Saturday, December 17, 2011

Democratic congressman goes on hunger "strike"

For 24 hours. Pretty much what you'd do the day before a colonoscopy.
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., embarked on a 24-hour hunger strike in solidarity with four Occupy DC protesters who have gone without food since Dec. 8 to advocate for D.C. voting rights.

Ellison, the first Muslim to serve in the House, met with the hunger strikers Thursday and pledged to read their declaration – which calls for full voting rights for District residents as well as legislative and budget autonomy – on the floor of the House of Representatives to enter it into the congressional record.

4 comments:

Yojimbo said...

Don't be so hard on the guy. His brain has been on various intake strikes for far longer than that.

JeffS said...

If you mean oxygen deprivation, Yojimbo, I think it's an constant problem for the Demonratic Congresscritter.

Michael Lonie said...

If they want to vote in national elections, let them move to Occupied Northern Virginia. The District was set up without a natinal vote for the reason that it would make denizens of DC too influential with the Federal Gummint. It was taken out of Maryland to prevent a single state from being too influential over the Fed gummint. If the denizens of DC want to break the agreement, maybe we should move the capital to a new district somewhere in the middle of the country. How about in Iowa?

Or, perhaps, we could return it to where it was before it moved to DC; New York. Or where it was originally: Philadelphia.

Since DC is a one industry town, and that industry being devising mischief to impede and annoy the rest of us, moving the capital would devastate the place. Hey, this is sounding better all the time. What a splendid idea. Assyrian kings used to move their capital to a new city every couple of reigns, in order to escape the privileges that accrued to the inhabitants of each former capital. Let's do it!

Paco said...

Michael: Er, let's make that southern Maryland, shall we? We've got enough Democrats here in Northern Virginia.

Otherwise, you're right on the beam.