While Rome Burned...
I spent the morning listening to the Armed Services Committee hearings on NPR and then watching them on CNN. Let me say two things: a) Senator Lindsey Graham is going to go far in the Republican Party. b) I find it highly amusing whenever Congress tries "to get to the bottom" of something. The abuses at Abu Ghraib are, as Rummy said, un-American and those responsible need to be drawn-and-quartered, but does it really instill confidence in anyone to have Congress conducting an investigation? This is Congress we're talking about! And do not think me a partisan; after ten years in power, the GOP majority is little better than the old stagnant Democrat majority. 9/11 was an unavertable tragedy because domestic law enforcement and external intelligence services were legally prohibited from sharing information with each other. Who prohibited that sharing? Congress. The Central Intelligence Agency has been villified for having inadequate human intelligence resources. Who placed restictions on how the CIA could conduct human intelligence gathering and spent three decades slashing the CIA's budget and proverbially tying the Agency's hands? Congress. Congress likes to blame agencies and department for their screw-ups, and Congress is especially fond of saying that those at the top must be held accountable. Hmmm, since Congress has oversight authority over each and every single agency, department,a nd cubicle of the federal government, wouldn't that make Congress ultimately responsible for any and all failures? Now, how many Representatives or Senators have resigned over any government foul up? To paraphrase Chuck Lane talking about Stephen Glass, if a Congression report told me that the sky was blue, I'd not only look up, but independently verify it with three other sources. What is amazing to me is that the Republic continues to be as strong as it is, despite governance by a vain and baboonish legislature.

You remember in Mars Attacks!, after the Martian ambassador disintegrates a joint session of Congress, the President (Jack Nicholson) addresses the nation and sez, "You still have two out of three branches of government... and that ain't bad"? Yeah, I always really liked that part.

H-A-D
Have a dreamy day.