Saturday, June 02, 2007

Bill O'Reilly may not be a journalist...but he plays one on TV!

I believe Fox when it declares itself "fair and balanced". It balances one lie against another. That's very fair to liars and actors who wannabe journalists.

The programming executives at Fox are the real geniuses. You can bet they know how to read and spin media stats. Understanding that the funniest clowns are those who take themselves most seriously, they pulled off a master stroke: they hired Bill O'Reilly.

What a knee slapper! O'Reilly is brilliant as the pompous windbag who thinks he is a journalist. The whole thing is a modern sit-com.

O'Reilly is at his best when he shouts down his betters, the finishing touch on his loudmouth lout persona. He plays it brilliantly!

I sincerely hope that Fox is paying him what he is really worth.

Let's look at some specific episodes of this sitcom cum news show. In this episode O'Reilly thinks he has duped Keith Olbermannn into skewering him on "truly evil" people.

Don't worry, Keith. It's all an act. Think about it. No one could possibly be as obnoxious as the "Bill O'Reilly" character that "Bill O'Reilly" plays on TV.

The next episode might have been described in TV guide as "Our O'Reilly is so inflated, it's coming out of his ears and possibly his pompous ass".

NEWSFLASH: THIS JUST IN. INTELLIGENT LIFE HAS BEEN DISCOVERED AT FOX!

In the next episode, Olbermann raises a possibility that our favorite lout sounds drunk on the air! An episode sure to make the 25th Anniversary special with a special guest appearance of Krusty, the Clown.

In an episode called "Bill O'Reilly gets crazy", Bill really does "get crazy". Irony can't top a crazy guy playing the part of a crazy guy.

The fact is the US war against Iraq is a war crime, a violation each of several Nuremberg Principles. It also violates US CODE: Title 18,2441. War crimes, a capital crime.

Here's an update from The World Can't Wait organization:

The Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime

YOUR GOVERNMENT, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.

YOUR GOVERNMENT is openly torturing people, and justifying it.

YOUR GOVERNMENT puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.

YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.

YOUR GOVERNMENT suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.

YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.

YOUR GOVERNMENT enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.

People look at all this and think of Hitler - and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.

Millions and millions are deeply disturbed and outraged by this. They recognize the need for a vehicle to express this outrage, yet they cannot find it; politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of the challenge, and people sense this.

There is not going to be some magical "pendulum swing." People who steal elections and believe they're on a "mission from God" will not go without a fight.

There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into "leaders" who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.

But silence and paralysis are NOT acceptable. That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn - or be forced - to accept. There is no escaping it: the whole disastrous course of this Bush regime must be STOPPED. And we must take the responsibility to do it.

-The World Can't Wait
Let's hope Bill continues to yell at folk and interupt them. He discredits himself with his tactics and provides the rest of us with a few laughs. We haven't seen this kind of comedy since TV's so-called "Golden Age". I haven't heard so much yelling since Ralph Kramden told Trixie: "Bang, zoom, straight to the moon!"

At last, stop taking Bill O'Reilly seriously. Watch it for the yuks! O'Reilly couldn't possibly take himself seriously. He's a clown. It's an act. He's destined for the Clown Hall of Fame.

As Buzzflash pointed out, "Ronald Reagan taught the GOP what a B-actor can do for playing the part of a candidate and then acting the role of president for 8 years...Thompson may have been a senator and Republican counsel to the Watergate investigation, but his real asset to the GOP is that he's an actor."

O'Reilly, however, has outdone them all. He's a windbag playing the part of a clown playing the part of a windbag!

And, as we used to say on the news set: THIS JUST IN....

Another update:

The Most Biased Name in News

Fox News Channel's extraordinary right-wing tilt
I challenge anybody to show me an example of bias in Fox News Channel."--Rupert Murdoch (Salon, 3/1/01)
Years ago, Republican party chair Rich Bond explained that conservatives' frequent denunciations of "liberal bias" in the media were part of "a strategy" (Washington Post, 8/20/92). Comparing journalists to referees in a sports match, Bond explained: "If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is 'work the refs.' Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack next time."

But when Fox News Channel, Rupert Murdoch's 24-hour cable network, debuted in 1996, a curious thing happened: Instead of denouncing it, conservative politicians and activists lavished praise on the network. "If it hadn't been for Fox, I don't know what I'd have done for the news," Trent Lott gushed after the Florida election recount (Washington Post, 2/5/01). George W. Bush extolled Fox News Channel anchor Tony Snow--a former speechwriter for Bush's father--and his "impressive transition to journalism" in a specially taped April 2001 tribute to Snow's Sunday-morning show on its five-year anniversary (Washington Post, 5/7/01). The right-wing Heritage Foundation had to warn its staffers not to watch so much Fox News on their computers, because it was causing the think tank's system to crash.

When it comes to Fox News Channel, conservatives don't feel the need to "work the ref." The ref is already on their side. Since its 1996 launch, Fox has become a central hub of the conservative movement's well-oiled media machine. Together with the GOP organization and its satellite think tanks and advocacy groups, this network of fiercely partisan outlets--such as the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal editorial page and conservative talk-radio shows like Rush Limbaugh's--forms a highly effective right-wing echo chamber where GOP-friendly news stories can be promoted, repeated and amplified. Fox knows how to play this game better than anyone.

Yet, at the same time, the network bristles at the slightest suggestion of a conservative tilt. In fact, wrapping itself in slogans like "Fair and balanced" and "We report, you decide," Fox argues precisely the opposite: Far from being a biased network, Fox argues, it is the only unbiased network. So far, Fox's strategy of aggressive denial has worked surprisingly well; faced with its unblinking refusal to admit any conservative tilt at all, some commentators have simply acquiesced to the network's own self-assessment. FAIR has decided to take a closer look.
"Coming next, drug addicted pregnant women no longer have anything to fear from the authorities thanks to the Supreme Court. Both sides on this in a moment."

--Bill O'Reilly (O'Reilly Factor, 3/23/01)

Another update:

Fox News covers Iraq war the least.

A new Project for Excellence in Journalism study finds that of the three major cable news networks, Fox News has given lowest percentage of coverage of the Iraq war. It has also devoted twice as much time to the Anna Nicole Smith story as have MSNBC and CNN.






Thursday, May 31, 2007

"Good-bye America": How the GOP Subverted American Ideals & Values

Cindy Sheehan has packed it up, giving up her valient struggle because America is no longer the country she grew up in and loved. Who can blame her? America is no longer the country I knew and grew up in. I loathe the values the GOP would ram down our throats. I am right. The GOP is dead wrong.
Good-bye America... you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can't make you be that country unless you want it.

- Cindy Sheehan

I hear that all the time these days. This is not America. This is not the America I knew. What ever happened to Free Speech? What the hell happened to this country? Dude, Where's My Country?

When one begins an article like this it is most often done with a qualification that the intent of the article is not to cast blame or to point an accusatory finger. Well, that's not the case this time around. I know who fucked up America and if I should fail to point an accusatory finger I will not have done my job.

The American right wing in cahoots with the big corporations have bent America over and screwed her silly. This pack of liars and crooks partnered with Ronald Reagan to outsource the very soul of this country.

They waged war on all working Americans and small business.

They conspired to create a corporate, fascist state.

They conspired to destroy the labor movement.

They divided the nation into haves and have nots.

They stole the American air waves and gave it to the likes of Clear Channel, FOX, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

They divided the nation along religious lines, rewarding fundamentalism with your tax dollars.

They built up an empire and called it a "war on terrorism" but, in fact, they made terrorism worse [See: Of Schadenfreude, Götterdämmerung and Bush's gestalt of failure, war crimes, and treason!]. In fact, the "war on terrorism" is a bloody fraud, terrorism is worse and former friends and allies now despise us.

They outsourced your job!

They devalued the dollar.

They created an America propped up by a world which cannot afford not to prop up the US economy.

They have proven that they care nothing about global warming, and, in fact, deny science, reason and free enquiry.

They destroyed, perhaps forever, the integrity of the electoral process.

The effects are not only economic, though I have written reams about how Reagan's policies ushered in the present era characterized by obscene disparities of income. The effects are related to the deterioration of education and the mass media. In both instances, reason and science are denigrated and under attack by the forces of superstition, mumbo jumbo and pernicious ideology.

