Friday, July 27, 2007

Making Up for Lost Time

Preface: Here's a blog post that takes on the argument from the opposing camp, particularly in response to that ridiculous talking point that Congress is not doing anything. It explains why Congress must and is trying valiantly to reclaim its oversight role. The obstructionist Republicans now dramatically resist the call for an up or down vote - their perpetual cry during the years when the Democratic minority yielded the power of filibuster - suddenly, the Repubs have remembered the filibuster and glommed onto it like a drowning man grabs onto a water weenie. Did the Democrats pull out the filibuster when Alito was rammed through the Senate? No, the Republicans countered with the "Nuclear Option" (in effect, taking away the filibuster as a procedural tool). That threat apparently scared the Dems into submission. I, for one, wish that the Dems had called the Repubs' bluff and let them do away with the filibuster. If they'd had any faith in the electorate, they might have found the spine to let the Republicans take away this powerful procedural tool and live to see the day when that decision would come back and bite them in the ass. Now that the tables are turned, the Dems have too much decorum to threaten to take away the filibuster. Why is that? Just wondering....

I am sick and tired of hearing the right-wing talking point (mentioned on air again this morning on the Stephanie Miller Show by one of Stephie's right-wing love muffins) that the public approval rating for congress is hovering around the same low numbers as the president. Never mind the fact that I guess, poco a poco, folks are beginning to understand what is really going on and the trend is that the congressional number is beginning to climb while the president's number continues to fall. In my humble opinion, it is quite clear why the Congress has been launching investigation after investigation, issuing subpoenas after subpoenas, in a nutshell they have once again gotten back to a very core principle of their duty - OVERSIGHT. Our government works primarily because the founders designed a tripartite system that is made up of three branches of government, namely the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. One of the functions of all three branches that the founders imagined would ensure that this country would never become a tyrannical dictatorship was oversight of the other two branches by the third branch. This is a paramount responsibility of each branch of our federal system, but it is a responsibility that was largely ignored since the 107th Congress took an oath to uphold the Constitution - in 2001 - ushering in the George W. Bush presidency. We are now in the 110th Congress and we finally have seated enough representatives and senators from the opposition party that oversight is back on the agenda in congress. If you ask me, it's not a moment too soon. We've had six years of unchecked actions by an executive branch that has one of the most delusional and expansive visions of its reign in modern history. That is why it is so important to understand that what congress is busy doing is reasserting it latent power to ask questions, establish limits, and sometimes outright challenge the policies of the administrative office of the president.

Congress is not only up against six and a half years of acquiescence to a president and administration who seek imperial powers and do much of their business behind closed doors, but also they are working with a rather substantial handicap. In spite of an impressive showing at the polls last November, Democrats do not have enough votes, particularly in the Senate, to override the procedural move called filibuster. In other words, a simple majority will get you nowhere. Either side, in these very partisan times, needs to muster at least 60 votes in the Senate in order to overcome a filibuster and 67 votes in order to override a presidential veto.

This is all evidence that the founders expected each branch would take its oversight responsibility seriously. Washington or Jefferson never imagined a congress that would simply rubber stamp every request that the executive branch handed to it. They expected that requests for money, for projects, for defense, and especially for the most serious action a nation can undertake - WAR - would be carefully scrutinized. But unfortunately, there has been no challenge to any idea that was floated by congress by Bush and company. No challenge to tax cuts for the very rich, no challenge to gutting environmental protections, no challenge to war in Iraq. The current administration looked to congress to reinforce their maniacal worldview of conquest and corporate profits above all else. They looked to congress for a simple thumbs up and almost without exception that is what BushCo received from a highly complicit congress.

So now that congress has rediscovered its oversight role in the federal system, we have some catching up to do. We have an enormous backlog of policies that need to be reviewed, firings that must be investigated, wars that need to be ended, secrets that need to be aired out in the open, regulations that must be reviewed, diplomatic relations around the world that must be restored, many, many things that were not done when they should have been done. We are paying the price in the form of trying to work through a logjam created by the previous congressional obsequiousness. No wonder the work in congress is moving at a snail's pace - they are being thwarted at every turn by the same gang who waived through the policies of the last six years. One of my favorite recent drops on the SMS says: "the two symbols of the Republican party are an elephant and a big fat white guy who is threatened by change." The congressional member who best epitomizes this phrase is Dennis Hastert (Beefy McBratwurst) - a rather large, overweight white man who is scared to death of anything that might upset the status quo. But it is so much more than a single representative or senator - it is a mindset that allows one branch of the government to go about its nefarious business unchecked by either of the other two branches. And now we are saddled with a very weak judiciary exactly because congress did not fully exercise their oversight authority when it came to carefully scrutinizing nominees for the bench. This is particularly evident in the most recent appointments to the Supreme Court. Creating a situation in which it is all but assured that the executive branch will face no challenge from the judicial branch. Now there is talk about closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. See Senator Schumer's statement that there will be no more confirmations of Bush nominees to the High Court. Hey Chuck, I wish you'd remembered that judicial appointments are for life - ugh!

