You Must Be Kidding: the Email Reply I Sent to Harry Reid

An email I received from Sen. Harry Reid, and the reply I sent him:

Subject: Humming

On 10/7/2008 11:06 AM, "Sen. Harry Reid" wrote:

Dear Elayne,

The difference between real change and more of the same is a filibuster-proof Senate. Without it, Barack Obama's hands will be tied.

Democrats are leading in six Senate races for Republican-held seats. We're close in five more.

That filibuster-proof majority is in reach, but all of us have to do our part. The DSCC needs another $2.5 million - raised $5 and $10 at a time - before Friday to fight the lies and keep our campaigns humming next week.

Senator Harry Reid

Dear Harry,

You must be kidding. You let the criminals rob the treasury on the way out, and you want money from us?! The people you've bankrupted with your lack of oversight and now your lack of foresight? All you had to do, instead of falling for the "Weapons of Cash Destruction, hurry-up-and-pass-it lie" AGAIN, was to hold a worldwide press conference and say, "You know this plan is bad, for your banks and for our country. We will have a new president in a month. We will have a new plan in a month, and we give you our word that we will act to protect your countries' economies as well as ours, but we must ask you to hang on for just one more month."

Everyone knows Bush is the Boy Who Cried Wolfowitz, except you. Eight years of allowing the Ponzi Real Estate Pyramid schemes on your watch, and you couldn't hold out four more weeks. Instead, you made a mockery of checks and balances (which will now be known as BLANK CHECKS and NO BALANCES), of oversight, of review, of our votes, and you let them empty the coffers completely this time to insure that the next president (probably a Democrat) will not have the money to implement one single plan for America, insuring the return to power of the Karl Rove Traveling Dinner Theater Players in a mere four years.

"Barack's hands will be tied if we don't have a filibuster-proof senate"? His hands, wallet, and pockets are now empty thanks to you, meaning there will be no money for health care reform, college loans, social security, Medicare, and infrastructure repair. What is there to filibuster, which party gets to turn out the lights? Bush and Co. are now treasury robbing equals with every African dictator and every banana republic shyster, and no doubt Laura Bush has three thousand pairs of shoes in her closet. The only reason I am even leaving my house on election day is to prevent the Supreme Court from becoming the DAR, as we know YOU won't stand up to any right wing ideologue put up for a vote by a Republican president. Other than that, my days of caring, volunteering, contributing to the pathetic and corrupt DEMOCRATIC party (we already knew that about the Republicans) are over. I am not going to waste another second of the time I have left on this earth paying attention to anything anyone in government ever says again. You are a disgrace to this country, and no better than the Bush Regime for what you let them perpetrate on the people who sent you to Washington to REPRESENT us. You are NOT the House of Representatives, you are the House of Horrors. My life's work is animal rescue (www.tailsofjoy.net). Thanks to your non-existent policies regarding animal welfare, and thanks to your criminally negligent policies spurring foreclosures, every dedicated volunteer is spending every penny she/he has left trying to prevent the obscenity of the ten million companion animals killed by the government each year in America from becoming twenty million killed this year. Good luck to us. By now Americans know their money is better given to dogs than senators.

You need ONLY "$2.5 million before Friday" to keep your campaigns "humming"? You rape the treasury, announce it "might not work but we had to do "something,'" and you are disconnected enough from our horror to breezily use the word "humming"!!?? How about another trillion to keep Iraq "tidy," or another hundred billion to "perk up" Afghanistan? What's in the air you are breathing in the capital, cartoon ink? Francoise Giscard D'Estaing once said, "We will only have true equality when we have mediocre WOMEN in high positions". Well, at least you've achieved something. Regards to Ms. Pelosi. Car mechanics say, "It could be thousands to fix, but I can try this first for fifty bucks. It might not work but we'll see." Nobody but the lunatics running the asylum say, "It's a trillion dollars AND it might not work." You are not fixing MY car, and you are not my party. Take me off your lists, and go away. No, really. Go away.

Elayne

Comments

[Tenebrae]

I couldn't read this article past the utterly false statement that in one month we would have a new president. We will have a president elect, but that person will not take office and assume the powers and responsibilities of the presidential until the middle of January!

