Thirty Days in the Chair

At least that's what I would get if I tried to pull some of this crap. I truly believe there exists some high minded ideal of public service. To perform for the public good and serve in a way that makes the majority of the peoples lives better. To be a good steward of the public treasury and insure at all times to get the maximum benefit of tax dollars. A lot of people work very hard to earn a living--I'm talking about people who shower after they get off work.

We do not now have good stewards of the publics treasury. There has always been "a few bad apples", but this seems to be a systemic process, rife with corruption on a massive scale. The missing $8 Billion dollars in Iraq for example--dismissed as an "accounting thing". Now I realize $8 billion dollars is a lot of money, please remember, this was not a wire transfer or something like that, this came in on pallets, so much money, in fact, it could be visible from outer space. But still, this pales in comparison to the $22 Billion that was supposed to reduce our deficit, but was given back to the Health Insurance Agency, in a closed door session with House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif) Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R. Iowa) and their staffers. No Democrats allowed-which probably pisses off Russert and tweety.

Meanwhile we have thousands of seasoned citizens looking at the new Medicare 2.0 program like a bull looking at a new gate. You can almost hear the Jeopardy soundtrack playing in their heads as someone tries to explain it to them. In reality it's a three card monte with no queen at all. Whose interests were being represented as this version was being hammered out? Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House Leader is trying to figure that out. Apparently she doesn't know because the Dem's didn't have full access to the drafting of this legislation. She certainly has some strong suspicions about the monkey business and has sent a letter to the Republicans asking for an investigation. It's a good read and I recommend it.

Meanwhile, George of the Bungle is spying willy-nilly on anyone he wants to without any oversight saying it's legal. Didn't Nixon have that same defense? But Glenn Greenwald, who blogs over at Unclaimed Territory has been severly weakening abu Gonzales's arguments. Seem's somebody tried to amend the FISA law a couple of times back in '02 to lower the burden for warrants but the Administrations positions were a.) we have no problem with the statute as it is with the 72 hour retro application as is provided in the patriot act. b.) the lower burden proposed probably wouldn't pass constitutional muster and c.) Warrants? We don't need no stinking warrants! (Well, okay, I just added that last part because, as is now clear, they were already spying in '01 outside of FISA.)

What to do, What to do. Thank God for the Fourth Estate. Surely our MSM will climb up on top of these outrages with a megaphone and demand a reckoning for these wrongs. I wouldn't count on it though as Media Matters points out the response on the NSA thing alone has been flaccid at the very least. The libera media just hammered Clinton for a money losing land deal known as Whitewater for years, but check out a comparison of the Warrantless Domestic Spying Program and Whitewater news stories here.

No, the answer is not to rely on they and them. Get involved with your local Democratic organization. If you have a Republican running for re-election in '06 he or she is probably dirty. A nice and inexpensive tool to use is a four page newspaper tabloid. Lay it out with a positive agenda for your candidate: If elected I will do this and this and this, along with family and personal info. Contrast this with the Culture of Corruption the opponent is associated with; has engaged in. Print enough of these for the entire district, not just registered Democrats likely to vote. Be inclusive and try to expand the base. Get an army of volunteers to hand deliver these to each house. Then do it again. Then do it again. With different tabloids each time naturally. You will find you have so much room to work with on a tab page. This is a lot of hard work but it can be done and it is very effective. I've done it several times myself. Try it out and let me know of your progress.