SUNRISE

Free at last, Free at last... Lord Almighty, we are free at last!

House of Representatives: Check

Senate: Check

Presidency: Check

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(Told ya so moment: 2005 thoughts on the 2008 elections )

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Not a moment too soon. It does not speak highly of my fellow Americans that we came close to electing another carbon copy of that madman Bush.

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Racism, narcissism and ignorance still fuel a large segment of the American population. I am surrounded my those who are voting for McCain here in West Texas. I have yet to find even ONE of these folks who actually believe in McCain. They fear and hate Obama, though. They send text messages in the millions daily - racist jokes and lynching fantasies. I knew most people in this area were racist. This list includes my co-workers, my family, and even some people I considered friends. But the level that this group of people has outed themselves at shocks even this Redneck. I guess all it takes is one uppity nigger-and the very real fear that the White man's thumb on everything is being removed.

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Change. That's what they fear.

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They can't stop it. But thank Crom we've stopped them, at least for the moment. Every day more of these McCarthyist dinosaurs breathe their last, cancerous breath and new Americans are born to breathe fresh new life into this country.

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Change is coming.

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It's not gloating, it is tears of joy and relief...

In case you've forgotten - some memories of the Republican Reign of Terror:

TraitorGate

Treason for Dummies

Palin-publicans

Media Apologists for Bush

Rummy

Crimelords in Office

Conspiracy to Terrorize

Olbermann: We will not fear George Bush

Bush vetoes bill banning Waterboarding

The Bailout before the Bailout

and for shits and giggles:
Images from the House of the Rising Sons from the past 4 years

A point for Conscience

Scotty McClellan finds his soul... about 6 years too late.

MSNBC

EXCERPT
McClellan admits to letting himself be deceived about the unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, which resulted in his relentless pounding by the White House press corps over the activities of Rove and of Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the matter.

"I could feel something fall out of me into the abyss as each reporter took a turn whacking me," he writes of the withering criticism he received as the story played out. "It was my reputation crumbling away, bit by bit."

The truth will reveal itself, more and more, as Bush's last days in office expire. These cunts can't lie for this dirty son of a bitch forever, and they WON'T.

It's a little fucking late, but better late than never for the millions of dumbass Americans who have been hanging on every one of Bush's lies.

They've been played for fools, and our country is suffering for it.

Damn every one of the stupid bastards who have supported this vile piece of shit for the past eight years.

Damn them all to hell.

The Grand Masturbation of the Non-Reformists

"Nothing you do matters! It's all for naught! I am above you because I quit trying! So there! Phbbbt!"

Of course, they throw around their defeatist logic in much more erudite terms, but that's basically the gist of it. I've got no other way to put it but this :

Fucking Cowards.

Sorry. That's you. That's those of you who whine that it doesn't matter. And THEN when we tell you to get off your fucking asses and help do something- you oh-so-smugly "educate" us that it's all some worthless endeavor. "There is nothing you can do to change anything, goddamnit, cuz we-are-Powerless! Don't you see?!" you scream as you pull your asshairs out in clumps-

"Don't you See ?!?!?"

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All I see is a crowd of losers who give up once everything doesn't go exactly their way. The worst of the worst of this ilk- is the Grand Masturbator himself, Ioz. The pseudo-intellectual poobah whom the disenfranchised flock to like a golden Nader idol. "We won't vote- We'll show you!"

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I have never seen such a smug apathy-selling blogger. Wallowing in his own shit, he passes down his judgement on all who would dare attempt to make a difference. Here, again, he restates what passes for his principles:

The Occasional Restatement of Principles

You know, most Americans are imperialists. One of the reasons--the reason--that it so amuses me to find the occasional commenter here ask me why I offer no practical solutions to "our" problems, why the closest I ever come to advocating for direct action is to propose minor acts of cultural vandalism. Being an anti-imperialist in America is like being a Zionist in the Third Reich. I am a fringe radical. If you agree with even a tenth of what you read on this site, you too are a fringe radical. Your beliefs and opinions are not reflective of those of your countrymen. The question, "How do we stop being imperialists?" bears as much practical import as, "How do we live without breathing?" We don't. The United States of America is an empire. Maybe you think it's on the downhill slide? I certainly hope so. But it is what it is, nevertheless. The notions that within the body of empire lurks the heart of an egalitarian, constitutional republic, or a libertarian minarchy, or a parliamentary social democracy are the purest forms of political self-flattery. The subjects here may be largely political, but the program is purely perceptual. I am not a reformist.

He'th Amuthed. Well, shit on me.

Look, you pawn shop Socrates- you can sell fiddles until Rome burns if you like, but don't try to pawn your bullshit on me that you are some kind of radical. "The closest I ever come to adovocating.." Jaysus fucking Christ. Spare me your master plan of breaking windows to stop Imperialism, mkay? "like a Zionist in the Third Reich" ... good fucking grief. While pissants like you were telling your neighbors you can't fight the Third Reich, this Imperialist power did indeed help the Jews win in the end. The Third Reich didn't last, for all the help nihilists like you are. The Neoconservative movement won't last either. Unless a lot of good people stand aside and let them run roughshod because they feel apathetic towards it all. .
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Within the body of THIS Empire, there ARE people like me- and there is the heart of a constitutional republic. We are NOT a minority in this country, although I do surely hope that if you are right about one thing it is that people with your mindset are a tiny, flaccid minority. Everything evolves. And if you haven't noticed, this Empire has actually steadily improved on all fronts- UNTIL the advent of the neoconservative radicals. So don't piss on my head and tell me it's a torrential downpour. There's work to be done. And our actions, and yes, even our votes can be used to shift the direction of this empire.

It's times like this that I actually miss certain things about being part of the Republican sheeple- as stupid as that may sound- I never ran into anyone crying in a corner saying they were ready to give up fighting. We need to rally around the Democratic candidate, whoever that might be- because that's the important battle before us. It isn't proving that some half ass huckster like Nader can make a few votes and pocket some change every four years. It isn't about showing the Dems that they you won't vote because they didn't cater as much to the left as you wanted.

