"It's your baby."

With these words, Condolleeza Rice reportedly told the CIA that they could go right ahead and break US and International Law, by using torture and a series of extreme measures to gain confessions from detainees with no respect for their human nor legal rights. All this with apparent disregard for any potential negative consequences to our nation from such actions. It was done in secrecy, and if somehow discovered, would, as we have seen, be blamed upon "a few bad apples." Thus was the undermining of a pillar of US legal and moral structure conceived in our White House.

If there ever were a case for legal abortion, this is IT.

This "baby" must not reach full term. It puts the mother in extreme risk of her life. It is seriously deformed by any standards. Were this baby to somehow survive, and grow to adulthood, it would bankrupt the family and leave an enduring wake of pain and sorrow.

Ms. Rice holds the position of US Secretary of State. Many say she is on the short list for Republican VP candidates. Her cavalier attitude and disrespect for our own and international norms of law and propriety make her unfit to represent a nation that would like to consider itself both democratic and humane. It is past time for her to go now, and no longer create risks for her family, her community and her neighbors. All who love and respect our Constitution should insist she resign or be impeached -- as should any others who participated in this orgy of deceit and decadence.

It's barely 4 pm EST on Super Tuesday™ and today I get to play pundit by calling the election hours before polls close, even on the east coast.

For me it is clear: the results are in, and America has lost.

2000.
Seven years ago we had what amounts to a coup in the United States, not just a local finagling of votes by a party boss, but a spectacularly mounted calculated and managed effort to ensure who would get to occupy the Oval Office, with players in a number of state houses, in the media and in the Supreme Court.

The country has since gone down a road of increasing isolation, lawlessness, concentration of wealth and power, and colossal abdication of responsibility for the well-being, safety and future living conditions of its vast population.

2001.
The brazen and deadly attacks of September 11, 2001 on symbols of American power, instead of fortifying our resolve to be a strong nation of laws, served instead as a facile excuse for the marketing of fear, burgeoning militarization, increased secrecy, and further concentration of powers in the Executive branch. The fact that the cast of characters involved in this venture had been trying to achieve just that for decades, seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

We have seen the gutting of national founding documents and principles, lies and distortion in nearly every realm of daily official business of state, a growth of secrecy and and the resultant intimidation and shutting down of anything resembling balance of power in our branches of government. Affirmation and repetition have replaced truth and news. Civility has given way to aggression, peace has become unfashionable.

The nation is at the brink of economic collapse, yet continues to borrow to pay for wars which its leaders deem necessary for our security and indeed for the survival of civilization as they know it. They have put our grandchildren into debt for this adventure. By any social measure, we are worse off than before, whether it be the percentage of people with true and essential healthcare, wages, educational level, true participation in decisions and voting.

2004.
Against all odds people fought back. Groups formed to bring the power, potential and awareness of the internet into the fray to disseminate information, dissent, organizing information, and create the beginnings of a resistance to the further hijacking of our state. There were forums, debates, discussions, rallies and marches. New candidacies emerged, millions of dollars were raised. In 2004, the voter fraud was repeated as was the betrayal to the people by the supposed defenders of our vote.

2005.
Katrina devastates the Gulf Coast. A major US city, New Orleans, is ravished through major neglect, and condemned through avarice to be re-organized without its citizens and communities' presence nor input. The"shock doctrine" at play in the US, with over a thousand dead, many missing and American refugees with not right to return nor to vote. Congress does not speak out the horrors, nor press the Administration to remedy the situation.

2006.
Dazed and bewildered, the defeated defenders of the Constitutional Order fought back yet again with renewed fervor, to gain a foothold in the 2006 elections. New but fragile more liberal radio networks began. In the end they found their efforts produced no tangibly different results.

As though none of these easily documentable events had occurred, the lies, the fraud, the crimes against Humanity and our Constitution begun in 2000 produced precious little notice and voice among our entire elected body in Washington, DC.

2007.
Americans outraged at the brazen wrenching from our hands of our national treasure, traditions, character, and lives fought back yet again with ever-louder calls for the ending of war funding and for the impeachment of the president and vice president for numerous crimes of spying, lying, abuse of power, crimes against humanity, war profiteering, violations of laws and the Constitution.

It seemed at last that America was fighting back not only to regain it's voice but its soul and destiny as well.

2008.
Now comes the expanded 2008 election season. Begun in earnest in late 2007, we heard a few voices among the official ones describing and denouncing the multiple continuing crimes perpetrated by this nation in our names.

By the end of the first month of the year, no one publicly recognizing the gravity of what has happened to America lo these last seven years and seeking to unite its people in redress and rebuilding was permitted to continue participation in the "election" process.

Anyone who strayed from the permitted narrative (Good American Power with a Few Flaws to be Corrected) was gone. Gone by the Rules of the Game.

BEFORE most Americans got to cast ballots, no one willing to speak out against the outrageous attacks on our system and on our sovereignty, no one willing to fight for the best wages and healthcare for working men and women, no one willing to take on the corporate hijacking of nearly all our major institutions and decisions was left in the race.

Come January, there will most likely be a new face in the White House, and that is all most folks seem to want. Like battered spouses, the worse they treat us, the less we need to be content.

Super Tuesday™
People today are lining up today to vote, with new enthusiasm we are told, because of the barely described "changes" promised in the 24/7 rhetoric being spewed from the Media Machine.

Not one of the candidates on the major party ballots has recognized the true danger this nation is in, nor points out the causes, nor names names. Only so-called "third party" candidates like Cynthia McKinney (seeking Green Party nomination) shine light on difficult truths and are ironically called "spoilers" of the election.

Major party candidates dare not mention the hijacking of our nation and of its votes, nor dare to stop the made-in-America carnage abroad or offer lasting remedies to the destruction of our middle class, the destitution of the poor and the gutting of our democracy. Yet, we are told they are the best we have, and that the System is working. Oh, is it ever...

Too few have noticed, it seems, that Corporate America which pays for the campaigns and controls our airwaves, had ALREADY voted: and they allowed us our choices.

In today's vote, the coup was completed, the theft papered over, shoved under the rug, unquestioned. Corporations won, and America lost.

Labels: elections, impeachment Bush Cheney democracy, primaries

Rally in Miami on September 15, 2007, with David Swanson | Let's Try Democracy

Impeach Cheney? What's at stake if we don't?

Does this take us closer to a "tipping point"?

I'd like to see "Impeachment" as a household word? Is this pie-in-the-sky?

I hope not! It had better not be—otherwise, we are already lost.

The Bush Administration, in a flood of psyops and disinformation has managed to convince some of the nation of SEEMINGLY coherent threats to our existence without the nicety of facts. If this nation can not recognize a REAL threat that IS coherent and consistent, then we what is there left to do?

A few folks in Vermont have just make a leap of faith, faith in themselves, faith in the sanctity of action, faith in the hope of our nation. We need this examples to get up the courage to find and produce others like it.

We must MAKE Impeachment a household word, a notion NECESSARY for the survival of our nation. Get together with others to parade in town with impeachment signs, wear impeachment T-shirts, put impeachment greetings on your phone message. You get the idea...

Viva Vermont!

Labels: impeachment Bush Chene Vermont democracy

Congressional Talking Point #1 — for constant repetition:

This administration has shown OVER and OVER that it does not support our troops

• lack of armor
  
• lack of plans
  
• lack of caring: extending tours, relying on National Guard
  
• continual cutting of healthcare, treatment and benefits for veterans
  
• rats and worse at Walter Reed Hospital,
  
• NOW...funding insurgents???!!
       — etc.

Talking Point #2:

This administration shows NO understanding of SECURITY:

• no one got fired after 911
  
• culprits were declared, but no real investigation took place
  
• every policy further inflames current and potential Mideast enemies
  
• our lack of caring about — or even counting — "enemy" ("foreign?") civilian dead creates tens of thousands of martyrs and future vengeance-seekers
  
• they alienate every potential ally the US could have throughout the world
  
• Katrina shows lack of caring/preparation when oil is not involved
  
• true security means an overall sense of life-security of our population: healthcare, housing, education, increasong job opportunities, participation in decision-making

It's time Dems went to the mat to save our Constitution/country — just SAY IT AS IT IS — Over and Over.

How on earth does this Congress even allow this Administration to lay claim to either Improving Our Security or "Supporting" the Troops??

Accept NOT ONE WORD of backtalk from the phony patriots who would destroy our Constitution to make the world safe for corporate rule.

