Ring! Ring! An asshole is calling!
-Headline of the day-
"The Heat is On: Congressman’s Office Says Constituent Calls Are 'Harassment.'"
Ooh, them Democrats is terrible! Over at Andrew Breitbart's Big Government blog, an anonymous blogger tells the harrowing tale of dealing with Rep. John Garamendi's staff. Seems the California Democrat is planning on voting for the healthcare reform bill this weekend and this is the worst thing ever. So anonymous called and told a staffer he (she? I don't know... the writing seems "maley," so let's go with he) was agin it. Then he started to explain why he was agin it. See, congressional staffers always write everything down that some caller tells them, then runs off to deliver the minutes of the call immediately after hanging up.
That's what this guys seems to believe, anyway. Turns out that the staffer wasn't going to do that and, being swamped with other calls from obviously less important constituents, she had to hang up on him. This would not stand. "Being the persistent person that I am, I kept calling back," anonymous writes. "Each time I tried to finish my point, she hung up."
Starting to get the idea that anonymous is just an asshole? Yeah, me too. Anyway, he kept calling back until a staffer finally said they'd have to report him for harassment. Then I guess she hung up on him. So, of course, he called back. I think he might be a stalker-type or something. It wouldn't surprise me if he had an extensive restraining order collection.
This time when he called, he got switched to capitol police. So he bitched them out too. They told him he could be charged under 47 U.S.C. 223, which defines and prohibits harassment of members of congress.
So anonymous looked up 47 U.S.C. 223 and called back. Anonymous is a lawyer, you see (big surprise, huh?) and disputed that this was harassment. Capitol police got sick of him and told Garamendi's staff that this wasn't harassment under the statute. So he called Garamendi's office again, spelled out his opposition one more time, and was basically told that the representative didn't give a fuck about his opposition and was going to vote for the bill anyway.
"He has made it clear that he is willing to forsake his constituents in order to please the Speaker of the House," anonymous writes. It kind of begs the question; how could Garamendi even know what his constituents want with this obsessive teabagger asshole jamming his phones all day?
"Such treatment may be acceptable in the former Soviet Union, but it’s repulsive in the country I love and served. Is this hope and change?" anonymous writes. Cry me a freakin' river, prick. It's like I always say, being an asshole is its own punishment. If you're an asshole, everyone's going to treat you like one.
I'm surprised you're not used to it by now. (Big Government)
-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, it's time for...
Click for animation
Remember kids, if someone wants to do the right thing for the wrong reason, you really ought to let them. Not that there's actually any danger of that... (MarkFiore.com)
-Bonus HotD-
"Rep. Paul Broun: The ramifications of health reform will be like 'the Great War of Yankee Aggression.'"
Oh for fuck's sake Jethro... (Think Progress, with video)
