a 3rd and maybe4th carriet to the gulf

The Nimitz left 3/30/07. I think, if I recall correctly, there is another carrier there besides the Eisnehower and the Stennis. This looks like a bad omen. In addition, there have been (2 wks ago) low level fighter jet training flights over our house, just like before we invaded Iraq, and air traffic is increased at Brooks, again, just like before we bombed Iraq. Gives me a very bad feeling.

This from the LA Times yesterday: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-nimitz30mar30,1,3831275.story?track=rss


The Nimitz carrier strike group will sail from San Diego for the gulf on Monday, a navy spokesman said. It will replace the Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Strike groups typically include four or five frigates and destroyers and a submarine.

"You are looking at the early part of May that you would have the transition. It would be without any overlap. There is no plan to overlap them at all," Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis said by telephone from naval headquarters in Washington.

The Eisenhower and fellow carrier John C. Stennis took part in this week's war games, the largest American military exercise in Persian Gulf waters since 2003, when the U.S. led the invasion of Iraq. The drills included anti-submarine, anti-surface and mine warfare.

The 5th Fleet has said the decision to hold the exercises was made within the last two weeks, and planning was accelerated as tensions mounted between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear program and its capture of British naval personnel.

From Consortiumnews.com, supporting the Gulf of Tonkin incident fears of many

Intel Vets Question the Iraq-UK Crisis

March 30, 2007

Editor’s Note: Below is an assessment by a group of former U.S. intelligence analysts about the crisis between Iran and the United Kingdom over the seizure of 15 British naval personnel for allegedly crossing into Iranian territorial waters:


From: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
SUBJECT: Brinkmanship Unwise in Uncharted Waters

The frenzy in America’s corporate media over Iran’s detainment of 15 British Marines who may, or may not, have violated Iranian-claimed territorial waters is a flashback to the unrestrained support given the administration’s war-mongering against Iraq shortly before the attack.

The British are refusing to concede the possibility that its Marines may have crossed into ill-charted, Iranian-claimed waters and are ratcheting up the confrontation. At this point, the relative merits of the British and Iranian versions of what actually happened are greatly less important than how hotheads on each side—and particularly the British—decide to exploit the event in the coming days.

There is real danger that this incident, and the way it plays out, may turn out to be outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s last gesture of fealty to President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and “neo-conservative” advisers who, this time, are looking for a casus belli to “justify” air strikes on Iran.

Bush and Cheney no doubt find encouragement in the fact that the Democrats last week refused to include in the current House bill on Iraq war funding proposed language forbidding the White House from launching war on Iran without explicit congressional approval.

If the Senate omits similar language, or if the prohibition disappears in conference, chances increase for a “pre-emptive” US and/or Israeli strike on Iran and a major war that will make the one in Iraq seem like a minor skirmish. The impression, cultivated by the White House and our domesticated media, that Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-majority states might favor a military strike on Iran is a myth.

But the implications go far beyond the Middle East. With the Russians and Chinese, the US has long since forfeited the ability, exploited with considerable agility in the 70s and 80s, to play one off against the other. In fact, US policies have helped drive the two giants together. They know well that it’s about oil and strategic positioning and will not stand idly by if Washington strikes Iran.

Lying Poodle

Intelligence analysts place great store in sources’ record for reliability and the historical record. We would be forced to classify Tony Blair as a known prevaricator who, for reasons still not entirely clear, has a five-year record of acting as man’s best friend for Bush. If the President needs a casus belli, Blair will probably fetch it.....

_________________
What do the BUshies have on Blair, et. al that makes them lapdogs to the Bush admin?

Bill Maher Tonight!

10pm on HBO

This week: comedian D.L. Hughley, radio host Michael Smerconish and TV anchor Catherine Crier. Plus, via satellite, fmr. Sec. of State Madeleine Albright, and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).

The Constanza Doctrine

A column in Financial Times suggests that this administration's Iraq policy brings to mind a Jerry Seinfeld episode called 'The Opposite'. To improve George's luck with women, Jerry tells him: “If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.” According to the author of the article, 'The Iraq policy pursued by the Bush administration satisfies the Costanza criterion: it is the opposite of every foreign policy the world has ever met'. He details several instances of faulty (to put it mildly) policy decisions.
It's not at all surprising to me that we have to look to comedy shows to find the foundation of Bush's policies, but the comedy is gone, only horror is left.

