#$%#^&#!!
Is my general reaction to the slow degradation of USA. I cant wait to get out of this country.
Too...angry...to...type
He's lucky he didn't "disappear" or that Cheney didn't have his shotgun.
Cheney is an meglomaniac asshole--but wait, we knew that.
don't say that to his face, GramMa....
But... How... I mean... What...
*360-degree head spin*
You have to wonder sometimes how it could possibly be that there is anyone left on the planet, including Laura and the dog, who could possibly...POSSIBLY... say aloud that they support and agree with what this administration is doing to America and beyond. How is it possible that > 30 percent of Americans still approve of what Bush is doing? Who are these people, and what is their IQ?
What would *you* say if you had a chance to tell DC one thing?
I'd say:
(sung to the tune of 'The Colonel Bogey March, AKA The Bridge Over The River Kwai March)
"George Bush has only got one ball
Cheney has two but very small
Rice has pubic lice
and Rumsfeld's got no balls at all"
Either that or
"You can get anything you want at Alice's restaraunt".
Last person to leave the experiment with democracy please turn out the lights.
It is interesting to observe the way things are coming about. It is not as if the Constitution
and our personal freedoms have slowly eroded over eighty or ninety years. Up until six years ago I think there would be a reasonable argument that personal and political freedoms had been growing during the previous decades. What is grim is the degree and speed with which our freedoms have been taken/given away. Many of Bush's supporters are family folk. Children and grandchildren. Can they not see what lies ahead for their own flesh and blood? I really don't want to believe they are taking this rapture business seriously. If so they may be involved in developing the worst of all self fulfilling prophesies.
Perceived safety instead of freedom? It's my impression that the concept of (real) freedom is threatening to a lot of folks since it would mean that others could be as effective in driving changes as they are. They (those who think not preaching to the choir is threatening) have sadly found the emotional language to stymie a wider freedom.
I've met a lot of them over the years: people who look as though they've been hit upside the head because someone disagreed with them, because they've only heard one viewpoint in their safe, little communities. They have no way to respond since they have not met differing opinions, so they parrot the talking points they've been given.
There have been many polls over time which showed that many Americans would not approve the constitution or bill of rights as they stands. Too liberal.
Maybe this is just another cycle, and we'll get back to a balance at some point, but I'm not counting on it. Liberals have not found a way to speak to the country at large. Shame on us.
#$%#^&#!!
Is my general reaction to the slow degradation of USA. I cant wait to get out of this country.
Good to know I'm not the only one who feels this way. Sick of the seemingly unstoppable downward spiral. Something will give one of these days, and I don't want to be around when it does. An important lesson was taught to the eight year-old son nonetheless - as heartbreaking as it was...
Shame on us again.
While I bitch about all this at least as much as anyone, I'm not ready to give up. In the 1930s and the 1960/70s, a groundswell of public opinion resulted in demonstrations that (I think) made some changes in the direction of the US. We seem to have slept through the 1990s, if this is a 30-year phenomenon, but liberals have become so passive that bitching on the electronic waves is about all we seem to do before we wonder where else in the world we can move to deliver the country 100% over to the hands of those who would turn the country into a theocracy. How pathetic we are!
Are we willing to go out of our houses to make our opinions known? Could we fill the lawn in the mall in DC to show our strength? Are we willing to risk arrest? Is there any righteous anger left? Or do we just not have any leaders who could coalesce what we all feel?
I know it would be difficult with the fences that keep demonstrators hidden from the media, but why would we put up with that? To the barricades, my oountrymen!
No, you're not ready for that? Are we all too comfortable in our computer-bounded lives? Shame on us all. I don't think the unions, or the college kids are focusing on what's going on, so it could be up to adults to take charge. Isn't it about time:?
Where's our rightous anger, except on the internet?
In the 1960's and '70's, the groundswell of public opinion among the university students was due in no small part to the fact that those very young men were being drafted into war and killed. Now we leave it up to volunteers and misinformed national guardsmen, which is just as tragic and just as wrong, but a little less personal and a lot less likely to directly affect the affluent, liberal college kid. We don't lose our brothers and friends in Vietnam, we blog. Electronic rage is a lot easier and less messy.
