Just for once I'd like some good news.

I'll repeat that, because it is something I want clear.

Just for once, I'd like some good news.

Gas is at $3+ a gallon... again.
Bush is getting his way... again.
Subpoenas are being ignored... again.
Iraq is going to continue without a decided and committed end... again.

And the one little iota of celebration I had back this past November is making me feel like I've been seriously fucking betrayed. I thought, foolishly, that if we got back just ONE of the houses of Congress, we'd be able to insert a stick into the spokes of the runaway idiocy bicycle that we've been on lo' these past six or seven years. I thought we could do so much more that we got them BOTH. We. I said we. Because, as much as I find politicians of just about any leaning to be the ethical equivalent of a lawyer who sets a desk up outside of an emergency room, I do find some less odious than others. And when I said WE I meant WE, with us electing them to office, and them enacting the policies we hired them to enact.

But more than the enacting of policy, more than anything else, I wanted them to cast the angered glare of the people directly at the White House. Where there was a rubber stamp, now I wanted a boxing ring. Where there was an insidious comity, I wanted a righteous and brutal struggle. Eye of the tiger, baby. Eye of the tiger.

In short more than policy, I wanted them to be difficult. I didn't want them to play patty-cake. I wanted them to grab the microphone out of the mainstream media's hands and dare them to try and snatch it back. I wanted them to dominate every conversation. I wanted them to throw bill after bill across the President's desk, and dare him to veto each and every one. Yes, I use the word dare. Our illustrious President has avoided the incipient unpopularity associated with vetoing things designed to make things better for the people of a whole simply because nothing of the sort ever crossed his desk prior to this. I wanted that to change. I wanted to give him every opportunity to show, even to those unshakingly faithful to his cult of personality, just of what his character is made.

I wanted them to show him that there was no escaping the reality of that election: that if you don't act in the best interest of the American people, not only are you going down as the most awful President that ever sat in the Oval Office, but you'd take the whole of your party with you. And the people who sat through this and who still have energy enough to care, would make damn sure that every little thing you did to damage our faith in our system of governance would be undone, and that such intent would not be revisited for the next 50 years at the minimum.

I guess it's good to want things and not receive them? Builds character?

Well, people, I don't know about you, but right now I've got more 'character' than I can safely use.

The people we elected this last time around, with one cowardly act of... I can use no other word but APPEASEMENT, really..., have destroyed my impression that we'd accomplished a damn thing by electing any of them. Meanwhile kids half my age are still in Iraq, doing nothing except serving as another bit of empirical evidence to support the notion of the multiple utter philosophical and concrete fallacies this war represents... and all with no ticket home in the forseeable future.

I'd like to put out some open questions to our Congresspersonages, now that I have the floor:

We can wait until Bush is out of office to get a raise in the minimum wage, so WHY, WHY did you do this? Why are you, our elected representation, now that you've ensconced yourselves comfortably into your Capitol Hill offices, ignoring THE VERY ISSUES AND PEOPLE WE ELECTED YOU TO REPRESENT?

I have been a loyal Democrat for my entire voting life. Is this disappointment going to finally make me jump ship to some party that hasn't a snowball's chance in the fiery pit of ever exerting any influence other than 'spoiler', you know, just to give me a little of my pride back?

Tell ya what, you Undistinguished Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congress of our proud, if careworn, United States of America:

Give me some good news and make me proud, because if you screw up your job this time, you've fucked it up for good, as far as I'm concerned. I'm pretty sure I'm echoing a common sentiment.

RANT COMPLETE :rant:

:party: :toast: :loveya: :headbang:

:hi:

or the rifle?

I'm there with ya.
I like what Mike Malloy says, "There are four boxes to be used for change. Soap, Ballot, Jury, and Ammo. Use accordingly in that order. Well, we have used the jury box, we are in the soap box here, judges strike down jury decisions...so what are we left with? - a box of wine, or of whine?

Thomas Jefferson said that it is "OUR DUTY" to serve liberty by removing those that seek to harm it.

LINK: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x947543

I don't know if it counts as "good news", but I sure enjoyed it.

Recommended.