This letter about the US in Iraq was published today in Miami Herald:

Out of Iraq

Forget the faux-patriotic rhetoric! It is time to stop funding this Mideast debacle. No good can come from the United States remaining in Iraq. Anyone who thinks this administration cares about the health, welfare and voting practices of the Iraqis any more than it did about residents of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans is mistaken.

The Bush administration wants to use military bases throughout the world to guarantee control and flow of energy resources. Bravado aside, this administration understands virtually nothing about the security of this nation. No one was even fired after the worst security breach in our history. It believes that superior firepower is all that is needed. Might makes right.

The administration shreds international treaties and laws with the ease that it shreds our Constitution. Since we aren't in Iraq to help the Iraqi people, or even U.S. security, but rather for oil companies, every day that we stay is one day worse for Iraqis and for our security here at home.

ALAN KOBRIN, Miami Beach

IMPEACHMENT AS A DEFENSIVE TACTIC

Impeachment has to happen for at least two reasons.

First, it is the appropriate remedy called upon to redress crimes that have likely been committed by high elected officials.

Secondly, it may be the last best defense for our nation to avoid the all-out unthinkable catastrophe that would be a strike (nuclear or otherwise) against Iran in the coming days by an increasingly unstable and cornered Administration.

Questioning the “political expediency” of impeachment always seemed disturbing because it permits our elected officials discretion to go after potentially serious crimes—or not—as the electoral calendar, but not the public interest, dictated. Law applied only when convenient, ceases to be Law. If We, the People, through our representatives, allow the most serious crimes committed in the history of our nation to go unexamined, much less unpunished, we will have no legacy to pass on to our children. Effectively we will have allowed America to die.

The current moment makes this remedy even more urgent. As important as impeachment would be to re-establishing the ground rules of civilized behavior in our nation, and as much as it already can be seen as a question of life and death for countless future victims, it has now become a tactical move for the very survival of the United States as many of us would like to see it.

Impeachment may well be the only means left for an immediate shift in momentum. The movement of personnel and materials into a new theater of war in the Mideast gives the Administration clear inertia for carrying out its plans. There is little time to alter any course through normal voting channels, even if it is to cut off funding. That takes time and the Administration has already declared itself ready and able to proceed with or without funding cuts.

It is no longer a question of whether this Administration acts from serious intelligence-gathering or from listening to experts, or even listening to the people it legally represents. It clearly marches to the beat of its own drummer, to a cadence we are not privy to hear. We cannot count on either their good faith or their good sense. In this constitutional crisis of power, all available means are called for to restore Constitutional Balance of Power, to keep this Administration busy explaining, and move them into a more defensive posture, running to their lawyers, and ducking cameras and subpoenas.

This may be the last chance the American people have to use our available legal powers to stave off an unprecedented catastrophe. Time is running out. This unresponsive and largely irresponsible Administration seems determined and desperate to act out the Plan they have never bothered to disclose to us, mere citizens.

If there were ever a time for national resolve, this is it. Starting the impeachment process now—independent of the chances of its successful passage—will give courage to the beleaguered and bewildered 70% who want this war to stop. It gives breathing room to develop an appropriate exit strategy from Iraq. It will renew US stature in the eyes of the world. It means America at last will be standing up together and fighting to redeem its heritage as a democratic republic of the People, and secure its future from threats, be they foreign or domestic.

We must get our Congress & People to act NOW as if our lives depended on it--for they do.

Spread the word--time is running out.

Labels: impeachment urgent Cheney Bush Iran momentum resolve

Howard Zinn | Impeachment by the People

This is a letter written to an environmental writer at Truthout.Org. It sheds light on some of what it may take to start saying, thinking, and--gasp!--actually ACTING on a new narrative.

==============

Dear Kelpie,

I want to comment on your well written Truthout article (Jan. 18), "Where Is the Energy for Freedom?"

You say, there are "disturbing signs that the Democrats are not really looking at the big picture about energy." That could sadly be expanded to many other issues, as the the DLC-DNC model for decision-making in general avoids any Big Picture thinking, preferring, instead, not to "rock the boat" nor to upset potential major donors (read, bankers, oil and pharmaceutical companies, etc.).

Cheney's closed-door "Energy Policy" always really included the War in Iraq (as borne out by the recent rollout of the brazen Production Sharing "Agreements") — yet this is not being articulated, even by the "new" Congress. America is kept in the dark.

