And neither is Keith Olberman, or Jon Stewart or Bill Moyers or Amy Goodman.

And neither was George Orwell.

You are directing the light of the facts through a lens of reason. You are helping to burn away our collective denial and rationalization until all that remains is the heartbreaking truth of our national hypocrisy.

That is not a bad thing. That is a good thing.

That is what democracies are for.

These people ran off the end of the pier a long time ago. They are already responsible for a war of aggression, torture, disappearing people, illegal detention, illegally spying on US citizens, obstruction of justice. The list goes on and on. The declaration of a unitary executive as defined by their version of executive privilege is, in my mind, nothing less than an overt and criminal attempt to overthrow the US government and to declare the Constitution and the Bill of Rights null and void.

In short, they are treasonous. They are criminals. They are irredeemable.

There is no line to cross. They have already crossed it a dozen times.

The America we live in today is not the same America we lived in in 2000. The malls and SUVs and cable TV are still there. But our democracy is shattered. 9/11 did not shatter it. We did.

To talk of a 2008 election, the eventual restoration of habeas corpus and so forth is almost beside the point.

The Congress should be raging against this President and his criminal cabal. The Congress should be doing everything in its power to reestablish the rule of law.

It has not. And that says it all.

In all the political blogosphere there is not another blog that has the likes of you and Bebop-o.

I commend you both.

William Timberman is correct. The ships are on the horizon.

Largest Slum Populations by Country

P = Slum pop. as percent of total urban population

T = Total slum dwellers in millions

China P=37.8 T=193.8
India P=55.5 T=158.4
Brazil P=36.6 T=51.7
Nigeria P=79.2 T=41.6
Pakistan P=73.6 T=35.6
Bangladesh P=84.7 T=30.4
Indonesia P=23.1 T=20.9
Iran P=44.2 T=20.4
Philippines P=44.1 T=20.1
Turkey P=42.6 T=19.1
Mexico P=19.6 T=14.7
South Korea P=37.0 T=14.2
Peru P=68.1 T=13.0
USA P=5.8 T=12.8
Egypt P=39.9 T=11.8
Argentina P=33.1 T=11.0
Tanzania P=92.1 T=11.0
Ethiopia P=99.4 T=10.2
Sudan P=85.7 T=10.1
Vietnam P=47.4 T=9.2

From Planet of Slums by Mike Davis based on a 2003 UN-HABITAT survey

Who woulda thunk? The US had 12.8 million of its citizens living in slums.

I happen to like what Chavez has done with the place. I just hope his popularity doesn't go to his head.

Not everyone knows that the fourth largest gasoline retailer in the US, Citgo, is a wholly owned subsidiary of PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.) and that the US obtains 10% of its imported oil from Venezuela (and 15% from Mexico and 18% from Canada).

Given that 60% of our oil is imported, I would like to suggest that we be nicer to our neighbors.

We already live in a multipolar world. Our "unipolar superpower" dominance was very short lived. In fact, it ended the day we invaded Iraq. We lost a lot of friends that day. Now our old friends are forming brand new cliques on the playground and we are not invited.

The bottom line is, everyone knows where everyone lives now. And anyone can knock on anyone else's door pretty much whenever they like. The last thing in the world we need to be doing is threatening neighboring countries (or their leaders) who happen to drive thousands of big tractor trailers rigs on freeways right up into the middle of our country day in and day out.

it is about time that those promoting this war offered up their own children to fight it, and anyone who themselves are 40 and under in the Congress and the Administration -- John Kerry on Olbermann

That would stop the war in short order, I would think.

It is not unnatural for anyone (or any nation) who has started a fight only to have their ass decimated by the other party to start thinking that maybe war is not always the best of all possible worlds. Karma is the beginning of empathy.

Kerry understands that there is nothing like the prospect of having an immediate family member shipped home in a body bag to focus one's attention on the actual "costs" of war.

And this whole thing about, "I had other priorities." No shit. Everyone has a higher priority than getting their ass shot off.