Why I Love Harold Meyerson

This made me laugh.

It is a mark of the sheer panic sweeping the ranks of Republican congressmen that one of their most levelheaded members, Ray LaHood of Illinois, has suggested that Congress abolish its page program altogether in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal.

What conclusion are we supposed to draw from LaHood’s proposal? That members of Congress cannot be trusted in the company of adolescents? …

… If LaHood believes that pages pose an irresistible temptation to his peers, there are surely solutions straight out of the Republican playbook that wouldn’t punish the victims. How about building a 700-foot fence around all Republican members of Congress?

Sounds like a plan.

14 thoughts on “Why I Love Harold Meyerson

  1. If Congress can’t handle the page program, WHY are we trusting them to make decisions to take away our freedoms and rubber stamp the war????

  2. Now that’s a fence idea I could support.

    I’m waiting to hear the next ‘page’ out of Rove’s playbook.

    What I’m wondering about, is in light of the accelerating electorial disaster heading towards the Republican party in a few weeks, is 1) whether Karl’s plans to steal the election will be “enough” for the Rs to retain control of all three branches, and 2) whether the Ds will make a peep about it.

    Beyond the normal Republican “any disaster is good for the GOP” bravado happy face these people always wear, it just seemed like The Fix Was In, regarding the coming election.

  3. Anyone who would say that the GOP reflects their values needs mental help.The party has become the poster child for everything corrupt…they have betrayed America.

    I have a republican neighbor.The only one on the block who has campaign signs in their yards.Yesterday a handmade sign in their yard said”Foley was set up by the left”….they have 3 children.It is clear to me that republicans as a whole will sell out everything they believe in(including kids) to maintain power…it is sad to say but I would be willing to bet even if it was my neighbors own kids getting filthy e mails from foley they would still be waving their GOP pom poms.

    This is the same family who drives around in a new minivan complete with 3 tv’s with a bumper sticker that says “American needs torte reform, call your rep”…ironic since they got the van from winning a huge malipratice suit when their daughter,now 8 was born the doctor didn’t give her a c-section fast enough and her childs oxygen was cut for 2 and a half minutes….Now that THEY got their right to sue and they got THEIR money they think everyone else shouldn’t have the right to sue.They buy things like a 38 k minivan, not with a handicap lift but with 3 tv’s and a 20k bathroom on the second floor that is not set up for the handicapped and a old 60’s car for the father to “make into a show car”…but they seem to think no one else should have the right to sue.They railed on “welfare scum” at our block party,yet they take every bit if help the state has to offer,including a monthly check, but somehow when they do it , it is different.

    The whole situation makes me sick.The Gop is dragging the country down with their filth and “moral values”….it appears the soap box they are standing on is a bit slippery.What has this country become when regular folks will defend a party that long ago crossed the criminal line?

  4. Anyone who would say that the GOP reflects their values needs mental help.The party has become the poster child for everything corrupt…they have betrayed America.

    Sadly, I think this sort of greedy, adolescent selfishness is just part of the American character, it’s part of our national shadow. These were the same enlightened beings who thought it was perfectly OK to massacre the Indians when they “discovered” America.

    This sickness has to come out, in much the way that you go through a healing crisis when you detox. We’re in a national detox right now. Part of passing through a healing crisis is letting go of denial, and that is starting to happen on the right, but not yet in a big enough way to reach the more extreme cases such as your neighbor.

    I have a republican neighbor…Yesterday a handmade sign in their yard said”Foley was set up by the left”

    It’s because of stuff like this that I moved to the bluest of blue states, California, but ironically I ended up in a job surrounded by right wingers even more extreme than those from where I came from. In essence, I moved to a blue state to create a fence around myself to keep the wingnuts and their sick ways out of my psychic space, but it didn’t work as well as I thought it would, nor is it really good in terms of personal growth or in solving the division in this country.

    Your neighbor is aching for a confrontation, as were the wingnuts at my old job who I fenced out with my own anger.

    Over the weekend, I listened to a Buddhist nun speak in relation to anger, and am learning the Buddhist practice of developing patience and acceptance instead of anger toward people or situations I despise. The paradox is that through acceptance and engagement you can change the situation more easily than you can fence it out by being angry. I am still a novice to this line of thought/action, perhaps Maha can enlighten us further.

    Your wingnut neighbor seems like such an adolescent, but I would argue that our avoidance of these people, fueled by our anger toward them, isn’t terribly adult-like either. I don’t mean to pick on you, justme, I’m guilty of the very same thing in my own life. It’s a problem all of us on the left have to come to grips with if we’re ever going to change things in this country without violence.

  5. Moonbat, your correct about the fact my attitude for these folks is not “very adult like”.And it may be that the sign she posted begs confrontation…and your damn right I am angry.

    I am entirely fed up with what the likes of these folks are doing to this country.As someone who has lost a family member in Iraq I have a hard time finding compassion for someone who cheer-leads on the side lines for a war of choice.When you stand at a funeral over a 19 year old kid and watch his Mother un-able to even hold her on body weight up her pain is so overwhelming it really hits you…PEOPLE are DYING ….to my neighbors this is all a game…but real people are dying and suffering…who has compassion for them? I guess I am saving my compassion for them.
    How about the debt this country is in…who will have compassion for us when China calls in it’s note and we have to repay?Will the greedy step up and pay their share?Folks and their foolishness have cost every American about 35k(our share of the debt)….I don’t know about you,but when someone costs me that kind of cash…I tend to get a little bit pissy.I tend to think the fact that I have not beaten my share of the debt out of the idiots pretty damn compassionate.But I must tell you…the money alone is about as far as my understanding goes…

    I can’t believe I am all alone.What a shame that all independents, liberals, non-neocons are not pissed!What can they do to us, to this country before it is worth being angry about?Before we can have compassion ,yes, but get real about what the rightie voter and the war criminals in office are doing.I don’t deny there is a time for compassion, but not when they are destroying the country…now is the time the rest of the country should be looking at the righties with scorn, and then we go forward and clean up the mess they made.It is time someone let righties know that their behavior in the past 6 years has been wrong and we won’t take anymore……..

    So moonbat, I understand and respect your point.And I even agree with it….but I am just flat out of compassion for those who have screwed this country so badly…I think the compassion I have left is needed more by the screwed than the screwers….meantime I am taking the neighbors greyhound for a walk tonight…And you can bet we are going to “water” that sign…

    Geez maybe I need a Buddhist Nun to speak to me…I wonder if Iowa has one?

  6. There was a great Carnac joke form the last Congressional page scandal. (Is my age showing?)

    Johnny – in the guise of the Great Carnac delivered the answer:

    “The Pages are numbered.”

    Ed repeats, : “The Pages are numbered.”

    Dirty look from Carnac: “The Pages are numbered.”

    Carnac rips open the envelope, removes the question and reads:

    “How do Senators keep their social calendars straight?”

    I have often thought that one could teach several decades of modern American history from Tonight Show monologues.

  7. Did you read the interview where this moronic Congressman said this? Atrios has it linked. It reads like something out of The Onion. The interviewer is incredulous, asks the guy, (paraphrase) ‘it sounds like you’re saying Congress can’t be trusted around young people.’ And the Congressguy is all, ‘yup, that’s it, basically.’ He says several more mind-bogglingly stupid things as well. Unbelieveable. A commenter at the site points out that this jerk is basically running unopposed in a heavily gerrymandered district. One man, representing so much that is wrong with our government. He’s like a poster boy for Republican incompetence and corruption. And I’ll bet his constituents love him.

  8. Heard any good Foley Jokes lately?

    I heard one, but I was too stoned to remember it..I think the punch line was something like, ” where are you measuring from?”.

  9. justme –

    I am as angry as you! Your neighbors are simply hypocrites which is why they must identify themselves (in a most public way) as Republicans – they’re trying to cover their guilt. These people may very well deserve the settlement they got but ‘daring’ people to confront them is their way of making sure people don’t. This is not to say that there aren’t Democrats out there that don’t abuse the system, it’s just that they don’t advertise it – you won’t see Democrats flashing their insurance settlements while at the same time promoting the Democrat’s position of protecting people’s right to sue for physician malpractice to justify their settlement.

    That being said, I give you credit for holding your tongue at the neighborhood block-party. In my younger years, I would be afraid to speak up – but in my older years, and especially since becoming more politically aware, I think that I would get out a snide comment or two. I’m not saying this would be the right thing to do, I agree with moonbat and think the Buddhists could teach us a lot. I’m just not there yet.

  10. Breaking headlines from Faux Spews:

    Responding to additional allegations, Foley demands lengthy in-depth probe of pages.

    Republicunts say: Nobody could have anticipated the breach of the levis

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