I wonder WHEN truly concerned people will finally realize that new political thinking is required, not just a re-shuffle. That just cannot happen in today's Democratic Party--it's not something progressives can "win," coerce, or demand from their leadership or structure. The Democratic mindset is just built in--as the last 40 or so years bear out.

On the other hand, the Green Party has long organized and spoken out in favor of alternative sustainable energy policies and a transparent, decentralized process for rational decision-making, in general.

If we wish to see any change on the ground, we must change the narrative of our nation. New words and visions have to be articulated and broadcast throughout the land. That narrative is the one coming from today's Green Party. Broad people-based and solution-based thinking exists right now in this land. It is apparent in the Green Party Mission, its Platform, and its Ten Key Values — and in its recommended approach to many of the problems of our time. In large part, this is due to its global vision which informs the Green understanding of the causes of problems, and the bases for solutions.

Greens are articulating that needed narrative every day, with consistency. It is time to amplify that vision, to help that narrative reshape the political landscape of America.

It seems not only sensible, but urgent, that progressives and other concerned citizens should embrace such a voice that already exists—to add to it, shape it further, give it more breadth and depth, and to strengthen it. Support is needed to amplify that needed voice.

The Green narrative includes talking about the democratic process, as well. Greens and many other citizens have looked on aghast as vital elements of our system of government and social safety-net have been eroded, weakened, and hijacked with nary a raised voice nor a troubled glance from the Democratic Party officials: healthcare, women's rights, wages, fair and honest election practices, civil liberties, energy, bankruptcy, and of course, the environment. Katrina...well, that just lingers, a festering wound to society and psyche.

The narrative we need cannot be jammed down the throat of the Democratic Party as decades have proven. It will not come out of their "loudspeaker" to be heard or discussed by the population at large. At best, it is an internal debate. Any and all intelligent discussion has been at the margins of that party. So maybe it's time for progressive people to put aside all that frustration, and help build a party that actually agrees with them—and says the right words to a hungering public.

Just as it is foolhardy and dangerous to wait to deal with energy solutions and with global warming, it is equally foolhardy to wait to have a coherent political voice to articulate, fight for and LEAD the people in these crucial issues on as many fronts as possible. This cannot be done just through NGO's (who have their own funding limitation problems anyway).

We need a party to do this. We have the party. Now. Time to grow it. Time for the capital G Green.

There will likely be a perceived need to continue to vote for some Democratic candidates for a time, as the ship of the new growing narrative leaves port and gets up steam. That might prove to be a tactical choice for some, as the electorate changes; but although some progressives Dems would have us think that people should not be jumping from the Democratic ship, it is really about getting out of a leaky and foundering vessel, into one whose course is going our way — whose destination (a re-birth of democracy's spirit and sustainable, peaceful living for all) is our own.

We need to have green, safe, and sensible policies, hear green thoughts, have green dialogs, and do green planning.

Kelpie, why not help the Green Party to help you spread your message? Consider supporting the Green Party as a means to that end. Register Green if you have not already done so. Get others to join and help shape our future. Add your voice and make this new narrative a sane and sustainable one for everyone to share.

When talking about Vermont's Bernie Sanders, a lot of people got it wrong. Bernie's not a "maverick."

That's just a construct of the Punditocracy that is in total ideological lock-down. They couldn't see, recognize or embrace a new, live idea if it disrobed in front of them.

Bernie, if anything, perfectly embodies the American spirit of innovation and justice.

Since some decrepit gatekeepers left over from the Robber Barons decided that any actions in favor of the common good rather than individual advancement was sinful atheistic social/communism, many of us have fallen prey to the fiction that working for the common good was somehow UnAmerican.

A brief look at today's world under the horror/terror regime of Bush/Cheney/Halliburton/Enron and all the misery it brings and portends for this planet and how it is shredding the most minimal of our rights here at home, ought to recognize that Bernie Sanders represents the very BEST of homegrown American spirit.

It is caring, rugged individualism in service to us all that represents us at our best, at a time when it is in great jeopardy. Think of Sinclair, La Follette, the Roosevelts to some measure, Jefferson, Franklin.

The term "maverick" itself has come to mean anyone not with the program, on the inside, on the take.

