Just Another Annoyed Rant

I have to tell you, I don't have a whole lot to talk about tonight. I'm finding it more and more exhausting to be outraged about something new every single day. Over and over, I see some new line in the sand the Prez is willing to waltz across and think, "I can't believe they'd do that." But I almost immediately catch myself and realize, of course I can believe it. Everything is political with this White House, and there doesn't seem to be much they're doing just because the policy outcome is the right thing to do.

A good example lately would be all the political maneuvering going on about General Petraeus's report to Congress next month. First there were reports (denied by the White House) that the administration wanted to put Petraeus's testimony into private session, but Congress would have no part of that. Now it turns out that, entirely by coincidence, without any kind of ulterior motives of any sort, Petraeus will testify on September 11. This isn't outrageous, particularly, but it is pretty ridiculous. How stupid do they think we are that we'll just swallow that whole? Unfortunately, that gets a pretty quick answer, too. We're obviously stupid enough that we'll put up with everything they've fed us so far without doing anything much of anything other than complaining.

On the bright side, a recent CNN poll found that a majority in the country expects Petraeus's report to overstate progress in Iraq. All right, so maybe we won't believe whatever it is Petraeus has to tell us, but that still leaves hanging the question of what we're going to do about it. The Democrats won't stand up to the White House (and the mainstream media's not even interested in trying to), so even though we can recognize that we're in a dangerous situation, we're just falling back on trying to ride out the remaining months of the Prez's term. Even if we manage to pull that off successfully, there's no guarantee that the next president, either Democrat or Republican, will roll back the authoritarian tendencies of this administration. How many people are willing to say, "This is far more power than I need, so I'm giving some of it away"?