The Times, They Are A Changin'

Stop reading this for a minute and take a second to just notice what's going on around you.

Just Stop!

Take a deep breath and close your eyes for a few seconds. Think about what your life is. Think about what your country has become. Just think about it. Realize that this year, this month, this week, today, right now, the country and the world is changing like it rarely ever does.

We are experiencing history. The days we are living now and about to live in the coming weeks and months will studied, discussed and taught for generations to come. This is one of history's greatest moments. This is the beginning of a new beginning.

Please click "there's more" for the rest of this diary. Thank You!

This is originally posted over at the Pullitzer Prize winning LJ's Blogorific. (ok, not really a winner, just a nominee. Just go with it.)

Although it seems like decades ago, it's only been 11 months since the evil vomitous Bush Crime Family recaptured the White House by hook and by crook. 11 months! "Will the Democrats be able to win another general election in the foreseeable future?" the lying right wing corporate media asked.

Now, he's the different country we live in;

• Privitization of Social Security is dead


• John Bolton only serves at the UN via a recess appointment


• Bush's approval rating has plummeted to 37%


• A large portion of the Bush Crime Family is about to be indicted


• The House majority leader was just arrested, booked and arraigned


• The Senate majority leader is being investigated by the SEC


• A major US city is uninhabited and underwater


• Nearly 70% of Americans don't approve of the occupation of Iraq


• Worker's pensions are being underfunded and abandoned


• Energy costs are at historic highs


• The Republican party has schismed into rival factions


• The President is attacked by his own party on his Supreme Court Nomination


• Former Powell right-hand-man blasts Cheney/Rummy "Cabal" and enlightened world to the already believed fact that Bush is oblivious


• But the best part about all of this is....

  THE MEDIA IS REPORTING JUST ABOUT ALL OF IT

Don't get me wrong, there is so much more out there that the media has failed and continues to fail to report, but in comparison to a year ago, the media and the country has wisened up.

This week will be the official beginning of the end of the reign of terror the felonious Bush Crime Family has perpetrated on this country for 5 years. This week will be the beginning of the end of the reign of terror this villainous criminal administration has inflicted on much of the world.

Take the time these next few days to breath in the world around you. The times are a changin' and they're a changin' in a way that will resonate for generations to come. Take the time to remember who you are and where you are, so one day, many years from now, you can share with those that are yet to be born, the trying times that we survived, the trying times that our democracy has survived.

And never ever forget what we have lived through and what was allowed to occur to our country. Remember and absorb it all. Because we are the ones that will make these historic times historic.

The times folks, they really are a changin'. Do your part.

•  15% Gratuity

  Unless there is more then 8 of you, then it's an automatic 18%.

  by The 1n Only Leoni on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 12:49:45 AM PDT

  •  It's now 20%

    W

    hen the IRS started assuming certain classes of workers were making tip money and not reporting it, and started levying an automatic tax on that income whether they actually got tipped or not, the standard gratuity rose to 20%. (So I was told by an now-accountant and former-waitress.)
    
    The media reports on these things nowadays because they feel safe; the Bush crime family's scion is constitutionally barred from being selected yet again. And so the media thinks all they're doing is writing headlines and selling ads and can release the hounds. This has happened in every second term since Nixon (and arguably LBJ).
    
    This time it might stick though.
    
    (Oh and now I've gone and done it. No comment will appear on Daily Kos without drop caps ever again. But you made me do it 1n Only! Your vestigial boldcap needed some oomph!)

    by peeder on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 03:18:23 AM PDT

•  I Like the "Bush Crime Family"

  I hope it becomes a common tag -- than BushCo.

  In a couple of years we may even have a Seante hearing where he hear:

  SENATOR: Could you expand on your answer -- I'm particularly interested in knowing -- uh -- was there always a buffer involved -- someone between you and your possible superiors, who gave the actual order?

  CICCI: Right, yea a buffer -- the family had a lot of buffers.

  by Daxman on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 01:01:49 AM PDT

•  On the other hand...

  they've all lawyered up, they're still stonewalling like crazy, they're ramping up the Mother of all smear campaigns against the Fitz and the Rule of Law even as we type, 2000 soldiers have died and thousands more injured and maimed, tens of thousands of Iraqi's have died, all of the perpetrators of the war remain in high office, thousands of Katrina victims remain essentially homeless, the budget deficit is out-of-control, the Supreme Court may well overturn Roe v. Wade, affirmative action and consign gays to continued second class citizenship, they're still ripping off the taxpayers, the private contractors are still making out like bandits on the Bridge to Nowhere, we still seem to be torturing prisoners all over the world and not much is being done about it, bad bankruptcy laws are going into effect, wage rates are stagnating, manufacturing jobs are departing, global warming seems to be causing catastrophe after catastrophe...and I could go on.

