I agree with the first comment–it starts with a stolen election in 2000. The question now is just how stolen the process really is. Judging by 2004, I’d say pretty much, but I do think there’s still some hope in 2006. If the voting public can get some Democrats back into Congress in 2006 so that there is some opposition to this runaway train, there might even be a chance to derail the high tech psuedo voting we are coming to imagine is democracy. That should be the number one goal right now–get a Democratic majority in Congress in 2006. My slogan, one among many, comes from the mouth of the Prez–”Heck of a Job, Brownie!” Says it all.

Thirty years of relentless mind control and dirty tricks have produced a cadre of brainwashed zombies who walk among us. But they and their manipiulators never, ever, argue anything on the merits. They always respond with name calling and personal attacks that amount to relativistic bleats of “everyone does it,” “your guys once did it,” and the like (e.g., “so what if we stole Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, JFK stole Chicago and West Virginia in 1960″). They crumble in one on one exchanges when backed into a corner and forced to admit that their absolutist pronouncements about right and wrong are completely undermined by the abject nihilism of the arguments they actually make. Bushco’s bewitching power will end when we make them and the domestic victims of their psy-ops argue the merits, all the time.

Why is Bush above the law? It’s simple.

Fuhrerprinzip.

And what we’re seeing now is mild compared to what we’re going to get if we don’t stop this now.

How about a collage of photos – some of bush standing in front of the troops intermixed with photos of the world’s worst dictators, tyrants, etc. in similar poses? Think people might freak out a little (or at least get the picture)? Symbolism goes a long way!

Is using the military to prop the leadership of one political party an impeachable offense?

I want to hear my leaders tell me why it’s not.

In fact, every damn thing George Bush does every single day has to be framed that way.

Is calling the constitution of the United States “just a piece of paper” an impeachable offense?

Is lying in the state of the union address an impeachable offense?

Is lying to Congress an impeachable offense?

Is lying to the American people an impeachable offense?

Is starting a war of aggression an impeachable offense?

Is bankrupting the treasury an impeachable offense?

Make them explain why not.

The military exemplifies the kind of nation Chimp really wants – uniformly conformist, blindly obedient to his orders and whims, ready to wreak violence.

Next up, officers will swear oaths to Bush personally, a la Germany in the 30s.

I also have a question.

Surely the democrats can do better than Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi?
Kathi | 12.09.05 – 3:07 pm |

Oh, like who? Joe Lieberman? Hillary? Joe Biden?

The Constitution is a “goddamn piece of paper?” Bush, who would prefer being the dictator in a dictatorship, would be arrogant and ignorant enough to voice this sentiment.

What an idiot.

Kathi — did it ever occur to you that we need MORE Dems like Dean and Pelosi — a critical mass of people who didn’t sit on their butts and whine but got off their duffs and spoke the straight truth to power?

We could use a few less DLC consultant-types as far as I’m concerned. DINO’s and Republican-Lite got us right smack where we are today.

Just heard Shuster on Hardball discussing Fitz/Rove/Luskin/Novak. He sounded as if he was reading straight from your last post.

Hardball are doing a special on this on Sunday, apparently.

“Bush on the Constitution: ‘It’s just a goddamned piece of paper’

snip…..
GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

http://tinyurl.com/9d8fw

I also have a question.

Surely the democrats can do better than Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi?

I have only one thing to say,…..

“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary …”

Maybe a Revolutin is in order again?

Your citing of a Fox story is evidence of a theory about Fox “News” that I am testing. We all agree they are not news, but rather entertainment — commercial entertainment designed to attract a maximal audience. Their devoted fans are not bicoastal parents of Harvard students; they are the parents and spouses of Ohio National Guard bomb fodder. As their sons and spouses are being picked off regularly in Baghdad and Afghanistan, I doubt this audience will continue to be loyal to Fox’s happy news daily recounts of The Leader’s successful crusade. Viewer numbers decline, and media whore Fox will suddenly see the world in a brand new way!

Re: Democracy and Bush

Here’s what W thinks about Democracy:

http://www.prisonplanet.com/ar…..fpaper.htm

The list of his unimpeachable accomplishments is probably shorter.

