Okay, Josh broke his fifth metatarsal and sprained his ankle, and there are cute new pictures. But I want you, just for today, to indulge me in a little rant with no pictures and no cute stories. Here goes:
The Republican National Congressional Committee recently spent $3 million dollars to try to win special elections in 3 districts. They lost in Louisiana’s 6th district by 3% (which voted 59% for Bush in 2004), in Illinois’ 14th district by 6% (56% for Bush) and most recently in Mississippi by 8% (62% for Bush). Needless to say, these are not considered good omens by the RNCC.
What’s more, that $3 million was 42% of their cash on hand as of the last reporting cycle.
So anyway, if my public education serves, the RNCC should still have around $4 million left. They spent $1 million per district on some of the reddest districts in the country, and got their hats handed to them. There are 199 Republican representatives left. Clearly, some are more vulnerable than others, but DailyKos estimates more than half of those districts are less safe than the ones that already lost.
Wait, there’s more. In Mississippi, they tried to tie Democratic candidate (and winner) Travis Childers, a former realtor with no legislative experience higher than county clerk, to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. Needless to say, the voters’ IQ was above 12, and this approach failed miserably. Plus, turns out, that district? It’s one-third African-American. Who could have possibly predicted that the “smear Obama” strategy would backfire?
So naturally, drawing on years of experience in Iraq, they plan to stick with the same strategy in November.
Doesn’t this seem like good money after bad? Can’t you think of some better uses for that cash?
In central China, there may be 50,000 people dead. The devastation and loss are horrifying. There may be 26,000 people still alive, whose recovery is hampered by the rubble and destruction.
NPR reports that the U.S. plans to donate $500,000 to China for their relief efforts. No, there aren’t any zeroes missing from that figure.
Unlike the Republicans, China did not bring its devastation on itself. More importantly, unlike the Republicans, with assistance the Chinese could dig themselves out.
My message to the RNCC: forget about campaigning this year. Sure, you could spend your money airing ads of some hapless Texas county commissioner PhotoShopped next to Barack Obama and a hammer and sickle, or next to Nancy Pelosi superimposed over a Gay Pride parade, but you only have about $20,000 per district, and the more you spend, the worse you lose. I realize there are probably potential legal complications with how you direct your campaign expenditures, but hear me out. Most of you will be in prison for something or other soon enough anyway. I say: send that money to China. Send it to Burma. Send it to New Orleans. Heck, send it to Tajikistan. But send it somewhere, anywhere, where someone might actually use to build themselves UP rather than on continued efforts to drag us all DOWN.
Thank you.
There will be pictures soon.
