AMERICA'S SHAME

I'm so sick in my spirit as I write this, that I must get it out, or start hurling that Vanilla Chai Latte I had this morning.

An Iraqi vet named Paul Hackett came close to taking back a "safe" House seat for the Democrats in Ohio last night. He only lost by 4 percentage points. The bad news is that a female piece of primordial slime named Jean Schmidt, will be the devil's handmaiden for the next 14 months. Despite honesty (Hackett) versus sleezeball tactics (Schmidt), apparently, Americans have abandoned the tenets of decency, fair play and honor, in preference of sleeziness and a "win at all costs" mentality.

Has five years of the Bush Administration led to such apathy? Does Americans have no shame?

I remember a time when Americans, regardless of party affiliation, ethnicity, religious or national origin; gay or straight - would be outraged and yes, ASHAMED at the antics of our elected officials, and the people who follow them - should those antics have happened, say, 30 years ago. Nixon got run out of office, and his only crime was spying on the Democratic National Committee, and using the power of the Oval Office to cover it up. Americans were horrified that the President of the United States would stop to such thug-like tactics in an attempt to codify and maintain power. We refused to tolerate it, and Congress responded to the WILL OF THE PEOPLE, when they initiated articles of impeachment against Tricky Dick. And he left office before they could be implemented. Today, even though there is enough evidence to send every member and former member of this Administration to jail for the rest of their lives, no one in Congress, save for brave members like Barbara Lee or John Conyers, are willing to mention the "I" word. IOKIYAR - It's OKAY IF YOU'RE A REPUBLICAN.

And the GOP is so quiet on these issues, not only can you hear mice pissing on cotton, you can also hear them throwing it away!

If Clinton's lying about a blow job wasn't okay, there should be a double standard for the Bush Cartel, lying to us about a war, the economy, education, the environment and medicare. But since some Democrats are getting fat off this particular feeding trough because they participated in the lies, they are likewise complicit and equally guilty. America has pretty much become a whore for the Religious, Theocratic political operatives in this country, with Democrats (read, DLC) assistance. We have ourselves to blame if we allow it to continue. And political candidates like Paul Hackett is showing us the way to taking back our country, and restoring her to her once held glory, if we would just pay attention, and stop listening to the likes of Al From and Bruce Reed. They get paid regardless of whether or not their candidate wins - then they trash the poor soul and go on Sunday Talk Shows to beat him/her up and analyze why they lost.

Could Satan's minions play their roles any better?

Those of us who haven't been swimming in the GOP grog (tired of insulting Kool-Aid) for the last five years, sometimes, you can get beat over the head until you're just plain NUMB. When I read about the horrors of torture at Gitmo (a prisoner having cuts made into his genitalia in the guise of "changing your brain" {WTF?}) and the Attorney General doing his level best to say that such treatment of war prisoners is OKAY - you have to question the sanity of our Nation, and her leaders.

Most of this is because the MSM is not covering it. They're too busy allowing Rush Limbaugh use the airwaves to trash an Iraqi vet who had the guts to call Bush out on his lies, and tell the rest of us that being in Iraq has made the United States SOL - and we need to leave. Now, there's talk about leaving in 2006 - just in time to frame the mid-year elections - yet, there's no talk about how either Iran, North Korea or Syria is going to be this Administration's NEXT TARGET. Have we gone mad?

We have a Congress where the members who know their obligations are small in number. The rest of them are too busy trying to aspire to higher political office when they haven't done jack on the things that matter to their constituents (Harold Ford), or selling out their constituents' best interests (Melissa Bean, Greg Meeks, Artur Davis, Ike Skelton, Joe Lieberman, Dianne Feinstein, et al) instead of representing their interests, and selling their votes on legislation to the highest bidder.

When they are needed for raising the voice of protest and outrage, they are nowhere to be found. When I want to know where are the Fords, Liebermans, Feinsteins, Meeks, etc, I don't go to their webpage; I go to Open Secrets.org and look to see how much payola they received from the corporate interests (Wal-Mart and MBNA has a few "whores" on their payroll to schill crappy legislation such as the Bankruptcy Bill and School Vouchers). If you want to keep your sanity at dealing with MIA congress critters because they are off elsewhere, either campaigning, or eating at a "coon" supper while missing important votes on things like the federal budget, go to Open Secrets or TechPolitics.org and see at who's corporate pig trough your Representative has been feeding.

Maybe you'll be surprised, or maybe you won't. But the key to overcoming shame is to start holding these elected official accountable. I may not see accountability in my lifetime, but if I get started now, maybe my children and grandchildren may see an elected official held to accountability to the point they see a corrupt politician doing the perp walk for abusing the authority of their office in order to satisfy their greed.

We have others in Congress, whose sole purpose in holding their Congressional or Senate seat, is to pander to religious whack jobs on devastating legislation in Jesus' name (Can you say "Bill Frist" without cursing under your breath?). We are told to "shut up" when any of us dare to venture criticism of the President, when he effectively told Congress, as well as the American People to "Eff Off" ala V. P. Dick Cheney, when he waited for the last plane with a Congress member on it to leave DC and then screws over America's position in the Global Community by ramming John Bolton down their collective throats as U. N. Ambassador. I'm sorry, but in my 20+ years of gainful employment, I've never, ever gotten a job at the place that I went on record publicly trashing them, and what they stood for. If I did, you can imagine that the interviewer would ask me:

"So tell me why do you want to work here if you feel like that about the company?"

Isn't that the question Bolton should have been asked during his confirmation hearing?

How you do aspire to serve the American People when you tell them to "Eff Off!"?. Bill Clinton would be lynched in public and burned in effigy if he even dared to behave as cravenly as George Walker Bush; yet any criticism of Bush lands a person either in jail, or having their blog monitored by the FBI. Or, at best, having your cover as a covert CIA operative blown by Robert Novak in the motive of extracting revenge on the operative's husband because he dared to tell the truth regarding his fact-finding mission.

Once, this country espoused truth, family values, morals. We didn't elect anyone who didn't have them (or appeared to have them). We used to hold those in Congress, the Supreme Court and the Executive Branch in the highest of esteemed perception. It mattered not if the political ideologies weren't on the same page - somehow, Washington found ways to function, for the good of the Country. Now, we view anything coming out of the Beltway with pure contempt, or drunken reverence. There is no challenge to the lies, slander, intimidation and vengeful control that America is now under.

Once upon a time, a person like George W. Bush couldn't get elected dog, flea-and-tick catcher; based on his past track record as a businessman, and not to mention his alleged morals, alleged family values, and the unsavoriness of the known assorted crooks, liars and thug elements he travels with. Today, he is the Leader of the Free World, and said crooks, liars, thugs all have positions of high importance and authority in the Federal Goverment, especially as being a convicted felon doesn't grant you many opportunities for gainful employment.

This, is America's Shame.