Sen Judiciary committee hearings today on C-span

Randi is so right. It's amazing, frustrating and IMHO, too nice. I think I would have ripped a new ***hole for Samson. His testimony....I don't remember, blah blah...or my favorite, I did not keep notes. B.S. Oh and not a very good file, as he stated.
B.S. I work as a low level employee, and I keep files on EVERYTHING! I think I could get better information when grilling my 8 year old on homework!
Why are the members of the judiciary so lax? I think Samson and the others need to be interviewed by well informed mothers of young children and/or grandmothers. We take no B.S. and we will get to the heart of the problem. And....we don't take "I don't remember" as an excuse!
We pay these idiots to do their jobs? Jeeez.
Oh wait...I don't remember, to the best of my recollection....I don't remember.
I don't remember. It was based on an assumption. I don't remember. Not to my knowledge. I don't remember.

War games in the gulf...bad juju

Can you say "Gulf of Tonkin?" This exercise has some bad potential...

ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS IN THE GULF (AP) — U.S. warplanes screamed off the deck of two aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf Tuesday in a massive show of force that military officials said was intended to send a message to Iran.
U.S. military commanders would not say when the operation, the largest in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, had been planned. They specified that the war games had not been organized as a direct response to Iran's capture of 15 British sailors on Friday, but made clear they intended to send Iran a warning.

"If there is strong presence, then it sends a clear message that you better be careful about trying to intimidate others," said Captain Bradley Johanson, commanding officer of the USS John C. Stennis.

"Iran has adopted a very escalatory posture with the things that they have done," Johanson said, adding that the U.S. Navy was mitigating that posture.

The maneuvers, involving 15 American ships and more than 100 aircraft, were sure to exacerbate tensions, as Iran has frequently condemned the U.S. military presence off its coastline.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-27-us-persian-gulf_N.htm?csp=34

A sample of Fox's Fair and Balanced Coverage

Go to this site.

This Week on the Daily Show

MONDAY 3/26 -- John Kerry -- Senator, D-MA, author of "This Moment on Earth"

TUESDAY 3/27 -- Dennis Miller -- Comedian

WEDNESDAY 3/28 -- Bill Richardson -- Governor of New Mexico, author of "Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life"

THURSDAY 3/29 -- Philip Zimbardo -- author, "The Lucifer Effect"

This Week on the Colbert Report

MONDAY 3/26 -- John Perry Barlow -- Electronic Frontier Foundation

TUESDAY 3/27 -- James Fallows -- The Atlantic Monthly

WEDNESDAY 3/28 -- Jabari Asim -- author, "The N Word"

THURSDAY 3/29 -- Clive James -- author, "Cultural Amnesia"

Terrorized by "War on Terror"

Terrorized by 'War on Terror'
How a Three-Word Mantra Has Undermined America
By Zbigniew Brzezinski
Sunday, March 25, 2007;

an excerpt:

The culture of fear is like a genie that has been let out of its bottle. It acquires a life of its own -- and can become demoralizing. America today is not the self-confident and determined nation that responded to Pearl Harbor; nor is it the America that heard from its leader, at another moment of crisis, the powerful words "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"; nor is it the calm America that waged the Cold War with quiet persistence despite the knowledge that a real war could be initiated abruptly within minutes and prompt the death of 100 million Americans within just a few hours. We are now divided, uncertain and potentially very susceptible to panic in the event of another terrorist act in the United States itself.

That is the result of five years of almost continuous national brainwashing on the subject of terror, quite unlike the more muted reactions of several other nations (Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, to mention just a few) that also have suffered painful terrorist acts. In his latest justification for his war in Iraq, President Bush even claims absurdly that he has to continue waging it lest al-Qaeda cross the Atlantic to launch a war of terror here in the United States.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301613.html

Don't give in to the fear mongering, and laugh at the absurdity of airport security whenever you fly. It's the major eyewash of the century.

Sunday Funnies from Daily Kos

Here's our president looking like a big, fat eejit. Enjoy!

