So yeah. Not so much with the gentleness today. Which sucks, 'cause I know I'm gonna alienate some darling dears and probably regret this. But sometimes... there just ain't much choice.
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Dear Congress...
I know. It's one of those "we have to talk" moments. You see... I've been thinking, and well... it's probably best we don't see each other any more.
I'd give you the "it's not you, it's me" but frankly..... no. It's you.
Quite frankly, as a body of people - I can't stand you.
I can't stand to see you. I can't stand to hear you.
I'm tired of the who's fault is it anyway speeches and I'm tired of the who's up for re-election and has to throw a bone to the proles vote trading and I'm tired of the hey look at the ballot boxes we found in the trunk stories. I'm tired of bribery so open on all sides that no one even blinks unless it's election time and makes for good campaign commercial fodder. I'm tired all the darling save the world schemes you come up with, but then take great care to exempt yourselves and your buddies from.
Your members range from the hopelessly clueless to the merely criminal - the best thing I can think to say about the senior leadership of late is that at least Barney's sweetie tried to make an honest dollar without leaning on our dime.
Republicans? Don't think you get out of this. You've been way out in front when it comes to shredding our Fourth Amendment at least as long as I've been alive, and then had the indescribable gall to pull out your stupid little thesaurus to make up an acronym for "Patriot" to name the last go round.
Darling Congress? I don't quite know how to tell you this, but the real patriots, the ones from '76? Yeah... if they were still around, you would have been begging for something as gentle as tar and feathers after that stunt.
so...
*sigh*
one...
two...
three..
fou...#@$k it.
All this talk about partisan bickering and ill tempers in Washington, some people would say it would be nice if you could agree about *something.*
Well, I'm glad you're making the effort, but could you please pick something other than bankrupting our treasury and selling out our frickin' national sovereignty?!?!?
At least it's not all swords and daggers in the halls, right? But... oh.. wait..no... I forgot. Two things. You can also agree on hiding your own names from a declaration of war when the shooting starts, so that you can demand glory while it's going well, but keep the luxury of playing the "but I didn't mean the resolution that way" game once the casualty count starts up.
Heck, let's go one more. Quite frankly dear?
If we still paid any attention to that document you all pledged to honor and obey, not a few of you would have been hanged for treason decades ago.
Yeah. So.
Let me get serious here for a minute.
Between the lot of you, you have managed to nearly completely delegitimize your institution. Not right wing talking heads. Not left wing talking heads. You. If you had comported yourselves with the barest shreds of common decency, integrity, and modesty there would be no stories to report, now would there?
Now... given the colossal ignorance and historical illiteracy that spills out of your chambers every day, I suppose we can't really expect you to grasp the consequences of frickin' lunchroom whisper campaigns and mangling the delicate balance of enumerated powers.
So let me spell it out.
The law will continue to be respected only so long as you are respectable.
In the best of times you've been a riotous mess of self-interested duplicity. Now is not the best of times... and you've become such a disgrace that you risk discrediting not only yourselves, but the very notion of popular government. (Hint.. the guys who spent a summer compromising out all those details, fallible as they were, were a hell of a lot smarter and well grounded in the end of empires than you are. You might want to look at why things were set up one way or another before presuming you know better)
But no... it's elected bodies like you that made frickin' despots look like a step up... and the last time we tried that mankind didn't see the light of freedom again for a thousand years. We narrowly avoided that road sixty-odd years ago, but like a dog to its vomit...
So that's the stage we're starting from.
Now honestly... I won't say "534 to go," because I think Lot can still find a few decent souls in the stinking mess you've made of our halls.
... I wouldn't count on many at this point, but I'm sure there's some.
So tell you what.
You police your own to the standard of every day decency the rest of us try to live under, vote to force your selves and your households to abide under every one of the laws and obligations you saddle us with, renounce those cushy pensions and perks for life, pledge to do your service and come home like Cincinnatus after a few terms instead of setting yourselves up as a wannabe lifetime aristocracy - and just maybe study to understand that document you pledged yourselves to support and defend.. and then maybe I'll join the Arlington police in getting all bent out of shape when one guy is callous to the grieving on his blog.
... 'cause right now I can't say as I blame him.
I'm sad for a few families, yes.
.. but I'm heartbroken for my country.
15 comments:
Thanks for your support, Jenny!
I can't applaud like I'd like to without sounding like Darth reaching out to Luke across the catwalk. ;)
But "brava!" all the same.
Better yet, they've all sworn to uphold and defend the constitution, yet all of them repeatedly demonstrate either a lack of knowledge or deliberate desire to ignore it. As Jefferson put it "On every question of construction, [let us] carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying that meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
We know damn well what the framers intended. At every point.
One personal pet peeve: Sun Tzu estimated the cost of a standing army fighting a foreign war at the output of 70 civilians. Based on the current population, federal budget, and size of the armed forced, we are at 74 civilians per member of the armed forces. The intent of the second amendment was to ensure the safety of the nation, and to minimize the ongoing drain at the federal level. The militia acts of 1792, 1795, and USC TITLE 10, Subtitle A, PART I, CHAPTER 13, § 311 make that damn clear - minor digging even more so. The fact that neither party gets this is irritating.
Their repeated failures to comprehend their obligations in the case of the fourth even more so. As they have sworn an oath to uphold and defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic, one has to wonder if there is a way to put the lot of them on trial.
I linked this one - it's too good not to share with as many people as possible.
I think those in the hallowed halls have this vision.
http://fluffystan.wordpress.com/
Jenny....you make me not only proud to be American....but proud to be a woman. Kudos to you!
Jerene
AMEN, well said!
Here, here.
Diamondback
Outstanding post. I could not have put it better myself. I'll link this one as well, if you have no objection. This post deserves to be read far and wide.
Well said!
They certainly deserve all the critical animosity we can toss their way. After all, they got it the old fashioned way--they earned it.
AMEN!
After emerging from my hole and looking around a bit, I have one question.
What the hell happened to Massachusetts?
Did not Sam Adams, acting as the representative of that state, say "That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms....“?
The same state that used to fine citizens if they were unarmed?
The one in which the seizure of arms and the attempts to seize arms sparked a rebellion that sent the redcoats back to their boats?
What The Hell?
Freedom of speech and of the press is well established. Freedom of religion was tacked on there after much debate. Which parts are pertinent in this case?
members of the house and senate take an oath to protect and defend the constitution (the constitution being the ultimate law of the land).
The majority party of the 111th congress has then voted "yea" on two bills (each over 2000 pages) of which they neither read nor understood. ((by their own admission))
I view the above as mutually exclusive, you cannot do the first and then do the second without violating the first.
members of the government who are described above clearly stand in the company of Benedict Arnold.
so much for a nation of laws.
once again, what does a banana republic do with twelve aircraft carriers??
and now both Oregon and Washington have returned traitors to the senate.
Standing....applauding....
Travis - my pleasure!
Tams.... nooooooooooo! nooooooooooooooo!
That's impossible!!
thank you kindly. :)
Tom - Ayup... it's not like they were exactly shy when it came to writing about what they meant or anything.
Other Tom - just talked about that some, but frankly want to visit sometime and get a better feel for the place. Right now... I'm thinking they were always rather "we're the select ones, so our way or else" but really started going off the rails in the tail end of the 19th c.
rbt - "cannot do the second without violating the first" - very much agreed.
all - thank you!
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