Weenie Cops. Weenie Skelton. Too Many Weenie Dems.

Remember when they used to be called "peace officers"? That was back in an era when many cops saw their job as doing just that -- keeping the peace. Now too many, even among the U.S. Capitol security force, apparently just look for excuses to gang tackle people and knee them while they're down. And do they really have to tightly handcuff everyone they are arresting or escorting out? That used to be reserved for legimately dangerous people. I guess anyone with enough gumption to mention they have rights is considered a dangerous person now. Unfortunately the really dangerous people are in the White House and the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House and the Department of Justice and testifying before Congressional committees.

Peaceful Reverend Gang Tackled
This makes me hissing mad. The video above captures the incredibly rough arrest of Rev. Lennox Yearwood outside the Petraeus hearing room today. Here's an account of what happened. He was doing absolutely nothing threatening that I can determine. He was merely asserting to the officers that he had a perfect right to be in the hearing room after waiting all morning in line. Which he did. I wonder who made up the arbitrary rule that no more than seven "peace people" could be in the hearing room. I wonder who defined the characteristics that define "peace people" and who told the cops to gang tackle Yearwood. Was it Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton? Was it other Dems on the committee? Or did they just sit idly by and ignore it?

Ike Skelton, Friend of the War Profiteers
Of course it's not unexpected that Skelton, long in the pocket of the defense corp profiteers, would rather have "peace people" manhandled and would rather say dismissive things to citizens against the war in the crowd than call out Petraeus and Crocker as the spinners and yes men they are.  Skelton was more than happy to get people tossed out of the hearing room with a scowl and a grumble. We aren't "his people" -- those in the "defense establishment" are.

I don't begrudge him having the protestors escorted out after they were warned about outbreaks, but he could have done it with respect for those working so hard to get our troops home and some meager sense of sanity restored in Washington. He or another Dem on the committee could have said something like, "I regret being forced to have you removed because I identify with your frustration and anger with an administration and its spinners who have lied us into war and who are continuing to distort the truth." But no, instead he praised Petraeus and Crocker like they were saints and reserved the dirty looks and nasty treatment for the citizens. Us.

They're Supposed to Work for Us
These members of Congress and their Capitol police thugs think we work for them and not the other way around. I think too many believe they are royalty instead of public servants. They need to be reawakened to what their true duties and responsibilities are in a democracy. Like defending the Constitution, just for starters. Like treating people who dissent with respect. Like demanding that the Capitol cops behave like humans instead of thugs. Every Dem in Congress should be shown the video of the gang tackle of a man of the cloth in the halls of our Capitol merely for asserting he has a right to attend a hearing. And every Dem in Congress should protest the action.

I know that's probably too much to ask when massive defense appropriations are at stake in an era so full of hubris and corruption and lies from on high like this one. But it's displays like today's that show the people who their friends are, and who are more concerned about keeping the defense spending earmarks flowing, the status quo going. I predict this kind of rough treatment of our citizens will become more and more the norm as frustration and anger grow on the part of a majority of Americans about a horrible, futile occupation, about the Republicans who put Party loyalty before country, about the Democrats too stuck in the rubble of their own egos to do what they certainly must know is right. Is this the tipping point?

The Domenici Angle
Meanwhile I see that Sen. Pete Domenici is more upset about a MoveOn ad criticizing Petraeus than he is about the continuing slaughter being kept in place to protect Bush from admitting reality. Domenici is showing his usual skewed sense of priorities. As for Petraeus, he declared he wants to withdraw troops next year because things are going so peachy. Oops, I guess he forgot that knowledgeable people on both sides of the aisle have repeatedly said we don't have the troops to continue beyond that point. Spin, General, spin. That fourth star came with a price.

No, Sen. Domenici, we have a right to criticize anyone in our government. Anyone. As for the MoveOn ad, that was paid for by thousands of ordinary people all over the country, not the Democratic "leadership." Just more hypocritical Republican spin. Time to retire, Pete. You're not getting anything right anymore....