Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court installed George W. Bush as President in 2000, a small group of dangerous extremists has controlled our government. They call themselves neoconservatives, but they are really "The War Party", and they are always with us.
• "That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true..." --Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
• "Every nation has its war party. It is not the party of democracy. It is the party of autocracy. It seeks to dominate absolutely." --Senator and Congressman Robert M. La Follette (1855-1925)
Rather than acting as a check and balance on these war-loving extremists, Congressional Republicans have bought into the idea that perpetual war means perpetual re-election. They have sold their souls to the devil (or in this case, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove) in exchange for the promise of reelection. Torture, kidnapping, murder, secret prisons: there is nothing so vile or un-Constitutional that the Congressional Republicans cannot support and defend it--and they have. In just this past week, Republicans have pushed legislation through Congress that renders the U.S. Constitution virtually meaningless and excuses the Bush Administration's war crimes--past, present, and future. (Constitutional scholars believe this legislation will eventually be overturned, but in the meantime, the Bush Administration will continue to kidnap, imprison, torture, and kill.)
The Republicans believe that if a war can get George W. Bush reelected, it can get a tree stump reelected; but they have a problem. Mr. Bush's wars are not going all that well. Iraq is an unmitigated disaster, and the Taliban is rapidly reassuming control of Afghanistan. A majority of Americans believes that invading Iraq was a mistake and that we should get our troops out of there. Evidently, fighting terrorists on the central front in the War of Terror has lost its sales appeal, so the Republicans needed to come up with something new and exciting for this election--and they did:
• "We're in the early stages of what I would describe as the Third World War." --former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, National Public Radio, 7/17/06
World War III--a stroke of marketing genius. Not only does it have great brand-name recognition, it evokes any number of emotionally charged images. Republicans can compare the "enemies" to the Nazis, the enemies' leaders to Hitler, and war dissenters to Nazi sympathizers.
Gingrich summed up the Republican sales pitch:
• "Okay, if we're in the third world war, which side do you think should win?" --The Seattle Times, 7/15/06
How can you argue with logic like that? Either you're with them or you're with the terrorists (though it gets harder and harder to tell the two apart with each successive war crime). Either you're with them, or you're a Nazi sympathizer--and always remember: No matter how illegal, unnecessary, stupid and unwinnable a war may be--once we start it, you can't "cut and run".
This is why the Republican control of Congress must end. A majority of Americans believe we are heading in the wrong direction, and the Republicans are not going to change course. They are nothing more than a rubber stamp for the neoconservative agenda, and that means war.
• "[VP Cheney] has said the US is considering military or other action against '40 to 50 countries' and warns that the new war may last 50 years or more." --John Pilger, Daily Mirror, 1/29/02
• "[W]e will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great country and rid the world of evil." --Bush quoted in Bob Woodward's book Bush at War, Simon & Schuster 2002
Even as Americans continue to die in the two unwinnable wars he has already started, President Bush has apparently decided to start another unnecessary preemptive war of choice--this time with Iran. He has ordered a major "strike group" of ships, including the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower to the Persian Gulf. There is also a report that ships capable of mining harbors have received orders to be ready to sail for the Persian Gulf by October 1 (The Nation, 9/21/06).
According to Sam Gardiner, a retired Air Force Colonel who taught strategy at the Air Force college, the Naval College and the National War College:
• "[T]he decision has been made and military operations are under way [in Iran]." --ThinkProgress.com, 4/18/06
Mick Youther is an American citizen, an independent voter, a veteran, a parent, a Christian, a scientist, a writer, and all-around nice guy who has been aroused from a comfortable apathy by the high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush Administration.
If you got rid of every Republican in Washington D.C., you'd still have corporate rule, the Iraq war, torture, illegal eavesdropping, the whole mess. Democrats either voted for these things or lacked the guts to filibuster. They went along to get along. They'll never impeach Bush and Cheney because you can't impeach somebody for crimes that you yourself voted for.
