The news out of our nations capital gets sillier and sillier. Scooter libby is going to jail, maybe. that nasty ole judge ruled that he must begin serving his jail time immediately. But immediately in wash dc does not mean what it means in the real world. In this case immediately means 6-8 weeks. It was announced that the fed prison system needs 6-8 weeks to prepare for ole scooter. what in hell are they preparing for him, a Hilton hotel suite? Does his personal chef require a special kitchen be built? No further explanation was forthcoming, but it seems ole scooter gets 6-8 weeks of freedom while king geo and his merry minions decide on how to slip in a pardon while no one notices.

The news gets sillier. Congress is threatening to issue subpoenas to condi rice, big dick cheney, cool karl rove, and a few other high muckty mucks. But the above have all announced they will refuse to comply and will simply ignore the subpoenas. In the immortal words of dick cheney, f you congress. Or to be a bit more polite, na na na na na, you cant make me. So one might ask, what good are congressional subpoenas, or any congressional actions at all, if the executive branch can ignore them? So go ahead and ask. Aint nobody goin to answer.

Congress calls for investigative hearings and no one has to show up to testify. Its better than a whitewash. Its an invisibility wash. Yes boys and girls. That is your federal govt in inaction. And we pay these clowns to perform in this circus. You and I are in the wrong business. We all should have jobs where we strut about and pontificate, blow hot air and do nothing.

You want more silliness? I give you the infamous signing statements. Congress passes legislation and if king geo bothers to sign them into law, its merely a publicity stunt, because immediately after signing them he then pulls the curtains and secretly signs something he made up out of thin air, called a signing statement. And what is a signing statement? Im so glad you asked. Remember when you were a kid and when playing with your friends, if you had your fingers crossed, then whatever you said or promised was null and void. Well king geo is still playing kid games. A signing statement cancels whatever law he just signed. Ha ha, I dint really mean it. I had my fingers crossed. George orwell would have just loved signing statements.

For todays final silliness, I give you the huge todoo over non binding resolutions. Endless debate over Will we pretend to do something, or do nothing, or do less than nothing? A non binding resolution is something only a democrat could come up with. Remember back when the republicans controlled the senate and house, while bill Clinton played president? Did the republicans ever bother with non binding resolutions? Are you crazy? Oh billy, you were a bad boy again. Hold out your hand.. We are going to give your wrist such a slappy poo. The republicans went for Clintons throat every chance they got. Politics at any level higher than the very local level is a blood sport. If you want to get anything done, you hold their feet to the fire, and you have the hot tar and feathers waiting. You may have elected them, and you pay their salaries, but they are beholden to the lobbyists who pay them the real money. The fascinating thing is that the framers of our constitution, the guys who created our govt way back in 1776, understood and warned us about all of this. And lo and behold, we fell into every trap they warned us about. Recall that famous reply of ben franklin when asked what form of govt had he given us? A republic, he replied, if you can hang onto it. All evidence seems to prove we have failed miserably to hang onto our govt. we have completely lost control of our govt. it now controls us. And misguided and evil men use it to further their own greedy ends. The land of the free and the home of the brave has become the land of the fettered and the home of the cowardly. Welcome to America 2007.

Next item: there are a few people in congress courageous enuff to speak truth to power. Rep Maxine waters of southern ca is one of them. she says our voices have been muted by right-wing talk shows defining us, rather than we defining ourselves. When you mention race, you get accused of using the race card and race baiting. Many elected officials started backing off. They were being called race baiters, and the progressive community wasn't defending them. When you talk about this president's tax breaks for the richest one percent, you're accused of being divisive and putting the poor people against the rich. I wish we COULD pit the poor people against the rich. Look at what America discovered about poor people when Katrina happened. And the rest of the world looked at Katrina and said "how interesting, these are the folks with their great democracy who try to tell the rest of the world how to run their countries." Poor people, Waters said, don't have a lot of representatives. Right wing Congress Members with poor people in their districts don't represent them. But it appears that a discussion of poverty is getting back on the agenda. People ask who I am supporting for President. I'm not supporting anyone yet, because they're not talking about poverty or race. The closest to it is John Edwards. But we've got a long way to go. We've got to stop liking candidates because they're cute or because they stop by your church, etc. Don't work about who can beat the Republicans. "The Republicans are dead in the water, and we need to put our foot on their necks and drown them." We need to decide which candidate will act on our behalf. Waters said she is going with Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey to Iowa to put heat under candidates to force them to talk about poverty and race and progressive politics.