Sunday Snippets

We start on a sad note this morning. A week or two ago I added The Ostroy Report to my blogroll. I find Andy's writing to be clear, logical, insightful and a pleasure to read. He hadn't been posting as much before the election and last night I found out why. He is suffering a tragedy of untold imagining or comprehension. His wife, Adrienne Shelly, was murdered two weeks ago in a senseless act of violence. My heart goes out to him and their daughter. Nobody should have to suffer like that.

I usually wake up at five on Sunday mornings so that I can listen to the Commonwealth Club. This morning's topic was "How to get a failing Congress back on track" with Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann from October 23. They were under the impression that the Democrats would take the House by just five or six seats.

What was most interesting was when they were asked about impeachment. They felt it was worthless to investigate for several reasons. The first one made my eyes pop open. It's not worth it because the American people don't want it. Like I said, it was before the election. I personally thought that a blowjob wasn't worth impeachment but Congress proved me wrong. Now we have two countries teetering on the brink of disaster due to the policies of one administration and that isn't worth investigating? I don't think the rest of the world sees it that way and if we won't clean up our own mess others might feel the need to do it for us. We would be toast if there were international sanctions against us for harboring a war criminal.

They also felt that since this administration believes in the largest expansions of executive powers in history and are prepared to defend their position, that also makes it a moot point. What I fail to understand is why a President thinks he can get away with destroying the Bill of Rights, kill innocent Americans in a foolhardy war in a country that wasn't bothering us, destroy the economy as it pertains to the middle class and the poor, conduct illegal spying activities that subvert the laws of our allies, five years later have failed to repair the damage to New York from 9/11, hasn't even tried to repair the Gulf Coast damage from a natural disaster, lied to Congress and the American people, both to their face and behind their back and these aren't high crimes and misdemeanors? Is it only sex that counts? For some reason I don't think the public views it the same way.

Impeachment is not retribution, this is the type of situation the Founding Fathers designed it for. Not blowjobs but actual damage to the country. Even Nixon understood that he had screwed up and had the grace to step down, however unwillingly. The executive branch is one third of our government, not the ruling master and balance must be restored if this country is to have a viable future.

Of course it won't be pretty, it shouldn't be, but what has occurred over the last six years is criminal behavior and should be treated accordingly.

Did you know that Congress was in session the least amount of time in history and that they spent most of it on useless resolutions to help their reelection? Some days they were only in session for eleven minutes. No wonder the people were so irritated with them. This Congress had better produce some positive results.

On a happier note, I won a copy of Live From the Archives 13 yesterday. The money from this CD goes to help Bay Area Food Banks. Thirteen has always been my lucky number. This a good cause and the music is a bonus. They make good Christmas presents and the food banks definitely need the help this year. Thanks Annalisa!