They all have to go. Anyone who voted for torture, or failed to filibuster torture legislation, does not deserve to be in Congress. They do not represent us. None of 'em.
by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments)
on Saturday, September 30, 2006 at 10:17:05 AM
I can only agree with Mark. I don't expect Democrats to do anything spectacular, but the Republicans have virtually turned the legislative process into a form of organized crime. In the present system we only get to choose between the lesser of two evils--Republicans or Democrats. It would be wonderful if there was a party that acutally represented the people, but there is not. Republicans or Democrats. I say we have to go with the Democrats, so we can at least return to disorganized crime. I do not believe we would be fighting a war in Iraq, if they had counted the Florida votes in 2000 and Gore became President; but that is just an opinion. We don't know what the Democrats will do. We do know what the Republicans will do.---mick
by
Mick Youther (83 articles, 3 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Saturday, September 30, 2006 at 10:58:08 AM
I am so disgusted by the Democratic party, I am beginning to wonder whether there is any hope left for our democracy. It is in its death throes, if not completely dead.
The thing about the torture bill that infuriates me is the lack of a filibuster. The thing that infuriates me even more is the fact that not one CHICKENSHIT DEMOCRAT came to the aid of the dissident Republican Senators that seemed to be the only ones that had a problem with the proposed legislation. Were the three Republican Senators not in effect asking for others in the Senate to join them in their fight against dismantling the Geneva Convention? Does it really take a genius to figure this out?
I suppose it does.
The point remains that the Democrats were complicit in this act of congress, no matter how they may try to claim innocence, or say they were being arm-twisted into taking their cowardly actions. How much courage does it really take to stand up against something so blatantly wrong as legalizing torture, and effectively dismantling the entirety of the American Judicial system? Had I been in the hallowed halls of the Senate, I'd have been right there filibustering this travesty to death. I'd have fought it tooth and nail, with no regard to the personal cost, i.e. the loss of my seat in the Senate. I'd have laid down my life to stop this travesty!
But I am not a Senator. I am a nobody. I am just another American that can only sit in horror as our government continues to walk our country back into the middle ages politically. Oh sure, I can write letters to congress, call them on the phone, rant and rave both here and at my blog, and express my opinion until my carpal tunnel rages to the point my fingers no longer move. But what good will it do?
Congress doesn't listen. I don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars at my disposal. I don't have the weight of multi-national conglomerates at my beckoned call. No matter how loudly I scream here, my voice goes unheard.
So, to hell with the Democratic cowards whose complicity in this travesty makes them no better than the chickenhawk butt fuckers who proposed it in the first place! Their cowardice is proof positive that "We the people" are nothing to them. We only gave them their jobs. Once there, they don't have to concern themselves with our concerns. The only thing they concern themselves with is whether or not they can hoodwink us into voting for them again.
It is a dark day in the USA. It is a sad time to be an American citizen. The government has sold the soul of freedom to the devil of war profiteers, and political chicanery. Sanity is gone!
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Saturday, September 30, 2006 at 3:09:29 PM
Pappy,
I find it hard to believe that if a Senator had stood up and filibustered against torture, that the American people wouldn't have cheered him (or her). That is what I don't understand. What are they afraid of?
mick
by
Mick Youther (83 articles, 3 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Saturday, September 30, 2006 at 7:00:48 PM
Pappy,
I find it hard to believe that if a Senator had stood up and filibustered against torture, that the American people wouldn't have cheered him (or her). That is what I don't understand. What are they afraid of?
mick
That's what I don't get. It would have taken ONE brave Senator to stand up to this, and America would have been on its feet cheering! If not all of America, at least those of us who consider ourselves progressive politically. The Democrats should KNOW by this stage of the game that a majority of Americans believe the following:
1) the Iraq war is failing miserably, no matter how the spin alchemists try to paint a good face on it,
2) we were wrong for starting it in the first place,
3) the war has been mishandled from day one, and it's not going to get better any time soon.
With this sentiment, it wasn't political suicide for just one of them to come to the aid of sanity. As a matter of fact, just their ability to show testicular fortitude might have completely clinched the take-over of congress. Just ONE Democrat standing up and filibustering for all it was worth would have gone a long way in proving that congress is listening to the voice of the people.
