Yesterday I wrote about storm season, and how much I enjoy seeing the awesome and awful power of severe weather. Today, in Oklahoma, there are men, women and children who died from that awful power. You can’t look at the photographs or hear the stories of the survivors and first responders without being heartsick.

The only thing most of us can do for them is open our wallets and give generously (there’s information on how to donate to the Red Cross at the bottom of this post).

(photo by Brett Deering)

People will say this is not a time for politics. They’re right; it’s a time for governance. But the sad fact is, in recent years effective governance has been fettered by narrow-minded politics. And among the most narrow-minded politicians are the two Republican senators from Oklahoma: James Inhofe and Tom Coburn.

Both senators have repeatedly voted to deny increased funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees disaster relief. Coburn said the funding of FEMA would be “unconscionable.” Both senators have also voted against funding disaster aid (or voted to reduce requested aid packages) for various natural calamities that have taken place throughout the U.S.

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut requested around US$82 billion in short and long term relief. Both Inhofe and Coburn voted to reduce that to $23.8 billion — the absolute minimal cost to clear the debris, repair basic infrastructure, and rebuild destroyed homes and businesses. They opposed any funds to included long-term infrastructure improvements aimed at helping to prevent damage from future storms. Inhofe referred to the aid request as “a slush fund.”

Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, Republican

The reason these two have given for opposing disaster relief is budgetary. They describe themselves as fiscal hawks. They’re ideologically opposed to spending any government funds that would increase the nation’s deficit.

That might be a more convincing argument if it weren’t for the inconvenient fact that it was Republicans — including Inhofe and Coburn — who helped create that deficit, largely by supporting two wars that weren’t paid for. I suspect most Americans would, if given a choice, have preferred to spend that money on disaster relief than on a pointless war of choice.

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, Republican

I suppose some folks will be impressed by Coburn’s response to the disaster in his home state. On his Facebook page, Coburn says:

My thoughts and prayers are with those in Oklahoma affected by the tragic tornado outbreak.

He insists, however, that any federal disaster relief given to his state must be offset by budgetary cuts in other areas. In other words, some other part of the government will have to suffer in order for the people of Coburn’s state to get the financial aid they’re going to need so desperately in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Inhofe’s official Facebook page also offers thoughts and prayers:

I will continue to pray for the families and individuals who lost a loved one, suffered damage or lost homes and possessions during the storms that tore through Oklahoma and the Midwest yesterday evening. Representatives from FEMA have contacted my office and are ready to respond should Governor Fallin request federal assistance.

You’ll notice he isn’t asking for any federal aid himself. He’ll leave that to others. It should also be noted that people on Facebook aren’t always responding kindly to Inhofe’s and Coburn’s thoughts and prayers.

(photo by Brett Deering)

Disaster assistance used to be a given. When one part of the nation took a hit, Congress automatically authorized the federal government to do what governments are supposed to do: help the people. Everybody in Congress simply put politics aside and did what was necessary to give aid and comfort. It’s just the decent thing to do.

But that’s changed. More and more we’re seeing Republicans taking the Coburn-Inhofe Approach. “I’ve got mine, Jack — you’re on your own.” It’s a selfish, small-minded, mean-spirited approach. But it works. Why? Because we’re not all assholes. Because when a great wind flattens a town in Oklahoma, most of the people of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut will grumble and say “It would serve them right if we fucked them over they fucked us.” But because we’re not all assholes, they’ll grumble and still open their wallets and offer help.

Coburn and Inhofe deserve to be treated like the assholes they are. The people of Oklahoma who voted for those assholes deserve no better treatment. But we’ll help them anyway, and we’ll do it because we’re not all assholes.

You can donate to the Red Cross by calling 1-800-733-2767. You can also donate by going to their website: http://www.redcross.org/ok/oklahoma-city. You can even auto-donate $10 by texting Redcross to 90999.

Donate what you can. Donate because the people of Oklahoma need your help. Donate because they’re not going to get much help from Senators Inhofe and Coburn. Donate because you’re not an asshole.

IRS bullshit: This morning Marco Rubio, the Great Latino Hope of the GOP, whined on FOXNews that President Obama hasn’t yet asked the Department of Justice to begin an investigation into the so-called IRS scandal. However, since the DOJ announced they’d opened an investigation into the matter on Tuesday, there’s no need for Obama to ask.

Marco Rubio – willing to make an ass of himself

Obamacare bullshit: Today the U.S. House of Representatives will debate and vote on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It has no more chance of passing today than it did the previous 36 times Republicans demanded a debate and a vote on repealing the law. Let me repeat that. This is the 37th time this has been debated and voted on, and Republicans know it can’t pass. It’s estimated it’ll cost about US$1.75 million taxpayer dollars to hold this pointless debate and vote today. Given that this is the 37th time the issue has been voted on, it’s reasonable to assume these votes have cost taxpayers about sixty-five million dollars.

John Boehner – also willing to make an ass of himself

Related bullshit: The House of Representatives will only meet in session for two days this week. Two days. One of which will be pissed away on the pointless debate and vote on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. , and one of those sessions is today’s debate and vote. Speaker of the House John Boehner doesn’t rule out having still more pointless debates and votes to repeal Obamacare. And you thought Republicans were opposed to government waste.

