This clip should set the scene of how I feel about this:

south-park-democrats.mp3

The Republican Party sold out years ago; the Gingrich Revolution and the Contract On America was nothing more than a parcel of bullshit foisted on the American public. They, both the Revolution and the Contract, were nothing more than meaningless platitudes and empty words bent on, intentionally, undermining the Constitution and the Bill of Right.

The Republicans have been anti-American, by which I mean the American people, for decades. I expect them to act in the interests of the corrupt and the greedy. I expect them to legislate Old Testament, un-Christian “morality” all the while having a fetish for anal insertion of endangered species. I expect them to look out for their buddies and to push Special Interest bills, in the guise of corporate America and the certain foreign powers that push billions of dollars to the upper 1%, and millions of dollars to the remaining 9% of the top 10%, of the American economy on the backs of the poor and middle class working Americans.

I have those expectations and, to date, Republicans have met those expectations. Overwhelmingly.

The Democratic Party, I had been given to understand, actually stood for something important, something better and something more meaningful. Namely: the other 90% of Americans that work for a living and are doing their best to make ends meet. You know: the 90% of Americans that, regardless of party or religious affiliation, still think that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights mean something.

This clip often serves as a reminder of how the basic charter of the United States of America should be, but no longer is, revered and protected:

decindkirk.mp3

A few of the Democrats currently serving in the Congressional halls still believe this way, but not nearly enough. In the military, this is called a Failure of Leadership.

Democrats rolled over on the Bill of Rights last week by approving the FISA changes. In simple point of fact, that Democrats have failed, utterly, to reverse the destruction of Habeas Corpus since gaining tentative control of the federal Legislative branch is shameful and degenerate behavior.

What the FISA reorganization bill did, de jour if not de facto, was give the President, and his gang of simpering, degenerate sycophants a blanket pardon for criminal offenses and blatant violations of the Constitution and the rights and privileges contained therein.

The FISA court was set up expressly to limit the exact abuses by the executive branch and its cabinet organizations. The warrantless wiretapping, when lumped in with the unconstitutional suspension of Habeas Corpus, are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the single greatest (currently) successful attack on the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the history of this country.

When the law is broken at this level and to this extent, it is the responsibility, not only of the investigative processes of Congress, but the Department of Justice, to root out the facts of the crime and prosecute the perpetrators of those crimes. But, guess what? According to the New York Times:

The new law gives the attorney general and the director of national intelligence the power to approve the international surveillance, rather than the special intelligence court. The court’s only role will be to review and approve the procedures used by the government in the surveillance after it has been conducted. It will not scrutinize the cases of the individuals being monitored. LINK: HERE

Yeah, this guy.

Also strange in all this, as an aside, and according to the same article, is that lobbyists don’t like the change either. And not just any lobbyists: the lobbyist that are, at the same time, trying to restructure and restrict access to the internet.

Democratic Congressional aides said Sunday that some telecommunications company officials had told Congressional leaders that they were unhappy with that provision in the bill and might challenge the new law in court. The aides said the telecommunications companies had told lawmakers that they would rather have a court-approved warrant ordering them to comply. LINK: HERE

That Bush and Cheney deserve to be impeached and jailed is, in my mind, beyond question. When Nancy Pelosi said she wouldn’t seek impeachment, the political realist in me thought that, for various reasons, she had the right idea. Now I find her stance weak, ill-considered and relatively spineless.

Political expediency, making needed changes, repairing the damage of total Republican control of the Federal Government over the last 7 years all seemed to be good reasons to ignore impeachment and get some stuff done. Stuff, if you will, that may be beneficial to the health of my family, as opposed to the health of less than 1% of American families.
(Think about that for just a second, something like the “Dreaded Death Tax” concerns around 7,500 people in America. Out of over 300,000,000 people in America, 7,500 would have to pay the “Dreaded Death Tax.” How in the hell did this become one of the most debated topics in our Federal Government? )

Nixon, who is looking more and more like a chummy, slightly paranoid uncle and less and less like the dangerous narcissist he was, was involved in little more than the planning and cover-up of a break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic Party to come close to facing impeachment. The illegal bombing of Laos and Cambodia aside, Nixon just doesn’t rate his reputation anymore when compared to Bush/Cheney Administration.

Keeping their eyes on the prize, focusing on truth, justice and the American way, as defined by the Constitution of the United States of America and the Bill of Right, seemed a high, but marginally high, but acceptable, price to pay for ignoring impeachment. I was wrong as hell.

Pelosi and Reid should be ashamed that, under their leadership, they allowed something like the FISA changes to happen. They should be ashamed that they can’t whip enough votes to fully restore Habeas Corpus. They should be ashamed for not cutting the funding for the Vice President’s office when he claimed himself “Invisible Emperor of America”. They should be ashamed that they are looking in the other direction while the current occupiers of the White House continue their illegal attack on America. Anon, anon, ad nauseum.

I am disgusted, and saddened, and angry as hell.