Letters to the Editor
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Totoro in Wonderland
I remember watching Gore interrupt those standing up for him in congress. I felt dismayed that he's be so quick to ... uphold a sense of dignity? ... not plummet the country into serious crisis?
-- totoro
So George W. Bush became our 43rd president. Dignity upheld. Crisis averted.
Maybe that's the way it played out in your world, but here on Earth the results were dramatically different.
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tempus
Don't tell them what you are doing, just get on the jury and refuse to convict.
When it comes to a hung jury, *then* is the time to let everyone know what you are doing.. It will get a lot more press that way.
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The lineaments of gratified desire
Nothing bad anyone has said, or will say about the performance of the congressional Democrats is likely to offend me, even though I'm a Democrat, and active in the party. Most of what Glenn and the UT commenters have said on this subject is true. Period. Full stop.
It does seem to me, though, that ascribing motives to these Democrats' actions as individuals is more or less missing the point. As individuals it may very well be that they're corrupt, weak, stupid, or just as committed to American Imperialism as the Republicans are. Even if our analysis is correct, I would argue that understanding what drives any elected official, Democrat or Republican, to conform to the system already in place when they arrive in Congress -- what we've loosely styled as the military-industrial complex, the Establishment, or after Paul Rosenberg, Versailles -- is less important than understanding the system itself.
I've long thought that this system, which was bipartisan almost from the outset, was a direct legacy of the Depression and rise of the isms in the thirties, and the ghastly war which followed them. It seemed ever so much more plausible -- and successful -- then than it does now, after 61 years of morphological mutations which have turned it into a monster which has swallowed first the government, then the state, and is now eating its children.
All of this happened, I might add, without a peep of informed protest by anyone who wasn't immediately marginalized by those who were too busy feeding it to think about what they were creating. If you believe otherwise, just let me ask you one question: What is Noam Chomsky's reputation in the country today, or Jimmy Carter's, or the Friends of the Earth? All of them tried to warn us in the seventies, however timidly, that the end game was approaching. We opted for Morning in America instead.
Well, folks, the end game has arrived, right on schedule. My advice is to avoid blathering on about how we've been betrayed by this one or how that one panders to the rich and the powerful, or to the Jesus jumpers, and to keep our eyes on the prize. You really do have to know what's gone wrong before you can fix it, and you can't fix it with any single charisma on horseback, or any single election.
There are many places to start, but here's a nice, concise one:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174884/chalmers_johnson_how_to_sink_america
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Consequences for ignoring congressional oversight of DOD & DHS
From today's article by Chalmers Johnson:
...the United States finds itself in the anomalous position of being unable to pay for its own elevated living standards or its wasteful, overly large military establishment. Its government no longer even attempts to reduce the ruinous expenses of maintaining huge standing armies, replacing the equipment that seven years of wars have destroyed or worn out, or preparing for a war in outer space against unknown adversaries. Instead, the Bush administration puts off these costs for future generations to pay – or repudiate. This utter fiscal irresponsibility has been disguised through many manipulative financial schemes (such as causing poorer countries to lend us unprecedented sums of money), but the time of reckoning is fast approaching...
In 1996, in an attempt to bring accounting standards within the executive branch somewhat closer to those of the civilian economy, Congress passed the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act. It required all federal agencies to hire outside auditors to review their books and release the results to the public. Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Homeland Security has ever complied. Congress has complained, but not penalized either department for ignoring the law. The result is that all numbers released by the Pentagon should be regarded as suspect.
http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=12248
Somebody remind me why we even have a Congress, please?
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Aycharaych
i think it boils down to this: by far there is a majority of people in this country who are freaked out and respond powerfully to fear. this tactic has worked for centuries. the democratic party is stuck together with a glue that doesn't hold up under stress. look at how obama & clinton votes are cleaving: relatively wealthy, educated + black voters vs. hispanic + lower wage, lower education. lord knows if this is really true for this election, but i do think it points out that those of us here are /generally/ in a minority in the us, and probably of the party itself. the fear the dem leadership has is that those who rally to fear will be like moths to flame. and the moths don't even realize hey are moths. for the dem leadership it's really a contempt for one's consituency ... not trusting them to discern, be smart, get involved. but it seems like american idol and survivor are more interesting. that's what i make the point that within these ranks, among the converted, why such infighting and name calling? and maybe one of the folks that gets stomped on just happened to be the guy who switched off the tv in disgust, looking for a differnt way. why kick him out the door? i mean this: if we are to transcend fear as a country we must each transcend our personal fears. attacking those we disagree with is an indication one is operating from fear.
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As much as I hate interrupting the digging of holes.....
In fact, I like it so much that the next time I am called to do jury duty (which is the instant I become eligible again in my county because it seems that there are only 12 or 13 of us) I will disqualify myself with just such a protest. If the government doesn't have to obey the law or gets to pick and choose who will actually be punished for transgressions of THEIR laws (which is pretty much NEVER one of their own), then I can pick to ignore their laws and the duties that supposedly ensue from them. -- tempus
Don't do that. You'll be tossed in jail. It only works if you are President of the US or in his "executive privilege" penumbra. Glenn tends to leave out significant aspects of controversy when ranting. Tsk.