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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 12-Jun-07
Congress fails to pass "no confidence vote" against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Web Log - June, 2007

Congress fails to pass "no confidence vote" against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

After failing to pass any kind of immigration bill last week, the Washington clown circus Congress failed on Monday in their attempt to pass a "vote of no confidence" in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

In fact, one of the reasons that the Democrats wanted to stop talking about the immigration bill is that they wanted to move onto this vote of no confidence. But now that's failed too.

The Democrats don't like Alberto Gonzales because he fired some Democratic prosecutors and replaced them with Republicans -- or something like that -- I could never get up enough interest to even care what was going on. And then Gonzales bungled his explanation to Congress.

So this no-confidence vote is a political stunt to embarass Gonzales and the President. While passing an immigration bill would be an actual accomplishment, it was abandoned in favor of political nonsense, and even the nonsense failed.

The Boomers are running Congress and, as I've said many, many times, Boomers are unable to govern. I hope those of you who think I was joking about that begin to realize that it's the absolute truth. Boomers really are unable to govern.

A web site reader sent me a message indicating that he thinks I'm being too hard on Congress. He writes to me thus:

"In your recent post about the immigration bill and its failing in the Senate, I think what's more telling than any increase in incompetence of government by Boomers is the public's reaction towards the bill. I think it matters not what the Senate was or wasn't able to do, since that is measuring the capabilties of individuals, but rather the large negative response those senators received from the public. Several senators who were asked about the reaction towards the bill by their constiuents have all said they have received more negative responses towards this immigration bill than anything else in a long time. The public is not happy, and I think that is the crux of why the bill failed. The elites, so disconnected from the public, were taken completely by surprise by the level of disapproval over the bill."

I certainly agree with this comment that the public is extremely divided on the immigration bill.

The immigration bill is not a "Democratic" bill or a "Republican" bill. It actually splits both parties down the middle. Both Republican President Bush and Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy strongly favor the bill, and there are plenty of supporters and opponents from both parties.

This is not surprising, since immigration and xenophobia are always issues in every country entering a generational Crisis era, as are all the countries today that fought in World War II as a crisis war. You can see xenophobia between Americans and Latinos, between Europeans and Muslims, and between Japanese and Chinese.

Not only that, but I'll add one more argument in support of the reader's claim. As I've said before, whenever a country enters a generational Crisis era, as is the case of all the countries that fought World War II as a crisis war, then the country always becomes paralyzed and ungovernable. We can see this in America, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Turkey, the UK, and so forth, as I've described before.

In France, incidentally, the new President Nicolas Sarkozy won the first round of legislative elections on Monday, and his party appears poised to win a substantial majority in the Parliament when the final vote is taken on Sunday, June 17. Analysts are predicting that this will give him the power to make all the changes he's promised -- repeal the 35 hour work week, control labor unions, make France the leader in a new united Europe, and so forth.

However, as I wrote last month when he became President, Sarkozy is far more likely to be met with massive violent street protests and other strong opposition if he continues his confrontational approach. In truth, France is just as paralyzed as America is, and chances are that we'll see that pretty shortly.

So perhaps, as the reader suggests, I should be more understanding and forgiving of Congress, and more sensitive to their needs and problems.

Hell no. I disagree that just because they're Boomers, this gives Congress the right to act like a bunch of clowns. We pay these guys the big bucks to find compromises when necessary -- in other words, to govern. We don't pay them to sit around and scream at each other like a bunch of teenage girls.

One tv pundit made an interesting point: The President has an approval rating of about 35% -- and Congress has the same approval rating, and so did the Republican Congress last year.

Americans voted for a change last November, when they voted for a Democratic Congress. Instead, they simply replaced the Republican clowns with the Democratic clowns. I think we deserve better. (12-Jun-07) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 12-Jun-07 Congress fails to pass "no confidence vote" against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 12-Jun-07
Congress fails to pass "no confidence vote" against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.