~

Has anyone else noted that Dan Bartlett and Nicolle Whatever-her-married-name-is-now do interviews standing in front of the White House AS IF THEY WERE REPORTERS FILING A STORY?
This really irritates me. They’re both attractive in that talking head reporter way and they can be seen in overcoats and scarves and the whole “I’ve been standing out here getting the story for hours” gear PRETENDING TO BE REPORTERS.

To someone just flipping through the channels, what they hear are Bush talking points from his team in reporter camo. The casual viewer can’t tell the difference between those two and your average MSM-bot.

I can’t understand how the networks allow this. Can’t they see they’re being used? You would think that they would kick those too off their territory without even thinking abou tit.

related to the military/civilian discourse, check out this exchange between tweety and nathaniel fick, an ex-marine:

MATTHEWS: Whoa. What it‘s like to go from being at the front, surrounding by fellow gyrenes (ph) in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, and then going to Harvard with a bunch of civilians at business school?
FICK: You know, one of the …
MATTHEWS: Is the culture different?
FICK: The culture is very different. I‘ve got a group of marines up there and we stay back to back and take care of one another but …
MATTHEWS: Do you sit at the same table at lunchtime?
FICK: That‘s right.
MATTHEWS: OK.
FICK: But my classmates come from a wide range of backgrounds. They have been journalists and working at NGOs and the military, and so everybody …
MATTHEWS: Are they less patriotic than your unit was or is?
FICK: No, I don‘t think patriotism is linked to the military quite that way. That‘s not how I see it. There are 100 ways to serve.
MATTHEWS: What‘s the message of your military experience to you? If you had to tell somebody in a class what you know that they don‘t know, as an 18-year-old kid, what would you tell them? What did you learn?
FICK: That our country needs good people in the military. And we have this schism between the civilian society and the military today, where ROTC units, for example, are being kicked off of college campuses.
MATTHEWS: But you know why.
FICK: I do know why, but …
MATTHEWS: Because they don‘t have an open policy towards gays.
FICK: That‘s right.
MATTHEWS: Do you think that‘s the real reason or it‘s politics? They just—they‘re left wing schools and they‘re left wing faculties and boards of trustees and they just don‘t want the military connected to them.
FICK: I think it‘s a red herring.
MATTHEWS: Which part is the red herring, the gays …
FICK: The gays in the military is a separate issue—an important issue, but a separate issue.
MATTHEWS: So in other words, these ROTC units are being kept off campus for political reasons?
FICK: I think so. That‘s a statement, but the net effect …
MATTHEWS: Right. I had them on my campus, I always thought the military training was relevant and if somebody wanted, they should be allowed to get it.
FICK: That‘s right. And the net effect of keeping military off campus is to keep these supposedly thoughtful, progressive, tolerant people out of the military, which is precisely the wrong path to take.
MATTHEWS: Which is what?
FICK: Precisely the wrong path to take. We should embrace the military. We should want the military to represent every corner of American opinion and represent our values and our ideals at large. That‘s the only way it is going to represent America well overseas.
MATTHEWS: So in other words, the left wing influences on our universities is hurting the military, because it‘s keeping liberal kids and middle of the road kids from joining up.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10393970/

The surprising thing about Bush, as opposed to say Hitler, is that everybody who was paying some attention knew exactly what he was about, long before the election of 2000. He told people “America would be easier as a dictatorship, but only if I were the dictator.” and he said in a Republican Presidential primary campaign debate that he’d take out Saddam if given the chance. There’s nothing hidden, nothing unclear, nothing the press couldn’t report if they wanted.

Nope, the big thing is that the Rich and the Media WANT Bush to be president. Heck, I’m not even sure the Senate Dems oppose him.

There are way too many people who are benefitting from undermining and trashing America and Americans.

Nope, there’s no surprises with Bush. It just shows how very clearly the Rich and the Media control American politics and how completely powerless and ineffective the public are. Democracy? It sure doesn’t look like it.

