Well folks, between the ludicrous war capitulation and Cindy Sheehan's trials I've become too cynical with this system to continue at DailyKos. For a few brief months this place was instrumental in helping seduce me into siding enthusiastically with the 'D' team and in a fit of DailyKos-induced wackiness I voted straight-ticket Democrat in November '06. Today I truly regret those votes. Conversely, I've never been more proud of my Nader votes in 2000 and '04.
So what the hell am (was?) I anyway? A Green? A Libertarian? A jerk? Definitely a jerk, but also, I just want my kids be able to live in a country where they can think and act freely in accord with things that are true. There are just so many lies, and I can't in good conscience participate in the lie that is a two party system that leaves so many people without any genuine representation for their political beliefs. Taxation without representation? That's what we on the far left and right live every day. It's gotten so bad now that the two parties don't represent even the milquetoast political center any longer, but rather shill 24X7 for corrupt interests like the defense and oil industries and the Isreali lobby. Washington DC has become the largest whorehouse on Earth.
Karl Rove is being actively assisted by Congressional Democrats in seeking to cover up massive voter "caging" in the '04 and upcoming '08 elections. So says investigative reporter Greg Palast. If you were cynical about your deaf, dumb and blind donkey party before, you might want to sit down:
GP: [Monica Goodling yesterday was] the blondeling underling of the Police State. The lady was trying to tell us something important, but the dim bulbs of the U.S. press and the committee dolts wouldn’t listen. She began by accusing her bosses of perjury. The issue was her allegation that they knew all about “caging.” And no one asked her one damn question about it. Like what is “caging” and why would they commit perjury to cover it up?
JD: Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) asked, and Goodling said, “It has to do with direct mail.”
GP: And that was it. D’oh! It’s not about “direct mail.” Direct mail has to do with Victoria’s Secret and stuff like that. This was all about stealing the 2004 — and 2008 — elections. That’s why she wanted immunity. She was afraid it would all unravel, the caging game…but she had nothing to fear.
Your democracy is nearly dead. The essentially void, meaningless posturings of your McCains, Giulianis, Romneys, Clintons et al say all that need be said about the ineffectuality of your government to respond any longer to the will or needs of the citizenry it is purported to represent. Chalmers Johnson believes this, and I agree with him. He also has a final, desperate plan to save that democracy. Wanna hear it?
In politics, as in medicine, a cure based on a false diagnosis is almost always worthless, often worsening the condition that is supposed to be healed. The United States, today, suffers from a plethora of public ills. Most of them can be traced to the militarism and imperialism that have led to the near-collapse of our Constitutional system of checks and balances. Unfortunately, none of the remedies proposed so far by American politicians or analysts addresses the root causes of the problem.
Follow me to the bedside of your deathly ill nation and hear the good doctor's sobering proposal for a final, emergency surgery...
No, I never thought I'd write a 'Jerry Falwell Diary' but this priceless clip from Crooks and Liars from Christopher Hitchens' appearance on Fox News deserves the widest possible distribution. And not just for Hitchens' closing line about Falwell, "if that man had an enema, he could've been buried in a matchbox."
Take a gander at the clobbering Ralp Reed takes.
Tell it to Jack Abramoff. Tell it to your racketeer friends.
The Nation reports that Hillary is currently pandering to we annoying idiots in the leftosphere while reassuring her base of rightwing corporate goons that it's all a ruse:
"Courting elements of the Democratic base while signaling to the corporate right that she won't shake up the system is a tricky juggling act," writes The Nation of Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.
The article also mentions that she also had some choice words for Russ Feingold when she sought to weaken the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation: "live in the real world."
Richard Perle, neocon extraordinaire, the "Prince of Darkness", wannabe destroyer of Islamic hordes everywhere has turned on his erstwhile pal George W. Bush with a vengeance reports the New York Sun. At a meeting of the Hudson Institute in New York Perle ranted:
He came ill-equipped for the job and has failed to master it. I do not meet the president, but from the people I meet who are close to him and from his speeches, I believe the gap between the president and his administration is without precedent... He was only in office a short time when 9/11 took place. … This president appointed people he hardly knew. He didn't know Colin Powell. He delegated a great deal. He thought he would give general direction and that the machinery would do what he wanted done. But the machinery wouldn't do what he wanted done.