It is about slowing down the Radical neo-conservative ultra Imperalists in our current government. And that battle is won by defeating the Republican party.

It is about winning the class war in America by defeating the Republican party.

It is about defanging the racist, sexist, corrupt Republican party and bringing our soldiers home. PERIOD

I just have ONE Question for you: Of all the legislation that Bush threatened to veto and came out swinging against the Dem party in speech after speech - How much would have passed if there would have been a Democrat, ANY Democrat in the oval office? That, I believe, is a valid question.

So, Ioz, spare some of us who are actually out here trying to improve the country, not help continue the Imperial Corporatocracy- Why don't you focus on something important like this
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And, I'll leave you with one more Warhol quote, useless bastard that he was:
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"I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I'd like it to say "figment." "
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The Iozs of the world might as well have blank epitaths, because no one remembers the crybabies on the sidelines who champion the Imperialists by default. Nothing WILL change, while the country is populated with these impotent self-important folks who think they are above it all.
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They aren't. And by the time these people are forced into activity from their comfort zones- it will be too late. Don't be just another couch potato. Just because Ioz is intelligent, doesn't mean the sum of his inactions make him anything more than just another Homer Simpson, albeit one with a blog.

I shall conclude with a bit from The Sermon To The Hypocrite by Zos, who may be a spiritual ancestor to Ioz:

O, ye whose future is in other hands! This familiarity is permitted not of thy-but of my impotence. Know me as Zos the Goatherd, saviour of myself and of those things I have not yet regretted. Unbidden ye listen'd to my soliloquy. Endure then my Anathema.

Foul feeders! Slipped, are ye, on your own excrement?
Parasites! Having made the world lousy, imagine ye are of significance to Heaven?

Desiring to learn-think ye to escape hurt in the rape of your ignorance? For of what I put in, far more than innocence shall come out! Labouring not the harvest of my weakness, shall I your moral-fed desires satisfy?

I, who enjoy my body with unweary tread, would rather pack with wolves than enter your pest-houses.

Sensation . . Nutrition . . . Mastication . . . . Procreation . . . ! This
is your blind-worm cycle. Ye have made a curiously bloody world for love in desire. Shall nothing change except through your accusing diet?

IN THAT YE ARE CANNIBALS, what meat should I offer?
Having eaten of your dead selves savoured with every filth, ye now raven to glutton of my mind's motion?

In your conflict ye have obtained . . . ? Ye who believe your procreation is ultimate are the sweepings of creation manifest, returning again to early simplicity to hunger, to become, and realise-ye are not yet. Ye have muddled time and ego.

Think ye to curb the semen SENTIMENTALLY? Ye deny sexuality with tinsel ethics, live by slaughter, pray to greater idiots-that all things may be possible to ye WHO ARE IMPOSSIBLE.

For ye desire saviours useless to pleasure.

Verily, far easier for madmen to enter Heaven than moral Lepers. Of what difference is Life or Death? Of what difference is dream or reality? Know ye nothing further than you own stench? Know ye what ye think ye know for certain? Fain would I be silent. Yet too tolerant is this Sun that comethup to behold me, and my weakness comes of my dissatisfaction of you solicit. . . . but be ye damned before obtaining fresh excuses of me!
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Cursed are the Reformists! Cursed I say!.

UPDATE: Those defending the idea of that nothing Americans can do matters are working pretty hard to convince me. Not exactly the action I was hoping for, but at least they seem to be doing something to change others, even if they don't believe in it...

A final note (from the comments):

Party affiliation isn't the end-all, be-all. It's important to get in the individuals who will support the issues that you want. Yes, it seems hopeless. But what the Deconstructionists don't seem to realize is that you can get mired in your own complexity. I have no doubt that Ioz (and the rest of you guys, for that matter) are more intelligent than those who support the status quo.

HOWEVER, their continuance of power relies upon your "deconstruction". The less you do, the easier it is FOR THEM to maintain control. They may not be brainiacs, but they realize this simple strategy. The subtleties of the political spectrum are NOT Lost on me, I choose to step over them in order to implement a strategy that sets back the status quo elite. Yes, Hillary and Obama are not the candidate I want- but Change is not some Overnight sensation as some of you seem to feel- it is a gradual evolution.

You have to win small battles and get the most progressive choices you have into office over the worst of the worst. Unfortunately, if the "Ioz crowd" decides to sit this one out, in the name of apathy, or Deconstruction, or what have you- it's a win for the worst. There is a reason they (the status quo pimps) are winning. And it's because there are more people willing to sit out Democracy than participate- And whether you claim it's for some Deconstructionist purpose, or whether you are simply one of those people to lazy to vote, the end result is the same.

Defeat.

It's the Status Quo folks that PUT us down, but its the Ioz's who KEEP us down.

BAILING OUT WALL STREET

A sick feeling rises from my gut. I've rarely seen the level of asskissing going on right now with Ben Bernanke. We didn't bail out the shareholders, but we did bail out the lenders. Dodd (D-CT)and Menendez (D-NJ)stand up for regular Americans by actually asking some serious questions, especially Menendez. Shelby (R-AL) actually wasn't too bad. Tester (D-MT) was okay.

But for a majority of the others, especially Bob Corker (R-TN)- it's a mad rush to thank the Fed for saving the big corporations from the weally weally nefarious FREE MARKET.

Bernanke feels that its likely that $29 BILLION investment by the Fed with taxpayer money will be worth it. But, he stammers, they haven't assessed it yet, they are in the process...

They haven't even figured out how much the Fed will be charged by BlackRock yet. Seriously- Repeat that to yourself: BlackRock was hired to evaluate Bear's assets for an unspecified fee. And not one that they aren't just specifying TO US- One they haven't figured out yet.

As in "Trust us. We'll tell you how much of this crap is crap. And we'll charge you something, er reasonable. Yeah, that's it, Ben."

Don't you Fed guys worry your pretty heads about it, m'kay? The big businessmen will tell you what they need and when. Go back to designing your dreamhome when you resign from the Fed next year...

