Oversight, Investigations, Supboena Power and the Dumb Right

Oversight is a good thing.  Investigations are a good thing.  Subpoena power is a good thing.  Don't let anyone make you think they aren't.  The right is already demonizing the left over their "hell bent on payback for what happened to Clinton."

Memo to Dumbass GOP pundits and television news anchors:  This govt broke the law.  They have rewritten laws to fit their policy.  They have lied.  These actions have cost the US some 23000 deaths and casualties and 150,000 lives and up to 500,000 Iraqi and Afghani casualties.  WHY THE FUCK WOULD WE NOT WANT TO INVESTIGATE WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?

Truth Matters!

I've listened to Rush say "I'm not carrying water for people who don't deserve to have their water carried."  Really?  Then why are you maintaining your status quo?  You have not, in x number of years used a fraction of your air time to promote conservative ideas, to promote real issues over wedge issues.  All you have done is demonize the left, which is exactly what you continue to do.  The rare instances you "carried water" were instances in which you lied, distorted, or spun out of ether--rationalizations for how the right was right concerning Iraq or tax cuts or immigration.  

Simply, the right doesn't get it and they never will.  When we criticize the "dumb" GOP voters it has merit.  We aren't calling the voters dumb we're saying that they haven't received the education that they are entitled to have.  There is no real mystery to why urban areas and college towns, even in the heart of the "red"lands, are Democratic strongholds.  Education.  The more you know the more capacity you have for looking at the broadview of a problem instead of only seeing the most apparent viewpt.  Take abortion:  The right says 'baby killer' and the undereducated GOP voter thinks, "I'd agree, baby killing is bad."  We see the broader view; that a woman has a right to choose, that the govt has no right to legislate personal decisions, that the health (both mental and physical) is more important than the survival of fetus.  We can also see the difference between stage of development whereas the typical undereducated rural GOP voter cannot.  I don't have a problem with first trimester abortions as a matter of choice for the mother.  I start having a problem with abortion during the second trimester and only advocate abortion in the third trimester if the birth would affect the health of the mother.  The right wants voters to believe that one egg coupled with one sperm, not multicellular fetal mass, but just the embryo = viable human life.  Anyone who has had to take a college level biology class knows that a large portion of fertilized eggs are terminated by the body for a variety of reasons.  Many of these terminations happen within days of conception, others happen much later when the fetus has already developed.  An educated person would rather see the money wasted on anti-abortion measures be spent on counseling services for women who lose babies midterm.  The right would rather explain how the emotional scars of abortion ruin both the fetus' possible life and the mother's real life.  The facts don't bear out this line of thinking but it is easier for a poorly educated person to wrap their brain around good vs bad.

It is the same for politics in general.  FOX et al refer to us as elitists because they know that we are, by and large, more educated than their target audience.  We are capable of understanding two sides of an issue, we are capable of recognizing that politics are based on rhetoric and nuance and know well enough how to sift through the bullshit to find the magic mushroom (where'd that come from?)  John Kerry's flip flop, John Kerry's joke---innocuous comments when played in full, when explained in an honest way, but easily a poison pill when spun by the right.  As soon as the first pundit made the claim that Kerry was calling the soldiers dumb and not the GOP in general, well to dumb people it made sense.  "Surely he's not talking about us," they reasoned because nobody wants to feel dumb.  The average FOX viewer doesn't think they are dumb.  They think "hey I watch the news everyday, listen to "news" radio all day.. I know what the fuck is going on."  Only problem is they aren't getting more than one pt of view.  They aren't questioning what they are being told.  They don't have the foundation of critical thinking that education instills in people and therefore are satisfied with thinking that "FOX is a "news" channel, they CAN'T lie, they HAVE to tell the truth."  Because they have been conditioned to think this way they have closed off their capacity for change, for learning, for evolving past the simplistic.

This is still relevant.  Because we won doesn't mean shit.  Most of the races were won by razor thin margins.  And while I don't believe that all but handful of electees were conservative I will say that I think that we are on a frayed rope.  I want limited congressional investigations.  What I do endorse is an "independent special prosecutor" ala Ken Starr, maybe even just expanding Fitzgerald's jurisdiction to include subpoena power for things such as Halliburton and Cheney's secret "energy policy" meetings.  As far as Rumsfeld and Powell and Rice's ineptitude concerning Iraq I think that needs to be left to congressional oversight committees.  I do think that Condi, Rummy, Powell, Bush and Cheney should be brought forth, under oath, to testify as to what they knew prior and post 9-11 and for the intelligence failures used to justify going into Iraq.  The 9-11 commission was a decent attempt and finding some answers.  Because the principles refused to testify under oath or without restriction it was basically a 'whitewash' meant to appease more than find answers.  

We need to focus on getting rational laws enacted and working in a bipartisan way to get things concerning Iraq back on track.  We need to have oversight but we need to limit how far we are willing to go.  There was a time when I would have loved to see Bush impeached.  I don't think that it will ever happen and frankly that doesn't bother me.  I want some investigations that will prove the corruption charges, that will prove that lies were used as leverage to pressure the UN into going along with our "coalition of the dumb".  I want Colin Powell to say, under oath, that he was coerced into making claims before the UN Security Council using information that the WH and Cabinet knew to be 'less than accurate.'  Other than that, let the courts continue to go after the Abramoff scandal.  

