Politics, Everyday, All day... morning, noon and night....

[cowboyangel]

ooooooo... bad word from cowboyangel.......my halo is crooked today

[stuart]

In it he claims that on September 13, 2001, dozens of Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family fled the U.S. in a secret airlift authorized by the Bush White House.

'he claims' is a little too soft. this info was readily available within a few weeks of 9/11 but the press was too busy propping up the 'war president' to run with the story. The facts are uncontroversial.

[G.W.B.]

2. I dont need to prove what is posted in the http://www.sinfinity.net link because the accused in the link have left a huge paper trail. if you do your research ( I have, and I'm not gonna do it for you nor hold your hand.) It is common knowledge what the Bush family's history is. Has been for 4 generations.

3. I dont need to prove any of the above because it will be totally clear before the year is out. I need not write the book here. there are plenty of them written already.

4. fools like Bush always fail because 1) it's genetic, 2) their IQ shows it, and 3) they always fuck up in a big public way. (this is proven with Nixon.)

come back to me in about 2 months with the same question.

Man, These guys were just too simple huh?

[G.W.B.]

It's gonna be fun to watch Bush and Cheney back peddle their way out of their friendship with Kenneth Lay now that the Enron tapes are out.
Everyone that worked for Enron that lost their pension I have no sympathy for.

The fact is that people like the Bush family and Cheney don’t give 2 flying fucks about anyone. Not even about themselves and their families. They are truly fucked in the head. This I say because these people (Bush and the likes.) have made the world miserable for lots of people.
For my friends from all over the world that would like come visit me in the states that are very cool people and send me great business, they just don’t want to be bothered anymore.

[Lilly Flower]

Wait till MMore's film now in distribution comes out....Bush is fuckin toast!!

http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic. ... 2623#52623

Michael Moore is Hot right now!

A II Z

Michael Moore is whore catering to those who buy his product... and he is quite a salesman.

So like.....do you think that the Bush's and the Bin Ladens are gonna sue Moore for slander.

[cowboyangel]

The entire friggin house of cards is coming down.....check this out


Bush Consults Lawyer in CIA Leak Case
By The Associated Press

Wednesday 02 June 2004

Washington - President Bush has consulted an outside lawyer about possibly representing him in the grand jury investigation of who leaked the name of a covert CIA operative last year, White House officials said Wednesday night.

There was no indication that Bush was a target of the leak investigation, but the president's move suggested he anticipates being questioned about what he knows.

A federal grand jury has questioned numerous White House and administration officials to learn who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame, wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to the news media. Wilson has charged that officials made the disclosure in an effort to discredit him.

"The president has made it very clear he wants everyone to cooperate fully with the investigation and that would include himself," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

He confirmed that Bush had contacted Washington attorney Jim Sharp. "In the event the president needs his advice, I expect he probably would retain him," McClellan said.

A number of journalists have received federal subpoenas to face questioning about the leak, and FBI officials have visited the White House to interview officials. There was no indication Bush had been questioned yet.

Bush has been an outspoken critics of leaks, saying they can be very damaging, but he has expressed doubts that the government's investigation will pinpoint who was responsible. While Bush has said he welcomed the investigation, it has been an awkward development for a president who promised to bring integrity and leadership to the White House after years of Republican criticism and investigations of the Clinton administration.

Even though he has a White House counsel, Bush is dependent on outside lawyers for private matters. A memo distributed to the staff last year reminded officials that the counsel's office works solely for the president in his official capacity and is not a private attorney for anyone.

Democrats seized on the news to criticize the president.

"It speaks for itself that the president initially claimed he wanted to get to the bottom of this, but now he's suddenly retained a lawyer," said Jano Cabrera, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. "Bush shouldn't drag the country through grand juries and legal maneuvering. President Bush should come forward with what he knows and come clean with the American people."

Plame was first identified by syndicated columnist and TV commentator Robert Novak in a column last July. Novak said his information came from administration sources.

Wilson has said he believes his wife's name was leaked because of his criticism of Bush administration claims that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium from Niger, which Wilson investigated for the CIA and found to be untrue.

