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The Moral Clarity of The Bush Administration
During the 2004 election season, we heard much from the extreme right side of the Republican Party about how homosexuality was immoral, and a stain on the soul, and gay marriage will end with box turtles and people getting married and all and sundry sort of crap. And I didn't hear alot of middle-of-the-aisle Republicans telling the residents of Wingnuttia to shut the hell up, so as far as I am concerned, they were pushing that self-serving meme as well.
You know what they should have been pointing out is immoral? Tolerating a relationship with a country like Uzbekistan, which does this:
At the Khuderbegainov trial I met an old man from Andizhan. Two of his children had been tortured in front of him until he signed a confession on the family’s links with Bin Laden. Tears were streaming down his face. I have no doubt they had as much connection with Bin Laden as I do. This is the standard of the Uzbek intelligence services.
The former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, defied gag-orders to bring us this important information on what activities the US is supporting in Uzbekistan and incase the Bush Administration needs a primer on the subject of what is actually immoral, versus what is just a bunch of made up crap, here's a sample for them to use as a guideline: What's immoral? Giving half a BILLION dollars a year to a country which tortures children, all because of it's geopolitical import, which was considerably less important before the Iraq debacle. That's immoral.
And now the United States is the country which looks the other way and does business with people who torture children. And looking to increase the level of that business. Lovely.
So this is the Bush Administration's message on morality:
Gay people=very bad and dangerous to humankind
Torturers of children=not so bad, and really great to do business with.
Thanks for that bit of moral clarity, Mr. President.
(Apologies for excluding this in the original post- a hat tip to Atrios)
OMG...I didn't know that.
I'm going to forward that information to every person I know who has children.
Maybe I'll include the question, "What if this is yours?" Because as it stands right now, with illegal, warrentless wiretaps, gitmo, and torture overseas this very well could be coming to a town near you.
http://chris-floyd.com/telegrams/feed/
Track this project in real time (well... almost) with an RSS scraper and comprehensive links to the blogs initially involved on both sides of the pond . It automatically searches for keywords related to the Murray Telegrams (as opposed to the Downing Street Memos) on Technorati, Google News and Yahoo News UK, to give the latest updates on where the story is going and how it is being disseminated. This is an experiment of sorts as we are in a unique position to see the 'internet blog effect' of a leaking story which the MSM could not touch in the UK due to the draconian Secrets Act. It's essentially information warfare. Keeping people quiet is not as easy anymore when a former United Kingdom Ambassador for Uzbekistan can make a decision in a fraction in time - and six hours later tens of thousands of people have seen the evidence... it's unstoppable at that point.
Funny & sad...& true... Terry Jones is handing out his end-of-year prizes to "leaders" of the world...
Comedy of terror
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1673935,00.html
Go get 'em, Case...
Very cool info, Ghandi.
Nice sandals by the way.
Peace is the word, it's the word that you heard, It's got groove, it's got meaning ...
Time for all those year-end summaries... Here's the British perspective of our regime's 2005 antics, with the usual comparison to the Queen's annus horribilis. And although they see Clueless George's popularity rising slightly due to the alledged "plan" for Iraq, they claim it's not a given that 2006 will be better for him... Between Iraq & Iran, things could get worse...
Review of the year: The Bush Administration
Scandal, incompetence - and dark clouds ahead
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article334930.ece
Read the actual UK Torture memos at DailyKos...
http://www.dailykos.com/special/Torture_memos
Ghandi,
Thanks for the information. Everything we have that we can share with others gives us the chance to take back democracy from those that are promoting secrecy, torture, warrentless wiretaps, and all that undemocratic stuff.
Peace be with you.
Again with the annus horribilis?
This Holey War stuff must be going around.
Iraqi Shiite family slain in 'triangle of death'
Hakim, Talabani discuss national unity government
The Daily Star Middle East | Daily Star Staff
Beirut
Eleven members of a single Shiite family had their throats slit in an attack south of Baghdad that illustrates the size of the task awaiting political leaders trying to sketch out plans for a grand coalition government.
In another development, the International Mission for Iraqi Elections (IMIE) announced it was sending assessors to Iraq to help investigate complaints of fraud in the December 15 general elections.
The latest overtly sectarian attack took place in a house in the largely Sunni district of Latifiyya around 20 kilometers south of the capital known as the "triangle of death," police said.
They said the family had been warned by insurgents to move, but had not done so.
The gunmen arrived at the house in two cars, broke in and bound the hands of the 11 and killed them, leaving the bloodied bodies in the house.
Police said the victims included seven men and four women.
Families from both sides of Iraq's deep sectarian divide have been subjected to attacks by gunmen seeking to drive members of one sect or another from certain areas.
In an attempt to draft a government capable of ending the country's sectarian unrest, powerful Shiite leader Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim met with President Jalal Talabani in the Kurdish mountain resort of Dukan.
With Sunni politicians angry about the election results and Shiites seeking to press home their advantage after dominating the poll, Thursday's meeting had been billed as a key encounter.
"Among the things we discussed was the possibility of getting others involved in forming the next government," Hakim told a news conference.
Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq sits in a Shiite Islamist coalition that appears to have dominated the vote. The coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, wants to press on with forming a government and has insisted it should choose the next prime minister.
But Sunni and secular politicians say the election was fixed and have demanded a rerun. Tens of thousands of angry Sunnis have marched through cities across Iraq to contest the vote.
While Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission has stood by preliminary election results it published, it has acknowledged there were a number of irregularities and, in some cases, is planning to toss out results believed to be fraudulent.
The Commission invited the IMIE team to conduct a review of about 1,500 complaints lodged by candidates and parties. The team will include two executive representatives from the Arab League, one executive member of the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians and a respected European academic.
Perhaps sensing a rerun is now out of the question, some Sunni Arab leaders scaled back their demands, saying they would be satisfied with a UN review of the results, which have yet to be officially confirmed.
The leaders said they planned to travel to Kurdistan to join the ongoing discussions - but only to discuss the election results, not the shape of a future government.
"There will be no negotiations about forming the new government," said Hussein al-Falluji, a leading member of the biggest Sunni coalition, the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF).
"We will not have any dialogue about it, not with the Kurds and not with the Shiites. Results should be reviewed and announced first," he added.
more...
http://www.iht.com/getina/files/299526.html
And click here: http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/cancervaccine.htm
for another in a series of bone-chilling realizations about the right wingnuts and their concern for human life--until it is born, anyway...
Here's a group of focused kids at Swarthmore doing what many in the MSM aren't doing, courtesy of The New Yorker...
BAGHDAD TO SWARTHMORE
Issue of 2005-12-26 and 2006-01-02
Posted 2005-12-19
A group of enterprising students at Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania, has some advice for the politically disaffected: If you find the media’s Iraq coverage unsatisfactory, pick up the phone. Don’t call the Times, or CNN, or Rupert Murdoch; call Baghdad. There are a couple of Iraqi phone books available on the Internet, and plenty of interesting people willing to share their stories directly, from six thousand miles away, many of them speaking decent English. When your phone bill starts to get out of hand, try downloading Skype, software that allows two people to talk free, from anywhere in the world, using computer microphones and a headset.
Amelia Templeton, a senior history major, estimates that she has spoken with twenty-five Iraqis over the past year, and now, as she said the other day, “it’s a bad idea to ask me about Iraq unless you plan on listening for a while.” One of the Iraqis she spoke with, a painter named Esam Pasha, who is a grandson of the former Prime Minister Nuri al-Said, has even invited her to visit Baghdad. “I was told that if I came he’d pick me up at the airport,” she said. “Given what that road is like, how dangerous it is going to and from the airport, that’s quite an offer.”