Absolutely disgusting, thanks Bushies

While helping my daughter with a power point presentation, and checking the very late news I found this....

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Debris that may have contained bits of bone from victims of the World Trade Center attacks was used to fill potholes and pave city roads, according to court papers filed on Friday.

The charge was made in an affidavit filed in Manhattan federal court in an ongoing case filed in 2005 by family members of those killed in the attacks against the city. They say the city did not do enough to search for remains, denying victims a proper burial.

Eric Beck, a construction worker employed at the Fresh Kills landfill in the borough of Staten Island, where the rubble was taken after the Twin Towers fell, said in his affidavit that the process of sifting through the debris was rushed.

Doesn't it make you wonder why they were in such a hurry to get rid of the evidence?

US Attorney's General politicization

Since 2005, McClatchy Newspapers has found, Bush has appointed at least three U.S. attorneys who had worked in the Justice Department's civil rights division when it was rolling back longstanding voting-rights policies aimed at protecting predominantly poor, minority voters.

Another newly installed U.S. attorney, Tim Griffin in Little Rock, Ark., was accused of participating in efforts to suppress Democratic votes in Florida during the 2004 presidential election while he was a research director for the Republican National Committee. He's denied any wrongdoing.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the four U.S. attorneys weren't chosen only because of their backgrounds in election issues, but "we would expect any U.S. attorney to prosecute voting fraud."

Taken together, critics say, the replacement of the U.S. attorneys, the voter-fraud campaign and the changes in Justice Department voting rights policies suggest that the Bush administration may have been using its law enforcement powers for partisan political purposes.

The Bush administration's emphasis on voter fraud is drawing scrutiny from the Democratic Congress, which has begun investigating the firings of eight U.S. attorneys - two of whom say that their ousters may have been prompted by the Bush administration's dissatisfaction with their investigations of alleged Democratic voter fraud.

link

If only we could get the TV to cover this properly. And why are they letting Tom DeLay, who is under indictment, speak on this issue on various networks? Makes no sense to me. The bug man is an idiot.

Bill Maher Tonight!

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER

On HBO
10 pm Tonight

Singer John Legend, Myr. Shirley Franklin and writer David Frum. Plus, via satellite, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Our thoughts and prayers....

..go out to Elizabeth Edwards. I feel so badly for them both--as well as their young children.

Thumbs Down to Bush

Senators have shown their contempt for Bush's lawlessness. Way to go!

Buh Bye!

Any second now we'll be hearing about how A. Gonzales will be leaving to spend more time with his family. We wish him the best in his new career as former Bush whore.

This Week on the Daily Show

MONDAY 3/19 -- Stephen Prothero -- author, "Religious Literacy"

TUESDAY 3/20 -- John Bolton -- former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

WEDNESDAY 3/21 -- Chris Hansen -- NBC News Correspondent, author of "To Catch a Predator"

THURSDAY 3/22 -- Don Cheadle -- actor, "Reign Over Me"

This Week on the Colbert Report

MONDAY 3/19 -- Jerome Groopman -- author, "How Doctors Think"

TUESDAY 3/20 -- Willie Nelson -- musician

WEDNESDAY 3/21 -- Benjamin Barber -- author, "Consumed"

THURSDAY 3/22 -- Katie Couric -- CBS Evening News

All Alberto, All the Time

The folks over at Talking Points Memo are being credited for really pushing this attorney scandal. Please remember to visit their site to get the latest.

Go Helen, Go!

Helen Thomas is back where she belongs--in the front row! Maybe there's some decency left after all!

Bill Maher Tonight!

HBO at 10pm

This week, actor Jason Alexander, newsman Dan Rather, and reporter Marha Raddatz. Plus, via satellite, comic Chris Rock and fmr. Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark).

A Tribute to Hot-tub Tom

I listened to Lou Dubose on a radio interview recently about Tom DeLay's rise to power. It was quite illuminating. This link refers to DeLay's new book about stuff he knows absolutely nothing about!

Plame's Compelling Testimony

Oh yeah, and there was this scandal too! Read about her testimony on the Hill.

Turdblossom's Stinkin' Up the Joint Again!

