Congress must recuse itself!

There is clearly a conflict of interest in the struggle to clean corruption out of Congress. The voters flipped the majority/minority status in 2006 and, incidentally, "flipped a bird" at the GOP. Clearly, they voted AGAINST the republicans (maybe more than they voted FOR the democrats). Unfortunately, some of the Dems have behaved as Bush did in 2004, when he erroneously said he had been "given a mandate to govern". No, Dems, you were given not a "mandate", but a golden opportunity. And I'm asking you now: Why you are wasting it?

Dear Federal Officeholder:

Part of the reason why you are wasting it is because many of the votes on critical issues involved, directly or indirectly, corporations that contributed to your campaign (or from whom you want contributions, in the future). It's difficult to bite the hand that feeds you, isn't it? Or at least the hand that fills your campaign coffers. How do you vote "for" a bill that will go "against" an entity that has given you thousands and thousands of dollars? If you think that we believe, for one second, that the money came to you because they REALLY like you, or that your centrist or populist stand agrees with their own, think again, Mr&Ms Democrat! We know too well that they want something from you, something that they can't buy in the general marketplace: access to power. Not ordinary power but power to change laws, exemptions from rules/regulations, access to government contracts, phony public perception, even forgiveness. And if we didn't know about this before, the GOP has taught us this lesson, nearly every day, for more than ten years. The earmarks, the under-the-table deals, the "scratch my back...", Abramoff/DeLay/Ney/Cunningham felons (three in prison; one to go) and the Hunter/Feeney investigations that are heating up - well, consider this our "learning curve".

So, how can Congress clean up the House and Senate? We've proposed term limits - you didn't like that. You passed McCain/Feingold - since that was just "altered" by the neocon SCOTUS, ask the Senate how it happened; the history books will be all over that for the next century. You've made little bleats about controlling the lobbyists - but none of your little twitches will "muck out the stables" one damned bit! Asking the members of Congress to police themselves is like asking Larry Flynt to become a censor. (Sincere apologies for using your name, Mr. Flynt. Your grasp of freedom of speech issues exceeds that of 5/9ths of the SCOTUS!)

My point is this: running for re-election every two (or four or six) years, you have a vested interest in getting money wherever and however you can, subject to Federal Election regulations. (By the way, the FEC only provides transparency; the corrupting influence of money is still rampant. And don't think we haven't noticed that nifty little "money-laundering" trick you guys perform! It's illegal to use your PAC money on your campaigns. So, in order to "clean" it, you give money from your PAC to another politician's campaign war chest who is happy to "scratch your back" in return. That is shameful! Did you learn that from Hot-TubTom?) It seems your life revolves around your next election - but NOT doing the People's Bidding. When your money comes from BigBizness, but you campaign to be elected by "the mythical LittlePeople", you are hoist upon your own petard. You are like a faithless mistress...or, even, like a "mole", secretly planted to implement nefarious schemes...

My remedy is simple: Recuse yourselves on this issue. You can't be trusted to do it. Let us vote on Election/Campaign/Lobbying reform. Let We the People decide how, and how thoroughly, Congress should be cleaned.

We know how hard this struggle will be; it's always difficult to deny your sweethearts' their heart's desires. Let us do it for you. Let us finance your campaigns, with our own tax dollars. We'll tell the media that they can't gouge you (us!) and reap obscene profits every other year (something they've grown so dependent on, it's become an "election cycle entitlement program"!), many of whom already get their licenses to broadcast on our dime, anyway.

But you will have to accept something that will cause you real pain: we'll level the playing field, so that challengers have a better chance against the "tyranny of the incumbency" (read: bloated war chest). It'll be your voting record, your ideas and ideals against someone else's, duking it out on the campaign trail and in the voting booth.

Whaddya say? Will you do it for the good of the country? Can you stop thinking about yourself and your party, and remember the oath you took to our Constitution? They're not "merely words", you know. It's not "just a god-damned piece of paper", to quote President Godsend. It is, by far, the strongest piece of paper ever written by Man and for Man - not just man and corporation.

Put it to a vote of the people. Let us show you how to make a better and stronger America.

Wow! My first tag!

I must be the most unpopular blogger around - I've been reading "tag posts" for about two years and this is the first time for me, making me a virgin no more. Tag-cherry is busted! But Stardust, of Stardust Musings and Thoughts for the Freethinker, having received her second tag, finally thought of me. Read this full post for my thoughts, and some guidance courtesy of another blogger...

