The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 passes the House

Wow I'm on a blogging role!

So yesterday, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 219-212. Surprisingly, 8 Republicans voted yes (I wasn't really expecting any...) and 44 Dems voted no. One of these Dems was Harry Mitchell. I believe many reasons culminated to the final decision, but his statement can be read here.

But man, I hated yesterday. As soon as we took the phones off of forward at 9:00 AM, the phones started ringing off the hook. That means people in Arizona were calling at 6:00 in the morning. I'd consider myself a morning person, but calling my congressman to try and convince him to vote a certain way on important legislation is not the first thing to pop into my head when I wake up.

And Jesus Christ, I'm willing to say that at least 96% of the 5 million people that called in yesterday were crazy. I basically had to listen to this all day:

- Global warming is a hoax/isn't real/hasn't been proven.

- This bill will raise my taxes! By $1,500 per family!

- Has the Congressman read the entire bill that is over 1,000 pages long?

- Cap and tax! Cap and tax! Cap and tax!

- If the Congressman doesn't vote this way, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that he isn't reelected in 2010! We will remember his vote in 2010! (I swear this line was in some script that was circulated, I kept hearing this)

And a few gems that some bitter people wanted to share with me:

- I hope you find a better job

- I hope you and everyone else in your office are out of jobs soon

- I hope you get paid well for this

The phones were literally ringing nonstop. And I have learned a very important lesson. Phone banking your congressperson only helps if you want that particular congressperson's office to not get anything done that day. Several of the staff members were very excited that I had learned this lesson, since they remembered me phone banking with the YDs last semester. I promised that the ASU YDs would never phone bank the Congressman's office again, and they were very happy to hear this.

Well, at least there's health care to look forward to.

Another thing...

I just really feel like blogging to day, but I had something else on my mind...

Well, look at who's destroying the sanctity of marriage now.

I'm talking to you, John Ensign and Mark Sanford [among others].

I mean seriously. You're Republicans that run on the idea of "traditional family values." In your platform, it says that you recognize the importance of having a mother and a father in the home that are married. I guess it doesn't say anything about being faithful to said mother.

You go along with the conception that marriage is so sacred, that allowing people of the same sex who love each other to get married is a gross idea that would significantly demean what marriage is all about. Because marriage is about being able to procreate and raise your family with both a mother and a father, the mother being a woman and the father being a man. If it were any other way, well, that's just weird, unacceptable, and/or disgusting.

But when you cheat [get caught cheating] on your wife, it's you who's destroying the sanctity of marriage. Isn't the point of marriage to devote yourself to one person for the rest of your life? To instill your trust in each other? To love each other? If everyone who's married just goes sleeping around, what does it really mean to be married? And is marriage really that sacred that you think it's okay to throw your vows to be faithful to each other out the window? To completely destroy any trust that you shared?

And why is it always men that are cheating on women? Is it really so hard for men to be monogamous? I really don't understand what's so difficult about it. Sure, you can look and lust after other people if you're in a relationship, I really don't have a problem with that. Just go back home and make love to your spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend/whatever. If anyone could enlighten me to this strange disparity, or any stories of prominent women [getting caught] cheating on their man, that would be great.

And I know Democrats aren't immune to giving in to their extramarital desires. Duh. But that's not my problem. The cheating Democrats aren't the hypocrites here.

Also, to these women that are sticking by their lying, cheating husbands: why!? He obviously doesn't respect you, so why respect his political career? And this is to the women of any Party affiliation.

I just don't get it, any of it, and the world frustrates me.

OMG

So this is kind of like my first big political celebrity encounter here in DC.

Yesterday, I was just sitting at my desk in the office on the fourth floor of the Longworth House Office Building. I was in the back at the desk with the backup phone. We have it set up so one intern sits at the front desk with our staff assistant and two sit at desks in the back with the other staff members. I was at the desk with the back up phone so if the person up front is already on the phone, then it's my job to answer it if it rings twice.

It was the middle of the afternoon, and I heard the phone ring twice. So I picked it up expecting it to be another constituent that was so keen to convince me that global warming is a myth and that Harry Mitchell should not vote for the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 or they would be after him come 2010. I answered with the typical, perky greeting: "Congressman Mitchell's office, how may I help you?"

And in response, I heard, "Hello, this is Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff."

Several things went through my mind at that second. At first I was shocked, that I was actually speaking to Rahm Emanuel. And then I had second thoughts, like this couldn't possibly be Rahm Emanuel, this jerk must be pulling a prank on me.

I think he noticed my astonishment, and just wanted me to give a message to Congressman Mitchell to call him back. At this moment I decided that Rahm was not an impersonator, and so I wrote down the number and said goodbye. I think he was checking up on moderate Democrats to make sure that they would be voting for the big legislation that's coming through Congress right now.

Thus concludes my 10-second encounter with Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff. And no he did not curse at me.

DC is the city for me

I've decided I belong here. Everyone here is intelligent (for the most part), everyone cares about and understands politics (for the most part), everyone runs, and I love public transit!

Even though I'm sitting at a desk most of the day looking at a computer screen, I'm really enjoying my work. Of course I'm doing all the cool "interny" things like answering phones, sorting mail, and data entry, but that's what I signed up for, so I'm doing the best I can do. Working 9-6 M-F is certainly a new experience though. It makes the days fly by like crazy (it's June 15th now? Wait what?).