All hail Caesar Bush. WTF?

new thread (no flowers required)

RE: Bush and the military as props.

Do you think the administration is trying to seduce them as in 1933? Power over and money often sway many people to that evil side.

This may be one of the reasons that this administration went after Murtha the way that they did – and continue doing.

Link here:

http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazin…..index.html

Sebastian, great points. As someone said here the other day, we need an Extreme Ethics Makeover.

After catching up for the last couple of hours I’m more nauseated than ever over what this corrupt administration and their hacks have done to this country.

“They’ve seen it in private, and don’t want to expose him to the world as he truly is.”

Kind of like Sinatra that one time: “Yer dead. All a yas is dead!”

Among the sickening things about the Preznit’s little road shows is the fact that these theatrical productions are all put up on the public dime — and this Preznit in particular has not been shy about fuzzing the line between “policy speeches” and other such events in election years. This amounts to publicly funded political campaign propaganda, available only to the party in power, and it is not only unseemly but hugely distortive of the already irrational landscape of campaign finance.

Interestingly, private-sector labor unions all operate under a federal law that prohibits an incumbent union official from using the union’s treasury to promote his or her candidacy or slate. This regulation is, to be sure, exquisitely difficult to apply at times (disclosure – I’m a former union lawyer) but it does embody a salutary idea — that an incumbent regime may not, for the purposes of sellf-promotion, tap into monies that are required to be paid as a condition of membership in the polity (in that context, member dues, in the broader context, taxes required of every {citizen except those reaping huge capital gains}).
Interesting that US politicians have never seen fit to require political office-holders to refrain from dipping into the public fisc to promote themselves, although Congress has deemed a similar requirement an essential elemnt of democracy within labor unions.

From today’s WAPO

Has this been posted or discussed?

“Sources familiar with their conversations say Novak’s and Luskin’s accounts to Fitzgerald appear to conflict on when they spoke”

The implications are enormous, of course, for Rove and Luskin.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..11963.html
Justin Frank has an interesting article of Bush’s alcholism.

I think JC is right; I bet the Secret Service really is worried about the preznit’s safety, maybe not so much from assassins but about crowd control and such.

But the big reason is that they’re scared that, if Bush is exposed to any real, prolonged, vocal opposition, he’ll come unhinged on national tv. They’ve seen it in private, and don’t want to expose him to the world as he truly is.

Pinter said it all. If you want the whole speech, go here.
It’s well worth the read.

Prof rat: Crashcart. LMAO.

It is disgusting to see the stage management so base as to use life and blood soldiers as a Potemkin Village.

I still like that Doctor in Mississippi who told Dick Cheney to “Fuck off”. In general I am not a fan of courseness in the public arena, but, these people have managed to skate and avoid so much real criticism that I felt it was indeed just desserts to Deferrment Dick.

Also in China a few weeks ago when Chimpy tried to escape the press and looked like such a goddamn buffoon. That was enjoyable and emblamatic of the actual cowardice of Bush. He takes all the glory for success and none of the blame or pain in losses.

To see articles by Fox even taking him to task for his Leni Reifenstahlism is good. My old roommate was a Marine under Hoar and respected him quite a bit..I imagine that there must be a lot of consternation in the military now that they have been demoted to candy stripers and school painters.

-GSD

Climate Talks in Montreal
The U.S. delegation, led by Paula Dobriansky, was criticized after walking out of an informal session aimed at finding new ways of curbing gases.

I am actually starting to give some creedence to the internet rumors that Bush is drinking again. At times, I think there is no other rational reason for the behavior he exhibits. He’s in denial, he makes his own reality, he can’t see himself from anyone else’s vantagepoint….

This could get really bad. Yeah, we all remember what happened to Il Duce.

December 8, 2005

Playwright Takes a Prize and a Jab at U.S.

NYTimes
By SARAH LYALL

LONDON, Dec. 7 – The playwright Harold Pinter turned his Nobel Prize acceptance speech on Wednesday into a furious howl of outrage against American foreign policy, saying that the United States had not only lied to justify waging war against Iraq but had also “supported and in many cases engendered every right-wing military dictatorship” in the last 50 years.

