corrente

In the thread over at Atrios yesterday about the disgusting crap they snuck into the Omnibus Spending Bill, including the abortion-information-evasion provision, the Let Selected Senators Read Your Tax Returns provision, and re-purchasing the Presidential Yacht, and God only knows what else hasn't been found out yet.

But amidst the "Aw JEEZ, does it never STOP???" type of comments there was a very wise observation from a guy by the name of Robert M. Jeffers:

Interesting is the fact that shame is still a force to be reckoned with.

If Bush were so sure of his power, he would not hide what he wants to do, he would announce it boldly and go forward knowing no one would dare disagree, a la Stalin. If the GOP were sure of its power, it would vote to support Tom DeLay and give itself all the power it needed to crush Ronnie Earle in open session, laughing as it did so.

The Vikings were never ashamed about raping and pillaging. They did it in broad daylight. It was Grendel and his mother who attacked at night, like cowards. And Stalin was quite open about his purges and his pogroms. No one dared challenge him, because he dared destroy his enemies openly, and let them know who did it.

Representative government, in other words, is still functioning. The GOP still wants to do one thing and proclaim another, knowing full well that what it does would never earn it any points at the polls, and that the polls still count.

Sunshine is still the best antiseptic, and the best antidote to bad government.

So what we do here does have value, even if it seems to come too late, even if it sometimes seems like the manure piles up faster than we can get it transported to the south 40.

Right now you have the Congressional lame ducks trying to get in a few last licks. Come January you'll have the Newer, Even Nuttier GOP testing out their new sandbox and thinkin' they're hot shit. But more eyes than ever are watching them, keeping lists and taking names. And that south 40 is gonna grow a HELL of a crop in '06.