Well, we've sent a lesson to the Mortgage holders. And we've sent a lesson to the shareholders of Bear-Stearns (and soon to be shareholders of several other major financials). But where is the lesson for the people who have been uprating the dirty Financial Institutions? Where is the lesson for the architects of this mess? Where is the lesson for these cutthroat lenders who give the loans with no accountability, then quickly bundle them all together and sell them away to the big financials as soon as possible?

Ben Bernanke just GUARANTEED an un-assessed pile of shit at a price tag of $29 Billion. But he feels that it will all be okay in the end. The only thing this insect has really guaranteed is a future position at JP Morgan.

And a panel made up mainly of sycophant Senators prattles on, helping cover the asses of THEIR biggest lenders, Corporations.

Once again, regular Americans get screwed and Big Business- who screwed over all these people, took the cash and ran- gets a big wet kiss.

Free Market my ass. There is NOT ONE DAMN Republican in Congress that isn't a crony for Big business. Trickle down into your rep's pockets.

Enjoy it, those of you dumbasses that vote for these dirty crooked Republicans even though you can't afford to buy stock.

By the way, Senator Bob Corker is the biggest Asskissing Weasel I've ever seen. If anyone is firmly of the back pocket of corporate interests its this slimeball. God, he's practically blowing Dimon, not questioning him. Do you HAVE any questions, Corker, you sellout?

The Headline on CNBC moments ago: Dimon: I was asked the right questions

Doesn't that just say it all...

Oaths, and some damn paperwork, and no more of this "no one can understand all this durn complexity" Bullshit! I also don't want to hear what you people are "reasonably confident" about!

Slave Market

Contact the Senate Banking Committee and commend Menendez for taking a stand, albeit a small one - it still towered above the rest. Let them know this is a wee bit more important than baseball players pumping up on roids.

If Bernanke is "reasonably confident" that Bear Stearns assets AREN'T a pile of worthless paper, then why was this bailout needed? Smokescreens that aid the Financials AREN'T in the Americans best interest. Without some real oversight - these lenders will keep this going until it breaks the country's back.

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UPDATE: Welcome to everyone visiting ala Mike's Blog Round Up and C&L : Mike also had this link on the matter: Naked Capitalism: Bear Hearings Charade

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UPDATE 2: Bear Stearns goes to work For J.P. Morgan. 7000 Bear Stearns Employees fired Bear Stearns goes to work For J.P. Morgan. 7000 Bear Stearns Employees fired

A Plague of three piece suit Locusts

Pestilence

EXCERPT
Under these circumstances, how can anyone seriously accept any judgment or opinion of the Federal Reserve as an honest or ethical arbiter?

The original Bear takeover agreement was forged with the support of federal regulators, and the U.S. Federal Reserve is balking at the higher price, The New York Times said, citing people involved in the talks.

The newspaper said the Fed originally directed J.P. Morgan to pay no more than $2 per share to assure that it would not appear that Bear shareholders were being rescued.

By these metrics, will Bear be valued next week at $50 or $0 per share? Better yet, is the DOW properly valued at 12,000, or does 2,000 or perhaps 60,000 sound a little closer to the mark?

Do these grotesque proceedings, from start to finish, not reek of a snake-oil-swindling carnie act?

The entire article, from Financial Sense is here: Pestilence

UNRELATED BONUS UPDATE: War Nerd splains Kosovo

A Tale of Two Headlines

Both under "Terrorism" on MSNBC this morning...

Judge: Detainee's abuse claim not believable

Bush vetoes bill banning Waterboarding

A judge ruled Friday that an Australian man's claim that he had been mistreated in custody in Pakistan before being sent to the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay could not be believed.

President Bush said Saturday he vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.

Justice Peter McClellan of the New South Wales state Supreme Court ruled against Mamdouh Habib in the man's defamation suit against a Sydney newspaper, which Habib said had implied he lied about being tortured.

"The Bush administration continues to insist that CIA and other nonmilitary interrogators are not bound by the military rules and has reportedly given CIA interrogators the green light to use a range of so-called 'enhanced' interrogation techniques, including prolonged sleep deprivation, painful stress positions, and exposure to extreme cold," Daskal said. "Although waterboarding is not currently approved for use by the CIA, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has refused to take it off the table for the future."

"I am satisfied that Mr. Habib's claims that he was seriously mistreated in the place of detention in Islamabad cannot be accepted," McClellan said.

The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it," Bush said.

He said Habib was "prone to exaggerate," "evasive" and had made claims about mistreatment in Pakistan and Egypt which could not be sustained.

Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, said Bush "will go down in history as the torture president" for defying Congress and allowing the CIA to use interrogation techniques "that any reasonable observer would call torture."

Habib, an Egyptian-born immigrant, was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001. He says he was held there for 28 days and was interrogated by Americans before being transferred to Egypt, where he alleged he was beaten, shocked with electricity and nearly drowned while under interrogation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Bush often warns against ignoring the advice of U.S. commanders on the ground in Iraq. Yet the president has rejected the Army Field Manual, which recognizes that harsh interrogation tactics elicit unreliable information, said Reid, D-Nev.

The intelligence bill would limit CIA interrogators to the 19 techniques allowed for use by military questioners. The Army field manual in 2006 banned using methods such as waterboarding or sensory deprivation on uncooperative prisoners.

The military specifically prohibited waterboarding in 2006. The CIA also prohibited the practice in 2006 ... But the administration has refused to rule definitively on whether it is torture. Bush has said many times that his administration does not torture.

After six months, he was sent to the U.S. military base at Bagram, Afghanistan and then Guantanamo Bay. He was returned to Australia in January 2005.

Australian judges continue to believe that George Bush's policies haven't been resulting in kidnapping and torturing their citizens. I guess Australia believes that if the U.S. eventually releases their citizens after torturing them it's okay. The U.S. government decided that Habib was innocent after all.

Fortunately for Canadian citizens, their judicial system isn't so trusting of countries who want to torture their people.

