Letters to the Editor
-
I Partly Blame Democrats
I agree with John from Taos' point: where were the Democrats in the past three months? I heard yesterday that Joe Wilson in an interview said people supporting Libby's pardon were perhaps accessories to the crime. But that was a local interview with not much impact.
Surely Reid and Pelosi and other key Democrats could guess that the 4th of July week would be an ideal time for Bush to pull this stunt. Why not raise the stakes before Bush did this? Why not make Bush pay a higher political price by stating the issues up front? Outrage after the fact is weak tea.
I'll email my representatives today but it will do no good. Even if they are all Republicans, top to bottom. I'm sure if my representatives were Democrats, the outcome would be the same.
I think there is a cover up at work here. Bush is not only throwing meat to his base. He's trying to silence a loyal courtier who knows a few inconvenient things.
-
What's beyond despair
That's where most of us are now. I think the only thing left is for some other country to charge the whole administration with war crimes at the Hague...........Maybe Germany could step in and save us from the monster this time, wouldn't that just be too rich.
With So-far right they are showing up on the left side of the page supreme court installed by this administration they can get away with anything they want to pull, and the American people are helpless. Any election in any precinct or state can be called in favor of the junta in charge. We could have 2000 replayed every election for the next 30 years...........any lawsuit for anything sent to this kangaroo court will be decided in favor of money, the corporation or the dance partner that brung'em.
These people have taken upon themselves the right to stop the elections, bomb iran, disappear anyone who disagrees, all in the name of homeland security..........And we don't even have the right to ask secure from whom?
So I am outraged out, all done huffing and puffing, and just waiting for the next "stink bomb/surprise" from this regime.........in another 18 months, there won't be a soul in the country that will even blink when they declare martial law, or postpone the elections or commit any other outrage they can think of to destroy our republic..........me thinks its over kids. the fall of the roman empire all over again. as with all great civilizations destroyed by the greed, corruption,and rot from within..............
-
Linear Chaos brings up another option
Article V Convention, which is actually gaining a lot more support among The People than you might realize as it is never, ever mentioned in the Big Lefty Blogosphere.
LC -- or someone who is involved with the movement -- should explain it. In a nutshell, it involves restoration of The People's Sovereignty. Radical, I know.
Meanwhile, the question is, if there were a another civil war, who would be the combatants? If, say, an armed insurrection against a "leftist" (but Constitutional) government were to take place, would Americans fight to preserve it? Would there be a civil war, or would there be (another) capitulation.
Good question.
-
Bush gives us
The ultimate signing statement.
-
The nub of it
The American public are being manipulated and brainwashed by folks who have studied how propaganda can be designed to appeal to even well-meaning, otherwise level-headed people. And these efforts become more ubiquitous as the years go by.
This is why we have seen no groudswell of revulsion at the outrages of this Administration. The American people are the victims of a giant PR campaign that does not rest, does not sleep. This must change if our political system is to be restored to health.
CarolynC
We become self-censoring under such an onslaught. How many years ago did liberals start calling themselves "progressive"? And how many years ago did we accept, deep in our bones, that the answer wasn't to fight tooth and nail against the growing darkness, but to find common ground and end the partisanship? And how many former supporters of the separation of church and state now look for ways to interject "god" and "their faith" into their "conversation with the voters"?
Even on the bleeding blogosphere edge, the lulling, the soporific dream of fighting creeping authoritarianism without hitting the streets persists:
I have never been the street-protesting type. Among other drawbacks, it seemed only to affirm the "dirty hippy" meme. But maybe the time has come. Can we translate our fury into something beyond words?
Blue Meme
On behalf of all of us former hippies, I deeply apologize for whatever kept you off the streets. I deeply apologize for the plain and simple fact that if you don't get out of the system, it continues to damage you. I deeply apologize for the plain and simple fact that creativity comes from the liberated mind, not from a business plan. I deeply apologize for the fact that long hair and counterculture sexual mores are, and have been, a hallmark of self-removal from the machine since the time of the Vedic Hindus. I deeply apologize for the fact that mind altering has also been the way to detach in every society since society began, sometimes benign in meditation, sometimes self-harming in drugs and alcohol, but always the separation of alienation to end the influence that needs to be ended. I deeply apologize for the plain and simple fact that getting free of the influence that CarolynC so eloquently summed up has its price. I deeply apologize for the "excesses of the '60s" and hope our current plight helps to show they might just possibly have been necessary. I deeply apologize for all the wackos Stewart Brand catalogs amongst the counterculture without whom you wouldn't have this internet.
Please accept my apologies, Blue Meme and others, we had no idea that breaking free of the system would cause you to forsake your voice on the streets.
Now get down to the demonstration, and get your fair share of the views.
-
Commute in order to pardon
Hi, Glenn,
I'm not sure if other commentor asked this or not, but I was wondering if it's true (as Thom Hartmann was suggesting today on his show) that the sentence commuting can help Libby invoke his 5th amendment rights (whereas a pardon would have left him open to Senate subpoena?) until the end of the Bush term, when Bush will pardon him?