Ouch. Hope you're feeling better. Computer crashes are a hassle but human body crashes are very scary. Hang in there. When you get to feeling better you should go back over there and give Bart a little "edumacation". He dominates every torture thread over there like he's Prof. Yoo covering his ass.

for progressives to unite and throw their support behind Ron Paul, Ralph Nader or Dennis Kucinich against Obama in 2012.

Those candidates have done so well in the past. It's a sure fire plan that's bound to work.

Aside from Goldman Sachs (facilitating the "trades"), are there any other candidates in the "Who will benefit most from this Abomination" sweepstakes"?

Is there any proof that Doggett's constituents favor the bill as drafted? Who would know his constituents' wishes better that Doggett? Or does the anonymous admin official have access to Doggett's website emails? (joking btw).

I see the terms constituents and country just added to conflate the President's wishes with as many "common" people as possible. And it is creepy.

Amnesty International is warning about tortures, forced confessions and the possibility that these will be used for sentencing people involved in the protests to death.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/detained-political-leaders-at-risk-of-torture-20090629

Nah, it won't work because there will always be an overabundance of smug, establishment-loving useful idiot types to ruin any chance at electing someone who isn't a serious imperialist. Fear is ultimately the preferred "debate" tactic when all else fails, e.g. SARAH PALIN SCARY ARGHHH!

All the serious interventionist propaganda outlets will have all the necessary paperwork in order to back up and support the perceptions of those who choose to vote for the Imperialists, aka "the winners". All the voter-winners will feel like the winners they are because the media will be there to enforce their perceptions, praising the Imperialists and dismissing the non-Imperialists as "kooks" (and most likely antisemitic and racist as well). Only people like Hitler Buchanan Von Brunn oppose the Pax Americana! Are you like Hitler Buchanan Von Brunn?

But really all it will take is Scary Sarah Palin on the ticket and it will turn into "if you don't vote for Obama (again) Palin will be in the White House! Nobody wants that! Lesser of two evils!" all over again. Obama will win his second term not because of all the wonderful things the Progressive Savior accomplished, no, he will win because "Progressive Liberals" will be too scared of King David and Princess Palin to not vote for Obama (See what I did with Sarah/Princess, damn that's clever). Besides, who would expect anything but fear and cowardice from Democrats anyway?

It will be bittersweet if Obama's base abandons him and a Petraeus/Palin ticket sweeps into the White House in 2012. A silver lining would be that maybe it will teach all the "Progressive Liberal and Democratic Leaders" out there to stop being establishment-serving "Centrist" pussies. This is assuming our leaders stop pretending and just get rid of elections all together. It would make 2012 excusifying a whole lot easier for Obama.

Is that "the far left" is nothing but a backstabbing lost cause and the solution is to move more towards the center, where the media claims "most Americans agree".

for progressives to unite and throw their support behind Ron Paul, Ralph Nader or Dennis Kucinich against Obama in 2012.

Those candidates have done so well in the past. It's a sure fire plan that's bound to work.

-- orbitboy

No. Why not begin now searching for a viable candidate? I don't know whom that might be, exactly, but remember that Russ Feingold threw his hat into the ring for a short time during the last primary. If Feingold should choose to, determinedly, throw his hat into the ring for the 2010 primary I believe that he would be a very viable candidate to not only beat Obama in the primary, but then to win the General.

I meant 2012 primary, not 2010. I guess it would actually be 2011. So I sort of had it half right the first time. ;o)

The duty of Congress is not to obey the wishes of the President.

You didn't get the memo? Congress has delegated so many of its powers to Executive Discretion that it no longer has any say in how they will expanded: the Supreme Commander cannot be questioned or challenged. That's treason, you know.

I agree. As much as I admire Paul and Kucinich, they carry a lot of baggage and the establishment's marginalization of them has become routine. I like to think of them as catalysts, like Goldwater and Reagan, except without the Reagan.

Your description of the 11 dimension chess game seems about right, as does Greenwald's rightful noting that Congress does not exist to do the president's bidding. Now if we can just gut the bill entirely, or get the Senate to stand up for sanity and reject it outright, much grief may be avoided.

Goldwater being the catalyst for Reagan I meant. Reagan was only a catalyst for increased defense spending.

hee hee hee

The System (tm) is broken...

ho ho ho

using the broken system to fix The System (tm) is a fool's errand...

ha ha ha

power NEVER devolves voluntarily...

ak ak ak

only when enough sheeple see the futility of hoping a coopted, corrupted, compromised system will correct itself, will we be able to make any real progress...

twue twue twue

all the rest is running-in-circles bullshit...

run run run

art guerrilla

aka ann archy

eof

Isn't it traditional for potential challengers to the incumbent Dictator of the twin wings of the War Party to forgo their own candidacy in the primary election and get behind their Great Leader? Wouldn't want another "Republican" in there now would we---Why, then you might end up with torture, unending 'war', occupation, & empire, and egregious abuses of civil liberties and constitutional rights, and so forth. Can't you see how good we've got it under O'bomb-a? You wouldn't want women losing their "right" to kill their unborn babies or anyone other than your highly benevolent government possessing firearms now would ya?

@OrbitBoy

How's that lesser of two evils™ phony left-right paradigm of the War Party working out for ya? Works rather well, huh.