Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Assholes


7000.

That's the number of unemployed workers who will lose their unemployment benefits today and the same number who had lost them yesterday and the day before that, and all because of two Republican assholes.

This, despite the fact that Jim McDermott's bill in the House overwhelmingly passed last month with a bipartisan consensus. Says the AFL-CIO blog:
Because of the actions of two Republican senators, every day this month 7,000 jobless workers have lost their unemployment insurance (UI) coverage. Each day these two Republicans continue to stand in the way of Senate passage of a UI extension, 7,000 more workers will run out of benefits.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has tried twice to bring the UI measure to a vote on the Senate floor. First Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), then Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) blocked action.

Even if my own unemployment benefits weren't in danger of being exhausted, I would still consider this an outrage. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the only way we will ever get anything meaningful done in Congress is to vote out every single Goddamned Republican. Only with a 100 seat majority in the Senate and a 435 seat majority in the House will the people have any chance whatsoever of being truly represented. Then and only then will the Democrats have absolutely no excuses whatsoever for doing their job. If ever there was an argument for a one party system of government in this country, the Republicans each and every single day are giving us very persuasive ones.


When Democrats wanted to raise the minimum wage years ago, Republicans blocked that despite the minimum wage being frozen for over a decade. When Democrats timorously wanted to inject some semblance of humanity into the 2005 bankruptcy "reform" bill, Republicans blocked every one without exception. Hatch, one of the assholes blocking the Senate version of this bill, had even said in '05, "Those who can pay their bills should pay their bills. That's the American way." And even though 7000 people are losing their unemployment benefits for every day this bill is needlessly stalled in the Senate, a pair of assholes like Orrin Hatch and Jon Kyl don't give a shit, making it harder on nearly 50,000 people each week to live "the American way" and pay their bills.

Any legislation, amendment or measure that promises any kind of relief, shows any semblance of humanity, mercy and compassion is sure to be opposed by a majority of Republicans. That is because, plain and simple, Republicans are assholes. They don't care how much of their constituency they alienate. They don't give a damn how many people starve, lose their homes, their jobs or have their credit ratings tank (and, thanks to assholes like Hatch, they no longer have the option of filing for bankruptcy). Extending unemployment benefits will not increase the deficit or the debt because unemployment benefits are state-based. It doesn't matter to them that giving a mere 14-20 extra weeks of half their former pay will still enable them to contribute to the economy. There's no rhyme or reason for opposing this measure but they don't need one. That's because they're assholes.

They can't help it, really; It's in their DNA.

The lead picture above is a visual pun. Ass=hole. Get it? But it's also a marvelous illustration of just how helpless and paralyzed Democrats have become even when they're in the majority in Congress, even when they have a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority in the Senate.

And even though Republicans lost the power to filibuster in the Senate, they still don't need it because parliamentary procedure allows even a regional rump party like the GOP to say, "I don't want to discuss this bill."

And Democrats, as usual, say, "EEEE-yaw. OK, then."

2 Comments:

At October 21, 2009 at 8:40 PM, Blogger daveawayfromhome said...

I think the best way to fix congress is to throw every last one of them out. Then, the next cycle, throw that bunch out, too. And the next. At that point, maybe we'll be used to the idea enough that we'll be able to get rid of useless incumbent dead weight when it's working for the lobbyists rather than the voters.

 
At October 22, 2009 at 11:48 PM, Blogger ALPSPHOENIX said...

Hmmm... Lets see, the vote goes in ,the vote is denied, the vote goes in again and is denied, the vote again is proposed and is denied........again. So what is the point?
I will survive, and when WWIII comes around I will not give you access to my bunker.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

KindleindaWind, my writing blog.

All Time Classics

  • Our Worse Half: The 25 Most Embarrassing States.
  • The Missing Security Tapes From the World Trade Center.
  • It's a Blunderful Life.
  • The Civil War II
  • Sweet Jesus, I Hate America
  • Top Ten Conservative Books
  • I Am Mr. Ed
  • Glenn Beck: Racist, Hate Monger, Comedian
  • The Ten Worst Music Videos of all Time
  • Assclowns of the Week

