RicK quotes David Corn:

But if Tenet indeed believed before the invasion of Iraq that Bush and Cheney were pushing the nation to war without adequately assessing the threat or assessing options other than full-scale war, he had an obligation at the time to make that known--at least to members of Congress, if not the public at large. He did not do so. Consequently, he owes the public a full accounting and an apology--not a sales campaign."

I'd go a little farther. In the spirit of Son of Sam laws, Tenet should be forbidden to make a profit from his crimes.

Seems only fair. If mass murderers in the single and double digits can't profit, then why should those in six digits be treated any differently??

It would be easy to go negative, and point out that the electoral college, which places America's fate so squarely in the hands of rural red staters, has not changed; that the corporate media which finds journalism too unprofitable and relies instead on Gop press releases for most of its stories has not changed; and that the military-industrial complex which has profited so exorbitantly from the slaughter in Iraq (see: Dow 13,000) has not changed. Oh yeah; and that 5.5 years after 9/11, Osama bin-Forgotten, and al-Qaeda continues to threaten and attack the West -- facts so shameful that any Dem on whose watch such gross negligence occurred would surely have long-since been impeached.

But I, too, feel this "sea-change". The moderate Gop's have long-since turned away in horror from (if nothing else) the sheer incompetence of Bush-Cheney. With Dems now controlling Congress, the high crimes and misdemeanors are coming to light so fast and thick that they're hard to keep track of. Thanks to PBS and the Internets, even a few of the less obtuse corporate journalists are finally starting to get it; a critical mass seems to have been reached; and it might no longer be so easy for the would-be neo-fascists to shout down the truth with their angry wolf-howls of "liberal media." Or so we can hope.

It is springtime in the Rockies, and on nice days like today it does indeed feel a bit like Morning in America. Even for those of us who have seen too damn many dark nights.

...The whole quote is awesome, if not prophetic:

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt...If the game runs sometime against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."

Thomas Jefferson

...and I have learned some things the hard way.

• They may not go at all. More 'God, gays and guns', together with a "Who lost Iraq", may well do the trick, again

• They are not gone, yet, even if they go.

• And when they go, they'll be right back. I remember when Nixon's downfall meant the end of the Republicans for a generation. My mom remembers when Hoover's downfall meant the end of the Republicans for a generation.

And I remember when the Sox were a game away, or one inning away, or one out away....

…that, as a Republican of twenty-seven years standing, I'm disinclined to be rounded up and incarcerated for that single fact. I'd quite prefer to be left free to continue to vote against the current crop of willful, truth-twisting bastards that dare to call themselves members - much less leaders - of my beloved GOP.

I am by no means a Deep-thinker, but would it be wrong to say we are entering a new phase in our nation's political and social construct, a "Neo-Enlightment"?

The internet is washing away 40 years of conservative propaganda and I believe the masses are beginning to see the light.

We no longer have to conform to corporate interests of ABC/CBS/NBC,New York Times, etc.

We now have Greenwald, Eschaton, DailyKos, Digby, the list is simply endless, to seek out the truth and deilver it. And it is a self-feeding, self-realizing symbiotic relationship that blasts knowledge and insight out at lightspeed.

This is, in pragmatic, street-level terms, what DCLaw1 was talking about in the excerpted passage.

Not to get all touchy-feely, but I too have felt it coming. The Bush/Neocon Regime is in free-fall (when they perhaps are most dangerous)and I sense the rest of the country is awakening to their true insiduous nature.

So, is Neo-Enlightment a proper phrase?

The Hope Greenwald refers to is no longer nascent. I believe we have exceeded critical mass and real information is finally flowing despite the earlier failures of MSM to pay much attention to it. Take, for example, Lt. Col Paul Yingling's article, A Failure in Generalship in the May issue of Armed Forces Journal; a well-reasoned and biting treatise on the failures of our general staff and what needs to be done to correct it. One can only be surprised that it got published at all. Tom Ricks reports on it in the Washington Post. Or, George Tenet's new book; purportedly a kind of tell-all that is openly critical of the decision making processes of the Bush administration. What's driving this change?

The pollster, Doug Bailey, talking on C-Span yesterday at the National Press Club discussed this weakness in many polls: the failure to ask "Why." He pointed out that when we ask "Why" after a respondent replies negatively to approval/disapproval, wrong-track right-track questions, etc., the answers reflect worry about the literal survival of the country.

I think it is this primal distress that resulted in the swing to the Democrats in the 2006 election and the outpouring of public approval for the actions taken by Democrats since. There is enormous relief when we find out that our worries are being addressed and things might really have a chance to get better.

I also believe that it is this primal concern that has been driving the congressional Democrats and their leaders as they struggle to identify and overcome the consequences of the deceit and denial of the Bush administration. If Congress stays on this path the public's legitimate worry about the country's survival can only subside.

Keeping hope alive, however, is a major responsibility. Recent events suggest that we still have time.