Jan 3, 2006

Hey, What Happened to the "Contract With America"?

The Republican Moral Imperative: Blame it on Bill Clinton and the Democrats!
The pagan-religious-commercial holiday around the winter Solstice is over (until the retailers alert us to the next one), so back to the salt mines now. Hey, 2006 can be an exciting year for the politicos among us as we will have an opportunity to restore some checks and balances into our government. I hope the American people are up to this important task. Unfortunately, we will have plenty of scandals and more misteps to keep us busy. This Republican Congress and the Bush administration have set records in efficiency when it comes to ..corruption. Most importantly, however, we must take back our country from the social darwinists, the theologs, and we must throw the lunatic fringe where it belongs--in the margins of our society. This extremist minority has captured the Republican party. But, authoritarian government has a high price: corruption. I can't wait to see how many unworthy politicians are burned by the Abramoff scandal. What a bunch of weasels those Republicans are. Not so long ago, they argued for a "moral imperative" in impeaching President Clinton who lied about his sexual encounters. Of course, now they sit red-faced, praying that all their troubles is just a bad dream. Maybe it is rapture time as trials and tribulations are upon them!

At any rate, I had some spare time these holidays, so I read stuff, here and there, and strangely enough I came upon the "famous" and much talked-about Republican promise in 1994, the Contract with America. Let's see what those Repubs "promised" to do when they'd come to power. [the comments in the brackets are mine; why not start the new year with some fun?]

This is what that "contract" stipulated:

FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress; [ha! I guess they didn't mean the President and the Republican leadership in Congress! The laws shouldn't apply to those who are in charge of the public good, because our leaders need some ..flexibility in order to make us safe and keep us safely ignorant under lock & key]

SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse; [ha, ha! waste?!! No way! Get out of here! Never mind the $8.8 billion missing in Iraq... Most likely, this money has probably fallen between the seat & pillows of our national couch!]

THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third; [unless they needed to add more in order to keep up with the growth of the federal government under Bush 43]

FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs; [what they meant: they can stay only as long as our party is in the majority, that's all... Oh, and remove the "ethics" out of the Ethics Committee]

FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee; [better yet, pass bills without making the members read thousands of pages of ..boring stuff]

SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public; [hahaha! they had you going on this one! Nice try! Actually, just save time & energy by letting the lobbyists write the laws]

SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase; [yes! such a super majority is necessary to safeguard against accidentally raising taxes on the well-off. But, the Repubs can invoke the "nuclear option" and change the rules of the Senate when it comes to other serious matters, like life-time appointments to the US Supreme Court, etc.]

EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting [hahahhahhahahahha.... Who said, they couldn't put more on our national credit card than all the previous governments combined? It sounded like a ..challenge to Bush! Besides, it's not that they would have to pay for the charges themselves...]

The Repubs are capable of producing some nice fiction, which, under the right frame of mind, can be hilarious! Yet, at some point we have to remind ourselves of the sad state of our country as it has been led by the autocratic Republican machine. For the real impact of the "contract with America" in a post-Katrina, Iraq war, scandals, and the law-breaking, read this article in the Nation.

We need a revolt of our own this time, not just for the sake of putting the Dems in control of one or both chambers of Congress, but because we care about the direction of our country. The quality of our democracy and the quality of our lives depend on the quality of the people involved. I seek accountability not only from those who are in power but also from those who elect them. What is the responsibility of the average person? How would this country be different if, say, the individual citizen had more power? Often, we are our worst enemy. The first good step is to be informed and engaged in the affairs of our nation. We have a new year ahead of us, let's make the best of it. See tomorrow as the first day of the rest of our lives. Let's make the future a better place to be in.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another gem on this blog. Nothing beats ..beating someone else with their own words!

Happy new year!

Anonymous said...

Aragon, aragon, why have you forsaken me?

Not even Gandolf can save the repubs trolls...

Anonymous said...

The end of times is here... but I don't see any repetance by the sinners!

Maybe they think (like many other criminals before them) that by repeating their mantra will somehow stick...

Anonymous said...

That's a really nice post. I don't see why the Dems can't start invoking that "contract" and beating the repugs over the head with it....

hehe, I wish elections were sooner than Nov.

Anonymous said...

So, Clinton lied about a sex... yeah, but this was a depraved & dispeakable sin, that reflected badly on the institution of the presidency! OK, let's impeach the bastard.

Bush didn't do anything for personal ..satisfaction! 0r, did he?!!!! For personal gain? Nooooo!

OK, he lied about the war, thousands died... but he had good intensions, right?

And, breaking the law while spying on Americans without obtaining court permission was in order to keep us safe!

I'm confused. I'm going to raise a mob and swing into action! Who's with me?............

Anonymous said...

The FISA court has given hundreds of permissions to the gov. to spy. It's very easy to get a FISA permission. Only 4 or so requests have been denied.

Maybe Bush thought that he had no good reason to support his request so he didn't bothered!

Anonymous said...

well, don't expect any action from this Congress....

Unless the Dems gain control of both cambers of Congress in November (I think very unlikely), then forget about impeaching this poophead!

Anonymous said...

yes, but if the House falls, then John Conyers (D-MI) will become the chairman of the Judiciary Committee with subpoena power.

As of now, the Dems can't even hold hearings officially on any matter. The Repugs have turned Congress into a fifedom.

Anonymous said...

Did the Republicans really say those things 10 years ago? Wow!
Anyway, I also can't wait to see how Abramoff burns all those corrupt officials....

I want to see the details of the scam he pulled along with Ralph Reed (yes, that one of the Christian Coalition) in stealing/exorting money from the Indians for a casino license!

Anonymous said...

God must be upset with those who've been using his name in vain...... thus, he's punishing them!

Anonymous said...

oh, who was that guy who said something about "two Americas"?

Anonymous said...

people forget that part of the rap sheet against Tricky Dick was abuse of power... not only lying to cover a crime!

Anonymous said...

i think it would be a splendid idea for the Dems to run on the Repugs "contract" this Nov

Anonymous said...

actually i'm very disappointed with the Dems.... can you imagine how the repubs would have reacte AND taken advantage of the situation if the roles were reversed?

now it's a great chance for the dems to show that the repugs' only ability is to transfer wealth to the few, screw the rest of America (and the world).........

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that we're definitely going down the nixonian road. The White House insists it didn't do anything illegal and won't co-operate with congressional hearings on domestic spying....

I applaud A. Specter (R-PA) for having the guts to hold hearings on the matter. Maybe the moderate Repubs will finally show some guts and take back their party that is captured by the extremists.

Check the White House's resonse

George said...

More comprehensive stuff on the "Casino Jack" Abramoff, read Tuli's blog here

She makes good points and follows the latest developments.

Tuli said...

Andros,

As usual you are right on. I am ashamed that the Dems can’t come up with a coherent policy and plan to deal with this. Hopefully, they will get behind Feinstein’s reform bill and push for more media coverage.

I love the idea of going after the GOP with the Contract (Crock of Shit) for America. It only seems fair, doesn’t it?

And thanks for the plug. I have been following this for years, mostly because of the K Street Project and the loathsome Grover Norquist. It seemed so obvious to me where it would lead. And I must admit sometimes I get weary of being right.

And then sometimes I am so GLEEFUL ABOUT BEING RIGHT!

That said the outcome is still in the hands of the electorate and the opposition.

I am hopeful, but not feeling very positive about the eventual outcome.

Tuli said...

Did I say Feinstein? Yes, I did. I meant Feingold, et al. What a dope.

My Bad.