The House GOP Members: Burning Down the House

"Watch out.  You might get what you're after."

Talking Heads, "Burning Down the House."

It is only fitting that on the end of Day 15 of the Government Shutdown, and only one day away from the first-ever U.S. government default, I dedicate the Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" to the House GOP members.  I couldn't imagine for the life of me that our elected leaders would play Russian Roulette with the full faith and credit of U.S. obligations and would be willing to tank not only the U.S. economy but the world economy in an effort to get back at President Obama.

Do they hate this Black man that much?  Oh yes.  Yes they do.

Before you go all ballistic and accuse me of playing the race card, let's call a thing a thing:  This shutdown isn't about defunding Obamacare.  It's about embarrassing and weakening this African American president whom the GOP has despised since Day 1 of his first term, what with Mitch McConnell vowing to make him a one term president (How's that workin' for ya, Mitchie?) before the President even started governing.

Note how the target has shifted.  First they wanted to defund Obamacare.  When they realized that the President wasn't going to roll over as easily as he did in his last term (see, that's what happens when a President is re-elected -- he can tell you to kiss his ass), they were lost trying to find any semblance of a bone to be thrown at them (e.g., medical device tax repeal) so they could declare victory and avoid embarrassment once polling showed that the nation primarily blamed the GOP for the shutdown.  Instead of unconditional surrender by reopening the government and raising the debt ceiling without negotiation, these fools would rather "burn down the house" by incurring the first U.S. default.  When your own party elder, John McCain, declares defunding Obamacare as a "fool's errand" (which he has done not just once, but twice within the last week), that should tell you to give up the ghost.

But not these rabid Republicans.  They even have the nerve to protest outside of the monuments they have shut down and blame the President for the shutdown.  They're worse than that sick joke about a child killing his parents and seeking the mercy of the court because he's an orphan.

Almost as insipid as these House GOP members are the people who support them, who have no idea of what a U.S. default would mean or even how "bad" Obamacare really is.  BMNB (my husband, Black Man Not Blogging) and I have recently had the pleasure of having conversations with these idiots.  I spoke with a clerk at Target who told me that Obamacare was going to run up the deficit.  I told her that, in the short run, costs might rise, but in the long run, as more healthy and young people are forced to buy health care insurance, health care costs would go down and, as a result, the national deficit.  I walked away and it hit me:  I just had a conversation with an idiot.  She probably makes minimum wage, works less than full time, and isn't receiving health care benefits.  She needs to thank her lucky stars that there is Obamacare, because she's probably going to need it.

My husband's strange encounter with an idiot involved someone who told him she opposed raising the debt ceiling because it would just encourage the government to "spend, spend, spend."  My husband responded, "The spending has already occurred.  Raising the debt ceiling just ensures that the government can cover the bills it has already incurred through its appropriations."  He, too, realized he'd just had a conversation with an idiot.

So here's to the idiots in the GOP who hate President Obama's black ass so much that they're willing to burn down the house.  They're probably related to the Confederates who were willing to burn down a country because they hated black people so and the segregationists who were willing to lynch black folks instead of acknowledging our equal rights.  Today's GOP idiots should at least have the intellectual honesty to put on their white robes and burn a cross in the White House lawn.

But as the song "Burning Down the House" says, "Watch out.  You might get what you're after."

What the GOP Could Learn from a P-I-M-P (And Get the Government Running Again) (NSFW)

We're on Day 14 of the government shutdown, all because Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell don't know how to keep their party in check.  There's a lot that the GOP could learn from a P-I-M-P.  Hell, there's a lot they could have learned from Nancy Pelosi, who still keeps her party in check without benefit or need of the title of Speaker.