First, as instructed, the rules:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.

2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.

4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Okay, here goes:

1. I am so fucking depressed about America's future. Some days, I am practically paralyzed with grief and fear. This makes me almost bi-polar while reading the bad reports and stumbling across nuggets of good news. I've turned into a "voodoo priestess", reading portents, omens and America's Future in chickenshit-journalism's entrails.

2. I lie about my weight. Just little lies. I really weigh (by my scale) 193 pounds (without clothes, and after emptying my bladder first thing after waking up). I do this every day, the same way everyday, hoping that I haven't gained back more of the weight I've lost in the last year. FYI: my scale is actually four pounds less that the beam-scale at the clinic. Fuck! 197 pounds...although, like weight-obsessed people everywhere, I tell myself a) I'm wearing clothes and shoes now, and b) I have eaten and drank since my morning weigh-in.

3. I am worried about my "baby sister". Seriously worried. She flirts on-line with UK men who think she's from the UK. She is now obsessed with the idea of going to the UK for sex. I tell her how dangerous this may be, but she dismisses my concerns. (FYI: she's 47 and was recently "downsized"; with plans to take the summer off, she's on-line the whole time her husband is at work.) This doesn't help my feelings that the whole world is screwed up badly.

4. I'm supposed to be looking for a job. But I'm suffering from acute "interview anxiety", a form of stage-fright. At bottom: being 61 sucks!

5. I spend too much time on-line myself. I think I'm afraid of missing a "portent". This started on Election-Night 2006; I didn't go to bed until 8AM, when I posted Pelosi's picture, as incoming House Speaker, on Martian.Anthropologist and then succumbed to my exhaustion. Why did I do this? I'm like the "control-freak that keeps the plane in the air". My job that night, in 2006, was to avert what happened in 2000 and, again, in 2004: I went to bed with "Dem victory in the bag" but when I got up the next morning, GOP thieves had stolen the bag. You don't need to thank me - I was happy to do it!

6. It's becoming more of an issue with me that I never finished college. And please don't tell me that it's never too late. It just is.

7. More body issues: losing weight may have helped some conditions, but it's left me with a body that can never even wear shorts, much less a bathing suit. It'll take a lot of money for the plastic surgery needed to remove the loose skin. Clothed - looking better. Naked - looking much worse. Reuben's had a lovely idea. (*sigh*)

8. I do love to drive. Still. Since I got my first license 45 years ago, I've wanted to hit the road. I was lucky to find truck driving; for the first time in my life, I had found some way to make money doing something I am totally mad for!

9. Bonus#1: I wish I had the discipline to write a novel (I have enough ideas for ten or more) and/or a screenplay. I'm good with the ideas; bad with the follow-through. I'm good with expressing ideas; bad with sitting down to do it. And easily distracted...

10. Bonus#2: I hate housecleaning! Hate it! Cubed! Some time in my teens, I rejected the idea of "homemaker". I was rejecting my mother, too. I didn't want to be like her in any way/shape/form. Nuh-uh! I made it - but I'm no happier than she was...

You'll notice that there are ten, when only eight was commanded. I'm with the Sacred Slut at A Whore in the Temple of Reason - I hate chain letters, too. She stopped hers after she posted her allotment - and so will I.

I'm thinking of adding this to my banner: "Tagging is prohibited!"

I love Glenn Greenwald!

Richard Cohen thinks that I.Lewis "Scooter" Libby was unfairly treated and blames the "vast left-wing conspiracy"!

Greenwald, in Salon, lays out the whole "left-wing" list of players. It's too delicious!

The Libby prosecution clearly was the dirty work of the leftist anti-war movement in this country, just as Cohen describes. After all, the reason Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed to investigate this matter was because a left-wing government agency (known as the "Central Intelligence Agency") filed a criminal referral with the Justice Department, as the MoveOn-sympathizer CIA officials were apparently unhappy about the public unmasking of one of their covert agents.

In response, Bush's left-wing anti-war Attorney General, John Ashcroft, judged the matter serious enough to recuse himself, leading Bush's left-wing anti-war Deputy Attorney General, James Comey, to conclude that a Special Prosecutor was needed. In turn, Comey appointed Fitzgerald, the left-wing anti-war Republican Prosecutor and Bush appointee, who secured a conviction of Libby, in response to which left-wing anti-war Bush appointee Judge Reggie Walton imposed Libby's sentence.

Sorry, Cohen, that left-wing bird won't fly...