Here at The Daily Growler we love natural-born losers who mean well but who get shat upon no matter their situation. So, before we begin attacking the idiocy of our Senators, both Dumbos and Repugs, let's honor this The Daily Growler Natural-Born Loser Award of the Month--
Wayne Schenk
Last December, Wayne A. Schenk received some grave news. Doctors told him he had lung cancer and only 12 to 16 months left to live.
A struggling tavern owner and longtime smoker, Schenk didn't have any health insurance. Since he served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1976 to 1980, the Veteran Affairs Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y., agreed to provide him with radiation and chemotherapy.
Schenk needed more aggressive cancer treatment in order to survive, and the VA's resources were limited. He requested a transfer to cancer centers in Pennsylvania and New York, but both were out of the VA's network and required patients to pay $125,000 upfront and have $250,000 in reserve. Schenk simply didn't have that kind of money. Although he considered selling his tavern, the Orange Inn in Naples, N.Y., Schenk knew a real estate deal would take too long and may not net enough money to pay for the specialized medical care he needed. With nothing to lose, he decided to play the New York State lottery.
Surprisingly, the long shot paid off.
On Jan. 12, Schenk won $1 million from a $5 scratch-off ticket in the lottery's High Stakes Blackjack game. The odds of someone Schenk's age developing lung cancer are roughly 1 in 5,000; the odds of winning the jackpot in High Stakes Blackjack are 1 in 2,646,000.
Unfortunately, the sudden windfall did not solve Schenk's health or financial problems. According to lottery regulations, the prize money could only be paid out in 20 annual installments of $50,000. Schenk didn't have 20 years ahead of him. He needed the lump sum award to even have a chance at staying alive.
As his health continued to decline, Schenk turned to friends, family, financial institutions, the media, even a N.Y. state assemblyman for help -- all to no avail. Legislation to create an exception in Schenk's case would take years to pass, and lottery officials refused to bend the rules for him.
In the final days of his life, the Canandaigua, N.Y., native married his girlfriend, Joan DeClerck. He was so ill during the wedding ceremony that he had to breathe through an oxygen tank. Before the disease weakened his health, he enjoyed traveling, ice fishing and hunting.
Schenk died on April 23 at the age of 51. He left the remainder of his lottery winnings to his wife. [From "The Blog of Death"]
And Now Back to Pissing On Our Senators--Those Vested-Interest-in-War Jerks
And these imbeciles are really twisted logically when it comes to this stupid, illogical war, this swindle, this travesty of International law and fair-mindedness, this preemptively struck War in Iraq and the preemptively struck War Against the Terrerists of all sorts, even imaginary ones, and in the end this social travesty will leave Iraq unrecognizable to Iraqis; it will be divided into 4 states, the Kurdish Zone, the Sunni Zone, the Shi'ite Zone, and the Saudi-US-Brit-joint-occupied zone--the zone around the oilfields. This is what we've been after all along, we dropped into Iraq to occupy it and to steal its oil--Oh, that's right, the crying Senator wants to be able to "go get those bastards who killed 3,000 Americans--I don't give a shit how many stupid soldiers have to die to do it; hell, I just barely got my wimpy old scaredy-cat ass out of having to go to Nam--shit, soldiers are scumbags anyway--dumb hicks from my home state--and hell, we're paying their asses good salaries over there and besides, when they get their asses blown to bits for the surge of Freedom on the March, their undeserving families get 10,000 smackeroos, and that ain't hay, folks--and the injured ones--hey, troopers, them's the hazards of war--besides blame the bleeding heart-half-commie Dumbocrats for wanting to bring you brave troops home before you're mission's accomplished. Hell, we know those towelhead bastards will follow us right on over here in our own backyards--why I saw a towelhead-looking terrerist in my backyard the other day delivering pizza to my hot wife--oops, that wasn't my wife, was it? Oh shit, here I go crying again."
Here's the Crybaby in Action--Thanks to BuzzFlash
John Boehner Breaks Down Again, Weeps Openly On House Floor During Iraq Debate
Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) broke down on the House floor today, sobbing uncontrollably as he urged his colleagues to vote in favor of the $100 billion Iraq war spending bill.
“Members on both sides of the aisle feel differently about our mission in Iraq and our chances of success there,” Boehner said, pausing to compose himself. As he continued, Boehner began to weep openly, crying out: “After 3,000 of our fellow citizens died at the hands of these terrorists, when are we going to stand up and take them on? When are we going to defeat them?” Watch it:
Boehner needs to channel his bottled up emotions towards a more worthy end — changing the course in Iraq rather than defending the status quo. Despite expressing limited patience and angst over Bush’s Iraq strategy, Boehner has been unable to put principle above party and demand a change in course.
In mid-February Boehner wept as he spoke about the need for a “solemn debate.” He then went to the House floor and proclaimed that escalation opponents were taking the “bait” of al Qaeda and using Iraq to “divide us here at home.”
A flashback to his last breakdown:
UPDATE: The Politico’s John Bresnahan writes: “While the issue was serious and somber, this is getting to be something of a habit for the Ohio Republican. One of his GOP colleagues noted that Boehner cries more often later in the day.”
Transcript:
BOEHNER: I know that there’s this — I know there are differences in this chamber. Members on both sides of the aisle who feel differently about our mission in Iraq and our chances of success there. I know when I came here and every two years since I’ve been here on the opening day we all stand here, we raise our right hands and swear to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States. There are a lot of my colleagues have heard me make this statement that I didn’t come here to be a congressman. I came here to do something. And I think at the top of our list is providing for the safety and security of the American people. That’s at the top of our list. After 3,000 of our fellow citizens died at the hands of these terrorists, when are we going to stand up and take them on? When are we going to defeat them? Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you, if we don’t do it now, and we don’t have the courage to defeat this enemy, we will long, long regret it. So thank you for the commitment to get the job done today.
And what about the innocent who are dying daily in our occupation of Afghanistan, another country who did nothing to us?--the Taliban were put in power by the CIA to fight against the Russkies, who warned us that if we went into Afghanistan we'd run into the same dead-end trouble they ran into there--and we put Bin Laden in Afghanistan and he's a CIA agent anyway, even NOW--and Prince Bandar Bush is behind all this recent Saudi involvement in our involvement in Iraq and Lebanon--it has to do with being a Sunni or a Shi'ite, or a Wasabe or a Jihadist or why not a world contemporary in terms of rethinking all our religions and their determination to make the world the eviliest place in this whole vast unknown and unexplored Universe, a Universe so much bigger than our petty gods, a Universe that cares not one speck of ice in Holy Hell about human beings or even about this Earth--Hey, our fellow human chimps, THIS EARTH IS OUR ONLY PARADISE! WAKE UP, DUMBASSES!
thestaff
for The Daily Growler
The Polls the Dumbocrats Never See
NYT poll: Opposition to war at all-time high.
“Americans now view the war in Iraq more negatively than at any time since the war began, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. Six in 10 Americans surveyed say the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, and more than three in four say that things are going badly there — including nearly half who say things are going very badly, the poll found.”
A large majority of the public — 76 percent, including a majority of Republicans — say that the additional American troops sent to Iraq this year by Mr. Bush have either had no impact or are making things worse there. Twenty percent think the troop increase is improving the situation in Iraq.
A majority of Americans continue to support a timetable for withdrawal. Sixty-three percent say the United States should set a date for withdrawing troops from Iraq sometime in 2008.
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