There was a fine rhetorical tool used in here over the last few weeks/months/Friedman Units that I was particulary drawn to because I thought it raised the correct alarm/concern/spooky meter that you are talking about -

"Nixon's Golem"

An Attorney General more concerned with polishing the image of the Justice Department than refining its pursuit of Justice;

An administration overly concerned with executive security at the expense of a functioning democracy;

Executive branch toadies completely unfamiliar with, and unwilling to abide by, the concept of legislative oversight;

A President completely baffled by, and immune from, the righteous condemnation of his critics for behaviors inimical to, and unacceptable within, a democracy;

Complete demonization and polarization of any and all opposition;

I am sure there are others here who can add more effectively to this list than I.

I vote for Quislings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling

It's not 100% accurate, but it seems to me to connote the proper blend of disgust, contempt, and recognition for service rendered poorly.

Someone used that on Glenn's old site, and it just seems right - particularly for someone like Tenet, who was a card carrying member until he wasn't, and then was for them until it became unpopular, and now he's not. And yes, I know Clinton appointed him. It doesn't excuse a god damn thing.

... but I am not ready to start celebrating yet. No champagne for me, thank you [maybe a bracing ration of brandy to see this through].

Maybe my perspective is colored by my bible-belt surroundings. But here is what I see: The power apparatus that the right wing has been constructing is still in place. The real holders of power (Olin, ADM, GE, Raytheon, GM, ExxonMobil, banking/insurance, telecom, and all their ilk) aren't going anywhere. They will find new ways to play the games they need to play in order to continue consolidating their power and redistributing wealth upward to themselves. They will still be able to use the special interest lobbies, think tanks, mass media, and the bought-and-paid-for Congress and state houses to work their mischief. The current losses they are arguably sustaining are marginal; they own the Democrats, too. They will find new methods to achieve their goals. They can fight a holding action for decades.

They pretty much have what they wanted: A military quagmire somewhere where the meter is running to the tune of 300 million dollars a day, a lapdog propaganda dissemination machine, exploitative "Free Trade" agreements that buck US labor and environmental regulations for goods purchased and consumed in the US, a huge segment of the adult population in jail and disenfranchised, a depressed labor force set one against the other for continually decreasing real wages, a permanent underclass to serve as "whipping boy" for rhetorical purposes, institutionalized middle-men profiting from the peoples' health/medical problems while adding zero value, erosion of science/education principles for maintaining a compliant populace... and on and on and on. WYSIWYG.

How do we get our Constitution back? When does the torture and extraordinary rendition cease? (And what do we do with our "enemy combatants" now?) Am I being alarmist?

Warily,

Gordon Ginsberg

about doing as well as blogging and commenting...

I watched a video last night of Marcy Wheeler (of Last Hurrah and FDL) and 3 other Michigan bloggers (2 left, 2 "right") in a panel on "Off the Record."

It was notable for how well all of the bloggers got on together, making their case for the importance of blogging as a complement to journalism to the moderator.

And your question about finding the line between blogging/commenting and actually doing came up. (I think it was) Marcy who had a good response... about having an impact on the influencers of a community. That certainly happens here, too, as you are proof yourself. It is easy to discount simple words, but you never know when you say or write something that will have an impact on someone else who is one of those on-the-stree activists. It is all to the good.

Here's a link to the program:

http://wkar.org/offtherecord/program.php?num=2007-43

Iaccoca never impressed me that much but:

clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane . . . But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say,"Stay the course." Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. . .

The President ... given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it) ... While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions... You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged.

How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them-or at least some of us did. ... We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution... to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason ...

A leader ... has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd ... He has to read voraciously ... Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says... He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? ... Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.

Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President-the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts" ..

Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage ... but shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths-for what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? ... A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.

Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. ...

Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.

Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President-four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency

so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake....

.. put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came

up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.

Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for starters.

George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know-

Mr. they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.

It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. ...

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader ... a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. . . George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when

he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself.

Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day-and he told Vice President Dick

Cheney to stay put in his bunker. ... It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.

That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq