Welcome to the United States of Abu Ghraib. When did we become a nation of authoritarian sadists?

Because the comments have been closed on the previous topic about the Student who was Tazered.

I just wanted to add a comment on the above quote from the article.

Fact is, the USA has been a nation of “Authoritarian Sadists” since Europeans arrived. Of course that is not all of it’s citizens but you can’t deny that many are indeed Authoritarian Sadists.
Slavery, racial discrimination, so many unnecessary wars and invasions of other sovereign nations, Multi-National corporations that negatively affect those that can least afford it all over the world.

Admittedly the US is better than a lot of countries but, unfortunately, it has always had more than it’s share of “Authoritarian Sadists”.

According to the Contra Costa Times: “Whatever the reason, Pombo’s support fatally faltered around his home base. This year, Pombo secured 44,965 votes in his native San Joaquin County, compared with McNerney’s 43,721. Pombo lost by relatively large margins in Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties.

In 2004, McNerney received about the same number of votes in San Joaquin County as he did this year.

Pombo, though, had received more than twice as many — 96,183.”

HotFlash @ 151

kristinejoy @ 102

OT:

I keep thinking about raising money for running FDL. I think it would be cool to have “Gold” membership. Commit to something like $5 a month or more and the link in your name in the comments section is gold colored. Seems like a simple tech piece, and FDL would have a list of the most active members emails for Blue America updates, other worthwhile causes.

I think people would be proud to display their support for FDL in the comments section.

I think that’ a good idea, from my (commenter) point of view.

It seems like a very simple thing to do. Hell, its like a gold star by your name. Who doesn’t like that? I think there are a lot of us who would like a vehicle to contribute to this site more regularly.

great idea, IM commenter’s O [IMCO?]

David Olsen @
48

I wonder if Oregon’s mail voting system doesn’t encourage complacency to a certain extent. Democrats only picked up 4 or 5 seats in the state house in a “wave” election. A bit disappointing.

But Oregon leans Democratic to begin with, and the Democrats took back the house, giving Democrats a comfortable majority in the legislature (about the same majority in the house as the Republicans had before the election) as well as retaining the Democratic governor. It’s the first time one party has had all three spots in 16 years or so.

I don’t see complacency. What I think the vote-by-mail system does do, though, is encourage voters to investigate people and issues more deeply than they used to, pre-VBM. There’s fewer people who vote based purely on 30 second TV ads.

I was skeptical of the VBM when it first came into being, but I’m sold now. It turned out to be, I think, hugely beneficial.

Good points, and I don’t disagree. I did notice that in Washington, with demographics fairly comparable to Oregon’s, dems picked up 13 seats in their house races.

Thanks

diogenes @ 75

Yeah, his wife is cute!

Perhaps Ann was stuck in his head, like one of those obnoxious songs you can’t turn off, and it interferred with the course of nature, forcing Harry to take drastic measures.

Oh wait! My bad – Harry is holding Medusa!

Damn, I thought Ann was toast!

(sigh)

Ann Coulter cannot be killed by decapitation: note that she’s still kicking, and it must have been a long time since there was blood flow to her brain.

How to do a succubus in? Maybe lock her in a cage match with a big ol’ T Rex!

More likely, the Repub-lickin’s will purge themselves of dissenters, becoming more ‘pure’ and the country (or enough of us) will continue to recoil in disgust.

A slow trip to oblivion would be very karmic.

kristinejoy @ 102

OT:

I keep thinking about raising money for running FDL. I think it would be cool to have “Gold” membership. Commit to something like $5 a month or more and the link in your name in the comments section is gold colored. Seems like a simple tech piece, and FDL would have a list of the most active members emails for Blue America updates, other worthwhile causes.

I think people would be proud to display their support for FDL in the comments section.

I think that’ a good idea, from my (commenter) point of view.

It seems like a very simple thing to do. Hell, its like a gold star by your name. Who doesn’t like that? I think there are a lot of us who would like a vehicle to contribute to this site more regularly.

EvileDrPuma:

I just take this as an early indication that the Republican strategy for 2008 is to lose again.

Actually, I do think it is time to invoke that pesky long term thinking. Because…
* There has never been such a great rift between the rich and the poor (and middle class) since the Gilded Age in US history. The squeeze is on and this will result in a near class warfare.
* The retiring boomers are going to be really pissed when retirement and health care bring them up short of their expectations.
* New developments in alternative energy will finally overcome the entrenched energy cartel now in place. (wind energy in the US is growing at approx 30% per year, far behind Europe, but still at a brisk pace)
Many more indicators of a vast cultural shift emerging – and we give it the handle “progressive” because we have no other name for it at the moment.

All agreed. I think we have many opportunities to help the GOP lose some more if we just command the message.