Parks and Wrecks

Of all the massively stupid things Republican politicians have done about the government shutdown, the pinnacle of GOP idiocy may be the Texan Republican congressman who stupidly tried to castigate a Washington D.C. park ranger for the park being closed, when its closure was his own damn fault.

His even more deranged colleague, Michelle Bachmann, tried to position herself in a photo opportunity as being sympathetic to disabled veterans who took over a World War II memorial. Bachmann, who literally cheered for the government shutdown, is a prime example of corruption. Not only is her campaign under investigation for financial abuses. She is also one of biggest recipients of Koch Brothers/Tea Party funding.



It's particularly chilling to see these problems in the perspective of my fictional characters, Reid and Everett, in my upcoming sequel to my last novel, Every Time I Think of You.

Reid has been a park ranger in upstate Pennsylvania, and becomes one again in Philadelphia's Fairmont Park. His boyfriend Everett, a paraplegic, becomes energized by gay activism the proud history of disabled activism. They collaborate on a small protest at Philly's City Hall to counter accessible problems.

What's astounding to me is how these two issues, parks and accessibility, combine so tragically in this legislative fiasco. I doubt that these two fictional characters could have imagined such governmental ineptitude three decades after their college years, which are dramatized in my upcoming novel.

Had I written a fictional version of these shenanigans, it would probably be considered as a preposterous story line.

But let's review, where news is more ridiculous than made-up stories:

World War II Veterans forced open a memorial.

Then, stupid Republican congressmen Neugebauer berated a park ranger in a false act of outrage over something that's his own fault, as this report shows. But when citizens confronted him over his lie, he scuttled off like a rat. 

Gawker has video of the idiotic GOPig huffing and puffing at a woman whose job he himself threatened.

Gawker also reports that "a just-released CBS News poll found that 44% fault the Republicans for the shutdown, while 35% fault Obama and the Dems.

Meanwhile, a whopping 72% disapprove of holding the entire budget hostage over Obamacare, including nearly 50% of all Republicans surveyed. Yet the GOPigs refuse to budge.

The day before he was taped harassing a park ranger for doing her job, Neugebauer went on The Chad Hasty Show to state that he will keep the government shut down for "as long as it takes" to ensure that Obamacare is not funded, claiming it was the will of the American people.

Of course Teahaggot Republicans are refusing to consider furloughing their own pay.
As Renee Ellmers (R-NC) told WTVD in Raleigh, N.C., she won’t be giving up pay during the government shutdown she and her party created because, she said, “I need my paycheck. That’s the bottom line.”

And their strategies for complete obfuscation were exposed in this video.

Democratic Representative Tammy Duckworth, who is also a veteran and a multiple amputee, pretty much summed up the situation with her thoughts:

“These same veterans that they’re pretending to help today at the WWII memorial, you know, they’re going to have access to their disability pensions is going to be limited after Oct. 15. There’s going to be cuts in prosthetic research for veterans. The National Cemetery Administration is not going to be able to lay our heroes to rest at the same rate that they were,” Duckworth said. “And Michele Bachmann who was there today at the World War II Memorial actually said, ‘The shutdown is exactly what we wanted. We got what we wanted.’ A good day for the tea party is when government is having a bad day.”

A few Republicans are outright admitting that the treasonous Teahaggots are at fault.

"Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) complained that the Tea Party’s influence forced them to do it.
Walden, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee (the House GOP’s campaign arm), reportedly told a group of top Republican donors that the Tea Party’s organizational strength meant that Republicans had to shutdown the government and obstruct a debt-ceiling increase.

“Listen,” Walden told them, “We have to do this because of the Tea Party. If we don’t, these guys are going to get primaried and they are going to lose their primary.” 

Oh, you might lose your election unless you remain the whore of a corporate-owned Astroturf cabal? Poor baby!

As if things couldn't get worse in Washington, to top it all off, a woman who allegedly went on a vehicular rampage after ramming the White House gates, was shot and killed by state police, while an infant child was left in the car. Some are criticizing their over-the-top reactions. But it's surprising that any cops were there, since they, too, are docked for the GOP financial act of treason.

In another tragic twist on the government shutdown, federal investigators are not available after a horrific bus crash in Tennessee killed eight church-goers and injured dozens more.  Some of these survivors may be permanently disabled. So, in effect, Boehner and his cabal of corrupt cronies are actually causing people to become disabled, or dead.
 
Yep, Republicans are not only abusing park rangers, veterans and the elderly disabled, they're killing people via neglect and arrogance. The very safety of hundreds, if not millions of people, is at risk because... because why, Rethugs? "because... Obamacare."

To my fictional heroes Reid and Everett, I have to say, "Guys, I'm sorry, but the future is very, very stupid."