It is really the arrogant heirs to the Robber Barons who are "not with the program" of human rights and progress, the advancement of knowledge, science and civilization who are mavericks. They stand, bewildered on the outside, living as brutes in the caves, looking for ever bigger clubs to use upon the intelligent ones they seek to subdue, for they cannot comprehend their free and fair spirit.

We have been fooled. Bernie is no maverick. He is a shining light of human imagination tempered with compassion and intelligence. It is time we started listening and emulating. In our Senate, he is literally one in a hundred. But it is the other 99 who are the mavericks, who have strayed far afield.

He is our Mr. Smith ... in Washington. We should all pay attention to him.

Labels: Bernie Sanders, common good, justice, maverick, robber barons, Senate

Bush's pick for State Department number two warrants scrutiny | The Progressive

To U.S. Journalists:

Why are we all dancing around the real motivations for our invasion and occupation of Iraq and our whole new "foreign policy"?

Some time back I read Helen Thomas’ article, “Bush's Iraq Rationalization is Lame”. In it, I like the way she reminds fellow journalists that they have some objective things to take care of, and sets an example of doggedness and fight that is all but gone from the press corps.

Yet...I still don't really hear anyone, Helen included, talking DAILY about a DAILY realities: WHY we are REALLY there!

Enough talking about "mistakes": should there have been more troops, fewer troops, fight them over there, fight them here, spread democracy, etc.—writing about those things just buys—lock, stock and barrel—into the phony premises put forward by this Selected Administration in the first place—that they took us there with Our Blood and Our Gold to Do Good. If you swallow that, you've swallowed the whole thing.

What on EARTH does it take for a few courageous writers to start from a clean slate and say the reason we are there in Iraq, is for the 14 permanent bases, the megaEmbassy, and all that that means in terms of regional control (and beyond) capability. Nothing else!! All the rest is crochet work, pretty and noble words to make those paying for this misadventure feel good—or at least unsure enough of themselves not to say anything to the contrary. THAT is why Iran is next. Who CARES who lives or dies—it's a long-term fight for endless US/corporate domination of resources in many regions in a time of scarcity.

C'mon! They are not building "democracy" in Iraq—anyone with half a brain knows that, yet look at all the debate and intense TV scrutiny over their armed "elections." Purple fingers, indeed. They exist to distract, to create a warm feeling, but mostly to buy time—building (construction) time. Hell, they don't know how to "build democracy" here, much less there! They do know how to tear it apart, though. That being said, however, incompetence never was their problem. Take notice—they do well only those things they CARE about (y’know: profits, control, ownership, snooping, punishment). The rest...well, you've seen Katrina, our public schools, health care, our railroads, port security....

The only thing that counts in Iraq for those NeoCons who occupied America in 2000 are the Bases. Get it? That is the ONLY reason there are that many (or few) troops on the ground there. They calculated what would be enough to protect the contractors at work, until the base-building job is done. That's all. All on our nickel (middle class America’s nickel, that is, with largely lower class and immigrant cannon fodder). Iraqis? Screw them! Civil war, schmivil war, the more they die, the less we have to kill them to keep our bases strong.

We torture men, women and children; we blow up whole families or melt them with white phosphorus. Why should we care if they get to participate in their own government? Officials in Ohio don't seem to care if people here do.

Stop and think about that. If your only goal and objective was to set up Fortress America in Iraq, then, when asked "Do we have enough troops?", sure, the answer is "Yeah!" Enough for the intended job.

Of course, that story they could never sell to a Congress that is still more or less elected, nor sell to an American public that just wants to feel either good or safe, preferably both. So they told us this was to protect us. Ha! But...first we had to be scared enough to believe them. Hmmm,...can anyone say 911?

There is no reason to believe any one of the so-called "justifications" (WMD's, Saddam, al Qaeda, etc)—nor for journalists and politicians to waste too many more precious words using available evidence to disprove them. With THEIR control of the media, they aren't at all worried about facts, proof or making sense—they just repeat, ad nauseum, their own make-believe cover-up "story".

We all knew that this Plan existed years prior to 911, and that that attack served as a catalyst to get popular domestic support (and to start the free-for-all free-fall in our Treasury). Al Capone must be yukkin' it up, looking down on his prodigies at work.

