Who’s a good little congress?

Just call them Fido, because they rolled over again. Yes, friends… our Democratic controlled Congress handed Dubya Bush (mister 28% himself) a bill that in essence rewrites the foreign intelligence surveillance laws that have been in place since just after the Church committee back in the mid-1970s, enabling the Administration’s intelligence services to listen in on phone conversation, read e-mails, etc., without a warrant, subject only to the approval of two guys appointed by the president – the attorney general (!) and the Director of National Intelligence. It was triangulation, of course, in the House – conservative and “centrist” Dems voting with Republicans to gain a majority; similar story in the Senate. Liberals voted against it, but the leadership could have scuttled it… and didn’t. So there you go. As with the Iraq war supplementals, Congress has signed on to a very destructive and unpopular policy because they’re afraid of being terror-baited by a president whose power base has shrunken to historic lows. Useless.

I wish I could say that it’s no worse than that, but the fact is… it is worse than that. Just one example – the Democrats are pusillanimous enough to grant Bush another $8 million for “missile defense” in the defense authorization bill, claiming victory because it was less than he asked for. That was part of a $450 billion piece of legislation that is chock full of waste spending and bones thrown to various congressional districts, but I mean honestly – how can they justify spending another $8 billion on such a pointless program? This at a time when we’re telling people we can’t afford to provide them with health care or decent housing or a minimal college education. But it is a political truism for both parties that when it comes to military spending, they can always put their hands on the money. That’s because of the dynamics of the military industrial economy affect congressmembers’ from both parties in about the same way. Republican or Democrat, you want that D.O.D. money flowing to your district – that’s what brings in the votes.

So… where from here? Good question. Anyone who supposed the 2006 election was something akin to a revolution was kidding him/herself. Change comes from us, not from pre-packaged, poll-driven, lobbyist-funded politicians. We have to speak with a united voice, one that is loud enough to overwhelm the influence of corporate money. (In other words, pretty goddamned loud.) Until we can get that faculty together, it will be the same deal over and over again – Democrats promising the moon and stabbing us in the back the moment they’re elected. And scoundrels like Bush starting wars and spying on us because there is no one to stop them. Dag nab it, we’ve got to stand up fer ourselves! If’n we do, maybe that scrawny old Harry Reid will, too! (Great… now I’ve got frontier accent syndrome again. Bloody Democrats! See what your spinelessness has done to me!)