Templeton is one of the editors at War News Radio, a weekly half-hour show broadcast on the Swarthmore campus station, and podcast over the Web, where it draws as many as three thousand listeners a day. The show’s stated aim is to “rediscover the voices of real people” in Iraq. It is supervised by Marty Goldensohn, a thirty-year veteran of public radio, who offered the students this essential kernel of advice: “Mumble with authority.” He also said, “When you call the Pentagon, you just say, as if you were the New York Times, ‘I’m calling from War News Radio.’ You say it as if it were their failing if they haven’t heard of us.”
read the rest here...
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/051226ta_talk_mcgrath
And here's their website:
http://www.warnewsradio.org/show/
Posted by: Karen at December 30, 2005 10:49 AM
Ok...well, the religious fundies say that the vacine would promote promiscuity. I don't see that as a logical argument. Are they not aware that all it takes is one person, even in a marital relationship, to endanger their children.
Next, I think it's a flaw to allow the religious fundies to frame the argument that liberals support promiscuity.
I have children and I taught them abstinence as well as protection. I spoke of risks as well as the ethics.
Anyone out here telling their kids to go out and "just do it?"
NEXT, Republicans are just as likely to be promiscuous as liberals.
OMG..now does this surprise you?
Inquiry opens into leak of domestic spying program
Friday, December 30, 2005 Posted: 1556 GMT (2356 HKT)
Manage Alerts | What Is This? WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department has opened an investigation regarding the recent leaks about the classified domestic surveillance program run by the National Security Agency.
The New York Times was the first to report the story on December 16th and officials confirmed its existence to CNN and other organizations.
"The Justice Department has opened an investigation of the unauthorized disclosure of classified information related to the NSA," a Justice Department official tells CNN.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/30/nsa.leak/index.html
Off subject. Just wanted to say that I got my DCP t-shirt and cannot wait to wear it to my New Year's Eve party! Happy New Year everyone, may 2006 bring mass congressional retirements, especially Mark Kirk!
"The Justice Department has opened an investigation of the unauthorized disclosure of classified information related to the NSA," a Justice Department official tells CNN.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/30/nsa.leak/index.html
==================================
King George retaliating against the New York Times for printing the story about his illegal wiretapping...
And the American sheeple are quiet...
What in the hell happened to my country??????
This just in from John Kerry (not recommending any actions here, mind you--just sharing the strong voice!)
What should your last political act of 2005 be about?
There's only one answer. It should be about fighting back - about laying down a
marker that says we've seen enough, heard enough, and seen the Republicans who
control Washington try to mislead America more than enough. And, in 2006, we're
coming to take our democracy back from the Washington special interests that control
it today.
With the pivotal 2006 elections approaching, we won't be blackmailed or denied. We
won't stand for Swift Boat-style attacks. We won't be intimidated. And we won't stop
working until we win.
Support the Fight Back Fund Now:
https://contribute.keepingamericaspromise.com/form.html?sc=8004
Throughout 2005, Keeping America's Promise, the leadership committee I helped
launch, has raised over $2 million dollars for dozens of candidates - including our
year-end drive under way right now focusing on women candidates locked in tough
races.
Just as important, we've organized a vitally important Fight Back Fund. We're ready,
willing and able to take on the vicious attacks, deceitful distortions, and
truth-defying rhetoric - just the way we did when they tried to savage war hero John
Murtha and other Bush administration critics.
When the Bush White House says one thing and does another, we'll call them out. When
shadowy Republican front groups show up on the campaign trail, we'll smoke them out.
When there are huge discrepancies between the successes they claim and the reality
they've created, we'll point them out.
And, most importantly on Election Day 2006, we'll vote them out.
Support the Fight Back Fund Now:
https://contribute.keepingamericaspromise.com/form.html?sc=8004
I hope you'll act right now to strengthen Keeping America's Promise's 2006 Fight
Back Fund. We need to be ready to respond in force and at a moment's notice.
We know what to expect. With their backs to the wall, the Bush White House, the
Republican National Committee, and all their shadowy front groups are counting on
skirting the truth, hiding the facts, and disguising their failures for one more
election cycle.
Will we let them get away with it? Not a chance.
I urge you to end 2005 and start the crucial election year of 2006 with a generous
donation to Keeping America's Promise's Fight Back Fund.
Support the Fight Back Fund Now:
https://contribute.keepingamericaspromise.com/form.html?sc=8004
I look forward to working side by side with you every day of 2006 as we stand up for
our candidates and fight for our beliefs. Let's refuse to yield an inch to a
Republican Party unconcerned about stopping the corruption in its midst . . .
unwilling to address the failures in its record . . . and unable to speak the truth
to the American people.
Sincerely,
John Kerry
Friends of John Kerry, Inc., 511 C St. NE, Washington DC, 20002, U.S.A.
I have seen hookers ate up with addiction and diseases that have more 'moral clarity' than the bush administration.
Excuse me, but is it just me or does anyone else find John Kerry still spoiling for a fight incredibly ironic...???
Christy -
To your question, John Kerry is one of the first Presidential candidates to go back to his regular job. & he may wish to run in the primaries again, where it will get sorted out which faction of both parties will hold sway. I predict fights all over the place in both parties, since there is no incumbent. 2008 may also hinge alot on 2006. I hope to see John Kerry keep it up til he can't take another breath, a la Ted Kennedy. Big shoes to fill though.
_____
There are some hopeful things embedded in here, despite the Annus Horribilum.
____
FOCUS | Medea Benjamin: 10 Good Things about Another Bad Year
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/123005Z.shtml
Medea Benjamin writes: As we close this year, a year in which we were pummeled by the Iraq war, attacks on our civil rights, and Mother Nature's fury of hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis, there is no shortage of reasons to feel bruised and beaten. But to start the New Year with a healthy determination to keep on fighting, we need to reflect on the good things that happened. And there are plenty.
_____________________________
You Say You Want A Resolution
What to do when the new year invites you in and plies you with drinks and slips you the tongue
By Mark Morford
Is this the year? Is this the time you reset your intent and cut a wide swath and upset your preconceptions and infuriate the fearmongers and the fundies and the sexually terrified, even as you disavow your grudges and cleanse your spiritual colon and wave your bitchin' flame of self around like a Bic lighter at a 1984 Journey concert?
Because gosh look, just look outside, right now: Do you see it? It's a whole new year, all lined up and facing into the wind and waiting to play with you like an eager puppy, like a supple French hooker, like a shimmering glass of God's own tequila just sitting on the counter of possibility waiting for you to tip your head back and let that white-hot firewater slide down your throat like a snake of temptation straight into your undernourished id. Are you ready? Because get this: You need to be.
Because here's the bad news: We have three more ungodly and humiliating and colon-curdling years of BushCo. We have three more years of some of the most miserable foreign and environmental and human-rights policy you will see in your lifetime.
We have three more years of brutal unforgivable war and misprision and of the religious right trying to cram its splintered stick of wicked self-righteousness straight up the country's yamdinger, and if I'm here to tell you anything at all I am here to tell you this: Your energy is needed. Right now. ...
(click here to read the rest)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/12/30/notes123005.DTL&nl=fix)
The day John Kerry conceded I told 4 of my relatives and good friends to NEVER come to my house EVER again.
