Dave Lindorff: Is America a Sick Country or What?

March up and down Pennsylvania Avenue with giant puppets?

Hold a mass "We'll Hold Our Breath Until Our Faces Turn Blue" sit-in on the Washington, D.C. Mall?

Let's all vote for honest Green Party candidates in 2010 so the Republicans can take back both Houses of Congress. That'll show Obama!

Please, the change of administration is only...what?...a little over eight months? Let's see, except for four years of Jimmy Carter (history's great villain) and eight years of Bill Clinton, six of those years with a Republican majority in both Houses of Congress, anti-government Republicans have pretty much had their way with the administrative side of government since 1969! The administrative side of federal government is riddled with highly placed, career Republican appointees whom actively sabotage their own agencies. That's not paranoia talking. I've seen it!

You may be dismayed at the pace of Holder's criminal investigation of Bush/Cheney torture, but, duh, criminal investigations do take time! It make take years to make a watertight case against Cheney, Yoo and Baybee.

So what do you propose? Tumbrels and guillotines?

A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another. Mao Zedong— From: Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan

ET Spoon

Let's face it.  Amiericans are beaten masochists.  A candyland for sadists.

You betch'a.  Is this something new like when they discovered gold in California?  Heh, let's not be fooled.  This has been going on for years and decades...there is the School of the Americas specializing in helping our "friends" perfect their technics.

How many dead in South America and all the other contintents where we pitch our tents..and these ungrateful people hate us for our freedom.  Just wait until they get a taste of our exported democracy.  That will shut them up!

It is more and more as though being cut off from the world by two oceans is a sort of solitary confinement with the loud blasting voices of Fox, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck non stop driving us crazy, the exact same methods used on detainees.  Guess what, it works!  People go mad, become pawns in the hands of their "interrogators." screaming, "Don't let them kill Grandma,  the death book," they will say whatever their handlers want them to say.

There is nothing new in all this but the means to spread it are like none we have ever known.

Druthers

You gotta smirk, at least, at those who claim the U.S. used to have finer values.  Tell that to the Nez Perce, or the Filipinos, or, for that matter, the native Hawaiians.  A country with a Constitution institutionalizing predatory capitalism, based on genocide and slavery, and grown on the exploitation of littler, browner people worldwide cannot claim to EVER have had any human values.

Is a criminal sick, a murderer, a thief, a rapist, a deserter, a liar/purjurer, a company who takes your money, and then cuts off your healthcare, or takes your retirement funds and gives them to the same sons of bitches who destroyed the company to begin with?

Goddammit All To Hell!!!!  How many buckets of shit do you need to make a Shit Sandwich?  I am so very Fucking Tired of what is going on in the country of my birth.  I am a 71 year old retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, and I DO NOT ABIDE FOOLS or IDIOTS!!!!

What the Fuck has happened ;to Common Sense and Decency?  Has the country stooped so low that it kneels to shoddy authoritian rule, and fundamentalist dogma?  Does the wishes of the very rich very minority shitbags that you worship mean that much, where you would allow your freedoms and rights, Yes motherfuckers!!!!   Those very same rights and freedoms that I spent 20+ years working for shit wages and putting up with civilians shitting in my corn flakes because I was a military man, a sailor, and thereby less valuable than the piece of shit who never served and leeched off of our sweat, blood and tears..  I still believe in the Constitution and Bill Of Rights, I still have faith in the Geneva Conventions.  I honor all who still feel the same way, as I took an Oath to Defend that very same Document (The Constitution) against ALL enemys, foreign and domestic....  I took that same oath every time I re enlisted.  I was proud to do so, I never took it on a Bible or any other book, I took the Oath ON MY HONOR......  I was willing to gladly give my life for that Document that Herr George W. Bush called a Goddamn Piece Of Paper.  Now you tell me, what kind of Officer in the United States Military let alone the President of the United States of America would make a statement like that?

No, I am sorry to say, that I lost all respect for the government of the country of my birth and back when an empty suit by the name of Ronald Reagan was elected, I immigrated to Tahiti, and have been a French Citizen since 1986.  I have been watching the country of my birth in a death spiral, and the way things are looking, I will probably outlive the country of my birth.  Oh, you may very well still be called the United Stated, but i don't think that you will be a democracy, or a democratic republic. 

