I understand why Americans use that analogy so often RonD but over here (Europe) the analogy that’s used more often is the Soviets in Afghanistan with the U.S. forces this time being in the same losing situation that the Soviets let themselves walk into with eyes wide open.

Both analogies (French in Indochina and Soviets in Afghanistan–oh, and let’s add Americans in Viet Nam) are great–have any of the neocons ever actually read any history? Do they read anything other than one another’s blatherings?

Garret Keizer has an answer.

why stay in Iraq other then the OIL?

Isn’t it amazing that after a while blood and oil look exactly the same?

Hillary is no leader.. She is following a carefully failed DLC plan of catering to the corporate fascist right and ignoring war crimes, shredding of our constitution, sanity, principal, or reason in governance as a sitting senator.

I say impeach her now so she doesn’t have to face the Hague later with Bush and Cheney.

Hey Jonathan, this is a great idea, preemptive impeachment!

Impeach now or forever hold your peace.

I say the best idea isn’t exactly FDL’s. It’s simple: let’s leave Iraq to avoid losing our souls and going to Hell for having killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people … people who might’ve been our friends if we had let them.

Teddy

Well- the most recent polls show Hillary widening a lead in the early states and in the big states. Your comments about national polls are accurate- but even the state polls are goin her way. I have to say that she’s runnin a damned good campaign.

I wonder how much her “good week” cost. Running a good campaign is important to know somebody is intelligent enough (ask McCain). But, what she’s saying sounds an awful lot like the Republicans.

What do the public think she is? Somehow I’ll bet good money, if the Republicans had left me any, that they think she’s a ‘moderate’ Dem.

I guess you’d have to say that her ‘good week’ was another way of saying the media prevented the public from learning anything about her.

If any other candidate is gonna stop Hillary- he’s got about two months to eat into her lead- and that’s gonna take some big firepower- not a little teasin. Once we get into the holiday season- it’s about over.

Aside from personal slander I don’t know what else we can do.

We’ve shown she’s on all sides of the Iraq issue.

We’ve shown she takes illegal campaign contributions.

We’ve shown she doesn’t really plan to do anything on health care reform — but has a plan which looks like a cross between Mitt Romney’s and John Edwards.

We’ve shown she has no great plan or ideas.

We’ve shown she doesn’t really support unions.

We’ve shown she will say absolutely anything to get elected.

So, there’s poor character, lack of ideas, Machiavellian use of issues, corruption. What else does the public need to know? Too much eyeliner, maybe?

This post picked me up for a few hours, but then the implications began to sink in. If we truly believe the fascist tendencies will not be undone by an opposition party that has such a mandate from the people it supposes to represent, then every breath we exhaust here in the name of Republican or election or party is one which would have been better spent on the backside of a gazoo.

I too am coming to the realization that our efforts and our votes and our actions are not going to soon undo what has been done. We are on a road to fascism and permanent war, and there does does not seem to be anybody between the marginalized “fringes” willing or able to take an exit ramp.

But I think the synthesis of what we hoped would happen and what is happening is not to push the goal post into the distant future, although that will be required if we continue the same motions. Rather we should examine ourselves and find unexplored avenues and untapped resources. Let’s take a generation worth of energy and creativity and education and compress them into these coming months.

I am not preaching here. I am just a little man who ran to the other side of the world, but I have been, like so many of you have been profoundly frustrated by with our country’s post-9.11 incarnation, and I am speaking from my heart.

I’m coming home soon.

Like Ben Harper sang, I believe in a better way. We really are the people, and I still believe at the end of the day, we all have the power to affect the needed change, to insure our great country remains the one we pledged allegiance to every morning before school.

We will have to answer to our children for actions. If we really believe that we as a people are not pushing hard enough against the machine to put it back into its its checked and balanced place, then instead of talking about future generations, we need to figure what we are going to do tomorrow.

What can we do defeat the enemy that has stolen our flag in the name of security?

This coming election is the best opportunity we have to undo what has been done.

What is the hammer that will crack the stone?

Note: My email is john@djdejavoodoo, I give it in case anyone wants to tell me how naive I am, and my site is down.

Mincemeat and Parsley. It’s what’s for dinner at HRC’s house. (Mincing and Parsing her words, in case my joke was over yer hed . . . ;~]

After she’s done mincing and parsing it’s a low-cal diet of nothing…nothing at all.

It’s a diet of hot air.