This is how democracy dies...

...not to cries of acrimony and outrage, but to thunderous applause on the floor of the House.

Oh, I'm over-reacting, am I? If you think so, you haven't been paying attention. For over a week every Representative in support of the bailout has told the media that their offices have been swamped with letters, phonecalls, and e-mails from their constituents. This is a quote, "They've been split about 50/50 between 'No' and 'Hell no!'" This last delivered with a smugly superior smirk that seemed to just scream, "We know better than you do."

I understand that no one can expect our elected reps to be nothing more than voting apparatus of the people, that they are expected to bring a bit more expertise and calmer heads to the voting, but this is a blatant flaunting of the will of the people.

When our government so blatantly ignores the will of the people, resting assured that they know what's best for us, they can no longer be truly considered representative. Can they? Of bloody course not!

The worst part is the ones who talked to the media after the failure of the first bill, saying how the people are simply being vindictive towards Wall Street and that they would, foolishly it's implied, by willing to go to the bread line for it. That kind of unthinking arrogance permeates our elected 'Representatives.'

And why shouldn't it? After all, the recent record of the voters shows that our attention span for Congressional voting is shorter than an episode of American Idol. We'll vote on what they say in their campaigns about the war and the economy, etc, but pay no attention to the fact that in the past they've voted differently.

Of course, the question is, why would so many vote for something they knew was unpopular? At the very least, people like me will call them to task for it, what did they gain? Ask yourself this, who is funneling more money into their re-election coffers? We the People, or those same damn companies, who were so recently in dire financial straights? Of course we know the answer to that, don't we.

I'd love to know how much of that seven hundred Billion (BILLION) ends up going to re-election campaigns.

Tell you what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna try to get a hold of the complete list of who voted for that thing in both houses (yes, I know that should be capitalized, but F*** 'em).

Toss the bastards out in '08, '10 and '12.