So why not tackle that REAL geopolitical gorilla sitting on top of the Empire State Building—the one no one seems to notice. We KNOW why BushCo took us there—it exists in maps and blueprints, plans and timelines. You can see it on the web! It's part of our secret "Energy Policy." All the rest is distraction. The main topic that has occupied nearly all mainstream US journalism for the past five years...is the very nature of the Distraction!!!!

So, decent, good, honest, perceptive journalists—and others—need to FOCUS ON and REPEAT the One and Only Story there is: the geopolitical reasons proposed in the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). AAAALLL the rest is a WASTE of time—and besides the NeoCons just keep refuting it—incessantly, on over 90% of the airwaves.

PNAC is there for all to see: anyone can read about their objectives and many of their intended means. That IS their goal. The rest are fairy tales. It is not hard to prove, either. Just look at ONLY those things which have succeeded so far in our so-called Mid East policy: the establishment and protection of a permanent US military and intelligence presence in Iraq and elsewhere. THAT'S where they put their expertise, their boldness, and OUR resources. That is the only part going more or less according to plan.

PNAC even spells out the need for 911 in order for the plan to work ("a new Pearl Harbor" was needed, they said).

And—why isn't this obvious—THAT is the reason there is no Plan to leave soon. It's not about Iraqi Police or Army readiness. It's about Base Readiness. We can't leave now—the 52nd state isn't ready yet.

It has nothing to do with Iraqis taking over their own defense. It has nothing to with any of the material of countless editorials and letters to the editors, not the insurgency, nor Valerie Plame, yellow-cake, aluminum tubes, nor gassing people,...NADA!

You know, if NeoCons were really the courageous tough guys they'd like us to believe they are, they'd lay this whole thing out in the open for discussion and debate. They would work hard to convince us of their positions, and let Americans decide if this is what they want to do. But noooo...they could never take such a chance. As Cheney aptly puts it, they work "in the shadows." THEY know what is right for us and won't let a little thing like democracy get in the way.

Soooo...EXPOSE this, already!! Journalists, Congresspeople, someone!!

This is actually happening to us. People in the tens of thousands are dying, being maimed, poisoned. We are destroying our Constitution and losing our most basic rights and are accepting theater instead of elections. PLEASE, it is time to talk ONLY of what they are VERIFIABLY trying to do, and none of that other...stuff.

This dancing around the Truth is only an enabling and collaborative act, and speeds up the full takeover of what once was a Noble Experiment of a nation.

JOURNALISTS' #1 TASK: Talk about the Bases, the Bases, the Bases: the money going in—and out. Who is building them? Who is profiting? How much is this costing? Where is the money trail? Where are the "missing" billions? Where is the investigation and TRIALS about those holding the missing billions? How does base construction compare ($$, time, energy) with Iraqi infrastructure construction? How does the "Downing Street Memo" notion of shaping the facts to the plan fit into all of this? Why aren't they putting Iraqis to work on those projects? Why do the bases and embassy resemble the Mall of the Americas? Who's going to live there? How will this be paid for? NOW, talk about 911! WERE there war games going on at the time? Yes or No. Where were NORAD, the planes and that training and preparedness that were supposed to protect us? Why was no one fired? Why were we so quick to dispose of evidence in New York and Washington? And so on. YOU'RE the journalists. YOU think of the questions!!

This IS your story. And if it is not, then PROVE that it's not—by investigating ALL of these questions and denying in fact and figure that the above are NOT the real and only underlying reasons for all the treasons in Iraq.

Tell your colleagues, "Enough of Jon Benet, Paris Hilton, and the like—there's this gorilla out there waiting for you." Go get 'im! This is a story America desperately needs to know about, if it is to survive.

Yours,
inspired1
Miami

Impeachment ought NOT to be debated on the grounds of whether it is politically viable or not (although this is likely to be the knee-jerk reaction of all too many who have been spoon-fed the pablum of our times). It SHOULD be done, however, because it is the appropriate legally prescribed remedy for the situation we find ourselves in of perceived crimes committed at the highest levels. Not an "option." By NOT doing it, members of Congress would have to be considered accomplices in the crimes. For if they see it, have the power to act upon it, but decline to do so, they allow the crime and the conditions created by it to continue in effect, further eroding our already weakened Constitution.

