Can Thompson arrange to have a beat-up old red truck on hand at every national campaign venue? When running for the Senate in Tennessee, he'd drive close to the campaign stop in his town car, meet a staffer in the red truck, and then drive the red truck to the rally (reversing the process on the way out).

The rubes fell for it. Are a majority of Americans too politically retarded to sustain a functioning democracy?

John Dean has done his country a service in diagnosing the cancer of Right-Wing Authoritarianism eating away at our republic.

The only permanent cures will be:

* A constitutional amendment mandating public financing of political campaigns, free and equal access for political candidates for TV time, and uniform and verifiable balloting in all 50 states.

* Utilization of anti-trust/monopoly laws to break-up giant media conglomerates.

These measures would solve about 90% of our long-term problems and ensure the long-term survival of the United States as a free and democratic republic.

With this shameless batch of War Wimps (the late, great Mike Royko's term for Chickenhawks) providing the "intellectual" and "moral" justifications for the neocons' endless wars, at some point our soldiers will say "Enough!"

That they haven't already is testament to their valor and professionalism.

Are you interested in lives of the Iraqis or just the Americans. If just the Americans why not go isolationist? Inquiring minds want to know.

Would that be "an interest" in the lives of the majority of Iraqis that want us to leave, and approve of attacks on their American occupiers?

Apparently, the lesson you learned from Vietnam is that sometimes we must destroy a country in order to "save" it.

Expect another far-right, sycophantic, Unitary Executive-worshipping toadie -- and without a public paper trail subject to examination. Someone with the Cheney / Addington seal of approval.

Bush has never, and will never, nominate a qualified, independent appointee to head any federal agency -- much less one as important politically as the DoJ.

The rapid Soviet-ization of the American news media has been astonishing.

America's media cheerleaders may fool themselves into thinking they are being "patriotic" by acting as government stenographers. But they should consider that the USSR didn't collapse due to Ronald Reagan's arms buildup.

It was because the lies, incompetence and brutal corruption reached such a critical mass that literally everyone said "to hell with it."

True patriotism requires a devotion to, and respect for, hard truths -- not pleasant (or profitable) fictions.

No question - the theocratic regime in Tehran is brutally repressive. But remember, it was empowered and installed via "blowback" from the US operation to topple the democratically elected government of Iran and replace it with the hated (but pro-US) Shah in the 1950s.

Any attack on Iran would only accomplish the following:

* An immediate reprisal against US forces in Iraq.

* Closure of the Straits of Hormuz and other petroleum distribution causing worldwide economic disruption.

* A renewal of nationalist fervor in Iran, strengthening the rule of the ayatollahs at the expense of the reformers.

* After the Iranian nuclear program was reconstituted with even greater urgency, a nuclear retaliation against the US would be guaranteed.

* The United States would be perceived by the rest of the civilized world as guilty of unprovoked war -- leading to further diplomatic isolation.

Bad idea. Of course, that never stopped Bush before.

Isn't this an ex post facto law, and thus unconstitutional?

The Constitution only bans laws which render illegal acts which, at the time they were undertaken, were legal. It doesn't prohibit laws that do the opposite.

-- GlennGreenwald

Thanks for the response Glenn. What about in civil cases?

Can the government make damages disappear by retroactively redefining them?

Thanks!

Great post, GG!

You've done a great service by exposing this sleazy propaganda tactic. The neocons have been able to lay these steaming rhetorical turds out there for too long.

Keep rubbing their noses in it.

I think a lot of the pathetic display of Democratic ineffectiveness can be traced to the leadership: Reid and Pelosi.

They may be fine people, but they were elected to leadership positions when the Dems were in the minority and it just didn't matter. Now that the political winds have shifted and the Dems have the majority, it's time for a change. The stakes are now much higher.

The Moveon.org vote is a case in point. Would a Republican Senate majority leader ever allow a similar measure condemning an important core constituency to even come up for a vote? Impossible. What the hell was Reid thinking? Gross incompetence or political naivete are the only explanations.

It seems as if the congressional Dems have no concept of parliamentary or political strategy. An effective leader would establish strategy and keep errant Members "on the reservation" by withdrawing/promising key committee assignments.

If the congressional Dems can't soldier-up -- and soon -- and fix this pathetic leadership vacuum, they will find that American progressives will be forced to create a third party to represent us.

As it is now, congressional Democrats are a political party in name only.

Has there been a single prominent Democrat willing to confront the demagoguery and drumbeat for an unprovoked war with Iran?

None that I'm aware of. Even our top Democratic presidential candidates talk of leaving "all options on the table" regarding Iran, and we know what that euphemism means.

We as a nation seem to have devolved "from the land of the free and the home of the brave" to a nation of homicidal idiots and ambition-above-all cowards.

The American Right Wing has always had a schitzoid approach to its foreign-affairs propaganda.

Labor unions, liberals, intellectuals, women's rights, gay rights, etc., these are all "good" and worthy of American support -- but only in foreign countries in which the US finds itself in conflict with.

Apparently, it's the "conservative" regimes that are the most difficult to deal with. What a shock.