Darrell Issa – an ass

Benghazi bullshit: Republican Darrell Issa has held 11 Congressional hearings on the Benghazi tragedy. In recent weeks, Issa has criticized the report of the Accountability Review Board that investigated the attack. That review board was led by Thomas Pickering (a former US Ambassador) and Admiral Mike Mullen (a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff). On a recent talk show, Issa stated Pickering had “refused to come before our committee” to testify. After Pickering replied that he’d actually requested to appear at the most recent hearing, Issa’s staff backtracked, claiming the request had come too late to fit Pickering into the schedule.

Now both Pickering and Mullen have written a letter to Issa requesting a public hearing at which they could explain and defend their report. Issa’s response: he’d consider inviting them to testify, but in a closed hearing, out of the public view. Why? Issa says he thinks Pickering and Mullen’s testimony would be too partisan. By which he apparently means their testimony won’t correspond with his conspiracy theories.

There’s a LOT more bullshit, of course. But it’s not yet noon and I’ve already exceeded the daily recommended dosage of bullshit.

On my way to the coffee shop just now I saw a copy of USA Today, the lite newspaper. The headline read:

IRS GAVE LIBERALS A PASS

Which is pretty dramatic. It’s also a lie. As are all those headlines comparing President Obama to President Nixon.

I don’t want to minimize what the Internal Revenue Service did by targeting political groups for extra scrutiny. That was absolutely wrong, no mistake. But comparing this event to what Nixon did?  That’s just plain stupid. Aside from the fact that the IRS is involved, the two cases are utterly different.

President Richard Nixon, crook

Nixon and his staff actually made a list of his political enemies. They weren’t exactly open about the list, but neither was it a huge secret. These guys even wrote memoranda about the list — like this one from John Dean, the White House Counsel, to Lawrence Higby, the Assistant Chief of Staff to President Nixon:

This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration; stated a bit more bluntly—how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.

Nixon and his crew were deliberately using the IRS to ‘screw’ people they identified as their political opponents. The investigation of individuals and groups Nixon opposed (or who opposed Nixon) was initiated BY the White House. Now THAT is a scandal.

According to the Inspector General, the current IRS issue was initiated by mid-level bureaucrats within the IRS, and done without the knowledge of the White House. It was a violation of policy and procedure. It’s not a scandal.

So why did these bureaucrats target certain political organizations for extra scrutiny? Because legislation (passed through the efforts of Republicans, by the way) made it possible for individuals to contribute money to certain types of political action committee without their names being disclosed. Donations to PACs whose purpose is political are NOT tax deductible; donations to PACs whose purpose is general social welfare ARE tax deductible.

And guess what. The IRS is actually obligated BY CONGRESS to do just that. They’re legally required to review every application for tax-exempt status to insure the group requesting the exemption isn’t partisan, political, or designed to generate private gain. The only problem is the bureaucrats chose to use some pretty vague and inappropriate keywords to determine which political groups should be given a closer look. They cast too wide a net.

Obviously, what happened in the IRS is nothing at all like the crimes committed by the Nixon White House — though you wouldn’t know that from the reporting or the ranting of Republicans in Congress. Nor, if you read the headlines of USA TODAY, would you be aware that liberal groups were also unfairly targeted. And in fact, the ONLY targeted group to be denied tax exempt status during the 18 months of the extra scrutiny was Emerge America, a group that helps train Democrat women who are running for political office. None of the conservative or Republican groups were denied tax exempt status. So the headline in USA TODAY is not only incorrect, it’s not only lazy reporting, it’s the exact opposite of the truth. It’s a lie.

So much for that ‘liberal media’ myth.

Oh my god, oh my god, now I get it. Now I understand why President Obama must be impeached. He called the assault on the US mission compound in Benghazi “an act of terrorism.” He didn’t say it was “a terrorist attack.” It’s so clear to me, now that Darrell Issa has explained it:

“An act of terror is different from a terrorist attack. The TRUTH is, this was a terrorist attack.”

According to Issa, Ambassador Stevens, before he was killed, made a telephone call in which he said “We are under attack.” Did he say “We are currently experiencing an act of terror”? No sir, he did not. Obama must be impeached for misleading the American public and for using Socialist Grammar techniques he learned as a Muslim boy in Kenya.

According to Issa, President Obama personally made three three fundamental mistakes. First, the US mission compound in Benghazi needed more security, but didn’t get it. Okay, maybe it’s true that Congressional Republicans voted to reduce Obama’s budget request for the two agencies responsible for providing security to embassies and ambassadors by nearly half a billion dollars over the last two years. But that was just to trim waste, and besides it was Obama who actually made the cuts — so clearly it’s his fault

Second, the attack lasted seven hours and there was no military response. None at all. Except for the well-trained six-member CIA assault team sent in to rescue the American personnel. But other than that, nothing. “You can take off from Washington, DC on a commercial flight,” Issa said, “and practically be in Benghazi at the end of seven hours.” And yes, maybe he was off by a wee bit. Okay, maybe it would take closer to twenty-seven hours. But Issa was just making a point; there’s no need to get fussy about details.

And third, Issa says “the American people deserve real time information” on these crisis events. Real time. Sure, that may not even be possible, but dammit the American people deserve it anyway. And yes yes, feeding real time information to the public might actually exacerbate a crisis and add to the confusion, and yes maybe providing real time information to the public would also provide real time information to the people carrying out the act of terrorism terrorist attack. But hey, the American people deserve it and if there are any unfortunate consequences, they’d be worth it in order to…to…you know. Benghazi socialist Muslim birth certificate.

There you go. Maybe now you understand why it was so vitally important to have held eleven hearings on Benghazi in the last eight months. If the Republicans in Congress weren’t doing this, they’d have to…I don’t know…govern or something.