The Corrupt, Dysfunctional Mess We Call the Federal Government

A Salon headline asks, “The Secret Service’s Mind-blowing Abuse of Power: Why do Government Agencies Keep Spying on Lawmakers?” The article focuses on a report from Homeland Security detailing how Secret Service employees hacked into private databases in an effort to find and leak intimidating and embarrassing information about a vocal critic of the agency, Chair of the House Oversight Committee Jason Chavetz.

The answer to Salon’s headline question is very simple, government agencies spy on lawmakers to intimidate them and keep the money pipeline flowing into their agencies’ coffers. It’s a form of blackmail, and it works extremely well. Despite the occasional outburst of indignation when the spooks get publically caught with their hand in the cookie jar, the system in place to keep elected officials quiet and generous runs smoothly. Heck, no one even knows exactly how much money Congress gives our surveillance agencies because it’s all top secret, you understand.

Everyone has skeletons in their closets and, if you’re a Congressperson, you are acutely aware that the NSA, CIA, Secret Service and other organizations have access to every detail of your past, and won’t be afraid to reveal it if necessary. So, when funding time rolls around, you’re more than happy to give our spies whatever they desire.

This is definitely not the type of check and balance our forefathers had in mind.  In fact, they would be appalled at what only nominally passes for a federal government in the United States. The Supreme Court is in the clutches of partisan ideologues beholden to the one percent, the executive branch (since George Bush) has given itself unprecedented powers to wage war any damn place it wants and murder anyone it pleases, and Congress is a dysfunctional mental asylum made up of half-wits and demagogues who are the property of America’s billionaires.

The “why” in the Salon headline is simple to answer, but the “how,” as in how do we fix the corrupt mess we call our government, is nearly impossible to answer without some very drastic changes.

Health alert: OH (Obama Hatred) reaching dangerous levels in U.S.

The media has remained strangely quiet about the spread of a debilitating disease afflicting millions of Americans. Symptoms include loss of logic, bouts of uncontrollable anger, delusions and occasionally the complete shutdown of all mental processes. The disease is Obama Hatred (OH), and it targets politically conservative Americans across the nation.

The origin of the disease can be traced back to the 2008 Presidential election results and the moment when Barack Obama was declared the victor. Millions of low functioning Americans were instantly afflicted with OH, and most remain infected to this day.

From shutting down the U.S. government to unceasing attacks on Obamacare to Benghazi, sufferers of OH display symptoms of unbridled hostility and disrespect toward President Obama. Unable to control their actions or subdue their racism, those afflicted with OH work tirelessly to undercut, punish and embarrass the President of the United States.

An extremely virulent strain affects Arizona Republicans, who just recently passed a bill in the state legislature that would prohibit the state from enforcing or cooperating with Obama’s executive orders unless they were affirmed by the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress. It’s as close to a state seceding from the Union as it gets.

The Republican members of Congress to whom the Arizona Republicans refer to are no less afflicted with OH. They recently invited Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress without consulting the President, and within the past few days sent a letter to Iran’s leadership telling them not make any nuclear proliferation deals with Obama because…it’s Obama.

The sad news is that there is no known cure for OH. Carriers are immune to logic, common sense and bipartisanship. The advice of health officials to the uninfected is to avoid watching FOX News, never vote for Republicans and always base your opinions on facts rather then ideology.

If the polls are right, something is definitely wrong

According to a very recent Washington Post poll, 72 percent of registered voters do not approve of the way Republicans in congress are doing their job. A mere 21 percent give them a “Meh.” I don’t understand how this squares with weekly headlines claiming Republicans are predicted to make gains in the House and may take the majority in the Senate in the upcoming election. How is it that people consistently complain about a do-nothing Congress and then vote more obstructionist Republicans into office?

The disconnect between what polls tell us and what people actually do in the privacy of their voting booths is inexplicable to me. Democrats should be enjoying a landslide victory this November, instead we’ll get more do nothing, know nothing conservatives whose only goal in life is to keep Obama from getting what he wants as President. I know, I know…gerrymandering, Citizens United, the Koch brothers, Obama hatred…all of this keeps red states red and threatens Dems in blue states. Still, I’m flummoxed by the situation. We are getting a government the majority of Americans don’t want, despite our efforts. It’s a government that serves the one percent, thanks to the Supreme Court and Republican controlled state houses, and, unfortunately, regular Republicans who have been brainwashed into voting against their best interests.

How long will we allow the elites to thwart the will of the majority of Americans?

They come after you. Pelosi admits reps are cowed by intelligence community

Back in October I wrote a post speculating that the reason why Congress has been so lax in its oversight of the CIA and NSA is that the House and Senate members know that if they push too hard, these surveillance agencies could come after them with embarrassing information. No one has any firm evidence that this is the case, but it did seem to make sense to me as a distinct possibility. Now, however, there is some indication that this may in fact be something more than speculation. According to a March 13 article in Roll Call, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi praised Sen. Diane Feinstein’s courage for alleging the CIA spied on members of the Senate Intelligence Committee in this statement.