Disclosure of an undercover officer's identity can be a federal crime. The grand jury has heard from witnesses and combed through thousands of pages of documents turned over by the White House, but returned no indictments.

The probe is being handled by Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, appointed after Attorney General John Ashcroft stepped aside from case because of his political ties to the White House.

Absent a breakthrough from the documents or a cooperating witness, prosecutors may be forced to try to identify the leaker through Novak or other reporters. However, journalists pressed by the prosecution could assert a First Amendment privilege to protect their sources.

Wilson has suggested in a book that the leaker was Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Cheney. But Wilson's book, "The Politics of Truth," give no conclusive evidence for the claim.

The White House denies the claim and accuses Wilson of seeking to bolster the campaign of Democrat John Kerry, for whom he has acted as a foreign policy adviser.

Wilson also said it's possible the leak came from Elliott Abrams, a figure in the Reagan administration Iran-Contra affair and now a member of Bush's National Security Council. And Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, may have circulated information about Wilson and Plame "in administration and neoconservative circles" even if Rove was not himself the leaker, Wilson writes.

Another possibility is that two lower-level officials in Cheney's office - John Hannah or David Wurmser - leaked Plame's identity at the behest of higher-ups "to keep their fingerprints off the crime," Wilson speculates.

Bush expressed doubt last year that the leaker would be found.

"You tell me: how many sources have you had that's leaked information, that you've exposed or had been exposed? Probably none," Bush said last October.

"I don't know if we're going to find out the senior administration official," Bush said then. "I don't have any idea. I'd like to. I want to know the truth."

But Bush said, "This is a large administration and there's a lot of senior officials."

[Force]

My favorite political tidbit of the day, for the sheer laugh-out-loud silliness factor, is politicians trying to ram through legislation that would let someone in the gummint APPOINT legislators in the case of a massive kill-off of say the house or the senate. Like if someone flew a plane into one of them while it was in session.

These guys obviously have a waaaay overinflated sense of their own actual importance.

The silliness factor that caused me to giggle so was that this reminded me of that wonderful old lady in the "Mars Attacks!" movie laughing hysterically as she says "they blew up congress!"

Heaven forfend we should have to live (nay, wrong word, endure) for 30-90 days until a special election could be arranged without the government sticking it's nose into our business or making more laws restricting our freedoms or stripping away more civil liberties...

More fun can be had by envisioning what these legislators think the immediate effect of their mass demise would be;

All people in America upon hearing the news;

fall to the ground and weep uncontrollably

or maybe

curl up into a fetal position sucking our thumbs

or maybe

drive our cars into the nearest immovable object

or maybe

strip our clothes off, set fire to our hair and just run screaming willy-nilly and biting each other like crazed weasels

or maybe

just stand and stare dumbly without a thought in our heads of what to do next

see, it's fun! How many can you come up with?

[stuart]

house of cards

hee hee hoo hoo ha ha

and now tenet is loose

I wonder what he'd like to chat about.

Any wagers on how long it will take for him to get a book out?

[cowboyangel]

it's like a bunch of rats jumping off a sinking ship..........and what an death-dysfunctional ship it is!

[glam_daddy]

view the michael moore 911 trailer online

there is a link here:

http://www.thefreespeechzone.net



and while we are doing video here is a video i never get tired of:

http://www.moveon.org/censure/caughtonvideo/

[cowboyangel]

thank-you glam-daddy!

[stuart]

i laughed
i cried
i fell down
i scratched my head
i threw up

[cowboyangel]

we gotta get the Munchkins out to sing "ding dong the witch is dead, the whicked witch of the west is dead< ding dong the whicked witch is dead"......
thankyou judy garland........

[Last Real Burner]

Dear President Bush

I hereby offer my resignation as Head of the President's Commitee On Needless and Deliberatly Overused Minutia. I am citing failing financial health and personal reasons. I intend to step down today before the media comes looking for the next scapegoat.

you'res very truly,
mr smith
Head of the C.O.N.D.O.M




PS. George W., you're Christmas gift this year really sucked.