Instead, they all cowered in fear. Some Democrats even voted yes for this travesty. It's pretty sorry when Republicans are fighting harder to say no to something they see as lunacy, and the Democrats are sitting on their asses worrying about re-election.
I think the one that really got my goat was Harry Reid. I have been on his email list for some time on two separate email addresses. Always, he tells me how the Democrats are going to turn things around. Always, he tells me I need to vote Democratic. Always, he begs for donations to this or that Democrat trying to get into congress. He even has the audacity to call his emailings, "Give 'em Hell, Harry," trying to link himself to Harry Truman.
Well Harry, you sure didn't give them hell. While you may have voted "no" on the issue, you could have done more! To me, it looks like you rolled over and played dead.
It's just too bad that not one Senator had the guts to stop this madness. Now DUBYA is sure to sign it, and we can all kiss our judicial system goodbye. Flawed or not, it was the best around. Now, it is nothing more than a way for impotent sadists to get their jollies by waterboarding or applying thumbscrews.
How much further down the drain is our government going to take this country?
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Sunday, October 1, 2006 at 3:24:25 AM
It is the party leadership that determines how much money they'll get from the party in their next campaign.
The lesser evil argument is worthless. Surely someone who tortures an innocent child is evil. Someone who merely votes to legalize that torture is less evil. Someone who just stands by and does nothing is even less evil. If we remain stuck in choosing which degree of evil we will vote for, we will never escape evil.
Only someone like Pappy, who would oppose torture even if it cost them their life, is good and deserves a vote.
If we can get publicly-financed elections, which already exist in a few states and some large cities, people like Pappy can run for office without needing political party backing and millions of dollars. If we can get rid of the voting machines and the political parties, and get open, honest elections where we ourselves decide who we will vote for, and our votes decide who wins, somebody like Pappy could even win an election. So long as the political parties decide who the candidates are and the voting machines determine who "wins," we have no voice in government.
Given a choice between someone who molested 20 children, someone who only molested 3, someone who voted to make child molestation legal but themselves did not molest any kids, and someone who merely turned a blind eye to child molestation, refused to vote for it, but did not openly and actively oppose it, and no other choices whatsoever, I would write in my own name, Pappy's name, my neighbor's name, or simply refuse to vote. A wasted vote is better than a vote for someone who is a total waste.
May all those who insist that we must choose the lesser evil, join their deity in the nether regions. We have no obligation to vote for evil. How could anyone have ever thought that we did? We have a responsibility to vote for good. Not for perfection, as we are only human, but certainly not for evil. A ballot that gives us a choice between a greater and a lesser evil, but no choice of a greater or lesser good, is the Devil's ballot. Just say no.
by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments)
on Saturday, September 30, 2006 at 7:33:01 PM
Well, if someone can reform the election system before November 7th, that will be great. I'll vote for Pappy; but the fact is that either the Democratic or Republican candidate is going to be elected. One or the other (except maybe in Vermont). You can stay home and refuse to participate, and one of them will still be elected.
I believe the Democrats will get our troops home from Iraq/Afghanistan faster than the Republicans, who have no plan to bring anybody home, and intend to send more. Every day less of that war is about two American lives that won't be sacrificed to the Corporate war machine.
by
Mick Youther (83 articles, 3 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Saturday, September 30, 2006 at 7:50:12 PM
Nobody can stop you from voting for warmongers and their enablers. But please don't delude yourself that by voting Democratic instead of Republican you are voting for slightly less war, a slightly sooner end to the war, or somewhat less excruciating torture. A vote for anyone who has ever voted for war, or who did not come out against the war the minute they learned that Sadaam did not have WMDs and had no ties to Al Quedah or 9/11, is a vote for war.
If your loyalty to the Democratic Party is such that you don't mind sacrificing a few thousand more American troops and innocent Iraqi civilians to their political aspirations, go right ahead. Personally, I oppose the war and I won't vote for anyone who doesn't. I'm not concerned about whether or not my candidate wins. I would have voted against Hitler in Germany even though he was extremely popular and was a shoo-in. My goal isn't to be on the side that's winning, my goal is to be on the side of decency and humanity.
