Sit Down, Harry. You're Years Too Late.

Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats finally got their George Wallace moment this morning -- barring the doors to the Senate to a black man, the only black person, as it turns out, who had the audacity (recognize that word) to come to the Senate in 2009 and ask to be admitted on the grounds that he is lawfully and duly appointed and entitled to sit in the Senate alongside all the white folk. There was Harry Reid, standing firm, with his George Wallace impersonation all over the news: "We will not be moved. He will not be seated, we don't care what the law says." Good job Harry.

The Senate is a white-only institution, treated like the most exclusive country club for multi-millionaires. For the most part, nobody will even be considered for admission unless they've got several million dollars and can prove to party heads that they can bring in tens of millions in bribes for the other members in their party. It's an exclusive cult of insiders and they keep out the riff-raff. Secrets are guarded. Such as, for example, that for the most part the Senators do nothing except spend every day all day soliciting bribes from multinational corporations and from foreign governments who want the U.S. military to be sent to protect their regimes against their own citizens. Breathes there a more corrupt institution than the U.S. Senate?

They take bribes to sell their votes yet they claim they are principled. Notice how they always tilt their heads back, look down their noses at the rest of us, always use four-dollar words to try to obscure the fact that they really are saying nothing? They believe they're above the law and they can do anything they want. Just like George Wallace.
Over the past 8 years, the Democrats periodically rise up and claim that now, finally, they will take a stand. But they never do anything to help the people. And if you look at the campaign contribution information, it turns out the Democrats have been receiving just as much money in bribes as the Republicans have.

Both parties took millions of dollars from Wall Street, then looked the other way while Wall Street stole half the investments of Americans. Both parties took millions of dollars from the multinational corporations then looked the other way while one after the other business fired all the American workers and hired truckloads of illegal immigrants escorted to the plant by Bush and his good friend Fox, the President of Mexico. Looked the other way while businesses took jobs out of the country to be done by third world child, prison, or slave labor, then imported cheap and sometimes poisoned goods back into the U.S. and sold them to Americans at enormous mark-ups.

Looked the other way while drug companies sold life-saving drugs in other countries for pennies, and charged Americans thousands of dollars for the same treatment, then passed laws written by the drug industry to make it illegal for Americans to buy those exact same drugs from Canada or Mexico. Looked the other way as Bush tore up the Constitution and as Bush and his Department of Wall Street hacked the dollar to bits, stealing most Americans' life savings and many of their homes in the process. And the Senate Democrats remained silent during all this. Probably cannot speak and count money at the same time. When the Loan Sharks wanted to prevent Americans from discharging credit card debt and the 30% interest being charged, the credit card industry actually wrote the exact law they wanted, handed it to the Senate, and they voted to pass it.

I couldn't possibly make a list of all the crimes of the Bush Regime, the betrayal of the public, the theft of everything from working people - no more decent wages, no benefits, no healthcare, no pensions, no job security -- that were done to the people of this country during the 8 years of the Bush Regime. But I do know that in each instance the Senate Democrats did nothing to help the people.

You know what Harry? At any time during the past 8 years, during any of the atrocities being committed by the Bush Regime -- that's when you should have been standing on the Senate steps, that's when you should have spoken up to the press, refused to let Cheney be seated, refused to vote for one more penny for the U.S.-sponsored death squads in Iraq, for kidnapping, torture and murder being carried out in our names, refused to allow any business as usual until impeachment proceedings were begun, refused to participate until the illegal wiretaps were pulled and everything about that program publicly disclosed.

Harry, you should have laid down on the Senate steps, gone on a hunger strike, gotten into the street and rallied the people against the torture being conducted in our names. But no, we got nothing from the Senate Democrats during the past 8 years.

But now Harry takes a stand. He refuses to allow the appointed Senator Burris to be seated. Why? There's no legal grounds to oppose him. Is it because he's black? Nobody has said Senator Burris committed any crime. No one suggested he paid any bribes. And speaking of that, how can the Senate Democrats say they are against politicians soliciting bribes when that is what they do every day all day?? How about asking Senator Schumer to pay into a public fund the money he took from his buddy Bernie Madoff? How can the Senate Democrats say they are against corruption when they are the poster child for corruption? I wonder if they brought out the police and dogs to stop Senator Burris.
The law in Illinois says the governor is to appoint the replacement for Obama. The governor has done that. Harry and all the other WHITE Senators may not like it, but tough. There is nothing in the law that says a governor who has had a "complaint" filed against him (not even an indictment) cannot make the appointment. And there is nothing in the law that says the Senate gets to choose the replacement.

How many times during the past 8 years should the Senate Democrats have stood up and actually taken a stand on something? I do not have time to make the list. And if I did make the list, I would probably weep all over the page. But other people have made lists, and here are a few of those lists:

This website lists some of the crimes of the Bush Regime which should have led the Senate Democrats to DO SOMETHING TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC, but our Senate Democrats could not be bothered to get up off their corrupt asses to protect the citizens against the mad men who had taken control of our country: http://www.impeachbush.tv/args/index.html

Summary of Impeachable Offenses
Misled Congress about Threat from Iraq - violated Title 18 USC 371 and 1001

Shaped Intelligence to Justify War with Iraq

Lied about Uranium from Niger

Lied about Aluminum Tubes

Lied about Congress having Same Information as Bush

Bush did not meet the requirements of HJR114 and therefore invaded Iraq without authority.

Illegal Electronic Surveillance - violated FISA laws and 4th amendment

Torture of Prisoners - violated Federal Anti-Torture Laws and Geneva Convention

Violated International Law

Refused to comply with Congressional Subpoenas

Other Charges

35 Articles of Impeachment by Congressman Kucinich

"Happy Impeachment Day! 10 Reasons to Impeach" - 7/19/06 Summary of Bush crimes by the CCR. OpEdNews.com

These lists are partial. What about Katrina? What about making a deliberate decision to let Americans die after a natural disaster to further the dogma that the federal government does nothing to help the people -- if you want help, pray or ask a church. And how about giving taxpayer money to churches, essentially forcing Americans to support religions chosen by Bush. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state?

And this does not even begin to discuss the economic crimes committed during the last 8 years by which the assets of working people have been transferred to the wealthy by tax cuts for the rich, by failing to enforce laws against monopoly and price-setting, by refusing to bust up the cartels, such as the financial cartels, which have squeezed every penny out of Americans' hydes, allowing tax evasion and avoidance cons such as "private" charitable accounts which let rich people (like Gates, Buffett, the Clintons) keep hundreds of millions in earnings without paying taxes and without supporting our country, squandering money on wars of aggression, paying ten times the fair charge to Republican -affiliated businesses to take over government functions and pay kick-backs to the politicians on the obscene profits, the theft of 1/2 of investments by the Wall Street boys, the usurious interest and other manufactured "fees" charged by the financial cartels on unsecured personal loans through credit cards, the manufactured run-up in gas prices to steal billions more from Americans. I could go on but why bother.

The point is that the Senate Democrats did nothing to help the citizens of this country. And Harry Reid is just the front man. The real decisions are made by the Senate Democrats who run things, which is the Senate Democrats who raise the most money, set up their personal "PACs" to distribute money to other members, and by showing they are the most corrupt politicians, actually end up making all the decisions about what will be done (and more importantly what will not be done) by the Senate Democrats. And what they will never do is to stand up for the citizens and against the corporations and rich people who pay them bribes. Which means the citizens always lose.

But now they're taking a stand. Against allowing a lawfully-appointed Senator, a black man, who would be the only black person in the Senate, to be seated. Just like George Wallace.

Sit down Harry, you're years too late.