Power and Politics - I am Not the Yellow Peril

The life and times of an Asian American activist who tells all the truth (and dishes news and analysis) but with a leftwards slant.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

We own the Senate

The people have spoken, and soon to be ex-Senators Conrad Burns and Goerge Felix "Macaca" Allen finally conceeded. Ken Mehlman, head of the Republican National Committee, steps down (read: is fired) a day after Rumsfeld gets the chopping block. These days, it's sweet to be a Democrat. We now have a 51-49 majority in the Senate, which is nowhere near filibuster-proof, but we have lame duck Senators like Lincoln Chafee who are willing to step in and do the right thing and block Bush from renominating John Bolton as UN Ambassador (or unambassador if you like, that's how good he was at his job.) One of his most infamous quotes was:

''If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.'' Like the character Bizarro created by Otto Binder, Bolton Bizarro has a brain apparently functioning at a level of a kid -- or more accurately, Bolton Bizzaro operates on the level of a playground bully minus Ritalin.

Yeah, that's Bush's idea of bipartisanship - shake your hand in front of the cameras, and wait for the photogs to leave to spit in your eye.

No thanks, Shrub. You lost your political capital. You squandered it on gay marriage bans, hoisting immigrants as scrapegoats, presiding over the worst job market since Hoover, and destroying any shred of goodwill the international community had for us after 9/11. Adept at playing cowboy (like another George), you decided to go it alone on the Kyoto Protocol, and on the International Criminal Court. No accountability means you can't be prosecuted for war crimes by a jury of your peers.

We own the Senate, and now we intend on rebuilding this country by tackling issues that matter, that aren't just some window dressing programs. I want this country to heal. Your divisive tactics have inncreasingly torn us apart over the past six years so that brothers would no longer talk, so that friends avoided each other, and neighbors grew more distant. On one side of the divide, I felt the rift deepening, my own anger and frustration reached and the surpassed fever pitch as I saw how much damage you did to our country. To my country.

There were things that I could not discuss with friends or family, issues that cut gashes into our conversations, wounds that I never thought would heal. Issues that resonate deeply in my history, ini my daily life, that I couldn't discuss with certain loved ones because of all the stonewalling or yellinng that occured, without resolution. But now we've taken away your knife and grounded you. Because although the Republicans claim to be the "strong father" party, we're the ones disciplining you now, to make up for your 6 years of excess and corporate gratification. You stole from America's kids (NCLB, Pell Grants), you stole from our seniors and gave to Big Pharma (Medicare Part D), you stole fathers away from daughters (wars). Tell me why and how you can dare be surprised by the people's rebellion? On second thought, don't. All of America is tired of listening to your lies.

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