[cowboyangel]

the definitive tome on hating Bush from the great Molly Ivans ( I saw Molly paragliding over the Caribbean once)

Call Me a Bush-Hater

Among the more amusing cluckings from the right lately is their appalled discovery that quite a few Americans actually think George W. Bush is a terrible President.

Robert Novak is quoted as saying in all his forty-four years of covering politics, he has never seen anything like the detestation of Bush. Charles Krauthammer managed to write an entire essay on the topic of "Bush-haters" in Time magazine as though he had never before come across a similiar phenomenon.

Oh, I stretch memory way back, so far back, all the way back to--our last President. Almost lost in the mists of time though it is, I not only remember eight years of relentless attacks from Clinton-haters, I also notice they haven't let up yet. Clinton-haters accused the man of murder, rape, drug-running, sexual harassment, financial chicanery, and official misconduct. And they accuse his wife of even worse. For eight long years, this country was a zoo of Clinton-haters. Any idiot with a big mouth and a conspiracy theory could get a hearing on radio talk shows and "Christian" broadcasts and nutty Internet sites. People with transparent motives, people paid by tabloid magazines, people with known mental problems, ancient Clinton enemies with notoriously racist pasts--all were given hearings, credence, and air time. Sliming Clinton was a sure road to fame and fortune on the right, and many an ambitious young rightwing hit man like David Brock, who has since made full confession, took that golden opportunity.

And these folks didn't stop with verbal and printed attacks. From the day Clinton was elected to office, he was the subject of the politics of personal destruction. They went after him with a multimillion dollar smear campaign funded by Richard Mellon Scaife, the rightwing billionaire. They went after him with lawsuits funded by rightwing legal foundations (Paula Jones), they got special counsels appointed to investigate every nitpicking nothing that ever happened (Filegate, Travelgate), and they never let go of that hardy perennial Whitewater. After all this time and all those millions of dollars wasted, no one has ever proved that the Clintons did a single thing wrong. Bill Clinton lied about a pathetic, squalid affair that was none of anyone else's business anyway, and for that they impeached the man and dragged this country through more than a year of the most tawdry, ridiculous, unnecessary pain. The day President Clinton tried to take out Osama bin Laden with a missile strike, every rightwinger in America said it was a case of "wag the dog." He was supposedly trying to divert our attention from the much more breathtakingly important and serious matter of Monica Lewinsky, and who did he think he was to make us focus on some piffle like bin Laden?

"The puzzle is where this depth of feeling comes from," mused the ineffable Mr. Krauthammer. Gosh, what a puzzle that is. How could anyone not be just crazy about George W. Bush? "Whence the anger?" asks Krauthammer. "It begins of course with the 'stolen' election of 2000 and the perception of Bush's illegitimacy." I'd say so myself, yes, I would. I was in Florida during that chilling post-election fight, and am fully persuaded to this good day that Al Gore actually won Florida, not to mention getting 550,000 more votes than Bush overall. But I also remember thinking, as the scene became eerier and eerier, "Jeez, maybe we should just let them have this one, because Republican wing-nuts are so crazy, their bitterness would poison Gore's whole Presidency." The night Gore conceded the race in one of the most graceful and honorable speeches I have ever heard, I was in a ballroom full of Republican Party flacks who booed and jeered through every word of it.

One thing I acknowledge about the right is that they're much better haters than liberals are. Your basic liberal--milk of human kindness flowing through every vein, and heart bleeding over everyone from the milk-shy Hottentot to the glandular obese--is pretty much a strikeout on the hatred front. Maybe further out on the left you can hit some good righteous anger, but liberals, and I am one, are generally real wusses. Guys like Rush Limbaugh figured that out a long time ago--attack a liberal and the first thing he says is, "You may have a point there."

To tell the truth, I'm kind of proud of us for holding the grudge this long. Normally, we'd remind ourselves that we have to be good sports, it's for the good of the country, we must unite behind the only President we've got, as Lyndon used to remind us. If there are still some of us out here sulking, "Yeah, but they stole that election," well, good. I don't think we should forget that.

