Friday, August 03, 2007

"Do We Live In A Democracy Or A Dictatorship?"

For all those vast hordes of readers of this site out there who think that I get overwrought and hyperbolic when I say that the Democrats are hell-bent on debasing our country into the world's biggest banana republic, last night should have been an eye-opener:

In a massive flare-up of partisan tensions, Republicans walked out on a House vote late Thursday night to protest what they believed to be Democratic maneuvers to reverse an unfavorable outcome for them.

The flap represents a complete breakdown in parliamentary procedure and an unprecedented low for the sometimes bitterly divided chamber.

The rancor erupted shortly before 11 p.m. as Representative Michael R. McNulty (D-NY) gaveled close the vote on a standard procedural measure with the outcome still in doubt.

Details remain fuzzy, but numerous Republicans argued afterward that they had secured a 215-213 win on their motion to bar [illegal aliens] from receiving any federal funds apportioned in the agricultural spending bill for employment or rental assistance. Democrats, however, argued the measure was deadlocked at 214-214 and failed, members and aides on both sides of the aisle said afterward.

One GOP aide saw McNulty gavel the vote to a close after receiving a signal from his leaders – but before reading the official tally. And votes continued to shift even after he closed the roll call - a strange development in itself.

"Strange"? How about corrupt? How about illegal? How about abusive of power?

With the usual dose of bumbling incompetence. Rather than hold the vote open longer, which Democrats used to complain histrionically about when they were in the minority, McNulty closed the vote too soon and it cost his caucus an embarrassing defeat.

At least, it was supposed to, by the long-established parliamentary rules of the House of Representatives that the majority is supposed to abide by if the legislative process is to retain so much as a shred of the appearance of legitimacy and integrity. Besides, it's not like the bill was something that really mattered to the Donks, like anti-war legislation or a mound of tax increases; surely they could have lived with "undocumented immigrants" getting access to a couple fewer federal teats.

Instead the Democrats just ignored the rules and changed the results so that they won the vote - and then doctored the congressional record to reflect their version of events.

Well, ods my bodkins, I guess there's no reason for the Dems to EVER lose a vote in the House, is there? Hell, why do the Republicans even need to show up? It's not like their votes actually matter, or now can be said to have even "officially" existed. No wonder they walked out of the chamber en masse. It was only making visible what the Donks had already done in secret.

Wrote a "Washington source" to Powerline:

This is an insult to our democracy, something that Stalin would recognize. It is an unprecedented violation of our democracy that can not be allowed to stand. Do we live in a democracy or a dictatorship?

And, what was so important that the Dems went to all this trouble - it was a vote to ensure that illegal immigrants couldn't get taxpayer funding in the agriculture bill. The Dems are so opposed to this, that they would violate our democracy.

We need to spread the word. The American People need to know what is happening in their government.

Well, I'm all for that, and this post is my tiny part in that patriotic effort. But never forget that it was the American people who elected these budding totalitarians, and either approve of what the Democrats are doing to "their" government or are so civicly lazy that they can't be bothered to pay attention. And unlike the Left, conservatives don't have a dominant media establishment to expose these genuine abuses of power and campaign for a GOP restoration.

So, unlike the largely bogus "culture of corruption" meme on which the Republicans got impaled in 2006, America will continue to slide into a dictatorship (in the pear-shaped persona of President Hillary Rodham) in a near public relations vacuum.

It's some solace, at least, that there are some Pachyderms who won't go gentle into that good night. Listen and watch as Congressman Eric Cantor rages against the dying of the light: