Congress, Get a Move On (Pun Intended): If Bush Won't Sign SCHIP, Then Give Him Zip.

[DeanDem10]

Congress, you need to get a move on, or you'll slither off into the ignominy you (so far) richly deserve. The only trouble is we don't, deserve it, that is. We worked hard for you. We fought in the trenches. We rolled up our sleeves and performed tasks we hate, just for you. And, you? By your collective complacency, and pretense that the only thing that matters is an empty victory in 2008, you pave the way for more complete authoritarian control of this nation by an administration which doesn’t know the meaning of freedom. In 2009, when Democrats take office, what will be left?

There’s a saying that, if you’re not outraged, you're not paying attention. But the Cons are trying to label discontent with their outrageous governance a thought crime. And you bought it, hook, line and sinker. WTF? We’ve got our reasons for discontent. It is no crime to say so. It is criminal, however, to subvert the laws of this land, as many in the executive and legislative brances have done. Those who protest, whether by words or deeds do so ONLY in love of country. Otherwise, they wouldn't waste their time. Those who truly hare America are those who subvert the Constitution and those who do nothing in the face of unConstitutional excesses.

We offered our labor in the truest tradition of patriotism. We offer our words in the same way. But you join circular fireing squads to destroy those candidates (in 2004, and now) whom you think criticize outside your orthodoxy. You knee-jerk me-tos as GOPhers suck the life out of the Constitution. You censure Move-on, which merely used the NY Times for an ad, but let the "FAUX News Mafia," bully and intimidate with nary a comment. You say nothing about the hordes of bullies who dispersed across the blogs to silence us. Oh, you are strangely silent then.

You forget, the tradition forged by Tom Paine's "Common Sense," which Howard Dean so brilliantly parodied (with his Common Sense brochure in 2003). We are patriots. And we shall not stand by quietly as our reputations, our dedication, and our right under this Constitution to speak out is decimated. Where are you?

“Seafan, a blogger at DU enumerates:
<blockquote>
After one year of taking majority control of both Houses of Congress in 2006, what do you have to show for it?

-Bush is wiretapping our electronic communications, telephone calls and opening our mail with impunity. You have not stopped him.

-Bush is pouring billions more of our taxpayer money into the bloody mess in Iraq. You have not stopped him.

-Bush created over a thousand "signing statements" to bypass Congressional legislation in order to rule as a despot. You have not stopped him.

-Bush/Cheney deliberately lied about nonexistent weapons in Iraq, so that Americans would not object when he proclaimed that he wanted to invade that country. Now, he is beating bellicose drums to invade Iran, in the face of no ongoing program in Iran to develop nuclear weapons. You have not stopped him.

-Bush/Cheney repudiate our troops by cutting their pay, slashing their health benefits, ignoring their injuries and sending them on repeated deployments into harm's way. You have not stopped him.

-Bush/Cheney have emptied out our Treasury in the biggest heist in our history, giving our treasure to his cronies, while Americans suffer terribly in our country from the aftermath of Katrina, from poverty, from substandard education, and denial of basic health care. You have not stopped him.

-Bush/Cheney violate international law by ordering human torture of prisoners, after first stripping them of any and all rights to face their accusers and view the evidence against them. You have not stopped him.
</blockquote>

Well said, Seafan. Are you listening, Congress? Can you get yourselves back to Washington as if it really matters? Only one man, Chris Dodd, stood in the way of your complete capitulation to nefarious, surveillance-are-us telcoms.

Here’s what you, Congress, needs to do. De-fund the White House. Give Bush nothing. Shut down in-Justice. It's not doing anything except subverting justice anyway. Shut-down the vast spy works on our own citizens. No funding for telcoms, who broke the law and, in the process, destroyed our Constitution. Shut down every office of State except those assisting US citizens traveling abroad. De-fund all the efforts to overthrow more regimes. End funding of private militias. Shut down war funding except that which brings the troops home. Take away the CEO's war-making funding. Congess is supposed to delare war. Make that Constitutional requirement stick. Shut down all the fake departments which have been so gutted, we have to wait for a Dem to take over just to breathe life in things like environmental enforcement.

Close (de-fund) the office of "Special Plans." Take every single lying, scheming war planner and "think-tanker" who conned us into this war before Congress and put them on trial too. Spinning us into needless war is an unforgivable wrong. How could you have believed them, Congress? Why didn't you react more skeptically? What was your "experience" really worth, Hillary, if you learned absolutely nothing and can't admit you were wrong.

Leave open only direct services to citizens. Stop flights into outer space (for now). They are a direct route to war from space. Don't let it happen. Stop funding faith-based initiatives of every kind. Congress can play this game. Stop the preposterous spinning that "tactical" nuclear weapons aren't real nukes with real long-term danger.

If Bush won't sign SCHIP, give him zip. Cut his allowance and send him to his room. Freeze his entertainment budget (foreigners don't really want to visit him anyway. They look so darn uncomfortable they have to put up with Shrub anyway).

And while you are at it, stop acknowledging Bush by clapping for him, honoring him, doing anything giving him photo-ops. Treat him as irrelevant. Stop with the pretense that the CEO is an adult in full command of his own adult senses.

Get the darn impeachment hearings going. Congress, just tie him in figurative "knots," so he can’t do any more damage to us and to the world. If he isn't making this whole mess with full cognition, then he's too incompetent to lead. Impeach him for that.

Get off the pot, Congress. Use the budget to bring everything except direct citizen services to a halt (until Bush is out of office). We are waiting.

[rodeodance]

1. congress is going to cut the increase in kids health stuff by half

[DeanDem10]

2. Count on Congress to cut the wrong stuff

Why is this no surprise?