Congress is useless

Only one year ago the number of people collecting un-employment was 2.75 million in America. Now at year end as of Dec. 17th. the number is down. The Bush propaganda machine will make much of the "down" and say nothing about the fact that it's still 2.72 million.
analyst predict that another 200,000 jobs were added in December, and that unemployeement will hold steady at 5 percent.
Neo-cons are doing well under the Bu$h tax cuts, white collar workers income rose 4.8 percent as of Sept., 2004 . While Blue collar workers rose only 2.2 percent. Food store workers only rose by 1.9 percent.
Based on numbers through Christmas, retailers are on track to post a modest 3.3 percent increase in anual sales over last year.
Layoffs and Store closings are planned by almost all sectors.
56 percent of people surveyed said they received a gift card.
Up from 48 percent last year. They will be using the card to buy at a deeply discounted price after the holidays which will not result in the higher profit returns needed by retailers.
Currently 45 million Americans have no basic healthcare and half of that number are women and children. The Medicare drug plan passed by Congress gave $250 billion to drug makers.
American Tax payers are spending $6 billion per month in Iraq.
The economy is just great. All rise and bow down.
As I have said "Congress is useless'. Congress does not represent the will of the people and Congress does not "provide for the common good".
The NSA has an estimated $6 billion annual budget, bigger than that of the F.B.I. and C.I.A. combined, Congress has very little oversight as to how that money is spent.
In 1978, congressional investigations revealed that the NSA had spied on civilian anti-war protesters during Vietnam. The response was the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. To prevent future abuses, the act drew a line between foreign intelligence and domestic law enforcement. The NSA was free to spy abroad, but when its agents wanted to wiretap in the United States, they had to ask a secret FISA court for a warrant. It was easy enough to get the warrants: Officials had to show probable cause that the person they were after was an agent of a foreign power.

The following year, as Washington began its full-court press for an invasion of Iraq, the NSA launched a surge of eavesdropping on delegates to the U.N. Security Council in New York. The operation was revealed when an English eavesdropper leaked an NSA e-mail requesting British assistance in the effort. It was a front-page story in Europe and around the world, but the American press didn't run with it, showing a level of deference to NSA secrecy matched only by Congress. Nevermind that the eavesdropping took place in Manhattan and violated the General Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the Headquarters Agreement for the United Nations, and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, all of which the United States has signed.