wkmac
Well-Known Member
Well, the Congress bugged out yesterday until after the elections in 5 plus weeks and as I listened to various news reports yesterday and personal pontificating by the so-called Inside Beltway experts my ears did perk at one interesting tidbit given as fact. I haven't confirmed this so thus the "given as fact" remark but according to one news source and I think it was Lou Dobbs on CNN, the Congress so far this year has only been in session a total of 93 working days. If my math is correct, today is the 273rd day of the year and theses clowns have only worked a 3rd of it so far and by the time the year is out that worked day fraction will actually shrink even further. I know, I should shut up when I think of the even more damage they could do if they worked more!
Our country faces many important and serious issues and granted my politics would have the Congress not work 10 days a year but with the current system, it's structure and situation that is not a reality. Many of the serious problems we face are in fact such because this very august body created them in the first place only to require ever continuing maintenance and thus propelling their own need and their own position of manipulation for elective effect. Thus the old adage, "Tax Tax Tax! Spend Spend Spend! Elect Elect Elect!" Thanks to the late Larry McDonald for that insight and the quote.
12 years ago in 1994' we saw a major political shift in this country concerning the Congress when the Republicans gained control of that body after sitting on the outside looking in for what seemed like forever or to hear them tell it, it was. I think the major reason for the shift at that time was if you look back it seemed like the democrats were being rocked by scandal after scandal from Speaker Wright to Rostenkowski and the House post office scandal. There were others in minor scale but these 2 were very high profile. Now those in the democratic camp would holler political foul and they would assert this all done under a witch hunt and they have a point but this ain't Sunday School boys and girls, this is grown up hardball. It you ain't willing to run with the big dogs, don't come off the porch. The 94' elections swept in the republicans in a house cleaning attitude of the American electorate to remove what they percieved as scandal riddled lowlifes who were unwilling to listen to their voters.
Now fast forward to the fall of 2006' and 12 years of republican Congressional control and for the last 6 years Republican control of the 2 major branches of gov't and some would argue all 3 because of SCOTUS seatings but we'll only focus for now on the primary 2 branches that set law and public policy. Over the last several years it now seems the republicans, not one to be outdone by democrats for Pete's sake, have also had their fairshare of scandals, from obvious monetary profitteering, to consolidation of personal power through backdoor manipulation to the news of yesterday and the Rep. Foley and inapproapiate underage sexual misbehavoriors as it relates to a male Congressional Page and how large it is only time will tell. Will it involve others? I'm even scared to answer that question as a result of what my gut feeling tells me.
In other words folks, Washington DC has just flat become a cesspool IMO and they are totally absorbed with themselves. The democrats help majority power for a time to only be corrupted by that power and the voters finally reacted in some fashion. Now the republicans enter the majority seat and like the democrats in that position over time they have their own corruption and scandals. See a trend here folks?
They only are concerned with us when it comes time to enter the ballot box and here is where I'm headed but not in ways you might think. Most Americans as polls will show tend to find much fault with someone else's Congressman or Senator but rarely with their own. I guess you just tend to get use to a certain brand of bacon! We no longer have the luxury IMO of select targeting the bad apples hoping to change the system as a whole. It just hasn't worked.
On election day, just vote against any incumbent period. Are there some folks going down with this method that I don't want to see go down? Absolutely, like Rep. Ron Paul of Texas who IMO although a Republican by party is a top solid Libertarian and a former Libertarian Party Presidental candidate. But I would gladly unseat him if in the process it meant overturning ever seat up for election in this country. Would this mean the republicans would lose control of the Congress? Yep! Haven't looked at the number since only 1/3 of the senate is up so depending on the numbers the same could be true of the Senate. Another real boost to the entire process would be if you could elect ANY 3rd party candidate and whatever party makes no difference at this point. In fact the best possible sceanrio would be that no single party holds majority power because in any of the above suggested exercise the idea is to finally force Washington into a reality check.
They no longer fear us or even consider us as nothing more than airhead idiots who stand there like leemings every 2 or 4 years and just do the same thing in the voting booth again and again. All they have to do is get in position that they are the only one we listen too when told how to proceed. By showing them that we aren't afraid to turn over the apple cart from time to time, we may just be able in some way to recapture some of the responsible gov't we once had. In my own district, we have no 3rd party candidate for Congress and neither Senator is up for re-election but on election day I'll do what I haven't done since the 1984 election and that is vote for one of the 2 major party candidates to be my Congressman and in this case it will be a democrat and yes I will hold my nose hoping to hold back the gag reflex which would be the same if I were voting for the republican incumbent so there you go!
Think about the reaction if the entire Congressional body was overturned in 1 election. Man, Washington and the so-called experts would be reduced to globs of nothing overnight. Think of the lobbyist on K-Street and all the money spent on folks on their way out instead of back into power for their benefit! Yee-Haww!
