Republicans filibuster & democracy broken

Well the Republicans filibustered Webb's legislation that would have mandated the soldiers get at least as much time home as they serve in Iraq. That isn't surprising. Anybody who thought that September would be "different" were fooled again. Of course, now that September is almost over, we see that in fact nothing is different. Indeed, it's worse because Republican John Warner, at the last minute, withdrew his support of the bill, which he supported in July. Another Republican went onto the floor and said it was "demeaning" to soldiers for them to have so much leave time. Ridiculous to the point of lunacy.

In a sense it seems that Democracy is broken. The president has so much power that we can't do anything without at least 67 votes, and there is no way to get 67 votes on anything any more. Coupled with special interests and the way we elect our officials, really our legislators have only 1 goal: get re-elected. Everything else is propaganda. There are way too few people who are actually trying to do something good. There is simply no incentive to do so. And with senators having 6 year terms, folks like Lieberman just have to -sound- good to people during election year and then do whatever the hell they want after that.

The Dems will cave again when the next round of funding comes along. And don't expect 2008 to be any different. Even if there is a Democratic President (and I don't think there will be), I expect that we will still be in Iraq in 2012, and possibly 2016.

I remember when we first invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, asking two friends how long they thought we'd be at war. I remember saying 3 years. One friend said 6 months at the most, because the American people won't allow more than that. Another said no more than 5 years. Who knew we'd be at this for 6 years and counting.

It's pretty depressing.