The biggest responsibility we have as constituents is to make sure that our newly elected majority does the right things for America.  We need the minimum wage.  We need some sort of Immigration reform.  We need to repeal and rework the Medicare Prescription drug benefit so we can give our poor and retired some tangible savings.  We need to pay for an independent study into how to make universal health care a real possibility.  IMO the govt doesn't have the brain power to accomplish the goal in a feasible way.  Fund a group of bipartisan economists to help balance the budget and find the money for enacting the policy rather than just doing it the GOP way: passing the law and worry about funding it later.  We need to get some of these things passed or on track so that voters can see we weren't whistling in the wind concerning the fact that we did in fact have a plan.  Our partisanship should only be evident in our transparency and our putting limits on who we are going to let W nominate for judicial appts.  When I say transparency I think our Dem Congress should hold weekly press conferences where every question is fair game provided the questions deal with real issues and not speculation or opinion.  The public has a right to know what Congress is doing.  The public ahs a right to expect that the media should hold Congress accountable for their laziness.  

Murtha says "We need to get back to the old days:  My god, we only work two days a week.  We need to start working five days a week again."

  I agree.  

As for the media.  We know that the media is a conservative arm and that it is going to go full bore into "attack dem" mode.  I've heard Scarborough, Novotny, Tucker, Matthews, Zahn, Cooper, Blitzer, make FOXian statements which generally make the claim that "Americans didn't vote for liberals they voted for a change in Iraq."

Bullshit.  Bullshit.  Bullshit.  Dems won because of Abramoff.  Dems won because we may have a few corrupt officials but the GOP was littered with corrupt officials, many of whom are facing or have already received fines and/or jail time.  Dems won because of things like "the hardest part of my job is trying to tie terrorism(Osama) to Iraq."  Dems won because 9-11 was supposed to be revenged by going after Al Queda, not Iraq.  Dems won because 5 years later Osama is still alive, Al Queda is still around, and Iraq -- according to the NIE -- is now a breeding ground for terrorists and not a beacon of Middle Eastern democracy.

The last pt I have is this:  "The Dems have no mandate!....They won by razor thin margins."  I agree, we won by razor thin margins.  I disagree on the former pt however.  Pollsters were predicting a 15-20 seat gain in Congress.  We could have doubled the high number had a couple more races gone our way.  And these dumbfucks should notice that many of the races we lost were also by five % or less margins so the Tsunami could have been a lot bigger.  We have a mandate for change.  We have a mandate to work for the poor.  We have a mandate to work for the middle class.  We have a mandate to get the budget balanced and get we have a mandate to get out of the nation building business.  We have a mandate to curb Homeland Security and return Fema to a separate org that has the finances and authority to go into a place like NOLA and help people.  We have a mandate to make Al Gore's Soc. Sec. lockbox a reality.  (The GOP tried SocSec reform and the people didn't bite, they want SS and they want it protected.)  We have a mandate to curb Special Interest intervention in govt.  We have a mandate to curb earmarks and pork barrel spending.  We have a mandate because we won both houses of Congress and won the House by a substantial number of seats.  

We need to be judicious and reserved in our use of the power we have gained but anybody who thinks we should just do as little as possible so we don't piss off conservatives for 08 are full of shit.  We need to get some shit done and we need to get it done now but we can definitely pick our battles and be smart about the use of power.  It's our job to make sure that those we have helped elect use the power entrusted to them wisely.  As soon as they begin to abuse that power then it is our job to throw the bums out, not the GOP.

Final comment.  The GOP's main problem was corruption and power intoxication.  They thought they had destroyed the Dem party.  They thought their monoply was infinite.  They dominated the national govt, dominated the lobby industry, dominated the airwaves and media memes.  They might have held on if they had kept the budgets balanced, had leaders who tempered Bush and Cheney's lust for executive power, and who worked for the collective good and not just the good of the ruling class.  Corporate welfare, special interests, K Street, the "Hammer", Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, et al doomed the GOP and it doomed them because they didn't think they needed to monitor themselves.  Delay, five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, two years ago, thought he was God and as such was untouchable.  The ethics committee quashed investigations into illegal dealings and other corruption issues.  The leader of the House Page system looked the other way as the head "child predator" law tsar preyed on children.  The Speaker of the House knew he had a child predator in his midst and he too looked the other way.  No oversight.  No repercussions.  And now?  "Liberals won using conservative ideals."  Bullshit.  We won not because of our conservative ideals but because of our RATIONAL IDEAS.  Heath Shuler doesn't speak for me and never will.  He is truly a DINO but I'm fine with that as long as he, or his like, doesn't try and turn Dems into the party sponsoring hate legislation or anti-Constitutional legislation.  He can be as conservative as he wants so long as his way of thinking doesn't affect Dem goals.

Ever vigilant.  This is OUR govt.  Write your Congressman and Senators every chance you get.  To praise them or rebuke them.  This is OUR govt and we need to be good stewards.