You are very astute in your assesment of the situation. I would like to know your assesment of the press and why they are in the position of not being able to adjust. Is the idea of white house press meetings a relic that should be disposed of?

I would also like to comment on this theory that Karl Rove is a genious that is always behind the overall strategies of the white house. The very fact he hitched his wagon to the current president seems, for me, to be an obvious failing of his overall intelligence. He might be very sucessful in cheating and manipulating a situation to the advantage to the administration, but that can hardly be called a political mastermind. If we should hang the failure of the current administration's policies around their neck, then we should in turn hang the failure of the current administration around Karl's neck. If it was his strategy to disenfranchise the press, it does not seem to be working. The worm is turning and every day the press is biting back with more and more agressiveness. They are just beginning to regrow their teeth. Your article is exhibit A.

These bush mash ups are no more than poorly edited propaganda pieces. We don't really need this noise in the actual political discourse. Cut through the clutter, don't add to it. Although this type of piece requires a lot of time in Final Cut or Premiere, it is in the end a very lazy way to present information or persuade. A clearly written and researched article or archive goes a lot longer. I admire those who spend their time on these things, I just feel that that time would be better served doing more productive and active work for the causes they promote. This stuff comes off like a contest to make real world issues, cool to the MTV crowd. In reality we need to speak to them as the intelligent adults that they are.

I went to the web site of the congressman with the unfortunate name of "Steny" and tried to email him with a few thoughts on his "quislinginess" or as I have coined the new term "Stenyness". Unfortunately the first step of his contact form is a requirement to submit your name and zip-code. I did. It seems as though Steny doesn't really want to hear from anyone outside his immeadiate "zone". This is the message I get when the form validates:

"I'm sorry...

Your zip code is not within the Fifth Congressional District of Maryland. To contact your Member of Congress, please visit the Write Your Representative page."

Try it, it's fun: http://www.hoyer.house.gov/contact/email.asp

A real populist Steny is. Then I got to thinking, is this contact form business the case with all the congresspeople? Yes it is! It seems as though our nation's leaders have no interest in you or your opinions unless you are able to vote for them. I thought it was called the Congress of the United States of America, not the congress of 20 miles of Maryland.

Once again I am reminded of how distant we are from our "leaders", Republican or Democrat.

They are not "seeking" data, they have already requested and got the data and have inserted it into a database and are currently using it. This is in line will all the other "data mining" efforts that have been exposed. Basically they have tapped into the backbone of the internet and are mining all your emails and internet communications. They are logging all phone calls (who calls who-not that actual conversation.) They are wiretapping all phone and internet communications they deem necessary. They are compiling passenger lists for all airling flights. They are imprisoning American citizens indefinately. They are searching people's homes without probable cause. They are detaining people without probable cause.

All without oversight or judicial approval. This is all illeagal and unconstitutional. Are the lessons of history lost?

http://www.house.gov/pelosi/press/releases/Jan06/declassified.html

In this declassified response to Senator Pelosi's inquiry into the authorty to "expand" the NSA's electronic surveillance mission scope, Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden (who is currently nominated to head the CIA) responds that the "adjustment" is on his authority.

"...which includes our foundational enthusiasm for miscegenation, for what is hybrid, trans-cultural, Creole, mestizo, and so many other terms we minted to speak of this aptitude of ours for mixture..."

These terms and actualities are actually creations of colonial governments (Spain in this case). They defined divisions based on ethnic mixtures to create false divisions of class between the poor, an artificial caste system. In reality, in economy or power, the division is/was simple: Those who have and control (roughly 2% of the population) and those who do not (the rest of us). If "the rest" realize that they are all poor and oppressed as a collective, then they would redistribute the wealth and power of the elites. So the elites create terms like Mestizo to elevate the mestizo above the castizo, cuarterón de indio, cholo etc... In turn the mestizo would oppress those below and wish to move up in caste to those directly above in the pecking order. A simple case divide and conquer. These mixtures were not a result of free expression, they were purposely encouraged as part of the colonial methods of rule.

One could take a look around today and wonder what kinds of false divisions between people are created and supported by the ruling class, and in turn my ourselves. Black vs. White? Poor vs. middle class vs. upper middle class? The similarities of the people in the supposed disparate groups far outweigh the similarities between any of these groups and the ruling class. We have been divided. We have been conquered.