upset.  Some members of your party tried to justify this callous disregard for the poor and struggling by saying that if no money at all were spent on 'food stamps', no deserving people would be denied assistance… implying that the millions of citizens getting temporary assistance are ALL undeserving!
   It has also been suggested that children shouldn't get food unless their grades are good enough, and that people with cars and telephones clearly should not have food stamps.
   Another said that he knows for a fact that the program is "100% fraud" because he saw two people buying food with a SNAP card and they were healthy and had nice sneakers on and obviously 'should be working'. And many of you, including Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor, have said that there must be a strict work requirement for food stamps because otherwise it enables people to be lazy.
    And one even tried to justify it by saying that God doesn't want them to eat.

    Allow me to clear up a few things for you.
    First of all- SNAP not the same as unemployment. Just because you see someone using a SNAP card doesn't mean they are not working. Sadly, a significant portion of food stamp recipients actually have jobs- it's just that their jobs pay poverty wages, because people like YOU refuse to raise the minimum wage. Talk to your friends the Walton family about gainfully employed people who still cannot afford to feed their kids: millions of them work for Walmart!
    It also is not a program only for crippled people, though many disabled people do get food stamps. Healthy-looking people can be unable to afford enough food to eat. There is also no requirement that people stop exercising or sell all their worldly goods and  wear grass tied around their feet instead of shoes while they get temporary food assistance. If they sell their car to qualify- how will they get to the job you insist they must have? Or do you suddenly plan to support mass transit?
    Additionally, sometimes people who have a serious illness or accident and no insurance end up needing food stamps for a while to feed their kids. This situation is unlikely to end anytime soon as long as your party keeps trying to stop them from ever getting insurance.

    Studies show that actual fraud in the food stamp program is about 1%… which I'm pretty sure is much less than the fraud that goes on in Washington.
 
    Forgive me for thinking that your work requirement is simply a convenient, 'tough-love' excuse for cutting money for poverty programs in general so that you can give yourself another tax cut. How exactly would this even work? The majority of people on food stamps are children: will you make them work? (Or like your guru and spokesman Rush Limbaugh, do you think they should dumpster-dive instead?)
    Another large demographic getting assistance is the elderly. Must a 70 year old get a job at a drive-thru to satisfy you that he is not 'lazy'? What about the people who want to work but cannot find a job- like those put out of work by your stupid sequester? If they're not able to find a job, will it please your puritan work ethic if they go hungry in a land of plenty? And the ones who already are working- what more can they do? Go to Washington and lick your boots?
    I also find it highly ironic that a congress which seems to be chronically on vacation and cannot find the time to pass a single jobs bill or even a simply budget for themselves should get all self-righteous about the work ethic and footwear of hungry people. Some of them might be able to find a job that supports them IF you would do your job!
     Further, it is the height of hypocrisy for a party that wants to deny poor women access to contraception to refuse to feed their children when they are hungry.
    And hiding behind a man who said "Feed my lambs" to excuse turning your back on hungry people is wrong on so many levels that I am not even going to address it except to say~ Shame, shame, shame!

   In closing, please remember that you cannot judge a book by its cover, For instance, just looking at all of you with your nice suits and your luxurious homes, I would assume you are intelligent and honest people who care about the constitutional mandate to 'promote the general welfare'. Yet clearly you are none of those things.
   Once upon a time, America declared a 'war on poverty'. In 2013, the Republican party has declared a war on the poor. Your motto seems to be " Let 'em die: there's more for us that way!"

Sincerely-
     A caring democrat who probably pays more taxes (with a lot less whining!)  than you do.

I wonder if they look as beautiful from above
as they do from my front porch,
these clouds that billow and sail through the evening sky
like miles-high clipper ships or
cosmic tributes to Marie-Antoinettes wigs.
Born in some more tropical clime
they venture north, gorgeing themselves all day in a sea of humidity
until they arrive, rotund, towering and stately
each trying to outdo the other in their lush, pearled curves
and coquettish, indigo depths.
And when the Van Gogh of evening
paints them in a thousand impossible, manic hues,
like strumpets they stroll the sunset skies
flashing vermillion skirts
making me wish I could rise
and fly among them.

    I try not to make sweeping assumptions about people's motives, try not to presume that I can know from someone's words what their character and intentions are. It may be fair to judge their actions, but not their hearts. Just because a person says something racially insensitive, for instance, doesn't necessarily mean that they are a racist. Maybe it's been their misfortune to have been so long with racists in their family that they don't even realize the insensitivity of what they are saying.
    It's possible. I can't read minds, so I don't actually know how they feel inside.

    But I don't know how else to interpret the new Republican (do I even need to say that anymore?) anti-abortion bill pushed through the Ohio house except to assume they just hate people. I have tried and cannot come up with any other motivation except plain old-fashioned  mean.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/06/20/2185821/doctors-ohio-abortion-bill-disastrous/

    As I read about it, I can just see them hitching up their belts and nodding in grim, smug satisfaction: That'll teach those sluts! Because every word of this piece of legislative garbage shouts their belief that  every woman who has an abortion, for any reason, is a baby-killing slut.
    This is not pro-life, it's "Faux-life" in the truest sense. Doctors would be forced under penalty of law to give women incorrect medical information. Women will be required to pay for and look at an ultrasound of their fetuses heartbeat (trans-vaginally, if necessary)… as if they might not realize that it's a baby in there and they think they're getting a tonsillectomy!
    But mere humiliation, lies  and  burdensome expense are the basic foundation of every piece of anti-abortion (aka 'Jobs? What jobs!' ) legislation that is being proposed today. That's not what's new. In Ohio, now they're ready to kill you.

     Under this bill, a woman past 20 weeks pregnancy who suddenly needs an abortion for emergency health reasons CANNOT GET ONE for 48 hours. It doesn't matter if an entire  team of doctors swears her life is in danger unless the procedure is done immediately. The (mostly) men of the Ohio Faux Life coalition have decided that a woman has to wait 48 hours for an abortion no matter what. Because…  they do not care. I'm sorry, but it's not possible to care about people and to vote for such a horrible bill.

   Imagine a man being in a car accident, getting rushed to the hospital where the doctors say he needs an immediate splenectomy so he doesn't bleed to death and being told by the legislature, "Relax… in 48 hours, we'll let the doc fix you right up. For now just hang in there. We want to make sure you aren't making this decision in haste."
     It doesn't matter what your doctors say about the danger to your life, because We, the esteemed members of the Ohio Republican House of Representatives, we lawyers and real estate brokers and car salesmen, who have never met you and know nothing about your medical condition or what brought you to this terrible moment in your life… WE have decided that society would somehow be best served if you wait 48 hours before we allow you to have your 'emergency' procedure. And the potential consequences to you, including death- are entirely secondary to the triumph of our political ideology.
   I guess that's no surprise, given that this is the same political ideology that on a national level also wants to shut down Planned Parenthood and deny abortion for rape victims,  yet refuses to even debate a law that would guarantee a reasonably safe work environment to protect the health of  pregnant women! (You know, the ones with those solid gold, heart-beating fetuses!) 
No can do kids: too busy putting  "Right To Life" sticker on our Town Cars to care about your actual life!

    So I don't know what you could possibly say about a person who would write such a bill or vote for it to become the law of the land, other than "they hate you." They just fundamentally do not give a shit about humanity, and are willing to stand by enjoying fine aged whiskey and a good cigar with their lobbyist pals while you go into convulsions or bleed to death on the Emergency Room floor, if it gets them an A+ rating with the Right to Life Coalition. Bonus points if it pisses off a lot of feminazis and pointy-eared liberals!
    I have tried, but I can't think of any other motivation for such indifference.

     The bill as written is unconstitutional in multiple areas and will never become law. But it is far worse than unconstitutional: it is unconscionable. It is utterly lacking in compassion and humanity.

   Welcome to America. Please check your extra "X" chromosome at the door. Because when the rubber meets the road, they really don't care if you have a job, can afford medicine for your kids, are able to vote, or whether you and your family Live. Or. Die.
    We would all do well to remember that!