“The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them,” Mr. Pinter said. “You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.”……………..

Mr. Pinter attacked American foreign policy since World War II, saying that while the crimes of the Soviet Union had been well documented, those of the United States had not. “I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road,” he said. “Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be, but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self-love.”

He returned to the theme of language as an obscurer of reality, saying that American leaders use it to anesthetize the public. “It’s a scintillating stratagem,” Mr. Pinter said. “Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words ‘the American people’ provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don’t need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it’s very comfortable.”

Accusing the United States of torturing terrorist suspects in Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, Mr. Pinter called the invasion of Iraq – for which he said Britain was also responsible – “a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law.” He called for Prime Minister Tony Blair to be tried before an international criminal court.

Mr. Pinter said it was the duty of the writer to hold an image up to scrutiny, and the duty of citizens “to define the real truth of our lives and our societies.”

“If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision, we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us – the dignity of man,” he said.

full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12….._popular_3

Zennurse-

I wouldn’t be so sure that NPR is preaching to the choir. I hear a lot of right wingers calling in.

Is there a lower form of vertebrate than Scott McLellan?

Is that a trick question?

Myth:

2. A popular belief or story that has become associated with a person, institution, or occurrence, especially one considered to illustrate a cultural ideal…3. A fiction or half-truth, especially one that forms part of an ideology.

But the power of myth as a political marketing tool to bring an ideology to power can be just as powerful a tool in leading to (and perhaps speeding up) its downfall.

I certainly agree that it is wrong for the Admin to use the military as props in its myth creation and myth maintenance (the American military has an exemplary history of being apolitical), and it would be better if it did not happen at all.

Nevertheless, I believe that the staged imagery of Chimpy with the military has a much more negative effect on the Neonut myth in general and the Chimpy myth in particular than a positive one. It is one thing to sell “strong defense, pro military, safety”" myths as a scripted build up to war, it is another to try and sell them during an unscripted war without end based on lies that is destroying the military and making the country less safe. And the harder the Neonuts try to sell their myth in the face of the now known realities of those who the myth is directed at, the sooner the myth will be laid bare for all, not just the military, to see.

Of course, you can disagree.

NPR is very clearly outlining the lies re: Libi’s claims and reacantation of intelligence and the fact that the Admin KNEW about it before the war. Clearly. stating. the.truth.

Unfortunately, preaching to the choir.

What happened to alLibi?

“We don’t know. ” Schell, NYT

“I’m the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights–this is what I do?” What’s the equivalent for Bush? “I’m the lowest President/Fuhrer of these United States. This is what I do (torture, war crime, mismanage emergencies, manipulate the media, create my own vision of reality and dump it on the world…)”

I can never quite figure out if they’re staging these events for OUR benefit because they think they will somehow convince any of us that Bush is popular or knows what he’s doing; or for HIS benefit, so he’ll continue under the illusion that he’s a popular wartime preznit.

I suspect it’s some of both: they need tightly scripted events because they know Bush will lose it if he’s confronted in any way. Plus it has the added benefit that maybe it will confuse some of the viewing audience into thinking that ‘people’ –or the military at least — approve in some way of his blather. (Hell, Tweety always seems to fall for it.)

I wonder which is more important in the Bush Bubblesphere these days?

I always thought that the Social Security tour he went on last year was just a way to keep him in a controlled routine within a well- controlled environment. There’s only so much bike-riding and exercising a president can do without being unseemly, and he can’t spend ALL his time at the ranch clearing brush. So they had to cook up some time-fillers for him that wouldn’t require actually interacting with lawmakers and such in DC.

Maybe that’s the main purpose of these staged events now. His handlers can’t REALLY believe they’re convincing anyone who isn’t already main-lining the Kool Aid, can they?

