Everyone who has paid attention to the news the past few days knows that President Obama will visit Austin tomorrow (that's Tuesday, for those reading this after midnight, or much, much later, for those reading after the fact). Here are a few relevant (or not so much) questions for this occasion.
To evening rush-hour commuters: Got an alternate commute? The rolling roadblock will be blocking all traffic wherever the president is going. That includes a trip right in the middle of the 5:00 hour from the airport to the ACL Live theater on 2nd Street, and then a later trip to some undisclosed location west of Lake Austin before returning to the airport. (Just a reminder: thanks to geography and really poor planning, there is absolutely no direct route from 2nd Street to west of Lake Austin. Hey--maybe the motorcade will be going right through your neighborhood!) Perhaps you might consider leaving early or staying really late.
From the governor, and others who are like-minded on this, to the Obama administration: Where is the disaster declaration for the areas affected by wildfire? Are you really so petty as to deny Texas any help because people from Texas have bad-mouthed the Obama policies, as was insinuated by an anonymous Democrat legislator? Because if you are doing that for that reason, then you truly are as thin-skinned as has been said pretty much every day on Twitter and elsewhere.
(To the person at McClatchy who entitled the article linked in the last paragraph "Grumpy Republicans await Obama in visit to Texas": did you ever state that the Democrats who hated George W. Bush as much as, or more than, some on my side hate President Obama were "grumpy"? Didn't think so.)
For those, such as Republic of Austin's Chris Apollo Lynn, who appear to think that those opposed to President Obama's policies are just "grouchy Republicans", "illiterate white hicks", etc.: Really? I'd invite you to get to know some of those people (like, say, myself), but you appear to have your mind made up, based on your warning to avoid areas where there might be protesters "[i]f you don't want to get teabagged".
To those, such as Mr. Lynn, who still use the phrase "teabagged": it was a worn-out phrase two years ago. Sorry, I guess that's not a question.
And, to the best of my knowledge, the only real question President Obama will be asking on this quick trip: Cash, check or credit card? Enjoy yourselves, donors.
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3 comments:
FEMAs already given TX 20 Fire Management Assistance Grants (FMAGs) for the recent wildfires.
You could claim that the government should be doing more. [http://www.reporternews.com/news/2011/may/04/obama-rejects-fire-disaster-declaration/] But it's not true that the federal government isn't giving any help to TX.
Apparently, wildfires are handled differently than other natural disasters.
Howdy:
Thanks for stopping by Republic of Austin.
Couple things:
The post wasn't saying I agree with Obama. In fact, I have a lot of questions for him, too. IF you follow my twitter feed, I ask a lot of those questions out loud. And to be quite honest: I don't know if I'd vote for him again.
The "grouchy Republicans" is actually a nod to the phrase that the Miami Herald uses in the linked post.
The "illiterate, white hicks" was in a separate paragraph and was referring to the types of people that end up on the news. Since I don't like the image those people convey, I feel it'd be nice to get some sane people who can spell and have a discussion--no matter what party--on TV to represent our fine state.
Thanks for taking my quotes out of context. If it makes you feel better, I'm happy you could use me as your whipping boy ;)
And for the record: I love to use the word teabagging. It never gets old!!
But seriously, don't put words in my mouth, k? ;)
@Anonymous: "The FMAGS help firefighters pay for things such as equipment repairs, food and shelter. The funds do not help fire victims with recovery efforts." (KXAS)
@skrapnel (Chris?): I'm pretty sure I do follow your twitter feed. Don't recall seeing many tweets lately to put your recent remarks in context, though.
And I do believe that, despite your intent, your post came across as implying that anyone who would protest against Obama was an "illiterate, white hick". At least, that's how it came across to me, and judging by the comments on your post, I wasn't the only one to get that impression.
(With that said, I really hate seeing the misspellings highlighted above all else.)
And regarding "teabagging": the use of the term is juvenile and ill-fitting with your desire to have a serious conversation. If you follow my blog, you will remember that I once wrote a fairly long post about the term.
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