If you can't get your basics civics information down right, you've no business trying to be a political pundit.

[macweenie]

And if you can't get past nitpicking a post looking for factual errors that are absolutely meaningless in context, you have no business being on the internet. Just so you know, manufacturing faux outrage isn't ACTUALLY a manufacturing job.

[macweenie]

Oh yeah, I forgot to add...

The third party I envision needs to be a new one so it can disassociate itself with any baggage a previous one migh already have. Lets call it "Brand - X" or maybe "Political Party" in black and white lettering and a barcode like a generic label. Like generics we would be just as good as the name brand (or in this case better) only cheaper. Our politicians will KNOW they are the peoples employees and not royalty, beholden only to their own capricious desires. Perhaps most importantly - the party can NEVER accept ANY donation that will compromise its progressive goals and make it beholden to the corporate backers.

I would like to see a zero-tolerance policy for lobbyists as well.

[Antifascist-08]

Maanu and macweenie?

I love third party talk. Not.

Just make sure your third party has enough people in it to beat the Republicans. I'm not sure how you are going to do that. Do you expect a lot of Republicans to join up? Maybe you can get enough independents to make up the difference. How will that work? Do the math.

I'm not saying it is impossible, because, as they say, nothing is impossible. But if you can't account for enough votes to beat the Republican party as you see it in this election- because the lines have been clearly drawn here and now, you will turn this country into a one party system, and it won't be yours.

Ron Paul? Ralph Nader? Some other wacko? I only go this far because these people have shown no desire to actually do anything except further their own egos. If they were as magical and terrific as they think they are, they would have come on board to work with the rest of us, who also had dreams when we were in college of a country with more choices, to get the job done, not just posture about it. They are posers and extremely immature.

Yes, we have had a number of elections where it seemed like there wasn't a lot of difference in the candidates. This time is a little different. Four or eight more years of this and we won't have a country, literally.

[macweenie]

And yet if we don't try, nothing will ever change. I agree that I don't want the Republican party to benefit from the transition but I won't let my fears dictate my actions. You can accuse me of ideological naiveté but I refuse to be imprisoned by uncertainty, always afraid of what MIGHT be.

I have entered a stage in my life where I see what isn't and ask why not. So far I haven't been given a good enough answer.

[JRsNana]

So - now that you have no one to support - what about our country? Do we just let it go? Do we just quit? Do we just stop caring? While I agree with some of your assessment, I can't help but believe that we can get back some of what we've lost if we just don't lose our nerve. You appear to have lost your nerve.
We still have it in us to regain our footing and do great things. Tougher now? Absolutely.
Impossible? I don't think so.
Giving up is not an option right now.

[Thad]

I don't see you making any constructive suggestions either. "Never gonna give you up" isn't a strategy, it's a rickroll.

[vietveter]

There is no strategy

there is no money

we are brokeassbroke

for generations

Give up WHAT?

[elayneriggs]

I have nothing to add except I wanted to say hi to the only other Elayne who ever seems to show up when I do a Google search on my first name. :) I miss your stand-up stuff too, Elayne - more please!

[SparXaFire]

DE-licious piece, Elayne! Weapons of CASH Destruction. Brilliant! Genius!
I can't even say that Pelosi's lady's name without spitting the bad taste out of my mouth.
"Impeachment off the table BECAUSE THAT WOULD DISTRACT US ...." Are you kidding me???
A disTRACtion is one thing... what Congress has been doing for the past two years is sheer, clumsy, half inept, half intentional desTRUCtion! BUT, the jokes on them! I have exactly $51 in the bank, the cupboard is bare and I'm down to a quarter tank of gas in my car! So, alas! I guess there won't be any donations from me, will there! Boo Hoo.

Elayne Rocks!

[jsh]

If we want to break the monopoly, I can't see how to do it without Instant Runoff Voting.

[RRonin]

Umm, lemme see. 840 trillion dollars are being given to the people who put Bush in office. So they can be rewarded for their malfeasance. Makes perfect sense to me.

