Its going to get worse before it gets better

[sampsonblk]

When I woke up this morning and heard that Condi Rice was going to be Sec of State, I wanted to get right back into bed and put my head under the covers. But this ain't even the worst of it. Richard frickn Perle is even showing his face in public again - giving tips on foreign policy, like he's suddenly worth listening to.

Some say the party is dead. I don't think so. But these are some dark friggin days. Bush will continue to appoint wackos in high places - and we will have to take it.

They will all go down in history as heroes. And we will have to take it. Condi Rice is going to be confirmed overwhelmingly, and dumbasses will say Bush was a great friend of black people. And we will have to take it. GW Bush statues will be all over the friggin country, just like that other crook Reagan. And we will have to take it.

Right now, we are all fighting each other. Its about time. We should have had this fight before the election season. We might have had a fighting chance then. Something's got to give. This is tough stuff to swallow. Even if we win, next time, it doesn't erase all this mess. Bush will be a hero - and unless we are finally willing to fight back, there isn't a darn thing we can do about it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Time to report this for you, err repost

Civil Disobedience

All politics is local. We have heard this over the years. My fellow citizens I must agree with Monyhan on this. All politics is local. Yet what do you do when faced with the banality of evil? What do you do when faced with those who will do ANYTHING to win? Do we have a recourse to the courts? Do we have recourse to petitions? Can we believe that any of this will help us change our circumstances?

I believe that it is a course of fools to continue to play by the same fair rules that have worked. Why do I believe the time for this is over? Why do I believe the system has completely been short circuited? It is the evidence before us. Today there is no balance in the pursuit of power. For the pursuit of power has become that of any and all means are authorized. This is the time that challenges those who truly love freedom, liberty and justice. It seems that those who have committed the worst atrocities escape the fate that we have been taught to expect.

I am to believe that following the usual course of action will have any effect? This is what I am told. I say to those who say, patience, for one day they will understand and join you, no more. It is time that we all take action. I will not advocate violence for this is exactly what they expect. This is exactly what they would do. I draw from our past, our collective past. I turn your attention to Civil Disobedience, a took used against tyrants and monsters from time immemorial.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote “As for adopting the ways which the state has provided for remedying evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will be gone.” This is what we are being told, wait until next election, then we will have our just rewards. Only if we choose such and such a candidate we can win. We must wait for men surely will wake up from this stupor and realize that they must vote in such a way, as this is to their own interest. I say to this, we cannot afford to follow the ways that normally we have for they will not lead to our voices being heard

So I ask, will you see that the only way today is peaceful civil disobedience? Some of us have talked to you about boycotts, which again hearken back to our history. Our forefathers first fought the British using boycotts, or have all of you forgotten Boston Harbor? Yes my dear fellows this is indeed one method to pursue. Realize that we will need to do more than just boycotts. We must face the truth, and this is we are at a crossroads. Thoreau wrote at a time when the question was slavery, a great evil sweeping the nation. Also remember, that government’s authority, in order to be pure, has to have the full consent of the governed. Thoreau understood this, and it is high time we pay heed to those lessons, for it is our fate to have to re-fight for justice and well being.

Heed the words of Martin Luther King as well. His was a dream that one day we all would be able to see each other as brothers and sisters. Today some are working hard to prevent that, but Martin would tell us, patience, for this is not yet the time. This time that he spoke off was well over the side of that mountain we now can barely see. It seems we have lost any purchase we had and now we must start our climb once again.

So what should be our means?

Peaceful resistance and extending our hands in friendship to those who like us, see the evil around us. I will warn you to have patience, for the work we enter upon today is not one for the weak willed, but one that may take generations. We may not see the fruit of our labors today, but maybe our children and surely our children’s children. So be strong, and remember, what you do today will influence the future, and will help you to sleep at night. After all many of those who fought against Slavery did not survive to see the Emancipation, but they did not let that stop them. Our fight may be similar in nature and length.

This work we must embark includes bearing witness to the horrors committed as we speak in our name. They are also being committed in the name of an awesome god, who would be horrified by Pharisees who have taken the word, his or her word, and twisted it. We must speak truth to power and we must face that which now stares at us in the face. This is the true Banality of Evil perpetrated by those who have chosen to follow, blindly. They are not unlike the slave holder, who also benefited from an evil system. Nor are they different from those who across the years have become rich from the pain of others.

