I have no words...well, just a few

Apparently, I am not capable of reasoned commentary today. I've been trying, for the past oh, forty-five minutes or so, to write something about the day's hijinks in US politics. Something, you know, coherent. But the only thing that keeps coming out of my fingers and onto my computer monitor is anguished but incomprehensible moaning and tearing of hair.

Because those people are insane.

The only other alternative is that it's me who is insane, but I refuse to believe that. Because, you know, I'm fine with disaster relief going to those whose lives have been torn apart by Hurricane Sandy. And because I don't think the solution to violence against women is to let the Violence Against Women Act, passed in 1994 and renewed twice, expire.

It would be slightly amusing - if it weren't so horrible - that some of those the House GOP leadership has pissed off in regards to not bringing a bill to fund disaster relief to vicitms of Sandy in a timely manner are members of their own party. For example, this statement of righteous indignation from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie:



Now, I'm not a huge fan of Chris Christie, and I'm fairly sure that he has politidcal reasons of his own for saying what he said, but he still has the right of it here, and refused to pull his punches just because it was the leadership of his own party that is the problem. This is as it should be. It is ridiculous that Speaker Boehner, who was relected to his post in the House today, but only barely, would not even take Gov. Christie's calls over the issue.

There are things I have to say about all of this and more, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how to do it right now without the liberal use of profanity. The House GOP leadership doesn't want to help women who are victims of violent crime. They don't want to help people whose homes and livelihood were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. Some GOP Representatives have said that they are quite willing to hold the government hostage by shutting it down over the budget and the debt ceiling. And, now, House Speaker John Boehner has said he will no longer negotiate one-on-one with President Barack Obama.

I think someone needs to remind the GOP leadership of a couple of things. First, while they maintain a majority in the House, they lost seats both there and in the Senate in the November election, and their presidential candidate was defeated by the incumbent president, the one they vowed to limit to just one term. Second, they need to be reminded that they work for the citizens, all the citizens, of their respective districts and states, and that they are there to serve them, not to carry out their own personal and political agendas.