[darthmaul]

Spot on post. Why the senate has such spineless leadership. Leader are suppose to lead, and sometimes take a stand and, heaven forbid, a risk! All Harry has done, when the Bush administration is look up at them, while they step all over him. He then utters these famous, often repeated words. "We regret that the administration has taken this course." Translation-"Were a little miffed that the administration has done what it has, but hey, why take a risk or make a stand on "Issues." It could backfire."

[ScardinTX]

WOW I couldn't have said it better myself. Took the words right out of my mouth. Why don't Pelosi and Reid just step down for the next term coming up. I wonder how they got the job in the first place

[texanna]

Exactly! And, I really miss your stand up routines. Keep up the good work with your pet project.

[magicwanz]

I agree. Republicans are horrifying, but Democrats are pathetic. In the early '90s, didn't Dems have a majority in Congress and the Presidency? And still they blew their chance to repair the damage done by the excesses of the '80s and we ended up with Newt and the "Contract with America". Rolling over on torture and Habeas Corpus? On the Middle Class?

[macweenie]

If everyone who is sick of this sham political system of ours were to dedicate themselves to the construction of an actual peoples party, a THIRD party, maybe we could move past the need to vote for the lessers of this world who, as they have shown us, know little more than we do. All it takes is having the courage of our convictions.

Who here couldn't have blindly thrown seven hundred BILLION dollars at the problem and hoped it would go away? Is it rational to have EXPECTED it to? We have a government run by fearful greedy idiots who I wouldn't trust to run a bake sale, yet we let ourselves be luled into voting for them based on clever catch phrases and slick advertising. Would you hire an employee based on such information?

If we don't wake up and fight for our country soon, there will be nothing left worth fighting for.

[RepugsOut08]

While I agree with virtually everything you've stated, Elayne, your solution is completely wrong in my opinion. The main reason we're in this fix, is because most Americans have refused to participate in their government. They don't keep informed, and they don't demand responsible action from their elected officials.
Oh sure, everybody's involved now, but the cow left the barn a long time ago, and we're just now calling for the barn doors to be closed.
I totally agree with your point that we should have waited until after the elections, but I'm not gonna walk away from the only chance we may have of turning this thing around in November. I don't care if you never give another dime to the Dems, and I really don't blame you, but, at this time, they're the only vialble entity available we can use to move forwards.
It's time to take back this country and become active in political issues again. Not walk away in disgust, even if that disgust is understandable. Believe me, I share it with you.
Barack is gonna be hamstrung enough in January because of this mess. Let's not make it even harder for him by bailing out before he's had a chance to even try to fix it.

[USAFree1]

Ouch! I am donating money one last time to the DNC and Obama because, like you, the Supreme Court is of paramount importance. But I will say this, progressives must push and push the Dems and Obama to become the progressive movement.

[Glenn1441]

Oh! That felt good! Thank you, Ms. Boosler!

Supreme Court Justices and America's reputation worldwide -- whatever can be salvaged of it: Those two items are getting me to the booths. Otherwise, like Ms. Boosler, I have little use for our 'representative' in Washington.

[PoliticalPartyPooper]

Spoken like a true born-again independent. Welcome to the world, welcome to the world.

[schatsie]

Elayne, I am just as mad as you about this... This highway robbery was insane and we all know that the rich are holding us up again... And the fact that nobody got up and punched Paulson for ASKING FOR A BLANK CHECK and saying this should not be PUNITIVE to the CEOs was a major slap to our faces...

We go to work every day, get less than Cost of living raises and are supposed to be glad we have jobs...Nob­ody believes in the corporations or the government anymore because this system has been one way that is TRICKLE UP... An IMMEDIATE TAX on the CORPORATIONS or MAKING THEM PAY THEIR "Defferred" taxes would have seen us out of this mess.... Elayne, please pick up A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, by MARK TWAIN,,,,,The same thing is happening now....The NOBILITY/Rich pay NO TAXES and even KEEP the STATE taxes....(­see FREE LUNCH by Johnson)..­.

Whoever is elected, we now need a 21st style government and take down the names... The IDEA that this BILL PASSED without ONE WORD about FORECLOSURES ON SOLDIERS HOMES and the EXCESSIVE INTEREST RATES was a slap in the face to every thinking citizen...