Record low approval for Congress and the shrub.

According to Reuters, Congress and the shrub are at record low approval ratings. Why the occupants of the Oval Office are so unpopular is obvious, given the history of the past seven years or so. Congress' low scores stem from continued refusal to end the Iraq war and impeach Bush and Cheney, even after Democrats were elected to majority status following twelve years of GOP domination.

The given excuses for failing to end the war, and hold the shrub and his gargoyle accountable for their crimes, are as twisted and dishonest as anything spewed out by the Terrible Duo themselves. There isn't a big enough majority to end the war, the biggest excuse goes. Democrats are afraid of leaving troops stranded in Iraq with no funding or equipment, following threats by the Bush-Cheney regime to do just that if blank checks are not written ad infinitum. Impeachment would divide the nation, House speaker Nancy Pelosi claims. Impeachment would distract the Democratic majority from doing the people's business. There isn't a big enough majority to impeach. The list of excuses goes on.

The tragedy of it all is that the public is too smart to buy into any of these lame explanations. We know Democrats hold only a slim majority, especially in the U.S. Senate. So we are fully aware that Democrats cannot pass their legislation. We get that. Which is why we also get that, since there is no legislative agenda to distract from, impeachment really is the only thing Congress can pursue. Everything else they could do is dead in the Senate, or from conservative Democrats joining with Republicans to kill vital legislation and pass atrocious, Constitution-gutting bills.

The public also understands that Congress hasn't enough votes to end the Iraq war. But we understand, too, that having control of the Committees and the chamber leadership means that Democrats have the ability to control which bills get brought up for debate, and which get left to gather dust. Democrats can end the war by simple refusal to let any blank checks for it out of Committee, and tell the shrub that the money already given is all he's going to have from now on -- so he'd better start using it to bring the troops home; no one seriously believes Democrats would be blamed outside the corporate media if the shrub were to strand our soldiers in Iraq after funding runs out. Similarly, Democrats were in a position to hold up the Fourth Amendment-trashing FISA revision, which allows warrantless wiretaps.

We the People know all this. What's so frustrating, so infuriating, is that most Congressional Democrats can't -- or won't -- realize this. No, they'd rather have members of the public arrested, including a pentecostal minister, when they dare try to talk to their own representatives about doing their jobs.

This is why Congress' approval rating is even lower than the shrub's, and why Democrats are sure to lose across the board in next year's elections. Why should the public turn out and vote more spineless or complicit Democrats into elected office, when we see that nothing will change for the better and in fact will only change for the worse? The Republican Party thrives on low voter turnout, because that means it has a better chance of succeeding in rigging elections in its favor.

Meanwhile, America has gone to hell in a hand basket and the Bush-Cheney regime is bent on dragging Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran down with it. Constitutional freedoms are stripped from us daily; people are beaten and arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights (you can read about the latest examples here, here and here), with such incidents increasing in number on a daily basis to one degree or another.

My friends, we are existing under the yoke of what is rapidly becoming a fascist dictatorship -- with Congress complicit in completing its construction. You might think me extreme, perhaps nuts, for stating that. But the facts can lead to only this one, inescapable conclusion. This is why the Democratic Congress' poll numbers are lower than the shrub's, and why the party will lose next year. Even when handed power, the party refuses to act in the public's favor and instead chooses to enable and empower a fascist regime right here in our very own country.