A lot of my frustrations got aired today and I didn’t have to do anything but read and enjoy. As a half Swede, half Norwegian optimistic pessimist, I always want to find something practical that will work even when the task seems impossible. Too much negative does lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, I enjoy trying to listen to an opposing view.

The quality of commenters on this thread is amazing and I learn more than I could from any other source about things I really care about. Even when some get in a snit, others bring them back to near sanity or ignore them when they refuse to listen. Thanks for such a good time tonight.

One of the things that the frustration we're feeling now obscures is just how much worse things were in 2003. Granted much of the progress that's been made since is due to the insistence of the Bush administration on engaging in behavior which makes most reasonable people cringe in disbelief but the progress is real nevertheless.

I also believe that the main point of attack should continue to be the professional media class. They are the ones who, more than any other group in this country, control the message that controls the shape of our debate. The good news is that they are responsive when caught in blatant falsehood.

Street protests will only be effective if they draw actual coverage. Otherwise, only those who attend will even know what happened.

Both of the names I've heard floated as possible successors to Gonzales (Chertoff, Hatch) scare me a little.

Is it naive to wonder if Bruce Fein might be a possibility?

lither:

Fein?
Is it naive to wonder if Bruce Fein might be a possibility? - - lither

Short answer: YES.

See, for instance:

http://slate.com/id/2169292

Impeach Cheney
The vice president has run utterly amok and must be stopped.
By Bruce Fein
Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Cheney has dulled political accountability and concocted theories for evading the law and Constitution that would have embarrassed King George III.

[... a damning list of particulars ...]

- - Bruce Fein

Re: El Cid: I want to be a left gatekeeper

Just keep doing what you are doing, helping BushCo by preventing "The Truth" from being reported along with all your "left gatekeeping" friends on George Soros' payroll.

In the mean time, for those who want to take more direct action, I suggest Monkeywrenching.

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

The right wing gatekeepers tried militias and bombing federal buildings and stuff. That didn't work out too well... but maybe we are ready!!! Overthrow the New World Order!!!

-- Ron Pauliac

"Maybe we are ready"?? What, to die in a pathetic death by cop like "Wake Up Sheeple" Bill Cooper? To march around in Fantasy League rebellion like the mid-90's militia twits?

Anyway, you didn't answer my question.

You talk a lot about getting money from George Soros. I'm not yet getting my New World Order paycheck yet, and I need the money.

Tell you what.

If you will finally tell me how to get in on that New World Order cash, I will temporarily withdraw my hobby of putting bar codes on the back of street signs so that the black helicopters sent by Hillary as part of the combined UN / Trotskyist International invasion force can't find their way.

If it helps, I'm actually completely in favor of a New World Order, so long is the new one is actually MORE, rather than LESS democratic, than this World Order. The current World Order sucks.

Hey, by the way, where's your yellow triangle symbol on your boot? The Quebec undercover police got filmed with theirs. Have you been filmed with your police unit yet?

Senate Democrats must commit themselves to blocking any and all nominees until Bush nominates someone whose independence and integrity are beyond reproach.

Let's face facts, folks. A "someone whose independence and integrity are beyond reproach" would be compelled by duty and conscience to keep writing up indictments on the Bushites until his/her small plane mysteriously goes down.

What else would a "someone whose independence and integrity are beyond reproach" do? And which do you suppose would be more difficult? Finding another crooked lawyer, or one whose "independence and integrity are beyond reproach"?

I like you, Glenn, but if you had thought this through you'd see just how silly it is. Try settling on somebody who's only half the slimeball. That much might be remotely possible, assuming the Democrats don't blow it again.

One of the most amazing grass roots efforts to hold this administration accountable, (or any other administration that I am aware of), has culminated in the past two weeks with the ignominious resignations of the political architect of this national nightmare, and his chief enabler. In and of itself, a feat worthy of considerable note. Ridding this country of Karl Rove and Alfredo Gonzales, even if from only their day-to-day positions in this administration, is an awe-inspiring event. Think about it: when the MSM failed its civic duty, when the Republicans with full-throated vigor propped up a criminal organization, when the Democrats, despite its November 2006 mandate, wallowed in indecision and inaction, bloggers like Glenn, and responders like the good folks here who spend considerable time and energy expressing themselves passionately (to each other, to their tormenters, to their Congressional representatives) demonstrated true civic responsibility.

What is to occur next is much less a spirited plea for an independent Attorney General than a call to hold the process accountable: that the mandate of the November 2006 electorate be made flesh; that the attacks on the Constitution be stopped, that those responsible for undermining the rule of law be held accountable, and that the process itself receive the utmost scrutiny to protect us from attacks as vicious and lawless as we have seen these past six years. Since the Constitutional process is a living, breathing entity (for it is us who provide it with voice), then the best we can do is to work ceaselessly to excise the illness and to employ the healing words of law in hope that no such thing as this will again see the light of day. Our experiences tell us that eternal vigilance is the best guarantor of this process.

When choosing your weapons of civic choice, look to your own strengths. Protest if you must, write letters to whomever you believe can further your cause, even if minutely, teach it to your children, your neighbors, any strangers who will listen, if that be your skill. Buy books and lend them to the skeptics, the doubters, the apologists, the deniers; drag just one more person to this blog; perhaps that one person will be the one to snap the missing piece into the puzzle to complete it. If none of this works for you, canvas your own heart until clarity finds its way clear.

But don’t ever stop working…