Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many…The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of their inadequacy and impotence. They hate not wickedness but weakness. When it is in their power to do so, the weak destroy weakness wherever they see it. Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind (1995)
The 109th Congress ends with a whimper. A Congress in which President Bush enjoyed control of the House, the Senate, the Courts, the Pressure Groups, and the monied. Yet they enacted very little real legislation. They lined their pockets and proved that big government does not work. They gave scary names to scary programs. Straight out of George Orwell we have: Homeland Security, Healthy Forests, Clear Skies.
They started two wars, lost New Orleans, reintroduced torture and kidnapping into the arsenal of “accepted practices”, divided the world between Muslims and not Muslims, swept away the last remnants of well-paying labor jobs, and enriched (here to a really quite extraordinarily degree) a minuscule percentage of the population. Prominent events include the filibuster "nuclear option" scare, and the Terri Schiavo debate. This Congress also had a number of scandals: Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, Randy "Duke" Cunningham,
Mark Foley, and the Jack Abramoff scandal. All of this managed, because George Bush wears his love for Jesus on his sleeve. 
When the Dems swept them out of power this fall, no one really appreciated the magnitude of the message. To me it was clear: get us out of Iraq; stop flooding jobs overseas, stop, and transferring wealth to the rich from everybody else. Essentially end the monopoly hold on power grasped by the monied. Get something done. Maybe even a little bit of Harry Truman
like truth commissions to see where all those billions got to. On the legislative end: provide universal health care, establish protect American manufacturing jobs at home, and do something about global warming. 
So, what have we got so far. Promises that there will be no fault0finding commissions, no impeachment moves, and maybe a massive influx of troops to Iran. Which even General John Abizaid opposes. Now in order to save face for the President’s last remaining attribute for posterity, steadfastness, may be maintained two years to let some other American President quit the war.
How are the Dems responding? Are they rattling their sabers and demanding to remove Bush from the field? NO. They are simpering about bipartisanship,’ and ‘getting along. “ The Dems seem to have internalized the Republican’s broader lesson that the federal government can only hurt.
There will be no peace in Iraq.
There will be no peace in the War on Terrorism.
There will be no peace in the War on Drugs.
There will be no peace in the war on the American working class.
The Democrats will quickly show that they are equally interested in the trappings of power and the perquisites afforded Washington. After all they have to run again in 2008.
The great Dawn of American renewal will set again, as it has endlessly set. Without bring warmth and relief to the poor and displaced in the Gulf Coast, the working poor in the rust belt, the farming poor in the drought stricken plains.
There may be some fiddling to allow Medicare to buy drugs at discount rates. There will be no universal health care. Some companies may be sued for their theft of Katrina funds, but far more of Katrina’s victims will be persecuted for taking the pennies off the street.
Also, they will pray. Maybe they will include Islamic prayers in deference to Keith Ellison, but they will certainly pray. America’s politicians have joined whole g into the idea that we want them to practice what our preachers preach. Never mind that we don’t really listen either, or that only a very few or very local number of us do. We had always counted on the federal Government to protect us against this onslaught of religion, that is after all why it’s in the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
What do we want: A return to Honor in Congress. “Everything that is called duty, the prerequisite for all genuine law and the substance of every noble custom, can be traced back to honor. If one has to think about it, one is already without honor.”-Oswald Spengler, Thoughts
Peace in Iraq, which can only begin when we leave.
Publicly funded federal elections, get private money out of the race. Becoming a congressman should not necessarily mean thing the lotto.
Rebuild the Gulf Coast in cost effective way, using federal money and local resources and union labor. Yes it will be expensive.
Instead of a moon shot how about an Earth shot, in which we turn NASA into an earth sciences agency to study global climate change and do something about it.
End federal policy that makes it attractive to move manufacturing from America to cheaper and cheaper labor.
Make our food safe. Keep the big-food lobbies out of control and let the regulators focus on food safety measures that work. We ca pay a little more for real food.
Get the money back that Halliburton and its ilk stole from us with Bush’s connivance.
Pay taxes. We have never both fought war and lower taxes. Where will the money come form to pay these loans. Our economy cannot possibly grow fast enough. We have to pay as we go now.
Learn to live with the Muslims. I know, they can’t seem to live among themselves in peace, but they did it in non-Arab countries.