Follow me over the brink for more neocon cannibalism...
Okay, this is the single funniest thing I've ever seen in my life - and it's not even supposed to be funny. Take a break from the madness of American politics and have a glimpse at the madness of Japanese politics. And I do mean madness. Kouichi Toyama is an anarchist running for governor of Tokyo and here delivers easily the single wackiest campaign speech ever. Oh no, trust me. Perot, Gravel, they've got nothing on this guy:
I didn't see the debate, but clearly Kucinich was the winner. By a mile. Blew 'em away. I was most impressed. It's unanimous. Here are the official results:
Don't like Kucinich? Well today you can stick your "ugh" where the sun don't shine - the man has got more guts than the rest of the Democratic field put together:
"Whenever any government official becomes destructive of the founding purposes, that official must be held accountable," he said.
The Ohio Democrat's move intended to provide a "defense of the rights of American people to have a government that is honest and peaceful."
Kucinich excoriated the Vice President who he called "a driving force for taking us into war against Iraq under false pretenses, and is once again rattling sabers of war against Iran, with the same intent to drive America into war, again based on false pretenses."
Though comments publicly solicited for and against "were running 85 percent for doing the play, 15 percent against", Plantation's Mosaic Theatre in South Florida has cancelled a planned run of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie. South Florida now joins New York and Toronto as locals that have had theaters cave to pressure not to permit audiences to see an unflattering portrayal of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
"I've been astonished at the attacks on me as a Jew'', said Mosaic's artistic director Richard Jay Simon.
In a new interview with OpEdNews, gagged FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds is asked about how the Democrats are treating her case now that they are in charge. In summary, Senate Democrats won't support her and so far Waxman will only hold closed door hearings where nothing ever happens and all her information vanishes into a "black hole":
[OpEdNews]: A lot of Americans expected that of the Republican Congress. We've now had 2.5 months of a Democratic Congress, with Senator Leahy now the Chairman. Now Senator Leahy can do more than just write letters and complain about Senator Grassley - what has the difference been? What change have you seen?
Edmonds: Well, we are hoping to see the change. Let me first do the distinction between the Senate and the House. With the Senate, even though we have had Democrats gaining the Majority, we haven't had almost any support from almost any Senate offices.
Harper's and Salon freelance journalist Christopher Ketchum has published an article detailing his investigation into the bizarre Israeli "High-Fivers and Art Student Spies" stories:
What is perhaps most damning is that the Israelis' celebration on the New Jersey waterfront occurred in the first sixteen minutes after the initial crash, when no one was aware this was a terrorist attack. In other words, from the time the first plane hit the north tower, at 8:46 a.m., to the time the second plane hit the south tower, at 9:02 a.m., the overwhelming assumption of news outlets and government officials was that the plane's impact was simply a terrible accident. It was only after the second plane hit that suspicions were aroused. Yet if the men were cheering for political reasons, as they reportedly told the FBI, they obviously believed they were witnessing a terrorist act, and not an accident.
Chris Hedges, author of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, has published an article defending Ralph Nader and slamming John Edwards, Sen. Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama as "glib" hostages to corporate money incapable of addressing the hijacking of American democracy and the rapid approach of fascism:
I spent the last two years reporting and writing “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.” The rise of the Christian right—the most dangerous mass movement in American history—can be traced directly to the corporate rape of America.
Follow me into the crooked corridors of the police state after the fold...
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), citing Administration sources quoted in the Washington Post, is accusing the White House of preparing the American public for war with Iran without Congressional authorization. Further, he is warning that moving against Iran without support of the Congress may bring about his impeachment.
"The degree to which this President continues to take steps to go to war against Iran without consulting with the full Congress is the degree to which he is increasingly putting himself in jeopardy of an impeachment proceeding."
This diary will be brief, but I have to call attention to the latest nuttery coming from Newt Gingrich. I know this guy is considered a harmless, sick joke by many here at this point, but I'd warn against complacency because he is completely batshit and it is not entirely out of the realm of possibility that he ends up President Gingrich in 2008/2012.
