Rob Kall at Op-Ed News ran an interesting poll, and it does appear that Congress could dramatically improve their ratings, however, based on my personal interpretation of that poll and the subsequent comments, it appears that Nancy Pelosi allowing impeachment hearings to go forth and allow Bush and Cheney to be impeached are the key to Congress improving its ratings. It is the will of the American people, the population is tired of Bush and Cheney, their constant war rhetoric, and the destruction of the American economy while the wealthy of America are increasing their wealth - and the rest of us are going down in flames. It's no longer a matter of speculation, but documented fact that Wall Street and America's corporations, devoid of real oversight by the government, are raping and plundering the American and even the global economy.

Catching up on some of the issues I’ve been following, several things caught my eye. I’ll be writing briefly about some of them in the next few days. One of them was Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed column in Sunday’s New York Times. If you read it, I wonder what you thought about it. If you didn’t read it I encourage you to do so and then let me know what you think.

Our President seems to believe not in oversight but in "accountability moments" every four years when the population gives a strict up-or-down judgment on his performance. A thumbs up means a mandate for the entire platform. In some cases like Social Security and immigration the changes are shot down by a growing popular revolt, but essentially the whole package is considered affirmed. At that point Congress passes laws as directed by the President to properly implement the platform, and each policy is a black box to be blessed in the broadest possible terms with no debate or review involved. If Congress doesn't like that setup it is free to use the power of the purse to shut off funding and force voters to pick sides; the loser gets run into a ditch.

Unfortunately, due to the complicity of the Mainstream News Media, America is at a crossroads – one that most citizens aren’t even aware of; our MSM is run by corporate interests, and even though some reporters would give anything to tell us the truth, they are stifled from reporting the real news by their corporate masters. We have one or two reporters that deserve the Medal of Freedom for their honesty and tenacity, like Keith Olbermann for instance – but his audience is too small to make a real difference, and the news I’m speaking of should dominate the media, in print , on the radio and on all of the nightly news reports, but instead, what we hear are bits and pieces of so-called news that fail to sound the alarm that America is dying, not a slow death, but our economy is close to a complete collapse, and if Bush and Cheney have their way, World War III could begin at any moment. Yes, it’s that serious, yet the MSM refuses to tell Americans the truth, traitors and cowards for refusing to honor their own beliefs in journalism and protecting the freedom and democracy that a “free press” traditionally provided to its subscribers. The framers of our constitution understood that a free press was essential to the survival of our democracy, and even on our own government’s website, these words are immortal and as true today as when our constitution was first written:

There are not words to describe my dismay and disgust at the House vote this morning on H.R. 6304, or The FISA Amendments Act of 2008. By a vote of 293-129 the House voted to sanction warrantless wiretapping and handed immunity to telecommunications companies for their roles in domestic spying.

A few times this year bloggers got the wild hair to start talking about the potential we have to bring more people to our government by making Congress more 2.0 friendly.

Stoller went off about the Franking Laws that are out of step with reality back in March and I've not stopped thinking about it since then. Well, in reality I had been thinking about it before that back when Obama's campaign announced that it would make the Chief Technology Officer a cabinet position.

What is wrong with the Congress of the United States? Are they asleep at the wheel, or are they cowards, afraid to fulfill their duty to the American people? It's about time for the people of the United States to demand answers! The news and Internet is filled with stories that demonstrate, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that President Bush has committed high crimes and possibly treason, yet Congress remains silent, apparently cowed into submission by a Presidency that for all practical purposes, is now a full-blown dictatorship and is flaunting our laws, trampling upon the constitution, and is publicly defying every rule of law - and Congress is still mute, refusing to do anything to stop Bush and Cheney's deliberate goose-stepping the country into another war in the Middle-East.

Congress can be a frustratingly opaque body, and trying to figure out causes and effects can be largely futile. Analyzing a simple proposition like "Congress has failed to adequately check executive power expansion since 2001" quickly becomes incredibly complex (rest in peace Edward Lorenz). Also, much of its work is done behind closed doors, which is probably for the best. If politicians were constantly on display before the public we would reach toxic levels of grandstanding almost immediately and government would grind to a halt (though in light of our recent experience that might be a benefit). The unknowable line between discretion and deception seems to get crossed fairly regularly, though, and those who come out ahead from working in the shadows are eager to blur it as much as possible. One of the great journalistic self-indictments of our times - right up there with "I have neither the time nor legal background to figure out who's right" - is this:

The administration's program of radically expanding the power of the President will require a great deal of time and effort to undo. In addition to the precedents being set by his Senate-endorsed attempt to legalize his lawbreaking, his assertion (via) that he can sign and ratify treaties by himself and his authorization of torture there are no shortage of extremely important issues to address. The unforgivably accommodating Congress that allows this will have to be changed via the ballot box but that obviously will be a complicated process with lots of primaries, general elections, challengers and incumbents involved. It will also require ongoing contact with our representatives on the big issues like the upcoming House vote on telecom amnesty. (I'm offering to teach the secret Pruning Shears handshake to anyone who does so over here.) It looks like there will also be lots of cleanup on smaller issues as well - not of the Constitution-shredding authoritarian variety, just things that will make you smack your forehead and think "thanks a lot, pal." Here are a couple.

The Protect America Act (PAA) expires on February 1st. To this point there has been silence from the White House on this, which is not a surprise. Over the summer they waited until the last minute and then raised the roof about how the terrorist killers would slit your children's throats with hunting knives if Congress didn't bring us a few steps closer to being a police state immediately.

January 2, 2008 -- Today Steve launched a new feature on his campaign'’s website, urging his supporters to join the national petition to demand the House begin hearings on an impeachment resolution of Vice Presid

A little over two months ago I wrote that we may have been at "the moment newly-emboldened actors began a decisive push against an overreaching executive" (hat tip me) and a couple weeks after that "[o]ne way or another by the end of the year things will look very different" (ibid). I'm glad I hedged my bets on the first one, and my unfavorable scenario for the second seems the likeliest to come to pass. Congress looks like it will continue to be timid on war policy and oversight, and now appears to be complicit in torture.

On war policy, here was David Obey on October 1st

Waxman's Oversight
http://tinyurl.com/2e8l2q
Wednesday, October 24, 2007; 5:16 PM

Since the Democrats took control of Congress, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) has been involved in virtually every major issue, from the war in Iraq to global warming, from rising prescription drug prices to allegations of White House abuse of power.

Feb. 7: Waxman summons former Iraq occupation administrator L. Paul Bremer to explain how billions of dollars in cash simply disappeared in Baghdad.

"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone?" he asks.

(“It’s easy for you to sit there and play Monday morning quarterback, Congressman. Do you know how hard it is to even *weigh* that amount of cash before dropping it into the middle of a civil war? And may I remind you once again that sanity is in the eye of the beholder--”)

In the last few days, there have been some remarkable revelations in regard the NSA's illegal surveillance programs; it appears I was naive to believe that solid facts and evidence of government spying prior to 9-11 would make a difference to our Congress, and rather than address the issue, their actions demonstrate they are deaf and dumb to any evidence that could halt the lucrative campaign donations from the nations telecoms. In this case, money talks and Democracy walks as our Congress refuses to connect the dots and sells-out America for a few piece of gold and silver.

Today, in this writer’s opinion, “the other show has dropped” and Congress, unless they are in league with Bush’s illegal power grab, have the final piece of evidence that even Republicans cannot ignore, or support unless they too are complicit in the unlawful eavesdropping by the Bush administration.