I can no longer make excuses for you, I have drifted too far apart from what the government is doing today, against the majorities wishes.  A country that will not investigate or charge known criminals with the treasonous acts we know that they performed or aided and abetted?  A country who aids in the overthrow of other governments and captures, jails, and tortures innocent people.  A country that tortures children, and jails others for life over petty crimes and lets those who destroy the lives of hundreds of thousand of others go free, or even gives them medals and honors in recognition of their perfidies.  I so much would like to see the america that I loved turn the corner and get back on track....   I had huge hopes that President Obama would be the one to lead the country out of the darkness, but it looks like he has been either bought and paid for, or was lying to all of us from the beginning...

One thing for sure, if anyone in my family or my wife's family were treated like those who were held and are still being held in your off shore prisons etc...  And they were being treated like these same people, There would be some killing going on, and I wouldn't care if they were tourists, government employees or just plain old repigs.....   I would be doing my thing to get even for my family....  You better fucking believe that!  If it were me or my family that were being wronged, I wouldn't be trying to get even, I would be saying it's payback time and there is the fucking intrest payment for the first payment and there are a lifetime more to come...

One thing is for sure, I will never be returning.....   I value my liberty and freedoms too much to spend time in a Fascist state, and if you don't think you're Fascist, look at who is controlling your government and news etc.....  

Something that suprises the hell out of me is the fact that I am not seeing thousands of Viet Nam Vets on the streets, or other vets for that matter......   I think that you have grown soft and lazy, and also have become selfish and self centered...  you think more of your individual selves than you do of others...  You are loosing your humanity and along with it your tolerance for the beliefs and ideas of others...  You are returning to a state of minority totalitarian rule and I want NO Part of that..

Kenneth R. Jackson

CPO USN Ret

French and Goddam Proud

Yeah, Dave is correct, but he didn't explicitly state what he hinted:  Eric Holder is a COWARLY PUSSY who (for whatever insignificant reason) won't take on the lawless Republicrooks.  For that matter, same goes for Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and most of the Demowimp politicos.  This, despite the numerous witch-hunts the Dems have been subjected to by Republicrooks! 

Alas, let us not forget all that transpired during the Bad Old Days from 2001 to 2006:

-- Election fraud and outright theft on so many levels;

-- Failure to prevent the 2001 hijackings through incredibly gross incompetence, then using that tragedy as a terror weapon to bash the American sheeple over the head, while demonizing those who correctly refused to kowtow to this insanity;

-- Exposure of a CIA operative for tawdry political revenge, against a whistleblower who dared to call the top-end Republicrooks on their series of BIG LIES;

-- the non-existant Iraqi WMDs, and the non-existant Iraqi ties to bin_Laden, which the two top tyrants and their various bogeymen insisted were there;

-- the phony "Mission Accomplished" stunt, arranged by the W.H., who then lied about arranging it;

-- Raising of the ridiculous color-coded "terror threat level" at many points in 2004, just when it appeared Kerry-Edwards was getting ahead of Smirky W. Fuck-Up in the polls;

-- In 2005, most of a major American city is allowed to wash away, while an uncaring tyranny does virtually nothing before, during, and after the storm, save for flyovers and photo-ops;

-- Illegal wiretapping in a widespread and systematic way, which amounted to nothing more than spying and snooping on honest people (mainly those who stood in opposition to Republicrook war policy);

-- And of course, the aforementioned torture program, Abu Ghirab, Gitmo, other secret camps, etc.;

-- In addition to despicable Dick and clueless George, a seemingly endless series of Who's Who in human history's greatest thugs: Ashcroft, Ridge, Rove, Libby, Rice, Powell, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Addington, Gonzalez.

