The Last Straw

[JTG of the PRB]

There is so much happening in our world right now that, at times, it seems difficult to follow it all and keep up. I do my best to get as much national and international news as I can without letting it upset the balance in my mind between what I can accomplish and what I cannot. I CAN send letters and call my Senators and Representatives repeatedly in an attempt to get them to understand how dangerous things have become in this country. I CANNOT fix the problems because, in the end, I don't make the choices that run this country - my Congressional representatives do.

So, I'm forced to ask a simple question of my Representatives and Senators - in fact, I ask it of every last member of our 535-member Congress: What is going to be the last straw, the final revelation that forces you to take action to save our country?

Clearly, it won't be the results of the 2006 election. We, THE PEOPLE, voted for a change of course not only in Iraq but in our country as well. We voted to bring the minority party into power in hopes that they would fulfill their pledges to lead this country away from the dangerous rocky shoals and into safer harbors. Despite making our voices heard, change is coming at a glacial pace. We voted for change because action needed to be taken IMMEDIATELY, not EVENTUALLY. What else could be the last straw?
Well, it probably won't be the extended secrecy, deception, and stonewalling provided us by none other that Commander-in-Chimp George W. Bush and Puppetmaster-in-Chief Dick "Dick" Cheney. They block documents, hide RNC e-mails, stall and delay and order their operatives to ignore their subpoenas - which, according to the LAW, they are supposed to answer by appearing before the Congress. Sure, the House voted to hold Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten in contempt of Congress, but an official vote might wait until AFTER Congress returns from a month-long vacation.

Just as an aside, I seem to remember that vacations were something you earned or deserved by working hard in order to make it really special. I don't think it counts if the new majority isn't able to fulfill its campaign promises and the chest-thumping minority tries to throw its weight around to block Every. Single. Measure. Just a thought.

Could it be the Alberto Gonzales saga that forces our leaders to actually lead and save this country? If that were the answer, it would have happened by now, right? Well, there IS hope - it looks like Fredo is going to be fully investigated (about four months late, if you ask me) and hell - maybe he could even possibly be impeached, maybe! Of course, that would probably wait until AFTER the Congressional vacation, and if Gonzo decides to resign in the middle of all that, the Prez could appoint somebody without Senate confirmation. Hmm... I guess that's NOT going to save us after all.

But what about the Chimperor's continued power grab - the Military Commissions Act of 2006, signing statements granting him frightening powers to seize the property and assets of anybody deemed to be aiming to undermine the stability in Iraq, the ominous statements about how the job of President would be easier if it were a dictatorship - as long as Dubya was the dictator? Surely SOMEBODY will step up and speak out against this in the halls of power and try to undo the damages already done to our Constitution, our rights, and our nation? Right?

... Right?

So then. What's it going to be, Congress? What will the last straw finally be that convinces you it's time to act and to save our grand republic from the demented manipulators and power-grubbing whores that have torn us from our once-lofty position as the leader of the free world? What could POSSIBLY set you to action now, after all that has happened in the last 10 months that you have NOT acted on convincingly? What will be the straw that breaks the back of Congress?

Will it be the growing shadow over Executive branch and its secrecy as its tendrils of evil burrow deeper into the fabric of our government? Will the voices of the people rise to a level that no Representative or Senator - no matter how out of it, hard-of-hearing, or ignorant to the will of the people they may be - will be able to drown out the noise by stuffing wads of sweaty, ill-gotten money into their ears? Will one woman - the wife of former Attorney General Ashcroft - topple the entire house of cards this Administration by truthfully answering a simple question?

"Mrs. Ashcroft - on the night in question, did the President or the Vice President of the United States call you?"

Or maybe there is a thought so terrifying it cannot yet be spoken aloud: What if no straw will ever be the last straw? What if, in the worst failure of representative democracy the world has ever seen, the Congress remains silent as the President and his cronies continue to gather more power to the Unitary Executive branch? What if the President seizes power and dissolves the Congress in order to protect us from the imaginary demons lurking in the shadows and hiding under our beds? What if the very men and women we sent to Washington to save our country return home defeated, humiliated, and broken - like the republic they could not or WOULD not save.

So I repeat myself. What, my dear Representatives and Senators, will be the last straw that forces your heads from the sand to see the truth of the nation you have now helped to create? What injustice will finally cause you to rediscover your backbones? What moment will make you stand up and shout "ENOUGH!"?

We're waiting.