Dear John Boehner

Mr. Speaker,

It has certainly been a rowdy couple of days, what with all the rulings being handed down by the United States Supreme Court. Today the Supremes struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by Bill Clinton several years ago, and vigorously defended by your own Congress to the tune of 2.3 million dollars of taxpayer's money, when the White House ordered the Department of Justice to stand down.

But you knew this was gonna happen because most of the country, your constituents were against you before you committed the money. But it's no biggie. The duckets didn't come out of your pocket. It's not like you are sequester-bound or in a budget crunch like the rest of us. And you still have DOMA solidly in place in Ohio for the foreseeable future.

I'm happy that DOMA went down but I'm not here to gloat. That's not the purpose for this letter. I want to talk about the decision that came down on Tuesday. You know the one that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The law that was signed by Lyndon Baines Johnson and effectively changed the United States for the better, according to some of us, anyway.

Judging from the response by the Grand Old Party of which you are considered to be one of the guiding lights in your capacity as Speaker of the House, you guys are being very quiet. I mean you got what you wanted. Your posse on the high court just about knocked the Black off us, shoving us toward the back of the bus once again, reminding us of our place in your country. You have real cause for celebration, after all you all have been working for years to remove this particular thorn in your side and change the course of history. Yesterday must have felt almost as good as rewriting the ending to the War between the States. Symbolically at least, you slapped my people back into chains.

But let me put a bug in your ear, if I may. The GOP took quite a beating in the last national election. I mean that Kenyan has laid two beat downs in a row on ya, now. The good news is he can't run again. But it looks like you're headed for oblivion electorally because you and your boys in Congress spend more time in the bars and on the golf course than you do legislating. Other than making laws to disenfranchise women, you're not legislating at all.

Doing nothing is hurting the President, yes. But it's also kicking your ass, too. In order to take back control permanently your party really and truly does need to attract Blacks, Browns and everybody else who is not white and male, in order to win the next election and survive. Your GOP chairman and all other speaking members of your party say you must be more inclusive. So why not take this nugget from the Supreme Court and repackage the Voting Rights Act. What have you got to lose. Everybody expects you to let it lay. Let it die. Not act on it. I mean that's been your modus operandi for five years now.

Flip the script. Do something to remind Black people that you once were the party of Lincoln. Call a meeting with the NAACP. Invite the Revs Al, Jesse and TD. Talk about millions of brownie points. Man, just think of all the Clarence Thomas wannabes or little Herman Cains or Mia Loves who will come popping out of the woodwork to join the Grand Old Party and become bonified Republicans instead of closeted ones. Give us a reason to like you and to wanna be you. You need to come out of your shell, John, and teach poor people how to make money like republicans. But you can't teach unless you can get them to listen to you. And that is not gonna happen as long as you guys continue to play bigot monopoly in America.

Let's just talk plain English here. You guys are dying out. Your party of old white people is about to go extinct. Soon it will be too late, especially given the kind of laws you're attempting to push through against women. Women already outnumber you. Women are the sleeping giant, the 600 pound gorilla in the room taking a nap. What happens when women wake up. I mean really wake up and realize they don't have to vote like their husbands or daddies do anymore. What happened overnight in Texas should have scared you to death.  Smart guys like you think you all are, would dump the stupid anti-woman language and laws asap. Smart guys would announce that you're going to rewrite the VRA law and make it current, just like the Court said to do.

The announcement alone would make a lot of folks happy. Following through might win you the next election or at least make you more competitive than you appear now. Why not try it?

What have you really got to lose?

John since you're from the Nati, too, you're very familiar with the phrase “when pigs fly.” Well, I figure you'll read this and act on my suggestions when Porkie takes off from Lunken.

Have a great day Mr. Speaker because I think  your days are numbered whether you act or not.

Respectfully yours.

Bipartisanship? When Pigs Fly!

One day before the historic 110th Congress is sworn in, Dubya is published in the Wall Street Journal calling for Congress to work with him for the benefit of the American people.

This administration has fed us nothing but arrogance and partisan politics for the past six years, and now that the GOP no longer controls the Hill, it suddenly wants to work together?

Well, let’s all build a campfire and sing “cum by yah,” why don’t we? Pass me that jug of moonshine, hey partner.

The big message from the American people, last November, was to do something about the war in Iraq. Most people now think it was wrong to go there in the first place. But is this president paying attention?

No! He reportedly is going to give a speech next week, calling for more troops in a “surge and accelerate” action. He has decided to do this, despite what the Baker-Hamilton Commission recommended, despite what his generals are telling him, despite public opinion, despite losing a midterm election and control of congress.

To whom is he listening? Was he on that party line to god with Pat “there will be a mass killing in America” Robertson?

Mr. President, the voices inside your head are still cracked out. You don’t regain brain cells once you’ve burned them out with alcohol and cocaine. Maybe a stem cell transplant would help. But then you did veto the funding. So never mind.

Bipartisan...no, we don’t need bipartisanship if it means continuing the course set forth by this administration. Dubya has made it clear that the only trail he follows is the one he blazes. His idea of cooperation is for the democrats to jump behind him and blindly follow him off the cliff.

What the democrats need to do is to grow balls, plain and simple. Congress needs to remember that it represents the people’s interests, not their own individual wants and desires.

Realistically, we can’t pull the plug on funding in Iraq. That is an even bigger death sentence for our troops already there in harm’s way. Besides, if memory serves me correctly, Dubya already has many, many billions of dollars to play within the already approved defense budget. So he really doesn’t need congress right now on anything military.

What congress can do, though, is to challenge any new money subsidies, challenge those no bid contracts for Haliburton as well as other companies favored by the GOP. They can challenge this new plan to send thousands more of our young into that quagmire.

If Dubya is so set on sending more troops, call the twins back from South America and give them some guns. Arm that half Hispanic nephew and send him to the front lines. Tell Cheney to swap out Mary’s hunting rifle for an AK-47 and put her in a humvee outside Baghdad. Oh wait. She’s pregnant. Ok, then, what about her wife, the former forest ranger? She’s a kept woman now, isn’t she? Send her to defend her growing family.

This war is not being fought by the folks who started it. There is no shared responsibility for it. The middle class and poor kids are again the cannon fodder for rich men seeking more money to fill their already overflowing private coffers.

Sending more troops is not the answer. Iraq is in civil war between Shiite and Sunni. We precipitated it and now the time has come for us to admit our error and figure out a graceful, if not face saving way to get out.

That is why the American people put the democrats in control.

Playing bipartisan games....No!

Recovering our national sanity, our national integrity, our international standing, and our ethics.....Yes!