What, is the federal government going to send in troops to force the people of the state to let someone do something that the majority doesn't want them to do?

Hmm...11 June 1963 at the University of Alabama seemed something like this.

Pic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Governor_George_Wallace_stands_defiant_at_the_University_of_Alabama.jpg

The dirty politics Glenn so ably describes makes me wish for a divulgance similar to the caveats some called for in his previous post on the issue of gay marriage.

"Good morning, I am Senator So-and-so, I have received $45,000 from the telecom industry and weighing the pros and cons of telecom immunity and according to the laws of this nation, I have decided to favor it."

hmmm, really?

If you haven't read this:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20853

Judt's review of Robert Reich's thesis of the antipathy of capitalism for democracy is spot on and timely.

Central to Glenn's many contributions to these debates is the notion that the press/media have mutated into deferential sychophants.

Some have argued that it is individuals' (journalists/reporters) desire to increase their proximity to power - to be 'in'. Others have suggested that it is structural, that shrinking media ownership (with ideological congruency with strongly conservative if not outright neo-con viewpoints) imposes a do or be fired mentality.

Central to each seems to be this fear. I can't for the life of me figure out what it is....

Anyway, for a perspective that it might not just be 'them': see Mark Slouka's Harper's editorial (sig is link). I found myself shouting out loud to my magazine.

@ kitchencinque & Pedinska

You bet. Glenn cites Scott Horton at Harper's all the time and I have followed Lewis H. Lapham since introduced to his writing.

As a former D.C. resident (not gov't related), I enjoyed the skewering of American "democracy" as anything more than some sort of on the job (if you got one) training for the soon-to-be plebes of self-important, aristo-authoritarians.

Yikes! Sound a bit cynical today.

Sen. Byrd's speech

http://www.counterpunch.org/byrd02132003.html

Fox News reveals its motives by warning McClellan personally rather than, oh, I don't know, wondering if what he said might be true (link in sig)

As an American living and working in the U.K., it has been a confused state of ideological affairs. Listening to my British friends and cohorts here (mainly 25-45 yr olds), there is a strong, almost Thatcher-ite pull ot the right again (anti-immgiration, questions of British-ness, anti-Americanism: and this is in a university town!). But in the light of the Labour Party's (Brown/Blair) historical kowtow to Bush/Cheney prosecution of the Iraq war and related GWOT (or whatever they are calling it now), this isn't as worrisome as it may seem at first blush. The push back, from the right, is also remarkable given that the UK has been attached since 9/11 (7/7/05).

boredom and technology in the U.K.:

http://itn.co.uk/news/62a3f82b61888adf108cd446196bd23e.html

or click sig

I live in the U.K. (I am an American who did vote) and sitting at a very mixed nationality party.

The tension for an Obama victory is nearly crushing. I can't wait to see 270. I think there will be a lot of missed a.m. appointments tomorrow.

"So he's spent virtually his entire adult left working on Capitol Hill."

"adult life", maybe?

Trying to help!

At first view, I was literally shocked (my mouth actually dropped open) at these broadcasts. But thinking about it and given the seeming perceptions of both the bank bailout and the stimulus package (that the former was unfair/corrupt and the latter tainted by Repubican political maneuvering at the cost of real, effective stimulus) that GG has mentioned before, I'm not sure that the 'revolution of Bubbas' is the event to watch for.

Americans have a specific manner to communicate with each other. They generally shoot or blow up something or someone. The blather in these videos about the 'government' as suddenly anathema to 'America' as of a month ago misses the real anger stirring in suffering communities.

Putting these together, my prediction would be, rather than a revolution, people who are suffering HAVE figured out who is responsible and getting off scott free and we'll see attacks not on the White House lawn but on CEO's. Americans are not as dumb as Fox News would like to believe and many can correctly identify the real culprits.

to wit - i do not advocate this just see a real potential for it

We apparently can't ask John McCain about torture.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/we-cant-have-people-with-personal.html

(link at sig)

I think you went a few words too far:

"There was not only no moral justification, torture was used expressly in bad faith."

Shorter: "There was not only no moral justification, torture was used."

I think you went a few words too far:

"There was not only no moral justification, torture was used expressly in bad faith."

Shorter: "There was not only no moral justification, torture was used."

I think you went a few words too far:

"There was not only no moral justification, torture was used expressly in bad faith."

Shorter: "There was not only no moral justification, torture was used."

I couldn't let this slip either:

"expanding access to healthcare without compromising its quality"

Hmmm, yeah, we shouldn't let our 'high' quality of health care be compromised. (hint, see sig).

Privaization has really done a bang up job compared to those smelly Europeans (to find them in the ranking, look at the countries nearest the top, way above us).

We might gain some understanding from Euripides:

"Those whom the gods wish to destroy, first they make mad"

Republicans, flailing in all directions.