  And Fitzmas hasn't arrived.  Bah humbug.

  by Viceroy on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 01:23:38 AM PDT

•  really enjoyed your diary

  very posetive, 11 mo.s in (2004 ,1 mo.) 2005 ,10 mo.s , much, much done , many ,many factors , much more to do . but yes ,have a glass of wine or beer & document history , if only to tell your great grand children. step back & take a Good look to be able to relay this kind of personal insight further down the road of this dem. exp. so that this  exp. may have at least a hand full of forfathers just as we have been blessed to have for our shinning examples.this is the bending or breaking point of the exp. pray we live to explain the example of this  turning point  .   peace.

  by cognitive dissonance on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 01:35:00 AM PDT

•  Err...

  "Schismed", Gracie?

  by kingubu on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 01:53:54 AM PDT

•  timeless cosmic fortitutude

  "Come senators, congressmen
  Please heed the call
  Don't stand in the doorway
  Don't block up the hall
  For he that gets hurt
  Will be he who has stalled
  There's a battle outside
  And it is ragin'.
  It'll soon shake your windows
  And rattle your walls
  For the times they are a-changin'..."

  by August West on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 02:11:47 AM PDT

•  or the beginning of the begee!! *

  * Thank you Robin Williams!

  Seriously though, great diary. I like to see hope on positivity on here.

  To be sure, there's still a long road ahead, but at least we turned the damn car around!

  Lot's of work to be done in the years ahead, historic times, calls for legendary effort. But we ARE Americans. We've been in dire straights before, we'll find our way out of these as well.

  Time and pressure. Ain't you seen Shawshank?

  I'll meet you on the beach.

  -Christina Baldwin

  by Erevann on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 03:13:17 AM PDT

  •  Just noticed...

    you're from MI. I'm an 8 mile and Mound boy myself. Good to know my home state's in such good hands.

    Take care!

    -Christina Baldwin

    by Erevann on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 03:52:31 AM PDT

•  It'll be "lather, rinse, repeat"

  if we allow the focus to remain limited to specific crimes, conspiracies, fuck-ups and individuals who have perpetrated them while failing to reveal the inherent evil of and permanently discredit:

  • supply-side, trickle-down economics

  • the idea that taxes always inhibit economic growth

  • the social-Darwinism of "the ownership society"

  • Privatization of essential government services

  • the myth that a "free market" designed to benefit mostly large corporations is beneficial to us all

  • the neo-Wilsonian approach to foreign policy (proactive, unilateral participation in "The Great Game" masquerading as "Making the World Safe for Democracy")

  • the myth that cooperating with international bodies such as the U.N. and the World Court equals a complete loss of our soverignty

  • the idea that religious leaders possess the sole authority to define morality and the terms of social justice

  • the idea that Science is inherently "anti-God"

  • the myth that only military action and restrictions of our civil rights can protect us and our democratic system from terrorism

  And that's just for starters!  The Republican Party has spent four decades grinding these concepts into the subconscious of the American electorate so that they have now become the common wisdom, a trend that we desparately need to reverse.  If we celebrate the frog-march of the current crop of crooks, even if the Democrats regain control of Congress and the White House, and then declare "Mission Accomplished", we will have achieved only a hollow victory and one that will not last.

  by sxwarren on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 07:04:05 AM PDT

  •  Add to this list

    that "the ends justify the means" which is the whole rationale behind the lies that took us to war in Iraq.

    by sxwarren on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 07:12:34 AM PDT

•  We aren't there until we have another election

  if we have one.

  by ej25 on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 07:13:48 AM PDT

•  Thank you all

  for your kind words. I really am feeling good about the future.

  I really do look at this like 1929 America. And it was the following 50 years of progressive policy that gave us the country that we've lived in until recently.

  It makes me hopeful for my unborn children and their children that they will be better of than we are now.

  by The 1n Only Leoni on Sun Oct 23, 2005 at 01:39:45 PM PDT