This Good Life

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good Night

I know everyone has heard it a million times this week.  You can't ignore the overwhelming fact that the Democratic Party took control of the House and the Senate this week.  Unless you are living in Kansas. They can ignore facts in Kansas. I can't let this moment pass without chiming in with my own opinions.  I went out and voted on Tuesday night, even though voting in this part of Texas for a Democrat has the same noticeable effect as pissing into the Trinity River.  Actually, I think the Trinity River is predominately piss right now, but I digress.  I spent the evening watching returns, and then the Internet the next day.  And the next day.  I was truly worried that it would be December before we found out what was happening, but yesterday George Allen conceded in Virginia, and it happened.  Dems took over.

Now, I was raised a Democrat, and I have very liberal views, but my joy over this election isn't about agendas or political parties.  Its about power and control.  The Bush administration came into power in an election where they lost the popular vote, and won the electoral college after going before the Supreme Court to win Florida, a state where Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush worked tenaciously to ensure a favorable outcome for Bush.  The entire thing hinged on around 537 votes.

So, with more than half of the country voting against him and a divided nation, Bush proceed to ignore the Democratic party (and incidentally all the constituents they represent) and move forward with an agenda regardless of what the people wanted.  The Congress, who is a check to Executive power, was controlled by Republicans, and since the country was divided they also simply ignored their Democratic equals across the aisle, and rubber stamped every request and legislation that was passed down from the White House.  See, it should be congress making laws, and the President either vetoing them or signing them, but instead Bush decided what should be law and just sent it to Congress as a technicality.

Then there was the whole 9/11 thing, which Bush used to remind Americans on a daily basis that they should be very afraid and ignore whatever he was doing that they might not like.  War, blah blah blah.  We've heard it all.

Just two weeks ago, the President stated that voting for Democrats was the same as supporting terrorists.  Well, now its time for his comeuppance.  I firmly believe that with a Congress that actually makes the President accountable, Bush will accomplish nothing because of his ineptitude in leadership.  Clinton, who was reviled by Republicans and had to deal with a Republican Congress for 6 years still accomplished welfare reform, minimum wage increase, created a budget surplus and so much more.  You may not like the increased minium wage, but he got it done for the benefit of alot of people.    Leadership is the ability to unite differing people and opinions and still accomplish things.  Anyone can accomplish something when they have no accountability and can act without controls.

Democrats are in power and angry, and no matter what else they accomplish, they will light a fire under the political process.  Anyone think Bush is going to suddenly become an uniting leader who inspires?  They say pollution creates beautiful sunsets.  I'm getting my marshmallows ready to watch the MF'er burn up in a blaze of infamy, and the amount of shit that will be ignited should result in the aurora borealis shining down in Dallas.

Can you picture that?

We Have Lost Our Rights, and No One Cares

I read an article a couple of months ago where the author criticized Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" for spending so much time talking about Bush.  The general idea was that by spending so much time pointing out Bush's ineptitude and flat out violations, "The Daily Show" was cheapening themselves and not reporting on real issues.

The problem is that Bush does something more outrageous every day, so TDS has no choice but to continue covering him.  There are other voices crying out as well, and they are much more serious than a news comedy show.  For years people have been warning the public about what the Bush administration is doing, but it has been largely ignored, or at best treated with disdain as "activist" opinions and not something really serious.  Well, your hard work of ignoring what is going on and staying silent has paid off, and not surprisingly, it isn't in your favor.  Yesterday, Bush signed a law that suspends habeas-corpus for "enemy combatants".  It's been framed as a bill to fight terrorism, and had been wrapped up in a variety of other jingoistic phrases to ensure you again don't think about it, and if anyone speaks out against the law, they can be shouted down as un-american or soft on terrorism.  The law says that the government can arrest any person, citizen or non-citizen, detain them secretly without telling anyone where they are, why they have been arrested or give them the ability to challenge their detention, and they can be detained as long as a tribunal of people appointed by the president says they should be detained.  Also, you can be tortured as long as it doesn't cause "serious" physical or mental damage, and "serious" is also defined by the president or his administration.

So to sum up, the executive branch decides who is an enemy, decides who can be arrested, decides how long they will keep them, decides how they will be treated, and decides who should know about it.  They have done away with every check and balance that was put into place after a Revolution to fight a king who had less power of detention than our president just gave himself today.  After all, King George III had to answer to parliment.