That Ronald Reagan's economic program was called "voodoo economics" was ominous. His was the first "voodoo" administration, characterized by meaningless, feel-good platitudes, nonsense, lies, religious ideology and perhaps real voodoo for all the good done by Reagan. Many, indeed, felt cursed.

It was all GOP code words and consultant crafted jargon. Some thirty percent of the population didn't care if Reagan was telling the truth. Important for them was the fact that whatever he puked up made them feel good about themselves.

Ronald Reagan elevated stupidity and inarticulateness to hero worship status. He would not be equalled or surpassed until George W. Bush arrived on the national stage. It was not only Democrats who suffered in this new dark age. It was also articulate Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller and John Anderson. There was no place for them in the new GOP. There was no place for intelligence in medieval America. There was no place for enlightenment amid American Gothic. There was no place for debate when brute force and stolen elections guarantee a win.

George W. Bush took up where Reagan left off - elevating the cult of the stupid, blazing new trails for inarticulateness, making a half-baked omelet of scrambled thought processes. On numerous occassions, he has asked the media:
"... who ought to make that decision? The Congress or the commanders? And as you know, my position is clear -- I'm a commander guy." --George W. Bush, who apparently is no longer "The Decider," Washington, DC, May 2, 2007 (Watch video clip)
Evelyn Pringle, writing for Buzzflash, counters:
This country is now paying a heavy price for Bush's lack of military experience, and his taunting invitation of "bring it on," that has resulted in a never ending stream of challengers traveling to Iraq to teach our loudmouth president a lesson.

- Evelyn Pringle, What Military Service Qualifies Bush To Lead Iraq War? Buzzflash

I believe Cindy Sheehan's plaintive adieu to be symptomatic of a new American malaise, the palpable sense of despair and helplessness felt by all Americans as their beloved America, an ideal of Democracy, slips inexorably into a black hole of right wing lies and malevolence.

Fears of another, deliberate middle east war are very real and justified, given the rogue nature of an illegitimate regime in America. The implications of a protracted and ever widening Middle East war, spreading from Afghanistan and Iraq to include Iran are just too terrible and disastrous to contemplate.

It may be too late to halt the inexorable march to war. Bush has most probably taken the US past the event horizon. A descent into oblivion may be unstoppable.

Generally, the term "Dark Ages" is used to denote a period of time beginning in 476 AD, the date on which the barbarian Odoacer deposed the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus. The "Dark Ages" were a period of religious struggle. Protestants are more inclined to use the term "Dark Ages", while Catholic writers tend to characterize the era as harmonious and productive. It is fair to say that Bush's last redoubt of popular support will be found among radical fundamentalists who share Bush's extremist visions of the apocalypse. An apocalypse of his devising!

The Dark Ages were times of great religious struggle and extensive Muslim conquests. It is easy to imagine the West's current antipathy toward Islam having its origins in a dark age in which Muslim and nomadic warriors rode through the ruins of fallen empire, perhaps laying waste to farms and villages. It must be remembered, however, that by the time of the crusades, many Muslims and Christians lived peaceably side by side from Constantinople to the Red Sea.

One has nightmares about America's descent into darkness and self-created hell. It is a dark vortex threatening to suck up ala Stephen King's Langoliers the world we knew. Like all big media productions, it has a soundtrack: H. Ross Perot's giant suckiing sound down south and a goofy little ditty performed by George W. Bush -an absurd buck and wing with a bit of his own stupid doggerel thrown in for the surrealistic effect.

Make the Pie Higher

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen
And uncertainty>
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the internet
Become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish Can coexist.

Families is where our nation finds hope
Where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!
A video update and another reason not to believe Bush's official "theory" about how the towers of the WTC fell:













Tuesday, May 29, 2007

When the GOP Changes the Subject, "...the implications are deadly for the people of the United States"

The GOP never wins a debate. It just changes the subject. Right wing consultants call this "re-framing".

Specifically, Democrats who had been in a position to take the offensive found themselves defending "funding cuts" when the GOP should have been defending an immoral war of aggression. The GOP had merely to characterize Democratic efforts as a Democratic failure to "support the troop" and the Democrats go from offense to defense.