Do not call... do not write... do not wave if you happen to pass by.
WHY...???
Because all of them made it a point to tell me what a 'little fool I am'... They CAME to my house, each one of them, with THAT specific purpose in mind. They thought it would just not matter.
Until I told them to get the hell out and NEVER come back.
My stepfather... the ONLY grandfather my children know from my side.... NEVER coming back.
For the first time in our years together not even Michael could understand my reaction. The people I banned from my home were his friends as well.
You know what..?? I still do NOT care.
I posted information relating to this thread head yesterday, and there were few comments. I am glad to see that it has gotten the attention it deserves.
Considering this country's history of supporting dictatorial governments, it is clear that our leaders have not learned a thing, and we are bound for another strategic region of the world to rise up in revolt against their leader and us.
oncall,
One thing I have learned about the blog here is that many read, even if they do not post. I was surprised to run into old friends a few weeks ago who have never posted here, but who get their info. from the DCP. Everything you post here counts. It is read, and digested, and much gets passed along.
So keep it up.
Christy,
You are passionate and that is great. Let's stay focused as well. Whatever brought John Kerry to his clarity now, he is right where he needs to be.
And we can help. We can't support candidates here, or PACs, but we can tell the truth and spread it around.
Focus on paragraph two, then the last paragraph which pretends to justify The Cretin's actions for 'national security' reasons (again. another LIE). SECRET INQUIRY into who leaked the info to the NY Times?!?!?!?
SECRET?!?!?
The NY Times, via that lying witch Judy Miller, promoted The Cretin's war in Iraq before he even declared the attack, and published all the LIES leading up to the attack, the LIES after the unjustified, illegal, immoral and unethihcal attack on Iraq, and now the DoJ is going after the NY Times as the fall guy for leaking one of the latest abuses of The Cretin's dictatorial administration?!?!?
SECRET?!?!?
So, this is The Cretin's latest strike against the Fourth Estate, and this will likely get all the attention in Lamestream Media while Conyers' probe into The Cretin's administration and his abuses of power while he acts like a dictator will go unnoticed?!?
SECRET?!?!?
IMHO, this needs to be brought out into the light of day, under laser-like scrutiny, no less, and the focus needs to be on Conyers' proposal to investigate the administration, not about how The Cretin and his dictatorial administration want to continue to control the media....
AND, BTW, WHERE is the OUTRAGE on the part of *our* legislators over The Cretin's dictatorial abuses of power in SECRET?!?!?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051230/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/domestic_spying_probe_4
Justice Dept. Probing Domestic Spying Leak
By TONI LOCY, Associated Press Writer
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the leak of classified information about President Bush's secret domestic spying program, Justice officials said Friday.
The officials, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the probe, said the inquiry will focus on disclosures to The New York Times about warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Times revealed the existence of the program two weeks ago in a front-page story that acknowledged the news had been withheld from publication for a year, partly at the request of the administration and partly because the newspaper wanted more time to confirm various aspects of the program.
The story unleashed a firestorm of criticism of the administration. Some critics accused the president of breaking the law by authorizing intercepts of conversations without prior court approval or oversight of people inside the United States and abroad who had suspected ties to al-Qaida or its affiliates.
The surveillance program, which Bush acknowledged authorizing, bypassed a nearly 30-year-old secret court established to oversee highly sensitive investigations involving espionage and terrorism.
Administration officials insisted that Bush has the power to conduct the warrantless surveillance under the Constitution's war powers provision. They also argued that Congress gave Bush the power to conduct such a secret program when it authorized the use of military force against terrorism in a resolution adopted within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The Justice Department's investigation was being initiated after the agency received a request for the probe from the NSA.
The administration's legal interpretation of the president's powers allowed the government to avoid requirements under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The act established procedures that an 11-member court used in 2004 to oversee nearly 1,800 government applications for secret surveillance or searches of foreigners and U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism or espionage.
Congressional leaders have said they were not briefed four years ago, when the secret program began, as thoroughly as the administration has since contended.
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said in an article printed last week on the op-ed page of The Washington Post that Congress explicitly denied a White House request for war-making authority in the United States.
"This last-minute change would have given the president broad authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas ... but right here in the United States, potentially against American citizens," Daschle wrote.
Daschle was Senate Democratic leader at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington. He is now a fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank.
The administration formally defended its domestic spying program in a letter to Congress last week, saying the nation's security outweighs privacy concerns of individuals who are monitored.
In a letter to the chairs of the House and Senate intelligence committees, the Justice Department said Bush authorized conducting electronic surveillance without first obtaining a warrant in an effort to thwart terrorist acts against the United States.
Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella acknowledged "legitimate" privacy interests. But he said those interests "must be balanced" against national security.
Rolling Stone's take on Bush's "Magical Victory Tour"..... hilarious.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/8952459
Whatever brought John Kerry to his clarity now, he is right where he needs to be.
Posted by: Karen at December 30, 2005 12:15 PM
Needs to be to do WHAT exactly..??
Posted by: Christy at December 30, 2005 11:48 AM
What I find incredibly offensive is the asking for money (the rest I don't find so much ironic as just the usual political sales pitch with a positive spin)....
If they want any part of my limited income which is doled out very carefully, they'll have to FIRST PROVE they can stand up to The Cretin and his administration, and for that they have to get attention in Lamestream Media - POSITIVE attention that is yammered about until I become bored senseless (like when Lamestream Media yammered on endlessly about Clinton, daily, several times a day, endlessly)....
AND Lamestream Media has years of silence and cover-up of The Cretin's administration to overcome before they will be able to gain any respect from me ever again. They may never be able to atone for their complicit silence and repeating the LYING propaganda of The Cretin, but they can do a lot of good if they will only start listing the LIES, HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS of The Cretin and the people in his administration!!!!!
That means Lamestream Media must stop using the word "misled," which seems so 'innocent' on the face of it, and say The Cretin LIED to us about his stupid war in Iraq, and then continue to list the other LIES, HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS that have gotten us to this point since this nightmare began on election night, 2000!!!!!
Do you know what I am looking forward too in 2006..???
Sometime within days of my birthday I expect I will watch another election being rigged, and in my mind I have tried to anticipate that moment. I have tried to think WHATS THE BEST THAT CAN BE DONE at that point..??
You know WHAT I am looking forward too..??
Sitting my kids down, and explaining to them the empire that was thiers by birthright has been destroyed. I am looking at preparing the mind of a 7 year old for a life of war.
I will have to make my 5 year old understand the phrase 'POLICE STATE'
I will have to teach them to dissent in SECRET.
In 2006, if it goes as we ALL know it will go... I may even have to warn my children that some in our family can not be trusted.
Focus you say...?? That has NEVER been a problem for me.
The fact my heros are mortal men..??
Now THAT has been an issue time and time again.
Do not misunderstand my 'passion'. It is more fear than anger.
Nonny ..
Amen.
Asking for money. Thats just...
It is ALL a sick.. sick joke at this point.
A tragic PARODY.
Asking for money? Political Action Committees.
I get them from Kennedy, Kerry, Cantwell, Clinton and many more. I donate when I'm in the mood but on off-years (non election years) continue on with my "issues" of peace, environment, rights.
I donate to alternative news sources that I use, so they can continue and to groups that try to keep the judicial branch fair, and the ACLU. I am going to volunteer for a local campaign too.
Until this country has control over lobbying and Campaign Finance Reform laws that both parties actually follow (when snakes get raptured up), you will see sales pitches and pleas for money.
