"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
~ Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto following the attack on Pearl Harbor
We've been slow to come around after having been snookered by a gang of half-bright, knuckle-dragging leftovers and rejects from the Nixon/Reagan/Bush I era of American political lunacy. For the better part of my life these fools have been stirring up trouble and getting away with bloody murder. Many Americans could not be bothered to pay attention to their antics, and many were swayed by their relentless right-wing propaganda. Cloaking themselves in a veil of `decency' and `family values' they insinuated themselves into the public discourse in the guise of a responsible `mainstream' political party slyly accusing their opponents of everything of which they themselves were guilty.
(more below the fold...)
"When facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis
They bought up the media and forced them to do their bidding. They filled the airways with lies, misinformation, and Orwellian fantasies wherein they were the heroes with all the answers to America's ills - when the truth was they were its greatest and most dangerous threat.
"By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell - and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed."
Adolf Hitler ~ Mein Kampf
They corrupted our political process from top to bottom, turning the whole affair into a brazen and open auction where justice, power, influence and the keys to the U.S. Treasury were and are still available to the highest bidders. They manipulated, lied, and cheated to gain power making a mockery of our government and jackasses of the American people.
They even co-opted the Democratic Party with their Big Money-driven politics and have turned our entire system into a loud garish carnival of greed, corruption, and in-your-face dishonesty.
Their ranks are rife with certified chickenhawks and filled with the hubris and petulance of the dementedly devoted adherents of a hateful and utterly failed philosophy.
And our whole damned establishment got in bed with them.
The good news is that America is coming around, and our politicians had damned well better be paying attention. They may just find, just as Yamamoto feared, that sleeping giants rudely awakened are sometimes filled with a terrible resolve.
The signs of awakening are everywhere.
LA Times
EDITORIAL
Pipe Down, Rummy
Rumsfeld's cranky outburst mangles a historical analogy, bad-mouths legitimate critics, and illustrates once again why the defense secretary should resign.
August 31, 2006
LA Times
Finally it seems the gullible American public is beginning to choke on the crap it is being asked to swallow.
Growing doubts in U.S. about military strategy
Poll: Many think war costs too high; doubt bin Laden will be nabbed
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:49 a.m. ET Sept 1, 2006
WASHINGTON - Doubts about the war on terrorism are growing. Most people worry that the cost in blood and money may be too high, and they don't think al-Qaida kingpin Osama bin Laden will ever be caught, an AP-Ipsos poll found.
Five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, fully one-third of Americans think the terrorists may be winning, the poll suggests. Worries fed by the war in Iraq have spilled over into the broader campaign against terrorists who directly target the U.S. Source
This awakening is a very positive sign, but disturbing questions linger in the wake of America's neocon nightmare.
Removing America's Blinders
By Howard Zinn, The Progressive. Posted April 24, 2006.
If Americans were more aware of how often our leaders have lied in order to wage war, would anyone have believed this president's justifications for attacking Iraq?
Now that most Americans no longer believe in the war, now that they no longer trust Bush and his Administration, now that the evidence of deception has become overwhelming (so overwhelming that even the major media, always late, have begun to register indignation), we might ask: How come so many people were so easily fooled?
The question is important because it might help us understand why Americans -- members of the media as well as the ordinary citizen -- rushed to declare their support as the President was sending troops halfway around the world to Iraq. Source
After years of denial, appeasement, and outright propaganda the press is finally starting to push back
"Since 1968, Republican presidents have occupied the White House far longer than Democratic presidents, and recently Republicans have controlled both houses of Congress as well. In spite of these electoral triumphs, leading spokespersons on the right continue to depict conservatives as an embattled minority. Lashing out at their liberal opponents, sharp-tongued partisan advocates like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Sean Hannity never tire of issuing jeremiads against what they perceive as the inexorable tide of liberal abuses that threatens to overwhelm the Republic. But if Republicans have won the battle at the voting booths, why is the right so angry?
(SNIP)
Examining the writings of such conservative icons as Russell Kirk, William F. Buckley Jr, Phyllis Schlafly, and nine others, Joshi uncovers statements that most people today would consider not just radical but outrageous: · In the 1950s, Russell Kirk opposed Social Security because he said it was "un-Christian." · In the same decade, William F. Buckley Jr. argued against the desegregation of public schools on the grounds that it would be an infringement of states' rights (an argument also used a century earlier to defend slavery). · In the 1970s, Phyllis Schlafly declared that women's liberation is a "disease" and a "homewrecker." Knowing that these positions are today indefensible, conservative spokespersons have little recourse but to engage in passionate invective that attempts to portray their opponents as extremists. Joshi characterizes the aggrieved lament of conservatives as the last gasp of those who know their ideas will be confined to the dustbin of history."
Perhaps the radical right is so furious and full of hysteria because they have lost the culture wars. Evolution and modernity make them a cancerous school of fish swimming against the tide of history.
They must now rely on stolen elections and the unceasing Orwellian cudgel of terrorism to accomplish their goals, because otherwise they are Victorians clutching on to their handbags of reactionary platitudes and threats.
(SNIP)
Now Phyllis Schlafly, William Kristol and William F. Buckley, these are true believers. They are furious that the world won't settle back into the 1700s before the American Revolution. These are people who feel much more comfortable in a Monarchy than a democracy.
Why are the people that author S.T. Joshi profiles angry? Because this is the year 2006, not 1706. It's really that simple.
They are angry because, as hard as they try, they just can't turn back the clock. Source
I have news for the conservative dinosaurs who have raped and plundered this nation. Not only are we now awake, we are indeed filled with a terrible resolve. We are resolved to defeat and marginalize you and your ilk - and to assure that you never again get so close to the levers of power in this country. We are further resolved that each and every one of you who is culpable in any of your voluminous crimes against the American people and the International community will be held to account. All you torturers, war profiteers, scoundrels and thieves had better listen up! Your day is coming.
You will all face the terrible resolve of the awakened giant. You are all going to be subjected to the mighty wrath, the righteous indignation, and the terrible swift justice of the American people. May your punishment strike fear in the hearts of tyrants and thieves everywhere on this planet, and may it long serve as an example to all the black-hearted bastards yet to come.