Cool things I did last weekend: Softball game - Capital Scholars vs. ASU Alumni team (I hope when I graduate I can find a cool alumni sports league to join). And I scored a run! Went to a gay dance club because it was pride week last week. Went to Ben's Chili Bowl after getting distracted by a random protest about the Iranian elections that passed by my dorm.

Sorry for the short and belated entry, but I'm exhausted. I'll try to write more later and more often.

It's been one week since [I came to DC]

Wow it's already been a week since I first got to DC. Here's a [not so] abbreviated entry of what I've been up to:

Sunday 5/24 - Arrived in DC. Flight was nice, slept most of the way and read Angels and Demons the rest of the way. Still not done with it yet, I'm hoping I can find a cool park to sit down and finish it in. There were other Capital Scholars on my flight, so we split a couple of cabs to get to George Washington University where we would be staying for the next 8 weeks. Things about the dorm that I'm excited about: 2 bathrooms, full size refrigerator, spacious, 3rd floor, not smelly. All my roommates are cool, even if 2 of them are Republicans. Joaquin says I gotta try and turn them.

Monday 5/25 - Had the day off from activities because it was Memorial Day. My roommate Yazmin and I woke up early to go to Arlington Cemetery to see Obama speak. We got seated around 8:45 and then had to wait until 10:30 before the activities began. It was well worth the wait, and I'm glad I actually did something to celebrate Memorial Day instead of just laying out by the pool and eating hotdogs.

Tuesday 5/26 - We toured the CIA. The tour included the hallway to our conference/holding room and the CIA museum, which was actually really cool. It was funny because we had to be escorted to go to the bathroom (right across the hall) or the gift shop (conveniently located even closer). It was interesting to find out what the CIA actually does, and we got to talk to some ASU alumni about their current jobs with the CIA. Later that night, I went on a run with Todd and we ended up at the mall, and ran around the Lincoln Memorial up to the Washington Monument and back. Everything looks incredible illuminated at night, it's a totally different experience. The scenery here has inspired me to attempt to pick up running again (I'm starting a DC running club, and I brought my knee brace!).

Wednesday 5/27 - We toured the Department of State and the Department of Treasury, which was pretty cool. Except they didn't let us break for lunch. I'm convinced I'm somewhat hypoglycemic, and as soon as I walked into the Treasury I'm pretty sure the lights in there triggered a migraine since I hadn't eaten anything. So I had to sleep that of later that afternoon.

Thursday 5/28 - We went to the National Defense University to play a strategic game. It's silly to think about these people that just sit around and create "games" and play "games" all day. But the gist of it is that we were divided into 2 teams, USA and Mexico, and we were given a situation that we had to deal with. The situation was the growing violence of the drug cartels (which we managed to talk about at every tour, except the Treasury) and we had to come together and resolve the problem. Long story short, things got a little heated because of some instigating by the facilitator on team Mexico, but it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot.

Friday 5/29 - We went to Arlington, Maryland (pronounced Mary-land by our colonial tour guide) and got to meet with the Speaker of the House of Delegates of the Maryland legislature. They definitely have their priorities straight there, they managed to balance their budget and totally fund their public education system and have money set aside in a rainy day fund and haven't raised tuition in 4 years. Democrats do have quite an advantage though, out of 141 seats over 100 are Democrats. I had clam chowder by the bay and our waiter gave all the people who had never had oysters before oyster shooters (that included me). They were small plastic shot glasses filled with cocktail sauce and an oyster. This was probably one of the grossest experiences of my life, because I took all the cocktail sauce, and the oyster just slid down my throat, and the sauce was spicy and not tasty at all. But now I can say that I've tried oyster, but probably never again.

Saturday 5/30 - Went to go find my work, which is really close to a metro stop (I love the public transit here!) and my dorm is really close to a stop as well. Then we all were invited to the Alumni Association's softball game held at a park by the FDR Memorial. Free food and free entertainment is always good. I'm trying to learn how to network, I don't think I'm very good at it yet. Hopefully that will improve. They gave us all these cool Capital Scholars business cards, but I haven't given any out yet. But the FDR Memorial is my favorite memorial so far. It has all these impressive waterfalls, a statue of FDR and his dog, and all these FDR quotes everywhere. It's very modern, and it was very neat to walk through it all, because after every turn you expect it to be over, but there's something even better around the corner.

Sunday 5/31 - Some of us went to the National Zoo, saw a giant panda, some elephants, a hip-hop-opotomus, gorillas, other zoo animals. I've decided zoos are kind of depressing and not really that interesting, but it was something free to do. After the zoo we were really hungry, so we found the cheapest meal we could find, which was this weird place called California Tortilla which is totally Tex-Mex but a very weird place. Their soda machine said "A bad bub puts soda in his water cup," and had other strange stuff like that.

Monday 6/1 - Started work today! I was freaking out about being late because one of the trains on the metro had a mechanical failure at my stop, but the issue was soon resolved and I took a really really crowded train to my stop. It reminded me of being in Rome, except I wasn't as worried I'd be groped or have my purse stolen. Actually, lots of things about DC remind me of being in Rome, but maybe that's because they copied the Roman and Greek architecture here. Anyways work was fun, I got to watch the news and write a news brief for the previous day, then I was given a huge data entry assignment, then we stuffed envelopes. The day went by really quickly, which means that this week is going to be over before I know it, which means this summer will be over even sooner.

More work tomorrow. Every time I look at the clock I can't believe how late it is (it's 9:30 right now, but it feels so much earlier than that. I guess I still haven't acclimated to the time change).

The only thing that would make this absolutely perfect would be if I was getting paid. I'm still going to make a trip to H&M anyways.

Good night!