Finally, It Looks Like A Democratic Party, Again

I'm not going to get carried away, now, mind you. After all, the Democratic Party still has a ways to go before they are, once again, the party of FDR and JFK. There is no doubt, however, that the battle in the Senate on Wednesday, December 21st, 2005 was a marked improvement as the minority leaders and a handful of not so regressive Republicans came together to force oil drilling in the ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) out of the Defense Appropriation Bill. The fact that Stevens of Alaska and Frisk of Tennessee and their soulless cronies would slip such a brazen attempt at making the rich even richer and defile of one our countries largest and most precious natural reserves into a bill to fund our troops overseas fighting Bush/Cheney's illegal Iraq War as well as money for the relief of Hurricane Katrina and flu vaccines clearly shows they are interested in nothing more than the manipulation of the legislature to make themselves and their cronies richer. Bastards would use supporting our soldiers and helping disaster survivors to line their own pockets? It isn't even human.

Fortunately the Democratic leadership swept in and kicked the shit out the ANWR provision and persevered the integrity (at least for now) of the Congress, which has become nothing more than a body of kiss-asses for the Bush/Cheney administration. They then passed the Defense Appropriation Bill to get our soldiers the help the administration won't give them and to give our fellow Americans the help they need as they continue to struggle to rise above a disaster which the Bush/Cheney administration knew was going to happen and did nothing to prevent.

In addition, the Bush/Cheney administration and the majority leadership of Congress sought to make permanent the civil rights violating wrongfully named Patriot Act, the Senate once again stepped in and forced an extension of 6 months only. This allows for further debate in an effort to try and remove those provisions of the Act which clearly violate the rights of Americans as well as give superfluous and almost dictatorial powers to a president gone mad with his self-declared divine right of rulership. The release earlier this week by the once-great, now tarnished New York Times of a report that President Bush has been ordering illegal wire-taps for the NSA inside U.S. borders shows that whatever powers were given to this jackass during the days immediately following 9/11 are being abused. The fact is that Bush's violation of the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) is an impeachable offense (one of many, including the War in Iraq)! But I'll save that discussion for another time.

As I watched the session on C-SPAN 2, I was riveted by the verbal battle between the two leaderships. However, nothing was more affecting as Ted Kennedy's impassioned cry against the rules violation by the Republican leadership who, as they had before with the prescription drug plan, during the dead of night slipped in verbiage into the pandemic flu provision of the appropriation bill which would relieve any and all manufacturers of the flu vaccine from any prosecution should recipients of the vaccine suffer side effects from the vaccine. In other words, if a recipient of the vaccine becomes sick or debilitated as a result of poor manufacturing, etc., then that recipient has no recourse for compensation - not even from the government! Because no money has been set aside in a fund which the government claims will have money! It's disgusting, immoral and, once again, shows how inhuman these Republican leaders are.

Just as riveting was watching Stevens of Alaska as he decried the other members of Congress for not allowing him to rape the ANWR, claiming that future profits from the oil drilling had been earmarked for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita victims as well as our soldiers overseas. This coming from the son-of-a-bitch who fought for a bill that would have given him billions of dollars to build a useless highway to a single island off the Alaskan coast instead of given those same dollars to help rebuild New Orleans...what a fucking hypocrite.

There is no doubt that compromises, such as cutting funding to a heating program that would have helped millions of Americans during Winter, were made in order to ensure the protection of the ANWR, extension of the Patriot Act and the defeat of a Budget Bill by the Republican leadership that would have included tax cuts, which, once again, clearly favor the wealthiest 1% while continuing to cut aid and benefits to the poorest Americans, but that's the nature of politics. Compromises will be made. I can accept that. I have to accept that! It's the way politics is done. What I haven't be able to accept is the complete ass-kissing of the Republican majority of the Bush/Cheney administration by the Democratic minority. At least for this Holiday Season (Yeah, fuck Bush/Cheney memos demanding the use of "Merry Christmas"!) I got a gift from my once proud party leadership who for the first time since 9/11 showed they have something to offer the American people: a choice between being screwed or having their best interests persevered the best way possible.

I'll take that gift, gladly.