Ted Kennedy is taking a petition to the WH next week, wanna sign it? You might have done on me3’s board, but just in case:

http://www.tedkennedy.com/page…..aqstrategy

Mack: ;->

Regarding “Here’s my response: this isn’t a kingdom, it’s a democracy. The laws apply to everyone, including King George,” please see this morning’s rant by Doug Thompson of http://www.capitolhillblue.com. The article, entitled “Bush on the Constitution: ‘It’s just a goddamned piece of paper,’” shows us — as if we needed more evidence — how the president views his relationship to our nation’s laws.

Depressing.
.

I’m worried. When the other superpower collapsed their world famous deconstructionist leader was kidnapped. This bold fellow communist leader could also be shot…we have learned that an escaped Chimp has just been shot in England.

I’d pay for the Dum Dum bullet’s myself but for one thing…the major league arsehole gorilla in the room…Crashcart.

all,
the questions are beginning to be asked,
and from more fronts than can be reasonably be discredited.
The essential thing is for the 49% of America who were not paying attention to get mad as hell too.
And this tide is turning.
My own father is a lifetime Republican (the shame, the shame), but even he is beginning to get a clue. His epiphany came watching W’s post-Katrina concert.
There WILL be change, but if you don’t want McCain, we had best get behind some sensible opposition.
Feingold seems decent enough.
I could cheer for a Feingold/Obama ticket.
But first things first.
Some leadership in the House Ethics committee.

You mean Mr. Hadley, member of the WHIG? Shocking. Shocking, I say.

HuffPo headlining a USAToday article on “Baghdad Press Club”.

…The Army acknowledges funding the club and offering “reporter compensation,” but insists officers did not demand favorable coverage. “Members are not required nor asked to write favorably,” said Lt. Col. Robert Whetstone. “They are simply invited to report on events.” He said the military exercised no editorial control over the coverage…

[snip]…Ahmad al-Hamdani, a reporter at Alhurra, an American-funded television station, said press club members were invited to cover U.S.-led reconstruction efforts, such as restored sewage plants and newly-opened schools. The syndicate of 25 to 30 freelance reporters and staff employees for television stations and newspapers were paid about $25 for each story and $45 if the piece ran with photos, al-Hamdani said. Television reporters were paid $50 for pieces, he said. He said he did not participate.”

Umm, you think offering them half a month’s wages for a story — any story, yah — with a photo is not a request for favorable coverage? Who’s picking over these stories — does the editor issue the payments? And what exactly is the encouragement that’s been offered?

“…Laurie Adler, a spokeswoman for the Lincoln Group, said the firm “was not involved with the Baghdad Press Club.”"

Sure. I’ll bet there was a subcontractor here somewhere.

Seems like $18+ million dollars should be complete overkill to flood the zone with positive propaganda at $50 a pop or so. Exactly how many layers of subcontractors are there laundering this money — I mean, covering this contract?

I notice Mr. Hadley is quoted in this article, too. What a coinky-dink.

pacha
ya beat me to it
shucks

Well, If Bush couldn’t use the military as a backdrop, that would just leave… Barney.

eagleye | 12.09.05 – 12:37 pm

Heh: he can’t be a vertebrate.

Vertebrates have spines.

UNLEASH THE TORPEDOES FITZ!
WE ARE ALL AWAITING THE RETURN TO THE
RULE OF LAW. SINK THIS FASCIST SHIP OF STATE!

It was always a source of amazement to me, which resulted in admiration, that the process which elected a President could be so divisive during the campaign but did not prevent the winner from reaching out to the voters in the minority once he took office. From a Canadian viewpoint, it was that “bringing together” for four years that I found most impressive.

Bush didn’t do that. (probably had no idea what to do).

He also seems to be living a personal fable. He constantly refers to himself as “Commander In Chief” as though he himself is actually a member of the military. He almost never refers to himself as the President. Someone needs to tell him… he’s a civilian. He’s not a hero. The men and women behind him are.

from the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4514958.stm

UN renews US ‘torture’ criticism
Top UN human rights official Louise Arbour has repeated accusations made earlier this week that the US and other countries are easing curbs on torture.

Ms Arbour told the BBC that governments had to clarify if they were holding prisoners in secret jails, without the freedom to communicate or be visited.

The US envoy to the UN has said Ms Arbour’s comments are “inappropriate”.