If Attila the Hun and Ghengis Khan were the only Democrat and Republican candidates on your ballot, would you feel that you had to vote for one of them because one of them was going to win? Get over it. We're not number one and winning isn't everything. Sometimes you have to take a stand for truth, justice, and the American way, even if it means that you lose -- even if it means that you lose not just an election, but also your life. The founders of this country did. Was their sacrifice in vain because of your undying loyalty to the two-party system instead of to the Constitution?
Click on my name and you'll find a list of my diaries. One of them is entitled, "Political Parties Are Unconstitutional." The Constitution grants them no rights because they didn't exist at the time. They exist to ensure that instead of voting in our own interests, we vote only in the limited ways they allow us, which often do not represent our interests at all.
But maybe you aren't really opposed to the war. Maybe you think that a few more years of war don't really matter, so long as the two-party system of perks and privileges stays intact. Maybe you find torture acceptable -- after all, several Democrats voted for it and none tried to filibuster it, so it must be okay.
Or maybe you've just fallen for the lies that the paid political operatives on the left gatekeeper sites keep spreading. Vote for us! Maybe we don't represent you, but the other guys represent you less! You have no right to vote in your own interests, you have to choose between the greater and lesser evil. If you don't vote for the lesser evil, the greater evil will win!
The only problem with that is that Americans fell for it twice, in 2000 and 2004. We voted for the lesser evil, and the lesser evil, being beholden to their Satanic employer, immediately conceded to the greater evil. We voted for Gore and Kerry, not because they were palatable, but because we knew long before Hugo Chavez said it, that Bush was the Devil. So we voted for the Devil's little imps, and tried to pretend that we didn't know who they were working for.
Have you figured it out yet? Some of the bravest people this country has at the moment are the Iraqi war veterans who are running for Congress in order to oppose the war. If you don't have one in your district, and you oppose the war, contribute to the campaign of one elsewhere. Your anti-war vote will not be wasted even if a pro-war Democrat or Republican wins. Despite the rigged results the voting machine vendors and complicit election officials give to the press, the actual results are given to the warmongers and war-profiteers themselves. It is a way you can send them a message, if you dare.
A vote for an anti-war candidate says that you, Mick Youther, are opposed to the war. A vote for a Democrat or Republican says that since they've all made a lot of money on their Halliburton stock in the past six years, you see no reason they shouldn't continue to profit from war crimes for another few years. What message will you send with your only voice in government, your vote?
There's a very well known young video-maker called Peace Takes Courage. Google it. Watch the videos. Decide if you have the courage or not. Most people don't. It isn't something that anyone can give you. You either reach into your heart and find it, or you don't. I really hope you do.
--Mark
by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments)
on Saturday, September 30, 2006 at 11:42:02 PM
Let me begin by saying reports of my wishing for elected office are a bit premature. However, I am honored that y'all think I'd make a better Senator than the gang of idiots that's there now. I think I would, too
Of course, it's a moot point. The political machinery would turn me into a real monster. I am gay, and that's a death sentence for most politicians, especially from Texas. I'm sure they'd dredge up all kinds of shit from my past. Whether or not it was true, I'd be an easy mark for the spin alchemists.
Of course, I'd blow them out of the water by beating them to the punch. Still, I have a better chance of growing a uterus than I do of getting elected to any office. I was president of a social club once, but I doubt that qualifies me.
I am also forced to agree that choosing a lesser evil is still choosing evil. In the past two presidential elections, I didn't vote FOR anyone, I voted AGAINST DUBYA. Personally, I wanted to vote for Howard Dean, and you can bet if the Democrats would have not allowed him to be turned into a raving madman by the Republican spin machine, he'd have handed DUBYA his stupid ass on a silver platter!
Maybe that's why the media went out of their way to make him out to be a loose cannon. They knew he had the charisma and cojones to slap the shit out of DUBYA! There was no doubt, and in my mind, there remains no doubt!
Let's just keep fighting the good fight. Maybe one day, I will become a senator, or whatnot. I don't see it in my future, but four years ago, I'd have never considered I'd be playing the harp, or recording myself doing it.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Sunday, October 1, 2006 at 3:58:04 AM
9 comments
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