We don't have the guts or courage our founding fathers did of dumping tea in a harbor or meetings the empirical forces on our own Lexington Green face to face with guns at the ready but this is about just as good in a civil society. Jefferson once said that revolution from time to time was good and even healthy to a people and nation and I can think of no better way to revolt than to vote against incumbents. Beyond that, I see that we have no hope, the ship will only sink further over time and our children and children's children will pay dearly because of our cowardess. They will curse us and spit on our graves and rightly so!
JMHO
Our country faces many important and serious issues and granted my politics would have the Congress not work 10 days a year but with the current system, it's structure and situation that is not a reality. Many of the serious problems we face are in fact such because this very august body created them in the first place only to require ever continuing maintenance and thus propelling their own need and their own position of manipulation for elective effect. Thus the old adage, "Tax Tax Tax! Spend Spend Spend! Elect Elect Elect!" Thanks to the late Larry McDonald for that insight and the quote.
12 years ago in 1994' we saw a major political shift in this country concerning the Congress when the Republicans gained control of that body after sitting on the outside looking in for what seemed like forever or to hear them tell it, it was. I think the major reason for the shift at that time was if you look back it seemed like the democrats were being rocked by scandal after scandal from Speaker Wright to Rostenkowski and the House post office scandal. There were others in minor scale but these 2 were very high profile. Now those in the democratic camp would holler political foul and they would assert this all done under a witch hunt and they have a point but this ain't Sunday School boys and girls, this is grown up hardball. It you ain't willing to run with the big dogs, don't come off the porch. The 94' elections swept in the republicans in a house cleaning attitude of the American electorate to remove what they percieved as scandal riddled lowlifes who were unwilling to listen to their voters.
Now fast forward to the fall of 2006' and 12 years of republican Congressional control and for the last 6 years Republican control of the 2 major branches of gov't and some would argue all 3 because of SCOTUS seatings but we'll only focus for now on the primary 2 branches that set law and public policy. Over the last several years it now seems the republicans, not one to be outdone by democrats for Pete's sake, have also had their fairshare of scandals, from obvious monetary profitteering, to consolidation of personal power through backdoor manipulation to the news of yesterday and the Rep. Foley and inapproapiate underage sexual misbehavoriors as it relates to a male Congressional Page and how large it is only time will tell. Will it involve others? I'm even scared to answer that question as a result of what my gut feeling tells me.
In other words folks, Washington DC has just flat become a cesspool IMO and they are totally absorbed with themselves. The democrats help majority power for a time to only be corrupted by that power and the voters finally reacted in some fashion. Now the republicans enter the majority seat and like the democrats in that position over time they have their own corruption and scandals. See a trend here folks?
They only are concerned with us when it comes time to enter the ballot box and here is where I'm headed but not in ways you might think. Most Americans as polls will show tend to find much fault with someone else's Congressman or Senator but rarely with their own. I guess you just tend to get use to a certain brand of bacon! We no longer have the luxury IMO of select targeting the bad apples hoping to change the system as a whole. It just hasn't worked.
On election day, just vote against any incumbent period. Are there some folks going down with this method that I don't want to see go down? Absolutely, like Rep. Ron Paul of Texas who IMO although a Republican by party is a top solid Libertarian and a former Libertarian Party Presidental candidate. But I would gladly unseat him if in the process it meant overturning ever seat up for election in this country. Would this mean the republicans would lose control of the Congress? Yep! Haven't looked at the number since only 1/3 of the senate is up so depending on the numbers the same could be true of the Senate. Another real boost to the entire process would be if you could elect ANY 3rd party candidate and whatever party makes no difference at this point. In fact the best possible sceanrio would be that no single party holds majority power because in any of the above suggested exercise the idea is to finally force Washington into a reality check.
They no longer fear us or even consider us as nothing more than airhead idiots who stand there like leemings every 2 or 4 years and just do the same thing in the voting booth again and again. All they have to do is get in position that they are the only one we listen too when told how to proceed. By showing them that we aren't afraid to turn over the apple cart from time to time, we may just be able in some way to recapture some of the responsible gov't we once had. In my own district, we have no 3rd party candidate for Congress and neither Senator is up for re-election but on election day I'll do what I haven't done since the 1984 election and that is vote for one of the 2 major party candidates to be my Congressman and in this case it will be a democrat and yes I will hold my nose hoping to hold back the gag reflex which would be the same if I were voting for the republican incumbent so there you go!
Think about the reaction if the entire Congressional body was overturned in 1 election. Man, Washington and the so-called experts would be reduced to globs of nothing overnight. Think of the lobbyist on K-Street and all the money spent on folks on their way out instead of back into power for their benefit! Yee-Haww!
We don't have the guts or courage our founding fathers did of dumping tea in a harbor or meetings the empirical forces on our own Lexington Green face to face with guns at the ready but this is about just as good in a civil society. Jefferson once said that revolution from time to time was good and even healthy to a people and nation and I can think of no better way to revolt than to vote against incumbents. Beyond that, I see that we have no hope, the ship will only sink further over time and our children and children's children will pay dearly because of our cowardess. They will curse us and spit on our graves and rightly so!
JMHO