Rove really IS the evil mastermind behind this whole 8-year debacle! Poor Gonzales. He's going to go the way of Scooter Libby--taking one for the team.

Tonight on the Daily Show

MONDAY 3/12 -- Christopher Dodd -- Senator (D-CT), 2008 presidential candidate

TUESDAY 3/13 -- John Waters -- actor in TV's "'Til Death Do Us Part"

WEDNESDAY 3/14 -- Zbigniew Brzezinski -- former National Security Advisor, author of "Second Chance"

THURSDAY 3/15 -- Sandra Bullock -- actor, "Premonition"

Tonight on the Colbert Report

MONDAY 3/12 -- Nicholas Kristoff -- columnist, The New York Times

TUESDAY 3/13 -- Michael Eric Dyson -- author, "Come Hell or High Water"

WEDNESDAY 3/14 -- Ed Viesturs -- mountain climber and author, "No Short Cuts to the Top"

THURSDAY 3/15 -- Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- author, "Infidel"

veterans related videos; please take a moment and watch

Thanks to a fellow veteran at TomSongs.


and more....



IMPEACH



Veterans for Peace, if you are a veteran consider joining now.

Dubose Visit Delights Dem Crowd in Boerne

Journalist Lou Dubose spoke to a packed house at the library Tuesday night. More than 60 people listened to him discuss his book about Cheney, his relationship with Molly Ivins, and about politics in general for the past 30 years. Click here to see some pics.

Priests to Purify Site After Bush Visit

Well aren't the Mayans really smart! I just loved this.

Priests to Purify Site After Bush Visit
JUAN CARLOS LLORCA | AP | March 9, 2007 12:20 AM EST


GUATEMALA CITY — Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday.
"That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization...

Home on the Range by The Freedom Toast

FDR's 4 Freedom's speech to Congress

This was delivered on Jan 6, 1941.

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world.

full transcript

I learned about this from King Abdullah's speech before Congress this morning. Basically King Abdullah spoke on the need for peace in the middle east, and the need for the US to be a leader in this effort, working to obtain peace during the current year, and making it a priority. It was an excellent speech and can be watched in re-runs on C-span.

Lou Dubose to Speak at the Boerne Public Library Tuesday Night!

Tuesday, March 6 at 6:30pm

Free and open to the public.
Lou Dubose is the former editor of the Texas Observer, where he followed the career of George W. Bush. He has cowritten two Bush books with Molly Ivins, Shrub and Bushwhacked. He is the co-author, with Jan Reid, of The Hammer: Tom DeLay: God, Money, and the Rise of the Republican Congress.His most recent book, written with Jake Bernstein, is Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency.
Bio blurb taken from the Mother Jones website.

Tonight on the Daily Show

MONDAY 3/5 -- Bob Woodruff -- ABC News Anchor, author of "In an Instant"

TUESDAY 3/6 -- Richard Jadick -- former Iraq War doctor, author of "On Call In Hell"

WEDNESDAY 3/7 -- Wynton Marsalis -- musician, "From the Plantation to the Penitentiary"

THURSDAY 3/8 -- Dr. Sharon Moalem -- author, "Survival of the Sickest"

Tonight on the Colbert Report

MONDAY 3/5 -- Mara Vanderslice -- founder of Common Good Strategies

TUESDAY 3/6 -- Mark Frauenfelder -- editor of Make Magazine

WEDNESDAY 3/7 -- Michael Specter -- The New Yorker

THURSDAY 3/8 -- Ted Koppel -- The Discovery Network

It's not just Walter Reed...

There is a bigger underlying problem, the way we treat all our vets. The red tape, the crumbling buildings and the way we sweep our vets under the carpet, has been going on for years. Will we finally do something positive? I am hopeful, but skeptical.
Here is a film trailer that depicts part of hte problem, the homelessness and hopelessness of vets.
www.whenicamehome.com

Conservapedia Takes On Wikipedia

Religious right activist Andy Schlafly, son of Phyllis, has created Conservapedia to promote Christian 'values'. He tried to edit Wikipedia to include his theory of evolution; failing that he decided to create a website with his own 'truths'.

Here is how the description of the Democratic Party differs on the websites:

US Democratic party
On Wikipedia:
"The party advocates civil liberties, social freedoms, equal rights, equal opportunity, fiscal responsibility, and a free enterprise system tempered by government intervention."