The acclaimed Army officer who literally wrote the book on counterinsurgency weighs in on 24, its impact on the U.S. military’s view of torture, and the implications for the fight against terrorism: Torture is NOT ACCEPTABLE (from Foreign Policy.com)

Why Torture doesn't work (also from Foreign Policy.com)

UPDATE: I noticed that Frederick has been on fire lately, check his blog out...

UPDATE 2: Funny shit of the day : Whiny Cops -More Proof that the Internet has EVERYTHING. This site is for cops to whine about other cops giving them tickets and not letting them slide "for the brotherhood". It's fucking hilarious to see our "Proud men in blue" nominating their fellow officers for Dick of the Month. The whole point of the website seems to be that cops think they should only treat citizens like shit, not each other. The indignant cop who put this site up might get a little more respect from me if it was just a site for anyone to bitch about the poor common sense of traffic officers. But the attitude that Cops should get favorable treatment when breaking the law is just bullshit.

Siegelman story to air Sunday

Siegelman story freed

The Siegelman story will air on 60 minutes this Sunday, after all... Watch it or DVR it if you can.

Scott Horton has been on top of this issue.. .

Part I
Part II
Part III

Siegelman was sentenced in June 2007.
Trial Sentencing article

It appears that Siegelman was guilty, was sentenced and went to jail. I don't have a problem with that. But what has been discovered is that Karl Rove ordered Siegelman's prosecution via Republican agents in order to take the Alabama GOP back from Democrats. And this was all done while ignoring the Republican crookery going on at all levels of George Bush's pyramid of cronies...

So, I can't say I feel sorry for Siegelman, he's a crook. But the way Bush's officials and appointees apply the law to only their political enemies is exactly why the Attorney scandal is so very important. This is why we need to prosecute Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales, Dick Cheney, and President Bush, along with their army of corrupt political creatures. This is not democracy!

They are picking and choosing which of their political enemies to destroy, while ordering their subordinates to ignore their own criminal actions.

Is there anything these animals won't do to dismantle our country? Is anything at all in America sacred to these powermad thieves and charlatans?

These men are traitors. We are witnessing the lowest, vilest, most unpatriotic actions by government officials in our lifetimes. President Bush signs signing statement after signing statement that say he does not have to abide by the laws of this land. His criminal toadie, Karl Rove, says that if people don't like it, they can take him to court. Of course, this is a court system that George and Karl have carefully weighted with attorneys, judges, and prosecutors who are merely Republican sycophants. These are men and women who have been bought and sold all the way up to the Supreme Court. The rule of law and our constitution is thrown out the window by these greedy treasonous bastards.

This IS Treason. Our country is going down the drain- It is time to put away ALL the criminals, not just the ones who Karl Rove picks off his enemies list. Time to take a bite out of crime- starting at the top. Crime is crime, but crime against our entire judicial system is no less than a traitorous act by the worst of men.

UPDATE : Winter Patriot has a recap of the Alabama "Blackout" of the 60 minutes Siegelman portion, and how the Republicans who spoke out about Rove were threatened and attacked.

Olbermann Special Comment

C&L has the video from Keith Olbermann's newest Special Comment:

President Bush is a Liar and a Fascist

Logan Murphy also has the full transcript there...

I officially apologize to Keith Olbermann for doubting him recently...
Thank you Keith Olbermann- one of the few journalists left.

EXCERPT
Mr. Bush, you say that our ability to track terrorist threats will be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger.
Yet you have weakened that ability!
You have subjected us, your citizens, to that greater danger!
This, Mr. Bush, is simple enough even for you to understand.
For the moment, at least, thanks to some true patriots in the House, and your own stubbornness, you have tabled telecom immunity, and the FISA act.

You.
By your own terms and your definitions — you have just sided with the terrorists.
You got to have this law or we’re all going to die.
But practically speaking, you vetoed this law.

It is bad enough, sir, that you were demanding an Ex Post Facto law, which could still clear the AT&Ts and the Verizons from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive, and blatant collaboration with your illegal and unjustified spying on Americans under this flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists who are stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass e-mail.
But when you demanded it again during the State of the Union address, you wouldn’t even confirm that they actually did anything for which they deserved to be cleared.
“The Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America.” Believed?

Don’t you know?
Don’t you even have the guts Dick Cheney showed in admitting they did collaborate with you?
Does this endless presidency of loopholes and fine print extend even here?
If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business — come out and say it!
There is a dictionary definition, one word that describes that toxic blend.
You’re a fascist — get them to print you a t-shirt with “fascist” on it!

What else is this but fascism?

Did you see Mark Klein on this newscast last November?
Mark Klein was the AT&T Whistleblower, the one who explained in the placid, dull terms of your local neighborhood I-T desk, how he personally attached all AT&T circuits — everything — carrying every one of your phone calls, every one of your e-mails, every bit of your web browsing into a secure room, room number 641-A at the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco, where it was all copied so the government could look at it.
Not some of it, not just the international part of it, certainly not just the stuff some spy — a spy both patriotic and telepathic — might able to divine had been sent or spoken by — or to — a terrorist.

Everything!

Every time you looked at a naked picture.
Every time you bid on eBay.
Every time you phoned in a donation to a Democrat.
“My thought was,” Mr. Klein told us last November, “George Orwell’s 1984. And here I am, forced to connect the big brother machine.”
And if there’s one thing we know about Big Brother, Mr. Bush, is that he is — you are — a liar.

“This Saturday at midnight,” you said today, “legislation authorizing intelligence professionals to quickly and effectively monitor terrorist communications will expire. If Congress does not act by that time, our ability to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they are planning, will be compromised…You said that “the lives of countless Americans depend” on you getting your way.

This is crap.
And you sling it, with an audacity and a speed unrivaled even by the greatest political felons of our history.
Richard Clarke — you might remember him, sir, he was one of the counter-terror pro’s you inherited from President Clinton, before you ran the professionals out of government in favor of your unreality-based reality —

Richard Clarke wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
“Let me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would not cease should the Protect America Act expire. If this were true, the president would not threaten to terminate any temporary extension with his veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring would continue even after legislative provisions lapsed because authorizations issued under the act are in effect up to a full year.”