What is the most saddening here is that, after over 230 years as a nation, we are left with such dismal political choice.  Republicrooks won't respect any law, and Demowimps won't stand up for any principle.  If only the 90 or 100 million or so among us who don't vote would get off their asses and support a Green or honest Libertarian (not Bob Barr, the ex-Rethuglican), they would kick the shit out of both the Republicrooks and the Demowimps..... However, progressives must begin to realize that they have no future inside the Democratic Party, which talks about "law and order" yet won't enforce it, which gives lip service to affordable health care for all but then makes deals with Big Pharma and gives the discredited Republicrooks a seat at the table, and a president who campaigned on (and stated repeatedly) a promise to get out of Iraq within 16 months, but then somehow that became 19 months with a "security force" still there of at least 50,000 American troops (WTF!!?), and now it's something like we'll be out by the end of 2011.

Well, I have a better idea: lets get rid of both major political parties by the end of 2011!

Not only is our new president wrong, Nadler thinks he's broken the law. He claims our participation in treaties against torture compel the US to prosecute domestic torturers. You can toss a little obstruction of justice on top of that as Obama is actively blocking civil suits involving torture. Obama's use of drones and expansion of the war in Afghanistan (alleging the Taliban are responsible for 9-11--is there any Middle Eastern country our leaders haven't accused of being in on 9-11?) and fresh accusations of torture on his watch are indications that we may have another serial criminal in the White House. Time for a new impeachment movement? Not that Biden any better.

Carol DW

Dave is exactly correct: many, many, many prisoners have been killed - MURDERED -  in US custody undergoing torture.  

(In fact, this is very "old news" - way back in the glory days of the US/Northern Alliance victories over  Taliban in late 2002, CIA agent MIKE SPANN was videotapped (and played on US network TV) telling a bound, seated, and helpless "American Taliban" captive John Walker Lindh, "IF YOU DON'T TALK, YOU WILL BE KILLED."  Ironically,  it was Spann, not Lindh, who was killed in a prison insurrection at Masari-al Shariff just a few days later at   (a prisoner uprising some observers have suggested the CIA  INSTIGATED, to GIVE THEM AN EXCUSE to have their Northern Alliance warlords MASSACRE the captured Taliban prisoners... which happened a few days later.)

 For years now, the Neo-Cons who DOMINATE the US press & media - starting with the NY TIMES, the WASHINGTON POST, Time/Warner/CNN, and FOX 'news' - have been able to blur and fuzzy this basic, cruel reality with their various whines, rationalizations,  and (worst of all) blatant JUSTIFICATIONS and ENDORSEMENTS.

 (Just as Cheney, Rumsfeld, & the Bush Sr. Republicans were able, with complicity of US corporate media, to WHITEWASH THEIR SUPPORT for SADDAM HUSSEIN's brutal, genocidal regime, ALL THROUGH the 1980s Iran-Iraq war years.) 

 Here's Robt. Parry  (the great investigative journalist BLACKBALLED by NY/DC corporate media & the Washington Post and forced into journalistic Sieberia, FOR HAVING the TEMERITY TO BREAK the IRAN-CONTRA story in the 1980s)  comments on the obvious -
"The Washington Post is a Neo-Con propaganda sheet" -

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/031509.html

  These Neo-Con rags have been trying to have it BOTH ways:  SCORN, CONDEMN, and DEMONIZE Saddam Hussein, the Iran Ayatollahs, the Taliban, the Russians, and other "evil doers" for their torture & dictatorship regimes... WHILE the Neo-Cons  APPROVE OF GESTAPO TORTURE by their ALLIES, INCLUDING  the SAUDIS, the Egyptians... and OUR OWN CIA and "mercenaries"  in the employ of the US government?!!

   IF  all the "liberal" web-sites and authors out there ALWAYS USED THE WORD "GESTAPO"  in front of "Torture",    it would FORCE the "DEMOCRAT" Party, the corporate "Major Media",  and the US government to NO LONGER BE ABLE TO WAFFLE back and forth across the  "torture is evil/torture is necessary"  line. And it might SHAME  the NY Times & WashPost to, well, stop acting like  Geobbels junior.

behind the curtain pulls the levels of power.  GW Bush was Poppy Bush's heir to the shadow government (the real government)  Barak Obama couldn't do anything about it if he wanted to.  All presidents are political brands.  All brands are esstentialy political product front men.  Do you prefer Coke or Pepsi? 

USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!