Posted by: Christy at December 30, 2005 12:28 PM
Christy,
I can't answer exactly from John Kerry but I think I have a way to describe this.
A few months ago when I was canvassing, I ran into an interesting "Green" liberal. He was not interested in supporting any Democrat because as far as he was concerned they were not standing up and speaking their mind. They were not making things happen.
He felt that they all relied on the grassroots too heavily to make their case for them.
So, he felt that they all ought to be out there in the media, out there shaking hands, and out there speaking their minds instead of silently watching the action go by.
My point is that this person wasn't just angry at John Kerry; he was angry at ALL Democrats.
I actually think that is an important distinction. Whatever happened in 04 is done with. From what I can see, it's time to look at John Kerry and all the Democratic officials and see how they've learned, what they've adjusted to, what they've done to help the miliary or the people in NOLA, and what new can they bring to the table for Americans in general.
No matter how you slice it, Christy, the more people who step up to the plate help our cause, and in my opinion 08 isn't worth beans if we can't take care of 06. And John Kerry as well as other democrats are out there taking care of getting progressives elected in 06.
And THAT's what we need to focus on too.
Even Mark Morford can think of some positive things about the universe that are not under neocon control!
Geov Parrish, despite his downer columns (and he is very aware) finds a way to get up in the morning. Robert Fisk, Greg Palast and Michael Moore search for the worst but look for positive ways to try to do something about it.
I do not have to work today and I'm going to go out into the world and do something concrete.
Good bye for now. I have a bus to catch.
Posted by: DiAnne at December 30, 2005 12:47 PM
I have very very little in life. And I too get fundraising notices from all over.
If there was a candidate out there who would JUST ONCE stand and fight the fight he promised... Not only would I give him every dime I have I would short my own dinner plate to make sure he will sustain.
That is the problem with DC... Everyone in it has forgotten that AMERICANS do not give a shit about MONEY.
We will GIVE GIVE GIVE to one who is worthy.
Not the ones who CLAIM they are worthy. Not the ones who NEED my money as an INCENTIVE to fight.
The one who will simply do the right thing, at the RIGHT TIME, and hold THEMSELVES up to the highest standards.
Until that ONE comes along.. I am holding out for a hero.
Also, until we get progressives elected, how are we going to stop the rigging?
This should have been an issue for both Republicans and Democrats. What is wrong with out country that staying in office or creating laws through cheating is more important than the American way?
Please don't tell me that cheating IS the American way!
Dianne,
That's nice that you get to be home today. Truth has lost her internet for some reason. Any techies want to call and see if they can help Truth get back online?
There IS one who has done the right thing at the right time. Two actually.
Barbara Boxer.
God love that woman. I sure do.
And John Conyers.
They ARE real heros in ALL of this.
Sparrow...
Well put.
I am not angry at John Kerry. I am not angry at democrats or republicans...
I am angry at ALL of them.
So much greed, so much death, and not ONE GRAIN of honest intent.
Oh, and do not forget I AM still fighting for dems...
In the last week I have probly convinced atleast 9 repellicans to vote dem.
YOU KNOW WHY I am still getting them to turn..??
Because, THIS TIME... when it is THEIR VOTE stolen..
Maybe THEY will be able to figure it all out.
Christy,
I thought of those two as well. But there is more.
There is Maxine Waters and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, and there are late comers too.
Now onto a different subject, check this out:
http://newhavenadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:138124
Oh..and by the way...Michigan people, I believe Marsenkowski (spelling!) will be running against Republican Kollenburg. If you don't know who he is, he was working with Valerie and spoke out against the treasonous leaking of her name.
He spoke at the Conyer's hearing and is quite knowledgable about this subject. He speaks with a clear voice.
There is Maxine Waters and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, and there are late comers too.
Posted by: sparrow at December 30, 2005 01:10 PM
Absolutely. Yes, them too.
I was just wondering about them, Conyers and Boxer. I wonder how history will record thier bravery. I wonder will it be.. A historical triumph... Or if things continue the way they are, will they be ERASED from history all together..?
So much greed, so much death, and not ONE GRAIN of honest intent.
Posted by: Christy at December 30, 2005 01:04 PM
Christy,
This is an all or nothing statement. I can not agree with it. Sure there are those who indeed fit your statement.
But not every single person is like that. There are indeed honest mistakes.
And as a person, (me, myself, and I), who in 02 believed Bush must have more information than I had to go to war, I was pretty sure he wouldn't just take us to war for oil or whatever.
I think we have to stop smearing everyone with the same dark paint, because it's just not true. Some may have been covering their own hineys, but others really just wanted to do the right thing. Sadly, the right thing ended up being wrong.
Posted by: sparrow at December 30, 2005 01:18 PM
Oh, and to add to myself...
The same is true for torture. Some people think you're saving lives through torturing others. And they are not necessarily bad people; they're just buying into the argument of 'national security v civil liberty' and they don't realize that the 'bad guys' are already behaving as if they're wiretapped and hiding their tracks so they don't get tortured. Those people are not the ones who are effected. it's average people who think they have nothing to hide.
Sparrow...
There are some perfectly good apples in the barrel.
But the whole orchard is on FIRE.
As a body both the house and senate have consistantly fanned the flames.
Even the good apples are covered in the ashes of our nation.
It is ALSO important to understand what that rigged 2006 will actually mean...
Not the AFTERMATH...
The rigging ALONE will be the final act of a grusome play we USED to call our country.
JUST THE FACT IT WILL BE RIGGED signals the complete destruction of any way of life we EVER knew before.
It could have been stopped, but it was not. I accept that, BUT....
If the anger of it 'smears' someone unjustly...
I am not sure I even really care.
Its too late to worry about polite emotion.
There have been a few Progressive Dem politicians who have admirably stood up to The Cretin's administration on a FEW select issues that are extremely important... and they've gotten nothing (zippo, nada, zero) for attention in Lamestream Media... or, if they have, it's been a five or ten second sound byte, followed by a spinmeister or infotainment news anchor quoting a neoCon, dismissing the truth. End of story in Lamestream media, never to be heard about again. (One must really tape the news shows to actually not miss those few seconds!) While I admire their efforts, it's just not enough to light a fire under the kool-aid-drinking sheeples to get them to ask detailed questions about the LYING Cretin and his LYING administration.
However, those same politicians (and others) are ALREADY getting a salary. The other wimpy ones get the same salary, paid for by US tax dollars. The part I find offensive is that they are asking for money at all, since they are ALREADY getting a salary (whether they do any work or not).
I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I've been employed (and those senators and reps are *our* employees when they win an election), I have had to work danged hard BEFORE I am paid. The legislators get paid whether they work or not, whether they stand up to The Cretin and his Cabal or not. But they're asking for money from me in addition to their salaries, and all BEFORE they've proven they can work on behalf of the citizens of this nation!!!
Now, if they're not using political contributions to buy an election like the neoCons have done (and, I'd rather they win elections fair and square, not buy an election to be beholden to the corporations), WHY should I contribute my few dollars to them BEFORE they can prove they can do any work for the citizens of this nation (since they're already getting a salary paid to them whether they work for the citizens of this nation or not)?!?
Nuh-uh. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!
AFTER a politician can prove she or he can get Lamestream Media attention for a sustained period of time that will highlight the LIES, HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS of The Cretin and the members of his administration which will then lead to some TRUTH in the news and the downfall of The Cretin and his administration, thanks, but I've got other things to spend my pennies on.