Oh, but you have nothing to worry about according to the President, because this is actually helping you.  See, you can trust the government.  They will never abuse their power.  Plus, we are only taking rights away from "bad" people, and they didn't deserve rights to begin with.  Trust the government to know who should have rights and who shouldn't.  Its not like there are rights that should be universal to all humans, to ensure that the innocent are protected from the powerful.  I mean, if you are arrested, you obviously did something wrong or you wouldn't have been arrested, so the rules shouldn't apply to you.  If you aren't upsetting the government, you have nothing to worry about.  And in the end, isn't that what freedom is?  Elected officials telling you what you need and how you will live.  Freedom is being able to buy Big Macs and SUV's, not avoiding unlawful search and seizure.  I mean really, who needs that right?  Only bad people don't want to be searched, so we can do away with that one, right?

 

Still, after all of this, I guarantee you there will be even louder cries that people who are speaking out against this are just overreacting Cassandra's, but our country has locked people up because of their race (Japanese, 1940's), had government organized attempts to deny people their rights (blacks, 1900's), tortured, had presidents engage in crime (Nixon), and all of this happened when we were still speaking up for our rights.  What will happen when we don't even have those protections?

This is a dark time in our history.  We have taken 200+ years of democracy, and with one signature, erased all of our ancestors sacrifices.  So, will you sit by and still do nothing?  Say nothing?  Will you keep your head buried in the sand and just let it all happen?  Each day is a step down a path from which there is no turning back.  At this moment we are at a fork in the road, and have turned off the path of democracy to a path of authoritarianism.  Your leaders are not going to give power back to you, so you have only two choices:

1. You stand up and take your power back through the system that has sustained us and protected us against tyranny.  You cry out with your voice, your actions, and your vote while you still can, and remind the government that the power they wield is on loan from the people, and they are sworn to protect that power so that it can be passed from generation to generation in freedom.

2.  Do nothing.  Sit and watch the inevitable collapse.  No one is standing up for their rights now when it is easy, do you think they will suffer for your rights in the future?  Then you will have the unlucky fortune to rise up and attempt to water the tree of liberty.

Tyranny is not an enemy from afar, it is absolute power in the hands of one of your own.  Thousands of years of human history has taught us that power corrupts, and the goal of democracy is to keep that power out of the hands of just one person or one group.  Our leaders say they fight a war in another country for freedom, yet deny that freedom at any time as they see fit to anyone they choose.  This is your legacy.  Will you defend freedom for all, or let power choose at their whim who is free?

P.S.  Bush also reminds us that space belongs to America, so we'll decide who can or can't be up there.

The Spirits that Control Us

Today, congressman Bob Ney (Rep) plead guilty to corruption charges.  These charges stem from Mr. Ney taking money from lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for using his position in congress to benefit Mr. Abramoff's clients.  So basically, his power and votes were for sale, and Mr. Abramoff bought them.

While this is morally reprehensible, it isn't the reason I'm writing this entry.  This also isn't being written because Ney (a rich white man) who was facing a possible 10 years in jail for abusing his power instead will likely get 27 months.  (See previous Bennett entry for outrage.)  And I'm definitely not writing this entry because Congressman Ney still is a member of congress, still collects his salary, and once sentanced, will report at a date he and his lawyer arrange, to ensure going to jail is convenient.  The reason for this entry is a line I have seen all to much recently when politicians are caught committing crimes.  One article states that, "a dependence on alcohol was a factor in his loss of a moral compass", and a second article stated, "It was his first public appearance since quietly entering an alcohol rehabilitation program last month."

That fucking pisses me off.  I am so angry I can't even express it.  Mark Foley did the same thing when accused of inappropriate dealings with underage male pages.  It was the alcohol that made them do it.  Fuck them, and fuck their alcohol dependency.  Even if I believe that they were both alcoholics, it didn't make you do these things.  If you are a self-centered prick with no morals when you are drunk, you are the same when you are sober.  Drugs and alcohol don't change who you are, they amplify it.  For these politicians to check into alcohol rehab while saying, "I take responsibility for my actions" is the ultimate hypocrisy.  You don't take responsibility, you are using the specter of addiction to gain sympathy and as rationale for your actions.  This insults every person who has been seriously affected by theirs or a family member's addiction. 

