The Next Ten Days

So, I'm at work clearing out my email the other day, and I find a piece of spam; somebody else's copy is here, if anybody cares. Although theirs was apparently addressed directly to them, and mine started out "Dear Pro-Life Friend" (which is two - two - two lies in one).

Now, I have no idea how they got my work email address - I'm fastidious about not using it for anything but business. They've got rules about that sort of thing. Nonetheless, it turns up on somebody's mailing list every so often. And since they'd gone to the trouble of tracking me down, it seemed only right that I should respond to it.
________________


Dear Ms Musgrave,

I realize that you probably didn’t actually write the fundraising letter I received, but it has a facsimile of your signature on it, so you get the blame.

I also realize that you seem to refer to yourself as “Congresswoman.” Well, I’m sorry, but you aren’t one anymore. And as far as I’m concerned, six years representing Colorado (where I’ve never lived) doesn’t entitle you to a lifetime honorific. I realize that it’s a sign of respect to refer to former Congressfolk by their title, but respect, really, has to be earned (and let’s not go there).

Plus, this is America: we threw off the yoke of our aristocracy a couple of hundred years ago. So, for any number of reasons, I think you should probably drop the title.

I also apologize for my delay in responding, but I’m not clear how you got my work email address, but, since I do, in fact, have a job, I have to access this from home, in my own time, to respond. Rules, y’know.

Now, let’s start with the fact that you’re being a spokesmodel for the Susan B. Anthony List, which has misappropriated the name of a staunch feminist and claimed that she was pro-life. Since there are no writings or speeches that can be reliably attributed to her regarding abortion, it’s a bit of an unfounded leap to decide Ms Anthony’s politics for her, isn’t it?

(Of course, I guess that “unfounded leaps” are a specialty of yours. For example, your support for “abstinence only” education, as if AO actually works: you should ask Bristol Palin how it worked out for her. Or your apparent belief that a woman without a functioning brain, like Terri Schiavo, still qualifies as “alive” in any functional sense of the word.)

Now, I understand that you can’t seem to stop your knees from jerking wildly whenever anyone mentions abortion, but your effort to defund Planned Parenthood seems a little bit excessive.

After all, over 90 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services go to preventative healthcare for low-income women, like STD treatment, Pap tests, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and other healthcare that they wouldn’t be getting otherwise.

The most telling argument would have to be that, without the birth control that they offer low-income women, these women would be more likely to get pregnant, which would lead to more abortions. So, by trying to defund Planned Parenthood, you are probably causing more abortions than you’d be preventing.

On the other hand, you’ve never been a big advocate for birth control, have you? Aside from being openly opposed to allowing "Plan B" emergency contraceptive to be available when needed, you actually had the gall to insert an amendment into the "Runaway, Homeless, and Missing Children Protection Act" making it a crime to allow runaways access to contraception - after all, it's right there in the Bible. "Honor thy father and mother." So if they're rude enough to run away from home, they deserve to get pregnant, don't they?

Ms Musgrave, you're a short-sighted, partisan fool who doesn't bother to consider the repercussions of her actions. Isn't it time to leave the public eye, and maybe go hide in a cave and wait for the Rapture?

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Editor’s note: By the way, we all need to stand up for Planned Parenthood.

THE CONGRESS EVERYONE LOVES TO HATE

Remarkable!  Moments after I left a comment under tnlib’s latest post, I found this story at the NBC News website, The Do-Something Congress:

This Congress … accomplished more, legislatively, than any other Congress since the 1960s (the Great Society) or the 1930s (the New Deal). In the past two years, it has:

• expanded the safety net with the health-care law;
• invested billions in the nation's roadways, airports, schools, and green technologies with the stimulus;
• reformed the nation's financial system with financial reform;
• passed billions in tax cuts for Americans with the stimulus and the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts
• expanded civil rights with the repeal of "Don’t Ask, Don't Tell."

And in its final piece of business, the Senate is currently working on one of the White House's top foreign-policy goals: ratification of the New START treaty with Russia. Then throw in all of the other legislation enacted this Congress, like credit-card reform and the Lilly Ledbetter anti-pay-discrimination act.

(…)

Yet as we -- and others -- have pointed out before, political power in Congress comes and goes.  What truly matters is what you do with it when you have it.

To repeat what I said earlier under tnlib’s post:

If Jane Hamsher had her way, Congressional Democrats and Republicans would be locked in mortal combat, and none of this would have happened.

There is much to be admired in the patient and pragmatic approach – in contrast to being dogmatic and self-sabotaging. I will say this of folks who allow themselves to get angry in any debate: If you feel you must trade on anger to win an argument, then you have defaulted on any claim to win by persuasion.

