PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

Well, what to say about the budget impasse in Washington, DC? Not much, except: this whole thing is so stupid.

It is not about the budget at all, not about budget cutting, bringing the Federal government down to a reasonable size. None of that stuff. It is about trying to stop programs that the Republicans don’t like. To hold the Federal government hostage to a bunch of demands of this nature is immature, foolish, unwarranted and undemocratic.

The last point is the most important: the laws we have on the books now, like partial funding for Planned Parenthood and enforcement of rules on greenhouse gases  (CO2) were put there by normal democratic processes. They were approved by Congress, signed by various presidents and have been around for a long time.

The Tea Pot Republicans are trying to undo those democratic processes and get everything for themselves in a tantrum that threatens to leave American soldiers, who are risking their lives daily, without their regular paychecks. Does this make any sense to anyone other than a screaming zealot who doesn’t really care about his government or, for the moment, his country?

If you are a Tea Potter, if you voted to send these kinds of representatives to Washington and you like what they are doing, you can have it. And, I hope you get it right where it hurts. There was a demonstration on Capitol Hill this week where the Tea Potters were shouting, “Shut it down. Shut it down.” These are people who are convinced that everything about our government is evil or who want policies so far outside the mainstream that they would rather see the government die than be put into proper order.

Talk radio, Fox News and the Internet have given the fringe a sense of power and meaning. That’s all well and good. That’s part of democracy: previously unheard segments rising up to demand change. What is happening in that  wake, however, is that the far right now believes it is entitled to everything, right now, no change, no compromise.  They haven’t won the votes, or the true revolutionary movement, to warrant their bravado. Chances are, the voters understand this very well and, as I write these words at just past ten PM Friday evening, my bet is that a deal has been made or will be shortly and this whole mess will go away. For a while.

Doug Terry, 4.8.11

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