In this sorry state of affairs it is high time that the one branch of government that is closest to the people - the legislative branch - step up and renew its commitment to working for the people whom they have been elected to represent. If I have any impatience with congress, it is not impatience born of too many investigations, but rather an impatience that there have not been enough investigations or investigations have not been pursued with enough vigor to produce indictments. I say let congress do its job for the first time in over six years and hold this out-of-control executive branch accountable for at least a few of their most egregious power grabs. The list of abuses of power is long - from signing statements to wielding an illegal war to politicizing the Justice Department, so it will likely take some time to get to the bottom of this morass, but I say, do the best you can. Don't pay any attention whatsoever to those who say that you are not about the people's business - if trying to reign in an out-of-control executive isn't the people's business, I don't know what is. I humbly believe in my heart of hearts that the founders of this great democracy would agree with me. Impeach and convict Bush and Cheney NOW!!!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

It's Friday & Gonzo is Still Attorney General?

Enough frivolity - it's time to get back to politics as usual and in the current administration that means one thing - back to lying their collective behinds off. So Alberto Gonzalez is still Attorney General of this country, is he? How much longer will this democracy endure an Attorney General who has lied so often to so many about so much?

“The attorney general took an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” [Senator Charles] Schumer (D - NY) told reporters. “Instead, he tells the half-truth, the partial truth and everything but the truth. And he does it not once, and not twice, but over and over and over again. His instinct is not to tell the truth but to dissemble and deceive.” The Hill, July 26, 2007

Here's a link to a story that details two differing versions of the same story, one as told by Alberto Gonzalez, and the other tale recounted by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller. Who's telling the truth? Well, my money is on the guy who is not in bed with the president (I apologize for any sickening visual that turn of phrase may conjure). In other words, it's not Georgie Bush's old pal (el cuato)...

Here's a link to Eugene Robinson's Bedtime for Gonzo that appears in Friday morning's WaPo.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Two Mentions on SMS This Morning (Updated)

Headshot of Stephanie circa 1980 BC (Before Conditioner)

This morning Steph read two e-mails that I sent to her yesterday - one in the first hour, the second in hour two. In the first e-mail I just wanted to share my recipe for a good night's sleep with Steph who complained of recurring insomnia. The message went like this:

Chris & Steph,
Lunesta hell, Momma needs a couple of Xanax washed down with a couple glasses of wine (with a Tylenol PM chaser) - it's the only thing that works for this pre-menopausal radical militant librarian...

The second missive that Steph read this morning (top of hour two) was a list of things that I suspect might be found in Stephanie's old, soon-to-be-replaced refrigerator:

Things Found in Stephie's Old Refrigerator

--
Andy Rooney.
--Fifteen almost empty boxes of wine.
--Rotten egg salad sandwiches (recently brought in from the car).
--An Al-Qaeda sleeper cell.
--Steph's extra Mr. Happy (AKA Mr. Freezer-Pop).
--David Guest's testicles rolled in egg yoke and covered with dog-hair.

More listener comedy (read by Momma, this morning July 25, top of Hour 3):

Dear Stephie,
The following article about a "Sex and the City Tour" in New York inspired me to propose a similar idea for you, just in case your career ever takes another down turn (heaven forbid!), perhaps you could offer your die-hard fans a tour of LA in which you could point out Stephanie Miller spots of interest - here are a few suggestions:
--A tour of your first radio studio in LA complete with a pole dance.
--A quick drive-by of the vacant, overgrown lot in Reseda where the Itchy Kitty used to be.
--The Cafe in which you fed Weird Al an éclair.
--The studio in which you filmed your disastrous late night talk show, with a side trip to the methadone clinic from which your audience was culled.
--A stop at the Liquor Barn.
--The corner on which Greg Brady (Barry Williams) dropped you off after you called him "Greg Brady" one too many times.
--Stop in for a quick spinning class at your "B-celebrity" gym.
--A stop at the Laugh Factory where you beat Andy Dick silly.
--A lunch stop to enjoy egg salad sandwiches which have been carefully stored in the back of your car for about three days.
--Concluding with a stop at the Stephanie Miller Manse - where you might invite tour guests into nibble on Milkbones or sip from a tumbler of box wine (a rather perverse form of communion comes to mind here).
--End the tour with a ceremonial handing out of plastic bags which tour guests must fill with doggie doo-doo (please note that plastic bags may also double as barf bags depending on how quickly the egg salad kicks in =) before being returned to Hollywood Boulevard where they can spend the rest of the day searching for Steph's Star on the Walk of Fame.
--Just some thoughts from a Stephanie Miller Show fan....

Sunday, July 22, 2007

But What if Al Doesn't run?

Stephanie,
Could it be that noted Hillary-basher Maureen Dowd (or MoDo to those who have called her out on her excessive criticism of Hillary) is coming around? Like so many of us who have reluctantly stated that "If Hillary is the nominee then we'd vote for her, but she is not our first choice among the very strong bunch of Dems," it sounds as if Ms. Dowd is recognizing the inevitible, an inevitability that many of us may have to come around to and embrace if the most important thing to us (and I believe it is) is seeing a Democrat in the White House in 2008, and don't forget, it means we get Big Dawg back in da house!
Cheers,
Faye