it must be passive, how can it be active?

in a democracy, it pays to read news, it pays to join citizen action groups, because citizens can control politicians.

in an oligarchy, not so. when you can't vote, why waste your time following politics?

"but i can vote" you say...

for what? only for which of two groups of bandits will run the nation for the wealthy.

a nation without citizen initiative is a nation of serfs and grandees. the serfs only need to know which bandit might hurt them less, and they can only know if they are better or worse off than before the last election.

if you want citizenship- you must have democracy. sirota, and greenwald, and conason just want readers. it's how they make a living. the people who read their protests are serfs, for they never translate outrage into action.

that threaten american troops. it's the actions depicted. the story of what went on in abu ghraib is known throughout the islamic world.

those pictures are suppressed to protect government officers who were responsible for those actions. to protect the soldiers, hang their officers.

right up to the whitehouse...

as long as you win the war.

'justice' is defined by the powerful, and america is not yet so weakened that it must bow to foreign opinion. but the ever expanding war on the middle east, collapsing industrial capacity, and blatant protection of the rich- suggests that america's elite may one day soon learn what justice is.

do these 'pro-life' people complain about sending drone bombs to kill pregnant women in iraq, afghanistan, and pakistan?

there is no agency in american society planning development or evolution, and can not be: the market must rule.

see where that's got us.

politicians can not do it, either. their time frame is too short. their needs are centered around getting elected. their character is selected for blind egotism.

one of the charms of democracy is the long-term view of a group that is ever-renewing and whose individual selfish aims are subsumed in the whole. the voice of the electorate as a whole is likely to be both more far-sighted and more public spirited than any small group.

but america is not a democracy, and people brought up in serfdom do not think like citizens. they cry out for 'leaders', worshiping the newest, until he is proven to be as ineffectual, as corrupt, as selfish, as the previous 'leader. when they discover they have been betrayed again, it's "off with his head" as though they deserved a philosopher king.

america is going to continue to decay. they have no capacity for social planning. headless chickens.

the policies of the american government are what puts soldiers in greater danger, not photographs documenting those policies.

the victims know the truth, only american voters are ignorant. many want to stay that way, being unconcerned about anything except cheap gas and maintaining membership in the american ubermenschen.

but those with some regard for justice, and those that realize america's reputation can not be fixed without admitting crimes, and punishing criminals, will continue to press for open government.

that's only in a democracy.

the government has power. that's an oligarchy. if you start writing in english instead of newspeak, many mysteries become clear.

if you are going to write about politics, learn this:

democracy is 'rule by the people'.

is clear to every moslem, and quite a few others too. no sweet words are going to change that.

islamic people are clear about america's role in supporting, even creating, brutal dictators, in iran, iraq, saudi arabia- no sweet words are going to change that.

middle eastern peoples are clear that the invasion of iraq was naked imperialism, a would-be grand coup that has failed to achieve it's aims, but killed and displaced 100's of 1000's of people- what sweet words will fix that?

the afghan people are probably beginning to regard the americans as a periodic cataclysm, sweeping through every few years like an earthquake. but the taliban are there to stay, so who would you support? there are no sweet words to disguise american foreign policy blunders, neither is there any way to cover the contempt of afghan lives that the use of drone bombs represents.

and then there is pakistan- probably the worst problem obama faces and completely intractable.

obama will say nice words. but they will be empty. america is not capable of effective foreign policy anymore, mistakes are too many, too old, and can not be acknowledged, as they are crimes by anyone's definition..