YOU MUST CONSIDER TAKING PAUL REVERE'S RIDE... THE BUSHIES ARE COMING, THE BUSHIES ARE COMING

When your popularity is under 40% and you continue to get your way in Congress and in the Senate you know that your policies do not represent the concerns of the American people. When you veto a bill that won wide bipartisan support in the House and Senate, then basically, you are acting out of interests that are not those of the people whose government this is. If you are George W. Bush, you do not care.

The current administration, and I use the term loosely, is not concerned with reality, not the reality on the ground or the reality as it is experienced in the hearts, minds, or lives of Americans, or anyone else for that matter. Perhaps Rove’s many meetings with Hollywood execs early on in Bushie’s governance have paid off. The folks at the White House can fake it and make it look real to those who would not think of checking up their sleeves.

Where are the representatives of the other 60 some percent of the people of this country? Beats me. Where is the Democratic leadership when Bush pulls the rabbit out of his….ah hem….hat? Where is the answer to the silliness that passes for new? Hard to say. Where are the moderate Republicans who know their constituents deserve better? Chiming in on gay marriage and stem cell inaccuracies floated in the House and Senate? Mostly.

Forget Prozac Nation. We have become PR nation. If it is on TV, it must be true. If George has his picture taken with adorable children, then that must mean stem cell research is bad. If George talks tough to Tony Blair about Syria, then that must make them the culprit in the Hezbollah attacks. If Condi claims that we want peace and stability in the region, then by God we certainly must. If George speaks to the NAACP no matter how condescending and simplistic that speech might be, then that means he cares about Black people, right?

Where is the respect for the people? Where is the respect for the people’s House, the people’s government? Where is the real concern for the welfare of people instead of concern for the protection of extreme ideologies and unworthy political careers? How long can we endure this cartoon of our real lives that is being played on a continuous loop by the Bush folks? As we experiment with how long it takes for Americans to wake up and take back their government, real people die daily.

The illegal war in Iraq claims lives on a daily basis, the lives of innocents who did no acts of violence against America or Americans. Higher ups in our government continue to ok unspeakable acts against human beings in defiance of what we have come to expect as American decency. And, when confronted with their evil, they blame those who expose their illegal acts as traitors. How dare anyone disrupt their right to tyranny and dictatorship?

Last year it was thousands of residents of Louisiana and Mississippi. As the people in Washington sat by presenting another reality, real people were wrested from the hands of loved ones trying to keep them from washing away in the flooding. People were being euthanized in hospitals and dying in the streets and on roof tops and drowning in their attics.

Recently the eruption of violence in the Middle East becomes more of a sporting event for this administration; there seem to be no lives of value to save, from their point of view. There is no sense of urgency. There is no sense that this is a crisis. If one were honest, it would seem almost in line with the desires of this gang of thugs, but surely not. Surely, they do care about lives and peace and safety. At least they say so, we saw the pictures and we checked with Tony Snow. Must be true. Bush even said "shit" so we know he is damn serious, considering how mild mannered and articulate he normally is.

This week, George Bush decided to make it look like he cared about life when he made a big deal of vetoing the stem cell research bill. He saw that as murder. A dish of undistinguished cells being used to save lives and find cures was murder to this man of virtue, yet the dying in the fields of the Middle East was collateral damage, regrettable. The deaths of Katrina, simply lazy black Americans without the sense to get out of New Orleans. "No one could have foreseen…"

What we have is supposed to be representative government. But, the problem with it is that it does not represent the people, the majority. The people, perhaps aside from the Electoral College, elected Al Gore in 2000. I believe, considering the recent evidence put forward by Robert Kennedy Jr., it can be argued that the people elected John Kerry in 2004. Yet neither man has served. No, what we get is the rogue leadership of a distorter of reality.

From time to time we rise in anticipation that someone like Arlen Specter will hold the president accountable, in instances like the NSA spying scandal. But, no, it was just an idle and empty promise to uphold the law or a ruse. A ruse to make it look like he will uphold the law while with the other hand demolishing the law. Never mind that it is a law of the people.

Where is our government? Where is our representation? The majority is not being heard. They are being preempted by photo ops and loud-mouth press secretaries and blonde news bimbos. Oops, sorry Brit, we will have to find a better category for you. Let’s just call folks like you... willfully ignorant power junkies, those who blindly follow because it puts them on the side of what they fear, insuring their own safety.

What to do now? Who to turn to? What leadership loves this country enough to stand and stand tall? The people can call. The people can write letters, the people can march, but if the leadership is not listening and not doing the people’s business, and they are not sounding a clear clarion call to action, then the people have few resources for stopping what has become a run away train. Law suits move slowly. Holding local office only goes so far when time is short.


There is a bible verse that says something to the effect of "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." I think it is in Proverbs. I would proffer that to our current "leaders" (come out come out wherever you are). The people are sick at heart. We are gathering in strength and in numbers, but the voice and action must come from the leadership. You must speak for us to the media, to the House, to the Senate, to everyone. You must acknowledge that the train is off the tracks. You must give voice to the emergency within and without this country. You must consider taking Paul Revere’s ride. With leadership, the people can respond. With leadership the people can rise to the occasion and support you with their efforts and with their funds.

It is past time. Those of you Democrats who call yourselves the people’s party must rise up and show yourselves to be what you claim to be. Those moderates and progressive Republicans need to stand tall against an enemy of the people, a corrupt and dangerous regime on our own soil. If you are being threatened by that regime, confide in someone. The time to act selflessly is now. The people respect honesty and bravery on their behalf. People in general are forgiving when they understand that they are being exploited.

This supposed to be a representative government. We need to see that NOW. We, the people need you, we need to know we can trust the people we work and sacrifice to elect.

Enough of our resources have been stolen. Enough laws have been broken. Enough rights have been lost. Enough people have died. If not now, when?

-Mags


MONDAY UPDATE: IS REVERE SADDLING UP?

Mags thinks this may be an early lantern in Paul Revere's ride. It's the NY Times article about the American Bar Association "faulting" Bush for "flouting the Constitution and underminding the rule of law by claiming the power to disregard selected provisions of bills that he signed." Michael Abramowitz in the Washington Post has a similar story and points out that "the most prominent example was legislation last year banning cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners at U.S. detention centers. Bush signed the bill into law after a struggle with Congress, then followed it with an official statement indicating that he might waive the ban under his constitutional authority as commander in chief, if necessary to prevent a terrorist attack."