...because there is nothing to suggest that there are any safeguards left to protect the citizenry from our government.

i started reading glenn's blog years ago, shortly after the revelations in the nyt story (a story that, mind you, was held for 13 months and managed NOT to affect the 2004 election) and agreed with him then that the ongoing criminal behavior of this administration was a fundamental challenge to our nation's institutions. and one by one they have failed us -- the enabling congress, mainly, and the chattering class of useless twits that does nothing but provide cover and distraction; but also a justice department that has turned its name into a joke and the courts that looked the other way, and the military that knows in its bones what illegal conduct it was being instructed to perform.

until finally, this is where we are: a lawless ruling class with an unholy devotion to chaos, and wealth, and power, with a quiescent population that will stand for it and pay for it, too. exactly what makes us so much better than other nations again?

i can't really blame the people -- this life is hard, and we have our preoccupations with making ends meet, and raising our families and hoping for something slightly better in the years ahead. but it is exactly this kind of disconnect that those in power have relied upon to get where they, and we, are today.

don't expect things to change much with a new administration, either. we thought great things were to come after the 2006 elections, and look how well that worked out. and the man many of us hope to see in the white house has already shown that he will roll over as obediently as anyone else when it's expedient and in the best interest of corporate and political masters.

...their interviewers don't correct them. did dan abrams do so?

i used to think such interviewers were just observing some sort of warped code, operating under some misunderstanding about how interviews are supposed to be conducted.

now, i simply think they are stupid enough, and credulous enough, to believe everything their subject says.

...will merely get you called shrill and foolish and extreme. oh, and anti-american, let's not forget that one.

whatever else they are, the chinese are unblinkingly direct and unashamed in their authoritarian stance. actually, the bushites have that in common with them. the rest of us? a mix of lies from the enablers and self-deceptions from the rest of us.

i'm in for no later than THIS sunday.

jerry nadler is unquestionably saying the right things and is one of the few congressmen who do even that. BUT my faith in him was shaken when, taking questions last year on firedoglake, he shrugged off the idea of impeachment proceedings, invoking the washington establishment excuse that there was not enough time to get such a thing done. (this in spite of the fact that the nixon impeachment hearings and vote took fewer than six months from start to finish.)

i fear that even folks like jerry nadler are playing us. that the system is truly broken and that those in charge have no interest in fixing it.

the only other explanation i can come up with for congressional democrats' unwillingness to step up and DO THEIR OVERSIGHT JOBS has to do with the tinfoil assumptions that the bushites have, courtesy of those warrantless wiretaps, compiled files on each and every one of them.

so, complicit in a corrupt system, or blackmailed into submission. quite the choice. i'd appreciate someone suggesting other possibilities as well, because these are truly soul-sapping.

while a whiff of triumphalism is entitled, that's not where this is truly headed. sure, obama wins -- it's virtually a done deal now. it's not even going to be close, maybe 6 to 7 percentage points.

BUT, as a handful of other commenters have noted, this doesn't stop on election day. if anything, it gets WORSE after an obama victory. McCain and Palin have let loose the dogs of unbridled, untiring, unyielding hate, and they have done so knowing there is no pulling them back. in terms of a campaign arsenal, they've gone nuclear, and to hell with the fallout.

no, the truth is that these galvanized right-wing knotheads, many of whom have access to arms, when they're slapped hard by the results of nov. 4, will use it as motivation to take out obama.

of course, they'll be aided and abetted by the hate radio's relentless stoking -- and should conspirators succeed, the limbaughs and savages and hannitys will get all first-amendment huffy about the condemnation that will come their way. (see the aftermath of oklahoma city if you think i'm off base here; clinton was blasted for merely chiding the irresponsibility of the broadcasters, and gordon liddy, who had urged taking head shots in a confrontation with a federal agent, WON a "freedom of speech" award by the national association of talk show hosts.)

mccain and palin will have a very large share of culpability should any of this occur, but you can expect them to bat their eyes, wink and say, "who, us?"

the lunatic right isn't going away, and mccain and palin have only emboldened them, made them feel mainstream and acceptable. that is their greatest sin, and it's irrevocable.