I was just thinking yesterday that the quickest way to end the war would be to reinstate the draft. Sure, a certain percentage of rich kids will always find a way to stay out of the trenches and grow up to be Presidents, but the upper- and middle-middle class would only stand for it just so long.
We seem to have slept through the 1990sI didn't. As matter-of-fact, I never stopped. But when speaking your voice in this day and age gets you labeled as a treason-committing, citizen enemy combatant, I think the time is nigh...
I have not yet given up, but things will surely only get worse before they change or get better. It's a risk I'm not sure I can afford now.
*rocks my baby girl to sleep*
Long-distance love and help to rock that baby girl, and the same energy to Path to take up the Great Adult Revolution. Make Love, Not War, and consult your doctor if an erection lasts for more than 4 hours.
AARRGh. I just put together a really wonderous history of the development of protests in the 50s, 60s and 70s, with links and everything. Then, I lost the whole thing. So, here's a summary.
SMT - you can't do it alone. There needs to be a core group who can organize efforts to make a splash.
RTD - there's a long history that leads up to the Viet Nam protests. My first exposure was in Berkeley, when students organized a vigil to protest the execution of Carl Chessman in 1957 or 58. Soon thereafter, there were non-violent sit down demonstrations on the steps of City Hall in San Franciso to protest the attempts of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee to bring their bile to California(Google HUAC and Joseph McCarthy if you're not familiar with that.) The police over reacted and dragged demonstrators down the long flight of stone steps by the feet - heads bumping all the way.
About the same time, the campus political party Slate started up. Their focus was local, and they had really good parties.
My last memory of Berkeley was a sit down demonstration on the steps of Sproul Hall (the administration building) to protest the requirement that Dean Rusk's son had to join ROTC, even though he was a conscientious objector. (His father was JFK's Secretary of State, and a hawk.) The demonstrators eventually took over the building and may have gone beyond the expectation of the organizers by trashing records. I'd lost contact by then.
Slate eveolved into protesting the lack of cival rights for blacks in the southern US. They'd learned some organizational skills by then and took them to the South with voting drives, marches and sit ins. That they were seen as a threat to the status quo is evident in the deaths of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. Please Google those names if they're new to you.
The cival rights movement was largely successful from a political standpoint, and the fanned out organization noticed that the Viet Nam war was a travesty. And, their huge protests had an effect of the outcome. But, I don't think they could have done it without the practice that dated back close to 20 years.
I've thought about contacting the icons of the original movement in Berkeley since they would have invalualbel advice. The thing that worries me is that I don't see any activity by them during this current crisis.
I'm sure you notices my spelling mistakes, so I don't bore you with corrections.
It's ugly, but y'know you can get taken in for cursing at a cop - same thing.
I dunno, I'm not so outraged by the actual article. It's bad, yeah, but from a purely techincal, legal point of view I don't see it as anything necessarily new.
The Detainee-Torture bill they just passed - now that's fuckin' outrageous and heinously un-American.
But this seems like the average Dick being a dick story. An extreme example, yes, but y'know, you can't throw pig blood on him either.
because it causes him to revert to his true reptilian form breifly
Gotta go with petebest. Someone - anyone - complains to the police about an assault, they have to investigate it (assaults can be verbal). As it so happens the guy who is complaining is the Veep, so the SS is involved. And they’re extra cautious so they hold the guy for a bit in case he’s upset or something and might do something rash. So it sounds like they didn’t think the charge had any base - given that the DA dropped the charges. And indeed - he was released on bond (and apparently not declared an enemy combatant and stripped of his habeus corpus rights). I wouldn’t confuse the poor character of Dick Cheney with any flaws in the system. That and he’s suing the SS man who detained him on behalf of Cheney. I’d say the system is working well in this case. Particularly if he (figuratively) puts a (legal) boot into the (publicity) groin of the SS and the VP’s office. I think the SS guy (unfortunate last name btw) will get off - he was merely investigating the complaint and protecting the VP (and - importantly - let the guy go) - but certainly Cheney is open to all kinds of ass for setting the cops on a guy who calmly said he disagreed with his policies and walked away.
and grow up to be Presidents, but the upper- and middle-middle class would only stand for it just so long.