Behind the scenes at the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. headquarters in St. Kitts, work continued feverishly as the November elections drew closer. Only six months remained before the most critical elections since America declared its independence; the work was similar in scope as was the work of America's founding fathers. This time, however, instead of using quill pens and parchment scrolls, authors of new resolutions and amendments to the U.S. Constitution were using state-of-the-art computer technology, enabling them to make modifications instantly and print out countless re-writes. As O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members in the field would recruit new potential political candidates, more re-writes were recommended. Candidates were flown into St. Kitts to meet with Interim President Colin Powell and Interim Vice-President John McCain. Candidates would explain their 'platform' and then would be invited to sit in on whichever committee (or committees) interested them the most. If they were running on an environmental platform, for example, they would most likely want to participate in the preparation of an amendment coming from Article XIV: the resolution to expand the role of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Almost every Congressional candidate wanted to be part of the committee working on Article I: the resolution to "take the 'con' out of Congress". This was one of the most important resolutions because it virtually dismantled the corruptive power machine that members of Congress had amassed for themselves over the past five or six decades. In 232 years, Congress had always had its share of philanderers and ne'er-do-wells, but in the past fifty years the hallowed halls of the Capitol Building had become bloated with evil, greedy, arrogant sleazebags who cared about nothing but their own special interests - and that usually translated into voting for those things which would only benefit their own districts, bring wealth to those who generously contributed to their campaigns, or amassed a larger power base for themselves. "The people" be damned - politics was all about power and money; Congress had become the beltway's own bestial bastion of "Let's Make a Deal" - and the American people were the victims of all that Congressional abuse.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. performed extensive background checks on every individual who came forward as a potential candidate. Some candidates wanted to form their own political parties; others gladly joined newly-formed parties that matched their own attitudes. It became the job of the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members to evaluate each candidate's sincerity and selflessness. Was this candidate in it for himself - or was he in it for the good of the country and its citizens? In this new government there would be no room for 'pork' and bloated legislation loaded with bacon being brought home to a candidate's own district for a candidate's own political progress. Powell and McCain made it clear that candidates with those kinds of intentions would not be welcomed in the November election.
Obviously, there would be some candidates who would be able to fool the "integrity tests" - but for the most part, those coming forward seemed genuinely interested in the reformation of America's political system and the rebuilding of a nation that had been destroyed by the hubris of a two-party political system that had pretty much melded itself into one huge ball of political evil. Each candidate was asked to take an oath, promising that (s)he would work for the good of the people and that (s)he accepted the servitude position with no intentions of profiting personally from such work. Members of the all-new Congress would be treated just like members of the nation's armed forces. They would be meagerly provided for during their limited time of service and then be expected to return to society on their own, without any lavish lifetime retirement or extravagant health-care benefits. Members of Congress were now just like soldiers: sent to protect and serve America for a short time only to resume their private lives after such service.
Polls showed that the public unanimously approved of these new concepts, and welcomed the reformation of the United States of America, bringing their country back to one of human decency, dignity and participating in efforts toward world harmony, health and equality.
Teachers, plumbers, gardeners, bartenders, and people from all those 'common' walks of life were involving themselves in this new govenment. While some still argued that these people "knew nothing about politics, government and the law", members of O.U.T.R.A.G.E. contended that was exactly the point: lawyers, bureaucrats and politicians had made a mess of this country, and they would no longer be allowed to mess it up again. This would be a true democracy, ruled by the people, of the people, and for the people. The trick would be to keep the new system from becoming yet a new version of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" - a book that prophesied what the American politics of power and structure had come to, just as his other boook, "1984" had been an eerie fortelling of America's gradual transition into a police state, which the Bush administration had effectively steered to its fullest measure. Before January 17, 2008, George Bush's handlers had turned the nation into a Nazi-type regime where citizens were threatened, cajoled, and forced into complying in the 'interests of national security". Not only had the Bushites inflicted such dastardly reins on its own people, it had use similar intimidation techniques to instill fear in leaders of other nations around the world.
This kind of power could not ever again infest the United States government. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had killed off the gangrene by severing the poison limb; now it was up to this band of rebels to heal the wounds, re-attach the limb and make it healthier than it had ever been....and retaining that health for the long-term duration and progress of America.