FIRST the WORK for the salary they are already getting (work which I must hear about endlessly and favorably in Lamestream Media until I become bored senseless), THEN the bonus money. NOT the other way around....
Do you know WHY I am so successful at turning republicans into democratic voters..??
Because I am not afraid to go toe to toe with them.
I do not CARE if I hurt their feelings. I am not afraid to be called names I KNOW are LIES.
They will question everything to my patriotisim to my morals and you know what?... I return the favor blow by blow.
YOU KNOW WHY IT WORKS...???
Because I fight for a 'morally superior' cause.
And by the time we are finished bashing each other... only ONE can still cling to their original position.
I refuse to be MOVED.
I have YET to be moved.
Just once I would like to see a politician fight like that. Just LET the cards fall as they may and see who is the last man left standing.
EVEN WITH the 'morally superior' position, they almost ALL seem incapable of it.
The part I find offensive is that they are asking for money at all, since they are ALREADY getting a salary (whether they do any work or not).
I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I've been employed (and those senators and reps are *our* employees when they win an election), I have had to work danged hard BEFORE I am paid. The legislators get paid whether they work or not, whether they stand up to The Cretin and his Cabal or not. But they're asking for money from me in addition to their salaries, and all BEFORE they've proven they can work on behalf of the citizens of this nation!!!
Posted by: NonnyO at December 30, 2005 01:56 PM
Oh hell yes Momma
TELL IT LIKE IT IS.
Posted by: NonnyO at December 30, 2005 01:56 PM
NonnyO,
All of that makes sense, except it's the right-winged media who very stingedly (if that's a word) allows us a few peeks at people who stand up to the cretan.
I mean, look at what they showed of Kerry or Edward's speaches! All they showed was the "Hi, I'm glad to be in ______. "
Then the talking newshead would interrupt, "Oh...wait, time for a commerical break and soon pResident Bush will be speaking...we'll hold our cameras here until he arrives.
While we wait, there was another celebrity divorce..."
Then 45 minutes later, the talking news head says, "We're now returning to the campaign rally of John Kerry. Let's listen in."
(John Kerry says, "Thank you..."
News head says, "Oh, dear...it looks like Senator Kerry has finished his speach...When will he start focusing on the issues? People in America want to know what he stands for, but he's just not telling us...."
This wasn't only John Kerry's story. It is the story of every dem you see. And take it from me, I had a republican shouting over me refusing to listen, so it's not just that they're not working.
Posted by: Christy at December 30, 2005 01:59 PM
Well, I aim to please when I can, but I'll tell the truth whether anyone likes it or not.... not that telling the truth has gotten me any brownie points in the past, but at least I don't have to retract my statements, nor try to remember which lie was told when, and then try to explain away the lie... which The Cretin and his Cabal are not so good at doing (not that infotainment reporters notice or report)....
On the whole, lying is just too messy, and even when it's unpleasant it's just simply easier to tell the truth - and I'm all for doing things the easiest, most expedient way possible....
Politicians will still not get any money from me until AFTER they can prove they're up do doing any hard work (since they're already getting a salary, whether they work or not)....
Sparrow,
I must admit it confuses me when people speak of focusing on 2006.
I just.. Its just amazing to me that on the one hand we KNOW they are rigging the elections, yet we are working furiously to get people ELECTED..??
Now do not get me wrong, I feel what your saying, there are lots of hard working good people that NEED to be put into office.
But it is almost like a giant... disconnected.. discombobulated reality.
It reminds me of the saying you can not get experience without a job, and can't get a job without experience.
I mean, you do not quit putting in aplications but you will have to SERIOUSLY reasses the positions you apply for.
It just seems so damn... circular.
Posted by: sparrow at December 30, 2005 02:07 PM
I know. We all lamented about that in '04 and got danged angry about it, and blogged about it endlessly on the Kerry blog.
That's why my qualifier is that the politicians who are trying to do good MUST get Lamestream Media's sustained attention. IF Lamestream Media really wants to broadcast or publish morality stories, they're going to have to start paying attention to anyone but The Cretin and his Cabal who have done nothing but LIE to us, and LIE again to cover the original LIES, and commit HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS since the Selection of 2000....
I'm curious about whether or not the SECRET Dept. of Justice inquiry into the leak to the NY Times will have any effect on what stories the NY Times publishes in the near future, and whether or not the NY Times will still be favorable to The Cretin and his Cabal....
not that telling the truth has gotten me any brownie points in the past, but at least I don't have to retract my statements, nor try to remember which lie was told when, and then try to explain away the lie...
Nonny
Amen darlin. Amen.
Speaking of phone calls soliciting contributions:
I got a call yesterday evening from the DCCC asking for a donation. To all who have been following my posts about the Illiniois Congressional Sixth race, you know that was a big mistake for the DCCC. When I explained to the solicitor what the DCCC had done to a progressive Democratic canididate by introducing "Tammy" Duckworth as the "chosen" candidate, they seemed suprised, but went so far as to tell me that "any" Democratic candidate that requests money will get it. I laughed at his naivete. Of course I did not contribute, and like many of you have decided to avoid the national party and direct my contributions to individual candidates. I have also written to Howard Dean and Rahm Emmanuel about these problems as well (I wrote on the forms they use in their solicitations).
Had John Kerry ever once sought out a news camera... looked deeply into it.. and said.. GW Bush is a damn liar and the Downing Street Memos proves it."
At that period in time.... EVERY NEWS CHANNEL IN THE WORLD would have played it over and over and over again.
They would not have been able to NOT play it. It would have been one of the most MEZMERIZING moments EVER in any political history.
Just one simple truth... A truth that was avoided like the devil, himself.
THAT is where MY personal feelings of... anger.. passionate, passionate anger comes from.
Posted by: Christy at December 30, 2005 01:17 PM
I can't agree with this statement either, though I can CERTAINLY appreciate the sentiment driving it.
There is a serious problem with the moral choices made in getting elected, versus the moral clarity one needs in order to govern.
John Edwards is getting my money these days.
HOWEVER, I will say this about John Kerry. I have worked on issues with him, and found him to be tireless and truthful and interested. I agree that the 2004 campaign was a study in why candidates need to listen to their instincts, instead of consultants, but I have to move on. I can only use anger to motivate me-there's too much heart attack history in my family to do otherwise!
Please don't respond to my comments about JK, Christy. I am just telling my experience of him, just as I totally respect yours. I am not trying to argue here with anyone. Everyone went through the same disappointing and frustrating experience. I am not here to tell anyone what the view looked like from their window onto the campaign. Just to share what the view was like from my window.
Peace.
OT, but how friggin' ironic is it that the
CNN story on the Idiot in Chief's bad year, "annus horriblus" is described IN LATIN. Like he would understand LATIN for God's sakes-he doesn't even speak ENGLISH.
Posted by: spinnaker at December 30, 2005 02:37 PM
No argument from me.. I have no doubt Kerry IS a man of integrity, and yes tireless.
But moving on, we find ourselves in a very... unfortunate place.
John Edwards indeed. His words are undeniably the EXACT RIGHT WORDS that needs to be said.
Him too, he is a fighter. You can see the very thought of it... thrills him.
He was born to fight.
Yup me too I think I'll be bringing up Edwards alot this year. I hope he uses his new found ... familiarity,... and stomps a mudhole in these neocons.
I still think INSPITE of the elections being rigged Edwards would STILL sweep the deep douth.
Kinda hard to hide a landslide.
