Read this. Send it to all your friends. Send it to your enemies and even strangers. This is the absolute truth about the Congress. No bull.

Steve Schippert posts at Wizbang:

We are witnessing a failure in government. Our Congress cannot work together to provide an immediate fix to a problem it created in the first place: forcing the American financial sector to extend mortgages to those who were high risk borrowers in order to champion to the American people that more minorities own homes than ever. That worked well under a booming economy. But when the natural cycle of economics turned downward, fear dismissed became reality unavoidable. The house of cards came tumbling down.

And even still, amid all the haggling and fighting going on in Congress over how to shore up the financial cash crisis, not a word is mentioned about changing the counter-intuitive practices forced upon mortgage lenders in the first place. In this respect, it’s not unlike how Congress and the White House chose to address illegal immigration: by trying to deal with those already here first rather than initially addressing the cause: the influx of illegals that continues to flow unabated.

Make no mistake, if we wake to Black Monday this week, the responsibility lies squarely upon Congress and the electorate which has put them there, not our banks. Our banks’ hands were forced by mandates from Washington, not their boardrooms.

And here we are. With a Congress so polarized that they are incapable of working together.

We elected them. We pay their salaries. If they mess this up, each and every one ought to be voted out of office in November. Complete turnover. Fire their asses. You and I both know that if we were even half this bad at our own jobs, we would have lost them a long time ago.

Fire Congress!

The meandering concrete monoliths of the Sadr City District of Baghdad got a welcomed facelift, Aug. 2, 2008, thanks to local talent and beautification projects initiated by the Government of Iraq and Multi-National Division – Baghdad.

During the height of combat operations in Sadr City, barrier emplacement was an effective tactic to isolate Special Groups and criminals from their revenue extorted from the people and businesses of the Thawra 1 and Thawra 2 neighborhoods, home to some of the largest markets in Baghdad.

“We were emplacing barriers day and night, 24/7,” said Lt. Col. John Digiambattista, of Colorado Springs, Colo., operations officer for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, MND-B.

On this early August day, calm has been restored to the district. Markets are flourishing and essential services are returning where less than three months ago rubble and sewage filled the streets. Purposely constructed gaps in the wall now allow access in and out of the city for residents, where Iraqi army stand guard at checkpoints to ensure the ill-minded can no longer hold the city hostage.

Though in parts of Sadr City the wall remains a gray scar, a testimony to recent battles, it’s a perception that is changing thanks to the bravery and talent of Iraqis like Abbas Ahmed Jaffer.

Jaffer recently completed vocational training that allowed him to build on his hobby of painting. He’s now part of a $100,000 contract to beautify the barriers that protect Sadr City with murals that represent Iraq’s culture and heritage.

“I’m doing something beautiful for my city,” Jaffer said painting a camel in a developing desert scene. “Instead of bad writings on the wall, when people drive by they will see pictures about Iraq.”

Progress on the wall and the effect it is having on the people even comes as a surprise to the MND-B Soldiers funding the project. Maj. Byron Sarchet, of Colorado Springs, Colo., information operations officer for 3rd BCT, 4th Inf. Div., said it doesn’t even look like Sadr City anymore. He said the activity, the shops and the traffic have created a sense of normalcy not seen there before and the wall, both as a physical barrier and now an object of pride, has had much to do with the success.

“Part of our campaign was to change the visible skyline,” Sarchet said. “Here is one good message to the next. You can stand at one [mural] and see the other.”

A portion of wall from the famed Mudafer Square, where Mohamed Sadiq al-Sadr’s image stares out over his name sake, to the intersection of the Jamilla al Quds road at Circle 55 is nearly complete with more than 50 murals.

Sarchet said work will continue to paint and beautify the rest of wall throughout the city but he’s not worried to see that some Iraqi entrepreneurs have got in ahead of the contractors.

“Let’s get some ice cream,” Sarchet calls to the driver spotting through the rear window of his vehicle a tempting add painted on the wall near the Jamilla Market. “That’s progress,” he said.

DVIDS
By Maj. Mike Humphreys
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division