RedEye on Alabama's Congress Critters

It's official. Congress Critter Mo Brooks joined the ranks of Make Alabama Ashamed in the halls of Congress this week. For some reason he thought it appropriate to call his Democratic Congress colleagues Socialist. Yes Mo. They are laughing at you, but they are really laughing at us for sending you to Washington D.C in the first place.

What Dragontide said

The floor in Washington is a long way from a right-wing talk show studio in the Tennessee Valley, isn't it? The floor in Washington is not a drunken Tea rally, is it?
The man sees Socialists in his sleep. He challenges overwhelming climate science. He beclowns himself even more than Sessions & Shelby. He just might be the most ignorant politician in the history of our state. I hope somebody on Saturday Night Live is working on an impersonation of him. It would be as big as Tina Fey portraying Sarah Palin.

What gets me is Mo had to be forced to withdraw the word Socialist from his remarks and said,

"For whatever reason I am permitted not to use one word."

I'm surprised someone from side of town that's supposed to have a higher IQ than those living on the other side of town doesn't understand why name calling doesn't have a place in civil discourse.

H/T Bessemer Opinions for the best report on CD 7 Congress Critter Terri Sewell.

Terri Sewell voted in favor of HR 910, the so called Energy Tax Prevention Act (which mentions "tax" zero times in the bill, by the way) which could have been called any number of things more accurately.

In lay mans terms this is what Sewell voted for;

Anyway, the bill's purpose is "To amend the Clean Air Act to prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change, and for other purposes.

The bill goes on to name water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and several other gases as "greenhouse gases."

In other words, the bill prohibits the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the environment.

Check out the *ahem* double speak from Sewell office

I spoke with someone in Ms. Sewell's office at length about the bill. He told me they had spoken to people in the scientific community and the manufacturing community before deciding how to vote. I asked him to name the scientists, but as it turns out there weren't any, just the "science committee members." (Terri sits on the "Science, Space and Technology Committee, by the way). The committee, like all committees in the house, is chaired by and controlled by Republicans.

So what does little Miss Sewell do to redeem herself after all of this? She pledges to miss a couple of meals after voting for the budget compromise. Woo hoo!

Around America and around the world, many people are hungry because they have no food. Now others are choosing to be hungry to draw attention to the plight of those less fortunate. Fourteen Democratic Congresswomen are joining tens of thousands of Americans in fasting to protest attempts to balance the budget on the backs of those who are most in need and and have the least political power.

The majority of the voters in the 7th district fast every day because they have no JOBS. As a matter of fact, the voters in Perry County have to decide to starve or die. Again I have to ask, what did the voters in the 7th district do to deserve this?

I don't live, work, or most importantly vote in Alabama's 7th congressional district, but I know a lot of people who do. I know a lot of people who don't have indoor plumbing, don't have access to health care, send their students to under achieving public schools and have toxic coal ash waste dumped on them. The 7th congressional district is historically and culturally important to me because thanks to the work of Dr. Joe L. Reed, it is the only African American district in Congress.

Alabama's 7th congressional district is in the heart of the black belt and the cradle of the civil rights movement in Alabama. It was the only Alabama district President Obama won in 2008. For the past 8 years the 7th district has been represented by Artur Davis, who sold them out for his own blind ambition. They deserve competent, committed, effective, courageous, experienced leadership in congress. The stakes are just too high.

Buyers remorse? Naaah. That would be too much like right (pun intended).