You are a liar, Mr. Bush, and after showing some skill at it, you have ceased to even be a very good liar.
And your minions like John Boehner — your Republican congressional crash dummies who just happen to decide to walk out of Congress when a podium-full of microphones await them — they should just keep walking, out of Congress and if possible, out of the country.
For they — and you, sir — have no place in a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
The lot of you, are the symbolic descendants of the despotic middle managers of some banana republic, to whom “Freedom” is an ironic brand name, a word you reach for, when you want to get away with its opposite.
Thus, Mr. Bush, your panoramic invasion of privacy is dressed up as “protecting America.”
Thus, Mr. Bush, your indiscriminate domestic spying becomes the focused monitoring, only of “terrorist communications.”
Thus, Mr. Bush, what you and the telecom giants have done, isn’t unlawful, it’s just the kind of perfectly legal, passionately patriotic thing for which you happen to need immunity!
Richard Clarke is on the money, as usual.

That the President was willing to veto this eavesdropping, means there is no threat to the legitimate counter-terror efforts underway.

As Senator Kennedy reminded us in December:
“The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity.

No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he’s willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.”

And that literally cannot be.

Even Mr. Bush could not overtly take a step that actually aids the terrorists.
I am not talking about ethics here.
I am talking about blame.
If the President seems to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, it means we can safely conclude… there is no baby.
Because if there were, sir, now that you have vetoed an extension of this eavesdropping, if some terrorist attack were to follow…

You would not merely be guilty of siding with the terrorists…

You would not merely be guilty of prioritizing the telecoms over the people…

You would not merely be guilty of stupidity…

You would not merely be guilty of treason, sir…

You would be personally, and eternally, responsible.

And if there is one thing we know about you, Mr. Bush, one thing that you have proved time and time again… it is that you are never responsible.

As recently ago as 2006, we spoke words like these with trepidation.
The idea that even the most cynical and untrustworthy of politicians in our history — George W. Bush — would use the literal form of terrorism against his own people — was dangerous territory. It seemed to tempt fate, to heighten fear.

We will not fear any longer.

We will not fear the international terrorists — we will thwart them.

We will not fear the recognition of the manipulation of our yearning for safety — we will call it what it is: terrorism.

We will not fear identifying the vulgar hypocrites in our government — we will name them.

And we will not fear George W. Bush.

Nor will we fear because George W. Bush wants us to fear.

What the Fisa?

Frederick

What the Fisa?

Crooks and Liars

Obama showed, Hillary didn’t.

Hillary didnt voice a word about this, and her silence is deafening.
She could have put her leverage to work. She didnt.

Any Hillary Progressives should hang their heads in shame. Any women who want better rights- will this woman sell you out the way she did Progressives?

Edwards is out, so she might as well run back to the right.

and almost 20 cowardly/bought and paid for Democrats joined the completely sold out Republicans.

Goddamn it all to hell, are you fucking fed up yet?

Actor212/Carl is way more in the know than some piddly ass Redneck liberal like me... He's backing Hillary, all the way. And I just want to know how blowing off our freedom helps us.

"Cuz I'm just a simple motherfucker, here, and I guess I don't get it"

The Totalitarian Mindset

This article by J.R. Nyquist "Alien Minds" seems to both condemn and condone the totalitarian thought process.

My response:

Your article is an interesting one, and with a very sound premise. However, I have to rebuke you for considering "the West" as being an exception to the rule. This is laughable. There are many of us in the West who do indeed wish for a world that is not in a constant state of conflict. But that sentiment is not shared by our current leaders in the United States, who do indeed, live by the thought of future (and present) world war. On one hand, you dismiss and bemoan the thought processes of the Hitlers and Stalins, on the other, you prop up Tocqueville's words to the effect that the opposite of these minds is weakness and capitulation.

Totalitarianism does not except this nation as it expands it conquest- however failed the efforts of our current government.

"History teaches that totalitarian regimes cheat when it comes to arms control." And indeed, the United States and Russia have. Our regime will never give up its nuclear arms, only a fool would suggest this. More's the pity. Everything that you write about our enemies supposed goals from the holier-than-thou attitude of a Westerner can be also be said of the United States. And with the added evidence that we have the been the only aggressor nation in the past 10 years.

The tone of your article, and the emphasis on fear and aggression have indeed have an effect on the regimes of the past. You fail to recognize that in the face of the world's history - in contrast to the major powers of the world, that America has risen to the apex of its power by a history of appeasement, diplomacy, and controlled aggression. We did not rise to power by conquest or invasion or reckless aggression.

Congratulating Moscow on their so-called "stunning achievement" is ridiculous. Of course they would not dismantle their nuclear armaments, not as long as they have plenty of men like Mr. Nyquist, on their side, who are loudly crying that the United States is Russia's most dangerous enemy.

Russia and America own 95% of the world's nuclear weapons. Other countries will slowly gain these same weapons; not out of Nyquist's knee-jerk fear that "they" drool and chomp at the bit to use them against "us" in a suicidal attack- but as bargaining chips that bring them higher up the food chain militarily. We have all the steel - so those around us are only too happy to trade up from their bronze.

The same men who are "worried" that nuclear weapons “could” fall into dangerous hands are the Kissingers who make back room deals to give these weapons to other countries in trade for oil, trade agreements, and enriching themselves.

Mr. Nyquist makes a big point of : "As alien as this way of thinking is to normal people, it is second nature to a man like Vladimir Putin." The sad truth is that the Bush's, the Putin's, the Kissingers ALL own the totalitarian mindset. And Nyquist himself seems to own this mindset, as evidenced by the entire article and his belittling of the opposite - the mindset of the normal people with their "bourgeois morality".

“One death is a tragedy,” Stalin once said, “but one million deaths is a statistic.” Of course, you'd have to prove to me that these shallow power brokers believe that any death but their own is a tragedy.

Common sense held hostage

CNBC is full of shit
... but you know this.

Forced to watch this shit in my office, day in, day out, I have decoded almost every nuance of their doublespeak and mass marketing manipulation - from the ridiculously transparent- closet Nambla member Larry Kudlow- to the few who actually sound like they know something at times. And don't even get me started on that mental midget Kramer.... sheesh.