We are very close to Constitutional crisis and perhaps even violence if we try to sweep, once again, this situation under the rug, as, alas, America is wont to do. We have really become rather addicted to comfort and convenience and don't want to trouble our pretty minds with reality, power games and such. We'd much rather sip a few and watch the game. Why do you think professional athletes, movie stars and entertainers get paid such huge sums. It's not just that they sell stuff. It's that they serve a SOCIAL FUNCTION that is valuable to those paying. Everyone's eyes OFF the prize.

Well, the nation has been hijacked (of course we've been told that it's OTHERS that have threatened us), and we're faced with WHAT, if anything, the People can and will do about it. We don't have a great history in this direction, and a massive MISinformation scheme of media conglomerates kinda filters the public's access to information and therefore, its view on things.

In any case, the courage to push ahead, to finally CALL this Administration on its dismal, dangerous record and CHALLENGE it to do the bidding of the American public--as it was designed to do--in Congress, in town halls, in workplaces, in the media (alternative and wherever else possible), in classroom, and on the streets, will require consistent and growing vocal pressure from those of us on the short end of this stick. Without such growing pressure--and visibility--this Congress is unlikely to find the political will to do its assigned job. They need us, and we need them to do the right thing. Full court press, my friends.

Apropos of this, there is an online PETITION (what--another? No, this is the real deal) on Sen. Edward Kennedy's site (tedkennedy.com)--"It's Not His Decision; it's OURS"-- to tell Bush in no uncertain terms that he does not have the right to make his life or death decisions alone or just with his buddies. It is public acts like this which can engender courage and just possibly a sea change that not even this repugnant regime can handle. We must never underestimate their hatred and power to do harm to those who disagree with them. But even they have limits--their belief that force can create New Realities from whole cloth (while on some levels seems to work quite well) is nothing more than a sick delusion. Reality is moved by millions of little things.

Let's start working on the little things, moving always in the right direction of telling truth to power, and we may even surprise ourselves.

Labels: Bush, Constitution, crimes, crisis, Impeachment, Kennedy, public pressure

The comments that follow, resulted from an online discussion relating to a Salon.com interview with former New York Times correspondent Chris Hedges, author of the book “American Fascists.”

---

The major element of fascism seems to have been missed in all this discussion: the marriage of corporations with the state.

Who can say today that our system of "representatives" (from either party) really represents the people who voted for them? The Congress long has been swayed in its decision-making by corporate money through lobbyists, personal favors and corporate-funded "experts" and pressure groups.

This already anti-democratic practice was worsened when the foxes were brought in to protect the hen house as many of those with corporate connections began getting invited to sit on those regulatory panels which were created to represent and protect citizens. That's how we have an FCC not protecting our freedom to use the airwaves for public communication, but rather protecting media conglomerates' "rights" to grow ever more powerful and determine what America shall hear and see—effectively becoming SuperCitizens with special rights and enormous influence.

Now, ratcheting up further, this already anti-democratic environment has evolved to the unbelievable state of taking those corporate representatives and putting them into the Cabinet and higher. The People's access to their government and government "by and for the People" has been lost—and is now practically irretrievable because neither Republicans nor Democrats either publicly recognize the above history or are perfectly happy with it.

In the meantime over the last four or five decades, nearly all other possible institutions that might also represent ordinary citizens' voices and therefore help defend them against these onslaughts have been systematically weakened, twisted or have faded away: independent farmers, unions, free and fair election practices, solid public education, fully-funded public libraries. a relevant public health system, decent public housing.

Decision about every major facet of Americans' lives are made in board rooms not in town halls or Congress. You name it: jobs, wages, outsourcing, the air we breathe, the water we drink, healthcare and healthcare access, education, radio, TV, newspapers, elections, food sources, commerce and trade, sports, entertainment, and on and on.

Tell me, just what do everyday American citizens get to say on ANY of this?? What? Through their "elected representatives” who, with few exceptions, never saw a lobbyist they couldn't love?

The most major decisions any society could make have been made without the input of the American People. We have turned our entire economy from an industrial, exporting one to a service economy with millions of jobs being lost or exported without ever asking American citizens: "Is that what you want?" All debate and opinions are controlled from the top down in a powerfully controlled but seemingly "open" system.