But, onward. So George Dubya becomes President, having run as a "compassionate conservative," and what do we get? Hell's own conservative and dick for compassion.

His entire first eight months was tax cuts for the rich, tax cuts for the rich, tax cuts for the rich, and he lied and said the tax cuts would help average Americans. Again and again, the "average" tax cut would be $1,000. That means you get $100, and the millionaire gets $92,000, and that's how they "averaged" it out. Then came 9/11, and we all rallied. Ready to give blood, get out of our cars and ride bicycles, whatever. Shop, said the President. And more tax cuts for the rich.

By now, we're starting to notice Bush's bait-and-switch. Make a deal with Ted Kennedy to improve education and then fail to put money into it. Promise $15 billion in new money to combat AIDS in Africa (wow!) but it turns out to be a cheap con, almost no new money. Bush comes to praise a job training effort, then cuts the money. Bush says AmeriCorps is great, then cuts the money. Gee, what could we possibly have against this guy? We go along with the war in Afghanistan, and we still don't have bin Laden.

Then suddenly, in the greatest bait-and-switch of all time, Osama bin doesn't matter at all, and we have to go after Saddam Hussein, who had nothing to do with 9/11. But he does have horrible weapons of mass destruction, and our President "without doubt," without question, knows all about them, even unto the amounts--tons of sarin, pounds of anthrax. So we take out Saddam Hussein, and there are no weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore, the Iraqis are not overjoyed to see us.

By now, quite a few people who aren't even liberal are starting to say, "Wha the hey?" We got no Osama, we got no Saddam, we got no weapons of mass destruction, the road map to peace in the Middle East is blown to hell, we're stuck in this country for $87 billion just for one year and no one knows how long we'll be there. And still poor Mr. Krauthammer is hard-put to conceive how anyone could conclude that George W. Bush is a poor excuse for a President.

Chuck, honey, it ain't just the 2.6 million jobs we've lost: People are losing their pensions, their health insurance, the cost of health insurance is doubling, tripling in price, the Administration wants to cut off their overtime, and Bush was so too little, too late with extending unemployment compensation that one million Americans were left high and dry. And you wonder why we think he's a lousy President?

Sure, all that is just what's happening in people's lives, but what we need is the Big Picture. Well, the Big Picture is that after September 11, we had the sympathy of every nation on Earth. They all signed up, all our old allies volunteered, everybody was with us, and Bush just booted all of that away. Sneering, jeering, bad manners, hideous diplomacy, threats, demands, arrogance, bluster.

"In Afghanistan, Bush rode a popular tide; Iraq, however, was a singular act of Presidential will," says Krauthammer.

You bet your ass it was. We attacked a country that had done nothing to us, had nothing to do with Al Qaeda, and turns out not to have weapons of mass destruction.

It is not necessary to hate George W. Bush to think he's a bad President. Grownups can do that, you know. You can decide someone's policies are a miserable failure without lying awake at night consumed with hatred.

Poor Bush is in way over his head, and the country is in bad shape because of his stupid economic policies.

If that makes me a Bush-hater, then sign me up.

[Simply Joel]

the definitive tome on hating Bush from the great Molly Ivans ( I saw Molly paragliding over the Caribbean once)

To begin with... paragliding has always been the measuring stick for my political pundits... no paragliding, I won't read it... yessireebob.

On a more personal note, I nearly gag each and every time I read Molly Ivans' opinions... she no more reflects my positions, values and beliefs than Rush Limbaugh does... at this point, both individuals I make every effort to ignore, avoid... and at times, detest.

Now, on a different slant... why, as a society rely on a paternal figure (the presidency, the office, not a specific person) to make everything alright?

where is the legislature when it comes to funding the war... they have the responsibility to question the executive branch's requests for appropriation and expenditures

References are made to the president constantly, but why aren't "we" holding our congressmen/women accountable as well?

US Constitution

Section 8.


The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of Particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards and other needful Buildings;--And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.


