So you're not in favor of restoring habeas corpus, which Chris Dodd and Pat Leahy introduced yesterday and all Democrats voted for?

And you don't think it's worth enacting a mandatory timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, as Russ Feingold and Harry Reid did today? -- GlennGreenwald

Oh no. You're right. You have me pegged. I would never want either of those two things to occur.

Who helped habeas corpus go away? Who voted overwhelmingly to sanction the war in the first place? Who keeps passing funding to continue the occupation? Who had a hand in allowing all of these things in the first place and continues to allow them? Who didn't filibuster? Who allows free filibusters and has helped make an even bigger mockery of the system?

I am sure you will let us all know when either of those things you mention actually happens. When do you figure? Right after the election?

(answered in kind)

Take care of yourself Glenn. I wish you the best.

It's foolish to make the perfect the enemy of the good, and Democrats who are disillusioned with their party shouldn't sit out the 2008 elections. Make no mistake: On the Middle East, any of the Democratic candidates would be a big improvement over Bush.

Shorter Kamiya:

"The Democrats are weak, two-faced buffoons who will never break from the establishment and do the right thing, but...er..umm...vote for them anyways!!11!!!1!1"

Your essay is just insulting. Disgusting. Well you can count me out Mr. Kamiya. Depending on how I feel come election day I will either be writing in Kucinich or I will be voting for the Republican. Count on it.

The problem actually isn't the worthless top-tier candidates but the worthless "rational voters". -- Jonathan Versen

EXACTLY correct. You will never convince them of it though. They are, after all, oh so rational. Greenwald, Kos, FDL and apparently this Kamiya fellow, are all prime examples. They would have us all bending over for generations to come. It's all a sad joke. Those with the guts have no power and no voice. Those with the voice have no guts and are unwilling to use their platform to spur their readers into real action.

Stop reading these bloggers. Read Chris Floyd for the truth (click on my moniker). Get out and actively campaign for Kucinich. Organize strikes, sit-ins... camp out on the Capitol building's steps. Protest in ways that the establishment has to be responsive to. They don't want to listen? Make them. They want to put you in "free speech zones?" Tell them this is the peoples' country and that everywhere is a free speech zone!

Know this people -- this election will not change anything if Clinton or Obama or their ilk get elected. We don't have that long anyway. We will be in Iran before then. Stop being afraid and DO SOMETHING to take back control of our country. It is ours after all... not theirs.

OMG! What stunning UT debut

Welcome Chris. I see we are in superb hands. Other than the fact I now want to crawl between the mattress and the box springs, this was a wonderful summation of the past year. How profoundly depressing to see it all documented in one place. I'm going to be awhile working through all the links...if I can stand it. One thing is certain. I've added another bookmark. Ho-ly Cow.

-- bystander

Yeah, well, this post by Chris is good no doubt but, to my mind, it doesn't compare to this one:

http://www.chris-floyd.com/Articles/Articles/Post-Mortem_America%3A_Bush%27s_Year_of_Triumph_and_the_Hard_Way_Ahead/

Chris,

I assume you read Greenwald everyday as he says he reads your work... would you please consider using your time here at UT to challenge Glenn's readers WRT your correct assessment that, if we continue to attempt to work "within the system" in an effort to save something that is already gone, we are destined to fail? Would you please? Because most of the homers here at UT are the "write-our-congressidiots-and-vote-and-hope" types. They can't bring themselves to admit how far down the rabbit hole we have traveled and Greenwald keeps them believing in a fantasy primarily because he doesn't know what else to do. He knows the law and can't bring himself to believe that the law is gone and will not save us.

Just a request. I appreciate your work.

Take care.

For those of you that haven't seen these two items make sure you check them out.

http://www.esquire.com/print-this/iranbriefing1107

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/showdown/view/

It appears as though all of this could have possibly been avoided. If/when it does happen I certainly hope the rest of the world has the stones to hold us accountable. Lord knows the American people don't have the stones to stop it.

I know in no uncertain terms that the justifications for Iraq were a pack of lies and that any claims about trying diplomacy were fabrications. But now I'm the one trying to cling to the hope that there is something different going on now. -- Paul Dirks

Paul,

WRT diplomacy and hoping that may be happening now...you may want to disabuse yourself of that hope by reading the following.

http://www.esquire.com/print-this/iranbriefing1107

There is also more on the issue at crooksandliars.com (but the permalink is ridiculously long).

adnoto

There is a really slick way to beat those 90+ character permalinks into submission at www.tinyurl.com. There are directions any idiot can follow (because *I* managed to master them), and there's a handy icon/ink you can put on your browser's tool bar that will give you a tiny url with a single mouse click. Pretty useful. -- bystander

Thank you for the information. I will check it out shortly.

"shortly" -- no pun intended. (I detest even inadvertent puns)