Ms Arbour said she had a mandate to protect and defend human rights, and she would continue to do exactly that.

She said she did not believe she needed to respond to US criticism of her comments.

“I’m the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This is what I do,” she told the BBC.

It’s not so much the “following the law” thing, tho that is important.

Just ask any Republican. Oh, wait, better not.

Anyway, the more important thing to me is that Karl Rove has gamed every single decision out for one, and only one purpose: political/electoral gain.

If it could win them votes or some other perk of power it was done, regardless of national interest, responsibilities to our citizens, or fairness. The campaign will never end with him ’til he’s in jail. The privilege of leading the nation for the benefit of all and the prosperity of our children never played into it.

Is there a lower form of vertebrate than Scott McLellan?

What kind of a sorry excuse for a human being does one have to be a shill for the Bush administration?

Try this one on for size:

Generalissimo Bush.

Photoshoppers, man your mice!

Fox also has an article on the other “mostly republican” reps who took money from MZM, although they did add that that is not necessarily illegal. I was suprised by the article, it was snarky IMO.

Harry, they’re already doing that. We needed to be on this a week ago; we needed to have a united and supportive message behind Murtha the day he spoke out, too.

Redd — Fox News featured this article about the military????

It’s official: Dubya has jumped the shark.

Or Rove has, or both. And the RNC is now duking it out between internal factions, in full view of the opposition.

All the more reason why we should have a united front and a single platform immediately.

http://fusioner.proboards60.co…..1131129004

^^^ Send Letters ^^^

Reminder to keep the heat on the press and Congress, and make sure you sign petitions!!!

Peggy Noonan said last night on the Colbert Report that these tightly scripted events was from a fear of being exposed to embarrassing situations.

To put it mildly. She did add that it would be better for presidents to expose themselves to that – it could be illuminating. The audience chuckled

At the same time – I’m certain the president can still show up to an event where anyone is allowed and the SS can still guarantee his safety. I’m sure they still security check everyone who supports the president, anyway. It isn’t as if they’d allow pies to enter or anything. It isn’t a fear of danger, I don’t think – Bush just doesn’t want to be in a situation where he could be embarassed, or seen as stupid, lacking in common sense, and/or completely devoid of reality.

And he definitely doesn’t want to be put in the position of looking like he actually answers to the American people. That would bring the curtain crashing down faster than anything. This admin wants an “efficient” govt – the govt of dictators (or absolute monarchs, etc), not a messy, chaotic one characteristic of governments that rule with the consent of the governed. They just don’t buy into that this is a government ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ That, too, has become a “quaint” notion.

You cite the Fox story. Howie Kurtz this morning in the WaPo blew me away — summing up the “spinning” of this WH:
“we’re approaching critical mass in terms of the debate over the Bush administration’s veracity: WMD. Paying off pundits. Bogus news releases. Planting stories in Iraqi papers. Plamegate and the promise to fire anyone involved. Condi’s tortured explanations of what constitutes torture and whether the United States is engaged in it.

Not to mention a president who rarely meets the press, at least in full-blown news conferences.
(snip)
One strike against the administration is the people who leave (Paul O’Neill, Richard Clarke) and then offer evidence of dishonesty of their former employer. Do some Bush loyalists, as an unnamed White House aide told journalist Ron Suskind, believe that reporters and others are members of the “reality-based community”? (”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”) Or do we have to wait for more memoirs to find out?”

Strong words for Howie, who’s generally been a big part of the “so what” school of MSM analysts. More evidence of my Dad’s favorite rule — a stopped clock is right twice a day — but more than that, may be an indication that the WH “lalalalala” is being seen for what it is. At least a girl can hope (and apologize, if this has been discussed before).

Harry, that vid is here (second clip).

Does anybody has the 2004 campaign interview with Bush where he says that we can not win the war on terror?

Why, you ask!

Because the RNC will start a blitz against Dean and the Democrats exploring the Theme “Can not Win”.

