" There is almost no kind of outrage, torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians which does not change its moral color when it is committed by 'our' side. The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them:" George Orwell

So now we have President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela telling the world, from the podium of the United Nations, what the whole world clearly sees ~ the obvious moral corruption and hypocrisy of the Cheney/Bush administration ~ and then Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi comes to Bush's defense and calls Chavez " a thug " .

Where is the opposition party when we need it ? Where is the legitimate outrage toward a Republican party that has led us to humiliation in Iraq and has destroyed our moral standing as a beacon of light in the world. Bush deserves to be laughed at, scorned and ridiculed for his blatant lies, deceits and abuses of power. The rest of the world can clearly see that Bush is a moral coward and bully.

As such, It's become very apparent that the Democrats have a co-dependent relationship with George W Bush in that both are beholden to the same special interest groups ~ but not to the American people.

My equally outraged friend Robert Edwards sent me a copy of his heart felt letter to Nancy Pelosi ~ which will probably not be read by her ~ but it will be by you and thousands of my readers.

Dear Representative Pelosi

" Are you absolutely clueless about the way the rest of the world perceives America and Americans as a result of Bush and his insanely imbecilic policies?
If you couldn't think of anything better to say, all you had to do was keep quiet and let the White House defend Bush against Chavez, who is clearly more politically savvy, articulate and courageous than any Democrat anywhere on the horizon.

Of course, if you had to say something, you might have had the presence of mind to say something like:

Unfortunately for America, Mr. Chavez' angry and rude remarks typifies the hostilitiy and disrespect of the much of the world toward America.
That was not the case until this President and his party took control of the white house and the congress and wiped out decades of esteem for our country as a champion of freedom & constitutional liberties and an opponent of torture and human rights abuse, and which prided itself on not launching unfounded wars against countries than never attacked us.
That change in world attitude, which is very dangerous for this country, its economy and its people, is wholly attributable not to 9/11 or Al Quaeda or terrorism but to this President, his adminisitration and his policies and incompetency which have proven so disasterous to our standing, success and prestige around the globe. Particularly damaging to us and our treasury are the costly disasters he has spawned in Iraq, in Afganistan, the entire middle east and in South America and the Carribean which are the homeland of many of our growing immigrant population and which should be among our closest friends and allies.
All this while at home many of us lack adequate health care, insurance and good schools and safe water and clean air -- things people are now getting in Venzuela under Mr. Chavez. Like most Americans, I regret Mr. Chavez's remarks about a sitting US President, but I and most Americans, and most of the world, certainly can understand why he made them.

Or maybe it did not dawn on you that many of the growing Latino voting population thinks Chavez is a pretty good guy for standing up to Bush who has failed to deliver on an issue near and dear to their little voting hearts -- immigration.

If you are counting on me or my contributions to help Democrats take control of the congress this year, forget it. You bastards aren't smart enough or courageous enough and you don't deserve to run this country.

You are apparently bought and paid for by the same bunch that owns the current administration. So why would any rational person bother to change the party in power if the result will just be more of the same but with a very steep learning curve?."

Robert Edwards
Sonoma

As Orwell wrote, The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them ~ which is why we need people like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and George Galloway of Great Britain to tell us what they see, even though the truth may hurt, before we lapse into a self induced coma of irrelevance and passivity while our Republic morally decays before the world's eyes.

Allen L Roland
http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2006/09/22.html