  • Links to the first 33 Assclowns of the Week.
  • Links to Assclowns of the Week 38-63.
  • #106: The Turkey Has Landed edition
  • #105: Blame it on Paris or Putin edition
  • #104: Make Racism Great Again Also Labor Day edition
  • #103: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Toilet edition
  • #102: Orange is the New Fat edition
  • #101: Electoral College Dropouts edition
  • #100: Centennial of Silliness edition
  • #99: Dr. Strangehate edition
  • #98: Get Bentghazi edition
  • #97: SNAPping Your Fingers at the Poor edition
  • #96: Treat or Treat, Kiss My Ass edition
  • #95: Monumental Stupidity double-sized edition
  • #94: House of 'Tards edition
  • #93: You Da Bomb! edition.
  • #92: Akin to a Fool edition.
  • #91: Aurora Moronealis edition.
  • #90: Keep Your Gubmint Hands Off My High Pre'mums and Deductibles! edition.
  • #89: Occupy the Catbird Seat/Thanksgiving edition.
  • #88: Heil Hitler edition.
  • #87: Let Sleeping Elephants Lie edition.
  • #86: the Maniacs edition.
  • #85: The Top 50 Assclowns of 2010 edition.
  • #(19)84: Midterm Madness edition.
  • #83: Spill, Baby, Spill! edition.
  • #82: Leave Corporations Alone, They’re People! edition.
  • #81: Hatin' on Haiti edition.
  • #80: Don't Get Your Panties in a Twist edition.
  • #79: Top 50 Assclowns of 2009 edition.
  • #78: Nattering Nabobs of Negativism edition.
  • #77: ...And Justice For Once edition.
  • #76: Reading Tea Leaves/Labor Day edition.
  • #75: Diamond Jubilee/Inaugural Edition
  • #74: Dropping the Crystal Ball Edition
  • #73: The Twelve Assclowns of Christmas Edition
  • #72: Trick or Treat Election Day Edition
  • #71: Grand Theft Autocrats Edition
  • #70: Soulless Corporations and the Politicians Who Love Them Edition
  • Empire Of The Senseless.
  • Christwire.org: Conservative Values for an Unsaved World.
  • Esquire's Charles Pierce.
  • Brilliant @ Breakfast.
  • The Burning Platform.
  • The Rant.
  • Mock, Paper, Scissors.
  • James Petras.
  • Towle Road.
  • Avedon's Sideshow (the new site).
  • At Largely, Larisa Alexandrovna's place.
  • The Daily Howler.
  • The DCist.
  • Greg Palast.
  • Jon Swift. RIP, Al.
  • God is For Suckers.
  • The Rude Pundit.
  • Driftglass.
  • Newshounds.
  • William Grigg, a great find.
  • Brad Blog.
  • Down With Tyranny!, Howie Klein's blog.
  • Wayne's World. Party time! Excellent!
  • Busted Knuckles, aka Ornery Bastard.
  • Mills River Progressive.
  • Right Wing Watch.
  • Earthbond Misfit.
  • Anosognosia.
  • Echidne of the Snakes.
  • They Gave Us a Republic.
  • The Gawker.
  • Outtake Online, Emmy-winner Charlotte Robinson's site.
  • Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo
  • No More Mr. Nice Blog.
  • Head On Radio Network, Bob Kincaid.
  • Spocko's Brain.
  • Pandagon.
  • Slackivist.
  • WTF Is It Now?
  • No Blood For Hubris.
  • Lydia Cornell, a very smart and accomplished lady.
  • Roger Ailes (the good one.)
  • BlondeSense.
  • The Smirking Chimp.
  • Hammer of the Blogs.
  • Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.
  • Argville.
  • Existentialist Cowboy.
  • The Progressive.
  • The Nation.
  • Mother Jones.
  • Vanity Fair.
  • Salon.com.
  • Citizens For Legitimate Government.
  • News Finder.
  • Indy Media Center.
  • Lexis News.
  • Military Religious Freedom.
  • McClatchy Newspapers.
  • The New Yorker.
  • Bloggingheads TV, political vlogging.
  • Find Articles.com, the next-best thing to Nexis.
  • Altweeklies, for the news you won't get just anywhere.
  • The Smirking Chimp
  • Don Emmerich's Peace Blog
  • Wikileaks.
  • The Peoples' Voice.
  • Dictionary.com.
  • CIA World Fact Book.
  • IP address locator.
  • Tom Tomorrow's hilarious strip.
  • Babelfish, an instant, online translator. I love to translate Ann Coulter's site into German.
  • Newsmeat: Find out who's donating to whom.
  • Wikipedia.
  • Uncyclopedia.
  • anysoldier.com
  • Icasualties
  • Free Press
  • YouTube
  • The Bone Bridge.
  • Powered by Blogger