Deep South even.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF MORAL RECTITUDE-THIS TIME ON BEHALF OF THE PENTAGON:
(from Raw Story, Citing the Chicago Trib)
U.S. stalls on human trafficking
Pentagon has yet to ban contractors from using forced labor
By Cam Simpson
Washington Bureau
Published December 27, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Three years ago, President Bush declared that he had "zero tolerance" for trafficking in humans by the government's overseas contractors, and two years ago Congress mandated a similar policy.
But notwithstanding the president's statement and the congressional edict, the Defense Department has yet to adopt a policy to bar human trafficking.
A proposal prohibiting defense contractor involvement in human trafficking for forced prostitution and labor was drafted by the Pentagon last summer, but five defense lobbying groups oppose key provisions and a final policy still appears to be months away, according to those involved and Defense Department records.
The lobbying groups opposing the plan say they're in favor of the idea in principle, but said they believe that implementing key portions of it overseas is unrealistic. They represent thousands of firms, including some of the industry's biggest names, such as DynCorp International and Halliburton subsidiary KBR, both of which have been linked to trafficking-related concerns.
Lining up on the opposite side of the defense industry are some human-trafficking experts who say significant aspects of the Pentagon's proposed policy might actually do more harm than good unless they're changed. These experts have told the Pentagon that the policy would merely formalize practices that have allowed contractors working overseas to escape punishment for involvement in trafficking, the records show.
The long-awaited debate inside the Pentagon on how to implement presidential and congressional directives on human trafficking is unfolding just as countertrafficking advocates in Congress are running into resistance. A bill reauthorizing the nation's efforts against trafficking for the next two years was overwhelmingly passed by the House this month, but only after a provision creating a trafficking watchdog at the Pentagon was stripped from the measure at the insistence of defense-friendly lawmakers, according to congressional records and officials. The Senate passed the bill last week.
Delay seen as weakness
The Pentagon's delay in tackling the issue, the perceived weakness of its proposed policy and the recent setbacks in Congress have some criticizing the Pentagon for not taking the issue seriously enough.
[snip]
Bush declared zero tolerance for involvement in human trafficking by federal employees and contractors in a National Security Presidential Directive he signed in December 2002 after media reports detailing the alleged involvement of DynCorp employees in buying women and girls as sex slaves in Bosnia during the U.S. military's deployment there in the late 1990s.
more:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512270176dec27,1,2117782.story?page=1&coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
I am still recovering from a flu bout, so my sarcasm drip is slow.
Posted by: Fe at December 30, 2005 02:48 PM
aeaaaauuuk
The sounds of moral ethics screaming in the wind.
Posted by: Fe at December 30, 2005 02:51 PM
Feel better.
Fe...
It was the turkey.
They come with Avian Flu stuffing these days.
Everything you wanted to know and more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_to_impeach_George_W._Bush
chimpeach 'em all and let their god sort 'em out,
Otter
Posted by: Christy at December 30, 2005 02:19 PM
You got it Christy.
Why we are wasting a penny of our hard-earned money or a minute of our cell-phone time to campaign for candidates whose votes will be changed, as many as necessary, into the other party's votes?
We put in more and more sweat equity, and their voting-machine algorithm effortlessly switches a few more votes. And with the money they laundered through illegal campaign contributions they buy sexy TV commercials convincing everybody that really, they all voted for the other guy.
It is a farce.
Ummm
I taste carmel suddenly.
Posted by: Veritas at December 30, 2005 03:00 PM
That may be Veritas, but then what other alternative solution is there?
Posted by: sparrow at December 30, 2005 03:08 PM
That is a DAMN GOOD question.
I know for myself it is why I am STILL here.
Posted by: Christy at December 30, 2005 03:12 PM
Sending you an email.
Anybody can bitch about a problem. But it takes somebody to solve it.
Our goal (nay, our *duty*) as progressive citizen activists is not to just beg for a solution -- it is up to us to *BE* the solution.
awareness + activism = democracy,
Otter
Posted by: Christy at December 30, 2005 03:12 PM
Well, you did a great job converting those nine. I know during the election we tried to think of it as each one of us 'converting' one more.
But then, like V said, the voting companies just used a different algorithm. (Steal 2 from Kerry for each 1 vote for Bush...)
So we have two jobs the way I see it: election reform and media reform. So how do we take care of this at the grassroots level.
I know many Republicans who just don't care that the election was fraudulent--even if they believe Bush won--they KNOW that 'funny things' happened. But they just don't care.
So how do we make them care?
Ummm Sparrow..
I was JUST sitting here speaking to Rossi on messenger ... And apparently my other half has not put up HER counter either.
He is helping to install a floor today but I PROMISE I will make you and Rossi his number one priority on the Honey Do Or I Divorce List
I was under the impression he already had done it.
On Media attention:
We saw what happens with the media when John Conyers held the hearings on the Downing Street Minutes. Remember? Dana Milbank made fun of him for being so foolish as to hold hearings in such a small space, and for being called Mr. Chairman.
We saw what has been done to John Kerry. We see what is done to every hardworking progressive Member of Congress every day--Lynn Woolsey, Jan Schakowsky, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Louise Slaughter, etc. Do you see stories about the daily battles these people go through to simply get space and time to be heard by their COLLEAGUES?
One of the aides I met with last week said, point blank, "You have no idea how MEAN the leadership is to us."
I would never tell anyone here to donate money to any politician, but I will point out that positive messages in to them can help them get through their brutal days. Any form will do.
Sparrow... I think as a military person I would like Veritas to ring in on this..
BUT I believe the way to FORCE the medias hand is a BLOCKADE.
Blockade = A massive sit in that virtually, and literally disrupts the buisness of the WaPo and NY Times and Foe news.
We have to CHOOSE our battles and since we have no way of buying the media for ourselves then we MUST confront them and let them KNOW without a doubt they are surrounded and being watched 100% ON THEIR OWN TURF.
There is simply NO OTHER WAY without bloodshed.
Hey guys, its me from Down Under, well it is soon going to be New Years Eve for us here, plenty of celebration going on for sure, I am having a quite one going north tomorrow morning early, to Cairns the Reef and the cane farms,want to wish you all a happy New Year as I probably will not be able to get to a computor whahhhhhhhh, Will catch you all when I come back.
And I am not going to hold my breath waiting for change untill the 2006 elections, and see if you get back the house and the senate if that happens then I will believe that there is change happening in the USofA
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL, AND HOPEFULLY BIG CHANGE IN THE YEAR TO COME
And now that I think about it Blockading big communications that are LETTING the gov use their systems to SPY on us....
THEM TOO, BLOCKADE THEIR OFFICES...
They wanna watch us...? LET US GO PEEP IN THIER WINDOWS INSTEAD.
Maybe chain ourselves to a desk.
Let us make SURE they SEE us do it.
So how do we make them care?
Posted by: sparrow at December 30, 2005 03:27 PM
Sparrow,
It is almost impossible to make people care about something with which they have absolutely no experience. People whose candidate "won" the election don't feel a sense of betrayal. Nor are they motivated to change a system that they do not perceive as flawed. Of course there are some who are not so blind to the realities of what has happened to our election system, and they want to see constructive changes. It will only change when more people feel the sense of betrayal that had enveloped this country after the last Presidential election. That change will occur when there are tens of millions of voters who don't accept the phoney election results. One way for people to know if the votes were actually counted is to have a "shadow" election, but that would require nearly 100% participation (not realistic). Another way is for informed citizens to participate as election judges, and yet another way is for people to DEMAND a paper ballot.