So Jane, how is that hopey changey thing working out for you? It works quite well, IMHO.

HOW TO INCITE INSURRECTION AND SPIN THE TALE ON THE DONKEY

“I hope Obama fails,” spoke Rush Limbaugh four days before the inauguration of President Obama. “We want to promote failure, we want to promote incompetence …”

These words spoken by a radio hack gave the Grand Obstructionist Party what it needed most: A strategy to hijack the election by sabotaging our new President. Within months, the GOP unleashed a barrage of daily attacks (source):

First, it started with the Birthers, those who sought to undermine the legitimacy of a newly elected President with fabricated conspiracy theories about the authenticity of his birth certificate and the legality of his presidency.

Next came the Tea Baggers, followed by the town hall hooligans, followed by gun-toting thugs at presidential rallies, followed by GOP Congressman Joe Wilson’s outburst of “Liar!” before a special session of Congress, followed by GOP Congresswomen Michelle Bachmann calling for armed resistance against Obama’s legislative agenda, followed by GOP Congressman Trent Franks threatening a Birther lawsuit against Obama and calling him an “enemy of humanity,” followed by GOP Governor Rick Perry calling for Texas to secede from the union, followed by Newsmax columnist John Perry dreaming of a military coup against President Obama, followed by a FaceBook poll asking: “Should Obama be killed?”

For months, we have heard the repeating rhythms of Obama the Communist, Obama the Socialist, Obama the Islamofascist, Obama the Jihadist … and the steady and relentless drumbeats of a GOP run amuck driving us towards civil disorder and insurrection.

One year and four months later, the Grand Obstructionist Party has brought us to the brink. The party of ‘NO’ is blaming tea party rage on Democrats while ignoring the fact that former GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey organized the tea party movement as an Astroturf event, which the GOP exploits at every opportunity ... and the party of ‘NO’ is refusing to be held accountable for what it unleashed.  Here is a snapshot of incidents within the past week alone:

Ohio Congressman Outraged By Newspaper Ad Showing Daughters

Talk Radio Attacks 11-Year Old Whose Mother Died

Tea Baggers Harass Man with Parkinson’s Disease

Sniper Threatens Congresswomen – Brick Thrown in Window

Severed Gas Line at Home of Congressman’s Brother

Protesters Spit on Congressman – Hurl Racial Epithets

Noose Images Faxed to Clyburn and Stupak

The climate of intimidation and fear exploited by the GOP is pervasive and pernicious. Earlier this evening, I read this comment at the Huffington Post:

Many of you have seen the video I did with my husband the Gulf War vet on the medical situation we found ourselves in. What I didn't say is that the two founding members of the Coffee Party are now living away from their home and going under assumed names since they have had their home address and phone numbers posted on right-wing sites ... in a addition to receiving death threats.

Out of curiosity, I visited the website of Fox News to read their version of these events. It wasn’t their spin on the story that caught my attention, but these readers’ comments:

pantherhunter - Will you stand, will you fight (...) the only way to deter Social___ism [sic] is by force (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 9:00 PM).

lightningtom00 - The only good politicians is [sic] one 6 feet under (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 8:44 PM).

golf67 - bring on the civil war, ive [sic] got my guns and my church (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 8:40 PM).

e5dra5 - The only way America can be what it's meant to be is to be rid of the Dems entirely (…) ONE VOTE, ONE PARTY (REPUBLICAN), ONE AMERICA (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 7:55 PM).

leftiswrong - These traitors to the constitution have committed a severe crime (…) Time for the populace to push back.  If somebody dies in the process, oh well...... (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 7:37 PM).

irocthisgt67 - I do beleive [sic] that violence may need to be used to get these scum bags out of our country (...) Death to them all (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 4:48 PM).

yellowduke - Perhaps if a dozen or so of the threats were carried out their hearing may improve. Dust a dozen of them (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 6:17 PM).

Outrageous and shocking! In the interest of fairness and balance, not all comments at the website of Fox News were as inflammatory as the above. There was also this:

bobloblaw - Good job Fox. You give right-wing nut jobs a platform to spread lies and hate. Then when things like this happen you get a story and say I told you so. The FBI should investigate not only these nuts. They should also start taking a good look at Beck and company (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 5:04 PM).

Yes, by all means, investigate Glenn Beck; but don't forget Dick Armey, Minority Leader John Boehner, Michele Bachmann, and the other GOP skinheads who have exploited hatred and violence for political gain and brought us to the edge of anarchy.  And do it now before there is blood in the streets.