Republicans Abandon 9/11 First Respnders
House Republicans on Thursday were no doubt proud that their efforts to defeat a bill that would have provided funds to assist persons suffering from the ingestion of toxins created by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 were successful. Oddly, this occurred after the Republicans spent the better part of the first decade of the 21st Century running on fear and paranoia generated by the 9/11 attacks. After so many years of hearing Republicans use the attacks as a rallying call to all endeavors that they deemed patriotic, it sure is odd that they would effectively tell the very people who first responded to those attacks (the ones who lived, anyway) that they should effectively drop dead.
Perhaps this has more to do with Republican strategy leading into the 2010 election season than anything else; they will do what they can to derail ANY efforts by Democrats to do the right thing in hopes that Democrats fail, and so the Republicans can run on Democratic failure come November. Perhaps House Republicans were simply hiding behind procedure to conjure the desired fail.
Here's what Anthony Weiner (D - NY) had to say:
So, let's make this clear: If you hate the people who were apparently dumb enough (and who were probably living on salaries paid for by taxpayers, which effectively makes them communists) to heed the call to respond to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, then please vote for your favorite Republicans come November. If, on the other hand, you have a conscience and/or a soul, please vote for anybody else or don't vote at all.