Raw Story with a link to a story saying that according to the ACLU, the judge handling the appeal of the case involving torture pictures could rule anytime after 12/15.. If he rules in favor of the ACLU, then the govt could still appeal to the supreme court.

You have to figure that Clusterfuck’s supreme’s will rule in his favor- but we’ll see.

Months ago I wrote about the vision I get when Bush, Cheney, Rummy and the gang are making thier war plans: I see them all dressed up in thier official “I’m in the Military” togs standing around a big sand table with hundreds of thousands of little green army men and miniature tanks and Hot Wheels jeeps and Hummers, making “vroom-vroom” and ratatatatat sounds, playing marches and the themes from Rocky and Apocalypse Now on the stereo.

Bush doesn’t have any idea that its inappropriate to discuss politics on a Military base because he knows zippity-doo-dah about the military in the first place. Those little green men are as close as he will ever come to military service.

z

The abhorrent, menacing, and visually scripted presidential emanations derive not so much from a need to communicate, but a need, almost a compulsion, to demonstrate power. The stone faced military, the simplistic poster backdrops, the stiff/striving president don’t connect to the American populace but appear only as a fearful junta projecting “authority”. Reminiscent of 2nd world war German visuality crossed with 1950’s American ad copy sloganeering. Banal and disturbing. It disturbs because the American population is the most advertising literate group on earth, and they get it. They can feel the inauthenticity and it reads as sloppy overflowing, anxiety. An incoherent, angry father arrives home. The children, amidst their games, don’t know what’s coming but they feel a justified dread.

I can’t remember the last time that Cheney made himself available to the press for questions (I don’t count the one on one he had with Brit Hume.) What is really amazing is that there is so little outrage about this administration’s manipulation of the news media.

Because they don’t want the images to affect/disrupt the “election” in Iraq, I assume.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/….._1209.html

Latest on the Abu Ghraib prison videos. Could be released anytime after Dec 15th, US Gov is deliberately covering up for the perps involved.

I share the disgust at the political abuse of the nation’s military.

At the same time, I suspect the types of carefully screened audiences the President uses are the only audiences before which the Secret Service could guarantee his safety.

Whether we like it or not, it is no longer possible for the President of the United States to appear in public. Many things this President has done have made this situation worse, but it became mostly true even before 9/11. And it may remain that way for a long time after Bush is gone.

You know… The military is usually pretty traditional and support the Prez right or wrong. To an extent.

One thing they DON’T like is feeling like they’re being used. They don’t like it if they see good military people being shafted by a President. They notice. They remember.

What Bush also doesn’t understand about the military (since he couldn’t be bothered with it, really, even when he was signed up) is that the same structure that he manipulates to follow his program…can be re-formatted to turn on him. All it takes is a few generals like Hoar to start the code.

Casey–You forgot to say Fitz! It’s bad luck, you know.

Redd Hedd: Great Thread. It makes me crazy that American taxpayers cannot get in to see the president because they belong to the opposite party. While the preznut might want to run his campaign this way, it is wrong to continue this charade throughout his preznutcy.

Perhaps we should only pay taxes when our own political party is in office! Casey is right, apparently that train did leave that station.

If the people in this administration hated the laws of this land so much, why did they want to run it? Other than destroying it, of course.

The worse things get for Bush the more stage-managed and Triumph of the Will-esque these events get.

Not only does Bush “feel” he is above the law, he KNOWS he is above the law. He reports to a higher magistrate then the rest of us, not so “chosen” mortals do. Bush is a fanatic, in his case a religious nut. And one cannot reason with fanatics.

Can we just call it like it is?

It’s fascism.

Kings use pagentry, pomp and circumstance as props. Fascist dictators use the military itself.

The man whose name one must not speak used the military as a prop all the time. Is that a coincidence?

By “we” I take it you mean the mainstream press.

At least, that is who seems to have been dropping the ball on this, from my point of view.

My kingdom for a real Preznit!!

my gransmother used to say: “ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies”. Gramma would be aghast at this Preznit!

“This isn’t a kingdom, it’s a democracy.”

Sorry. That train left the station as of December 2000.

The US is not a democracy in any meaningful sense of the word.