As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.Justice William O. Douglas
The horrific fall of the most basic rights and strengths of America-- democracy, privacy, truth and trust in government, transparency-- did not happen at once. But 2005 was the year when we the people, and the rest of the world were finally able to see clearly that the Bush Administration and its rubber stamp republican sycophants were not just a little, but outrageously, historically corrupt, brazenly breaking laws and flaunting their criminal actions.
2005 was the year when Bush decided he could declare his illegal actions. Perhaps he's appointed enough judges to make him feel safe that they will rule in his favor.
2005 was the year that the truth came out that the job of the Justice department to prevent bad laws from being implemented at the state level was blocked by political appointees who over-ruled career appointees who said laws allowing gerrymandering in Texas and pricey voter ID cards in Georgia should be illegal. This will forever cast a negative light on Attorney's General Gonzalez and Ashcroft. These two are running an agency that should be investigating and incarcerating them.
2005 was the year we learned that the military has been lying to us about the number of GIs who have died because of the Iraq insanity-- that when they say 2100+ died in Iraq, they didn't count those who died in Helicopters over Iraq or in hospitals outside Iraq, from wounds produced IN Iraq. The real numbers are closer to 8,000 dead.
2005 was the year that Bush casually acknowledged that over 30,000 innocent Iraqis had been killed by American actions.
2005 was the year that the idiotic Medicare drug plan went into effect-- the one that congress passed the legislation for based upon lies told by Bush appointees, the one that will, by summer of 2006, stop paying for drug costs, inevitably leading many seniors to stop buying medications which are keeping them alive. Some of those seniors will die.
2005 was the year we saw the massive incompetence of Bush appointee Michael Brown, head of FEMA, and when it started dawning on the mass of Americans that his idiocy was just the tip of the Bush appointee iceberg. Or perhaps the rotting from the head down metaphor works better than the iceberg metaphor.
2005 was the year DLC republicrat insiders "annointed" an anti choice, anti-abortion, anti embryonic stem cell candidate to run against Major league Republican "man-on-dog" Rick Santorum. They say Bob Casey jr. is the best choice. This is the same guy who, just weeks before a gubernatorial race primary had a 17 point lead and lost. Casey is the same guy who has been unable to marshall enough grass roots support to win a single on-line poll. My pick for Santorum's opposition is Chuck Pennacchio, who's made over 170 stump speeches across the state and built a grassroots support network of over 5000.
2005 was the year that Dick Cheney and George Bush shamefully opposed a congressional ban against torturing prisoners.
2005 was the year desperate fool Bill O'Reilly tried to build his media stock by selling a war against Christmas. What he did was prove just how un-Christian he and his theo-fascist fundamentalist supporters really are.
2005 was the year that South America showed that they had a better idea of democracy than the republicans and Bush do.
2005 was the year the 9/11 commission reported what a terrible job the Bush administration has done protecting America from terrorism.
2005 was the year the major precendent was set that corporations could screw pensioners and workers, using money that was supposed to be put aside for pensions to bail out bad management.
2005 was the year that it became clear the Bush administration's appointees at the VA were there to screw, not support veterans who have faithfully served their country.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
