1. che pasa, please don't listen to chekmark's scolding; 'we' have polited our way into coup 2000 and coup 2004; 'politeness' in politics = loser... (i sure would like to see examples of rethug 'politeness' that isn't disingenuous, sarcastic, and/or hypocritical...)

2. LWM and sysprog, THANK YOU for your tireless efforts; you both are consistently right on target; THANK YOU, Citizens, you are great Americans... (there are plenty more, timbermann, rosenberg, etc who are consistently GREAT contributors, too, THANK YOU all... if Citizens like these were representative of 'our' press corps, then mssrs greenwald/etc would not have to critique the mainstream media so consistently, roundly, and deservedly...)

3. shooter242... you are some piece of work...

4. REGARDLESS of whether dem'rats or rethugs are in 'control' (you know, disregarding their korporate puppetmasters), secrecy is antithetical to a (supposed) free, open, and transparent democracy... PERIOD

if the stupid sheeple don't know what is being done in their names with their money, then HOW are they supposed to make informed and responsible voting/etc decisions to run OUR democracy, OUR country ? ? ?

(NEVERMIND that even kongresskrittes and other gummint officials can NOT pry this information loose either...)

5. the all-encompassing, gummint-wide secrecy, refusal to answer valid questions, and otherwise lock-up information that is OURS, is suspicious at best, and WILL lead to abuse of power, corruption, and hiding information to avoid embarassing power elites... (you know, assuming it hasn't happened already... *cough*cough*)

secrecy isn't used to 'protect' us; it is used to protect The They (tm) from unveiling embarassing failures, shady deals, illegal actions, and dog-knows-what black ops they are perpetrating that won't come out for decades...

6. special note should be made regarding the 'privatization' of various gummint functions, outsourcing data mining, etc; as recent feeb revelations concerning how they are (and have) simply avoided compliance with the law/constitution by having 'private' companies/cutouts/etc do their dirty work and avoid scrutiny...

obviously, this is specious and contrary to the intent -if not letter- of the laws regarding gummint in the sunshine...

7. this is a non-partisan issue, and dem'rats have been guilty of over-classification and hiding embarassing information, etc as well... not as egregious as rethugs, but still complicit...

8. as a related sidebar, i think it is QUITE TELLING that with essentially ZERO political leadership, with essentially ZERO mainstream media coverage (aside from recent moyers show), with effectively ZERO media blowhards bleating nonstop for it, that 54% want cheney impeached, and 46% want king george impeached ! ! !

to me, THAT is quite encouraging...

come the revolution, all secrets will be revealed...

art guerrilla

aka ann archy

eof

there is no flag big enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people...

howard zinn

art guerrilla

aka ann archy

eof

sure, that's great...

why not cosmic blowjobs, too...

(guess which line would be longer...)

1. atheists are 'arrogant' and often 'angry' because we ARE discriminated against, we ARE told we are going to hell by every other xtian 'believer' -you know- *trying* to save our souls (but that's not 'arrogant' at all), and we ARE dismissed as soulless cretins who only want to piss on the (mindless) 'happiness' that religionists *claim* to have found...

(i call bullshit on that... compare divorce rates, kampers...)

2. starry-eyed twue bewievers who want to IGNORE all the extraneous or inconvenient bullshit because amma (or whoever) gave away tens of millions (after taking in hundreds of millions) to benefit others, are not thinking at all, much less clearly... if *only* (sorry godwin) hitler had given away more money, then we could feel warm and fuzzy about feeling warm and fuzzy about him...

*snort*

3. tinkie winkie, great stuff; it is -oh what's the word i'm looking for- the HEIGHTH of arrogance that religionistas have cornered the market on spirituality, generosity, and sympathy for the less fortunate as being something ONLY religionistas either do or is worthwhile... now *that* is arrogant...

4. dona quixote, good stuff, too; thank you... i feel a connectedness to this existence, this universe, this planet that is NOT generally accepted as 'real' or 'meaningful' by religionistas because i don't require an invisible-cloud-being to 'explain' this feeling... *my* spirtiuality and caring are invalid for lack of an authoritarian god who will inform me when i'm being 'good'...

yeah, there's some generous people for you...

5. nick44 and The Brad, great points; jc miller: absolutely hysterical and on point, thanks...

spiritual hunger in a time of widespread economic desperation, incipient worldwide fascism, increasing powerlessness, and authoritarian tendencies ? gee, who could have predicted that...

art guerrilla

aka ann archy

eof