Transition

So the GOP is now fully in charge of the House of Representatives again.  As I remember well what things have been like on the other occasions in which they've been in charge, I would be lying if I didn't admit that I am frightened at the prospect...

On Wednesday, January 5th the 112th Congress was sworn in (well…most of it anyway, we’ll get to that later) and Speaker Pelosi officially turned over the (giant) gavel to the new Weeper of the House, John Boehner…   Click here to read my Previous blog post about Boehner and his constant crying

"The people voted to end business as usual, and today we begin to carry out their instructions"...

So, the way that you and your party intend to carry out the "instructions" of the American people is by having cartoonishly large gavels and wasting approximately a million dollars (source) putting on a show of reading the Constitution into the Congressional Record but skipping some parts?  http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/06/nation/la-na-constitution-20110107 

Well...I have to say that I have a great deal of respect for the Constitution of the United States.  Since I'm not a follower of "holy books", I can say without equivocation that the U. S. Constitution is one of the few written documents that I would actually consider "sacred".  I don't think that having the document read in the House was necessarily a bad idea, since I'm sure many could certainly use the instruction (heaven knows Boehner himself obviously DOES need some instruction on it).  But if you're going to make a show of reading the Constitution, at least do it right.  Don't skip pages, don't leave out words or amendments that are inconvenient...read it all, or don't read it at all.  (Incidentally, this is the same way that I think people should read a book called the bible...but SO few do.)


Sessions and Fitzpatrick raise their hands while
watching the broadcast of the ceremony
at a fund-raiser.



Is it also your belief that the American people "instructed" some members from your party to skip the swearing in ceremony (so that they could attend a fund-raiser) and thinking that because they "raised their hands" whilst watching the broadcast of the procedure...that they were somehow qualified to VOTE on the floor of the United States House of Representatives??  (pssst....that's a VIOLATION of the very document you were putting on a show of reading, by the way)



But the biggest show came from the visitor's gallery.  As one member of the House read the text from Article Two, section one – “No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President” – a lunatic in the Gallery began shrieking, “Except Obama, except Obama, help us, Jesus!”

First, the fact that there are still these lunatics who insist on denying reality and trying to pretend that President Obama is not an American is beyond ridiculous.  I simply do not understand why the leaders of the Republican Party don't just make a definitive statement once and for all, to try to get these nuts to STOP making them all look silly with this idiocy.  Clearly they KNOW it's not true...



Um...you know what Mr. Boehner...you may think that "it's not up to me to tell them what to think", but I think that it IS up to you, as the leader of your party, to put down people doing asinine things like this.  Would it be "up to you" as Speaker to decide whether or not to bring a bill to the floor that denied other facts?  Perhaps we should have a bill that denies the Holocaust?  Or maybe one that says that there was never slavery in this country so folks should just shut up about civil rights?  Or perhaps one that says that the U. S. Government has always dealt fairly with the Native Americans?  Is there is no end to the ridiculous things that can have bills brought up about them?  Some things are FACTS, Mr. Boehner, and they're NOT open to interpretation and the FACT is that even the REPUBLICAN former Governor of Hawaii has been VERY clear about President Obama's birth there.  This silliness needs to END.  If someone is making claims that are in violation of known FACTS, I'm afraid it IS your responsibility as their leader to rein them in, Mr. Boehner.  But you clearly don't want to do that, probably because the "birthers" are politically useful for you so you don't want to disillusion them from their delusions. 

Perhaps that's why it was NOT you sitting in your long-coveted, newly acquired Speaker's chair while that particular amendment was read and the resultant show happened?  It looked to me like the man who was sitting in your chair at that moment was very well prepared for the supposedly unexpected outburst from the gallery, as he had a written document prepared from which he read when this unexpected event occurred. 

Personally...I think it was a set up and just one more part of the show.