Letters to the Editor
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Enough already
Okay Mr. Glen, let us cut thru the fertilizer. I see a disturbing trend here, one that constantly comes up during the elections: the Democrats are silent; they have no message, Blah, Blah, Blah, when we all know that what ever the Democrats say or do, the Lapdog press will not cover it. It does not matter.
You know, we have been through this a hundred times and still you do not get it, the Corporate Media Whores that provide 90% of the information flow will not ever, ever give the Democrats an even break. Don’t you read Media Matters for America?
Lauer failed to ask McCain about "signing statement" that marred his previous bill on detainee treatment
Blitzer again failed to note Bush's contradictory statements on U.S. military action in Pakistan
Cavuto cherry-picked poll data to claim Americans not in Democrats' "cut-and-run camp"
Summary: Joe Scarborough claimed "all Republicans are winners" because of a debate that has split the Republican Party over President Bush's plan to redefine the Geneva Conventions. However, Scarborough previously saw differences within the Democratic Party over Iraq policy as potentially problematic
After 10 days of no progressives or Democrats on CBS' "Free Speech," segment featured the Wash. Post's Eugene Robinson
The list goes on an on. We have to fight both the R’s and the MSN and the noise machine. And when we do put out a statement or a proposal, the gosh darn media whores twist it three ways to Sunday.
Sorry Mr. Glen, the game is as rigged as the Path to 9/11. If the D’s actually regain control of one or both houses, it will be the biggest miracle since the Mets in 69. And if they fail, it most certainly will not be because the Democrats are silent, but because they have been silenced.
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what's next???
is this situation starting to remind anyone of Marin Niemoller's famous remark?
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
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Just how close is the torture legislation to allowing the government to suspect habeas for anyone it doesn't like? How close does this law come to allowing the government to accuse ANYONE of aiding terrorists and spiriting them off to Syria to be tortured? Can they do it to you? Can they do it to me? I bet they could. I bet this law allows for exactly that, with a little adjustment here and there.
And where the FUCK are the democrats in in all this?? Cowardly scum, hiding at the bottom of their foetid, corporate-financed pool.
I have long believed that the end of fossil fuels would precipitate the development of a police state in this country. I had no idea it would happen so fast.
I think we're close now folks. The GOP has cheated in two elections. There's no reason to think they won't keep right on cheating. This may be it. Show me it's not.
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On playing not to lose vs. playing to win
Everybody in our circles, and most Americans for that matter, agree that the Republican party has done a lot to deserve the loss of control of Congress. What bothers me to no end is that I haven't seen the national Democratic party do much to state the case that they deserve to win.
To use a sports simile, the national Democratic Strategy is like watching a football team with a strategy (?) to go three downs and out on every possession, punt, and then hope like hell for a fumble or interception. It's painful to watch and usually fails. Or alternately, given the multiple 2006 Dem versions of the Contract for America, it's like there's a different playbook for every possession, and sometimes different team members are following a different playbook on the same play.
But it's too painful to joke about. Have we not bottomed out? Do we need to overthrow (politically) the national leadership due to terminal in-the-minority disease? Can any Dem in Washington lead us? If so, please step up. The country is waiting.
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Response to "Are We This Stupid?"
I can't wrap my mind around how stupid we would have to be. I gotta believe that the Democrats / Progressives (that's *us*) are gonna pull this out. We're just waiting for November 7 so we can cast our votes in overwhelming, indisputable numbers.
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Giving to Democratic Candidates
I have given to Democratic candidates in many states in the last few months of this mid term election in the hope of changing the House and Senate composition. And I intended to give still more, but now I think I will NOT give another dime until I see a Spine and a Platform from Democratic Leadership and Candidates that Clarifys the shortcomings and illegal actions of this administration. The Democrats don't need my money if they don't know how to use it effectively by clarifying their possition on critical issues.
Merg
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Putting Post 9/11 American Politics In Context
The American plutocracy has maintained its power and privilege by employing a strategy of tension in domestic politics. The tactics of this strategy are to create two parties, the Democrats and Republicans, and place them in "opposition" to each other to give the appearance of choice to the general public. The Republican faction generally aligns itself with the military and industrial elites and rely more on "hard power" to maintain its dominance. The Democratic faction, based in the academic and financial elites, prefers to employ the "soft power" of financial market manipulation.
The cold war allowed the U.S. elites to employ an international strategy of tension to promote their world view and maintain the ideological frame they successfully imposed on American and Western politics for over 40 years. The sudden and rapid collapse of the Soviet Union combined with the implications of peak oil (known for years but not acknowledged by the elites until very recently)forced the plutocracy to find a new ideological framework to continue its strategy of tension and maintain its power. The "hard power" faction tried to frame "narco-terrorists" as the new communists but they were insufficiently global and not nearly scary enough to sustain the grand strategy. China was considered for promotion as the next great threat, but rejected as the financial elites were committed to exploiting the vast markets the Chinese cleverly dangled in front of them. Meanwhile, peak oil, the ticking time bomb of the hyper-consuming industrial economies (esp. the U.S) was forcing the hands of both factions to secure control of the global oil supply. Clinton kept the militarists from pursuing their "hard" solutions and time was getting increasingly short. Thus, Bush had to "win" the 2000 election.
The need for a new, long-term global adversary combined with a pretext for occupying/controlling as many oil producing countries as possible gives birth to a sinister and amorphous global group of Islamic terrorists spearheaded by Osama bin Ladin and al Qaeda. After some preliminary events in the hinterlands (during the Clinton years) to establish a credible history the U.S. is attacked on September 11, 2001 and the "long war" begins. Central Asian oil lands are occupied, the Afgan route to market is seized and Iraq, the heart of the Middle East oil lands, is invaded and occupied.
The "soft power" faction, the Democrats, realizing the truth of 9/11/01 and not wanting to be made irrelevant start asking hard questions. Anthrax is mailed and most back off their investigations. One senator, Paul Wellstone, is warned but refuses to end his investigation into the short selling of key stocks just prior to 9/11 and is murdered along with his family and others. The Democrats are now completely cowed and no longer even pretend to fight obvious and outright electoral fraud (2004), thus consciously ceding all political power to the militarists and quietly taking their seats on the sidelines.
The truth shall set you free. Love is the only way forward.
The Second American Revolution is coming, and sooner than you think.