Friday, July 06, 2007

Declare Independence from King George..... Again

I'm already tired of the Scooter Libby pardon ranting. Not because I don't agree with the cries of hypocrisy and the potential detriment to our justice system, but because few are doing anything concrete about a president that cares little about the American process. Neocons are not Americans, they are power-mongers. They want to rule and they want all the spoils. In their eyes, might is right, no subtlety. This is not new information; in fact it's been 6 years of voter abuse beginning with the election.

Talks shows play into this, everyone gets to be heard but in the cacaphony does anyone have an answer? Or the will to pursue that path? Everyone today is a pundit, some are loud, some are thoughtful, most want to make money from it. Chris Matthews of Hardball was more interested in whether the Joseph Wilson's attorney thought the sentence for Bill Clinton was fair than in anything she might say on the Libby pardon. I began to wonder if he socialized with Libby, since he loudly and consistently pulled the topic away. She's representing Valerie Plame in her career meltdown thanks to a few people in the Bush Admin. and not representing the Clintons. Her opinion doesn't matter unless you want to keep her from pointing out the obvious: that whether the Bush Admin broke the law or not, they ruined a career CIA agent. It's okay, say the Bush defenders, because she wasn't covert. The CIA says otherwise but regardless, how about serving her country? That's not worth protecting?

Matthews then let a Papa Bush Justice offical ramble on and on about the bad things Clinton did, and the good things Libby did, and how nothing was proved. In other words retrying a case that had already been through the jury system. I used to respect Matthews; no more, he seems to want to fill Bill O'Reilly's shoes of blustering non-sequiturs. O'Reilly has been lessened since the love affair with Bush is so over.

So why is everyone still afraid? Because bullies are scary. They know that and use it to their advantage. Republican politicians are caught with their knickers in a twist, to be sure. Their constituents are getting frustrated but to go against this gang of thugs will see the money dry up. It's hard getting hit from both sides but they have only themselves to blame. They were in lockstep for 6 years partly from fear, partly the perks and partly from the Repub distaste for criticizing their own. Even when Bush did that to McCain way back when they still followed him. Did it never occur to them he was never a true Republican, that was only the label his gang of thugs used to suck up votes? Or were they afraid that Bush would attack them as he did McCain?

The Democrats are not much better. A few hearings, a lot of press conferences denouncing the White House and excuses about not having the votes. Congressional leaders want to keep their power just like everyone else. Keep the noise coming because it drowns out those who might actually accomplish something. We elected Ronald Reagan because he told us what we wanted to hear. We felt secure. Bush used that same premise and promised to keep us safe from terrorists. But who will keep us safe from him?

This week we celebrated the day that the Declaration of Independence was written. Specifically, it was to free us from the tyranny of King George. I think it's time we did it again.