Letters to the Editor
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Let's do something about this!
I agree. The news media have abrogated their responsibility. The Democrats in Congress have abrogated their responsibility.
The GOP has run roughshod over the whole process. It is up to us to do something.
Get out and vote for crying out loud! Write your members of Congress! Support Progressive candidates! Do something before it's too late!
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Won't becomes can't
Much as Glenn admits in this piece that he has long adhered to the notion that the people who should have blown whistles, held investigations, charged people did not because they were stunned by the radicalism, I have long adhered to the notion that there was some way that all these people were acting out of fear, out of a desire for reasonableness, out of corporate interests and the like.
But, as my mother-in-law says, after a while won't becomes can't.
Sooner or later it all seems to converge on complicity. I am beginning to believe that the reason nothing seems to spur these people into action, revelation upon revelation, is because what is being revealed isn't news to them. They knew, and they have been living with the inaction for a very long time.
I don't like these thoughts, they are a very dark vision of the Congress and the Press. But what is there left to think?
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@GG
Glenn, if you are not actively pursuing a Corporate Print Media &/or TV deal, will you please do so?
When you so precisely articulate my amorphous feelings of ill will regarding where we are, as a country, I just want to scream - in elation, that someone can so powerfully state the case, and in anguish, that countless more voices are not doing so.
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Too true, and very sad
Very well put as usual. As many people have pointed out, a key problem is the fact that our political press long ago gave up the responsibility of making factual statements. Instead, they obsessively "present both sides" (as if every phenomenon could be boiled down to a difference of Republican and Democratic perspectives) and call the horse race. As a result, the news is fundamentally detached, cynical, and utterly powerless in front of politicians who themselves are equally cynical, but much more driven to affect the world we live in.
At least, the neocon politicians are so driven. Just what the Democrats are about, I'm afraid I really can't understand.
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Boiling the frog
Glen: First, a small but fairly important editing correction. You wrote: "they have endorsed and legalized this behavior, investigated, outlawed or punished it." Obviously, you meant ". . . RATHER THAN investigated, outlawed, etc."
You've articulated something that has worried me at least since the revelations from Abu Ghraib; when a scandal like that first comes to light, we are shocked, but then learn to accept it. We all know how you can boil a frog to death without causing him to save himself by jumping out of the water -- just increase the temperature gradually. I'm hoping that American democracy isn't yet a dead frog.
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In the end
we will all pay the price. As history teaches us about the laws of the universe: injustices will eventually be answered. The mountains of evil and wrongdoing will fall upon our heads, regardless of whether we are personally responsible. The longer we as a country stand silently by as the horrors continue, the more complicit we become, the more we will all deserve what is to come.
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Backing away...
I saw that article in the paper this morning, and the phrase "backing away from a fight with the White House" immediately jumped out at me, inasmuch as it's become the SOP of Congressional leadership. Do you suppose that Washington reporters have that phrase as a macro in their word processors, so they can call it up just by hitting F5 or something like that?
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Sadly I am skimming this post
I'm past the point of outrage at the gang of criminals occupying our White House. Their serial disregard for The American Way has become a tired expectation.
Our vaunted system of checks and balances is failing. The stewards of congressional power remain, to me, as the only viable control. As such, they deserve to endure maxumum outrage from us, their attentive constituents, now and into the future until they get their actions in line with their responsibilities.
Pissing and moaning about criminal behavior in the executive branch isn't helping me. Will it help the mouth-breathing congress? I sincerely hope so.
I feel like spitting but I'm afraid I'll vomit.
Thank you again Glenn.
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
They realized it was only themselves, that some of the people would support them all of the time, and that most of the people would support them for a short time. And apparently, that was enough to spell the end of the body politic.
From the autopsy:
Carpe diem et corpus has resulted in multiple traumas to the republic, from cardiac arrest (caused by overweening fear), suffocation by positional asphyxiation (caused by pressured restraint of liberties), severe anemia (caused by dilution of finances), agressive metastasic cancer (caused by corruption of the political branches), and finally, brain cloud (caused by willfully ignorant journalism).
From the notice:
The republic is survived by its parent, Great Britain, which is showing signs of similar pathology, and the stillborn Iraqi democracy. No services will be held, as the glands refuse to accept interrment, although incipient Great Powers Russia, India, and China are planning on feasting on the corpse.
Damn I'm feeling pessimistic.
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What would it take?
So frustrating. One gets the impression that Bush could be caught on videotape strangling and eating babies, and still - no consequences.
Really, what *would* it take, what has to happen, for the country to be shocked into action?
Any ideas?
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Is there a concensus among the commentariat...
...here at UT regarding whether or not it does any good to "Digg" posts like this? (I've done that already)
What about emailing [the post] to elected representatives? (I fear it would simply be ignored)
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Helplessness
I worked hard in Democratic campaigns in '06, believing that the Dems taking over Congress would make the difference. Then, I felt like I had something to work towards. I was ecstatic when things went the way they did.
But, now... I wonder if there is any solution. If taking over Congress didn't do it, I am afraid nothing will. The installation of a Hillary Clinton in the Presidency is certainly not going to clean up the mess.
Watching the Dems roll over for the Bush Administration has left me feeling utterly helpless.