Miers to Congress: gfy
I want to congratulate George Bush. No really, I mean it.Five and a half years ago, he began a war on turr. And by fuck, those turrists have been sent reeling. It's been revealed that Al Qaida has been smashed so badly that it now has almost exactly the same capability it had in September 2001.
Never mind though, George, you're to be congratulated on creating two extremely fractured states, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans and several thousand American, British and allies' troops, and the enrichment of shareholders in Halliburton and various oileries beyond their wildest dreams. Your god will be pleased with you, as he pitchforks your sorry arse into the deepest pit of Hades.
***
Still, he doesn't lack balls, and neither do his minions. He wipes his arse with the constitution, and laughs in the face of anyone who cares. Which is surprisingly few Americans. Yesterday -- today American time -- Harriet Miers refused to answer a subpoena from Congress. She giggled as she cried "checks and balances, I blow that sheeit out my fucking butt". She is claiming "executive privilege", which apparently means "if you've ever worked for the executive branch in any capacity, you are not open to oversight from the legislature". Amazingly, the RNC has also defied a subpoena on the same basis. They're not even in the executive! They are claiming privilege on the basis that it extends to anyone who has anything to do with anyone in the executive.
There is a serious need for people to go to jail. But they won't. The much-vaunted American constitution is toilet roll. It cannot stop the preznit from assuming the orb and sceptre of kinghood, and now that Bush has shown how it's done, the jig is up. It only worked -- poorly, given that crooks like Nixon and Weinberger walked away without any punishment, for instance -- while everyone involved paid it lip service. Once you have someone who doesn't, it unravels.
Ultimately, this will damage America's sense of its own superiority (well, it won't, but it ought to). It thinks it has a constitution that protects its freedoms, and makes it a leader in liberty. But it doesn't. Bush has shown that he can take your freedoms and there's not a damned thing you or anyone can do about it. And he's shown that the rule of law, threatened so often before, does not exist in the States.
Fascists use the means available. They don't follow the same pattern every time. Where religion binds people, they use religion. Where people can be roused by nationalism, they use nationalism. Expecting them to don black shirts and start siegheiling you is a mistake. Fascists also wear denim, speak in a soft voice and pretend to be just one of us. Whatever works.
posted by Dr Zen @ 1:02 pm
5 Comments:
the thing is, the real truth automatically prevents faked "truth" from lasting too long.
some people can see thru these scoundrels easily.
but we all have to learn to forgive them, as hard as that is, because otherwise, they'll dangerously escalate their abuse of power to stay away from civilized justice.
we need to somehow appeal to their better angels.
There is a serious need for people to go to jail.
It's more than serious. It's critical. Hyper-critical. The problem is that the vaunted Democratic mid-term victory is rendered meaningless by it's own slimness. One seat does not a powershift make. It only creates gridlock and prevents congress from negating stupid executive acts. They need about 56 to 60%, not enough to steamroll everything, but enough so that obtaining a 2/3 majority for overrides just takes a handful of reasonable Republicans rather than trying to move part of the mountain.
It is fascinating (in a train wreck sort of way) to see what an executive branch that lacks any sort of moral sense can get away with. Compared to this bunch, Nixon was an angel.
The Dems need to keep pulling the threads. One of those suckers has got to unravel...
Yeah, I'm still registered Republican. I still hope some sensible people will get hold of the place again and straighten it out...
some people can see thru these scoundrels easily.
What good does that do if we don't manage to get rid of them?
but we all have to learn to forgive them, as hard as that is, because otherwise, they'll dangerously escalate their abuse of power to stay away from civilized justice.
Whether we forgive them or not, they'll keep doing whatever the hell we allow them to keep doing. And the way they're going, there will be an end to even pretending we have any power to stop it. I might be able to forgive them...after they're in no position to do any more damage.
we need to somehow appeal to their better angels.
They don't have any, Zero. Did you read the article on my blog about the high school presidential scholars who met with the president and gave him a letter signed by a third of their group asking him not to allow the United States to represent torture? His reply? The U.S. doesn't torture. What a twisty serpent he is. He knew exactly what they meant, and all he could say was that. I don't think I've ever despised a president the way I despise this one. Even when I didn't agree with a president, or didn't like some of the things he was dragging our country through, I still held some respect for them, if only because of the office. I can't even do that with this man.
arlene: They don't have any, Zero.
everybody has better angels within them somewhere. even a despicable self-serving hate-mongering fanatical idiot like Bushole.
OTOH, i've been singled out and "tortured" by these twats and their ilk for years and years (simply for skillfully exposing their lies and pure bullshit, and for starting effective impeachment campaigns, etc.) so i have absolutely no respect for them either, to say the least.
* albeit only tortured financially, psychologically, and socially.
but yes even physically (if only due to the adverse effects of the first three above -- yikes).
so it's not that i don't share your anger, outrage, and disgust, because i do.
but appealing to their better angels is the only feasible option -- they have too much power.
as far as banning torture altogether, that probably wouldn't be wise under some extreme circumstances -- though actually, i don't see the problem with making it totally illegal because if somebody decided to break the law (under some extreme circumstances) in order to protect others from extremely terrible harm, if i was on a jury, i'd certainly take that into consideration -- so there's really no need NOT to make it illegal except to terrorize critics of the Bush admin.
the problem is the abuse of power.
always has been.
power corrupts.
we must change ourselves AND somehow help them to change theirselves.
boots sez:
Zen, wake up from the dream, America is ruled by a representative democracy. Representative democracy can only function for small populations, when your representative knows you may meet him in a pub and blacken his eye he's likely to be a good representative, but when he knows he'll never meet a tenth of a percent of those he's wronged he's given a license to fatten his own wallet at their expense.
What should Americans do about the situation, use the "popular vote" which is useless since Presidents are appointed by the electoral college of the elite? Revolt and be shot by the National Guard soldiers who live next door? Work for constructive change and try not to get it on their clothes?
It's fucking doomed, pal. It's a matter of time until it crashes to the floor, or until the facists remove their bureaucratic suits and come out into the open.
Of course the American people are herded by economics into the cattle cars of their corporate employment.
I've chosen to live in the boonies for a reason, my efforts here are to minimize my dependencies and thus maximize my chances of life after the house of cards falls over.
But then I'm a raging nutter, no common sense whatsoever. Piss and moan all you like about America, or force it to do what you want, I'm quite satisfied simply trying to stay out from underfoot because that's something I can actually at least attempt to do that harms nothing and nobody.
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