i said it before the first american boot hit iraq. not prescience, just common sense and a little history. so where were the academics and pundits when bush and powell stood up on september 12 and 13 to say the attack was 'not the result of american foreign policy'?

deafening silence, probably not from ignorance but simply a determination not to stunt one's career by speaking the truth to tyrants. bush and his cabinet are contemptible people, but few voices were raised in dispute, and none at all when those voices were silenced. worse by far than bullies in big suits are academics, pundits, media darlings, all wrapped in cowardice.

nothing new here. american history as i met it in many american schools had little regard for reality. not surprising that the 9/11 attacks were the work of devils- native americans must have smiled to hear that. they were the devils when their land was being taken.

there was money to be made by supporting the bush cabinet, and the intelligentsia supported it. now there's money to be made by telling a part of the truth.

the rednecks chose dubya over kerry, can't claim to be totally astonished if the dimwit rednecks choose mccain over obama, now can we?

but maybe the shambles the reps made of the usa will at least put enough dems in congress and senate to slow the rate of decline of the dimwitted redneck empire of america.

or at least keep down the bloodshed.

feel free to apply paring knives and stiletto heels to any republican in reach.

the government you got is the government you deserve. the quality of the bush regime is the quality of the people.

you want a better society? be a better people. start with democracy: a nation that has effective and accessible citizen initiative does not have 'bushes', for citizens are much less forgiving of incompetence, corruption, megalomania, and can express their discontent with recall and prison.

but americans, for all their talk of democracy, are content to be second class people, watchers not doers, while the nation is looted by the rich and would be rich. stop complaining, it could be worse. it will be, soon enough, for history is one long tale of exploitation of fellow humans.

they are not in short supply, so it will continue. the concurrent exploitation of nature is a real worry. the planet is finite, while man has found no way to curb the appetites for resources. this is likely to end in environmental catastrophe. are you sure chattering about a law suit is the most useful thing to do?

they're getting ready to vote for palin. it's not an intellectual process. some are ignorant, and scared, some are thugs in a suit or twin-set. some think they'll get to heaven if they are vocal and intolerant about faith. plenty see more money in a republican government.

talking to these people is not a waste of time, "know your enemy", but victory at the polls will only come by creating a majority of voters who are a little more highly evolved. obama has done well with the means at his disposal, but the constitution was written to favor the party of the rich, and the 'less right wing party', as gore vidal put it, is always at a disadvantage.

the trolls and orcs at a republican rally are scary, similar mind-sets were seen at nazi rallies. bushes grandfather was a supporter, after all. but they are not a majority, as yet. energize and realize the votes of the decent america, and the dispossed, and the disaffected, and the trolls and orcs will have to settle for burning crosses and shooting abortion doctors for awhile.

i can tell, because he wrote this: "And that fact will raise serious questions about the viability of American democracy itself."

america is not a democracy, except in the 'newspeak' sense. it's an oligarchy of politicians and big money, a rough copy of british society at the time of an earlier king george, the 3rd.

until you understand this, talking about politics is as likely to be as fruitful as building a house on sand.

growing up in an oligarchy doesn't make democratic citizens, it creates ignorant, disengaged subjects, willing to be second class as long as there is a third class. they vote republican, to associate themselves with the elite, an emotional bond similar to supporting a sports team.

or maybe kamiya is simply part of the diseducation process, the one every american gets, about the glorious history, prosperous present, and glowing future of the nation. the fact is, "in our democracy" is a verbal shiboleth, touched by every grifter on his way to selling a political lie. you'd think people would catch on...

it's always rotting, it comes from 'capping' in the dark, with regular infusions of political corruption.

when mankind's ecology shifted from african savanna to city streets, a new word was needed to replace 'law of the jungle'. that word was capitalism. it's not a system, it's a euphemism.