End the Israel/Palestine problem. Hamas must go. Israel needs an opponent at least ready to let them live in Israel.
The 109th Congress ends with a whimper. A Congress in which President Bush enjoyed control of the House, the Senate, the Courts, the Pressure Groups, and the monied. Yet they enacted very little real legislation. They lined their pockets and proved that big government does not work. They gave scary names to scary programs. Straight out of George Orwell we have: Homeland Security, Healthy Forests, Clear Skies.
They started two wars, lost New Orleans, reintroduced torture and kidnapping into the arsenal of “accepted practices”, divided the world between Muslims and not Muslims, swept away the last remnants of well-paying labor jobs, and enriched (here to a really quite extraordinarily degree) a minuscule percentage of the population. Prominent events include the filibuster "nuclear option" scare, and the Terri Schiavo debate. This Congress also had a number of scandals: Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, Randy "Duke" Cunningham,
Mark Foley, and the Jack Abramoff scandal. All of this managed, because George Bush wears his love for Jesus on his sleeve. 
When the Dems swept them out of power this fall, no one really appreciated the magnitude of the message. To me it was clear: get us out of Iraq; stop flooding jobs overseas, stop, and transferring wealth to the rich from everybody else. Essentially end the monopoly hold on power grasped by the monied. Get something done. Maybe even a little bit of Harry Truman
like truth commissions to see where all those billions got to. On the legislative end: provide universal health care, establish protect American manufacturing jobs at home, and do something about global warming. 
So, what have we got so far. Promises that there will be no fault0finding commissions, no impeachment moves, and maybe a massive influx of troops to Iran. Which even General John Abizaid opposes. Now in order to save face for the President’s last remaining attribute for posterity, steadfastness, may be maintained two years to let some other American President quit the war.
How are the Dems responding? Are they rattling their sabers and demanding to remove Bush from the field? NO. They are simpering about bipartisanship,’ and ‘getting along. “ The Dems seem to have internalized the Republican’s broader lesson that the federal government can only hurt.
There will be no peace in Iraq.
There will be no peace in the War on Terrorism.
There will be no peace in the War on Drugs.
There will be no peace in the war on the American working class.
The Democrats will quickly show that they are equally interested in the trappings of power and the perquisites afforded Washington. After all they have to run again in 2008.
The great Dawn of American renewal will set again, as it has endlessly set. Without bring warmth and relief to the poor and displaced in the Gulf Coast, the working poor in the rust belt, the farming poor in the drought stricken plains.
There may be some fiddling to allow Medicare to buy drugs at discount rates. There will be no universal health care. Some companies may be sued for their theft of Katrina funds, but far more of Katrina’s victims will be persecuted for taking the pennies off the street.
Also, they will pray. Maybe they will include Islamic prayers in deference to Keith Ellison, but they will certainly pray. America’s politicians have joined whole g into the idea that we want them to practice what our preachers preach. Never mind that we don’t really listen either, or that only a very few or very local number of us do. We had always counted on the federal Government to protect us against this onslaught of religion, that is after all why it’s in the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
What do we want: A return to Honor in Congress. “Everything that is called duty, the prerequisite for all genuine law and the substance of every noble custom, can be traced back to honor. If one has to think about it, one is already without honor.”-Oswald Spengler, Thoughts
Peace in Iraq, which can only begin when we leave.
Publicly funded federal elections, get private money out of the race. Becoming a congressman should not necessarily mean thing the lotto.
Rebuild the Gulf Coast in cost effective way, using federal money and local resources and union labor. Yes it will be expensive.
Instead of a moon shot how about an Earth shot, in which we turn NASA into an earth sciences agency to study global climate change and do something about it.
End federal policy that makes it attractive to move manufacturing from America to cheaper and cheaper labor.
Make our food safe. Keep the big-food lobbies out of control and let the regulators focus on food safety measures that work. We ca pay a little more for real food.
Get the money back that Halliburton and its ilk stole from us with Bush’s connivance.
Pay taxes. We have never both fought war and lower taxes. Where will the money come form to pay these loans. Our economy cannot possibly grow fast enough. We have to pay as we go now.
Learn to live with the Muslims. I know, they can’t seem to live among themselves in peace, but they did it in non-Arab countries.
End the Israel/Palestine problem. Hamas must go. Israel needs an opponent at least ready to let them live in Israel.
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