In my humble opinion, the legislative branch of our government is remiss in its duties...

yeah, the current president isn't pleasing me with his performance... yet as Molly Ivans wrote "we must unite behind the only President we've got, as Lyndon used to remind us."

[cowboyangel]

well...sure it's the legislature+non-voters+the ill informed + etc etc.....I actually believe the democracy is in the shits because of the systemic and utter failure of the press to do it's job without (corporate) bias, with courage,
without ideology, with scholarship, without kiss-ass White House press corps filtering and interference.....aghhhhhh
Molly will sit down at any bar anytime of day and have a round of honest political chat along with good Texas bourbon

[Simply Joel]

Nope, I am not buying the media not doing their job line of thinking.

The media has no constitutional responsiblity to anyone.

The media has always sold something, factual or otherwise.

You did hit upon one issue when you typed...

"systemic and utter failure of the press to do it's job without (corporate) bias, with courage,
without ideology, with scholarship, without kiss-ass White House press corps filtering and interference.....aghhhhhh"

That issue is "ethics"

Maybe another thread.... What are your ethics, your elected officials ethics, the stores you buy from ethics... are you an ethical consumer?

far too many questions, far too many unanswered...

[cowboyangel]

we better watch out Joel or this'll become the Joel/cowboyangel post.
"Everything" begins with whatever information we put in our heads, and since 100% of life starts with the thinking mind, this becomes crucial as our ability to destroy life proceedes as it is. Therefore, I think Thomas Jefferson said this , to paraphrase< a democracy is only as good as the freedom of the press to challenge it is> If people are fed a steady supply of half-truths, no-truths, outright lies, subterfuge, corporate blather, etc, how can we expect a democracy to function let alone flourish? As Micheal Parenti says, "who has an outpost in your head?" Extensive, cross the board reading is one answer, the other is, watch who foots the bill...that'll tell ya something.....

[stuart]

Joel, shame on you for bringing up the constitution. Haven't you been told? That's SO pre 9/11. That quaint old rag aint worth the paper it's printed on these days. (OK, so, being an antiquity, the paper is probably worth a pretty penny, but you get the idea.)


remember that old saw? Only the Congress shall have the power to make war. Whatever.

[Simply Joel]

"The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare. "
-- Daniel Patrick Moynihan (as quoted in NY Times, Mar 2, 1976)

"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."
-- Will Rogers

[cowboyangel]

another CIA rat jumping the ship...why don't these guys come clean and unburden the conscience of America? Fear death? what?

[Simply Joel]

How long do you expect someone to serve after qualifying for full retirement pay... the guy was there 6 years longer than required.

Oh yeah, nothing pleases the discontent.

[cowboyangel]

if the truth be known.....there's simply too much to hide and it's bursting at the seams to get out.....stay tuned......the truth is winning and all I have to say about that ...is.....fucking finally

[Lilly Flower]

another CIA rat jumping the ship...why don't these guys come clean and unburden the conscience of America? Fear death? what?

Everyone is jumping ship it seems. Oh my!


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Friday he could soon leave office, a remark sure to fuel speculation the No. 2 U.S. diplomat and his boss, Secretary of State Colin Powell, will not serve another term.
"I suspect my days of public service, given my age, are just about over," the 59-year-old diplomat said in an interview.

Many political analysts believe Powell and Armitage do not want to stay on if President Bush wins re-election. Media reports periodically suggest the two, who resisted the administration's push to invade Iraq more than other senior officials, will leave their posts together next year.

It is likely Armitage, who ran an international consulting company before joining Powell in the Bush administration in 2001, would exit only when his close friend does, analysts say.

Asked repeatedly if they would continue leading U.S. diplomacy should Bush win again, the former military men typically use the refrain that they "serve at the pleasure of the president."

But Armitage, who has a reputation for candor, was more direct in the interview taped by 11-year-olds for a school presentation.

Asked how he won the nickname, 'Powell's bulldog,' the barrel-chested weight-lifter told Delaware Valley Elementary School TV: "How unfair. I thought it would be 'Powell's poodle,' which has some alliteration."

