Congress approval rating just 10% as Bush goes from 'lame to dead duck'

[BlueJessamine]

Source: The Guardian

The controversy over the failure of the Bush administration's unpopular financial bail-out is infecting every aspect of government and the presidential election campaign.

Eminent reputations lie in ruins; the august institutions of Congress, the treasury, the Federal Reserve tremble; the presidency itself is shaken. In America's year of living dangerously, few will emerge unscathed.

The consensus view, if there is one in so divided a nation, is that the US has suffered a calamitous, across-the-board failure of leadership. The bankruptcy is political as well as economic. This conclusion is widely held among both supporters and opponents of the bail-out.

"Monday's crash and burn of the Paulson plan on Capitol Hill reveals a Washington elite that has earned every bit of the disdain that Americans have for it. This crowd can't even make sausage," snarled a Wall Street Journal editorial yesterday. Black Monday's shambles marked a "historic abdication".

Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives were excoriated for political cowardice, childish disputatiousness, and a selfish desire to get re-elected next month at any cost. It's clear, whatever they do next, the public simply does not trust them to do it right.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/01/georgebush.congress

---

"No longer a lame duck, he's a dead duck," said Democratic strategist Paul Begala.

[msongs]

1. so is Obama gonna announce his TRULY progressive plan to revamp the financial system before any new

bailout of the speculators bill?

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[cosmodem]

4. Waiting. He just has the Principles as far as I know.

[Nihil]

7. Probably just "keeping his powder dry".

:hide:

[Peace Patriot]

2. "...few will emerge unscathed." Oh, they'll get their reward from Diebold & brethren.

That's what 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY vote counting, run by Bushwhack corporations, has been for all along, don't ya know? --for the final looting.

It was to keep the troops in Iraq protecting those oil contracts, yeah--but it's further-down-the-line uses are now becoming clear.

10% approval rating for Congress. Worse than Bush! This is called: 'Most of them were never elected either.' Hardly a one of them can prove that they actually were. The proof has been removed--behind the curtain of the 'TRADE SECRET' code.

It's not just the code. I know this. It's the money, too--the vast corruption of campaign money (and TV ad costs) and lobbying money, and its corrupting influence over several decades. But the code--a more recent twist--gives people who were Bush/Cheney campaign chairs, people who want to execute homosexuals--corporations with hair-raising backers and CEOs--DIRECT power to fiddle virtually every vote total in the country, without detection.

And our Democratic leaders have done nothing and said nothing about it. Nothing! They supported it, enthusiastically. They still support. And even the good guys among them--such as Howard Dean--seem afraid to attack it directly--this outrageous coup d'etat of 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting.

Things ain't gonna change until we fix this (which can still be done at the state/local level). There's the money. There's the voter caging lists. There's the Bush DoJ, and all manner of anti-democratic dirty tricks and cheats. And then there's 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting, added to all of this, with half the voting systems doing a ZERO audit, and the other half a miserable 1% audit (entirely inadequate in a 'TRADE SECRET' code system). Venezuela has OPEN SOURCE code machines--anyone may review the code by which the votes are tabulated--and they handcount a whopping 55% of the votes, as a check on machine fraud. Here, we have code throughout the voting system that the public has no right to review, and we don't audit the voting!

What can you expect from such a system? A pretzledent with a 25% approval rating, and a Congress with a 10% approval rating! Can it be any clearer? 'TRADE SECRET' code prevents any reform, and results in $700 BILLION bailouts for the rich, on top of a $10 TRILLION DEFICIT. Transparent vote counting, on the other hand, gives we, the people, at least a fighting chance to elect real representatives of the people.

That's where we have to start--restoring vote counting to the PUBLIC VENUE. And it's going to be a long hard slog of slowly reforming our democratic institutions, starting with that critical one: transparent vote counting. They've done it in most of South America. So can we.

[WriteDown]

3. Seems like we one a majority in the Congress last election...

Was that part of the plan? Sorry, my tinfoil isn't thick enough for this stuff.

[Peace Patriot]

6. And this Congress was different from the Diebold I Congress...how?

It seems to me that "we" didn't win a goddamned thing. We, being we, the people--the majority--the ordinary working people, small business people, small investors, pensioners, and our elderly and younger family members. Has this Congress done ANYTHING we wanted them to? Top issue of the 06 elections was the Iraq War. This Congress ESCALATED that war, with more troops and with billions more of our non-existent tax dollars to Bush/Cheney to keep "occupying" Iraq until they signed the oil contracts, and signed a "status of forces" agreement for the U.S. military--OUR military--to protect those contracts. Total betrayal of the people by our Democratic Congressional leadership. Second most pressing issue: clean up the cauldron of corruption in Washington. Gee, the current bailout alone tells us: no progress of that score either.

And the same has been true on every issue. Not just a failure to fulfill their oaths of office, but total betrayal. They are well-deserving of their 10% approval rating.

Now, as for "tinfoil," I take it you approve of 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code throughout our voting, with the code owned and controlled by Bushwhack corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls. What do you think a totally non-transparent voting system is FOR, hm? For laughs?

You are contributing to the ignorance of the American people by calling this "tinfoil." What I have described about our voting system is the truth. Half the country has no election audit capability, and the other half does only a 1% audit, in a system controlled mainly by three rightwing, Bushite corporations, with 'TRADE SECRET' code.

Do you approve of this, or not? Do you even see HOW WRONG THIS IS? It is a violation of the very basis of democracy: transparent vote counting. Without transparent vote counting, you don't really HAVE a democracy. Don't you get it? There is hardly a member of Congress who can prove that he or she was actually elected. That is the biggest scandal in the history of our democracy. You simply don't give private corporations--especially PARTISAN private corporations--this kind of power without a BAD REASON. It's upside down. It's Alice in Wonderland. It's WRONG. It is MIND-BOGGLINGLY wrong!

People like you would have called Paul Revere "tinfoil" for alleging that "the British are coming"!

It's fundamental. PUBLIC control of the vote counting is OVER, gone, kaput, fini, lost, dead. We have NO IDEA who is really being elected or not elected. None! They are NOT COUNTING THE VOTES! Diebold and ES&S are telling us who won!

The British ARE coming, friend. In fact, they're here. And their names are Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia.

[Nihil]

8. Excellent post. (n/t)

:applause:

[minnesota_liberal]

5. Where's my duck call?

I've been waiting since 2004 to call the White House and let loose with it!

[underpants]

9. Part of the unpopularity is that they haven't opposed/overturned Bush ENOUGH

I have never seen such attention paid to and published about Congress's approval

[Virginia Dare]

10. Congress is never popular in the polls as a whole..

most people like and approve of their own Congress(wo)man, but hate everybody else's.

[Pterodactyl]

13. I agree. The current congressional leadership is totally ineffective.

Time for some turnover if you ask me.

[Virginia Dare]

11. So is the public disapproving of their action or their inaction?

these polls are usually meaningless in any real sense.

[Pterodactyl]

12. I'm a little worried about the 10% approval rating for Congress.

I mean, that's even worse than Bush. Yikes. I hope there is a lot of turnover in November and the Democrats can elect some new leadership.

[Stellabella]

14. As another poster said above, Congress always has low ratings.

You have to look at the individual ratings of the Congress and Senators in their homes states and districts.

[ryanmuegge]

15. President Cheney is no dead duck. They still have plenty of power left.

A weak opposition party that only controls one branch of the legislature, as well as command of the military and regulatory agencies.

He is still highly relevant.