As Glenn Greenwald argued in Salon, "cutting off funding" never meant US soldiers would suddenly find themselves without guns, ammo or food. Congress would have done what it usually does. The leadership would have worked to determine a date for a safe withdrawal and fund the war through that date. The GOP changed the subject, misrepresented the Democratic position and went on offense.

Democrats have no excuse. They should have caught on by now. Once again, they allowed the GOP to re-position them and change the parameters of debate. It was no longer about ending the war, opposed by some 70 percent of the US voting public. It became about "withdrawing support for the troops", opposed by almost as many.

The new premise was simply not true. The GOP had done it again - and again gotten away with it. Another GOP myth goes mainstream. Why is this allowed to happen repeatedly? Are Democrats not aware that the GOP hires highly paid consultants whose job it is to lie and make it sound like truth? The tactics were spelled out long ago by Joseph Goebbels and more recently by Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals", an activists handbook written originally for a left leaning audience.

Democrats should be on offense. They should attack GOP lies and crimes. Democrats have probably never had a better opportunity to seize the initiative. Typically, they appear to have blown it again -- the result is that the US is stuck in Iraq where troops are NOT supported. They are targeted.

The Democrats should hammer home the point that Bush's position in Iraq is immoral and un-American even as the war bankrupts the nation. Democrats should ridicule Bush's ludicrous defense of the war. For example, at a White House Rose Garden news conference of May 24, 2007, Bush got away with making contradictory statements. First, he said if we leave Iraq before al Qaeda is defeated the "terrorists will follow us home". Then, he followed up with a promise already broken. He said that if the Iraqi government asks us to leave, we will. Haven't they done precisely that?


GOP propagandists depend on the gullibility of the American people and the numbing drone of a mindless MSM to get across contradictory and ludicrous statements. For example, Bin Laden is still "on the loose" because "we haven't got 'em yet".

Bush's statements are nonsensical and contradictory because they are lies. Representative Dennis Kucinich takes Bush apart on this issue. But, at the same time, he points out that 'this is a moment of truth' for the Democratic party. Kucinich claims that Bush is laying down the ground work for continuing the Iraq war throughout his term. It will take that time, presumably, to guarantee the "privatization" of Iraqi oil --an act Kucinich says is nothing less than "theft"!
A pattern of recklessness, indifference, callousness - the implications are deadly for the people of the United States.

- Representative Dennis Kucinich








Monday, May 28, 2007

The Government of the United States is Illegitimate

The implications of a recent Democratic capitulation are not yet known and may not be felt immediately. Many are too stunned to write clearly about it. Many have tossed it off - politics as usual.

There is a new malady: Bush fatigue, characterized by the following symptoms: 1) fed up; 2) pessimism about the future of America, the free world, the world; 3) anger and frustration with a government completely uncaring (remember Katrina), out-of-control, unaccountable, unresponsive to anything or anyone but an increasingly tiny elite of corporate robber barons, militarists, and a hand-full of media moguls. In any case, John Edwards was correct. Democrats should have manned the barricades and left the consequences of veto to fall on Bush's stupid head.
In the meantime, Democrats have promised to come up with a new strategy with regard to Iraq. It is hoped, however that Democrats understand that this is not politics as usual. Bush has become a rogue President, a reckless practioner of brinkmanship over leadership, of platitudes over policy. I cannot pretend to know what was said behind closed doors. I cannot begin to fathom what Faustian pacts had been made leading up to the Democratic compromise. I cannot begin to understand the nature of Bush's strangle hold on what we thought had been a Democratically controlled Congress. I am tempted to ask: was Congress threatened? And, if so, with what? And how?

I am at a loss to explain what is most surely the weirdest, the oddest, the strangest exercise of power known to history. By rights in a normal world, a drooling idiot would be challenged to find his way out his front door. He would not be expected to rule. But to compare Bush to drooling idiots is not politically correct. It is unfair to idiots.

All theories fail to satisfy save one: the US government is no longer legitimate. For some time now, the rest of the world has known what Americans have denied to themselves. The Bush administration has betrayed the people and subverted the rule of law. It has no claim to legitimacy. The illegitimate Bush regime is the sheer exercise of raw, arrogant power hell-bent on illegitimate wars of conquest and oil. The government of the US has become Mass Murder, Inc.

