One Journalist in the MSM is beginning to "Get It"

 A Mainstream Journalist who is starting to "Get it"

ROBERT C. KOEHLER
For release 4/21/05
DEMOCRACY'S ABU GHRAIB

The entire essay [here http://commonwonders.com] Teaser:

"That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on." - Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

What if it could happen here?

Wrap:

I fear that a force is loose in the land that will stop at nothing to impose its agenda on the nation. We already have a permanent state of war and the USA Patriot Act. Now the Senate Republicans are attempting to implement the "nuclear option" and eliminate the filibuster - what William Rivers Pitt calls "the last lingering firebreak" separating church from state - so that 12 far right nominees to the federal judiciary (a mere 5 percent of the Bush administration's total) can be confirmed over Democratic objection.

". . . right now they believe they have the power to get anything they want," writes Pitt, referring to the "theocracy" wing of the GOP. In the context of a disabled electoral process, this is truly chilling. Could it happen here?

With God on your side, who needs democracy?"

Mr. Koehler gives me Chills with this piece.

...Molly Ivins where are you?
...Ted Koppel where are you?
...Maureen Dowd where are you?
...Andrew Sullivan where are you?
...etc.
...ect.
...ect.

•  If you like what Bob Koehler sez...

  ...let him know here.  Thanks.

  [e-mail]

  by Blue Shark on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 06:59:44 PM PDT

•  Thanks! And I will...but now...

  ...I'm afraid to read "A Handmaid's Tale," which I always "meant to get around to" reading. Damn!

  by HLadas on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:03:02 PM PDT

  •  Oh, go ahead and read it

    but I warn you - as soon as I finished it, I went out and bought some bright red lipstick, put it on and jumped up and down on my bed for 10 minutes.

    Just because I could.

    by mschloss1979 on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:06:40 PM PDT

  •  I read it years ago

    when it seemed like fantasy.  I don't have the nerve to read it now.

    by ScientistMom in NY on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:36:35 PM PDT

  •  Good book..

    ...lousy movie. Natasha Richardson, Robert Duvall.

    (Ok, not totaly lousy. But disappointing. The Religious Right would have a hissyfit if they ever watched it. Not a bad thing.)

    by Scarce on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:44:31 PM PDT

  •  read it

    it's one of the best distopia books out there. atwood's oryx and crake is also worth a read, although slightly less creepy in the same immediate, "my god, that could happen tomorrow" kind of way.

    by wu ming on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 09:32:44 PM PDT

•  Molly Ivins?

  Are you kidding me?  

  She hasn't let up on the Bush administration for a second.

  by LeftHandedMan on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:04:23 PM PDT

  •  sorry... let me rephrase that

    I don't think its fair to put Molly Ivin's name on a list of folks who need to do more. I think she has a hard time getting syndicated because she is so plain spoken populist in the wingnut pundit era.

    by LeftHandedMan on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:06:33 PM PDT

  •  I'll Second That

    Hell, she even wrote a book.

    by DHinMI on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:08:28 PM PDT

    •  defending Molly too

      A fresh rant today!

      The abysmal ambassador

      by bumblebums on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:16:59 PM PDT

    •  She wrote one before that

      Called Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush. She laid out Bush's record of consistently doing big business' bidding in TX as a warning of how he would govern as president. Can't say we weren't warned!

      by vawolf on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:21:03 PM PDT

  •  I agree

    Molly Ivins doesn't belong on that list at all.

    Another thing, so many times I thought I heard a hopeful phrase from on of these mainstream bozos and thought "maybe they're finally waking up" only to find that within a few days it was back to the beat up the liberal point of view same old, same old. It takes more than a couple of columns now to make me pause and take notice. It takes consistency.

    by 2care4others on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:29:37 PM PDT

  •  Thanks

     For defending Molly, sometimes I think that without her I would have went insane a long time ago.

    by high uintas on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:33:05 PM PDT

  •  She is a Hero of Mine...

    ...I never meant to sully her reputation and it is certainly without malice that I included her here.  I apologize for any offense taken.  Maybe the fraud is just too easy a target for her, but here silence has been puzzling to me.  My only reason for he inclusion is that she has been so front-line against the atrocities of BushCo perhaps she isn't aware of the magnitude of the offenses yet.

    by Blue Shark on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 08:29:11 PM PDT

•  I Don't Know...

  If you think he is mainstream, then you'll have to explain why his columns are hard to find in print. If you think that he is just 'starting' to get it, then you don't know him.

  by Reino on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:18:13 PM PDT

  •  I've never heard of him personally

    I have no idea who he is. Should I read his work? Do you recommend it?

    by 2care4others on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:31:48 PM PDT

    •  Yes

      It's on his webpage.

      by Reino on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 07:51:36 PM PDT

      •  Thank you, I'll check him out

        there's just so much to read these days, I don't follow most links unless I feel the need to.

        by 2care4others on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 08:01:12 PM PDT

•  While You're All Worrying About the Pulpit,

  keep in mind that it's only fed people twice. Once manna in the desert, and later an unexpected haul of bread and fish.

  Look at the economy. What sector of the economy is pushing for people to be more educated, better informed, more skeptical, more involved in politics, better paid, protected against injury and calamity, or well served by legal and medical assistance?

  What economy needs its own people when it can get everyone else's cheaper?

  by Gooserock on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 08:22:15 PM PDT

•  I just recently read the book

  and even though I had an idea of the plot, I was freaked out by how many similarities there were to what's going on these days. The narrator says that the people were told that the government had all been killed by Arab terrorists...and then the fundies take over.

  by Penny the Quiltlady on Thu Apr 21, 2005 at 09:11:18 PM PDT