Feeling Disheartened

I am feeling disheartened these days. Maybe it's the midsummer blues, or maybe it is the ongoing debacle in Washington. The corporate media's discovery that the nation's infrastructure is in the gutter would be humorous if it weren't so sad. The collapse of the 35W bridge is just the most recent in a long line of failures - the levies in New Orleans and the failure of the electric grid being just two other massive cases in point. I am sure the Bush administration is heaving a sign of relief that something has taken the cameras off of the death of Tillman and the various Congressional hearings.

If you belong to human rights and environment mailing lists as I do, you are being buried in emails of new legislation going into effect that devastates both. That's one thing that has been going on while red flags are waving elsewhere.

But just in case we were paying too much attention, they flew the "terrorist dry run" flag to keep us focused. Of course it only took about 24 hours to realize that it was spun and not real. However, watching CNN this weekend I saw with horror and anger that they ran the original news reports with no editing or caveats. So, folks who only watched the weekend news still think that terrorists are making fake bombs out of cheese and headphones.

Then, as if things couldn't get any crazier, Rove and his assistant were subpoenaed to testify. Bush immediately blanketed both in "Executive Privilege." Rove, decided he would join Bolten and Miers in not trouble himself to even show up. His assistant showed up, but wouldn't say anything. He even extended his "Executive Privilege" to refuse to tell the committee what his job is. Give me a break.

While this might be funny under other circumstances, it is horrifying to realize that there is a fatal flaw in our governance. What is becoming increasingly clear is that there is no way to control an administration out of control. One wonders if the writers of the Constitution ever though about this situation. We have arrived at a place where party power and political "considerations" have combined into a situation where an elected President can act with impunity. "We the people" can apparently only wring our hands, and continue to beg our elected representatives to DO something.

White House Aide Won't Answer Questions of a Senate Panel. Neil Lewis, NY Times, 8/02/07