Gordon Brown Addresses Congress

Earlier today I listened to Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown give an address before a joint session of Congress. It is his first speech to Congress, and he is only the fifth prime minister to address our legislative body. As it is the first joint address by a foreign dignitary of the Obama Administration, and the UK is our closest ally, I felt it necessary to listen to Brown.

I felt it was a good speech, one that conveyed the continued strong friendship of the UK and the US, and also the general friendship between the US and Europe. Gordon Brown clearly doesn't have the stage presence of an Obama, although he certainly held his own. He got a few jabs in at the current opposition party in the US, while also generating several bi-partisan ovations. His story about the refugee who died in Rwanda waiting for the UN help was a heart-breaker.

Putting aside the meat of the speech, it's interesting to note how comfortable the United Kingdom seems to have become in its role as the junior partner in the Anglo-American alliance. 200 years ago it would have been unthinkable that a British PM would be speaking to its separated offspring, and even up until the dark days before World War II the United Kingdom would have laughed at the idea of being subservient to the upstart Yankees. Its a lesson for the United States to remember, as we continue along in this new century.

Here is PM Brown's speech:

All Hail AT&T, our glorious leader of Congress

Not surprisingly, the Democratic leadership is showing their true colors on the calamity that is the FISA renewal bill. As the August deadline looms, Steny Hoyer and the rest of the chicken-shit democratic leadership will roll over once again to the White House, fix a few typos in the bill, and call it a "compromise".

You know, there was a time when balance of power, checks and balances, and party leadership in Congress meant something. But apparently that is no longer true. Steny Hoyer and Pelosi act like they are still in the minority, allowing President Bush and his gang of incompetent tools to run roughshod over our constitution. I'd blame the cowardly Blue Dog Democrats (why are you even Democrats anymore?), but its the job of leadership to get them to fall in line.

Lyndon Johnson wouldn't let Congress turn into mewling kitten afraid of the wrath of Mr. 30%. Neither would Congressional legends from the other side of the aisle. At one time, Congress actually believed that it was equal to the White House, like the Constitution proclaims.
Not any more.

Although there are many problems with the bill, letting a compromise through that gives telecommunication giants even an iota of retroactive protection for screwing with our civil liberties is irresponsible. It doesn't erase 9/11, and does nothing to prevent another tragedy of that magnitude. All it does it help out Ma Bell and prevent justice from ever being served.

I'm sure those checks from San Antonio are really nice, aren't they Speaker Pelosi and Mr. Hoyer?

(Note: Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats deserve some blame as well. However, given their majority is built only when Joe Lieberman is part of the caucus, it is understandable why they can't get anything done. It doesn't excuse their cowardice in the face of more cowardly Democrats, but it does save them from my harsh invective.)

For Shame, Senator McCain

Apparently Senator McCain has had a change of heart about the legality of waterboarding. One of the few areas where he seemed to not wish to pander to the torture-lovers on the GOP side, and now that seems gone.

I really don't want to get started on this issue, mainly because I try to keep myself from going off on expletive filled rants. However, I must say that it is embarrassing and depressing to me that we are even debating crap like waterboarding. Torture is cruel, undemocratic, and questionably effective. Someday people will look back on this era and shake their head, much as we do now about the Japanese internment during World War II, or the Alien & Sedition acts of John Adams. Sacrificing our nations principles for the expediency of war is not worth it, and should not be condoned. Yet President Bush has constantly pushed for it, and the complicit Republicans and weak-ass Democrats have done nothing to stop it.

But hey, anything to stop the big bad terrorists, right?