This administration is guilty of the ruthless prosecution of unjust and ongoing war crimes and atrocities resulting in the horrible deaths of innocent civilians often with the unspeakable horrific use of white phosperous. The rest of the world saw clearly what Americans simply would not. It saw in the the Bush regime an arrogant, brutal, unjust and criminal junta, a militant gang of usurpers, thugs in suits.

Let the Bush apologists and fellow-travelers protest and howl. Screw 'em! They are but his complicit enablers. The truth will be told: the Bush cabal are Nazis or worse! Hitler had the good sense when all was lost to shoot himself. Who will provide Bush a new rope with instructions on its use?

A short recent history. Bush thugs stole both the election and "re-election". Goppers themselves called it a coup d'etat and so it was -characterized by felonious, violent assaults on ballot re-counters in Florida. I am not the only one still outraged by this treasonous attack.

Later, when Bush had Iraq in his cross hairs, he began a truly Hitlerian campaign of lies, smears and transparent bullshit. Many were fooled. Beyond forgiveness, however, were members of Congress - Democrat and Republican alike -who knew better yet climbed on board the gravy train. Not all were mere accessories after the fact. It is exceedingly impolite, however, to salivate publicly at the mere mention of lucrative defense contracts.

By now, Bush's case for war is known to have been a deliberately concocted fraud perpetrated upon the American people. Nothing said by Bush about 911 or about the war in Iraq has been, in any way, true. That debate is won. That case is closed. The verdict is in and Bush has been found a callous, deliberate liar. For me, the issue is: why is Bush not yet rotting in a dank cell when thousands of innocent Texans still languish in the Bush gulags down in Texas? Why have not formal charges been lodged at the International Tribunal to bring this mass murderer to trial for his crimes? Why are the rich, the powerful, the NEOCON connected still free to walk about and endanger the whole of humankind?

It has been said that never before had an act of war been so adamantly and powerfully opposed. Bush did not merely "not listen", he presided over a deliberate and well-orchestrated campaign to demonize his opposition. His targets included Cindy Sheehan, whose own sacrifice for Bush's vainglorious ambitions, were derided. Lives, careers, reputations were ruined by this sorry ass gang of crooks who daily flout the values of our founding.

It was not only the people of the US who were targeted by these Neo-nazis. It was any voice anywhere in the world which dared speak against the tyranny, which dared oppose the Bush campaign to wage aggressive war in pursuit of world domination. A warning to Bush enablers who still indulge delusions of Bush's "divinity", his supposed relationship with "the Lord". Save it for your trial on capital crimes charges. See US Codes; Section 2441. It is not God that Bush talks to. In any case, spare me an idiot's ideology. I want justice.

At last, when all is known to have been black-hearted, malicious lies, Bush is reduced to repeating a failed strategy because abandoning his crime in the commission of it will prove the case against him. The appropriation bill, it is said, was signed in blood. Therefore, more American lives are required to pull Bush's sorry fat out of the fire. The future is now and it was forged with Bush's order to attack Iraq. There was an urgency to stop the war before it began. There is greater urgency now to remove Bush from office.

To whom do we now turn to achieve this? Not the Democrats. They have made their GOP-like pact with Ol' Scratch.

There is left but one solution. Revolution! It also fitting that the inspiration as well as the philosophical basis may be found in the history of this nation's creation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

- Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence

No mere string of platitudes, the "Declaration" is a "revolutionary" document. It is the irrefutable case that when governments of any type become "illegitimate" it is the right of the people to abolish and replace them by any means. Moreover, the case is made that the "Crown" had become illegitimate in terms of its own precepts, primarily English law, common law, and principles espoused by the crown itself. After having established the principles compelling the American revolution, Jefferson went on to enumerate numerous, egregious violations of those laws and principles by the Crown.

There had been hope that Democratic opposition might work within the present framework to reign in a rogue and illegitimate regime. But continued democratic sellouts will change the paradigm, perhaps forever. Until Democrats put Bush's feet to the fire, they will remain a part of the problem. Until they redeem themselves, they have become Bush's complicit enablers.