Mind you, I've written admiringly about pimps before, not because I respect what they do, but because I respect their ability to get something so morally bankrupt done with minimal (or minimized) transaction costs.  If pimps (well, real pimps, not government pimps) were running the GOP, Senator Ted Cruz' idiot idea of shutting down the government until Obamacare was defunded would not have gotten far. (And kudos to Bob Schieffer for repeatedly asking how the GOP let Ted Cruz get this far.  As far as I'm concerned, Bob Schieffer is the only thinking journalist on the Sunday morning talk show circuit.)

You see, pimpin' runs on rules and hierarchy that maintain smooth relations (and pardon the language -- it's the language of pimpin', not mine).  Rule:  A bitch can't look a pimp in the eye.  Rule:  When a pimp is walking on the sidewalk, a bitch gets off of it.  Rule:  A bitch can't talk to pimps other than her own.  Rule:  A pimp's bottom bitch has seniority and priority over the pimp's other bitches.

If seniority and hierarchy account for anything, and analogizing to pimpin', how is it that Senator Ted Cruz, who is, shall we say, "new to the game," able to lead a cabal of new bitches to shut down the government without the pimps (party leaders) keeping them in check?  At the very least, no government shutdown formed in Congress should have gone off without the say-so of Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as the say-so of more senior pimps, uh, leaders, like Senator John McCain (Mack of the Year, 2008).  Even if the party leaders agreed with it, they, and not the Tea Party bitches new to the game, should have been leading the shutdown and deciding what terms would lead to the government's reopening, not the other way around.  GOP, where are your rules?  Where is your hierarchy?  Where is your pimp game?

If Senator Cruz were a bitch, he'd be considered "out of pocket."  The other pimps would have had permission to beat him for being "out of pocket" and leading the other bitches astray.

I guess the GOP's senior pimps, uh, leaders, have absolutely no pimp game whatsoever and definitely less than Nancy Pelosi.  Imagine that.

Could someone from the GOP call Too Short so we can get the government running again?

Oh, and Speaker Boehner, the first rule of pimpin'?  Don't love them bitches.  Just sayin'.

Dear Mr. President: Don't Blink, But Do Fart On Their Heads

Dear Mr. President,

When boys wrestle, especially brothers, the ultimate in victory is for the winning boy to not only sit on head of the defeated boy, but to fart on his head as well.  In families, it's usually the older brother who ends up sitting and farting on the head of his younger brother as a deterrent to future challenges.  Mr. President, you didn't grow up with brothers, but there's a lesson to be learned from the wrestling of boys.

But first, Mr. President, I have a message for you from my sister regarding this standoff with congressional Republicans:  Don't blink.

In this standoff/government shutdown, there's far more at stake than just a budget or the debt ceiling.  As you've so aptly put it, what is at stake is the ability to govern without being forced into false crises created by a small contingent of Republicans who are out of step with the majority of the nation.  So my sister's advice to you, Mr. President, is to continue to stand toe-to-toe with them and don't even think about blinking.  Don't flinch.  Stand your ground.  Which leads to a message from me:

Don't just sit on their heads; fart on their heads.

I, like so many other Americans, am so weary of Tea Party efforts to derail the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare."  It's the law.  They need to get over it and move on.  The rest of the country has.  Given that many of these representatives represent broke-ass states with people who desperately need health care (and could stand to back away from the fast food joints and processed foods in general) but fear anything with the word "Obama" in it, they ought to just move on.  But shutting down the government and threatening the first U.S. government default ever?  Now that deserves not just sitting on their heads, but farting on them, too.

The Republicans know they have backed themselves into a corner and are looking for a way out.  They know that, the longer this goes on, the more dim their hopes become of recapturing the White House in 2016.  They know all of this, but like a little brother wrestling his older, bigger brother, they don't know how to get out of this political headlock that will eventually lead to the political equivalent of you not just sitting on their heads, but farting on them as well.

When they capitulate, and they will, Mr. President, take that victory lap.  Do whatever is the political equivalent of sitting and farting on their heads so they will think twice about pulling this stunt again.

Don't blink, Mr. President.  But do fart on their heads, so to speak.

Sincerely,

Black Woman Blogging