Drinking Liberally, 9/25
Drinking Liberally: this Tuesday at 6:00 PM at the Tangier Bar at 18th and Lombard. Drink specials and free wings for early birds.
No one ever said Bob Casey was going to be the most progressive voice in the Senate, and a number of us actively worked for his opponents during the primary season. Yet most of us voted for him anyway in an effort to get rid of Rick Santorum, especially after he got MoveOn’s endorsement.
Last week the Senate failed to pass amendments that would have given our troops a year of downtime between their tours of duty in Iraq, failed to restore habeas corpus, and failed miserably to pass a withdrawal bill. Meanwhile, our troops continue to die in Iraq with no end in sight, millions go without health insurance, and Congressional subpoenas go unanswered and unenforced. Impeachment is still off the table, and it seems oversight hasn’t even made it out of the kitchen.
However, don’t say our Senators, who earn $165,200 per year, get the entire month of August off (along with every other major holiday and some minor ones as well), and have their health insurance paid for by the government did nothing.
They worked VERY HARD to pass a non-binding “sense of the Senate” resolution introduced by the GOP that censured MoveOn, a group made up entirely of volunteer activists like you and me, for being a bunch of meanies for running a paid political ad in the NY Times. The final vote was 72-25, with broad Democrat support, including our own Bob Casey. The message was clear: “Thanks for the money and the votes, now get lost.”
Now, I know a number of Philadelphia Drinking Liberals volunteered for MoveOn to help elect progressives. I bumped into some of you at phone banks and letter-writing parties. Seeing the very people we helped with volunteer efforts and financial support fail to make good on their campaign promises is bad enough. Attacking us after we helped get them elected, is even worse. Standing up for the stifling of political speech is worse still. That this was done on OUR DIME, WASTING TIME AND MONEY THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DEVOTED TO ANY NUMBER OF IMPORTANT ISSUES FACING AMERICANS, is UNACCEPTABLE.
So since the Senate has decided that being useless is the new black, may I proffer some other nonbinding resolutions:
Be it resolved that no one knows what baloney is made of, and further no one wants to know.
Be it similarly resolved that, when fried, baloney tastes an awful lot like a frankfurter.
Be it resolved that Jason Peters was mean for beating up Brendan Skwire in 7th Grade.
Be it resolved that happiness is a warm puppy.
Be it resolved that “Drabble” is a throughly unfunny comic strip, and more poorly drawn than “Marmaduke”.
and finally, “Be it resolved that this Senate needs to remember that we are elected to govern, not to pass pointless resolutions about political speech we don’t happen to care for, and that it’s really high time we freakin’ grow up.”
See you Tuesday!
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