Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) Outraged Over Grass Destruction!

Representative Issa (R-CA)

Or "What A Waste Of Taxpayer's Money Issa Is!"

I would have preferred writing to my Senator or Congressmen about your letter to the Secretary of the Interior concerning the damage done to the grass in McPherson Park here in DC due to the OWS/ODC folks.   But as you know – and I’m making an assumption here – the 500,000+ of us who live here in our Nation’s Capital don’t have any Congressional representation.  We are, as you know – again, another assumption – a heavily Democratic “non-state” and the vast majority of us actually admire and support President Obama.

The Capital of the United States has hosted any number of protest groups during my 40 years in residence. I recall the Poor People Campaign (Resurrection City) that had 2,800 wooden shelters constructed on the Mall for 19  rain soaked days.  And then there was the Farmers’ Protest that, with tractors, plows, discs, etc. tore up large stretches of the Mall.  Well, you get the idea.  Protests are no stranger to DC and neither is damage to both Federal and local property as a result.

I’ve personally participated in any number of protests: Anti-Viet Nam War, Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Gay Rights, plus innumerable sit-ins, teach-ins, and other large scale gatherings.  Nearly all took place on Federal property and in many of these protests not only grass but other Federal Property was damaged – broken windows, battered vehicles, vandalized street signs, hundreds of buildings torched, etc.  So it would seem to me that by their very nature, protests often involve injury to the environment.  Call me stupid, but it seems to come with the territory:  Free Speech/Assembly and all.

I’ve attended three Tea Party gatherings here and I’m wondering how you might explain to me how thousands of people tramping around the Mall didn’t injure a blade of grass?  Did you protest these grass trampling events? Or am I being biased here given that the Tea Party folks are God’s people and the OWS folks are Satan’s?  I suppose that if you are God’s people you wouldn’t injure grass.  Float above it, maybe?

I would like to ask you for a favor.  Would it be at all possible for you to swing your laser like efforts to ensure that Obama will not be re-elected next year and pay a bit more attention to us ordinary Americans who are suffering?  You might recall that we are in the midst of the greatest world-wide economic crisis since the Great Depression.  I understand how important it is for you and your fellow Republican conservatives to prevent the President from being re-elected, but there is something called the “general welfare” and, even though this term may mean nothing to you, right now it’s in very poor shape.

On the other hand, maybe you do understand the importance of the OWS/ODC protests and perhaps that’s why you are so concerned about the $500,000 recently spent on renovating McPherson Park.  (BTW: most DC single family houses cost more than this!)  (BTW: How much is it going to cost us taxpayers for Ken Salazar to reply to your 16 questions and requests?)  Maybe you’ve realized that after 30 years of conservative economic warfare against the middle class, union busting, outsourcing and lowering taxes on the rich, maybe America is beginning to wake up.  And you know as well as I do once this happens all hell can break loose.  It happened here with civil rights and is happening now in the Arab world not to mention that cesspit of veniality and corruption, Russia.  So things do get out of hand occasionally, as any Friedmanite economist well knows. 

In closing, it seems to me that you might need to be reminded that the American Dream is not only about providing our businesses and industries with a cheap, slave-like labor force and increasing the wealth of America’s already wealthy.  I could be wrong though.

Call Me Stupid. 

NB: Methinks Issa is an ASS!

NBB: Issa’s 8 page – “it might be amusing if it wasn’t so dumb” - letter here: 

http://oversight.house.gov/images/stories/Letters/2011-12-12_DEI_to_Salazar-DOI_-_occupy_dc_destroying_McPherson_Square_due_1-3.pdf

NBBB:  U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder – we in DC have known Eric for over 30 years – who the good Congressman is trying to fire, is one of the finest, most honorable and honest public servants one could hope for.  Don’t know what’s wrong with those Californians.