    Poor Republicans! They started out so strong this week, with a new scandal with which  to attack Obama nearly every day! You could just tell they believed they could sail that ship all the way to victory in 2016 and maybe even pick up an impeachment along the way! But by the weekend, the wind had gone somewhat out of their sails.

     First, there was Benghazi, which Dick "What World Trade Center?" Cheney called 'the worst tragedy in his lifetime'. In Act 1, Hillary Clinton was accused of lying to congress about it- but that accusation was proven to be a lie. (Congress lying about someone lying to congress apparently is not the crime that lying to congress is. Yes, I know it's complicated, but do try to keep up!) 
    When the curtain went up on Act 2, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Ambassador Pickering were accused of being part of the 'cover-up' and refusing to testify!  Gasp! Now surely that subversion of democracy will draw some blood!  And perhaps it would have, but both men came forward and explained that, far from refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-Republican Activities, the committee chairman was actually  refusing to let them testify in open session. He would only agree to meet with them in private chambers, because he realized that they were not planning to say what he wanted America to hear.
     But the big finale, the last nail in the Obama terrorist-loving coffin was going to be those White House e-mails that clearly showed a concerted effort to get the Benghazi lies straight before public statements were made. And they were pretty damning!
     Too bad they were fake.
     In a single day, Benghazi-gate turned into Benghazi-gate-gate when it came out that someone in the GOP altered the White House e-mails and released "quotes' from them to ABC News that were not quotes at all. When the actual e-mails were examined they were found to pretty much back up what Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the people involved in this sad incident have been saying all along.  Bummer, guys. Looks like your grand production may close in reviews.
    Still, do not despair, scandal-hungry Republicans! Beacuse there is a Benghazi  scandal after all!  You should assemble another committee, convene more hearings, pound the table and demand to know- Who in the Republican party lied to the American people and why did they think they would get away with it??? Ah, but I'm guessing you may not want to talk about those e-mails any more.

     And as if that wasn't enough bad news, their big IRS scandal began to fizzle too. Turns out that while the IRS did violate their standard procedure when deciding that the Tea Party groups applying for tax exempt status should get some extra hoops to jump through first,  they did not target only the Tea Party, or only conservative groups. Nor in the end did they deny any of those groups tax exempt status. So while clearly some shake-ups are in order at the IRS, the poor, martyred Tea Party turns out NOT to have quite the nail holes in their hands and feet that they would like you to think they have.
    Tempest- meet Tea Party Pot.

    But John Boehner's marching orders have come down from the Heritage Foundation!! Regardless of how badly the American people need for Congress to get something done– his #1 job is to attack!
     Do NOT allow anything to come to a vote that might show a difference of opinion among Republicans, he was told. Stall, stall and stall! This really plays to his strength because he's quite skilled at the art of getting nothing done! Focus instead on the 'troubling issues'  facing the President.
   Ah yes, the 'troubling issues'. The manufactured outrage by people who have all but admitted that they don't really intend to do any actually governing in the next 3 years- who have spent the entire Obama presidency so far focused like a laser on rape (it's not such a bad thing, ladies! ) abortion (its a very bad thing, you sluts!) denying global climate change (a total hoax which only  98% of the scientific community says is real but who ya gonna believe- a bunch of liberal scientists or CPAC?) and people using unemployment benefits to buy drugs (We're sure you're out there though we haven't actually  located any of you yet!). And of course blocking an energy bill, blocking a jobs bill, blocking an education bill, blocking the Violence Against women Act… you see the theme.
     Well, it seems the entire Republican party has decided switch professions this week and become pushers instead of legislators. And the high they are pushing? Hate, scandal and off-with-his-head anger.

    Just think for a moment: if the GOP had passed even one jobs bill, or offered  a budget that didn't tax the poor to help the rich, they could be out there today bragging to their constituents about the news that the deficit is shrinking faster than predicted and the stock market is up!
    Instead, they are frantically setting their hair on fire, trying to keep us from noticing these disturbing developments. They cannot afford to let anything good to happen to America while the dark-skinned guy is in office.

