Here is Ozark Billy making us shine here in southwest Missouri:
According to KOLR10 News, the millionaire auctioneer was speaking at the Springfield Rotary Club, for God’s sake, when he said this:
The people that I’ve talked to seem to be doing well. In fact, when I got out in restaurants here in town, people come up to me. They want to see more sequestration, not less. So I think that’s different than it could be in some parts of the country, but we haven’t seen any measurable affect here at all.
Yeah, you tend not to see any negative sequestration effects when you spend your time in Rotary Clubs and fancy eatin’ places like the Metropolitan Grill in Springfield. But that’s our Ozark Billy. Wildly out of touch with his constituents, most of whom are too busy working their asses off just trying to survive, rather than hoping to catch a glimpse of a steak-chomping Billy Long in order to tell him about sequestration, whatever the hell that is.
Most of those folks can’t go to Metropolitan Grill and order the “Merlot demi-glace glazed filet Wellington with Gorgonzola in a puff pastry topped with a black pepper shitake supreme” for a mere thirty bucks. Some of those folks are worried about whether their kids will get booted out of Head Start or whether they’ll get another bite to eat from Meals On Wheels.
So, I would bet that where Billy Long goes to dine in Springfield or in Washington, D.C., or, heck, in his favorite gambling and watering hole, Las Vegas, unless a knowledgeable and brave member of the wait staff speaks up, Billy never hears a goddamn thing about sequestration from the people it is affecting. Thus, I would bet that those folks who “want to see more sequestration, not less” are not waiting tables or serving our congressman cocktails in some restaurant or casino. Those people more likely own the damn place.
The sad thing about all this is Billy Long will never hear from the folks he needs to hear from for at least a couple of reasons. One, unless you have a lot of money to contribute to his relection, your voice doesn’t exactly move him to action. 
Second, he doesn’t hold town hall meetings around here, where the hoi polloi can bend his ear about their troubles. He runs from those brave enough to interrupt him and attempt to ask him critical questions, like the last time I ran into him.
In short, I have no doubt that Billy Long has met people around here who have the time and luxury to figure out what sequestration is and who, because it doesn’t affect them, want more of it. It’s those other folks, those other folks he is also supposed to be representing, those other folks who don’t have cash to stash in his campaign pockets, those folks with little time to mess around with figuring out what terms like sequestration mean, who he needs to hear from.
And the last time I checked, those folks don’t attend Rotary Club luncheons.
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
JHight
/ May 2, 2013I never thought I would say that a Congressman could be worse than Roy Blunt, but Billy Long is far worse than Blunt, and he was terrible. Long, and Blunt, too, are so out of touch with everything that is happening outside of K Street in Washington, DC and their corporate and wealthy handlers. It is frustrating to know that both of these corporate and lobbyist shills will carry the seventh district of Missouri with ease, in spite of their uncaring attitudes for the plight of ninety percent of their constituents.
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thgeneralist
/ May 2, 2013JD — Is there a point in time when we must call out the voters and ask, “What the hell is wrong with you people?”
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thgeneralist
/ May 2, 2013Since time, immemorial, the fats cats have not needed to listen to the worker bees. This “democracy” idea (the way we “claim” to practice it here in the USA) is so new and so radical there is really no historical precedent. Historically, we’re way too comfortable letting the rich folk push everyone around, and steal from everyone, and send everyone off to slaughter. New technologies and crazy things like public education and equal opportunity have shifted that old playing field — and the overlords are trying desperately to correct their mistakes by killing public education (charter schools, my ass), crushing affirmative action, slashing the social safety net, and driving the cost of higher education out of the reach of most. Democracy seemed like a good idea once, but too many of us have forgotten our place — have gotten uppity. Hell, we might even be smarter than our oppressors. God help them their wretched and miserly souls if we figure out how to get tainted money out of politics.
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Jim Wheeler
/ May 2, 2013This post on our (very) insulated Congressman hasn’t changed my image of him one iota, and that’s a damn shame. But then, it’s not surprising. The leopard doesn’t change his spots.
The internet is changing the very nature of human communication all over the world, but it’s new. Town hall meetings or not, I am hopeful that this kind of hubristic behavior will become increasingly hard to sustain.
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angelfire
/ May 2, 2013I am not amazed or disappointed. He does EXACTLY what I expect of HIM every time.
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ansonburlingame
/ May 2, 2013It is interesting to read the “General” fuming above. He could easily have written such a tirade in the middle 1790s in France!! Something written in Moscow around 1917 would have been applicable as well I suppose. HIstory does in fact repeat itself if you look around and read a few things.
One thing “good” you can say about Ozark Billy Long. He has done EXACTLY what he said he would do when he first ran for the Congressional seat and repeated it again when voted back into that seat in 2012. I doubt he will change his tune in 2014, either. Hate him all you like but there he his, voting right down the plank of the GOP “whatever it was” published before the 2010 mid term elections. All of you fumed then and here you are again.
Believe you me, I don’t like OBL or what he stands for politically either. So com’on JD and others with some local politcal influence within the MO Dem Party. Find someone to BEAT him in the next election and if you can’t well don’t cry in my bowl of soup!!!
To beat OBL you would have to find a blue dog DEM with decidedly conservative views on such matters as fiscal responsibility, national defense, etc. Such Dems are very hard to find today, anywhere. Most prefer the approaches espoused herein and YOU would, none of you commenters or Duane would have a snowball’s chance in hell of wining such an election around here and you know it.
I would JUMP at a chance to run against OBL. But age, money and the things I have written in my own blog for 4 years now will not allow me to do so. But I would NOT run, as well, on any Dem ticket either. Now go read Paul Greenberg’s column in the Thursday Globe. THAT one makes sense to me as an independent conservative, for sure.
Anson
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thgeneralist
/ May 2, 2013Anson, if you’re picking on me, I don’t mind further marginalizing myself by proudly proclaiming that I am, indeed, a democratic socialist. I like Bernie Sanders. I like the way Jesus taught us how to live with our brothers and sisters — not the bullshit spewing from fundamentalist and catholic pulpits, but the Sermon on the Mount: the hard stuff. The radical stuff. I support labor unions — my cars are built in Gothenburg by democratic socialist union labor. I grow most of my own food. But I wasn’t always in this place, philosophically. In 1972 I was a member of the Committee to Re-elect the President. I’ve done some soul searching over the years and I have to say it takes less courage than simple research and applied reason to identify the reality that Republican Party is full of whores and con men, up their asses in the dirty money genitalia of their rich johns. The Revolution we need is one of common sense and conscience — and a willingness to stand up for the real potential of American democracy. The tools are there: the Tea Party and the NRA be damned.
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Jane Reaction
/ May 2, 2013I did run for office as a Democrat last year, and can tell you that as far as down-ballot candidates are concerned there is no support from the party. All they offered was to rent me a mailing list. There ARE capable candidates that would meet Anson’s criteria, but I seriously doubt he would vote for them anyway.
Gerald Malan
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