On Conservapedia:
"The Democrat voting record reveals a true agenda of cowering to terrorism, treasonous anti-Americanism, and contempt for America's founding principles."

OMG!

Check here to see more Conservapedia.

Gen. George Weightman, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley Expected to Appear at Walter Reed Field Hearing

I am so angry about the treatment of our military personnel that I could just spit! This is an ongoing problem, not just at Walter Reed, but at least now someone paid attention. I have had so much to say, and found so much information on the subject that if you are interested you can read more here,
or here.

Gen. George Weightman, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley Expected to Appear at Walter Reed Field Hearing
March 2nd, 2007 by Jesse Lee

Just out from the Army Times:

Ex-Walter Reed chief to face Congress Monday
Rick Maze, Army Times - March 2, 2007

The Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal involving the living conditions, medical treatment and retirement process of wounded combat veterans will be the subject of five congressional hearings next week, including one on Monday that is expected to include testimony from the hospital commander who was relieved Thursday.

Army Maj. Gen. George Weightman, who since August had been the hospital commander and also head of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command, is one of the witnesses scheduled to appear Monday before the House subcommittee as it holds a hearing in the Walter Reed auditorium.

The House Oversight and Government Reform national security subcommittee, long known for its investigative hearings into defense-related matters, has scheduled a first panel of witnesses that includes Army Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon, a 43-year-old wounded soldier, and Annette McLeod, the wife of Army Cpl. Wendell McLeod, another wounded soldier. Both have been quoted in the media about problems at the hospital.

Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, whom the Army has asked to step in as Walter Reed commander, also will testify. Kiley has become a lightning rod for congressional criticism because he was the Walter Reed commander from 2002 to 2004 and was responsible for the outpatient program that is now the center of attention.

I only wish that Cspan would cover this hearing so that I could listen to it. I want to hear all the rhetoric that will be spewed by this Commander. No excuses buddy. Of course, this type of problem is not new, ask a Vietnam Vet. We have been shortchanging Vets for years and years. It is time to STOP.

Dick Cavett Speaks Again

Remember Dick Cavett, who had a show on PBS many years ago? I guess I knew that he would be 'one of us', but his blog in the New York Times makes it clear. He is as irritated by the president's "smirky, frat-boy joking manner" as I am. And as disgusted with the war in Iraq as I am. His posting, titled "What My Uncle Knew About War" is a good read.

Bush Administration in One Sentence

By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Columnist

Wednesday 28 February 2007

History is bunk.
- Henry Ford

Just because the Supreme Court set that poison precedent and anointed Bush, who brought in a crowd of neocon yahoos which earned no attention before the 2000 campaign, just because we 'Muricans vote for the man and not the mob, which in this case turned into the mob that ruined the country, you know, Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and Perle and Feith and Ledeen and Negroponte ...

... just because unreasonably massive tax cuts were combined in 2001 with the economic depth-charge that was the Enron/Arthur Andersen/inflated revenues/overstated tax earnings scandal, which was umbilically connected to the White House, just because the economy (not to mention our whole psyche) absorbed another blow when four commercial airplanes somehow managed to pierce the most impenetrable air defense system in the history of the universe, fooling the entire intelligence community as well, if you believe what you hear...

... just because this happened despite a blizzard of warnings delivered in the weeks and months beforehand, along with a raft of information gathered by the previous administration, just because a bunch of anthrax got mailed to Democrats by the Ashcroft wing of the Republican Party in what were obvious assassination attempts and yet nothing but nothing has been done about it, just because the 9/11 attack was immediately - and I mean the day after immediately - grasped as an excuse to invade Iraq, just because virtually everyone in the administration lied with their bare faces hanging out about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, terrorism ties in Iraq, so break out the plastic sheeting and duct tape because we're all gonna die ...

... just because they did this in no small part to win the 2002 midterms by any means necessary, just because they have used that day against us with deliberation and intent, just because 3,160 American soldiers have been killed looking for 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons (which is one million pounds) of sarin and mustard and VX nerve agent, 30,000 munitions to deliver the stuff, mobile biological weapons labs, aerial drones to spray the aforementioned stuff, and let's not forget the uranium from Niger for use in Iraq's robust "nukular" program, all of which was described to the letter by Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address, claims that still remain today on the White House web site, on a page titled 'Disarm Saddam Hussein' ...