BEFORE we can 'fix' the elections system...
WE MUST FIRST have the medias participation.
It is absolutely essential.
Once you swing the media most of the rest will AUTOMATICALLY fall into place.
Without the media... we are dead in the water.
Without the media... we are dead in the water.
Posted by: Christy at December 30, 2005 03:54 PM
Christy:
The bad guys have had that figured out since Nixon. There is NO MORE NEWS.
WE are now the good guys.
Rossi,
Happy New Year to you. And thanks for the good wishes. It is hard not to be cynical about the upcoming elections given how the media has abandoned its responsiblities and the "sheeples" don't quite yet understand that they are living in a fascist state. Still, I have hope that Americans will do what they have to in order to save their country. Sparrow said it, we have to make them care. We can do that when we keep showing them that Katrina's destruction was only a photo-op for Bush and his minions. The media has been willing to highlight the horrible mismanagement and true suffering that is happening because of our callous government. The war will not be forgotten as well, but the media has basically caved in to Bushco on that issue.
Cable is the problem always has been.
Watch out for the next Republican wedge issue:
Immigration reform.
Just a hunch.
Posted by: Fe at December 30, 2005 03:58 PM
Then it boils down to having to be a PITA and tell everyone you know.
Or do what Oncall does, and post the list of Fascism in the lounge. If it gets torn down, put another one up.
Put up articles in public places.
Wear t'shirts.
And civil disobedience is certainly an option as well.
Big Brother Bush
Molly Ivins, AlterNet
December 29, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/30175/
I don't mean to scare you silly -- but there's a reason we have never given our government this kind of power.
The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Thirty-five years ago, Richard Milhous Nixon, who was crazy as a bullbat, and J. Edgar Hoover, who wore women's underwear, decided some Americans had unacceptable political opinions. So they set our government to spying on its own citizens, basically those who were deemed insufficiently like Crazy Richard Milhous.
For those of you who have forgotten just what a stonewall paranoid Nixon was, the poor man used to stalk around the White House demanding that his political enemies be killed. Many still believe there was a certain Richard III grandeur to Nixon's collapse because he was also a man of notable talents. There is neither grandeur nor tragedy in watching this president, the Testy Kid, violate his oath to uphold the laws and Constitution of our country.
The Testy Kid wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it because he is the president, and he considers that sufficient justification for whatever he wants. He even finds lawyers like John Yoo, who tell him that whatever he wants to do is legal.
The creepy part is the overlap. Damned if they aren't still here, after all these years, the old Nixon hands -- Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the whole gang whose yearning for authoritarian government rose like a stink over the Nixon years. Imperial executive. Bring back those special White House guard uniforms. Cheney, like some malignancy that cannot be killed off, back at the same old stand, pushing the same old crap. Of course, they tell us we have to be spied on for our own safety, so they can catch the terrorists who threaten us all. Thirty-five years ago, they nabbed a film star named Jean Seberg and a bunch of people running a free breakfast program for poor kids in Chicago. This time, they're onto the Quakers. We are not safer.
We would be safer, as the 9-11 commission has so recently reminded us, if some obvious and necessary precautions were taken at both nuclear and chemical plants -- but that is not happening because those industries contribute to Republican candidates.
Republicans do not ask their contributors to spend a lot of money on obvious and necessary steps to protect public safety. They wiretap, instead. You will be unsurprised to learn that, first, they lied. They didn't do it. Well, OK, they did it, but not very much at all. Well, OK, more than that. A lot more than that. OK, millions of private e-mail and telephone calls every hour, and all medical and financial records.
You may recall in 2002 it was revealed that the Pentagon had started a giant data-mining program called Total Information Awareness (TIA), intended to search through vast databases "to increase information coverage by an order of magnitude."
From credit cards to vet reports, Big Brother would be watching us. This dandy program was under the control of Adm. John Poindexter, convicted of five felonies during Iran-Contra, all overturned on a technicality. This administration really knows where to go for good help -- it ought to bring back Brownie.
Everybody decided that TIA was a terrible idea, and the program was theoretically shut down. As often happens with this administration, it turned out they just changed the name and made the program less visible. Data-mining was a popular buzzword at the time, and the administration was obviously hot to have it. Bush established a secret program under which the National Security Agency could bypass the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court and begin eavesdropping on Americans without warrants.
As many have patiently pointed out, the entire program was unnecessary, since the FISA court is both prompt and accommodating. There is virtually no possible scenario that would make it difficult or impossible to get a FISA warrant -- it has granted 19,000 warrants and rejected only a handful.
I don't like to play scary games where we all stay awake late at night, telling each other scary stories -- but there's a reason we have never given our government this kind of power. As the late Sen. Frank Church said, "That capability could at any time be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capacity to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide."
And if a dictator took over, the NSA "could enable it to impose total tyranny." Then we always get that dreadful goody-two-shoes response, "Well, if you aren't doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about, do you?"
Folks, we KNOW this program is being and will be misused. We know it from the past record and current reporting. The program has already targeted vegans and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- and, boy, if those aren't outposts of al-Qaida, what is? Could this be more pathetic?
This could scarcely be clearer. Either the president of the United States is going to have to understand and admit he has done something very wrong, or he will have to be impeached. The first time this happened, the institutional response was magnificent. The courts, the press, the Congress all functioned superbly. Anyone think we're up to that again? Then whom do we blame when we lose the republic?
Posted by: oncall at December 30, 2005 04:02 PM
Hmmm...so are we suppose to welcome immigrants or send them home?
I say surprise the neoCONS and say, "Sure let them in, just pay them the same wages as those people get using the Davis-Bacon Act."
Christy, you keep on painting an awfully apocalyptic picture of how you expect things to work (or not work) in the real world. I don't say that to single you out for approbation, but many of your recent posts are among the higher-profile examples of it on the blog these days.
When one insists on taking an all-or-nothing approach to everything, as a general rule that approach tends to produce nothing a whole lot more often than it produces anything, much less all.
Passion is admirable, anger is understandable, but trying to maintain a consistently high pitch of outraged stridency isn't very useful in the long run. And besides, too much too often just induces brain fatigue until eventually nobody pays attention to it at all anymore.
(And BTW, advocating bloodshed as a viable alternative, however elliptically, is not going to make Friends Of The DCP out of any of the senators, representatives, media members, and/or potential backers who might be reading what we write here -- and don't kid yourself, at least some of them at least occasionally do just that.)
Channeling all our passion and anger into productive, realistic ways to effect change in the real world, and to break down the Repo's current domination of the House and Senate by getting Dems and Progressives elected in their places in the coming 2006 elections -- now, *that's* a worthwhile use of our collective time and talent.
It's not a complicated process, though that doesn't mean that it's always going to be an easy one to follow. Step one: identify problems objectively. Step two: devise realistic approaches to solving them. Step three: take action to put those realistic solutions into effect.
We have to BE the solution, not just demand that one be provided for us. We need to be out there making real changes in the real world, not just whistling Dixie at the top of our lungs. Otherwise, we'll only be playing Cassandra ad nauseum instead. And we all know how well *that* worked out for her, hmm hmm?
just my realistic $.02 -- your mileage may vary,
Otter
Rossi,
Yes, cable has diluted what were once-and remain-important issues into sound bites for political talking heads with NO concept of how the issues effect most people. Just once, I would like to see a "news channel" have an executive who has lost his job and his health insurance (and has just been diagnosed with cancer) on the air with with a Bushco Propagandist talking head.