So how do you make this civil disobedience work? You work locally, to get people of good faith into office and then fight to keep them there. They will do all they can to drive people of good faith from office. They know that they taken over the Temple this way, and they are not about to be driven out.

You only participate in commerce with those who share a similar world view to yours. You do not give your money to the large corporate entities, and YOU FIGHT to keep them out of your back yard. You fight to keep local family businesses in business. You try to revitalize your local town. Mostly you must do as much as you can to resist the State.

You can and should continue to write petitions, Be aware that they will not be listened to. Those who have taken over the halls of government are not interested in you, but only in those who put them there. You must work with the ones who are at the bottom, and you must ensure that what happened over the last four years is not forgotten, and the horrors that are still to come are not diminished. Only when we all agree that we cannot let others walk away from their responsibility, we can have some hope of moral victory. Do not be misguided, for we are fighting truly a moral war. They believe in narrow ends, damned be the weak and the poor.

Yet give up on courts and other regular means. They will be closed to you and me, for they are now the tools of the Pharisees. Yes I know there will be a recount, and yes we may even see history and a victory, but I will advise all of you, this is not defeat just common sense. Make plans for the day when none of the legal means will work. That day is close at hand, closer than any of us believe.

Remember, all politics is local and no government has any moral authority, if it does not have the consent of the governed, and we are very close to this day already. Take heed, for the battle has just begun and steel yourselves. The night will be long, but patriots know what they must do. This is the time when spring time patriots will be culled from the herd, for those who cannot see the long night is upon us will soon retreat.

[sampsonblk]

3. Good stuff. Did you right that?

I don't rememeber reading that before.

[BlueManDude]

2. I think Condi is in for a ruff confirmation hearing

she'll be confirmed of course but I think there's a lot of skepticism about her abilities on both sides of the isle. Right now I think the best thing going for us is their own extremism. This is why I want Specter to go down. Push all moderates out of the GOP.

[DuaneBidoux]

5. Sorry, Don't at all agree on Specter

If we lose moderate Republicans in positions of power right now it is FUCKING OVER. The Christofascists and their ilk will have their judgeship appointments confirmed in a flood.

Study how FDR stacked the courts for 16 years. It allowed 40 years of unbridled progress: unions, weekends, health and safety protection, etc. Even when the Republicans regained control of the legistature AND White House and began trying to roll back FDRs reforms the courts simply found the laws unconstitutional. That is why the Right Wing IS so eager to get rid of people blocking their nominations (they want to get rid of Specter too): They know if they get their guys into the Courts (Supreme, Federal, etc.) It's game set and match. And it won't matter after that how many progressives and Dems are elected until all those judges die.

[BlueManDude]

6. Specter will be no help at this point

only cloture and fillibuster will keep the worst of the bunch off the bench.

[DemocracyInaction]

4. There's more to it than that, honey

They are going around and picking off any seats vacated by Dems and going after others, primarily Senators. We have not seen the last of it by far. "06 should bring another wave of "flushing the Dems"...count on it. And then they go and appoint Reed as our Senate minority leader.........that just signals that we intend to assume the position, let George fuck us violently in the ass, go along with him, and then come out in '06 and tell us to vote for them.........fuck them. They could have appointed a fighter and they chose to appoint a goddamn Daschle II!!!

[sampsonblk]

7. You're right about that...

And the thing that really gets me is I keep hearing "well what are you going to do, be stupid and waste your vote on a third party?" What dumb way to look at things.

Instead of daring our party faithful to walk out, we should be looking for ways to keep them in. Otherwise, we can expect at least a few to walk. And when that happens...well we just saw that, didn't we?

Like most Dems I know, there are some things that I just aren't negotiable. But it seems we have become the negotiable party. Now we get four years to figure out how bad that sucks.

*Yay! I've been promoted to "honey."

[CanonRay]

8. This is not a bad thing,

this is a GOOD thing. Give them enough rope to hang themselves. You know Condi and Perle will screw up big time. You know when they implement these neocon/Chirsto-facist polices, the country will start to puke. Four more years and they won't be able to elect the dog catcher.