... just because the medical journal Lancet estimated that as many as 198,000 Iraqi citizens have been killed as well in the war to get at this stuff, and that was a while ago and a whole slew of bombings ago, just because none of the stuff was there, and by the way none of the stuff was there, and did I mention that none of the stuff was there, just because the idea that Hussein was allied with bin Laden was laughable because Osama has wanted Saddam's head on his battle standard for decades, just because the true source of world terrorism, which is Sunni Wahabbist extremism out of Saudi Arabia, goes completely unaddressed because the Houses of Bush and Saud have been partnered for decades ...

... just because the lie that says the GOP is strong on national defense still permeates everything, though the loss of those 3,160 soldiers combined with the grievous wounding of between 47,000 and 53,000 other soldiers amounts to the evisceration of between a fourth and a third of our entire active fighting force, which makes us safer in no way that can be fathomed, and never mind the soldiers living in filth and among rats and roaches because they have been deliberately shafted so the Bush boys can squeeze a few more pennies into the coffers of folks like Halliburton and Exxon...

... just because so much of 9/11 and this 'War on Terra' has to do with business arrangements going awry between these two Houses, just because a deep-cover CIA agent who was working to track any person or nation or group that would give weapons of mass destruction to terrorists got her cover and her network blown by administration officials who wanted to shut her husband and any other potential whistleblowers the hell up, just because the front company she was working out of called Brewster Jennings and Associates was likewise blown, thus torpedoing other agents and their networks, just because absolutely all of this went virtually unreported by the mainstream media until it was too late, if it was reported at all ...

... just because dangerous spies like Ahmad Chalabi used Judy Miller and the New York Times to disseminate the lie that Iraq was riddled with weapons, thus opening the floodgates for the rest of the media to repeat the lie, because once the Times says it, it must be true, just because this lack of reporting combined with an astounding level of cheerleading from the aforementioned media combined with some good old-fashioned vote fraud in places like Ohio, Florida and New Mexico gave the aforementioned group of yahoos four more years in 2004 ...

... just because this means the Iraq war will continue and Iran will probably be next, despite the fact that we basically gave the Iraqi government to Iran when we invaded and handed the Shi'ite majority control over the place, a majority that is ideologically and religiously allied with Iran, a majority controlled by two Shi'ite factions called Dawa and SCIRI, which have been creatures of Iran since the early 1980s, which were centrally involved in the 1983 Beirut bombing that killed more than 200 American Marines, just because we knew this going in but it happened anyway, and even though we know Iran is running Iraq, we still have to hear all this blather about Iran "interfering" in Iraq ...

... just because our phones are tapped and our homes are no longer protected from unreasonable searches, just because we torture at will, just because we detain forever and use habeas corpus like so much toilet paper, just because signing statements have dismantled the separation of powers one brick at a time, just because no page is safe in a Republican Congress, just because no bribe is too small in a Republican Congress, just because a Democratic resurgence in 2006 is only a tiny beginning and not any kind of an end, because these Bush boys have no intention of slowing down or backing off ...

... just because our national reputation is ravaged and our future has been sold out from under us, just because Truman's wartime economic footing has morphed into a machine that Eisenhower would recognize in horror as the very thing he warned us about before he left, just because the whole system now requires us to manufacture wars if none are available because the system itself has been wired to feed the beast no matter the consequences, just because television tells you not to worry, look at these breasts or this shaved starlet's head, or this shiny thing, look here, shhh, be silent, be still, sleep ...

... doesn't mean We The People are finished, because all of this is why "We The People" was written down in the first place, and though the day is late and the road is long and the chances for success are slim, We The People are here to stay, so strap in and look out, because we are just getting started, and the next sentence will be ours to write.

William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know and The Greatest Sedition Is Silence. His newest book, House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America's Ravaged Reputation, will be available this winter from PoliPointPress.

Link

This says it all in a nutshell. Thank you Mr. Pitt for putting this down so clearly and concisely.