[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
The truly irritating thing about recent DC Democratic Party peevish, immature pettiness—the odious Feinstein complaining she wasn’t consulted, the pathetic quisling Reid suddenly discovering bravery in obstructing a Democrat, the scurrilous, furtively blue Hoyer spitting out he doesn’t work for Obama—isn’t the disgusting spectacle of human souls who cannot mature beyond high school-level social posturing, it’s the utter predictability of it all, how retrograde of past failure it all is. Change is here, yeah.
Blog readers, of course, have the benefit of reading Hullabaloo, where Digby called all this wearying behavior months ago.1 The planet warms by the hour, wars rage unabated, our economy is in more ruins by the day, more and more of our people helplessly crushed by it all, yet now that the election is over it seems the emplaced DC establishment is implacably obdurate in its refusal to change, by God we were petty bought children under Clinton and we will be under Obama, too. So there.
Painfully dismaying this morning is the inevitable DC legislative behavior of accomplishing only One Big Thing for a President’s first term. The country and the world has gone all to hell but by God and lobbyist lunches Democrats can only tackle Economics, with "down payments" for Energy and Healthcare in that awesome, encompassing body of work. Global warming, gays in the military, NAFTA, tax reform, food production, transportation, education, oh well. When in fact will just this start of an extremely long list be addressed?
Be patient, you’re bankrupt and cold from cancer treatment payments but shut up and wait, like always. Get this, Mr. Badass Combat Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said us little folks "understand we [Congress] have to engage in triage" when it comes to the 2009 federal agenda.
Mr. Van Hollen, there are education problems in the United States but I can assure you that among the little people triage is instantly understood, a gory sickening reference to the tragic holding or withholding of life, not enough time or blood bags so it’s death unto you. Is that truly what you were trying to communicate, sir? I’m precisely sure it is, in fact, for just like squirrelly DC Democratic peevishness this insistence that only One Big Thing can be done this year is so like behavior of the past. Change is here, right.
Well, Mr. Van Hollen (M-16, USA) the legislative agenda for America 2009 isn’t fucking combat, and I assure you with every atom of my being that the lives and souls of Americans are not—by any freaking measure of the human mind—to be cast aside to bleed and die. That’s what happens when we starve our children, abuse our people with no health care, crush their souls simply because of their sexual preference, they bleed and die. Often slowly and cruelly, that’s what neglecting everything else but the Economy means, painful and slow twisting death for our people.
Priority and prioritization are very well understood concepts without harbingers of gory horror, Mr. Van Hollen. Prioritization is in fact precisely the correct mental worldview moving forward, not triage, for emission control, gay rights, education, nutrition, health care and a hundred other urgent problems are not going to be ignored and then allowed to wither away to nothing.
Economy with "down payments" for the first Obama 2009 Congressional term is perfectly understandable although somewhat baffling, why in fact can’t Congress do more than One Big Thing in a term? Where is this mysterious DC Bank of Political Capital? How do the little people and y’all really know when it’s all spent, that’s there’s simply no more? Does Congress take naps after those lobbyist lunches, are y’all incurably lazy, what?
Still, if Congress simply cannot change in this regard surely the Administration and Congressional Party leadership could publish a legislative calendar, perhaps. Year one is Economy, obviously, year two Energy and Healthcare, year three Gay Rights and Nutrition. Of course Peace and ending both wars should be right after Economy but amazingly Obama may wait and even prolong one, it makes no sense but both wars are extremely difficult to end for a lot of reasons, Obama’s got to do it sometime, the earlier the better please baby Jesus, but it’s up to him.
Hope is a great thing, perhaps the greatest of things, so wrote Stephen King in the short story Shawsank Redemption. The people of America worked extremely hard to bring change about in this last election but apparently Congress hasn’t got the message. Please publish a legislative priority calendar and don’t ever talk about our issues as triage again, our people and their problems aren’t going to undergo a slow death of neglect.
[1] It is that regrettable time of year of awards, where the hazy and dubious human construct of best is bestowed upon some of us. I have mixed feelings about it, obviously, I like to see great bloggers get recognition but I’m always loathe to see so many others left out.
Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly is correct, Digby should get recognition for her sterling series of stories on tasers, and as noted here she attained the holy goddess stature among social scientists—I am truly serious—by predicting future human behavior.
In the social networking scurry of kool kids schlepping for a trophy, will Digby get recognition for those two remarkable accomplishments? Doubtful. Vote for your favorite blogger if you must, but if at all possible donate to them first. That, I am positive, is a much better path of action to help our brothers and sisters in blogtopia.