George Galloway, ripping the US Senate 100 new ones

Owned. Now why is this testimony considered so astonishing? It's obvious that the answer is that the Senate is accustomed to a significant amount of deference (read: spinning/disingenuousness/parsing the truth/pandering). And so now of course the MSM, which is so used to reporting on non-events, is forced to cover a serious blow to the "prestige" of the "august" body. What a farce. I know that while I was growing up in Northern Ireland, some of the footage that had the most powerful impact on the development of a political awareness and maturity was the footage of the goings-on in the House of Commons, often over privatization in Thatcher's England in the late '80s. Some of the testimony was quite pointed and these MPs took the gloves off to an extent that representatives in the US just don't do. The MPs would be quite critical and the comments were liable to get more personal than the comments of the representatives here in the US. That is not to say that personal invective is desirable or maybe even warranted and certainly personal invective is not necessarily helpful in completing legislative demands, but my point is more that these legislators were much more straight-forward in dealing with the issues.

This came through loud and clear during Galloway's testimony and in the smattering of comment I've seen about it. You would think Galloway was arguing for the promotion of Charles Manson to the Presidency, so shocked and nearly even indignant has been some of the reaction. Certainly not everyone would agree with all the things he said, and that's alright. But regardless, if we cannot discuss openly and honestly-as he was seemingly trying to do-what is happening in the world-in such a prominent legislative forum as the US Senate, where can we discuss it? And it also points out the weakness of the oration skills of US senators which is maybe more worrying. Not that it's really that shocking as these guys obviously avoid serious confrontation for fear of such embarassment, but nevertheless, when it happens, it truly is embarassing. Anyway, seems this event has certainly pointed out again the need for serious political engagement by the US senate-although that probably won't happen and they'll go back to droning on in the same old way that they have for much too long......