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

Oh dear, I wonder, will anyone of these people be held accountable for thier actions once they've left thier positions?

[Lilly Flower]

the people want a body. Who will the admin give to them? We know it won't likely be tenet. CIA and the WH have a detante of dirty little secrets. If I had to guess, I would say ashcroft gets sold out. It's been looking, in the hearings, like he's the guy they have not been protecting. Also, he's enough of a zealout that they can probably trust him to take one for the teem and keep quiet.

any thoughts?

another CIA rat jumping the ship...why don't these guys come clean and unburden the conscience of America? Fear death? what?

if the truth be known.....there's simply too much to hide and it's bursting at the seams to get out.....stay tuned......the truth is winning and all I have to say about that ...is.....fucking finally

My goodness, what will be next?

[Force]

References are made to the president constantly, but why aren't "we" holding our congressmen/women accountable as well?

In my humble opinion, the legislative branch of our government is remiss in its duties...

yeah, the current president isn't pleasing me with his performance... yet as Molly Ivans wrote "we must unite behind the only President we've got, as Lyndon used to remind us."

And why exactly MUST we unite behind the only president we've got, so that we can invade another country that has done nothing to us, see more of our friends and brothers and fathers killed? So that we can encourage more tax cuts for the rich?

Please enlighten me here. What benefit accrues to me or my fellowman from "uniting behind" this retarded drunken cowboy cokehead? And what the hell exactly does "uniting behind" mean anyway- rahrahing our government when I disagree with most of their actions to date, or just keeping my mouth shut so as not to face persecution? Doesn't sound too democratic to me.

As for why we aren't holding our congressmen/women accountable as well, we are now suffering under the bootheel of the tyranny of the stupid/easily swayed who either do not have the time or the desire to read everything they would need to to make informed decisions.

The solution; talk to the stupid, email them, call in to radio shows (even comedy radio shows, ridiculing our dysfunctional government in a pithy soundbitable way can be VERY effective, ala "Bringing Down a Dictator"- wonderful documentary) whatever. I know it's not all that pleasureable sometimes, but it's your patriotic duty.

Beats having to take up arms against a dictatorship, doesn't it? So quitcher whining and just do it.

[Force]

References are made to the president constantly, but why aren't "we" holding our congressmen/women accountable as well?

In my humble opinion, the legislative branch of our government is remiss in its duties...

yeah, the current president isn't pleasing me with his performance... yet as Molly Ivans wrote "we must unite behind the only President we've got, as Lyndon used to remind us."

And why exactly MUST we unite behind the only president we've got?

So that we can invade another country that has done nothing to us, see more of our friends and brothers and fathers killed? So that we can encourage more tax cuts for the rich?

Please enlighten me here. What benefit accrues to me or my fellowman from "uniting behind" this retarded drunken cowboy cokehead while he willfully fucks us over by handing MY money which should be spent on services for me and mine, over to the rich who have more money than they'll ever be able to spend anyway, and leads us into war for the good of oil businesses?

And what the hell exactly does "uniting behind" mean anyway- rahrahing our government when I disagree with most of their actions to date, or just keeping my mouth shut so as not to face persecution? Doesn't sound too democratic to me.

As for why we aren't holding our congressmen/women accountable as well, we are now suffering under the bootheel of the tyranny of the stupid/easily swayed who either do not have the time or the desire to read everything they would need to to make informed decisions.

The solution; talk to the stupid, email them, call in to radio shows (even comedy radio shows, ridiculing our dysfunctional government in a pithy soundbitable way can be VERY effective, ala "Bringing Down a Dictator"- wonderful documentary) whatever. I know it's not all that pleasureable sometimes, but it's your patriotic duty.

Beats having to take up arms against a dictatorship, doesn't it? So quitcher whining and just do it.

[G.W.B.]

No No No No, Get that Goddamn camera outta here.

[Bambi of Finland]

No No No No, Get that Goddamn camera outta here.

In the den of Ronald Reagan, just before he died.