And this week, the morons on CNBC have reached a true depression of market commentary. I found this gem about CNBC's spin doctors by Kevin Duffy via Financial Sense.com...

Beam me up

Kevin pretty much nails it. What the CNBC audience of amateur investors doesn't know is that the market, by and large, isn't moved by every fricking news item that pops up hour by hour, the way that the CNBC cheerleaders portray it. But oh well, got to keep the rubes throwing their money into the market so the bigtime money managers can lap it up.

Another good article is there - an interview with Ron Paul. You wouldn't know it from reading liberal blogs (like this one? ha!) but Ron Paul is, in my opinion, the most knowledgeable of all the candidates concerning economics. That said, my vote is going to John Edwards. PERIOD. Ron Paul shares some of Edwards' viewpoints, but Ron Paul's drawback can be summed up as the drawback of all the Republicans, as Markos put in his Newsweek column recently:

In his first Inaugural Address, Ronald Reagan remarked that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." While the quip has provided Republicans with a cheap slogan for two decades, the philosophy behind it is beginning to box them in. If they govern effectively, they invalidate their own antigovernment ideology. And when you elect people who believe that government won't work, you shouldn't be surprised when government stops working.

I want someone who believes that Goverment CAN FUNCTION and can do a better job of its governance, and this is NOT accomplished by giving corporations even more free rein over American life. This is not accomplished by dismantling OSHA and EPA. We in the financial field know this as an absolute truth:

IF THERE WAS NO REGULATION TO THE STOCK MARKET, CONSUMERS AND AMATEURS WOULD BE BROKE IN 24 HOURS.

Regulation and Governance is what made America successful for so long. Free Market, my ass! Without proper regulation and governance, America is doomed. And prime Example #1 is the past seven years and this clown:



The interview with Ron Paul is a good one. Anyone who does any actual background on him can see that he has a very impressive record. In a better country, losers like Guliani and Huckabee would be laughed out of the race. Hillary wouldn't stand a chance as the liberal candidate with her poor voting record and Edwards would be leading, followed closely by Gravel and Kuc.

But we live in a country where our wits, our courage, and our common sense are being held hostage by terrorists (and no, I don't mean the turban wearing kind).

I Link, therefore I am:
Viet Not
Told ya so

TOO GOOD TO MISS : "It's a Blunderful life!"

Patriot Act Pakistan

Where one World Leader leads, others follow...



Musharraf, taking notes at the foot of the master...

Conspiracy to terrorize

Crooks and Liars has Keith Olbermann's latest special comment :
Bush's Criminal Conspiracy of Torture

C&L has the full video and the full transcript as well.

Here are the choicest speaking truth-to-power excerpts:

"The presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush."
...
"All of it is now — after one revelation last week — transparently clear for what it is: the pathetic and desperate manipulation of the government, the re-focusing of our entire nation, towards keeping this mock president, and this unstable vice president, and this departed wildly self-over-rating Attorney General — and the others — from potential prosecution for having approved or ordered the illegal torture of prisoners being held in the name of this country."
...
"Instead, he was forced out as Acting Assistant Attorney General, nearly three years ago, because he had the guts to do what George Bush couldn’t do in a million years: actually put himself at risk for the sake of his country, for the sake of what is right."
...
"Water-boarding, he said, is torture.
Legally, it is torture!
Practically, it is torture!
Ethically, it is torture!

And he wrote it down.
Wrote it down somewhere, where it could be contrasted with the words of this country’s 43rd President: “The United States of America does not torture.”

Made you into a liar, Mr. Bush.

Made you into, if anybody had the guts to pursue it, a criminal, Mr. Bush.

Water-boarding had already been used on Khalid Sheik Mohammed and a couple of other men none of us really care about — except, Sir, for the one detail you’d forgotten — that there are rules, and even if we just make up these rules, this country observes them anyway, because we’re Americans, sir, and we’re better than that.

We’re better than you.

And the man your Justice Department selected to decide whether or not water-boarding was torture, had decided, and not in some phony academic fashion, nor while wearing the Walter Mitty poseur attire of flight-suit and helmet.

He had put his money, Mr. Bush, where your mouth was.

So, your sleazy sycophantic henchman Mr. Gonzales had him append an asterisk suggesting his black-and-white answer wasn’t black-and-white, that there might have been a quasi-legal way of torturing people, maybe with an absolute time limit and a physician entitled to stop it, maybe, if your administration had ever bothered to set any rules or any guidelines…
And then when your people realized that even that was too dangerous, Daniel Levin was branded “too independent” and “someone who could (not) be counted on.”
In other words, Mr. Bush, somebody you couldn’t count on to lie for you."
...
"And they should look into their own committee’s history and recall that in 1973, their predecessors were able to wring even from Richard Nixon, a guarantee of a Special Prosecutor (ultimately a Special Prosecutor of Richard Nixon!), in exchange for their approval of his new Attorney General, Elliott Richardson.

If they could get that out of Nixon, you — before you confirm the President’s latest human echo tomorrow — you better be able to get a “yes” or a “no” out of Michael Mukasey.

Ideally, you should lock this government down financially until a special prosecutor is appointed — or fifty of them — but I’m not holding my breath. The “yes” or the “no” on water-boarding will have to suffice.

Because, remember if you can’t get it, or you won’t with the time between tonight and the next presidential election likely to be the longest year of our lives, you are leaving this country, and all of us, to the water-boards — symbolic and otherwise — of George W. Bush.
Ultimately, Mr. Bush, the real question isn’t who approved the water-boarding of this fiend Khalid Sheik Mohammed and two others.

It is: why were they water-boarded?

Study after study for generation after generation, sir, has confirmed that torture gets people to talk, torture gets people to plead, torture gets people to break, but torture does not get them to tell the truth.

Of course, Mr. Bush, this isn’t a problem if you don’t care if the terrorist plots they tell you about, are the truth or just something to stop the tormentors from drowning them.

If, say, a President simply needed a constant supply of terrorist threats to keep a country scared…

If, say, he needed phony plots to play hero during, and to boast about interrupting, and to use to distract people from the threat he didn’t interrupt…

If, say, he realized that even terrorized people still need good ghost stories before they will let a President pillage the Constitution…

Well, heck, Mr. Bush, who better to dream them up for you… than an actual terrorist?

He’ll tell you every thing he ever fantasized doing, in his most horrific of daydreams — his equivalent of the day you “flew” onto the deck of the Lincoln to explain you’d won in Iraq.
Now if that’s what this is all about — you tortured not because you’re so stupid you think torture produces confession — but you tortured because you’re smart enough to know it produces really authentic-sounding fiction — well, then you’re going to need all the lawyers you can find because that crime wouldn’t just mean impeachment, would it, sir?

That crime would mean George W. Bush is going to prison. "
...
"But at last this frightful plan is ending with an unexpected crash, the shocking reality that no matter how thoroughly you might try to extinguish them, Mr. Bush, how thoroughly you tried to brand disagreement as disloyalty, Mr. Bush, there are still people like Daniel Levin who believe in the United States of America as true freedom, where we are better, not because of schemes and wars, but because of dreams and morals.

And ultimately, sir, these men, these patriots, will defeat you and they will return this country to its righteous standards, and to its rightful owners, the people."

Well, there's ONE real journalist out there, telling it like it is.

Other Olbermann Special Comments

And by the way, I'm done with my part of providing information on this blog.

You, the sons and daughters of America, have to rise to the occasion in your own homes. You have to stand up for what you believe this country is supposed to stand for. My house is not your retreat any longer. It's not your home for feeling as if you are rebelling against the status quo by arguing and bickering. All the information is out there. All the facts about this fascist terrorist in the white house have been laid bare for all to see.

It's time to stop leaning on excuses and pseudo-activism. You either cower in your own little homes, allowing them to herd you where they will - or you ACT.

It's up to all of us to prove that this is NOT A NATION OF SHEEP. It is up to us to save our country from these bloody handed bastards.

For make no mistake, these men are destroying the United States of America far faster and far more completely than any third world nutjob could ever hope to.

There's a thousand ways to stand up for your country and make it a better place. There's only ONE way to let it down and see it ruined forever - and that's by remaining locked into your see-no-evil stare, going about your daily business as if there is nothing wrong.

America needs you. Are you going to sit there and do nothing? If you do, you've got no one to blame but yourselves. In the end, it will take us all, to fix our corrupt government and our maimed democracy. Get out there and lend a hand to your fellow Americans. Speaking out is good, but actions speak louder than words. Vote, run for office, give your time and your money to worthy organizations and people who are out there right now fighting for our country while we let the battle pass us by because we don't want to trouble ourselves to get involved.

Our country is only as great as we make it. If we let the vermin and the corporate leeches and the fat rich ticks suck our country dry, then we don't deserve it.

ONE DOWN

War Profiteer Arrested

Prison's too good for him

http://www.fugly.com/audio/546/prison_bitch.html

.

Politically Correct Dis-claimer: Yeah, it's offensive. But I firmly believe the only thing that deters these republican crooks is when they see the dire results of one of their own getting busted and thrown into prison. If fear of prison rape keeps even ONE of these traitors from pissing on the constitution and dragging decent, patriotic Americans' names through the mud while they try to justify the deaths of thousands- then its worth the offensiveness.

.

Personally, I think this TRAITOR Scooter Libby could serve JUSTICE and prevent further trampling of our freedom by hanging on a gallows on the White House lawn. But until Bush is out of office and America becomes America again, and respects the constitution, I'll have to be satisfied by what punishment he has been given.

.

And if it hurts your feelings THAT bad, just remember that this white collar piece of shit will be protected way more than the average incarcerated American. I just hope he sees the inside of a jail cell instead of opting for suicide in luxurious Aspen like Ken lay.

Crimelords in office

(RE: The Gonzales Wiretapping Investigation from over a year ago)

I remember when the news came out that the investigators didn't have "Security Clearance" and I was like WTF? Who the hell is accountable in this Administration...

Then, there goes Alberto Lewinsky testifying without being under oath, kinda like those oil barons when they were all conspiring with Dick Cheney to craft their own version of Energy Policy. Hell, what next? Let Sex offenders write up Abuse laws under Foley?

The Attorney thing isn't even close to the level of illegality to what Gonzales did in the Wiretapping scandal. There's only ONE Difference. Democrats control Congress now.

Do you get it now, Republicans and Right Wingers? No matter HOW you try to defend these guys, they are out and out career criminals with less concern for the laws of the U.S. than they are with the life of a minority dying in the streets of Baghdad.

They used YOU because they needed your money.
Well, they got it.
Are you proud of what they have done to the Republican party?
Hastert
Delay
Cunningham
Abramoff
Foley
Cheney
Roberts
Stevens
Rove

Not to mention Der Shrubenfuhrer himself.

Bush isn't some Clueless noble at the top- He's as guilty as the rest. Just because he's stupid doesn't mean he hasn't been in on every dirty scheme this admin has put over on the American people!

CALL your damn Reps and tell them the time to completely disband this criminal empire has come!

Bush versus Bush

Something really big is happening.

Bush senior has stood aside for too long. He had high hopes, he gave a thousand second chances, but in the end, the father knows his final duty to his son, his country.

Baker was the first hammer blow. Dubya, losing on all fronts, finally went to his dad's men for help. What he got was Baker. Bush was led to believe that Baker's ISG was supposed to set the course for more illusions about Iraq. He was wrong.

Gates was the second hammer blow. But without any other options, Bush pushed Gates instead of another of his loyalist cronies, who were sure to be grilled much more than Gates ended up being. Gates was a thousand times more up front than ANY of the Republicans who we have seen expound on Bush's policies, as they repeated them verbatim.

I have been holding out on my judgement on Gates. My fellow liberals want to throw him to the wolves, but I have some good things from some people close to him. Gates holds no sense of loyalty to Shrub.

And the day after Gates attains his position, the ISG comes down hard on "staying the course"= which they had to. Bush senior knows what the entire Republican party (except perhaps Lincoln Chafee) does not- Iraq IS a Failure and Immediate withdrawal is necessary for all the reasons I have expounded upon before. Plus One: The House of Saud is no longer happy with Iraq. The seismic echoes from Baghdad are being felt more and more in Saudi Arabia. Bush Sr. knows what he has to do.

So the orders have come down from Daddy Bush- which is another reason he was crying in Jeb's arms the other day. He has just orchestrated the final nail in his own son's political coffin. But only after George jr had put so many nails in the Republican party's coffin.

Bush has ruined the Republican party for the next decade, maybe longer. Bush Sr. can't let his son drunkenly screw the pooch any longer. It's over for Dubya, and a father cries for a son that even he has to admit is a complete and utter failure.

It's about goddamn time Bush whipped his son's miserable ass.
It's about time.

Impeachment is TOO Good.

"The Government, being resolved to undertake the political and moral purification of our public life, are creating and securing the conditions necessary for a really profound revival of religious life." - Adolph Hitler, in a speech at the Reichstag on March 23, 1933

"No matter what amount of talent is employed in the organization of propaganda, it will have no result if due account is not taken of these fundamental principles. Propaganda must be limited to a few simple themes and these must be represented again and again. Here, as in innumerable other cases, perseverance is the first and most important condition of success."Mein Kampf; the James Murphy translation. February, 1939

For President Bush, Impeachment isn't enough, by far.

3000 dead Americans. 25,000 seriously injured, some of whom will never lead normal lives ever again. A world that used to respect America for it's freedoms now fears and despises us for our hypocrisy. Lady Liberty's hands have been bloodied by a madman and a fool. An idiot who was so convinced that he was right that NO price was too high. No Constitutional law was important enough respect as he blundered along his destructive path. No immoral act was too shameful for him to lower our country to, in his so-called quest to "protect" us.

President Bush and his advisers, with the power of Congress behind them after 9-11 began making big changes to our Government. The first blow to the Constitution was the "Patriot" Act. Then he began spying on everyone whose agenda was suspect, chiefly not on terrorists, but on anti-war protesters.

He bought media sources and inserted pro-war, pro-fear propaganda wherever possible. He dropped taxes on the rich, effectively paying off Corporations and the affluent to help support his policies. To pay for these tax-cuts his Congress cut benefits for welfare and college tuition assistance. Who cares? The middle class doesn't mean anything.

He controlled the rich with promises of more tax cuts, and controlled the poor with threats of terror and inspiring fear among the common man. He used his religion as a bludgeon, he told us he did NOT NEED Complex reasons for his actions. He played the prophet while his Pharisees in Congress played the politics of sucking on the teat of Lobbyist cash. They scaled back the EPA, OSHA, and countless other important agencies for money from the Corporations. They traded the health and welfare of the very people of America for Corporate gold. They gave tax cuts to oil companies and cut alternative energy programs. President Bush appointed CEO after CEO of industry hacks into positions of "oversight".

He looted our Budget. Only one of his harmful plans didn't go as planned- And if you are retired, you better thank God for that. His privatization of Social Security would have worked as well as letting Halliburton "assist" in Iraq. In short it would be a nightmare that bled our nation's elderly dry. But as gullible as the American public was on WMD, and torture and spying - they didn't quite trust Grandma's money to Bush's Cadre of Larry Kudlow scumbags.

So, no- Impeachment is Not Enough. Although the best possible action for America would be removing this fool from the Office of the President as soon as we can.

But embarrassing this man isn't enough. He doesn't know what shame is. He's a cruel, vindictive little man who has disgraced our nation. He deserves more than simply losing a job that his Daddy's money got him.

I want him to apologize personally to every family who has lost a soldier for LYING TO THEM. I want him to ask forgiveness for sending those troops to die for a Lie.

I want him stripped of all possessions- I want him homeless, barefoot and befuddled. I want him starving and dehydrated for a week while under camera lights like he left so many Katrina victims. I want him to KNOW what it is to not have anything. Not Daddy's money, not his oil buddies bailing him out. I want "W" to be branded into his forehead like the mark of Cain.

I want him to walk the breadth of Iraq, wearing an irradiated uranium collar made from the shrapnel that our troops are exposed to. I want him to stop in every Iraqi city to see what he is responsible for. I want him to hold a dead Iraqi child killed by an airstrike in his guilty hands. I want him to bury that child in front of its family.

But most of all I want him to UNDERSTAND. I want him to OPEN HIS EYES and see the truth of what he has wrought on the world. I want him to comprehend how he has hurt America, Americans, and how his actions will hurt Americans for years to come.

I am an atheist, but I even wish there WAS a god, who could render a more perfect judgement than I on the miserable excuse for a human being that George Bush is.

But, I expect I will be lucky to get even an impeachment. I know one thing, for the rest of American history, the time President Bush II was in office WILL be considered a dark time in America's past. He will be vilified. Eventually we will ALL know the full list of his crimes and his "legacy" will be treated accordingly.

Good Riddance!

Rumsfeld commits seppuku - well resigns anyway. He doesn't have the required sense of honor to commit suicide over his part in the deaths of thousands of Americans.

And don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out, you inept worthless murdering torturing cocksucker!

Take back your Country

The right wingers HATED it when Pres. Clinton stood up to the GOP Media.
They hated it when Sen. Kerry made fun of their inept dysfunctional deity, Bush Alrighty.

They hate it when the only liberal in the main stream media, Keith Olbermann, speaks out in eloquent speech after speech about the immoral leadership of our country.

They hate it when Democrats hold the feet of the GOP to the fire.

Don't give in. Keep it up. Support the men who are fighting back, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, against the cretins who are ruining the United States.

Hold these damn Republicans accountable.
Hold The President Accountable.
Hold Rumsfeld Accountable -
and yes- even hold the moron down your street with the W bumper sticker Accountable!

Don't let them shout you down.
Their incompetence, their corruption, and their outright sexual harassment of Lady Liberty is OVER. Take back YOUR country.