    As Bill Maher said; at some point, obstruction becomes treason.

     So forget about the closed schools and un-inspected food, and unsafe bridges; forget about the clogged courts because we refuse to approve any judicial nominees and about the veterans languishing without their promised benefits and the folks whose unemployment has run out…
    No, seriously-  please, forget about those things. Because we intend to do nothing about them.
    Please talk about this umbrella instead.

Wait- no, not that umbrella… this one!

     Yes, the latest "We've got to hate Obama about something!" talking point is that image of Obama making an outdoor address while a Marine holds an umbrella over his head. No, I am not making this up.
    The question conservative bloggers and idio- I mean pundits are asking is: what kind of elitist, socialist Muslim, gun-stealing dictator would have someone else hold his umbrella??!

     Sarah Palin tweeted her outrage about this, even as someone found a picture of her climbing down from her airplane with an assistant holding an umbrella over her head. And of course others turned up of Bush 1 and Bush 2 and Clinton doing the same thing.
     Oopsy.

     Dear right-wing scandal addicts:
           It's called "Protocol".  And really, you're talking about a man who has a jumbo transport plane to fly his own ambulance and limousine wherever he travels, who has entire teams of people that swarm all over a town days in advance, inspecting every house and building that looks out over where the president will be!
      Getting upset about the ' elitist entitlement' of having a marine hold his umbrella while he's speaking in the rain is like being outraged that they play "Hail to the Chief" before he walks into a room.
     What kind of a dictator-thug has his own song that people have to play for him every time he walks in?!?!

      Well let's see… professional wrestlers… and the President of the f**king United States, you pea-brains!!
      Now stop wasting our time and go do your jobs!

This is not our first rodeo.
    But here we are in training class, because that's what we do. Every time, we practice it first. We practice every pen stroke, every  tick-mark and circle to be colored in. We go over how to connect the machines, where to put the flags, even where to find the card with a few helpful ASL signs in case we need it.
   It takes a while, but every detail counts in democracy. Your vote means nothing if we don't do our job correctly.
   You joke about the preponderance of old folk sitting at the roster tables, how you may as well be voting at a nursing home for all the white hair and orthopedic shoes, but if you thought for 10 seconds about how important our job is, you wouldn't be quite so impatient when the old guy with the coke-bottle glasses takes the time to double-check your signature before he sends you over to your booth. If you realized what a brutally long day it is for us, you would be less amused and more impressed by the octogenarians around you.

   It's always cold at 4:30 AM in November, dark and still. There are boxes to unpack, tables to set up and not quite enough coffee to keep you energized as you count the hours in your growingly uncomfortable chair, realizing that 8PM is a long way off.
   But there are also cheerful and familiar faces, intelligent questions and happy families teaching their children what citizenship is all about. And  this room full of people, however old or young they might be and whatever political persuasion guides them, are all aimed at the same target: to help everyone who can become a part of America by voting.
   Some voters are excited about their first time, and it always makes us feel proud. Some are hopeful. Some are anxious and cynical, or bored and unengaged. But every one of them matters equally to us.

    I wish I could say to all those  congress members and governors of all the states who are trying to place more and more locked doors between America and her citizens-  this is not our first rodeo.
   Every one of us here in this training room wants every legal, registered voter to vote. We do not need your locks and chains blocking the doorway which we are guarding. We know our job, and we take us very seriously.
    We know the difference between preventing fraud and just preventing voting.  When you propose a law that forbids us from telling someone who turns up at the wrong polling place where their proper location is… we know what that's about.  When you insist that we turn away an 80 year old woman who's been voting here for 50 years but who doesn't drive any more because she no longer has a driver's license… we know what that is about, too.
  You are saying that we don't matter. That we come here to practice and get up at 4:30 in the cold dark November mornings-  for nothing at all, because America isn't  really a place where every citizen who pays their taxes and registers their name has the same say as any other.

    We take that personally. We may be old, some of us, but we're not stupid. This isn't our first rodeo, and we know a pile of bull when we see it.