During his campaign for the White House, Bush had said that he was a "uniter, not a divider". But, as he demonized Iraq in the run up to aggressive war, he said "you are either with me, or against me". I have bad news for Bush. Either he is for the Constitution or he is against it. Time and again he has proven himself to be against it. He has proven true the charge that he considers the Constitution a "goddamned piece of paper". Having flouted the very bases of legitimacy, it is time for Bush to go.

As long as the contagion was confined to Bush's illegitimate party and his illegitimate White House, impeachment, the only remedy short of revolution, might have been a viable solution. Now the contagion is no longer confined. The Democrats are equally complicit in the commission of Bush's capital crimes. What other recourse is there when Congress proves itself complicit in the crimes of the executive?

Bush has left in his wake a broken and illegitimate government. The people are left no choice but a substantive redress of serious and fundamental grievances having to do with the very legitimacy of every government institution. Is there nothing left America but revolution?

An update from an American serviceman at an American military cemetary in Europe:
Well, I was a generationally removed GI in Europe, and it was Memorial Day. I wonder what these poor bastards would think if they were here today and could check out this little video from Take Back The Media: what do you suppose would cross their minds if they were to discover that a descendant of Nazi sympathizers and war profiteers is now the de facto dictator of the nation that they served in the titanic struggle to destroy the Nazis? Would that be seen as cruelly ironic, maybe, or as a sick joke, or what?

About the only conclusion I can draw, on this Memorial Day, is that the Nazis actually won the war after all.

- Barstool Chronicles

Additionnal resources:






Sunday, May 27, 2007

Palast: Three Million Voters Challenged in Karl Rove's Fraudulent Scheme

An endemically crooked GOP regime is already planning the theft of the next election. This is a hard story to cover simply because there are so many headlines to choose from. Which one is the lead? You choose:
White House and Justice department officials conspire to cover up the role played by Karl Rove in the spreading US Attorney firing scandal
or
E-mails indicate Karl Rove is up to his neck in the White House firing of US attorneys
and the headline for this article:
Karl Rove's fraudulent scheme targets the voting rights of three million American voters
Investigative reporter Greg Palast is breaking this story this weekend, most prominently in this interview with Democracy now:


A brilliant reporter, Palast nevertheless benefited from a mistake that, with any luck at all, might bring this criminal White House down. From Les Enrages, we learn that 500 of some 5 million emails were delivered to Greg Palast by mistake. Intended for RNC.org they wound up in Palast's hands at RNC.com.


An act of "God" or the Smoking Gun? Will the mainstream media redeem itself by covering a story that promises to address the endemic crookedness of the White House itself? Sadly, the Democrats, are compromised with regard to Iraq, by rights their issue. Will they blow it with regard to the US Attorney firing scandal as well?

A jaded, tired, exploited populace would like to know: why does this story matter and why should we pay attention when nothing else has stuck? Who is not jaundiced when Bush has in fact gotten away - so far - with the commission of capital crimes?

There is a larger but related story. Unfortunately, the media has not excelled in covering "larger" stories. In this case, the deliberate, orchestrated firings of US attorneys are integral to this administration's enthusiastic attempts to subvert the rule of law in order to promote an extremist right wing agenda. This charge is made persuasively by Charles Tiefer, former solicitor of the House of Representatives. If true, it amounts to high treason, no less so than the criminal nature of Bush's prosecution of an ongoing war crime: Iraq!

Those benefiting from Bush's often criminal policies include war profiteers like Blackwater and Halliburton, religious zealots and ideologues intent upon establishing an anti-American, religious theocracy and other extremist organizations who oppose many of the rights guaranteed us by the Bill of Rights. That's why I call Bush's policies in this regard "treasonous". Differing on policy is one thing. Conspiring with subversives, as Bush has done, is another. It is subversive to engage in activity which is in itself illegal with the end view being the absolute destruction of the US Constitution.

A final word of advice for Democrats: you can still redeem your party but only if, for once, you forget the advice of corrupt consultants and stupid focus group talking points. Instead - do what IS right! That is, oppose the utter criminality of this destructive administration with every means necessary and legal. Bring the Congress to a halt if need be. Revolutionary times demand revolutionary action. End this war and end the stranglehold Bush has on democracy!

Additional resources: