 |
| Hal Rogers, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee |
Sometimes Jon Stewart is simply indispensable.
Tonight was one of those classic examples.
First, Stewart runs a montage of Fox News bimbos saying the Sequester turned out to be a big nothing--proving we can cut government spending drastically and nobody notices because government does nothing important. There's an air head blond saying, "It turns out to be a 'No-questor," and grinning, very pleased with herself.
Then Stewart shows the irate reaction of the chairman of the House Appropriations committee, a Republican named Hal Rogers, who is grilling the head of the FAA about the furlough of air traffic controllers which has inconvenienced Congressmen trying to fly home to their districts. "Why didn't you tell us this would happen?" the Congressman demands.
So Stewart rolls a montage of Obama official after official warning of this very outcome, of news people warning about air traffic control trouble if the sequester is allowed to go forth. Then he plays the Congressman intoning how outrageous this is, nobody told him! Stewart observes he must be one of those people who complains nobody told him the gun would go off if he pulled that trigger.
Then Stewart shows Susan Collins speaking on the Senate floor, all giddy that Congress was able to pass a law which returned all the air traffic controllers to work. "See how we can work together. We can cross party lines to get things done!"
To which Stewart replies, "Oh, we should be so happy we have a Congress which having created a problem for the many, has been able to solve one small part of that problem for the few, namely themselves, when the problem affects them."
He then sends correspondents out to soup kitchens, cancer treatment centers which have had to close their door because of the sequester.
So there we have it--Congress as the ultimate example of the old adage: The worse thing for a bad product is good advertising.
These people in Congress are pathetic. They should all be voted out but, instead, they keep getting reelected. As long as that happens, we should expect no change in their behavior. Until the voters refuse to vote for these guys they will only be good for providing material for late night comics. Unfortunately, voters seem to vote to reelect their guy and think the problem is with everyone else's congressman or senator. They all work to be reelected (from the moment they get in office) so the only thing they really understand is not being reelected.
ReplyDeleteMad Dog,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anonymous-truly pathetic. I'm sorry I missed Jon Stewart pointing out the absurdity of them rushing to "fix" what they broke to begin with, as soon as they are impacted. Guess they remain committed to the belief that the American public is made up of morons with the attention span and memory of a flea.
I hope the rest of your trip to New Orleans was as much fun as your pig adventure.. Hopefully you knew what the pig wanted as it tried to climb aboard, otherwise I should think the marauding pig would be a bit scary(and funny)....
Maud
Dear Folks,
ReplyDeleteThere is, as Stephen Colbert would say, some essential "truthiness" in Anonymous's comment that the only thing a Congressman understands is whether or not he gets re elected. Problem is, when you ask the loser why he lost, there are so many possible reasons and he'll usually choose the least painful one. Oh, the other guy outspent me or the labor unions came in in the last three days, rather than the more profound truth: The voters actually remembered what an idiot you sounded like every time they turned on Jon Stewart.
Of course, the problem is, look where the astonishingly moronic Senators and Congressmen come from. As Anonymous says, everyone thinks his own Congressman is fine--it's the other guys.
But every time a really knock your socks off moron shows up he's from--you guessed it, South Carolina, Arizona, Texas, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi--the least educated, most impoverished (financially and intellectually) states. These voters are electing people who really do represent them--if they are stupid, they elect stupid representatives to represent stupidity.
Just had dinner with a Louisiana lady who shook her head at "all the nitwits" she meets in her state. "You don't see people like this coming out of Massachusetts," she said.
She has a point.
Mad Dog