I for one would love to see an art-and-family-filled protest of the GOP convention in NYC this September. With music, considered speeches, diverse crowds of all age groups representing the vast quilt of America and NYC in a hopeful and determined gathering to give voice to our HOPE for change and a better future...
a true expression of who we are, and what we seek for this country...the power of unity and love and hope...
but now is not that time:
You may have noticed....
I'm losing it. No, not my grip...I'm losing my equanimity, my ability to come here day after day and submerge my anger into something positive and true.
As you read this we are entering into someplace we've been before. It's August. It's an election year. We can smell it. The Orcs are coming.
The GOP doesn't have SHIT to run on. The bullies who are running this country are running away from their record. They LIED to us, shamelessly....and yet, they are resorting the same old tired tricks...and goddammit, we're not standing up proud and Blue.
It's 2000 all over again. It's 2002 all over again. And we Democrats are wringing our hands....we're worrying on the sidelines like a bunch of babies. For SHAME!
I don't give a rat's ASS what the goddam bounce was or wasn't. Nobody does. And as for whether or not the GOP uses FEAR and lies and distortions to win elections....I can't FUCKING believe we are still having this conversation!
Read this from CNN Sept. 8th 2002:
On NBC's "Meet the Press," Vice President Dick Cheney accused Saddam of moving aggressively to develop nuclear weapons over the past 14 months to add to his stockpile of chemical and biological arms.
"Increasingly, we believe that the United States may well become the target of those activities," Cheney said.
"And what we've seen recently that has raised our level of concern to the current state of unrest ... is that he now is trying, through his illicit procurement network, to acquire the equipment he needs to be able to enrich uranium -- specifically, aluminum tubes," Cheney said, referring to one of the elements for making nuclear weapons.
Citing Bush administration officials, The New York Times reported Sunday that Iraq tried to buy thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes.
The tubes, Rice said, "are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs."
Centrifuges are one way to separate weapons-grade uranium from natural uranium.
White House sources also tell CNN that Saddam has in recent months met several times with Iraq's top nuclear scientists and encouraged them to continue their work.
Sources say Iraqi defectors who used to work for Iraq's nuclear weapons "industry" tell administration officials Iraq's top priority is acquiring nuclear arms.
Rice acknowledged that "there will always be some uncertainty" in determining how close Iraq may be to obtaining a nuclear weapon but said, "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.
Have folks lost their minds? The National Security Advisor went before our nation and Fear Mongered us and our children with the threat of a mushroom cloud!! They took us into a WAR in which 914 of our brothers and sisters have lost their lives for a lie....George Bush's war....but I almost NEVER read that phrase here anymore...
They spent us into RECORD deficits...George Bush's deficits..but I almost never read that phrase here...
They cut taxes on the wealthiest in our Nation's greatest time of need...George Bush's Tax Cuts...and we still don't have a proper medicare drug plan
We have fewer jobs than what we started this administration with...George Bush's jobs lost. George Bush's divided and disuinited Washington...George Bush's uncompassionate, too many children left behind, leave the troops behind, help the fat cats and corporations Conservatism.
I know, I know. Jingoistic phrases are boring. Repeating the same old bullshit we already knew is like listening to a dead stump speech.
But let me tell you something. Yes the Democratic Convention made me proud to be a Democrat...yes it made me proud of our values and our determination and our unity...it made me hopeful of our chances in November...
But it also made me mad as hell.
Mad as hell that the band of assholes that is running this country...the Supreme Court, the President and his cabinet, the leadership of the House and the Senate, and a large portion of our Federal Bench...has been able to defeat the party we all saw in Boston, has been able to whup us to within an inch of our Blue Asses. The sad unspoken truth of Rev. Al's comment about the Democratic donkey...is that the GOP has been riding that donkey for the last ten years. They've got a saddle and a whip....and we've gone wherever the hell their lying ways have steered us.
Friends, it's August and the orcs are coming like they always do...wouldn't you like to know how it feels to stand up PROUD and BLUE and WIN come November? Wouldn't you like to throw off that "saddle of spin"? Wouldn't you like to turn that "whip of lies" aside? Yes that convention felt good, but if it didn't make you angry than you didn't get the whole message! Not because we hate...
but because we love this country...we love this country too much to fall for their traps and bullshit this time. We love this country and we are ALL reporting for duty to fight back this band of assholes and make a new day in America by winning this election. It's time for that Donkey to start KICKING ASS.
Friends, we can do better than this. We can be more focused, more quick to rise above the bait, more honed in our attacks, more proud and confident and clever...for god's sakes...we can remember the bullshit they pulled on us just two years ago...
can't we?