“I salute Sen. Feinstein. I’ll tell you, you take on the intelligence community, you’re a person of courage, and she does not do that lightly. Not without evidence, and when I say evidence, documentation of what it is that she is putting forth. You don’t fight it without a price because they come after you and they don’t always tell the truth.”

They come after you. Here is the most powerful person in the House of Representatives telling the American people that even if you’re a Senator or Congressperson, the intelligence community will seek retribution if you cross them. Isn’t this admitting that blackmail is being used to keep representatives in line? Again, I’m sure that it is not overt. No one has spell this out. You just know that if you get on the bad side of the NSA or CIA, embarrassing events from your past can suddenly become very public. And, as Pelosi states, they’re not above making up shit about you.

How do you rein in a monster like this? Who has the guts to even try?

It didn't take longa, Obama

Well, so much for Obama. His vote today in support of the FISA bill granting telecomm immunity was shameful. Broken promises and he’s not even president yet. Just like Bill Clinton, Obama played progressives like a violin in the primaries, only to take his hand off the strings to give us the finger in the run up to the general election. And the Democrats in congress have turned their backs on the people who elected them one more time.

Hell, I was plenty cynical before all of this and it only means one more chalk mark on my massive Wall of Political Disillusionment. The world won’t end because of Obama’s vote, but it is clearly one more nail in the coffin of America.

Congressional Dems to Grill Rove During Golf Outing

Washington, D.C. - Backing off their insistence that former Bush advisor Karl Rove appear before congress and testify under oath, a spokesperson for Representative John Conyers said today that congressional Democrats have decided to change their tactics.

“We’ve decided that a non-confrontational approach will yield better results. Congressional leaders will interview Mr. Rove about his participation in the Valerie Plame outing at the Renditions Golf Club in Davidsonville, Maryland in three weeks. Our feeling is that we will garner better information in a relaxed atmosphere without the pressure of a subpoena or being under oath. We feel vindicated by the fact that Mr. Rove agreed immediately.”

Questioned about whether this approach was too lenient based on the gravity of the accusations, the spokesman scoffed.

“Believe me, Rove will be thoroughly questioned during our time on the links. The fact that this won’t be recorded or written down is of no consequence in the bigger scope of things. Listen, there’s a small element of radical bloggers out there who won’t be satisfied with anything less than a public lynching, but that’s not the way we work.”

According to the spokesperson, the day will end with a reception in Rove’s honor at the clubhouse.

Congress must make media concentration a priority

In a totalitarian regime, the government decides what is news—what is true and what is false. They disseminate their “news” through the government-controlled media. In a democracy, there is a middleman known as the free press. The role of the press is to stand between those in power and the people to discern the truth, as best as possible. They have the training, resources, and networks to separate the egg yolk from the white, truth from propaganda, which is what separates us from totalitarian governments around the world.

What we have today is a different model. For a variety of reasons, the balance has shifted and the press no longer serves as the honest broker. Media concentration has resulted in the very large pie being shared by a mere handful of owners. This small group of generally conservative capitalists decides what is news—what is true and what is false—for most Americans. They decide which viewpoints will be heard, which experts to choose, which angle to pursue. As a result, voices that do not mesh with the owners’ capitalist agenda—socialists, gays, feminists, minorities, progressives and liberals—are ignored or attacked.

The “liberal press” is a myth. There may be liberal reporters, but those who own and run the media are anything but liberal. They are businesspeople first, citizens second, and greedy above all. They give the government what it wants through propaganda and friendly press, and the government returns the favor with deregulation and policies that allow owners to enlarge their monopolies. The American people—those whose sole source of news is the mainstream media—get the pleasure of being brainwashed. It’s a win/win/lose situation.

Breaking up the media monopoly needs to be a top agenda item of Congress, and they should start working on this soon. It may be too late for the 2008 elections, which is frightening. Another Republican in the White House for four years will surely mark the end of the American experiment. Unfortunately, the MSM must be forced to incorporate alternative voices and points of view by government. It will not move in this direction on its own.

Are the Democrats in Congress listening?

The irony never ends in Bushworld. George, who seems intent on turning his Iraq horror show into a world-wide catastrophe, has been on a listening tour. A listening tour?

Helloooo. George? How about listening to the American people? They are telling you in no uncertain terms to pull our troops out of Iraq. They are screaming, “STOP THE MADNESS.”

Unfortunately, Bush only takes his fingers out of his ears for people who agree with him. He didn’t like what he heard from the Iraq Study Group (“I can’t hear yoooou”). He certainly doesn’t like what he hears from poll after poll on what Americans think about the war. So he’s scouring the country to find bobble heads who will confirm his delusions. It should be called the “selective listening tour.”

Odds makers are betting he will send more troops to Iraq, which is—in keeping with a long established pattern—exactly the wrong thing to do. Hey kids, let’s put out the fire by pouring gasoline on it. Let’s win the hearts and minds of Iraqis by killing them.

Congress must stop King George from committing more life-ending blunders. Nancy. Harry. Please, put impeachment back on the table, and soon. The people are talking to you, too. Are you listening?