Ney, you didn't hit your wife once when you were drunk, you took bribes over and over.  You had no moral compass to begin with.  You stood in front of millions of people and asked them to give you their collective power because you would use it to make a difference in their lives and uphold their freedoms, and instead you sold that power to the highest bidder to make your life more comfortable.  It wasn't the alcohol.  You allowed your love of yourself and love of power to corrupt you.  Everyone knows power corrupts, so be a man and just stand up and say, "I was seduced by power and abused it.  It happened to me, and its happening to other powerful people, so remember my failings."  Then you would at least keep your honor like a man, and allow your failings to become a wake up call for citizens.  But instead you still can't get past your own self absorption and offer up alcohol as an explanation of how such a wonderful person like yourself could have gone so astray.  If you want to really help yourself, stop taking your salary, give up all of your money, and get a job at Home Depot.  Learn some fucking humility. 

And the real problem with this is that Bob Ney isn't the only person in the Congress, or the Senate or any other part of government who is doing this.  Corruption like this is rampant in our system, from the people in DC to local police officers.  It always has been, and frankly, it always will be, but that doesn't mean we have to accept it.  Instead, we should punish these people more severely when caught.  By allowing these people to use alcohol as a scapegoat just continues to hide the fact that corruption is a serious problem and needs to be dealt with seriously.

But I guess not as seriously as a black man with 3 oz. of pot.  When it comes to justice, you gotta have priorities.

Criticize the VP, Go To Jail...No, Really

I sometimes feel that my overwhelming fear of our current administration and the overreaching powers of the executive branch is just paranoia.  When people get power they abuse it, and our Constitution is set up to ensure the protection of the people and limit the power of government.  But maybe I'm all wrong about these people.  Maybe they aren't gaining power in order to put the American people under their thumb and use their power to abuse our freedoms and keep us afraid in order to stay in power.  Myaybe they just are looking out for us, like a strict but honest parent.

Then Dick Cheney has the Secret Service arrest a man who criticized him to his face for assaulting the Vice President.  Nope, its not paranoia, its reality.  I just don't know what to say anymore.  If this isn't the final straw to you show why need to limit the power of our executive branch, then you don't know what democracy is.

To Be a Pig, Or Not To Be a Pig

There was a great clip on The Daily Show the other day regarding Pres. Bush and swine.  Bush was having a press conference with Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany.  This press conference took place just after Israel bombed Lebanon, hugely escalating tensions in the Middle East.  With this very serious event unfolding, Bush's statements involved some basic thanks yous, and the great quote,

"  I'm looking forward to the feast you're going to have tonight.  I understand I may have the honor of slicing the pig."

Some vague discussion of America and Germany's non-stance on a variety of issues followed, and was capped off with:

"And I guess that's about all -- we discussed a lot of things, in other words.  And thank you for having me.  I'm looking forward to that pig tonight."

The pig was mentioned five times in all, including the most important exchange of all:

"Q    On both of these. Does it concern you that the Beirut airport has been bombed?  And do you see a risk of triggering a wider war?

And on Iran, they've, so far, refused to respond.  Is it now past the deadline, or do they still have more time to respond?

PRESIDENT BUSH:  I thought you were going to ask me about the pig.

Q    I'm curious about that, too.  (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT BUSH:  The pig?  I'll tell you tomorrow after I eat it."

Ah, the humor never ends.  To read all of the rambling non-responses to a variety of questions, you can see the transcript, but if you want to see in just four seconds how inappropriate our president is, take a look at this video of President Bush attempting to give Chancellor Merkel a massage.  Its in German, so just click the link in the video box.

I mean seriously, he was elected President, but I don't remember signing the permission slip to let him leave the country.  She's the fucking Chancellor of Germany, not the waitress at TGI Friday's.  One of the most powerful women in the world, in a room full of diplomats and leaders, and our President has the audacity to try and give her a massage?  WTF?  Who is this guy?  If you pulled that stunt with your secretary, it would be harrasment.  Its because its demeaning, especially in front of others.  Was he just trying to help her relax?  She's the fucking leader of Germany, she doesn't need your help to relax.  There are plenty of people who will rub her shoulders if she asks.  What she and the rest of the world wants is for you to pull your head out of your ass, and actually be a leader.  Not a "decider", but actually be a leader.  Be a representative and speak for the people.  Don't embarrass us and do whatever the hell you want. 

Presidents have been elected to speak for the people, not instead of.  Everyone reading this, no matter which side of the line you stand on issues, remember that next time you vote.  You are voting for a person who will represent you to the entire world.  And this time, this is what you got.  Try and do a little better next time.