So congress read the Constitution: Well, isn’t that special

Marti Oakley, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

I tried watching the swearing in of the new House for the 112th Congress. I couldn’t stand it. Standing on the steps outside the House, was one of the greatest collections of career liars, thieves and thugs ever publicly assembled, sprinkled with a few new-comers who probably believe they are actually going to affect a change in the District of Criminals.

By the end of January, these newbies will have been thoroughly indoctrinated and will have had the law laid down to them about how things really work in the District. The newbies will resurface along about February with their talking points memo’s in hand and will dutifully be spouting the party line and will have totally dismissed any notions they may have had about “changing” the way the District does business.

Next I tried to watch the changing of the Speaker of the House. In these moments I am always amazed at the ability of the players to stand in front of not only the House members, but the American public thanks to all the camera’s present, and to deliver vacant and pointless speeches, the words of which sound like they should mean something . . . but really don’t.

Nancy Pelosi had the gall to speak about defending the Constitution. This from a woman who has single-handedly violated the provisions of that document on so many occasions it is staggering. Now she thinks the Constitution should be defended. Apparently Ms. Pelosi suffers from some form of congressional alzheimers or maybe she just has selective memory.

John Boehner took the gavel as he assumed his new position as speaker and talked about “openness, transparency and honesty”. Words I believe were taken from Obama’s now infamous remarks during his campaign. Yeah…..I’ll be looking for John to deliver on that one.

The grand coup’ in all of this, the zinger meant to incite the public, to make the American people believe was a new day with new leadership that was really going to listen to the American people and a leadership that held the Constitution in high regard, promising to uphold it at all times …….was the reading of the Constitution on the floor of the House. While this reading of America’s most historical and profoundly important document was read, congress men and women chatted with one another and I believe a few might have napped.

Not one congressmen, not the outgoing speaker or the incoming speaker, said one word about repealing any of the egregious assaults on Constitutional rights and protections that were contained in numerous pieces of legislation that they themselves, in many instances, voted to pass
Having watched these stage shows put on by both the House and Senate for more years than I care to admit, I was none-the-less taken back by the unmitigated gall, the phony posturing, the vacant speeches and remarks that were capped with the reading of the Constitution. Call me cynical, but I get the uneasy feeling this was some kind of insider joke. Maybe this is Congress’s idea of fun. I don’t know.

Here’s what I do know: We have allowed ourselves repeatedly to be conned by people we elect to office. We believe the speeches and the declarations, but once they are in office, they forget who they work for. Or maybe they never had any intentions of working for us to begin with.

The truth of the matter is that no matter what their intentions, corporations, lobbyists and other forces that we are just now learning about pull the strings. The fact is, we are subsidizing a political body that has ceased to be anything other than the facilitators for corporate takeover of all parts of our lives while subjecting us to agreements with foreign governments, international bodies and foreign organizations, populated by people who have no interest in seeing this country thrive and survive.

My question is this: Why do we continue to pay them?

After all, if you look at the money trail attached to each and every bill you see that they all garner millions in funding from the corporations who run the government; a donation no doubt meant to influence their votes.

I did not hear the out going speaker or the new speaker make any mention of ending this influence buying by corporations, and it was never mentioned either before or after the reading of the Constitution.

Speeches and vacant promises aside, there will be no change in the District of Criminals. The only thing that has changed is “who holds the gavel”.

Marti Oakley is a political activist and former op-ed columnist for the St Cloud Times in Minnesota. She was a member of the Times Writer’s Group until she resigned in September of 07. She is neither Democrat nor Republican, since neither party is representative of the American people. She says what she thinks, means what she says, and is known for being outspoken. She is hopeful that the American public will wake up to what is happening to our beloved country . . . little of it is left. Her website is The PPJ Gazette

Recently by Marti Oakley:
“No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to uphold it.”