They are investigating the leak of information to the New York Times, instead of those spying on the people, that says it all to me. You are living in crazy crazy time they would have all been impeached a few years ago if you still had the house and senate nothing will change untill they are back in the hands of the democrats then the moron could be bought down very quickly,
So what are the Democrats going to do to protect the 2006 elections, they knew before the 2004 elections they had to do something and nothing was done, so what will they do to protect the vote in 2006.
OUR media problem... Articulated.
Do you know WHY the WaPo and NY Times and Foe So-not-news.. KEEPS printing and broadcasting a bunch of crap...?
BECAUSE YOU ARE NOTHING TO THEM.
You are a reader named Blah Blah from Such and such, and WHO CARES what you want..?
What are YOU to THEM..?
You are an angry email. Whoooooo. You are a 'Frustrated in Portland" or wtf ever.
YOU are numbers to them. Readership numbers. Stock numbers. Poll numbers.
SUCKERS.
You know what a DEFINING moment is..?
It is NOT when you get an 'upset email' from a 'dissapointed reader'...
Me I get email saying sh*t like 'You should be hung like Tokyo Rose!' all the time.
SOOO FREAKING WHAT... ?? I trash it and move on.
BUT IF SOMEONE WERE TO SAY THAT TO MY FACE AND WAS HOLDING A ROPE IN THEIR HAND.....
I think that would DEFINATELY CHANGE MY IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES...
To Foe News you are not just less than nothing, you are the sheep they GET OFF ON.
UNTIL you show up in their faces,At their office, on their sidewalks, chained to their desk... YOU WILL ALWAYS be nothing to them.
THEY DO NOT SEE YOU BECAUSE THEY DO NOT WANT TO SEE YOU.
There is ONLY one way to deal with that.
Get in their faces and REFUSE to move.
Christy the media couldn't care less if lefties blockaded them. Lefties already do. Big old-style media companies are losing money like crazy and right-wingers are the only ones pumping lots of ad money into them. I don't see how that would do anything but exacerbate the situation.
Your idea of a blockade though, I don't see why we don't apply it to our elected officials and candidates. No money, no time, no effort for someone who's just going to roll over and play dead when it counts. Or even play nice. We have to focus on just one or two key issues at first to avoid fragmentation of effort - say just honest elections - and then unless the individual speaks out with the right talking points about honest elections AT EVERY TURN, EVERY OCCASION - they are jettisoned in favor of someone who does. Of course those that do...get lavished with money.
The thing is, we have to for the moment decide this is our #1 issue. Which it has to be. Because we can't get any of our favorite politicians elected who might be able to do something about our other 300 issues until we solve the problem of electoral fraud.
Why not insist on being present when our votes are counted? Media be damned, if we are all standing in the room when they count the votes we can all see if there is fraud or not.
Get in their faces and REFUSE to move.
Posted by: Christy at December 30, 2005 04:11 PM
A few people each day. Keep it rolling...and rolling and rolling...
One big "Fox News Sucks" like last year just didn't cut it. It has to happen each and every day.
Now take a look at this great article, please.
http://www.thenewpolitics.com/2005/12/armillaria_osto.html
Looks like it may be your last chance to make recommendations for the koufax awards.
http://wampum.wabanaki.net/vault/2005/12/002191.html
Posted by: rossiann at December 30, 2005 04:09 PM
Your point is taken Rossi. I too am frustrated that the Dems have not been actively trying to make our elections more verifiable. For the life of me I can't figure that one out. Perhaps they don't want to be portrayed as "crybabies" ,or even worse, they don't think the system is corrupted (I can't believe that).
Unfortunately some members of our local cell who had been actively trying to block our county from purchasing Diebold touch screen systems were unsuccessful. The county government is 100% Republican and we knew we had little chance of blocking the purchase. Maybe if we can get everybody to demand a paper ballot, we can be assured that our votes will count.
"I'm not anti-Bush; I'm anti-Bush behavior. In other words, I'm against cheating, greed, cruelty, racism, imperialism, religious fundamentalism, treason, and the seemingly limitless capacity for hypocrisy shown by Bush and his administration."
-- actor/artist/activist Viggo Mortensen
-----
Viggo knows.
His approach seems like a real good way to address the issues when talking to pro-repo types, imho. Don't bother attacking the man -- attack the man's actions instead.
Ad hominem arguments always get you nowhere. (After all, how many of us were convinced to turn away from John Kerry last year just because the rabid rovians kept trying to trash his good name?)
In other words: Don't pick on Bush. Pick Bush's behavior apart instead.
Sounds like a plan to me.
aggregate; educate; activate,
Otter
Posted by: Otter at December 30, 2005 04:24 PM
Otter, what have Viggo's words accomplished?
What good does it do to convert 80% of Americans to vote for our candidates if their votes are not counted correctly, or at all?
This has to be our #1 issue and we have to fight vehemently for it.
For one Otter I have NEVER advocated bloodshed.
I am trying to figure out ways to AVOID IT.
And as far as highpitched outrage wtf ever if you are NOT outraged at this point you are NOT paying attention.
As for an ALL OR NOTHING approach... We are on the brink of a Constitutional Crisis so deep and vast that not one of us will ever see it fixed in our lifetime.
ALL OR NOTHING...??
Our nation is about to be completely DISMANTLED. It already almost is a DONE DEAL.
And as for SOLUTIONS..??? WANT ONE..? HOW BOUT TWO..?
If I told you I was a genius would that help...?
Does me being a 'hottie' count for anything? Obviously no.
How bout just calling me a freaking nutjob and tyranny will not seem so...close.
IF I SCREAMED IT WOULD YOU HEAR ME....??? Damn sure didn't help New Orleans.
REMEMBER NEW ORLEANS and do not EVER forget the ONE PERSON AMONG YOU that understood what the implications of your POLITICAL ABANDONMENT meant.
EVERY SINGLE THING I HAVE PREDICTED HAS CAME TRUE SAVE ONE.. the stock market.. Wanna know my take on it... did it REALLY not come to pass..?
But still that is not enogh is it...? TO BE RIGHT no longer counts. It damn sure don't stop the sadness.
None of that matters though does it Otter cause we are just suppossed to LOOK AT THE SHINEY NEW PROMISE and cough up some money and vote for people who dont care that we are on the brink.
APOCALYPTIC...?? Im not the one waiting for the Rapture. But its all falling to crap anyway isn't it???
Christy:
Whatever.
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"Being an activist is the rent we pay for being on the planet."
-- Alice Walker
Our nation is about to be completely DISMANTLED. It already almost is a DONE DEAL.
Posted by: Christy at December 30, 2005 04:32 PM
Everyone, take a look at this article and see if it's not the truth--and I'm not just talking democracy here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/29/AR2005122901520.html
Posted by: sparrow at December 30, 2005 04:05 PM
That is pretty close to what Bush is advocating-which doesn't make it wrong. However his uberconservative base is in a desperate fight with the business wing of the party. Let, the Repubs fight over that issue as much as they want, but I sense that it will be an issue that they will try to suck the Dems into. Do we have an answer? If we do, I haven't heard it.
White House denies calling for probe
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,17698664%255E401,00.html
This is my paper for my own State
Mr Duffy stressed that "the leaking of classified information is a serious issue." And he defended the use of wiretaps,
Spying on the American people is okay but
Whatever...??
Wow don't hurt yourself.
Posted by: sparrow at December 30, 2005 04:40 PM
Whomever has been hoa