How about going to war—on phony pretenses—decided basically by corporate interests (in this case largely the petroleum industry) not only in the Cabinet but in the White House itself, taking all of our resources, buying Congressional compliance, paying out enormous sums in no-bid contracts for friends, losing (!?!) billions of dollars and thousands of arms, along the way, putting our grandchildren into massive debt, killing, maiming, and exiling millions, listening to our phones, reading our mail, peeling away our civil liberties and rights—manipulating media here and abroad with false information (pressures, psy-ops and more)—just because they CAN?

And the whole country sits around waiting for the decisions on such crucial matters as war and peace to be pronounced by one C-student who may or may not have been elected.

That, my friends, is a picture of fascism—either in development, or very well on its way.

Oh, yeah, We the People have places for "input" and to "let off steam,” but to really participate in the major decisions that affect our lives? Mainly here on these blogs.

We are "free" to say whatever we want—until we start to be effective in challenging, much less changing the status quo. Then watch out for someone protecting others from your words and ideas. Remember the "Miami Model" and the FTAA in 2003. Eight million dollars of Iraq-earmarked money to equip troops to intimidate thousands of concerned citizens (largely union, many elderly) from discussing and expressing legitimate (and widespread) opposition to the corporate "free trade" proposal which ignored environment, salaries, and safety. Eight millions, and they got perhaps one possibly legitimate arrest for minor infractions? Who is making those decisions?

Forget concentrating all that attention on judges, etc. as it is nearly peripheral to the Big Picture painted above. That being said, judges do have certain powers to sway our approximation to, or flight from, constitutional government. Overall, it is about Power alone and who has appropriated the right to exercise it, and in whose name. The Constitution has become a rapidly shredded fig leaf for this corporate grab of power in the US.

When corporations were given "personhood", it all started going downhill.

Only the return of institutions representing people in a more direct way—new parties, new or resurgent organizations—can restore any semblance of real democracy to this land.

Labels: corporate personhood, fascism, power, public decision, representative democracy, war

What do the deaths of Saddam and Ford have in common?

They both sweep under the rug unresolved issues and crimes. They are the the willful ANTITHESES of the Truth Commissions seen in South Africa and elsewhere. Seemingly derived from the same power and control mentality of mafiosos, they are the historical "cement boots" of society's access to the truth.

Gerald Ford, who set the foxes to guard the hen house, was a set-up puppet much like Saddam Hussein was. Both put in place and supported by powerful energy lobbies. If you pay attentions to detail, you may recall that Ford, the first UNelected president in the US, achieved his nomination to the White House by stating in hearings that he would NOT pardon Richard Nixon if appointed. A lie which spawned many other Lies. Of course he is their hero.

Much to the contrary of "healing the Nation" as mainstream television and papers would have us believe, Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon's crimes leave only scars and still-festering wounds. Only those who were the perpetrators actively wounding our nation benefitted from that pardon which effectively was a home-free card for all tho
se who took our Constitution lightly back then.

There is no doubt that those who today further disrespect our democracy and render meaningless our Constitution would take this moment to gloat and to praise the man (and forces) who paved the way for their hijacking of our society.

Richard Nixon was never tried, and the depths and breadth of his machinations (as well as the full role and identity of co-conspirators) were never uncovered because of that pardon. Let us not forget that it was Gerald Ford who put together the Cheney-Rumsfeld team who worked hard in those days for greater secrecy, as they tried to defeat the Freedom of Information Act and further reduce the public's right to know what goes on in government.

Cheney's closed-door "Energy Policy" meetings which basically was the divvying up of Iraq's oil supply by energy giants, was part of this legacy, and this war its inevitable consequence.

With Saddam publicly swinging on death's noose, we lost any reasonable chance to delve further into the untried larger offenses he was said to have committed. The people of this world have thus been relieved of the opportunity to hear details of how Saddam's regime came to and stayed in power. This is very convenient for the very same people who now laud Gerald Ford's role in the Watergate aftermath.

Let us not forget that the very first act of George Bush as he entered the White House was to seal the records of his father's administration which would have shed light on the misty connections between previous administrations' dealings with both Iraq and Iran. With that information at hand, perhaps we would today understand better the zeal with which this rogue White House has endeavored to "take out" both regimes.

With full and unfettered Watergate and Irangate investigations, many of those now holding power and calling the shots on peace, war, healthcare, laws, the economy, our treasury, and your life would be serving stiff prison sentences instead.

Labels: Bush, Gerald Ford, injustice, Irangate, Nixon, politics, Saddam, secrecy, truth, war, Watergate